Aboriginal Dotted Nail Art

Hi there!

Today I have some nail art to share with you that I was very excited about (The 'was' because unfortunately they are long gone and I haven't had time to post).

I recently visited the Aboriginal art gallery at Kings Park (website here: http://www.aboriginalgallery.com.au/). As my partner and I wandered around the small gallery I was getting very excited by all the beautiful dotted art, which is the traditional visual art form of the Aborigines from the Western Australian Central Desert. The Aboriginal dotted art generally consists of lots and lots of dots which make up symbols and patterns associated with dreamtime stories. Bright colors are now more common with the use of acrylic paint, but traditional dot painters used natural pigments such as ochre, crashed seeds (ref).

Here's a small diagram with some of the more common symbolism (see above reference). From what I have seen over the years, one of the most common symbols used is the people sitting around a camp (well I guess it's a few symbols together). I thought it would be perfect for me to recreate on my nails!

I decided to go for a bit of a mixture between the traditional colours of oranges and reddish browns and the more modern use of bright colours. I love putting turquoise with earthy colours (or anything really) and I had been dying to use my Picture Polish Sea Jewel again since I did the Fremantle docker nails. 

The polishes were:

Background neutral : Butter London Yummy Mummy

Orange: China Glaze Life Preserver

Brown/red: OPI Skyfall

Gold: Sally Hansen Golden-I

Turquoise glittery suspension: Picture Polish Sea Jewel

I used the smallest dotting tool I could find for the majority of the dots and a small brush to paint the "people sitting" and the smallest dots. 

So what do you think? I absolutely loved these nails and I feel proud to contribute some Indigenous Australian nail art to all of the other tribal nail art inspired from people around the world. 

Thanks very much for stopping by :)

Dotted Gradient With Purple and Autumn Colours

There has been a few really pretty dotted gradients on Reddit Laqueristas lately, and I really wanted to give it a try myself. I meant to do a purple gradient, and somehow ended up choosing these very Autumn colours- silly with it being Spring and all...oh well!

I used the smallest dotting tool I own. Dotting tools are readily available on ebay (search nail art dotting tool), or you can make one by sticking a pin into the rubber on a pencil (or just use the tip of the pin if your aren't scared of sharp things!)

I started off at the base of the nail with the dots more spaced out, but ended up putting them closer together by the end. I think I prefer them bunched up.

The polishes I used were (starting at the base)

1. Rimmel Pro: Nite Flight

2. Mix of Rimmel Nite Flight and OPI Casino Royale

3. OPI: Casino Royal

4. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear: Grey Area

5. Essie: Island Hopping

6. OPI San Tan Tonio

7. Rimmel Lycra Wear: Ash Rose

8. OPI Planks a Lot. 

Thanks for reading :)

Spotted Feather Nail Art With a Fan Brush Tutorial

The fan brush seems to be included in many of the nail art brush sets that you can buy online.  I have never quite been sure what to use it for...it works ok for sprinkling loose glitter.... but I thought surely there is more..

So I jumped on google and had a look around for what they are used for by artists. There isn't a whole lot of love for the fan brush, but some people like to use them for trees, grass and feathers. In nail art they can be used to create a stripy look like this or a gradient like this.

Anyway I was attracted to the idea of feather nail art.... without using an actual feather. A while ago Pshiiit posted a really beautiful design that she made using a really cool flat brush that I don't have anything similar to here. I tried to recreate it with the fan brush.

What do you think they look like?
I don't think I really achieved the feather look. My Fiance thinks they look like Buffalo reeds at sunset.

 The polishes I used were:

Blue: OPI- Suzi says Feng Shui

Orange: China Glaze- Peachy Keen

 I've been getting heaps of nice compliments about these nails. I think it's because these colours really pop together and the bold design stands out even from far away. 

And again, I have a tutorial for anyone wanting some more info on how to create this look/use a fan brush :)

Thanks very much for reading
Chanfie xox

Engagement nails!!!! Pink and Red Poppies

I have a very exciting post today!!!!

I haven't been able to post anything for the last month as I have been on holiday in France. Anyway, so after about 2 weeks with plain nails I was very very keen to do some nail art! (I managed to have fancy nails on the holiday for about 2 weeks and then gave up)

Anyway from the title you may have deduced that I got engaged while I was on holidays. So of course I felt the need to do special engagement nails.   

You may wonder what poppies have to do with an engagement....

