Copy That, Copy Cat

Meme Faces Nail Art

2012-03-14T17:58:00.001+11:00

Hi everyone! Thought I'd drop in and do a short post on some nail art I did on a nail wheel a little while ago and had forgotten to post about.

Have you heard of meme faces? If not google. them - the cartoons that their faces are found in is absolutely hilarious, IMO of course :) I saw on my FB newsfeed that a girl had these meme faces nail art and I was determined to do a full wheel of these faces! I've only got half to show you now and will probably do a spontaneous post with the remaining half.

My personal favourites are the 1st, 2nd, 5th and 7th. What about you?

//Linda

Nail Art Experiment, Can you guess what it is?

2012-03-12T19:54:00.000+11:00

Hi girls! Today I have an experimental nail art to show you! I'm not gonna reveal what it is and let you all guess :) I'm a bit torn about the results since they didn't 'place' rather well on the nail. Had they been perfectly centred like the almost-there index finger, I would've been happy. Though the print itself is okay, so I'm not 100% bummed out about it. I smudged the thumb by accident (yikes!) and had to cover it up, but I don't think it's that noticeable in the pic.

Anyways, here's the pic

There normally isn't colour (just b&w), but I decided to add a spot colour. I will probably revisit this again, but maybe in colour for a fun look. Leave what you think in the comments below, I'd love to know what your interpretation of this is :)

//Linda

Free as a bird...

2012-03-09T00:13:00.001+11:00

Yay, a post earlier than expected (still not that early but it's before the weekends at least!). I have a very simple, but lovely design to show you all today. As I was thinking about what to paint on my nails, I was inspired by some birds and decided to do silhouette birds flying free and leaving a cage, youknow, the typical bird scene :)

I did make references to pics for this design, so I'll put them up later. Let's get to the pics!

The last pic shows my right hand - I forced myself to do it, I didn't want to have one hand bare and knew I needed the practice anyway. Here's the pics that I took reference from (well pretty much copied it EXACTLY haha).

Well I hope you like this design! Thanks for being patient :) I will come up with some more great designs to show you all :) Till then, takecare all you lovely readers!

//Linda

Vintage Jewellery Frame with 3D Rose Cabochon

2012-03-03T15:27:00.000+11:00

Hi girlies! I just have something to announce for my blog and I hope you will be patient and bear with me. I started uni and it's only been the first week and the work load is already up there and it will only get busier throughout the semester :( I will probably only be posting every 4 days to a week at a time or whenever I get the chance to do my nails, but I think i'll only have quality time over the weekends (at least more so than weekdays!).

Last night I decided that it was time to try out the vintage jewellery/cabochon design nails. I absolutely loved the antique look framing that surrounds those cabochons, especially the victorian style ones with the black background a side profile of a young woman. I decided to go for something 3D, so did a rose instead! Some random dots were added over the non accent nails to resemble the chain. I really love the look :)

I've always wanted to do this on my nails, so now that I finally have, I probably will have it on for a week or so (till next week to change) haha! Let me know what you think of this look!

BTW, I know this might sound kinda gross or weird or whatever, but the fine (looks finer in real life than the pics) gold detailing on the cabochon frame was actually done with... wait for it... a strand of hair... from my head HAHA! No, seriously, I did. I pulled a strand out and cut it to about 1-2cm and used a tweezer to hold it and then used it like a brush - a single haired brush haha! It was a bit harder to control since my hair strand is a bit stiffer, but totally works fine for me! If you think this was a useful tip, please let me know and I will add it to my 'tips & tricks page'.

Hope to see you all soon in the next post!

//Linda

Subtle Marble & Rose Mani

2012-02-28T15:25:00.000+11:00

Yep. I've started uni just yesterday and I'm dreading it already! I have a mani I did a couple days ago and had in mind the contest that Chalkboard Nails is holding! The deal was that you had to use a dotting tool to create something creative and I don't suppose mine is super creative, but I used only dotting tools at least hehe

I'll let the pics do all the talking :)

I will be posting the link to Sarah's blog soon! I have to get to class now so I'll see you in the next post!

//Linda

Fimo Fruit Mani & Fimo Review

2012-02-24T13:25:00.002+11:00

Hi girlies! Today I have a fimo fruit mani to show you along side a review on them. I received some fimo sticks and blade cutters from Everbella for review, so thank you to her and I hope you enjoy the review and the pictures! It will be a slightly long post, so please bear with me!

First up, I will do a review on the fimo sticks and show you the mani I did with it after. I received a few other goodies with the package, but will review them some other time. Let's have a look at the way it came in the package.

Contents separated. The package came with 60 fimo sticks and 10 special feather cut blades. The blades are indeed very sharp! I cut up about 8 of each stick and put them in a small plastic bag. I had a lot of difficulty gettng the circular fimo sticks to cut evenly and not half cut at first, but then when I got the hang of it, I was able to cut them nicely. Any of the sticks that weren't circular were the easiest to cut! My favourite one to cut was the apple one - glides through like butter and came out nice and thin with no bald-like spots! Some were harder to cut than others since the fimo was pretty solid and stiff. Most were soft and easy to cut though and I was having fun cutting them up.

I have a couple pictures to show you what I used to create the 'ever-so-popular' fruit fimo mani.

I used SV to stick down my fimo pieces. Since it was quick drying, it helped the fimo to stay down sooner without it having to curl the opposite way. I did get some curling with thinner slices when I was using OTD topcoat, so I switched their uses around. I used SV to stick them down and for any free lifted edges, I used OTD and then applied it over the fimo to flatten before adding SV over the whole nail. I also added some pearls just cause :D I did get some bubbing around the pearls and edges of the fimo since there was flooding up in those areas and I kept brushing over it.. NTS, only brush over once!

This is just to show you a fair idea of the thickness of the pieces I cut out. Some thinner than others - look at that chunky kiwi! haha

Now let's have a look at the mani I created with these! (You probably know already if you looked at my FB!)

Don't they look so yummy & summery? I love how it turned out! It's bright and colourful at the same time and I got so many compliments from my friends who all at once grabbed my hand and admired it :) They all held a finger each and felt the nail and said that it was really cool - literally. Even a guy friend of mine said it was done nicely! I feel so proud haha!

Overall, I'd say that these fimo fruit piece were great to play around with. There are heaps of designs to choose from and heaps of combinations you could make with them. They are really easy to use and can create crazy or subtle looks. At first, I was pretty skeptical about buying them since I couldn't imagine myself using them at all, but this changed my mind (and I'm kinda keen on buying more!). Definitely try these out if you're looking for something new to try.

I also have a discount for all readers compliments of Everbella! I will post it up on the sidebars sometime soon, so look out for that :) I hope you all liked the mani and I'd just like to thank Everbella again, for providing me these for review. Take care!

//Linda

China Glaze Kinetic Candy & Simple White French

2012-02-23T03:18:00.000+11:00

Blah, it's been a while again! I haven't been home a lot latey and that's manily due to the fact that there are so many things on and since uni is starting next week, all my friends wish to catch up 'cause most likely, I won't see them for months afterwards (everyone gets really busy!).

I have a realy basic mani to show. I actually wore this a few days ago, but hadn't posted it yet. I was feeling lazy and tired so did something really simple. I also haven't done something basic for a while, so thought it'd be a nice change. Nevertheless, even though the mani was simple, I loved it! There was somethng about it that made it pop on my fingers :)

Such a pretty colour don't you reckon?

Tomorrow, I will make a post about my fimo fruit nails that I'm currently wearing and a review on those fimo fruit sticks that I received from Everbella to review! If you've been to my FB page, I have already uploaded a pic taken from my phone. If you're interested, go there now! :D I will have better pics up for tomorrow's post, so stay tuned!

//Linda

Crystal Bling Nails

2012-02-19T16:13:00.002+11:00

Hellooooo! I feel like I haven't posted in a while, been hanging with my bf's cousins since a few more came down from Melbourne. I wore this mani for a few days (I was hoping to wear it for longer but it started getting really annoying!) and took it off just yesterday. I loved it while I had it on though, shiny & sparkly nails :)

It's a shame that they didn't photograph the way I'd hope :( Have a look for yourself!

Initially, I had done this mani, but loved the bling so much that I decided to do it on all fingers. Here's the end result.

Indoor

Indirect sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight blurred

Indoor flash

The first 2 fingers that I did (the thumb and the ring finer) was stuck on indivdually using clear polish, but I decided that it was making the rhinestones murky so I went to find anther method that was less time consuming while retaining the crystal shine on the rhinestones.

Instead of the clear polish, I used double sided tape cut to the shape of my nails and stuck them on first. Then I arranged the rhinestones on the table and used clear tape to stick them down and then trasnferred it onto my nail and if there were hanging pieces, or gaps, they were removed/added accordingly. Finally I sealed the sides and tip with clear polish. Results are super sparkly nails!

If you decide to try these out, let me know! I'd love to see it :) I'll probably be posting less often because I will slowly be getting busier and it's almost time for uni (nooooooo!). I hope you'll all be patient hehe. Till then,

//Linda

Valentines Day Lovebirds Design

2012-02-16T21:49:00.000+11:00

Hello to all my lovely readers! I was going to post this last night, but was too lazy to haha, so it's a tad overdue! Nevermind that, I did a lovebirds nail design for Valentines Day. Very simple and very cute :) I painted them across my nails like a panorama, but shame it couldn't fit nicely across all 5 fingers, just the four excluding the thumb.

To get an idea of what I mean, have a look at the pics below! I decided to do the design on both hands, since I needed to practice on my non-dominant hand anyway. Turned out OK I reckon! Pics are left & right hand respectively (and alternating as you scroll along!)

Oh by the way, this was my inspiration for it - a clothes tag! Cute huh? Tomorrow's post will be some shiny nails (no nail art tomorrow) and ones that took me a god awful long time to do! Till then,

//Linda

Sorry for being MIA! Carnival Nails Comeback (or Wonderwoman :P)

2012-02-14T23:42:00.000+11:00

Hi girls,

I'm so sorry I've been totally MIA for the past week or so! I was up north for the weekend for my friend's 21st and I was there for a few days and then when I got back, my bf's cousins came down so we took them out so been a bit busy and haven't done much nail work as such! This mani was one I tried before I left for the trip and was a result of my nail studs arriving and my excitement to try them hehe

I wasn't sure what I wanted to use them for so decided to pick some bold colours and use it to line the half moon I created with the colours. FOr the accent fingers I decided to add stripes, just cause! Here's how they ended up looking (don't mind the super saturated photos, had to bump up the contrast since they looked so washed out - pics were taken at night)

What do they look like to you? My friend said they reminded her of carnivals and another on fb said it reminded her of wonderwoman. Take your pick I suppose :)

Aside that, I really should've posted my Valentines mani today cause well duh it's Valentines Day! Oh yeah, and happy valentines day to you all! I hope you had/have a lovely day :) I will post what I wore in the next post, so keep a lookout!

May your day be blessed with love <3

//Linda

Bunny Love Nails & My Phone Case Bling Project!

2012-02-09T18:38:00.001+11:00

Hi girlies! Sorry for the non-daily updates on my blog, haven't really been home much to do my nails or I've been really tired and lazy to do them. I rather do something really pretty than doing something totally simplified that I probably shouldn't have done anyway haha

Today I have another Valentines design, one that I've names bunny love! It's a cutesy almost even Japanese like design. I love the colours together though :) I kinda ruined the perspective of the female bunny on my index - shame on me for painting the blush before the eyes! I also have a little project I'm working on to bling bling bling my phone case up! It was my favourite clear case (can't find the same one on eBay anymore) till it cracked from the side to the camera hole and what better way to re-use it by using some glue and rhinestones to hold I together? I am genius.

