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!  

A Touch of Glamour Nail Art

Hello everyone.

I'm back again for some nail fun! I haven't really been doing my nails as much as I would like, but I do have some designs on hand to keep me going for a while. I'm also struggling with design ideas and inspiration, so I'm trying to work on that. What do you do to find inspiration for new designs?

This week's nail art is simple, easy and fun - with a little bit of glamour, just because. I recently purchased this awesome glitter top coat which I couldn't wait to try. This nail art is designed around the top coat. 

A Touch Of Glamour

I used these polishes:
Go With The Flowy By Essie
Pour Some Glitter On Me! By Essence
Don't Be Too Shy To Shine By Essence
Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen
Big Matte Top Coat by Sally Hansen
Ready To Take Off by UNT Cosmetics

I also used these items:
Make up sponge

A Touch Of Glamour with Go With The Flowy

Creating this mani was fairly quick and easy. I started with Ready To Take Of peel off base coat. There's a lot of glitter in this nail art so peel off base is the only option. After allowing plenty of time to dry, I applied two coats of Go With The Flowy to each nail. Taking a make up sponge, I applied Don't Be Too Shy To Shine to a small section of the sponge and gently dabbed it onto the tips of my nails, avoiding my ring finger. I continued to dab until the very tip was covered, and I also tried to space out the middle section. I applied two coats of Pour Some Glitter On Me!, followed by a coat of Kwik Dry Top Coat to all nails, then a coat of Big Matte Top Coat over my ring finger. I don't trust these toppers like this, so I applied the Kwik Dry to seal it, and Big Matte to keep the intended look of this polish. 

A Touch Of Glamour with Pour Some Glitter On Me!

I bought all three of these polishes on the same day. I have a bad habit of needing to create designs with polishes I purchase together, and these seem to go together so well!
I really loved this design.
It might be simple, but it looks so fancy! This sequin matte top coat is fantastic. At first glance in the bottle it just looks like a ton of glitter, but it actually transfers to the nail, and it only took two coats for my nail to be mostly covered with minimal effort. It is a little hard to completely cover the nail due to the size of glitter, but it was much easier than doing one piece at a time - I do not have the patience for that!

Additionally, this was so satisfying to peel off, especially the accent nail. I kept looking at it once it was off, it was just so fascinating!

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

Thanks for stopping by! 

Blues Jeans Nail Art

Hello beautiful people!

I hope all my fellow Aussies enjoyed Australia Day! I am somewhat ashamed of myself this year. I, the creator of the AustraNailian, did not do Aussie nail art! I didn't realize until it was too late and here we are, the Australia day long weekend and I'm not wearing my pride. I am going to have to make up for this next year, with several nail art designs just for Australia. 

Since I am such an unorganized person, you'll just have to deal with what I have got for you today. I've seen heaps of people do similar designs to this one, but I bought this particular polish from Essence that claimed to be 'denim effect', so obviously, I had to create something resembling Blue Jeans. Keep reading to see what I used & how I created this cute design.

Blue Jeans Nail Art

To create this design I used these polishes:

Start The Blue Rebellion! by Essence
Alpine Snow by OPI
Be Happy by Chi Chi Cosmetics
Sun Kissed by Sally Hansen 
Ready To Take Off Peel off base coat by UNT

I also used these tools:

Short striping brush
Small dotting tool
Plastic bag
Acetone
Paper towel

Blue Jeans Nail Art with Start The Blue Rebellion!

I started with one coat of Ready to Take Off and allowed to dry, then applied two coats of Start The Blue Rebellion!. Whilst drying, I grabbed my striping brush, dotting tool and bag. I then applied small drops of Alpine Snow, Be Happy and Sun Kissed to a plastic bag. After making sure my polish was dry, I dipped the striping brush into Alpine Snow and made small lines around the edge of my middle nail. Continuing with Alpine Snow, I made a small pocket shaped outline on my index nail using the same small lines as before. I then grabbed my dotting tool, dipped it into Alpine Snow and made a flower design by applying one dot to the center of my accent nail, then placed dots around it. I cleaned off the dotting tool by dipping it into some acetone and rolling it over a paper towel. I then used Be Happy to place smaller dots over the flower, taking care to not completely cover it. Cleaning my tool again, I moved to Sun Kissed and placed one small dot in the center of the flower. I didn't apply top coat on this design because I thought it might detract from the denim effect of the polish underneath. 

