White Wedding

So maybe a few of my nails art designs aren't exactly sophisticated, but that doesn't mean I don't have it in me. I'm just a fan of funky. I'm going to a friend's wedding tomorrow, and needed nice nails. Although I love the Midnight Gradient design, it wasn't wedding material. This design is more of a bridal wear, but I'm sure I can wear it too. I rarely use decals on myself, as I save them for my clients, but I went ahead and used them on this design. My original plan was to create free-hand flowers, but I think these decals look so pretty!

I filed my nails slightly shorter for strength and to give my shorter nail a quicker chance to catch up with the rest. For this design I did a white gradient on my tips using a foundation sponge to dab the colour on, making it thicker and more opaque at the free edge using Sally Hansen's "Lavender Cloud". Once that dried, I took some flower decals that I had with gems and stuck them on. I don't have the name of the brand I'm afraid, but many places that sell polishes also sell decals, so you should be able to find something pretty there. I stick a large flower in the outer corners of my thumbs, a smaller flower beside it, and two petals or leaves below. On my pinkie I added a small flower in the outer corner. I covered these with a thick top coat and voila! Done!

You will feel the decals/gems on your nails, but that can't be helped. You might be able to smooth it slightly with another layer of top coat. Just don't be tempted to pick at it! I also apply artificial gel nails, and although a gradient is a little trickier, the same effect can be managed. I can still add the decals and gems, but they will be embedded into the gel, and completely smooth.

I hope you like this design! For anyone who has a formal event coming up, or even a wedding (if it's your own, congratulations!) then do consider this design. For a bride, I understand that you might not want to do your own nails, but most professionals do take requests, and this is quite an easy design to copy for any occasion. Good luck and have fun!

Midnight Gradient

After the breakage of my poor nail, I was feeling a bit unmotivated to take the effort to Portalize my right hand. I did get comments that the background of that design should be white, not black (as in the game you can only create portals on a white wall), but I didn't think the white worked as well on my nails, so black is was. Once I cheered myself up a bit, I looked back at the blue portals, loving the neon blue/black contrast, so I did a really simple gradient on my right hand. The nails were already painted black, and this is actually my first gradient with a black background, and only using one colour, or one shade of that colour.

The camera really doesn't do these justice. Maybe it's the flash. But they are a lot darker off-camera, and have more of a gradient. This was so easy to do. With my nails already black, I dabbed some of MigiNailArt's "Royal Blue" onto a clean foundation sponge and dabbed it onto my nail, starting at the tip and moving down towards the bed of my nail. With each application of this, is didn't take the colour down as far, making the tips more blue than the base. Simple though it is, I love this design, and my parents say it's their favourite one they have seen on my nails so far.

Eh, that's a little better (check me out, I'm starting to sound like a Canadian! Took me long enough). I hope you like this design. I'm really happy with it, especially now I've cleaned up the mess around my cuticles.

So much better in person... Oh well.

Also, I took a picture of the nubbin... my poor nail! It looks so much shorter than all the others. I'll take a new picture every week to monitor its growth and see how long it takes to reach the same length as the others. It feels weird too. It's as though I'm miss ing the tip of my finger. Typing and playing the piano is also strange and I'm still getting used to it.

Then I painted it black to fit in with the others.

Wow, my webcam captures the gradient design better than my digital camera! That's interesting. ^.^

THInK WiTH PoRTaLS_

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|I finished Portal and Portal 2 a long time ago,
|But I recently downloaded the end credits songs for both of the games
|And was inspired to come up with a Portal design.
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|I really wanted to use the portals themselves for the design,
|But my nails are square shaped for strength
|And because portals are round,
|I couldn't use them as tips
|Which was my original idea.
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|I was tempted to make a design using the Companion Cube,
|And with square nails, that would be easy,
|But the want to use portals was too strong.
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|I do have the neon collection from MigiNailArt, 
|So I had the colours I needed already,
|But coming up with a background was tricky,
|Because in the game, the background is a white wall
|And whatever is through the adjacent portal.
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|I didn't want to use the white
|(And I'm not sure why)
|But I think using the black was a pretty good substitute.
|What do you think?_
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|This design sounds easy but I actually found it white difficult.
|It's also quite messy.
|After a base coat, paint your nails black.
|I used China Glaze's "Liquid Leather".
|You should always were a base coat,
|But because black is so strong, you MUST apply a base coat first!
|I can't stress that enough.
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|Once the black is dry, place dots at certain points of the circle
|So you can use them as a guide.
|The take a clean foundation sponge.
|Either paint the polish directly onto the sponge,
|Or put some polish on a dish and dab the sponge into that.
|(I used the first method).
||_
|Using the gradient technique,
|Dab the polish around in a circle. 
|It doesn't have to be neat.
|Try to get a gradient effect.
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|For blue, I used MigiNailArt's "Royal Blue"
|And for the orange, I used MigiNailArt's "Neon Orange".
|Once that is done, outline the centre of the circle with the designated colour.
|This helps it stand out.
|Then taking the black, paint in the centre.
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|With the same black
|And the same sponging technique,
|Dab the black around the edges of your nails.
|This makes the gradient stronger.
|Let dry, then finish with a top coat.
||_
|Right after I was done this design, 
|Tragedy struck.
|My hand got caught on a cupboard handle.
|I broke the nail of my index finger.
|It's very near my finger,
|So filing all of my nails down to match is not ideal.
||_
|What I'm going to do is buy nail glue and a nail patch,
|Try to temporarily fix the break with them,
|And keep the rest of my nails long.
|Soon I will probably file them a bit shorter for safety.
||_
|Once the break is further away from my finger,
|And my broken nail has grown,
|I'll file it away at the tear.
|It might look weird, but that's life.
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|I hope you like this design.
|I'm going to listen to those songs again.
|A proud moment for me was when I finally memorized the lyrics to them both.
|But despite the tear in my nail...
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|It's still alive._
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Deep Lightening

