First Striping Tape Designs

I don't know why it took me so long to order striping tape, but I finally did about 3 weeks ago, and I finally got around to using it today. I'm sure most of you are familiar with it, but if not it's just a teeny tiny roll of tape. You can put it on top of your designs and paint over it or you can peel it off to reveal a colour or design underneath. I don't personally like the look of striping tape on the nail so I opt to peel it off. 

I had no specific design in mind, I just wanted to experiment with the striping tape as much as possible to see what I could create. Some of these designs I saw online but some of them I just went with the flow and tried to create something cool. 

I don't really like the look of random lines, but I love geometric and symmetrical designs so I tried to do that as I was experimenting. My favourite nails on my left hand are my pointer finger, middle finger, pinky, and on my right hand my thumb and pointer finger. 

I didn't find placement too hard. Maybe that's because I'm very OCD with straight lines and placement of things on my nails. The only thing I found annoying was cutting the tape. For my right hand I cut it straight off the roll, but for my left hand that was more of a hassle since I'm right handed, so I just cut a long strand and stuck it to my desk and cut from that. Too bad there's no dispenser for striping tape because that would be perfect! 

Do you guys like working with striping tape? Do you plan out your designs ahead of time or just design whatever comes to mind when you have your tape out? 

XO Natasha 

Grown Up Floral

Hey guys! So today I want to share with you this absolutely gorgeous design that is definitely one of my favourite designs yet! I saw a tutorial for this on YouTube. Click here to watch the video by MrCandiipants. I apologize for the staining around my pinky! 

This design is all freehand, something I need a little more practice with. I'm great with dotting tools but I find brushes a little more difficult to work with. That's what practice is for! The polishes I used are: Zoya - Jacqueline, L'Oreal - Devil Wears Red. 

The parts of this design I found most difficult were creating the centre of the flower and getting the little branches smooth. (They're not branches but I don't know what else to call them.) I couldn't get smooth dots with the brush, and I thought it was a little too thick but I couldn't be bothered to look at my other brushes to see if I had a thinner one. I think I do so I'll try that brush next time I do this design. 

I'd love to try this design with more contrasting colours! What are some of your favourite floral designs? 

XO Natasha 

Chevrons & Bows

This is my second manicure for #bluenailsforautism. I was inspired by my phone case. It's a very light blue with a pink bow in the corner. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to use one of my new polishes, Essie - Bikini So Teeny as well as China Glaze - Fairy Dust. 

From what I've seen in pictures, sometimes Fairy Dust ruins a beautiful manicure. I didn't want the glitter to be too dominant, I wanted the focus to be on the blue chevrons and the bows. To do this I jelly sandwiched Fairy Dust between two coats of OPI - Bubble Bath. Compared to Essie - Sugar Daddy this polish is a tad more opaque, and it's more of a taupe than a pink. It's hard to see Fairy Dust in these pictures but you can definitely see it in person and I think it's very pretty. 

Bikini So Teeny is a gorgeous colour, although I think the formula is pretty thick for Essie. It's got a very slight shimmer to it so it's not just a plain creme. The stickers I used are from Konad. I was originally going to try doing the bows myself before I remembered I had these stickers. They saved me because I'm terrible at bows! 

This picture is what Bikini So Teeny looks like IRL. 

You can see Fairy Dust a little better in this picture and there's the bottle in the background! 

Here are my nails with my phone case... This photo was really hard to take cause I was too lazy to get my camera out or ask to borrow one of my friend's phones. I know Bikini So Teeny doesn't actually match the case (Sally Hansen - Barracuda is probably an almost perfect match) but I still think it's really pretty! 

Do you think chevrons look okay on my almond shaped nails? At first I was really iffy but now I think I really like it. They make my nails look way longer!

XO Natasha 

Weaved Lines & Gradient

You may have noticed it's been quite a while since I've done some real nail art, so I figured hey, it's Saturday, I should do something cool with my nails! (I was supposed to be studying today but instead I did my nails and cleaned my room... still fairly productive I think!) 

I'm gonna call this look weaved lines.Iit's kind of like doing a braid on your nails but instead of using different colours you just use lines overtop of a base colour. I've been seeing this a lot on Instagram lately, and I have a couple pictures in my phone with this look as well. It seemed simple enough so I figured I'd give it a try! 