Let's take a look at my bunny love nails and then my little craft project, so it will be a bit of a long post if you're willing to read it all, if not, please go ahead and scroll through the pics hehe

There are my cute little bunnies, like I said, so devo about the index finger bunny :(

Now to have a look at my craft project! This is seriously gonna take me forever to finish and you'll see why in a sec.

First I'll show you a pic of what I've been gathering up to use for my phone case. Some owned and some purchased just for this project hehe

There's a mix of rhinestones in different sizes, some AB crystals hot fix rhinestones, white pearls, some ribbon roses, glitter and bullion beads.

Look at them rhinestones. This is one of the reasons why it took me so long (the other is cause i'm layyzeeeee). These are 1.5mm rhinestones stuck on individually. OMG moment indeed :P

This is what it looks like so far! I'm gonna be doing a vertical type of design, something nice and simple, BUT I do have another clear case and plan to go all cahoot, crazy, wallabam and ridonkulous on it! I look forward to that and to the finish of this! When it's al done, I will post a pic up :) Have a lovely day!

//Linda

Australis Speck-Tacular Swatch

2012-02-07T21:45:00.001+11:00

Look what I picked up today! I was at a new shopping centre about 20-30 minutes away from where I live and decided to check their Target if they had any collections that I didn't have available locally. I was looking around and noticed a limited edition collection from Australis featuring 3 colours - a holographic flakie, an electric blue with blue glitter pieces and a black shatter/crackle. I think they were the only 3, I didn't see any others!

I wanted to buy the Finger Paints Twisted, but the prices online were something like $15-$20 and I ain't paying that! Speck-tacular was a similar alternative bottle of rainbows, so I decided to pick it up no questions asked (well, beside how much it costed cause there was no price on it - it was $8.95 if you were wondering)!

Let's get onto the pictures shall we?

This is a picture of the bottle it comes in.

I made one of these too, but it's a bit blurry.. haha

Ready for the swatches? They're so pretty!

Speck-tacular is a mix of rainbow flakies that shift from blues, yellows, greens and reds and perhaps pink and purple depending on how the light hits it. Pictures show 2 coats over Avon Black As Night. Drying time is not that quick but standard I guess and dries with a glossy finish - no topcoat shown.

If you are wondering about that lonely pinky nail, I asked my boyfriend to try painting it and thats how it ended up! I couldn't stop laughing when he was applying it! He was using the brush as if he was colouring with a pencil and started dabbing in places that were bald - he's so cute :) He has also agreed to paint my nails after seeing Kayla's post! Scoreee :)

What do you think of this polish? Do you own it or will you be picking it up? Let me know :)

//Linda

Valentines Cute Hearts & Roses Video Tutorial

2012-02-05T21:48:00.000+11:00

After a terrible long time of video rendering last night, I finally got it rendered today and have it all uploaded for you to watch! Not much to say, but enjoy the video!

//Linda

Valentines Design Cute Hearts & Roses

2012-02-04T13:55:00.000+11:00

Hi girls! Sorry been MIA lately, just been a bit busy since my boyfriend's cousins came down from Melbourne and we've been taking them out here and there. A friend of mine also asked me to do a sample task for him to apply for a job at a tutoring centre, so I was working on that as well - hope all goes well :)

I have done a mani before this one, but decided to post it another time and will be posting up my very first Valentines nail art! There's so many things to try out and I didn't know what to do so decided on this design. I will be looking into doing some more nail art and hopefully try some simpler ones so that everyone can try them out too! I also have 3 videos to edit... haha yipee (sarcasm intended). That reminds me, I need to also film a tutorial for this look if you are interested!

My cool leopard print jumper :)

Hope you like the design! Let me know what you think in the comments below :)

//Linda

Classy Nude Triangle Half-Moon

2012-01-31T02:13:00.001+11:00

Hi girls! Tonight I have a really simple mani for you all. I know I was gonna try something else but it looked kinda yuck when I tried it, so I'll revisit that when I have more time :)

I tried creating a 'classy' type of mani - so something minimalist, I'm talking neutrals and black and whites in my case! I thought these colours would look great together so I did a triangular half moon with some tape and outlined it. Since I have a stash of rhinestones I will never finish, I decided to add one to the centre of the triangle for of course, some bling :)

Not many pics to show tonight; I forgot to take pics earlier in the day and when I got home from driving (let's not speak about how overdue it is to get my driver's license!) so had little light left and I took crap pics. Sorry!

Dang, nails getting long. Gonna trim them after this mani AND I will be starting Valentine's Day themed nails, hurrah! But before that, I need to make a tutorial for this mani - you can expect it soon (I hope!). Alright, better go sleep soon, I have an early wake up (7am and it is now 2.15am haha!). Take care :)

//Linda

Colour Blocking French Tutorial

2012-01-29T01:34:00.000+11:00

Tonight I have for you the colour blocking french mani I did a few days ago. While this post is up, I am planning what I will be wearing on my nails :)

I have decided to take upon 'The Unused' as a series on my blog to make use of the polishes that sit and collect dust on my table. It will be random and not scheduled since I don't have an outstanding amount of polishes I haven't tried. I plan to do this slowly so that when I slowly buy more polishes, I will always have something to try.

Anywho, enjoy the tutorial! Look out for my next mani :)

Enjoy!

//Linda

Smoky Dry Marble French Tutorial

2012-01-28T02:16:00.000+11:00

Hi lovelies, I'm sorry for my lack of posting, but I got capped for the past 3 days and my net was literally non-responsive - no page was loading and I mean NONE! Now that I'm uncapped, I have the highly requested tutorial for you all!

Remember that smoky dry marble mani I did a short while ago? I have the tutorial for you today :) A bit of a crap job I'd say, it works best when the nail is level, but I had to do it slanted (due to position of my camera) so you can see what I was doing.

Nevertheless, enjoy! I will be back later today with the colour blocking tutorial which I will edit very soon :)

//Linda

Colour Blocking French Mani

2012-01-26T02:33:00.001+11:00

Hey girls! Wow I've not been home much to do any tutorials, so bummer about that, but I did spend late last night painting my nails at least! I finished the other hand off this morning and I'm absolutely pleased with the result. I decided to do a colour blocking mani, using bright colours and creating a weaved kinda chevron french with it.

For this mani I used OPI Did It On 'Em, Charged Up Cherry, BYS Matte Blue & China Glaze Liquid Leather. Before all the colour, I applied one coat of Sally Hansen's (no name) polish that's kinda murky and used for french manis. My nail bed was quite yellow and gross so I had to paint a coat of it to hide it haha! I used Art Club's White striper to create the outlines of the weaves and then added a rhinestone near the centre of my cuticles for some bling!

What do you think of this colour blocking mani? Would you try it? Let me know below :)

Guest Post 'DIY Nail Polish' by Heather Smith

2012-01-25T03:00:00.002+11:00

Hi everyone! Tonight I have a guest post on DIY polish aka 'frankens' by Heather Smith. For all you newbies out there wanting to create your own polish, this is the article for you!

DIY Nail Polish

Have you ever found yourself in the nail polish aisle, staring down all the colors, frustrated because no one seems to have made the shade you’re currently coveting? You know exactly what shade you want, and you can’t imagine that someone hasn’t thought of it yet. If only you could create your own nail polish colors it would be just perfect… Fortunately you can! Making your own nail polish couldn’t be easier, and is a fun way to switch things up a bit and get a little creative.

There are two easy ways to make unique shades from the comfort of your own home.

Start From Scratch

If you’re making shades from scratch you’ll need clear nail polish and your favorite shades of loose eye shadow (mineral eye shadows tend to work well). Start by pouring some of the clear nail polish into a small bowl – remember: start with less because you can always add in more later. Then add in small amounts of your loose eye shadow hue of choice, mixing it up as you go until it’s the right shade. If you’re trying to get a more transparent shade then only add in a little eye shadow, and for a more solid shade add in more. You can also add in different types of glitters to add some extra flair!

If you want to save some for later use then you’ll need an empty nail polish bottle. You can buy empty bottles at a beauty supply store or you can boil a used bottle to get the old paint out and then funnel in the new color.

Mix It Up

If you don’t want to use different eye shadow colors to create new nail polishes, then you can take half empty bottles of colors and mix them together to make new shades. This is a fun way to use up colors that you’re bored with and experiment with what hues you can create from what you already have. One thing you have to be careful of when you’re mixing two colors together is making sure that the bottle isn’t completely full, though, because you won’t be able to shake up the paint if it is.

Get Creative

Nail polish reflects your own individual style, so get creative with the colors. Be bold and daring when you’re creating your colors – they’ll give your nails a whole new life!

Author Bio

Heather Smith is an ex-nanny. Passionate about thought leadership and writing, Heather regularly contributes to various career, social media, public relations, branding, and parenting blogs/websites. She also provides value to nanny service by giving advice on site design as well as the features and functionality to provide more and more value to nannies and families across the U.S. and Canada. She can be available at H.smith7295 [at] gmail.com.

To visit the nanny website, click here

Chinese New Year Nails

2012-01-24T03:33:00.001+11:00

Hi everyone! So sorry I've been MIA, I got back from my trip to Melbourne a couple days ago and came back to Chinese New Years Eve and New Years today, hence the lack of time to make a post - I had a guest post but totally forgot to post it while I was away =/

I did do 2 mani's during my trip, but I only got a pic of one of them which I will have in a separate post. For now, I will show you what I wore for Chinese New Year! I was inspired by a Chinese design on a Ferrero Rocher Box that I bought. It featured gold backing and a red outline dragon, though I made mine reverse. Red and gold are the traditional Chinese colours (red is goodluck), so I stuck to those. Here are the pics:

Pretty cool huh? I really like how this turned out, even though I had to rush it otherwise I'd be late for my bf's New Year dinner at his grandma's. I actually didn't get to finish the gold accent and had to finish that off when I got home.

Soon I will have a tutorial for the highly requested dry smoky water marble! Excited :) Do you think I should do it on my natural nails or false nails? Let me know below!

For all those that celebrate Chinese New Year, wishing you health, happiness and prosperity!

//Linda

OPI Nicki Minaj Contest

2012-01-19T16:07:00.000+11:00

Hi girls! Just a short post today, I mentioned that I entered the OPI Nicki Minaj contest a while back in one of my posts and voting is officially open!

There are a lot of great entries so please vote for the one you think is deserving of winning! I'm not going to make you vote for mine, but please do if you like my design! I won't post a pic up since someone made a comment saying that she got disqualified for posting it on her blog, but if you would like to know a bit more (for those who might not know about the contest), it's a nail look inspired by one of Nicki Minaj's outfits provided from OPI. I couldn't decide what look to go for so I did a mash up of 3 of the ones that I thought were the most inspiring for me.

The prize is the entire Nicki Minaj OPI collection and a signed copy of her album Pink Friday for 4 lucky people :)

The link to vote for my entry is here:

My Entry!

If you wish to see other entries, please visit here:

OPI Nicki Minaj Entries

Thank you for your time and I hope to be back to regular posting soon!

//Linda

The Unused: Smoky Dry Marble French

2012-01-16T18:04:00.001+11:00

Hi everyone! Sorry it's been a while since I made a post, I've just been out a lot during the day and was too tired/lazy at night to do my nails or take pics for posts haha. Anyways, I was stuck on ideas for what to paint my nails, so I decided to look through my polishes and pick colours that I have not previously used and the two that I chose for this mani was OPI Skulls & Glossbones and China Glaze Haunting.

I liked the two colours together so I decided to do a smoky dry marble french :) They're kinda interesting I suppose, do you think? I thought it was time that I try a dry/needle marble on my own nails!

Here are some pics

What do you think? Let me know in the comments section!

PS. I totally forgot to enter the Nicki Minaj competition on OPI's Facebook page... Think I'll whip up an entry haha

//Linda

Vintage Floral Design Video Tutorial

2012-01-14T01:47:00.000+11:00

This was a look I sported a while back and I had a girl email me to ask if I could create a tutorial for this look and I thought why not. I already made one part of it earlier - the rose one and now this shows the design I had on my nails. Easy peasy :)

This is my last tutorial for the day, so hope to do some more others soon. I hope you are all enjoying these tutorials!

