Monday Nail Stuff: Pastel manicure!

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Today’s nail look is inspired by pastel jewellery. I love the trend right now of mixing pastel with gold. Fashion accessory chain Lovisa does this style extremely well. I don’t quite understand why pastel and skulls work so well together…probably one of those mysteries of the universe!

This look is extremely easy to do. The only problem may be to give sufficient time for the layers to dry.

You’ll need:

• Base coat: I’m  using OPI Base Coat
• Pastel base colour: I’m using a slightly minty grey, Essie “Da Bush”
• Gold tip colour: I don’t own a foily gold, so I’m using China Glaze “Cowardly Lyin’”, applied in several layers
• Top coat: I’m using Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat

After applying the top coat, apply the pastel base colour. If it’s a light colour, you’ll need at least two coats. If you are applying multiple coats, make sure to let this dry completely before applying the tip colour.

It might look tricky to paint the tip, but it couldn’t be easier! The key is to paint in quick strokes without going over it too much. If you mess up, you can always fix the mistake with some base colour.

Have fun creating your pastel manicure!

Monday nail stuff: Iridescent spring flower nails!

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While it’s well into Autumn here in Australia, I feel it’s so easy pretend it’s spring, when the rest of the world is enjoying the warmer seasons. Nothing says spring to me more than pink Sakura blossoms. This week I decided to sport a simple spring flower nail design, with flower Fimo slices haphazardly placed as if they had floated there in the breeze…ah…I wish it were spring!!

I used Orly nail lacquer in Berry Blast, and pink flower Fimo slices from http://pinksakura.com.au/! Pink Sakura also sent me super cute strawberry and teddy bear slices! Fimo slices fascinate me the same way as pulled rock candy. How in the world do they get those tiny intricate designs in there? Especially the strawberries!

Pink Sakura is a new Australian based Asian cosmetics retailer on the scene, specialising in GEO Medical contact lenses – stock including the popular Bambi Princess Mimi series – yay – and Asian cosmetics, with mostly Korean brands like Etude House, Tony Moly and Holika Holika! They also sell nail art supplies and Kawaii Items!

 

Don’t forget to enter my Beauty’s in the bag Giveaway! So many prizes to be won!!

Monday nails stuff: Lolipop nails

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I am totally addicted to candy themed nail art! This week’s nail art is inspired by rainbow coloured boiled lollipops, you know, the ones at the lolly shop counter that your parents would never buy for you because ‘there’s no way you could eat it all by yourself’.

This one of the more intricate designs I’ve done so far *phew*, but it’s surprisingly easy, just a matter of painting lots and lots of multi-coloured stripes!

I used:

• Orly ‘Snow cone’
• China glaze ‘Tree hugger’
• China glaze ‘Happy go lucky’
• OPI ‘Red my fortune cookie’
• OPI ‘Hot & Spicy’
• OPI ‘Alpine Snow’
• LA Colours ‘Circuits’

Even though I own a drawer full of nail colours, I still struggle to find the colours I need when I’m trying to do a design. For this design I really needed vibrant saturated colours, but I had to make do with some creams.

How many nail polishes do you own?

Monday Nail Stuff: Peppermint Candy nails!

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Continuing with my theme of food inspired nail art, this Monday Nail Stuff is fun and delectable Peppermint Candy nails!

Ironically, when I was young I hated peppermint and they’re still not my first choice for sweets, but man are they adorable! These pretty much epitomize ‘candy’ in my mind.

It took a few tries to master the right swirl design, but once I did, it was super easy!

I used:

• OPI Alpine Snow for the base colour
• OPI Red My Fortune Cookie
• OPI Hot & Spicy
• OPI I’m Not Really a Waitress

 

Speaking of colourful cute things, don’t forget to enter my contact lens giveaway if you haven’t yet! Enter now!

Monday Nail Stuff–Fast and fun kitty emote nails!

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This Monday Nail Stuff I wanted to create an easy-peasy fun design that anyone could whip up in about 10 minutes! I give you: ‘kitty emote nails’!

You just need:

• Any cute base colour. I’m using OPI ‘I’m not really a waitress’
• One white colour. I’m using OPI ‘Alpine Snow’
• One black colour. I’m using L.A. Colours ‘Circuits’
• One super thin paint brush (on ebay for about $1)

The process is easy:

Step 1: Paint on the base colour

Step 2: Using the thin paint brush, paint brackets in the white colour.

Step 3: On top of the brackets, draw the ears.

