Olympic Nails! #TeamGB | Scrapbook Nails

The whole world has gone olympic mad, and I'm LOVING it! Having the games in London this year has created such a buzz, the atmosphere is incredible and it makes me so proud to be British.

I went to see the Athletics today & I didn't want to leave the stadium, it was just AMAZING! I can't even put it in words. One of the best days of my life for sure.

I didn't want to have Union Jack nails for this event, so I copied Stella McCartney's design for the GB kit. I loved how my nails turned out, but I can't deny that I found it a bit tricky doing this all freehand!

I used a lot of different polishes for this nail art, so I wont list them all. But... I will do a brief 'how to' using pictures.

Nail Magic - My best kept secret | Scrapbook Nails

I have decided to stop being selfish and share with you, the miracle product that will solve all your flakey & weak nail problems (I hope - Not 100% guaranteed, so don't hate me if it doesn't work for you!).

[Image source here]

I had tried several of the nail strengthener polishes on the market, but nothing was working for me. Sally Hansen's diamond strength & OPI's Nail Envy are two of the most raved about products, but they unfortunately made no difference to the overal health/ appearance of my nails.

I discovered Nail Magic after browsing the web for hours, searching for something that would help with my horrible, weak, brittle, flakey nails. Some of the reviews I read stated that Nail Magic hurt them, or that they couldn't see any improvement in their nails at all, but with the knowledge that different products work for different people, I placed an order anyway. I read the instructions, and it does say to keep the polish away from your cuticles. I have to admit that I felt a dull ache in my nails after a few applications, but it certainly didn't hurt, and it didn't put me off using up the entire bottle. After about 3 days, the ache had gone completely, and I've not experienced any other pain/ache/uncomfortable-ness since. This beauty is now a staple product in my collection, and I wouldn't want to live without it. 

It is fairly expensive, averaging at around £10 a pop for only 7.4 ml of product. This is half of what you get in a full sized OPI bottle, for the same price. But, it is 100% worth it!!! It really works, after just one application my nails felt stronger, all my flakes had gone, and I believe that it made my nails grow quicker too.

To begin with, I applied this polish every day, to get my nails into a state I was happy with. Now, I apply one coat before a fresh mani, which is about two or three times a week, to keep them in ship-shape. I'm just finishing off my second bottle & can safely say I will be re-purchasing without a shadow of a doubt!

I hope that if you decide to purchase Nail Magic, it works just as well for you, as it does for me!

Here are a few places you can buy the product:
Amazon
John Lewis
eBay

*Note*

I'd like to point out that I am in no way affiliated with the company that produces Nail Magic, and I wasn't asked to/ paid to write this review. I just genuinely LOVE it, and thought I'd spread the word!

Abigail xo

Chameleon Pink - Easy Gradient Nails | Scrapbook Nails

Barry M's Chameleon polishes are probably the easiest polishes to work with to achieve the popular gradient look.
All you need to do is sponge on a topcoat, making sure the very tips have a heavier coverage & HEY PRESTO you've got simple, but beautiful, gradient nails.
This is probably one of my favourite manicures to date, and it was so easy to achieve.

I added coloured dots to my ring fingers, using different sized dotting tools.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the only issue with the chameleon polishes is that they don't last long. With this look though, the maintenance is minimal, so you could quickly add to the tips if you have wear and tear and wanted the mani to last a couple of extra days!

I used:
Base coat - No7, So Smooth

Base colour - Barry M, Chameleon Pink - 330
Polka Dot colours - Various, see picture below.
Top coat - China Glaze, Fast forward Top Coat

Chameleon Lilac Stripes | Scrapbook Nails

I've been saving really hard recently and sticking to a tight budget, which means I've not been buying any new polish. But a couple of days before payday I had some spare pennies, and while I was in Superdrug, I couldn't resist picking up the three new Barry M Chameleon polishes.

I love the idea of them, just add a topcoat and the colour changes. I decided to try out tips first, which I liked, buuuut I wanted to add my fave stripes too.
The only downfall is that the mani doesn't last long because you can't add a final topcoat once you've finished your nail art, without ruining it all.

I used:
Base coat - No7, So Smooth

Base colour - Barry M, Chameleon Lilac - 332
Top coat - TopShop Nails, Matte

Foil Splatter Tips | Scrapbook Nails

This was a bit of a fail :-(
I originally thought the foil I picked out looked a little peacock like, so I thought if I put it on my tips, on top of a blue base it might look like a peacock inspired mani.

Then I realised it looked nothing like a peacock...

So I decided to go for a 'tip splatter' and this is how it turned out.... it's not the best, but I think if I tried it again, with different colours for the base and foil, it would like quite pretty.

I used:
Base coat - No7, So Smooth

Base colour - Nails Inc, Hanover Square
Foil - from a RIO kit.
Top coat - the special foil one from the RIO kit, followed by TopShop Nails, Matte
(All topcoats are RUBBISH at keeping foils on the nails. You can see in the pics that the foil had already stared to come away from my tips after just one day. As matte topcoats are a little thicker then most, I thought I'd give that a whirl. In my opinion, it didn't make the foil last any longer - worth a try though, right!)

Neapolitan Dreams | Scrapbook Nails

I've named these my Neapolitan nails, although if we're talking about the ice cream, I have done the colours in the wrong order...

