96: Taking a break from Valentines day nails

Hi Girls :)

I just wanted to take a little break from all the pink and hearts to post this nail tutorial for a classy Japanese-ish style look. Hope you guys like it!

Here are the products I used..




OPI's You're A Doll and Happy Anniversary!



Acrylic rose and Nail glue and Konad: Image plate m57 and Special Nail Polish in White.



First I started off with 3 coats of OPI's You're A Doll as the base colour. After that dried I painted on a diagonal strip using OPI's Happy Anniversary.



After everything dried I stamped on a Konad lace pattern in White Special Polish and glued on an Acrylic flower.



I think this look is very very pretty. I think I'll wear this for my first day at work! Without the flower of course :)


xx
Joyce

95: Valentines day nails #3

Hi Blogger Friends :)

I just wanted to post another one of my Valenetines day nails for you all to see. Again for this one I went with the cutesy style. Hope you guys like it!

Here are the products I used..

L.A. Colors Art Deco Nail Art Lacquer in Baby Pink and Black and China Glaze's White-Kwik-Silvr.

IBD's Monomer and Bright White Polymer.

Multicoloured pearls and Silver bullion beads.

First you want to creating the overall look of this design. I knew that I wanted a reverse french and verticle lines. I ended up using L.A. Colors Art Deco Nail Art Lacquer in Baby Pink and Black for the verticle lines and decided that I would use Baby Pink again for the remaining reverse french semi-oval.

It looked very weird having the pink join to gether in the previous picture so I added 2mm irredescent pearls to the reverse smile line.

Afterwards I decided to sculpt a large heart from IBD's Acrylics to give it more of a cutesy look.

To finish it off I added a coat of China Glaze's White-Kwik-Silvr to the 3d heart and used silver bullion beads to give it an outline.

Easy and cute no? :)

PS. Near the end of 2009 as some of you know I went for a 1 month vacation back to Toronto and China. During this 1 to 1.5 months on the road I had to take 8 flights in total. By the end of my trip I vowed to never take an airplane for as long as I live. Unfortunately that didn't go well because I'm actually going to celebrate my birthday this year in Gold Coast with my boyfriend. Anyways.. I love Failblog and I found this funny video of a janitor cleaning the moving sidewalk. Honestly when I was waiting for one of my transfers in HKIA I actually saw something similar to this and it was hilarious! Take a look see :)

xx
Joyce

94: Valentines day nails #2

Hello :)

This is a Valentines day nail sample for all the girls who love cute and pink things!

Here are the products I used..

OPI's Princesses Rules! and China Glaze's It's Poppin.

IBD's Acrylic Monomer and Bright White Polymer.



Irredescent heart shaped spangles.

Japanese brand heart shaped clear rhinestones.

First I used 2 coats of OPI's Princesses Rules! for the base colour. After that dried I painted on a fuschia coloured tip with China Glaze's It's Poppin.

Now you could've left the bright fuschia colour the way it is in the previous picture but I thought it was a little too 'loud' so I went over the coloured tip with an extra coat of OPI's Princesses Rules!. After that dried I added a few irredescent hear shaped spangles to the coloured tip area of the nail. You can add it anyway you like. In this particular one I chose to randomly scatter it around on the tip.

After everything dried I then sculpted a bow with IBD acrylics and added a heart shaped clear rhinestone to the center.

This look is very easy to do and it took me less than 7 minutes to complete! You should try it out for Valentines day :)

There are more designs coming up so stay tuned!

xx

Joyce

93: QUESTION

Hello Friends :)

I just had 2 quick things I wanted to run by you guys.

First things first. I've noticed that I have new followers from time to time and I would love to add your blog to 'My Bible' of blogs so if you would like me to add you on my list please leave me a message to let me know. I'll be updating 'My Bible' on Sunday.

Also I was just wondering what you guys think of videos. I was thinking that I can make a few quick and easy tutorials and upload the videos on to this blog or youtube. Anything from how to give yourself a manicure to gel nail designs. I wouldn't mind taking requests either! Would you guys be interested in watching nail tutorial videos?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated :D

xx
Joyce

92: Valentines day nails #1

Hi Girls

I don't know why but I'm really into writing step by step posts lately. Let me know if it annoys you lol. My friend Teresa's been reading my blog lately so I just wanted to say a quick HI DUMBDUMB :) She's funny random sometimes but I still love her!

So Valentines day is coming up soon and I just thought it would be fun to show you guys some Valentines themed nail designs. I had to cut my nails super short so that's why I haven't been swatching as much but I will soon I promise. I still have so many colours to share with you. I hope you guys like this one. I think it's quite cute and it's very simple.. which I love.

Here are the products I used to create this look.

First I painted on a white base colour with 3 coats of OPI's Alpine Snow.

While I waited for the white base colour to dry I took my 1/4" and 1/8" heart shaped Fiskars Hand Punches and punched out a design on to a piece of double sided tape. When you're working with the double sided tape you want to remove most (not all) of the stickyness. I just tapped my finger against the tape over and over again. This is important because if it's very sticky, when it comes time to remove the tape you'll remove the white base as well.