Enjoy!

//Linda

Silver Foil Leopard Video Tutorial

2012-01-13T21:41:00.001+11:00

Hi again lovely readers! I am on a tutorial spree today and here is another simple tutorial for the mani I posted up a couple days back. I have another tutorial on its way and will post that up very soon as well. I'd post them all in the same post, but I want to keep them separate so that I can easily link them one by one under the 'tutorials' tab.

Oh yeah, for this tutorial, I used a toothpick - for all of it (besides painting the base of course) and it turned out well! That means no excuse for not being able to try this muahaha I kid, only do it if you want :) BUT if you do, please show me, I'd love to see it :)

Hope you won't be getting sick of tutorials! HAHA

Enjoy!

//Linda

Simple Rose Video Tutorial

2012-01-13T16:18:00.001+11:00

Hi girls, just a quick post! I edited a video on how to do a simple rose nail art and it's up on Youtube :) This is just a pre-video for the vintage floral design that will come shortly after this. For now, you can watch how to do roses the way I do and look out for the tutorial following some time soon.

I already did a tutorial for this in the form of pictures, so if you would like to re-visit that post, you can find it here.

You can watch the video here

Enjoy!

//Linda

Silver Foil Leopard Print

2012-01-12T23:55:00.003+11:00

Hi girlies! Been a bit busy lately, was out the whole day today and didn't do much with my nails. I painted them last night and I was thinking of trying to do something similar to those Minx foil nail decals. I wanted to do a gold one, but figured my gold wasn't as foily as China Glaze 2030, so I chose to use China Glaze Millennium instead and I absolutely loved the result!

I tried a different technique for leopard last night - instead of using just dotting tools, I used a dotting tool and a brush. I might try this with a toothpick later to see if it yields the same result and if it does, I will do a tutorial for it. For those who want something simple to try, I want to see if it can be done using regular things you can find in the house, so I will look into it! By the way, I did a simple tutorial for roses that I will edit soon. I want to do the tie dye nails tutorial too, so hopefully tomorrow!!

Also, today at the beach, I nipped one of my nails when I tried catching a tennis ball. It missed my hand and nipped the tip of my nails so now there's a bent corner of my nail that has slit a little but hasn't fallen off. Of course I tried salvaging it. by using super glue haha!

Anyways, on to the pics :)

I love this so much, but one thing that really put me off was the application of China Glaze Millennium. It is seriously pretty hard to apply and unless you're super perfect at application or have a better bottle than me, I'd say that application was a pain! If I just as little as paint over the same spot twice, it will bald, but in a really disgusting way - I'm talking like, it becomes lumpy after the balding and even in a case when I was applying it on my thumb, it almost looked like it was separating from polish and clear liquid. How weird is that.

Just thought I'd mentioned that this literally chipped the day after while I was having a shower. How crappy is that :( I touched it up and applied topcoat over it and wrapped the tips so that they wouldn't chip as quickly.

Oh wells, still looks good haha! What do you think of this mani? Let me know below :)

//Linda

Nicole By OPI Kardashian Collection Swatches

2012-01-11T02:23:00.001+11:00

Hi! Sorry for the lack of posts and updates, I've been out and about and there wasn't a lot of daylight left to make tutorials so I am hoping that I can do them in the morning! Just a quick update on the winners of my giveaway, they have all responded and I sent their packages out today :)

Lately, I've been agonising about the time it was taking for my polishes to arrive from the US. They usually come in 2 weeks tops, but the Christmas and New Year period must've really delayed it. A month had passed by and I was saddened to not see them arrive yet, but they came today - both of them! I also picked up the whole Essence Vampire Love collection at Target, so expect to see swatches of them soon.

A while back I contacted OPI about reviewing some of their polishes since I don't have any access to them and really would have liked to try them out. They were kind enough to send me a few from the Kardashian Kolour Collection and so I have 4 from the collection to show you.

Disco Dolls

Disco Dolls is a golden/bronze-y shimmer polish filled with micro-silver glitter/shimmer and small green, pink, teal, gold and silver glitter. Application was smooth and covered well with 2 coats. The brush is a little shorter than regular OPI brushes but have the same width (this applies for all the brushes in this post - I don't want to repeat myself!). I'm convinced this is a bronze/gold version of Excuse Moi! from the Muppet Collection, though Excuse Moi! has a lot more coloured glitter than Disco Dolls. This dries a little gritty, but nothing top coat can't fix! Pics show no topcoat.

Kendall on The Katwalk

Kendall on the Katwalk is a gorgeous mix of blue/teal, green and purple glitter suspended in a clear medium blue jelly base. Again, application was smooth and covered well in 2 coats. I absolutely love this polish! It's so sparkly and mermaid-like. Finish is gritty, but nothing that top coat can't tame. Pics show no top coat.

Kim-pletely in Love

Kim-pletely in Love is a sheer baby pink filled with tiny flecks that shift from teal to purple (and magenta on extreme angles). Formula applied smoothly, but was sheer. Pics show at least 3-4 coats and you can still see VNL. This would be great worn over a white polish or light pink creme to save polish. Polish dries with a beautiful shine - no top coat in the pics!

Kourt is Red-Y for a Pedi

Kourt is Red-Y for a Pedi is a bright fire-engine red jelly polish. I'm a sucker for reds, so I really like this polish - not to mention the shine is incredible! You can see my silhouette in the pics ;P Formula was smooth yet again and pictures show 3 coats, but as you can see, there is still some VNL. It's not too noticeable in real life though.

So that's all the polishes I have for today! Overall, I'm really liking these polishes and would expect the same quality and ease of use with other Nicole By OPI polishes. There were a lot of other pretty colours in the collection, but they were colours I might have something similar to, or colours that I didn't really favour.

I'm hoping that after I get all the tutorials I want done, I can finally show you some new nail art! Let's just hope I'm able to roll out of bed early, and whip my camera up while the sun is still up - don't want to be missing another day to film some tutorials for you all. Hope to see you all then :)

//Linda

Winners of my 700 Follower giveaway!

2012-01-09T03:36:00.001+11:00

OKAY, so after spending a few hours jotting down all the names of the entrants, I finally have our four winners! This time around was so much more difficult than last time since I had a lot of multiple entries and had to keep going back to double check if they have been entered before or not. The thing that made it even more frustrating to me was that there were so many Sarah's and Sara's and Lisa's and you get what I mean haha. I mean they weren't all the same people, but the name was the same I had to double check all the time in case it was! I think next time I will ask for a full name so there won't be confusion.

Also, just before I announce the winners, when I have my next giveaway, can you all remember please to enter just once? If you are unsure please email me! There were a lot of dupe entries or there was even someone who entered 6 times. I was lenient this time around but next time I will disqualify you!

Now onto our winners!!

FIRST PRIZE (OMG POLISHES)

goes to...

(I forgot to screenshot the name for this)

AdriannasMommy26 (Ashley Turicik)

SECOND WINNER (OPI DS POLISHES)

goes to...

Vickytinky

THIRD WINNER (MISCELLANEOUS PACK)

goes to...

Eleonora Marchetti

Fourth Winner (GlitterGal Polishes)

goes to...

Chronosz (Chronosz Zejing)

Congratulations to the winners! I want to ship these out ASAP, so winner will have 24 hours to respond and if they don't then I will choose another winner. I will send an email first thing in the morning because I'm too tired to email the winners now! (Morning is like 7 hours away or so hehe). For those who didn't win, it's not the end of the world and I thank you all for supporting my blog :)

Hopefully tomorrow I will be making lots and lots of tutorials :) See you then!

//Linda

Nicki Minaj Music Awards Inspired Design

2012-01-08T04:25:00.001+11:00

Today I have a nail design inspired by one of Nicki Minaj's crazy outfits. I said before I want to enter the Nicki Minaj Contest that OPI is hosting, but this design is not for that competition, this is just something I wanted to try after swatching the Nicki Minaj Collection. Anyway, she has some absolutely ridiculous outfits. I came across this one that was just so whack and random that I chose to do it on my nails - I thought it'd be fun haha

Here's how they translated on my nails

I made reference to the pic below. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to spot out what comes from where. I thought that the little red creature on her foot was so random and funny haha

Absolutely crazy right? Everything is so mismatched but it comes together nicely as a beautiful mess haha.

I was thinking of doing a tutorial on this, hence why the design is on my right hand. I think if I were to do a tutorial I will need proper function of my dominant hand in order to do it quickly, but then again I still think it'd end up to be a long tutorial so not sure how many of you are up for watching a super long video. Maybe I should do them in parts, beats me. What do you think?

Oh yeah, I wanted to mention this a short while ago, but I cut my long, long, long, super long locks a few days before new year for a short bob-ish cut haha! Here's how it looked before I cut it:

I specifically took this pic for the very reason that I could use it in my post - I'm not a luvo or anything haha!!

Ad this is how it looks after I cut it

Me and my bf are being losers haha, octopus losers :)

Just quickly, my giveaway ends TONIGHT, so get your entries in cause I won't be accepting ANY entry after I take down the form - no excuses :D Hope to see your names on that entry form!

//Linda

OPI Nicki Minaj Collection Swatches

2012-01-07T00:10:00.000+11:00

Hi girlies, I know I didn't post this in the morning like I said I would, but I woke up extremely late, and my bf came to hang with me before he left to meet with some coworkers for karaoke and then I started to watermark my pictures, but ended up spending a crazy amount of time distracted by watching youtube videos and then I went to wash the dishes and got distracted again by other random things haha! Talk major delay!

That aside, I have the whole Nicki Minaj Collection to show you. My bf bought me this for Christmas, so I bought the whole collection, otherwise I might've just picked up some of them. Sorry if my pictures are a bit crap, my brother came home and told me the package was laying outside my gate and I was super excited to try them out right away, but it was dark, so I have pics under artificial light. I wish I had a lightbox!

Super Bass Shatter

I don't have a pic of this on its own or anything, but just before the pics, I would just like to comment on the shatter first since I used them over the rest of the collection except for Metallic 4 Life (I thought you wouldn't really see it anyway, so didn't apply it). The formula was good and applied smooth, but it kinda dries and cracks really quickly, so you have to apply it quickly, otherwise if you brush over the same spot, it will drag the polish and kinda make it bumpy. It dried with a matte finish like most crackle/shatter polishes. All pics show no topcoat.

I didn't really want the shatter, but when I had it on, the colour was sooooo nice! If only they had it on its own. Congeniality is My Middle name is similar but not as shimmery and as purple as Super Bass.

Did It on 'Em (with Super Bass Shatter)

I don't really know how to describe this colour? I would say a green mustard colour haha. The formula was okay, with 2 coats for opacity. It did get a bit streaky with too much brush stroking, so I tried to apply it with the minimal amount of strokes. Peculiar colour, but it's very Nicki Minaj like in her Super Bass music video clip outfit! I think this colour would be great for summer nail art :)

Fly (With Super Bass Shatter)

Fly is a dark teal creme, a lot darker than it shows in the pics. I honestly thought it would be brighter, so it's not particularly a favourite. Formula was easy to work with and reached opacity after 2 coats.

Pink Friday (With Super Bass Shatter)

I am such a goddamn sucker for pink (and red) polishes, so I liked this one! It looks different under different lighting, so could be pale in one and darker in others. Pink Friday is a bubblegum pink which I think would be flattering for all skin types. The formula was somewhat similar to Did It On 'Em, a tad streaky. I applied a thicker second coat so I didn't have to go in with a 3rd haha.

Metallic 4 Life

Metallic 4 Life is a black jelly filled with medium silver hex glitters and small silver square glitters. This was a colour that I wanted after seeing the press releases and I wasn't disappointed! The black polish doesn't overpower the silver glitter which is fantastic and it took 2 coats for opacity. Formula was a tad thick, but nothing difficult to work with and the glitters don't move all over the place when applying. I love how its so punk/rock chic!

