Tuesday 22 May 2012

Surprise Me Foil Nails

After trying out my foil English Rose (click here to see the original post) from dollarnailart.com I wanted more foils that had a pretty/different look to them (I also wanted a foil that could reflect like mirrors). I went back to dollarnailart.com and after seeing there inventory I couldn't find anything that I really wanted so I ended up on ebay (my bad addiction). I found a store called american_nails (click here if you want to see her/his inventory on foils) that had foils that I really liked but I wasn't in the mood to spend 4.49 EUR (plus 3.50 EUR shipping; for additional items it's 0.10 EUR; my total came down to around $25 Canadian) per foil but after seeing one of the patterns that I really liked I couldn't resist and I ended up buying 4 out of the 8 that I really wanted. Yes I have low self control when it comes to my addiction=> nail polish. Honestly if my mom hadn't told me (correction gotten angry at me) to stop buying nail polish I would still be wasting my money on nail polishes =)). 


I don't know how many really want to see my purchase so I'm going to start with the manicure before showing what I bought. For today's manicure I used Dentelle Noir (it means black lace; the listing is in French) foil and before applying it I applied Lion Around by essie as my base color.For this foil you do need a base color because only the pattern is in color while rest of the foil is clear. How the foil looks on top of my palm and woodenstick:

Lion Around by essie is a beautiful light pink (kind of peachy pink) color with really small silver shimmer in it. Note you can get away with 2 coats but I went with the usual 3 coats. Swatches of Lion Around :
 With flash (the shimmer is more visible in the this)


After my nail polish was dry I applied foil adhesive on my nails. Once the foil adhesive was dry I applied the foil on my nails using a wooden stick. I used Lasting Finish Pro by Rimmel London as my top coat (the foil doesn't get wrinkled when you use this top coat). How the final manicure looked:

 How my other hand turned out:
Note I had to apply nail polish again on two of my nails and when I applied the foil I didn't realize the polish wasn't fully dry so I ended up ruining the design on those nails.

Sorry I didn't make a new tutorial for this because I have done a tutorial on foil nails before (click here to see the original post). Old tutorial:
The foils that I bought are (from left to right): Champagne or pale holographique (translation: Champagne or light holographic), Dentelle Noir (translation: Black Lace), Bleu nuit (translation: midnight blue), and Rose / orange metal (translation: red / orange metal)
The seller had also added 5 lizards (I'm guessing as a thank you gift) to the package and honestly they are so cute and adorable. (I tried finding this in her/his shop but didn't have any luck so I'll try to find another place that sells these.) Close up of the lizard (you can click on the image to enlarge it):

Hope you enjoyed my post for today. If you liked it or hated it let me know in the comment or reaction section below. NOTE: I'm not paid for this and neither have I been asked to review the product. All purchases are made from my pocket money.


Thursday 17 May 2012

Floral Collage Manicure

Recently I've noticed some accent nail design using ring and middle finger. I'm not a big fan of accent nails but I wanted to try out something that looked like a collage (with different flowers) and it was on accent nails only. If you haven't guessed it yet then yes for today's manicure I did flower accent nails.

Tutorial:

I applied White on White by China Glaze on my index and middle finger; and 230 Portobello Pink by Rimmel London on remaining of my fingers. For the dry flowers I applied a clear slow drying top coat (on the area I wanted to apply the flower on), using a pointy end of the wooden stick (you should slightly wet the end by touching it on the area of your nail that has the clear polish on) I picked up the flower and placed it. Using the flat end of the wooden stick, I pressed down on the flower to make it stay; NOTE: if you have a hard time keeping the flower flat from one end then apply clear top coat under the petal and press on it. Once you are done apply a top coat. Final look with light flowers:

Final look with brighter flowers:
Image bellow (and end of my tutorial <= if you want to see it from different angles) shows the surface of my nail after applying top coat. Even though on my nails it seems like the flower might be sticking out but with a top coat it was flat.
I purchased the dried flowers from ebay for $2.00 (for 60 flowers). Just search for 'dried flowers nail art' and if you want it at the lowest price select 'Price + Shipping: lowest first.'
Hope you enjoyed my post for today. If you liked it or hated it let me know in the comment or reaction section below.

Monday 14 May 2012

Foil Nail Tutorial With a French Tip

For today's manicure I'm posting a manicure that I did around a week ago but didn't have time to edit the video so I didn't post it.

Tutorial for the manicure:
I applied 2 coats of 'It's Up To You' by Nicole by OPI as my base color (click here if you want to see swatches of 'It's Up To You'). Once my base color was dry I applied 1 coat of foil adhesive on my nail (the color became more milky but once the adhesive was dry it was clear again) and after it dried I applied the nail foil (peacock dazzle) on my nails. For the French tip I applied 'French White' by Wet n Wild at an angle (I'm not going to recommend using tape for this because the foil usually scratches easily), and stamped using Konad plate m85 (and m73 on my other hand) with Konad stamping polish in pastel blue. For the final result I applied Lasting Finish Pro by Rimmel London as my top coat.(Sorry I don't have pictures for the final result using Konad plate m85 because I ruined the manicure before I could take pictures of the final product.) Final result with top coat:
Hope you enjoyed my post for today. If you liked it or hated it let me know in the comment section below.

