Nailin’ It – Pink with Black & White Skulls

Can you believe it’s been TWO months since I posted a nails blog? I am ashamed! The thing is, I’ve done some very fancy nails in this time but for some reason I was too slack to post about them. I managed to take a photo of one set (pink and blue leopard print, which wasn’t quite as effective as I hope, but I still liked ‘em). The last set were midnight blue with sparkles and gems but I lost too many gems before I remembered to take a photo and was too embarrassed to show them off, which is a damn shame.

These ones are simple and required no skill, but I have never gotten so many compliments before! The pink is such a perfect Barbie pink which is probably what people notice, as it’s the most attractive colour in the world. The skulls are just cheapo nail stickers but skulls with glitzy eyes = AMAZING! I’ve never mixed up the sticker colours before but god I am enjoying the look and will probably recycle this design again soon!

I’ve also gone back to squared tips. The rounded style was nice but they look too “natural” and I do not get my nails done to look natural! They also give me more space to work with and look longer so it’s a win-win. Hope you like them!

Nailin’ It – Tiger Stripes & Holograms

Wow it has been a long time since I posted anything to do with my nails. In all honesty I stopped doing much with my nails for a while. I used up all of my kawaii Japanese nail stickers and I kept ruining any designs with jewels because I have a really hands-on job and I was lucky to have them last a week without half the jewels dropping off. But I have now discovered the fun and excitement of designing and painting my own nails! I just got my nails done at a new salon because my usual one was continually disappointing me. The new one I visited not only did an awesome job of refilling my nails, they have some awesome designs AND use the most fabulous nail polishes from the USA.

Naturally I am too much of a tight arse to actually pay to have them done, so I took mental note of their design and decided to try my own ones. I’ve never paints designs on my nails before so I went for something very simple: TIGER STRIPES. I thought I’d also do up a small tutorial in case you also want to try it out too.

STEP ONE

Paint your nails with a good background colour. I chose the most amazing holographic purple and silver when I got my nails done. The purple one is by OPI and the silver by China Glaze (I wasn’t clever enough to write down the colour names though, unfortunately). I went for alternating colours again as it’s simple but looks much more exciting than just one colour on all nails. Make sure your nails are totally, absolutely dry before moving on to the next step. I left mine overnight before I started the design, but you can probably just leave it a good hour or two.

STEP TWO

Get yourself some nail art lacquer. Now, nail art is still pretty small=scale in Australia (well, in Brisbane anyway) so the only brand I’ve found with a wide range of awesome polishes, including nail art lacquers is BYS. They have all sorts of colours and styles (like crackle, matte and UV) and they’re really cheap, about $5 each at shops like Cosmetics Plus. I’ve used a few of their polishes and find them to be pretty good, though I’ve not tested them extensively yet. I bought the nail art lacquer in black because they have super thin, long brushed specifically for this sort of thing. I’ve heard you can actually buy special paint brushes for nail art in the USA but am yet to find something in Australia without going to an art supplies store or find a fine makeup brush, so this is your best bet.

STEP THREE

Find a design you like, to get inspiration/copy! Unless you’re a fabulous artist, you need a reference point. I loved this design by Phresh Mentality so I used it, combined with the design I saw at my nail salon, to come up with my own version of tiger stripes. Google the hell out of what you’re going for and then practice it on the edge of a plate until you’re confident enough to move onto your nails.

STEP FOUR

Shake the polish really well, then slowly draw the brush out of the bottle, gently wiping the excess off one side of the brush. Take note of how the paint drips off, I found a great big drip would come down after about 10 seconds which would be disastrous while trying to paint a fine line. Once you’re sure you won’t have any nasty surprises, dip the brish in again and ripe off the excess as you take the brush out on one side of the brush only. You really only need a small amount of polish so if it’s looking too thick, wipe a little bit off the other side from halfway down the brush. The polish on the top half of the brush will run down and that should be enough to create a fine line.

