Birthday Neon Cupcake Nails!! I'M OLD AF NOW U GAIS

Hello! This past weekend was my birthday! I'm freaking 30 NOW WTF

So I did pretty, bright, fun nails to celebrate!

(click to enlarge DO IT NAO)

Click the jump!

Sparkly Neon Zebra Leopard Gradient Awesomeness

Hiya!

I love these nails SO MUCH. The title of this post comes from the ridiculously long file name I gave these when saving to my computer :D

I did a variation of this on a nail wheel a long time ago, but wanted to stick with a more similar colour scheme. I am sorry to report that these photos don't do this justice at all--the neon is so bright in real life. But click the jump to see more!

(Almost) Monochrome Dotticure

Well, it's been far too long since I posted! Have had zero motivation to edit pics and write posts lately D: but I've still been painting my nails and getting photos! I'll get caught up... one day...

Today I have a dotticure for you, inspired by Simply Nailogical on YouTube. Specifically, a comment left on this video by Nat the Otaku (hehe, love the username) suggesting an alternate colour combination. I don't think Cristine will ever do this one since she doesn't like plain creme polishes much--so I did it instead!

I started with plain nails, wearing only a base coat, and just used a dotting tool to cover these with five polishes: Zoya Purity (white), Soulstice Spa Manchester (light grey), Essence Movie Star (dark grey), China Glaze Liquid Leather (black), and Revlon #480 Revlon Red (red... obvs).

A little time-consuming, but easy-peasy! Once the nails were pretty much totally covered, I let them dry and then topped with Seche Vite for their protection. I intentionally left little bits of naked nail peeking out here and there--I like how it looks when the light shines through them from behind.

I know these aren't the greatest photos--by the time I looked at them full-size and realised this, the design had already chipped too much to re-take, so... oh well. They look great IRL :D

Thanks for the inspiration, random YouTube commenter! This would look really cool in rainbow colours, too... or glitter placement... or contrasting finishes...

See you next time! xoxo

Sparkly, Swirly Water Marble

Hello! Time for my first post of 2016!

...Yeah, delayed, right? My computer has been playing up since August and I am finally doing something about it. I will get my NYE design posted ASAP, but it's been a struggle just to get this one together! I'm sending off the computer tomorrow and will make some arrangements in the meantime. What a way to start the year, eh?

Aaaaanyway... I've been itching to do a water marble lately, so I pulled out a handful of my favourite China Glaze polishes and got to it!

(click to enlarge)

The base, and one shown in this pic, is Liquid Crystal. Two coats is all that's needed for opacity, and it's very pretty--multichromatic, very sparkly, awesome! My camera actually had a hard time with how glittery and reflective it is.

The marble was done with Liquid Leather (black), Icicle (silver), and Rainbow (sheer translucent shimmer). You can't even see the silver, and in retrospect I would have skipped it in favour of more black stripes. Oh well--the final result is really cool, I think! I did a spiral/swirl pattern in the water and tried to centre that on each of my two middle nails. Added a diamante in the centre of each swirl, topped with Seche Vite, and that's it!

I really love the unintentional gradient look of the ring fingernail. I definitely need to do more marbles!

Thanks for reading today! Hopefully I can get my New Years Eve and final review item from my Born Pretty Store haul up very soon. See you next time! xoxo

I Love London! | Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate Review

Good day! I have one more BPS stamping plate to show you today. It's all British-themed, so I used some appropriate colours and as many images from it as I could to create this cute mani!

Shimmery Rainbow Birthday Marble!

Hel-lo! Man, what an insanely busy few days! My birthday was the 16th, and as you guys know, I love rainbows and sparkles. I bought a brightly-coloured rainbow dress to wear for my special day, and did these shimmery marbled nails to go with it!

These didn't come out quite the way I expected, but I'm still quite pleased with them--especially the thumbnail! If I did it again I'd use a different orange, but I think they're still great. Read on for the deets!

Valentine's Day 2015 - Gradient Glittery Tips & Bows

Hello! Today, of course, I have my Valentine nails :)

This design is heavily inspired by one of my favourite YouTube artists--her channel is now called ArcadiaNailArt, but her old channel is IndigoNova1, and this video is beautiful. I used the same idea, but in seasonal colours, plus some handpainted bows!

Love Roses | Valentine Nails

Hello darlings!

Yesterday's Valentine design was all sweet and cute, so I wanted something more classic and romantic today. What's better than deep red with roses?

I started with one coat--yes, one!--of the polish you see in the above photo. It's China Glaze Adventure Red-y, and it's fantastic. Buttery and creamy and a nice shade of deep red. I added a coat of topcoat and let that sit for an hour or so before carrying on.

The roses and the word "love" on the thumb are all done with acrylic paint and a tiny brush. I used black, white, and red to create a few shades of red with which to paint the roses. It's hard to explain the method--I jused used the dark shade first to create some petal shapes spiralling outwards, and then went lighter and lighter to create more definition, shadows and highlights, using the base colour as one of the shades in the rose. It's not the best nail photo, but here's a pic of what kind of inspired this--a Cadbury Roses box:

Anyway, after the roses, I used pure black to create some small leaves, and white to paint the word on the thumbnail. One more coat of Seche Vite, et voilà!

