Christmas nail art: penguin and snowflakes

Hello friends!~

Today I have a recent Christmas nail art design! I'm excited because it's been a while since I've done something fresh. I hope you like this design:

Taken indoors

For this design I used: Orly -Snowcone, Orly - Liquid Vinyl, China Glaze - White on White, Love & Beauty - red, China Glaze - Fairy Dust, and a white nail art pen.

I used two coats of Orly - Snowcone for my thumb, index, ring and little finger. On each finger I drew a different snowflake design and some 'snow'. I swiped on a very thin coat of China Glaze - Fairy Dust to create a glittery effect then I applied top coat.

For the penguin, I used two coats of Orly - Liquid Vinyl then I used White on White to draw the oblong of the penguin's belly. I used a dotting tool to do the eyes. I didn't bring ANY orange/yellow polish with me (brilliant) so I decided to wing it and mix Love & Beauty - red with White on White to create that lovely shade of pink that you see as the penguin's beak and feet. I think the color turned out unique and I love it!!! -small surprises-

I sealed in the design with Seche Vite Fast Drying Top Coat.

Taken indoors

Taken indoors

Taken indoors

Seems like you can't really see the layer of China Glaze - Fairy Dust but in real, the effect was pretty. I didn't want the coat to be too heavy because in another design I used too much and it stole too much attention from the actual design.

What do you think? Is Orly - Snowcone not the most perfect wintery shade of blue? Let me know! Christmas nails all out? Show me please!

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! :)

Ariel from The Little Mermaid Nail Art

Hi guys!! Today I bring you another installment of Disney characters on my nails! After Jane, I was obsessed. I knew I needed to do Ariel because, duh, I heart mermaids and red hair and the ocean and you can check out my mermaid tail nails here and the red version of the mermaid tail here.

PLEASE tell me you love mermaids as much as I do!!

Taken in indirect sunlight

Sorry for the shaky hands!! I didn't manage to draw the lines as straight as I wanted and my eyes were getting tired from aligning the brush and trying to draw the outline.

I used a bajillion polishes to do this design (okay I only have that many bottles, not even close to 100) but I managed to compile the list:

Thumb:

• China Glaze - Kalahari Kiss
• China Glaze - Salsa
• China Glaze - First Mate
• China Glaze - White on White
• Orly - Liquid Vinyl 
• Love & Beauty - milky white
• The Face Shop - BR802

You can see the rest of the designs in the pictures below:

Index:

• 2 coats of China Glaze - Kalahari Kiss as a base
• The Face Shop - PP401 and a random purple polish for the shell top
• Sally Hansen - Lickety Split Lime and Sally Hansen - Mint Sprint for the tail

Middle:

• 2 coats of (my drying) Revlon Top Speed - Yellow as a base
• The Face Shop - BL602 for the stripes

Ring:

• 2 coats of The Face Shop - BL602 as a base
• Sponged on a gradient of China Glaze - First Mate, The Face Shop - BL602 and Love & Beauty - baby blue
• Used The Face Shop - YL702 and a striper brush to draw the moon

Little:

• 2 coats of Love & Beauty -  baby blue for the base
• Sponged on a gradient of The Face Shop - BL602
• Used a striper brush, Sally Hansen - Mint Sprint and The Face Shop -  to create the bed of corals.

Taken in indirect sunlight

From left to right: Ariel's bikini top and tail, Flounder's scales, the reflection of the moon minus Ariel sitting on the rock ala the picture at the top of the post, and finally the bed of corals that symbolize Ariel's home.

Taken with flash

Taken with retro filter

Taken in indirect sunlight

I did all five nails in an hour which is a vast improvement from spending an hour on solo Jane on my thumbnail.

I'm pleased at how her eyes, nose and skin tone turned out... And I love the other designs so much!

BUT I'm not sure I managed to capture the true expression of Ariel here which saddens me because I want to do my favorite mermaid justice. My Ariel is more like meh, not frickin' impressed while the real Ariel is like hmmm, I wonder what's above the sea...

None of my red polishes match her bright red hair so I had to stick with China Glaze - Salsa though now come to think of it I should've used the red-pink polish.

What do you think though? How are these nails for a second attempt at doing semi-realistic painting?? Does it look okay, passable, so-so? Would you have me redo these nails? (I would) Or do you like them? -hopeful- Do you prefer my Jane nails or this set of Ariel nails?

Check out my Jane Porter nails here! If you have any Disney princess nail art requests, I'd love to hear them and take them into consideration. <3

Thanks for reading!
x

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!

Frosted tribal nail art

I actually did these nails quite some time ago (when I was a semi-newbie at nail stuff) which would explain the lack of clean up so please excuse that.

Taken with flash

I used all Love & Beauty polishes for this design except for the black polish which came from a black nail art pen.

Love & Beauty doesn't actually give their nail polish names - well, you can see names on the Forever21 site but these came in a set - so I'll just name them myself.

On my thumb is a Frosty Peach polish and the other polish on my other nails is a shade of Pearly Oyster. Both are very sheer and would probably require 4 or 5 coats (!!) to reach any kind of opacity so I layered them over white.

In the picture above, I'm wearing one coat of both polishes and you can tell that it's streaky.

Taken with flash

Now here I'm wearing 2 coats of both polishes. The pearly finish has obvious brushstrokes but I don't mind that so much.

