NOTD: Ikat Turned Tie Dye

   Hey there y'all! Hope all is well, and that everyone had an amazing weekend! This weekend was a busy one for me - a weekend I wasn't actually overrun with work, and had time to go out, have a few drinks, play some bowling, eat some waffles.. you get the gist of it :P. And to add to all the excitement, I came home last night to 10k followers on Instagram! YAYY *dances* and for those of you who follow me on Instagram (@xtinemayyy): THANKS & BIG HUGS :D

   And so, at just past 4am Monday morning, I've found some down time to write up this post. Following through with the neon swing that I seem to be on, this is my version of a bright, neon IKAT design. Though it looked much better in my head, I still kind of dig it - sort of like a tie dye effect!

NOTD: Ikat Hearts

   HI GUYS! A PINCH AND A PUNCH FOR THE FIRST DAY OF THE MONTH! *pinches* *punches* :D Now that that's out of the way... NAILS!

   Oh how I've missed doing an ikat pattern - I just love how it can look messy, but look good looking messy! The ikat heart is one my most fave designs, I could never grow tired of it.

   I bought Essie Mint Candy Apple a couple weeks back, and had yet to find a mani to use it in, until now. Thought the baby blue would be the perfect background for some cutesy ikat hearts :P For the actual hearts themselves, I used W7 Fuschia (my new favourite neon pink!), Ulta3 Spring Break (my new favourite purple!) and my ever faithful Sinful Colors Endless Blue. 

   The golden heart stud and the black round studs are from here on the BornPrettyStore website. You get 3 wheels of various shaped/ coloured studs, and therefore are open to a bunch of new combinations when doing nail art. I'm slowly hoarding all the studs! :P I have a 10% discount code if you do end up purchasing anything on their website - just type in XFSQ10 at checkout!

BAM: IKATS

   Hey y'all! It's been a while eh? I've been real slack on updating the blog in the past month, and in all honesty, I haven't had any motivation to post anything. I've found it easier to just post my Nails of the day (NOTD) on Instagram everyday instead, I've even slacked on my tumblr posts. (My laziness never ceases to amaze me haha)

   I was going to start up again by just posting the usual NOTD pics, BUT (with a little extra kick from Kirstie at Nail Cake) I thought it'd be fun to restart by starting at the start.. if that makes any sense!? 

   I was thinking maybe a couple of posts based on the very first nail designs I ever posted, and how I've sort of evolved and made it my own.. like a then and now progress sort of thing. 

   So today's theme is IKATS. When I first did this technique, I knew that it'd be one of my favourites!

Ikat Pattern

First ever attempt at IKAT nails 

   I LOVED the messy look of IKAT nails; I also loved chevrons.. and one day I thought to combine the two. 

Chevron IKAT nails

   Then I really went IKAT crazy and created some IKAT hearts. (I have a soft spot for the pink IKAT hearts! :P)

   More recently, I've gone back to the simple IKAT design, but experimented with much brighter and eye searing colours :D

Green and Pink IKATS on nubbins

   And now, for today's NOTD, a hot pink IKAT on a neon yellow base. 

Yellow is Ulta3 Citrus, Pink is China Glaze Pool Party

   So what do you all think? Y'all love IKATS as much as I do?! :P Any feedback is welcome, just drop a line in the comments.

   Stay tuned for the next instalment in the next couple of days :D 

xx Christine 

Vibrant Green and Pink Ikat Nails

   WELCOME BACK SUN! 

   And HELLO green and pink ikats!! Eye-searing-ly bright but oh-so-fun! I haven't done an ikat in while, nor have I used any of my neons (they've been feeling quite neglected lately), so why not celebrate the return of the sun with these?! (Sounds like some ancient cult ritual haha)

   For the blinding green base colour I used Tony Moly P004, and Australis #totesamaze for the pink ikat. My mum saw these on my instagram and asked me "Why do so many people like it? It's ugly and hurts my eyes." Well, gee! thanks mum! hahahaha 

   As for me, I utterly love neons, especially when they hurt my eyes :P that just means I bought a pretty damn good neon!!

   And to take it a step further, I took a photo of these in direct sunlight... EVEN BETTER. RIGHT?!

Ikat Love Heart Lovin'

   As you all well know, the ikat pattern is one of my favourite nail art designs! I seriously can't get enough of them! ALSO at the moment, I can't get enough of bright, vibrant, neon colours. SO I've combined the two, and created this eye sore of a mani!!

   By eye sore I mean a mani that hurts my eyes ...but ina good way! hahahaa It's so bright and eye catching, I find myself stealing quick glances at it during the day :P

   It is all done using just nail polish: China Glaze Pool Party, China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy, Chi Chi OMG, BC Co. Shade 13, and a regular black polish for the ikat heart.

   I did a similar ikat design a few weeks back using different colours (here), including a tutorial (here), but a fellow IG'er requested a tutorial on these, so I happily obliged. 

Here's a quick and dirty pictorial I did on the spot straight after my mani:

   These actually turned out a lot better than I had anticipated. The ikat chevrons on their own really didn't do much for me in terms of appeal and overall "wow" factor, especially since they're all pretty much in the same colour range, and looked like a hot smudged mess. BUT once I painted the black ikat heart, it brought the whole design together and I'm absolutely in love with the end result. I'm also currently obsessed with CG Flip Flop Fantasy ...just sayin' :P

   I even wore these to work :P I'm so lucky Target's not strict with nail colour, or hair colour for that matter (I dyed my hair a vibrant red a few weeks ago). 

