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I think I've said this too many times, but I'm saying it again anyway; I love florals. It's just something I could do for every single manicure - but then I'd be bored... hehehe. I try my best to think of new ideas for designs every week, and I've been getting lazy. Honestly, it's been hard to find time to paint my nails. I usually do them on Sunday evenings, but now that I don't get as many nights free from work and school, I've been spending more time doing other stuff.
It's not about the lack of inspiration though.. I've been seeing a lot of matte gradients, and indie glitter polishes that have started to take root among nail art enthusiasts. I still have yet to purchase my first bottle of indie polish, but it's definitely something I'll do waaaay before the year is out.
I have to admit, it's been hard to get back in the groove of painting my nails every week - not that I've given up! To give us a fresh start, I've given my blog a whole new look - one that I'll be keeping for a long time. I think it's perfect! And the slider hardly warps my images. I can live with a little warping, teehee.
And now on to the nails I wore! As you prolly guessed, it's been too long since the last time I did florals, so here's what I painted about 2 weeks ago. I only wore them for about 3 days unfortunately.. It was still Hari Raya period and I had to remove them, or risk getting remarks from the relatives. Heheh. But they were pretty while they lasted!
Simple florals with a little shading/highlighting. Added a matte top coat to give it the flat look we all love so much.
It's not about the lack of inspiration though.. I've been seeing a lot of matte gradients, and indie glitter polishes that have started to take root among nail art enthusiasts. I still have yet to purchase my first bottle of indie polish, but it's definitely something I'll do waaaay before the year is out.
I have to admit, it's been hard to get back in the groove of painting my nails every week - not that I've given up! To give us a fresh start, I've given my blog a whole new look - one that I'll be keeping for a long time. I think it's perfect! And the slider hardly warps my images. I can live with a little warping, teehee.
And now on to the nails I wore! As you prolly guessed, it's been too long since the last time I did florals, so here's what I painted about 2 weeks ago. I only wore them for about 3 days unfortunately.. It was still Hari Raya period and I had to remove them, or risk getting remarks from the relatives. Heheh. But they were pretty while they lasted!
Simple florals with a little shading/highlighting. Added a matte top coat to give it the flat look we all love so much.
And that's the close up. Feels so good to be back on my computer. I currently own a whole LOAD of new polishes, courtesy of my awesome friends. I can't wait to show them to you over the weeks.
Till then!
On another slightly off topic, my sister recently told me about Northern Light's holographic top coat. You know how much I absolutely love just about any holo colour, so hearing about a holographic top coat made me jump a little (literally. I was in the MRT and jerked in my seat, hehe). It's definitely going on my to-try list.And now, on to my nails. To get started after a short hiatus, I wanted something that could dry quickly, and use the studs I bought a few weeks back. This is what I came up with:A good outline and random prints on a nude base can't possibly go wrong, I thought. And I was mostly right, cuz my lack of practice kinda messed up my pinkies on both hands - but it's nothing a do-over can't solve.
I'm a left hander, so I start painting on my right hand, pictured above.
I'm writing this as a later edit, cuz I had to include this bit. The studs on my nails have survived a hair wash and body scrub. Phew! Technically I shouldn't be surprised, since I did put two layers of Seche Vite, but one can never be too sure.
That's it for now. See you again next weekend (;
I towly meant to have this uploaded over the weekend, but had to put in significant hours into other awesome stuff, so here's my weekly blog post! Before I want to start talking about the design, I just really want to express how much I can't wait for this semester to be over. Having to fast on top of other commitments is taking a toll on my mind! Can't wait for Hari Raya (:So here's what I have on my nails right now:
As you can tell, I messed up the design on my ring finger on my left hand, and I decided to just remove the whole thing and leave that one empty.. hehheh. The method I used to do this design is taken from this post, but read on and I'll tell you how I painted this design. First I started with a white base colour, and added top coat so it would dry faster. But then I was in a rush to get to work, so I left it just bare overnight. This really allowed the paint to dry completely of course. If you're doing this at home, you might want to watch TV for about half an hour while waiting for your base colour to dry. To make sure it's dry, try making dents with your nail on the polish. If it's completely dry, it should be rock hard.
