Choi's nails

I'm still trying to work this Nikon DSLR camera out but it randomly rotates my photos and made me realise the side pose doesn't look too bad. I've tried changing my hand poses and doing all that photo rotating myself but it just ends up with one word, awkward. The whole thing just looked awkward.




For this manicure you'll need:

• One coat of your preferred base coat (I used Essie's Protein base coat)
• Two coats of a lilac base colour, here I used Essie's Lilacism. Two coats would be ideal but Essie's Lilacism really needed about 3 to keep it from looking obviously patchy.
• With a Barry M's Sugar apple which is a pastel minty green, on one side of the nail. Give it about 10-15 minutes before moving on.
• Using random parts of the design from Moyou London's Mother nature 02 plate, stamp all the nails. 
• Apply a thin layer of Color Club's Million dollar listing shimmery top coat.
• Seal with your preferred top coat (I used INM's Out the door top coat)

Hope everyone enjoyed reading this post. I hope to bring you guys more posts and designs once I get back into painting regularly.

For this manicure you'll need:

• One coat of your preferred base coat (I used Essie's Protein base coat)
• Two coats of OPI's Ski Teal we drop.
• Using Barry M's Gold foil and the maple leaf design on the Bundle Monster BM04 plate, stamp the design randomly on the whole nail.
• With a dotting tool and the gold foil polish gently dot the empty spaces.
• Seal the nail with one coat of your preferred top coat. (I use INM's Out the door.)

Simple right? The design unintentionally and thankfully looks a little festive to me. Given that I'm usually very bad at creating seasonal/themed designs I'm glad this can be pulled off as some sort of Christmas nails.

Well, thanks for reading! Hope everyone's having a good time with Christmas around the corner. 7 days! Where did time even go?!

For this manicure you'll need:

• One coat of your preferred base coat (I used Essie's Protein base coat)
• Apply two coats of Models Own's Strawberry tart, a pastel pink polish. One I do like to go back to once in a while. The photo above shows it as a full mani on it's own. This polish is part of MO's scented collection and the smell is still there for my one.
• Apply a layer of top coat on a nail stamper.
• With a design from the Moyou's Kaleidoscope collection plate 01 and the Konad white stamping polish, do as you'd normally do to transfer the image onto the scraper.
• With your choice of polish shades, colour in parts of the design whilst it is still sitting on the scraper. A dotting tool, toothpick or thin brush is recommended for this part especially if you're going to be painting the smaller/intricate parts.
  Here I simply used Misa's I will survive, a standard black and Barry M's Gold foil.
• Once the colouring is done, apply a layer of top coat over the design and wait 10 minutes for it to dry. 
• Using tweezers, gently remove the design from the stamper and place on the ring finger nail. If the design rips, you may need to leave it for a few extra minutes before attempting to remove it again. If the design still looks a bit 'wet' then I'd suggest doing so.
• Seal the whole nail one coat of your preferred top coat. (I use INM's Out the door.)

Have you tried the reverse stamping method yet? Well, you should! The process is a little time consuming with a bit of waiting here and there especially if you're going to go ahead with doing the full thing but the results are very satisfactory.

Skipping right into the instructions.

For this manicure:

• Apply one coat of your preferred base coat (I used Essie's protein base coat.)
• Apply two coats of a basic white. I used Models Own's Hygerpel White light just because the one from Barry M is coming to a finish.
• Use striping tape of nail vinyls to section the nails by applying them vertically. 
• With three different shades of blue apply them lightest to darkest from left to right. Or the other way round if you wish. The blues used here are (lightest to darkest):
  Barry M's Blueberry
  Barry M's Blue grape
  Barry M's Blackberry
• Finish off with one coat of your preferred top coat. (I used INM's Out the door top coat.)

The look is very simple but this design feels satisfying to look at. I guess the boldness of the colours has a thing to do with it.

What other ombre ideas would you like to see next? What do you think of this one?

After trying the dark tips I wanted to give those two tone flowers a try. I don't think I did so well on that but the least the flower look is distinguishable.


For this manicure:

• Apply one coat of your preferred base coat (I used Essie's protein base coat.)
• Apply two coats of Barry M's Plum.
• With a sponge and basic black polish sponge the tips until preferred results - As I mentioned this step doesn't show up as much in person so it's really optional.
• Using a toothpick and two different shades place one dot on the nail and another in the second shade overlapping half of the first. With the pointy end of the toothpick pull the dots into the middle to give it the flower look.
  Polishes used here were OPI's A grape fit and Barry M's Silver foil effect.
• After you're done with the flowers, randomly dot OPI's A grape fit on the middle and ring finger nail.
• Finish off with one coat of your preferred top coat. (I used INM's Out the door top coat.)

What's your favourite dark polish?

• Apply one coat of your preferred base coat (I used Essie's protein base coat.)
• Apply two coats of Barry M's Meadow.
• With Konad's white polish and Moyou's Suki plate No.7 stamp the swirl design on each nail.
• Seal with one coat of your preferred top coat. (I used INM's Out the door top coat.)

How do you feel about these sort of polishes? Do you own any?

Having a mind block over what other designs I should do. Any suggestions?

For this manicure:

• Apply one coat of your preferred base coat (I used Essie's protein base coat.)
• Apply two coats of a white base and a fast drying top coat. Wait about half an hour until everything's dry.
• Place the chevron nail vinyls on every nail with an even space between each.
• Using the following polishes, apply to a sponge and sponge onto the nails:
  Barry M Gelly HI shine Rose hip, dragon fruit and pomegranate.
• Remove the nail vinyls and seal with one coat of your preferred top coat. (I use INM's Out the door top coat.)
  

I think I may need to invest in some new nail vinyls. These current ones I own are okay but the chevrons are not deep enough. I'd definitely want some that are thinner in size too.

What do you think of this manicure?

For this manicure:

• Apply one coat of your preferred base coat (I used Essie's protein base coat.)
• Apply two coats of the Barry M - Matt white as a base.
• Using a sponge and Barry M's Mango - Orange. Grapefruit - pink and Blue grape - a royal blue, sponge the colours onto the base until they're blended.
• With the Bundle monster BM208 plate, stamp the design with the Konad white polish onto each nail.
• After stamping seal with one coat of your preferred top coat. (I use INM's Out the door top coat.)
  

My photo lighting isn't going very well here with the design getting lost in the whole shine and reflection but I'll try and make sure it doesn't happen again. I'll try.

The thing with these Japanese nail polishes so far is they are a little different that I'd imagine just looking at the bottle. Previously with the Mpetit polish it was the shade, with this Sanrio polish it's the consistency. Things looked like they were going to be opaque on the first go but as I started painting each coat were a little sheer. They also felt jelly-like! It took about three coats for the end results but the colour is still vivid.


Had to get some nail art in in the end because I couldn't leave such a base plain. Unfortunately there is a bit of smudging going on here but I still think everything is looking good enough.