Tuesday, October 29, 2013

China Glaze - Ruby Pumps

Today's red glitter polish is yet another FAVORITE of mine. I mean, look at this baby. Doesn't she just glow?!

Ladies and gentlemen (do I have any guy readers?), I present to you China Glaze - Ruby Pumps. She is absolutely delectable and I would go so far as to say one of a kind.

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Taken in indirect sunlight
China Glaze - Ruby Pumps is a crelly red glitter polish. Crelly? Yes, you read that right. I would say jelly but somehow it doesn't really look all that jelly to me. What do you think?  Ruby Pumps doesn't dry gritty like other glitters. This polish dries smooth and shiny and the glitter is suspended in all that lovely red polish. I used two coats here - one coat is a bit thin - and the formula was really good.

Ruby Pumps is a really subtle glitter polish and perfect for Halloween if you're going for a vampy or Dorothy-esque look. I would definitely use this red glitter for a Christmas nail design though.

What do you think of China Glaze - Ruby Pumps? Love it? Hate it? Is red your color or do you stay away from it?

Thank you for reading!

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Funky Halloween nacho nail art

Hi everyone! Only one more week till Halloween.

I think this might be my final Halloween nail art.. I didn't do that many this year but I hope that you like at least one of the few nail designs that I did.

This design is one I've been meaning to do since I got into nail art. I love triangles. I have no idea why. When I doodle, I doodle spiraling triangles and squares. I've tried to google for what my doodles mean. Apparently I have a lot on my mind and I'm trying to get somewhere..?

Do you doodle? What do your doodles mean?

I did this Halloween nail art with my nail art brush that's falling apart >< Check out my Halloween triangle nail art:

Taken with flash

Taken indoors
I started with two coats of China Glaze - Exotic Encounters. You can see that the color differs greatly indoors and when taken with flash. The most accurate color I would say is the one taken in indirect sunlight (pictures below). It is not a deep forest green but more of a nice dusty teal.

Taken indoors

Taken with flash
Next, I used my nail art brush and a random orange polish to create the little nacho triangles. You can see that I just made rough outlines and colored them poorly. I should have filled the patches but I figured the top coat would smooth that out.

I strive for imperfect perfection when it comes to nail art because seriously, if I tried to make all my designs perfect (refer to all those famous nail bloggers), I wouldn't have time to do anything else. It's cool that they have steady hands and great precision and detailing but that's not me.

Taken with flash

Taken indoors
I drew the black triangles with a black nail art pen which I'm gonna have to throw away soon because it's running outta polish. These two pictures above were taken before I added top coat.

Taken with flash

Taken in indirect sunlight

Taken in indirect sunlight
Then I added top coat. The weather was gloomy all week long so I didn't manage to take any outdoor pictures. I wanted to mattify these nails but then I forgot... oops.

And that's it. My funky Halloween nacho nail art. I thought nacho sounded cuter so I went with that instead of, you know, 'triangles'.
Finally. Triangles. I'll probably do these nails again but with a different color combination. They look so fun and edible, right?

What do you think? Do they look Halloween enough? Do you want to see any other geometric designs? I'm all about geometry these days, haha.

Thanks for reading!

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Easy saran wrap Halloween nail art

Hi guys.

I know. The posts are coming slowly and I haven't replied to comments and I haven't been joining hops all week long but it's been busy here and I haven't felt like posting anything much.

I do, however, need to get these Halloween nail art posts out before it's actually Halloween but the good thing about nail art is that you can get it done even the day before an occasion. That is, if you have time and you don't mess it up. Yeah, I mess up quite a bit so I've learned not to be too frustrated if my nail art doesn't turn out as well as I expect.

Anyway, I digress and you just probably want to see what nail art I'm sporting. Well, here you go - some easy saran wrap Halloween nail art.

Taken with flash

Taken with flash
The colors I used: China Glaze - Salsa (the red) and The Face Shop - Papaya. I used two coats of each polish over one layer of base coat.

Taken with flash

Taken with flash
Then I did the saran wrap method (which I did once before) and I adore how they turned out. I should have painted the black polish and dabbed it onto the nail like I did on my thumb rather than painting a coat of black polish over the nail and dabbing it off with saran wrap. You can see that the latter way resulted in 'borders'. Ah well, at least next time I know.

I used one layer of Love&Beauty - Confetti Sprinkle over my middle nail just for a pop of glitter. I'm sad that the glitter is getting gunky but I'll try to thin it and add clear polish.

