Triangle Mix and Match Nail Art

Today I have some nail art to share with you that I'm very very happy with!

I've wanted to do something with triangles for a long time, inspired by various favorite nail artists of mine such as Lindsay at Wondrously Polished and Camille at Pshiiit. So I painted my nails with my new Essie Midnight Cami, a metallic black/blue and got to work! 

 When I am trying a new design I often default to favourite colours because I know that if the design doesn't work out- at least I'll enjoy the colours. That's what I did here, using a metallic teal (Sally hansen Xtreme wear in 'The Real Teal') and copper (Essie Penny Talk) for the design. I kind of just winged it and did random triangular designs in the teal and lined everything in the copper. I then did some dots and swirls to take up blank space.

Here is a close up of the thumb- I'm kind of thinking it's the perfect abstract Christmas tree! What do you recon? Should I redo this design on all the nails for Christmas this year?

 Here is the other hand- I did similar, but slightly different designs.....mostly because I screwed up making them the same and decided to run with it!

 Yup lots of pictures.....I like them a lot.

 =D

So what do you think of my triangle mix and match nails?

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Chanfie

xxx

Review: Epicnail New Nail Foil Kits! "Essentials"

I have a huge post for you today! I was recently contacted by EpicNail.com.au to give an honest review of their new nail foil kits. These kits contain 6 rolls of nail foil, a bottle of nail foil adhesive, wooden cuticle pushers and instructions. There is also an ultimate kit which has 36 rolls of foil, 2 bottles of glue and cuticle sticks. The foils and glue can also be purchased separately.

The 6 foil kits retail for $73.98 AUD, however they are currently on sale for 50% off.

Epic Nail is an Australian owned and operated business that prides itself on its high quality products and excellent customer service. They offer same day dispatch to Australia and New Zealand on all orders, and a 30 day money back guarantee on all  products.

Out of the four available kits I chose the 'essentials' kit' as it seemed to have a bit of everything (In the jungle, I heart you, nautical, pipe dream, winter is coming, all laced up.....see chart below) . In addition to the kit, they also sent me two extra foils- marble and floral delight as I saw them on the colour chart and really wanted to try them too.

The kit arrived within 2 days of being sent, packaged in a stylish white box. Each foil comes as a roll in it's own jar, and there is about 1 meter per roll at a width of 3.8cm. Apparently each kit has enough foil for at least 60 manicures (ie. 10 per roll) which seems about right as I used 5cm per hand approximately.

I was going to make a tutorial of how to use nail foil transfers,  but there is a great one on their website already which I have copied below :)

Just a note- they talk about using the foils over shellac, but they can be used over normal polish or even bare nails. 

The first few foils I tried didn't transfer completely.  I didn't wait long enough for the glue to dry- you really need to wait for it to go completely clear (and then another 10 seconds to be sure!). Once I figured this out I had very few problems. Some were easier to use than other- the In the Jungle foil practically jumped onto my nails, and the Nautical stripes were a little tricky......anyway- I'll go through them one by one :)

First up we have 'Winter is coming'- is that a reference to Game of Thrones? This is a silver holographic foil with a subtle diamond pattern. This is where I learnt my second lesson in foil application. Quick dry top coat is a no no! In the picture below I used seche vite on all nails but the thumb before I realized it was ruining the finish! This phenomenon seemed to be most obvious with this foil as I used the same top coat with the rest and didn't seem to have a problem. This foil was very easy to apply- I did it over bare nails which meant this look was achieved in about 5 minutes! So quick and easy!!!

Oh and lesson 3: I found that pulling the foils off quickly rather than slowly gave me a much easier application.

And I re-did the 'Winter is coming' without top coat so you could see the full holographic effect. I don't think you can achieve anything this shiny with nail polish. It truly is stunning. I felt quite futuristic!

Oh and did I mention?- there is practically no clean-up as the foil only applies where you put the glue!

I decided to try stamping over the foils too. (If you are unsure on what nail stamping is visit my tutorial and guide to stamping here). I used a stamp from the cheeky happy plate using konad stamping polish in black. As you can see it worked beautifully and I really like the look of black stamping over the holographic shiny shiny silver!

 

Next up is 'I heart you', a hot pink foil with holo silver hearts. This one applied relatively easily, however I did have trouble getting it all the way to the edges and had to re-apply (ie add more glue and line up the foil over the top to re-cover the bald spots).  I think it's quite pretty, but definitely not my favorite.

And here is my equal top favorite..... 'Pipe dream'. This is what the foil looks like- which isn't obvious from the mani. It's lots of blobs and gradients with many different metallic colours.

Here it is applied directly to the nail- pretty cool huh..... but keep reading as I tried a different application technique as well.

For this manicure I first painted my nails with a dark metallic blue- Essie Midnight Cami. After it had dried I put small dots of foil glue onto my nails and applied as before- this revealed small spots of foil- I then repeated the process until most of the nail was covered (2 or 3 applications).

I looooved how this looked! It looked so deep, shiny and colourful!

I thought it might look cool to stamp these with a black as well. I used another design from the Cheeky happy plate.  So mysterious!

