Gelish, Purple, Glitter & a few other polishes...

So I finally got my second lot of Gelish done by Katey at Minx Beauty - woohoo.  And this time I went for purple with a lighter shade mixed over top for a different colour :) Here's the result

 

All shiny and soon to be long.  I also played around with another of my nail plates, this time BM-209 using a fishnet type pattern.    

They’re not perfect as I was experimenting with my konad special polish in white pearl (which didn’t stamp as clear or bright as white) and also Katey was trying out full name stamps for the first time.  

                              

Konad special polishes in white and white pearl.

But as you can see below they didn’t come out too bad.

I soon got bored of that so a week later did my second lot of stamping.  This time I used another bundle monster plate, BM-223 in the zebra pattern.

I was stoked with these, they turned out so well & most people that commented couldn’t believe they were a) my real nails and b) I’d done them myself :)

And the final ‘purple’ manicure was a week later.  This time I used LA Girl Cracked in Silver.

Then stamped a heart over top in Konad special polish in black from bundle monster plate BM-202.

 It was valentines day after all (not that I deliberately did a heart but it was a great coincidence ;)

There you have it, 3 manicures using the same base colour – pretty unusual for me but had to make the gelish worth while. 

Till next blog

Nikki 

:o)

Red, Green & Silver - Double Christmas Nails..

After a busy two (or more like 4 now that I'm finally finishing this post!) weeks, Christmas is over and done with.  It's been busy, busy, busy so I've missed a post or two on here but this is a double post showing off my Christmas nails from the last two weeks to show off what nails I managed to get done.

Seeing as gold isn't really my colour, I went for Silver as my base coat & Red, Green & glitter for the designs.

Here's the silver I used for the base coat.  Wet 'n' Wild.  Its the first (and only) nail polish I won from a woman's magazine once back when I was about 14.  So pretty old but still works (due to being kept in the fridge).

I then painted green & red on alternating nails, on an angle across the tips (kinda like a french tip, but angled).

I used Konad special polish in green ($8.99 from a Korean Nail/accessory shop in Hamilton (its called Sexy Catz;)

And my favourite red, Dear Face from a cheap korean shop (W4000)

For the stamping designs I used Konad Plate M12 (the christmas one!), the middle left picture.  I'll upload a picture of the plate as soon as I get a chance to take pictures of my original plates.

And the colours I used were:

Konad special polish in Wine Red & Green.

As well as Silver glitter to add some sparkles.

And here's the finished result.

And here are my nails for Christmas day.

I used the same red & green as above, but used LA Girl Cracked in Silver over the top.

Hope your christmas was good, mine involved too much food & chocolate as well as lots of time with the family :)

Nikki

:o)

Edit 16/01/12 Here's the christmas plate now that i've finally taken pics of all my plates :)

Green, Brown & Black..

It was the Mount Christmas parade last Sunday & my roller derby crew entered a float. This occasion of course, called for some themed nails - something millitary, camo or red:)

After fighting for 2 hours I finally managed to chip off & partially destroy my nails remove the Gelish with the help of some acetone.  Just a note for those thinking of getting Gelish or Shellac done, make sure you have the patience to soak it off.  After 15 mins soaking, it did soften the edges but I still had to use a sharp edged cuticle tool to scrape the rest off.  My nails aren't it too bad of condition but already the snapping has started at work :( ah well I have another Gelish manicure booked for after Christmas (darn those cheap one day site deals).

I looked at a few pictures on google & after raiding my Mum's polishes (because green & brown aren't really my colours so I don't own any polishes in those shades) decided to make my own camo pattern.

These are the colours I picked:

Loreal Jet-set 420 (about 6 years old but still works well)

LA Girl Flare (which is actually green, not the blue this photo looks like). Picked up from the make up sale the other month.

Mode Trend Setter (no idea where this one came from but thinking possibly Korea)

Miki (the only decent 'cheap' nail polish brand in NZ, bout $4 for a cute tiny bottle)

 I don't have step by step instructions.  I basically did a coat of the Loreal brown over a base coat & dabbed the other colours on top, waiting between each to let them dry.

Here's a few close ups of the finished product:

Not exactly a work of art, but looks camo enough, which is more than I could find for my outfit.

And to top it all off we won 1st place in the sport section for our float.  

Go Mount Militia Roller Derby Crew!

Nikki

:o)

Green, Black & Blue....

After years of doing my nails & trying to show them to as many people as I could find, I figured the easier way was just to start a blog.  So here it is. Apologies in advance for the crappy/blurry pictures.  I'm still figuring out my new camera & the best angle to photograph my nails.

Anyway here's a short history on how my addiction to doing my nails started. I moved to South Korea to teach English in 2008 & received a set of Konad nail plates, stamper & scraper for my birthday.  After struggling for a few months on how to use it, a fellow Korean teacher finally showed me how to use them & I've been stamping my nails (and many other people's) ever since.  My collection of polishes has grown to about 30 & due to nail accessories being so cheap in SK, I have a ridiculous amount of stickers, jewels & nail art pens.  I also picked up a few more things while in the US last winter & the other week ordered 25 new plates from Monster Bundle (also in the US).

So without further ado here's my first manicure.

Here's what my nails looked like at the beginning of the week

As you can see they were starting to chip after a few days at work.  The blue you can see underneath is Gelish (goes on like a polish but you cure it under a UV light & it wears like a Gel or fake nails).  I've had that on for just over 4 weeks & am slowly loosing the battle to keep it on - working in fast food is NOT a job where your nails stay long for long. 

For these nails I used this greenish-blue colour I brought for bout 4000W ($4 NZ) from Missha (one of many beauty shops in SK).

Then covered my little fingers in LA Girl Cracked I got from a beauty sale for $10NZ (pretty cheap for polish here!).  It works just as well if not better than the OPI shatter polishes. Tried to get creative with the tips of my other fingers (hit and miss there as I'm less shaky with my right hand than my left).

Finally I sealed it with Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Nail hardener & painted Revolon Calcium builder stuff under my nails (helps to prevent breaking, a tip I stole off someone else's blog ;)

Then on Tuesday my package from Bundle Monster arrived - I was so excited I was skipping down the drive from the mail box.  I'd ordered 25 knockoff plates that were the same style as the Konad ones I already had but had heaps of different designs for 1/4 of the price. After reading a few positive reviews I crossed my fingers & got out the credit card.  They did not disappoint.  Here's all 25 plates

Its pretty far away I know but you can check out Bundle Monster for a close up (cost me $33NZ including postage. Took 7 days.)

So after much admiring & peeling off protective plastic on top I chose my pattern & nail polish colours.

After a base coat I used Calvin Klein Crushed Rose (which is a strange name considering its blue), which is alot darker than the picture shows.

The plate I used was BM-205 & it was the flower pattern at the top.

I used Konad special Nail polish in White (and yes those are bite marks, sometimes its really hard to open the bottle, ok).

Vola! the finished product.

And a close up.

I think they came out pretty good & can't wait to start trying the rest of the plates :)

Nikki

:o)