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!

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

Fly away Peter, fly away Paul.

Hey guys!

Today I have for you the glorious Cotinga by Gloss 'n Sparkle (which I named, for the stunning turquoise cotinga bird).

Cotinga inspired this splotchy laser stripes mani, and it came out beautifully. 

Unfortunately I can't remember the polishes used for the splotches, but I can tell you that that gorgeous accent glitter is Cotinga, and let me tell you, it looks just as spectacular on light blues, purples, and even silvers as it does on black.
This is two very light coats of Cotinga, with no dabbing or placement required. Truly a delight to use!

As always, thanks for stopping by!
xNai

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

Gradient half moons

Hello chickens.

As promised, here is a tutorial for the pink gradient half moons.

What you'll need:

Your two colours, I have pink (Essie's 'off the shoulder') and a white (Sally Hansen 'White Out')

A latex sponge with which to create the gradient

Glitter to place around the moon

Masking tape, foil and a toothpick.

First, paint your base coat and a coat (or two depending on your polish) of white.

Next, cut a semi circle out of the masking tape, and place it on the cuticle end of the nail.
Alternatively, you can use the rounded end of a bandaid, or a binder hole reinforcer, or any sort of rounded sticker.

Paint the two colours for the gradient onto your sponge in stripes, and dab it onto your nail.

You can repeat step 3 as many times as you like to achieve the desired intensity, but make sure you let each layer dry completely before applying the next layer, otherwise you'll pull up the layers below.

Once you've reached the colour intensity you want, pull the tape off quickly - you don't want the paint to dry too much on the tape.

Now you can do some glitter placement, if you like!

Paint some of the glitter polish onto the foil, and using your toothpick, pull out individual glitters, and place them where you'd like them on the nail.

I've used them around the moon, and as an added bonus, it helps cover up potentially dodgy lines...:)

Top coat and you're done!

Hope this is helpful.

Good luck, and I'd love to see your attempts!

xNai

Once in a pink moon

Hello again there fellow nailies!

So sorry for my absence these past days, but I'm back!

Today I have for you some bright pink and white nails.

Sally wanted these to match a dress she was wearing to a 21st, so we did some pretty and simple half moons with a glitter placement twist.

On the ring finger I put OPI's 'I Lily Love You' for a little extra blang blang...

I'll be posting a tutorial for this design tomorrow.

What I used:

Essie 'Off the Shoulder'

ulta3 'Lily White'

OPI 'I Lily Love You'

Thanks for stopping by!

xNai

Double Dutch

Hello again DarlingHearts.

Today we have some more ombré, but with a twist!

I was inspired to do these by a graphic design @mpnails posted on Instagram (note: don't open the link if feet creep you out..), and just had to work it out.

To achieve this look, I did the background gradient first, and once that was completely dry with the aid of a top coat, I taped off the triangles, and did that gradient.

Love the way these look, and how completely vibrant they are! I chose contrasting colours to really add an element of oomph.

What I used:

Revlon 'Rock' and 'Siren'

Essence 'A Lovely Secret' and 'Raspberry Swirl'

Thanks for stopping by!

xNai

Fading into the greenness

Hello there lovelies!

So firstly, I’d like to apologise for my unscheduled leave of absence, life got in the way a bit recently, and I haven’t found the time to schedule posts for you!

Anyway, I’m here now, and we’re back to business as usual.

Today we have some funky green gradients.

These nails were inspired by someone on Instagram (can’t remember who right now, will edit if I find the original), and in turn, inspired my This is Halloween Challenge – Skeleton nails.

I personally think the accent nail looks best – maybe because the dots blend in better with the tip? Don’t know.

What are your thoughts?

What I used:

Revlon ‘Jaded’ and ‘Emerald’

Thanks for stopping by!

xNai

Winged electric fruit

Hey guys!

Today's mani is one I am very proud of. I love the way it looks exactly how I wanted it to look - the colours are amazing, and the details worked splendidly.

Enough of patting myself on the back, and on with the show!

Gradient tribal nails!

To achieve this look, I did a gradient of China Glaze 'Electric Pineapple' and OPI 'Fly', and then painted the random tribalish designs on top with a black polish and a striper brush.
I particularly like the ring fingers and the index on my left hand.

As always, thanks for stopping by!
xNai

Laser Splotches

Hello!!

As promised, I have a tutorial for you here.

What you'll need:

At least 3 colours - they can be in the same family, as these are, or they can be highly contrasting,

it's just about your own taste

Black, White, base and top coats

Striping tape

Cosmetic sponge (stupidly not pictured...*facepalm*)

Clean up brushes, q-tips and acetone/remover

Paint your base coat, and then a coat (or two) of white.
I use white here, like I do everywhere, to really make the colours pop. You could use the lightest of your colours as a base colour (like in any gradient nails), but I like being able to blend the edges out nicely (keep reading to see what I mean).

Paint a corner of your sponge with the first colour you'd like to use...

...and dab it onto your nails in any random pattern, making sure to leave enough blank spots for your other colours.

Cut the corner off, and repeat steps 2&3 with the next colour.

Repeat step 4 with the next colour.

I didn't like that the pink covered so much of the purple at the bottom of the nail, so I went over it very lightly with the purple again to blend the edges together a little better.

Clean up the edges using the q-tips for larger areas on your skin, and a small brush for the area right next to the cuticle.

Leave your nails to dry completely (you can use a fast dry top coat here to speed the process, or like me, you can read a book for 10 mins), and then apply the striping tape in any way you like.
I prefer the randomness of the laser effect for a mani like this.

Next, one nail at a time, paint over the nail with your black (or any other one coater colour you'd like to use), and remembering the order in which you placed the tape initially, peel it off quickly but carefully.

You'll be left with this wonderful result, with patches of colour showing through.

Don't forget to top coat your design, to protect your work, and you're done!

This is what the finished effect of mine looked like.

I decided to do it just as an accent nail, mostly because I ran out of time, but also because I really love the ombré effects on the nails.

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

Hope this has been helpful,

xNai

5 Shades of Glitter

Hello again!

Today I have for you one of my fave manis, and obviously it includes gradients. Duh.

I did these for an instagram comp held by the lovely Angela @madaboutnails, and the theme was 5 colours. For the month that the comp was running I tried to do every mani with only 5 colours, I did pretty well, but eventually got bored and moved on. ;)

I made it to the final few for people to vote on, which was amazing, but I didn't win, sadly.

To get this effect, I used The Nailasaurus' Gradient method, and blended the base colour (nearest the cuticle) with white instead of another colour, to get the lovely intense to pastel fading.
Then I placed each individual glitter onto the nail to mimic that fading effect.

Excuse the paper in this pic, but I included it as it provided for better white balance, and made for more true to life colours.

As always, thanks for stopping by,
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

                                                            

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...;)