A deep blue jelly sandwich to cleanse the palate

 

I've been so caught up in bright neons lately I thought I'd tone it down (if you call using glitter toning it down :P) a little. I used Revlon Royal and Ulta3 New Years Eve (: Simple but striking.

I added the black embellishments just so the mani wouldn't be too plain :P The blue glitter is so pretty (and so appropriately named!) that I may just have to incorporate it into my New Year's mani!

Colourama

   I'm ALIVE! I survived the rush at work today! Although my previous mani wasn't chipped, my hands and cuticles were in pretty bad shape afterwards. So as much as it pained me to see my neon grunge nails gone, I took them off and showed my hands and cuticles a little TLC. 

   After they were all oiled up and moisturised, I topped them off with this neon geometric pattern. I used Ulta3 Citrus (seriously can't get enough of this polish), Face of Australia Polyester Girl, BC Co. Shade 12, Rimmel Sky High, China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy and BC Co. Shade 13. 

   After taking pictures of the mani and uploading them onto the computer, I realized maybe these would look a little more interesting with a black linear pattern on top. It's 4:04am over here, so I'm not really in the mood to add the black and retake the photos haha So I'll try the black tomorrow and add those photos in the next post. 

 

   These seemed simple enough in my head, but took a lot longer than I anticipated! So I haven't actually painted my right hand yet. That'll have to wait until tomorrow, and those will probably be in the next post too. Instead, have more pictures of my left hand! :P

   ALSO! As promised, I did a quick picture tutorial for the Neon Grunge nails from yesterday. 

   It's basically starting off with a white base, then with the brush from the nail polish bottle, paint on the neon colours. Wait for the colours to dry, then with a black polish, make sure to have as little polish on the brush as possible, and just swipe it over the nail in random strokes. Then top it off with a top coat of your choice (: Et voila neon grunge nails. 

   If you guys have any further questions, feel free to leave a comment and I'll get back to you ASAP ^^

Neon Madness

Is there anyone else who has to go into work tomorrow (or worked today 26/12/12) and somehow try to survive the post Christmas sale onslaught that's bound to ensue?! My day starts at 6am tomorrow to put signs up for the sales in my department then doors open at 8am until midnight! So, to match tomorrow's inevitable madness and mayhem, I give you a neon grunge look that I just can't stop looking at! :D

For this, I used Ulta3 Citrus, Face of Australia Polyester Girl, Rimmel Sky High, BC Co. Shade 12 and a regular black polish. Citrus is such an amazing polish, it's so darn bright and very very neon!! Though I probably wouldn't ever wear it plain on it's own, because then it'd look like I coloured my nails with yellow highlighter! HAHA

Also, I can't go serving the endless lines of customers at work tomorrow with only one hand coloured, so here's a look at my right hand.

There's a reason why you don't see this hand very often. Because of work, and my clumsiness at work, I tend to always break the nails on my right hand. Even when they grow just a teeny weeny eensy bit, sooner or later they break at work ): So here are my nubbins, complete with the awkward hand poses :P you can tell my right hand doesn't know how to pose haha

Christmas Craze

   First and foremost: 

I want to wish everyone a Merry and Blessed Christmas!!

   Apologies for being MIA this past week, but Christmas in retail is one busy BUSY season! I was stuck at work until 6pm Christmas Eve with shoppers still wandering the store looking for VERY late minute presents! haha (I laugh now, but back then, I was ready to chase those people out of the store so I could finally leave and go home grrr)

   I have a couple of manis for you lovely people today (: First of which is a design I did for a guest post on Katy's blog: Nailed It. She has kindly obliged by allowing me to write up a guest post while she's on vacation. If you aren't already following this creative young lady, then I kindly urge you to take a peek at her nails and see for yourself. 

Guest post on Nailed It

   Second, is a festive glitter gradient I wore to work during the week. 

   I used 2 coats of China Glaze Twinkle Lights for the base, OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Air and BYS Dazzling for the green gradient on top. 

   I LOVED THESE. So bright, sparkly and fun! Don't they just scream Christmas to you?!

   Finally, today's mani: something really quick and random. I'm still on the fence with these. May even take them off tonight and attempt something else :/

   Until then I hope everyone has a safe and blessed Christmas break! I promise my next post won't take as long as this did! 

