Pisces Birthday Nails

Dear Nail Diary,

It was my birthday on Wednesday so I decided to create a nail look to commemorate the event.  I'm a proud Pisces, so I wanted something that incorporated that, as well as utilising my own style.  I had planned a cherry blossom look as I love Japan, however after receiving my birthday presents early, I couldn't refrain from using a couple of the colours I received.  I haven't done any stamping in a while and I have plates from Bundle Monster that I've been wanting to use for some time now.

So this is my brand new love, Birefringence by I Love Nail Polish.  It's a beautiful colour-shifting polish known as an Ultra Chrome due to its ability to shift to so many more colours than standard duochrome or multichrome polishes. I could take photos all day in all lights and never be able to show you all the colours that appear in this amazing polish.  I think the bottle photo probably shows the most colour shifts.  Golds, greens, pinks, magentas, purples, reds and blues.  Almost an entire rainbow in one polish.

It's opaque in two coats, something very few of my current multichrome polishes can manage without looking streaky or patchy.  If you click on the above photo you can see the shift from navy blue to electric violet to magenta to deep burgundy.

While in this one you can see the shimmering metallic particles more closely.  In the one below you can see more of the reds, pinks and oranges.  As with all multichrome polishes, brush strokes are more noticeable, however I find a good quality topcoat can lessen them, especially if you are going to be using that polish as a background.

So this is what I created to represent Pisces and celebrate my birthday...

 I started with two coats of the Birefringence on my thumb, index and baby fingers.  After adding a topcoat and letting it dry, I used the Bundle Monster + gotnail plate BM-XL212 which is part of the Blogger Collab Set 3 and another birthday polish (Cirque Colors - Memento Mori) and my new stamper, I stamped the pattern on my index and baby fingers to create a scaly effect and topped it off with another topcoat.  Fish or mermaid?  You decide.

For my thumb, I used yet another new polish and my first "official" stamping polish from Hit the Bottle called Holo There Beautiful!  I also received Lucky Spark.  Both of them are holographic stamping polishes as they are often the hardest to get to show up properly.  As you can see, that was not the issue here and the holo shows up beautifully.  I used a mermaid design from the same plate as before.

Finally for my middle and ring fingers I was inspired by a marble design that popped up on my Pinterest feed.  So I painted two coats of Nails Inc - Swan Street as a base and waited for it to dry.  Next I got my other polishes, my mixing palette, a very small dotting tool and a makeup sponge. 

I was going to use the cling film technique, however I really wasn't in the mood for all that dabbing, waiting to dry, topcoating and repeat for however many colours.  So instead I dripped drops of each polish in a random but close pattern on my mixing palette, then before they could dry, I took my dotting tool, you could also use a toothpick and did a lazy drag marble.  Then I just got my makeup sponge, dipped an end in the marble and sponged it over my nail a few times.  I did use a liquid latex barrier around my nail to help with clean up.

After the topcoat had dried, I used Bundle Monster plate BM-725 which is from the Spring Buffet Plate Collection and using Nails Inc - Lanesborough Place (my go to stamping gold if you hadn't noticed) stamping these beautiful fish in opposing directions like the Pisces pictorial.  Finally I topcoated that and voila!  I'm still getting used to my new stamper, so the stamps aren't as clean as I would like them, but I have to say I really love this design, which is lucky because I want to keep it on for as long as possible as I'm testing out a new base polish and I want to see how it holds up against the Orly Bonder that I usually use.

Stay tuned, because I'll be showing you the new Nails Inc Collection I got for my birthday and my thoughts.

=:x

Crayon Nails and Matte Topcoat Dilemma

Dear Nail Diary,

Hello 2017!  Sorry I didn't see you in January, but I literally slept through most of it.  I tend to hibernate in Winter.  First thing you'll notice is my nails are shorter and squarer.  After a couple of breakage incidents coupled with my sheer frustration with my nails at the length they grew to last year, I've decided to try and keep them at a sensible length.  My right thumbnail has only just come out of recovery and has shown me that I do prefer the tip to extend my fingertips slightly, but not so much that I end up typing with my nails.  I'll still play around with shapes - I'm curious if I could achieve a shorter coffin/ballet nail, as I love the shape but not the length they usually are.  I'm currently rocking a rounded square for my latest nail art.

I came across this post on Pinterest which said it was a "Back to School nail art for kids," which annoyed me because I hate being told when I can or can't do something. 😠
Also I doubt many schools would allow students to have their nails painted like this in school.
I decided to give it a try, even though I'm not good at freehanding.  I pretty pleased with the results for my first time trying something like this.  The hardest challenges were picking out the colours and drawing the little squiggles.