They're definitely more abstract roses. The "idea of" roses, as I think Robin Moses would say :) What do you think?

I'll have one more Valentine look up before Saturday--come back soon to see it, and have a great rest of your week! xoxo

Valentine Cupcake Nails

Hiya!

Let the Valentine manis commence! Today I have some girly, sweet nails for you. That last bit being on the literal side :D

Half-Moon with AMAZING Indie Polish Glitter!

Hello lovely people!

I had a really fun day today. I got to hang out with Jessie from Nailed It NZ, who is on holiday right near me! I always jump at the chance to make/meet cool new friends--especially nail friends, and especially nail friends I've admired online for ages! (Nailmates. It's a thing. Starting right now.) And, not like I'm bragging or anything, but we're some pretty sexy people, especially when we've been rained on and sweating and roller-coastering all day:

that's me on the left, Jess on the right. Some joker in the middle. ;)

I didn't have a terribly long time to spend on my nail art beforehand, but I knew I had to have on something impressive. Perfect time to try my newest polish from Indie Polish!

*drooooooooooooooool*

Neon Gradient with BPS Star Decals

Hullo! I'm so excited about today's mani! It's rainbowy and sparkly and starry and awesome!

This design Lisa Frank would be proud of is done with some bright Orly polishes, a little glitter, and some water decals from Born Pretty Store. Let's get on with it! :D

New Year's Eve Nails - 2014

Happy New Year everyone! It's been 2015 here for a while now, but I know some of you are still waiting for the calendar to flip :) I hope 2014 was a good year for you, and that 2015 will be even better! :D

Here are the nails I wore last night! (And my super-fierce Black Milk tiger leggings!)

My 2014 Christmas Day Nails -- Sprigs of Holly

Hello everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas (or a terrific Thursday, if you don't celebrate it). I experienced my first Aussie Christmas, got some awesome Black Milk leggings, and discovered the magic that is Cadbury Roses. On a related note, I will need to spend some extra time in the gym soon...

I meant to get these posted before, but between Blogger having some issues and me being a bit ill (I know, great timing) I'm only just now getting them up!

Blingy Tree on Crackle

Merry Christmas, everyone! (Or Christmas Eve for some of you.) My second-to-last holiday mani features a tree made of rhinestones on a sparkly-crackle background!

The base is Ulta Snow White, topped with China Glaze Luxe And Lush, a big chunky iridescent flakie from their first Hunger Games collection. I think it makes a white base look all wintery and snowy :D

Once that dried, I added a coat of OPI Red Shatter, then Seche Vite topcoat. While that topcoat was wet, I made the little tree out of green rhinestones, then added a star glitter on top and a brown square stone below for the trunk. Cute, right? :D One more topcoat sealed that off and I'm good to go.

I'm still stuffed from a big Christmas lunch. What are you doing for festivities this year?

I'll squeeze in one more holiday mani before the day is totally over, so check back soon for that one. And have a wonderful day! xoxo

Matte Leopard + Diagonal French

Hello, lovely people!

Today I decided to tone down the crazy colours and sparkles and do something a little more subtle and chic :)

Outdoors in sun

Back to my usual post format, so please click the jump to see more!

Shimmery Marble-Accent Mani

Hallooooo :)

Before I get started--I want to quickly leave a link to a recent post on my Facebook page. If you're interested in any of the products I use and would like to get them for a very low price, or if you have any feedback for me, go check out that post! I'd love to hear your nail art requests, or other ideas for what you'd like to see on the site.

Now then, on to today's nails! I was recently inspired by this video on YouTube, and wanted to do a colourful design with water-marbled accent nails. But some things happened, and it ended up more random and skittley than I'd planned. I'll explain! ;)

Outdoors in sun

If you watched the video above, you have the basic idea of what I was trying to do: marble with three colours on the ring finger and thumb, then paint each of the other nails solidly with one of the shades in the marble. I wanted a nice shimmery design, so I chose China Glaze Blue Year's Eve (blue), Zoya Ivanka (green), and Color Club Daisy Does It (yellow), and the marbling itself went well!

But, as I was cleaning the excess polish off the water surface, preparing to take my marbled nails out of the cup, I accidentally touched the cotton swab I was using for this to my yellow middle nail, and a swirly blue and green blob was left behind. At first, I got all annoyed and thought I'd have to redo it... but then I realised that blue and green blob was pretty, so I swirled it around a little, and dabbed more splotches over the rest of the nail to make a speckly look. Cool, right?

Once that was done, I had to jazz up the other plain nails, so I pulled out coordinating blue, green, and yellow Born Pretty Store glitters and applied them to the areas you see. Finally, I topcoated with Seche Vite.

Indoors with flash

Outdoors in shade

The marble on the thumbs. Righty, y u so short for? I used a pale yellow creme as a base for the marble, so that's why the blue looks turquoise on the right hand. I used more drops of Blue Year's Eve when I got to the left hand so the colour would be more saturated :)

Outdoors in shade. And with a towel.