Start up the top of the nail, flattening the brush ever so slightly on the edge of the nail then lifting quickly as you draw the brush across the nail. This is a very quick and delicate process because the tiger stripes are only going to reach about two-thirds of the way across the nail. You nat the loine to be at its thickest on the edge of the nail, taperin to nothing as the line nears the other edge. Repeat this pricess on the other side, just below the first line and continue down the nail until your nails are evenly striped.

Now, as you’re probably well aware, a tiger doesn’t have perfect little stripes all down it’s body. So, if you’re feeling confident, make it a bit more artistic by moving the brish side to side ever so slightly as you drag it across to make the edges more rough and tiger-ish. It also looks great to have two lines coming from one point and then have a line from the other side pointing to the middle of the double line . Here’s a close up of what I mean:

Simple but very effective! Likewise, you can fill any large gaps with a small line in the muddle of the nail, like up the top of that close up.

Repeat the process on each nail, taking EXTRA care on the hand which you normally write with. I actually did better using my left hand as I used less polish and went very slowly and carefully, which resulted in very lovely stripes. I did get a bit cocky as I was getting to the last three nails, but one fat or two fat stripes don’t look too bad at all.

STEP FIVE

Once all of your nails are done, let the stripes dry thoroughly. Even more so than what you did with the background colour. If you try and put a top coat on too early, you will end up dragging the stripes down the nail and ruining all of your hard work. Give it a few hours before applying the top coat, which will help keep the stripes on and generally make your nails look shiny and excellent for a lot longer. One top coat should be plenty. Please be careful with the top coat, no matter how long you let the stripes dry. Nail polish is an effective nail polish remover, so you’re best to dab the top coat on before lightly drawing it down.

 

Extra Long Ester Long Weekend

This is a little something I used to do back in the good old days of Livejournal (which I neglect very badly these days). After a big weekend I would do a “Weekend Roundup” which went through everything that happened on my weekend since I used my LJ as a personal diary more than anything and I did live a fairly hectic and fun-filled life in London which I wanted to remember forever. Since we just had a five-day weekend thanks to Easter and Anzac Day and I have been a tad slack with my blog lately, I thought I would run thorugh the events of my action packeed weekend for you all.

On Thursday night I went to my mum’s place as I am still getting used to being paid monthly and wanted to chill out with mum and spend as little money as possible. I knew there’d be people at my place all weekend since the boyfriend is a social butterfly, and I was looking forward to peace and quiet. Good Friday was fairly uneventful, we just lounged around reading, watching TV and hanging out with mum’s pup Lily who has just come on heat which means she had a few male callers which I had to chase off with a broom more than once. My sister and her boyfriend came over for dinner for a roast (can you tell we’re all atheists?) and I got a bit tipsy on fancy cider and black Sambucca.

On Saturday mum and I went shopping. As Borders stores are closing most of their stores, they’re selling all of their stuff for cheap. Including their ebook reader the Kobo which I desperately wanted. So we made the trek to the store which still had some and got one each for just $112 (mum already has an Amazon Kindle which she doesn’t like much because it’s tied to Amazon). Needless to say I love it and have already downloaded the Harry Potter series which I am re-reading right now. I might post a review once I get some more use out of it.

Later on Saturday night we went to the movies and saw Paul, which was hilarious. I highly recommend you go and see it, if you haven’t already. On our way home though, we came pretty damn close to death. A Commodore sped through a Give Way sign right in front of us, and had I not had a bad feeling as we approached the intersection and been looking for something, we probably wouldn’t have seen that car until too late and it probably would have been the end of all in both cars. It was a terrifying moment, and I’m so glad I have a little bit of ESP now and then for moments like these. We tried chasing the jerk but they’d long gone by the time we turned mum’s car around.

On Sunday morning we were woken up by one of Lily’s lover friends who the night before had found a way to dug under the house and get into mum’s backyard. He’d gotten much further than this though, and had managed to break in through the locked doggie door and got into the house! Mum almost had a heart attack when she got up to take Lily outside to pee! He was so stealthy, we hadn’t heard him and he’d managed ton squeeze through a doggie door that’s about 3 sizes too small for him AND WAS LOCKED FROM BOTH SIDES. It took us almost two hours but we managed to get a collar and leash on him, get him into mum’s car and take him to the pound. Luckily there were two guys there who helped us get him into the cage. He was a nice dog but we’re pretty sure he’s a stray and t was kind of scary wondering if he’d bite us at some point. Thankfully the most he did was snap at one of the men as he was locked into the cage at the pound.

