Psychedelic Water Marble

It's been quite a while since I've done water marble nails.  The main reason I haven't done it in a while is because it's a little time consuming and messy.  I've been wanting to do one for a while now and finally got the time.  There is a great tutorial by Pack a Punch Polish.  For this design, I used White On by Sally Hansen, Fuchsia by Pupa, Orange by Pupa, Green With Envy by Sally Hansen, and Blue Me Away by Sally Hansen.  

This is one of my favourite colour combinations

 I started with a base of white.  When doing water marble, starting with a white base makes the colours much brighter.

 When choosing my polishes, I tried several different colours.  Some polishes just don't spread out when you drip them into the water.  To increase your success, use filtered water that is at room temperature.  Some people tape around their nails to keep their skin from getting polish all over it but I just find this time consuming.  Nail polish remover and a shower cleans up your fingers just fine.  When it came to dripping my polishes into the water I went "pink, orange, green, blue" 3 times. Here's the final product!

 My ring finger being more orange than blue was a happy accident (an unintentional accent nail).  I am so excited about how these turned out!

 Happy Painting!

Love Kate, xo

Neon Dots

I was feeling rather uninspired and overwhelmed tonight.  Sometimes there are so many designs that I want to try that I just can't settle on one and I get discouraged.  I decided to do my "go-to" design of dots.  For this design I used "White On" by Sally Hansen, "Funky Limelight" by Essie, "Bikini Pink" by Kiss, "Beach Green" by Kiss, and "Neon Orange" by Kiss.

 

Whenever using neon colours, they will be brightest if they are on a white base.

Next, I used my dotting tool (pencil with a straight pin in the eraser) and went to town making dots.  I alternated the centre colour so that each nail was slightly different but kept the same colour pattern.  The final product is a fun, vibrant design that is perfect for summer.

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo

Freehand Geometric with an Ombre Base

I'm a really big fan of ombre nails.  I particularly like adding some sort of pattern on top.  For these nails, I started with a base of "Green with Envy" by Sally Hansen.

To do the ombre base I used a make up sponge.  I placed a dot of each colour next to each other on a plastic bag.  I then dipped my sponge into the paint and applied it to my nails.  I more or less used the same strategy that can be found at The Posh Knot (http://theposhknot.com/blog/?p=322).  For the blue I used "Blue Me Away" by Sally Hansen.

I then decided to add a geometric pattern over top of the ombre in black by Kiss Nail Art Paint.  I'm REALLY happy with the final result!  What do you think?

I've been doing my nails for years now, but since I just started blogging, I've got photos of nail designs that I have done in the past.  Unfortunately, I don't recall the colours I used but here are a couple other ombre designs that I have done. 

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo

Double Post: A New Polish and Dotted Toes

I was missing a really vibrant blue in my nail polish collection and spotted the perfect colour when I was out running errands on the weekend.  I'm absolutely in love with it.  It is Blue Me Away by Sally Hansen (Hard as Nails).

 I wore this colour for a day before I started fiddling.  I started with doing a simple top coat of Matte About You by Essie. 

I love the smooth, velvety look of a matte top coat on this blue but I wanted to take it one step further.  I used Special Effects by Nails Inc. and then added Matte About You over top.  I think it has an underwater, mermaid feel to it.  My camera didn't quite capture all of the colours in the Special Effects polish (I'll add a "sunlight" shot soon).

As promised in my last post, I've done my toes (sandal season! woohoo!).  I knew I wanted to do something colourful but easy.  So why not cover my toes in dots?  I used Fuchsia by Pupa, Orange by Pupa, Hit the Lights (yellow) by Nicole by OPI, One Time Lime by Nicole by OPI, Blue Me Away by Sally Hansen, and Cherry, Cherry, Bang, Bang (purple) by Sally Hansen.  All the polishes photographed true to colour except for the blue.  As you can see in the first picture, the blue slightly darker.

 I took my dotting tool (pencil with a straight pin stuck in the eraser) and just went to town adding dots.  It's a fun and easy design that can be touched up just by adding more dots!  I think next time I might try lining up the dots for a "fish scale" effect.

Happy Painting!
Love, Kate xo

Accent Nail: Dots, Dots, Dots

You know that moment right before you fall asleep when you are super relaxed and your mind wanders? During that moment last night, the idea for these nails popped into my head.  I forced myself to wake up enough so that I would remember the design in the morning.  I continued to think about it all day today, considering various background colours and dot arrangements.  I kept coming back to the grey background.  Black or white felt too harsh for what I was envisioning.  But the only way to really decide was to just go ahead with my initial idea.

I started with a base of "Grey Matter" by Rimmel London.  I haven't used this colour in a while and forgot how much I love it!  However, contrary to what the bottle says, it does not dry in 60 seconds but what nail polish does?

Next I decided on the colours I wanted to use for the dots.  I ended up going with turquoise, orange, and lime green.  My "dotting tool" is simply a pencil with a straight pin pushed into the eraser.

 

I knew for sure that I wanted dots of my ring finger (accent nail) but was still undecided on whether or not to put dots on the other nails.  I started with the ring finger and tried a few different things on my other nails.  I ended up painting over the other fingers and kept just the ring finger.  I think in this case less is more.  Here's the final product!

All in all, I really like the pop of colour while still being able to show off the gorgeous grey colour.  I hope you like this simple design!

Love, Kate xo

First Time Blogger and Nine West Nails

Lately, I've really been getting back into nail polish and nail art.  I'm pretty proud of my work and decided that I wanted to share my passion with others.  I tend to do my nails every Sunday (why not start the week with fabulous nails?).  Depending on how well the nail polish stays a.k.a when it starts to chip (I try to make it last as long as possible!), I do another design mid week.

I don't use any high tech tools for my designs.  I usually just use a fine paint brush, make up sponges, nail polish, acrylic paints (for really detailed designs), and whatever else I find around the house.

So let's start this blogging experience with the current nails I'm sporting.  

For these nails I was inspired by these Nine West shoes I bought last summer.

Here are some of the areas of the shoe that I chose to recreate.  You'll notice there are only 4 areas there.  For the thumb I kind of just chose a random "vine-y" design that can be seen in various parts of the shoe.

Here are the paints that I used to create my nails.  I obviously had to do some blending to get the right colours.  I usually do my base colour (blue) using nail polish but I didn't have this particular colour in my collection (GASP!).  Since I didn't have the right blue nail polish, I painted a base with Sally Hansen Xtreme Nails "White On".  I then painted over top of the white using my blue acrylic paint.  When using acrylic paint on your nails it is very important to use a nail polish base otherwise the acrylic paint with stain your nails (yikes).

...and here's the final product!!

I'm really happy with how these turned out.  They are colourful and make me that much more excited for summer.  I hope you like them as much as I do!

Love, Kate xo