10000k Celebration Water Marble

In March of 2012 a friend of mine said to me that if I was really serious about getting into nail art then I just had to get an Instagram account. Apparently you could loose yourself for hours trolling through the stunning nail art pictures and following the moves of your favourite artists with a filtered view of their everyday lives. I quickly became addicted but Instragram has become more than just another social media platform. I have been fortunate to meet many like minded girls who also share a love of being creative and obsessing over nail polish. And its for all my IG friends that I braved the dreaded water marble. To our 10000 followers, thank you so so much for your support, encouragement and inspiration.

The jade green is BC 19 - a cheap polish from Kmart. The coloured glitter is Gloss n Sparkle - Unicorn droppings. To create the water marble I used Gloss n Sparkle Spectraflair Topcoat and BC 19 and the white is OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls.

This type of water marble design is a good one for beginners to try. You don't need to get all your drag lines super precise like you would in a flower or star marble design . Now I am far from an expert at water marbling but here are a few things that I do that may work for you.

• Room temperature filtered water
• Runny new polishes preferably from the same collection if you want to add multiple colours
• China Glaze is really hard to marble with!
• Use a plastic or glass cup not polystyrene - if you drop the polish too forcefully into the water and it sinks to the bottom it will eat a hole in the polystyrene cup and then you will have a flood. Disaster!
• Have paper towel nearby to wipe off your orange stick or toothpick.

To begin the marble I started with 2 drops of Spectraflair Topcoat. It spread perfectly in the water, right out to the edges of the cup. Then I continued by adding 1 drop of BC 19, then one drop of Spectraflair, then BC 19, back and forth until I had 7 layers like in the picture above. You can continue to build more layers to increase the surface area of the design but as I was only going to do one nail I just needed a small patch of design so I kept my bullseye small.

The next step is to take your orange stick or toothpick and draw from the centre of your bullseye up to the top of the cup, then again from the centre down to bottom of the cup. Keep wiping off your stick as needed so it doesn't get too gluggy. This will anchor your design to the cup and keep it from getting ruined as your draw your horizontal lines. This is super important, anchor the design to the cup  by gently dragging the polish from the edge of the bullseye so it touches the cup in a least 2 places before you move on. See the big green blob at the top of the cup, thats where I anchored my bullseye.

Now take your stick and draw horizontally from side to side. The key here is to start dragging from a centimetre away from the edge of the cup, the polish wont be dry there like it is nearer to the edge. This will stop your design from ripping apart too. I anchor each line at the opposite end when I drag it.

To avoid a horrid clean up tape up your fingers. This type of design wasn't too hard to clean up but it you are using dark colours...use tape!

I never could have imagined that in just over a year we would have 10000 people followingour nail adventures on IG. We love reading your comments and we try to answer as many of your questions as we can. If you haven't delved into the world of #nailart on IG prepare to have hours of your life vanish as you ohh and ahh over the amazing creations. If you are inspired by our designs please tag us so that we can see. Again thank you everyone for your support and love #weloveyouguys

Zoya Pixie Dust Summer 2013 Collection

Gasp! Stunning sparkly, matte glitters in bright, juicy colours. Its the Zoya Pixie Dust Summer 2013 collection. The first whole collection I have been excited about in a long time and I'm so glad I snapped them all up. Enough talking, lets go look at the pictures!

Zoya - Liberty is a rich blue colour with blue glitter "dust". Its my second favourite colour in the collection as its vibrant and the blue is a really nice hue.

The formula of all the polishes in this collection is awesome. They apply beautifully, no bald spots or brush dabbing required, just paint on like a creme. Zoya recommends letting the polish really dry between each layer to get the most out of the sparkly matte finish. I left it about 2 minutes between each coat. The textured finish really is something special. 

Zoya - Solange is a bright yellow gold polish with platinum and gold glitter "dust". 

The wear on the Pixie Dust polishes is amazing. Considering you don't use base or top coat, you will get at least 3 days chip free. I started to get tip wear on the third day and by the fifth day there was a few chips on the corners of my nails.