Blue Jeans Nail Art with Be Happy 

This design was super quick and easy, probably the easiest I've done in a while. I really liked the effect of this polish, definitely reminded me of those good old blue jeans everyone seems to own. I felt the design needed a little more than just stitching so I added the flower as one of those iron-on patches. This one feels like a 70's style, totally accidental, but I like it.

What do you think?
Do you like the look of the denim effect?

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!

Winter Dreams ft. Sinful Colors

Howdy Howdy!

I trust you are all well?

Today it's a little overcast here so I figured it's the perfect time to bring out my first winter mani for the year.

This is a nice, simple design that doesn't take much time and still looks fabulous!

Winter Dreams with Cinderella - Sinful Colors

For this design I used:
Cinderella - Sinful Colors, this beautiful shimmer blue.
Hottie - Sinful Colors, a deep blue jelly with with large colour shifting flakies.
Camo Coat - Celestial 
Blue nail gems 
Big Kwik Dry Top Coat - Sally Hansen

Winter Dreams with Glitter - Sinful Colours

I started with a base coat of Cinderella on all but my ring finger. For that I used a base coat of Hottie. After drying, I applied Camo Coat around all nails. Using a make up sponge I applied Cinderella and Hottie and dabbed onto my index & pinky fingers until the desired opacity as reached. I then took another sponge and painted Hottie onto it and dabbed it once or twice over my middle finger, then used the same sponge on my ring finger to coat the entire nail with glitter. Once I was satisfied with all nails, I removed the Camo Coat. Applying my Kwik Dry Top Coat, I quickly added the blue gems and finished with another coat of Kwik Dry. 

Winter Dreams 

I really enjoyed this simple and elegant design. Also, I absolutely love using any kind of nail studs, gems and all of that good stuff!

What are your thoughts?
Let me know!

Thanks for stopping by.

Essie Classic Chevron Nail Art

Hola people! 

I hope everyone has been having a good week!

Today we have a super simple design. I recently ordered some chevron vinyls and here we have these classic chevron nails.

Classic Chevron

As I said it was very simple. I painted each of my nails with two coats of Blanco - Essie, then added a quick dry top coat. After drying, I added the vinyls and painted over the chevrons with Cocktail Bling - Essie, and quickly removed them before drying. On my ring finger, I placed them on top of each other. Unfortunately, I overlapped them and didn't realize until I'd painted over them, and they turned out looking like diamonds.

Classic Chevron

I enjoyed having this design for a while, something simple & classic looking. I love this grey as well. It has a sort of blue & purple tint to it, so it looks different in different lighting & with other colours. 

Classic Chevron

So that's all for this one! What are your thoughts? Leave me a comment & let me know! 

Also, little note, you can now Follow my blog with Bloglovin! 

Classic Chevron 

Thanks for stoppin' by! 

Neon Studded Nail Art

Hello all!

I hope everyone is staying cool through this massive heatwave currently bombarding the country.

I'm doing yet another summer inspired look this week. I recently bought a whole bunch of nail gem wheels off eBay for $1 each. I've wanted to get my hands on these ones for a while and so once they came in I had to use them! What goes better with neon than white?

Neon Studded Nail Art

Here's the final product! Super basic, but still huge impact. I have to admit, I love simple nail art for many reasons, mainly because they're quick and easy. I also love the more intricate ones.

So I have done two coats of blanc by Essie. I applied a top coat to one nail at a time & used tweezers to adhere the studs starting with the one closest to the cuticle. I then used a top coat over the entire nail, including the studs. Each finger uses different coloured studs for a bit of variety.

I really loved this mani because the white made my skin look more tan, the studs are super awesome and I love all the different colours.  

Neon Studded Nail Art with Blanc - Essie

Neon Studded Nail Art with stud wheel

So this wheel came with both round and square studs in blue, purple, pink, green, yellow and orange. I decided to use the square studs because I thought that they would work better with this particular design.

Which colour studs do you like the best? Would you do different colours or all the same?

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!

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!