BURKATRON

gosh I've been so distracted moving house this week I only realised it was halloween today.. fail! I had planned a spooky nail art for you guys but I think I've missed the boat! I do have this winter floral pattern that I'd though I'd show you; it was inspired by the dress I wore to the cosmo blog awards but I''ve switched up the colours slightly! I was recently sent these two butter london polishes to review cotton buds and pimms; I'm new to butter polishes so I was excited to try them!  my verdict.. I love them both! rich and creamy to apply the colours are beautiful and the finish is lovely. I'm a huge fan of white nails in particular this year and these both have a good formula.  white is a great all rounder to have in your collection; even if you don't want to wear white nails it's the perfect undercoat to pale shades. I find a lick of white under bright polishes makes them 'pop' (top tip: neon's in particular really benefit fro...

I've been so busy recently I've not had much time to dedicate to my favourite pastime.. nail painting!  I can't help but get a little bored of plain nails so nail transfers are my go-to 'nail art' when time is precious (if in doubt cheat your way to fun fingers!)  I have quite a few favourites but these tiger transfers from janchristie are definitely in my top 5!!  they're incredible easy to use just peel off the transfer and stick the image onto your nails.. voila! make sure you apply a few layers of top coat to seal the image otherwise it will rub off when they get wet!  in case you wondered the nail polish is the gorgeous lemon meringue from models own  (yum) the transfers are available from  janchristie  in dozens of animal varieties! in other news I realised I never did anything to celebrate reaching 1000 followers so I'm planning a nail art giveaway next month hurrah!! (I'll buy a few transfer sets to pop in along with some other surprises as I ...

I actually painted these nails a while ago! I'd thought I'd pop them up so you could see them before they disappeared into the nail art archives never to be seen again! maybeline colour show in nebline* I used a beautiful shade called nebline from the maybelline colour show range. the colour is a perfect pastel pink but that's the only positive I have for this polish as I found the formula really disappointing!  I've only used two colours from this range and both needed an excessive amount of coats for full opacity (I found the yellow in the colour show range needed at least 5 coats!)  (the price range is very affordable at £2.99 but I have to say for the same price range I'd rather invest in a barry m polish)  I've gone for a basic leopard/animal print which is great for beginners!  I began by drawing silver circles and then just outlined them with a black nail art pen once they dried. add a few random dots here and there to break up the spaces and seal with to...

my inner child loves fruity fingers so I decided to paint some strawberry nails at the weekend! I thought I'd share the tutorial with you as it's quite easy and a fun option for summer (I hope you'll try them too!) start off with a red base coat, I've used my go-to va va voom red, the gorgeous models own red alert , this polish has a great formula and only requires 1-2 coats (if you're looking for a classic red this is the one!) once dry you'll need to paint on the strawberry leaves, I've just used the corner of nail polish brush but you can also use a nail art pen/brush to do this. lastly you'll need to add some white dots to suggest the strawberry seed pattern! I used my white models own nail art pen but you can use a small dotting tool! slightly drag down the circles of white polish so the shape becomes more like a teardrop. seal with polish and you're good to go! I hope you like them! back soon caroline x you keep up with my nail art tutorials o...

summer heatwaves call for fresh fruity fingers so I thought I'd share one of my favourite tutorials with you! you may recognise this design from my collaboration with the awesome LA based company scratch .. it's been a dream come true having them made into nail wraps and seeing other people wearing them! I though I'd revisit them again this week as the weather has been glorious and it's the perfect summer mani! I've always used the two same colours for this nail art barry m bright pink and spring green, both having great formula's for the price! I'm a little hooked on barry m this month particularly the gelly range.. yum. start off by painting the cuticle half of your nails green, fill in the remaining half with the bright pink! use a white nail art pen or striping brush to draw a white band where the two colours meet! once dry use a black nail art pen or dotting tool to add black dashes to suggest seeds, leave to dry and seal with a good clear topcoat! if ...

I was so excited to create some nail art for laura ashley recently! they're one of my favourite stores and their home department kick started my love affair with all things floral when I worked for them as a teen.  the lovely peeps asked if I could create some nail art inspired by their fabric and wallpaper designs; I couldn't have asked for a more fun project! the hardest part was picking from their range of adorable vintage inspired collections but I finally settled on their clarissa print- a gorgeous pink, yellow and grey themed floral concoction. so here's how I painted mine, you can follow these steps to create your own version! Step 1: Begin by painting a pale pink/cream base colour and leave to dry.  Take a dark pink polish and paint a rough circles on some of your nails. Step 2: Take a few pink nail polishes varying from dark to light in shade, you'll be using these to add depth and turn the pink circles into blooms! Wipe any excess from the polish brush and li...