   Okay so a couple more pictures for y'all! And until the next instalment, here's to hoping you're all not sick of the bright nails yet! :D

Neon-tastic!

   Well, hello there y'all! Good morning! It's currently 6:51am here in Australia and I've yet to catch a wink of sleep.. probably because I napped after work in the afternoon (whoops). I guess you could also attribute my insomnia to my need for a new manicure! I knew I wanted something bright and fun and ikat-y (let's pretend that's an actually adjective, and it isn't made up at all). I spent the night painting, removing, painting, removing... and painting, and removing nail polish trying out different patterns, different colour combos. Here are the ones I was bothered to snap pictures of:

   So, in conclusion, I decided to smush these 3 designs together and got this:

   There is something about the ikat design I just love. Partly because it's so easy and less tedious than trying to create straight perfect lines. Painting those black dividing lines were a pain enough to get straight and even *sob Though I have to admit, in this mani I used black acrylic paint (yes, I've finally bought some!) instead of regular polish; it is so much (SO MUCH) easier to create opaque straight lines. Top it off with a coat of top coat and you can't tell it's not polish *grin

   For some strange reason, these remind me of Fresh Prince of Bel Air.. or is it just me?

   OH AND while I was absent for the most part of this week (on blogger and tumblr) I had a mani that I had only uploaded onto instagram. Just for your viewing pleasure, here they are:

   Just a basic pastel green to blue striped gradient ^^ There were requests on instagram for a tutorial, so I whipped one up real quick.

   Also as a special request from my mum, I made pistachio macarons! And they have feet!

   Andddddd... I think that's all for now. I've bombarded you all with enough photos. Until my next post that is ^^ 

Toodles~

I♥IKAT TUTORIAL

Tada, tutorial! ;D

The picture tutorial itself is pretty self explanatory but I've provided, what I hope to be a clear description of the steps as well. So here goes!
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Start off with your base coat and 2 coats of white polish.

Need: 6 pastel polishes, 1 black polish, a nail art brush (base coat+top coat as per usual and acetone + brush for clean up)

For the purpose of this tutorial I've labelled the nails 1, 2 and 3.

For nail #1
1. With your nail art brush, starting with yellow, paint tiny vertical strokes/ dashes, one next to the other, creating the zigzag pattern.
2. With your remaining colours, paint on the same tiny strokes/ dashes following the zigzag pattern created in step 1.
3. With your nail art brush and black nail polish, using the same techniques in steps 1 and 2, paint tiny black strokes between the light pink and yellow, and between the blue and purple, also creating a zigzag pattern.

For nail #2
1. Using the same technique in Nail #1 create a V shape pattern with all 6 colours.2. With your black polish and nail art brush, create an ikat heart shape by painting small strokes following the V shape.

For nail #3
1. Create a dark pink to light pink to white gradient.2. With your nail art brush, create miniature heart shapes on top of the gradient.3. Again with your nail art brush and using the same technique in Nails #1 and #2, create an ikat heart shape by outlining the miniature hearts with your black polish.

Top it off with your favourite top coat and don't forget to clean up your cuticles (:

**Remember you don't have to follow the design colour for colour, be creative and if ever you try it, leave a comment with a link, I'd love to see what all your imaginations come up with! (:


Toodles~

I♥IKAT

   Hey y'all! Is it just me or is there something really addictive about the Ikat pattern? AND PASTELS. That's why when I saw this phone cover in Sportsgirl a few weeks back I knew I needed to have it on my nails!

   From previous experience, I've learnt that it's so much easier to get the colours to pop (especially neons!) if you paint a base coat of white polish first. So I did that, then chose 6 pastel polishes to match the colour scheme of the mobile phone case. Spring's just arrived here in Australia so pastels are pretty much the GO-TO colours at the moment. Slap on those characteristic black lines on top of the pastels, et voilà!

   The first time in a long time I painted the same design on my right hand, albeit a simplified version (meaning I replaced the mini hearts on the ring finger and thumb with the simple ikat zigzag on the middle finger!) Disclaimer: Please don't pay too much attention to my unusually short right index nail. It snapped right across while I was out of the house and had no nail glue on me to fix it ): Now I've bought a second nail glue bottle to keep in my bag always! 

I've also had a request for a tutorial on these so that should be up soon as well! 

Toodles~

Revlon Royal Blue Jelly Escapade!

   Hey y'all! So yesterday, along with the BYS graffiti nail enamel kit, I also bought a bottle of Revlon's Top Speed "Royal" polish from Target. For a while now, I've been on the look out for an awesome deep rich dark blue that's not too close to black, and Royal looked pretty damn close to what I was after. 

   THOUGH, to my surprise (pleasant surprise!) it actually turned out to be a jelly polish! And a lovely cobalt blue jelly polish at that! 

   I was not disappointed at all! Easy to apply and the jelly finish (this was 2 coats) was absolutely amazing! I was very very tempted to make a jelly sandwich with the Chi Chi "Glitterazzi" I also bought from Target that day (next time!) but instead opted for an orange ikat design. There's something about the blue and orange combination I really like. It's so bright and eye catching ;p

 

   So that ends my Revlon Royal Blue Jelly Escapade.. for now! I will revisit this chapter again sometime in the not too distant future! One more picture, and I wish you all an awesome day!