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

With ya head in the clouds

Hey guys!

Today we have some simple clouds.
I had just received OPI 'Fly' and wanted to try it out. I love this blue, and think it works nicely with my skin tone, but didn't want to leave it too plain, and here we are!

The green at the tips is actually a glow in the dark polish, which sadly I couldn't get a decent image of, but had a lot of fun with in bed :)

What I used:

OPI 'Fly', and 'Zom-Body to Love' from the 2011 Halloween collex

An unnamed L.A. Colors green

Thanks for stopping by!

xNai

Chunks of blacky goodness

Hey, you! Yes you. Right there...reading this! How are you?

Today I have a fairly pic heavy post, showing off a lemming of mine that was finally crushed a little while back.

I am, of course, talking about Kleancolor's 'Chunky Holo Black'.

And oh my, did it live up to my hopes and expectations.

Anyway, on with the show!

Indirect light with an AWESOME backdrop.
NAME IT.

Look at the range of colours in this glitter. All the way from a dark cherry red through orange, yellow, bright greens, and on some angles, into a deep blue.

In the shade

Mattified, in shade

Mattified in artificial light.

All I can say about this polish, is how happy I was to finally be wearing it. You all know how strange it is for me to be wearing one solid colour, let alone a glitter, and I wore this one for nearly a week!

Thanks for stopping by,

xNai

Argyle Dotticure

Hey guys!

As promised, here's the argyle dotticure tute. It's actually really very simple, and you can take this basic design and turn it into many different styles.

 What you'll need:

Two contrasting colours. Here I have Revlon 'Rock' and China Glaze 'For Audrey'.

Two different sized dotting tools

Paint your base coat and colour.

Using your large dotting tool, and place a column of dots down the centre of the nail.

On either side of the first column, place more dots, staggered from the first, as shown.

Using the smallest dotting tool, connect the large dots diagonally on one side, making sure to continue the little dots all the way to the edges of the nail.

Continue joining the large dots, and when done, top coat to seal in your design, and enjoy your super simple dotticure!

You can try matte top coats, glitter, and a myriad of other options!

Let me know how this goes for you, if you try it out.

xNai