Foliage Stamping Nail Art

Hello people!

Can you believe it's almost the end of the year?
I definitely cannot.
Where the heck does all this time go?
Take me back to being a kid when everything seemed to last forever, or work, ha ha. I thought I'd keep you guys up to date with my blog plans for the next few weeks, so this will be my last post of 2017. I'll be travelling to Sydney to see family and friends over Christmas and will be thoroughly enjoying some time off at home. I'll be back in the new year with more summer nail art, which I'm really excited for. I've got to get planning my Australia Day nail art! If you follow me on Instagram, I'll be posting a few designs I have stored away in this time, so keep an eye out for that. 

For this week's design, I've done a fun foliage stamping nail art. I'm currently really obsessed with these kinds of patterns and I happen to have several plates full of these beautiful leafy designs. So here it is; keep reading to see what I used to create this mani. 

Foliage Stamping Nail Art

I used these polishes:
Wham Bam by BYS Cosmetics
Tipsy Grasshopper Stamping Polish by Hit The Bottle
Cinderella by Sinful Colors
Big Primer Base Coat by Sally Hansen
Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

And these products:
Stamping plate BP-L076 by Born Pretty
Large clear stamper & scraper
Sticky tape
Cotton balls
Mani saver
Paper towel
Clean up brush
Acetone

Foliage Stamping Nail Art with Green 

I started with Big Primer Base Coat, then applied two coats of Cinderella. Once dry. I set up my 'stamping station'. Placing paper towel under stamping plate BP-L076, I applied Wham Bam to the pattern I wanted and scraped off the excess polish. Taking my stamper, I picked up the image and stamped it onto my middle finger. Before it dried, I took a piece of tape and used it to remove any polish that transferred to my skin. Usually I would use liquid latex, but I currently don't have any and this works well enough. I then cleaned my stamping plate using a cotton ball with acetone (held by my mani saver) and continued with my ring finger. For my index and pinky fingers, I used the same method outlined above, although with  different design and Tipsy Grasshopper. Once I was finished, I applied my Kwik Dry Top Coat.

Foliage Stamping Nail Art with Green

This one was pretty easy. Gotta love stamping!
I was going to stick to just one design for all nails, but I decided there were too many awesome designs on this plate and I just had to use another one. The pattern on my index and pinky fingers is a really cool leaf vein style. I wish the colour was a little darker so you could see the detail because I really love it. I guess I'll just have to buy more stamping polish. Watch out Hit The Bottle, I'm coming for you! Ha ha ha. 

What do you think?
Are you loving this foliage trend as much as I am?

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe end to the year and I'll see you next year!
Thanks for stopping by!

Ohh Shiny! Sequins & Metallic Nail Art

Hello lovely people.

I know we are currently within the holiday seasons, but as I detest all things Christmas, I won't be doing any kind of festive nail art this year (Here is one from last Christmas). Instead, I am opting for my usual style, what ever the heck I feel like, gosh! (little Napoleon Dynamite reference there). I will be focusing mainly on summer themes. This one how ever, is something I've wanted to do for a while. I have purchased a multitude of these nail sequins and they're just sitting in my nail art box, waiting for the day I'm brave enough to try them out. That time has finally come!  

Ohh Shiny! Nail Art

I used these polishes:

Ready To Take Off by UNT Cosmetics (peel off base coat)
A Mermaid's Tale by Face Of Australia, from the Calypso Bay collection
Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

The only products I used were the sequins which happen to have the longest product name ever! They're from Born Pretty store and the 'colour code' is 11.

Ohh Shiny! Nail Art with A Mermaids Tale

For this nail art, I applied a thin coat of Ready To Take Off. I did this so it'd be a hell of a lot easier to remove the sequins. I'm really not sure how these would go with acetone, but I can imagine it would not be fun. Once that was completely dry, I applied two coats of A Mermaids Tale. I then removed a small amount of the sequins from the jar and spread them out on my desk - this makes it a little easier to pick them up. I have a bottle of Kwik Dry Top Coat that's gotten a little gluggy with age, so I used this as a glue. I placed a small dot of polish onto my ring finger, placed a sequin on the polish and pressed it onto the nail using my finger. I continued this using various sizes to fill the nail as much as possible. I then placed a small dot of polish on my index and middle finger, then placed a large sequin on each of them. I finished with my non-gluggy Kwik Dry Top Coat. 