And after one of my favorites- the foil I had the most trouble with application, 'Nautical'. Well really the only one that didn't apply easily. This foil was different from the others as it was clear, with the red, silver, blue and white lines. Therefore you get to choose what color to put underneath and have show through. I chose a grey polish- Misa "Grey matters'. As you can see I had trouble getting the foil to apply all the way to the edges, and some of the lines have bits missing. I think the manicure still worked out all right though- I'm just a perfectionist!

Next is 'all laced up'. I applied it over a silver polish on some nails, and bare nails on other- you can't really tell which is which as it applied very easily without bald patches. This is a black lace design with  holographic silver background. I'm a fan of this design! I think it would be nice for a special night out.

Ok and the last foil in the "essentials' kit before I move onto the two extras that I picked out. 

This is 'in the jungle' and as I said earlier was super easy to apply.  If you are trying foils for the first time I recommend starting with this one :)

As you can see the background is a holo silver which flashes with rainbows in the light :)

Ok, now that concludes the essentials kit. These next two foils were kindly added as extras for me. You can purchase all foils separately for 4.99$ each (On special currently down from $9.99).

This was actually the first foil that I tried out so the application isn't perfect- but it wasn't troublesome at all, so I think when I try again it will be an easy application. This, like 'nautical' is a foil designed to be put over a coloured polish as it doesn't cover the whole nail and has clear patches. You can hold the foil up against different bottles of polishes to decide which colour will match! 

I'm a big fan of how this floral foil looked. The only issue will be that a lot of the foil is clear space, or just leaves, so if you want each nail to have a flower you may not get the total 10 manicures out of the roll. 

I applied over China Glaze 'For Audrey'

Ok and last, but definitely not least (in fact my other favorite) is 'Marble'. This is a beautiful subtle foil that looks like a marble surface, or even mother of pearl. Its not as shiny as the others, but I found it absolutely beautiful with the marbled mint, blues and pinks.

For the feature nail I cut the foil into a heart and stuck that on over OPI Thanks a Windmillion. I put the whole foil heart on- ie I didn't transfer it off the plastic.

So that's all of them! All in all I found these nail foils to be fun, quick and easy. If you love nail art, but don't have time these are perfect. Also I don't think you can beat foils for shine. They weren't completely full proof however. Make sure you follow the instructions and you shouldn't have too many problems, but some are definitely easier to apply than others. The foil application glue worked well, but I wish there was more... I don't think the one bottle will last for 60 manicures. It can be purchased separately on the website though.  

 So what do you think of this foil kit? Have you tried foils before or would you like to try them?

You can purchase the kits and foils from http://www.epicnail.com.au/shop/nail-transfer-foil/nail-art-transfer-foil-colours.

As a special offer, you can get free standard shipping on orders over $30 until the 31st December 2013 by using the discount code 'BLOGOCEAN'. 

This products were provided to me free of charge for review and my honest opinion by EpicNail.com.au. No editorial input from EpicNail was made.

Home Made Floral Nail Decals With MoYou You Stamping plates

 My good friend from uni let me know about this competition the other day which is held by MoYou London. You just had to do a mani using one of their plates and submit a picture to there facebook account. This is the fourth one, and they seem to be regular- so if you have some MoYou stamping plates make sure to keep an eye on their facebook page for the next competition! The prizes are always more stamping plates from MoYou London. 

 For these nails I used the "make you own decal" technique  using a flower design from the MoYou Pro collection XL plate 6.

Polishes Used:
The base colour is China Glaze Lemon Fizz
The green is OPI Fly
The Darker Pink is Sally Hansen Fruity Petutie (from the complete salon manicure range)
The Lighter pink/orange is Essie Tart Deco
The black is Konad stamping black polish. 

I think these are by far the best decals I've ever made. I'm pretty proud of them :)

Here is the tutorial I made a while back for the make your own decal technique. I recently revamped it! The full tutorial post is here.

Thanks for reading

Chanfie xx

Striping Tape Mani with OPI Mod About You, China Glaze For Audrey and Essie Tart Deco

I didn't really have a plan for this mani. I went through my collection of polishes trying to find something I hadn't used before for a base colour. I chose OPI- Mod about you- a cool toned pastel pink.

I actually found the formula a bit thick. I used a Revitanail nail strengthener as my base instead of my usual Orly bonder, so they may be why- it was going on very streaky. 

Anyway after painting them pink I was a little lost as to what other polishes would go with the pink. I decided to play it safe and chose a light turquoise and a coral peach- I find these 2 colours always look nice together (I used China Glaze For Audrey and Essie Tart Deco).

I also used some Essie 'good as gold' to add some metallic interest :)

 

 For the stripy design I used randomly spaced striping tape (available on ebay) diagonally across my nails. I then painted small lines (using a small paintbrush) perpendicular to the striping tape in my chosen polishes. 

 

I am not in love with these nails, but still pretty happy with them- what do you think?

Thanks for reading

Chanfie 

xx

Easy nail art with Essie Dive Bar

About a week ago I didn't have much time or motivation to do anything fancy for my nails and ended up with these.

