Friday 30 December 2016

Charlies Nail Art Review

3D Bow Nails

Hello! Hope you all had a good Christmas, mine was great and super busy with all the family. Plus I was giving my nails and fingers another break with some tlc, before the New Year and my reviews start again. Talking of reviews, Friday means my next one for Charlies Nail Art
25p will get you these 2 3D White Glitter Bows.
I love how they sparkle and you can see little specks of different colours. These needed a simple yet complimentry mani. So I used my Mermaid Glitter over white gel polish. I sprinkled over the wet gel then cured, no topcoat as I didn't want to ruin the look of the glitter. The bow is a nice size and stuck firm with normal topcoat (Not gel) The finished look both in the shade and sun is stunning.  A calm and peaceful look, and perfect for the New Year.



This is a total wearable mani and would also look super pretty for a Spring Wedding.
My discount code is below and you can find and follow Charlies Nail Art over on
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Join me next week, for my first Charlies Nail Art Review of 2017!
Stay safe and much love....

Saturday 24 December 2016

Christmas Nails

I'm Back...

Hi guys, let me start by wishing all those that celebrate, a very Merry Christmas filled with lots of love and laughs. 
I know I posted yesterday, but this post is not only on my Christmas mani, but a warning about out of date cuticle oil. 
I won't waffle too much as I explained in yesterday's post about my allergic reaction, and today is the first day in almost 2 weeks that I have painted my nails. I wasn't going to have naked nails for Christmas!!
So to my mani inspired by Sharing Vu on IG. Something different, yet colourful.

Who wouldn't love to see rainbow Snowflakes! Super easy as I didn't fancy anything to complicated after my break.
Ok, I wasn't aware that cuticle oil could go out of date. If you knew then hats off too you, but I do believe that this was the culprit to my allergic reaction. You see I'm not 100% sure, but this particular day I had been applying my cuticle oil to my swatching hand only throughout the day. It was that evening I noticed the reaction. My Cindy hand was fine, 3 different creams later and it's only just starting to clear, it's still noticeable but not as much. Never spread and didn't hurt or itch. It was so nice to be able to paint my nails again and I wouldn't wish this reaction on anyone who swatches polish. This was my reason for including this in my post.
Have a great day tomorrow, filled with lots of love and laughs.
Stay safe and much love....

Friday 23 December 2016

Charlies Nail Art Review

Snowflake Nails

Well where do I start! The past 2 weeks have been most unkind to me. All started on a shopping trip when I badly broke a nail on my cindy hand. Then on my swatching hand I came up in a kind of rash that didn't hurt, itch or get any worse, it was an allergic reaction to something and was given cream to treat it. Then I go a break pinky tip on the same hand!! I actually broke down in tears. Filed my nails and have felt lost not being able to paint them. But without failing totally I bring you today's Charlies Nail Art review on my cindy hand. I repaired the badly broken nail with a tip and fibreglass resin kit.
I have 2 3D Snowflakes that are only 25p.
I painted my nails with Madam Glam Blue is the One, a very deep glittery blue, stamped white snow flakes on all but 1 nails, and applied a 3D Snowflake to the plain nail. Stuck very well with topcoat, and looks very special over the blue, almost as if it was floating.


My daughter made these blocks, and they were perfect for this mani. It felt so weird photographing my other hand, but there was no way I was going to miss doing this review!
I really hoping to be back to normal for my last review of the year for Charlies Nail Art, but if not Cindy will see the year out! I mean after all she has worked very hard this year so why not....
My discount code is below, and you can keep up to date with Charlies Nail Art on
FacebookInstagram and Twitter.
 Stay safe and much love....

Saturday 17 December 2016

Freehand Snowmen Nails

Another recreation..

Hi guys and welcome to the weekend! So you know how I said I'd been practising my freehand nail art, and have done a few posts on recreating mani's from last year. Well thanks to the Facebook time hop, where you are shown photos you posted years ago, I was shown my first ever attempt at freehand nails inspired by Simply Rins. Back in 2012, although I was painting my nails I wasn't blogging, so had forgotten about this mani, even Simply Rins shared it on her Facebook page.. I can't believe this was 4 years ago!!
So not only have I done this mani again, but I done a photo tutorial too.
I applied 2 coats of Barry M Mist and added a matte topcoat, as acrylic paint works better with a matte base.
With my Boan Crystal liner brush and black acrylic paint, make the snowman outline. It's doesn't matter if some lines are thicker than others, as they will get covered.
With white acrylic paint fill in the head and body. Paint a carrot nose shape with black paint.
Paint the band on the hat a colour of your choice, I used red, filled in the scarves with different colours and added the orange for the nose.
For the final touches, add eyes, a smiley mouth and white stripes to each scarf.
Topcoat smooths the acrylic paint and really finishes this mani off beautifully.


One of the biggest freehand mani's I've ever done and boy has my practice paid off! I absolutely love love love these.
Hope you've enjoyed this post, and maybe inspired you to try this mani too :)
Stay safe and much love...

