Nail Art Tutorial

Black and White Water Marble

This is the first time I've ever attempted this technique and let me tell you straight away - it is 10 times easier than I thought it would be and didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would!

I've broken it down into 8 simple steps and I'll be uploading a video of my process to my YouTube channel, so be sure to check that out. I hope you like this, I'll be doing more nail tutorials using this technique in the future for sure!

Preparation: Fill a cup (mine is a plastic disposable drinking cup) with ROOM TEMPERATURE* water. or let it sit out until it is room temperature. On clean and dry nails, paint a base coat to protect your nails, once dry paint nails white so the pattern is more vivid. 

Step One: With your selected nail polishes, drip one colour in the centre of the cup and allow it to spread out (don't be afraid if the colour fades dramatically or if it doesn't reach the rim of the cup) with your next colour drop colour in the centre of the previous colour, doing this until satisfied - You've now created the 'bullseye' affect. 

Close up view of step two
Notice how the points are connected
to the edge of the cup.

Step Two: Taking a toothpick or skewer drag the outside edged and connect them to the edge of the cup - this technique is called 'anchoring' it sticks the polish to the cup so it doesn't move about so much when you're swirling the polish around.

Step Three: Swirl and make your pattern with the toothpick or skewer. Don't press too hard into the polish. Gently drag the stick through the polish to make the desired pattern. I wasn't going for any real look, I was just having fun.

Step Four: Once you've got your pattern how you want it, decide where you'll place your fingers, if need be turn the cup carefully to get a better angle. 

Step Five: With a cotton tip in one hand at the ready, carefully submerge your fingers making sure your nails touch the polish first. Don't remove them right away just keep them in the water.

Step Six: With the cotton tip, swirl it around the remaining polish in the cup, wiping it all up and making sure the water is then clear from residue. This is so when you take our your fingers, the residue won't stick to the nails and ruin the pattern. Only once the water is free from excess polish should you remove your fingers. 

Step Seven: Use nail polish remover to clean up the polish on the skin. For a quicker clean up process, place sticky tape on the finger, framing the nail, so all you have to do is remove the tape and the skin is clean and only requires a little nail polish remover.

Step Eight: Once fingers are clean and polish is dry, secure with a clear top coat and you're done!

It really is very simple and I hope you try this out. If you do be sure to let me see your recreations by tagging me in it on Instagram or posting it to my Facebook Page.

* The reason it needs to be room temperature is because if the water is too cold, the polish will set too quick. It will not work either if the water is too hot. 

Ciao! X

Nail Art Tutorial

Aztec Gold

This style of print is everywhere you look, jewellery, fashion and even nail art, I love it. Its perfect for spring and summer with light colours and pastels but with a change of colour it can be just the right amount of detail for a winter look.

Step One: Clean Nails

Remove all nail polish and then give them a once over with some nail polish remover to make sure they're nice and clean.

Step Two: The Product.
I'm using three Sally Hansen polishes for this. They're all from the 'HARD as NAILS XTREME WEAR' range and they're some of my personal favorite polishes to use.

 The three polishes are:
'100' "Invisible" a clear coat I use as a top coat.

'300' "White On" a nice opaque white.

'485' "Golden Eye" a gorgeous gold shade that goes on smooth but has plenty of sparkle




This is nail stripping tape, I got this and about 25 other rolls from ebay for approx $2.00 sssuuuuupppppeeerrrr cheap and no shipping. I'm sure there are a million other places to get it from. I chose to use it in a pink shade so it would show up in photos (however it did bleed into the colour slightly so keep that in mind) This product is something you can leave on the nails, or remove like a stencil such as what I've done.

Step Three: Painting the nails
I did both hands like this, however feel free to choose two colours of your own. I'm thinking for more of a winter look changing to a black or a navy blue instead of white. The options are endless.

Step Four: Detail.
I did a really basic design, to be honest this was quite time consuming and tricky, I did it to one hand only (my original intent anyway) I was going to do more of a zigzag pattern but for my first time using the stripping tape I thought I'd do something 'simple'
 




Step Five: Paint over - BE MESSY
Paint over the tape with opposite colours, so keep that in mind when painting your nails for the first coat, whatever one you want more colour of, paint the opposite colour first. On the gold nails, I painted them over with white and on the white nail (accent nail) I painted it over with gold.
Now I have opposite hands because I chose to do the design to one hand only and I really like the look of them.
I stress about being messy, make sure you've covered all the base colour polish up, its easy to clean up rather than having to go back when the colour is dry and painting a small little line.