I also wanted to practice my gradient technique since I've tried a couple times with very little luck. I figured it if turned out terrible the lines would cover it up. I used two pinks to do my gradient and it's very subtle, and even more subtle in the pictures so for that I apologize. It turned out really good though! I'm very pleased and for my next mani I'll probably do a gradient on all my nails. It's time consuming and uses more polish than most designs but it's a really pretty look! I'll be posing a tutorial soon, or maybe I'll make a video, just with my own tips because it took me a couple tries to get a decent look so I'd like to share how I did it! 

The grey I used is Orly - Decoded. The darker pink is Orly - Cotton Candy, and the lighter pink is Maybelline Color Show - Born With It. I used Seche Vite for the top coat. I just got my Seche Vite a week ago and I love it! It dries so fast and leaves your nails so shiny. 

I know my lines aren't straight and aren't the same size... for some reason I was really shaky today although I'm usually very still! I really like this look but next time I think I'll try doing more of a weave as opposed to the top part being "weaved" and the bottom just with vertical lines. 

XO Natasha 

First Time Water Marbling

I've been wanting to try a water marble forever, but never got around to it! It just seemed like too much effort since it's so messy, so I was absolutely dreading cleanup! I watched so many tutorials on this before I finally worked up enough courage to try it. My favourite video is my Cute Polish. I love all her videos! They're so simple and they're so easy to follow, check her out! 

First I started by taping my nails like in the video so I wouldn't have too much to clean up after. The most important thing is to make sure your water is room temperature, and that your polishes are new, or haven't thickened over time. If the polish doesn't instantly spread out (like in the video) you'll need to try a different one. 

I decided to keep my first water marble simple so I only used two colours. I used Sally Hansen - Barracuda and Orly Passion Fruit. I really had no idea what I was doing when I started to swirl the polish around, and I had no idea how to line up my nails with the patterns. I also think my water was too cold because I originally started with two other polishes but they didn't spread very nicely. When I used Barracuda and Passion Fruit, they spread okay but a couple times I had to let the polish dry because it wasn't spread out at all. 

This is definitely a really cool mani and I really want to give it another try. I love how it dries so fast because it's only a very thin layer of polish. At the same time though it's a bit challenging to get the hang of because since it's so thin, you have to work fairly fast. 

I can't wait to try water marbling again, it's so unique looking compared to any other type of manicure. Let me know if you have any tips or comments about water marbling!

Today's Mani - Blue & Gold Leopard

Hey guys! So I finally got around to trying a leopard mani! The inspiration for the colours comes from @strawbrie on instagram. I was also happy to cross Sally Hansen's Pacific Blue off my untrieds list! 

These colours are: Sally Hansen - Pacific Blue, Nicole by OPI - The Next CEO, Rimmel - Black Satin 

When doing your nails more than one base colour, does anyone else forget that until they've painted all their nails one colour?! :( As I was painting my pinky I realized I forgot to leave the middle and ring fingers blank for gold... and as I was doing my right hand I only painted my middle finger blue before I remembered! I gotta fix this problem somehow so I don't have to always be restarting some nails and have them not a the same pace as the rest. 

Anyway, here are my nails pre-leopard and pre-cleanup: 

Here are my nails with the leopard dots, minus the outlines. Through watching many, manyyy, maannnyyyy tutorials on leopard manis, I've realized you don't need to have a TON of spots if you're gonna do them a decent size that's manageable to work with. If you're going for major leopard, then you can do them smaller and closer together but you'll need a much finer tool. I'll probably try this someday soon :) But for my nails the key is to have them spread out nicely and all different shapes, as you can see.

To create this look I used different size dotting tools. The biggest to create blue dots, and a medium one to create the black outlines and other random dots. When doing the outline, be as freeform as you like. It looks so much better when it's not all perfect, that's the point! Lopsided outlines are great, and all different types too. You'll see for some of the dots I did two outlines (like brackets), some are disproportionate brackets (one way bigger than the other), and some are almost completely outlined. 

