33 Day Challenge: Freestyle

This post has been sitting in Blogger waiting to be written up for a few days but I wasn't that keen on the manicure. I wanted to do something amazing for the last day of the 33 Day Challenge so I brought out the foils and tried to create a skittle. Tried, the final result was very underwhelming even from far away. I present to you  a foiled, studded tape mani. Woot!

I started one coat of Ulta3's Black Satin, let it dry then applied one thin coat of nail foil glue on my ring and taped-up middle fingers. I let that dry and did applied a rainbow foil at random to give it a slight grungy look. I topped this two fingers off with one coat of Picture Polish Revolution and finally applied the studs with a drop of top coat. I topped all my fingers off with one coat of Seche Vite. 

The studs moved around when I was applying the last coat of Seche Vite so I had push them back into position with the brush and they ended up a little crooked. :( I'm not gonna go into too much detailed about the taped middle finger but let's say it took me three attempts to have a passable design. 

As underwhelming as this design was, I am super happy to have participated in this challenge. I have seen some amazing nails art, discovered some new blogs and met some lovely people that are encouraging and just absolutely great. I have also managed to push myself through (most of) a challenge and created designs I wouldn't have otherwise. There's also my new found love for nail art, which I want to be the focus of this blog from now on. 

Anyway, check out the other participants' last mani for the challenge. 



It was a pleasure lacquering with you all!

Till next time, 

Laura

33 Day Challenge: 3 Colour Gradient and Pattern

I'm back on the challenge which means I have a lot more free time to play with polishes :). I was a bit conflicted with the three colour gradient and a pattern prompt for day 22 of the challenge because my gradient attempts can be a bit of a hit and miss and I had just done an awesome one a couple of weeks ago. I created a three colour gradient last night but it turned out to be a miss and I couldn't recycle the last one because it didn't have a pattern plus that's not really the point of a challenge, is it?

I stuck to what I knew would work for me and chose three Topshop polishes for the gradient and striping tape. I started with a two-coat base of Queen of Green (QoG), which you may have guessed is the green closest to the cuticle. I then sponged on, from cuticle to tip, QoG, Wisdom and Zodiac and smoothed out the gradient with a coat of Seche Vite. I  wanted to put a little extra effort on the pattern side of the prompt so I tried to create some triangles with striping tape but as I was putting on the tape on my ring finger, I knew the triangles (some just polygons) weren't gonna be regular shapes. I applied one coat of Ulta3 in Black Satin over the tape and sealed it with one last coat of Seche Vite.

I wish I had done the green strip a little bigger so the difference between Zodiac and QoG would a little clearer. QoG is a silver based pastel green shimmer and Zodiac is greenish gunmetal grey shimmer with gold bits in it and they are both beautiful but I couldn't quite capture the beauty of them.

Or did I?

I really like the way this mani looks but it was a pain in the ass to clean up. Have you ever tried to clean shimmer polishes? The shimmer goes everywhere and it sticks to the skin like nothing else. I used PVA around my cuticles to avoid some of the mess but the cuticle lines weren't as clean as I'd like them so I took out the acetone. Bad move. After I managed to get as much of the shimmer of my fingers as I could with clean up brushes and cotton rounds, I still had silver bits all over my fingers. I had to use a nail brush to scrub up my fingers and use some cuticle remover to get rid of the stray shimmer. Lesson learnt: If I'm playing with shimmer polishes, I need to be ready to do a lot of clean up.

I just realised tomorrow's prompt is geometric but hopefully I can come up with something good and get my nail mojo back. Till then, check out the other timely participants of the challenge.

Till next time, 

Laura

BPS Fox Studs Reviews AKA 33 Day Challenge: Animals

I'm killing two birds with this post mostly because the timing of my latest Born Pretty Store delivery could not have been better. I may have also singularised today's prompt of the 33 Day Challenge from animals to animal... Not a big deal, right?

A few weeks ago, I asked to review these beautiful fox studs from Born Pretty Store and I knew I had to use them for this post. I was eagerly hoping they would arrived before today and they did. Phew!!! I found it a bit challenging to think of what to do with these apart from just sticking them to my coloured nail polish. I ended up coming up with this mani that I would like to call 'Night Fox' (it's fun naming manis...). 

This studs are absolutely beautiful, just look at them. They're these dainty little detailed studs, 6mm to be precise, and because they're a sort of abstract fox face there's so much you can do with them. Another wonder about this is that they don't sit flat on the nail as they are so slightly bent so there's no snagging on clothes, hair, fluff, etc.