   P.S. I would share with you all what I got for Christmas, but it's kind of hard when I didn't get anything. hahaha This year my brother and I spoiled my parents and younger siblings instead with gifts. Though I did buy myself a purple macaron patterned onesie from Target :P 

Feeling a little flower-y

Before I start, I have an ANNOUNCEMENT: I finally got a light box! haha I ordered it off ebay Friday morning and it's arrived on Monday morning, talk about lightning fast delivery! It was about $65 AUD altogether including postage. The kit includes the light box itself, 4 different coloured backdrops, and 2 lamps. The actual light tent is collapsible and it all folds up into a carry folder kind of thing, so storage is pretty damn easy! 

Okay so back to the nails! These are my version of an abstract flower print. I wanted to do a gradient or something other than plain white for the base colour but it was late and I was lazy :P I used a total of 7 colours for the 'flowers' in this mani: Bloom Alcapulco, Sally Hansen I Pink I Can, L'oreal Chop Chop, Ulta3 Orchid, Miki 9155, Revlon Intrigue, Maybelline Wonder Violet.

 So, just as a comparison, here's a picture I took in the bathroom (whitest/brightest lighting in my house lol!) with just my Galaxt s2 camera phone:

Here's my first nooby picture of these nails in the lightbox:

Couldn't fiddle too much more with the lighting and such because I had to go to work, but as soon as I got home I tried it again, and this time decided to try using the flash. I think I much prefer it with the flash, the nail design comes out a lot clearer. What do you all think?

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

Black Houndstooth

   Mornin' y'all! Everyone excited for the weekend? I know I am! Why, you ask? Because after working seven days straight I finally get 2 days off! haha

   So today, I have for you a pastel gradient topped with a black houndstooth design!

   I watched Chelsea's (from Get Nail-d) houndstooth tutorial on youtube and altered it to fit my design. Since I was using a pastel gradient as a backdrop I couldn't just use a black and white striper to create the squares, so instead i painted on the black squares individually, one by one. Then added the accents. It was a long and tedious process, but hey, totally worth it in my opinion! Seriously digging this look!

   OH and not wanting to neglect the pastel gradient underneath, here's a shot of it before I covered it all in houndstooth :P 

   My middle finger was the first nail I did the pattern on and the houndstooth turned out great! Unfortunately, I got restless and the rest turned out clumsy and fat ): ! haha but once you put them together, it's not TOO obvious, so I guess it's alright :D

   It was a pain drawing all those black square free hand! Take a closer look and some aren't even square, they look more like ovals! haha

Blue as a half moon manicure

   Today, I have more bright, colourful nails for you all! And yes I wore them to work haha (and p.s. no, I don't know what I meant in the title either, it just sounded right :P)

   The design for this wasn't planned, all I wanted was to keep with the "blue" theme and somehow this came out. I used BYS "Blue" (a colour changing polish) for the base, Essence "Grumpy" for the blue curtains on each nail and BYS "Diamond Glitter Opal" for the half moon. 

   I didn't like these at first. I thought they made my nails look chunky and down right ugly. But somehow, while at work, they grew on me, and I ended up loving them. 

   I'm so in love with wearing such colourful and bright eye catching colours to work, so be warned, this colour streak may last a while!

Colour Block ...Gradient!

   Mornin' y'all! Hope everyone had a good relaxing weekend (: Today's post is inspired by neon colours yet again, this time in a gradient... a colour block gradient. 

   I wanted to take the 'gradient nail' a step further, so I thought why not pixelate the whole thing and paint the colours in blocks instead of a smooth transition with a sponge. 

   Is it just me or do they kind of remind you of candy corn? But candy corn's not pink, or purple, so it is probably just me... probably from all these polish fumes I've been inhaling, I've gone a little cuckooo haha 

   These were a pain in the butt to paint. But it was all worth it in the end. Although these ended up looking so damn flashy and bright I wore them to work anyway, and received a compliment or two  on them, one coming from my manager, so I guess she's given the fancy nail art the green light! Until the next instalment of "colourful nails for work" toodles!

Anyone keen for a little Geometry?

   These were so much fun to do, albeit very time consuming. I used bright neon colours for bases: CG Flip Flop Fantasy, BC Co Shade 13, Chi Chi OMG. Sinful Colours Irish Green and L'oreal 601. The geometric patterns were painted on using black acrylic paint and the whole thing is sealed with 2 coats of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat.

   There's really nothing more to say about this design. I just felt like something bright, so I slapped those colours on, my mum said the neon skittles were WAY too bright for work, so I toned them down with the black geometric design. Turned out pretty damn sweet, if I do say so myself :P

   Here's a comparison between direct sunlight and indirect sunlight:

   Also, the thumb and middle nails are probably my favourites!