Dry Garden Nail Art.

Hello lovely people!

I hope you're all doing well.

It has been a nice, quiet weekend for me; I spent a good portion of yesterday in my pj's. It was fun, it has been a while since I've done that and today has just been nail art. Pretty much my ideal weekend - the only thing missing is reading, but I'll be doing that as soon as this post goes live. 

I decided to create a winter-ish design this week. Since it's still quite cold here and winter is showing no sign of leaving anytime soon, it gave me a chance to use some of the colours I don't very often get to. I also got to use another "new" plate!
I'm calling this one Dry Garden, due to the use of the dry brush technique, as well as the dark colours. 

These are the nail polishes I used:

Snuggle Me by Face Of Australia

Instant Adventure by Essence

Mixetaupe by Essie

Black Stamping Polish by Emily de Molly

Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

Top and Base Coat by Rimmel

I also used these tools:

Stamping Plate BP-79 by Born Pretty

Large Clear Stamper

Scraper

Liquid Latex by Lulaa

I started with Top and Base Coat. After drying, I applied two coats of Mixetaupe. Taking Snuggle Me, I wiped off the excess polish from the brush using the neck of the bottle. Once I felt I had the right amount of polish on the brush, I gently swiped it across the nail in varying directions. I continued this for all five nails, reapplying when necessary.
The same was done with Instant Adventure, making sure to leave enough of the base colour showing through.
Next, I applied liquid latex around each nail, then allowed to dry before continuing. I then gathered my stamping tools (see list above). Taking stamping plate BP-79, I applied Black stamping polish over the image, scraped off the excess, picked up the design with the stamper and pressed it onto the nail - rolling the stamper back and forth to make sure the whole image transferred correctly. Again, doing this for all five nails, making sure to clean the stamping plate and stamper between each use.
Once the stamps were dry, I applied a coat of Kwik Dry Top Coat to seal it all in.

I really liked this one.
I think it has a bit of an elegant feel to it, which I'm not so good at because, to be honest, I am not exactly very elegant myself! Hahaha!
I do like to dabble though. Besides, I like to do anything and everything on my nails.

I'm also trying to create more winter-themed nails, using those deep cozy colours. Every time I go searching online for ideas on winter nails, all I get is a bunch of snow related stuff, which is frustrating because it only snows in certain areas here, so it seems a little silly for me to do designs like that. 

I also get a lot of Christmas ones, which I don't even like to do during the holiday seasons. I'm not going to start doing them now. 

What do you think?

What do your winter nails look like?

Leave me a comment below with links to your nail art so I can check it out.

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If not, you should be!

Thanks for stopping by!

Neon Dry Brush Nail Art

Hi there!
I hope you're all well!

I've had a great day doing my nails. I have been having a few struggles with nail art lately, which has been stressing me out and doing no favours for my motivation/inspiration.
BUT, today I was FINALLY able to get past my frustrations and continue without getting disheartened. I must say it felt really good! Hopefully this feeling sticks around because I've missed doing my nails regularly!  

This week I have drawn inspiration from a few lovely little pieces of "art" hanging on my wall. I say "art" with quotation marks because technically they are birthday cards, all with a similar design theme, that I thought looked really cool (see below for pictures).
So, I cut them in half and hung them in the perfectly sized space above my wardrobe. I love waking up and just staring at these cute little animals with all the neon colours surrounding them, and it didn't take long for me to realize that this would be a fabulous look on my nails! Unfortunately I am pretty useless at any kind of REAL art, so I omitted the animals and just went with the colours. As usual, keep reading for the nail polish and tools used in this design. 

