Experimenting with Foils

Backdated post for a design I did sometime in March. 

Having not quite mastered the skill of getting full smooth nail coverage with foils yet, but not wanting to let my massive foil haul go to waste in the meantime, I decided the best course of action to take was abstract. If it's gonna look messy, then I should probably do something that is supposed to look messy, and messy turned out to be awesome!

I did the base with my favourite cheapo 1 euro a bottle spanish brand YSNY number 14, (really wishing I had brought more of those from Europe with me) and then using a paint brush I just randomly striped foil glue onto the nails. I did one layer at a time, so glue striping, first colour foil, more glue striping in opposite direction, second colour foil, and so on. I used 3 different colour foils, light pink, fuchsia and violet, and just kept glueing and foiling until I liked what I saw. If you attempt this just be sure to try and not cover too much of the nail with the glue otherwise you wont see the base, there is a lot of overlapping between the foils too.

Since doing this mani I am proud to say I have finally nailed the art of foiling (pun intended) and get perfect smooth coverage everytime. Now all I need is a foil friendly topcoat that doesn't wrinkle or dull it. GRRRRR.

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Pretty Pastels

Backdated post for a design I did sometime in March. 

My friend Emma was so pleased to have pretty nails that when her netball team had another week off from matches she came right back for another mani and with her own request this time! Pretty pastel gradients!

 

I was pleased with how this gradient turned out though I think the orange colour spoiled it, it just didn't fit with the other colours very well and it probably would have been much nicer if it was yellow instead. 

The polishes were part of a 10 polish set that I received as a christmas gift, Ive long since thrown the packaging away, and the bottles don't have anything written on them, but if my memory serves me well I believe I saw the same set as part of the K-mart christmas gifts section. They are great little polishes anyway, and the gradient worked really well with them.

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I finally got me some matt topcoat!

Backdated post for a design I did sometime in February. 

So I finally got me some matt topcoat which I had been dying to try for ages! For whatever reason I was still in a ''sophisticated'' mood, but I also wanted to try a new gold leaf effect technique I had found online using plastic food wrap. I call it plastic food wrap because I don't know what the prefered term of my readers is, in the UK we call it cling film, I know some people call it cellophane, and Im sure there are probably many other names for it too! Either way, with ''plastic food wrap'' you get the general idea!

I didn't want the gold leaf effect to take away from the matt look too much, so I taped off a seperate area of each nail to try and get a bit of contrast. I'm sorry but I don't remember the polishes I used in this mani! After taping off the nails, I took a piece of my plastic food wrap, rolled it into a messy little ball, painted a bit of polish onto it then dabbed the excess off onto some paper, before dabbing it onto my nails. I really love this effect! Then I used bronze striping tape to define the seperate areas, and covered each nail in my matt top coat. I loved this mani so much, that I even did matching feet!

The topcoat I used is now available in my nail store HERE and at only $7 AUD a bottle with free international delivery it's a steal!

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Husband returns baring gifts

Backdated post for a design I did sometime in February.

My lovely hubby finally returned from his long trip home to Brazil, with a GORGEOUS ankle bracelet, a bright gold chain with beautiful round blue crystals (there is a reason I married him ya know!) and so obviously to pay hommage to his beautiful gift, a matching mani was in order! Being an ankle bracelet a matching pedi was absolutely necessary too of course!

Preoccupied with my husbands return I forgot to take pics as soon as I had finished it, and wouldn't have taken them at all if he hadn't reminded me whilst we were out for lunch one afternoon, so we whipped out the camera and took pics right there at the table! So yeah, there is a little bit of evident tip wear in this picture. I have no idea which blue I used for the base as I have too many that are similar to try and distinguish it, but the gold glitter is an OPI which I received as a christmas gift, along with 3 others in the recent 007 Skyfall collection, this particular polish is Golden Eye. I did this lovely Glitter tip gradient and added a metal foil star as a bit of a focal point.

I really love these gold metal nail decorations, and they come in many different designs, if you would like to own them too you can find them in my ail art store HERE at the low price of  just $4 AUD for 80 pieces with free international delivery!

