Simple Easter/Spring nails

For today a look that can work great for Easter and Spring.

Nothing special...just stripes.

Not a steady hand? Tape is your answer!

The design is exactly the same as my couch pillows :D

 

 

Polishes used:

- Only You White French

- Only You 113 Banana Split

- Kiko 311 Electric Pink

- China Glaze 1156 Mimosa's Before Mani's

- Bourjois 06 Adora-bleu

- Pink Tease (part of a Pastel set, no name/number)

 

Day 240) Abstract nails (pink, purple, white)

Have you been noticing that I like abstract nails...?

After doing some other nail arts I'm burning to do another abstract.

 

And here it is:

Day 171) Back to the roots

When I was younger I always wanted to be a little different from the crowd.
Very soon after applying my first nail polish I tried to experiment with it.
My first different nails were nails devided by half (vertical) with 2 different colors.

At this time I had never heard about basecoats, topcoats or nail art.
I didn't know about brushes, so I used the regular nail polish brushes.

It took quite some time to get a straight line in the middle, especially because I couldn't apply them on top of each other because then one half would be a lot thicker. If I had only known about tape and topcoats (...why didn't I think of that!).

I was so focused on getting that straight line in the middle that my cuticles were a mess. With a cotton tip and remover I had to clean it and of course it would only take a little time before my cotton tip had touched the nail and it was all ruined again (aaaarggggghhhh).

Then, a few years later I went to some kind of "Black Market". Chinese and Korean people were doing nails there. I was fascinated by the nail art they were doing. I wanted to be able to do that!

On this market I found a set of stripers with a tutorial video tape.
I had to spend all my saved pocket-money (and some more) to buy this set.

I think I saw this video tape like a billion times; instructions went too fast and it all looked so easy...
I already had trouble painting a stripe with these stripers!

After a lot of attempts to paint the designs shown on the video tape I realised that it all starts with these stripes.
If you are able to make straight stripes, starting thicker and ending thinner, you're already coming a long way.

So this is what I practised and today's nail art I will show you what kind of design I made back then.
It looked less pretty at that time and took ages to make, now it takes seconds and looks so much better.

Now, to the nail art.
After the basecoat I painted my nails with a nail polish I got from Ici Paris (beautyshop where you can buy perfume, cosmetics and skin care products):

*Only You - 526 Shooting Star

Then paint the stripes by using a striper. Start at one side of the nail (from the middle) and almost use the entire surface of your nail for your stripes. Let them start thick and endig thinner.
This is what it looks like:

Of course I remember my first times. Here are some tips for the beginners:
-don't try to make it too perfect (people never look so closely that they will see one stripe not ending so thin)
-don't trouble yourself with the possible mess at your starting point. Use this point for a nice rhinestone...and nobody will see!
-Don't pull your hair out when it is not going well, keep trying and you will soon get better.

For all the beginners out there:
I've started like this and I am now able to make all my other designs...without workshops, without trainings, without schooling/education, just by doing it again and again and again...
GOOD LUCK!!!

Day 156) Nail art blue stripes (abstract)

Today's nail art is a custom one.
It's for a drug store called Etos.
Besides the make-up from the more commercial brands (Like L' Oréal, Bourjois, Rimmel, Max Factor), they also sell their house brand.
Etos also has a company slogan which is: Etos blue fits you!
And of course their colour is blue.

For today's nail art I used 4 nail polishes from their house brand and made a design which looks a little like a barcode.

Material:

- Dark blue nail polish (metallic); Etos Quick dry nail polish
- Jeans blue nail polish; Etos Long lasting nail polish
- Light blue nail polish; Etos Quick dry nail polish
- Blue glitter topcoat; Etos TOP coat
- White nail polish; Only you
- Striper brush
- Striping tape
- Scissors
- (Regular tape)

Step 1:
After the basecoat paint your nails white.

Step 2:
Use the regular tape or striping tape to tape off the sides of your nails. Leaving a stripe in the middle.

Step 3:
Use the striping tape to divide the middle (vertical) stripe into (horizontal) stripes. Vary the space between the striping tape.

Step 4:
Use the striper brush to colour in the stripes. For the bigger spaces I used the dark blue, for the middle I used the jeans colour and foor the smallest I used the light blue.

Step 5:
Remove the (striping) tape

Step 6:
On the ring finger I did an accent using the glitter topcoat. I kept the middle stripe smaller on this nail. Then I used the striping tape again, but to leave space on the sides of the nail. On the sides I applied the glitter topcoat

Step 7:
Apply topcoat. Done!

Applying the striping tape is the most time consuming. I would suggest to do this striping design only as an accent nail.

How about it?
Does Etos blue fit you?!

Day 152) Colorful tips

Today I have a nice step-by-step for you.

Step 1:
After the basecoat paint your nails in a white colour. Let it dry completely, a topcoat will speed up the process.

Essence floral Grunge nail polish (The Pearl) - 02 Lily Bloom

Step 2:
Take a striper brush and black nail polish and make a curved line (from right top down to the left where your natural tip starts).

Step 3:
Divide the tip by using striping tape.

Step 4:
I chose to do an ombre (light to dark) on the free spaces of the tip. I used different nail polishes for each stripe but of course you could just as well use a dark colour and white nail polish and mix these yourself to a kind of ombre (different shades of one colour).