Ohh Shiny! Nail Art with Born Pretty Sequins

This didn't turn out exactly as I had planned it in my head and I know exactly why. Some of these sequins are thicker than I had originally thought. Being that I was applying a flat, non-malleable item onto a rounded surface, there were bound to be some issues. If you look closely at some of the larger ones you'll see they are slightly raised when placed outside the center of my nail. I think if I were to do this again I'd use a lot more of the smaller ones and stick to the center of the nail for the larger ones. 

I do love these colours together, though. The metallic polish being so close to the greeny-blue sequins was pretty exciting. I haven't really used this polish much, due to the streaky nature of it. But for this, I think it totally works. 

What do you think?
Do you like sequins in nail art?
Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by!

Peachy Smoosh Marble & Stamping Nail Art

Hey everyone, 

It is officially summer here in the land of Oz! Not that you'd ever know it was anything other than winter in Victoria, but nonetheless, still summer... which means bright, fun, colourful manis that I am so ready for!
So, as you know, I have all these super cute stamping polishes from Hit The Bottle and I've been a little scared to use them. This week I decided to let loose and just go for it. I didn't just want to do stamping, so I decided to mix in my favorite nail art technique, Smoosh Marble! Here's what I've got for you this week, peachy smoosh marble & stamping.

Peachy Smoosh Marble & Stamping Nail Art

For this fun design I used these polishes:

Big Primer Base Coat by Sally Hansen

Apricot Cockatoo by Essence

Tipsy Grasshopper by Hit The Bottle

Sparkling Cyan-ide by Hit The Bottle

Drunk Tank Pink by Hit The Bottle 

Paint The Town Violet by Hit The Bottle

Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

These products were also used:

BP-98 Stamping Plate by Born Pretty

Liquid Latex by Lulaa

Large clear stamper

Peachy Smoosh Marble Nail Art with Sparkling Cyan-ide

I started with Big Primer base coat. After drying, I applied two coats of Apricot Cockatoo. Whilst that was drying, I applied Lulaa latex around my middle and ring fingers. Taking stamping plate BP-98, I applied small dots of Tipsy Grasshopper, Sparkling Cyan-ide, Drunk Tank Pink and Paint the Town Violet to the design, then scraped it a few times to blend the colours. I then quickly picked up the design with my large stamper and pressed it over my ring finger. I removed the latex from this finger and cleaned up around the nail where necessary. Moving onto my middle finger, I grabbed my stamper and dropped small amounts of Tipsy Grasshopper, Sparkling Cyan-ide, Drunk Tank Pink, Paint the Town Violet and Apricot Cockatoo on to it. I then pressed the stamper over my nail, spreading the polish out. I continued to stamp over the nail until I was satisfied with the colour distribution, then removed the latex and cleaned up. I finished off with Kwik Dry top coat. 

Peachy Smoosh Marble Nail Art with Apricot Cockatoo

I am happy with how this turned out, although I feel the stamp was a little duller than I was hoping for. I may have over done the scraping,  causing less polish to be left on the design. But this smoosh is awesome! I think it looks like a grungy, arty, delightful mess and that's super fun. 

What do you think? 

Don't you just love these bright stamping polishes?

Thanks for stopping by! 

Fake Holo Nail Art

Hello, hello!

Recently, one of my favorite cheap cosmetic brands brought out a new line of nail polish as part of their holographic cosmetics. Despite the name, from what I have seen, these products are actually iridescent and not at all holo. Of course this is disappointing, however, these polishes are so amazing that I forgive them for their lack of knowledge. I did jump on them and purchased three of the seven colours from this collection. I do intend to grab a couple more before they go, but they are a little more expensive than their regular polish.

So of course I had to do some sort of nail art with them. This is the first of most likely several nail art designs with these polishes. The art is pretty simple, but it looks so mesmerizing.
I'll list the polishes I used for this basic beauty below.

