Pastel Squared

Hey guys!

I swear I'm going to run out of names for these tribal inspired posts...please comment any suggestions - all are welcome ;)

Anywho, these are the nails I wore on the first part of my summer holiday. I used a peel of base coat so I wouldn't need to lug acetone as well as other stuff in my suitcase. It lasted a surprisingly long time, considering it's made to come of easily...

These were done using my Face of Australia pastels again, and I love the way they looked. Clean and simple.

What I used:

Aside from the FoA pastels, I used

ulta3 'blue heaven', 'eighties fuchsia', 'banana split', 'lily white'

essence 'wake up!', 'viva la green', 'black is back'

Thanks for dropping in!

xNai

Black and Gold

Hey guys!

So this is how we know for certain I'm behind the times with my posts, because I'm only just showing you OPIs 'Just Spotted the Lizard'.

This is one of the polishes from the spiderman collection, released mid last year. I only got my hands on it late last year, so tried it out when I got the chance.

Pics after the jump.

That girl is on fire

Hello again!
So apparently I'm like the worst blogger known to mankind, what with all my unscheduled leaves of absence - life kind of takes over periodically, and my scheduled posts only last so long!
My apologies, dear readers.

Anywho!

Aztec Love

Hey guys.

Today I have for you another foray into the Face of Australia pastels I bought a while back. This time I wanted them to be a little bit more punchy, and so did this tribal design with them.

It's quite simple, but really a striking look. What do you think? Something you'd recreate?

What I used:

ulta3 'lily white'

essence 'black is back'

Face of Australia 'boys 'n' berries', 'after dinner mint' and 'easy peasy lemon squeezy'

Thanks for dropping in,

xNai

French is overrated...

Hello again my darlings!

Today I have a quick and dirty mani for you.

I did this one Saturday morning when I was in a bit of a rush to go out, and had naked nails.

Since I started this whole adventure into nail art, I've become known for it among my friends and peers, and I knew I couldn't go out with nothing on my nails, even if it was as simple as these.

I decided to go for a sort of French mani with this nude and blue gradient, which didn't work as nicely as hoped (note the ring and middle fingers).

This picture also alerted me to my terrible habit of not filing my ring finger to the same shape as all the others! What the?!

Then I gave up on that time consumingness, and just did an actual french tip on the other hand.

I didn't want the blue to actually be the size of my free edge, as I thought that might end up being too much, so I just did a very thin tip, as you can see.

Clearly my frenching skills are in dire need of some improvement! eek!

What I used:

essence 'nude it!'

ulta3 'blue bird'

Anywho,
Thanks for stopping by, you gorgeous thangs you!
xNai

Ziggy's Gift

Hey guys!

Today I've got some chevrons and gradients for you, on Danya's nails. Maybe one day you'll even get to see these girls' faces! 

All the rage at the moment, and so I decided to give it a bash, and put my own twist to it.

These are really bright in real life, with the blues positively popping off the nails.
I used more colours in the chevrons than in the ombré, to get the same fading effect. In future, I would probably use a different colour than 'Fly' for the second to last row, as it's a bit too green.

What I used:

(In order from darkest to lightest)

mode 'tatt-tastic'

essence 'walk on air'

Sinful Colors 'why not'

OPI 'Fly'

China Glaze 'For Audrey'

essence 'you belong to me'

As always, thanks for stopping by!

xNai

I'm nekkid!

Hello darling hearts!

Today we have some nude and neons.

I had been seeing the nude and neon combo a lot recently, as it has been summer in the northern hemisphere (thank god we're finally there ourselves - I hate winter. HATE), and this is a nice subtle way to do the neon trend.

And yes, I'm aware that wasn't the right shade of nude for my winter fingers, but I bought it cos I know when I'm tanned, that should be about spot on. In the mean time, I could dream...:)

Then for a competition, I decided to add on some glitter, like so:

I had to fish through multiple coloured glitters, just to find the necessary colours, and let me tell you, the blue and the pink? NOT an easy task!!

