Chinese New Year 2012

I recently entered a competition to do a nail art design for Chinese New Year. We were told that even though it is the year of the dragon it could be anything to do with Chinese New Year. I decided to do some cherry blossom and some Chinese symbols.
I used 'Miss Sporty 150' red for the red base coat, then the branches for the blossom was done in Nubar 'Noir'. I used a striper brush to draw the branches onto the nail.
The cherry blossom was done using Orly Instant Artist 'Pink Pastel' and a dotting tool to do the three dots of the blossom, then using Nubar nail art striper 'Basic White' I put a dot in the middle of each blossom.
I decide to put two Chinese symbols on the nails to help break up the red. I put a Dragon symbol on one to symbolise the year of the dragon. I then thought it might be nice to put the symbol for the Ox which is from the year I was born.
Altogether I think the design works well, and has the effect that I was looking for.

Simple but effective!

Pink and Green Marble Art

I decided to try my hand at marble art this week and was very impressed with it. Marble art is so easy to do and you can get some brilliant results from it. I decided to use Nubar 'Amazon Coral' and 'Pink Lily', Solutions 'French White' and 'Miss Sporty 150'. I took it in turns to put a drop of each colour into a tub of cold water. I alternated the colours until I had what looked like a bullseye of colours.Then with a cocktail stick I gently pulled the paint from the outside in. I done this several times until it made like a flower shape.

Then once I had the desired effect I put my nail into the water and kept it at the bottom of the water. With my other hand I used my cocktail stick to peel the polish off the top of the water. It should make like a skin on the top so is easy to pick up. Once the polish has been taken off the nail can be taken out of the water. Once the nail had fully dried I put a topcoat on and it just made it shine. I was really pleased with the end result and because I had done it on a nail stick and had put no base colour on first, it made it a little bit transparent which I like.

I also tried the same effect using different colours. These would be great for near Christmas time. Again I used the 'French White' and 'Miss Sporty 150'. I also used Orly 'Luxe' and 'Miss Sporty 346'.  

I used them in exactly the same way as before and the end result is below.

Halloween Nails

For halloween this year I thought I would try and do something different. I thought that instead of doing the traditional thing of doing all your nails in one design I would alternate the designs. I went for pumpkins and cobwebs this year as I thought it would be quick and simple. I was so wrong. As long as I only do nail art on my left hand I'm ok.

I started by putting a base coat of the Gelicure in Black. I done the Gelicure as I would normally which means when I put the nail art on, it will be easy to wipe it off the nail and still leave the black on the nail. To do the nail art I used the Orly Instant Artist Orange Peel Water-Based Nail Art Striper, Nubar White Nail Art Striper, and their Silver Glitter Striper.

With the cobwebs I did them in white, and then done the silver glitter over the top of the white. This just makes it sparkle and gives it that edge. You might be able to see this effect in the picture on the right.

The pumpkins were done with dotters as I found it easier this way, rather than using the striper brush.

Crackle Glaze By China Glaze

I love the colours in the China Glaze Crackle range. I have so far purchased 6 of the 12 or so colours that are available in the Crackle Glaze range. The polishes in the picture are: Broken Hearted (pink), Crushed Candy (teal green), Lightning Bolt (white), Black Mesh (black), Platinum Pieces (silver), and Fault Line (purple). Other colours are available.

The crackle effect is so easy to create and can be done in the matter of a few easy steps. All you need to do apply a base colour. This can be any make and any colour, as long as you don't choose the same colour as the Crackle Glaze you want to put on top. Once that colour has dried you apply the crackle.

The way the polish cracks depends on how it is applied, which makes it unique and fun. If you apply the polish to the nail thinly then the cracks will be small and there will be lots of them. If you apply the polish thicker then the cracks will be bigger and there will be less of them. Also depending on what direction you paint the polish onto the nail, will depend on which way the cracks will go.

Once the Crackle Glaze has dried a topcoat needs to be applied to help the polish stay on longer, and give it a shine.

I am really liking these at the minute and they look great on your toes as well as fingers. They also last longer on the toes.

The crackle effect would also look good during Halloween, especially with the Glow in the dark under the crackle glaze. 

China Glaze Glow In The Dark Polish

For the Halloween season China Glaze have brought out their Halloween collection. One of them polishes being 'Goulish Glow'. This polish can be put either straight onto the nails, or ontop of a nail polish.

