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!

Liebster Award

Hey y'all! So I have some exciting news :D I was nominated by Christine (from Christine's Nail Blog) and Natalia (from Polished Polyglot) for the Liebster award! Thanks so much ladies! This helps bloggers with less than 200 followers to be discovered. 

The rules are to post 11 random facts about yourself, answer the 11 questions asked by the person who nominated you, and ask your 11 nominees 11 questions. 

So 11 random facts about me:

1. I like to bake, and cook, especially dessert type foods that look pretty :P 

or sushi, I love making my own sushi too.

2. I am a major dork. I read manga, and watch anime. I have an ongoing game subscription to World of Warcraft :P at one point I lived and breathed WoW. 

3.My favourite colour is purple.

4. I own too many pairs of heels, and two pairs of shoes: 

my canvas shoes and my work shoes.

5. I went through a phase where I loved GUESS and bought Guess bags that have since either been snatched up by my mum or are sitting in my cupboard collecting dust.

6. I own a purple hippo pillow pet, that I've named Mr. Huggable Hippo.

7. My toes are always painted either red, a dark pink or blue. 

8. Sheldon Cooper is my favourite fictional TV character. 

9. I'm a Whovian :P 

10. I've patted a kangaroo, and seen a koala in real life.

11. I love theme parks. 

Instead of  bombarding your brains and answering 2 sets of 11 questions, I answered a few of each from both their questionnaire. 

1. What was the happiest moment of your life? The saddest?
Recently, I went skydiving for a friend's birthday, and jumping out of that plane and going into freefall was pretty damn liberating. Saddest.. I'll get back to you on that lol

2. Where did you grow up?

Although I was born in the Philippines, I grew up in Sydney Australia.

3. Why nails?
Growing up I was never a girly girl, nor did I ever care for the state of my nails, hands or cuticles for that matter. But early this year I came across video tutorials on youtube for nail art and I was hooked. The notion of my fingernails as blank canvases for works of art intrigued me. Now, painting my nails is something I have to do, and pretty nail polish is something I have to buy!

4. What do you think about indie polish?
It's great that people have taken the initiative to create such wonderful creative concoctions and I support it 100%. But not every indie brand is for everyone, I find the brands with the type of polishes I like, and I buy them.

5. Did you have a nickname? How’d you get it?
My complete first name is Christine May, hence why almost everyone I know calls me May.

6. Three things you dislike...
Onions. Capsicum. Pickles.

7. What do you do for a living?
I'm still a University student living at home, working a casual job at Target (for 2 years now) to support myself and not depend on my parent too much.

8. Which place are you dreaming to travel to?
I would love to go travelling around south east asia!

9. What's your favourite movie and why?
From the top of my head, White Chicks. I can watch the rerun every year on TV and still laugh every time.

10. Snow or flip-flops for Christmas?
You know what they say, the grass is always greener on the other side! I live in Australia and I haven't ever seen snow, so yes, I'd love to experience a very white Christmas!

11. What is your greatest dream/aspiration?
To finally graduate University, get a full time job, travel a lot, then settle down and have kids. haha life plan right there.

Aaaaaand my 11 Questions for the awesome blogs I have nominated:

1. Who was the first (or one of the first) nail bloggers that you came across and loved?

2. Summer or Winter?

3. Do you have any pet peeves?

4. What's your most liked nail art trend? Disliked nail art trend?

5. Thoughts/ opinions on the "duck feet nails". 6. The colour you wear the most?

7. What's your guilty pleasure?

8. What are some of the things on your bucket list?

9. Is there anything else you collect other than nail polish :P

10. Do you eat oysters?

11. Would you consider doing nail art as a career?

And the blogs I nominate are:

1.Popping Nails

2.Lacquerised

3.My Virtuous Hands

4.Just Tis Ems

5.Steamy Nails

6.Shades of Phoenix

7.Totally Nailed

8.Tempera's Thumbprints

9.Julz Perri Nails

10.Lacquereesa

11.Pearly Swirl

Snow is coming!

I WISH ): Unfortunately, it doesn't snow here in Australia, rather, it's a hot sticky summer Christmas for us. So a white Christmas is definitely on my bucket list! It probably won't be fulfilled any time soon, but hey, a girl can dream right :P

   So we're only into the first week of December, and the holiday themed manis have already begun! So to start off my countdown to Christmas, I've decided to go with bauble themed nails! 

   We finally have our Christmas tree up in the living room ...no thanks to me haha All thanks goes to my younger siblings who are still thrilled by the notion of decorating the tree. I let the two youngsters run wild with the decorations, lo and behold, they dug out the red and gold baubles from last year, and et voilà, they are now on my nails :D

   The baubles themselves had a matte finish with the detailing done in gold and silver metallic paint, so I decided to mimic the effect by using a matte topcoat over the red before painting the gold details. 

   I painted a dotted design on the matte nails before the gold detailing just so I wouldn't a have a plain flat background for the snowflakes and tree. I used Orly Forever Crimson on the pointer, middle and pinky and Orly See Yah on the accent nails. For the gold, I used my ever trusty Orly Glitz.

   Hoping for a more delicate snowflake design in the near future... fingers crossed!

Just A Tad Fancy

   I feel as if I haven't done any actual nail art in ages so I decided to finally give the baroque/filigree design a go. And the end result is this:

   I know I wanted to use gold (the good ol' trusty Orly Glitz), I just had to find the perfect  pairing colour for the design. In the end, I went with a deep dark burgundy: OPI Pepes Purple Passion. 

   The filigree was just painted on with a thin brush, and believe it or not, my left hand took me about 5 episodes of Breaking Bad to finish! I have two things to say about this:

      1) I can't paint my nails and just paint my nails. I always have something playing on my laptop, be it The Big Bang Theory, Chuck or New Girl. 

      2) Breaking Bad is approximately 40 minutes per episode.. so in total it took me just over 3 hours to do my left hand. JUST my left hand. My right hand got the short end of the stick and are plain gold and burgundy :P

   So, in all their 3-hours-in-the-making-glory, here are my baroque/filigree nails. I hope to redo these in a more intricate pattern, over a more detailed background and not just a plain one colour bed. And is it just me, or do they remind you of snowflakes... or even reindeers... or am I just imagining things?!