Just Batty

Another Halloween one! Pink and blue skies filled with bats!

Honesty I think bats are adorable with their little turned up noses, but I get how some people find them frightening.

I started the bats using some bundle monster plates but the polish I used refused to transfer well so I ended up just painting them over.

Colours:

"First Mate" by China Glaze
"Va Va Voom" by Orly

Soft Flowers

This isn't an official Valentine's Day design but it is really soft, girly and romantic looking, so it could work well for a Valentine's manicure.

Jan/27/2013

The base used is 3 coats of "Glints and Glam" by Sation, with Konad "White" stamped in plates M26 and BM221 (ring finger). Really simple, really quick and very delicate but still pretty.

More official Valentine's Day nail art will be starting up next week, but in the meant time check out last year's ideas under the Valentines tag in the right side bar.

Have a Happy Monday!

Flashback Friday: Blue Snowflakes

Nov/29/2010

This is another acrylic set I did for myself from waaayy back when. I made my own blue glitter acrylic and then stamped over them some white snowflakes which you can barely see. Ahh well, lesson learned.

Halloween Water Marble

Oct/21/2010 to Oct/31/2010

Halloween marble design. Used "Black Sand" and "Lickety-Split Lime" by Sally Hansen for the water marble. Used some Konad Halloween stamps with their Special Polish in "Black".

Flashback Friday: Silver Flowers

July/03/2012

Just a simple design for this past summer. Did an ombre using a sponging technique with "Nectar" and "Posh Plum" both by Sally Hansen. Stamped with an image on Bundle Monster plate BM16 using ``Silver Sweep`` by Sally Hansen. Ignore the chip in my Pinky nail, I took these after I finished work.

The reddish-coral is a bit of a Frankenpolish; I added some Wet n`Wild French White Creme to it to make it lighter.

Loki

I asked my lovely friend on Facebook again for some inspiration. They voted for Loki paws.

Whole Hand

Main Four.

Thumb Close-up

So the base colour for these was "Holly Day" by China Glaze, the tips were done in "Smoke and Ashes" by CG, and the gold stamping and linework were done in "Bronze" by Color Club from the Art Club Nail Art Lacquer. I really quite like this one, Loki's helmet was painted in using the "Bronze" by Color Club. The stamp used was from plate: BM203.

Adventures in Foiling

Just a mini post about some experimenting I've been doing in my down time. So this started out in the form of a question in my head, "Can I use my foils and nail stamping stuff together?" As in, would the glue pick up the pattern from the stamp plate and transfer to the nail. The outcome was well, disappointing. It made nothing but a filthy, sticky mess :(

"Up All Night" by China Glaze, foil is "Wedgewood"

After that fiasco I wondered, "If it can't do that will more intricate designs pick up enough foil?". That luckily worked, which is what you see above. The base colour is "Up All Night" by China Glaze, a very pretty dark blue with subtle shimmer, and the foil is actually a shiny blue/grey called "Wedgewood".

The design was hand painted in the glue supplied by Dollar Nail Art, and once dry I pressed the foil to transfer. Needless to say, it picked up quite well, and so I'm kind of excited to try it on more difficult designs.

You might be thinking "Why didn't you paint the whole nail?" simple, I'm practising for school. Trying to get a perfect clean line without the polish bleeding into the person's cuticle (there is a green "cuticle" line drawn on the nail prior to polish application).

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my experimenting, and hopefully if you also wondered this it helped clear anything up for you. Questions and comments are always welcomed :) Enjoy!

Watermelon Flowers

June/20/2010 to June/26/2010

"Watermelon Rind" by China Glaze with some Konad Stamping over top in "White" Konad Special Polish. Watermelon Rind is a greenish-blue green with a nice shimmer to it.

Green Waves

May/23/2012 to May/29/2010

Took this with my cell phone camera, hence the graininess. "In the Lime Light(Neon)" by China Glaze with a Konad stamped on top using "Blue" Konad Special Polish.

Tempting Swirls

Nov/07/2010 to Nov/10/2010

"Tempt Carnation" by China glaze with some gradient stamping using Konad's "Pink" and "White" Special Polishes. This is one of those very subtle and very quick designs.