Fake Holo Nail Art

Nail Polish used:

Big Primer Base Coat by Sally Hansen

Lady In Black by OPI

Unicorn Magic by BYS

Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

Fake Holo Nail Art with Unicorn Magic

After applying Big Primer base coat, I used two coats of Lady In Black. Once dry, I painted two coats of Unicorn Magic on my ring finger. Using the polish brush and a moderately steady hand, I painted the lower half of my pinky and the tip of my index finger. I used two coats for these also, and finished with a Kwik Dry Top Coat. 

Fake Holo Nail Art

I know this was a quick one, but I just had to share this mani. Unicorn Magic in the bottle is a beautiful pastel purple iridescent colour with blue and pink shifting tones. Applying it to a black base really brings out the blue. I love the way it looks!

What are your thoughts?
Have you tried these 'holographic' colours? 

Thanks for stopping by!

Summer Inspired Ocean Shore Nail Art

Hello everyone.

I hope you're all well.

I am stepping a little out of bounds with this weeks mani.
I'm not typically the kind of person to follow the rules, so I figured I should apply my regular life choices to my blog and create a summer inspired nail art design in the midst of spring. I have been wanting to try this design for quite a while and I had this amazing nude colour staring me in the face, so I decided to just do it. 

Ocean Shore Nail Art

For this I used these polishes:

Do You Take Lei Away by OPI

Sky's The Limit by BYS

Blanc by Essie

Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen 

G'day Matte Top Coat by Picture Polish

I also used these products and tools:

Liquid latex by Lulaa

Plastic cup

Water

Spray bottle with water

Cotton bud

Make up sponge

Once Shore with G'day Matte Top Coat

I started with two coats of Sky's The Limit for a base. Once dry, I applied a layer of liquid latex around each nail and allowed to dry. Taking a make up sponge, I applied Sky's The Limit and a smaller amount of Do You Take Lei Away, and dabbed it onto the nail. I continued this until I was satisfied with the gradient and opacity. I allowed this to dry completely before moving onto the next step. I then grabbed my plastic cup and spray bottle and filled them with water. Next, I applied liquid latex to each of my nails. Using Blanc, I placed a few drops into the cup and allowed them to spread. Taking the spray bottle, I then sprayed a little over the polish, which causes the polish to separate in an interesting pattern. I'm not gonna lie, this took a fair few tries because I didn't like the way it was separating. I finally just gave in and dipped my finger into the polish. Using the cotton bud, I cleaned up any excess polish on the surface of the water, then continued this with all nails before removing the liquid latex. Once the polish was dry, I dabbed a cloth over the nails to remove any leftover water from my hands.
To finish off, I applied Kwik Dry Top Coat, followed  by G'day Matte Top Coat. I feel like matte top coat always works better over the top of a regular top coat. 

Ocean Shore with Do You Take Lei Away

I was rather pleased with the outcome of this nail art, although it was a little hard to judge the way the pattern was going to turn out when looking in the cup. I think that's why I was a little skeptical at first and had to try it several times. I feel if I was to do this again I'd just close my eyes and let the polish do it's thing.

Also, I don't have a large collection of nude colours. I think I'm currently sitting on three, one of which was a gift for being part of my best friend's bridal party. I think this was probably a bargain buy which is why I have it. If I ever see a bottle of OPI for less than $10 I will just grab it. I love their polish, but it is so expensive! Another reason it took so long to try this nail art. 

What are your thoughts?

Have you tried this design?

Let me know by leaving a comment.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hit The Bottle Messy Mani

Hello everyone!

I hope you're having a good weekend. 

I'd just like to mark a little milestone before I get into this post. Last week marked the one year anniversary of my very first blog post! I did kind of forget about it because I couldn't quite remember the date - which is a little disappointing - but I am having a mini internal celebration. I feel I've come a pretty long way in just a year, but I also know I still have a long way to go.

Anyway, let's get to the good stuff - nail art! I recently made my first purchase with Hit The Bottle Polish, so of course I went a little crazy when I found out they were only $3.95! I was hoping to do a swatch-like post of them before posting a mani, but I just haven't had time. So instead, I'll be putting my two cents in at the end of this post. I'll list all polishes I used in this mani, as well as products below. 

