Big day, big mani: NZ Citizenship ceremony

Hi all! I am now a New Zealand citizen! I took my oath on Friday. It goes without saying that I am very proud and happy. Totally groovy experience! This is the mani I wore for the event (and am still wearing). All in greens and kiwiana colouring! I had my dress sorted, and even my ring (my own) and my earrings (glass north and south islands).

I started with a base of OPI Green-Wich Village. This was perfect green to match my dress, which was green with black (kind of looks like an awning!). Three coats, though, for complete coverage and then I top coated.

Then I mixed an acrylic paint a bit darker than the OPI and drew fronds over my nails. That formed a backdrop leaf pattern. Then I used an army khaki green (Thai indie) and drew over those frond for depth. I used black polish for the silver fern and added some valuable 18K OPI flakes (if not now, then when???) and some dabs of China Glaze I Herd That (soft gold glitter). Top coat sealed the deal.

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I did each step at a time on both hands and made it up as I went in regard to fern placement. I really like the green, looks very rich.

So, proud of my mani I set off in the morning on Friday to take my oath in front of His Worship the Mayor. There were twelve of us, plus partners and family. Each of us took the oath (first with a bit of a story of where you come from etc), then we sang the anthem, then there was an obligatory pic in front of the flag, a cuppa and we each got a Kowhai plant that I have already planted in our garden. Below a bonus shot of the new Kiwi and the Mr.!!
Thanks for following girls xx

Blue skies and acrylic painted waves

This post is late as I have been tiki-touring with my son who is visiting! These are blue nails as his favourite colour is blue. I really like how this mani turned out and in the end, it was not that complicated. I am still wearing it at the five day mark - they look no different than these pics taken on day one.

I started with a one coat base of white (I used China Glaze White on White) and top-coated that for a quicker dry time. Then I sponge-gradiented a two-tone blue all over the nail. Not as a typical flowing gradient, but more of a botched look. I used piCture pOlish sky and OPI Can't Find my Czechbook. I alternated between the light and dark colours being on the top and bottom of the sponge. Then I top-coated again.

I mixed light blue and white acrylic paints and using a flat brush in a one-stroke technique I painted waves on the tips of my nails. This was really just drawing stripes with the flat brush in two tones. I tried to only go over once to keep the saturation but had to top up a couple of places. Then I drew simple orange half-flowers on the side of the nail and highlighted with white dots and reflections, and blue lines. Thumbs got two flowers! One last coat of Out the Door brought it all together.

Clean-up was a bit more involved as the sponge work was messy (though I applied Vaseline around my cuticles first). But I got there in the end. I have gotten heaps of compliments on these. They have a pastel look to them as the background is a mellowed blue. The sponge work created a nice canvas that has depth but is not over-powering. Even the Mr liked it!

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Vibrant vacation mani!!

I have no idea what clothes I am taking but had my mani sorted for days! That said, I ended up changing it up a bit! Now we are getting down to the wire. The Mr is home, bubbles are flowing, housesitter over soon - paradise isn't far away (OK, we live in paradise, but this is the tropical kind). But first.....

I must pay homage to my last starburst mani. Eight (8) days!!!! The pics above are from this morning, eight days in! Still going exceptionally strong. Come on, you can't tell me this is because of the CG base coat.... Whatever it is, I'm hooked. And, am still totally in love with the starburst, so amended my holiday mani.

I have been wanting to wear OPI's Live. Love. Carnaval since I got it - burning a hole in my pocket! But I knew it would make a fav holiday mani so have waited. This is the most beautiful coral shade - truly truly pretty. I applied two coats over a CG Adhesive base. Then I topped with two coats of OPI Pirouette my Whistle (the faintest lightest glitter). And one top coat.

This was my first holiday mani idea. To take me through the first week. But I was so in love with my starbursts that I decided to acrylic in some new flowers. So, out came my paint tubes and brush and I drew more starbursts and dots all over. Randomly.

