Pink mermaid tail nail art

Hey guys! I've got a surprise for you today. I did promise to show you these nails in my Liebster Award post. I know that post was in September but hey, October was for Halloween nail art so perfectly justified, right? Haha, maybe but anyway...

Since I received such overwhelming love for the mermaid tail nails that I did two months ago, I decided to do another version but this time in shades of red. I myself LOVED the mermaid nails that I did and was so excited that you all loved it too.

I was sitting around wondering what next to do for my nail design when it clicked in my head. I can do mermaid nails in shades of red! The image in my head was so pretty so I knew I had to do them.

Here are the pictures!

Taken with flash

This picture was taken after applying one coat each of polish to my nails so that is why you can see some patchiness.

The colors I used were:

• Thumb: China Glaze - Strawberry Fields
• Index: China Glaze - Strawberry Fields
• Middle: Essie - The Girls Are Out
• Ring: The Face Shop - PP401 (pink rose gold)
• Little: The Face Shop - Lovely Me:ex Hongdae Pink

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Then I used my black nail art pen to create the scales. I think this time around I made the scales around the same size so that's good.

A bit of blurry goodness?

Taken with flash

Taken indoors under yellow lighting

Taken in indirect sunlight

Taken indoors under yellow lighting

Taken with flash

The finished look! Again, I didn't do scales for my thumb nail. :D I alternated all the pink polishes to color the scales. Oh, and I also used Love & Beauty - gold glass flecks and Love & Beauty - gold glitter for some scales to give it a glowy golden look.

Taken with flash

Taken in indirect sunlight

Taken in the shade (yes, I was going for an 'under the sunlight' picture but failed)

Taken in sunlight (this didn't turn out quite right either but oh well)

Taken in sunlight

Taken between rays of sunlight (this was a mid-morning shot so you can see how soft the light is)

Taken indoors

And here's a picture of some polish that I spilled while doing these nails. I am a klutz. -_-

Aren't these mermaid nails GORGEOUS?! They are so much more sparkly in real!

They're actually not as tedious as you might think. Drawing the scales probably requires the most effort but filling the scales with color is my favorite part. Oh, and they also don't have to be perfect because from afar they look fabulous just the same.

I'd love to try them with a different color scheme next time. Maybe green? If I can gather enough different green polishes, haha.

Do you love these nails?! Do you love mermaids like I do? Do you prefer this version or the first version of my mermaid tail nails? Tell me in the comments, I'd LOVE to know.

Also, it seems like I'm still getting hits on my Bioshock nail art (I bet my sister is so proud of me)... maybe it's time to do another Booker and Elizabeth-themed nail design?! Which picture would you have me use as inspiration?

By the way, are you liking the bigger pictures or do you prefer them smaller?

Thank you so much for reading! xx

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!

Jane Porter from Tarzan nail art (with tutorial, sort of)

After my mermaid nails, I didn't think I could ever do nails that I love more. I was wrong, at least partially. Today I delved fearlessly into the messy world of painting to draw Jane Porter from Tarzan on my nail.

Jane is a total sweetheart. Who could hate her? She's a little bit careless, adventurous, compassionate and she likes to read. Oh, and she's got gorgeous hair! A Disney girl after my own heart.

Image from Google

I totally meant to do Lego nails and I already knew what I was going to paint but at the last minute I changed my mind and did this instead. I have always loved Tarzan and I feel that nobody ever gets too old for Disney. Here's a little tidbit about me: there are usually always scenes in Disney movies that make me bawl like a baby and Tarzan is no exception haha!

Anyway on to the nails (this is a picture heavy post but that depends on what you call picture heavy). To make it easier to understand, this is how it's going to be - I'm going to show you the first design then tell you how I did it then move on to the other nails and talk about how I did them.

Taken indoors (Brush 1)

Taken indoors (Brush 2)

These are the two brushes that I used for all the designs. I didn't use any other brushes. Let's name them Brush 1 and Brush 2 accordingly.