Then comes the nail tape. You can get it at any nail art stores, I got mine at Deco Den at Bugis Junction, but I've also seen it sold at those little kiosks in malls that sell nail art stuff. Alternatively, you could use scotch tape (just pat the tape on your hand a few times to make it less sticky first). I stuck on two strips of tape horizontally, and four to five tapes that criss cross my nail. After that, it gets even simpler. I simply dab on colours using a sponge. Here, I used MAC's Girl About Town and a turquoise blue from Faceshop. While the paint is still wet, I remove the tapes. Then I seal it with a top coat. It's a relatively quick mani once you get the hang of sticking the tapes on right. It took me less than half an hour to get it done (excluding the time it takes for the base colour to dry, that is).And here are some more pretty pictures:
And that's it for now. Going to be keeping this design on my nails for a little longer, I love how it looks on my short nails.Much love (:
x
As you can tell, I messed up the design on my ring finger on my left hand, and I decided to just remove the whole thing and leave that one empty.. hehheh. The method I used to do this design is taken from this post, but read on and I'll tell you how I painted this design. First I started with a white base colour, and added top coat so it would dry faster. But then I was in a rush to get to work, so I left it just bare overnight. This really allowed the paint to dry completely of course. If you're doing this at home, you might want to watch TV for about half an hour while waiting for your base colour to dry. To make sure it's dry, try making dents with your nail on the polish. If it's completely dry, it should be rock hard.
Then comes the nail tape. You can get it at any nail art stores, I got mine at Deco Den at Bugis Junction, but I've also seen it sold at those little kiosks in malls that sell nail art stuff. Alternatively, you could use scotch tape (just pat the tape on your hand a few times to make it less sticky first). I stuck on two strips of tape horizontally, and four to five tapes that criss cross my nail. After that, it gets even simpler. I simply dab on colours using a sponge. Here, I used MAC's Girl About Town and a turquoise blue from Faceshop. While the paint is still wet, I remove the tapes. Then I seal it with a top coat. It's a relatively quick mani once you get the hang of sticking the tapes on right. It took me less than half an hour to get it done (excluding the time it takes for the base colour to dry, that is).And here are some more pretty pictures:
And that's it for now. Going to be keeping this design on my nails for a little longer, I love how it looks on my short nails.Much love (:x
Told you I'd post more nail art with the lovely studs I just bought. I dug through my polish pile (yeah, it used to be neat and organized, but it's been reduced to a pile of colours right now.. heh) and found this colour that I was in love with when I saw my friend wear it - it's OPI's Just Spotted a Lizard. Also, because that friend has a thing against reptiles, and she may be reading this post, we'll shorten the name of the polish to JSL, to make things easier to write.
Have I talked about this colour before? It's one of the few duochrome polishes I own. The sad thing is, the two sheens are clearer on the bottle than on my nails. My camera was trying its best to capture the duochrome, and it shows pretty well in some of the shots. It starts off a shade of olive, and darkens to darker green with a teal tinge around the tips of my nail, depending on the lighting. The polish itself is a dream to paint, and doesn't streak. Overall, such a pretty colour.
I wanted to make it simple without it being plain, so I started by adding a border in black, then adding the studs. Here's a shot of the studs I bought:
It's a stud wheel I bought from Born Pretty Store, here's the link to it. What came was a little different from what the picture on the website showed, but I'm not complaining. It's a pretty good selection of studs to choose from.
It's about the first time I'm using so many different types of studs, and I was suddenly unsure of how to use them. It's like I completely forgot how they could be arranged, hahah! Had to go to tumblr and look at a few photos before I got the hang of it.
The studs come in both silver and gold, universal stud colours I guess. I'm now looking out for matte black studs next. Those will look pretty cool.
