Blue & Red Christmas Snowflake Nails

I have some more snowflakes for you! After my Glitter Snowflake Nails from last Friday I decided to do some more because I wasn't too happy with the sheer look. I did two of them, one very simple in red with just an accent nail and the other a bit more complex in light blue with glitter. For the ones in red I used two coats of Essie - Lacquered Up and then added the snowflake on my accent nail with white acrylic paint. On top is one coat of BTGN Top Sealer. The blues one are done with two coats of China Glaze - Re-Fresh Mint and then one coat of H&M - Blue Bliss on top for a nice glitter base. Then again I painted the snowflakes with white acrylic paint and added one coat of BTGN Top Sealer. You can already spot some tip wear on both of my designs, because I took the pictures not until after a day or two. 

Glitter Snowflake Nails

I realise that this design doesn't really flatter my nails, because they're far from snow-white. But I loved the snowflakes so much that I just had to upload it, no matter what. I started with two coats of Essie - Beam Up, an optical nail whitener base coat. It didn't really help a lot though, but it's always better than a clear base coat. After that I added one coat of Essie - Marshmallow and on top one coat of China Glaze - Snow Globe. Then I used a nail art brush and white acrylic paint to add some snowflakes onto the glitter. My goal was a snowflake glitter sandwich, so I added one coat of Essie - Adore-A-Ball on top of the snowflakes. (Can you tell I'm going through my new Essie whites?) Because there was not enough glitter yet, I added some more out of my glitter box and then finally one coat of BTGN Top Sealer. 

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Reindeer Nails

I've done some reindeer nails last year (here and here) and of course I'm doing them this year as well. My timing is perfect since last night it started snowing here. Last year I bought very sweet reindeer water decals at a store that I don't remember anymore. I'm really sorry about that! The brand is called Bluesea and they might be sold in one of those nail art online shops, but I couldn't find them anymore. When the decals arrived in my mail last year, Christmas was already over and I didn't feel like wearing reindeers on my nails anymore. So I decided to store them and finally grabbed them out of my stash yesterday. I used two coats of Essie - Blanc as my base color and then placed the water decals onto the dried polish. The quality of this decals is really great, I could move them around until satisfied with the look and then use a paper towel to remove the bubbles. On top is one coat of BTGN Top Sealer and they didn't even try to wrinkle. Also present in the pictures is my beloved reindeer cup. Oh, this is so my time of the year! 

Have a nice and snowy Sunday!

Halloween Mummy Pusheen Nails

As promised, Pusheen is back today! Inspired by their new post "Lazy costume ideas (for your cat)" I created some Mummy Pusheen nails. It felt a bit weird at first, painting toilet paper on my nails, but then again it's Pusheen, so I didn't mind. I used Essence - Ice Eyes Baby as my base coat, which is a shimmering light grey of a last year limited edition. I used light grey because I somehow forgot to pack my pink nail polish in my bag and since I didn't paint these at home I had to make do with my light grey. I used two coats and then one coat of Essie - Good To Go which led to a lot of shrinkage. I tried to make the most out of it with clean-up later, but it was still annoying. Then I used acrylic paint to make Pusheen. I started with white paint to do all the outlines, filled them in and then started to paint the details. On top is one more coat of Good To Go.

I love this cat so much! :) 

Halloween Stamping: Scream

This is one of my favorite stamping designs on my Dashica Big Sdp D plate and it fits perfectly for Halloween. I wasn't sure about my color choice first and I tried a few with orange and purple, pink and black etc. but then I decided that a simple black and white would fit best for this design. I started with three coats of Essie - Blanc to get a very opaque base for my stamping. Then I added one coat of Essie - Good To Go to let it dry completely and to protect my base in case something went wrong with the stamping. After that I used Wet 'n' Wild - Black Creme and the above-mentioned design to create the scary faces on my base. On top is one coat of Essence BTGN Top Sealer. 

I'm planning on doing two more Halloween designs this year, one tomorrow and one on Wednesday. I can tell you that Pusheen will be involved once again and hopefully some pretty water decals I ordered on Ebay. I really hope they will be here in time! After that I'm done with Halloween and will move on to snowflakes, reindeers and Co! Since we already had our first snowfall here I think that moving on to winter will be fine ;) 

One Stroke Tiger Nails / Butterfly Accent

I really fell in love with one stroke nail art the first time I've seen it on other women's nails. If you check it out on Google or Youtube, I'm sure you will too. You can create the most amazing flowers on your nails with this technique. Or you could... because it is not easy, at least not for me. I have tried several times and never achieved a decent result. So I tried some more and finally got something I liked. 

I chose two Youtube tutorials for my inspiration, because it wasn't possible without a guideline for me. For the butterfly I used this one and for the tiger nails I used a technique described by Tartofraises. It is in french but she has english subtitles. 

I used my acrylic paint for this one and a one stroke brush I have ordered some time ago on Ebay. I'm pretty sure you will need a special brush otherwise it's not gonna work properly. And you will need acrylic paint because nail polish is not gonna work with this technique. If you like this kind of nail art I really recommend you getting into it and have a look at some tutorials. Once you got the hang of it you can do so many great designs! 

