Nails from the last two weeks..

Hi all

So I've been too busy doing my nails to do a post because I've had nail mail! I ordered the new set from Winstonia - go here http://www.winstonia.com/ and also google other nail blogs, a lot have been sent the plates for review and they also have a 10% off discount code.  I love the images and had trouble deciding which to use first! Here's a quick look at all the plates:

Here's my first mani:

I then decided to show my friend how to do a decal while skyping so ended up replacing my pointer finger with a.....

... pretty rainbow:)

 Turned out great, but took a while with all the different colours (I used nail art pens and painted it on my spare stamper).

I used plate W111 and La Femme Beauty in blue as a base coat & my favourite multi-use posh polish in silver as the stamping colour.

Manicure No. 2.

I used my nail art pens again - this time for dotting as well as two decals. As a base coat I used a sliverly/blue that turned out to look like pearl - S-he stylezone in Wow! Faber (from Hamer) and stamped with Konad special polish in black.

I then stamped a lace/scalloped pattern using an essence plate (also from the Netherlands).

Next I used the lace looking spirals on BM-201 for my thumbs.

Then used nail art pens to dot randomly on my thumbs and on the points on my fingers.

I did a different colour scheme for each hand cause that was the colour I'd made the decals :)

The decals were made using nail art pens and these plates.

I also gave in and ordered the Harry Potter plate from Apipila nails in Brazil (this one took longer in the post and had me checking the mail every day!). http://www.apipila.com.br the site is in Portuguese but google translate works quite well. International orders are done by email (email the plates you want (shipping is the same for up to 4 plates) and make sure you ask for a tracking number (which you can track here).

It's got so many cool designs on it - I of course started with Harry potter (and a few friends).

Manicure No. 3.

Polishes I used for base coats were Cosmiss in Red and Black, my favourite faceshop in green, posh polish (also for stamping), Colour club Miss Sporty in yellow & Konad Special polish in black (for stamping).

Manicure No. 4.

My next mani using this plate was angry birds themed and I attempted to make decals of each character. I managed to lose one up the vaccum cleaner and another got pretty squashed once on my nail (done while I was sleeping, not my fault).

I used La Femme Beauty in Emerald with Barry M 340 in Aqua Glitter for the base coat and Konad Special polish in White & Black for stamping.  I used nail art pens for the decals.

Here's the end result:

Both Thumb & Pinkie nails are the same (thumb is actually watermelons using the Winstonia Plate but looks more like scales to me).

Right hand.

Left hand.

Close up of piglet :)

That's all for now, I'm currently trying to resist ordering the latest Mash plate - it has mermaid scales! haha..

Hope you liked my nails,

Till next manicure

Nikki :o)

Nails from the last month...

Hi all

So another month has gone by with out me doing any nail posts - not because I havn't been doing my nails, it's more finding the time to upload the pictures and write the posts. I've just started a new job in London (woohoo the big city!) so have taken a while to adjust, get settled, etc. Also to buy some new nail goodies and try out some decals!.

Anyway here my nails from the last month. Enjoy.

I went for a simple mani - using Rimmel London in Azure and Konad special polish in baby blue.

I used Nailways Spring Time - Birthday Cake plate (A-NW00008) choosing the full nail cupcake design.

The resulting design came out quite cute.

Next up I went shopping and found some nail art pens. I've also been checking out a lot of others nail decals and decided I wanted to try some of my own, hence the need for nail art pens.

Models Own had a special, 5 pens for £20 which is quite cheap (if I keep it in English £'s not NZ$ haha). I got Yellow, Green, pale blue, white and hot pink.  Sadly the yellow didn't work but they let me swap it when I took it back a week later.

I also got a cheap purple from a pound store (gotta love the cheapy polish!) which was sweet with two coats (I brought it to replace my Klean colour metallic purple mini which is on it's last legs, but sadly the shade is too pink. Ah well another excuse to buy more polish).

I used the purple as a base coat and Konad special polish for stamping the design of my decal.

The decal itself was quite easy, just picked up the image off the plate (BM02) on my spare stamper, let it dry slightly, filled in the spaces with the nail art pens, waited for it to dry a bit then one coat of clear on top. Then waited over night and it peeled off like a charm. Then carefully applied it to my nail.

Here's the final result:

I also used the nail art pens to do some random dots.

And another close up of my thumb with the decal - so stoked it worked first time :)

Then it was Anzac day so did another quick mani for drinks that night. Anzac stands for Australia & New Zealand Army Corps and remembers those who fought in the war, specifically Gallipoli on the Turkish Peninsula.  In New Zealand and Australia it is a public holiday every year and symbolised by the wearing of poppies (I didn't have poppies on my plates so chose flowers that looked close).

I used Cosmiss in Red, Konad special polish in White and my black nail art pen.

And here's the result.

Plate: BM-221.

I started off with plain pink - tried a new painting technique after watching some youtube video's and look - I managed to avoid painting most of my skin around my nails :)

I then used rather a lot of polishes, nail art pens and jewels to decorate the top.  The theme I was going for was birthday for a 4 year old so chose stamps/designs accordingly.

I used Essence Miami Rollergirl 03 Four Wheel Drive in Pink, Konad Special Polishes in Baby blue, Black & White, nail art pens in White, hot pink, Green & pale blue & finally nail jewels in silver, green & blue.

Here's the result.

Thumbs: hello kitty with a hand drawn party hat.

Pointers: Balloons with heart silver jewel details.

Middle fingers: Self made decals.

Ring fingers: Start jewels in green.

Pinkie fingers: Lolly pop stamp with silver jewel detail.

Plate: B87.

     Plate: BM02.

Plate: A-NW00008

       Plate: BM-308

Plate: m14.

I made the decals using the method above and found they worked just as well but possibly put on too much clear coat as it went bubbly on top of the pink basecoat. Still looked cool tho :).

Next up I did another simple mani (the last one took me hours! and was kinda annoying with all the jewels - they kept getting caught and falling off).

I used my favourite green/blue from the Faceshop as my basecoat with posh polish from beauty uk and Klean colour mini in metallic pink for stamping.

Looked kinda cool and super quick to do.

Didn't bother with a top coat because the pink likes to run :(

Plate: BM-316

My current mani is pretty different for me - I used white as my basecoat.  I generally dont' like to do this as I feel it looks like twink (white out). But seems to have turned out okay, even if the decals gave me a hard time! (screwed up 3 and only wanted to make 4... sigh... think it was the hot weather and my impatience).

I used Cosmiss in white as the base, Konad Special polishes in black (for stamping) and baby blue (for filling in the decal) and nail art pens in green, hot pink, pale blue and yellow for filling in the decals and dotting on top of the stamping design.

Left hand.

Right hand.

This decal came out a bit wonky - got stuck to the tool I was taking it off the stamper with.  Also the clear got really bubbly - think it was too thick and too many coats to close together.

Plate: m51.

This was my first one - worked out pretty well but was a bit wonky with keeping within the lines.

Plate: m51.

My last decal - screwed it up twice! think it was cause the flower had so much in filling and I was too impatient to wait for it to dry properly - also managed to smudge it with the top coat too. Choice - not!

Plate: m51.

The only decal I was happy with - didn't smear, bubble or warp. Success!

Plate: m76.

The rest of my nails were stamped with a flower design and I filled in the heads with the nail art pens.  Plate: BM-308.

Over all I like this mani, but still not sold on the white basecoat, esp with the decals bubbling.

Hope you liked them, until the next blog post.

Nikki :o)