Flower Water Marble

It's been awhile since I last did water marbling. The process is kind of tedious and as I mentioned in previous post, time is too precious to spent on nails for hours. Ha!

Turned out, I rather spent time on nails for hours. By doing two designs back to back. Ha!

Colors used:
Essie Navigate Her
Essie Wicked
NYX Girls Algae

Colors used:
China Glaze Heart of the Matter
China Glaze Sunshine Pop
China Glaze Always a Lady
Tony Moly GL01 gold glitter

Whimsical peacock feather

I wanted something easy to do yet beautiful enough to look at before I go for my short trip to the big city. Time was pretty tight for me even though it was the holiday. So, all I think of was to have a manicure that doesn't require much time to do.

So I had some glitters over plain base and then had my accent nail painted with peacock feather. I learned the design via Instagram. Gotta get back with you on the Instagrammer who inspired me.

 

Colors used:
OPI Samoan Sand (base)
Essie A Cut Above glitter
Black acrylic paint

Grey Rose abstract

My nephew Sean was in town for the school holidays. He was always up on our living room to steal the TV from us. So one day, while watching his fav show...

"Auntie Carol, I think this pattern can be a perfect design for your next nail project."

I looked at the throw cushion.
Well, how come I never thought of that before?

So, sort of like accepting a challenge, I did some hand painted rose abstract with black acrylic over a grey base.

 

Colors used:
Revlon Silver Screen
China Glaze Elephant Walk
Black acrylic paint

Fan brush nail art

My first attempt on fan brush nail art. I bought this fan brush unknowing what its purpose is until I saw a pretty nail art by SimpleNailArtDesigns using fan brush.







The only difficulty I found here was that my fan brush tend to clump on its end making the lines look horribly fat instead of perfect thin lines. Will try again with different type of fan brush.

Colors used:
Essie Navigate Her
Essie Blanc
Elianto Racing Green
NYX Girls Algae

Flower Power

I found this Sally Hansen nail strips in my stash, unopened. It was actually last year's Christmas gift from my sister in-law and I haven't found the right time to wear it. Now that Christmas is fast approaching, I think that these need to be tried a.s.a.p.



Surprisingly, applying it on nail is super easy. Perfect for those on the go. You can even apply the strips while you are seating in a plane. Talking about super busy, no-time-for-proper-manicure girls here.





The only thing that irk me is when taking them off. It says, removing is easy by just using nail polish remover. But I find the glue isn't that easy to rub off. I prefer peeling them off although that is a big no-no for the nails.

However, given some pretty patterns available, I will still want to purchase this. You never know when you need this kind of product. It could be a real saviour and the only thing that could actually boost up your vanity. LOL!

Half moon gradient

It has been a month since my last entry. Well, there were few things happened recently which includes an unfortunate event. But hey, I'm trying to catch up here. ^__^

So to kick off with my nail painting again, I was inspired to do this half moon nail design. I have seen it a few times before by several nail bloggers including those in my Instagram. But when I found thenailsaurus on Insta (how could I missed it on her blog?) and saw her half moon gradient nails, I could resist no more.







Still long way to perfect half moon but for now, I am happy I finally did it.

Colors/Materials used:
Essie All Tied Up (base)
Essie Wicked
Make up sponge
Reinforcement rings

Failed challenges

So much for participating in a 30 days nail challenge, eh?

I should know better that I couldn't do this challenge as I do not have the privilege to do my nails on daily basis.

I've done about a quarter of the challenges and gotta show 'em here anyway.

DAY 1 : RED




DAY 2 : ORANGE


DAY 3 : YELLOW - My favourite!




DAY 4 : GREEN - My fav too. Unfortunately, only took one photo of this simple gradient dots.


DAY 5 : BLUE

Trying first hand on the water color technique.


I got annoyed with the whites peeking out along the cuticle lines so I painted blue frame on them.

DAY 6 : VIOLET

This is more lilac than violet but I do not have much of violet in my collections.

DAY 7 : BLACK AND WHITE

Water marble and did the bar code (as per request by a friend).

DAY 10 : GRADIENT



Inspired by a friend's Tudung.

DAY 12 : STRIPES

Inspired by a pattern i saw online.


DAY 15 : FLOWERS

Initially, I wanted to do a design in conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness month. However, I couldn't find the right pink to match with the China Glaze Elephant Walk grey.

And those are all the challenges I managed to do before I decided to quit. Ha!
I know challenges should be a fun thing to do. But given my situation, it wasn't anywhere fun when I really have to squeeze my brain while I have tons of work to complete. Besides, I had a hard time wiping off those one-day nail art especially when I find them pretty to be wiped off so soon.

