Christmas Wrapped Present Nail Art!

Hello all!

Welcome back! I have once again decided to do some Christmas nails. As I mentioned in my previous post, I had so many different ideas, so I thought "Why not do one more?"

Today's design is a simple one. I was going to do more skittle nails, but I'm not sure I'm a fan. These ones are "Wrapped Presents". They look like little perfectly wrapped Christmas boxes, which I think is really cute. This design can be worn for various occasions, just change your colours!

Wrapped Present Nails.

I used three colours for this one:
220 Celeb City - Sally Hensen Hard as Nails Xtream wear, metallic silver.
Rebel Red - BYS, simple red crelly.
Fatal Attraction - BYS, lime green jelly.

Simple simple for this one. I started with two coats of Celeb City. Using two pieces of striping tape, I crossed them over each other in a different place for each nail to form a cross. Once the tape was secure, I applied one coat of Rebel Red to three of my nails, and quickly removed the tape. For my accent nail, I used two coats of Fatal Attraction due to the sheerness of it. I waited about 10 minutes for the first coat to dry, added the second and removed the tape. Then once all nails were totally dry, I used a sandwich bag to hold a blob of Celeb city and used my dotting tool to make the bows. I made two small teardrops on either side of one line, then drew two small diagonal lines leading away from the tears. Once the tear drops were relatively dry, I went back to my dotting tool with the Rebel Red and Fatal Attraction, and added one small dot inside the teardrops. Lastly, I used my fave Big Shiny Top Coat to seal it all and I was done!


Fabulous, quick and festive! 

Close up, so you can see more of the details. 

Another, just for fun.

Close up of the Rebel Red.

I like the way this looks with the crelly/jellies. The glitters from Celeb City poke through just enough to add some depth to it. I would love to try this out with some pastels for a birthday. 

What do you think? Would you try this? What colours would you use?

Let me know!

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Nail Art Design - Skittles!

Hello Lovelies!

As you all know, the holiday season is upon us! Therefore, I have decided to do some Christmas inspired nails. I didn't want to do just one simple design, so I decided to do skittle nails.

I'm not much for the traditional Christmas stuff and we don't usually get snow here in Australia, so I tried my best to do something that was Christmas like without being too crazy.

I tried out a couple of new things today to achieve this. I did some dry marbling and used nail vinyls for the very first time, which is really cool because I see so many people doing both of these and I've been wanting to try them out. 

Behold, the Christmas Skittle nail art:

Okay, so this is the set on the whole. I also did my thumb nail in the same gold featured on my ring finger.

These are the feature nails. I used the same three colours throughout the design. We have:

Hidden Treasure - BYS gold shimmer.
Roller Coaster - BYS green creme
Red Carpet - BYS red shimmer

I love these colours together. The green being a creme, I think adds to the depth of this mani.

Now for the breakdown:

Three coloured dry marble.

This is, as I mentioned earlier, the first time I tried this technique... and you know what? I love it! I love the way the colours melt into each other. To me it gives the appearance of an intricate stone, like an opal. I'm very happy with this nail and I will be doing more of these! 

I used Red Carpet as my base colour. Sally Henson's Big Peel Off Base Coat was used around my nail to protect my skin (as you can see from the small chunk missing, it got onto my nail and picked some of it up during the clean up process). I grabbed my stamper and added about three varying sized blobs of each colour polish in the center and quickly dabbed it onto my nail. I continued to dab a few more times so the colours would mix, as well as making sure the nail was covered. Finished off with Sally Henson's Big Shiny Top Coat, and there you have it! A unique Christmas nail art that took about 30 seconds. 

Reindeer nail vinyls.

This is a really easy design, all I had to do was pick my colours! I purchased some nail vinyls online recently and I got them last week, which was perfect because I've been thinking about these nails for the last week or two. I used two coats of Roller Coaster for the base, added Sally Henson's Big Shiny Top Coat so the vinyl wouldn't pull up what was underneath. I used my tweezers to remove the vinyl from the sheet and place it on the nail. I pressed it down lightly as to not rip up the rest of the nail with it. I used a heavy amount of Hidden Treasure to cover the design and quickly removed the vinyl. Once the design was dry I added another layer of top coat, and did the last two steps twice more. I did re-use the same vinyl. I've heard some people say it can be done and others say it can't be done, so I decided to try it out for myself. I would probably only use them once in future. I am very happy with the first one I did (center)... the others, not so much. I used a dotting tool to fix up some mistakes and then finished off with my shiny top coat.

And last but not least:

Tinsel & baubles.

This one is pretty basic, I used two coats of Hidden Treasure for my base. I used a small dotting tool to make the tinsel lines using Roller Coaster, which added a little more texture then a striping brush. I took the same dotting tool with Red Carpet to make the baubles, and finished off with a shiny top coat. 

And that's it! All in all this was a pretty quick mani. The longest part was waiting for the top coat to dry, which is expected because I don't have a quick dry yet. I may even do another set... I have so many ideas, I've got to let them out! 

