NYE Mani! Welcome 2013!

Hello lovely folks!

To some 2013 has already dawned and for others we are still awaiting the arrival of a new year! Of course I am brimming with excitement for a fresh start and had to indulge the kitsch in me and do a themed mani in anticipation of the arrival of 2013!

My last mani of 2012 was created by using Revlon Nail Care Calcium Gel Nail Hardener as a basecoat, x3 coats of Mr Price Bella Cosmetics Nail polish in dark pink and light pink (my description of colours, no official names provided on bottles) on every other nail, x2 coat Colours Nail Enamel in Creammoss for the nail art, x1 coat in Revlon White on White for nail art, x1 coat Revlon in Sparkle for nail art, x1 coat in Tru Colour Nail Enamel (Sparkly Silver colour – can’t see name of nail polish colour on the bottle) for nail art, silver stamped on star design for nail art, a star rhinestone for nail art and x1 coat in Revlon Nail Care ColorStay Gold Standard Top Coat as a top coat. To get this jazzed up mani celebrating the beginning of 2013, read on!

You will need:

• Base coat nail polish
• Two alternating base colour nail polishes (I chose dark pink and light pink)
• Two contrasting colours for the ‘2013’ nail art (I chose mint and white)
• Glittery nail polish x2 (one chunky glitter nail polish and the other a fine glitter nail polish, however using 2 nail polishes is optional, 1 will work perfectly as well!) for the razzle dazzle french tips
• Orangewood stick / dotting tool
• Toothpick
• One nail art rhinestone (nail glue optional)
• Stamping kit
• Silver nail polish
• Top coat nail polish

Method:

1) Apply base coat nail polish to all nails, wait for it to dry completely

2) Apply alternating base colour nail polishes, wait for it to dry completely

3) Pour a small pool of mint nail polish onto a scrap piece of paper…then dip the sharp end of the orangewood stick/dotting tool into the pool of nail polish and carefully dot on the mint nail polish onto your nail in the design of ‘2013’. Start with the number 2 on the index finger, 0 in the middle finger, 1 on the ring finger and lastly 3 on the pinky finger. When dotting on the mint nail polish in these number designs make sure to leave sufficient space between the dots as you want to also dot on white dots in between the mint nail polish, so you have an alternating mint-white nail polish dotting design. Complete the number design on all nails in mint nail polish (remember leave enough space between the dots) 

4) Pour a small pool of white nail polish onto a scrap piece of paper…then dip the sharp end of the toothpick tool into the pool of nail polish and carefully dot on the white nail polish onto your nails in between all the mint dots which are already in the design of ‘2013’. I found using a toothpick to dot on the white nail polish helped a lot in keeping the design neater and allowing the white dots to be dotted on small enough in between the mint dots

5) For the star design on the thumb nail, I selected a star design from my stamping set and stamped the design onto my thumb nails, I have described how to apply stampy designs in more detail here. Make sure when you are applying your chosen stampy design you leave adequate space at the tip of the nail to include the glittery french tip

6) For extra oomph I outlined the main star design with the same alternating dotting design that was used to dot on the ‘2013’ design on the nails, (see above no.3 - 4). I also added a nail art star rhinestone on the thumbnail, securing it to the nail with nail art glue.

6) Now start working on the glittery french tips, I first dabbed/patted on the Revlon Sparkle nail polish onto the tips and waited for that to dry completely. The Revlon Sparkle nail polish is a chunky glittery nail polish, once this was dry I then applied the Tru Colour Nail Enamel (Sparkly Silver colour – can’t see name of nail polish colour on the bottle) by painting it onto the tip of the nail, don’t try to do this exceptionally neatly as if it’s painted on a little messily it adds to the look of a glitter fade french tip! Complete on all nails

7) Wait for all nail art to dry, then apply top coat nail polish

8) Bring in the new year, 2013, with very appropriate sparkly nails! 

Happy New year to one and all! :)

 Have you done anything themed to bring in 2013 ?

As always, linking up to Mani Monday below, with the fabulous Heather and Heather! I will also be joining the ladies over at The Nail Files.

Join the fun side of life and link up to Mani Monday and The Nail Files below :)

Merry Christmas!

Having been caught up in the Christmas fever and last minute shopping madness, I didn't rock a Mani Monday but I am sporting some rather festive nails for this terrific Tuesday which also happens to be one of my favourite days of the year, CHRISTMAS! Wishing one and all a very merry, blessed and joyous day with your loved ones!

Mani Monday: The Candy Cane Mani

Seasons Greetings you amazing readers! :)

I am currently enjoying a long weekend in beautiful Cape Town and loving every second of it (posts soon!), but nevertheless had to feature a recent holiday themed mani I did, my twist on the candy cane mani!

