Orange Ikat Half Moon Nail Art!

Hey everyone! Today I have an ikat meets half moon design to share!

I wrote my second final today so I just have two more to go, one tomorrow morning and one early next week! Then I'll be free to blog and paint my nails as much as my little heart desires! I pre-wrote this post a few days ago so I could get one more post up while I'm busy studying for finals. So without further ado...

Onto the nails!

For this look, I started off with two coats of OPI Toucan Do It If You Try as a base. This polish looks super bright on my pale skin and I don't wear oranges too often so it was fun to wear!

Next, I went in with American Apparel T-shirt (white), Essie Mesmerize (blue) and finally American Apparel Hassid (black). I always love a good orange and blue combo! This colour palette was inspired by MrCandiipant's very first nail art tutorial on Youtube; a normal (as in not half moon) ikat design with a blue base and orange details!

I applied a super thick coat of top coat and I was done! It bubbled on my thumb and index finger nails because it was so thick, so I probably went a little overboard!

I ended up really loving this look, it made me feel very Pinterest-esque or something along those lines. I don't love ikat print in general (hence why this is my first time trying it) but I enjoyed wearing these quite a bit!

I kind of think my nails were at a perfect length here. Some poses look weird when my nails are too short or too long, but I think they all look quite nice at this length!

What do you guys think of this look or ikat in general? Do you tend to wear oranges often? I'd love to know!

Thanks so much for taking a look everyone! I'll be back with a gorgeous thermal polish from Polished by KPT in the near future! It's crunch time for me (I have finals to write, as I said above) so I might not be posting too frequently at the moment and for the next few days. But I'll have tons of time to post very soon! Happy Thursday guys! =)

Springy Water Marble with Purple Flowers for Nail Crazy in April!

Hey everyone! Today I have the first water marble nails I've done in years to share!

Today's post will be a bit of a quick one because I need to get back to studying! One final exam down, three to go! I can't wait until a little over a week from now when I'll be free for over four months! How crazy is that? That in itself should be enough to motivate me to study. When I put it that way I feel like I can work hard until I'm finished! Somehow I've just motivated myself, that's a first haha :P.

Anyways, onto the nails!

I've been using a cup a little bit bigger than a shot glass to do my water marbles, and because it's quite a small glass, the colours stay so opaque that you don't need a white base! So what you see here is just the colours themselves over the base coat I always use (Orly Bonder)!

For the water marble I used all American Apparel colours: T-shirt (white), The Valley (dusty blue/aqua), Mount Royal (navy blue) and Crescent Heights (chartreuse green).

Because I'm a water marbling newbie, I bumped my ring finger nail either with the toothpick or onto the inside of the glass (I don't remember which, too much studying :P). Because I remembered that I had this prompt coming up, I decided to add flowers overtop of where I messed up my nail. I used China Glaze Plur-ple for the petals and American Apparel Neon Yellow for the centres of the flowers.

After that, I just went in with a coat of top coat and I was finished! I feel like these came out quite well, especially after not doing this technique for a long time!

What do you guys think of this look? Also, are any of you guys writing finals soon/now? I'd love to hear in the comments!

Be sure to check out the other ladies' looks for this week down below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks so much for taking a look guys! I'll be back with some cool ikat half moon nails very soon! Happy Sunday! :)

Purple Gradient Nails Topped with Simple Grey Lines!

Hey everybody! Today I have some simple gradient nails to share!

I feel like it was forever and a day ago that I did these nails, mainly because this was right after I cut my nails and they're already long again! I swear they grow abnormally fast! I should put together another nail care routine post because maybe it's something to do with how I care for them (not that I do anything special).

Anyways, onto the nails!

Here is the gradient base of these nails! I filmed a tutorial for this whole look, so expect to see it very soon on my Instagram!

I applied one coat of American Apparel Dynasty and let that dry. It was such an opaque polish that I could have just stopped there and it would have looked fine! Next, with a damp makeup sponge, I sponged on a line of Dynasty with a line of Sonia Kashuk Jewel Orchid on top. I've done this kind of 'gradient tip as an afterthought' look before, and I always end up really liking it! It's a lot less messy to do it this way as only the tips of your nails and surrounding skin get covered in polish (not your cuticles and other surrounding skin as well).