Have you done Christmas nails? Feel free to leave a link in the comments so I can check them out!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Light Galaxy Nail Art With BYS Cosmetics Nail Polish

Hey hey, people!

What have we got today? Why, its nail art, of course!

This design is something fun and oh so easy! Literally anyone can do it! I like to call it "The Light Galaxy". It's a not-so-typical galaxy nail art. I love the galaxy look, but I wanted to use some lighter colours (almost like the center of a supermassive black hole) and make it a little more my own. I have so many blue polishes so I thought this would be a really good way to use them. Plus, how often do you see a galaxy nail that's not black, purple and white? 

So, here it is:

Light Galaxy Nail Art pictured with Glam Glitter - Silver Moon by BYS

Look at that HOLO! 

This was my very first attempt at galaxy anything. My nails were still rather short at this point and I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out, but I'm actually really happy with them. I could not stop admiring them! I'd definitely do this again. 
A variety of different polishes were used for this.
We have...

Sky's the Limit - BYS: the base colour, a soft, pastel blue creme. 
French White - BYS: a white creme used as the focus point of the design.
Fools Paradise - BYS: a blue creme used over parts of the white.
Hocus Pocus - BYS: an amazing teal shimmer creme used over the majority of the nail.
Glam Glitter - Silver Moon - BYS: a holographic glitter polish with various sized glitters, and a clear base used to replicate stars. 

Now, for most of the other galaxy nails I've seen, people tend to draw stars with white polish or paint. I don't have a steady hand though, so I skipped this and just used the holo glitter instead...Which I am totally cool with because I think the holo adds just a bit more detail... and who doesn't love rainbows?

Firstly, I applied two coats of Sky's the Limit. Once this was dry, I painted some French White onto a small piece of make up sponge and then dabbed it onto my nails in continuous, uneven lines of varying direction. I then used a different side of the same piece of sponge and dabbed some Fools Paradise sporadically alongside the white polish. The same was done with Hocus Pocus, although spanning a larger area, while taking care not to cover too much of the colours underneath. Once all the dabbing was done and dry, I brushed on two coats of Silver Moon and rearranged some of the larger glitter pieces with an orange wood stick, so as to not have them so clustered together. Finally, a generous coat of shiny top coat and we're done! Now, we just sit back and admire our creative work! 

I love the idea of galaxy nails because they're so simple, but look so complex. With this, I can pretend I'm actually seriously talented. The best part is, there are so many different combinations with this and no two nails will ever be the same!

I'd love to see some other not-so-typical galaxy designs. Leave me a comment with your awesome nail art! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Essie Garden Varity Spring 2015 with Accent Nail + Review.

G'day people!

Today's design is very simple and a little bit boring, but still looks good! Basically it's a fancy swatch. Haha.

Here we have Garden Variety from Essie's 2015 spring collection. It's a stunning colour and I absolutely love it!  This was gifted to me by a dear friend of mine, along with a bunch of other awesome nail supplies (she knows me so well). This, along with Blossom Dandy (also from the 2015 spring collection), was one of my first Essie colours.

I wasn't sure what to do with it because it's a very unique colour, and on its own it is just gorgeous. So, after painting all my nails in this majestic colour, I opted for something simple. I did a thick horizontal strip pattern on my accent nail. At this point I only had striping tape and I didn't want the lines to be so thin, so instead, I did two coats of OPI Alpine Snow and then I used Essie Garden Variety to do two straight(ish) lines horizontally across the nail. I had to use a decent amount because the white underneath made it a little less opaque, and since I was free handing I didn't think I'd be able to get a second coat quite as neatly.
And there you have it!
A super cute, super easy, accent nail!

 Indoor natural lighting with top coat.

Outdoor natural lighting with top coat.

Indoor natural lighting with top coat & the bottle.

I wanted to do a bit of a review on this one, so if you're interested, keep reading!

As I said before, I love this colour. Surprisingly, I managed to get a photo that's true to colour. I've looked at this polish online before and found that most pictures don't do it justice. I'd call this a deep green creme with undertones of blue. I feel that it's true to its name, it definitely reminds me of a garden!

It has a wide brush which I love! Always makes everything easier. The application is flawless and if I recall correctly, it was mostly opaque in just one coat (except over the white). I still did two coats for this one, though.
I honestly think that this is a year-round colour. You could use it in any season and it'd just be so fitting. 

I'm still not sure what other colours would go with this one, but I'd love to find out. I think a really nice deep purple would look stunning.

Got any ideas? Let me know, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks for stopping by!

Golden Chevron

Howdy y'all & welcome back!

Today's design is super cute and easy. I love this one for so many reasons! Firstly, I love the colour combo. This beautiful peachy-pink "Isn't She Lovely" from BYS is just adorable, and the metallic gold "Hidden Treasure" (also from BYS) just adds a bit of a high-end feel, in my opinion.

I'm calling it Golden Chevron. Super creative, I know, I know, thank you. Haha.

