Electrifying

Today's post is a swatch of China Glaze "Electrify". This is one of many beautiful polishes that I received from my friend on my birthday earlier this year. It is full of red and gold glitter and is just so sparkly!! I found that it only took about 3 coats before the coverage was even with minimal bald spots. Application was pretty good compared to most glitter polishes, and there was no having to fiddle with the brush to pick up pieces of glitter. 

This is part of China Glaze's Capitol Colours collection- inspired by the book/movie The Hunger Games. Electrify is supposed to represent District 5, and with such bright shiny colours I think it is fairly accurate!

Funnily enough, my softball colours are red and white, so it gives me an excuse to wear this more often. Hehe.. not that I need an excuse.

 Regardless,  I think I am going to have to purchase some more of this collection, maybe Agro or Riveting? Decisions decisions....

Belated Halloween nails

I'm back! Sorry for the long hiatus, I have had a pretty stressful couple of weeks and I just didn't have the motivation or energy to paint my nails- let alone post.

Despite all this I couldn't resist the opportunity for spooky nails. Halloween isn't a huge celebration here in Australia, but my Dad often throws a small party just for fun. I made some skeleton cupcakes which were my inspiration for this design and my costume. There are so many different styles for skeleton or bone nail art, and I saw a similar design at Chalkboard Nails and have been meaning to try it out. 

Lastly, my cakes! I was so happy with these- I'm a bit of a cake nerd :P Also, sorry for the crummy images, these were taken on my phone... It's a bit of a short and sweet post today (no pun intended), but I promise I have more to come soon!

Day 31 Recreate your favourite challenge!

It's finished! After an extremely drawn out 30 days, I have finally reached the end of the challenge. There were times when I wasn't sure if I would get here but we persevered.

I decided that I wanted to recreate a combination of Day 11: Polka Dots (and kind of Day 30: Inspired by a tutorial). In my meanderings I have seen paint splatter nails, which are basically just as the name suggests- nail polish (or paint) literally splattered across the nails.

After looking at a bunch of pictures I figured I could replicate the style... I probably should have at least looked at one tutorial...

I started with two coats of Chi Chi white, and initially tried flicking the coloured polish. Trust me-this is not the way to do it. I then resigned myself to a dotting tool, creating alternate sized dots. I'm quite happy with the finished result of my paint splatter nails. It does remind me of an old painters drop sheet.

So this is it for the challenge, but in no way is this the end of my posting! I've caught the bug, and I am crawling with ideas for new designs. For those of you who have kept track of the challenge the whole way through, a huge thank you, and to those of you just joining me- please check out my older posts :)

Day 30: Inspired by a tutorial

I've been loving animal themed nail art lately, I suppose its my zoology side shining through. I went in search of a tutorial for any kind of animal design, and stumbled across this penguin tutorial at Nail Art 101.
It was cute, but I wanted the more realistic penguin figures.

I used a background of Jezy 22, and painted the penguins with black, white and orange acrylic.

(No top coat) 

(OPI Start to Finish top and base coat)

These cute little guys were so simple to do! I learnt my lesson this time and took photos before I painted a top coat, but the OPI didn't seem to smudge or dissolve the acrylic thankfully. I can't get over how adorable they are. Definitely check out Nail Art 101 for not only tutorials, but also many other tips and tricks :)

Day 29: Inspired by the Supernatural

There are heaps of supernatural themed nails around at the moment- Halloween is just around the corner!
In Australia its not something that is celebrated all that much, but my Dad likes to have a Halloween dinner, so I'm hoping to dress up and do a matching design for that at least.

This design was inspired by one of my favourite movies- The Nighmare Before Christmas. Ever since I was a kid I have loved it!

I used Chi Chi white, and black acrylic for the details. Cute huh?

Day 28: Inspired by a Flag

What a long day! I have just started playing softball, and had my first game today....

WE WON! (sorry- I was pretty excited!)

 It was so much fun, and despite being a complete noob, I am loving it.

But, I digress. On to the nails. For Australia day this year, I decided to paint a design similar to this, using my then limited supplies (toothpicks and a small stash of polish). I since have started using acrylic paint, and brushes, to get nicer looking lines.

These Australian Flag nails were created using two coats of Kleancolour "Metallic Blue", and then used white acrylic for the stars and Union Jack, and Ulta 3 "Scarlett" for the red accents.

The above pictures are actually my second attempt. I had these all finished, and thought I would add a top coat to add some shine. Now, I'm not sure if maybe I was impatient and didn't let the acrylic dry long enough, or if it was a strange reaction with the Seche Vite, but this is what happened:

The white acrylic and red polish accents began to fade, until they completely disappeared. So frustrating. Has anyone else had problems with polish reacting with acrylic? Or was it my impatience?
Nevermind, I got there in the end :)

Day 27: Inspired by Artwork

This was a little bit exciting! I wanted something bright, and eye catching. It got me thinking of pop art, and who was one of the kings of pop art? Andy Warhol!

While I didnt think I could replicate an actual Andy Warhol design on my nails, I came across this image. I've seen it in various places though, so I'm not sure who the original source actually was.

I used two coats of Sally Hansen "Mellow Yellow", Australis "Limited Edition 2", Jezy 22, Sally Hansen nail colour pen in Hot Pink, and Ulta3 "Purple Pumps".

I then stamped the lips from Bundle Monster plate BM02 (I used the same colours for stamping).

Like it? Im not sure about the yellow on the blue, but it might have been ok with a thicker polish maybe?

It's almost the end of the not-so-30 day challenge and I must admit, I'm kind of excited! I have some lovely polishes that I want to swatch and show you all. Stay tuned!