The candy cane mani was achieved by highlighting the accent nails with candy cane detailing using red striping tape placed diagonally over a white base nail paired with red nails with metallic red french tips shadowed by red striping tape. The metallic red french tip is very subtle in the photos, but I didn’t want the french tip colour to be too distracting from the candy cane accent nail. To achieve this festive mani I used Revlon Nail Care Calcium Gel Nail Hardener x1 coat as a base coat, Revlon White on White as on the ring fingers x3 coats, Rimmel Heart on Fire x2 coats on the rest of nails, Rimmel Red Carpet x 1 coat for nail art (metallic red french tips), red striping tape for nail art and Essence Studio Nails Better than Gel Nails Top Sealer as a topcoat.

You will need:

• Base coat nail polish
• Base colour nail polish (I chose red)
• Base colour nail polish for accent fingers (I chose white)
• Coloured nail polish for french tips (I chose metallic red)
• Sticky tape/french tip guides
• Pair of scissors
• Red striping tape

Method:

1) Apply base coat nail polish to all nails, wait for it to dry completely

2) Apply x3 coats of white nail polish to ring nails and x2 coats of red nail polish to the remaining nails, wait for it to dry completely

3) Cut sticky tape into 10 small pieces and apply your make shift ‘sticky tape french tip guides’ (or use proper french tip guides) to all nails except the ring nails (accent nails), make sure you gently but firmly press the sticky tape down onto the nail

4) Paint the metallic red nail polish onto all nails which have the ‘sticky tape french tip guides’ on and once the metallic red nail polish is painted on, wait a few seconds and then pull off the ‘sticky tape french tip guide’. I find pulling the ‘sticky tape french tip guide’ off while the french tip nail polish is still wet is best as it leaves a cleaner line. I have tried leaving the ‘sticky tape french tip guides’ and normal french tip guides on till the french tips have dried completely and I have always ended up with a messy line. Complete applying metallic red nail polish to all nails with ‘sticky tape french tip guides’

5) Now to work on the candy cane accent nails, cut 4-5 strips (depending on length of your nail) of red striping tape and  apply the 4 strips of red striping tape diagonally onto the nail to mimic the candy cane design

6) Once the metallic red french tips are dry, cut 10 strips of red striping tape to fit the nail and carefully apply each strip of red striping tape above the metallic red french tip so that the red striping tape shadows the metallic red french tip

7) Apply top coat to all nails, wait for it dry completely and you are ready to rock some uber festive nails!

8) It's obligatory to be singing along to some cute Christmas carols, my fav this week is Deck the Halls…come on it’s 9 days till Christmas! ‘Deck the halls with boughs of holly, Fa la la la la la la la la la, Tis the season to be jolly, Fa la la la la la la la la la,…’

What’s your favourite holiday destination ?

As always, linking up to Mani Monday below, with the fabulous Heather and Heather! I will also be joining the ladies over at The Nail Files.

Join the fun side of life and link up to Mani Monday and The Nail Files below :)

Mani Monday: Festive Sparkle Mani

G’day you lovely ones! 

Well, I’m sure like the rest of the world over you are feeling the festive spirit of the holidays. This mani is versatile as it celebrates the fun & sparkle of the festive season while still being wearable for work (if you’re still slogging out the last few days), and on trend for summer easily taking you from summer days into festive holiday parties by night. 

I used Revlon Nail Care Calcium Gel Nail Hardener x1 coat as a base coat, Revlon Scented Nail Polish in Mint Gelato x4 coats (needs quite a few coats to build up opacity but I adore the minty colour and the scent reminds me of choc mint ice cream!), Tru Colour Nail Enamel (Sparkly Silver colour – can’t see name of nail polish colour on the bottle) x1 coat for nail art, Sinful Colours Professional in All About You x1 coat for nail art, Essence in Make it Golden x1 coat for nail art and Essence Studio Nails Better than Gel Nails Top Sealer as a topcoat. 

You will need:

• Base coat nail polish
• Base colour nail polish
• Silver glittery nail polish for nail art
• Gold glittery nail polish for nail art
• Gold chunky glitter nail polish for nail art

Method:

1) Apply base coat nail polish to all nails, wait for it to dry completely 

2) Apply base colour nail polish to all nails x4 coats, wait for it to dry completely 

3) Now you’re ready to start working on the glitter gradient nail art for this mani, you can see this technique also discussed here

 

4) Apply a silver glittery nail polish to your nails in uneven strokes along the tips of your nails, so that you are left with some short and some tall streaks of silver glittery nail polish along the bottom 1/4 of your nails. It may look a bit strange now, but don’t fear…we are building up and layering the nail polish to get the glittery nail polish to fade out 

5) Wait for first coat of the silver glittery nail polish to dry completely, once dried now apply 1 coat of the gold glittery nail polish over the silver glittery nails polish but make sure to start applying the strokes a little below the silver nail polish, so that you still see some plain silver glittery nail polish peeking through which fades into the gold nail polish. I used a mix of gold and silver for some contrast, but if you only have one colour it will work just fine as well! 

