The Nail it Good

Here, have a tutorial.

9:16 AM

The past week has been rough, but filming a nail tutorial perked me up a little. Took me longer to edit, and somehow it became a 4 minute video, but hey, it's worth a watch!

So tutorial #7 is on the cut out nails I did last week, and surprisingly, it was pretty well received on tumblr. When you add a popular tag to your post (in this case, #nailart), it will only show on the search results if one of the tag editors select it and decide it's good enough. These editors are also tumblr users, all of whom are brilliant nail art bloggers. Its a way tumblr keeps the tags clean and free of spam, but it also makes finding new nail art bloggers hard to find.

This post marks the first time that my post actually shows up on the tag page. Hurrah! That little teal highlight under the #nailart hashtag makes me smile (: By the way, are you following me on tumblr?

So upon getting great feedback on tumblr -- and from my lovely friends, I decided to make this tutorial. Sit back, grab your headphones, and have a watch. I'm so in love with this tune right now.

The only thing you really need for this tutorial is the nail art pen, which is easily available at Faceshop (which is almost everywhere, thankfully). When I bought it, it costed about $7, but the price could be different now. If you don't have a nail art pen, a toothpick will do! Just be sure to make the tip blunt by hitting it against a hard surface a few times.

The first time I did this design a week ago (pictures in the previous post), my nails were much longer. I couldn't take the length so I cut them down pretty short. Here's a list of materials I need:

For this design, you could use any colour to fill the triangles, really. I just loved how these two colours looked together - it's MAC's Girl About Town (yeah, I prolly use this colour too much. Sue me!), and a light blue from Faceshop (I can't read the number of the colour on the tag any more, it's scraped from wear). The fine brush is from a set of three, purchased at the nail polish store in Scape Underground - it's a fabulous store selling just about everything I want in life. If you're paying them a visit soon, ask for seche vite's top coat (it's in the picture above), and Essie's Matte About You. Have them both, and whatever design you draw, I promise these top coats will make it look even more fabulous.

And that's about it for the design, the video tells you everything you need to know. My sis added that this design will also look good in matte. Mmm that's a good idea. Now, don't be shy, you should give this a try (;

Speaking of my sis, I painted her nails too. Aww those cute little nubs. It was inspired by another picture she saw on the net somewhere, so I simply recreated it. It's not every day she lets me paint her nails.. heheh.

Did a few manicures for friends over the past few weeks, and here are two of them. Melina's is a sweet, lace design, entirely drawn using the nail art pen. As always, I like to outline the nail to make it look finished. Valerie's been wanting Avenger-themed nails for a while, and they took a while to complete too, but it was entirely worth it. Love how they both turned out. I also did Tiffany & Kerry's nails, but I can't find the pictures anymore argh! Another time, then.

That's it for now. Don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel before you leave :3

nail art

Cut out

8:05 AM

I finally have time to paint my nails! Was thinking of this design and added it to my to-do list, and finally got around to painting it. The outline of the nail was done with a paintbrush, and the triangles were drawn on with a nail art pen.

The two colours I used were MAC's Girl About Town (the hot pink) and a light blue from Faceshop. I only used 1 layer of top coat for the design because I was going for the pasted-on type look - I wanted to make it look like a nail sticker. If I added one more layer of top coat, it'll be too shiny and thick. Yeah, I'm nitpicking, heh..

But hey it feels good to be painting again! If you look closely, you can see how white my nails are. Oh thank you, OPI Original Nail Envy. The base coat I'm using right now (Revlon's Base+Top coat) isn't half bad either. It smells pretty awful, but I like how thin it comes out. Nail Envy has a thicker formula, so once you're done with your manicure, your whole nail looks pretty thick. It all depends on where your priorities lie I guess, and mine still lies in maintaining healthy nails, and for that, my money's on Nail Envy.

For once, I actually had the thought of pushing back my cuticles. Usually, I hate pushing my cuticles back because I feel like it should be untouched. I've read a few horror stories and doctor testimonies against removing and pushing cuticles, because they're what keeps the bacteria (and all that polish) away from your body. It could affect nail growth, and result in infections if not taken care of properly. I've got two cats at home, so I already have to keep everything clean, so I didn't want to make my nails even more vulnerable than they already are.

I get the reason why girls push or remove their cuticles though, it makes your nails look so much neater, and the border of the polish looks more defined. But I don't think I can ever overlook the health of my nails, which are already attacked weekly with polish and polish removers. If you're like me, and you prefer keeping your cuticles the way they are, you just have to learn to work with them. If your cuticles are in an irregular shape, buffing the surface of your nail lightly with a buffing sponge will remove the bits that's in the way, but don't file your cuticles directly. That way, I keep my cuticles in a neat line as untouched as possible. Perfect.

