Saturday 30 March 2013

Happy Easter!!

We have come to that time of the year where we are all visited by a man sized bunny who hides chocolate eggs in our gardens (or conveniently in our living rooms if its raining).
Yes it is Easter... the only time of the year where eating ridiculous amounts of chocolate is a-okay! I myself have already stocked up on a few bags of mini eggs. Mmmmm!
So to celebrate this egg-cellent day I have had some fun with some pastel colours....




I had lots of fun buying some new pastel colours for my Easter inspired nails. I used my trusty dotting tool for most of the work and a very fine paint brush for the bunny.

For my middle finger, I started with a pale yellow and used a sponge to sponge on some of my blue and pink.

Blue - Gold by Giles (from New Look) in Pale Blue
Pink - BC.Co in Shade 1
Yellow - Face of Australia - Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!
XXXXXXXX

Friday 29 March 2013

Give that they may grow...

Today's is the Royal Children's Hospital's Good Friday Appeal.
What a fantastic cause! People all over Victoria donating money to help so many sick children.
So I thought the best way to celebrate the great work of the Royal Children's Hospital was to do what I do best (and donate of course).




So to all those people out there umming and ahhing about donating... DO IT!
http://www.goodfridayappeal.com.au/

xoxox

Sunday 24 March 2013

Half moon!

Joan Crawford

For all those out there in the nail art world, and for those who aren't,  I have stumbled across a fantastic craze of Half-moon nails!

This type of nail art started in the 1930s, when it was first worn by famous actresses of the time, they usually left the base of their nail bare in a semi-circle shape. Usually these manicures were worn in a red of maroon colour.
But in recent times Half-moon nails have made a come back in fashion and celebrities love em'! Check out some of these crazy combinations:



So the question is, can anyone pull these off?
The answer: DEFINITELY!!

I found that the best way to make them work for you in to make them you own. Use lots of blight colours, textures, stamping. Play around with colour combos, I have seen lots that have a neutral colour like grey, beige, browns, blacks with neon colours.


I personally went for a purple combo.... I started off with 17 Lasting Fix - Royal Indigo and topped that with BC.Co Shade 4. I found that the darker purple didn't really 'pop' so I added the the glittery polish on top.


Finally (after the first two coats had dried) I used a re-enforcement label sticker* to create the half moon shape.
Then over the top I used Rimmel Marshmallow Heaven. 
The Reinforcement label stickers are easy to get your hands on, i got mine from Officeworks for a pack of 250 for about $2. Bargain!
Now if have a steady hand (unlike me) you can try and do the half moons free hand with a small paint brush.
On my thumb I just painted it the one colour and added a few gems to continue the sparkle theme. :) 






Check out some of my favourite bloggers own Half-Moon Manis!


Chalkboardnails - 31 Day Challenge
Let Them Have Polish - 31 Day Challenge
Intergalacquer Nails
The Nailasaurus - half-moon nudey




Tuesday 19 March 2013

A little bit of everything...


So this is one of my favourite designs just because it was so much fun to do. I didn't really go in with a plan. I just picked my favourite colour (at the time) and paired it with black and white. I also experimented with a matte top coat.
Each nail has a different technique or tool used;
Thumb: Matte top coat and nail tape.
Forefinger: Sticky tape
Middle: -
Ring: Matte top coat and nail tape.
Pinky: Dotting tool.

This is a really great way to show off your skills. :)

What do you think?

Saturday 16 March 2013

Gems!!!




I have been waiting sooo long to try out my gems. On this very rainy Saturday afternoon I thought I'd have a go at using them. My original idea was going to be VERY colourful but I didn't think it suited the cooler weather. So I went with the black, khaki and gold.

I started with paint my first two fingers with Rimmel Cab Black and the rest in L'Oreal Rive Gauche Green.




I used a base coat to stick the the gems on and added a top coat afterwards. Make sure you don't touch the top coat while it's drying. If you touch them the top coat may smudge and it won't be clear.

What do you think?


Thursday 7 March 2013

Triangles!!!!


I LOVE this nail design and when I first did it I got a lot of good responses.

Pretty simple to do:
1. Paint your nail your base colour.
2. Using two pieces of sticky tape I made a triangular shape and painted on top of them with my gold colour.
3. Repeated for the black triangle too.



Some tips when using sticky tape/scotch tape/masking tape: 


  • Make sure all coats are dry before you add the sticky tape... REALLY dry. Because sometimes when you THINK its dry and it isn't the tape will rip off all the layers of nails polish you had already done. And you will cry!
  • Once you painted on the nail polish remove the tape asap. That way the line will be crisper. If you leave the tape to long it might turn out a but gluggy and thick.
  • If you think your tape is too sticky, just press that piece to your hand to take away some of the stickiness. 
Once you've mastered your taping skills you can play around with the design. :) 

Enjoy!!

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Monday 4 March 2013

Silver Stripe


I didn't know what to do for my next design. So I took some time playing around with different colour combinations. Once I decided which colours I liked and painted all my nails one colour. Then I thought of doing horizontal stripes in the other two colours... here's what I came up with.












I used H&M Nail Polish - Blue My Mind for the base. Then I used striping tape to paint on Barry M's Metallic Silver and NYC Park Ave. 
I think the colour combination looks really effective.  

Sunday 3 March 2013

Aztec Nails


Usually when I see Aztec nails they have a lot more detail. But I don't think I am that advanced in my nail art abilities yet. So I tried something a bit simpler. These aren't as neat as I hoped they would be but I think they still look good?? What do you think?


Saturday 2 March 2013

Mustard Polka-dots




Ok this was one of my popular designs.
I decided to do this design to match a mustard coloured dress that I own.
I used Kiko - Colour 369 for my main mustard colour. On my ring finger I used 17 Lasting Fix -Mini Skirt. For the dots I used a dotting tool which you can get from E-Bay here! These are really good because they are all different sizes for different size dots.


On the ring finger I added larger mustard dots and then white dots in the middle and topped it off with random dotting of Barry M Foil Effects - Gold

Easy! :)