Zoya - Miranda is a mulberry pink polish with pink glitter "dust". This polish was a little more "juicy" than the rest in that it didn't dry as matte as the others but it was still super glittery.

Clean up can be a little tricky with texture polishes so its best to try not to flood your cuticles. In all the pictures I have used 2 coats of polish and the pictures were all taken in direct sunlight.

Zoya - Beatrix is a light orange polish with gold glitter "dust". Not a colour I would normally wear but its so juicy and delicious, like a sugary orange gem lolly.

Now brace yourself for my absolute favorite of the collection.

Zoya - Stevie is a beautiful muted lilac polish with silver glitter "dust". Its so girly and I really like it with my skin tone. This polish will be making many appearances in upcoming nail art, its one of my all time top 5 polishes. I know, that's a big call but its really gorgeous!

The entire Pixie Dust Summer 2013 collection is available now from Drama Queen Nails.

The last polish is Zoya - Destiny. A bright coral grapefruit colour with gold glitter "dust".

If you don't own any texture polish this would be a fab set to start with. They are superior to the Liquid Sands in that they are thinner, finer, they dry quicker and are much more sparkly. I cant wait to experiment with them in my nail art, I have high hopes for some wicked pixie gradients!

Even more fun with striping polishes

I seem to be going through a striping phase, I just cant get enough stripes! For today's nails I didn't use my normal striping brush set. Instead I used dedicated striping polishes by Le Chat. So what's the difference between a striping brush and a striping polish? Read on for all the details and a quick tutorial to recreate this funky striped look.

The difference between a striping brush and a striping polish is simple. Striping brushes can be used with any polish you have in your collection. You put a few drops of polish on your working surface (I use baking paper), run your brush through your polish then add to your nail. Striping polishes are nail polish that comes with a very thin brush the same size as the large brush in this striping brush set.  They are thicker than normal nail polish and you can only use the brush with the polish it came with, meaning you need to buy a few different colours if you want to create stripes.

To recreate this design start with the colour you want in the middle of your nail. Add one stripe to the middle of each nail. Then fill with more stripes working from the middle out to the cuticles. You may need a few extra stripes on your thumb to fill the space. The trick to using striping brushes is to move your finger not the brush. Place the brush on the nail then move the finger backwards as the brush slides along it. 

Le Chat has a range of striping polishes that are great quality and reasonably priced. The range is called Color Madnic - CM Nail Art. They are opaque in one coat which allows for precise lines as you don't need to go over them twice. They dry shiny, even the neons. The colours I used today are: Silver Glitter, Hottie Pink, Black and White. 

This silver glitter is denser than most glitter striping polishes. It still stripes easily and the quick opacity makes it a winner even if it is a little bit chunky in the bottle. I just love this photo, the light playing with the glitter in the bottle is beautiful. These are in my top 5 fav nails of 2013! I hope you guys like them as much as I do.

Nailene Couture Design Nails

Got a hot date tonight and zero time to pimp your nails? Couture Design Nails from nailene just might be the answer to no mess, no fuss instant nail art!

Unfortunately not all of us are blessed with genetically beautiful nails that look amazing all the time. Having gorgeous nails takes work and dedication and whilst we enjoy spending time painting our nails, sometimes we get caught out and need a nail makeover in a flash. You might be thinking, oh no, false nails, but stick ons have come a long way since I tried them back in high school. Now slimmer, more flexible and less damaging to your natural nails, this couture fashion nail set is a great option for anyone needing instant glam.

The set comes with 24 press on nails, an orange stick, buffer and a tube of nail glue. I chose to use them with adhesive Ultra tabs instead to protect Jules' natural nails.  I started by choosing the correct size nail for each finger. I prepared the natural nail with a quick swipe of nail polish remover. Then I applied one tab to the finger I was working on and pressed on the nail. The tabs are uber sticky and the perfect sizes, I didn't need to cut any to fit. 