Save Me (With Super Bass Shatter)

Honestly, I didn't want this polish when I saw it in press releases. I thought the bar glitter in Marry A Millionaire was okay since it was really small, but these were big so I was on the fence. When I applied these, I actually really liked it, despite the large bar glitters! Save Me is a fine silver glitter with holographic bar glitter in a clear base. I love the holographic shine, it's so techno to me! Pics show 2 coats and it covered decently since the bar glitter helps to fill up space. This would be great as a layering polish though :)

Also, there is a Nicki Minaj competition running on the OPI Facebook page and I really want to do it - just have to decide which outfit I want to be inspired by, so do look out for when I make a post about that. It would be great if you all could vote for me when the time comes (you don't have to vote if you don't like, there will probably be a lot of really good entries!)!

At the moment, I'm feeling inspired to do a Nicki Minaj mani that isn't part of the themes in the OPI contest. Look out for that too :D

Also, before I forget, not long till the competition closes! There are 2 days left, so get your entries in! This is becoming a realy long post, so I willl leave it at that!

//Linda

Mermaid French Tutorial

2012-01-06T02:14:00.002+11:00

So finally I have it done, was out the whole day today and yesterday, so didn't really get a chance to edit it! Again, I hope you all enjoy this tutorial cause I was receiving some really good feedback from you all when I made a post about it here.

I think my next video will be an older design I did - if you look up my banner, you'll see a vintage roses kinda design. I had a request for it from Vannessa, so I think that will be my next video! I still have a water marbling tutorial and a tribal nail design that I recorded a while back that I should edit :)

Anyways, here's the video - enjoy!

I think I will post some pics from the Nicki Minaj Collection in the morning :) Take care & Goodnight!

//Linda

Simple Pink Tribal & Special Announcement!

2012-01-04T23:59:00.000+11:00

At least I think it's tribal? Haha, what do you think it looks like? Anyways, I've always wanted to do this look, but with square studs and not painted on gold squares. I tried looking for those square studs on eBay and I haven't been able to find them at a good size =/ They are selling them at Dollar Nail Art, or something like that and even though it's only $1, the shipping price to Aus is ridiculous so I'm not paying for it.

Anyways, let's take a look at my mani for the day before we move on to the special announcement I have to make!

The pink I'm wearing is Pink Friday from the Nicki Minaj collection. I don't care what others say! It may be a boring colour, but I love it! I love pinks and reds hehe. The squares are so dodge haha! I think it's time for the special announcement!!!

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Tomorrow I will be going out to the store to purchase the polishes for my 700 follower giveaway and I hope they are all still there on the shelf! Anyways, the special announcement I wish to make is this:

"Just recently, I reached 1000 followers and as much as I'd like to do another giveaway, I can't because I can't afford it. I will be going interstate and need money for that, so for all those who entered my giveaway or have yet to enter, I have some good news for you all! Instead of hosting another giveaway, I will be adding a FOURTH prize to list, prize being 3 Glitter Gal polishes - whatever colours I can find at the shop! So unless you need another reason to enter, why not go and enter now! Don't miss out - only 4 days left to enter!"

I forgot to mention the closing time of the giveaway will be 11.59pm 8th January Eastern Standard Time for Australia. I will take the form down then so any entries after that won't be included. Please make sure that if you wish to enter that your entry is included before the time! I won't be accepting any entries in the comments so please make sure you fill in the form.

So that's all I have to say for today! Mermaid french tutorial will be up soon (hopefully) and probably more swatches to come! I still have some Nicole by OPI to show, the OPI Suede Collection and the new Nicki Minaj Collection :)

Take care!

//Linda

Mermaid French

2012-01-03T03:05:00.000+11:00

So I tried to do a mermaid scale french tip, hoping it would look dreamy and fade well closer to my cuticles, but it turned out OK, not something I'm over the moon about. I might take a stab at it again in the future! I was inspired to do this look because of the Glitter Gal polishes I bought today. Not directly related to the purchase, but the polishes themselves!

Anyways, I'd just like to say that after looking up the Glitter Gal website, I now know that they come in 9ml bottles (I thought they were minis) and that they have super boring ass names (again, I thought this was unusual and that I had purchased knock-offs), but best of all, when I found out they retail for something ridiculous like $11.95 a piece and I got mine for $2, I was cheering! I went and bought 2 more colours today, so perhaps i'll go back tomorrow and get some other colours if I can find them in the ginormous heap filled box that they're in.

Anyways, quite off topic, but thought I'd fill you in on that haha. I bought 2 (of what I thought looked the same) silver holo bottles only to realise a few days after purchasing the first bunch that I had a picked up a GREEN and SILVER, not TWO silvers! So the swatch for the previous Glitter Gal in which I stated as 'silver' is actually green. No wonder the bottle looks a tad yellow tinged!

ANYWAY... I was inspired by the silver holo to do something mermaid-ish, since it was a sheer holo that I could layer over different colours. I like how the pics turned out on cam, but not so much in real life :(

This was before I decided to rub off some black. I thought it looked too straight and unfaded like I had hoped, but then again, rubbing it down didn't really help either haha!

Too much black for me I'd say! What do you think? Let me know below!

//Linda

Blingy New Years Mani

2012-01-02T23:54:00.003+11:00

Hi everyone! Sorry late post, I just wanted to show you all what I wore for New Years day :) I wore something simple, but something blingy! I didn't really have much time to do anything fancy, had a full day of plans and plans the night before so not much time inn between hehe.

I did a simple glitter french with some loose iridescent glitter and stuck on multiple sized rhinestones randomly. No time for a tutorial though, maybe i'll revisit it some other time if anyone's interested.

Now for the pics! They're not so great, sorry about that - they we're hard to capture.

What did you wear for new years? Let me know below :)

//Linda

New Years Eve Firework Nail Design

2012-01-01T04:10:00.000+11:00

I did some really quick firework nail art for New Year's Eve. They look kinda cartoony, but I thought they were decent for something quick! We've already hit new years in Sydney, so for those who haven't already, I wish you all a Happy New Year! I look forward to reading your blogs this year and hope to develop mine more this year as well :) I've also whipped up a really quick tutorial for this (one design out of the 5). My camera was flashing red, so I had to be super speedy! I wanted to do something else for New Years, which is why I didn't want to have to continue recording tomorrow.

Any whos, here are the pics!

Can you tell which one was the tutorial nail? (hint, it's the sloppy one!!! haha)

Here's the tutorial for it

I hope you all have a lovely new year! Best wishes and hope you enjoy the tutorial. Look out for my new years mani :)

//Linda

Floral French Design Tutorial

2011-12-31T02:42:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone! Tonight I've whipped up a video on the design that I did yesterday (or 2 days ago). I thought it would be short, but it ended up to being the same time as the previous tutorial haha. Anyways, I have decided that I will record while I paint my nails so that I will have a video tutorial to show you all :) Though, I might skip the really complicated designs, unless you're willing to watch the lengthiest video ever - and even then I don't know what the video limit for Youtube is hehe.

Tomorrow morning, I will hopefully record a tutorial on firework nails. Of course, only if things don't go south haha! Till then, I shall leave you with the tutorial for the floral pink french design.

I hope you all enjoy the video :)

//Linda

Glitter Gal Swatches

2011-12-30T01:03:00.001+11:00

Hi! Tonight I have some Glitter Gal polishes to show you. Even though they're from Australia, I have NO idea where they are sold (excluding e-tailers)! Funny that haha. Any who, I was walking around Westfields shopping centre and came across this cosmetics store selling everything under $10 and I immediately went to find the container of nail polish and found some mini glitter gal polishes amongst the rest! I picked up some holo ones and one scattered holo.

Keep reading to see the pics :)

(Pic heavy post!) First pictures of each colour are shown under artificial light and the remaining under flash. There will be pics and a short video at the end of them in sunlight (shown on nail wheels).

The bottle for this is labelled 'Black' but I thought it was called Lizard Belly? I'm not sure! The formula was really thick on this one and one coat was sufficient enough to cover. Though, the thickness of the polish kinda ate up all the holo. If you look at the later pics, you'll see the difference in holo-ness. Formula wise, it applied smoothly, a good trait for holo polishes!

As you can guess again, this was labelled 'Blue', but I'm not sure if it has a proper name or not. The formula for this was a bit sheer and became opaque after 3 coats. It could do with 2 semi-thick coats. Again, it applied smoothly and didn't bald when I applied coats after the first. Look at that holo!

Omg, there was so much holo in this polish! Look at them pics, they're so holo shiny I couldn't believe my eyes haha. This bottle was labelled 'Silver'. The formula on this polish was VERY sheer, the sheerest of them all and could very easily be used as a holo top coat without compromising the base colour. It took about i thin coat and 2 semi-thick coat to get this opaque and application was nice and easy like the rest.

Last, but not least, the scattered holo, labelled 'Dark Purple'. This was a really pretty colour and polish. The colour is more accurately shown in the first pic. The formula on this was great, again like the others and only required 2 coats for opacity. It exhibits some holo, but not as intense as the blue and silver.

Finally, just a sun pic and video to show how shiny and holo some of them are!

This pic don't even do the holo justice! Here's a video in direct sunlight to show the holo better.

What do you think of these holo polishes? Do you own any of them?

//Linda

Floral French Design

2011-12-29T02:53:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone, sorry for my lack of posting over the past couple days - I got lazy and then yesterday I did a french with the intention of painting a design on it, but then I ruined them a little from helping my boyfriend's cousin out. She wanted me to teach her nail art, so I lent her one of my hands for stamping :)

I decided to remove the french and do another design instead. I hadn't used this technique in a while, but while I was teaching my bf's cousin the technique, I wanted to do it myself cause it looked quite good :D

Here are some pics

I would love to do more of these type of flowers, but I'm only familiar with a basic shape for flower haha. Time to hit up some tutorials I suppose!

So what do you think? Let me know below! I need to start thinking about what to wear for New Years... till then, see you in the next post!

//Linda

What I wore for Christmas!

2011-12-26T02:03:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone! I'm sad that I didn't get to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, but I hope you had a lovely time with your loved ones. I had planned on getting this mani done to show you on Christmas Eve, but I didn't get it done on time and decided to post it post-Christmas (I actually had 2 fingers left to paint and left it till not long ago to finish off!!)! It has been busy with chores at home and preparations over at my boyfriend's house for a Christmas dinner, so I'm feeling a tad exhausted. Nonetheless, I had a really good time at my boyfriend's house, I even painted his mum's nails, and his two cousins! Unfortunately I didn't take any pics :(

For Christmas, there were some designs I hadn't tried and some that I liked, so I decided to skittle my digits! I left one nail untouched from the previous mani and added a few other things - some familiar, some probably not so much. I got a lot of compliments on them when all my boyfriend's relatives saw them :) My boyfriend's mum also mentioned that his grandma loves painting her nails haha. Funny though as soon as my boyfriend's cousins knew I could paint nail art, their eyes lit up - it was such a great thing knowing I have more hands to practice on!

Enough babble! Let me show you my nails!

How do you like them? Let me know below :)

Again, I hope you all had a blast of a Christmas and ate your hearts out, because seriously, there was so much food at my boyfriend's house dinner! I brought some home too haha. Take care and relax after this crazy season!

//Linda

Wrapping Paper Nails!

2011-12-23T03:14:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone! I was really stuck on what Christmas design to do today and since I painted my nails white (for the heck of it), I looked across my room and found my inspiration!

Curious?

It was wrapping paper! Coincidentally, the wrapping paper is also white and I decided to go with that. It took a bit of time and I knew it would, but I did them anyway. Here's a picture of the wrapping paper:

Looks challenging right? It kinda was - and time consuming too!

