First try in zhostovo painting

I will not say much, this was the first time I tried zhostovo painting, or something inspired by it:)

The point was to start with the darkest color and start adding lighter and lighter shades, using round pointy brush and acrylic paint.  As I said, it was the first time...  

101 dalmatians nailart

This is the first time I give myself a cartoon manicure, but I couldn't resist:) After watching dolceorsetta's video on youtube, I felt I had to try this..

Playing with the french tips' color and shape seemed the best way to go. I left my ringfingers and thumbs for painting.

 I know it will sound like excuses, but imagine this: painting the thums is difficult, you never have them in the right position, painting with my left hand was difficult as well.. and on top of it all, I had to paint the puppy watching the camera every now and then, to make sure my right hand wasn't in the way.. Hm, it was a challenge, but it was so much fun!

If you want to check the video, click here.
Items used:

Spring Color Pop nailart

It is finaly spring here, and you get to see many flowers of different color everywhere!
Why not on your nails??

All the flowers and scrolls are made with acrylic paint. The point was to have many colors, but also a black pattern to "keep" them together, complimenting the mint blue polish by Color Club.

Different light and the colors show a bit different too..  Here are the material I used:

You can check the tutorial on my youtube channel by clicking here.

Fruity french manicure

Another red manicure, this time it is a french one, and the polish used is again by Indigo.

Of course there is some glitter involved, there is always some glitter involved..:)

Wherever you see red, it is with the same polish, "Red Delicious" by Indigo. All the rest is acrylic paint. The outlines were made with a water color pencil.

If you like it, check the video by clicking here.

Liquid stone

It has been over a month since I did this one, but it is one of my favorites.

After many trials, I managed to do the liquid stone nailart. And I did try quiet a few different gel paints and curing times and various foils..

For this design, I made a french manicure with blue polish and a little bit of glitter. For the thumbnails I did a white shellac french, only because I had no time to wait for polish to dry completely..

Then I used a details brush and black paint gel from starnails.gr, a local supplier, and made a simple design. I cured for 2 minutes and applied a special gold foil. The foils that can be used for this type of nailart are super thin, and form little "breaks" easily. Most of the foils that I have from dollarnailart and other online suppliers don't work at all..

Then I used the same blue polish to fill the pattern, applied some mylars and filled with transparent IBD gel, so that the final result was a custom made jewel. I covered with a soak off top coat, so that I wouldn't ruin the foil look.

If you want to check the video on youtube, click here.

Instead of maintenance...

What do you do when someone can't come over for her regular acrylic maintence, and 2 days before the 8 weeks, she comes, she wants to take them off, and have a transparent gel overlay instead???? Keep this though, I can say nothing, this was my sister, who happens to live 10km away..

 I took everything off, and changed her from youngnails'acrylic to NSI blush gel overlay. The french is polished :(

 

Friend's nails

Here are some deaigns I made for friends:

Soak off polish by IBD (Magic Genie) , and simple flower petals with acrylic paint:

Another design with coral french over NSI cover pink warm gel overlay, and simple 3d flowers:

And another one, this time a Cuccio Veneer french with one stroke flowers:)

and another one, where we used Indigo Nail LAb gel, NSI pearl white and decorated with swarovski and flowers:

Unfortunately, I couldn't get a decent picture of the last one, but it is ok, the flowers were bought, so there is no actual nailart, just ready made decorations...

The foiled rose

Here is the "Red Carpet" by Indigo. It is a beautiful red, with very discrete gold shimmer. You can't see it unless you are searching how to describe the color, lol, but it gives the polish a very beautiful tone.

For the roses, I used the french pink background and made the rose pattern with polish. I let it dry and applied the gel paint to make the outlines. Cured in a uv lamp for 2 min and applied the golden foil.

The risk you have when you are working with polish, is that even when it feels dry (but isn't) it may pick some foil as well. So I got some foil on the red part, and filled it again with red. I think I lost some of the 3d effect, but saved the design:) Oh, the topcoat should better be a soak off, or any that you know that it will not crack and rinkle the foil..

Foil is very important, I had many gold foils that didn't work. The ones that work are super thin, and make small breaks if you fold them.. If you want to watch the tutorial, click here

Having fun with 3d nailart

It was very fun.. I started with the flowers, rose, lily, and went clockwise.. Tried everything I could think of, this is why you can also see a spongebob there:)

But then came the painting part... I smudged a little bit, my ladybugs were much brighter before that, but I was too tired to see it, and too excited to leave it for the next day..

Here are some closer photos:

This is all that came in my mind that evening. I know it is not perfect, but I liked the way they came out. And, did I mention that I had fun?  :)

Super easy 3d bow

I haven't posted anything here for a while, so I'll try to make some quick catching up:)

This is the easiest 3d bow I can think of, just fletten the beads of acrylic and you are done. For the ribbons I used the most wet I bead I could, and pulled it before making it flat..

The polishes used are both by Indigo, "Harlequin" and "Paradox". If you 'd like to watch the tutorial, click here

Indigo Nails Lab - courses

I am so excited! I 've always been watching acrylic nail videos on youtube, without having much of a clue about what it is.. For the last 3 years I have been a gel girl, all the way. Only did 3 sets of acrylic nails, the first on 2011..