After that we had a pretty lazy morning before I finally went home. That afternooa few of us went to a BBQ for a friend who had only breezed into town for a day, Janette Slack. Here she is having some post-nap milk (how very rock n roll, we all joked):

Afterwards I attempted to go out with a few girlfriends but due to the fact the next day was Anzac Day, everything shut at midnight. In retrospect I’m glad this was the case as I really couldn’t afford to go out drinking, thanks to my dear little e-reader purchase the day before.

And the last two days? Well, let’s just say not much has been done at all. Sleeping in late, watching movies, cooking enormous meals and lazing about has been all that’s really taken place, and it’s been wonderful. I managed to venture out of the house today to get my nails done in some cutesy colours, but that was about it:

How was your Easter long weekend?

Nailin’ It – Rainbow Gems

OK this is a quick one. Someone didn’t take photos before half the gems started falling off. Luckily I took pics of one hand, but still, the whole thing would have been nice.

Just for the record, that’s a bottle of lemon juice. I took photos holding my roll-on deodorant but it kind of looked like a little vibrator so I scrapped it very quickly! It’s a shame I didn’t take a photo of the other hand, I actually got my mum to help with it and it looked a whole lot better. So just imagine this but even better on my other hand, aight?

I had the idea of making a rainbow out of gems on my nails a while ago, and this is my attempt. It was time consuming and not quite as glorious as I’d hoped. Firstly I really didn’t have any orange gems which was a bummer, so I had to kind of create the illusion of orange with various red and browns which was pretty effective, though I am still puzzled by why they have brown bloody gems and not orange ones!

While I am getting better at applying big-ass jewels to my nails, I now work in a position where I use my hand a lot, so they’re just not practical. I’m pretty sure I have customers unwrapping boxes and finding random coloured gems in the bubble wrap, which I think would be a lovely surprise, but maybe that’s just me ;)

I plan on doing a tutorial on nails soon, so keep an eye out for that later this month (as I will have time off work over Christmas/New years and can bling the hell out of them). If you have any suggestions for designs or any questions you’d like me answer about nails, let me know!

New Hair, New Nails… Aw yeah!

I am pretty excited tonight because after many months I finally got my hair cut. I started growing it out earlier this year thinking I’d get it nice and long and add extensions. Well it was at that horrible hitting-the-shoulders stage and just looking awful and making my poor neck  sweat since it’s getting warm in Brisbane lately, so I decided it was time to get rid of it.

BEFORE

I go to Oscar Oscar for all hair styling and cuts and have never had a bad haircut yet. I’ve been to the one at Indooroopilly almost exclusively since 2006 and just love them. I’ve not heard great things about their coloring (apparently Aveda colours don’t last unless you use Aveda products which is a bit shit, especially since it costs the earth) but their haircuts are GREAT!

I decided I wanted to go back to my layered bob as it always looks good, is pretty easy to manage and suits me the best. I also went for a longer bob too as I do like how longer hair frames my face and I’ve had way too many short bob’s these last two years.

AFTER

And as you can see it’s a fabulous haircut! I love it and couldn’t be happier. I also love how you can now see my burning stick man tattoo poking out underneath the pink ;) I only wish I could go out tonight and show it off a bit, but alas I start work early in the morning. I just hope it looks this sleek and sexy tomorrow when I have to try and style it myself while half-asleep!

Oh and I also got my nails re-done, so amd feeling fresh and lovely all over. I have some great plans for how I’m decorating my nails this weekend, so watch out!

GOOD TIMES :)

Nailin’ It – Brown & Gold Steampunk Nails!