Taken indoors

Taken indoors

Taken indoors

Taken indoors

The finished product:

Taken indoors under yellow lighting

 How I drew Jane:

1. I painted one coat of Love & Beauty - pale blue (it is a one-coater and I didn't want the base to be too thick) and waited for it to dry.
2. I used Brush 1 and Love & Beauty - milky white to do a basic outline of Jane's face. You can see that it was a patchy shape and I didn't bother to cover up the holes. That's because...
3. I mixed China Glaze - Kalahari Kiss and Love & Beauty - milky white to get a close-enough skin tone for Jane. After mixing, I used Brush 1 again to go over the face shape, this time making sure to cover any blank patches.
4. Next, I used Brush 2 to create the outline of Jane's hair and filled it in with The Face Shop - BR802.
5. Using Brush 2, I used The Face Shop - BR802 to draw the eyebrows.
6. Then I used Orly - Liquid Vinyl, China Glaze - White on White, and a mixture of The Face Shop - BL602 and China Glaze - First Mate to draw the eyes. I used a random pale pink polish for her eyeshadow.
7. As you can see in the picture above, Jane's mouth turned out okay but I messed up her nose a little. It wasn't as near left as it should have been and it was too dark. What I did to correct this was cover it up with the skin tone color.
8. After I covered the mistake, I used China Glaze - Kalahari Kiss to draw the nose again. It still wasn't quite right but I couldn't afford to redo it because my eyes were getting tired.
9. I used The Face Shop - (I'll fill this in when I have time to check the polish's code) to outline the lips and China Glaze - White on White to draw the teeth (well, if you can see them).
10. I totally forgot about the neck (the blank blue space in the picture above) so I had to remix the colors to paint the neck and used Love & Beauty - milky white to draw the collar of her dress.
11. Sealed the design with Seche Vite and I was good to go... Yeaaah, the process took an hour... ~_~

I hope you got all that. I'm still trying to perfect the art of writing nail tutorials but I hope the pictures help. :S If you didn't get any part, you can always ask me to rephrase my explanation. And if you have any tips on how to improve my tutorial, please tell me. I don't want you to read this and be like, pshhh that was rubbish and never come back because you think I'm rubbish. :(

Taken indoors (index finger)

Taken indoors (middle finger)

Taken indoors (ring finger)

Taken with flash

From left to right: The top half of Jane's dress, bamboo shoots, the bouquet of flowers Tarzan handed to Jane, and the hem of her dress.

How I did the rest of my nails:

• Index finger:

1. I used The Face Shop - YL702 to draw the V-shape starting 1/4 inch from the top of my nail.
2. I used a white nail art pen to draw the collar.
3. Using Brush 1 and Orly - Charged Up, I drew the little tie.

• Middle finger:

1. I used Sally Hansen - Lickety Split Lime as my base.
2. Using Brush 2 and Sally Hansen - Mint Sprint, I drew the lines of the bamboo shoots.

• Ring finger:

1.  2 coats of China Glaze - White on White as the base.
2. Using Brush 2 and Sally Hansen - Mint Sprint, I drew the stems of the flowers.
3. I used Orly - Charged Up, The Face Shop - PP401 and The Face Shop - YL702 to draw the flowers.

• Little finger: 

1. I used 2 coats of The Face Shop - YL702 as the base.
2. Then I used a white nail art pen to draw on the hem.

Sealed everything off with Sally Hansen - Insta Dri Top Coat (surprisingly there wasn't any bubbling!)

Taken with flash

Taken indoors under yellow lighting

Taken in natural sunlight

Taken in natural sunlight

Collage

Image from disneyyandmore.tumblr.com

This is the picture that I used as reference. Hmm, my Jane looks a little sadder (the eyebrows I think) and the hair is a bit messier but other than that I think my one hour of work was worth it!

Sorry for the super lengthy post. Shortening sentences is not my forte. ~_~

What do you think? Do you like these nails? Do you think I'm nuts for spending so much time doing just one nail? Have you ever tried doing nails like this before? I'd love to see them. I also look forward to any constructive criticism that you might have for me.

