Sunday, October 23, 2011

French tip with a twist!

I just wanted to share this nail look I did yesterday and am loving! It's a French tip with a twist - instead of your standard white French polish, I've used two different colours and alternated them :)


Hope you like it :)





The nail polishes I used were:
- L.A. Girl Metal polish in Millennium
- L.A. Girl Metal polish in Alkaline Blue

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Nail Stamping - Fail or Success?

First of all, I want to start with the fact that I had given up....You may ask on what, let me tell you - I had given up on my nail stamping image plates and all that goes with it!


Around May this year, I got hooked on Youtube videos and blogs that reviewed/gave tutorials/showed photos of anything to do with nail stamping. I thought it was fantastic, as my freehand drawing is not up to par with the professionals. The concept of the stamping is great, so I purchased a BUNCH of stuff related to nail stamping including:


- Set 1 of Bundle Monster image plates (21 image plates)
- Set 2 of Bundle Monster image plates (25 image plates)
- Several Konad image plates
- Stampers and scrapers
- Special Konad stamping polishes


Now I bought all this because I loved the concept of nail stamping. I was so excited when my packages arrived in the post!! I couldn't wait to get home and try it all! I took photos of everything (let me know if you'd like to see them!) and then tested out a few images...


Well, I wasn't impressed. The images weren't transferring from the stamp to my nail. If they did, it placed less than half on my nail, and the colour was faint. I watched Youtube tutorials and read blogs about how to fix the problem. One popular solution was to file the stamps down before use to help pick up the images...FAIL! It didn't work. I just used a standard nail file from the shops.


Over the past few months, I've been busy with wedding and honeymoon planning, so the nail stamping was put on the back burner...Now that time permits, I decided to try again last night. Without fail, the images still didn't transfer probably. 


My one last attempt was to use a white buffer block (purchased from eBay a couple of months ago) to file the stamp. I went through the steps again: polish on image, scrape, stamp image and place on nail....I nearly fell off my chair when it actually transferred to my nail with 100% colour - SUCCESS!!


Not completely believing my luck, I tested different images, different plates, different polishes and different scrapers and they all worked too!!!


Now I can't wait to play with my nail stamping tools and experiment with different looks! If you've had a similar experience, use my motto: if in doubt, eBay has the answers! 



Sunday, October 2, 2011

What I've Been Loving Lately...

10 Things I've Been Loving Lately!

Here are several things I've been loving lately! 
(in no particular order)...

1. Painting my nails & experimenting with nail art - during the first 6 months of the year, I wasn't painting my nails as much, as I was trying to prevent staining because I was going to have natural nails for my wedding - however, 2 weeks before the wedding, my nails starting breaking (argh!) and I had to get acrylics :( However, when on our honeymoon in Canada, I stocked up on polishes and here I am again - with time to paint my nails and try new things with my nail brushes and nail art! It must be working, because I'm getting quite a few compliments :)

2. Bargain shopping - Last weekend, we went to the Gold Coast for a weekend away with my family...the boys 'convinced' Mum and I to go to the shops - well, Mum and I found some great bargains together! I found some L.A. Girl Disco Brites polishes, a lip colour remover (for long wear lipsticks), coconut shampoo and conditioner (yum!) and 2 hair masks :)

3. Being an enabler (lol) - Since I've gotten into nail polish a couple of years ago, none of my friends share the same interests, and they don't really understand my obsession! However, in the past few months, my friends have been noticing the polish that I'm wearing and asking lots of questions! So far, I've 'enabled' three friends to start their own nail polish collection :) Love it!!

4. Vouchers & coupons - There a lots of sites floating around the internet with cheap vouchers/coupons for meals, body treatments, courses etc...and I've joined a couple! I've bought meal deals, manicure/pedicure and just yesterday, I had a massage, facial and eye treatments...it was amazing! Such a cheap way to relax :)

5. Swatching nail polishes - Since buying all my new polishes in Canada, I've had some swatching to do! So relaxing and I love seeing how the polishes look like out of the bottle! (I've even started a new swatching method with the round palettes)

6. Words with Friends - If you have an iPhone and haven't checked this out, it's great! It's like Scrabble but you play against your friends that have the same app!

7. Hanging with Friends - Same concept as Words with Friends, however, it's Hangman :)

8. Finding new polish blogs - Lately, I've been reading so many polish blogs!! I've found some great ones, that update frequently (it motivates me to write more blogs!). I love looking at all the pictures and there is so much inspiration for me to try new things :) It's amazing to see the talent some people have :)

9. Splurging on pretty shoes - Now, I've never been a 'shoe girl' - I'd rather buy polishes or books, however my sister-in-law, bought new, expensive heels and they were so pretty! (Now who is the enabler! Lol) I splurged and bought a few pairs of gorgeous heels :) One pair of bright blue suede heels, a pair of light emerald heels and a pair of stone/beige wedges!! Beautiful!

10. TV shows - It's that time of year again! All of my favourite TV shows are back on air! Also, I've gotten hooked on the Kardashian show + spinoffs! Silly I know, but oh so funny! Lol.

I'd love to hear your comments and let me know what you've been loving lately!!

Any requests for blog topics, I'd love to hear too!