When applied the polish goes on clear and unless you tell somebody nobody would know your wearing it. Because it only glows in the dark it uses the light to charge up, so when it gets dark it glows really bright.

This polish was the first to sell out at work, though most of them were bought by staff, rather then customers.

If you are looking for a polish for Halloween this is the one to get. Another way of wearing the polish is this. Put a halloween colour on like green or red or orange, then put the 'Goulish Glow' ontop. To make it extra scary put the China Glaze 'Black Mesh' Crackle Glaze on that. This means that in the dark you should see the polish glowing through the cracks.

The other good thing with it being Halloween is you can try lots of different things, and then put the glow in the dark on top for an added effect.

Gelicure Sparkler

I got 5 of the 12 new Gelicure glitter colours today, and have been so excited about trying them.

I decided for my first set I was going to use the 'Sparkler' gel polish, but thought I would make it a little bit different by trying the current trend of doing your ring fingers a different colour to the rest. I thought I would put the 'Sparkler' on the ring fingers with 'Magenta Fire Flower' on the others.

The new Gelicure glitters are really good either on their own, or you could put a colour underneath to give the colour more depth. With the 'Sparkler' I chose to use 'Gelicure White', and 'Gelicure Bois De Rose' under the 'Magenta Fire Flower.
The glitter gel needed about 3 coats on each nail, and I did find that sometimes when I paint the polish on it takes some of the glitter off so alot of patience was needed.

The end result was a lovely shiny and glittery colour. The 'Sparkler' gel shows up really nicely as it has both small and big glitter in it, as you may be able to see in the picture. It is so easy with these colours to be able to create stunning nails, that will get alot of attention.

The new glitter gels all cure in the same amount of time as the previous colours, and still have the same effect. They are the same price (and in my opinion) the same quality as the other colours they have in the Gelicure range. I think that after trying these I am going to have to invest in the other colours, as I know that my friends are going to want these doing ready for christmas! The fact aswell that these last up to 3 weeks is just an added bonus really.

Gellux

Hi everyone hope you are all ok. I was given two Gellux Gel Polishes to try from work, so we could see what it is like. Gellux works the same as Gelicure but is a cheaper brand. I was given a Fast Bond primer, a Clear Base/Top Coat and the two colours (Berry Smoothie and Jades A Gem). 

The only worry/concern I had with the Gellux is that the top/base coat is in the same bottle. This means that the base coat is shiny after it is cured, which gives the gel nothing to adhere to. But I needed to try it anyway so I could compare it to the Gelicure I already use.

The Gellux like the Gelicure cures in 2 minutes or 30 seconds in a LED lamp. I chose to do them under my LED lamp which is the same make/brand as the Gellux gels.

After applying the polish I was abit disappointed. The colours were really nice especially the green. Even though you can't see it in the pic it does actually have a slight glitter effect to it. Though saying that you have to look really closely to see it once it is applied to the nail.

Also after curing the gel for the recommended 30 seconds I was finding that it wasn't long enough. I ended up curing them for nearly the 2 minutes and still found they weren't quite cured enough, and ended up with the pink and green on my top coat brush.

Saying all that the gel colours did look very good.

The Gellux is meant to be a 14 day manicure. Mine lasted a couple of days, and it started to bubble. I showed a colleague who was also testing the Gellux, who was also having the same trouble. When I took the bubbled gel off the gel layer underneath was still wet and tacky. This meant that it was terrible to get off. I decided that night to take them off and do them again. I mean maybe I got something wrong. I manged to peel the gel off which took me 5/10 minutes if that. Normally you soak them off, which doing it this way did save my remover so that was good. 

I have got to say that even though this brand is cheaper then the Gelicure I thought it would be better then what it was. I will try another day something different and see if that helps keep them on longer. 

Wish me luck!   


*UPDATE*

I recently got the chance to try again with the Gellux, but this time I would be having the rep from the company put it on me instead. I thought this would be worth a go as maybe it was something I was doing wrong.
The Gellux they put on my nails was 'Spring Green' and was a very khaki green colour.
The gel didn't bubble/peel off or lift in any way. In fact the Gellux was on my nails for about 2 weeks before I thought I should change it. This is when the problem occured. It WOULDN'T come off! It took just over an hour of soaking them in acetone and pure chipping at them to get them off.

What I have found out is with the Gellux you either can't get it to stay on, or you can't get it off!