 As you can see from the second photo, even though it's a relatively simple design, I had to use a whole lot of polishes.  In the photo I was inspired by, it looked as though they just finished with a plain glossy topcoat, but I wanted to make them more realistic by making the "paper" part matte.  At a glance they look a little too realistic, as I've been freaking out every time I catch a glimpse of them.

 I've been having a bit of a dilemma over matte topcoats lately.  I've been trying make sure all my recent cosmetic purchases have not been made my companies that test on animals.  So as my OPI matte topcoat was waning thin, I went on the hunt for a new one.  I wanted one just as good, but that also adhered to my changing moral standards.After researching as thoroughly as I could, I decided upon Zoya's "Matte Velvet Topcoat".  After using it several times, I can honestly say for the price, I'm rather disappointed.
As you can see in the photos, although there is a clear distinction between what's matte and glossy, the matte still has some shine to it.  While the effect actually worked well for this nail art, I'm looking for the "chalky" matte that OPI's creates rather than the waxy matte this creates.  I've been repeatedly told that Essie's "Matte About You" is brilliant, however that would mean compromising my No Animal Testing stance.  Next on my list to try is Picture Polish - G'Day Matte, but as they're an indie brand, getting hold of it might be problematic.

Anyway, enough ranting for today, I look forward to showing you more nail art soon.

=:x

Furry Fail

Dear Nail Diary,

I forgot I hadn't posted this.  I recently bought some nail vinyls from Twinkled T (among other things) and was desperate to try this idea I'd had to honour my cat who died a couple of months ago.  Cristine from Simply Nailogical has these cat cyclone vinyls and I wanted to see how they'd look combined with the flocking powder I got from Bundle Monster.  I imagined a really cool texture effect between the A England polish I'd chosen and the furriness of the powder, however the end result wasn't as impressive.

I think it would have been better if I'd used nail glue or top coat instead of clear polish to adhere the flocking powder.  Also it was obvious right away that I needed a more striking colour of powder if it wasn't going to create the effect I wanted.

I changed to a purple, however that just seemed to emphasize how badly the powder wasn't sticking.  The last time I used the flocking powder it worked really well, but I think that was because I was applying to my entire nail.  I tried a vinyl with a gold holo glitter just to make sure it wasn't my lack of skills with vinyls that was failing me - as you can see, that wasn't the case.

It worked slightly better on my right hand which I did second, so maybe I just need to practice this technique a bit more?

=:x

Happy New Year!

Dear Nail Diary,

This is only going to be a quick photo post, which I'll add details to later, but I thought you'd like to see the nails I was rocking last night.

China Glaze Twinkle Collection Review - Part 1

Dear Nail Diary,

This is my first time reviewing a collection.  I'm a complete amateur, so I don't know all the technicalities and whatnot, so this will just be my honest opinion of how I thought they looked on me and how smooth the application was.  Also, I can't wait to get my new camera so my photos will come out clearer and the colours more accurate.  My current camera hates purples and greens. :(

Happy Halloween!

Dear Nail Diary,

Happy Halloween!

I love this time of year - and not just because of all the sweet treats!  The weather (which has been unseasonably warm round here), the food and the nails.
First up, Candy Corn nails.  Maybe because I'm not American, but I don't get the hate that these get.  I always make sure I have a bag for Halloween.

Mani Monday: Midnight Leopard & Handpainted Tortoiseshell

Dear Nail Diary,

Double post!
I did both my mom's (as she's been bugging me) and my own over the weekend.  I've been practicing making prints with my new nail art tools.  I'll start with mine...
I'm not really a fan of animal print, but I really like the effect of this mani.

Neon Criss-Cross

Dear Nail Diary,

I haven't been feeling up to doing my nails for a while, but I'm finally getting back.  Not sure where the idea for this came from, it certainly wasn't what I was intending, but I like it nonetheless.

After applying my base coat I painted two coats of Barry M - White.  Once dry, I sponged on some neons (Manic Panic - Electric Banana, Nails Inc - Kensington Park Road & Sloane Street, China Glaze - I'm With The Lifeguard and Essie - Action) in random gradients.  I sealed them with SV and waited for it to dry.  I then applied nail tape in a criss-cross pattern across each nail and painted on a think coat of Barry M - Black over the top.  I immediately removed the tape and allowed it to set a little before I applied a final coat of SV.

It's quite pretty, however I think I'll take the plunge next time and use the neons as a base over the entire nail.

=:x