Halloween Nail Art! Bats Emerging!

Hello everyone!

I hope you're all enjoying the long weekend - I sure have been!
It has been a while since we had a full weekend of sunshine and with the extra day, we've definitely taken advantage of it. 

Now, I know I'm a little early on this one. I was going to post this design next week but, due to my bad organization skills, you get it this week! Lucky you! Ha ha.
I 'accidentally' purchased several Halloween stamping plates a few months ago, so I have a lot of potential design ideas floating around in my head. But, let's start with something nice and easy; a simple gradient with some stamping. 

Halloween Bats Emerging Nail Art

I used these polishes for this mani:
Matte Purple by BYS Cosmetics
Mellow Yellow by Sally Hansen
Ready To Take Off by UNT Cosmetics
Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen
Big Matte Top Coat by Sally Hansen
Black Stamping Polish by Emily de Molly

I also used these tools:
Liquid Latex by LuLaa
Stamping Plate BPL-031
Stamping Plate Celebration BPX-L007
Clear stamper
Scraper
Mani Saver
Cotton wool with acetone
Cosmetic Sponge

Halloween Bats Emerging Nail Art with Mellow Yellow

I started with Ready To Take Off for the base (this is just quicker than cotton pads and acetone, as I will be repainting my nails for an event next week). Once that was dry, I applied two coats of Mellow Yellow. For some reason, the second coat was taking quite long to dry, so I ended up applying Kwik Dry Top Coat over it to help the process along. While that was drying, I painted liquid latex around each nail.
After allowing that to dry, I applied Mellow Yellow and Matte Purple horizontally onto a cosmetic sponge and began dabbing it over each nail. I moved the sponge up and down to get even coverage whilst creating a slight gradient, reapplying polish to the sponge as necessary. Once I was satisfied, I removed the liquid latex and then applied another coat of Kwik Dry Top Coat before reapplying the liquid latex to protect my skin from the stamping polish.
Next, I gathered my stamping tools. I applied Black Stamping Polish over the design I wanted on plate BPX-L007, scraped over it, picked up the image and pressed it onto the nail. Cleaning the plate between uses with my mani saver and a cotton ball, I also removed the liquid latex after each stamp. I used this stamp on my index and pinkie nails. These steps were repeated for my middle and ring nails, with a different image on plate BPL-031. After allowing time to dry, I applied Kwik Dry Top Coat to seal it all in and finished off with Big Matte Top Coat. 

Halloween Bats Emerging Nail Art with Matte Purple

I'm pretty happy with this design. I didn't want to do another orange Halloween design like last year, so I decided to do purple and yellow because I feel that's still pretty Halloween-y. Plus, they're opposing colours of the colour wheel so you know they'll go well together!
I was aiming for a sort of creepy sunset look, with the bats coming out for the night. 

What do you think?
Do you do Halloween nails?
Leave me a comment below!

Don't forget to check out my social media pages.

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!

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!

Autumn Leaves Nail Art

Hey lovely people.

I hope everyone's enjoying the weekend. 

This design is a bit autumn; even though we are in the final month of winter, it still works and it's very pretty!

Autumn Leaves with G'day Matte - piCture pOlish

I really enjoyed creating this nail design. It was fun and turned out much better than I was hoping for. The colours work really well together and the matte effect just makes the whole thing.

Autumn Leaves with Cherry Red - Sally Hansen

For this design, I used the following items:
Cherry Red - Sally Hansen
The "IT" Color - OPI
Sunny London - Essence
G'day Matte Top Coat - piCture pOlish
Camo Coat - Celestial
Stamper
Maple leaf nail stencils. 

Autumn Leaves with Sunny London - Essence

I started with two coats of Sunny London as a base. Once dry, I applied a quick dry top coat. I used Camo Coat around my middle and ring finer nails to protect my skin, then applied the stencils to my middle and ring finger nails. After making sure they were securely adhered to the nail, I dropped a few drops of The "IT" Color and Cherry Red onto a stamper and dabbed it on to the nail, over the stencils. I did this one nail at a time, making sure to remove the stencil as soon as I was happy with the design. After allowing them to dry, I applied a quick dry top coat, then G'day Matte Top Coat to finish the look. 

Autumn Leaves Nail Art Design

That's all there is to it! I am really happy with how the smoosh marble turned out on the leaves. It actually looks realistic, which I am heaps happy about. What are your thoughts? Let me know!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hawaiian Neon Splatter Nail Art

Hey everyone!

It's a lovely overcast day here, so let's brighten it up a little!

I recently bought a few of these awesome fluoro/neon colours from ultra3. This is a brand of nail polish I grew up on. It was cheap and readily available at most chemists. I totally forgot about it and honestly thought it didn't exist anymore, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's still around, and still cheap! Happy days!

