Gradient Garden Nail Art

Hello hello!

I hope my fellow Aussies are enjoying the long weekend. Usually, I'd be away right now. Sitting by the fire, wine in hand, looking over the dam. But, here I am, bringing you more of my nail creations. I'm okay with that though. It has taken me about 4 hours to get my photos ready for today (lesson learnt, I'll be getting my photos edited in advance from now on). Photoshop was being a pain in the butt, but I finally got it sorted, so here we go.

This week, I have a fun gradient with some stamping. I have no idea what to call it... gradient garden? I think that will do. It includes some of my favorite nail things; gradients (obviously), pastels and stamping! Details on polishes, tools and directions are below. 

Gradient Garden Nail Art

I used these polishes:
Rose Libertine by Rimmel 
Roll In The Green by Rimmel
Lovey Dovey by Rimmel
White Stamping Polish by Born Pretty
As Black As Night stamping polish by Hit The Bottle
Nail Base & Top Coat by Rimmel
Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

I also used these tools:
Liquid latex by LuLaa
Cosmetic sponge
Large clear stamper
Scraper
Stamping plate 05 by Born Pretty
Cotton ball
Mani saver

Gradient Garden with Purple

I started with Nail Top & Base coat. Once dry, I applied two coats of Roll In The Grass. After allowing time to dry (at least to the touch), I applied liquid latex around each nail, then continued to let dry. Next, I grabbed a cosmetic sponge and applied one stripe of Roll In The Grass, Lovey Dovey and Rose Libertine across the sponge. I then gently dabbed over each nail, making sure each colour was evenly distributed on the nail whilst not blending them together too much. This took a fair few coats for all five nails, and I needed to reapply the polishes to the sponge a few times. Once I had an even gradient, I removed the liquid latex and allowed the polish to dry. I then gathered my tools and stamping plate 05. Picking my design, I painted White stamping polish across the design, scrapped off the excess and picked up the image with the stamper. I pressed the design onto my index nail, making sure to roll the stamper in order for the stamp to completely cover the nail. Then, using some tape, I removed what had transferred onto my skin (I may have forgotten to use latex this time). Remembering to clean my plate between each use with my mani saver and a cotton ball dipped in acetone, I repeated this on my middle finger. I did the same for my ring and pinky finger, only using As Black As Night stamping polish instead. To finish off the design, I applied a coat of Kwik Dry Top Coat. 

Gradient Garden with Green

I initially intended on continuing with the white stamping, but after doing two, I decided black would look better. Since I had already done the white, I was not starting again and decided it was more fun with the two different colours. If I were to recreate it, I'd stick with black. I feel like it brings out the pastel colours underneath so much better. These colours deserve to shine! I love this green, I'm a little obsessed with it and I probably have about 4 similar ones. Woops.

What do you think?
Would you try this design?

As always, let me know.

Thanks for stopping by!

Boho Gradient Nail Polish

Good afternoon readers!

I hope you are all well.
As for me, unfortunately I've had a cold for about a week now, but it's slowly working it's way out. Luckily, I am currently well enough to do some nail art.
Let's hope it get better from here!

As you're most likely aware, I didn't get a post out last week... For that, I'm slightly sorry. Only slightly because I was extremely exhausted after my trip. But, I did have fun while I was there. Happy to be home though, always happy to be here.

This week's nail art was inspired by two polishes that I had sitting next to each other...Happens all the time! I love my organization skills, haha!
I decided to do a gradient for this one, but soon realized it was missing something. So I added some stamping!
I present to you now, the Boho Gradient!

Below you'll find a list of polishes and tools I used to create this mani. 

Boho Gradient Nail Art 

These are the polishes I used:

Summer by piCture pOlish 
Orchid by piCture pOlish
Sparkling Cyan-ide by Hit The Bottle
Tipsy Grasshopper by Hit The Bottle
Ready To Take Off by UNT Cosmetics
Big Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

These are the tools I used:

Cosmetic sponge
Stamping plate BP - 152 by Born Pretty
Large clear stamper
Plastic scraper
Cotton balls
Mani saver
Liquid latex by LuLaa

Boho Gradient with Orchid 

I started by applying one coat of Ready To Take Off base coat. Once dry, I applied liquid latex around each nail, then painted two coats of Summer on each nail.
After allowing to dry, I grabbed my cosmetics sponge and brushed Summer and Orchid across it. I then dabbed it on each nail, re-applying polish to the sponge after every few dabs. Once satisfied with the gradient, I removed the liquid latex.
After allowing ample time for everything to dry, I applied Big Kwik Dry Top Coat. While that was drying I grabbed stamping plate BP - 152, a stamper, a scraper and the stamping polishes. I chose the design I wanted, then painted a few blobs of Sparkling Cyan-ide and Tipsy Grasshopper over the design. I then scraped off the excess polish, which also blended them together, then picked up the image and pressed it onto the nail. I did this for all five nails, then finished off with Big Kwik Dry Top Coat.

