The Forest of Tribes

Well hello there!

Today I have some fantastic green gradient, and fun tribal on top.

Let's start with the gradient itself

Green Gradient

For this, I used Essie 'Mojito Madness' and 'Navigate Her'. These look beautiful together.

Then, using Revlon 'Emerald' I drew some fine tribal detailing on the top, and after a day or two, I mattified them using Rimmel mattifying top coat.

Gloss Green Tribal Left

Gloss Green Tribal Right

Mattified Green Tribal

There's a tute for this design as well if you'd like to see it. It's a fairly straightforward design, but let me know in the comments if you'd like the step by step instructions.

Thanks for stopping by,

xNai

I want candy...

Hello there lovelies!
Today is October 30, and as we inch ever closer to Halloween, we have more manis!
Today's theme is Trick or Treat, now obviously I chose treat, because who DOESN'T love Halloween candy?! Especially this Aussie girl who's been denied her whole life the joy that is Halloween and especially begging for food in kickass costumes!

Toffe apple nails

I've done toffee apple nails for this challenge, as they always look just so delicious, with their brown gooey goodness and the rich red of the apples.

Toffee Apples

Here's the nails at a slightly different angle, which caught the details a little better, I reckon.

Mattified Toffee Apples

And then here, I mattified the red of the apple, just to see what it would look like. Now I realise that by virtue of the toffee covering everything, the apples are always shiny and apple-like, but I really love the effect of the suede red with the glistening orangey toffee...

What I used:

essence 'fame fatale'

Savvy 'Tequila Sunrise'

Rimmel Matte top coat

Now I'm off to do my recreation mani...just gotta choose between the dozens of amazing manis done so far! Check some of them out below.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

xNai

                                                   

She's a brick...

Well hello there!

Today is the 29th, and that means graveyard nails, and a fairly pic heavy post.

I decided to give you step by step images of what happened to my nails for this challenge!

Blue Gradient

I started with a blues gradient for this mani, and I used 5, count 'em, FIVE blues to achieve this look.
I also didn't use top coat yet, as obviously, this is only step one!
The blues are (lightest to darkest): ulta3 'bluebird', 'blue heaven', Sinful Colors 'why not', essence 'Walk on Air', and ulta3 'midnight fever'
Also, this is probably the fakest my nails have ever looked to me. So strange - they look like stick on nails, eh?

Blues Gradient

This is me trying out a new hand angle. Thoughts?

Then, because I loved the gradient so much, I did it on both hands, and on my right hand, I chucked a bunch of different top coats, to see how it would look.

L-R we have Seche Vite, a Spectra Flair top coat from Gloss 'n Sparkle's Etsy store, my Rimmel Matte top coat, and two essences - 'glitter top coat', and 'space queen'.

Slightly blurred to show the holo, and the glitter sparkles.

For step two, I did a bit of a watermarble. I used ulta3 'lily white' and Revlon 'just tinted top coat', to create the alternating marble, so the blues would show through.

Any clues yet as to my design?

I had real trouble finding the right polishes to achieve the alternation in the marble. Obviously I couldn't use a fast drying top coat, and the Just Tinted spread so nicely on its own, but was a pain in the backside when it came to spreading in the white. Oh well, managed it eventually!

Tada! Completed graveyard mani!
I decided I wanted to do something a little bit out of the ordinary for this, not your typical skull and crossbones, cemetery at midnight mani, which I know I could never do justice to anyway, so I was thinking laterally, and came up with this: a watery death/grave!

The idea is someone's drowning, and that's their hand sticking up out of the waves, calling for help that will never come...Macabre, right? :)

For the hand I used 2 essence nudes, 'nude it!' and 'toffee to go', and painted it onto a plastic ziplock bag first, allowed it to dry for a couple hours, then stuck it straight onto my nail like a decal! Applied some topcoat, and was good to go!

I am really SO happy with this mani, thought it looked magnificent from beginning to end.
What do you guys reckon? Too morbid, or just right?

As always, thanks for stopping by!
xNai


ps: Points if you can recognise the reference in the title...;)
                                                     

There's a light...over at the Frankenstein place

Hello again lovelies!

Today is October 19, and as such I have some bats for you!

I didn't want to be too literal with the bats thing, so I decided to take it to a vampirey castle, in the dead of night, with some bats flying up and away into the distance.

In this next pic, I decided to mattify half of the mani, to see what it would look like, and to give a stone-like effect to the castle. I think it turned out rather well!

And then on the thumb, what better than some Batman?
My fingers don't meet up nicely to make those joined up images, especially not my thumb (I swear I'm missing a joint there...), so I decided to chuck in some random Batmaniness. Cuz I can!

What I used:

For the blue I layered Essie 'Aruba Blue' over Ulta3 'Midnight Fever' - such a gorgeous, rich blue. I did the mani by itself afterwards, and I don't wear plain manis often.

Essence 'Black is Back'

Ulta3 'Banana Split'

Rimmel 'Matte Finish' top coat

As always, thanks for dropping by!
xNai

PS, you all totally have some Rocky Horror in your heads now, don't you? Moo hahaha :)


                                          

Braaaiiins...

Hello lovelies!

So today we have one of the This is Halloween Challenge manis that I'm rather proud of - zombies!

Today's mani was inspired by an artist I've been following on Instagram for a while now. Her handle there is @spooksieboo - go check her out.
She has an Etsy shop I believe, where you can go and order paintings of you and your loved ones zombified! I'll link it once I've found it, as right now the link isn't on her profile.
Edit: This is the link to her easy shop where you can purchase prints of some of her more popular designs, and sometimes even order customs pics...CLICK ME!

Anywho, on with the show!

I've always loved the eyes on her paintings, so I decided to replicate those here, with the trademark green of slowly decaying zombie skin, and of course some barely healing gashes, poorly stitched up.
And of course, a matte finish on these, because I felt it just more fitting.

What I used:

Essie 'Navigate Her' and 'Mojito Madness'

Essence 'Black is Back' and 'Fateful Desire'

Ulta3 'Lily White'

Rimmel 'Matte Finish'

What do you think? Did I do the challenge, and Spooksieboo's paintings justice?

As always, thanks for stopping by!
xNai