Fun with striping brushes

Random! I decided to pull out my striping brushes and play and this is what happened...weird rounded triangle things with studs. They were really quick to do, I didn't use tape, just painted lines into the midpoint then coloured in the triangles.  I think they look prrrrretty cool!

The green is China Glaze - Custom Kicks and the pink is a striper polish by Cm Color Madnic (say wha?) - Hottie Pink.  Such a strange brand name....what is a color madnic??? I used an old Essie super sheer nude on the bottom,  2 coats. Its very rare for me to flash my VNL!! 

I love this picture. The striping brushes I use are these ones. I mostly use the medium size one, apart from my cuticle brush I would use it the most out of all my brushes. You can get the studs here.

I love it when you sit down to do a manicure with no plan in your head and you just fiddle around and something really different comes out. I don't normally do freehand designs because honestly I'm not that good at them. I got so many compliments on these nails and will definitely try to improve them and mix up the colours. I am going through a nail art over nude nails phase btw, can you tell?

Liquid Sand Gradient

So is it possible to use OPIs new Liquid Sand textured polish to create gradients? I think its safe to say, definitely! I love how this mani turned out, the sand polish was a dream to work with and dare I say, easier to use for gradients than normal creme polish. Its textured finish is far more forgiving of those little lumps and bumps you end up with sometimes when you're sponging. Read on for a guide on how to recreate this mani using polishes from the OPI 2013 Bond Girls Collection.

To create this design is actually very easy. Paint one thick coat of your base colour. Allow it to dry (the dry time on these liquid sand polishes is excellent, I waited about 3 minutes). Paint your accent colour onto the tip of your sponge then slowly dab it on the tip of your nail, working your way from nail tip towards the cuticle  Steady as she goes, dab excess polish from the sponge onto paper first before applying to nail to avoid building up colour too quickly. That's it, it's really that simple.

This stunning gold sand is OPI - Honey Rider. The blue is OPI - Tiffany Case. As with most sand textured polish you do not apply top coat as it dulls the sparkly finish. Without topcoat the wear of these polishes is good. You will get 2-3 days without chips if you apply a good base coat. They are easier to remove than glitter polish, but harder than a creme or jelly finish polish.

And well you know me, I love a good accent, albeit a little random I love how my ring finger turned out. I used light and dark blue square studs to create this design. You can get the studs here.

Valentines Day - Round 2

Only 8 days left to find your knight in shining armour to whisk you away to your happily ever after.....in the meantime I hope you enjoy the 2nd of my Valentines Day manicures. This one is a little more traditional with pink and hearts a plenty.

The pink is Barry M - Strawberry Ice cream. The black is China Glaze - Liquid Leather. 

On my thumb I used Daring Digits - Blackberry Square which is quickly becoming my most loved indie. I'm a sucker for anything black and white and its got squares in it....oh yeah. For my pinkie I used silver metal studs. It was so hard to get a good picture of them, they are super shiny and amazing and I will be using them again very soon. You can get the studs here. The little heart is this gorgeous stick on black opal mini gem. Its a black holographic colour and I cant stop staring at it! They come in a set with 9 other colours and you can get them here. 

The hearts on my index and middle fingers were stamped. Index was MLS-05 plate and the hearts in a row were created by Natalie from NailCraze NC 01. I think I totally fluked getting them in the middle of my nail. The plate stamped beautifully and I cant wait to try the butterfly prints and the feather.

2012 Christmas manis

Yes I'd like mine gift wrapped please. After a deluge of red and green nails over the past few weeks I was so anti traditional Christmas nails. So I went for bling instead.

China Glaze Its A Trap-eze (from the Cirque de Soleil collection) with accent nail of Color Club Harp On It. Stamped using Konad special stamping polish in black and MLS-05 stamping plate. And of course because its me and I cant help myself I had to add a glequin, cause im a gleq lol 

My awesome sissy la la nails, Deborah Lippman - Candy Shop with OPI - My Very First Knockwurst (Germany collection). These studs and glequins are available from www.dramaqueennails.com

Aussie Christmas Challenge Day 1: Red

Aussie Xmas Challenge Day 1: Red. 

I love challenges...I respond well to pressure and having a theme guides my decision making process and the nail art evolves from finger to finger. That's my favourite way of putting things together vs. going in with a set plan for a design.

• OPI Danke-shiny Red from the OPI Germany Collection is a shimmering medium red polish.
• OPI Gettin Miss Piggy With It from The Muppets Collection, a clear base glitter with tiny red glitter pieces mixed with red and silver hexagon glitter. Layered over DL Fashion.
• Deborah Lippman Fashion is the nude base colour, a mushroom brown with pink undertones.

Many wins here; I got to use some of my new studs, 2 new polishes and have ended up with another awesome nude to add to my collection that suits my skin tone.

I think these are super fab! Pity they have to die tomorrow to make way for six white boomers! Dang the song is back in my head now. 

So studly

A super quick mani after a long day. The blue/green colour is Essie Where's My chauffeur  Quite a runny polish with some streaking on the 1st coat, however the 2nd coat evened it out beautifully. I do find most Essie polishes to be a little runny which is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that when applying the polish to the side of each nail give yourself a little gap as the polish will spread out further than where your brush left off. The colour on the accent finger is Essie Sand Tropez. I bought the studs from dollarnailart.com. They weren't a dollar but they were reasonable priced and they are great quality. They sit nice and flat on the nail and there was a decent range of colours available.