Boho Gradient with Sparkling Cyan-ide & Tipsy Grasshopper

I enjoyed this design, both wearing and creating it. I did mess up a couple of the stamps, due to the polish drying out a little too quickly. But, that's nail art life for you! Ha ha.
These colours are so fun together. So much holo!

The gradient was a little harder to do than usual. Both of these polishes contained glitter, which meant I was basically just dumping it straight onto my nails.
I did get there in the end though, and turned out amazing, if I do say so myself. 

What do you think?
Do you like this as much as I do?

Thanks for stopping by!

Namaste Nail Art

Hi there!

Wow, I feel like I'm on a roll!
I haven't posted this consistently in quite a while!
This roll will be temporarily interrupted next week though, unfortunately, as I'll be in Sydney for a family event. I am planning to have something done in advance, however, so I can post as soon as I get back.
We'll see how that goes!

Lately, I have been trying a lot of new things - one of those being yoga. It has been really good for me, and it's fun. When I came across this awesome plate I got from bundle monster, I just knew it was the perfect time to do a yoga inspired design! Keep reading for the polishes and tools I used to create this soothing nail art. 

Namaste Nail Art

I used these polishes:
Lucky Ducky by BYS Cosmetics
As Black As Night Stamping Polish by Hit The Bottle
Ready To Take Off by UNT Cosmetics
Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen
Big Matte Top Coat by Sally Hansen

As well as these tools:
Liquid Latex by Lulaa
Mythology BM-XL405 Stamping Plate By Bundle Monster
Large Clear Stamper
Scraper
Cotton Buds
Mani saver

Namaste Nail Art with As Black As Night by Hit The Bottle

For this design I decided to use Ready To Take Off as my base coat, as I intended to doing another design soon after. Once that was dry, I applied four coats of Lucky Ducky. Due to the paleness of this colour, it requires a few coats to be totally opaque. Once dry, I applied liquid latex around each nail.
I then chose the design I wanted for my pinky nail. After applying a generous amount of As Black As Night over the image, I took my scraper and dragged it cross the design a few times. Using my stamper, I picked up the design and pressed it firmly onto the nail, aiming for the right corner and rolling it back and forth a few times. I do this for larger designs to ensure that the entire image transfers evenly to the nail.
After cleaning the stamping plate with a cotton ball dipped in acetone (using my mani saver), I repeated this for my index finger, applying the design to the left corner. Once again, I cleaned the plate.
At this point, I removed the latex from these two fingers to avoid the polish drying and flaking off as I remove it. Moving onto the middle two fingers, I chose the next image and repeated the same steps, only this time I went for the bottom corners of these nails. After removing the latex and allowing the images to dry completely, I applied Kwik Dry Top Coat. Finally, I applied a coat of Big Matte Top Coat to finish it off.

Namaste Nail Art with Lucky Ducky by BYS Cosmetics

I really love this design!
I had a bit of trouble choosing my colours as I wanted it to be calming, but still fun. I chose this yellow because I hardly get to use it, and yellow is the colour associated with happiness. Once it was done I knew it was the perfect colour!

I decided to go matte because I felt that glossy just wouldn't seem right for this design.
Once again, I made the right choice!

My only complaint is my pinky nail. I wanted to it be more like my index finger nail, but my stamper has a lot of scuffs on the bottom, which makes it hard to see proper placement.
Also, they are just so tiny!
Curse you pinkie nails!
Ha ha!

Does this nail art make you want to do yoga?
Would you try this design?
Leave me a comment with your thoughts. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Marble & Stamping Nail Art Design

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to start by saying sorry for my extended absence recently. I have had a lot going on in my personal life, some good and some not so good things which have kept me occupied. Unfortunately, I have been a little too busy to do my usual weekly posting or even nail art in general!

It appears that the dust is finally settling and things are returning to some form of normal. In my time away, I have made a few changes. I'm currently playing with the idea to change the day I put out new posts, although I'm undecided on when/if that will happen. I am still very interested in doing this blog, because I do enjoy it and it's a little bit of a routine I'd like to keep. So, all I can ask is that you bare with me over the next few weeks until everything comes together. With that, let's get onto the nail art!

I have mentioned in other posts that I want to start doing more involved nail art, so I decided to throw a few things into one design and created a marble background with stamping over top. I have these seriously beautiful stamping polishes from Hit The Bottle and they're just sitting there looking pretty, so I'm breaking them out and giving them some time to shine. If you'd like to know how I created this mani, keep reading.