We were staying the night in a hilltop village in Provence called Bonnieux, and went for a walk to the top of the town/hill after dinner. There was nobody else around and the view of the countryside and the neighboring town Lacoste was amazing. Right over the edge of the path there was lots of poppies growing, and there was a plant that had pink poppies instead of red. I hadn't seen this before, and was taking pictures. They weren't working out very well, so I turned around to ask for my Fiancés better camera. He was down on one knee......

I’ve never been so happy in my life.

I used a tutorial for poppies I found on Paulina's Passions nail blog found here: http://paulinaspassions.com/poppy-flower-nail-art-tutorial/

The background colour is OPI "Did you hear about van gogh" - It was the first time I've used this polish. I really really love it. Ill be purchasing a backup.

The red is Konad special red

The pink poppies are a mixture of revlon Tuscan sun and Rimmel Ash Rose

And the black is Konad special black 

(I find the konad polish good for nail art as they are so pigmented)

A collection of my past nail art!

So here goes... my first post. I decided to dump a pile of my older pictures to give this blog some body. As you can see I absolutely love nail stamping! I have a rather large stack of stamping plates including lots from konad, Magno nails, Dashica Beauty Shop (Big sdp plates), some from Bundle Monster and Gals (Which I think is part of Cheeky). I also really enjoy trying new techniques, I'm currently dying to try a water spotted manicure!
 I apologise as some of the pictures are quite grainy or slightly blurred - when I took them I never imagined I'd one day be posting them on a blog (I'm also cringing at my sad cuticles in some of these pictures! I actually only recently started using cuticle oil regularly)

Essie Jazz stamped with Sally Hansen Insta Dry in Sonic Boom. Design is from Big-SdP-A. The picture is taken from Bunker Bay, Naturaliste, Western Australia.

This took forever. I used a sally hansen salon manicure polish called Jaded and it was very thick but un-pigmented.... meaning it took years to dry and every time I did something I kept smooshing it. I was on weekend holiday and it was the only colour I brought with me (BIG mistake haha).  Once dried (the next morning) I stamped with Essie Penny Talk (Image from A53).

OPI Black Onyx stamped with China Glaze Devotion (And vice versa on the ring finger but with Konad special back).  Design from Big Sdp-O

OPI Berlin there done that stamped with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White on. I then used a dotting tool to add the different colored spots. There is China Glaze for Audrey, China Glaze Peachy Keen and A Revlon polish Ill have to look up. Stamp is from Big SDP A

The gradient is made up of OPI Dulce De Leche, Sally hansen xtreme wear grey area (more of a taupe than grey) and Sally Hansen Xtreme wear Flirt. A design from XL-C is stamped over the top in Essie- Penny Talk

This is actually one of my first attempts at nail art from about a year and a half ago! The flower is from magno nails XL-E and is stamped with konad red. The black rhinestone is a cheapy of ebay.

Opi Thanks a windmillion, OPI fly (I think) and OPI dating a royal stamped with China Glaze Passion with a design from XL-B. Wish I had a less blurry picture of this one =(

Ill have to do a big search through my polish stash to get the names of all the polishes for this one.It was done by painting the nails white, then using a dotting tool and going nuts with lots of colours.

China Glaze peachy keen and OPI Elephantastic Pink. Used scotch tape and a striping brush to create the diagonal division. Stamp is from big sdp-I.

Opi A-Taupe The Space Needle stamped with China Glaze Delight. The dots are CG for Audrey and OPI Thanks a Windmillion. Design from big sdP-I

Opi ski teal we drop stamped with China Glaze for Audrey. The stamp was Plate A48. Amazing what some natural light can do for my photography skills!

This one is Opi Black Onyx, stamped with both Essie penny talk and China Glaze Magical- unfortunately my cell phone picture didn't really pick up the shifting colours. The design is from XL-N (from magno nails)

The marbling effect was done by spotting different colours onto white and swirling the wet polish with an acetone soaked paintbrush. The nail stamp is from magno nails :XL-N. 

Claw hand! I noticed this knocking about on the Nails Magazine Pinterest "Best of  Nail Art Gallery" along with a few others. I was kind of flattered, but also sad- they didn't have my blog watermark so it's kind of anonymous =(
Oh well lesson learnt. For this I used OPI Stranger tides (I think) and stamped with a gold stamping polish from magno nails and konad dark brown. Both of the images are from XL-D :)

This gradient was made using OPI skull and glossbones, China Glaze For Audrey and OPI Fly. The glitter is a homemade polish.

This one is soooo long ago I cant remember what polishes I used sorry. I do know however that the glitter is Sally Hansen Xtreme wear Disco Ball.

This one is OPI road house blues stamped with a design from XL-A with konad special white.