Then another coat of top coat. Done. Certainly looks like summer to me! This will see me through man first days. In fact, I have now decided to not even take a coloured polish as there are so many in Thailand to buy. I am only traveling with base and top coat, 1 glitter (Pirouette), acetone, alu foil pieces and cotton squares.

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That said, I am also traveling with way more hair product. Since I have invested more time into my curls (Curly Girl method and all that), now I need to take "stuff" with me. So, minimal clothes but lots of girly products. I will be in touch as I go - those who followed me last year will know the drill. It has been a tough year, so looking forward to some relaxation, plain fun, and time together. Ciao girls! Will be in touch!

Fourth of July stripes and flowers

Happy 4th!! It is that red-white-and-blue time of year again. Last year I did a skittlette mani. After a year of practice and learning I feel a bit more creative and ambitious so did stripes and blue flower "stars". The mani definitely looks better from a far. The macro settings just makes the stripes look all wobbly!

The base is the gelicious French White gel polish that I wrote about in the last post. Since this is basically dry and finished after curing I started with the tape mani for the stripes. Two pieces of tape on each nail. The tips were then painted in Color Club Ruby Slippers, tape removed immediately. The great thing about the gel base is that I could go in with non-acetoner remover and clean up the stripes if a smudge went over the tape, or the tape line was not super clean. They still look wobbly, though. Ruby Slippers is a glitter based red, so the flecks of glitter get in the way sometimes.

Using acrylics and the one-stroke method I painted dark-light-blue flowers randomly on the lower part of my nails. I added some random Ruby Slipper dots in the middle of the flowers. I applied OPI Which is Witch? in the white stripe and also dabbed some glitter in the flowers.

Out the Door sealed the deal. Any acrylic work really pops after top coating. I did wait awhile, though, as didn't want to smear the stripes. So this is what I will be wearing at the market this Saturday and into next week. This afternoon I have a Glammy Mani birthday party for seven wee seven year old girls - how fun! They have asked for a rainbow colour selection, the birthday girl's fav colour is "magenta". How cool is that? Probably can't even spell it, but she knows what she likes!

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Now that this is totally dry I have added a cured gelicious top coat to the mani. I did not file or scuff up the surface. I just totally cleaned my nails with alcohol - another tip: when you do this also press back the cuticle so that your cuticle line is freed up with a smidgen of space. That gives the gel some place to grip.
My reasons for this is that at the bday party I will be using polish remover on the wee girls and if I go to the market tomorrow (giant rain forecast, boo!), the same applies. This way I can use non acetone remover and have no worries that my nails will still look great!

PANZ Challenge: Dressed Up Nudes

So exciting - a challenge. I like the idea of a challenge as it makes me think outside my usual pattern. I have been a bit lax on the ol' Crumpet challenges (bad llama) and want to get back into that. But, the super fun NZ polish group PANZ (polish addicts new zealand) are starting challenges off their cool new blog (new panz blog).

As you can see (and read) this challenge had to do with nudes and jazzing them up a bit. You could also bling them, but I'm not that into bling. You had to use your own designs, your own nails, have done it yourself, no archive manis allowed, one polish manis not allowed (love this one! no non-art manis!). I decided to do a tape mani with hand drawn flowers. I was on the fence a bit in doing a skittlette, so incorporated a bit of skittlette in the mani.

I started with a sheer nude base. Only one coat and you can see VNL shimmering through the stripes. That part is intentional! Then I taped and applied OPI Barefoot in Barcelona, a fab nude for me. Very close to my skin tone, or put it this way: warm like my skin tone. Just one coat as the polish is rather thick and the sheer base gave it something to latch on to. I let that dry, but no top coat. I did four fingers on my left hand and the thumb of my right. I manicured the rest of my nails in two coats of Barcelona.

Using a mix of brown and white acrylics I one stroked flowers on to the striped nails and to the tips of the "plain" nails. The first level of flowers was more white, the second level more brown. Then I added some light gold glitter in the middle of the flowers (OPI Spark de Triomphe). Top coat sealed the deal.

The whole mani looks very subtle, easy on the eye, but not boring. Thx PANZ for the idea, think it's great. I am looking forward to more challenge ideas in the future!

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