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Sportswomen can't have pretty nails! Ok sometimes!

Backdated post for a design I did sometime in January.

My lovely friend Emma was complaining to me that because she plays netball with a team, she cant grow her nails or really do much to them at all, this made me feel really bad! So at the beggining of a week when her team had no matches, I took advantage of the opportunity to give her some pretties!

The base of this mani was done with one of my lovely cheapo's brought from Europe, I found it in a bargain bin in a discount chemist warehouse, and have never seen it anywhere else ever, not even in other branches of the same franchise of chemist warehouse! The brand is Chresy (weird name) and considering they cost next to nothing they were really fantastic polishes, I bought sooooo many of them, but the vast majority are stuck in my storage unit :(  I named this mani ''Emmarald Dragon'' after I stamped a dragon scale pattern using Deborah Shine Tech number 71, and plate BM208. Then I gave them a final coat of Australis Crystal Colour Top coat with lovely holo flakes, and some rhinestones for extra sparkle!

Apparently when sportswomen finally get nice nails, they REALLY appreciate it, Emma top coated this mani everyday and a got a whole 8 days wear out of it before it started to chip!

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New SHOES!!

Backdated post for a design I did sometime in January.

So the only thing that I am more obssessed with than nail polish, is shoes! I have a modest collection of 25 pairs of heels collected in my mere 6 months in Australia. Yet this is nothing compared to the 200+ pairs of heels I have waiting for me in my storage unit of wordly possessions in Europe. (The same storage unit where the rest of my nail collection awaits too GAH!) Hopefully the contents of that storage unit will be shipped to me soon. Anyways, I digress, back to shoes, no nails! or is it shoes!!? It's both! YAAAAAAY!

I am very fortunate to have a wonderful husband who appreciates a nice pair of heels as much as I do, and so what does he secretly order online and have posted to me while he's visiting his family in Brazil but desires to make me smile during his long absence? These bad boys!

And smile I did! Inspired by these beauties I just had to do a mani to match of course! (Please excuse my fading sun tan, my british skin just isn't cut out for bronze!)

 

With my trusty masking tape I did neon pink corners on a peachy gold base, and spent hours picking hex glitters out of a glitter polsh! Now for random obscure cheapo polishes: I have no idea what the gold base is, its that cheap the brand name has rubbed off the bottle, though I believe it may actually be the same brand as the neon pink despite being in a completely different bottle, but dont hold me to that.

Anyway the neon pink is YSNY which is a spanish brand, which is really good quality despite being so cheap that I bought it in a chinese shop for 1 euro, and this is colour number 12. I pulled the gold hex glitters out of a bottle of Australian brand BYS, million dollar baby (and how much do I <3 K-mart?) 

I believe I may have to do more mani's based on the shoes in my collection, infact, I'm not sure it can be avoided. 

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Something sophisticated

Backdated post for a design I did sometime in January.

So for this mani I wanted to do something sophisticated, I had been doing a lot of stuff with bright colours, gradients and sparkles, and wanted to tone it down and do something neutral but still interesting, and I really loved the result I got.

I believe the base I used was Maybelline Express Finish number 634 (which wasn't very opaque and I had to do 3 or 4 coats), and stamped with Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine, Number 7. using plate BM201. Once I had done the base and it had dried properly, I taped off a corner of my nail with masking tape and stamped the exposed area, then I removed the tape and defined the 2 areas using black striping tape, and finished each nail with a black crystal.

Now I know I said I love budget stuff and most of my polishes you may never even have heard of, and already from the first post I'm brand name dropping, but keep in mind that if I do possess costly brands it's only for one of 3 reasons:

1: It's one of the the few polishes I brought with me to Australia, which means I bought it in Europe at a much lower price than what you find in Australia.

2: I found it in a bargain bin at a cut throat price.

3: It was given to me as a gift!

In this case, my lovely brand polishes were found in a bargain bin at some random chemist in Australia. Yay bargains!

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