Then in spaces where there's a big gap, fill it in with a blob the same colour as your outline. Do NOT overcrowd the empty spaces with the random blobs, you'll ruin the print! 

The only thing I wish I could change about my leopard print is the size of the outline. It's thicker than I'd like, although I still think it looks really good. I'm so proud of myself for doing this great of a job on my first attempt at a leopard print mani! (P.S. Sorry for my SUPER dry cuticles, I haven't been tending to them as often as I need to, and I took this picture after my first topcoat - I applied two - so I'll be using my Pro FX Apricot Cuticle Oil right after I post this!) 

Happy painting girls! Comment below with a link if you've got a leopard mani you'd like me to see :)

2012 Favourites

Orly Nail Rescue
This stuff is AMAZING. I've only had it for about a week but I've used it probably five times... on myself and on my family. It's basically just a little bottle of nail glue with a brush for applying and a little jar of acrylic powder. Plus it comes with a small double sided file for smoothing after. 
My only concern is it takes a while to dry (though well worth it to fix cracked/ripped nails) and sometimes when you file it, little chunks come off because it hasn't stuck to the nail properly. Maybe I didn't let it dry long enough but this is pretty annoying since I hate sitting around waiting. 

Pro FX 
This brand sells oversized bottles of base coat and top coat, and they even have cuticle oil! When I say oversized I mean 75ml/2.5oz bottles of beautiful polish! The best part of Pro FX is how cheap it is... $5 at Walmart for a massive bottle that will last forever! They have 9 products, though I've only seen 8. They are: Complete 3 (base coat, strengthener, top coat), UV Top Coat, Quick Dry Top Coat, Mineral Botanical Strengthener, Epoxy Bond, Fiberized Ridge Filler, Protein Enriched Base Coat, Apricot Cuticle Oil, and Quick Dry Drops (haven't seen this - not sure where to get it). 
All of the Pro FX products work extremely well, and they do exactly what the label says it will. I'll be posting reviews on all Pro FX products sometime soon so stay tuned :)

Konad Multi Stamp 
The first Konad stamp I bought was just a small one and I thought it was great until I tried to get a certain stamp on a certain spot of the nail but couldn't line it up too well. Then I discovered there was a double sided stamp, and then saw the multi stamp. I love the multi stamp because it's double sided and has a scraper built in so there's less shuffling when stamping. 

Nail Polish Remover Dip
My mom introduced me to polish remover dip and I instantly loved it! Removing polish has never been easier with this baby. It's just a little jar with a sponge inside. The sponge has an x cut into it so you can put your finger in there, and it's soaked in nail polish remover so all you need to do is twist your finger back and forth until the polish comes off. Normally I use 100% acetone, which, if any of you know, is fairly sticky and a little annoying to work with at first, though it does remove polish faster. My friends prefer to use the dip, but I tend to only use it when I need to redo just one nail. I also use my old one to clean my dotting tools! 
My only complaint is that you have to buy a new one when the sponge gets full of nail polish, you can't clean it and add new nail polish remover. Trust me, I tried it and it did NOT work! They're really cheap though, like $3 at Walmart for a Sally Hansen one so well worth your money because they do last a long time and are super convenient. 

Sally Hansen Cuticle Pusher & Trimmer
I'm a huge fan of pushing my cuticles back, but I don't often have to trim them since they don't grow too long, but when I do, this tool cuts nice and close. I tend to push my cuticles back with my nails (my favourite method) but the pusher on this tool is pretty good, although I do prefer a metal one to this one. Mostly I just like the trimmer. The only thing is you need to be careful you don't cut too much cuticle off and bleed or cause an infection! My advice is try to cut smoothly and not too deep. 

***For the polishes below, I'm sorry I don't have swatches, I never bothered to take any pictures and that many swatches would be too time consuming considering I want to publish this post not sit around swatching! 

