Colour Blocking Nails with OPI Fly

I've seen a couple of pictures on Pinterest of colour blocking nail art using a black/almost-black colour, a nude and a bright. I think this kind of colour combo looks great together, especially in big chunky designs and I have really wanted to try it for some time. 

 Being a turquoise addict, I decided to go with OPI 'fly' as my bright. I used OPI 'Lincoln park after dark' as my dark colour- however it probably would have been easier to just use black as the purplyness didn't show up really. For my nude I used Essie Jazz which is very close to my skin colour in real life. 

I started of using scotch tape to create the different colour 'blocks' but the polish was bleeding underneath. I switched to striping tape which seemed to solve the problem. (Striping tape can be purchased from many ebay stores for about $1.50 for 10 rolls)

I'm in love with how they look, very classy. It's almost work appropriate!

Here they are :)

Purple and Gold 'Skittles' Nail Art

A few days ago I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do to my plain old purple nails to jazz them up a bit... and ended up trying a bunch of different things....5 in fact :)

 I think most people are calling this kind of 5 nail mix and match 'skittles nails'.

 I went with a purple and gold theme using gold glitter, striping tape and polish, and two other purple polishes (in addition to the one I was already wearing)

 The background purple is OPI Casino Royal, a favourite of mine. 

 The pinkie was done by first putting a streak of top coat down the middle of the nail and hand-placing (or more accurately tweezer-placing) square glitter down the centre of the nail. I thought it needed something else so painted the tip with a golden glitter polish (home-made).

 The ring finger was kind of a lucky fail of watercolour nails. I tried doing it with polish I had thinned with a polish thinner rather than just using an acetone soaked brush as I have done previously. So instead of being washed out it was just really watery and prone to dribbling into my cuticles....which as it turned out was a good thing!

It's hard explain without pictures...I think I’ll make a tutorial once I get bored of these nails..... Anyway I was very happy with how they turned out. I think it looks a bit like a camouflage pattern.

 The gold is Sally Hansen Xtreme wear 'Golden-I', the dark metallic purple is Revlon 'No Shrinking Violet' and the pastel purple is China Glaze 'Sweet Hook'.

 The middle finger was done by using scotch tape to tape off a triangle at the tip of the nail (starting about half way down the nail) and painting this tip with the Golden-I. I then used tweezers to carefully place gold striping tape. After the gold polish had dried completely I used more striping tape to tape of the small purple tip, and painted it with OPI Casino Royal. (And then removed that striping tape) 

 For the pointer finger I just dabbed on the gold glitter polish (more at the base of the nail, and less at the top to create a gradient) 

 For the thumb I scotch taped off the bottom half of the nail and stamped an image from Xl-D with China Glaze 'Sweet Hook'. I then removed the tape and painted a thin line with Revlon 'No Shrinking Violet', and pressed gold circular glitter into the polish. 

 The only problem with skittles nails is having to write a description of every nail!

The reason I took so long to post these, is that I was determined to make a light box on the weekend.... which I achieved today! Yay!

I made it out of a cardboard box and baking paper. I think my pictures look way better than usual!.... I'm getting there slowly. Unfortunately the awesome light I'm using is only on loan from my Fiancé’s Dad who is an electrician, so I need to find a replacement. It’s an LED and is worth about 100$ apparently so I'll have to find an alternative!

He said he could get me a pretty good one for an affordable price though so I'm still very happy!

So here they are: I think its my best cuticle clean up ever!

Well I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed creating this nail art :)

How to use too small stamping designs!

This mani was from earlier this week and was my first time for 2 things! Firstly I have never done a proper striping tape mani before (Only a basic scotch tape). Secondly, I got to use one of the tiny tiny stamping images from the original (2010) bundle monster set- specifically BM19. I have had the set for over a year and never used any of the full nail images.... becuase they won't even fit my pinkie =(
I originally chose this set over the 2011 set (unknowing of the size differences) because I had to have this leaf design so I was super happy with this mani!
To do this I first painted my nails with China Glaze for Audrey (I seem to use this in every second manicure I do!) and went to bed - I tried to start the mani before I went to bed, but it wasn't dry enough and the polish was ripped up when I removed the scotch tape. Although... I wasn't happy with one nail in the morning and had to repaint it, and it dried enough in about half an hour to redo- this was with seche vite to dry it faster, and I also stuck the scotch tape to the back of my hand before using it on my nails to make it less sticky.
After the base colour was dry, I used scotch tape/sticky tape to cover up the areas I didn't want stamped with the leaves. I then stamped using konad red, and removed the tape to reveal a square/triangle of red stamped leaves. After this I used striping tape to tape around the leaves and to make stripes and painted the divided areas with China Glaze shower together, and OPI fly. I removed the Striping tape with the polishes were still wet, and painted over with Seche Vite.

Gals fairy plates

 So I recently purchased the Gals Fairy stamping plates and so far I have used them 5 times. The images are etched well and are easy to pick up on both the Konad stamp and also XL stamp (This stamp is squishy and sometimes doesn't pick images up well ). My Only gripe is that if you have long nails they are too small - hence the feature/accent nail look below.
I have been in love with stamping a small abstract design/flower etc in the lower corner of my nails lately (I was originally inspired by chitchatnails). I think its especially great when doing a black and white manicure... for some reason using a whole nail design stamp on white is too busy for me- but I have seen plenty of pictures of other peoples nails that look great!

Essie a Crewed Interest stamped with Essie no place like chrome.The design is from gals stamping plate GA36.

OPI- You're such a Budapest Stamped with Essie- No place like chrome (Design from Gals Fairy plate GA35)

Opi - Casino Royale stamped with Essie Penny Talk with a design from a Gals fairy nail stamping plate GA35

Scotch tape mani for an Under the Sea party. OPI: Fly background stamped with China Glaze for Audrey and Konad special polish in dark blue. Image from Gals GA30. Glitter polish is home made

Gals fairy nail stamping plates GA34. Opi Alpine snow, konad special polish black

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.