Happy Valentine’s Day!

Getting into the spirit of this love-filled day with my V-day mani! May your Valentine’s Day be filled with love, joy & happiness whether you are celebrating with your significant other or going out on the town with friends!

Mani Monday: Cherry Hearts Mani

Hi all!

This Mani Monday I had to indulge in the theme of love as this week welcomes Valentine’s Day. The colour scheme of this mani was inspired by some of my favourite Valentine’s day chocolate treats, maraschino cherry chocolates, yum! 

The inspiration:

I used a dark pink and light pink to contrast the similar colours of the inside of the chocolate. I added cute accent finger nails in light pink with two dancing hearts (with faces) holding hands! The finishing girly touches to this mani was a glitter top coat. I kept this mani fairly understated as I found the glitter top coat paired with the accent nail to be just enough nail art. With a glitter top coat I prefer not to go too crazy on the nail art. This look is still wearable for day to day use while counting down to Valentine’s Day. I used Revlon Nail Care Calcium Gel Nail Hardener as a basecoat, Bella Cosmetics nail polish in light pink (my description) on ring finger nails (accent nails) x3 coats, Bella Cosmetics nail polish in dark pink (my description) on all remaining finger nails x3 coats & x1 coat for nail art, Rimmel 60 Seconds in Black Out x1 coat for nail art and Essence Glitter Topcoat x1 coat.

You will need

• Base coat nail polish
  
• 2 Base colour nail polishes (I chose dark pink & light pink)
  
• Black nail polish for nail art
  
• Toothpicks
  
• Glitter Top Coat nail polish

Method:

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

2) Apply x3 coats of light pink nail polish to ring nails and x3 coats of dark pink nail polish to the remaining nails, wait for it to dry completely   

3) Start working on the dancing heart details on the ring finger (accent) nails. Pour a small pool of dark pink nail polish on a scrap piece of paper. Dip the toothpick into the pool of dark pink nail polish and dot on 3 dots in an upside down triangle shape onto your nail, you are making three dots at each corner of the triangle. Now join and pull in each dot to each other, the design will now resemble a heart shape. Repeat this step so that you have 2 hearts on the ring finger nail (and repeat on other ring finger nail as well). The technique to drawing a heart is discussed here (point 15-16) and here (point 7-8) with pictures describing each step

4) While waiting for the heart designs to dry completely you can apply the glitter top coat to all nails (except the ring finger nails, you are still working on the dancing heart details)

5) Once the heart designs have dried completely, pour a small pool of black nail polish onto a scrap piece of paper. Dip the toothpick into the black nail polish and dot onto the hearts two eyes and a smiling mouth. Once you have completed dotting on the eyes, if you wish, you may draw 3 small eyelashes coming out of the eyes on one of the hearts.  Lastly, draw two small lines coming out of the side of each heart and join the lines in the middle of the nail, these small lines are to resemble hands. My intention was to make it look as if the hearts are holding hands

6) Once the nail art is completely dry, apply glitter top coat to ring finger nails as well

7) Be totally kitsch with your Valentine’s Day themed manicure, it’s only one day of the year where you can be completely kitsch, cheesy and mushy! Go out and party with your girlfriends or enjoy a romantic evening with your significant other! Love & Light to all on Valentine's Day! :)

Are you pro or anti Valentine’s Day ?

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: Floral Loving Mani

G’day my lovelies!

I have been lusting after the rose petal mani for a while now and I finally decided to pluck up the courage and attempt this cute floral design on my nails. I added a fun twist with index finger accent nails paired with roses french tips. I love the results!

I used Revlon Nail Care Calcium Gel Nail Hardener as a basecoat, Revlon Scented Nail Polish in Apricot Peachy x5 coats (unfortunately it needs so many coats to build up opacity but I love the almost candy like scent) on all nails, Revlon in Red Hot Tamale x1 coat for nail art, Colours Nail Enamel in Red x 1 coat for nail art, Colours Xtreme Nail Colour in Jungle Fever x1 coat for nail art, Revlon in Garden x1 coat for nail art and Revlon Nail Care ColorStay Gold Standard Top Coat as a top coat. 