Gouda Gouda Two Shoes

Simple, sort of neutral nails. The base colour used for these is "Gouda Gouda Two Shoes" by OPI, it's from their Holland Collection. I bought this along with "Wooden Shoe Like to Know" and they are currently the only OPI nail polishes in my collection. On top of that I stamped an image from BM plate BM-11 in Color Club's Nail Art Polish in "Bronze" which looks more like a yellowy gold(in my opinion).

I realize that the design is hard to see, but none of the photos I took seemed to capture a whole lot of it.

Nectar

June/06/2010 to June/12/2012

A simple Valentine's day idea. Did some white hearts over top of "Nectar" by Sally Hansen.

Peacock Purples

Okay! So after a few days of "WTF am I gonna do?" and "Nothing is working!" frustration, I popped over to Sally's for some quick inspiration. I was standing there for a good ten minutes blankly staring at all the nail polishes when "Flying Dragon (Neon)" by China Glaze caught my eye and I remembered some swatch photos I saw of it. I picked up a bottle, and when I got home this happened:

Flipped this one so you could see the designs upright.

The base colour is "Flying Dragon (Neon)" by China Glaze, I stamped images from Bundle Monster plates: BM 03, BM 15 and BM 212 using "Silver Sweep" by Sally Hansen.

The end result reminds me vaguely of the purple/silver Banarasi  Sari I wore at my cousin's wedding many years ago. Needless to say I like this one, for now, and the sari is still sitting in my closet only being worn once and in desperate need of a new, properly fitting sari blouse.

Yellow Houndstooth

Jan/10/2010 to Jan/16/2010

Yellow nail polish was by Sally Hansen, with Konad's Houndstooth and star stamping stencils.

Fleur de Lys

June/03/2011 to June/10/2011

Base colour is "Winter Wishes" by Finger Paints. Used some Konad stencils stamped using "White" from Konad Special Polish.

China Plates

More stamping, used the BM-221 plate because it's just so damn pretty. But I am a sucker for florals, as for the title, this combination just reminds me of those gorgeous fine china plates I see in my Nanni Amma's dish cupboard.

Colours Used:

"04 White" by Klean Colour

"948 First Mate" by China Glaze

Hue Left a Message?

Some stamping and an attempt a taping. I found the scotch tape (used for Expresso) gave a much cleaner line than the masking tape (for the Black). Used Bundle Monster's BM-221 plate.

Colours used:

"Hue Left a Message" by Finger Paints

"Expresso" by Kleancolor

"Black Creme" by Wet n' Wild

More Nail Art from 2009

"Temptation Carnation" by China Glaze

"Red Pearl" by China Glaze

"Flirty" by Orly

"Jamaican Out" China Glaze

"Red Pearl" China Glaze

I have nothing new as of yet for this week. So I've uploaded a few of my favourite oldies from 2009 for you all. Base colours are listed in the captions. Top three photos: all art was hand painted by myself, second last: Konad stamp plate using Konad special polish Black, last photo are stick-on decals I found at Sally's.

Nov/20/2011

"948 First Mate" by China Glaze with "460 Wet Cement" by Sally Hansen

This weeks paws, entertaining myself with stamping.  This time I used Bundle Monster plates: BM206 and BM20. The base colour is "948 First Mate" from China Glaze, with the stripes stamped using "460 Wet Cement" from Sally Hansen's eXtreme Wear collection. As you can see, the stripes didn't turn out so well.. and I had to re-stamp since my nails are bigger than the designs on the stamping plates.

These will probably be changed out when I have a chance.

Nov/15/2011

Changed them, again.... My indecisiveness is getting to be a problem.

"256 Evening Seduction" by China Glaze with "270 Lacey Lilac" by Sally Hansen.

So today (and for however long these last) I tried out a new colour I purchased over the weekend. The base colour is "256 Evening Seduction" by China Glaze. Alone is a very deep rich purple, it's almost black in most lighting. On top I stamped a floral from Bundle Monster's BM21 plate using "270 Lacey Lilac" from Sally Hansen's Extreme Wear line.

Over all, I'm loving the effect I got with it.