Nail design of the week: Perfect for Halloween!!

Finally Halloween it's here, and I can't wait to dress up and do my makeup!  My nails were done on Monday, and they will stay on until at least the weekend.  I saw this picture on Tumblr some years ago and fell in love with it:

If you are the original creator, let me know so I can credit you

It was strikingly beautiful and I have wanted to recreate this look for a long time.  I know there are many ways to do a blood manicure, but this is my favorite: as if you have dipped your nails on someone's blood.  I looked up some videos in YouTube for guidance, and followed this one to do my nails:

And this is the result:

I love them!!

These are the tools I used:

Unglax nail hardener as base coat

Nail polish Irresistible Cherry (#252) by Margaret Astor

Dotting tool

Seche Vite top coat
Naio coconut cuticle oil for the cuticles when everything is finished and dry

I love that they do not have to be exactly identical to be great, and the fact that they are all different is even more fun.  Some people that saw them thought they had been professionally done, and they all recognized the dripping blood, so I guess they are a sucess!

Nail design of the week

So, as I mentioned, I wanted to try a sailor-inspired manicure tutorial before Summer was over.  I saw this great manicure at Radi D's blogspot:

Picture from Radi D's blogspot

I wanted to try something similar, but I omitted the anchor and life saver stickers, and made my own version of it:

These are the tools I used:

Unglax nail hardener as base coat

Essie Blanc nail polish
Blue nail art tape
Twizzers
Scissors
Seche Vite top coat

Naio coconut cuticle oil for the cuticles when everything is finished and dry

I do like this design very much, but I had some troubles with the tape.  Although I made sure the tape was well sticked to my nails, I ended up with the ends lifting, even after applying the top coat.  I am guessing part of it is my fault because I touched the stripes too much, but also I noticed that the rubbing/friction of my nails against my fingers may have been contributed to the lifting.

I hope I can do soon another manicure featuring nail art tape.  Maybe a design that does not involve the tape going to the sides, to avoid this problem...

Nail design of the week

I recently purchased a couple of nail polishes in gold and silver, and this week I decided to try out the silver one for the first time:

I absolutely love it!  These are the tools I used:

Unglax nail hardener as base coat

Essence Colour and Go Icy Princess (#141)

Seche Vite top coat
Naio coconut cuticle oil for the cuticles when everything is finished and dry

I tried it first with a mate top coat; I painted the pinky finger, but I did not like the results - if you look at the picture closely, you'll see the shine that nail has is different from the rest.  So I just top coated everything with the Seche Vite.

I purchased it with the intention of using it for stamping, but I really like it by its own.  The color is really like antique silver - not shiny silver or steel. 

Looking forward to trying more colors of this brand!

Searching the perfect white

It's been some weeks that I wanted to do a sailor/marina-inspired manicure.  I attempted one in two occasions, and in both I ended up frustrated because the white I used did not cover well my nails, despite my using 2 coats of it.

The white I used is Margaret Astor Perfect Stay Gel Shine (White Snow).  Avoid it like the plague!  The worst thing is I bought it this season, so the bottle is almost full, and I do not think I will use it anymore.

Today I bought an Essie nail polish (my first Essie purchase), called Blanc.  I just returned home and my curiosity took the best of me: I tried it on my pinkie finger: one coat, no base; I just wanted to check the coverage. And it is perfect!  One stroke and my nail was perfectly white.

Hopefully the next sailor manicure attempt will be better.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Another visit to the pool

So today I went again for a swim at the town pool.  

It was almost empty, I spent all the time alone in my lane, just swimming up and down.  No kids today.  

But I had two staff members coming to check out my mermaid tail.  One of them asked if she could take pictures, and we chatted a bit about how I began to swim like this.  They had never seen, or even heard of, mermaid tails and I referred them to YouTube for videos.

A good thing is, I was not very tired when I finished my session; I mean, my core and leg muscles were a bit sore, but my lungs and diafragm were not tired after all the breath holding, which I found very rewarding.  Last week I was able to swim all the pool lenght in one breath, which was also exhilarating.  Must try that again tomorrow.  Almost 8 years without swimming can put a strain in your lung capacity.  Mine used to be great, but not anymore.  I am trying to improve on that...

And, remember I put pearls on my toes?  They were fine after one hour of swimming with the monofin on, which was great.  I will be doing the mermaid scale manicure again this week, sans the pearls.  Hubby does not really like them.

Nail design of the week

Pearls!  I am in love with pearls lately - which is odd, because the pearl is a jewel that has never appealed much to me.  My favorites have always been dark stones like onyx and garnet.  Must be the Summer, and the mermaids...

So, this week's manicure is inspired by mermaids and pearls:

These are the tools I used:
Unglax nail hardener as base coat
Margaret Astor Fashion Studio Lilly of the Valley (#244)

Tweezers

White half pearls in sizes 1.5, 2 and 3 mm
Konad clear top coat
Seche Vite top coat
Naio coconut cuticle oil for the cuticles when everything is finished and dry

I love how well they turned out!  They remind me a bit of my mermaid tail color.  It is a nice alternative to the mermaid scale pattern; after I saw this beautiful mermaid top I figured maybe mermaids like to wear pearls in their nails (oh how I covet a top like that!).  I have lately thought of how would a mermaid have her nails; the best I have imagined is that they are somehow scales matching the color of their tails (lol!).  So maybe some pearls on them is not a far fetched thought...

I have even put some pearls on my toes:

But not color.  I hate painting my toe nails, because my eyesight is not very good, and it's troublesome for me to see if they are OK or not.  Just the base coat, the 3 mm pearls and the top coat to protect them.

