Monday's Manicure - Autumn Regal Red + Duchess Diamonds!

I would like to introduce a weekly series on my blog called "Monday's Manicure" where each Monday I will create and share with you a new nail design. I am by NO means a professional, but it annoys the cuticles off me when I watch nail tutorials only to find I need a whole kit of nail tools, 100 nail varnishes and a degree from Sally Hansen to achieve the look. Therefore, my philosophy is to keep the tools and products to a minimum, but create a look that Butter London wouldn't melt! Oh also, there's no special reason for it being on a Monday - it's just the only day that worked for alliteration purposes! 

Monday's Manicure #1 - Autumn Regal Red + Duchess Diamonds 

I created this look using only 2 nail varnishes (and a base coat), with tools of nothing more than a bobby pin + a lip liner brush that I gave a haircut. I wanted to do something inspired by Autumn, as I love the season so much, and a hint towards looking forward to Christmas! I think the colour scheme worked well and turned out to have a bit of a Royal inspired thing going on, which created the name of this look! However you can switch this up to suit any colour scheme you prefer! Maybe black and gold? Navy and white? Let your imagination run wild! 

You will need:

💋Base/Top Coat (I'm using MUA Super Strength Base Coat)
💋Barry M Nail Paint - Raspberry (My Autumn staple for years!)
💋Maybelline Colour Show - Rose Chic (In some lights it has a rose gold tint. I like
    those lights!) 
💋 A Small Thin Brush (I'm using an old thin lip liner brush that I hacked down even  further to make it small enough, you could also use an old applicator from a liquid 
eyeliner. Just please make sure you keep those brushes with your nail varnishes so you never use them for your make up again!) 
💋 A Bobby Pin or Dotting Tool 

Method:

1. Apply a base coat to all nails and let this dry. If it's still tacky when you apply your nail polish it will gloop up (very technical term there) and is more likely to peel or chip, so make sure its completely dry. 

2. Pinky Dinky Hearts - Start with 2 coats of Rose Chic (it's a very fine milled glitter polish that has some texture to it, but not the type of glitter that you're still finding three weeks later). Once that's dried, dip a Bobby Pin into the Raspberry Polish and use that to create three little hearts on the nail (see top left and right photos below) by splodging two dots next to each other, and then dragging them down into a 'V' shape. 

3. Diamond Ring Finger - I kept this one quite simple, I wanted it to look like my cuticle had a diamond necklace on! Why? Well, why not? I used the same technique as above but with a raspberry base and the make shift dotting tool adding rose glitter dots, or as I like to call them - jewels! (See middle left and right photos below)

4. Frosted Tip - Not the odd 90s hair tend, but a raspberry base with the glittery frosted tip swiped across to form a stripe! (See bottom left photo below)

5. All that Glitters Pointer - A simple one to add some contrast - just 2 coats of Rose Chic.

6. Thumbs Up For Hearts - Take the Pinky look but flip it... I used an old lip brush to define the hearts some more! (See bottom right photo below)

So here's the finished look, I really hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed not staining the wood table! It didn't take too long to do and can be for everyone from beginners to intermediate! If you enjoyed this make sure to look out for next Monday's Manicure too! 

Thank you for reading! 

Hayley x