I think they are made of an alloy metal that is used for most studs as these are really sturdy but light. There are only five in the pack, not quite enough for a whole mani, but they are great for accent fingers. Looking at the photo above, I just realised one of the studs has silver ears compared to the white ears of the others. Hey, that's more variety for me from one pack!

I stuck the stud with clear polish but I'm pretty sure nail glue would have been better. It didn't stick very well with my method and it fell off after a few hours. They can be reused so it really depends whether you are planning to reuse them or not to choose your adhesive. 

Now for the polishes used in the mani, I started with two coats of Ulta3 in Black Satin, followed by one coat of Max Factor Nailfinity in Extra Frost, which gives the black that lovely night sky look without too much effort, and sealed the base with two coats of Seche Vite. I painted the grass with a green stripper before using Layla in Metal Chrome to stamp the moon and free hand the what-I-thought-looked-like stars. I dotted the paws and tail with the same polish before I finished the mani off by creating the tip of the fox tail with a white stripper. I decided not to topcoat the mani because I wanted to keep the texture on the grass and the fox tail. Oh yeah, I stuck the stud with some clear polish right at the end.

You can get the studs by clicking here for US$3.48. Don't forget to use our code to LUCKYG10 to get 10% off full priced products of Born Pretty Store site.

I'm pretty happy with the way the mani came out and I was surprised that the free-handing that I did was fairly quick. All that behind the scenes practice might be paying off. Check out the other talented ladies' manicures for today. 

Disclosure: 
Affilliate Link. 
Fox studs were sent by Born Pretty Store for honest review. 
All other products featured were purchased by me.

33 Day Challenge: Flowers

I'm sooooo late for a lot of things in this blog! I'm gonna try to tackle a few on one post see how I go. I must say the last three weeks of uni have taken over my life!!! Rant over. Back to the blog...

First, my 100th Post Giveaway has ended, a week ago to be exact, *looks down to the ground in shame* and both winners replied within a few hours of emailing them. Congratulations to Kirsten on getting a $30 Ninja polish voucher and to Roshwill for being the winner of the $30 Born Pretty Store voucher! Thanks to everyone for sticking around after the giveaway finished. I've seen followers disappearing after giveaways are done on other blogs so I was really glad the number of people that are still willing to see my nails has still pretty much stayed the same *warm and fuzzy feelings to everyone*.

Now to the challenge. I'm late by one day in Australian Eastern Time but the plus of being on this side of the world is that there are still 22 hours on Tuesday before Monday is finished somewhere in the world. Mwahaha! Technically, I'm still on time.

I opted for a quick manicure due my lack of time so I looked through my nail art supply stash saw these silicone flowers that I got from Born Pretty Store a few weeks ago. As most of my posts at the moment relate to the challenge, I thought today would be a good day to take them out for a play. Looking at the white flower, I realised I had never done a white and black manicure. In this blog or ever. So here it is, my first black and white mani. 

I know, I know. Black and white is not the theme of the challenge but a white flower on a black base sort of is. I started with one coat of Ulta3 in Black Satin on all my fingers and used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On to dot some half moons. On the ring finger, once Black Satin had dried, I applied a coat of nail foil glue and let it dry. Once it became clear, I stuck the silicone flower. 

I had originally tried clear polish to stick it on but it fell off after I washed my hands, completely random, right?  I tried washing my hands after I applied the glue and the flower hasn't come off. Shouldn't glue wash off and not polish? I'm not sure what happened there but I'm sticking to the glue for now on. 

The silicone flower was really easy to work with and its flexibility is really great for not snagging it on everything. If you've ever worn large flat 3D nail, err..., items (is there another word?) you would know what I'm talking about. Did I mention they are super detailed. Check this out.

Another plus, they can be reused. This is what it looked like after I carefully peeled it off the nail glue. 

Born Pretty Store is having a 20% off everything sale for two days, 15th and 16th Oct,  and the flowers are currently retailing at $1.99. If you haven't found a discount code for BPS, you can use LUCKYG10 to get 10% off.


These type of mani is not something I would wear everyday, even though I'm very much in love with it. The flower is very out there and big but that's the fun part of it. I would wear this instead of a ring on a night out... I f I had time to go out.

Check out the other timely ladies that have participated in today's (yesterday's?) challenge. 

33 Day Challenge: Dots

Here we go with the first day of the Crumpet's Nail Tarts 33 Day Challenge. Looking at all the prompts, they look kinda scary but I'm hoping my creativity stretches enough to create good results for a whole 33 days. Or be prepared to browse Pinterest for lots of inspiration. :)

This first manicure was strongly inspired by this manicure from the Polish Chest. I've been wanting to recreate it for a while but hadn't found the opportunity to do it. Good thing  the first prompt is dots. Woohoo!

I started with one coat of Ulta3 in Black Satin followed by one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri topcoat and then applied a coat of OPI Matte Top Coat. Once it all dried,  I created the silver dots with a larger dotting tool and Ozotic in 509, a silver linear holo which I believe has been discontinued. Of course, I had to bring it out to the sun to show how awesome this polish is.  

Click on the page break for more sunny photos.

The Awesome Topcoat: From Almost Trash To This Post

There's a series of events that led me to discover one of the best topcoats I have tried but that unfortunately may not last. Hang on with me for about three minutes and I'll try to keep you entertained.

1. I decided to clean up four old dried up topcoat bottles so I could have them for frankens. I started with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri that had about a quarter of the topcoat and put a similar quantity of acetone. Why I didn't put acetone in all the bottles at the same time is beyond me but I'm glad I didn't and I wasn't trying to be resourceful at this point.

2. A couple of days after, when the topcoat had dissolved in the acetone, I decided not to waste anymore acetone and just added what I had in the Sally Hansen bottle into the essence XXXL Shine Gel-Look topcoat that had dried up to a thick, unusable goop. I left it for a few days before I came back to it.

3. In the mean time, I created my first mildly successful franken using Sally Hansen Gem Crush in Lady Luck and Ulta3 in Black Satin in similar quantities. I mixed it up and came back with this. What do you reckon?

Imagine the silver glitter is actually purple, smaller and denser. Does it remind you of any textured polishes?

Wanna have a guess if I show you a close up? I liked the result even though it wasn't that similar so I should call it Stay For Lunch (I hope I'm being funny here!). This little experiment made me realise that I actually don't own any textured polishes even though I've been lusting after them since December. :(

4. I went to Mecca Cosmetica because I felt like splurging a little on some nail strips or polish. Regrettably for me, the prices in there were a little too splurgy for items or polish I knew I could get cheaper somewhere else. I'm talking specifically about The New Black set that has some studs and 15 ml of polish for $42!!! It looks cool, but really $42?, I don't think so. I also saw 6 diamonte nail bows with nail glue for $15.95. I guess I'm a Born Pretty Store kinda gal rather than a Mecca Cosmetica one. :/

5. After my outing, I decided to use my untrieds, group in which my franken was included. I put it on and enjoyed it for a whole two days before I was itching to do something nail art on top of it. 

6. My Seche Vite was running out and only had enough for a couple of manis left, so I had to be frugal with it.

7. I grabbed the essence bottle and noticed the liquid inside had a similar consistency to a normal topcoat. I tried it on top of Stay for Lunch (have I got you hooked?) and to my surprise it made it smooth and shiny with just one coat and it dried to the touch within the minute. Had I just franked a topcoat too?!  

If you ever used this Essence topcoat you'd know it was a life saviour for topcoat-hungry glitters and it would have a squishy texture when dry but it would take hours and hours and h-o-u-r-s for that to happen. Sally Hansen Insta-Dri dried super quick and prevented chips for a few days but it took a few coats to even out glitter or nail art. Had the best properties of both topcoats came to life when I mixed them up? So far, it looks life it! I've tried it on a few other polishes and it still works fine. My only concern is that the acetone may change the topcoat for the worse in the long run and this topcoat won't be usable anymore. 

So the moral of the moral of the story is I created an comparable-to-Seche-VIte topcoat with a third of dried up Sally Hansen Insta-Dri, a third of goopy essence XXXL Shine Gel-Look topcoat and a third of acetone, roughly. I was just going dispose of the liquid (safely, of course!) if I hadn't tried it. Plus, all those events I mentioned above finally led me to this stamping mani. I know that's not the point of this post and it's not my best work but would you look at how shiny and smooth it is with and extra coat of The Awesome Topcoat. 

This top coat is sooooo squishy but it doesn't leave dent marks like other topcoats and it doesn't make the polish peel off because of the thickness (Looking at you Seche Vite...). Please excuse the dodgy stamping job.

I hoped you stuck around for the three minutes and that I didn't bore you to tears. :)

Have you ever tried mixing topcoats into a same bottle? Any favourable results? Or bad ones? Would I have any luck with the longevity for The Awesome Topcoat? Are you sick of the word topcoat yet?  I almost am. 

Till next time, 

Laura 

Valentino Inspired Manicure

I love (virtually) rummaging through the online New York Mag fashion sections for inspiration for manicures. Think all those designer collections that appear on Vogue and Elle but at your, er..., fingertips for free. Today, I've got a manicure loosely based on the one of Valentino's Couture Collection dresses for the 2013 Fall.