I saw this mermaid scale tutorial yesterday and maybe I will try with the pearls next time I do the Mash scale stamping.  What do you think?

Nail design of the week

I'm afraid this week I revisited the mermaid nail tutorial created by elleandish.  It is so lovely I just can't get enough of it!

This time I followed all the instructions provided, and my nails look like this:

It looks so much better with a softer two-color combination!  I say two-color because, despite the fact that I wanted to use three, one of the blues was barely visible, so I just omitted it.  These are the tools I used:

Unglax nail hardener as base coat 

Fashion Studio by Margaret Astor nail polishes #242 (Aqua Leaf) and #070 (Blue Taffeta)

Mash plate #39

Konad plastic scraper

Konad small stamper

Makeup sponge

Lina Bocardi 45'' Flash Nail Polish #12 for stamping

Quick Dry Top Gloss by Margaret Astor
Naio coconut cuticle oil for the cuticles when everything is finished and dry

It cannot really be seen in the pic but the design smeared again.  I need to get me a Seche Vite top coat, which I hear is fabulous for this kind of stuff.  

This design really gets people's attention.  I will probably end up using it for most of the Summer.  My inner mermaid is so happy with it!

I also painted my toe nails with Come along with me nail polish by H&.  I don't know why, I am liking very much blue colors this season.

Nail design of the week

This week I was going to do this fabulous tutorial by IndigoNova1:

I liked it a lot, but when I put it on my nails the results where not very satisfactory.  The tape left residue on the nail polish, the netting looked awful, and the flowers did not end up in the right place.  

So I finally took off everything and re-did the French manicure I did last week.  So no picture this week, but enjoy IndigoNova1's channel, and all her wonderful designs.

Nail design of the week

This week I had planning on doing a new Konad stamping design, but I have been watching a lot of nail videos featuring French manicures, so I got envious and did a simple French manicure on my nails:

Left hand - the nail on my middle finger broke (ouch!)

Right hand

I am very happy how it turned out.  I think it looks way, way better than my previous Franch manicure.  I was tempted to do a lace stamping on them, just as elleandish did here (very similar to my own!), but I finally decided against it - maybe some other time.

These are the tools I used:

Unglax nail hardener as base coat 

French manicure French Ivory (#433) nail polish by Rimmel *
Nail Tip Whitener by Rimmel
Quick Dry Top Gloss by Margaret Astor

* I just realized that the number of the polish on Amazon is different than my own.  Maybe the numbers change from country to country catalogues?  I don't know...

I used the "rolling motion" technique - moving my finger while keeping the brush steady.  It worked very well for me.  I could not touch up any mistakes, because the nail tip whitener is quite viscous, and the touch ups were very visible (I had to redo one of my thumbs because of that).  Maybe it would be good as a nail polish for stamping?  I am not going to find out though, I will keep it for my French tips.

Here is the French manicure tutorial that helped me with the rolling motion technique:

Let's see how next week's design goes!

Nail design of the week

I already talked about the lovely mermaid inspired nail tutorial from YouTube user elleandish.  I tried it yesterday, but I toned down the difficulty:

As you can see, it's in no way perfect; the stamped design smeared in some places after applying the top coat; I think I used too much of top coat, I'll try with less quantity next time.  These are the tools I used:

Unglax nail hardener as base coat 

Come along with me nail polish by H&M

Mash plate #39

Konad plastic scraper

Konad small stamper

Black Mash Nail art polish for stamping

Konad Clear Top Coat

I used one coat of the blue polish, and then stamped the design on the nails with the black stamping nail polish.  I have a problem with this design; some of my nails are too wide for it, so both my thumbs are not completely covered in scales.  Also, it wouldn't work if my nails are a bit longer than they are right now, so for me it is best to use when having short nails.  I loved the black stamping polish and how well it transferred to my nails.  Better quality and better to work with than the Konad, I think.  I am not sure if it is the polish or the plate, I will have to check on that.

After comparing the result with the tutorial, I think I need to use another shade of blue for the stamping.  The black seems to me very "in your face", if you get my meaning, to simulate fish scales.  However, I am thinking the big contrast would be great to use with other colors, such as red or green, for a "dragon scale" manicure - perfect for Daenerys Targaryen fans!  It would look also fantastic with a grey base, for a "finger armour" effect.  Very strinking for LARP events, or Medieval faires.  I will probably do both in the future, just to see how they look.

Looking forward to next week's design!

First nail stamping attempt

The Konad order arrived on Tuesday, and yesterday I created my first design.  Here it is:

Left hand

Right hand

I did a French manicure (my first one too!) and then spiced it up a bit with the stamping.  These are the tools I used:

Unglax nail hardener as base coat 

Fashion Studio by Margaret Astor #245 Lotus White for the French tip

Konad plate m57

Konad plastic scraper

Konad small stamper

Konad White Special Nail Polish

Konad Clear Top Coat

First I applied the base coat.  Then I painted the French tip.  When everything was dry I used the flowery lace strip for the nail tips, and added a flower on each nail - the big one for the thumb and the middle finger, the medium for the index and the ring finger, and the small for the pinkie.  Then I finished with the top coat.

When I show it in the lab today my coworkers loved it, they said that I seemed to have lace on my nails, and that it would look great as a manicure for a bride.  I do have a wedding to attend to in July; maybe the bride would like me to do her nails...

I know that it is a very simple design and it is far from perfect, but it made me happy to do my first stamping design.