These colours are so bright and fun. Of course, I had to do a summer theme for these, so I went with this Hawaiian style design. 

Hawaiian Neon Splatter with Fruit Tingle - ultra3

I used the following:

Blanc - Essie
Fruit Tingle - ultra3
Tahiti - ultra3
Citrus - ultra3
Black Stamping polish - Born Pretty
春の歌 17 (According to google translate it's Spring Song) - Stamping plate
A Straw

Hawaiian Neon Splatter with Tahiti - ultra3

To create this look I started with two coats of Blanc and allowed to dry. I applied Camo Coat around each nail and part way up my fingers, as this technique gets extremely messy. Once the Camo Coat was dry, I took a clean straw and dipped it into the bottle of Tahiti. After allowing some of the polish to drip out, I then blew into the straw, causing the polish to splatter over the nail. I made sure to cover my desk with paper towels to catch any excess. I did this for all three colours, making sure to cut the straw after each use to prevent the colours from mixing. Once I was satisfied with all nails, I took a clean up brush dipped in acetone and cleaned up the edges, as a lot of polish tends to pool in these areas. After removing the Camo Coat and allowing the polish to dry, I used Black stamping polish and plate 17 to add the palm trees and flowers, then finished with a quick dry top coat. 

Hawaiian Neon Splatter with Citrus - ultra3

I really enjoyed this one. The straw technique is super fun, totally messy, and always looks awesome! I have done this before with black polish, you can check it out here.
I really like the way that these colours look together with this technique.

The only downside to this technique is that it CAN cause small air bubbles to form in the polish, so that's something to be aware of.

Hawaiian Neon Splatter

What do you think? Have you tried this technique? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by!

Pink Daisy Dotticure Nail Art

Hello Hello you lovely people!

I hope everyone is having a good weekend! 

Just a quick side note, I'll be away for the next few weeks so I may not be able to get posts out. But do not fret, as I will be back as soon as I can.

This week is a deceivingly simple design! I was feeling a little lazy, so I decided to do something quick & easy. This is the Pink Daisy Dotticure. 

Pink Daisy Dotticure

For this design I used the following colours & tools:
The "IT" Color - OPI
Apricot Cockatoo - Essence
Mexican Madness - Australis
Small dotting tool

Pink Daisy Dotticure with The "IT" Color - OPI

To create this design I applied two coats of Apricot Cockatoo for my base. After allowing ample time to dry, I took my dotting tool and dipped it into Mexican Madness, then made small circles by placing four to five dots next to each other, creating petals. I also placed a few loose dots to fill in the space between the flowers. After allowing this to dry and cleaning my dotting tool, I used The "IT" Color to place dots in the center of each flower. Once complete, I applied a quick dry top coat. 

Pink Daisy Dotticure

This is so simple and so cute! It just makes me want to smile every time I look at it! I think using the pastel base makes it look even more floral. Surprisingly, I think these colours all go very well together. 

Pink Daisy Dotticure with Mexican Madness - Australis

I would also just like to apologize for the mess of my cuticles at the moment. I somehow managed to get a paper cut on one of them recently which I just had to wait out. Also, due to the colder weather, my hands have become very vulnerable and I just can't get enough moisturizer or oil on them. 

So that's it for today! 
What do you think? 
Would you do something like this?
I need to do more dotticures!

Thanks for stopping by! 

First Attempt at Waterfall Nail Art - Fire Wall.

Hey everyone!

I hope everyone is well!

I tried something new for this week's design. It's something I've wanted to do for a while but just kind of forgot about until now. Usually I just look at my colours, pick out a bunch and wait to see what hits me. 

This time I decided I was going to do this design and just picked colours that worked. 

So, here is my first waterfall nail design, which turned out more like a fire wall. 

Fire Wall 

For this one I used the following colours & tools:

Sally Hansen - Sun Kissed
Sally Hansen - Hot Tamale
Sally Hansen - Cherry Red
Sally Hansen - Mellow Yellow
Thin & Long striping tool.
Sally Hansen - Kwik Dry Top Coat.

Fire Wall with Sun Kissed - Sally Hansen

To do this design I started with two coats of Mellow Yellow on two fingers, and two coats of Sun Kissed on my remaining nails. After drying, I took a sandwich bag and placed a blob each of Cherry Red, Hot Tamale, Sun Kissed & Mellow Yellow. Using my striping brush, I did one colour at a time across each nail, varying between lengths and location. I continued this with all four colours. Once complete & dry, I added the Kwik Dry Top Coat.

Fire Wall

This design was nice and easy. I'm not overly keen on my colour choices, but I still think it looks cool. Next time I might try doing a purple or a blue theme, as I have so many of these colours. I would have liked to have added a glitter or a metallic, but I didn't have one to match this theme. I also think a matte effect would have looked pretty cool on this one. 

What are your thoughts? Have you done something like this?

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!