Romantically Apocalyptic Nail Art

I probably have tons of people guessing what my display picture of these nails actually are.

These are actually the four main characters of the popular post-apocalyptic online comic, Romantically Apocalyptic. I'll get to them in a bit.

This design has got to be one of my favorite designs that I've ever done. The reasons are simple:

1. I did this for my sister who is an avid gamer and post-apocalyptic-related-stuff fan. She introduced Romantically Apocalyptic to me while I was in the US... since my return home, I regret to say that I haven't been keeping up with it regularly. But she loves it and keeps up with it - dare I say - religiously.
2. I do adore the characters, specifically Mr. Snippy (who is probably ridiculously cute underneath that mask).
3. I think they turned out the way I expected them to. Which is rare because sometimes I picture a design so perfectly in my head but the end result is disappointing.
4. Oh, and I've only ever seen one other RA nail design so unless there are more out there hidden in the wasteland ruins of the Internet (hah, an RA reference!), that would make my nail art one of the first few and rare RA designs.
5. One of the quickest and most rewarding nail designs evar!

Thumb: Captain's famous mug.
Pointer: Zee Captain
Middle: Mr. Snippy (and those cool double-lens glasses that serve as his eyebrows, lol)
Ring: Pilot
Little: Engie

The colors I used:
Thumb: China Glaze - White on White, Orly - Liquid Vinyl, China Glaze - Salsa
Pointer: Orly - Liquid Vinyl, China Glaze - Salsa, nameless purple glitter polish.
Middle: Orly - Liquid Vinyl, China Glaze - White on White, China Glaze - Elephant Walk, China Glaze - Frostbite
Ring: Orly - Liquid Vinyl, random green glitter polish
Little: Orly - Liquid Vinyl, Revlon - Electric, China Glaze - White on White, China Glaze - Elephant Walk, Love & Beauty - shimmer flakies

I did some polish mixing to get the right shade of color that I wanted and I used white polish as a base for all the eyes.

I even added the fur coat over Engie's eyes even though as first I was tentative. I used white polish then flecked on different shades of gray to make a textured kind of look. It turned out okay. I could have done a bit of touch up but I was afraid I might mess it up so I just left it at that.

BWAH?! on my right hand nails. Mr. Snippy's trademark quote when he's surprised. I got my sister to help me make a black outline of the letters before I went over them with white.

My sister loved them, yay!

What do you think? Did I do Romantically Apocalyptic justice with these nails? If you're like my sister, go check out the comic over here and tell me what you think.

P.S: Mr. Snippy's gotta get rid of that scarf. ;)

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 3 of my US haul

Here's the rest of my nail polish haul from the US. Some of my favorite nail colors are here and I'm excited to show them to you!

Orly - Glowstick

This is fantastic! I love this neon yellow. It's everything that a neon yellow should be. I would suggest layering it over white polish to make the color pop. It really does make a difference. I'll definitely be wearing this all summer long.

Maybelline Color Show - Impeccable Greys

I love gray polishes. Obsessed with gray polishes. Tell you what I think of this gray in a later post.

China Glaze Holographic - Infra Red

My first holographic nail polish everrr! I thought I'd already bought too many colors so I decided to pick one out of all the other polishes from the Holographic Collection. It was tough just settling on one!

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Lickety Lime Split

Ooh, I wish I hadn't bought this :( I have a similar green that's also from Sally Hansen. There is a difference in color but I wish I'd picked another color instead. That's the problem with thinking you have too few greens in your collection.

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Mint Sprint

Now this is a different story. I adore this minty green. It's bold and bright but not neon.

Essie - Play Date

I'm obsessed with Essie nail polish. They're worth every single penny! This is a really good orchid polish. It's almost a one coater - so rich and smooth that it just glides on!

I'm a clumsy nail painter so I usually accidentally fudge my nails before they dry and when that happens I can't seem to repair the damage but with Play Date, I just dabbed a little polish to cover the dent and it smoothed out so perfectly!

Essie - The Girls Are Out

I am in LOVE with Essie - The Girls Are Out. It is such a beautiful shade of magenta and the shimmer just adds to the loveliness. Great formula and super glossy finish - ideal! I've been wearing this a lot as well. Can't get enough of it.

Wait for the posts of the swatches!

Part 2 of my US haul

 And here's the continuation to part 1 of my haul.

I didn't realize how many base and top coats I bought until this post. I actually only meant to get the Seche Vite Fast Drying Top Coat but here's what I ended up with:

Sally Hansen Complete Care Extra Moisturizing 4-in-1 Treatment

Hmm, this is supposed to strengthen, moisturize and help nails grow faster. I have only used it twice so I can't say for sure whether it works as advertised.

Sally Hansen - Double Duty Strengthening Base & Top Coat

I went to Target, couldn't find any OPI base coats so I went with this. It is pretty decent and I love the brush!

Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri Anti-chip Top Coat

I like this top coat. I would use it for every day manicures. It dries a little slower than the Seche Vite but who cares?! A few more seconds of drying time don't matter to me.

Orly - Matte Top Coat

This is my first matte top coat ever. I used to look at matte nail art and think they were the coolest things ever but somehow once I applied this on my own nails, I didn't really like the look of it. I think I'm more of a super glossy top coat finish kind of girl. Maybe I'll give it a few more shots - see if I can appreciate the finish.

Orly - Bonder Rubberized Base Coat

I actually bought this as a nod to my mom's old Orly Bonder Base Coat which is what I first used when I was younger. Orly's bottles are way huge which is great because I won't have to run around looking for a new base coat once the others run out.

Seche Vite - Dry Fast Top Coat

Ahah! For all the hype that people make about Seche Vite's Top Coat, the print sure came off the bottle fast. I'm kidding. It's great and really works - seals everything in super quick! The smell is strong though and I don't think it's 3-free?? Still, I wish I'd gotten the huge refill bottle. I've been getting back into the swing of nail art and I've been using this Seche Vite as a top coat for the designs. This definitely beats the heck out of local top coat. ;)


Also, Happy 4th of July to those celebrating!

Random fact: I followed a link to Bonnie McKee's new video American Girl yesterday. The song is mehhh to me but I love a video with fun cameos.

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.