You will need

• Base coat nail polish
• Base colour coat nail polish (I chose a muted nude peach colour)
• 2 nail polish colours for the rose petals design (I chose red & a lighter coral-red colour. If you don’t have two shades from the same colour family, you can use red/pink and then use a white nail polish as a substitute to contrast)
• 2 nail polish colours for the rose leaf design (I chose a dark green & a light green…if you only have one green nail polish, it will suffice)
• Toothpicks
• Earbuds
• Top coat nail polish

Method:

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

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

3) Start working on the rose designs by pouring a small pool of light coral-red nail polish on a scrap piece of paper, dip one end of the earbud into the pool of coral-red nail polish and dot the colour onto the piece of paper…you want to get rid of any excess nail polish first. Now, dot the nail polish onto your index finger nails in a haphazard design. You want to place dots all over your index finger nails so that the rose design will cover the entire index finger nails

4) Dot the coral-red nail polish using the earbud onto the french tips of all other nails…about 3 rose designs can fit per french tip per nail 

5) The rose petal design can be done in 4 simple steps 

6) To add depth and create the illusion of a rose design, you will need to add a darker (or lighter) colour of nail polish onto the big rose dot on the nails. This will help create the rose design. Pour a small pool of red nail polish onto a scrap piece of paper and dip a toothpick into the pool of red nail polish. Carefully draw two interlocking C’s in the middle of the big rose dots 

7) Now add two bigger C’s on opposite sides of each big rose dot. You are creating the illusion of the petals of the rose from an aerial view

8) Continue step 6-7 on all nails by completing the petal design on all the big rose dots, all that is left to do now is the leaf designs 

9) Pour a small pool of dark green nail polish onto a scrap piece of paper and dip a toothpick into the nail polish, drag the toothpick from the edge of the rose design outwards into the shape of a small triangle. Two triangle leaves must be drawn on either side of each rose design and these small triangles must be drawn so that they are touching each rose design. This will ensure that it looks like the leaves are coming out from the rose

10) Complete step 9 on all nails ensuring that all rose designs have leaves 

11) To add detail and depth to the leaves, pour a small pool of light green nail polish on a scrap piece of paper and dip a toothpick into the nail polish. Dot and drag a small amount of light green nail polish in a line in the middle of all the dark green leaves. This adds depth to the leaves 

12) Wait for all nail art to dry and apply top coat 

13) I know, be stunned that the nail art you were busy doing all along, that you thought just looked like random splodges now actually looks like intricately drawn roses! Totally be on trend with your floral manicure! :)

What's your favourite trend at the moment? 

 

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: Survivor Mani

Hello my pretties! For this Mani Monday I had the urge to channel some old school Destiny’s Child and did a camouflage manicure highlighting the design with two accent nails and camouflage french tips! You could easily swop out the traditional camo colours for some fun, bright colours to give this look a twist!

I used Revlon Nail Care Calcium Gel Nail Hardener as a basecoat, Rimmel in Black Out x 3 coats as a base coat on the thumb, middle and pinky finger nails and x1 coat for nail art, Essence Colour & Go in Camouflage x 3 coats as base coat on the index and ring finger nails and x1 coat for nail art, Essence Colour & Go in Sundancer x1 coat for nail art, Colours Xtreme Nail Colour in Jungle Fever x1 coat for nail art,  and Revlon Nail Care ColorStay Gold Standard Top Coat as a top coat.

You will need

• Base coat nail polish
• Two alternating base colour coat nail polishes (I chose black & brown)
• 2 other nail polishes to build the camouflage design (I chose mustard & green)
• Toothpicks
• Sticky tape or french tip guides
• Pair of scissors
• Top coat nail polish

Method:

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

2) Apply alternating base colour coats to every other nail, wait for it to dry completely

3) Start working on the camouflage design on the index and ring fingers, pour a small pool of black nail polish on a scrap piece of paper. Dip a toothpick into the black nail polish and carefully trace a small weird blob type shape on your nail, just any type of weird blob

4) Now dip the toothpick into the black nail polish and dot on and drag nail polish to fill in the blob design you just traced onto your nail. You will continue to trace a few more haphazard blobs onto your nail, you are essentially building the camouflage design. Your nail should start looking something like below, don’t trace on too many black blobs as you have to leave space for mustard blobs, green blobs and enough space for the brown camouflage colour to peek through here and there. Repeat step 3-4 on index / ring finger nails

5) Now pour a small pool of green nail polish and repeat step 3 – 4 on ring and index finger nails

6) Pour a small pool of mustard nail polish and repeat step 3 – 4 on ring / index finger nails. This is the last colour you will use for the camouflage design, you nail should resemble the photo below

7) While waiting for the nail art to dry on ring and index finger nails you can go ahead and start working on the nail art for thumb, middle and pinky finger nails, just be careful not to touch or smudge the nails that have already been worked on

8) Cut three pieces of sticky tape (or use french tip guides) and place the sticky tape on the thumb, middle and pinky finger nails. You are essentially repeating step 3 – 6 here but applying the design to only the french tip area of the nail. Don’t worry about the design going onto the sticky tape as when you pull the sticky tape off the nail, a clean camouflage design french tip will be left behind!

