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.  

Classic french with gel and acrylic (l&p)

I did 3 french manicures this week. The first one was on a friend, with gel. We used NSI bb cover pink warm in a super thin layer, and built the nails with blush, which is almost transparent (my friend doesn't like pink nailbeds). The white is with Indigo hybrid N.26. It was painted on, because it was a last minute's decision. The bows are hand painted, very simple.

The second one was on my sister. She let me try l&p, for the 3rd time ever. The first time was on 2011, using ezflow and recreating (or trying to..) a design by Gemma Lambert. 

The second time was a few weeks ago, uzing ezflow again, in an attempt to create oval shape nails, 2 of them looked like dolphins from the side.. and this is my 3rd time, ever, trying the Young Nails l&p. I haven't been trained with acrylic at all, but I tried to do the reverse method with the beautiful cover peach powder and the xxxwhite. 

This took me 4 hours, I had a lot of filing to do, but it was a unique experience and I will definately search for  training in l&p. 

"Come on sis, pretend you are holding a wallet.." Haha..  

The  3rd french manicure was on myself, using polish, but this will be an another post:)

  

Valentine's collaboration with Kannucreative Sharma

I was very happy for this collaboration. Kanika is a beautiful sweet girl and a great person that I met recently on youtube. She loves nailart and makeup, and has a youtube channel with such videos.

She made a cute design with smiling hearts, full of color and joy:

And here is my version. I used a method I've recently seen on a video (I am sorry, but I don't remember where..) and applied white polish on a ziplock bag. When I applied a second coat, I spread some white glitter, and covered with white polish. I let it dry overnight, and the next day I had a big sticker of white glitter (approx. 4cm x 2,5cm). I peeled it from the plastic bag and cut heart shapes with scissors. I applied those with clear polish.

I have also tried to make water marble stickers with this method, but it wasn't a big success. I left the water marble dry on the cup, and then tried to pick it up and place it on the plastic bag, but I ended up with a mess. I will try again:)

On each hand, there are 2 fingers with one color (pointer and little one), and the other 3 with the other color. Switched colors for the other hand. I love glitter, and normally can never say it is too much, but for this design, I wish I had one of the two colors, red prefferably, in plain or metallic, so that the textures would contrast as well. The red glitter I used is by Cuccio N.6024

This was also the last design I did before cutting my nails back to square:)

 
Here is the link to my video, where you can also find links to Kanika's nailart and channel:

Quick nailart with polish

Vinilux "Rubble" is one of the hottest colors of the season.
Personally, I love Vinilux polishes, they are applied easily, cover really well and dry super fast. They say that they last longer than normal polish (7 days with no chipping, no basecoat), but I really can't say, since all polishes last well on me.

I made a quick design with no water marble. I used a coat of Vinilux Rubble, and a coupke of drops from NfuOh 544 and a white polish, marbled quickly with a needle, and applied rhinestones in the smileline. Super quick:)

Color changing uv gel polish

This is my first real experiment with a temperature-activated (color changing) uv gel polish. My friend let me try it on her, so here it is, NFU Oh Gellist 06:

The normal color is dark burgundy, but when it comes in contact with hot water, it changes instantly in a bright red. When you take your hands off the hot water, it changes quickly in the normal dark color. It was too late to try it while holding a hot cup of coffee, lol, but I expect her to let me know soon.

Duochrome polish and one stroke nailart

I've had this amazing polish for a month, before I managed to try it. It is by Seventeen, and the code is 539. It is supposed to be a duochrome, but depending on the light and the angle you have your nails at, you can see gorgeous purple/burgundy, olive green, and bronze. And all these with metallic/shimmery effect.

I decided to make some classic one stroke flowers, using similar colors (the purple and green), and keep them close to the cuticle, so that the color shows best on half the nail. Here are some pictures taken inside with artificial light:

and one taken outside, with my cellphone..

I have filmed the nailart process, edited so that I wouldn't take more of your time, and uploaded the video on youtube. I hope I showed all the steps in a comprehensive way..  If you decide to do this on short nails, skip the entire flower and just make 2 or 3-petal ones at the corners of ring and middle finger. This way there will still be enough space for the lovely color to show..

To watch the video on youtube, click here.

These are the products I used:

Seventeen nail polish N.539
CND Super mat topcoat
Lidan waterbased acrylic paints in purple and white
Oumaxi waterbased acrylic paints in leaf green and gold
Flat angle brush and detail brush from ebay (different sets)

Tmart uv glitter gel and brushes

Tmart sent me the uv glitter gel set N.14, as well as a set of brushes for a review.

 The uv gels are transparent with a small ammount of color matching the glitters used each time. They have a lots of tiny glitters though, and most of them are opaque.

They are uv builder gels, they do not air dry. One has to cure them under uvlamp for 2-3 minutes, depending on the uvlamp, and file them away in order to remove them. Someone said that they can also be soaked off, but I never tried it, and the company does not say that it can be done. Both filing and soaking (if it is indeed soakable) will take quiet aome time, but if you are familiar with e-files, you will be able to do it easily, using a fine to medium coarse bit. 

