Christmas nails: Frosty the Snowman

Hey guys. Merry Christmas... in 4 weeks hehe! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! We're having turkey leftovers and they are delicious! Here are some Christmas nails I did last year (I think).

It was very simple because I was attempting nail art on my right hand (as you can tell from the pictures). Here you go:

All I used for this nail design was China Glaze - Frostbite, Love & Beauty - Confetti Sprinkles, China Glaze - Salsa, a white nail art pen and some black nail polish. I layered Confetti Sprinkles over Frostbite and for my thumb nail, I used the nail art pen to draw the snow and snowman. I dotted on the scarf, eyes and hat. And that's it!

Here's a very simple nail design I did for my sister:

  

 Haha, as you can see there's not much to it. I used China Glaze - Exotic Encounters as the base and used a white nail art pen to draw the snowflakes and VERY minimalistic tree. I liked how they turned out.

Let me know what you think. What Christmas nails have you done or are you about to do?

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Raine

Black and gold glitter gradient nails

Hey everyone! It's been two weeks since the New Year but since I haven't blogged since last year, I'm just going to go ahead and say Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you've been doing well. I'm sorry for not blogging (or scheduling posts ahead). I hope to get back to blogging here soon.

I'm going to show you some nails that are super easy to do and perfect for a fancy event. I've done these nails quite a few times for fancy dinners when I don't have time because this look is really easy to achieve and looks pretty darned good.

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

What you need: a creme polish, a glitter polish, a base coat and a top coat.

What I used: Sally Hansen - 4 in 1 Complete Care base coat, Orly - Liquid Vinyl, Love & Beauty - gold glitter and Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat.

First, use a base coat (especially if you're going to be wearing a dark nail polish because you really don't want to have unsightly stained nails). Then paint two coats of creme polish. Using your gold glitter polish, scrape off most of the polish then dab the tip of your nail with the polish. What you want to achieve is sparse glitter distribution that will build up with the next coat. Repeat the dabbing until you get the look that you want. Use a top coat and you're good to go.

Gradient nails are super fun and easy. You can make them funky or fancy. I didn't use the sponge gradient method here because glitter doesn't really dab on that well.

I hope you like these nails and give them a go.

Thanks for reading and sticking around! :)

Glitter gradient nails with Purr-fect Plum and Salsa

Hi, friends!

I've got gradient nails to show you today. They're really easy and the best part is having fun with different color combinations.

I did these gradient nails on a whim and look at how pretty they turned out. If you're going to an event and have no time or no idea what nail design to do, I'd definitely recommend glitter gradient nails. I didn't use the sponging method. Read on to find out how I did the gradient effect.

Taken with flash

On my left hand, I used China Glaze - Purr-fect Plum and The Face Shop - purple glitter (sorry, I can't find the code on their site). For the accent nail I used China Glaze - First Mate and some glitter polish but I can't remember the exact polish I used. I think it might be China Glaze - Fairy Dust but since it's not holographic, I might be wrong.

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

On my right hand, I used China Glaze - Salsa and did the gradient with China Glaze - Ruby Pumps. The red glitter really blended with Salsa which is a creme polish so it came out really pretty. For the accent nail, again I used China Glaze - First Mate and that unknown glitter.

How I did these gradient nails:

1. First I put on 2 coats of the creme polish and let that dry.
2. Then I scraped off the excess glitter polish from the brush on the inside of the bottle, allowing only the slightest polish on the brush.
3. Then I dabbed on the glitter from the middle of my nail to the tip, making sure there is more concentration of glitter near the tip to create the gradient effect.
4. I repeated step 2 and 3 until I was satisfied with my gradient.
5. I sealed my design with Sally Hansen - Insta Dri top coat.

I hope you try this design out! Gradient glitter really does step your nails up a class so it'd be perfect to wear to a wedding or a Christmas party.

Let me know what you think of these nails in the comment box. Are they too flashy? Do you like them? Have you tried gradient nails with glitter polish before? What color combinations would you use?

Thanks for reading!

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!

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!

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!

Mystical saran wrap nail art

Here's my first attempt at saran wrap nails. Yup, I've been attempting lots of different nail art so lots of firsts for me.

I actually saw this design months ago but forgot about it until recently when I came across this video and liked how doable it was. I also saw Jen from ThePolishaholic's submission for the Picture Polish contest after I did these nails and I really loved her saran wrap mani color combo. I might try it next time.

I was fascinated by the fact that there was something readily available in the kitchen that could be used for nail art. Needless to say, I got the cling wrap and tore off a huge piece and happily trotted to my desk where I began to work on this super easy and fun design.

Taken in natural sunlight

Taken in natural sunlight

This design is so easy to achieve - almost effortless and if you dab off too much polish, you can always go over with another coat. How to achieve this look: paint your base color, let it dry, paint over with another color, quickly scrunch up a ball of saran wrap and dab lightly over the wet polish. Or of course if you prefer to see how it's done, you can always watch the video.