9) Repeat step 3 – 6 on thumb, middle and pinky finger nail, make sure that once you complete step 6, which is applying the last colour nail polish for the camouflage design remove the sticky tape immediately from the nail, I’ve always found that doing so has always left a cleaner line as opposed to leaving the sticky tape on the nail and waiting till the french tip nail polish has dried completely and then only removing the sticky tape

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

11) Be totally stoked because who knew camouflage could look this good especially on your nails :)

I know you just want to break out into song and sing-a-long to Survivor by Destiny’s Child, ‘I'm a survivor (What?), I'm not goin' give up (What?), I'm not goin' stop (What?), I'm goin' work harder (What?)…la…la…la…’…I just couldn’t help myself…this song and this mani go together like PB&J!

Totally random and off the beaten path, but, what’s your favourite sandwich and doesn’t anything camouflage make you want to go paintballing, or is that just me ?

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: Lacey Nude Mani

Hello my lovelies!

I decided to do a sexy, classy yet simple mani today which is well suited for work, day to day life or even a special night out! Lace detailing on the ring fingers as accent nails with muted nude nails finishing off the rest of the look.

I chose to display the lace detailing on accent nails as I thought putting the lace nail art stickers on all the nails may look a bit too much whereas with accent nails the lace nail art stands out for itself and you can admire the simple elegance of this mani. I recently purchased these lace and flower detailed nail art stickers which I thought was perfect to use in place of doing lace nail art by hand, it helped that I didn’t have any spare lace lying around to use for my nail art so these stickers substituted perfectly. I will at some point in the future do a lace nail art tutorial with real lace! But for now, read on for one of the easiest manicures ever! Shop around for these lace nail art stickers, I’ve seen them retailing at a variety of stores, if all else fails, try online. I used Revlon Nail Care Calcium Gel Nail Hardener as a basecoat, Essence Nude Glam in Hazelnut Cream Pie x3 coats on all nails, lace nail art stickers applied to both ring finger nails (accent nails) and Revlon Nail Care ColorStay Gold Standard Top Coat as a top coat.

You will need:

• Basecoat nail polish
• Nude Nail Polish
• Lace Nail art stickers
• Top coat nail polish

Method:

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

2) Apply base colour coat nail polish (nude) to all nails, wait for it to dry completely 

3) Once nails are completely dry, select the correct size of the lace nail art sticker for your ring finger nail

4) Apply the sticker to your ring finger nail remembering to gently but firmly press the sticker onto the nail surface to ensure there are no air bubbles trapped underneath the sticker and that the sticker lays flat and smooth on the nail. The sticker was still too big for my nail so I had to trim the edge of the sticker which was hanging off the tips of my nails with a pair of scissors to ensure that the sticker fitted perfectly to my nail. Repeat step 3 - 4 on other ring finger nail

5) Apply top coat to your nails and you are good to go! 

Now wasn’t that the fastest manicure yet?! Less definitely is more with this sexy number! :)

What’s your fastest 'go-to' looking mani ?

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: Circus Circus Mani

Hello amazing peeps! I trust 2013 is treating you beautifully thus far ?!

I decided to let my imagination run wild and wanted to portray an original manicure which represented fun childhood memories of visits to the local circus! I don’t want to say this mani was clown inspired…as clowns seem to incite fear in many! I find this mani to be really upbeat, fun and cheery! My take on what the Circus would be look like on your nails!

I used Revlon Nail Care Calcium Gel Nail Hardener as a basecoat, x3 coats of Essence in Wanna be Your Sunshine as a base colour coat, x1 coat of Essence in Wake Up for nail art, x1 coat Essence Lime Up for nail art, x1 coat Rimmel  Heart on Fire for nail art, x1 coat of Essence in Black Up for nail art, x1 coat Bella Cosmetics Nail Polish in Blue and Pink (no official names on bottles) for nail art, x1 coat  Revlon in White on White for nail art and Revlon Nail Care ColorStay Gold Standard Top Coat as a top coat.

You will need:

• Base coat nail polish
• Base colour coat nail polish (I chose yellow)
• Three alternating coloured nail polish for the square nail art (I chose orange, red and lime)
• Black, blue, white, pink, red nail polish for nail art for the clown’s face. Use colours you have on hand and improvise if you don’t own all colours
• Toothpick / orangewood stick (I personally used an orangewood stick)
• Nail art stickers with square cut out designs
• Top coat nail polish

Method:

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

2) Apply base colour coat nail polish (yellow) to all nails, wait for it to dry completely

3) Start working on nail art on all nails except accent nails (ring fingers), leave the clown nail art for last. Apply nail art sticker at a diagonal on the nail so the square design runs diagonally on the nail, apply one coat of chosen coloured nail polish and carefully remove sticker immediately. You should be left with a neat diagonally square design on the nail

Your first round of the diagonal square nail art design should look like the orange design