I know I've just posted "Superstar!" and I painted that design on Monday, but I just couldn't help myself.... I managed to get my hands on Nicole by OPI's "Silver Texture" polish and couldn't wait to try it out! There was such a fierce storm here yesterday, it was right above our house and the lightning was blazing white, the instantaneous thunder roared angrily and was so loud it scared the daylights out of us! We lost power briefly as well, and I looked upon my new silver crackle polish and knew that lightening was the perfect description.

The base colour for this design is MigiNailArt's "Deep Purple", and the silver is Nicole by OPI's "Silver Texture". 

I placed a few swatches on a sample wheel of MigiNailArt's "Magenta", China Glaze's "Liquid Leather", and Nicole by OPI's "Positive Energy". Over them I placed my new "Silver Texture" polish and my OPI "Black Shatter" to compare them. I don't suggest you place the silver over a light colour or another glitter/metallic polish or it won't  stand out. You need a good contrast. I suggest a matte or dark polish as a base, and a light or glitter polish under the matte black.

Since I've only had the silver for a day, I'm not sure how it will be in a few weeks, but as of now I love the consistency of the silver. It's smooth and light, but the lack is thick and clumpy. That being said, I do like how the clack shatter appears on the nail, and it dries super fast. The silver dries pretty fast too. Depending on how thick you place the shatter/crackle/texture polish determines the final look (thicker coat means less cracks), but I found that you have to really apply the silver very thinly in order to get a decent crackle effect. 

The OPI Shatter bottle looks like a regular OPI bottle but the cap/brush handle is pretty cool with the shatter effect around it. The OPI Nicole Texture bottle looks like a regular Nicole bottle, including the cap. The only difference is the rubber tag around the neck on the bottle and a sticker saying "Texture Coat" on the cap.

I'd like to compare these to other colours and other brands (especially Kelier's Crack Polish) some day, but I just can't afford another crackle polish just yet (that, and they are hard to come by). I have a few more nail care products I'd like to buy before then. And I'm curious to try Claire's mood polish if I ever get my hands on it. I thank my Mum so much for buying this polish for me!! I know I didn't have my "Superstar!" nails on for long, but trying this out was just WAY too tempting!

Superstar!

This is a dedication to my friend's mum. I asked her to choose any theme and she picked "stars". My immediate thought was "easy!", because drawing a star with nail polish isn't that difficult, but when it came to actually coming up with an interesting design, I found the task a little challenging. What I came up with is rather Christmasy, so I might recycle this design in 6 months. This design really is super easy to do, but really only works on longer nails.

If you're wondering about the bubbles on my nails, they are caused by either my thickener or strengthener. I personally don't care about the bubbles, and you can easily cover them with a coat of coloured polish. I just leave my nails as is unless I really NEED perfect nails. The bubbles are my friends...

So to create this design, as always, start with a base coat. Once that's done, I painted the tips "Deep Purple" (looks kinda blue in the photos) by MigiNailArt and brought the colour down towards my cuticle on one side. Once that dried, I lined the base of my tips with Art Deco's "Silver". It's really glittery, which I love the look of, but a beast to remove. After letting that dry, I took MigiNailArt's "Silver". Their silver is less glittery, but still metallic. I placed a star in on the short end of the glittery line. By short, I mean the side you DIDN'T bring the colour down. I then followed the glitter line by placing silver dots along it. With the same silver, I painted a star in opposite corner on the tip, followed by three silver dots. I let this design dry, then added a top coat. I used my thickener as a top coat this time and it didn't bubble over the colours, so maybe it's my strengthener that's bubbling.

If you want to watch me paint this design free hand for the proof or my instructions are confusing, I actually recorded a video for this design. I apologize about the bad quality. With all the nail products I need to buy for my salon, I can't afford a decent camera. Isn't being a student just great! Also, I do recommend you put a piece of paper, newspaper, or paper towel down on the surface before you start as nail polish is messy... I didn't in the video, so yes, I'm a hypocrite. I'll be a good girl for next time!

Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus

I have been a Harry Potter fan for over a decade, and with the final film hitting cinemas everywhere, I just had to paint a Harry Potter dedicated design. It was quite complicated, and would normally be attempted with nail stickers, but as a free-hand nail artist, I accepted the challenge of painting mine free hand. I filed my nails a lot shorter this week, but they will grow again soon. The same design is mirrored on my other hand.

