New nail art discovery: Using gel polish for a super quick way to add detail to nails!!

 

 

Hiya guys!  Hope you are all doing great!

 

This week I thought I would do another wee nail art post as I’ve not done one in a while.  This design is a little bit different because I used gel nail polish for the nail art instead of just regular nail polish!
 

I have to say gel nail polish is super easy to use for designs!  As gel polish is thicker than regular polish and doesn’t air dry (because it is designed to be dried with a UV/LED lamp), you can take your time when creating the design on your nail.  And the fact that each nail dries in 30 seconds - 1 minute, ideal!

 

I bought this little starter kit a couple weeks ago because I wanted to try the gel nail polish and see what the fuss was about, as everyone talks about it, you know?  I’ve only tried it out once on my natural nails…it didn’t go very well.  However, this was only because I was and still am new to the gel polish!  I just need to practice!   

So I gave it another go and this is how it ended up… 

 

 

 

Quite cool, eh?  

 

So, like my usual nail art posts, I will explain the steps I took to create the look!

 

 

 

What I used: 

 

·        False nails (Yes, you can used them on these too…which is fab!!) 

·        Practice hand (You don’t need this if you are using false nails - just stick them to a flat surface with Blu Tack or to the back of sticky tape!) 

·        Gel polish starter kit

 

 

 

·        Pale pink regular nail polish - as the starter kit only has one colour I used regular polish for the base coat 

 

·        Dotting tool

 

 

 

·        Small 10/0 paint brush

 

 

 

·        Nail file, to file rough edges of the nail

 

 
 

 

Steps:

 

 

1.     Started off by picking the size of nails, suitable for myself, and stuck them to my practice hand with some sticky tack.

 

 

 

 

2.     Next I applied the base coat of pale pink and waited for a few minutes until this was completely dry.

 

 

 

3.     Once all the nails were dry, I started the designs one nail at a time then cured the polish under the LED lamp.

 

 

 

 

·        Basically, all I did for the designs was to put a blob of polish into a small art palette and use my dotting tool to put a blob onto the nail, and then the small brush for detailing.

 

·        To be honest, I got idea for the leafy designs from latte/coffee art (I know, I’m a wee bit strange.  But you know, you can find inspiration from anywhere!)

 

 

4.     Lastly I applied a fast drying top coat!  Although a top coat isn’t necessary with gel polish, I wanted a bit of glossiness to my nail!

 

 

 

So there you go!  A super quick and easy way to do nail art!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay guys, thank you SO SO much for reading!  I really hope you enjoyed this post J and I will catch you all next time!

 

As always, have a fab week and take care! Xxx

 

 

Funky nail art design!!

 

 

Hiya guys!  Happy Monday!  Hope the bank holiday is treating you well and you are out enjoying the nice (dry) weather!

 

Totally gutted that I couldn’t do my usual Sunday post to my blog yesterday!  L  I’ve just been super busy this week with work and starting a new job that I just ended up running out of time!  However it’s all published now and up on the blog, so…better late than never, eh?

 

So, as I said, I’ve not had much time to do a mega creative DIY project this week…however I did manage to do a wee nail art design!

 

If you have seen any of my photo posts on here or on Instagram, you might have seen that I quite like taking photographs with the whole focussed/out of focussed thing going on!  You can see this in my Earth Day 2015 post, where I took pictures of the sky and tried to capture the wee blobs of light caused by the sunlight.

 

Well I just found out this week (in a nail art video) that it is called bokeh – where you take photos with purposely out of focus little blobs of light.

 

 

 

 

This is a photography style which I guess many photographers use.  If you Google ‘bokeh’ photography you’ll see loads of lovely photos!

 

I really like bokeh photography!  Every time I have put up my Christmas tree in the last few years, I always take an out of focus photo of the sparkly lights (example above).  So, I guess I have been using this photography style all along without actually knowing what it’s called!

 

As I have said, I saw a nail art tutorial by a well-known YouTube nail artist cutepolish, where she creates this bokeh design on her nails!  I’ll include the link to the video at the end of my post.

 

So, this week I thought I would try to give this nail art a try and this is my recreation.  And, I got to use my practice hand!

  

 

 

To be honest, I got in a bit of a pickle because I’m not sure how to stick the nails onto the practice hand?  So, I ended up using small bits of folded up masking tape.  (I’ll have to work on this!)

 

 

 

 

I then just picked the polishes I wanted to use – mustard yellow, terracotta, mossy green and a wine red.