4) Apply the nail art stickers to all nails (except accent nails) on the diagonal and paint on chosen nail polish colours (I alternated the direction of the stickers on every other nail just for an added fun element to the look of the design), I also alternated different colours of nail polish. Wait for nail art to dry

5) You have to wait for all nail art to dry completely before attempting the second round of diagonal square nail art designs

6) While waiting for the first round of square nail art designs to dry you can start working on the clown face for your accent nail

7) Apply white nail polish to your nail in an elongated semi-circle shape. The easiest way to achieve this is to paint a strip of white nail polish down the middle of the nail staring the strip at about 1/3 of the way down the nail. Then paint two shorter strips of white nail polish on either side of the middle white strip. You will then get the desired elongated semi-circle shape, this represents the shape of the clown’s face

8) Now to apply the clown’s hair, pour a small pool of orange nail polish onto a scrap piece of paper and dip the sharp end of an orangewood stick (you can also use a toothpick) into the orange nail polish and carefully on either side at the top of the elongated semi-circle shape draw on some orange hair, it helps to just randomly dot on the orange nail polish in a small cluster on either side of the clowns face…just imagine an almost bald clown with just a few tufts of hair on either side of his head!

9) Now to apply the detail for his eyes, pour a small pool of blue nail polish onto a scrap piece paper and dip the sharp end of an orangewood stick into the nail polish, start by dotting three small dots of blue nail polish in a small triangle shape where the eyes of the clown are going to be. This is going to be the blue eye make up for the clown, once you have placed the three dots in the two triangle shapes by the eyes, fill in the triangle shapes with nail polish so that you have two small solid blue triangles where the eyes should be

10) Now to apply the big red nose, pour a small pool of red nail polish onto a scrap piece of paper, dip the sharp end of an orangewood stick into the red nail polish and dot on a red nose onto the clown’s face

11) To apply the smile, pour a small pool of bright pink nail polish onto a scrap piece of paper, dip the sharp end of an orangewood stick into the pink nail polish and carefully draw a smile onto the clown’s face…it will be as if you are almost dragging the nail polish from the tip of the orangewood stick into the shape of a smile, re-dip the orangewood stick into the nail polish if needed. Complete steps 7-11 on other accent nail

12) You need to let the nail art on the accent nails dry before attempting the finishing details, while waiting you can complete the nail art on the rest of the nails, so far you have only completed one round of square diagonal nail art

13) Apply the nail art stickers similarly at a diagonal as done before in step 3 but now you will place the sticker a little below the first set of designs so that this round of square diagonal designs will be below the first one so that you are filling in the bottom of your nail with staggered diagonal square designs. Apply nail polish to nails over the nail art stickers and remove the stickers immediately, you will now have 2 rounds of square diagonal nail art designs, complete this step on all nails. Wait for this nail art to dry completely before attempting the third and final round of the square diagonal nail art designs

Two rounds of diagonal sqaure nail art will look like this

14) You can now complete the finishing touches on the clown’s face, pour a small pool of white nail polish onto a scrap piece of paper and dip the sharp end of an orangewood stick into the white nail polish carefully dot on the white nail polish into the middle of the blue triangles to create the eyeball area of the clown’s eyes

15) Once you have completed step 14, using the same technique you will now dip the sharp end of the orangewood stick into the white nail polish and draw on a smile on top of the pink nail polish, this will make the smile pop and give the required look for a clown like smile

16) For the final touch for the clown’s face, pour a small pool of black nail polish on a scrap piece of paper and using the sharp end of an orangewood stick dip the the orangewood stick into the black nail polish and dot on black eyes in the middle of the white dots on the blue triangles. Complete step 14-16 on other accent nail ensuring both accent nails have completed clown faces

As you can see I have a little bit of drag from the tackyness of the red and black nail polish, nothing serious though...just don't take too long while doing the nail art and don't apply the nail polish too thickly

17 ) To complete the third round of square diagonal designs on the nails, follow step 13 again however this time place the nail art further down the nail so as to stagger the diagonal square design so that the last set of designs are placed at the bottom corner of the nails. Complete step 13 in conjunction with step 17 on all remaining nails with the diagonal square nail art designs

Completed - Three rounds of diagonal square nail art

18) Once all nail art is completely dry, apply top coat nail polish

19) Be completely happy and cheery (not scared!) when looking down at your fun mani ! 

I know it’s kitsch but maybe it’s because her music video is Circus themed but I can’t help but hum along to Britney Spears’s song Circus…I know you want to as well…just do it, it’s ok…it’s a safe place here…we all know despite everything Britney will always be the Queen of Pop…, ‘All the eyes on me in the centre of the ring, Just like a circus (ah, ah, ahaha-hah), When I crack that whip, everybody gonna trip
Just like a circus (ah, ah, ahaha-hah)….la la la'.’

Did you love the circus as a kid or are you afraid of clowns?

 

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 :)