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)