Speaking of Born Pretty Store, now is probably a good time to share some news! I'll be doing some product reviews for you soon, and I have been given a special code so that YOU can receive 10% off any order! They sell not only oodles of nail art supplies, but hair, makeup, and other beauty products too. The prices are great, and they even ship worldwide for free! Check them out at http://www.bornprettystore.com/ and use code CITYG10 for your discount sitewide! 

I hope you liked these. See you next time! xoxo

Not Like The Movies, Part 2 (THE SEQUEL)

Sequel... movie... see what I did there?

Hiya! Today's post is a quick one to show you the little skittlette mani I did over the swatch from yesterday.

I stamped the middle nails with Wet 'N Wild Black Creme and Bundle Monster plate BM-414. It's one from the user-created set last year, and in honour of the 2014 set coming out soon, I thought it'd be a great time to use one now! The relatively large areas of black caused those little wavy lines in the stamped image, which really don't show up at all IRL--just in these blown-up images. It's kind of a neat effect, though!

Over the small nail, I used two coats of BYS Glitter Crystal, a sort of chunky silver holo glitter, and then a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust over that. Fairy Dust is, of course, a finer silver holo. This is my new favourite glitter layering combo--they go so well together and make any base colour look amazing! I used the same method for just a stripe on the thumbnail, and used a black striper to create the lines down either side and pull this look together.

More Seche Vite, and woo! I have a total of ten coats of polish on my smallest nail, base and top coats included. LOL!

A slightly blurry one, so you can see that gorgeous sparkle :D

I have a surprise coming up next time... so stay tuned for that! xoxo

#31DC2014 - Day 30 - Inspired by a TUTORIAL

Hello :) day 30 of the challenge, where we take inspiration from a tutorial. I watch so many talented ladies on YouTube, and follow so many awesome bloggers, it was really hard to choose one for this! But a recent video by ArcadiaNailArt caught my eye. She did three Halloween looks, and this second one called Vintage Vampire is so beautiful, I decided to use it!

I won't go into too many details of how I created this look--it's fairly simple, and you should watch her video to see it! But I used a striper brush and three China Glaze polishes for it--Adventure Red-y (red creme), Liquid Leather (black creme), and Ruby Pumps (red glitter). The pearls are both from different craft-store sets. :) Oh, and it's topcoated with KBShimmer Clearly On Top.

I am sorry to report that my hand burst into flames after I took the last photo. (Because... vampires... sunlight... yeah...)

I will bandage it all up and crank out one more pretty manicure for the last day of the challenge tomorrow! See you then! xoxo

#31DC2014 - Day 27 - Inspired by ARTWORK

Yo, what's up? Day 27, and for my "artwork" prompt I took inspiration from street art!

Outdoors in cloudy overcasty light. I know it's spring, but I'm still not impressed, Sunshine State.

My perspective on graffiti has quite changed over the years. I used to consider it all vandalism and, while acknowledging that some of it takes talent, I just couldn't appreciate it. As an artist, I look back now and just think this perspective is silly. Some cities actually encourage it in some areas (hello, Hosier Lane!) to improve the look of plain walls or just as an attraction. Obviously, just 'tagging' does not take much thought or creativity, but well-crafted street art can be such a pleasure to see!

I don't feel like I'm very good at the style, but I had to give it a try. The base for this manicure is China Glaze Stone Cold, a dark matte-shimmer polish that looks very much like tarmac when dry. The white and black accents in this design are acrylic paint, and the colours are China Glaze Shocking Pink (Neon),  China Glaze Pool Party (the more orangey one), Sinful Colors Neon Melon (green), and Orly Glowstick (yellow). I did my initials on the middle two nails, and then some random designs on the others--and a shooting star on the thumb, because yay stars.

I first topcoated with Seche Vite, and all shiny it looked like this:

But to return Stone Cold to its original appearance, and more realistically portray this type of art, I added Hard Candy Matte-ly In Love to finish it off.

As usual, my camera had no idea how to handle these neons. In real life, these colours are eye-searingly bright and awesome :D

What do you think about street art? xoxo

#31DC2014 - Day 23 - Inspired by a MOVIE

Hiya! Day 23 of the challenge calls for nails inspired by a movie. I am not a big movie person, but I work with someone who really likes the minions from Despicable Me (hi Sam!), and while it's not the most original idea (I'm aware that everyone and their grandmother has done minion nails), I really wanted to paint them. So I did!

Indoors with flash

 I used Zoya Darcy (yellow) and Cover Girl Vio-last (purple) for the bodies. The denim coveralls are done with--what else?--Denim Dash by Maybelline. China Glaze Icicle is the silver for the goggles, and Layla Hologram Effect #16 Coffee Love is the brown for the eyes. (I thought this holo brown was perfect for capturing the multifaceted look of an eye, and I was right!) The rest is acrylic paint and a bit of patience ;) Topped with KBShimmer Clearly On Top, and then, for the above photo, I drew on the hair with Sharpies!

We haven't had a lot of sun lately, so these overcasty photos will have to do.

I hope you liked these! I really had fun with them, especially the derpy purple one and his wonky teeth :D See you soon for more! xoxo