Fifth day nail art school

Today was a very productive day! Altogether I now have five finished sets on my super deluxe display board. I plan on whipping up something snazzier for the future but for now this is pretty cool. Five different looks. I am bound in background colours by the box behind the desk, mainly Revlons. And mainly beige shimmers or reds. In my mind I want periwinkle blue, but alas, not possible.

First I finished the hearts from yesterday. Was brain dead on that one so practiced dotting with my brush and added some glitter. The hearts are pretty cute and I added depth with red on the pink, but not the best combo.

For my next set my homework was diamond flowers and the dragonfly (or whatever we will call it). I started with a diagonal duo of a lilac nude and purple. While that dried I mixed my colours. I was going for a tone-in-tone purple look. I wanted a different look on the board away from the yellows and greens.

I painted the diamond flowers in dark then added lighter inner petals. The leaves are two toned in green with green bits in the middle. I added the dragonfly on two fingers. This looks better live as the lighting in the studio is poor. Dabbed some silver glitter on, too. On to my last set for the day. Severine was dead set on me doing strawberries. I suggested apples as well (Otago being the apple capital). So we agreed on that one.

I wanted a light bright blue background but nothing was there. Didn't want yet another light green or white or nude. So tried a metallic blue from Revlon. By the way, none of the polishes have names, only numbers! Then I drew the apples and accent nail strawberries in deep red, added accents in dark brown and yellow. I really like my leaves! And the blue is not too bad, though could be lighter. Again, this looks better live. So that was day five! No idea that is on tomorrow - we will see! Ciao x

200th post! Hand painted green skittlette

This is my 200th post!!! I am slowly coming up on one year of blogging (29 Sept) and in honour of all my new found friends, ideas, "success" I will be starting the 31 day nail challenge on 1 Oct. Thanks to all my fellow bloggers for giving me inspiration and for reading my little ramblings about life, nails and love - oh, and travel!
Hands down, I love this mani! Not to toot my own horn and all that - but I love it! I am so happy with the flowers (on my second outing) and just love all the green.

I started with the flower part of the skittle. Figuring, if that goes downhill I can change plan mid game. My base is two coats of Butter London All Hail the Queen (a totally fab nude shimmer). I wanted to darker this a bit so thought up this pk-esque way of adding depth. I dropped Layla Coffee Love on the nails, let it sit a sec then sponged around them. That gave me a flecked base for the flowers.

I wanted a darker green than the leafy green I have in my acrylic set. Here is the link to the set off BPS as it really is good, inexpensive and easy to use (link). I used the green supplied and mixed it with royal blue and black to create a dark green. Then I meshed this with white for the flowers.

I drew some random flowers (the one stroke approach) then used a small brush just dipped in black for the stems. I am still not happy with that brush, not tiny enough. I need to go through my brushes and sort them all. I seem to have brushes everywhere and just grab what is in front. Used a toothpick for the white dots. I quickly top coated this before moving on.

This skittlette is again ABBCC = two sets of identical nails and one accent. So the flowers are BB. For CC I applied my new - and totally groovy gorgeous! - Layla hologram Emerald Divine! I did not base coat, but did buff. I hadn't buffed my nails in a while so did that. I applied two coats of ED. This is probably a bit lighter than I thought it would be, but it is just beautiful. Thank you CandyGirl for finally getting this in stock!!! I think Layla makes the best holos - so elegant, super shiny. I have four now and all are great. My A accent nail is piCture pOlish Kryptonite - another great holo.

I am even happy with my right hand flowerwise! Even the Mr said, these look like flowers! Last time he thought they were blobs! Sorry for all the pics, but they are too beautiful (will die of big ego soon haha!!).