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.

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!

Whimsy rose garden nail art

I did it! I finally did the floral nails that I've been longing to do for quite some time now. I scrolled through quite a few pages of Google images to find inspiration. I LOVE how these turned out. What do you think?

Taken indoors

I remembered to take a picture while doing these nails.

Taken with flash

Here they are, halfway done. Flash overkill, I know. :P

Taken with flash

And here they are, complete!

I used a dotting tool for the flowers, a small nail art brush for the leaves and a black nail art pen for the outline of the flowers.

The colors I used for this design:
Base:

• China Glaze - White on White

Flowers:

• China Glaze - Strawberry Fields (couldn't resist a bit of shimmer!)
• Essie - The Girls Are Out (shimmer, again)
• A pink Love & Beauty polish from F21.
• Two nameless local polishes.

 Leaves:

• Sally Hansen - Mint Sprint
• Sally Hansen - Green With Envy

I used Seche Vite as a top coat and it sealed all the colors in nicely.

Taken indoors

Taken indoors (matte)

Oh, I added my Orly - Matte Topcoat after a couple of days to see if I would like it matte. Nahhh. Glossy is the way to go!

Taken in the shade outdoors

Taken indoors

This is China Glaze - White on White before I did the design. You can probably tell from the picture that only my thumbnail had two coats and the rest only one. In my haste to get my nails done, I forgot to take a picture with all nails layered with 2 coats of White on White. ><

Thanks so much for reading.

Part 1 of my US haul

So I've decided to move my nail posts over here since it's a big feature in my life and somehow I think my nail art deserves a blog of its own. This will be my little space on the Internet to talk about all things nail polish related.

If you have been following our old blog, you'll know that it is hard for me to get my hands on any decent nail polish so obviously I was ecstatic when I went to the US for a brief holiday. I shamelessly hauled back more than 20 bottles of nail polish. I would have swept the shelves clean but with the luggage limit and other stuff that I'd bought, I didn't want to have to pay for extra baggage (these bottles are heavy!)

Here are some of the goodies that I brought back. I'm only going to be showing the bottles even though I've swatched all of these because I haven't loaded all the pictures yet.

Orly - Charged Up

China Glaze - Fairy Dust

Orly - Liquid Vinyl

Essie - Naughty Nautical

My first few bottles of Essie are in this haul and I don't regret spending $7.79 on each bottle. The formula for the colors that I bought are amazing.

I'm wearing Naughty Nautical in all the pictures and I LOVE it so much! I'm so glad I saw the swatches of this and read the good reviews about it. I saw it in Target and snagged it without thinking.

China Glaze - Salsa

Orly - Snowcone

China Glaze - Strawberry Fields

China Glaze - Turned Up Turquoise

I already have one bottle at home but it's one of my favorite colors and I'd been using it a lot so I had to get a spare. It really doesn't look that green on the nail but this is what it looks like with flash.

China Glaze - White on White

So far I don't regret a single color that I've bought here. China Glaze - White on White is a great base for neon colors or just about any color. I guess my only regret is not getting another bottle of this. Argh, I don't know when I'll be back in the US :S

I have so much that I want to do with this blog so bear with me while I fiddle with it and get it to the way I want.