Step 5:
Remove the striping tape.

Step 6:
Fix imperfections (I had to repaint my black line) and topcoat it.
Done!

For each tip I used a different colour (love colours!)

Have fun with it!

Day 135) Abstract magnetic nails

I finally got the Pupa Magnetic nail art kit.
Yes, I know it's not new anymore and it has been reviewed many times before.
The reason why I didn't get it earlier is that I was wondering for a very long time if it is worth the money.
I've been using lowbudget magnetic kits and although they are not great, they are just fine for the few times that I use it. Future plans are to make my own magnets and I do want a good magnetic nail polish for this; this is where Pupa comes in.

First a picture:

These kits are available in many colors, but I got number 31 Magnetic Black (which is on the picture above).
The kit contains a magnetic nail polish en two magnets: one for horizontal stripes and one for diagonal stripes.
I'm not going to do an extensive review about it.
The magnetic nail polish is of high quality and is also great to use without any magnetic interference.
The magnets were another thing:
-The opening for the finger is too small. You can't get your finger in which gives you the feeling that you don't have overall control. But it isn't really a problem, it's just the feeling.
- First use I didn't get a design at all. Too far of the nail. Then I realized that there is a small ditch in the magnet on which you can let your nail rest. This is just the right distance between magnet and nail.
- When the distance to the nail is right the design appears in a few seconds

Of course I wanted to do a nice nail art with this kit and here is the step-by-step:

1) After the basecoat paint your nails in a white colour. Then apply a topcoat.
Let it dry for some time (in my case it 's been 3 hours, but you don't have to wait this long).

2) Apply tape on the sides of the nails leaving a free of tape part in the middle (picture 1). The ring finger is my accent nail on which I simply apllied some different shapes of tape randomly (picture 2).

3) For this step you need to work nail by nail.
Paint your nail with the magnetic nail polish and immediately use a magnet or magnet pen (I used both).
The magnetic nail polish is quick drying. When the polish is dry the magnetic parts can't move around anymore, so that's why you'll have to work fast. On the thumb for example I did some dots and half way the nail I had to apply another layer of polish on that half because it already was too dry!

> Paint your taped nail with the magnetic nail polish

> Make your design with a magnet or magnet pen.
   On this picture: dots with Essence magnet pen (thumb)

> Swirl with Essence magnet pen (accent nail on ring finger)










4) Remove the tape and correct some imperfections
I used a topcoat and afterwards I regret doing this. It makes the magnetic designs less visible.
Maybe I did it too early or maybe you're not supposed to use any topcoat. If anyone knows, please let me know!

Thumb: Dots with Essence magnet pen
Index finger: Tiger print with Essence magnet pen
Middle finger: Diagonal stripes with Pupa magnet
Ring finger: Swirl with Essence magnet pen
Pinky: I did the horizontal stripes with the Pupa magnet but my topcoat completely ruined it. So, I applied some magnetic nail polish again and made some horizontal stripes with Essence magnet pen

This isn't my best nail art for sure, but I do think the overall look is okay.
What do you think?

Day 126) Casuelle Neon nailpolish

Allereerst een opmerking voor al mijn Nederlandse viewers. Mijn Nederlandse blog kun je hier vinden.

We have a toy store in the Netherlands called Intertoys. Besides toys they sell some girls stuff.

This includes nailpolish (color, crackle, neon), striping tape, billions/beads/caviar, nail art pens etc.

Don't expect top quality but the prices are very nice!

Neon nailpolish is hard to get in the Netherlands. Just a few brands have this in their collection and it's expensive. The same goes for buying them online.

So, when I came along these neon nail polishes I've just had to try them.

The Casuelle neon nailpolish comes in 4 different shades:

>Neon yellow, neon coral, neon green and neon pink.

The brush is simple as what you can expect with low budget polishes.

N.B. Keep in mind that every light or bright colour needs more layers/coats to get that full opacity. I always recommend that you give your nails a white base before using any of these colors.

After my white base I applied these polishes with my own brush. They applied watery > even with the white base it looked like they were needing at least 2 coats. I hate this! I chose to apply it very thick and was hoping it was ever going to dry...

To my surprise this thick layer dried even faster than any other nail polish I own. Conclusion: they have to be applied very thick!

The neon colors are in fact real neon colors (I regret that this doesn't show on the pictures that well).

I do think the coral and pink look too much alike. There is just a slightly difference when they are apllied on the nails. 

I'm not a huge neon fan:

The weather in The Netherlands isn't that sunny. And neon for me means: sunny, palm trees, beaches, suntanned skin (all very hard to find here). So perfect for the summer holidays when we go abroad.

My overall opinion is that you have some great neon colors for an even greater price!

My main goal was to swatch these nail polishes so I added some simple nail art with black striping tape.

Curious about the look? Here it is:

Please keep in mind that the colors don't show well on the pictures; this really is NEON!

In addition:
I've had to made some pictures in the sun hoping to get a better result and it did. So, here is a picture which gives a better idea of the neon colors:

My question for you: Do you have the brand 'Casuelle' and are you familiar with these neon polishes?

Please let me know...thanks!

Day 54) Essence nail art magnet pen

Day 20) 4 Colours in 5 different ways

Day 2) Nail art with tape