Merry Christmas '11

How to?

Paint the festive colours! I used DearFace's Night Ruby and
Etude House's Jade Green

Using a dotting tool, pick up white polish and do the
following pattern. Scatter them out upwards.
Or, like me in this case, use the white nail art
pen to achieve this effect

Using the black line art pen, or your own DIY nail brush,
draw black lines to form a simple checker pattern

Hope you like this presentation! :)

Specials of the week - rainbow nails

Step 1: Base coat first and then dot a "cloudy" french tip

Step 2: After you have it on all the fingers, choose
4 colors of the rainbow

Tip: Irregular shapes make cuter clouds :)

Step 3: Paint one color stripe at a time

Step 4: After all the colors are up, use white and cover the
edges with "cloudy" bits again

Step 5: Top coat for protection and you're done!

What are these nails good for?
Simple, and sweet without blocking all the essential sunlight from your nails!

Fixing a broken heart (nail)

There was a mattress accident last Tuesday and half the nail of my middle finger (no offense intended) broke off. Ohhh it was painful. But the first thing that came to my mind was how I could still keep the nail on so the nail bed would not be exposed. Which is when I turned to nail polish, funny how my little hobby got me thinking on my feet!

So today I renew the process because the last one done wasn't very secure. Today, I got it all planned out :)

Step 1: Identify damage
See the crack line. It use to be higher up near mid-section but good thing my nails grow fast :)

Step 2: Add a tape to hold onto crack (like a band-aid!)
Start off with a base coat to hold nails, then when coat has dried (impt: must let it dry) you can add on the band-aid and put on another coat to make polish application easier

Step 3: Color it
You can start to apply 2 coats of nail polish to hide, and to strengthen the nail. Make sure the second coat is still wet before you proceed to the next step

Step 4: Fake nail it
Remember those fake nails I bought to use for practice? Life-saver they are, I put on one while the blue coat is still wet and then press it on tightly to stick it well. Excess polish will appear at side, you can clean it up later

Side profile of fake nails (see the bump?)

Step 5: Only if you're vain like me :p
Because I want it to look like the rest, I applied a pink french twist

Remember to cover the bottom edge of the nails too

Add blue dots and it's done!

Taadaa! Pretty nails. The blue dots are kinda '3D' here, by accident!
I oughta tighten up the QC :)

Nailing the Occasion

What's your take on your nail-do on a casual day out with the girls? Or a hot date? Or an important presentation? Here's my five cents worth of how to get creative and in tune with the occcasion :)

Wedding: If you're like me, going through that phase in life where everyone is getting married, you'd have a fair share of weddings to attend. Your outfit is the real focus in this event so let the nails take on a softer, complementing look. The way to go: nude (light pink, transparent) nails with colored french tips (examples) to match your dress and turn into Lady Elegant

Hot date: Adorn your nails with perky colors if you're taking on a awesome outfit. Are you going with bright striking colors or sleek monotones? The way to go: Wear that passion on your nails with some funky nail art, like what we have in our Love, Passion Series

Casual day out with your girls: A summer dress? Casual Tees and shorts? Or just a light-weight top with your comfy jeans? The way to go: Nothing complements casual wear like simple flowery nails, and if you're looking to have simple make-up the perky and funky nail art is the perfect fit.

Flying away for a vacation: Going into a land where nobody knows you? Don't worry, you'd leave a lasting impression with awesome nails like our summer collection, or show off your nails with colorful costumes with a perfect blend of watermark nails

Big Presentation/ Work: If work permits, go with french twist. Use more subdued colors, like white and everything else if you need to make a professional impression. It works even for after-work parties, and you don't have to worry about looking too childish with this sleek nail-do

It's a girl thing

Got myself some new nails, the red nails are pretty and all but the polish from Rubi wasn't good at all :(

Here's a short review of the red Rubi nail polish:
1. Too translucent, you'd need at least 5 coats or something before it looks opaque
2. It peels. Literally. From the ends you can see the nail polish un-rolling itself off the nails
3. It washes away easily, the sides of the nails started to lose the red coat after a while
4. It's sticky. I'm particular about how the nail feels, and with Rubi it just feels like it'd stick on to my skin when I touch it
5. It's a really pretty red though, with a highlighter tinge. Very striking.

And here are my new nails. It's so girly!





Here's a small tip: To clean the cuticle skin from nail polish, you may wish to cut the top of your cotton sticks in half, producing a sharp tip. The plastic tip in the cotton stick will be revealed once the cotton is chipped off and you can use it to clean those hard-to-reach corners :)



Here's my flickr showreel with the nail work done over the past two months :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/62721683@N08/show/

A little white flower saves the day

I got inspired by the works of cutepolish and decided to do something related to a white flower.

What you would need:
- Yellow, Green and white nail polish (see image 6)
- A dotter (I used a pen, see image 2)
- Cotton Sticks (see image 3)
- Paper
- Nail Polish Remover
- Base and top coat of your choice

Beauty Regime:
1. Prep your nails by cleaning the hands followed by a layer of base coat
2. Put some green nail polish on the paper
3. Using a pen or a dotter of your choice, create "cloud shapes" at the tip of the nails
4. Put some yellow on paper. Add a dot of yellow on each nail (see image 1)
5. Put some white on paper. Using the cotton sticks (as I need smaller, leaner petals) draw out the shape of petals. Cover some of the yellow to make the yellow dot look smaller (see image 3)
6. Add on a small dot of yellow to re-define the flower's pollen by angling the pen so you get a smaller dot
7. Add two layers of top coat when the paint has more or less dried up (see image 4, 5)

And you're done! P.s. I'm gonna start a new project, watch this space! :)

 

French Twist

You've heard of a French Tip, but have you heard of a French Twist for the nails? This sweet design is inspired by some nail artists sharing their awesome works on Youtube, which is a wealth of inspirations by the way.



So how do you work the French Twist? First off, here's what you need.

Needed:
- 2 Nail Polish Colors (Pink from FaceShop and White from Chatmignon)
- Cotton Sticks (the kind you use to clean your ears)
- Base coat of your choice
- Top Coat of your choice
- Nail Polish Remover
- Cotton paper
- Paper you no longer need (except newspaper)

The Beauty Regime:
1. Check out how to prep nails for nail polish application here
2. With base coat properly applied in step 1, apply your first coat of base color (pink in this example)
3. Make it a double coat, you need a smooth coat for the other steps to work properly
4. Take out your white polish (or other colors if you wish to be more daring, but white is classic French and works nicely with many colors)
5. Position your working hand at a slanted angle, and once you feel your steady hand set it, lash your brush across the nail to create the slanted effect
6. Chances are you won't make a pretty coat with just one try, so make sure you do not have too much white polish each time you repeat step 5 till you have a nice proper coat of white tip
7. Take the base color you used, and smear some on the paper
8. Using the cotton stick, pick up some color and apply three dots across the slanted white tip
9. You can clean up any mess using another cotton stick or cotton paper to pick up some nail-polish remover and wipe clean the messiness
10. Once all is done, top it off with 2 coats of top-coat. Remember to refresh your top coat every three days or so if you want it to last



And you're done!

More photos here.