Galaxy Nails!

So on Saturday night I went to the movies with my friend Haydee to see Gravity. You know? The movie with Sandra Bullock floating around in space. Well we went to see that! And it was awesome! SO AWESOME that I was inspired to finally try my hand at some galaxy nails. I had seen this style on so many other blog I had been meaning to try it, and since I had the inspiration I thought 'What the heck?'....

Now trying to do research on this nail art nearly blew my mind. Every single person has a different way to go about it, some used shimmer polish while others used glitter polish, some layered upon layer upon layer, while other were simple. Ahhhhhhh! *blown mind*

In the end I picked some 'spacey' colours and came up with this...

OK so I used a LOT of colours....this is the order in which I used them.

Purple: 17 - Royal Indigo

Pink: Cate Ruby - Meg

Light Blue: Essence - Absolutely Blue

White: 17 - Mini Skirt

Yellow: Kiko - Shade 279

Sparkle Purple - BC Co - Shade 4

Shimmer Blue: Essence - The Boy Next Door

White (stars): Sally Hansen - White On

I was so complete hung up on technique I realised that the best way to get results is to use your imagination, and you really cant get this wrong (unless you attempt a shooting start and it stuffs up and becomes a starfish shape (see ring finger)).

Hope you like it? 

Pink Sequins

So a few weeks ago I was given some really pretty Anna Sui nail jewellery. They are these little tiny circle sequins that give off this beautiful rainbow colours when it catches the light.
I originally was going to but it over black or a dark colour, but I think the sequins would be lost with such a strong colour, so I want the complete opposite with a baby pink colour by ChiChi. 

I started off with a few coats of ChiChi - Blonde Ambition (which is my new favourite colour) and then I covered my ring and middle finger with the sequins.
These pictures do not give this manicure any justice, the way the sequins catch the light....so pretty!

Hope you like it!

Guest hands... my aunty Petula!

So today is my Aunty Petula's birthday, I am NOT going to say how old she is because she will kill me...

I will, however, show you the special birthday nails I did for her.
The only requirement I was given is that there had to be 'sparkle'...

I used a dark purple colour for the base and then did the tips in a sparkle purple. They came out great! 

This a pic of my Mum (right), my aunty Petula (left)
and I'm the poser in the front. 

Just a little bit of sparkle!

Here is a quick mani I did the other day.

You can do this with any nail polish. I thought the beige-y pink colour from Kiko worked perfectly with the silver.

Once you have picked your colour, apply a few coats on your nails and let dry completely. 

Once they are dry add another layer of the SAME nail colour and before it dries (using your finger) dab on some glitter at the base of your nail... and slowly work upwards. 

To get this 'ombre' effect I made sure the base was completely covered with the glitter and just rubbed my fingers together on top of the nail allowed the last remaining glitter pieces fall to the tip of the nail, thus giving you the ombre look. 

Finish with a top coat.

• Try not to use your fingers too much and don't press too hard as you might undo all the layers of polish underneath.
  
• The other tip is you can use a clear nail polish to help stick the glitter on (instead of  the same colour).
  
•  Make sure you check your top coat brush for any stray glitter, because I can guarantee you it will sneak its way onto your next mani and it will annoy the crap outta you! 

That's it... SIMPLE!

Let me know what you think?

-B xx


PS: Check out my GIVE AWAY!

Nails Inc. Glitters

I got given some really lovely glitter polishes from a friend and I thought I would try them out...

I started off with Nails Inc. - Romily Street in the bottle it looks like it is jam packed with magenta flakes but as I used it it seemed that there was a lot of gold and green flakes. I used this glitter polish on top of one of my favourite polishes BC&Co. - Shade 6.  I think using the magenta polish doesn't give the glitter enough time to 'pop' so when I use this polish again I would probably use it on a gold or green polish. So that the magenta stands out.

The other design I came up with is...

For my thumb, ring and pinky nails I used L'Oreal - Opera Ballerina and then used Nails Inc. - Newburgh St. Again I was surprised by these polish, looking at the bottle it looks like there are only bronzey gold glitter flake in there but then as you put it on there were these little black stripe bits. I am not going to lie when I say that I think it ruined this mani. I wanted to have it mostly the cream and the gold but with the touch of black it became way to harsh, I did try and co-ordinate the colours by adding black on the other ombre fingers but it was just too harsh.

Overall these glitters are really pretty but I would have liked a little bit of a heads up about what to expect. I have, however, learnt my lesson and will try the glitter polished before I come with a mani. Just so I know what to expect.
The positive about these polishes is that they are jam packed! When you normally use a glitter polish the glitter bits are usually few and far between, so these were a present surprise.

Enjoy!

B xx

Family do!

So when my family gets together it is a HUGE deal! Last night I went to a 25th wedding anniversary. With over 350 guests and 'formal' dress code my mind went straight to " How the hell am I going to paint my nails???".
So before I got too carried away with my nail design I needed a dress! Once I found it everything seemed to fall into place. And instead of going all out with my nails I decided to take a simple and elegant approach. So here is my COMPLETE outfit.... let me know what you think??

The Dress....

The Shoes....

The Hair and Make-up...

And FINALLY the Nails...

B xx

Blue and Bling

Just a quick post.
Decided to being out some glitter for once....

I simply paint a couple of coats of the Australis - Aqua and then once it had dried I topped it with a few coats of
NYX - Prismatic Gold. 


I love the colour combination. I was originally going to a multi coloured glitter polish on top but I thought the gold would be a little bit more sophisticated. :)

I know it's not very 'artsy' but I thought it was better than nothin'. Haha
-B xx

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

Green Sparkles

For Christmas I got some really nice neon coloured nail polishes and hadn't had a chance to use the green one. So after a bit of thought I decided to pair it with glitter.

I started with two coats of BC Co. Shade 16 and then two coats of NYX Carnival just of the ends of the pointer and middle finger. For the other nails I did one coat but made sure the glitter is evenly spread.
Once the glitter had dried I added a coat of the BC Co. again. Only a thin layer so the glitter shows through. It makes the glitter have this matte effect.

When doing this type of technique make sure you pick nail polishes that are quite thin. If it is two thick the glitter wont show through.
xx