how to: take off glitter nail varnish

 

i've seen this done on a few blogs i read so unfortunately i can't take the credit for this, but i thought i'd share it with you all anyway because it really made my life that little bit easier! glitter nail varnish, as great as it looks, can be a real nightmare to take off so here's how to avoid feeling frustrated and wasting half a pack of cotton pads.

you need: some nail varnish remover, some cotton pads cut into quarters and some squares of tin foil. 

firstly, soak the cotton pad quarters in nail varnish remover. i found it was easiest to do this by filling the lid with remover and then dunking the cotton pads into that.

then, place the cotton pad onto your nail and place the tin foil on top of it, wrapping the tin foil around your finger. as you can see from the picture of my hand, i wasn't actually very good at this (really simple) step. once i'd got onto my second hand i realised that it helped if you twisted the foil at the tip of your finger to keep it in place. by then it was a bit late but it still did the job all the same!

after 5 minutes or so it's time to remove the tin foil finger hats. give the nail a bit of a rub with the cotton pad as you do so and hopefully the glitter will have soaked right off. yay!

models own - pinky brown beetlejuice

 

although the models own beetlejuice collection came out a while ago, i am still madly in love with it. i got three out of the five colours in a set for christmas, and although i think it regularly changes, at the moment my favourite shade is 'pinky brown'.

i'm actually quite surprised at how well my camera managed to capture the multi-tonal effect as i was worried i wouldn't be able to show it in its full glory! pinky brown changes from purply to pinky to browny to bronzy depending on the light and which angle you're looking at it from. pretty advanced for a nail varnish i think! 

pinky brown also looks like it's made up of tiny flecks of glitter which adds to the shimmery effect, but only needs two coats and is much easier to remove than standard glitter polishes. all in all a much loved gift and one i'll continue to use throughout the summer months. you can find a set of all five beetlejuice polishes and a base/top coat for only £20 on the models own website.

gold glitter manicure

this manicure was my task for wednesday evening and i have to say, it was more of a challenge than i expected! but i'm pleased with the outcome and my attempts at being creative (and patient) with nail glitter!


the base colour i used was 'dark navy' by e.l.f cosmetics. i'm a big fan of navy nail varnish, particularly because i'm pale and i think in general, black is too harsh for my skin tone. navy is a nice, sleek substitute and goes with pretty much everything!

the real challenge came when i brought out the nail glitter by gosh in gold. i've never tried loose nail glitter before but i was excited to attempt to use it without creating too much mess. 

once my nails were completely dry i used some masking tape strips i made and stuck them onto my nails taking design inspiration from here. i then painted on some clear nail varnish and shook a bit of glitter onto the nail. i carefully spread it around with my finger and tried my best to push it into all the corners! 

this takes patience and by the end of it the table looked like a 6 year old had attacked it on a craft day. however, once i peeled off the masking tape i was pleased with the results! some of the glitter did manage to make its way onto the taped areas but because of the navy and gold combination i have told myself that this looks like stars and was therefore planned ;) i finished with a top coat.

i'm looking forward to trying out some other designs with the glitter but it's definitely for a day when i have plenty of time to experiment! also, on reflection, i may invest in a paintbrush to make it easier to apply the glitter, and remember to put a bit of newspaper down beforehand too.