Dots: They May Be The End Of Me

After having spent some time in the nail art blogsphere, I have discovered even the best bloggers have one technique they can't quite master. For most it may be the water marble, for some less it could be the perfect gradient, others have trouble with tape. I'm by no means saying I'm one of the best out there (but I will aspire to be one... eventually), but the technique that fails me every time would be dotting. Yes, dotting. The one that you can do with almost anything that's slightly pointy and that should be super easy. The one that looks amazing when done properly. For some reason that I'm yet to discover, I cannot make the dots into circles. They tend to go pear shaped (sometimes literally) and I get frustrated.

I decided to give one a go today since it had been a while since my last attempt at a dotticure and was determined to have a steady hand and lots of patience. The result wasn't half bad but there is still a lot of room for improvement. I started with three coats of OPI's DS Classic then used two different sizes dotting tools to apply Topshop's High Voltage for the pink dots and Ulta3 in Orchid for the purple shimmer dots. I applied a coat of Seche Vite to even all the layers out, once dry I topped it all off wit one coat of Essie's Matte About You.

It's not perfect but it's wearable. After so many failed attempts I'm OK wit that. 

One SUPER annoying tiny little thing that is happening lately is shrinkage from Seche Vite. It doesn't happen with all my fingers, it just happens on my index and it makes it look like I have bad tipwear. I'm thinking it may be because that finger is more curved than the others. 

I liked the pattern I managed to create with this finger and the dots were mostly all circular. Woohoo!

The more I look at it, the more I begin to accept it may not be such a bad job. I'll just have to keep practicing an try to keep my hands steady.

I'd like to know, is there a technique that you'd like to master but haven't qquite gotten there yet?

Till next time, 

Laura

The Challenge Entry That Wasn't

I always wondered how nail bloggers got involved in 31 day challenges. Does one just find a challenge and starts doing it? Would one have to get an invitation to participate? Was there some sort of exclusive club I didn't know about that created all these challenges I saw floating around? I still don't know the answer to these questions but I was really happy when I came across the Oh Mon Dieu! It's The Rather Awesome 31 Day Challenge Giveaway!. As you may infer by the name, this is a challenge open internationally in which you can win prizes for completing each challenge and get up to 31 entries for the month, when completed. I came across it by the second day of the challenge and funnily enough, I had completed the first two entries unknowingly and figured I could jump on the 3rd day without too much trouble.

Excitedly, I thought of all the possible nail art I could create with the prompt Purple. One of my all-time favourite polishes is actually a purple by B Collection by Bloom called Dubai (no longer on sale) but a simple swatch wasn't going to do, so I created curved, black and gold french tips to spice it up.

Version 1: Two coats of B Collection by Bloom in Dubai on a base-coated nail followed by a coat of Seche Vite. Once dry, I painted Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Night Flight with the polish brush, let it dry, then applied OPI's Goldeneye for the gold and used one last coat of Seche Vite to smooth it all out.

I had a lot of BAD drag marks from using Seche Vite to dry the first two coats on all my fingers. I did it late last night and I didn't really noticed the marks until after I had taken the photos. By the time I was done editing the OK photos, I was too tired to fix them or do them again. Hence, version 2 was created this morning. Same steps as version 1 but iIapplied Dubai carefully and skipped the first coat of Seche Vite.  

I was really happy with the way it came out, even if all the tips had a different curvature/centre from each  other. Especially keen on the middle finger.

My camera was freaking out a little from all the shine on the nail and I couldn't really show a lot of crisp detail. So what would I do in these sort of situations? Bring out the matte top coat.  Doesn't that look cool?

I got some cotton fluff stuck on my ring finger, had to fish it out with tweezers, tried to smooth it out with matte top coat and hoped that it wouldn't be too noticeable.  

So we all love Goldeneye, right? When I was taking the photos for version two, I noticed there was a lot of green reflecting from this polish. I was wearing a green cardigan at the time so I took it off to make sure it wasn't that colour reflecting. In a much closer, the Goldeneye over black seemed to bring out a green tinge on what seemed to be translucent flakies. Night Flight is a green based black so that might explain the green. I wonder how Goldeneye would layer over other colours but that may be another post altogether.

I was really happy with the way this turned out and this curved french mani and colour combination are things I wouldn't have tried had it not been for the challenge. 