6) Wait for the gold nail polish to dry completely, then apply the chunky gold glitter nail polish. Now dab or pat the chunky glitter nail polish onto the tips of your nails (as if doing a chunky glitter french tip). Complete nail art on all nails and wait for it to dry completely

7) It may seem as if the tips of your nails are very uneven with all the nail polish deposited there, but this is solved when adding the top coat…you may need 2 layers of top coat nail polish just to even out the nail surface

8) Wait for chunky gold nail polish to dry completely, then apply top coat (1 or 2 coats as needed). I know it's old school but I am totally humming along to 'I'll be home for Christmas' by the King, Elvis Presley...I'm feeling the festive spirit of the holidays :)

What is your go-to mani for the holidays?

 

As always, linking up to Mani Monday below, with the fabulous Heather and Heather! I will also be joining the ladies over at The Nail Files.  

Join the fun side of life and link up to Mani Monday and The Nail Files below :) 

Mani Monday: Winter Wonderland Mani

Hi you lovely folk :)

I have some rather exciting news this Mani Monday! 

- I will be blogging for Beauty Bulletin, which is one of South Africa's leading online beauty review websites. I will be writing beauty articles on a weekly basis on a variety of beauty related topics. I am joining a team of other awesome ladies, you can find me here. I am oh so excited for this new, fun project!

- I will doing my first ever guest blog post this coming Friday, 7 December 2012 over at the ever lovely Emma's blog, Subliminally Smitten.

Now, to reveal my first festive themed mani for this lovely month of December, my version of the Winter Wonderland mani.

I’ve seen these darling snowflake manis floating around, perfectly encapsulating the spirit of a white, snowy Christmas (how much do I wish we had white Christmas’s here in South Africa!)! Since my nail art skills are no where near close enough to being able to draw a snowflake freehand onto my nails…I decided to improvise! I used a pale, icy blue nail polish as a base colour with electric blue french tips and an accent nail fully decked out in electric blue nail polish with small white flower nail art stickers I had that I thought doubled quite well as snowflakes! I used Revlon Nail Care Calcium Gel Nail Hardener x1 coat as a base coat, Sally Hansen in Blue It x2 coats on the ring fingers as accent nails (x1 coat for nail art), Essence in Frozen Queen x3 coats (needs a few coats to build up the opacity) on all other nails, and Essence Studio Nails Better than Gel Nails Top Sealer as a topcoat.

You will need:

• Base coat nail polish
• Two base colour nail polishes (I chose icy pale blue and electric blue)
• French tip guides or sticky tape cut into strips
• Nail art stickers (small white flowers preferably or proper snowflake stickers, this would clearly be even better!)
• Top coat nail polish

Method:

1) Apply base coat nail polish to all nails, wait for it to dry completely 

2) Apply x2 coats of electric blue nail polish to ring nails and x3 coats of icy blue nail polish to the remaining nails, wait for it to dry completely 

3) Apply french tip guides to all nails except the ring nails (accent nails), make sure you gently but firmly press the french tip guides down onto the nail. I used french tip guides, but if you don’t have any, you can just as easily use sticky tape in place of french tip guides. Cut the sticky tape into thin strips, and apply as you would french tip guides, I have done this countless of times and have still had excellent results!

4) Paint on the electric blue nail polish onto all nails with the french tip guides and once the electric blue nail polish is painted on, wait a few seconds and then pull off the french tip guide. I find pulling the french tip guide off while the french tip nail polish is still wet is best as it leaves a cleaner line. I have tried leaving the french tip guides on till the french tips have dried completely and I have always ended up with a messy line. Complete applying electric blue nail polish to all nails with french tip guides

5) Now carefully apply the nail art stickers to your ring fingers, apply the stickers in a haphazard design as snowflakes don’t fall uniformly in one line and you are wanting to mirror that effect

6) Wait for all nail art to dry completely 

7) I know it’s the start of summer in SA and you're going to be rocking a Winter Wonderland Mani but it’s ok it’s the festive season…these things can be forgiven! 

Yes, today I totally want to jam out to some kitsch Christmas carols especially Jingle Bells…’Dashing through the snow, In a one-horse open sleigh, O'er the fields we go, Laughing all the way’…la la la…! It’s allowed, it’s finally Christmas season and please prepare yourselves for some mega festive spirit, December is my favourite month…not only is packed with Christmas…but my birthday as well :) Look out for festive themed manis for the entire month of December!

What festive manis are you sporting these holidays ?

As always, linking up to Mani Monday below, with the fabulous Heather and Heather! I will also be joining the ladies over at The Nail Files.  

Join the fun side of life and link up to Mani Monday and The Nail Files below :)