Summer Mermaid Nails

Hello, hello! 

How are we all? I hope you're all keeping cool. It's been insanely hot in Victoria this week.

I have got some lovely summery nails to share today. As you may know, I am in love with all things mermaid! So when I got a stamping plate with a scale pattern, I just had to do it! Originally I was going to do a pink & purple gradient with silver scales but I was having a little difficulty with that and decided to do it this way instead, and I'm really glad I did. 

Mermaid Scales

I think they turned out amazing, despite a few little mishaps here and there. After all, nothing is perfect. This colour combo is pretty wicked, the silver really brings it together for me. 

Colours used:

Matte Violet Frosting - BYS, which is a beautiful soft violet with a matte finish.

Mexican Madness - Australis, one of my faviorte hot pinks (see more here)

Celeb City - Sally Hansen, a metallic silver I use frequently (see more here & here)

Stamping plate used:

Born Pretty 109

Born Pretty plate 109

I applied two coats of Matte Violet Frosting. Using my Born Pretty 109 stamping plate I painted Mexican Madness onto the plate, then scraped and stamped on each nail. Once dry I used Celeb City and repeated the stamping on all nails, trying to stay as close to the pink as possible, and then finished with a top coat. Even though the silver is slightly removed from the pink, I'm happy with the out come because it adds a little depth. 

Mermaid Scales

Mermaid Scales with plate BP - 109

Simple as that, I have an awesome, summery, mermaid nail art. I intend to create many more looks with this pattern. The possibility are endless and exciting. 

Do you like this pattern? Have you done something like this? Feel free to share them with me!

Thanks for stopping by!

Australia Day Skittle Nail Art

G'day everyone!

If you're Australian, you'll know that it's coming up to Australia Day, where we celebrate being bogans by getting wasted while cooking a good barbecue. So, I've created some green and "gold" pride nail art. I decided to do some more skittle nails (more here) just to mix things up.

I chose to do green & "gold" because the typical red white and blue of our flag is too common with other countries' flags. 

Here's the full set on display.

Australian Skittle Nails

As always, they were really simple. I did take my time and did each nail individually before moving on to the next one, so they were a little time consuming. Not that I mind. 

For these nails I used two colours: Mellow Yellow - Sally Hansen & Fatal Attraction - BYS. 

The break down:

Australian Blobbicure

This is my first attempt at a blobbicure. I was a little scared about doing this because I have a horrible habit of wrecking my nails whilst waiting for them to dry. Fortunately, I didn't this time. I applied two coats of Mellow Yellow as my base. Once it was dry I added a third coat and dropped blobs of Fatal Attraction down the center and let them disperse for a second before continuing to add more to fill in the rest of the nail. I tried to keep them all separate and varying in size. Once the nail was full I allowed them to dry for about half an hour because of the extra amount of polish.

Union Jack in Green & "Gold"

I decided to do the Union Jack, which is prominent on the Australian Flag. To do this, I painted two coats of Fatal Attraction and added a quick dry top coat. Using striping tape I created the larger cross with two strips going down the middle of the nail and two running across. I then used one piece diagonally over the center on both sides. Then I applied two coats of Mellow Yellow and removed the tape. Because the yellow was a little thinner than I expected, I had to leave the tape on until I could paint the second layer. Luckily, there were no sticky messy lines. After removing the tape, I added a top coat.

Southern Cross Dotticure

This is the Southern Cross, which is a constellation found in the Australian night sky and also features on our flag. I did this as a dotticure because I had no faith in myself trying to do small stars, haha. I used two coats of Fatal Attraction which, looking back now, I wish I'd used a third. Once dry I used a dotting tool and Mellow Yellow to create the pattern of the Southern Cross, then added a quick dry top coat. 

I also did an Aboriginal inspired dot art on my thumb using Mellow Yellow as a base, Fatal Attraction and white for the dots, but the photos didn't work out. I painted my pinky with Mellow Yellow.

Australia Day Skittle Nails

That's it. All done and ready to celebrate. I hope all you Aussies have a wonderful and safe day of celebrating. 

Are you doing Australian themed nails? Share them with me!

Thanks for stopping by!

My First Stamping Mani! Ft. Essence Holographic.

Hello everyone!

Let's get into it!

Today we have one of my favorite ways to create nail art. Nail stamping! This is my very first time doing stamping, and my very first plate. As soon as I got it, I had to try it out. I did some test stamping on some paper towels first just to see the opaqueness of the colours. After a few tests, I decided to do these.