Here's, the pics of them on my nails :)

I don't want to remove them now since it took me so much time to do! I will decide tomorrow if I remove them or not hehe. I do want to do santa and elves tomorrow, so if I can manage it with my non-dominant hand, then I will do it!

Anyways, I have to jet to do some other things, so see you all in the next post!

//Linda

Santa and his Friends!

2011-12-22T04:03:00.000+11:00

Today's mani is inspired by a Youtube tutorial that I came across. I thought they were too cute to pass up! This is a skittle design featuring Santa himself, the gingerbread man, the snowman, rudolph the red nose reindeer and the penguin! Overall, they looked so cute together :) I'll let you decide!

Here are the pics

Flash

Aren't they adorable? I found this design here in this video:

I didn't exactly follow the tutorial, just kinda paused it at the very first frame and continued from there HAHA

Also, just wanted to let you know that I took at stab at contacting OPI to ask if I could review their Nicole by OPI products since I don't have access to them and the prices aren't that fantastic online (almost or at $20 each) and I received a reply saying they'd be more than happy to send me some! Woo I'm excited since I don't own any Nicole By OPI polishes :D I think it's time to start contacting other polish companies too! I ain't got nothing to lose :)

What do you think of this mani? Would you try it? Let me know in the comments below!

//Linda

The Grinch!

2011-12-21T03:56:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone! I saw a grinch nail art design on Kayla's blog and decided to do one as well. I liked the way that the mani turned out, but I absolutely hate the way it photographed. For any of you that own China Glaze Four Leaf Clover, do you have problems with it photographing more light green than grass green? The way it photographed in this mani totally ruined it for me. It looks so much more vibrant and well blended in real life but in the pics, they all look like separate bits not blended well and washed out. Such a bummer. I'm going to try and get better pics in the sun tomorrow (if there is sun) and hope that the green comes out better than it did today.

Enough about my rant on how the green photographed haha, but because of it, I don't have many pics to show. I didn't like how they turned out at all, but for the sake of showing you what I did, I shall post it up for you to see.

This was the closest I could get it. See how the green is a lot lighter than the dark green? In real life it is grass green and blends so much better with the dark green than the pic leads on.

I do like the grinch here though, he looks so evil haha, look at those sinister red eyes! My brush was acting up, couldn't find my usual one so the lines are a bit dry and scratchy looking, but I think it's fine since there's so many random black lines on the grinch's face anyway!

The difference is more apparent in the last 2 photos. Bummed!!!

Hopefully better pics for you all tomorrow! There's not many days left till Christmas and lots of things to try out! Let's just hope I can get it all done eh? Maybe I should double post a day :D We will see!

//Linda

Colour Club Alias Swatch

2011-12-20T15:40:00.002+11:00

About a week or two ago, I went to a nail supply store with my best friend's sister and cousin to see what I could grab. I wanted to buy from there before but they wouldn't sell to the public, though for some reason my friend's cousin was able to purchase and she doesn't even have her own nail business! That's okay though, every now and then when she does go, she will ask if I want to come :D

I picked up a couple bottles of OPI, one Colour Club and some stripers from Art Club. Today I have a the Colour Club swatches for you! Alias is a sheer blurple multichrome (in the bottle) but duochrome on the nails. I've applied Alias over China Glaze Liquid Leather and Urban Night to see the difference under a purple & black base. In the pics, you can't really tell which is which, but in real life it's a tad bit easier to tell.

First I have 2 bottle pics to show the colours

If only the blue showed in the pics!

Here are the swatch pics. The first 2 are under natural light from the window and the rest are indoors against the natural light or slightly under it. Urban Night was applied on the pinky and middle finger and Liquid Leather on the ring and index finger.

The duochrome was a tad difficult to capture, but as you can tell in the pic, it goes from purple to a golden green colour. I probably won't use this as much as I'd like to, it just looked really pretty in the bottle so I purchased it haha, talk about impulse buying!

What do you think of this colour? Do any of you own it?

//Linda

Yummy Candy Cane Design

2011-12-20T02:10:00.002+11:00

Today is another day of Christmas nail art and it's candy cane time! We all know the typical red candy canes and of course I chose the typical one as well as including a rainbow candy cane accent nail! I tried to get the lines as neat as I could - they are a tad wonky, but at a distance, it's hard to tell. They look so yummy I want to eat them - the candy canes of course ;P

I hope you all enjoy this simple, but eye catching nail art. Hmm I still have to think about what nail art I might try tomorrow - not many days left till Christmas! For the time being, you can look at some eye candy (pun intended!)

I should've done some green ones too. Dang!

Never mind that - what do you think? Let me know your thoughts below!

//Linda

Pingu Nail Art

2011-12-19T03:28:00.001+11:00

Wow it feels like ages since I've made a post! I'm really sorry, but I was caught up with some things and didn't have all the time in the world to do my nails! Since the last post, I have cut my nails shorter (I missed the nubs haha!) and took a trip down memory lane.

For those that know or have heard of 'Pingu' or for those that don't, Pingu is a short children's show based on this penguin named Pingu. I never understood what the heck they said but it sounds something like MEEP MEEP haha. Anyways, I don't even like this show, it was a filler and I had to watch it to see the next program, but even then I still watch it and I'm always reminded of the penguin show that speaks gibberish. I do like his sibling though and the seal - too cute!

I chose this as my penguin design for Christmas, though I assure you I want to try the whole nail penguins too! I'll just start with these and hopefully, I won't be too busy to show you some more Christmas manis!

I thought I'd give them a hat and scarf - in Christmas colours cause well... it's Christmas soon :)

So there's some penguin for the mean time :D I still have to do candy canes and gingerbread and Santa, oh gosh the list is ongoing! We'll see how much I can get done before Christmas. I still need to decide on some Christmas nails for dinner at my bf's house this Sunday! Might have a bit of everything - skittle time!

Hope to see you all very soon for the next Christmas design!

//Linda

Guest Post from Jackie Clark!

2011-12-16T13:15:00.001+11:00

Goodmorning readers! Today I have a guest post from Jackie Clark. I received an email from her a few days ago requesting a guest post on my blog. She wanted to address the issue of beauty and its effects on cancer patients. She wrote up a short article to post on my blog

Just a bit about Jackie, she does the outreach for the Mesothelioma Cancer, which is the leading resource for Mesothelioma Cancer. She has a passion for fashion and believes that all women need to feel beautiful no matter what the circumstance. Keep reading to see what she has to say!

If you've been diagnosed with cancer, are in the middle of treatments or are finally cancer-free, you'll want to feel beautiful and comfortable in your own skin. Whether you've been given a mesothelioma life expectancy or have overcome mesothelioma, you'll want to feel better about yourself, both inside and on the outside. Fashion and beauty is one of the best ways to perk up both your look and your mood, and manicures and nail art will give you an instant pick-me-up. Plus, if you ask one of your family members or friends to do your manicure for you, they'll feel like they're helping out and you'll bond with them while getting beautified.

There are several styles of nail art, including airbrushing, free-style, stamping and 3D art. Airbrushing is a technique that requires plenty of practice, so it’s best to let a professional manicurist design your nails. Several colors are used to create detailed designs. Manicurists who are skilled at airbrushing will be able to use several colors for the design, while newbie’s will only use one or two colors.

Free-style nail art is popular amongst experienced nail techs or highly artistic people. Small nailbrushes are used to create miniature designs. Even novices can create their own basic free-style nail designs, like stripes or polka dots.

Stamp nail art is another option for beginners, even though some skilled nail designers use stamps to enhance their art. Stamps are simply pre-made designs that are easily applied to the nail.

Three-dimensional nail art is popular in Asian countries, and some nail techs in the U.S. use this technique as well. However, 3D nail art isn’t practical, and isn’t the best choice for daily wear.

Cancer patients undergo a tremendous amount of medical procedures, like chemotherapy and radiation, as well as a ton of stress. Improving your appearance can help to alleviate some of this stress - sometimes when people look better, they feel better too. Taking care of your nails isn't a lengthy, exhausting process. Plus, if you don't feel like you have the skill to make nail designs yourself, you can ask a close friend to help you out.

Thank you to Jackie Clark for addressing this issue! It is important for all women to feel beautiful no matter their age, situation or anything of the sort. We all have gone through a point where makeup and clothes have made us feel more confident with ourselves and moreso for cancer patients. Most importantly, if you do know someone who is diagnosed with cancer, give them a hand and make them feel beautiful for a day :)

/Linda

Glitter Gradient Snowflake Tutorial

2011-12-14T17:40:00.000+11:00

Hi all! I finally got the audio working for my video tutorial- took a while to export it, but it's done and dusted! Well, not exactly dusted, but on YT and here :) I decided to do a tutorial on the snowflake design I did as part of my Christmas designs and it's quite detailed - I thought it was too long, but I'm sure you won't mind spending 8 minutes watching a video (right?) haha. Now that I've got the settings for the video, I can go and edit that water marbling tutorial that I never ended up editing cause I didn't know how to...

Well, nevermind my troubles, I can make more videos now :) Here's the video!

So, what do you think? You might hear a mouse, but it was just silly me who forgot to mute some of the fast-forwarded bits! Anyways, hope you enjoy!

//Linda

Denim Tutorial

2011-12-13T21:08:00.000+11:00

So finally, I have a tutorial for you - got to figure out the sound problems for the video tutorial. Today's tutorial is very easy and you don't need any fancy nail art skills or anything to achieve it. You'll just need your polish and a piece of fabric!

I've made this a picture tutorial and hopefully it portrays clearly how the denim look is achieved! Enjoy!

Hopefully this was easy to understand! I'm sure you all can create a better looking one than mine! To make it look more denim like, use a matte blue :) I tried applying a thin layer of matte topcoat and it smoothed it out a bit, so I wouldn't recommend it.

If you're going to try this out, let me know! I'd love to see it :)

//Linda

Simple French with Holly Accent

2011-12-13T04:18:00.001+11:00

Hi everyone! First off, I just want to say that this is the first time in a while that I've had BOTH hands painted the same! Also, I just wanted to say how much I miss french manicures, so today, that's what I have :) This will also be a mani that I'm going to try and keep on till at least this Friday! From now till then, I will probably try and fill it with some tutorials - yay!

After all the crazy stuff I've done lately, I just wanted to have a nice and simple mani to wear for a few days and this was perfect. It's still a Christmas type of design, but not OTT. I added some (lace like looking things?) curvy lines around the smile line and painted on the holly for an accent. I asked my bf whether I should've done one nail or all and he said one, so one it is!

Enough babble, onto the pics!

The last pic is with an unusual ring that I purchased from eBay - set me back a dollar or two and although it is kind of unusual, I like it!

So finally a mani with both hands the same! I think people will stop thinking I'm the crazy girl with mismatched nails now :D Also, I'd like to let all of you know about this giveaway that ASK Cosmetics is holding. You have the chance to win their entire product line!!! How exciting :) There's also many ways to enter, so check it out here. Here's a pic of what you can win!

So what do you think? Let me know below! I shall be thinking of ways to do tutorials tomorrow - stay tuned!

//Linda

A Despicable Christmas!

2011-12-12T02:59:00.000+11:00

Okay, so today isn't exactly penguins or santa, but I do have adorable Despicable Me characters in christmas suits! I made my bf watch Despicable Me with me a couple days ago and he was really reluctant beforehand since it was 3D animation and that's not exactly his favourite type of movie.

I, however, LOVE Despicable Me! I especially love the mini movie with the banana... haha! They are too funny, so I decided to do a nail design inspired by them. I decided to make it Christmas themed, but changing the colour of their overalls and adding a paper santa hat to my ring finger hee hee hee

Here are some pics!

Ahh... they're so cute! I should've given them all hats!

