Holographic Gradient + Watermarble

It's been a while since I did a normal post that wasn't part of my Inspired By... series so I thought I would post a mani I did a week or two ago when I was feeling creative. I used two China Glaze holographic polishes called Not In This Galaxy and Sci-Fly By. These are the only China Glaze polishes I own but I definitely want some more, they were easy to use and the colours are great. The only mistake I made with this polish was being lazy with photographing them and therefore not getting a good shot in any sunlight, but it's still a great mani no matter how holographic it looks or not.

Gradients and watermarbles are my favourite combo to do together because even though you're using the same colours on the same white base, the payoff is different for each style. With the gradient it took a while to build up to the opaqueness you'll see in the photos and of course with the watermarble the colours are toned down because they're watered down. Some people might hate that, but for some reason I love it because it gives a different perspective of the colours in the one design!

Like I said, the photos aren't the best but they show of the mani well enough. I mean look at the difference between the blues, I just love it. My favourite thing to do when wearing holographic nail polish is shine my phone's torch on it and just stare at how pretty it is, does anyone else do that? Or is that just me?

Inspired By... #5

This week I was inspired by this skirt that I wore to a 21st on Friday night. 

Following this tutorial that the lovely divalicious01 on Instagram linked me to, I was able to recreate the herringbone/chevron type pattern you see on the skirt. I'm going to be honest when I say that while the tutorial was super easy to follow and made it look like a breeze, I had a bit of trouble with it. I was getting really frustrated when the squares wouldn't match up or one was way too big compared to the others and that was only on my left hand. I'll also admit that I did throw a dotting tool or two onto my desk when it wasn't going quite as planned. I was making so much frustrated noise in fact that at one point my mum walked past my room and asked "Is it all going okay?" And because of all that, who can blame me when I decided I wasn't going to do the same on my right hand, because there was no way I'd be able to do that pattern with my left hand. I was very wrong though.

When I eventually calmed down and was sort-of-but-not-really happy with it, I did decide to try it again on my right hand. And it turned out waaaay better than my left one did, which I was both annoyed and happy about, but you win some, you lose some. This design definitely takes a lot of practice but I'm not sure I'll be doing it again anytime soon.

On my other nails, I painted them the other colours of the skirt, the blue is Royal - Revlon and the black is Black Out - Sally Hansen which was also used in the pattern, along with White On - Sally Hansen.

I've had this design on for a few days now (mostly because I've been too lazy to take it off) and I've come to the conclusion that I don't like it as much as I thought I did. I was never completely happy with it, but I was also very proud of it, especially my right hand and even if I don't like it, I am still very proud of it because I stepped out of my comfort zone and tried something completely new and different and even though they're far from perfect, it'll be nice to look back on and know that I can do it.

I hope everybody had another nice long weekend (if you live in Australia) and I hope you enjoy the week ahead!

Inspired By... #4

Hello lovelies! Today's post may cause flashbacks to September last year when I was inspired by Jackson Pollock's artwork, because that's exactly what these nails were inspired by as well, just a different painting of his, albeit the same style. Check out last year's post here.

This time around I was inspired by his piece titled Silver On Black. It's a lot darker than previous splatter designs I've done but my aim was to focus on the black and dark teal colours more than the others. 

These nails didn't photograph quite as well as I had hoped. The teal looks more black than it should which is very annoying because it was such a good part of the design and one of the main reasons I chose the particular painting that I did. But they still look pretty good (even though they look a lot better in real life).

I found this photo here. 

And a bonus photo before I mattified my nails because the shine annoyed me. But you can see the other colours (dark pink, creamy yellow, and gray) much better in this picture.

I used quite a few polishes for this and since I'm not as my desk, I'm too lazy to name them all. But if you'd like o know a particular colour, let me know! 

I hope everyone has had a lovely Easter, sorry I never do holiday themed nails, I just know that if I do them I won't be happy with them. I have plans for another post towards the end of the week so look out for that. I'm trying really hard to get two posts out a week, but don't be disappointed if I don't always achieve that goal, just know that I'm trying! 

Have a good week!

Inspired by... Part Three

Today, my inspiration is my best friend. It's her 22nd birthday today so I chose to my nails for her! These nails are based on the dress she wore for her 21st last year and because she loves a bit of glitter.

The light pink is an unnamed brand that I've had forever and I used pink striping tape for the darker pink stripes as it was easier than using nail polish, especially considering that I was using the tape anyway for that. The glitter is Silver Gleam by Maybelline.

I wasn't sure how these would turn out but I'm very happy with them and I hope Tay is too! There's not much else to say about these nails because they were simple to do, so I'll be back with a new post in a few days! Have a good week everyone.

Simple Dots

Today I have a quick post about some nails I did last night in about ten minutes. I've been working a fair bit lately and I do a lot of typing so I'm always aware of what my nails look like and the moments between importing a file and waiting for the computer to do it's thing, I always look at my nails, so I decided last night that I'd do a super quick mani so that when I worked today, I wasn't seeing bare, natural nails. (There's nothing wrong with natural nails, I just got sick of looking at my own).

The base colour is three coats of Kiss On The Chic by OPI, it's a lovely soft, very light pink that can be worn sheer or built up with three or more coats. I haven't tried it yet, but done right I think this polish could be used when doing a French Manicure. The white dots are My Boyfriend Scales Walls by OPI. 

I was going to dot all my nails, but as a precaution I did the dots first on my ring finger and then my middle finger just incase it looked alright like that. And it did! So instead of doing all the nails, I just did those two as accents. I was worried doing all my nails would be too much, even though it is very simple.

Dots are always fun and quick and easy to do. And I got a few compliments at work for them, which is always nice. If you're just starting to love nail art and want to do it on yourself, dots are always a good start because you can use a range of things around the house to do them, such as the ends of bobby pins, toothpicks, an old paintbrush trimmed down, literally anything with a fine point or a rounded end can used.

Inspired By... Part Two

Hello everyone! Firstly, I'm very sorry that this is up a day late. I had planned to do my nails on Sunday but instead I played The Sims all day and so I figured I would just do them on Monday and post them in the afternoon, but I ended up being called into work so I did them last night instead. And secondly, I'm not too keen on the title of these posts, mostly the 'Part Two' bit, so I've got to think of something more creative.

Now onto today's post. This design is inspired by the book [sic] by Joshua Cody. I've had this book for a while now and have always wanted to do a mani based on the book's cover so this was the perfect chance to do so. I also started reading the book which is actually a memoir of the author's experience with an aggressive form of cancer. I'm not very far into the book, because at times it seems far too intellectual for me (I don't understand a lot of the early references) but it is an excellent read so far. I'm no reviewer of books, but at the same time, this isn't a review blog so onto the mani now!

I think I'm safe to assume that the cover is cancer cells, so I felt a tiny bit unsure about whether to do this design or not. In the end, obviously, I went with it. And after I had finished, it felt like a way to honour the book and all that Joshua Cody has been through. 

I mixed Savvy's Grapetini and W7's Liberty, with a bit of White On by Sally Hansen together to get the colour of the smaller purple shapes. I then watered down some White On with acetone to get a thinner polish to dot over some of them as per the cells on the book. I then used an unknown brand darker purple for the bigger ones. I didn't top coat the design because the book itself is bumpy and I wanted that to sort of reflect in the mani. I think I did an okay job with this one. I had been thinking about this design for quite some time now, so I'm glad I was able to finally get around to doing it. Now to get around to finishing the book!

See you all next week with what I hope is a very special edition of this series.