What I used:

essence 'nude it!', 'wake up!' 'let's get lost'

Revlon 'Bubble'

Sally Hansen 'Mellow Yellow'

China Glaze 'Electric Pineapple'

And for the glitters:

Blue - Milani Jewel FX 'Teal'

Gold - essence 'make it golden'

Orange and Green  - Lush Lacquer 'dipping dots' (buy it and others here. Do it. Trust me.)

Pink - Wet n Wild 'Party of Five Glitters'

For all the glitters I used the glitter placement technique - paint it onto some foil, then use a toothpick to pull the indiv glitters out. Then I tried to put as much back in the bottle as possible, as I didn't want to waste too much.

Thanks for stopping by!

xNai

Locks, knocks and dots.

Hello again, fancy meeting you here!

Today I have for you some interlocking dots.

I had been wanting to try out this technique for flipping ages, since I saw it originally a while ago, but just couldn't work it out! Then I came across @slacquerr's tutorial on IG, and it ALL MADE SENSE!!

Here is my version

You can't really see the distinction between the pink and orange on the middle finger, which is a shame, but oh well, you get the idea!

What I used:

essence 'let's get lost!', 'passion for fashion', 'wake up!'

Revlon 'Bubble'

Sally Hanson 'Mellow Yellow'

Thanks for stopping by!

xNai

Patchwork Hearts

It's tutorial time!

Today's tute is brought you you by awesomeness and love.

What you'll need: 

Two shades of one colour (I have two blues)

A highly contrasting colour (my white)

Multiple sized dotting tools

A paintbrush/striper in the same colour as your contrasting colour (white)

Start by painting your base coat and the lighter shade of colour.
I have used essence 'you belong to me'

Next use the larger dotting tool (I used the back of a paintbrush) and place 2 dots right next to each other, as shown. Work out which direction you want the heart to go before placing the dots.
You want to not place the dots too close to each other, as these form the 'bum' of the heart, so there needs to be some decent curviness to it. (hehehe...bum...curviness...that's right, I have a gutter brain. Leave me alone! ;))

Repeat this with the medium dotting tool as well, so you have varied heart sizes.

Using the paintbrush/striper, create the point of the hearts, and join them all up.
I did this by placing a dot where I wanted the point to be, and then drew the lines to meet the edges of the dots, and filled in the space.

After the hearts are complete, using the smallest dotting tool (I used a toothpick), place some very small dots around the hearts, filling in the empty space.

Take the darker shade (essence 'walk on air') and very carefully outline the largest heart. It doesn't ned to be perfect, but try to keep it fairly thin.

Using the dark shade again, make little stripes across the outline, to create the stitches effect, as shown.


Top coat to protect your design, and voila!
Adorable patchwork hearts.

Please feel free to leave me a link to your attempt at this design, I would love to see it!

Hope this has been helpful!

xNai

Stitched up heart

Hello there again!

Today is the wedding, and I am probably very excited! (I say probably, because I'm writing this a full 2 weeks before, so I have to assume...;) )

I'm probably also very excited that it will soon be over, and life can go back to normal...XD

Alas, today is another one picture post, but with this one comes a tutorial as well! Rejoice!

I refer to these as my patchwork heart nails.

Patchwork Heart Nails

I especially love the glitter on the ring finger - it's essence 'blue addicted' which is a stunning royal blue jelly with medium and tiny blue hexes in it. Sadly it's not part of their new line, so I'm glad I stocked up! This was probably the first glitter I've actually really liked. I'm not much of a glitter girl, but this was the beginning of my conversion...:)

What I used:

essence 'you belong to me', 'walk on air', 'let's get lost!'

ulta3 'lily white'

Striping tape from ebay

Stick around for a tutorial a bit later!

xNai

Like a bat out of hell

Hello lovelies!

Sadly today is the last day of the This is Halloween Challenge! Sad face.

But that also means a recreation mani, and boy do I have a recreation for you!

After looking through a lot of the manis that were done, I noticed a theme for a few of them: Spooky silhouettes in front of a moon.

This one by @paperkraftnpolish on Instagram was the main inspiration for my recreation mani. I think she did such a spectacular job.