After painting a black border around the nails on my right hand, I realized I didn't really like how it looked so I kept my right hand plain and simple:
You can really see the sheen in the next few shots.
And this was a drama shot that I just couldn't resist putting up here:
Using the studs were easy. After the JSL was dry, I added a layer of a brandless top coat (or you could use any clear polish that isn't fast drying) around the area I was going to put the studs, then picked the studs up using this method, and placing it on my nail. After that, I press them into place, and run a coat of Seche Vite over everything. When you're doing this, remember to get the nooks around the studs - you don't want a bubble forming. Make sure you get all the edges. Once that's done, those studs will stay in place no matter how crazy your week is going to be.
I purposely left the studs on my right hand without a top coat over them to see how long they'd last without a layer of protection. Turns out, only 1 stud fell off, so that's pretty good hold. However, the studs did get scratched, and the gold was fading from the studs, showing the silver underneath. Definitely add top coat over if you're interested in adding studs to your nails.
Wow that was a long post. But I've got more to say! Check it out:
My tumblr turned 2! And I finally reached a thousand followers! Yeah, I'm pretty sure half the people & blogs I know have more followers than that, but I'm pretty pleased nonetheless. Funny thing is, I was so close to 1k for a week, but I kept gaining and losing followers every few hours. Now that I've crossed the mark, I'm feeling pretty good.
This blog has also gained a few followers, and to you I say thank you! I know I say this in just about every post, but I've got a crazy week ahead. The training for my new job is gonna start soon, not to mention the 2 tests I have this coming week. I really should be studying, but here I am streaming Firefly. Teehee.
Thanks for reading!
The stuff I ordered from Born Pretty Store is here! I'll put up another post to properly show what I bought, for now, here's the manicure that I did:
I got gold nail foil, and a wheel of nail studs (which you'll prolly see a lot of from now on). Here's the end result:
I also tried to make the foil cover my nail entirely, but I gave up halfway because it looks pretty good just as it is. I also added silver studs to the top of my nails.
And here's my review. The delivery for the items took almost a month, even though I assumed it would've arrived sooner because Born Pretty Store is based in China. So that's not really good. Other than that, the items are affordable, and no shipping fee always makes me smile.
As for the foil itself, it's not as easy to use as I thought it would be, based on other blogger's reviews. I had to use my Daiso top coat (which I had bought to use as an adhesive for studs) instead of my usual Seche Vite top coat. Seche Vite dissolves the foil, and makes everything go icky. The residue from the foil also gets stuck on the brush of the top coat, so be wary of that.
Actual application of the foil was pretty simple once you get the hang of it. I'm planning on making a proper photo tutorial on its application soon, but I've got my hands tied for the next 3 days, so maybe I'll have it done by the end of next week. Stay tuned for it!
Because I couldn't use a good top coat, the foil was exposed to the elements. Sadly, the morning after I had the foil on my nails, they started to disappear. It's been about 4 days since I've had them on, and they're almost entirely gone. I guess, because of the absence of a top coat, foil is best used when you're about to go out - good for a manicure that you only need to last for a day. I wear my manicures for a week, so the foil doesn't really excite me any more. We'll see what we can do about it though. Maybe I'll find out some tricks to make it last longer, then I'll share it with you!
Till then <3
Now that the haze is over, the heat's back to being unrelentless. My family bought a packet of those awesome paddlepop rainbow ice lollies, and I thought it'd be cute to draw cute little popsicles on my nails too. I did these nails in a pretty big hurry, which explains the weirdness near the top of the nail, heh.
At first I had them done with a glossy topcoat, but the pink looked a little jarring next to my dark skin, so I gave them a matte finish instead. I think it looks better this way.
Been trying to paint a Game of Thrones themed design for a week and I've just about given up. Like oh my goodness I just can't draw, hahah! The Lannister's lion looks mishapen and sad, and don't even get me started on the Targaryen dragon. Gosh. I'm going to add it to my "list of designs I need to do some day" and maybe get back to it in the future!
