Linear Needle Drag

Here's another needle drag mani, which probably won't be the last.

-I started with base coat and two coats of Sinful Colours' "Aquamarine." This polish stains so base coat is a must!
-I painted vertical stripes of Sinful Colours' "Let's Talk" and Sephora by O.P.I's "Mash-Up" onto one accent nail, then used a pin to drag horizontal lines through the polish.
-I repeated the needle drag on a second accent nail.
-Top coat was applied as usual.

Happy polishing!

10 Day Holiday Nail Art Challenge Day 4: Holiday Treats

Hello!

The holiday treat I've chosen for today's challenge is Trini fruitcake, aka black cake. 

-The base was two coats of Sinful Colours' "Rich in Heart."

-I used Sinful Colours' "Ruby Ruby" to make the dots to represent cherries, and Sinful Colours' "San Francisco" to do the green cherries.

Happy polishing!

10 Day Holiday Nail Art Challenge Day 3: Gift wrap

Hello!

Here's my creation for Day 3 of the challenge.

This vintage wrapping paper inspired my look.

-I started with a white base of L.A. Colours' "Energy Source."
-I used an old gold polish to paint the background on, but it wasn't opaque enough so I went over it with Kleancolour's "Americano."
-I used my dotting tool and a smaller point to create dots of varying sizes using Sinful Colours' "Ruby Ruby" and "San Francisco."

Happy polishing!

Christmas Stamping Skittles

This is my second attempt at a Christmas mani. I did one earlier using Sinful Colours' "Snow Me White" as the base for the white nails but it never dried (even though I painted those nails last night and used quick dry drops!). I redid it and here's the result:

-I used two coats of China Glaze's "Salsa" for the red nails, two coats of L.A. Colours' "Energy Source" for the white nails and two coats of Kleancolour's "Metallic Green" for the one green nail.
-Snowman nails: The image came from Shany's SH01 plate and I used white Konad special polish with my Konad stamping set to apply it. I used a toothpick to apply Sinful Colours' "Snow Me White" as snow. The snowman's face wasn't transferred so I used a toothpick to dot some eyes and a nose on.
-Candy cane nails: The pattern was from Shany's SH23 plate and the colour was done using red Konad special polish, followed by a second stamp with the same pattern using Kleancolour's "Metallic Green." As you can see, the red stamp wasn't very clean. I had the same problem the last time I used the red polish.
-Snowflake nail: The image came from Shany's SH17 plate and I used white Konad special polish again to apply the stamp.

Happy polishing!

Needle Drag Mani

Hello!

I was inspired by this picture to do a needle drag mani. I modified it a little to make it my own version of a needle drag/swirly marbled mani.

-I used NK Nail Enamel in "Crystal Clear" as my base coat, then applied two coats of Kleancolour's "Retro Green" polish. It only needed one coat to be opaque but I added a second coat so my nail wouldn't show through if the needle scraped the top layer of polish off.
-I applied blobs of the other colours randomly over my nails. This step has to be done fairly quickly so the polish will stay wet enough to marble nicely without turning into clumps so I recommend doing one nail at a time. The colours used are Colour Club's "Emerald Depths," Sinful Colours' "Love Nails" and "Let's Talk," a polish by N.Y.C. which no longer has a label (a pale shimmery blue) and a few dots of Jordana's "Yellow Energy."
-I used a pin to drag and swirl the colours together. I used the side of the pin more than the tip itself, and at some points I mixed the colours together rather than just swirling them in sharper lines.
-About a minute after finishing, I gently pressed on the nails with my fingers to try to flatten the peaks that had formed during the needle drag.
-I applied top coat to smooth the look out. I didn't wait long enough for all the polish to dry so there are bubbles in the top coat. The next time I do this, I'll also add a second coat of top coat since one wasn't enough to smooth it out properly.

Happy polishing!

Glittery Divali Mani

I hope you all had a lovely Divali. I did a simple mani since it was a busy day and I didn't have time to do anything elaborate. I also didn't have the time to stop and take pictures of each step so I must apologise for not having pictures of the mani without glitter, etc.

-My base colours were two coats of Sinful Colours' "Aquamarine" and two coats of Sephora by OPI's lovely dark purple polish with subtle magenta flecks called "Who's Spinning Tonight?"
-I painted two coats of Kleancolour's "Chunky Holo Bluebell" over the base colours.

-Both patterns came from Shany's SH20 plate. I used my Konad stamping set and black and white Konad stamping polishes to do the patterns.
-I painted another coat of "Chunky Holo Bluebell" over all my nails, and then added the odd fuchsia glitter dot here and there from Revlon's "Scandalous" polish.
Side note: I bought "Scandalous" just a few days ago and then saw Ashley from Spellbound Nails' post on Revlon's "Facets of Fuchsia polish," which looked exactly the same. Ashley did a little research and realised Revlon re-released "Facets of Fuchsia" as "Scandalous."
-I used top coat as usual to complete the mani.

Happy polishing!

Divali Delicacies Mani

Hello!

As you may or may not know, Divali, the festival of lights will be celebrated next week (Tuesday in Trinidad). This is a very important and exciting festival for Hindus and non-Hindus alike and a lot of work goes into preparing for it.

I wasn't in the mood to do a mehndi pattern or deyas but I'm looking forward to Divali sweets so I did a mani based on that.

If you're unfamiliar with these foods, or if you're wondering how to make them, click the name of each sweet and you'll be taken to a recipe. Pictures are also included on the pages I've linked to, so you can see what they're supposed to look like.

Belated Halloween Manis

Hello!

Are you all sick of seeing Halloween manis? So am I but I didn't have time to post mine until now so I'm posting it anyway! I actually did two looks- one just for fun, and one that I actually wore to go out. Here's the first one I did...

-I first used Revlon's "Charming" as a base colour.
-I then used a cotton swab to "sponge" on Sinful Colours' "Sweet Treat," concentrating more of the colour at the tip of the nail and fading out. I put some of the polish on the skin around my nails, again concentrating it at my fingertips, just to get a more bloodied appearance.
-I used Sinful Colours' "Rich in Heart" in the same way, but this time I didn't go as far down the nail since I wanted some of the red polish to show through.
-A little black polish on the tips completed the gory look.

Doesn't look quite as authentic with the flash.

The second look, which I actually wore to go out, was a simple blood splatter mani. This was a very rushed mani since I started it an hour before I was meant to leave the house and I hadn't started getting dressed yet. The lack of cleanup was intentional...just kidding- I did the cleanup quite hurriedly in the car later on.

-I used Sinful Colours' "Snow White" as a base.
-Sinful Colours' "Sweet Treat" was the blood red. I mixed a little of the polish with some nail polish remover, dipped a straw into it and blew through the other end of the straw onto the nail. If you're doing this one, try to take a rest every so often to avoid getting lightheaded!

Happy polishing!

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!

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!