Still, I love the yummy texture of this manicure. I didn't use a sponge for this, I used a blunt bristled nail brush and just dabbed the colour on. I wasn't going for a gradient, more of a 3D layer type effect. I used a crackle polish for the pink, which helped to achieve the look I was going for.

Doncchha just love pink & brown together?!

I used:


Base coat - No7, So Smooth


Brown - Barry M, Mushroom 310
Pink - Barry M Crackle, Pink Fizz 314
White - Models Own, Snow White

Top coat - China Glaze, Fast Forward Top Coat

Jubilee Union Jack Nails | Scrapbook Nails

Like many Brits this week, I've been sporting Union Jack nails to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee.
This is certainly not my neatest ever nail art, but from a distance(!) they looked pretty cool.

I couldn't resist snapping up these OPI polishes, not only are they pretty, sparkly, shimmery, glitters but they're limited edition too- it would have been rude not to! They're from the 'Great Britain, Great Nails' Jubilee Collection.

I'll use this as my practice round before my TeamGB Olympic nail art commences in July!

I used:

Base coat - No7, So Smooth

Blue - OPI, DS Magic (Jubilee Collection)
White -  OPI, Happy Anniversary (Jubilee Collection)
Red -
 OPI, DS Bold (Jubilee Collection)
Top coat - China Glaze, Fast Forward Top Coat

Save Me, Hanover Square | Scrapbook Nails

I love the Save Me polish from OPI's Nicki Minaj collection, but, for me, it's too busy to have on my nails as full coverage. I opted for glitter tips, and one accent nail. It's quite a unique glitter - there are blue bars, mixed with a fine holographic glitter.

I used:
Base coat - No7, So Smooth
Base Colour - Nails Inc, Hanover Square
Glitter Tips & Accent Nail -  OPI, Save Me (Nicki Minaj collection)
Top coat - China Glaze, Fast Forward Top Coat
Matte top coat (added day 2) - Topshop Nails, Matte Top Coat

Gold & Blue Striped Nails | Scrapbook Nails

Waassapppnin?!

I did say to look out for more of these manicures... bet you didn't think you'd see one so soon haha!

This time, I used a blue & gold combo, which I think worked quite well. With this technique, it's important to use an opaque top colour as you can only apply one coat - you have to take the stickers off before the polish dries, otherwise you'll pull up the dried polish with the sticker and your lines wont be as neat.

I used:
Base coat - No7, So Smooth

Blue Base Colour - Nails Inc, Albert Place
Gold Top Colour - Barry M, Foil - 320
Top coat - China Glaze, Fast Forward Top Coat

Flicked Golden Peach | Scrapbook Nails

Golden Peach is the perfect description of this Model's Own polish. It's a lovely peachy orange, with a gorgeous warm gold shimmer to it. It looked nice on it's own, but I added in some black and white flicks with my nail art pens to jazz it up.

I used:
Base coat - No7, So Smooth

Orange Base Colour-  Models Own, Golden Peach
Black flicks - Kiss Nail Art Paint, Black

White flicks - Stargazer Nil Art Pen, White

Top coat - China Glaze, Fast Forward Top Coat

Black & Blue Stripe Nails | Scrapbook Nails

I love stripes. Probably more then I love polka dots.
I had some long, thin, strips of stickers laying about from a craft kit, so I cut them up, placed them over my dried blue nails, then painted black over the top. While the black was still wet, I removed the stickers, and was left with this amazingly neat & tidy nail art. Love it, it's one of my favourite manicures to date. Be prepared to see a lot more of these... I've already placed an order for some stripping tape!

I used:
Base coat - No7, So Smooth

Blue Base Colour-  Miss Sporty, Clubbing Colours
Black Top Colour - Orly (mini), Black Out

Top coat - China Glaze, Fast Forward Top Coat

Mushroom Flower | Scrapbook Nails

Only recently, after going through my polish collection multiple times, did I realise that I don't own a brown! So naturally, the next day I paid a visit to Superdrug & I picked up Barry M's Mushroom. It's a light brown and I love it, but I will be on the hunt for a nice chocolate colour & a darker brown too.

Last month I bought some dotting tools, and this is the end result of my first go at using them. Not too shabby! Obviously, I need to have a play around with the different sizes of the dots, and practice a bit more at making them join up, but I had a lot of fun & it really didn't take long at all.

I used:
Base coat - No7, So Smooth

Brown Base Colour-  Barry M, Mushroom (310)

Yellow middles - Barry M, Yellow (134)

Pink petals - OPI, Pink Friday

Blue petals - Barry M, Blue Moon (317)

Top coat - China Glaze, Fast Forward Top Coat

Fresh Frog of Bel Air | Scrapbook Nails

No nail art today. This polish from OPI's Muppets Collection is just b-e-a-uuutiful on it's own. It's made up of fine green glitter, and larger hexagon shaped silver glitter.

I did 4 coats of this polish, but only thin layers as I wanted it to dry quickly. The build up is pretty good, I could have got away with 3 coats. I just fancied really bold coverage.

One layer of top coat was enough for this, the glitter isn't as hungry as you'd expect!

It's love ♥.

I used:
Base coat - No7, So Smooth

Base colour-  OPI, Fresh Frog of Bel Air (Muppets Collection)
Top coat - China Glaze, Fast Forward Top Coat