Holo Flower Print

The plate I used is Born Pretty - 55. As I mentioned earlier, I hadn't done any stamping before this, hence the messy cuticle area and some of the misplaced stamp. I tried not to put them all in the same place on each nail so that they show different sections of the pattern. 
I used OPI - Lady in Black, which is a simple black creme, and Essence - Pink Parrot from the Exit to Explore collection, which I believe is a rich pink scattered holo. (I'm still not sure if this is a scattered holo) 

I love these nails because they look simple enough, but they're also mesmerizing. This pattern is the reason I bought this plate. I think these colours look so perfect together, they complement each other very well.

The process was pretty simple. I painted two coats of Lady in Black. Once dry, I painted Pink Parrot onto the stamping plate along the area I wanted, scraped it off once and rolled my stamper across it. Quickly and carefully I pressed the stamper down on my nail. As I applied pressure, I gently rolled it back and forth to make sure it was evenly on the nail. And as always, I finished with a shiny top coat. 

I love stamping (now that I've done it a few times) because it makes those crazy intricate designs so much easier. I cannot imagine trying to do this with a paint brush. It would look horrible! It's also simple and quick. Which is awesome!

Let's take a closer look.

I feel like this one shows off the holo a little better. You can see different dominating colours on different angles. 

Here you can see some holo in the bottle. 

I don't have a picture of the plate, but here's a link to the Born Pretty store, where you can check it out (I am not in anyway endorsed by them) Born Pretty 55

And that's all for today!

I'm thinking about doing a review on this polish, leave a comment below if you'd like to see that.

Thanks for stopping by!

Summer Sunset Free Hand Nail Art

Hello all and welcome!

As I live in Australia, it is currently summer. It's very warm and sunny, so I thought, why not post some summer nail art?
This is my second attempt at free hand nail art (see my first here) and, although they are not perfect, I still like them. I thought this would be a good thing to share with you all. Everyone has to start somewhere no matter what they're doing, so I'm happy to share this experience with you.

Here we go!

 Summer Sunset Free Hand

As you can see, they are far from perfect, and I have some streaking from my top coat. I am not going to lie, I had a lot of difficulty with this mani, but by the end I was happy. I'd learnt a few things, and I loved them.

I bought these two colours (Hot Tamale - Sally Hansen & Mexican Madness - Australis) from Priceline one day and realized they were the perfect shades for this exact nail art. 

Hot Tamale is an amazing, show stopping red-orange colour which I love more than I thought I would. Mexican Madness is a typical Barbie hot pink. I do love this colour in this nail art, but it is not a colour I would wear on its own. Having said that, this was the first Australis nail polish I bought, and I loved it. The colour is so pigmented, which means it's a one coat. I have since bought more Australis because of this. 

Summer Sunset Free Hand

I started with one coat of Mexican Madness, then used a sponge to create the gradient with Hot Tamale. Here's where the difficulties started. For someone reason, the polish was absorbing and drying on the sponge too quickly, which caused small chunks of the sponge to dispense on my nails. I tried using tweezers to remove them but they were already cemented in. So, I carried on. I used a long, thin striping brush with Lady In Black - OPI to draw the trees, birds & the ground silhouettes. Initially when applying Lady In Black, it looked completely solid. It wasn't until I'd finished that I realized most of it wasn't opaque. I have since learnt that I will need to paint over them next time. Lastly, I added a top coat, which you can see on some nails left behind bubbles & caused streaks in the images. 

This nail art has probably been my biggest learning experience. I've done gradients before, but none quite as intense as this. I have done more free handing since this, and I believe I just need to continue practicing.

Have you done any free handing? What were your experiences like? Leave a comment!

Thanks for stopping by!

First nail art of 2017! The High Lights using Sally Hanson.

Hello all, and welcome back!

I hope you've all had a happy and safe holiday season! 

I've got some pretty simple nails to share with you (as always, because I'm lazy and don't like doing things that require effort - haha). I am planning to do some more intricate designs soon, so keep an eye out!
This is called The High Light, due to the fact that I think it looks like the kind of lights used at a red carpet event or something of that nature. 

 The High Light

I used two coats of Sally Hansen's 220 Celeb City for the base. Once dry, I took two pieces of striping tape to make a diagonal triangle. Using Sally Hansen's Triple Shine Make Waves, I carefully painted on both sides of the triangle. I then quickly removed the tape, and once dry, a top coat was applied.
I love the way these two colours go together! If you look at it in the right light, they melt into each other perfectly.

The High Light

The possibilities are almost endless with this design. You could do this with three colours and give it a star burst effect, or you could simply change the colours to suit the situation. If I did this again, I'd probably use two or three pastel colours. 

What colours would you use?
Let me know!

Thanks for stopping by!