Saturday 12 May 2012

Retro Nails

For today's manicure I used 'The Right Thing' by Nicole by OPI as my base color. It's a reddish orange color with red micro glitters. Swatch of 'The Right Thing' (without flash):

Swatch with flash:

For stamping I used 'Silver Sweep' by Sally Hansen's Instra-Dri with red angel's plate RA-105. I have to admit after seeing the formula I was having second doubts about how well it was going to stamp but after seeing it on my nails I was shocked. Side note: it does stamp better then Konad's special stamping polish in silver; you can see the stamped image clearly in silver compared to Konad's silver stamping polish (the image stamped using Konad's silver polish is duller; might do a comparison in the near future). (Now hopefully I can find a better gold stamping polish too since Konad's special stamping polish in gold is also horrible.) Final design after applying a top coat:

 Close up image:
 In sunlight:


Hope you enjoyed my post for today. If you liked it or hated it let me know in the comment section below.

Water Decal

I did a simple water decal manicure today. For todya's post I used It's Up to You by Nicole by OPI as my base color.'It's Up to You' is  a beautiful duo-chrome blue-purple in the bottle; on your nails if you go by the usual 2 coats you'll only see the shimmer blue not the purple shade, but if you apply up to 3-4 coats you can see the purple and blue shimmer. The color purple is really hard to capture so sorry for not posting an accurate picture of the color. Swatches of It's Up to You:
Swatches using flash:

I used the same water decal sheet as my last post (click here if you want to see my last post and also information about the decals.) The decals that I used from the sheet are BLE884. Final design after a top coat:
Final design on my other hand:
I went back and tried capturing the chrome and I was able to capture an image slightly close to the color :D.
Hope you enjoyed my post for today. If you liked it or hated it let me know in the comment section below.

Thursday 10 May 2012

Flower Gradient Nails

For today's manicure I decided to do a simple floral gradient manicure. I did think manicure on Monday but I've been busy with things so didn't have time to edit the video and blogpost up until today.

Tutorial:
 

For the gradient I used Fashion Wedges, I bought them from Dollarama (they can be found in the cosmetic section)
I applied French White by Wet n Wild as my base color. Using the Fashion Wedges I sponged Aqua Baby by China Glaze on 2/3 of my nails from the top, using the same method I applied Happy go Lucky by China Glaze on 2/3 of my nails from the bottom. By 2/3 I mean if you divide your nail into three horizontal sections you should get three different sections (section 1,2, and 3); and for the 1st part apply the blue nail polish on the top two sections (section 1 and 2) and for the second part apply the white nail polish on the bottom two (section 2 and 3) <= the middle section should change to green. Once you've gotten three colors on your nail keep on blending (using blue and yellow nail polish) until you are happy with the gradient. How it looked once I was done:
Bought these water decals from ebay for $8 ($8 for three extra large sheets plus $2 for shipping;). The sheet I used is No.087, click here if you want to see the listing; if you cannot open the link you can visit there store :jetwinson (or you can search '3X LARGE SHEET 220 NAIL IMAGES IN 1 NAIL ART TATTOOS' and go though the items listed).
Don't remove the plastic sheet from the entire sheet. Cut the decals you want to use (I cut the small square shown in the image bellow; the decals are BLE887), remove the plastic (from the piece you cut), cut out the individual decals, place each water decal in lukewarm water for 6-10 seconds (on the instruction sheet it says 10-20 seconds but for me after around 15 seconds the decals separated from the sheet while they are still in water). If you can move the decal from the white paper then dip your finger in water (if you don't do this step sometimes the decal dries before you get a chance to move it around) and place the decal on your nail (you might have to move it around to adjust it on your nail).

I applied 2 decals on most of my nails for this manicure. Also before applying a top coat make sure your nails are dry. How the manicure looked once I was done:

Final design on my other hand:


Hope you enjoyed my post for today. If you liked it or hated it let me know in the comment section below.

Sunday 6 May 2012

Simple Blending Manicure

For today's manicure I decided to do a blending or gradient manicure using primary colors only. (If you forgot primary colors are red, blue, and yellow; and when you combine 2 primary colors you get secondary colors, ie., red and yellow make orange, red and blue make purple, yellow and blue make green and if you combine them all you get black.)

Video Tutorial:
(will be updated once the video is uploaded on youtube)



I applied 2 coats of White on White by China Glaze as my base color (you can use 1 if you want because you are going to be covering it later on). Once my white nail polish dried I applied yellow (Happy go Lucky by China Glaze), red (Hey Sailor by China Glaze), and blue (dark blue is called First Mate and it's by China Glaze; the light blue is called Flyin' High and it also by China Glaze) using a cosmetic sponge.

For stamping I used BM-223, BM-225, BM21, BM-206, and BM20 from bundle monster set 1 and set 2. (Note for some of these images you might have to stamp more than once to get it on your entire nail.)
For 'Look 1' I used white Konad stamping polish for stamping, and for 'Look 2' I used black Konad stamping polish for stamping.