So why the challenge entry that wasn't? Well, when I checked out the prize pack that corresponded to Australia, I was a bit disheartened as there was nothing in it I didn't already own. This is not a critique on the prizes but it wasn't an incentive for me to enter the competition. The challenge bit was exciting but I know I won't be able to complete since I go back to uni in two-ish weeks. Maybe I'll start my own challenge... I'll like to see how that goes.

Have you been part of a challenge? Did you enjoy it? Any that you would recommend?

Till next time, 

Laura

Matte Glitter Gradient and the Terrible Smudge

It stopped raining around this neck of the woods and I thought, 'Fast, go out to enjoy it before the sun sets!'. It sort of happened coz I jumped into the car and went to the local shopping centre to run some errands. In said shopping centre, there is a Priceline and we all know how dangerous going in there can be when one is sucked into that place. I went in anyway and I came across a new-in-Australia Sally Hansen range. If you haven't seen the bottles, the Fuzzy Coat range is a dupe to Nails Inc Feathers collection at a more affordable price. Surprisingly enough, I resisted buying it for a multitude of reasons, including the lack of price on the display, even though I've been looking the top coats for a while.

Another reason I decided not to buy it was my realisation that I have a lot of un-blogged polishes and that need a go before I start buying polishes that you can only show once. Originally, this was going to be a splatter manicure but my first try was a disaster  and I ended up smudging it so much I couldn't save it.

Instead, I went for a simpler technique like a glitter gradient that I had never actually tried, successfully or otherwise. I started with two thin coats of Maybelline's Electric Blue and one coat of Seche Vite for quick drying. For the glitter gradient, I used a Leighton Denny polish in I Am Diva  and put a drop of this dense glitter near the cuticles and brushed it up the nail with the polish brush. I stamped my ring finger with Bundle Monster's plate in BM-206 with essence's Silver Twister. Topped it all off with Rimmel and Essie matte top coats, each in two fingers (can you tell the difference? I still can't!).

There are a lot of things wrong with this manicure. For starters, I was impatient with the Electric Blue and touched it to see if it had dried. It hadn't and I created a massive smudge. Second, the glitter gradient is very sparse to be considered such and lastly, the stamp is crooked and not centred, even though I tried really hard.

A much better angle for this mani.

I couldn't bear having two unsatisfactory (in my standards and probably a lot of others') manicures  in one day and decided to still post this. 

Squint your eyes and it doesn't look that bad.

Anyway, this is what happened when, after touching the wet polish, I tried smoothing with my fingers AND applying a coat of Seche Vite. I have found this topcoat can fix mistakes if applied quickly after the smudge has happened, unfortunately, it didn't work for me this time.  

I have come across a few pages in Pinterest where they recommend licking your polish into place. I always had the idea that polish shouldn't go anywhere near your mouth so I skipped that one.

Do you have a fail-safe fix for polish smudges? If you can't fix them, would you rather leave them or start over?

Till next time,

Laura

Essie Matte About You. Or How I Thought I Was Living In a Lie

If you were to look at the matte tag in this blog, you may notice about a third of all my posts have been matted. I love the matte finish and the soft light it reflects. So far I've been using Rimmel Pro Matte Finish and I was in love. After reading a few blogs, I discovered that the this matte top coat was actually giving my manis a satin finish and not the full on matte effect. I decided to do some research and look for the best matte top coat to ensure I was actually in love with the matte finish and not the satin one. 

This is how I came across essie's Matte About You. I'd read in various places that essie MAY and OPI's Matte Top Coat gave the best results so off I went to this trustworthy eBay seller and only found MAY for sale. I got the bottle of polish today and I had to try it out straight away. 

I knew exactly what mani I wanted to try it with to have a truly matte finish. I started with two coats of Topshop in Celestial, a beautiful periwinkle blue creme that is no longer on sale. There are plenty of dupes out there but the quality of Topshop polishes is impressive so I stuck with this one. Please excuse the crappy clean up I knew, I would have to clean up the rest of the polishes later. They get cleaner, I promise. 

Once Celestial was almost dry, I dabbed one coat of essence in The Huntsman from the Snow White Collection. I even got a long bar glitter that I didn't know the polish included.  Dabbing FTW! This took a while to dry so I applied a coat of Seche Vite to speed up the process. 

This is where I decided to put one coat of Rimmel PMF on first to see it would compare to MAY. Pretty  and soft, right? 

I let the mani dry completely before applying one coat of MAY. 

I didn't really see any difference but the I thought it may have had to do with the layering of matte polishes. So I started again to make sure there was clear difference.

More after the break.