I wasn't - and still am not - too crazy about either color since neither complements my skin color. It just makes my skin look washed-out or at some angles, darker. It wasn't working for me but I thought it would be a waste to remove after layering on the polish so carefully... So this is what I did:

Taken with flash

At first, I used Love & Beauty - Pale Blue, Pale Pink and Pale Orchid to do some random stripes. Suddenly the color didn't seem so bad and I found myself reaching for my nail art pen to fill in the blanks with dots and arrows.

Taken with flash

I took the pictures before I put on top coat so if you're wondering whether I was going for a textured look, I wasn't.

This might not be one of my best nail designs but it was spontaneous and I ended up figuring out a way to jazz up the poor base colors. So if you have a nail color that you don't like on you, you could probably try something like this.

I LOVE all things tribal print. Do you?

Thanks for reading!

Under The Sea nail art

Summer is almost over for you guys who actually have summer. I'm no fan of the heat but I'll take the sea breeze, salt water and breathtaking ocean view. It would be nice if I were at a beach right now... I'll just continue dreaming until I get there. :D

Here's a summery nail design that I enjoyed doing:

Taken with flash

Taken in indirect sunlight

Taken in indirect sunlight

I started off with 2 & 1/2 coats of Love & Beauty - baby blue because it's a really sheer polish. I used The Face Shop polishes for the drawings of the shells, fish and starfish. I would name them all but I'd have to go peer at what the code for each polish is and I'm lazy to do that. Maybe I'll name them later on.

I used a black nail art pen to outline my little fishies and stars. See that odd blue line on my middle finger? You're probably wondering why there's a blue line in the middle of nowhere. I intended to make a border around the shell but... obviously the design was too big so I just left the line there.

And if you look closely (or maybe not), you can see an odd patch of polish under the fish's gill. Haha, yeah I made a booboo and decided to patch it up. I patched it with white polish before going over with the blue polish. It's not very obvious from afar and I'm rather known for trying to salvage designs that don't turn out right.

Taken under yellow lighting

I didn't expect the fish drawing to be my favorite but it is! It's so pretty with the shimmery peach polish.

If you had to choose one design you like most, which would it be and why? Ever done seashell nails before? I'd love to see them.

Thanks for reading.

Parachute - Overnight nail art

I am SO excited to show you these nails today! If you've been following my Twitter account, you'll know that I've been anticipating Parachute's new album Overnight. Well, today's the day! Overnight released at midnight today so go get it, guys!!

First off, I HEART Parachute. What more can I say?! Secondly, I'm loving most of the songs off Overnight. I'm not crazy about the four songs they released yesterday but the rest are AMAZING. Will's voice just blows me away. I love all their acoustic versions - it's all so raw and stripped down which is just the way music should be appreciated.

I digress! I knew I had to do Parachute nails right after I listened to The Other Side for the first time. It is by far my FAVORITE track off the album and I don't know who could NOT like it. I actually did these nails twice because I didn't like the way the design on my middle, ring and little finger turned out. Double effort for you guys ;)

So here it is:

Taken with flash

Let me explain what each nail design is about:

• Thumb: Overnight album cover.
• Index: A hurricane to symbolize their song Hurricane which is really good.
• Middle: I got this logo off their site. It's their Parachute Flight Crew logo which is their fanclub.
• Ring: It's a parachute... though I think it doesn't really look like one.
• Little: White, red and blue symbolize Will's love for 4th of July which I believe he proclaimed is his favorite holiday of the year. Also, I didn't do 4th of July nails this year so I thought what the heck, let's kill two birds with one stone even though I'm, hmm, more than a month late.

Taken under yellow lighting

How I did these nails:

• Thumb: I used Orly - Charged Up as the base and sponged on some pink and orange polish then I used a black nail art pen to draw their silhouettes, painted the tip of my nail purple (not the same purple as their cover ~_~) and used white polish to create the light effect. Then I dabbed on China Glaze - Fairy Dust to mimic the twinkling lights in the distance.
• Index: I used Orly - Snowcone as a base, sponged on China Glaze - Kalahari Kiss to create the ground and used a black nail art pen to scribble the hurricane.
• Middle: I started off with China Glaze - White on White, used a nail art brush to paint the blue curve at the base of my nail, the red stripes and finally painted the rest of my nail blue.
• Ring: I used Love & Beauty - pale blue as the base, used a black nail art pen to draw the outline of the hurricane then filled in the parachute with pink, purple and orange polish.
• Little: Started with China Glaze - White on White as a base, sponged on the red and blue, voila!

Sealed my design off with Seche Vite.

Taken in natural sunlight

Taken in natural sunlight

Taken in natural sunlight

Like the BioShock nails that I did, I hope I did the album cover justice. I feel like I could have done more to make them look more realistic but at the same time I just wanted it to be simple.. Tell me what you think.

Other images from Google and weareparachute.com

Oh, I used an app to create this collage so that y'all can see what my inspiration was behind each nail except for the hurricane and pinky design.

Thanks so much for reading! Hope you love Parachute as much as I do.

P.S (haha, if for whatever reason any of you find my blog - I'm hopeful): Will, Nate, Kit, Alex and Johnny, my sister and I love you guys! When are you guys going on a world tour? We would LOVE to see you in concert!

P.S.S: You can listen to all the songs off Overnight on their soundcloud here!  You can thank me later.

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