Both hands were completed in under 3 minutes, it really was as easy as stick and press, done! The tabs worked really well at holding the nail on. They lasted for 3 days with some minor lifting and then the thumb nail popped off. The others came off the next day. If you wanted them to stay on for longer  buffing the natural nail first and using the glue would be the better option. They were very comfortable to wear. The nails themselves were still in good condition with no wear at the tip when Jules removed them.

The design that came on this set is a blue and silver gradient French tip with black and silver glitter accents. Its not the type of thing Id normally do on my own nails but it would work for a whole range of occasions and compliment a variety of outfits both casual and fancy. 

If you would like to check out more nailene Couture Designs nail sets click here. 

**This product was provided to me for review**

More fun with striping brushes

One of the most versatile tools in a nail artists arsenal is the striping brush. They are a little like dotting tools in that they can do much more than just dots, or in the case of a striping brush more than just stripes. Now you could go out and buy a whole heap of striping polishes or you can buy one set of striping brushes which will allow you to use any of the polishes you already own. You may not get the precise perfect lines that you would achieve with striping tape or stamping but there is a whole lot less mucking around and its much quicker. So lets take a look at another design created with striping brushes. This design is inspired by Hey Nice Nails.

 

 

Freehand stripes are a great way to start experimenting with your striping brush. I did my accent finger in 2 minutes with none of the hassle of cutting and placing tape, not to mention being able to skip having to add a layer of topcoat before applying the tape so it doesn't pull your base colour up. The trick to using striping brushes is simple: Move your finger not the brush. Place the brush on the edge of your nail as and you pull the brush back roll your nail from one side to the other to create the stripe. This is my very first time doing freehand horizontal stripes with a brush and whilst they are far from perfect I found the technique easy and feel confident I can improve and get my lines to be a more consistent width.

 

To create the animal print I used the smallest striping brush in my set and made "c" shapes around the glitter dots with Barry M - Black. I placed the glitter dots randomly just using the brush from the polish bottle. I love animal print because its not meant to be perfect. If you don't have striping brushes you could create this print with dotting tools, or a striping polish. The striping polish in this picture is Le Chat Colour Madnic - Black.

 

 

The pink base is Essie - Not just a pretty face. Its is sheer jelly and it took 3 coats to get this colour. It could have done with another coat actually because there is a little bit of VNL on my middle finger, but the colour is so pretty and I don't have any cremes in this shade. The glitter is China Glaze - I'm not lion. So don't be afraid to give freehand stripes a go and experiment to see what else you can create.

Alanna Renee - Magical World Collection

If there is a list of polishes that are impossible to photograph then Dementor from the Alanna Renee Magical World Collection should definitely be on it. Its so gorgeous and sparkly with multifaceted glitter that the camera just couldn't pick a point to focus on! I did my best but know in real life this polish is the best kind of black magic.

This is 2 coats of Dementor with a layer of Seche topcoat. With a layer of Seche the glitter was still textured on the nail. The polish consists of black and silver micro dots with charcoal grey hex glitter pieces suspended in thick, black, jelly base. One layer over black undies would work a treat. It is a chunky glitter however it spread nicely on the nail, no dabbing, just paint on like a creme. Alanna Renee polishes are 3 free and made in Australia. 

The stamped image is from the Sugar Bubbles 003 plate. The black is Barry M - Black and I stamped with my all time favourite silver stamping polish Barry M - Silver Foil. I picked the clouds because when I pictured the dementors in my head I got flashes from the movies where they roll in across the sky like ominous storm clouds.

This last photo is a swatch of Golden Snitch which is also from the Magical World Collection. If you are a fan of the Harry Potter series then this collection is a must have. Over time as I wear the rest of the polishes from the collection I will add them to this post so they are all together. In the meantime head on over to Alanna Renee and check out the other amazing polishes in the collection.

Guest post for More Nail Polish

Just in case you missed out on my guest post for More Nail Polish this week here is the link. Being invited to post for MNP was a huge honour as I have followed her blog right from way back at the start of my polish addiction. So head on over and check out MNP if you aren't already following her. This is the mani  I did for the post. All the details plus extra pics can be found here.