I had asked my educator back then to show me the acrylic system (liquid  & powder, I mean), and she did 1 of my nails. That was all, but to be fair, I hadn't taken the course with l&p..

Now that a few years have passed, I still wanted to learn, but watching was not enough for me.. I wanted to learn properly and practice, and I had this opportunity with Indigo.. My educator was there all the time, and I feel I saw so many things..! I am so excited, I can hardly wait for the end of the month to get my supplies and start practicing, plus, I am also going to attend the 3d course next week..

Yeah, I know I already said that, but I am so excited...!!!

    

Love is music

Another Valentine's design:) This time I combined colors and added some music..

I applied silver polish on the index finger (base Glamorous silver, and tiny iridescent glitter by Orkide on top), plus some ss8 clear rhinestones, black polish on the middle finger (China Glaze "Liquid Leather") and a bright pink polish on the rest.

2 accent nails have a handpainted music theme, done with water based acrylic paints.

Start by making the key (with a little heart-twist for the special day) and some heart shapes on the right. Add the pentagramm (or something close..) to the blank parts. Highlight the dark motif with l.pink paint.

I also applied some of the glitter polish I used for the index on the cuticle area of thum and pinky...

I started with the pentagramm, and I had to separate the hearts and music key from it. If you make the pentagram last, without touching the other shapes, you will have zero touch-ups to do:)

For the other hand, you can use the plastic bag method, if you like. The entire design will be a piece of cake if you have music themed stamps, or decalls.. all you'll have to do is change some parts to heart shapes.

 I uploaded the tutorial on youtube, if you want, you can check it out by clicking here.

I hope you like the idea:)

Wild hearts - Valentine's nailart

This time it is a combination of animal prints and hearts in a sweet purple color.

I used a combination of gold glitter for the background: 1 coat of CG "I Am Not Lion), decided that it was too light, and applied a second very light coat of OPI "Bring On The Bling". The result was something in between, which suited me perfectly:)

Then I used a seloteip, pressed it on my hand to make it less sticky, and placed it on the nails, leaving a diagonal french tip. I sponged white polish, so that it would not become too thick, but it could dry a lot faster. Covered with topcoat to smooth the surface.

 I painted two heart shapes on ringfinger and thumb, using black acrylic paint, and made a zebra print. I am not very proud of the zebra, I have been shaking and using the worst striping brush ever, that doesn't bent at all.. Then I mixed brown paint with white and made irregular spots on the glitter part. Outlined with black paint to complete the leopard pattern.

 
I mixed purple with silver to get a dark purple shade and filled the hearts leaving a thin black line as an outline. Then I mixed purple and white, to get a very light purple shade, and filled the dark purple, leaving out just a tiny bit showing.. Highlighted with white.

With clear polish, I added a row of rhinestones where the two rints meet, and only 2 rhinestones between the hearts. Covered with topcoat carefully, and after a few minutes, I topcoated again (always making sure not to cover the rhinestones with my thick top coat and loose the shine).

  
If you are interested in the tutorial, click here. 

Heartbreaker - easy valentine's nailart

Using a simple toothpick again... Of course there are so many things found at home that you can use for nailart, especialy for perfect round dots, but I prefer the toothpick, because I think you can do everything with them.  I filed the one side to make it almost round and left the other one pointy, as it is.

I painted all my nails with black polish (Liquid Leather by CG) and used acrylic paints for the design. I made it in red, but you can use any color of your choice (pictures edited, so that I could show):

First, I made the lips. I painted the upper lips as a wide M. I started from the center and did one half to the left, one half to the right, using the thick part of the toothpick and red acrylic paint. Then I made the lower lip and then the broken heart. I used the pointy edge of the toothpick to write "kiss" and paint the middle of the hearts.

Then I carved 2 lines on the upper lips and 3 on the lower lips, using the pointy side. I added some green paint in the red, to make it darker, and added shades. Then with very light pink, I addded highlights..

It is easier than it looks, and definately something you can do with a toothpick:)

If you are interested in watching the video, click here.

   

Easy delicate french with glitter and flowers

I had a request to show how I did this french manicure. The original was on my sister, Maria, with NSI gels.

This time I used polish and acrylic paint. First I covered all nails with a french pink polish, Korres "washed off pink". I had to do this, because on my right hand I have a gel overlay with a dark pink shade, so this made them both look the same. If I hadn't, I would use a normal french pink and continue with the french with Seventeen N.103 (white). Since my nailbed was too dark, I used Korres " Pink Shamagne" over the darker pink.

I applied some glitter diagonaly, and covered with topcoat. When it dried, I started painting the easiest flowers ever: daisies. Some dots and scrolls to fill the pattern and make it look more delicate, a rhinestone in the center and the final top coat.

These are the products I used:

 I have already uploaded the tutorial on youtube,
if you are interested, go check it out by clicking here.

My next tutorial is a Valentine's design, in the "no tools" category, and it will be uploaded on Tuesday.