Next time you're at a nail salon, ask to push your cuticles, don't cut them away. Don't push too much either - just enough to make sure you have a nice, neatly curved outline. In this design, I got a bit of black nail polish on my cuticles, which resulted in a choppy line at the top. The next time I do outlines, I'm going to be more careful to stay away from the cuticles, heh.

Overall, it was a quick (but satisfying) design to do. You can do the same thing with toothpicks and black nail polish - all you really need is a steady hand.

Now to get round to making those tutorials I promised...

But in the meantime, what do you think of this design? Or any other design for that matter. Give me advice, design requests - just talk to me or leave me a comment!

mani for friends

Nails for the besties

5:11 AM

nail art

An excuse to put eggs on my nails

5:31 AM

wishlist

Top on my wishlist

6:35 AM

I've got to be honest. I've been distracted by flakie nail polish the whole day. I mean just look at this picture.

Picture from X, she used Colour Club's famous Shattered Glass. Absolutely beautiful blog, by the way.

Flakie nail polish is a type of glitter top coat that has irregular, well, flakes of iridescent awesomeness. Each brand of nail polish has flakies that shine differently, but all of them look absolutely amazing.

It's like unicorns gathered their tears, crystallized them, pounded them into little flakes, and decided that it'd look good in polish. Yes, that's how strongly I feel for this top coat. Since I'm trying my best to keep to my savings plan, I'm refraining from hopping on eBay and grabbing it right now.

So for the rest of the day, I decided to find me some great dupes. Just about every popular polish brand carries a flakie, and I gathered a list of my favourites for your viewing pleasure. Yes, I do not own any of them at the moment, but that's the beauty of lists - don't take my word for it, go forth, hunt them down, and try them out for yourself!

To be honest, these flakies are hard to come by in Singapore, so it's hard to give you a price estimate too. But for comparison (and convenience) sake, I've included links to these polishes on eBay.

My Favourite Flakies to Gawk At

In no particular order:

Colour Club - Covered in Diamonds. Source [x]

Yes, it's Colour Club again. Well, when it comes to iridescence and holographic shades, there really isn't any other brand that does them quite as well as Colour Club does, in my opinion. 3 coats and that's what you get. They remind me of the inside of an oyster shell. Colour Club isn't sold in any physical stores in Singapore, but I have seen flea markets sell some shades in the holo line. What a shame! If you're looking for this bottle, I suggest you hop online instead.

Nicole by OPI - Heavenly Angel. Source [x]

OPI wasn't going to get left behind in the flakie trend. Nicole by OPI is Selena Gomez's collection, and you can find quite a few shades in Watsons. However, I have never seen Heavenly Angel on the racks - if I had, I would've bought it. Look online instead. This is 2 coats, and it looks pretty identical to Covered in Diamonds. Plus I just love the bottle shape.

Chi Chi - Crystal Top Coat. Source [x]

Chi Chi is an Australian brand that I wish we had here. They also have a great gold glitter polish that's a flakie as well. I love how it looks so average while in the bottle. These flakies are finer, giving it a more natural look in comparison to the other flakies that look more artificial. You can get this straight from their site.

China Glaze - Luxe & Lush. Source [x]

This is prolly the most well known flakie. Seems like everyone has this except me. I prefer this sheen because of its warm tones. The flakie is pretty fine as well - makes for application that much easier. Most of the trouble that comes from applying flakies is from getting them to spread nicely, it seems. I'll lay my hands on this and tell you for myself if this one has that problem. The flea markets I know that stock China Glaze don't seem to carry this bottle either, though I have told the staff about it. Maybe they'll bring in some... In the meantime, you could always go here.

Nfu-Oh - 39. Source [x]

Now that's fine. I have never seen Nfu-Oh being sold in shops anywhere in Singapore (hey smoochiezz, you need this!), and it's a shame because they've got some surreal colours. If Colour Club is the King of Holo, then Nfu-Oh has got to be the Queen of Shimmer. It's a Korean brand that doesn't seem to have its own online store at the moment. Well there's always eBay. Most of their colours do involve healthy amounts of flakies, which gives it a crazy dimension. So beautiful I could wear it on its own. Mhmm.

Lacquistry - Shredded Silver Holo. Source [x]

Look, it's a handmade polish! This is definitely on my wishlist too, though this bottle seems to be out of stock. Lacquerista also makes other pretty glitters, definitely worth a visit. What's better than supporting independent nail polish creators?

So I came to a realisation that I could prolly make my own flakie polish, and it got me even more excited. Yep. Just settled on my weekend project. Plus a video tutorial is long overdue. I keep recording tutorials but the scrapping the idea because it isn't captivating enough. Flakie would be an interesting watch, I hope!

In other news, wiredforfreedom makes pretty accessories and guess what I found.