I've decided to call this a messy mani because I was just trying out the colours and seeing what I could do with them, but they turned out pretty good and so I decided it needed to be shared.

Hit The Bottle Messy Mani

For this design I used these polishes:

Drunk Tank Pink by Hit The Bottle

Sparkling Cyan-ide by Hit The Bottle

Tipsy Grasshopper by Hit The Bottle

Paint The Town Violet by Hit The Bottle 

Celeb City by Sally Hansen

Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

I used these stamping plates:

BP - 92

BP - 109

BP - 43

BP - 152

BP - L042

I also used these products:

Large clear stamper

Plastic scraper

Camo Coat by Celestial

Mani Saver by Best

Cotton balls

Paper towel

Hit The Bottle Messy Mani with Celeb City

For the base of this mani I used Celeb City. I was going to use white, but I really wanted to test out the pigment of these polishes. I then applied Camo Coat around each nail for easier clean up. Using plates 92, 109, 43, 152 and L042 (with paper towel slightly under them), I placed small amounts of Sparkling Cyan-ide, Drunk Tank Pink, Paint The Town Violet and Tipsy Grasshopper onto the design I had chosen. I then scraped the polish a few times to remove excess polish and to blend the colours together. Using my large stamper, I picked up the image and transferred it to the nail. After each stamping I dipped a cotton ball into acetone and, with the help of my mani saver, I cleaned each design as I went. I did this with four different patterns on all nails except my ring finger. For this one I used one pattern multiple times with each different colour, one at a time, and placed them over each other on the nail. Once I was done, I removed the Camo Coat and applied  Kwik Dry Top Coat (none of the photos are with top coat).

Hit The Bottle Messy Mani with Sparkling Cyan-ide and Tipsy Grasshopper

And that's all there is to this mani!
I really enjoyed this one because I love the idea of using several colours in one stamping design, but I haven't had much success with it in the past. All of these colours go together so well, I'm going to have to do another one of these. 

As promised, I will give a mini review of these stamping polishes. These are the first coloured stamping polishes I have purchased. I was very excited to find this Australian Indie brand and from what I can tell, they work really well. Silver is a light colour to stamp over, but I feel like the colours are so pigmented that they'd work over anything. These colours in general are really awesome as well. I am completely drawn to pastel polish and I was not at all let down! I was very pleased and will definitely be purchasing more of these. I might still do a full review of these when I buy more, so let me know if you'd like to see that.
If you would like to check out their massive range of stamping polish, you can do so here: http://www.hitthebottlepolishes.com.au/ 

Hit The Bottle Messy Mani

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Hit The Bottle. I was not paid for this review, nor was I sent anything for free. All opinions are honest and my own. 

What do you think? 
Will you be trying a multi-coloured stamping mani?
Let me know in the comments. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Crackle Topped Nail Art.

Hello lovely people!

Well, today has been a bit strange for me. I didn't get out of bed until about midday, so my whole day has been thrown out of whack... which is why this post is a little later than usual, unfortunately.

This week I have an experimental nail art that didn't quite go to plan. Even though it's not what I had pictured in my mind, I am still willing to share because it's still a fun design, and where's the fun in not sharing failures?  

For quite a while I have been chasing some crackle top coat. I finally got my hands on a few bottles from a cheap shop, only to get them home and find that they were very old and no longer the quality they once were. One had been sitting in the shop for so long that when I opened the bottle, the brush came loose from the cap and was stuck inside the semi-solid mass of polish. As you can imagine, I was devastated! I tried a fair bit of polish thinner, but that only helped enough so that I could remove the brush. So, I was quite lucky with the one I used for this nail art.
I also happened to pick up a few other colours that I just had to put together. Keep reading to see the polishes that I used and how I achieved this design. 

Crackle Topped nail art with Crackle Finish Pastel Purple 

For this design I used these polishes:

Matte Mint Green by BYS Cosmetics

Matte Fairy Floss by BYS Cosmetics

Crackle Finish Pastel Purple by BYS Cosmetics

Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

No tools were used for this design. 