What do you think? Let me know below! :)

//Linda

White Christmas Tinsel & Baubles

2011-12-11T04:47:00.001+11:00

Hi! Today I have a Christmas-y design for you! I've wanted to do something with tinsel and baubles, so this is what I came up with. Instead of having the typical green tree as a background, I decided to make it white :) It's very simple but not OTT, though I am keen on trying Santa and penguins for the next design!

Here are some pics

I had thought of using purple and blue instead, but decided to go for Christmas colours - typical me! I also added a bow for the thumb, a bell and star for the ring finger and an angel for the index finger, just to mix it up a bit!

What do you think? Let me know below!

//Linda

Christmas Nail Wheel Designs

2011-12-10T04:34:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone! I'm in the middle of putting together a video tutorial, but the audio isn't playing, so I can't upload it yet. I'm so devastated :( On the flipside, let me show you what I've been painting for Christmas! I would love to try more intricate/complicated designs, but I've been out and about and watching TV shows, so haven't gotten around to it lately.

Today will be a short post, so I'm sorry about that!

Here are some pics!

As you can see, I've already done 2 of the designs on my nails - I am looking to try other things though :)

Do you have any suggestions? Let me know!

//Linda

Copy That Copy Cat's 700 Follower Giveaway!

2011-12-08T16:56:00.001+11:00

Hi everyone!! I'm really sorry about not putting a giveaway at 500 followers like I had mentioned before, but I damn well missed that milestone when it went way over 500, so I decided to have it at 700 instead!

Honestly, I haven't bought what I wanted to giveaway yet, but I have a fair idea of what I want to have as a giveaway, so keep reading!

There will be THREE winners this time round (yay!) and there's an opportunity to win some great stuff! Again, I apologise for lack of pictures, but I will let you know exactly what you'll have the chance to win.

The prizes are as follows,

FIRST PRIZE

Because I have access to this collection (not all the colours, but majority of them), the winner of this prize will get a random selection of 4 polishes from the China Glaze OMG Collection! Keep in mind that OMG will be one of them! (Aren't you excited??)

SECOND PRIZE

I can't remember what colours I have access to specifically, but the winner of this prize will get two OPI DS polishes! I have yet to pick it out, so this will be a mystery.

THIRD PRIZE

The winner of this will get a mystery prize! I am a nail art lover, so I will probably have a random selection of nail art tools/decorations etc in this pack :)

Now for housekeeping, general rules still apply - you must be a follower of my blog, new followers very welcome! The giveaway will be open internationally and running till the 8th of January 2012.

Winners will be contacted via email and will have 48 hours to respond, otherwise I will select new winners. It'd be great for the winners of these prizes to respond asap, because I will be going interstate on the 17th and want to have them sent out before I leave.

Extra entries are available by either liking my Facebook page, or sharing the giveaway (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Tumblr etc).

Goodluck!!!

More Blue Snowflakes

2011-12-07T01:29:00.001+11:00

Hi everyone! Today I have ANOTHER snowflake design, cause I like drawing them so much! I've done a blue one today with a glitter gradient and added some hand-drawn snowflakes.

I've tried thinking of some designs for Christmas and planned them on my nail wheels, but they're not all done yet and I need to scout around for some ideas!

I also bought myself some green nail polish over the past day or two, since I don't have any nice dark greens for Christmas! I also picked up China Glaze FYI and i'll swatch them in another post :)

Now onto the nails! Here are some pics

Flash

What do you think of this mani? Do you have any suggestions for christmas designs? Let me know below!

P.S Aww dang, I only have one more follower till I reach 700! Since I missed out my 500 follower giveaway, I will set it at 700 instead!

//Linda

Sugar Snowflakes

2011-12-05T03:06:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone! After taking a short (short) break from the 31 day nail challenge, I come back with Christmas nails! I think I will be doing Christmas designs leading up till Christmas - not sure how much I'll get done then, but I'm hoping to get in as many as I can :)

Today I have a sweet sugar-like snowflake design. It's subtle and kinda reminds me of icing or somewhat of the equivalent!

I started off with 2 coats of China Glaze Moonlight and added a coat of Kleancolor Sugar Coat. I really like this on its own - sugary indeed and dreamy like.

I went ahead and added some light blue snowflakes with Essie Borrowed and Blue and a nail art brush.

I've already got some ideas planned for Christmas designs, so definitely look out for those!

What do you think of this mani? Let me know below! Also, don't forget to check my tumblr (which I haven't maintained very well appearance wise atm!) here.

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 31: Recreate Your Favourite Challenge

2011-12-03T04:27:00.000+11:00

Today's theme is recreate your favourite challenge and I haven't picked one of my own to recreate, rather I found other takers of the challenge and looked for a mani that I really liked.

The design that I chose is from The Nailasaurus. It's one that caught a lot of attention and received lots of positive feedbacks!

For those who follow The Nailasaurus, do you remember her fashion inspired (found here) design with the bullion beads? That's the one I've chosen to recreate!

I don't have good pics today. Sorry about that!

My Seche is running low, so it was difficult to apply topcoat because it was thick and it bubbled quite a bit on my thumb especially. It's a good thing you can't really tell!

I really like this mani. It's very simple but makes such a statement. I would never have thought of using bullion beads like this. Sammy is a genius!

On another note, FINALLY FINISHED! I will probably make a tab at the top so you can see everything all at once :)

What do you think? Let me know below!

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial

2011-12-02T03:15:00.001+11:00

One day left! Today's mani is inspired by the lovely Robin Moses. She has fantastic nail art and I'm amazed at how quickly she can draw too. I was trying to do this as quick as I could, but it still took long haha. Kudos to Robin!

The design I've chosen to do is this one here

It's so pretty, I wish I hadn't cut my nails short! They were getting so frustrating that I trimmed them and I am now regretting it (I couldn't hold a bowl properly when washing the dishes!). If only I had cut them tomorrow :/

Anyways, onto the pics :)

Artificial Light

Flash

Robin's one turned out really nice. I like the way mine turned out too, but some of the colours were a bit off. The fern's were meant to be pale green and mine came out fluoro looking haha! Maybe I'll try again next time :)

What do you think? Let me know below!

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 29: Inspired by the Supernatural

2011-12-01T03:19:00.000+11:00

This challenge is wearing me out! I'm almost finished and I can't wait till it's over, cause seriously, from the beginning of the challenge till now, I've been itching to try some other things that I've seen this past month!

Also, I finally took the time to change my blog around a bit! There's still some things I want to fix, but need to figure out how to do it. I'm such a web illiterate person and cannot for the life of me understand the jibberish they call HTML. What do you think of the layout/design?

Also, I've started up a tumblr (well I deleted my old account and made a new one) for my nail art. I had a suggestion from someone saying I should put my work there and I'm working on it - there's too much stuff to upload at this point! For those interested, my tumblr URL is

http://copythatcopycat.tumblr.com/

It's still very naked... only in due time shall it be jazzed up!

Today's theme is inspired by the supernatural. There were so many creatures and beings that fell under this category that it made it hard to decide. Eventually I decided on Casper the Little Ghost!

I was kind of out all day so I settled for something simple (mind you it still took long!). I'm not a cartoony nail art type, so this was a bit hard for me. I do want to get better at it though, so I will trudge and trudge :) My inspiration is Leslie - she does awesome cartoony nail art!

Shall we have a look at my mani?

My favourite is the middle finger. So sinister ;)

What do you think of this mani? Let me know below!

//Linda

Commando Chic!

2011-11-30T16:46:00.001+11:00

So I've finally done a mani in between the 31 day nail challenge! I've decided to use a polish I haven't previously used and it' name inspired this mani :)

I've used BYS Army Chic for the base and decided to do an army camouflage design. the other colours were OPI Barefoot in Trafalgar Square, Revlon Chocolate Truffle and I've mixed China Glaze Four Leaf Clover and Liquid Leather to make a darker green.

I used a dotting tool and made random squiggly lines randomly on the nail. If you try this out, don't be afraid to overlap!

Here are the pics

What do you think? Let me know below!

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 28: Inspired by a Flag

2011-11-30T03:20:00.001+11:00

I have a totally different take on today's theme! I haven't chosen a regular flag or anything like that, rather I have taken my idea from my favourite pirate anime - One Piece!

For those that don't know, One Piece is an anime about a pirate crew wanting to seek a treasure known as 'one piece' so they voyage together and come across many obstacles and battles along the way. Each character has their own flag symbol and I've selected 5 to do on my nails.

Right side up!

I think they're cute, kinda punk-ish looking from afar ;)

What do you think? Let me know below!

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 27: Inspired by an Artwork

2011-11-29T02:26:00.000+11:00

Today's theme was a killer! I had to go choose something hard and it took me ages to do, but then again, I said I would go all out for this challenge! So today's theme was inspired by an artwork. There were so many artworks running through my head and so many that I thought were going to be too difficult to do, but I decided on one - Salvador Dali's Persistence in Time/Memory!

It was hard and very time consuming, but I made it! I tried to stretch it out across all nails, so it doesn't quite match up.

Here's the painting for those who don't know it

Almost the end of the challenge! So what do you think? Let me know below!

//Linda

Colour Club Beyond the Mistletoe Collection

2011-11-28T14:54:00.001+11:00

Today is so hot, and I need to duck out to do something as well, so while I procrastinate, i'll be showing you 4/6 shades from Colour Club's Beyond the Mistletoe collection. This purchase was part of my splurge of glitters, so hopefully I can tone down a bit on that while I wait for my OPI suedes to get to me :)

The four colours I have for today are Gingerbread, Jingle Jangle, Beyond the Mistletoe and Sugarplum Fairy. Holiday Splendor looked too similar to China Glaze Atlantis for me to buy and Candy Cane, well I have a few pink glitters already (I must stop buying pink/pink-like polishes!)

Here are the swatches!

Indoor

Macro

Sunlight

Gingerbread consists of small gold, silver holo, green and pink glitters in a clear base. Formula was easy to work with and required about 3 coats for opacity. Pics show 3 coats. However, brushing over one spot numerous times will drag the glitter, so simple strokes is best. This was an interesting mix of colours and the way it sparkles in the sun is really pretty! I didn't want to settle for a standard gold glitter, so this one did the trick! It's kind of like a cookie with added spice :)

Indoors

Macro

Sunlight

Sunlight (unfocused)

Beyond the Mistletoe has an overall aquamarine (leaning green) look, consisting of small light blue, green and silver holo glitter. Formula was a tad thicker than Gingerbread, but still workable. For me, It covered well in 2 coats (pics show 2). I didn't want to wait for them to dry on my nails, because it would be much harder to remove, so my second coat was applied thicker than the initial coat. Overall, I'd say it's a pretty glitter, looks kind of similar to China Glaze He's Going in Circles in the last picture - it's also heaps sparkly in real life!

Indoors

Macro

Sunlight

Sunlight (unfocused)

Jingle Jangle consists of small medium blue and light purple/pink glitter in a clear base. Formula was similar to Gingerbread (but I think the glitters are more sparse) and reaches opacity in 3 coats. This is the only one out of the bunch that doesn't have silver holo glitter. I would've liked to see it with holo glitter though, might've been interesting.

Indoors

Macro

Sunlight

Sunlight (unfocused)

Since I'm a sucker for these kind of coloured glitters, I'd have to say this is my favourite! Probably not the most unique ever colour, but I don't have anything this colour, so my preference goes to these! Sugarplum Fairy is a mix of small light purple/pink and silver holo glitters. Formula was thicker than the rest, but it was still decent to apply. It did get a bit sticky on the second coat. Due to thickness, it reached opacity in 2 coats. This one is a major sparkly, like Beyond the Mistletoe - the photos do not do it justice!

What do you think of this collection? Do you own any of them? Let me know!