My inspiration mani

Here is my recreation of her beautiful bats design.

Bats Silhouette

I decided for these to mattify the blue gradient before putting on the black detailing, which meant that I couldn't top coat to protect the design, but hey, these are the things we do for nail art..:)

Bats Silhouette

Bats Silhouette

What I used:

ulta3 'midnight fever', 'blue heaven', 'blue bird' and 'lily white'

essence 'black is back' and 'walk on air'

Hope you liked these as much as I enjoyed doing them!

As always, 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...;)
                                                     

The best wiz and witchard o' their age!

Hello there lovelies!

So, as I have previously mentioned, I'm just a little bit of a PotterHead...Just a touch of the mania..:)

So for today's nails, as it is the 26th of October, and the day for witches in the This Is Halloween Challenge, I decided to recreate one of my very favourite Potter manis: The Final Battle.

The Final Battle

These nails depict the last and intense battle between Voldemort (that's right, I'm a badass. Fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself...) and Harry. It's a movie reference rather than a book reference, because I don't believe this is what JK would have been picturing, and nor is it what I picture...ANYWAY.

I first saw these nails on @trincess on Instagram, and instantly fell in love with them. OMFG, they're glorious!

Granted mine aren't quite as insanely cool, but I think I did a decent job considering I'm not actually an artist...:)

On the thumb I did the Deathly Hallows:

Deathly Hallows

And on the other hand, I did the house colours and stylised crest again. This is the first halloween mani I've done for both hands, and how could I not? It's Harry!

House Colours and Crest

What I used (prepare for a long list...):

For the Final Battle:

essence 'black is back', 'LIME UP!', 'fateful desire', and 'fame fatal'.

ulta3 'frog prince', 'banana split', 'lemon', and 'mango mayhem'.

For the Deathly Hallows and Right Hand:

essence 'black is back', 'fame fatal'

ulta3 'banana split'

Revlon 'Metallic', 'Emerald', 'Royal'.

Chi Chi 'Glamourama', and 'Bronze Ambition'

Anywho, I hope you enjoy these as much as I genuinely did making them!
As always, thanks for stopping by!
xNai

                                           

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones!

Hello there!

Today is October 22, and as we inch ever closer to Halloween, I have some more funkalicious themed nails for you!

Today's theme is gradient.

I love me some gradient. I gotta tell you, I love that it's such a wonderful effect for so simple a technique! Aside from monstrous clean up, (like with black - could have kicked myself...), it's kinda my go-to technique.

So here we have some black and white gradient, with fading bones. I've done used this effect before, with greens and fading dots (which I'm sure you'll see sometime in the future on this here bloggyblog), and I loved the way it looked then, so I knew I wanted to do something similar. The issue then was what? I didn't want to infringe on any of the other days' themes, and so this idea was born.

I do realise, of course, that they look a bit more like dog bones than skeleton bones, but hey, you win some, you lose some, amiright?

What I used:

Essence 'Black is Back'

ulta3 'lily white'

Don't forget to check out some of the dozens of other awesome manis for this challenge!

Anywho,

Thanks for dropping by,

xNai

                                                            

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

                                               

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick

Today is October 12, and you know what that means!

Jack O'Lanterns!

For these nails I decided to keep it super simple, and just create the basic ideas of jack O'lanterns. (should all those be capitalised? hmm..)

You can see the detailing in the actual pumpkin background better in this pic and the next one - I used two different shades of orange (essence 'Wake Up!' and Ulta3 'Mango Mayhem') to create the shading, and then just a black (essence 'Black is Back) with a teeny tiny paintbrush, and LOTS of patience for the faces.

I wanted to give you a range of faces, so we have two nice/benign, and two seriously evil looking' mofos.

Hope you've enjoyed these, and don't forget to check out some of the other incredible entries!
If you're on instagram, check out the #thisishalloweenchallenge tag - I and a number of others have been uploading there as well, and there are some seriously incredible entries; @strawbrie never fails to impress.

Thanks for dropping by
xNai