Neon Dry Brush Nail Art

I used these polishes:
Blanc by Essie
Lady In Black by OPI
Tahiti by ULTA3
Big Primer Base Coat by Sally Hansen
Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

Tools I used:
Liquid Latex by LuLaa

Neon Dry Brush Nail Art with Blanc by Essie

I started with Big Primer Base Coat. Once dry, I applied two coats of Blanc; the white base tends to amplify and really bring out the brightness of these neon polishes. Before continuing, I applied liquid latex around each nail. Once visibly dry, I grabbed Lady In Black and wiped a fair bit of excess polish off the brush using the neck of the bottle. I didn't remove too much as I wanted it to still be opaque and dense. I then wiped the polish onto the nail in various locations and directions, making sure not to be too heavy handed with it, as I wanted to keep a relatively even amount of each colour. Once I was satisfied with Lady In Black, I moved onto Tahiti and repeated the process - again, trying not to over power the other colours. I then removed the liquid latex and finished with a coat of Kwik Dry Top Coat to seal it all in. 

Neon Dry Brush with Tahiti

I love this design, and I'm just a little bit obsessed with this awesome bright orange!
It's actually a perfect match to the design I pulled my inspiration from, which makes it even better.
I originally intended to incorporate a few different neon colours into this design - one on each nail or maybe just two different colours - but when I went to grab some colours, I found my collection TERRIBLY lacking in neon polishes and I was quite disappointed... So I DEFINITELY need to improve my neon collection!

All in all though, I think this design would work well with any colour; neon or other wise. Black and white goes with everything, of course! (I should know, half our house is black and white - haha)

As always, I'd love to know your thoughts!
Let me know what colours YOU would use to create this awesome design.

Thanks for stopping by!  

Holographic Aztec Inspired Nail Art

Hello everyone!

I hope you're enjoying the weekend. It has been raining on and off for the last few days here, which is amazing and much needed! I love rainy days; staying inside with cozy clothes and all the internet I can poke a stick at. I spent most of yesterday looking at various nail art to get some new ideas. It didn't turn out as successful as I had hoped, but it's always good to see what everyone else is doing with their amazing nail skills.

Today, I am bringing you this fun, holo-filled, Aztec-inspired nail art. I have these fabulous holographic polishes from Celestial Cosmetics that are dying to see the light of day again! I am always so scared to use holo in nail art, but I think this one has helped break me out of this a bit. Hopefully you'll get to see more of it. 

Holographic Aztec-inspired Nail Art

For this design I used these polishes:
Blanc by Essie
Classy, Sassy & A Little Badassy by Celestial Cosmetics
Hell In High Heels by Celestial Cosmetics
Broken Glass by Celestial Cosmetics
Crystal Ship by Celestial Cosmetics
Black Stamping Polish by Emily de Molly
Big Primer Base Coat by Sally Hansen
Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

I also used these items:
BP-L048 Stamping Plate by Born Pretty
Large clear stamper
Scarper
Liquid Latex by Lulaa

Holographic Aztec-inspired Nail Art with Hell In High Heels

I started this design with Big Primer base coat. After drying, I applied two coats of Blanc. I then applied liquid latex around each nail. Taking Broken Glass, I wiped the excess polish off the brush using the neck of the bottle, then gently brushed it on to each nail. I continued with Crystal, Hell In High Heels, and Classy, Sassy & A Little Badassy. I did go back in with the polishes that I felt needed a stronger presence. I then took BP-L048 stamping plate, painted Black stamping polish over the design I wanted, scraped off the excess and used my stamper to transfer each design to the nail. I used three different designs, all from the same plate. After allowing the polish ample time to dry, I applied Kwik Dry Top Coat to finish. 

Holographic Aztec-inspired Nail Art with Broken Glass

So that's all for this one!
I love dry brush nail art - with the addition of holo and stamping over top, it's such a fun design! I love the colour combination of this design, the variation of strong bright colours with the soft ones create a nice juxtaposition. 

I decided to use different designs from the same plate. I don't do this too often, and I'm seeing why - I'm not all that pleased with how it turned out.
If I were to do it again, I'd use the diamond on my pinky, and possibly only on two nails, to really let that dry brush holo shine. Either way, it's still a cool design (in my totally biased opinion).

What are your thoughts?

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!