So yeah, this 30 days nail challenge is not meant for me. At least, not now.

Malaysia flag

Oh dear, I'm so lagging behind in this blog. Haven't been put up anything for ONE month? Yikes.

Anyways, my nail art activity isn't as sluggish as my post in here. In fact, I've been doing almost every two days just because I have joined the 31 Days nail challenge. But funny how, that (the challenge) too is lagging behind. I'm still on Day 10 whilst it's already the 24th of this month. Double yikes.

Here's my Malaysia flag in conjunction with the National Day (31st Aug) and Malaysia Day (16th Sept). If one really have to scrutinize the flag, it isn't drawn accurately i.e. the red and white stripes aren't same size. But, that's the best I could come up with (so far). I even drew hibiscus flower which is the national flower for Malaysia. Hee.










Next up will be my 31 Days nail challenge...well, 10 nail arts so far.
^_^

Chevron inspired

Ever since my friend Faye requested to have her nails painted with Chevron design (but later turned out something different), I have made it a point to try this design again. So I did try but they were all a disaster especially those I did with tape. However, not wanting to give up on tape and knowing that there must be easier ways to achieve that chevron design using tape, I tried again yesterday.

Eureka!

Well, at least this time it doesn't turn to any disaster. ^_^









They look ok, right?

Colors used:
Revlon Foxy as base
Tony Moly GL01
tiny rhinestones

Peacock inspired on Saran wrap

Never really know that the clingy plastic wrap is also known as Saran wrap in some parts of the world. It's only known as cling wrap here despite the many brand names. ^_^

So when I discovered saran wrap nail art, I was wrapped with curiosity. Thanks to Internet, I have another info added in my Book of Knowledge. A better tutorial can be found at Nailed It.

I painted on base color with China Glaze Exotic Encounters. By the way, I have not done any swatches on my recent purchase of four colors from the twelve colors in the China Glaze Safari Collection 2012. Will try to do that soonest. So okay, back to the point... after letting the base color dry, I painted a coat of Elianto Indigo Shine on top of the base. While the color is still wet, I took a tiny piece of cling wrap shaped in tiny ball, dab on the wet color picking some of it. Refer tutorial on link attached above. Then, I put on a coat of  Seche Vite fast drying top coat so that I will have smooth surface to paint on the peacock feather.

Using acrylic paint, I drew the peacock feather on thumb and ring finger nails to serve as accent nails. For the detail colors in the centre of the feather, I used Tony Moly GL01, OPI Fly and Elianto Indigo Shine. I put on another two coats of Seche Vite on every nails to seal the colors properly.







I had fun!

Nude Water Droplets

This is my second nail art for the Nail Art for Work project.

For those who love painting their nails with plain colors but is getting tired of plain look. This could be our solution. Put some rhinestones and your otherwise plain colored nails will instantly be a sizzle to the eyes.

I painted all nails with Revlon Creme Brule, top them off with Seche Vite top coat. While they are still wet, I added some clear round rhinestones. Since I wanted a water droplet look but doesn't have any droplet shape rhinestone, I picked on two different sizes of round clear rhinestones to emulate the shape of water droplet. Well, maybe not so much alike but I'm still contented with the outcome.







A close up shot of the rhinestones.


I would have worn this for a straight five days if it ain't because there's only three days work this week. And so, I can think of other, much energetic colors to wear.

Cheers!

Yellow Mellow

Yesterday, a friend asked to do her nails for her upcoming beach vacation. She is much in love with grey and yellow. But when I finally done with her nails, they shouted more yellow than grey. I think they're nice. After all, she's gonna be on flip flops all the time.And the color just popped!



And oh, I have recently added new polishes into my collection.


Top: My first China Glaze bought at Nail Fiesta. F-B; Sunshine Pop, Kalahari Kiss, Elephant Walk and Exotic Encounters.
I am so in love with China Glaze On Safari Collection for Fall 2012. However, due to budget limit I can only purchase 3 from 12 bottles available. I wanted something yellow for my friend's nail art. Hence the Sunshine Pop.

Bottom Left: Revlon Foxy,Chic and Creme Brule.
Bottom Rigt: Tony Moly GL01, GT01



I couldn't let the weekend passed without trying one of those colors I've purchased, could I? I painted China Glaze Kalahari Kiss as base and sponged on Revlon Chic on the tip. Not so great and so they only stayed on my nails for just one night. ^__^