After a minute or so, I added a coat of top coat (I think I'm going to stop stating Essie Good to Go every time because it's my favourite and I'll always use it) to blend the gradient a little more and protect the look!

I apologize for the tip wear in all of these photos, my nails chip faster when they're super short because I don't always wrap my tips (too messy) and I seem to use my nails as tools more often.

And here we have the finished look! I added these V shapes with a striper brush from Winstonia and Sonia Kashuk Grey Matter!

I quite like this look as it isn't really my style and it's fun to do designs like that sometimes. However, I did find that the V's made my nails look squarer than they actually are, which I wasn't really a fan of.

I did these nails for the WNAC 2015 challenge on Instagram, and I've since done some ikat nails that will be coming to the blog soon!

Thanks so much for taking a look everyone! What do you guys think of these nails? I'd love to hear in the comments! :)

As a bonus, here is my Cindy (right) hand! Sometimes I forget to take pictures of it but it's always matching my more photogenic hand! :P

Thanks for taking a look guys! Like I said above, I'll be back with some ikat nails soon, but probably a springy watermarble beforehand! Happy Friday y'all! =)

Watercolour Easter Egg Nail Art for Nail Crazy in April!

 Hey everyone! Today I have some Easter egg inspired nails to share!

My last day of school was last Thursday so I've been relaxing, spending time with family and cleaning my room and my house. I think I'll start studying for finals today as I have four to write this month. They are nicely spread out which I'm very thankful for! I do this stupid thing where I worry about my exams because I haven't started studying for them, despite having lots of time. This means I can't fully relax because I'm constantly worrying about finals. So like most of my problems, there is an obvious and easy solution but I'm just too lazy to do it :P. However, now that my room is quite clean, I think I'll be able to start studying!

Anyways, onto the nails! Be ready for a ton of pictures!

For this look I started off with two coats of American Apparel T-shirt and a coat of top coat (Essie Good to Go). T-shirt is an okay white, it seems really great on the first coat but you have to do a thick second coat to avoid balding. The second coat doesn't seem to distribute evenly or self-level at first, but it does somewhat as it dries. And it's close enough to opaque at two coats for a design like this which is nice!

The other day I picked up six bottles of Wet N Wild Wild Shine Clear Nail Protector from Dollarama, with the intention of making six jelly polishes for nail art. For this look though, I decided to mix a tiny bit of a coloured polish with a bunch of Clear Nail Protector on a piece of paper to get a watercolour effect. I mixed and applied the sheer polishes with a medium-sized paintbrush.

I used all American Apparel polishes for the watercolour blobs including: The Valley (dusty robins egg blue, the lightest blue shown here), Mount Royal (navy blue, looks blurple here), African Violet (dark/medium purple), Berry (dark burgundy/berry), Sunshine State (yellow), Dance (pale orangey nude) and Rose Bowl (dusty orange-leaning pink).

Next, I decided to go in with some acetone on the same brush to spread the colours around and mix them together! It ended up making some white spots which I think looks cool!

To further blend the colours and to lighten up the look, I applied one coat of a sheer white polish (Essie Waltz).

After some cleanup and a coat of top coat (again, Essie Good to Go) I was finished! The same day I ended up doing this look on my mom and her best friend, except they wanted all of their nails to be blue and green so I used The Valley, Mount Royal and Malibu Green (a green-leaning teal, link to a post where I used it as a base for some brain/vine nail art here)!

Since it was Easter Sunday that I did these, my mom actually ended up ruining basically all of her nails getting the turkey dinner ready right at the end :P. But my mom's best friend's nails are still going strong and I can just do my mom's nails again!

What do you guys think of these nails? I might be doing this technique a bunch from now on so I'm really glad I didn't make the clear polishes into jelly polishes right away! I think it looks quite cool when all of the nails are the same colours so I'll have to try that soon!

Be sure to check out all of the other lovely ladies' Easter nails down below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks so much for taking a look everyone! I hope you guys all had a chocolate-filled long weekend! Happy Tuesday! :)

#partialtopolish1000 Giveaway Winners Announced!

