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:)

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.  

Last minute nailart - easy bows - No tools

Here is a super easy nailart for new years eve, or party... or any other occasion if you change the colors:)

It seems I am stuck with red and gold these days.. I will not say glitter, because I love glitter all year long:)

Well, this nailart is done with a toothpick, no tools needed. I polished my nails, used the toothpick to paint a gold bow, and used the same toothpick to engrave the lines inside, the details. Here is the video of this super easy, last minute nailart:

The products I used:

CND "Veronica"

CND "Gold sparkling"

GLAMOROUS (gold)

SEVENTEEN N.529 Platinum Gold (glittery)

and of course, the toothpick!

I have already been asked to recreat this look, over red polishes. Maybe I will add the photo of it on top of IBD "Cosmic Red", but I can't edit any picture right now, too tired..

Christmas nailart with stickers

Normally, I use stickers for my pedicures (being lazy..) but this time I really had fun!

Bornprettystore sent them to me for a review. There were 12 sets in 1 sheet, and you can tell how vivid the colors are, and how fine the gold details, even from my pictures. There are many designs, snowmen, santa, christmas trees, snowflakes, sleights, even some borders that you can use for your nailart:

I made a classic white french, sideswiped with red, and applied my stickers. How easier can it get, really?

These are the products I used:

Korres "Washed off pink"

Seventeen (white n.103)

Erre Due "Glitter effect N.986" over the white polish

ColorClub N.220 "Seduction"

If you are interested in watching the review/nailart video, here it is:

Bornprettystore offers a 10% discount, if you use the following code during checkout:

LNSW10

Valid for anything you purchase from their website, free shipping worldwide.

Easy christmas nailart with foil

Last week I gave foils another try. I enjoy their looks, but I get so frustrated when they crack right after top coat.. and I have tried so many!

 I applied a dark red polish on all nails, except the ringfingers, where I applied a gold one. Then I applied foil adhesive, waited until it became transparent, and added the foil.

This time I tried 2 methods: On one hand I applied NFU Oh Aqua base on top of the foil (dries a bit slow) and then I used CND Super Shine top coat, which is not a fast dry one. Fast dry top coats always crack the foil.. The cracks were barely visible, but the foil lost some of the holo effect.

On the other hand, I applied the foil adhesive on top of the foil, let it dry very well (about 20min) and then I applied the Super shine top coat. This had the best results I have seen with polish so far, barely seen cracks and barely lost holo effect.

You can definately say which one is which..

    Then I decided it was too plain, so I added some gold stamping and glitter:)

I know, the thumb is different, but I always try on my thumbs first. I didn't like this Cheeky stamp, so I did the rest with another one, from the same Jumbo plate:)

Would you try foils for your nailart these days?

Christmas nailart

I am lucky to have a friend like Mary.. She lets me do things on her nails:)

This time we made a classic french overlay with NSI gel, and couldn't decide what to do, so we added a bit of all..  "Do you like the teddy bear?" "Yes, let's do it" "Oh, and can we make a christmas tree?" "Oh, and a santa?" "Oh, snowman would be nice, too!"

Don't get me wrong, I like the classic french, it is always elegant and wearable, no matter where you work, but I wish I was asked to do different things more often.

We made the Santa and teddy bear on the thumbs. 

Cute, don't you think?

Christmas Glam

Finally, my collaboration nailart with Beyonceesha is uploaded on youtube, and I am very excited!

We both used similar methods, hers being a more christmas design, lol, but my daughter said that my balls look like ornaments, too:)

I made a french manicure with CND "Serene Green" and topped it with "Emerald shimmer". Only the ringfinger is polished entirely. I then applied white polish, forming circles, added a drop of light green inside them and marbled. Then I made the outlines with black gel and cured in a uv lamp.

Then I applied the gold foil. On the lower hand, it was applied directly on the black gel's inhibition layer, on the upper hand I cleansed and applied foil adhesive and when it dried I applied the foil. As you can see, it was better with the foil adhesive. Although I could fix it with gold polish or paint, I left it like this, because it kind of looked like an antique gold..

I then applied IBD clear gel on top of the foil and marble circles, forming balls, for a more 3d look. I also applied a bit of gel on the golden smilelines and cured in a uv lamp. The gel worked as a magnifying glass, and the result was very beautiful.

I then cleansed once again and applied my normal top coat. Here are the products I used for this nailart:

So, the tutorial is already uploaded on youtube, and I am very happy. Beyonceesha did her best to keep the date, even though she had a problem with her computer and couldn't upload for a week. 

She made a beautiful nailart, don't you think?

If you want to check the video, here it is, I have her links at the end:

Miss Pixie - Textured polish and 3d nailart

Here is another beautiful Zoya nail polish, from the Pixie Dust series, the gorgeous Chyna ZP657. I can't say how happy I am with this color!! I got it from the fair a few weeks ago and couldn't wait to try it.

I was very puzzled.. what should I add to this color once I applied it? I don't feel confortable wearing any single color on my nails, not at this length anyway.. But thankfully, once it was applied, I had a very nice surprise: the color comes out different than the bottle shows. It looks like it has a much darker base and is full of red glitters! A-ma-zing!!

As Zoya suggests, I didn't apply any base coat. I did the first coat, which was opaque but a lighter shade of red. Also, if you looked realy close, not the whole surface had the texture effect. So, I waited for it to dry, and applied my second coat. No top coat either, this was new to me, only tried it with my blue Pixie Dust polish so far:)

Well, we have matt texture and glitter.. how about some 3d flowers? I started carefully with my left thumb, and this is how it looked:

Of course I liked it, but desided to make the outlines in gold glitter. I admit I wasn't very careful with them, I had to finish quick and go out.. If I had a few more minutes, I would first apply gold polish, and then follow with gold glitter polish, so that the lines would be better seen and separated. Oh, well, I thought I could change it later (I never did..) 

It shows better on the ring, my glitter lines weren't very careful, but I still like it:)
Here are the products I used:

Don't ask me about the 3d brush, the one in the photo is probably the worst brust ever, I mostly used a special one that I show in the video tutorial, which will be uploaded tonight on youtube.

Do you like texture polishes?

On the 4rth of December, I decided to change the outlines. I carefuly removed some of the glitter and applied white polish instead, it looked much better, very bright. When I removed (I get bored, lol) I had to file down most of it, using my electric file, and continue with aceton, as with all glitter polishes. 

Black glitter and flowers

These are my friend's new nails:) We started with a classic french, and then she spotted the black glitter.. "This one!" Ok, this one it was.
 To fill the design, we could make some modern abstract patterns, but it was one of these days when I feel I have two left hands.. I went for the easy flower version, in purple, to soften the look.

This is NSI Balance gel, the marks on the surface are from the cuticle oil. 

Tulips

Here is my latest nailart, easy handpainted tulips over magnificent Nfu-Oh N.544, the darkest purple brown I 've ever seen..

It is the first thing we think off, add contrasting colors to pop out, 3ds, onestroke, bling.. Well, this time, I didn't want to cover the beautiful dark color.. but I still feared I would look like a witch with these nails in pure dark.. Oh, you, with your short nails, you are just lucky to be able to wear them all..

 My tulips are handpainted. I made the shape with the dark color, added stems and leaves with dark green, and started with highlights: Light purple for the flower, light green for the leaves. Lastly, I added the gold highlights, which realy made it stand out.

You can watch the video tutorial here: 

The products I used:

I have to say I am not happy with the Lidan paints.. I am only using them because I don't like wasting products, and would never never use them for one stroke, they are not very opaque and you have to add white to all of the colors..