I'm Back!!/Christmas Sweater Nails

The past couple months have been much busier than usual.  Between school, an online course, Christmas, and the arrival of my niece, nails have kind of been put on the back burner.  When I did get a chance to do my nails, they were unsuccessful design or didn't photograph well.  Perhaps one day I'll post some of my nail art failures!

So now that my course is done and Christmas is over, I expect to be back posting on a weekly basis.  You'll notice I've switched things up a little on the blog.  I thought it could use a new background.  What do you think?

Ok, now let's get back to some nails designs.  I know that Christmas was technically 2 days ago but I don't think it's too late to post a Christmas design.  For Christmas I got a set of nail art brushes from Amazon (thanks mom!).  The brushes are by Bundle Monster and based on my initial use of them, I really like them.  A proper striping has seriously been missing from my life!

At Christmas time, I'm always drawn towards Christmas sweater nails.  For this design, I used Blanc by Essie (base colour), dark green acrylic paint, and crimson red acrylic paint.  I used a striping brush, a small detailing brush, and a dotting tool (a real one!).

 I then used the acrylic paints and brushes to create my design.  I chose to keep each nail similar with an accent nail (Christmas tree).  Here is the final product!

I LOVE how they turned out!  

I can never get enough of a good Christmas sweater design.  Here is the sweater design I did last Christmas.

I'm very happy to be back and can't wait to create some fun designs with my new brushes and striping tape (still in the mail).

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo

Black and White Chevron

So my plans to do a second Halloween design went out the window because on Oct. 30 I became an aunt!! Baby Bailey had us all wrapped around her finger from the moment she was born.  You can guarantee that her auntie will be doing her nails when she is old enough ;)

For my nails this week, I was kind of inspired by the Ikat Chevron nails I did a while ago.  Within the last few days, they have been re-pinned several times on Pinterest and it reminded me of how much I liked them.

For this design, I used "Blanc" by Essie, "Black Satin" by Rimmel,  and "Black" by Kiss.  I started with a base of "Black Satin" with "Blanc" on my accent nail (ring finger).  

I then used the fine brush from my Kiss polish to make the design.  I found that I made my stripes too far apart so I filled in the space with white dots.  Here is the final product!

It would be a fun design to try with different colours.  The original Ikat Chevron I did is still my favourite. :)

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo

Halloween Patchwork

I always love when there is a theme that I can work my design around.  With Halloween coming up, it seemed very appropriate to do a Halloween themed design.  I'm trying to get an early start so that I can do another Halloween design next week.  When searching Pinterest for ideas, I came across a Halloween Patchwork design by Sam at nailasaurus.com.  I loved the colours that she used but I didn't want to make mine exactly the same.  So I started thinking about what other colours Halloween brings to mind.  I immediately thought of Candy Corn (white, yellow, orange).  For this design I used "Blanc" by Essie, "Orange Oasis" by Covergirl, and "Hit the Lights" by Nicole by OPI.  I used black acrylic paint and a thin paint brush for the stitch detail.

 

I started with a base of "Blanc" by Essie.  I had a bit of a brain fart and forgot to take a picture of just the base. Oops!!

I used tape to make the "patches" (Sam's tutorial is great).  The key is to do thin coats of polish so you get nice straight edges and faster drying times.  If you have a steady hand, you can always hand paint the patches without tape.  I then used my acrylic paint to make the stitches.  I wanted to use a black Sharpie but none of the ones I own have a pointy enough tip.  Remember that if you do use Sharpie, spray a thin coat of hairspray on your nails to prevent the marker from smudging when you apply your top coat.

Here is the final product!

It would be fun to try different colours for different seasons!  

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo

Falling Leaves

For the last couple weeks I've been trying to decide how to incorporate leaves or falling leaves into a nail design.  I really wanted to keep it simple with no actual leaves or trees. 

For this design I used, "Pur White" by Maybelline, "The Spy Who Loved Me" (red) by OPI, "Orange Oasis" by Covergirl, and "Hit the Lights" (yellow) by Nicole by OPI.

I started with a base of "Pur White".  I wanted the base to be really soft and felt that a straight up white polish would be too harsh.

I then used my dotting tool (pencil with a straight pin) to add dots to my nails starting at the tips.  I tried to spread the dots out as I moved down my nails to give a falling/fading effect.  Here is the final result!

I am in LOVE with how these turned out.  

The possibilities are endless with this design.  

To name a few ideas:

- blue, silver, and white for Winter (falling snow?)

- red, green, and gold for Christmas

- multi-coloured for New Years (confetti)

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo

Thanksgiving Plaid

Since it is Thanksgiving this weekend in Canada, I figured I should do a Thanksgiving themed design.  I'm kind of in love with the plaid trend in fashion right now and have been wanting to do plaid nails for a while.  So instead of doing a traditional turkey on my nails, I went with a plaid design in Fall colours.

For this design I used "Black Orchid" by Sally Hansen, "Blanc" by Essie, "Orange" by Pupa, and "Goldeneye" by O.P.I.  

I started with a base of "Black Orchid".

I got my inspiration from a tutorial created by The Beauty Department.  I painted Scotch Tape and cut it into different sized strips.

I then placed the strips on my ring finger in a plaid design.  On my other nails I added metal stud stickers by Kiss.

Here is the final product!

I hope all my Canadian friends have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo

Galaxy Nails

I've been wanting to do galaxy nails for a while now.  Ever since I saw the beautiful ones that Cristina at Let Them Have Polish did, I felt inspired.  For these nails I used "Midnight in NY" by Sally Hansen, "Eccentric Violet" by Pupa, "Pina Colada" by Covergirl, "Cherry, Cherry, Bang, Bang" by Sally Hansen, "Please See Me" by Sally Hansen, "Funky Limelight" by Essie, "Blanc" by Essie, and "The Donmar" by Nails Inc.

I started with a base of "Midnight in NY".  It's a nice black with multi-coloured glitter mixed in.

I then ripped small pieces off a make-up sponge and used tweezers to dip the pieces in the various colours.  I placed my polishes on a piece of parchment paper.  It makes for easy clean-up.  This is what my set up looked like. 

I dabbed the different colours onto each nail and tried to make them all look a little different.  When I was done, I found that they were missing a little something.  I decided to use my Nails Inc Special effects nail polish to add little holographic flakes.  I think it was the perfect addition.  Here is the final product!

I love how they turned out.  It ended up being kind of a psychedelic galaxy look!

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo

Autumn Zebra

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a bit of an obsession with zebra print.  You can find splashes of zebra all over my house from my duvet to my shower curtain to the accent pillows on the couch (just to name a few).  When it comes to my nails, zebra is kind of a go-to when I'm not feeling overly creative or motivated.

I know it's technically still Summer but the weather is changing and our local Fall Fair is this weekend.  The Fall season kind of inspired my colour selection.  I used "Fedora" by Sally Hansen, "Warm & Fozzie" by OPI, and "Blanc" by Essie (I got a new white polish!). 

"Fedora" kind of reminds me of burlap (which reminds me of scarecrows) and "Warm & Fozzie" has flecks of gold, bronze, red, and green (all Fall colours).  I started with a base of "Fedora" on all my nails.

I then used a fine paint brush with "Blanc" to free-hand a zebra design onto each nail.  I then used "Warm & Fozzie" as an accent on my ring finger.  Here is the final result!

I'm happy with how these turned out.  I would usually use my white Kiss Nail Art Paint to do a zebra design, but the polish has gotten thick.  A nail polish thinner is on the list of nail art supplies that I want/need.

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo