Tutorial: Neutral leopard print

Here is my latest NOTD. Having to keep it tame for work so I like to think of it as subtle leopard print.  It's so simple to do yet I got lots of compliments so I thought I may as well do a step by step guide despite the fact that you have probably seen it 1000+ times before :)  Trust me, anyone can do this!

All you need is three things. A base colour, a nail art pen (or fine paintbrush and top colour) and a clear top coat. I used Essie's Chinchilly as my base coat which is a lovely greige! For the leopard pattern i whipped out my trusty Sally Hansen nail art pen in black (don't know what I would do without it)I finished it all off with my favourite Chanel top coat. Viola.

All you do is apply the base coat and wait for it to dry. On top of that draw leopard spots (or attempt to like me) I embraced the messy spots! Apply the clear top coat and you are done.

Rawr!  Told you it was easy!

Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday :)

(Also I have a GREAT tutorial heading your direction so watch out)

NOTD + Tutorial - Basketcase nails

Hey Dolls, 

You may or may not already know I am completely obsessed with WAH nails. As usual I was browsing the WAH site for inspiration and came across this pattern called 'basketcase' and had to try it. If you are bored and want nail inspiration I definitely suggest you check it out, they have amazing designs. Come to Australia WAH!

The original pictures I saw were in black and white but I decided to use pinky purpley colours. This would looks amazing in any colours, black and gold is my what I'm thinking next time. As usual my attempt is a bit dodgey and needs work but I love it! The design was relatively easy although as usual my right hand is not quite perfect. Hope that you like it!

Here is a step by step tutorial on how to get this pattern...

All you need two colours. A base colour and a colour for the stripes. You can either use a nail art polish or pen or alternatively you can buy a fine paintbrush and use any nail polish.

The first step is to simply paint your nails with the base colour. I used Revlon's Lilac Pastelle.

Once the base coat has dried completely draw a thin diagonal line with the nail art polish from the bottom corner to the opposite top corner.

Then continue to draw parallel thin lines to fill in the bottom section.

Next is to paint a diagonal line in the opposite direction and fill in the section section of the nail.

The final step is to fill in the top section of the nail with horizontal lines. Follow this with a clear top coat and you are done!

Here here we have the finished result. Trust me it's not too hard.

 If you love it, give it a go.


:)

NOTD: Wild Berry

Good Afternoon gorgeous girlies, 

I am currently sporting this brand new polish which is Wild Berry by Ulta3. Yes the name of this nail polish is Wild Berry... personally I don't think it hits the spot but name aside I like this polish. It's a blue based grey which applied beautifully. It was smooth and just needed two coats. It's a wintery kind of colour so perfect for this time of year and unfortunately especially appropriate today where the weather is miserable. It's one of those non black colours which I love and need more of in my life! I find it has a bit warmth to it which is flattering and I have even managed to rack up some compliments so go Wild Berry!

What is currently on your tips? 

I am planning on a bit of a nail polish shopping spree soon so would love your suggestions on some new colours to get!

:)

NOTD: Karpati Dito nail polish

This is the latest nail polish to join my collection. I found it buried in a discounted bin and had to have it! Admittedly I bought it for the bottle rather than the colour. I have never really seen anything like this before and couldn't resist giving it a whirl. It's by an Australian brand Karpati and the colour is in Lily Crown. 

As great as the packaging looks it does have it's faults; once you open it you can't put it down, the brush and handle is not long enough, the lid doesn't screw on very tightly and the solid packaging colour makes it hard to see that actual colour of the polish. 

I have never come across this brand before, after doing some research on their website (and being bombarded with  an unnecessary amount pictures of the founder!) I found out that their nail polishes are free of unnecessary chemicals including toluene, formaldehyde and Dibutyl Phthalate, which is a big plus however the nail polish itself was rubbish. It may have something to do with the pale colour but it was thin and runny and I needed way to many coats to get a decent result. 

 

This was the only colour left but I would be interested in trying some of the other colours in the range if I came across them but there is no way I would pay $22 for them. Props for creating a safe nail polish in a unique bottle which differentiates itself in the market but I think there needs to be a lot of tweaks to make this polish worthwhile. 