Step Six: Remove Stickers
Peel off the stickers carefully (I used tweezers to help me) and then slather on a coat of clear polish to make sure the edges don't flick up and tare. As I said before the pink did bleed into the polish a little bit, but I don't mind, its all a learning experience.

Thats the final look and I hope you like it. Thanks!

Nail Art Tutorial

"Rocker Chic"

*Disclaimer - I am not a nail artist - don't get judgy*

Hey guys, I've been wanting to get into some cool nail art designs etc for a while now and about two maybe three weeks ago I ordered some stuff online so I'm currently waiting for that in the mail, but I saw this little kit on sale for $10.00 at Priceline. (not sure how much this one was originally) and I couldn't pass it up.People have asked me how I did it, one girl grabbed my hand when I was paying for something demanding answers, so.... Here is a step by step of what I did.

Clean nails.

Step One: Clean Nails.

I was already wearing nail polish so I just cleaned that right off, then I trimmed my talons to this super short state right here.

Nothing fancy, just basic.

The Product.

Step Two: The Product.

This is by the brand: MODELSPREFER. Its in their 'Beauty To Go' range. One thing I love about this is that in the top left corner on the box, there are some super cute nail designs there, just a little bit of inspiration if you need it.







It come with this tool as well, I didn't know this was included because as you can see it doesn't show it anywhere in the packaging, so this was a nice surprise. This is used for placing the studs on the nail. (Thats what I used it for anyway) Its a really handy tool for nail art in general, one end is slightly larger than the other, so it would be really good for 'dotting' nail polish and making little flowers - maybe I'll try that.

Three little bottles, to which I adore the packaging. The first is the colour, it has some shimmer/glitter to it, but it isn't chunky or bumpy or anything, it looks quite nice just on its own. If you can purchase it as it is the colour is called "Heavy Metal".

It also comes with a top coat, which is always very handy. FYI: These polishes dry very quickly which to me is a good thing because I'm so prone to smudging all my hard word, but I didn't do any of that with this product. The only mess that was made was by my own in ability to 'stay in the lines'. I always end up painting half my hand when applying nail polish, easier to clean it up later then to realise you've missed a spot. (my new motto)

The last little bottle is one full of the 'studs' It is such a cute little thing and there are SO many studs in there, I was scared of wastage, but honestly, don't be. I also did all of my nails with about 4 - 6 studs each, so to me, that's using a lot, I might just do a simple 1 stud design next time or just an accent nail. The options are endless.





Step Three: Painting the nail
Firstly paint all your nails with the desired colour. In this case it is the one included in the pack (next time I might use a nice deep red colour).




Step Four: Clear Coat 1
You're going to want to let the first coat dry, then coat each nail with a THIN coat of the top coat. Just to seal the first colour. Let that dry.

Then doing one nail at a time apply another clear coat to the nail,
roll one end of the tool into the clear polish (I used the larger end) use that to pick up the studs and then place it into the still wet clear coat on your nail. It might sound like a bit of an ordeal but it honestly takes about 3 seconds to put the studs in place and as you do more of it, it is so, so easy. You only need to coat the tool in the clear polish, perhaps, once every few nails? Until it no longer picks them up.

Using tool to press studs into clear coat.

Step Five: Apply to all

Told you I was messy, This is the un touched up just finished sticking them to my nails product. This is the design I chose to do. Once you have all the studs in place. Let them set - making sure not to bump/wiggle them (some of mine moved but I didn't mind so much, while the polish is still 'wet' you can move them back in place) Now that they're all dry, put on a coat or two of the clear top coat to seal it all in place and Voila! You're done. Just clean those bad boys up!

Finished Product! All cleaned up! I took this photo two days after originally doing the nails, none have flaked off, although I've had some near misses. Mainly when I run my hands through my hair, because the hair is thin enough (obviously) it can flick up the studs. So be careful. I might see if I can get my hands on some form of nail adhesive and give that a go.


I hope you found this easy to follow and you give it a go yourself!

**watch this space - youtube video tutorial coming soon**


Thanks!