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.