Halloween Mani

Hello again!

In my quest to use an untried polish, I came across Sinful Colours' "Cloud 9." It's a shimmery tangerine colour and since it's October, I immediately thought of doing a Halloween mani (even though Halloween isn't a big deal here and I've never actually seen anyone carve a pumpkin).

-I used Colour Club's "Wham! Pow!" as a base since "Cloud 9" is very sheer. I used one thick coat of it to maximise opacity.

-"Cloud 9" went on over the first coat of polish.

-I used an old black polish and a long striping brush to draw lines radiating from one corner outwards on my ring finger and thumb. After that, I added the small curved lines in between to create the spiderweb design.
-For my index and pinky fingers, I used the same brush and polish to draw pumpkins on half of each nail. Sinful Colours' "Happy Ending" was the perfect green to add the stems.
-I used Shany's SH02 plate and black Konad Special Polish with my Konad stamping set to stamp the cat image onto my middle finger.
-I took a photo without topcoat because I was afraid of smudging the designs with the topcoat brush.

-Then added topcoat.

Happy polishing!

Green and Metallic with a Touch of Purple

Hello!

I recently went to the pharmacy to buy one item...In other words, I recently bought nail polish when I went to the pharmacy to buy something totally unrelated. I got Revlon's Top Speed polish in "Metallic" and their scented polish in "Mint Fizz," as well as Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear polish in "Green with Envy." The "Mint Fizz" polish does smell minty, besides the normal polish smell but I still would've been a tad disappointed if I'd bought it for the scent instead of the blue shimmery goodness. I was anxious to try "Metallic" and "Green with Envy" so I used both in a very quick and simple mani.

-I didn't bother to apply base coat today since I was in a hurry so application of these polishes was terrible! I used three coats of "Metallic" on my accent nail and two coats of "Green with Envy" on my other nails.

-I used a polish made right here in Trinidad to paint my design. It's "Purple Passion" by Arista. I used a long striping brush to paint curved "lines" on each nail, then used my dotting tool to paint dots below.

-It looked like it was missing something so I added smaller dots using a toothpick, and top coat smoothed the whole look out.

You'll be seeing quite a few dotticures here since it's one of my favourite ways of doing a mani.

Happy polishing!

Salmon Nails

Hi there!

Ever had a mani turn out to be a literal representation of the colour? This one happened by accident. Only after I'd done it, I found the zebra nails looked like a piece of smoked salmon! Coincidentally (or perhaps as expected) the base colour was a salmon pink.

I did this mani before I started blogging so please excuse the extra crappy photos!

-I started with Unforgettable Moments' "Liquid Candy" over my usual base coat. I thought it was coral in the store, then thought it was bubblegum pink when I got home. I finally decided it can be any colour within that range, depending on the lighting. lol It tends to be more of a salmon but it photographs more bubblegum pink.
-I used Konad's m57 plate and white Konad special polish to stamp zebra (salmon?) patterns on my ring and index fingers. I used the same set to stamp the zebra pattern on half of my remaining nails in a diagonal fashion.
-The edges of the design on the nails without full zebra patterns looked scruffy so I used Kiss striping polish in "White" to draw a line at the edge of the design.
-I added turquoise hex glitter with a toothpick from Kleancolour's "Starry Blue" and finished with topcoat. Unfortunately I smudged some of the stamps with the topcoat. :(

Happy polishing!

Tips and Tricks

Hey there, just a quick post today.

I came across an article while browsing Pinterest and thought I'd share it with my readers. I'm not familiar with BuzzFeed but the tips are quite handy. The more experienced nail artists will already know most of them, but there are some cute ideas (number 19!) and a few other tips we may not have seen before. Numbers 20, 21 and 22 are new to me and I have to say that number 20 is pretty gross. lol I doubt I'll be using that one.

Here's the link: 27 Nail Hacks For The Perfect DIY Manicure

Happy polishing!

Aquamarine Hot Spot mani

Hello there! Today's look is very basic but the colours are so beautiful that nail art is not needed.

-I applied base coat, then applied Sinful Colours' "Aquamarine" and "Hot Spot" on alternating fingers.
-Once they had dried, I applied a second coat of each. At this point the colours already looked gorgeous together and I debated whether or not I should bother adding glitter at all.

-I went ahead and added Icing's "Epic Winning" to the "Aquamarine" nails. It was a win since it's a pretty holo glitter, but I'm still not sure if I like the mani better with or without the glitter.
-I applied Kleancolour's "Chunky Holo Bluebell" to the "Hot Spot" nails, thinking it would look great on a dark background. However, it was very muted and the holo properties didn't show up as much as I'd have liked, so I applied "Epic Winning" over it.
-I applied clear top coat to all my nails.

(Yes, this is the same picture as at the beginning of the post!)

Unfortunately, the day after I did this mani, I decided to try my first frankenpolish. I know I should've waited until I was in between manis but I was so anxious to try it, that I went right ahead with the hot pink polish. Of course I got a nice pink smudge right on one of my newly painted nails!

I was sad to remove this one. I'll probably be repeating it some other time (without the glitter). One thing to note is that "Aquamarine" stained my nails a bit, but the stain went away after a few washes. Hope it works out better for the rest of you :)

Happy polishing!

Polka dots on pink

Hi there! I must apologise for my prolonged absence from the blogging world. I've been extremely busy and haven't had enough free time to finish a blog post. Good news- I'm back now, bearing a cute pink polka dotted mani!

-After the usual base coat, I applied Nabi's "Baby Pink" polish. 

-I used Revlon's Super Top Speed polish in "Shazam" on half of the nail, applied in a diagonal fashion. This is a really pretty glittery pink polish which dries quickly. I used two coats to get to the level of glitterbomb I was looking for.
-I painted a black line separating glitter from creme with Kiss striping polish in Pearl Black. It actually has a blue shimmer, but plain black would be better for this look.

-The mani was looking cute (apart from the messy cuticles- excuse the lack of cleanup before the pics were taken!) but I felt it could use a little extra something....so I used a dotting tool and plain black polish to add polka dots, then finished with top coat.

I think the polka dots did a lot to spruce it up and increase the cuteness factor. What do you think?

Happy polishing!