Please excuse my chipped nails in the pictures, you know I'm still looking for a way to seal acrylic paint correctly.

Hope you like it!

Dotted Flowers

Autumn is coming! You can tell so by the rainy weather and by the problems I have with the lighting in my photographs. Yesterday I tried doing a tutorial, prepared everything and started painting my nails when suddenly the blue sky turned to black and I couldn't see my own hands anymore. So I will postpone this one and instead show you some flower nails to say goodbye to summer. 

As always with white, I used Essie - Blanc as a base and then grabbed my dotting tool and started dotting. The colors I used are the following: Essie - Mint Candy Apple, Essence - Walk On Air, China Glaze - Something Sweet and Essie - Lilacism. 

I decided to leave the flowers very simple and just use three dots of each color to create them. Then added another dot in the middle of each flower and that's it. On top is one coat of Essie - Good To Go.

Nude, White & Black Stripes

For today some simple stripes with some simple colors. 

I used two coats of Essie - Blanc and then started doing the stripes with a nail art brush. First I applied the lighter color: Essence - Iced Latte and then the black stripes with Wet 'n' Wild - Black Creme. 

I still need to work on my freehand skills and stripes are a great way of learning how to use the brush. I've made the experience that the stripes look best when the whole brush touches the nail and I pull it fast from one side to the other. It is still a little shaky though, so I will continue practicing!

On top is one coat of Essie - Good To Go. 

Leopard Skittle Nails & Tiny Tutorial

I had these colors selected for some nail art but then my first idea didn't really work out. So when nothing else works, I go for Leopard! But I didn't want to make it too boring, so I did some Skittle nails first and then added the Leopard pattern. I have included a very short "tutorial" at the end of this post.

The colors I chose as a base are from left to right: Essie - Mesmerized, Essie - Mint Candy Apple, Essence - Got A Secret and China Glaze - Something Sweet. On my thumb is simple white (Blanc). Then I added the color on the right side of each nail to do the leopard spots. I did them with the brush of each bottle, which works best for me and the leopard. Because those spots don't need to be perfect, in fact they should not be perfect at all. 

It's different with the black surroundings of the spots, they take a little bit more effort to create a real leopard look. But even with that effort it's a fast design which has a great effect.

So here's my tiny 3-step tutorial, I hope you like it!

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I was wondering for which kind of design you would like a tutorial? I know tutorials are quite popular and I like doing them, but I'm not sure which design you would like to see. The leopard one is more of an exercise for me, since I guess leopard nails tutorials are all over the web now. So please leave me a comment if you're looking for a tutorial on something I did in the past or even something new you would like me to try. Thanks!

Mexican Nails No. 2

I had my first nail art customer today! How awesome is that? 

She asked me to paint my Mexican Design from last week onto her nails and I was very happy to do that. However, it was my first time trying to paint someone else's nails instead of my own and I had no idea if I was able to do that. I tried practicing it on my own hand by holding it with the nails towards me which looked quite awkward. But then it wasn't too difficult actually and I loved doing it. Besides she had very pretty nails which makes it easier to paint them. It's awesome to paint all ten nails with your dominant hand! ;) 

Colors are Essie -Blanc, Catrice - Run Forest Run and O.P.I. - Friday Devil.

Viva México!

Today I have some Mexican flag inspired nails. I haven't been there yet, but I'm sure I will one day. As soon as my Spanish is good enough and I win the lottery! 

I used O.P.I - Friday Devil for the red and Catrice - Run Forest Run for the green. The White is Essie - Blanc which is starting to get thicker now, I sensed this would happen. Anyway it still works for now, so I hope I can use it up completely. On the white stripe of the Mexican flag there is an eagle, catching a snake. I gave my best to recreate it, but there are just too many details to do that sufficiently. I did this on a plastic bag first and then added it onto the wet nail polish, just like described in my recent tutorial. 

I painted a clear base on the plastic and then added the crown first. On top the eagle and then the snake. I used random nail polish for this one, so if you like to know which colors I used, just ask in the comments below. On my thumb I did a simple version of the flag without the eagle using the same colors as on my other nails. 

   

On top is one coat of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat, two coats on my ring finger nail and no coat on my thumb yet.

¡Gracias por mirar y hasta pronto! :) 

Pretty Little Liars - Jenna Nail Art - Polka Dots & Ruffian

Are you a fan of Pretty Little Liars? On this week's episode I spotted some nail art on Jenna's nails, in the scene where she ate cherries in front of the school. I couldn't completely see her design but I figured it would look something like a pink ruffian with polka dots. I decided to recreate it for my blog, because it really caught my eye. 

I started with two coats of pastel rose China Glaze - Something Sweet. Then I freehanded the curve with one coat of Wet 'N' Wild - Black Crème which worked really good. After that, my most dreaded nail art technique, polka dots! I almost never succeed at dots with the same size on each nail. But at least I was able to place them in a regular pattern onto my nails. For the dots I used Essie - Blanc. 