Crackle Topped Nail Art

I started with coats of Matte Fairy Floss for my base. As pastels by BYS are usually sheer, I thought it best to put the darker colour over the top. Once dry, I painted Matte Mint Green over half of each nail. I was quite tempted to just stop there because these colours together look absolutely amazing side by side, but I carried on. I then applied a very thick coat of crackle finish pastel purple and allowed a long time to dry (you can see the cracks start to form as it dries). As you can see, most of the cracks are in the center of the nail because that's where the polish is the thickest. Once I was satisfied and thought it was dry enough, I applied my Kwik Dry Top Coat. 

Crackle Topped Nail Art with Matte Mint Green

That's all for this one. I was hoping for the cracks to be larger and show more of the colour underneath, but this stuff is quite unpredictable. It also wasn't as opaque as I had hoped either, but I think that could have something to do with the age of the polish. All in all, I don't think it turned out too bad, but I think next time I'll stick to simple colours. 

Have you tried crackle polish?
What was your experience?

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Typical Halloween Nail Art

Howdy y'all!

With Halloween just days away, I thought I should probably join in with the spirit (ha ha, no pun intended) of things and do a typical Halloween nail art design. I am a big fan of all things creepy and dark, but dark colours tend to stain and I was just not ready for that kind of clean up. So, I chose something else I am hoping will be just as fitting. Keep reading to see what polishes and tools I used for my typical Halloween nail art. 

Typical Halloween Nail Art With Black Stamping Polish

I used these nail polishes:
Orange by OXX Cosmetic (K-mart brand)
Black Stamping Polish by Emily de Molly
Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

I also used these products:
Camo Coat by Celestial Cosmetics
Stamping plate Qgirl-002 by La Qin An
Stamping plate BP-122 by Born Pretty
Large clear stamper
Scraper
Mani Saver
Cotton Balls
Paper towel

Just a quick side story - I spent 15 minutes trying to find the actual name of this orange polish, only to learn that the name is not on the bottle but rather on the packaging which I obviously threw out. So, unfortunately I am unable to give you the name from the brand, however, after looking at others colours by OXX, they seem to keep polish names simple, so I think orange is a pretty accurate name to go by for the purpose of this post. 

Typical Halloween Nail Art with Orange

I started off with two coats of Orange for my base. I then applied Camo Coat around each nail for easier clean up and allowed to dry completely. Prior to stamping, I always place two pieces of paper towel slightly underneath the stamping plate. I do this for a number of reasons;
1. So that I don't get polish all over my desk.
2. I can use it to wipe off the scraper to avoid build up.
3. If I'm having trouble picking up a design, I roll my stamper on it to remove the failed images.
Using stamping plate Qgirl-002, I cover my chosen design with Black Stamping Polish. I then scraped off the excess and picked up the image with my stamper, quickly pressing it on to the nail, then lightly pressed my finger over the design to ensure the image transferred correctly. With the help of my mani saver, I dipped a cotton ball into some acetone and used it to clean off the stamping plate. This just makes sure any left over polish doesn't dry on the plate and cause issues if I want to reuse this design, which I did for two nails.
I continued each of these steps until I had a design on each nail. I also used images from stamping plate BP-122 on my ring finger and thumb (not pictured). I decided to use different images because there are quite a few to choose from and I thought it would be more fun to have something different as opposed to all nails being the same, which I feel I do a little too often. Lastly, I removed the Camo Coat and finished with a quick dry top coat. 

Typical Halloween Nail Art

I'm not normally a fan of orange, in fact I would say it is a colour that I hate, but I liked it for this particular design. It definitely reminds me of a giant pumpkin with a face carved into it, and of course pumpkins are a huge part of Halloween. Although I really have no idea why.. I'm assuming it's an American thing. If you know, please tell me!

So there you have it, my typical Halloween nail art. It's nothing too adventurous, but it's still cool and it gave me a chance to use this orange polish that I picked up simply because it was $1 and I wanted to try out this brand. Not at all complaining!