For the triangular french tip I applied tape, at an angel, on my tips. Note before applying the tape make sure your nails are dry and the tape isn't too sticky (simply apply the tape on your skin and remove it 2-3 times; image on the left). I applied Black Satin by Rimmel London (on 'Look 1'; I applied White on White by China Glaze on 'Look 2') on the tips of my nail (area that wasn't covered with tape).  Once the polish was settled in (as in it's starting to dry but it's not fully dry) I removed the tape and allowed it to dry. Using bundle monster plate BM-210 I stamped the black (white for 'Look 1') area of my nail with white (black for 'Look 2') stamping polish. I drew a line parallel to the tip (assuming the tip is a right angle triangle than parallel to the hypotenuse) using Silver Glitter by Art Deco. 'Look 1' (after applying top coat):

'Look 2' (after applying top coat):

Hope you enjoyed my post for today. If you liked it or hated it let me know in the comment section below.

Friday 4 May 2012

Peeling Wallpaper

For today's manicure I tried doing an old wallpaper peeling effect using foils and stamping.

Tutorial:


After my base coat dried I applied 3 coats of Skull & Glossbones by OPI. For stamping I used Konad special stamping polish in white with bundle monster BM20, red angel RA 105, konad m83, and red angel RA 108. How it looked after I was done stamping:


 I cut small pieces of Elven Gold and African Jade foil (you don't need a lot for this manicure; click here if you want more information on the foils). I applied the adhesive on my nails randomly (in blobs). Once the adhesive was dry I placed the foil on my nails randomly (shinny/pattern side up); for this step you might need to apply the adhesive and do the steps again if you want overlap of the foils or if you think the nail doesn't have enough foil on it. Once I was satisfied with the results I applied a layer of top coat by Sech Vite to make the foil crinkle a bit. How it looked once I was done:



Hope you enjoyed my post for today. If you liked it or hated it let me know in the comment section below.

Wednesday 2 May 2012

Simple and Elegant Manicure + Haul

I know I said it in my last post that I was going to do my nails after my exams were done (April 27, 2012 to be more exact) but I never got to it :(. <= I'll try to explain this in another post :D.

Today's post is a tryout and also a haul about a product that I've been wanting for sometime know but I never bought it (I usually don't trust online shopping a lot; especially when the website is not a well known site). Few weeks back someone on my facebook posted pictures of their order from dollarnailart.com (yes you guessed it nail foils) and I decided to buy it after asking the person for information.

For the first part of my post I did a simple foil manicure using the foil called English Rose.

Video tutorial:
Steps:
For the base color I used French White by Wet n Wild. I know the instruction paper that comes with the foil doesn't mention this step but I did it because the foil was transparent. 
After my base color was dry I cut the foil according to my nail length and applied the adhesive on my nails. Once the adhesive was dry I placed the foil on my nail (shinny/pattern side up). I didn't apply a top coat (that's why the final look isn't that shinny), but the instruction paper does say you can apply a top coat on it as long as you don't drag the brush on the same place again. Final results without a top coat:



My other hand:
Overall I'm happy with the manicure because it was the 1st time I tried foils, and to top it off I had a hard time telling which side is the shinny side on this foil sheet. Hope you enjoyed my manicure for today. If you liked it or hated it let me know in the comment section below.

Like I said before the second part of the post is a haul :D. I usually don't do haul posts but I had to do it for this post (no I'm not getting paid to do this; it's just for sharing purposes). I bought total of 18 foils (for every 6 foils you get a free bottle of foil adhesive of 1/4 oz), dot studs (in silver, midnight blue, and purple; each bag is suppose to contain 48 studs in it), teardrop studs (in purple, and midnight blue; each bag is suppose to contain 36 studs in it), metallic flat diamonds (in silver, and the bag is suppose to contain 250 flat diamonds in it), and ice chips (in white, and sky blue).

Note: Click on the image to see the pictures more clearly.

From left to right: TieDye Surprise, Primary colors, Niagara Nights, Peacock Dazzle, Niagara Cascade, and Opal Swirl.
From left to right: Silver dots, Arctic tides, Sterling Roads, Fiber Optics, Silver Spectrum, and Candlelight.
From left to right: English Rose, African Jade, Laser Optics, Violet, Elven Gold, and Wrapping Paper.

The three foil adhesive:
Ice Chips:
Everything else:

Some of you might be wondering why I bought so many things if I only wanted foils right???Actually, problem with www.dollarnailart.com is even though everything is for $1 you have to have a minimum order of $25 before shipping (click here for shipping prices). My total came down to $33.40 (after shipping; which was $7.40 for Canada). I received my package within 2 week (I placed my order on April 21st, it was shipped out on April 25th, and I received it on May 1st); and it was well packed. Honestly speaking apart from the minimum order requirement I was really happy with my order.

Sorry for making this post so long, hope you enjoyed my post for today. If you liked it or hated it let me know in the comment section below.
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