I used these polishes:
Big Primer Base Coat by Sally Hansen
Sparkling Cyan-ide by Hit The Bottle
Paint The Town Violet by Hit the Bottle
Lady In Black by OPI
Blanc by Essie
Cocktail Bling by Essie
Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

Side note, these nails were done about three weeks ago, and I forgot to take note of which grey I used so there's a possibility it could also be Sunny London by Essence.

The products used are:
Stamping Plate 181 by Born Pretty
Plastic Scraper
Large Clear Stamper
Liquid Latex by Lulaa
Thin Striping Brush

I started with one coat of Big Primer base coat, allowed to dry then applied two coats of Blanc for the base. Whilst drying I applied liquid latex around each nail. Using Blanc, Lady in Black and Cocktail Bling, I applied a few drops of each polish to my stamper. I tried to use as little black as possible as it tends to overpower the other colours. I then pressed the stamper onto the nail, rolling and dabbing to get a good blend of colours. Once I was satisfied with the marble, I used an orangewood stick to remove excess polish around the nail and removed the latex. I repeated this for all nails. Once I had finished stamping the marble design, I decided to add just a little more black. Using my thin striping brush and Lady in Black, I created some thin wavy lines. I then used a little bit of acetone to blend it out. For the stamping, I reapplied liquid latex to each nail. After drying, I grabbed my stamping plate, stamper, scraper and Paint The Town Violet. I painted the polish over the portion of design I wanted, then scraped off the excess. Picking it up with the stamper, I quickly pressed the image onto the nail, then removed the latex. I did the same for all nails, except switching to Sparkling Cyan-ide for my middle and pinky nails. To finish off the nail art, I applied a Kwik dry top coat.

I thoroughly enjoyed this design. It was so fun to create and even more fun to wear! I'm sure everyone went through that marble stone obsession that took over the internet in the last year or so, but I'm still stuck on it. 
I love the way these stamping polishes look over the marble. Especially this enchanting blue! It's such a beautiful colour. I wanted it on all of them, but I thought the purple would look just as good. I think I was right, ha ha.

What do you think?
Are you still obsessed with marble too?


Thanks for stopping by!

Unicorn Smoosh Marble Nail Art

Hello people!

Wow, how fast has this week gone? It's a little crazy. Sucks that it's already Sunday afternoon... where did my weekend go? At least today has been relatively cool, I've been in trackies all day, in the middle of summer! There's not much better than spending a day at home in my comfy clothes.

Anyway, moving onto the actual topic of this blog; this week's nail art. I've used my go-to style, a simple smoosh marble using pastels and Unicorn heads! (No unicorns were hurt during the making of this mani!) I'll list the polishes and products I used to create this design.

Unicorn Smoosh Marble

These are the polishes I used:

Tingle by piCture pOlish
Pretty As A Peach by BYS Cosmetics
Isn't She Lovely by BYS Cosmetics
Lucky Ducky by BYS Cosmetics
Drunk Tank Pink stamping polish by Hit The Bottle
Big Primer Base Coat by Sally Hansen
Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

These are the tools I used:
Large Clear Stamper
Scraper
Stamping Plate BP-164 by Born Pretty
Liquid Latex by Lulaa

Unicorn Smoosh Marble with Pretty As a Peach 

For this nail art I started with an even coat of Primer Base Coat, then applied two coats of Lucky Ducky. While drying, I applied liquid latex around each nail. I then organised my polishes by lining them up near my stamper and opening them, leaving the brush in the bottle. Once the latex and polish was dry, I applied a few drops of Lucky Ducky, Pretty As a Peach, Isn't She Lovely and Tingle onto the stamper, then pressed it into the nail, moving it around and dabbing it over the nail to get the desired coverage. I then removed the liquid latex and continued this for each nail. Taking stamping plate BP-164, I applied Drunk Tank Pink over the design, and scraped off the excess polish. I picked up the design with the stamper and pressed it onto the nail. I only did this for two nails, as I love showing off the smoosh and it really doesn't need much to accentuate it. I finished off with Kwik Dry Top Coat. 

Unicorn Smoosh Marble with Drunk Tank Pink

This one is fun to look at. It reminds me of the classic Rainbow Paddle Pop, the official treat of summer as a kid. I so miss those delicious Paddle Pops. Plus, unicorns! It was not intentionally the look I was going for, just the way it turned out, but I'm happy with it. I kinda regret adding the second unicorn, I should have glammed up the middle finger and made it an accent nail. There's always next time! 


What do you think?
Also, what's your favorite summer treat?
Leave me a comment!

Thanks for stopping by!

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!

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! 

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!