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):

Nailin’ It – Fluro Pink with Crystal Glitter

I decided I would go or something a bit more simple for my nails this time around as I needed a rest from stickers. My last lot displeased me greatly (tiny pink and white stars on a deep purple nail colour) by falling off all the time, despite four layers of top coat! Damn cheek! So after a successful trial run by my mum, I decided to try adding some fine crystal glitter to my nails. I couldn’t pink a colour til I found my el-cheapo fluro pink nail polish and realised this was going to be a match made in heaven!

Nothing at all complicated to this, I just gave my nails two thick coats of the pink polish and then dipped each nail into the container of glitter, shaking (and blowing) off the excess and letting it dry. When you first dip, you’ll have a tonne of glitter on the nail, most of which won’t stick (even if you dip your nail in immediately after painting each nail, as I did) so make sure to tap each finger gently so you don’t waste heaps of glitter. Once the coloured polish goes hard, apply at least one coat of clear top coat to seal and stop the glitter from flying off. Apply at least two coats for good measure (though you will still feel the roughness of the glitter even after three coats, FYI). This glitter was super fine which gives it the best effect, the coarser the glitter the rougher it will be to look at and touch. Oh and the glitter’s probably going to drag up the nails a bit, if you do the tips like I did. It actually looks cool how there’s lots of glitter on the tip and a little bit on the rest of the nail, but I am yet to work out how to keep the glitter in the one place.

Meanwhile, for further inspiration, please check out WAH Nails, a nail salon based in London. OMG if they had a shop in Brisbane I’d be broke because I’d be there every week! It’s inspiring me to get a bit more creative with my nails, though I doubt I’d ever be able to do anything like some of those nails. Wow!

Nailin’ It – 3D Pink Hearts

Well it’s been a busy week for me and thusly I have neglected my poor blog yet again. It’s a shame because I now have an actual computer desk and feel more compelled to blog now that I officially have somewhere or my laptop to sit, but time-wise I just haven’t had much luck!

Anyway, I got my nails done almost two weeks ago with this design and they’re still going strong! I got these stickers in Tokyo and thought they’d never last, but I guess enough top coats will ensure maximum lastingness! I did lose one little heart when I slammed a finger in a drawer but luckily the Japanese always supply spare shapes for just such emergencies and all was fixed in no time at all! I am pretty sure that if Barbie was real and got her nails done, this would be what she’d have.

Speaking o Japan, Aussie airlines Jetstar are having another 2 for1 to Japan sale on again and I’m pretty sure I will be going again this year. Aside from the fact my crazy nail sticker collection is running low, I have been desperate to go back for months now. Maybe even since we got back! I am in the process of trying to convince my mum, sister and some friends to come with me as I need to share Japan with as many people as possible! So if ever you’ve been thinking about going to Japan, I suggest finding yourself a travel buddy and going or half price! It’ll be the best decision you ever made, seriously!

Nailin’ It – Poodles!

So I finally decided to go with the obvious and call my nail-related posts “Nailin’ It” because sexual innuendo is always hilarious and I lack creativity generally (thanks Janie for the suggestion).  Today’s nails are pretty damn special and probably my most favourite of all. I present to you… POODLES WITH UMBRELLAS:

Oh yeah that’s right, poodles and umbrellas. Plus hearts, bows and jewels, of course. It’s totally random but as I got this sticker pack in Japan it’s no big surprise they’d match such random things together like this. I imagine they were going for a Parisian feel or something. I used a nice pale pink as the background (it’s Napoleon, some free stuff I got ages ago, I’m too lazy to check what colour it is though) which I never get to use as it’s usually a bit too dull for me – in this case it was perfect for the little black poodles and fancy umbrellas! The big silver hearts are super 3D as are the other jewels so I am worried they’ll pop off pretty quickly, though I added a tonne of top coat on them to keep them for as long as possible. Yep, definitely the cutest nails ever :D

Meanwhile Brisbane is in the process of flooding, I swear to god. I am so glad there’s a bus that takes me from directly outside my work to 20m from our front door because I’ll be damned if I am getting caught in this monsoon! This is a picture of how Fortitude Valley looks from our lounge room window right now (you can’t see the rain too well but believe me it’s there):

Mmmmm bleak! Here’s to a cheery start to Autumn, eh?

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Fireworks Nails!

So I was a bit slack and didn’t post my nails when I got them done the other week! It was only now, as I was taking ripping the diamantes off with a scalpel after half of them had randomly fallen off that I realised I’d not posted them and decided I probably should! I did this for NYE actually, and chose these stickers (which I got in Tokyo) as they reminded me of fireworks. Except for the bows which reminded me of KAWAII! The black nail polish I used is “Blackest Black” by Revlon which is a bit of a lie because a) I got this colour because of the blue glitter (that only shows up when NOT on your nails, unfortunately) and blue glitter don’t = blackest black and b) because it took three coats before it was even opaque which does not imply “Blackest Black” in any way whatsoever! Boooo!

Anyway these nails lasted a lot longer than my previous fancy diamante nails which I ruined thanks to my filing job where papers knocked the jewels off very quickly :( These nails have also attracted me the most attention which I find odd because I don’t think they’ve been my cutest nail art yet. They were terrifically 3D though, so maybe that was it.

Oh and um, I still can’t think of a snappy title for my nail art posts so would REALLY appreciate some suggestions! The best suggestion will get something…probably some nail stickers? I dunno, I only just thought of offereing a prize just now… But it will be special and FUN! Once I think of it… :D

Oh and check out my bitchin’ new ring (middle finger). My first ever brand-name jewelry! It’s DKNY and was on sale and is so bling-tacular!

Black with diamante hearts

Nail change! The teddy bears lasted three weeks so it was definitely time for a change. I got my nails done in black and then added these amazing diamante heart stickers which I bought in Tokyo. They’re really, really 3D so I am hoping I don’t lose any of the jewels for their duration as they’re so cute and I want them to last for as long as possible.

Today I am going to Stereosonic today (an electronic dance music festival, featuring artists like Axwell, Fedde le Grand, Deadmau5, Chicane, Bloody Beetroots etc) so I am dressed all in pink and black to match the nails :D

Pink Teddy and Hearts Nails

After seeing the blog The Daily Nail I thought to myself “You’ve been making your nails extra fancy and beautiful for ages now, so why haven’t you been posting pictures on your blog for all to see?”. I didn’t have an answer so instead I decided I’d just start posting pictures here instead. No idea what to call the posts about nails, so if anyone haas any fun names they want to suggest, please do!

Today’s nails are so cute I could be sick! I got my nails refilled yesterday (at American Nails in Toowong, if you’re in Brisbane and need a recommendation) and got them painted an illuminous pink. Unfortunately their nail polish was the slowest drying of all times ever and by the time I got home I’d smudged a few nails pretty badly. So I had to touch them up with my own colour which was a bit darker, but a favourite of mine (Revlon Strawberry Electric). Tonight I added these teddy bear and heart decals which I bought in Tokyo. They are too cute for words, they’re even kind of 3D!

Anyway I usually change my nails each week so I will try and post a photo each time I do. I wish I’d thought of taking a picture of my amazing Halloween nails :(