 

I did get to try out 2 new polishes though- Essie Dive bar (the deep green/blue) and a homemade concoction of mine- the silver. 

I really really love Dive bar (surprise surprise.....with it being a turquoise)... I was using it over black and the silver, and with only one coat I was able to completely cover the changing colours underneath. I also think I did a good job mixing up the silver, it's a bit like Picture Polish Heavy Metal.

I added some silver rectangle studs from ebay to add a little more interest after a days wear. 

So they are a little boring, but mega quick and easy!

Thanks for visiting :)

Remembrance Day Poppies

Today as a tribute to those who have fought and lost their lives in war I have painted red poppies on my nails.  

Red poppies were among the first to flower in the devastated battlefields of northern France and Belgium in the First World War. The vivid red of the poppy also signifies the blood spilled from fallen soldiers.

In England in 1919, the British Legion sought an emblem that would honour the dead and help the living. The Red Poppy was adopted as that emblem and since then has been accepted as the Emblem of Remembrance (ref).

 For these nails I first painted my nails with China Glaze Re-fresh Mint. I really like the colour of this polish, but I found it really gluggy and thick. I had to add nail polish thinner to the bottle every few nails.

I then used acrylic paint and some fine brushes to paint the poppies. 

It took me about 3 hours to do. I actually considered giving up and not doing my right hand. 

I'm glad I finished them though :) I really like them, and will probably keep them on until they chip.

Have you ever given up and not painted your non dominant hand?

Thanks for visiting :)

Picture Polish Starry Night And Big SDP-J Stamping

I have about five different nail art designs that I haven't posted yet because I wasn't super excited for them. I've decided that I will post them between the good stuff! 

Not that I think there is anything wrong with these black and lilac nails below. In fact it's hard to go wrong with  Picture Polish's Starry Night, a suspension of holographic specks and small white glitters in a black jelly. I applied it over 1 coat of OPI Black Onyx.

I think it looks like the nights sky when viewed from somewhere far out in the wilderness, free from city lights and pollution :)

The lilac feature nail was painted with OPI- Do you Lilac it? This is such a beautiful colour and forumla- I might actually be able to stop buying pastel purple polishes now that I own it.

The stamp is from Big SDP-J. These stamping plates are available from Dashica Beauty.

I took silver glitters from color club- platinum record and placed them in the centres of the designs to  match the metallic finish of starry night.

Keep posted as tomorrow I will be posting special nails for Remembrance day (working on them now). 

Thanks for visiting :)

Grey and Coral Gradient Leopard Nails

A few weeks ago a  friend of mine had an African themed party as she had just gotten back from Safari. I wasn't very imaginative, and decide to go as a leopard.... maybe because I had been wanting an excuse to do leopard nails. I was inspired by Melissa over at Punch nails to go with some brighter colours than a real leopard :) 

On a side note the leopard photo above was taken by my Fiance last year when we went on Safari in Botswana with his family. On our first day at Chobe national park we found her alone glaring at a hyena who had stolen an impala she had killed.  The next day we tracked her down again and found not only her, but her two cubs and a male leopard who had dragged the kill up a tree to keep it safe from other scavengers. During the night she must have found him to win back the kill, and then fetched her cubs to feed them :)
So yes... not nail art related, but one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

I chose to do a grey background (Misa, spaced out) with coral coloured spots.  To create a gradient of corals I used a white polish (OPI alpine snow) a fluro coral (China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy) and a darker coral (Misa bop till you drop). I mixed them together to create about 5 different shades, and painted them as misshaped ovals and circles. I then used black acrylic paint to do the lines around them and complete the leopard print. If you don't have 3 different nail polish shades you could easily use just 1 colour with white to create different shades of the gradient.

If anyone is interested in dressing as a cheetah for Halloween (yes a whole year away now) or some other dress up party I also did leopard makeup which I was rather fond of.

I think this is the first photo I've put of me on my blog! I must be feeling more comfortable :P

Thanks for visiting :)

(And Cheers!)

Yellow and Black Aztec Design

Today I have some very simple, but eye catching nails to share with you. I have been planning to try this yellow and black colour combo for a ridiculously long time. 

I'm so glad I finally got around to it, because I'm loving these nails!

I used OPI Black Onyx on the non feature nails, and China Glaze Happy go Lucky as my yellow (Great polish by the way- both colour and formula!).

For the feature nail I stamped an aztec design from the A53 plate with konad special polish. This only covered about half of the nail so I then used acrylic paint to fill in the rest. 

Can you guess which part is hand painted? ;)

I felt like the plain black nails needed something and I luckily had the perfect thing! 

I ordered a bunch of nail art wheels from ebay recently and one of them had these super awesome square and round studs in red, white, yellow, pink, green and purple with a black splatter effect on them. 

I found mine as an option out of 22 different rhinestone wheels. I haven't been able to find a name for these particular studs so you may need to scroll through different auctions =( 

However, the link above should go to search for the multi style nail art decoration wheels where I found mine. 

Thanks for reading and visiting :)

xx