Now that you have your non-sticky double sided tape go ahead and press it onto the white nail you have previously prepared. You can place it anywhere and any way you like. After the tape is secured to the nail go ahead and paint in the colours of your hearts. Remember to remove your heart stencil right away after you have applied colour to the design. Don't wait for it to dry. I've found that if you leave it on for too long then when it comes time for removal parts of the heart will come off too. This pink is just 1 generous coat of China Glaze's Preppy Pink.

Keep on adding 1/4" and 1/8" hearts until you're happy with the look. Along with China Glaze's Preppy Pink I also used China Glaze's Electric Lilac.

Here's what the finished product looks like. I filled in the rest of the nail with mini hearts in alternating Preppy Pink and Electric Lilac colours. I think this look is a good alternative to the usual red/pink nails we see all the time :)

For some extra sparkle I added a thin coat of OPI's Happy Anniversary! to complete the look.

I'll be posting oher Valentine nails so check back later!

Meeka naping on a fresh summer afternoon. Mmm napping.. :)

xx

Joyce

91: Coloured french tip nails

Hello :)

This is just a quick post on a colour french tip design with random rhinestones. I love french manicure designs but sometimes it's boring to be so 'proper' all the time so one of my favourite things to do is to wear the style with different coloured tips. It's fun and you can use any colour you're in the mood for. I used OPI's Greenwich Village for my green tip, L.A. Colours Art Deco Nail Art Lacquer in silver, and added a few acrylic rhinestones to complete the look. This is my way of creating the fun french tip style but if you don't like rhinestones or glitter then you can just do the colour smile line by itself.

These are the products I used for this look.

Create your smile line with the colour of your choice. I used 3 coats of OPI's Greenwich Village. Now you can use the french manicure guide stickers but I think it's easier to paint it on without the sticker.

This idea is optional. I added a thin silver glitter stripe with my L.A. Art Deco Nail Art Lacquer. I like shiny things and if you made a mistake with your smile line in the first step then this is a great way to hide the booboo.

This is also optional. Take the rhinestones of your choice and add it on to your coloured tip. You can arrange them in any way you prefer to get the look you want. Don't be afraid to move them around if you're not happy with the design.

And we're done! Very easy no? I was feeling fidgety so I ended up rhinestone-ing the whole tip. Even I think this was a bit too much lol. Should've left it as is in the prevous picture for something more subtle.

This is an alternative look to the design. I added OPI's Alpine Snow to the rest of the 'nail' for a different and cuter look.

My valentines nail design will be the next post :)

xx

Joyce

90: Leopard print nails

Hello :)

It's Australia day today so I stayed home and my aunt came over for a manicure. I also had time this morning to make a leopard print design. This is very simple to do and you don't have to be neat at all. I think the leopard prints look more realistic when it's a bit sloppy :)

This was my inspiration..

A pretty scarf I got from my boyfriend's aunt.

I used Zoya's Harley as the base and Jo for the leopard spots. I also used L.A. Colors Art Deco's Nail Art Lacquer in black for the outline.

First I painted on 3 coats of Zoya's Harley for an even base.

Then I randomly placed 'blobs' of Zoya's Jo all over the nail. I like to start in the middle and work my way to the sides.

After the spots dried I took L.A. Colors Art Deco Nail Art Lacquer and roughly outlined the spots to give it that leopard-y effect. Let it all dry for a few minutes and you're done!

Matchy matchy :)

xx

Joyce

89: OPI swatches

Hi again!

Sorry for all the random updates but I wanted to paint my nails tonight and I found my OPI haul from the Sydney International Spa and Beauty Expo. I decided to swatch a few colours tonight and I'll finish with the rest in the next few days. Also I just wanted to ask a quick question. I usually swatch and take pictures at night and I almost always use flash. Do you mind that the swatches are done at night? Would you prefer me to swatch in the morning and take pictures in the sunlight? Let me know what you guys think :) Anways here are the swatches. These pictures were taken with flash and I used 3 coats for all the colours.

This is OPI's No Room For The Blues from the OPI Brights 2009 collection. I was standing in line choosing my colours when this one just popped out of nowhere. It was so bright I just had to take it home. I really like this polish it's a beautiful sky blue colour.

This is OPI's Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow and Suzi Skis In The Pyrenees. These two seemed to be the most talked about colours from OPI's Spain collection. In the 2nd picture you can see what the colours look like with just 1 coat and by the end it's really hard to tell which is which. I have Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow on my index and ring finger and Suzi Skis In The Pyrenees on my middle and pinky. To see the colour difference just click to enlarge the picture.

Last but not least..

I didn't buy this one at the Expo. Instead this has been with me from the very beginning. OPI's Midnight in Moscow is my go to as the 'dress up for date night' polish. I use it more than Chanel's Rouge Noir. I'm about half way done with this bottle so I think I need to stock up soon (clearly just another reason to buy more nail polish!)

Does anyone want to guess what these are? I got them in Hong Kong at my favourite store!

.

.

.

These are Muji's Christmas themed paper clips! How cute <3

RANDOM:

This is going to sound really really weird but I've forgotten how to sneeze properly. I used to have a great way to make the sound really soft but ever since the mid 2009 I just go all out and proceed with the AH-CHOO. I don't know what happened but if anybody can teach me how to sneeze discreetly again I'd really appreciate it :)

xx

Joyce