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 26: Inspired by a Pattern

2011-11-28T01:56:00.000+11:00

Hello everyone! I realised that this post was late, but by an hour or 2 so not much of a difference right? :) Today's theme is inspired by a pattern - there is so many patterns out there I didn't know what to choose. Fortunately, I remember coming across a tutorial on youtube doing celtic nails so that's exactly what I'll be doing! (not the tutorial, but celtic designs i've found on google)

I chose one main pattern to run across all fingers and another for an accent finger. It took quite a long time to do this because i drew them on roughly and then cleaned all the edges up. Here they are!

Artificial light

Flash

The remaining are under artificial light

Here's my inspiration pics

Considering these took so long, I don't want to remove it for tomorrow's theme, but then I'd be stuck doing an artwork with my non-dominant hand. Dilemma. I shall figure it out when the time comes!

What do you think of these celtic inspired nails? Let me know below!

//Linda

China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara and Marry a Millionaire

2011-11-27T22:54:00.000+11:00

Today I have swatches for 2 of the China Glaze Eye Candy collection. I only wanted two from this collection, since the others were similar or colours I didn't want. I also have 4/6 of Colour Clubs Beyond the Mistletoe collection, but i'll show that another time.

Here are the swatches!

Indoors

Macro

Sunlight

Marry a Millionaire is a clear base packed with small light and dark purple glitter and small holo (iridescent?) bar glitters. Formula is a tad thick, but goes on well, and you may end up getting stray bits of bar glitter hanging off the edge of your nail! The pictures show 2 coats (one thin and one thicker because I didn't want them to dry, making removal more difficult). Applying it thin would probably require 3 coats.

Indoor

Macro

Sunlight

Lorelei's Tiara is a clear base packed with tons of microsilver glitter and small medium blue hex glitters. Formula was thinner than MAM, but was quite dense and you could get away with one well applied coat. Pics show 2 coats just to be sure.

Do you own any glitters from this collection? Which are your favourites? Drop a comment!

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 25: Inspired by Fashion

2011-11-26T23:51:00.004+11:00

Hi everyone, I made a late post today, sorry about that! It was my boyfriend and I's 1 year and 6 months earlier this Monday, so we went to have a nice dinner and a movie :) We couldn't go earlier since we had exams and my boyfriend had work.

Anyways, back to nails! Today's theme is Fashion and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, so I went googling around for something and I came across a vintage dress pattern that I thought was bold and funky.

Here's what it looks like

And here is the original picture I took inspiration from

Also, thought I might add that I challenged myself for this - I restricted myself in regards to tools. Because I was doing this mani with my non dominant hand, I would have a hard time using brushes, so this whole mani was done with...

DOTTING TOOLS!

Yeap, that's right, I used only dotting tools for this mani - two 2 ended ones (the pic below is the 2 I used). Pretty neat huh? So for those who don't have brushes or anything like that, you can create this look with a toothpick, the end of a bobby pin or anything similar :)

What do you think? Let me know below!

//Linda

The Versatile Blogger Award

2011-11-26T03:38:00.002+11:00

Wow I'm stoked! I had 3 lovely bloggers who've nominated me for the versatile blogger award! Thank you girlies, I appreciate it very much :)

Kimberly from Nail Reflections, Jenni from Gold Speck Nails and Nory from Fierce Makeup and Nails were the ones who nominated me for the award and now I shall follow suit!

I have two simple rules I have to follow:

List 7 things about yourself.
Pass this along to 15 other bloggers that deserve this award.

What to write? Let's see

1. I like turkish delight (everyone seems to hate it!)

2. Being a designer has made me picky about type everywhere - I notice everything in newspapers and magazines etc and then rant about it to my other designer friends about how bad it is haha

3. Watermelon is my all time favourite fruit

4. If you haven't noticed, I love all things coral!

5. I really like sports but haven't really got the opportunity/people to participate with. My favourite sports include basketball and Oz tag!

6. I have a low tolerance for sweets (which is odd since I could eat infinity as a child haha). A quarter to half a bar is probably the most I can take in one sitting

7. I can't stand people who walk really slow!

These are the 15 bloggers I nominate:
Sonoma Nail Art
ER-Nails
Hautelacquer
I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous
Katrina's Nail Blog
MaD Manis
Misaya's Playground
Nail Juice
Nails and Noms
Oooh, Shinies!
Nails in Nippon
Polish Art Addiction
Through the Wormhole
Prettyfulz
Super Cute Super Easy

PS. Look out for a layout change coming soon :)

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 24: Inspired by a Book

2011-11-25T03:17:00.000+11:00

I'm really excited to show you today's theme! It has been done by other bloggers who've taken the 31 day nail challenge, but I have done a different take on it. I hope you really like this because I absolutely love it - especially under flash!

I've chosen to do the rainbow fish and all his friends. It's a rainbow galore and tad sparkly :)

I have slightly more pictures so feast your eyes!

Artificial light - wait till the flash pic shows :)

HOLO!

Here's a closeup

This is where I chose my colours from

So that's all of them, what do you think? Let me know below!

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 23: Inspired by a Movie

2011-11-24T03:09:00.001+11:00

Hi all! Today's theme is inspired by a movie and I've chosen to do one of my favourite movies of all time! Jut wanted to note that I don't usually do characters/cartoons, so this took me a fair amount of time and the shading isn't that great...

The movie I've chosen is UP!

There's barely any shadows/highlights on this, that Russell's face almost disappears into his arm! Quite a challenge, but I made it! Don't think I will be out to do any 3D-like characters anytime soon - 2D ones will do for now :)

I think tomorrow I should be able to do a tutorial for you all - I will try to make this a vid so I can add more vids to my YT account :) *i just realised what that sounded like! I won't be doing a tutorial for this look specifically, but a different one (this mani would take too long to show!).*

What do you think? (Russell's so cute :D) Let me know below!

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 22: Inspired by a Song

2011-11-23T03:37:00.001+11:00

Sorry for the delay (again). I have officially finished my exam and I am free - months of holidays for me! This extra free time means I can make all those tutorials for all you lovely readers :) How does that sound?

Today I have a mani inspired by a song. It's not a song that i've chosen - my friend suggested a song for me and any excuse for a galaxy mani is good enough for me!

Can you guess what song it is?

It's Katy Perry E.T! Here's the video. I'll show screenshots that I took inspiration from after!

Now to do a breakdown for each finger starting from my thumb

Index

Middle Finger

Ring Finger

Pinky

And altogether

What do you think? I like them :) Let me know what you think!

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 21: Inspired by a Colour

2011-11-21T00:49:00.000+11:00

Hi all! Okay, back on schedule with my nails, can't wait to do some of the themes for the remainder of this challenge!

Today's theme is 'inspired by a colour' and I had no idea what that entails, so I gathered from previous takers of the 31 day nail challenge, I would pick a colour and use the name of the polish as inspiration. I did exactly that - literally!

I've chosen 2 polishes for this mani, both from the China Glaze metro collection - can you guess already what I'm doing? If not, continue reading!

My two chosen polishes were Skyscraper and CG in the City and I chose to do a... cityscape!

Here's how it looks

Flash

Artificial Light - you can see a bit of the blue there! I should've used 2 coats instead of one. It's quite non-existent in some pics/lighting.

Flash

Flash - Eiffel tower!

Artificial Light

The polishes are very appropriate and create such a sparkly night sky! I wanted to do something Paris themed rather than just all boring rectangular buildings all the way through and I like the end result.

What do you think? Let me know below!

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 20: Water Marbled Nails

2011-11-20T03:25:00.000+11:00

Hi, this is a late post, I know - just been busy with other stuff! Todays' theme was water marbled and I didn't want to spend so much time on it, so my results aren't the best (also because the silver polish separated in particles creating jagged lines!). I saw this design here and there, so didn't grab inspiration from a particular image.

Not the best, but here goes...

Artificial light

Flash

Close up of the sparkle!

If you're wondering what these polishes are, I've used China Glaze For Audrey, Orly Fowl Play & Milani Liquid Silver - Colour Club Paris White for the base.

BTW, I have made a new addition to my blog - see the link on the top left hand corner? That's my new sponsored link! Do please check out their website for all things makeup and other products!

What do you think about this mani? It's OK for me, not the best!

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 19: Glitter Nails

2011-11-18T01:51:00.003+11:00

Hello! Today's my switcheroo mani - it was supposed to be galaxy today, but I mixed it up by accident so today I have glitter nails to show :)

I wasn't sure what to do for glitter, honestly, I thought about not painting the whole nail, cause then i'd dread taking it off, so I wanted to do something along the lines of french tips, but what then?

What I came up with something that I haven't seen around (unless you have?). I thought it was totally unique and all haha, but that's just me. We shall find out won't we?

BTW I found a better place to take pics - the kitchen! The lighting is brighter and not dull like in the room I'm always in.

Artificial light

Flash

Artificial light - You can see the gradient better here!

Artificial Light

So let me fill you in on this random design. I started with one super thick coat of OPI Absolutely Alice and then etched some hearts out with a needle when the polish was tacky (very important!). Also, did you know you can create this gradient with just Absolutely Alice only?

How?
Just a quick run down, all you need is nail polish remover! Dip a cotton bud in nail polish remover and lightly brush over the glitter to remove the colour and voila! Instant gradient nails :)

I added some sparse silver glitter to the end because AA is dense and wouldn't spread nicely. I added a tiny bit of OPI Divine Swine to the tips just cause haha. Finish with a topcoat and all done!

I hope you like this look, tell me what you think below!

//Linda

Post Office Troubles

2011-11-17T11:48:00.001+11:00

I went to the post office today to send some goodies to the winner of my giveaway, but Australia post don't send out flammables so they didn't accept the polishes for me to send :( this is odd because I've had someone from Western Australia send me a bottle, so I'm wondering how that occurred? Perhaps they sent it without going to the desk? I would do that but I'm worried they will get lost in the mail and usually we have to pay packages by weight, so in doing so, I wouldn't have to pay for weight (only the packaging itself) and that's my concern.

I'm not sure whether there are other options, but I will look into it and if there is no other option, then I either just send them out anyway or not send them at all. I'm really sorry to Freya and Denniesha (winner from my other little challenge). I just don't want you to not receive the prizes because they weren't sent properly.

Does anyone else have this problem? If you do, how do you go about it? I will contact the girls soon to let them know the situation (if they are not reading this).

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 18: Half Moon Nails

2011-11-17T02:08:00.000+11:00

Okay, so when I checked to see what today's theme was, I realised that I was excited to do galaxy nails and skipped the actual theme for yesterdays challenge - glitter. My bad! I shall do a switcheroo with it, so tomorrow's will be glitter :)

I have a reverse half moon mani to show and it's inspired by RiRi's leopard mani.

Here's what mine looks like

Artificial light

Flash

It's a bit small to see, but this is rihanna's one

I wish I had those little bows, I just had to make do with rhinestones. I was too lazy to put it on all fingers, so just did 2 accent fingers!

What do you think? Let me know below!

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 17: Galaxy Nails

2011-11-16T01:09:00.000+11:00

Hi all, today is galaxy nails! Gonna make a short post today since I really need to sleep hehe

Anyways I did a random surreal type of galaxy - pretty sure this doesn't really exist! I really like the outcome, except maybe for my thumb, that was random and I was painting with my non-dominant hand for this mani too.

Here are the pics!

This was random, but I couldn't be bothered fixing it. Lex has killer ones, omg so jealous, hers puts mine to shame!

I didn't include any pics in artificial light because they didn't turn out nice. I grabbed inspiration for 2 nails from these pics, my thumb and ring finger, though they don't totally look like them. The rest were something random I thought of hehe. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy these nails - I really like the pinky one!

What are your thoughts? Let me know!

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 16: Tribal Nails

2011-11-15T00:30:00.000+11:00

AHH halfway through the challenge! Today I have tribal nails to show you. I did grab some random inspiration from pics, but nothing copied directly - maybe modified or colour change. It took a while cause I was using my non-dominant hand this time around since I didn't want to take off my lace mani from yesterdays challenge!

Also, it's a skittle tribal :) Randomness here I come!