 

 

 

 

Before the colours were applied to the nails, I applied a base coat of white.  Then, once that was dry, I took turns to sponge on the colours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, this is what it ended up like!  I decided to have one of the nails just plain, so I used the mustard yellow colour for that.

 

 

 

 

For the next part, I followed the steps from the video, so I won’t go into detail.  See the photos I took when I was doing the nail art and watch the video for more info!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this is the final completed look!  Quite cool, isn’t it?

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and as always thank you SO much for reading!

I’ll catch you all this Sunday for my next post!

 

Enjoy the rest of this week and take care! Xxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

YouTube Source:

 

Bokeh Nail Art! by cutepolish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L2_m_In694&sns=fb 

 

 

 

 

Galaxy nail art: An easy how to!

 

 

Hiya guys!  Happy Sunday!  Hope you are all having a great day!

 

How cool was the eclipse on Friday??  If you have me on Instagram you would have seen my photo of the eclipse.  To be honest, I was a bit scared of looking into the sky in case I ended up blinding myself, so the family and I tried to make a pinhole camera.  So the photo wasn’t really of the actual eclipse, just the image on a piece of card of the light through the pinhole…however it did show the shape!

 

 

 

 

(It’s the wee moon shape at the top left area of the photo!)

 

Anyway, being inspired by the eclipse (and the wonders of the universe and all that!) I decided to do a wee bit of nail art…starry night galaxy nails to be exact!

 

Also, I tried something new for the blog…a short little image slideshow!!  Basically a moving collection of my photographs of the process of doing the nail art.  I have posted the photographs as well, with more details about the equipment and tools I used, as well as the steps I took to create this nail art J

 

So, here goes….

 

 

 

 

 

Equipment and tools: 

 

Nail Polish:

 

 

 

·        Black (base coat)

·        White

·        Bright Pink

·        Mid Blue

·        Metallic Gold

·        Chunky Glitter (with stars!)

·        Silver Glitter

·        Clear Top Coat

 

  

Tools:

 

 

 

·        Dotting tools (for picking up glitter)

·        Tiny paintbrush (for little details)

·        Metallic silver marker pen (for extra details) 

 

 

 

 

·        Cotton buds

·        Make-up sponges

 

 

Extras:

 

 

 

·        Small paint palette (to hold nail polish – mainly for the glitter)

 

And… 

 

 

 

·         False nails (OBVIOUSLY!) 

 

 

Steps:

 

1.      Pick the sizes of false nails you need. 

 

 

 

 

2.     File off the excess at the tip of the nails.

 

 

 

 

3.     Tip for holding down each nail so you can decorate them – Blu Tack!  Take a blob of Blu Tack, put it on the underside of the nail and stick it down onto a surface.

 

 

 

 

(I used scrap paper, that way it wouldn’t matter if I made a mess as paper can be chucked in the bin when you’re finished) 

 

4.     Paint on two coats of the base colour.

 

 

 

 

5.     One colour at a time, paint a thin layer of the polish onto the cotton bud/sponge and lightly dab onto the nail.

 

 

 

 

You don’t have to put a lot of colour onto the nail as you want the base coat to still be seen.

 

 

 

 

The cotton bud will create a close together cluster of colour, because of the wool, and the sponge will create more of a sparse cluster. 

 

 

 

 

Tips:   

·         Dab off excess polish onto paper before applying to nail.

·         You don’t have to wait between the colours as they are thin layers and will dry quickly.

  

6.     Pour a bit of the chunky glitter polish onto the palette.  Using the smallest dotting tool, pick up the little bits of glitter and add them to the nail.  I also added stars to some of the nails.

 

 

 

 

 

7.     Using the silver marker pen, add extra bits of detail on the nails that need an extra bit of oomph.  

 

(This step is optional - you don’t really need this.  I just decided to add an extra bit of detail to the design.)

 

8.     For nails that need even more sparkle, dab a bit of the silver glitter polish onto the nail using the brush.

 

Tip: 

·         Wipe some of the excess off the brush first.

 

9.     Finally add a clear top coat and…ta dah!  You’re done!

 

  

 

 

 

I decided to add a wee constellation to one of the nails too, just for fun!

 

So, that’s basically all that’s needed for this nail art!  Pretty easy!!

 

Well I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and as always thank you SO much for reading!

I’ll catch you all next week for my weekly Sunday post! 

Have a fab week and take care! Xxx