On my four fingers are the different Hogwarts Houses, and on my thumb is the symbol of the Deathly Hallows. The vertical line represents the Elder wand (also called the Death Stick or the Wand of Destiny), the most powerful wand in the world. The circle symbolizes the Resurrection stone, a stone able to half bring back the dead; and the triangle is the Cloak of Invisibility, able to render the wearer completely invisible, and the only one of its kind that is never damaged with age nor spells.

I could have done a better job, but I finished this design 1am and was tired, and by the time I woke up the next morning, the polish had been indented by my sheets and dried. The trick to this is not to show people your nails close up. For instructions sake, however, I took close up pictures.

On my index finger are the house colours for Slytherin. I painted my nails dark green (MigiNailArt) and used MigiNailArt's silver pen to draw diagonal lines, then a small silver dot in the centre.

On my middle finger is the Gryffindor house. I painted my nails a sparkling dark red by MigiNailArt (Wish I knew the name), then took Art Deco's "Gold" and created the sane diagonal lines as I did for the Slytherin nail, but larger. I filled in the diamonds for a checkered look, and cleaned it up with the red again.

On my ring finger is the Ravenclaw house. I painted my nails several coats of MigiNailArt's bronze, then taking their darker royal blue, I drew a few random lines.

On my pinkie is the Hufflepuff house. I painted it yellow using MigiNailArt's "Lemon" , then taking Art Deco's black, I painted on the diagonal stripes.

On my thumb, as I already explained, is the Deathly Hallows symbol. I painted it Sally Hansen's "Lavender Cloud", then taking MigiNailArt's "Black" pen, I drew the symbol.

Wait for your designs to dry, then apply a top coat. Try to let that fully dry before going to bed.

So there are my Harry Potter nails! I hope you like them! If you're wondering about the title of this post, "Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus", it is written beneath the Hogwarts coat of arms. It is Latin for "Never tickle a sleeping dragon".

Minnie Mouse!

I think I need to file my nails down again. Maybe. I love having long nails, but because they are thin and brittle, I'm worried that if they get too long, they will break. That being said, I've not had more than 2 chips in my thumbnail since I started my nail-care program, so in my experience, it really works! I just wish they grew straight. So I've been wanting to try this Minnie Mouse design for a while, and I think it's very cute! It's also very easy until you find that your black pen is half plugged and you give yourself hand-cramp before realizing you can either unplug it with a pin or unscrew the top and use a dotting tool. No? Just me then. I put my many layers of nail care products on my nails and attempted a water-marble design which I hadn't done for ages, only to find that I was a bit out of practice, so I had to take all that off and start again. By that time, I just wanted to go to bed, so I applied the top coat before my nails had fully dried and they look a little less than professional. I can get away with so much when I do my own nails.

This design might look better if my nails were shorter, but oh well. Next time. After a base coat, I painted my tips red with OPI's "You Make Me Vroom". Once that had dried, I took MigiNailArt's "White" an painted large dots over the red using the pen, Alternatively, you can use a dotting tool. Finally, I took MigiNailArt's "Black" and painted on the bow. I used the pen, but you can use a dotting tool as well. Make the bows any size. I think the bigger the better. I also positioned mine in the corner, and slightly tilted. WAIT FOR IT TO DRY, unlike me, then apply a top coat. I need to buy a new one because I'm running out of my favourite plain top coat.

Enjoy this design! It's really easy to create and doesn't use up a lot of polish.

I also decided to take a naked-nails picture so I had my natural length on record. Many people ask me if my nails are real, because the clear coats to make them look gel-like to those who haven't really seen close-up what gel nails look like. I do need to file them shorter, because they are starting to look scary again, but I really like having long nails! I am slightly worried that they will break if I keep them long though because I have naturally thin, brittle nails. That being said, they have only chipped twice on my thumbnail since I started the nail care treatment, so for me, it's working. Typically, the nails of nail biters tend to grow a lot faster (this isn't an excuse to start biting your nails to make them grow quicker!!), but my nails don't seem to be aware of that rule. If you look at the first picture with the Minnie Mouse design, you can really see the shape of my thumbnail. I'm changing the shape of my thumbnails from round to square to increase surface area to put less tension on my tips, thus making them stronger and less likely to bend and break. I've snapped a lot of nails in the past by keeping them round. I think they are coming along nicely. I just need to grow them out and file them into shape a bit more before they are ideal. I had a minor shipping incident on my right thumbnail a few weeks back, so that will take slightly longer to take on the square shape, as I had to file the sides down so the ship wouldn't catch on anything and tear.

If you're trying my nail care tips, I hope it's working and that your nails are coming along nicely. If you're here to see my nail art, I really hope you like it! It's one of my only true passions and I'm quite proud of them. If you're trying out a few of these designs yourself, I hope I explained them well and that your nails turn out great! Sorry about the lack of youtube tutorials, but I am still out of a video camera, and my Internet is too slow and expensive to even allow me to watch youtube videos, let alone upload them. If you want pictures on how I create these design (in a sort of stop-motion tutorial style), drop me a note below or e-mail me at scribblingwithpolish@gmail.com