Step 4: Fill in the cat face.

Step 5: Paint a black border around the cat face.

Step 6: Paint in the face, any case you want!

Repeat with other nails, different expressions for best results!

Have fun!

Monday nail stuff! Cherry Blossom inspired nail art

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It’s just going into autumn here in Australia, but at about this time three years ago, I was in Okayama in Japan, strolling under the shade of hundreds of Sakura trees, with their petals covering the ground like fuzzy pink carpet! So today I’ve decided to create Cherry Blossom inspired nail art!

For this look, I started with a blue base, for the blue sky, using Orly “Snowcone”. Then I used a black polish for the branches, using L.A. Colours “Circuits”.

Petals proved to be very difficult to draw on such a small surface! They should generally be the shape, in example below.

 

 

Monday Nail Stuff–Candy Apple nails

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I’ve always loved the idea of Candy Apples. When I first saw the big shiny red lollipop like treat I thought it was the cutest thing in the world, and ate them until my teeth started hurting. Then when I was living in Japan I discovered candy strawberries, candy mandarins, candy grapes, candy everything! I looked forward to eating these at every festival. Interestingly though, in Japan they never really candied apples…I guess when you think about it, it’s so hard to eat anyway, so who came up with that silly idea? xD

Aaanyway. Continuing on with my previous theme of food related nail art designs, this Monday’s nail art is Candy Apple nails! With toffee glazed apples topped with seeming inedible metallic caramel!

 

The idea for this design was inspired by Lime Crime’s “Carousel Gloss” poster designs! But I reversed the colour scheme to make it more ‘apple like’

I used:

• China Glaze “Mommy Kissing Santa”
• China Glaze “Cowardly Lyin’”
• Seche Vite dry fast top coat

“MOmmy Kissing Santa” turned out to be the perfect finish for a glazed apple.

This also reminds me of an awesome thing I saw when I was on holidays in Canada – Caramel Apples~ They come in so many flavours and look absolutely precious! Toffee apples is a Halloween thing in North American, and we don’t get them in Australia.

This pic is from http://www.amyscandykitchen.com/caramelapples.html. 

Monday Nail Stuff–Rainbow striped nails!

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With all the rainy grey gloomy days, I felt I wanted to put some colour back in my life with rainbow nails!

This is actually a really easy look to create, but you just a whole lot of colours! You don’t need to let each new strip to completely dry before applying the next. I simply held my nails under a hair dryer for about 20 seconds in between colours!

I used (in order):

• OPI Base coat
• Essie “Tri-beca”
• OPI “Suzi Says Fung Shui”
• China Glaze “Jolly Holly”
• China Glaze “Happy go lucky”
• OPI “Hot & Spicy”
• OPI “Red my fortune cookie”
• Seche Vite Top Coat

Hmm interesting. All the OPI colours I used are from the Hong Kong collection…

Monday Nail stuff–French “Moustache” Manicure

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Ok I don’t now what’s the deal with moustaches, but ever since my Nerd Birds Review, I’ve seen seeing them everywhere! Recently someone at work asked me about the moustache picture on my facebook, and I was honestly at a loss for words to explain…

Anyway recently I saw some moustache themed nail art that really inspired me. So this week’s nail theme is the French Moustache Manicure!

Oh and a shout out to Jennifer from http://njennifer.blogspot.com.au, who’s just recently launched a new moustache themed blog layout!

For this look I used:

• Nail polish remover
• OPI Base Coat
• OPI Nail Polish in “Alpine Snow”
• Seche Vite top coat (I find this to be the most amazing top coat especially for nail art, as it helps the nail polish to dry super quickly)

If you’re wondering why my nail polish remover is suspiciously unmarked…it’s because it’s from my scientist boyfriend’s lab . Scientists are sexy hehe

Also:

• Tiny tiny brush for the moustache detail
• Dotter tool for the white dot design
• Old eyeliner brush for neatening up the French tips

The steps are very simple:

1. Apply a coat of the case coat
2. Paint a rough white tip on nails
3. Dip eyeliner brush in nail polish remover and clean up white tip
4. When nail polish remover and white tips are dry, paint on moustache
5. Dot on white dots
6. Finish with top coat

The perk is that this nail design also serves as a portable mini disguise for facilitating light criminal activities or avoiding awkward meetings with that talkative acquaintance.

And now I leave you with ‘Moustache Cat”!!

Oh, and don’t forget to enter my giveaway!

Enter now!