They come in square, transparent pots, so that you can see the color. They are also sealed to secure that the content will not get out during delivery. The colors are exactly as shown (I had a surprise with another company, 4 of the 12 colors were actually not the ones shown) and their consistency is perfect for building, they were not runny at all. I used them for a french demonstration, with a cover pink I made myself and a builder clear that I have from another company, unknown brand.

As you can see, 4 of the colors are mixed with almost transparent uv gels, so they are not very opaque. These are the colors: white, l.blue, yellow and orange.

The clear gel I used to cap them with was too thick, and didn't self level very well, but I wouldn't file on the display:) After all, it wasn't a natural nail..

The uv gel brushes came in a set of 5pcs, each one with a lid and separate round box with case. The website showed 5 different sizes, but I received 5 pieces N.10. They were also supposed to be detouchable, but I tried all of them and they didn't fit to fold inside the handle.

  The size is too big for painting flowers, but you can use them to make faded backgrounds. It did pick up the gel easily, and being flat made it easy to reach the corners of the smilelines.

This was all I could say. I tried to make a realy short video, just to give you an idea about these products. Here is the link:

Abstract pattern

I tried this dark purple shimmery polish that I won from a bornprettystore contest. My original idea was to paint a net, but I didn't feel I had a steady hand, too late and I was too tired.. so I settled with an abstract pattern. Looks like wraps, doesn't it?

In fact this nails look more "buzy" than they realy are.. I applied the purple polish, some iridescent flakes on top and topcoated to make surface smooth. Then I took pink paint and made some rhombus shapes, 2 on each nail (one will be enough for short nails). Then I shadowed some of the lines with purple paint, to give it dimension. It still needed something to make it pop out, though.. White paint, pairs of lines making curves, inside and out of the rhombus.

You can't see the flakes very well from the pictures. They shined beautifuly, and many asked to get a closer look (curiosity "what is going on there?" or "cool!")

The cuticle oil made the surface look less smooth, I removed all the shine from around the nails, but couldn't touch this part. 

Here are the products I used:

Sweet polish N.S049 from Bornprettystore

Avon opal topcoat

Lidan acrylic paints in white and purple

Oumaxi acrylic paint in pink

Thin brush (not a detail one)

My topcoat this time was Essence "Better than gel nails". It is ok, but I have used in my topcoat drying superfast without smudging or making lines, that I think I will stick to Nubar Diamond.

Here is the video:

  

The glitter tip day :)

Yesterday was a glitter tip day for 2 of my friends. Both asked me to do their nails and both wanted glitter over a nude or pink color.

I did the first one's with Indigo NailLab gels, she had no length, so we added some with Easy shape cover and Rose, and then applied a silver holo glitter at some tips:

The other girl has regular Indigo overlays for the last 3 months. She has a baby of 14 months, and is also pregnant on the 19th week, so I went at her place. The picture was taken with my mobile, with a very poor light, but I tried to enhance color as best as I could. The milky rose is "French Pink", also by Indigo, and the glitters are a silver one, with which I made the fade, and a bronge mix that I dubbed randomly :

They do not know each other, and I never mentioned anything about glitter.. it was funny, but it was glitter tip day:)
  

Jungle Fever

This is my second ever set of acrylic nails... not so good, not so easy either.
I used EzFlow acrylic, a set that I had for a year now, maybe more. I had used it once and remembered that it was realy "ez flowing" but I eally struggled to pick a bead. Is it because it has been open for so long? I am not happy with the shape, but this is my sister, so I can see her again and fix that:)

I used IBD Just Gel polish in "Jungle Fever", 3 coats, then applied 1 coat of "All That Glitters" and wiped some lines with my brush. Covered with topcoat.

I was happy that she asked for bows like mine, so I made the 3d and placed the rhinestones in the middle.

 
Pls don't judge the shape.. :(

My new year's nails - pure gold

This is the first time I ever use a peel off base for polish. I figured it was a good time to test it, since my last minute nails would be practicaly dipped in gold glitter:)

Here is what I did at the last day of 2013, a couple of hours before dinner:

and here is with the 3d bows I added a couple of days later:

The second picture was taken with my phone. The real color is gold, so it is somewhere in the middle. 

Glitter and bows

I was waiting to post this one  as soon as she came back to let me make some acrylic bows.. but she didn't.

Easy glitter french and ready-to-use-bows for Mary

Classic french

A friend of mine works for a company with strict policies regarding nails and makeup. She wanted her nails to be a little bit longer though, so we used NSI Balance body builder gel in "Cover Pink- warm" to elongate her nails. Since she had 3 days off, I proposed a classic white french with polish, something that she could easily remove herself. This way they would all be happy:)
Here it is:

The same thing I did for another friend a few days back. I applied Indigo gel polish N.12, and polished with Vinilux Serene Green on top of it, because the dress she would be wearing that night was dark green. I have no pictures of that, sadly, but both colors were beautiful..