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!

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.

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!

BioShock Infinite Nail Art

I did it again! I did another nail design especially for my sister.

For months, my sister has been talking about BioShock Infinite which is apparently the best game she has ever played in her life. Weeks before the release of the game, she made me watch the trailer of the game and I did. To be honest (okay, please, BioShock fans don't throw potatoes at me for this), it didn't strike any chords in me. I found it okay, nothing too exciting. But you could tell by the expression on my sister's face that she was thrilled and anxious for the release of the game.

Haha, I think - okay, I know she was disappointed that I didn't share her enthusiasm. Anyhow, the game was released eventually (I'm sure I was reminded of the release date multiple times) and she bought the game and played it and loved it even more.

Usually I watch her play games (Assassin's Creed, Batman: Arkham Asylum & Arkham City, Call of Duty, Battlefield, Metro 2033, etc.) and give comments on what I think about the game and my final verdict on whether I would play it or not. But with BioShock Infinite, I didn't watch it at all. It might or might not have to do with the fact that my sister was so engrossed in the game that she finished it in like a day. I only caught the ending aka the credits rolling, ahaha! I watched that clip of Troy Baker and Courtnee Draper (voice actors of Booker and Elizabeth) singing and that's about it.

Sooo... I missed out on the best-est game of all time. And I suppose I feel kind of bad that I didn't share my sister's enthusiasm.

This nail design was spontaneous. I didn't think much before diving into it. I was fresh out of ideas for my next mani - just kidding, I couldn't decide what to paint next. As I was sitting and thinking, the image of BioShock Infinite floated into my mind. My sister was at school so what better surprise than to do nails based on her favorite game?!

I did spend quite some time Googling for pictures I could use as reference/inspiration and finally, I got it. So here they are, this is what I did:

Taken in indirect sunlight

This is before I used top coat so it's a bit gritty and uneven. The thumb is the BioShock Infinite title, the index, middle and ring depict Booker and Elizabeth, and the little finger is the front view of the blouse Elizabeth wears in most of the game.

Let me break it down for you. Here are the colors I used:

• Base color for thumb: China Glaze - Kalahari Kiss
• Base color for my index, middle and ring finger: Love & Beauty - baby blue
• Base color for little finger: China Glaze - White on White

Colors for the design:

• BioShock Infinite title: China Glaze - First Mate, China Glaze - White on White, China Glaze - Salsa
• Booker and Elizabeth's skin: China Glaze - Kalahari Kiss
• Booker's gun, shirt and pants: Orly - Liquid Vinyl
• Booker and Elizabeth's hair, his jacket and belt: The Face Shop - a dark brown (I also mixed white with the brown to get different shades)
• Booker's scarf: China Glaze - Salsa
• Elizabeth's dress and the scarf against her white blouse: China Glaze - First Mate
• Booker and Elizabeth's shirts: China Glaze - White on White

Taken in shade

Taken under white lighting

I wore this design for a full five days with barely any tip wear. Oh, here's the picture I used for reference:

Image from Google

Hmm, okay, my Booker is thinner than the picture above and Elizabeth's shoulder should have been higher but apart from that, I think I did pretty good with what I had.

Was my sister delighted and surprised? Indeed. Who would ever guess that I would do BioShock Infinite nails? Certainly not myself so in a way, I surprised myself.

What do you think?

Thank you for reading this lengthy post!

If you're a BioShock fan or just a fellow gamer and would like to tell my sister how much you also enjoyed the game, feel free to comment or @ me on Twitter. I'll be happy to pass the message along.

P.S: As of a couple of hours ago, I can now officially say that I've watched 10% of the gameplay. Yes, my sister made me watch her play it and I agreed. :) Okay, dammit, I like Troy Baker as Booker DeWitt. My sister is going to be ROTFLHAO at this but what the heck, right?

P.S.S: I finally get the 'Do you take your coffee black?' reference.

Striped ruffian nail art

This was one of my older designs and my first attempt at ruffian nail art. I really liked the concept of having this slight curve of color peeking out from a coat of color above it. Also, once upon a time, I attempt to do a half-moon mani but that turned out horribly.

I used Sally Hansen - Silver Sweep as my silver, a red-orange polish for my accent nail and a black nail art pen to do the stripes. I'm not sure why I did the stripes but I'm glad I did because they turned out cuter than expected and it gives my ruffian nails a bit of an oomph.

On my right hand, I used Nicole by OPI - Light a Candle (a silver-lavender polish) and a pink polish.

This was the first coat of alternating color above the base color. I thought the red polish would be opaque over the silver but it didn't quite turn out that way.

So I tried two coats - still not much better but not too bad either. Initially I wasn't a big fan but the more I looked at it, the more I liked them.

Hah! Here's my right hand after trying to paint the curve of the second color neatly. My pointer finger didn't quite turn out as nicely as I wanted it to be but the rest were okay. I also used 2 coats of the alternating polish.

How do you find ruffian nails? Or do you like the half-moon design better?

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!

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