Well it’s been a while, but I have some new nails! As usual, I’ve had these abut two weeks and are ready to get something new. I’m not a fan of brown or gold, but since I wanted my nails to go with my steampunk zombie costume, I figured I’d suck it up and go with these colours for maximum effect. I had the lady at the nail salon I go to do the colours and then tried to come up with something to jazz them up. I searched high and low for different sized/coloured jewels no to avail, until my mum found some at a craft show! Mum’s are awesome for this sort of thing, let me tell you. I used jewel-like colours, mostly in browns and golds to kind of look a bit like treasure. It’s not all that “steampunk” and probably rather more “pirate” but they looked effective and were fun to do.

The sad thing is, just tonight as I was madly cleaning the kitchen (I’ve barely done any cleaning since the zombie walk so a lot of scrubbing was involved) I cracked one of my nails. Luckily it was one that lost a couple of jewels (hence why hidden in the above picture) and didn’t snap off, so I have it setting with a whole heap of clear top coat to see if it’ll last til my next appointment. Man, being a girl is TOUGH!

Nailin’ It – Dark Silver Bling Bling

Time for my new nails! There’s a little bit of a back story to these ones so indulge me for a minute while I explain. When I got my nails done last week I was in a foul mood after a bit of an argument with Mean Old Mister Scales. I was just feeling rotten so when it came time to pick the colour I wanted to get, I chose the dark grey/silver colour you see as the base. It was absolutely not the colour I had in mind earlier that day so I had no longer had any plans of what to do to glitz them up at home. Fortunately I had this awesome thick, silver glitter that I’d only ever used once before which suited this colour perfectly! I came up with this idea after my last blue glitter/diamante nails and while it means  having similar nails twice in a row, they do look pretty damn great this way!

Check out the knuckle damage from boxing tonight!

Now I have had had a bit of practice and found the best top coat in the world (Revitanail, FYI) I am going to start experimenting with bigger jewels and even fancier designs! Maybe I do have a calling after all – nail art! Nah not really, but it is fun.

Meanwhile I am really looking forward to watching this film. I daresay there will be laughs and maybe even tears. Poor JCVD. (Ignore the damn sticker that refused to budge. (Thanks a lot Cash Converters, I didn’t want to see any part of the cover of my DVD anyway!)

Nailin’ It- Blue Glitter & Diamonds

Before I talk about my nails, let me just say, I never knew I had such odd looking hands til I saw this photo! Maybe it’s because I’m not wearing my trademark bling rings or the fact my knuckles are all messed up from going nuts at boxing last week (you can still see the scabs because I punched til I bled!!!) or because I have small, skinny hands. Whatever it is, this photo kid of freaked me out!

Anyway, here are my new nails! I am pretty excited about these because they’re BLUE which is not usually a colour I deal with often, and yet the colour is amazing! I got them done last week in a dark, shiny royal blue which looked divine til they got a bit knocked around and so needed a lift. I bought some el-cheapo blue glitter polish from the chemist and BAM it brought them to life.

I had planned to use some of my favourite nail stickers but I knew I needed to do something bigger and more intense so I finally used my nail diamantes in varying patterns. This was my first attempt at bejeweling my own nails and I am so proud of myself I have been showing them off to anyone who’ll look at them! It was surprisingly easy too, I just gave them a thick coat of polish, used a scalpel to pick up each diamante (dip the tip of the scalpel into the polish first so that they stick) and pop them in place. One my nails were just about dry I gave them four layers of top coat to keep the jewels in place. I just discovered Revitanail Top Coat and OMG it is great. Much thinner than I’ve used before but holy cow is it super quick drying!

Meanwhile, in other news: MEET OUR NEW POODLE! Technically he’s my mum’s BUT he’s still a part of our family! We got him from the RSPCA on Saturday on a bit of a whim, though we have been talking about mum getting a  dog for a little while now. It’s been just over a year since our beautiful Belle passed away and it was a massive thing to get over. I feel a bit bad that the new poodle looks exactly like Belle but he stole our hearts as soon as we met him. He’s a toy poodle and apparently was rescued from a puppy farm that was raided about two months ago. He has a malaligned jaw which means the top and bottom jaws don’t quite meet which means one of his lower canines juts out (it’s hilariously cute) but it doesn’t cause any discomfort so nothing to worry about. He’s very quiet but seems really relaxed, he’s shown a few signs of nervousness but nothing to match the massive changes he’s gone through so suddenly. He’s two and a half so over his puppy phase but still young and active.

