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

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

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

T-t-triangles

Hello again lovelies!

How was everyone's Halloween? Mine was pretty good, albeit not at all Halloweeny - I had a uni ball. Was lovely, and I wore orange and black to commemorate it, as the ball itself was (sadly) not themed!

So, back to our regularly scheduled programming, although I need to warn you - all my This Is Halloween Challenge manis were (obviously) done in the past month, meaning my techniques, photography, and posing are all much better than they used to be. But as we're going back to older manis, you're going to have to struggle through some bad photography and poses.

My sincerest apologies. ;)

Anyway!

Today I have for you what someone recently referred to as 'funnel' nails, due to the shape of the white, but I originally called them cut out triangles. So creative, I know!

Funnel Nails

I didn't use any tape or special brushes for these - just the ones in the bottles, and painted very carefully.
As you can see there are a few imperfections, but meh, they're so bright and eye-catching that you don't notice that stuff straight away.

Funnel Nails

I wish I could tell you which colours I used, but it was a while ago, and there are a LOT there!
I can tell you that the thumb nails are actually purple and coral, not blue and red as the pic insists. My camera sometimes (read: most of the time) hates purple.

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...;)
                                                     

Wee Little Ghosties

Hello there fellow Halloweenies!

Today's October 8th, and that means ghosties!

This mani comes in 2 parts.

When thinking about how I would go about this, I originally thought about pacman and the ghosts there, and automatically wanted to recreate some of the amazing pacman nails I've seen. Then I realised that's not very Halloweeny, so I came up with these instead!

"Plain white?!" I hear you exclaiming. Fear not my lovelies. I have not forgotten the task set me by Bec!
There is more here than meets the eye.

The white is two coats of Ulta3 Lily White - by far and away the best white I have used - beautiful streak free application in 2 easy coats. Woo!

And the piece de resistance!

GLOW IN THE DARK FLIPPING GHOSTS!
The theory is that you can't see ghosts until you turn off the lights, so what better way to pay homage than to only see them at night time?!

I thought it was rather brilliant myself...:)

For the glow in the dark I used BYS glow in the dark top coat, and very painstakingly painted on little ghosties and a boo nail!
Getting that pic was then such a challenge in and of itself!

Anywho, hope you enjoy this as much as I did!
xNai