Friday 16 December 2016

Charlies Nail Art Review

Angel Charms

Time for another review for Charlies Nail Art which means it's Friday!! Yay :) Not long now till the big day, and I have another Christmas mani using some absolutely lovely Angel charms. For 69p you get 2 elegant 3D charms.
Again like the presents I reviewed last Friday, these charms have a slight curve so they fit nicely on the the natural curve of your nails.
I thought I'd also show you how these look sideways in my nails. And you can see I have a black base, as I wanted a delicate and elegant simple art to compliment these. So I went with simple star burst stripes in different shades of gold.

Simply striking over the dark base and looks beautiful. I stuck the charm with clear polish, and the curve helps it to adhere firmly
My discount code is below and and be sure to check out the 12 days of Christmas on Instagram.
Also all the postal details for Christmas can be found here.
Facebook and Twitter are also where you can keep up to date with Charlies Nail Art.
Till next Friday, have a great weekend and as always safe and much love...

Thursday 15 December 2016

Inspired Nail Art

Water Decal Embossed Nails

Happy Thursday, one last early morning left this week, then 2 weeks of being lazy lol. I have again done my nails for me today, and loving the free time I have to do things like this :) beside looking after the kittens who are growing so quickly.
My mani today is completely inspired by Ten Little Canvases. I saw a video she did on special gel decals, and just fell in love with the man she created, that I had to have a go myself. Trouble was with funds very tight atm, I couldn't use the exact same items. So just using a few different bits I had here, I created a very similar look.
I started with a peel off base, as I always do with gel polish to protect my natural nails, then painted 2 coats of 665 Light Pink gel from VB Line.
Then I stamped a swirly image from Uberchic collection 1 plate 3, (the bottom right image) using Moyou Nails Fashion Gold and Silver polishes.
I found some pink rose water decals and carefully cut around the flowers.
Places them on the 2 nails with the Silver Stamping.
Finally using the pink I painted my nails with, I carefully painted over the Gold Stamping with my Boan Crystal liner brush. For the Siver stamping, I painted over with VB Line's 128 Black gel, and pressed gold foil over the tacky layer.


Not as perfect as Ten Little Canvases, but for a first attempt and not having the proper bits to use, I'm super happy with how this mani came together.
Hope you like it too :)
Stay safe and much love...

Wednesday 14 December 2016

Water Marbling

Another look back...

After yesterday's post I thought I'd redo another 2015 Christmas mani. This one was a red and white candy inspired water marble. I'm not sure if anyone who uses gel polish has tried Marbling over them, but I did for my 2016 creation. 
Here's my mani man from last year.

 And here's the water marble I did today. I started with my peel off base and then 2 coats of 127 White gel polish from VB Line. Wiped off the tacky residue, no gel top coat. Did my red and white marble with 2 Sally Hansen polishes, left to dry for 1 hour and gel top coated. The shine makes this mani look amazing and I had no problems with using normal polishes and the gels. What do you think?
It's nice to finally be doing nails that I want to do, but I'll be here with more reviews soon.
Stay safe and much love...

Tuesday 13 December 2016

Christmas Nails

What a difference a year makes 

Hi guys! While I have some time to do my nails for me, I've revisited a mani I tried last year and if I'm honest even though they were pretty, I wasn't truly happy with them.
Even though it's only 1 year, my freehand wasn't the greatest back then. Ok I'm not absolutely brilliant at it now, but lots of practice throughout the year and I'm so much steadier and find it so much easier. So let's look back at 2015...


Also I'd never painted my nails with gel polish either! 
My 2016 version of the mani was done with gel polishes from VB Line. 


My nails are about the same length, but I much prefer the shape of them now, and extremely happy with this Christmas mani. 
Till next time stay safe and much love...

Monday 12 December 2016

Vivien Kondor

Christmas Nails Tutorial 

Hello all again, I don't know about you but I've been trying more freehand nail art just recently, as I love the look and need more practice!! So I thought why not do a quick easy tutorial on 3 different looks for Christmas. 
For each of my looks I've used polishes from Vivien Kondor.
Now I'm no where perfect with freehand, so if I can create these looks, any one can!
Christmas Look 1-
Start with a white base. With a thin liner brush and light green polish add a few lines at the tip of your nails. Do the same again with a darker green, then a silver polish. Using the liner brush add 2 thin black lines going straight up your nails, and 2 across to create a tartan look. Add 3 Red dots where the black lines cross. Topcoat when dry.
Polishes used: Matte White, Lime Green, Mint Green, Silver, Black, Imperial Red and Matte Topcoat.
Christmas Look 2- Start by painting your nails with red polish. With a dotting tool and white polish, add a centre line to represent fur, and a small part at the tip. Add a black band and gold buckle. Topcoat when dry.
Polishes used: Imperial Red, Black, Matte White, Light Glitter, Golden Beige and Topcoat.
Christmas Look 3- Start with a white base and add a glitter topcoat. With dark brown polish add a curved oval to the tip of your nails. Add antlers with black polish, and tiny ear shapes at the side of the antlers. Paint 2 small white lines for eyes and add a black dot at the bottom. Paint a nose in either red or black polish, and add a tiny white shine line. Matte Topcoat when dry.
Polishes used: Matte White, Jet, Light Glitter, Black, Red Black, Red Glitter, Matte Topcoat.
There we have it. 3 quick and simple looks, each perfect for the coming holiday and super cute.
I hope you enjoyed this post :)
Stay safe and much love...