Hey everyone! My giveaway has ended and here are the winners! I have emailed them and if they don't respond within 24 hours I will pick a new winner! Congratulations guys!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway Thanks so much for participating everyone! I think nail art related items are great for giveaways as international shipping isn't too expensive! So expect more giveaways like this in the future! I'll have some Easter-themed nail art up for you guys later today! Happy Monday! =)

Papaya Nail Art Featuring KBShimmer Periwinkle In Time!

Hello everybody! Today I have some papaya nails as well as a gorgeous KBShimmer polish to share!

It is the morning of my second-to-last day of school and I am so freaking excited to be finished as you may know! Now to get studying! :P I think I really need the four-month break we have from school, I've been sleeping as much as I usually do but I've still been so tired lately. The semester just needs to be over! My finals are quite spread out which is nice, but it also means I don't finish until late this month. Are you guys almost done school for the semester and are finals approaching? I'd love to know!

Onto the nails!

I did these nails before I nubbinized my nails as you may notice! I kind of think I cut them too short when I do this every few weeks because I can't wrap my tips without making a mess. They'll be back to this length in a few weeks anyway though! They grow so fast and I'm so lazy about cutting and/or filing them so I let them grow out and then chop them short, as you've probably noticed :P. I try to think of it as a good thing, like, whether you like short nails or long nails I'll always cycle through both!

For my blue/periwinkle nails, I just applied three easy coats of KBShimmer Periwinkle In Time and a coat of top coat (Essie Good to Go). The polish was really easy to work with and I got tons of the larger glitters on basically every nail except my ring finger that you see here! Some of the glitters were even holographic! This is another gorgeous KBShimmer polish with a lovely formula in my books!

As for the papaya nails, I started off with two coats of OPI Don't Bossa Nova Me Around. Weirdly enough, it ended up looking a lot like My Vampire is Buff when paired with the other colours, despite being a pinky putty off-white nude colour (rather than a yellow-toned off-white nude colour). Next, I went in with OPI Where Did Suzi's Man-go? and an average-sized paint brush for the meat of the papaya, followed by American Apparel Hassid and Crescent Heights on a small paintbrush for the seeds and skin, respectively. I allowed it all to dry and added a thick coat of top coat (again, Essie Good to Go) to avoid smudging my design!

What do you guys think of this polish or these papayas? I'd love to know in the comments!

Thanks so much for reading! Make sure you enter my giveaway if you haven't already, just click on the picture at the top of the sidebar to find the post about it! I'll be back with some purple gradient nails, probably with some nail art on top, I haven't decided yet! Happy Wednesday guys! :)

Glam Polish Coven & Hex Nail Jewelry Charms for Nail Crazy in March!

 Hey everyone! Today I have some good luck charm nails for the last week of Nail Crazy In March to share!

I am currently in my last week of school until September, and I am very excited to be done for a while! Soon I'll have tons of time to blog and paint my nails, so expect more posts in the next little while!

Anyways, onto the nails!

Firstly, I should explain my thought process behind these nails. As a student, when I think of good luck I think of exams. So I decided to put together a super quick but fancy look that I would wear to an exam for good luck!

For any simple look, I love to throw in some Hex Nail Jewelry for extra interest and glamour! And being charms, I feel like they fit the prompt quite well!

For the red nails I applied just one coat Glam Polish Coven and a coat of top coat (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri this time). This polish dried quite textured so it would have needed another coat of top coat to be close to smooth. I had a huge bubble problem with Insta-Dri top coat once again, as you can very clearly see on my charmed nails.

Coven was so lovely to work with! It is stuffed full of holographic pigment and glitter, check out my Instagram if you'd like to see a video of it in the Sun! I'd like to wear it with two coats next time to see if the colour gets more deep or rich, because I suspect it might! I hardly had to cleanup these nails because the formula and brush were so lovely!

What do you guys think of this polish or Hex Nail Jewelry charms? Be sure to enter my giveaway to win three charms of your choice from them if you haven't already, it ends in six days!

Check out all of the other lovely ladies' manis for this week down below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks so much for taking a look everyone! I'm not sure what I'll be back with but it'll be soon! Happy Monday! :)