If you made it to the end of the post without skipping any paragraphs, THANK YOU for reading! Love you guys!

Image from Tumblr

P.S: Should I make an Instagram account??

China Glaze - Strawberry Fields

I feel like a broken tape recorder every time I post and go 'this is my favorite nail polish' but it's all true and today I have another favorite to show you.

Taken with flash

Taken in natural sunlight

Taken in natural sunlight

Taken in natural sunlight

This beauty is China Glaze - Strawberry Fields. It's on their permanent line so never fear, go grab it; I got mine at Sally Beauty.

Strawberry Fields is a pink jelly-like polish with beautiful gold shimmer. The gold shimmer is what makes this polish so amazing. I have never seen anything like this before. The formula was lovely and the application was smooth but the coverage was slightly sheer on the first coat. I used 2 coats here to make sure there was no visible nail line.

I would be lying if I said that this wasn't my favorite pink polish with gold shimmer. It's so beautiful, I could stare at it for hours.

I have to say, I was also attracted by the name. Like, Strawberry Fields. Could a name get more visually pleasing to the mind?

Thanks for reading!

Mermaid Tail Nail Art

This mermaid tail design has to be one of my favorite nail designs since I started doing my nails. I did this on a whim and ended up loving it so much that I wore it for days!

I love mermaids! To me, they're whimsical and beautiful creatures. I have always loved Ariel from The Little Mermaid - that amazing red hair and wide-eyed look. Envious of all her red hair though I can't imagine myself looking good with red hair. :S Then there was Splash with Daryl Hannah as Madison the mermaid (I've got to watch that show again!). Mermaids + my love for a good Tom Hanks rom-com = yes, please!

Image from Google

So anyway, here's what my nails looked like for days:

Taken in natural sunlight

The colors for the base, all of which I used 2 coats of:

• Thumb, pointer and little finger: China Glaze - First Mate
• Middle finger: China Glaze - Frostbite (3 coats)
• Ring finger: Orly - Snowcone

After the base colors, I painted one coat of The Face Shop - BL601 (a sheer teal glitter) on all my nails. It's the glitter you can see on my thumbnail. I wanted to give my mermaid tail a hint of glitter and since I only ever used that polish once, I decided that it would be a good time to finally bust it out.

The colors I used for the scales on the tail:

• China Glaze - Strawberry Fields
• Sally Hansen - Mint Sprint
• Love & Beauty - gold glass flecks
• The Face Shop - BL602 (a pearly purple)
• A random gold glitter polish

I sealed it all in with Seche Vite. I'm running low already and it's only been a month! I'm sad because they don't sell Seche Vite where I am. I suppose I'll have to go get local top coat and endure smearing and long drying time so as to not waste my Seche Vite. :/

Taken in natural sunlight

How I did these nails:

I started with base coat, painted 2 coats of blue polish, used a nail art pen to draw the scales (if you don't have a nail art pen, you can use acrylic paint and a brush or use nail polish and a toothpick/dotting tool) and filled in the scales with color and finished off with top coat.

Admittedly it is quite time-consuming to work with a toothpick/dotting tool and black polish to draw the scales but it's what I used to do before I got my hands on any kind of tools. So if I can do it, you can do it too! Just avoid painting your nails too close to bedtime or else you'll have to risk doing only half of what you planned on doing.

Taken indoors

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Taken under yellow lighting

Taken with flash (but half-ruined by the shadow of my hand)

And this is what my nails looked like on Day 4. Barely any tip wear! I should have wrapped my tips to make it last longer but I'm so bad at wrapping my tips. Any tips on wrapping tips? No pun intended.

I asked my sister which blue tail she liked best and she said she liked the China Glaze - Frostbite best. Hmm, at first I liked the China Glaze - First Mate better but now I like them all!

Mermaid tail nail art, who knew, huh? (read in Flynn Rider's voice when he discovered the frying pan's awesomeness)

What the heck, I love everything Disney (take me to Disneyland, please!!) so one day I might have to do Disney Princess themed nails.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it... and including The Little Mermaid pictures ;)

Image from Google