What do you think?
What are you dressing your nails up as for Halloween this year?
Leave me a comment below! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Rainbow Dotticure Nail Art

Howdy everyone!

Well, it looks like it's Sunday again already! These last two weeks have just completely flown by! I can't believe it. I'm really excited because last week's mani lasted about two days, which is pretty devastating. I'm not exactly sure why, but that means it's definitely time for a new nail art design!

Here it is, a basic rainbow dotticure design that's so easy, anyone can do it - no skills required. I love being able to use multiple colours in my nail art and I love doing simple designs, so why not combine the two? Keep reading to see what products and polishes I used to create this design.

Rainbow Dotticure Nail Art Design

For this nail art I used the following polishes:
Status Symbol by Essie
Matte Purple by BYS Cosmetics
Head In The Clouds by BYS Cosmetics
Roller Coaster by BYS Cosmetics
Sand In Your Stilettos by Chi Chi Cosmetics
Blanc by Essie
Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen
G'day Matte Top Coat by piCture pOlish

Products used:
Medium sized dotting tool
Plastic sandwich bag

Rainbow Dotticure Nail Art Design with Head In The Clouds

I started with two coats of Blanc for my base, allowing sufficient time for each layer to dry. I then took a plastic sandwich bag and dropped a small amount of Pink onto it. Using my dotting tool, I dipped it into Pink and started placing random dots on my index nail. Each time I use it, the size changes due to the amount of polish left. I tried to make larger dots by circling around a dot I'd already created, but things got a little out of hand and they now look like blobs. I only have the one size tool so this is all I could do... I really ought to get a few different sized ones. Once I was satisfied with the coverage of dots, I cleaned my dotting tool by dipping it into some acetone and wiping it on a sheet of paper towel. I then moved onto the next colour. I continued this for all nails, making sure to clean my tool in between each colour. Once I was finished with the dots, I applied Kwik Dry Top Coat, allowed time to dry and then finished with G'day Matte Top Coat.  

Rainbow Dotticure with Status Symbol

So there you have it. A really easy, cute and fun nail art design that anyone can do! You don't even need an actual dotting tool. Years back, before I knew there were such things as tools for nail art, I used a toothpick that I would hit against a hard surface until it became blunt and slightly larger. It works just as well as the tool I now have, and much easier to clean because you can just chuck it in the bin! I was actually pretty impressed with the outcome of this design because I have a bad habit of needing things to be neat and orderly, so trying to place dots in random locations was hard... but I made it through! 

Rainbow Dotticure with G'day Matte Top Coat

That's all for this week. 
What do you think? 
Have you done something like this? 
Let me know by leaving a comment below, or a link to your design, I'd love to check it out myself. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Pastel Grunge Dry Brush Nail Art

Hello everyone.

I hope you're all doing well. It's currently a lovely sunny day here. I am enjoying being able to have my windows open and letting that beautiful breeze in. It's a nice change from the icy winds and grey skies last weekend. 

This week's nail art is one of my all time favorite techniques, dry brush. In fact, you can see me using the same one here & here. This is the beauty of the dry brush, as you can see, each mani is always totally different. You can use as many or as little colours as you like and it always seems to work.

So here's my finished mani. Below I'll list all the products I used and my method to achieve this really cute and grungy dry brush nail art, as well as a some photos.

Pastel Grunge Dry Brush Nail Art

These are the products I used to create this pastel grunge nail art:

Be Happy + Smile by Essence

Funny Face by Essie

Orchid by piCture pOlish

Lady In Black by OPI

Camo Coat by Celestial Cosmetics

Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

Pastel Grunge Dry Brush Nail Art with Be Happy + Smile

I applied three coats of Be Happy + Smile as my base. This colour is a little sheer so it does require that additional coat for complete opacity. However, you could probably get away with two coats - being that this is a grunge style, it could add a little more depth to the mani. Once dry, I used Camo Coat around each finger for easier clean up. I have a seriously bad habit of making a huge mess with this technique and although the clean up is usually pretty minimal, I still prefer to use latex. Taking Funny Face, I used the bottle neck to wipe off as much excess polish as possible, then began lightly swiping across each nail in different directions. Occasionally I like to re-dip and wipe as the brush tends to get very dry (duh) and awkward to use. Polish tends to dry very fast when doing this as there is only a small amount of polish on the nail. By the time I'd completed all five nails, I was able to move onto the next colour, Orchid, straight away. I did the same thing with this polish, wipe off excess and lightly swipe. I then used Lady In Black in the same way again. I let black dry a little longer as I wanted to avoid any smudging when applying the trusty Kwik Dry Top Coat to finish.