I look at the details, colours and textures to see how they can be translated to the nails without being too literal. When I came across the above dress I knew I wanted on my fingertips!!!

I must warn you, the details of the nail art wasn't great but I liked how it all looked together and that's the main reason I'm putting the photos up. I know it's not perfect but this blog is also part of the journey towards amazing manicures... Deep, aren't I? Haha!

I started with four coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Peatal Pusher for the nude base then stamped the pattern only half way up the nails with Bundle Monster's BM-201 plate using Konad Special Black polish. I sealed it with a coat of Seche Vite to make sure the stamping wouldn't come off when I placed the stickers for the half moons. I don't actually know if that would happen but I wanted to be safe rather than sorry. 

Once the Seche Vite was dry I put on half of a round sticker in each finger and striping tape on the tips as french manicure guides. I carefully painted  Ulta3 Black Satin on and removed the tape and stickers as soon as I was done with each finger. Finished it all off with one last coat of Seche Vite.

There was a lot of smudging, crooked half moons, bad and excessive clean up, major shrinkage on my pointer and the french tip lines weren't as crisp as I had hoped.

The photos weren't turning out either and each of these photos were taken at different times because I just couldn't take a good one. I could keep going about how this was a bad experiment but one thing I managed to accomplish was to get out my comfort zone and think how I could create a mani from a dress. I think this is one of the most creative things I've come up with and that makes me a tiny little bit proud. I would  usually shy away anything that involves creating arty things.

What do you guys think? Do you have sources of inspiration?  I hope you guys enjoyed the mani.

Till next time,

Laura 

Leather And Stripes

I had a bout of inspiration from browsing through my mother's fashion bookmarks this morning that went from one idea to another, to another and ended up looking like this.

I used three coats of American Apparel Sheer in Pacific Beach topped with Seche Vite as a base, waited for it to dry completely, then taped my ring finger and finally used this method to create the leather effect.

I'm really happy the way it turned out and was surprised how clean the lines were. All those failed attempts have paid off and have left me with some decent taping skills. Woohoo!

As I mentioned before, the original idea looks nothing like what I ended up creating. It went from contrasting textures with half moons to adding a colour and using chevrons to just using tape for an accent. I thought I'd show you the dress anyway, you may see the resemblance.

Dress by Fatima Lopez, or Lopes? She's Portuguese and
there are different spellings in different websites... Source

Keep reading to see how I created the mani.

DIY Leather Nails

Back at the beginning of December last year, I came across the Nails inc Leather Effect polishes and a new lemming was created instantly. I looked high and low but the prices were absolutely ridculous, e.g., an ebay bottle of the black version would have set me back $46!!! No thanks. I could keep wishing...

Last night, when I was trying to do some tiger nails (which were a complete fail), I ended up sponging on too much colour and, in a fit of frustration, I dabbed the whole sponge on my finger. When I looked down at my nail, I saw what resembled the leather effect. Could I satisfy my lemming with my existing polishes?

After putting my trustworthy Ulta3 Black Satin and Rimmel Pro Matte Finish polishes to the test, this was the result:

I don't own the Nails Inc Leather Effect polish so it's pretty hard to do a comparison but you can check some swatches here, here and here. I'd like to think I'm pretty close. What do you guys reckon?

Since, I actually came up with this all by myself, I wanna show you guys a mini-tutorial after the break.

Enjoy!

Layla Mirror Effects Tape Mani *Edited*

When in doubt, reach out for the sticky tape... Yes, I'm bad at rhyming but the idea stays true. This mani is not my finest work, the lines aren't that crisp, the pink is quite patchy, the clean up left a lot to be desired, the top coat created bubbles. If you squint your eyes, it looks ok. :)

Polishes used:

Pink: OPI in If You Moust You Moust 

Silver: Layla Mirror Effects in Metal Chrome 

Black: Ulta3 in Black Satin 

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri

The pink polish belongs to the Minnie Mouse collection by OPI and I really like the colour. 

I originally got a mini bottle  but love it so much that I got a full size bottle. However, both bottles are very streaky and the mini bottle has gotten fairly thick, which didn't help with the application. 

******Edit******

I had to add a matte top coat to this mani. I think I may be in absolute and utter love with Rimmel Pro Matte Top Coat. It looks everything look so... soft and dreamy. and it doesn't streak like every other matte top coat I've tried. 

**************

Leaving it very short today, 

Til next time, 

Laura