This one was a little tricky with the actual chevron pattern as I don't have any chevron vinyls, so I had to use multiple pieces of striping tape. Hence the less than even lines. If you're familiar with striping tape, you probably feel my pain here. Sorry 'bout it!

But still, not a bad effort, I think. I didn't notice that they were uneven until I got to editing my photos a few hours later. If you aren't looking at them too closely, you probably wouldn't even notice.

I really enjoyed wearing this design. I could not stop looking at them. The soft creamy peach paired with the sparkling gold is just amazing. I will definitely be using these colours together again! I think they'd be great for a more formal event, or possibly as a spring accessory. 

For this design I used a peel off base coat. I did two coats of my base colour Hidden Treasure, just to make sure it was opaque. I applied a top coat to stop the tape from removing the polish underneath, then added the striping tape in a chevron pattern. With the tape pressed down firmly and as neatly as I could get them, I painted a really thick layer of Isn't She Lovely over the entire nail. Quickly and carefully I removed the striping tape and continued with the rest of my nails. Once they were all dry I added a top coat to seal everything. 

It was rather easy and quick. I only wanted the gold to come through in the chevron so I had to use a thicker coat of peach as it's a very thin polish, and a standard coat would have been a little too sheer. I used 4 x 1mm pieces of striping tape for the middle finger with the larger space between. Another 4 pieces directly on top of each other for the index finger and I'm pretty sure I used 3 pieces for the pinkie. I didn't want them all to be the same. Sometimes I hate working with striping tape because it can be so difficult to get it right. I plan on finding a better way of doing this, as nail vinyls are not always easy for me to get.

Oh and if you happen to notice the cracks that I tried to cover up, I was testing out a peel off base coat. It didn't dry quite enough before I applied my base colour, which led to the slight cracking. I may even do a review of that one later on. 

What do you think? Will you give this one a go? Have you done something like this? 
Feel free to share them with me(:

Thanks for stopping by!

Essie Blossom Dandy Spring 2015 Dry Brush

Howdy y'all!

Today I'm gonna share with you the first nail art that spiked my obsession. This is not the first one I've ever done, but the first one that turned into a snow ball effect. Admittedly, I have done this technique so many times because I love it. It's quick, easy, super cute and you can do so much with it! 

It's the dry brush technique. So basically, you choose your base colour, for me, its usually white, because what doesn't go with white? Then you grab your second colour and wipe off as much of the polish as you can, effectively making the brush "dry", and just swipe the brush across your nail in any way you see fit. The results are sort of a distressed abstract look. You can use as many colours as you like, but I just did the one this time. If you check out my last post there's a three toned version that I also love.

For this design I used BYS French White and Essie Blossom Dandy. I think these colours pair well together. At the time it was the middle of winter and we were receiving an unusual amount of rain, so I wanted to do something a to match those winter vibes, whilst still adding a splash of colour. Honestly this is still one of my favorite designs to date. It just wears so well and I could not stop looking at them!

Now I know my gap is HUGE and very uneven and inconsistent, but this was actually the first time I'd done it. I was getting sick of my polish chipping so easily, and only lasting a day or two, so I did some research which lead to the gap (as well as some other really useful tips) This will get slightly better over time, and then slightly worse again haha.

I know it's a little over done, but I totally understand why, its so awesome! I love it. I feel I need to get a little more adventurous with this one. Watch this space!

What are your thoughts on this technique? Have you done it before? Let me know!

Thanks for stopping by!

G'Day y'all & Welcome to the AustraNAILian!

My name's Sophie and as you can probably tell from my blog name, I'm Australian and I love nail art.

I'm forever researching nail related things online, only to find they're either American or Canadian, which makes it bloody hard to get my hands on some of the things I want. So I decided to make my own blog, with products that are available to Australian's that are not going to take 6 weeks in shipping or cost my first born child.

Now, bare with me children, as I have not long been doing nail art, despite always loving it, I've only recently decided to do all the really intricate designs that I've seen before. So to get started, let me chuck in some older nail art that I somehow managed to pull off.

This was my first attempt at the dry brush technique. I actually really loved these nails and got so many compliments. Heaps of women thought they were Frozen inspired. They were not. I just happened to like these colours. (Spoiler alert, these colours will be featured a lot).

These are one my first intricate designs. As you can see, I tried a sponge gradient, but because I used an actual sponge, like the kind you'd do the dishes with, they ended up being very spacey and not opaque enough. Sad face. They also took me 3 day! As you can probably tell from the wear on the tips. But all in all, I loved them!

Now here is one of my favorite techniques so far! This is a wicked splatter technique created by using a straw. I obviously didn't bother cleaning up properly before taking this shot, but I believe it was a lot worse before this. It is a very messy technique, but its very worth it. I loved the results of this and the best part is, they will NEVER look the same!

Unfortunately at this time I didn't know much about nail art. But, there is hope! Looking back on these images, I actually get frustrated with myself because of things I know now. So you've got some nice designs to look forward to. Or at least, I think they're nice.

That's all I've got for you today. I have a few back logged images of my designs, so hang in there my friend, more nail magic coming soon!

Thanks for stopping by!