Artificial light

Flash

I'm gonna be picky and say that I'm sad about some of the line work :( But oh wells, good things nails are much smaller in real life and you can't tell anyway :D

BTW, here's a pic of the mad bubbling that happened on 2 fingers

Kinda gross. It happened to the thumb as well, but I had already painted over it.

Anyways, I was inspired by Supa Nails & The Illustrated Nail for these designs. You won't really see duplicates, except maybe certain features that were taken and changed. My index finger is one that was copied, but I don't remember if it's exactly the same

What do you think? Let me know your thoughts!

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 15: Delicate Print Nails

2011-11-13T23:10:00.001+11:00

I have a classy, feminine manicure for today's theme! I love lace and have always wanted to try a complicated freehand lace and well, today I have one for you! It's the same inspiration pic to one that Lex from attackedastoria did not too far back and I knew right away I had to try it. Hers is a different variation of it, whereas mine is well... an exact copy of it hehe

Ready for pics?!

Artificial Light

Flash - The thumb and middle finger is my favourite!

I love the design on my thumb! You all know what was a bummer? The detailing on this was thinner before I applied topcoat, so now it's really thick and black, but oh wells! I still like it :)

Something that disappointed me was the formula for my base polish! I used Essie Neo Whimsical and it is so sheer, watery AND drags/balds like crazy. Probably the worst of all the polishes I have.

This is my pic for inspiration

Does it look exactly the same?

What do you think? Let me know below :)

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 14: Flower Nails

2011-11-12T23:59:00.002+11:00

This turned out so much more random than I thought it would! Today is flower nails and I found a cool pic to try, only my attempt ended up looking like graffiti wall art... haha It looks nothing like flowers!

Artificial Light

Flash

pic for inspiration

Don't get me wrong, I love the colours and all, it's just I'm bummed that they don't look like flowers!

What do you think? Let me know!

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 13: Animal Print Nails

2011-11-11T23:58:00.005+11:00

Today is animal print nails! I am back full force with the challenge now that I only have one exam and I have plenty of time to study for it :)

I tried to find an unusual animal print to try and I found something! I don't know what type it is, but it's a lizard. Yes a lizard! It had an interesting pattern so I chose to do, not sure if my attempt looks like the image or not.

Artificial Light

Flash

Pic for inspiration

It was hard to capture the detail cause some of it was light coloured and it was hard to capture with flash :(

What do you think? Let me know below!

//Linda

100 Follower Giveaway Winner!

2011-11-11T23:14:00.000+11:00

Hi! I just finished typing all the names in to determine the winner and it took a helluva long time! I think i'll make it easier on myself next time by having just one entry per person!

So onto the winner of the giveaway...

Freya Dolk!

Congratulations to Freya and thank you to everyone who entered! The winner has been contacted and has 48 hours to respond, otherwise I will choose another winner. Look out for my 500 giveaway post coming soon!

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 12: Stripe Nails

2011-11-10T23:55:00.003+11:00

Hey guys, sorry for not posting yesterday. I did do my nails but didn't have the time to make a post! I have just finished the last day of the semester today! Woohoo :)

I wore something really simple since I didn't have a lot of time to make it pretty. I used OPI Excuse Moi! and added a coat of Mad As A Hatter over it. Stripes were with Art Club Black striper. They ended up looking like disco nails!

Artificial Light

Flash

Flash - so much more blingy in real life!

Time to do my animal print nails, wonder what animal I'll be doing... You sall find out soon.

PS. Winners for my 100th follower giveaway will be announced tomorrow! Thank you for being patient!!

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 11: Polka Dot Nails

2011-11-08T00:55:00.002+11:00

Today's mani is a mix.. there's stripes, but there's also dots! I didn't want to do a regular polka dot mani so I used a pic for inspiration. I've done this mani before, but never got a pic with it, so now here's my chance :)

Oh btw, the rhinestones and pearls are 'polka dots' too! :D I used Colour Club Fashion Addict for the base and Art Club black striper for the black. For the dots, I drew them on with black and white acrylic paint.

Artiicial light - it's polka dot-ish isnt it?

More pics!

Flash

My inspiration pic

What do you think? Can it pass as a polka dot mani? Let me know below! Back to uni work for me!

//Linda

OPI Muppet Glitter Swatches

2011-11-07T14:27:00.001+11:00

Hi all, just decided to post the swatches of the OPI Muppet glitters! I have all except the green one, because I didn't really want it, so I have the other 5 :) Ive swatched these on fake nails since i'm doing the challenge now and im not bothered to remove all this glitter off my nails - I don't have that much free time! (not yet anyway)

L-R
Rainbow Connection: Green, yellow, pink, teal orange & silver in large & medium hex and small glitter in a clear base
Gone Gonzo: Small light blue glitter and medium silver hex in a clear base
Divine Swine: Small purple/fuschia gliter and medium silver hex in a clear base
Gettin' Miss Piggy With it: Small red glitter and medium silver and red hex in a clear base
Excuse Moi!: Microsilver glitter with small green, yellow, pink, teal & orange in a jelly pink base

Each colour except Excuse Moi! (2 coats) required 3 coats to become opaque. Divine Swine was the most sheer of them all, followed by Gettin' Miss Piggy With It and Gone Gonzo. Quite odd since GMPWI has medium red hex which should've helped with coverage!

Which are your favs? I swear I'm on a glitter spree, all the polishes I've been adoring and purchasing are glitters! I've totally converted. haha I just found some colour club and omega labs glitters that I want too... DROOL!

/Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 10: Gradient Nails

2011-11-07T03:15:00.000+11:00

I think I found a new love! While I was thinking about something to do for gradients, I decided I wanted to use my favourite colour combination of all time - yellow, orange and pink! I wasn't sure how i'd get it to sponge on nicely since I didn't have a makeup sponge - I used a piece of material instead (gasp). Looks crap up close, but in pics you can't even tell! :D

I used China Glaze Lemon Fizz, Peachy Keen & Sugar High for these and added some line art with white acrylic paint. Ready for the pics?

Artificial Light - my skin looks really dark here, must be the yellow hmm..

The colours in the background <3

It's so summer appropriate (even though it's a couple months away, but we're already feeling the heat!), I love it!

Tell me what you think!

//Linda

Kleancolor Swatches

2011-11-06T14:48:00.002+11:00

I've been meaning to do this for a while, but haven't found the time! I couldn't swatch all these kleancolor polishes on my nails so I did them on fake nails. I have 12 colours to show today, a mix of cremes, glitters and chunky holos :)

L-R
Dark Brown,
Sheer Pastel Grey,
Pastel Teal
Neon Aqua

All except Sheer Pastel Grey were cremes, as the formula for SPG is a lot more watery. The pics show 1 coat each. The cremes were pigmented so you could get away with one coat (it'd have to be a tad thick though). The formula was great and applied easily, but the only drawback and I say this for ALL the kleancolors I have is the drying time. They take ages to dry, I'd come back after a few hours and they're still dentable. I think if you apply more VERY thin coats, it will probably dry a lot better.

L-R
Chunky Black Holo: Large & medium hex and small holo glitter in a dark brown jelly base
Chunky Holo Bluebell: Small holo glitter in a medium blue jelly base
Chunky Holo Purple: small holo glitter in a purple jelly base

These pics show the polishes over a base and on its own. Each base has 2 coats and 3 coats on their own. These polishes are very sheer so it's best to layer them. The holo pieces shift from yellow, orange and green and if you're lucky you might see a tad blue. Same deal with the previous ones, formula was great but drying time is lengthy.

L-R
Holo Chrome: Silver holo and blue glitter in a blurple jelly base
Vegas Night: Purple & blue glitter in a clear base
Midnight Seduction: Fine teal, hot pink and gold glitter packed in a clear base
Chunky Silver: Large & medium silver hex and small glitter in a clear base
Sugar Coat: Medium hex and small iridescent glitter in a clear base

Do you own any of these? What do you think of them?

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 9: Rainbow Nails

2011-11-06T00:40:00.000+11:00

HA! I have a literal rainbow design today, and it reminds me of unicorns and all things fluffy LOL. Anyways, I did my nails early today so I did get a photo in natural lighting, though it is a bit hard to see parts of the design unless it was taken under flash.

For me, rainbow calls for actual rainbows. I was going to do a french rainbow but thought nah, this would be cuter! I used China Glaze Moonlight (one of my all time favourites) for the base and then blue, green, yellow, orange, red and white acrylic paint for the details. I finished it off with a light dab of silver glitter. I had planned on using a black outline, but figured it would detract from this soft, dreamy feel.

Natural Light

Flash

Natural light

They're real cute in real life, what do you think? Let me know below!

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 8: Metallic Nails

2011-11-05T02:01:00.002+11:00

Sorry for the lack of nail art on this one, my current situation demands that I don't have enough time to do anything fancy. I seriously think i'm going to die from these assignments!

Today I have a simple chevron design. I don't have many metallics in my collections since I'm not a huge fan of them, so I settled for OPI Swimsuit...Nailed it! (I hear this is a stainer, so I used OPI What's With the Cattitude underneath. Wonder if it will help?) and China Glaze Passion. Dots were done with a fine brush dipped in black acrylic paint. Wish I could've done something else with this! Oh wells, must prioritise my time =/

Artificial light - again excuse my dry skin, I am still shedding!

Flash

Flash

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Time for bed!

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 7: Black & White Nails

2011-11-04T01:34:00.001+11:00

Exciting news today, i'll get on to the nails later! I have reached 500 followers and that means... GIVEAWAY! I won't be announcing it officially till everything has blown over, so most likely at the end of next week, where I will also be announcing the winner of my 100 follower giveaway (I don't know what I want to giveaway yet!). I'd just like to thank all of you lovely readers for your support! <3

Now onto the nails...

Today's theme is black and white and I had a fair idea of what I wanted to do, even though it was a random pattern. Kinda intense i'd say!

Artificial Light - I've used Colour Club Paris White for the base and acrylic paint for the detailing. Pretty intense eh? oh wells, more pics I say!

Auto flash

Auto Flash

Auto flash - full hand shot! Oh and don't mind that blade in the background... I was using it to cut the stitching on my project. Or was I? muahahhaha jokes :)

Manual flash - comes out brighter and not as yellowy as regular auto setting flash.

So what do you think? Let me know in the comments section!

//Linda

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 6: Violet Nails

2011-11-03T03:15:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone, super quick post today - I am absolutely swamped with work, let's leave it at that!

I was up all night just doing some book jackets for a group project and it took longer than expected so I did a simple mani for today's challenge.

I used China Glaze Urban Night and white & black acrylic paint for the bows

Artificial light

Flash

Flash

I did these on my right hand cause I didn't want to remove the tie die nails just yet! Need to 'brush up' on my less dominant hand haha

My giveaway is now closed and unfortunately I won't be announcing a winner till the end of next week - swamped with assignments for my final week of the semester! I do apologise! Hope you can all be understanding and patient :)

I must jet now, need to sleep!

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 5: Blue Nails

2011-11-02T00:31:00.001+11:00

I wasn't sure what I was gonna do for today's mani, but when I did, I was so excited - and I really love it!! Today's theme is blue nails and guess what my idea was?

Find out below!

TIE DIE NAILS! Artificial light. I've used Ulta3 Midnight Fever for the blue and Colour Club Paris White for the base. There is a tutorial for this technique on youtube - for the life of me I cannot remember who by, but from what i remember, the name had something to do with 'acid wash'. I decided to do tie die, cause well.. I ain't a fan of acid wash!

More pics! (all flash)

Btw, guess where my inspiration came from...

THESE! HAHA

In love! SO what do you think? You already know my response, tell me what you think!

PS. I think I have specified that my giveaway will be closed at 5pm EST Aus today, but i'm gonna be lenient and keep it open till midnight EST Aus (I won't be home at 5pm haha)! Don't forget to enter!!!

//Linda