This one's a look I did a while back, but I sat on it for quite a while because I wasn't sure if it was even worth posting. No real reason why I did this one, other than I just wanted them drawn this way! 

Then, cut them into long strips. You don't have to be consistent with the width of each strip - in fact, the differing widths will make the candy cane look more realistic. 

So first up, grab a pretty white and paint it on so it's opaque. I used OPI's Alpine Snow, and needed 2 coats to get it to true colour. 



Next, I scrunched up a ball of clingwrap as tightly as I could. This will be used as your sponging tool. The more nooks and crannies there are on your clingwrap, the more intricate the pattern you get. It was my first time trying out this technique of sponging, but its as simple as using a sponge, really. Just make sure you dab the excess paint off your clingwrap, unless you want a huge drop of paint on your nails...



First, I mixed a light grey using my acrylic paints and clingwraped them onto my nail. For this step, I made sure to do this at random - sometimes, I would dab the grey on in dense clusters, and other times I would spread it out evenly on my nail. This makes it seem more natural. 



Then, I did the same with a darker grey colour to add more depth to the design. Don't worry if your fingers get a little messy along the way - we'll clean that up later. 



Then, using a thin brush, I drew on some fine grey lines using the same shade of grey for the previous step. You can also use the head of a bobby pin as well, if you don't have a brush around. 

When drawing on the grey cracks, let your hand shake a little. This makes the cracks look a little more authentic. 



Then, follow up with black paint to add more cracks. I also found that drawing the cracks on in a generally parallel direction makes them look better. 



Then, dip a concealer brush (preferably one you don't use anymore) into nail polish remover, and remove the paint on your fingers to clean up.

The evil eye motif is a pretty common one, even in nail art, and I've decided to give it a shot for this manicure. My nails are much shorter than they used to be a month or so ago, but I think it's a perfect length for this look. The entire eye is drawn with acrylic paint, and the base colour is OPI;s That's Hula-rious. It's a lovely, muted lime green and I choose it for its high contrast with my own skin colour. I wanted it to really stand out - and stand out it did!

 Changi airport, the dragon playground, and the war memorial represents a global village, preservation of the past, and the importance of diplomacy respectively. For the second row, the HDB, Vanda Miss Joaquim and the bus stands for community, hybridism, and mobility. 

The entire process was relatively long, mostly because I tried my best to mimic the colours I see in the reference pictures. Here's a quick breakdown of the process:



1. Shape your nails and paint a protective layer of base coat (Base Coat Abricot, Dior)

I take my nail art seriously. I plan to take it further soon, so I wanted to start on my namecard. There's been some exciting progress in that sector, so I wanted to share them with you. But first, let me tell you how it began.

I met Fiq while we were queueing up for The Used's concert. She's amazing. She's got a talent for typography and illustration, and I knew I had to own one of her works. You can view her work here. She takes projects, so I ordered an illustration from Fiq. My brief was, well, brief. I knew I wanted something circular, which included 2 of my favourite flowers, a camelia (whose oil works so well on my hair, by the way), and a rose. And off that, Fiq drew this:



You should have seen my face when I saw the final product. It's perfect. She was nothing short of supportive, and the end result was more than I had imagined. 

So for the next step, I knew I wanted to make this illustration into a stamp, so I can use it on my namecard. Fiq referred me to another talented artist: Lini.

Now, Lini specializes in handcarved hard rubber stamps. To view her work, click through here. She gave me a lot of advice on selecting the size of the stamp to that would fit best on my namecards, and I really appreciate how patient she was with me. When everything was settled, she had the stamps done in a week, and mailed to me the next day. Here's the final result: 




Entirely hand carved. Would you just take a moment to soak it all in?

And that's it for now! What dyou think of my latest attempt? Any advice for a beginner at this technique like me?

When in doubt, bring out the sponge. What do you think?

For this one, I pretty much took all the pastel Essie colours I had and dabbed them together using a sponge without a clear direction in mind. After I was satisfied with the colours, I added a glitter topper on just the white parts to make it look shimmery. I think that final step gave the look more depth, as compared to having it look flat like I pasted a nail sticker on instead! My initial plan was to get this base done, then draw some white flowers on top. But after completing it, I decided I loved them just as they are.

On a slightly different topic, I think I've decided that I'll be cutting my nails down to a short squoval shape next. Though I'm extremely happy that my commitment to moisturizing my hands every day has made my nails become extremely strong, I think it's time for a change. I may regret this, as I'll have a smaller canvas to work on, but I think it'll push me to think of other designs that'll look good on shorter nails. 

Also, my custom order for hand-carved stamps should be ready soon, and I can't wait to show them to you. I'll soon have my name cards ready! That's one step closer to realizing the dream. When I have them, I promise I'll post some pictures up on this blog. 

Till then!

I gotta admit, I used acrylic paint instead of while polish for this one. I'm not entirely familiar with using these tapes, and they're so thin that it took a while to get used to. When I tried it the first time round with white polish, I couldn't get the tape off quick enough, so when I lifted the tape, the polish would stretch and ruin the straight line. 

So I figured, hey, acrylic doesn't stretch while its drying... 



And here's a shot with the polish I tried using in the first place (hehe).


Since I bought 3 stripping tapes (which will prolly last me forever), you can expect seeing them again soon..

Till then!

It's been a tough few weeks, but I'm enjoying the short holiday before the summer semester begins. Been feeling a little iffy lately, so I wanted to draw something simple and serene to take my mind off things.

I've gotta say, I do love a good nail art sticker. Yumi bought me these Incoco nail art appliques from her trip to Japan, and I put one on right away. This one's called Desert Sunset. Silly as I am, I forgot that these wraps were printed using real polish. Usually, these wraps don't stay sticky for long after you open the sealed plastic that holds it. However, I was able to stick the wraps on even after it's been opened for 2 days. Lovely!

It's been 2 weeks since I've put them on, and they're holding up better than normal polish would. Because Incoco nail wraps are printed using nail polish, expect it to chip the same way polish usually would - starting from the free edge of the nail. Another perk of these wraps is that you can put your favourite fast-drying top coat on it for extra shine and long wear. Don't put a fast-drying top coat over nail stickers which aren't printed on polish though! There's a chance that the stickers will kinda 'dissolve' and leave it looking nothing like how it's supposed to.

Super please with the wearability of these wraps. Yea, my nails do grow out really quick so theres quite a large part of naked nail at the base of my cuticle, but heck. It's doing it's job super fine. Me likey. And now back to studying.

See you next week!

We did a floral design for her last year too, and we really, really had to make sure the base wasn't black (for auspicious reasons). Though it was pretty tempting to draw a black and white geometric design.. 


Second is Mel's lovely floral and sheep set. When she showed me the reference picture, I hadn't noticed that the white cloud shapes were actually sheep. They're so adorable!!!


DEM SHEEP.


And last but not least, is Cheryl's. She showed me a stunning design and I tried my best at replicating it, but ended up doing a lot of freestyle because the original design was too OP. It really was, but I'm glad Cheryl liked my translation of the design too.


Blue and white looks too good together. For this design I played with the opacity of the blues to give it more dimension, instead of making it look flat and nasty.