I thought I'd show you a few new colours in my collection; both are essie polishes which I know are a popular choice with you guys!  I opted for two bright shades fear & desire which is a vivid orange and mojito madness which is a cool green shade.  fear & desire really pops on your nails, you can get full coverage in two-three coats (if you're in a hurry I'm certain two coats would suffice I'm just a fussy devil and wanted mine to look really bright!) mojito madness is one that I've had my eye on for a while, I fell in love with it when I saw a sales girl in sephora wearing it whilst I was on holiday! the formula is good, two coats gives full coverage for this shade and it's nice and glossy! fear & desire, mojito madness* the beauty of these two polishes is actually the price; £1.99 KAPOW! (I'm now looking at my essie polish collection and kicking myself for paying full whack for them!) you can pick up quite a few of their shades here  (although...

eeeeeek, I've been so excited to share this post with you guys! I was recently contacted by an LA based company called scratch, an awesome duo of ladies whose mantra is simply to create current, fun and wearable nail wraps, sounds good huh?  when scratch asked if I'd like to design a collection for them and I said HELL YEAH and so the scratch & burkatron collaboration began...yipee!  I designed four wraps in total, the watermelon design has already sold out (on pre release) I couldn't quite believe my eyes when it was reviewed on zooey deschanels website hellogiggles and they were all snapped up! I'm super duper excited to announce that the main collection is officially launching TODAY on scratch  (happy dance) there are three designs in total and I thought I'd share them with you I know not everyone has the time or inclination to sit painting their nails so these are the perfect way to adorn your fingers when you've got a busy schedule. I've used wraps ...

wowza.. it feels like ages since I've painted my nails! I managed to break two of them in half moving furniture so I had to give all my nails the chop as they were crazily uneven *sobs* I don't really mind having shorter nails though; I think to keep them healthy you should cut them down every few months (this works for me as mine get weaker the longer they grow) my nails grow fairly quickly helped along by regular use of OPI nail envy (miracle product) and lots of TLC! I painted these quickly as I was heading out to an event but I thought I'd share them with y'all in case you wanted to try them too!  as I did these at night I didn't photograph the steps but I'll break down the basic idea for you.. I used models own  peach sherbet as the base, a really pretty spring shade; the flowers are just drawn free hand so no nail art pens needed -but you can use them if you'd like!  take a dark pink polish and draw two large circles on each nail for the flower base. n...

spring bling anyone..? I love these nails; I have to thank you girls at  wah  for the inspo! I never thought about putting gemstones with polka dots until I saw one of their manicures; I thought it was seriously cute! it's also not too tricky!  I've used one of my most loved nail polishes  models own  beth's blue which is just the most adorable pastel blue and a perfect shade for spring. the gemstones are a collection I've built up from  amazon  and  eBay ; you can buy packs for a few pound and they really do seem to last forever! the hardest part is the polka dots but they're simple if you use a nail art pen or dotting tool.  if you don't have either you can always make a DIY dotter yourself; I've resorted to using pencils dipped in polish to make dots on nails in the past aha! I hope you like them! back soon, ps. don't forget there's still time to enter my nail polish  giveaway! caroline x

time to take matters into my own hands. since the sun is refusing to arrive I'm ploughing on with my spring/summer nail art in the hope the weather will catch up.... EVENTUALLY! I love bright nails so I decided to mix up one of my favourite nail art techniques.. the good old gradient! it's a fun and easy thing to master- I did a little tutorial  here  for you guys to read if you missed it! once the base gradient dried I added a basic black and white leopard print on top. dab on white circles (I use the brush straight from the polish bottle) and outline with a black nail art pen (I use  models own )  I always paint both hands (oh boy is the right hand harder!) but I rarely get a shot of both as my camera struggles to focus on timer, luckily my mum was on hand to snap these! I tend to use a page from my blogging notebook to dab off the excess colours; I think the leftover palette's are so pretty (plus it shows you how messy I am when I'm painting.. mucky pup!) if you h...

I painted these mix and match nails yesterday; I thought I would share them with you to give you some ideas for your own nails!  sometimes I can't decide on just one pattern... so I guess this is a nail art cocktail of sorts! I used some of my favourite  models own  colours to create a candy coloured base to work on! I then painted on hearts, cupcakes, florals and some pop art motifs to create a fun mix & match! I hope you like them!!  back soon caroline x