NOTD: Pretty Pink Florals

   Hey y'all! Happy Friday (yes, it's a thing!) to everyone who's living where it's already Friday! And advance happy Friday to those who aren't! :P Darn that's a lot of exclamation marks in the first few sentences haha

   Anyhows, there's not much to report today, so I've only got my recent NOTD pictures to share. First up is a pretty pink floral mani that is so pink I felt so girly prancing around the gym haha. I used Australis #totesamaze layered with Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter on the pointer and pinky nails. For the two floral accent nails, I used Australis #totesamaze and W7 Fuchsia for the roses, and Rimmel Sky High and Orly Glitzy for the leaves. I really wanted the roses to be tiny delicate flowers and the leaves to not be so ginormous haha but I guess I'll keep that in mind for next time.

   And of course, a couple days later, I switched my pink nails for something a little vampier and simple. This is 3 coats of Ulta3 Spring Break (looks like a dupe for China Glaze Creative Fantasy!) and on the accent is Face of Australia Midnight Fireworks - which is a gold glitter texture polish that is absolutely gorgeous, I'd go as far as wearing it as an entire mani one time ♥_♥

   And that's it for now, though I've got plenty more posts to come throughout the month! So stay tuned for that, there are a number of pretties to be seen :P

NOTD: Neon Leopard Print + Tutorial

AND BAM! 

Back to neons *grin* 

   My mini breakdown over pastels and neons in my last blogpost (and a little "Who are you, and where is Christine?!" comment from Kirsty over at Nail Cake) I'm back to sporting neons. This gradient is more eye catching then I'd imagined.. I even thought it may have been a little too bright, but really, who am I kidding?! :P 

   I used Ulta3 Tangelo, W7 Fuchsia and Kleancolor Neon Amethyst for the gradient - you can just barely see the purple tips in the photo. Though I LOVED these as they were (gradients are always a good go-to when lacking inspiration) I was craving more "pop". And hence, these:

   REOWR! I used a dotting tool to add the spots and the golden rectangle accent stud is from the bornprettystore online. A slick of top coat to seal everything in and my fingers were ready to blind and amaze! :P

   I also put together a quick picture tutorial:

What you'll need:

Base Coat / Top Coat

White / Black Polish

3 Neon Polishes

Dotting Tool

Make Up Sponge

Stud (Optional)

   1. Start off with your favourite base coat, then one to two coats of white (depending on opacity). Mine is one coat of Sinful Colors Snow Me White. Wait a few minutes until the white is at least touch dry.
   2. Sponge on your neon gradient. I used Ulta3 Tangelo, W7 Fuchsia and Kleancolor Neon Amethyst in that order. Optional - seal off with a fast drying top coat, in my opinion this makes the gradient blend better.

   3. With your dotting tool (or anything similar, a bobby pin, a toothpick), create 'spots' using alternating colours as the background - i.e. orange spots on the purple tips, pink spots on the orange half etc.

   4. Again with your dotting tool, add the black leopard accents on the spots, also adding the smaller leopard spots in the spaces in between.

   5. Seal everything off with a top coat, and et voila! ♥

   6. Optional - keep an accent nail spot free and add a golden rectangular stud. 

   Also remember you don't have to stick to the colours I used - I dare y'all to use some neon yellow, or neon blues or greens!) and if any of you do do a mani like this I'd love to see it, so tag me on Instagram (@xtinemayyy) or leave me a comment here and I'll go check it out.

   OR..

   You can share it on my facebook page! Yes I now have one - and I'll make a separate blog post to announce it later of course. Just search Nails At 2am on facebook or go to https://www.facebook.com/NailsAtTwoAm 

   And just as a little side rant... I hate the fact I had to use "TwoAm" instead of "2am"!!?!?!?! 

   Anywayssss :P I hope you'll continue to support me over on facebook as well :D

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!

NOTD: Neon Aztec Print

   Hey y'all! *waves* And a Happy Halloween to those who celebrate it! :P Halloween's come and gone here in Australia, without much festivity unfortunately. So instead of rockin' a gruesomely awesome costume at a party and eating halloween-y foods and dancin' til the sun comes up, I'm here at home doing my nail thang - but that I'm complaining.. too much :P haha

   ANYWAYS. Bright. Neon. Aztec nails for you all today! Ever since I swatched Rainbow Honey Magic Cake, and did the aztec accent nail, I've been itching to make a whole mani out of it... and now I have :D *woop woop*

   I based the colour scheme on the neon glitters used in Rainbow Cake which were so fun and worked well together. I used Sinful Colors Endless Blue, W7 Fuschia and BYS Steal The Limelight for the coloured panels, and outlined everything using Sinful Colors Black on Black. 

   I loved these so much, I kept them on for 3 days :P Everyone at work thought they were stickers and that my nails were fake haha. But I do have to admit, IM PRETTY DAMN PROUD that I've kept my nails at this length for this long! *knock on wood* Last time I had long nails like this was last year, and since then they'd just kept breaking. It might be the strengthener I'm using, might be my nail care routine, might be the fact I have polish on 24/7... or I've just been lucky :P