Taken in indirect sunlight

Taken in indirect sunlight
How do you like these Halloween saran wrap nail art? Easy or what? I'm not exactly sure what I was going for with this look but I thought they looked Halloween-y with the red and black.
You can do this with any color combination you like but I would say pick two contrasting colors otherwise they'll just blend and people won't get to see how awesomely 'complex' this method is.

Would you try this? Let me know in the comment section.

Thanks for sticking around and continuing to read my blog. I'll try to get back to my regular posting schedule when things ease up. Until then, have a laid-back Sunday!

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Halloween Snoopy and Woodstock nail art

So who likes Halloween? What's your favorite part about Halloween?

Mine, of course, is the nail art. So many cute Halloween Snoopys to choose from. So naturally I did Halloween Snoopy nails.

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Taken in indirect sunlight

Taken in indirect sunlight

Taken in indirect sunlight
The polish I used for this nail art:
Thumb: random pewter polish
Index and little: Sally Hansen - Espresso and Love & Beauty - gold glass flecks
Middle and Index: China Glaze - Kalahari Kiss (as the base), The Face Shop - YL402 (yellow), white nail art, black nail art pen.

Yes, I did make Snoopy's belly round because round beagle bellies remind me of a certain puppy. :) I love how these nails turned out. Sad that they turned out a bit bumpy though. There was a fan turned on so some icky bubbles formed.

Here's the picture I used as reference to draw Snoopy and Halloween. Super cute, right? I love it too!
Picture from Google

What do you think? Would you sport these Snoopy Halloween nails? Wait, first off, do you like Snoopy? If you don't, we probably can't be friends. ;)

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy this design!

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Easy dotted Halloween nail art

Hi guys!

Halloween is right around the corner. How did we get to October so fast, right?! But it's here and Halloween is coming up and I've got fun Halloween nail art for you!

Okay this look is REALLY easy to achieve. All you need are Halloween colors and a dotting tool (can also be a toothpick!) and you're good to go. Who doesn't like fun nails for an occasion?

I know some of you can be skeptical or hesitant about doing nail art. It's okay I used to be like that too. I used to look at amazing nail art and think, 'wow, I could never do that'. Even now I have those moments but the trick here is confidence and patience. Okay so they aren't really tricks... more like tips! Trust me, you can do it.

Here goes:

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Taken in indirect sunlight

Taken in indirect sunlight

I used China Glaze - White on White, Orly - Liquid Vinyl and a random neon-ish orange polish for this look.

You can see in the pictures that the orange polish isn't that obvious against the black polish. It would have stood out more if I placed a white dot of polish before dotting on the orange polish. If you're going to go with a black base, I would suggest using white to outline your design before applying the actual colors.

I simply used a dotting tool and dotted on random sized dots near the tip of my nail. Yes, I smudged an orange spot on my nail by accident. So people make mistakes - it's fine.

Simple enough, right? What do you think? Do you like Halloween nail art? You can totally attempt this! If you do attempt this design, I'd love to see the pictures. Just link them up in the comment section or email the link to me.

Thanks for reading! Stick around for more Halloween nail art!

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Watermelon nail art

Hey guys! Today I want to show you one of the first few nail art designs that I started out doing - watermelon nails!! They're really easy to do and you don't even need any proper tools. When I just started out, I had no tools whatsoever, not even an orange stick. My only tools back then were skewer sticks and toothpicks so you can totally make do with those if you have them.

This is not my first attempt at watermelon nails, #357 would sound about right. Just kidding. This is possibly my 6/7th time doing these nails. They are so fun to do and if you mess up, well, keep on trying.

I only have 2 decent pictures (yes, I'm a great photographer):

Taken with flash

Taken indoors under yellow lighting

I used Love & Beauty - Red, Sally Hansen - Lickety Split Lime, China Glaze - White on White and a black nail art pen.

I may or may not have tried to cover some booboos that I made on my nails, hehe. 

So you want to know how I did these nails?

Okay, first I painted two coats of red polish and waited for them to dry. Then I taped about half an inch from the tip and painted one thick coat of Lickety Split Lime and peeled the tape off quickly. Using a striper brush and White on White, I created that white line between the red and green polish. Finally, I used a large dotting tool to create the watermelon seeds.

I might have been over-enthusiastic when dotting on the seeds which is why they turned out bigger than I intended them to be. >< My lines are uneven but I'm proud of all my nail art imperfections and you should be too. Perfect? Pfft, ain't nobody got time for that ;)

Have you done watermelon nails before? Did you like how they turned out? Would you try doing watermelon nails if you've never done them before? Who likes watermelons in general? I know I do.

Thanks for reading! You are awesome!