Color Club - Halo Hues Collection
My first holographic polish was Color Club's Harp On It. Originally I wanted the whole collection, and I had seen it on www.nailpolishcanada.com before but when I went to order more polish it was gone and most of the other polishes from the collection were sold out. A couple weeks later it was back up so I instantly ordered it! I'm glad I ordered the whole set because I broke my Harp On It after only using it twice, so I got a replacement with the Halo Hues collection. 
These holos don't need an aqua base unlike many other holos, which is definitely a plus since more nail polish = more money and more drying time. Every single colour in this collection is absolutely beautiful! The only thing I don't understand though is why they needed to have two pink(ish) colours. Cloud Nine and Halo-Graphic both have pink tones and in most lights I can't tell the difference. I haven't gotten a chance to swatch them yet, though in other peoples swatches I have been able to see a difference. 

UV Lamp 
Most UV lamps can be pricey so they're really only for dedicated nail polish folk, or if you've got the money. Since a UV lamp is primarily for gel and acrylic, it takes longer to dry actual polish which can be frustrating. While this is the case, I still use it on every manicure because it's faster than waiting for polish to air dry, and it warms my cold hands in the winter! I got mine on eBay for about $40 (36W) and I'm very happy with the quality - no complaints whatsoever!

Nicole by OPI - Sensational Scarlet
These dark red sparkles are beautiful for the holidays! The glitter is all different sizes and the fine glitter is very obvious in the light. Two coats is good for this polish, one is a little thin and  the glitter isn't as obvious. It's a little textured when dry, so I like to put a couple top coats on. 

Orly - Miss Conduct
I've only used this once but I was instantly in love with it. It's a deep raspberry colour with holographic sparkles. It's classy but still fun! You don't even need a top coat with this one, but it's probably better so your mani is sealed in. 

China Glaze - Flip Flop Fantasy
My absolute favourite summer colour! (And absolute favourite pink too!) I love this on both my nails and toes, in fact it's the only colour that I will ever match both nails and toes with. It's like a neon, but it's not. You need at least two coats for this one, sometimes even three but it's worth it! It dries a little matte so I always put a glossy top coat on. 

China Glaze - Rose Among Thorns
This colour really was a rose among thorns... I randomly saw it as I was looking for other polishes! This beautiful pink/red is a neon so a white base would probably be better though I've only used it on a clear base. 

Revlon - Guava
I love this pink, because it's bright yet it's a little deeper so it's fun but not tacky if that's what you're worried about at work etc. I use this a lot for designs, it's very opaque on top of darker colours. 

Orly - Cotton Candy
This pink is cute and girly, it's true to the colour in the bottle. So far I've only used it with some designs but it works well with most colours. 

Revlon - Lily
I'm not normally a fan of light purples, but I am of this one! It's absolutely gorgeous! I did a simple dot mani with this polish as the base and it was probably one of my favourite manis yet. 

WetnWild - On A Trip
If you're into bright purples, this one is a must have. It's extremely vibrant, and I think it pairs perfectly with Revlon's Guava (mentioned earlier). My only complaint is it dries a little darker than in the bottle, but still a lovely colour nonetheless. 

Nicole by OPI - Positive Energy
I've had this for so long, and I'm sure everyone's seen it, but I just love this metallic silver. I've never really used any other, so I don't have anything to compare it to. I've found that it is a little streaky though, but it's pretty good considering some metallics are just awful when it comes to streaking! 

Nicole by OPI - Look At Me, Look At Me
This is my favourite silver glitter. It's fine silver glitter, with some pink hex glitters. You can get away with one coat, but two is idea. It dries very textured so you'll probably want to apply two top coats. 

Nicole by OPI - The Next CEO
This one is a light metallic gold which looks silver in some lights. It's extremely classy and I would wear it on its own. It's also a great base for pink/purple leopard designs, and I love it with black accents, or as an accent on black nails! 

China Glaze - Secret Peri-wink-le
I love this periwinkle, it's not too dark or too light. It's definitely one of my must haves because it's so pretty! 

China Glaze - Aquadelic
I believe this one is similar to "For Audrey," also by CG. It's a deep mint/teal, and I absolutely love it, especially on toes or with Silver accents. 

OPI - Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow
This is a metallic dark green with a suede finish. I've had this for a while and only used it a couple times but every time I use it I just ask myself why I don't use it more often. It's very elegant, and it's a must have if you like dark colours with a bit of sparkle. 

Some Previous Designs

I apologize in advance for the possibly terrible quality of the pictures, the point is to show you some of my designs, not how awful I am at photographing. Enjoy!