I used The Face Shop - GR501 (light blue) as the base for my thumb, index, middle and little finger and The Face Shop - PP402 (pink) as the base for my ring finger. Then I used the pink on top of the four fingers and blue for the middle finger.

I did use Essie - The Girls Are Out to layer over my thumb. I really liked the shimmer!! But I thought it was too dark and I didn't want to waste the polish by dabbing most of it away so I switched and used the other pink.

Taken in natural sunlight

Here I used Essie - Play Date as the base and The Face Shop - PP402 (pink) as the base for the ring finger. Then I used Orly - Charged Up to layer over Play Date and Sally Hansen - Mint Sprint over the pink polish.

I'm not too sure I liked the accent nail since it was a lot darker than I expected and didn't quite complement the purple nails.

I asked my sister whether I should layer glitter over my nails and her reply was: I will always choose glitter over non-glitter. That was that. I layered China Glaze - Fairy Dust over my nails.

Do you like these saran wrap nails with glitter or without? Would you try saran wrap nails?

Thanks for reading!

Red and blue triangle nail art

Today's nail art is simple and what I like to call: what would have been my 4th of July nails. I must have seen this design on Pinterest - can't really remember where the inspiration came from - but I started out wearing the nails plain.

Taken under yellow lighting

I started out with China Glaze - White on White as my base - I'm really starting to embrace white nails because they're so summery and gorgeous - and then as the tips wore off, I decided that I would sponge on some color so that I could wear the white polish for a little longer.

I got some of my handy tape, cut out two pieces, joined them to form a V shape, stuck it carefully on my nail and sponged on China Glaze - Salsa. I used a makeup sponge and lightly dabbed it on, leaving some white polish visible. Then I sponged on China Glaze - First Mate, again making sure that I did it lightly so that I didn't cover the red and white polish.

Then I peeled off the tape, sealed the design with Seche Vite and admired my nails for a good five minutes.

Taken in sunight

Taken in sunlight

Taken with flash

I really like how these nails turned out. It was fairly simple to do except for the taping part which I am usually quite clumsy with. I like how the red and blue polish blended a little to create some purple-ness.

What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

Easy dotted neon nail art

Okay, this might be somewhat messy but just look past that, alright? This has got to be the one of simplest designs ever. You don't need any kind of skills to do this.

If you want to add a fun twist to your nails, all you have to do is get a dotting tool (doesn't matter if it's the end of a skewer, the end of a bobby pin or a tooth pick or even a pen).

Taken with flash

Here are the colors I used for my skittle mani before I added the dots:

• Index: Sinful Colors - 24/7
• Middle: China Glaze - Turned Up Turquoise
• Ring: Orly - Glowstick
• Little: Sinful Colors - 24/7

I painted 2 coats of each neon polish over 1 coat of China Glaze - White on White.

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

I used my dotting tool to create these dots. I used China Glaze - Turned Up Turquoise to dot over Sinful Colors - 24/7 and Orly - Charged Up over the other two nails.

Taken with flash

Easy or what? Barely any effort required and your nails will look super cute.

Thanks for reading!

Neon Tribal Nail Art using Orly Glowstick

Today I have a fun tribal design to show you.
I knew I had to do nail art with Orly - Glowstick because it's so vibrant; the black nail polish just seemed to pop against the neon base.

It's simple and I used a black nail art pen to draw the tribal design.
I used 1 coat of China Glaze - White on White before using 2 coats of Glowstick.

Taken indoors

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

You can see that it wasn't easy taking the pictures with such a bright base.

Taken in natural sunlight

Taken in natural sunlight

I personally like the design on my thumb and ring finger the most.

Do you like these neon tribal nails?

Thanks for reading.

Abstract brush stroke nail art - pastel and bright

I came across this abstract canvas brush stroke nail art on Gorgeois's blog last year, I think. She did a tutorial on it and it's brilliant so check it out over here. The first time I attempted it, I had too much polish on the brush and I wasn't very spontaneous so it turned out to be a splotchy mess.

This was my second attempt:

Pretty neat, huh? Obviously it lacks the subtle but mind-blowing beauty of Gorgeois's but I'm happy with how these turned out. It's definitely one of my favorite designs because I like spontaneous, carefree designs. No tools required either - bonus!

I used way too many polishes to be named so I'll leave that out. What's awesome about this design is that you can use any color combination you like and it'll probably turn out nice.

Up close, I really liked the pastel combination but from afar, it just looked washed out whereas the brighter colors were really eye-catching. I really have to do this design again with different colors!

Do you like the bold color combo or the pastel one?

Thanks for reading !

P.S: Don't mind the different fonts of the watermark in every picture, I was testing out fonts to see which one suits me best.