On top there is one coat of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat which smudged a tiny spot on my index finger nail. 

This was not the first time that I've seen something pretty on Pretty Little Liars and they do have some fancy nail art designs sometimes. So I'll keep my eyes open for the next one to come along, hopefully not on Jenna's nails since actually I can't stand her. 

What's your trick to create equal polka dots on each nail? 

Blue & White Water Marble with Essie Colors

As promised a new water marble design, up to date with each nail almost looking the same! I really wanted to create water marble designs like this one since I first started, but I never really gave an effort to see why it didn't work. So this time I watched a lot of tutorials on Youtube, the ones where the water marble pros do awesome marble designs which I couldn't ever imagine doing. For example My Simple Little Pleasures, who does awesome step-by-step tutorials. I really had a flash of inspiration looking at her tutorials and the most important thing I learned was to dip in the needle in the middle of the marble. Sounds really easy, right? Why didn't I do that earlier? It helps to keep the polish in place, which makes it easier to plan the design. 

I applied one coat of Essie - Blanc at first and then started my marble design with Blanc and Mesmerized. Adding alternately three drops of each color I then started with the design. I chose to do four draws outside and then four draws back in the middle, just like in this video. As you can see, she dips the chopstick in the middle and creates a very symmetric design. That was actually the first time I had such a pretty marble inside the water bowl! So then I could chose the exact spot to put my nail in and did that with every nail. I had to do my pinky nail twice though because it wasn't straight at the first try. 

The Essie colors worked fine, as you can see the blue wasn't completely opaque and it made some air bubbles in the water. But nothing I couldn't work with. So despite the fact that water marble is very time- and polish-consuming I really want to learn more about water marbling and try more different designs. After my first success I tried to do stripes and failed big time, haha! But I'm sure I will be able to do some candy cane marbling for Christmas, there's enough time to learn ;)

Remember, there is one more week to join my Mavala Giveaway! You can win the full Delicious Colours collection, so fill in the Rafflecopter form if you haven't done so already. It will end at 12 AM EST 08/31/2012.

Best White Nail Polish - The Comparison!

I am still on the lookout and I have tried a lot of them up to today. I chose four white nail polishes out of my collection to see them in direct comparison. What is important for me in a white nail polish is opacity with one or two coats and fast drying time. This is especially important for me because I often use white nail polish as a base for nail art, which means there are going to be more layers of polish on top.

So I chose the following bottles:

Ebalay - White Matte

Essie - Blanc

Catrice - Snow Motion

NYX - Matte White

My first white nail polish was actually Snow Motion and the fact that I have a lot more of them now, tells you that I was not too happy with Catrice. But I came to realise that my expectations in a white nail polish are far too high. Because even if I was happy with one bottle, the formula got worse over time and by the time it was half empty, I could not use it anymore. 

Here you can see my four choices with one coat each. You can see that they do not really differ in opacity. They are all quite opaque with one coat but not as opaque as I would need them to be for a base. Ebalay might be the best one in regard to opacity and you might get it right with one coat only. But then again there is the drying time.

With two coats all of them are opaque and do cover the nail. Although you have to be careful with application because each stroke of the brush could ruin the first coat. 

So what is left when all of them are opaque? Exactly, drying time. So I waited about five to ten minutes and pressed my finger on each nail. Following my awesome freehanded arrows you can tell that 3 out of 4 were not dry yet. The only one that did not show a sign of my fingerprints was Essie - Blanc.

That is actually a good result and Blanc is in fact my favorite white nail polish at this time. But keep in mind the following: I bought this bottle about four weeks ago. Catrice is 3 to 4 years old now and Ebalay and NYX are about 4 months old. I can not reassure you that Blanc will not have a similar formula in a few months. 

What is your experience with white nail polish? Do you have a favorite? Or maybe even a half empty bottle of Blanc which you had to throw away? 

Watercolor Nails (Plastic Bag Method)

Pinterest is always a great source of inspiration to me and once again I discovered an awesome tutorial for some nail art. The technique is called Watercoloring and there are two ways to do Watercolor Nails. One involves acetone and a brush and I failed big time. 

The other one is described by Polish and Pearls, check out her video and picture tutorials to see how it is done.

I used Essie - Blanc as a base and then added blobs of random black, grey and white nail polish. What I found to be most important is the amount of nail polish you use. Don´t be scared of flooding your cuticles, clean up won´t be too hard if you use a toothpick right away to clean up the edges of your nails. First I didn´t make the blobs big enough and you can see in the following picture how it looked like.

It just looks better with the right amount of polish, so the colors can blur on the nail. Drying time wasn´t too bad either, I expected worse. On top I´m wearing one coat of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat. 

I decided to do a stamping on top with a silver stamping polish from Essence and Dashica Big Sdp D, what else.  I don´t like it too much though, it is not really my style. 

So how do you like Watercoloring? Did you try it yet or are you going to? 

I can tell you I love it and I have already done another color variation which will be up soon. Stay tuned!