We’ve not yet named him. He was called Smudge but we want to give him a suave French name though nothing is striking us as appropriate so far. After all our last two poodles were called Pepe and Belle which were so perfect and cute and as it turns out, impossible to beat! Hopefully we’ll think of something soon, and once we do you will get many updates about how he’s going!

Nailin’ It x2

I haven’t done a Nailin’ It in ages! I’ve actually got two to show you as I never got around to blogging about the manicure I had a month ago due to various reasons (ie. my being slack). There was another one in there as well but due to the fact two nails broke within a few days of them being done I decided not to take photos (you can check them out on my robo.to though, if you really want). Shame because they were so long and I got this amazing purple/glitter paint job done. I’ve now leaned there is such thing as too long when it comes to acrylics because the acrylic gets old and starts to get weak and breaks off for no apparent reason D:

I had my nails done in the cute pink colour or ages before I decided to try some of this gorgeous glitter I got off my mum. I used the same technique as I did when I last added glitter to my nails but learned very quickly that it needed a lot of top coat due to the glitter being so coarse. I totally ruined a pair of stockings because I’d only given my nails two top coats. It too another 3 before the sharp bits of glitter were covered up (and I still had to file a few bits down). It was more work than expected but the effect was pretty cool. They remind me of those toilet seats that have seashells and stuff in them, hahaha.

Now for my latest nails. Because of the breakages I got them much shorter than I’ve had in ages (technically since I started getting my nails properly, actually). As I’d just had dark purple for about three weeks, I decided to go for the brightest colour possible HOT PINK! I LOVE fluro colours and am not afraid to admit it. Fluro pink is obviously my favourite, it’s just so damn bright and obnoxious! I added these cute stickers which I got in Japan as they’re white and light pink which looked nice against the brightness of the pink. Unfortunately, since I redid the pink in my hair recently they’ve all started turning the same shade of pink so they’re not standing out so much now. Such a shame :(

You may notice the top of my pinkie looking all messed up. That was caused by a nail file. No pain no gain, baby! Though next time it happens I may have to kick some arse because that shit hurt for two days! This pic properly reflects the actual colours, the one below is all about the detail:

Once again for the length of time between posts. I just started a new job and as you can imagine it’s always exhausting getting trained up in a new position so I’ve just been too tired to commit to writing anything worthwhile. But I’ll get back on it this week, I promise!

Nailin’ It in Black & Silver + My New Workspace

Today’s new nails were not done by me, in fact I finally got one of the girls at the nail salon I go to to do this for me. Usually I just get the basic colour done and go home to add the stickers or whatever myself, but on this occasion I had this sort of design in mind, and conveniently saw a girl in there who got something similar, so I got them to do it for me. Glad I did because she did a great job and it only cost me $5 extra on top of my usual refill! I chose the black with silver-glitter because our New York chique cocktail party was coming up that weekend and I wanted something kind of sleek and sexy as opposed to my usual bright and cutesy. Gotta say they did well!

Speaking of the cocktail party, I got my Holga photos back today so I will be doing an epic blog about the party and showing ya’ll the pictures I took (which is especially exciting since I’ve not yet displayed my Holga photos here at all). This is in the making so stay tuned!

I would also like to apologise (as I seem to do every time I blog, lately) about the lack of writing that’s been appearing here. I don’t have any great, interesting or even valid excuses so instead, I’d like to show you my new (and still-in-progress) workspace that I have been working on. I am pretty excited about having my own little area to do my thang while having a view out the window AND a view o the TV and projector! Oh yeah baby, SET UP! I have a few more bits and pieces to add before it’s done, which is when I’ll show it o a bit better. But for now, here’s a sneak preview (note the scrapbooking stuff, that’s part of mum’s Mothers Day pressie but shhhh):