Pastel Grunge Dry Brush Nail Art with Funny Face

I am really pleased with how this turned out. I feel like it suits my personality so well. Light and fun with a little bit of darkness. I was originally going to use white as a base, but I decided that it would be too vibrant and I didn't want that. This pearly, dusty pink is actually perfect. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I made a good choice. Haha. 

These colours seem to go together so well. If I had of used another colour, I think I might have ruined the design. Some times, less really is more.  

Pastel Grunge Dry Brush Nail Art with Orchid

That's all for today! I hope you enjoyed my post this week.
What do you think?
Do you love dry brush as much as I do?
Leave me a comment below, I'd love to get your feedback. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Mint & Orange Nail Art

Hello everyone!

You may have noticed my absence recently. Things have been really busy over the last few weeks. I wasn't even sure I was going to get this one out! But here we are and I'm glad that I have. I've really missed posting & doing nail art. Since this break started I've had one single colour on my nails for far too long! Luckilyy, I recently purchased some amazing holographic polishes, so I got to try those out during this time. 

I have also been having some issues with my nails. Lots of breaking and tearing, which I think is a side effect of my dermatitis, so I have been trying to get that under control and keeping them all even.

Prior to this break, I had done these cute geometric pattern mint and orange nails, which I haven't gotten out yet, and will now be this week's nail design. If you keep reading, you'll see what I used for this design and how I did it. Please enjoy.

Mint and Orange Nail Art Design

To create these lovely mint and orange geometric pattern nails, I used the following items:
South Beach Bling Bikini by Chi Chi Cosmetics
I Feel Good by Chi Chi Cosmetics
Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen
Stamping plate BP - 77 by Born Pretty 
Large clear jelly stamper (I don't recall the brand)
Scraper (This came with my stamper, so again I don't recall the brand)
Camo Coat by Celestial Cosmetics

Mint and Orange Nail Art with South Beach Bling Bikini

I started with two coats of I Feel Good and allowed them to dry. This polish is a bit thicker than usual polish so it does take a while to dry (I recommend thinner coats for faster drying time). The best way to know this polish is dry is when it becomes fragrant. Once I was satisfied they were dry, I applied Camo Coat around each nail to allow for easier clean up. I then took stamping plate 77, stamper, scraper and South Beach Bling Bikini, and applied a generous amount of Orange to the stamping plate. Taking my scraper, I dragged it evenly over the design and off the plate. I picked up the image with my stamper and lined it up as best I could with the nail. Unfortunately for me, the bottom of my scraper is scratched, which makes it hard. As the polish turned out a lot lighter than I was expecting, I decided to do a second stamp over the top of the first. I then removed the Camo Coat from that nail and repeated these steps for my middle finger and thumb. As for my index finger, I used a different design from the same plate, using the same steps as my previous nails. And of course, I finished with a coat of Kwik Dry Top Coat.

Mint & Orange Nail Art with I Feel Good

Although I love these Chi Chi flakies, they always seem to jut out, which you can see on my pinky finger above. This is mostly a visual problem, however I do find that they catch on things like clothing a fair bit, which is always annoying and can cause the polish to peel up. I would love to see them do the flakie colours but without the flakes.

Aside from that, I'm pretty pleased with how they look. These colours look so good together and I do love the patterns on this plate. 

What do you think about this simple pastel nail art design? Leave me a comment below. 

P.S. I am looking for a little feedback on what your overall opinion on my posts are, good, bad and/or ugly. You can leave a comment below, or send an email to theaustralnailian@gmail.com. I'd really appreciate it. 

As always, thanks for stopping by!