What are your thoughts on this style bottle? Have you used one like this before?

x Imogen 

NOTD: No Room for the Blues

Happy Sunday everyone,

I love this blue! It's OPI's No Room for the Blues. A great spring colour or in my case a great shade to add  pop of colour to a miserable winter day. I have got a few of my friends onto this colour and think it looked great on all of them regardless of skin tone.

It's an amazing formula which applies like a dream, is completely opaque at 2 coats, no streaks  and lasts a long time without chipping. I really don't have any complaints apart from it doesn't match all my outfits!

Plus it has a great name!

What are you currently rocking on your nails??

Neon Nail Polish tip

Here is a quick neon polish tip. I like to apply a coat or 2 of white polish underneath neon nail polishes to make them brighter and more opaque. Often I find neon polishes watery and thin so you need to apply a few coats but applying white underneath makes it so you need apply less coats.  Plus it makes the neon polish appear brighter!

The nail on the left has 1 coat of white polish followed by 1 coat of Essie's Knockout Pout whereas the nail on the right only has 2 coats of Knockout Pout. 

Easy Peasy!

NOTD: Stripey Nails

Good Morning everyone!

So I am sick again so I haven't been wearing any makeup lately so I'm back with another nail polish post. 

Being cooped up inside made me restless so I decided to jump on the nail art bandwagon by copying a WAH design. I love WAH nails and their blog is one of my favourite places to browse and get inspiration. Here is the design I ripped off.

I think I need to practice for a month straight to get to WAH level!

To create these babies I used Sticky Tape, Essie Tart Deco, Essie Van D'go, Ulta3 Lily White, Chanel Laque Brillance Extreme, Sally Hansen Nail art pen in black. 

It was a bit fiddly but I had fun doing it. My right hand is a bit dodge, straight lines are hard with your left hand! 

I am definitely going to track down some of the Model's Own & WAH nail art pens, has anyone tried them??

Happy Friday

Imogen x

NOTD: Neo Whimsical

Good Afternoon lovelies, 

This has been my NOTD for the past week or so which is a long time for me! It's Essie's Neo Whimsical from the Art of Spring Collection and like all this other colours from this collection this one's a winner too.

I loooove this colour. It's a beautiful pastel pink shade with a hint of lilac and totally up my alley. It is a bit more pinky toned than the shows, for some reason it looks quite lilac in the picture. I think this is a great colour for pale skin tones.

It is a bit difficult to apply and it did require 3 coats. However I don't mind because I love the colour and think it's worth it plus with a coat of Seche Vite it lasts for ages.

x

Aztec Inspired NOTD

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Hi Beauties,

I have seen lots of gorgeous Aztec inspired nails all over the place lately so I decided to jump on the bandwagon and here is what I ended up with..

I had a lot fun doing it but my thumb was as far as I was going. I have nowhere near enough patience or skill to do my other fingers that's for sure. It was actually reasonably easy and I am really happy with the finished product. When I have a bit of spare time I will definitely sit down and have another play around and see what I come up with.

Anyway if you are curious how I did it the instructions are just below :)

Here is what I used; 
Essie Lilacism

Ulta3 Spring Fling

Ulta 3 Lily White

Essie Lapis of Luxury

Seche Vite

Sally Hansen Black nail art pen

Sticky tape

1. I started off by cutting the sticky tape into small strips and stuck them on my nail creating stripes, with 2 sections of my nail showing and 2 not. I painted the gaps between the tape, one gap with Lilacism and the other with Lapis of Luxury 

2. After waiting for them to dry I peeled off the tape and painted the remaining two stripes on my nail another 2 colours - Spring Fling and Lily White

3. After that dried I used the black Sally Hansen nail art pen to draw the patterns over the nail, this is where you can let your creative side out and do whatever you please!

4. I simply let that dry and applied a layer of Seche Vite over the top to stop the pen from smudging

5. I then painted the rest of my nails with Spring Fling

And there we have it. Pretty simple as long as you have a bit of spare time hanging about.

Have a lovely day!

Nail tutorial - Gold & Silver Leopard

Seeing as I'm going through a bit of a leopard print phase I thought I would have a crack at gold and silver leopard print. I think it's kind of cute so I thought I would show everyone step by step how I did it.

So here is how I got this result...

It was surprisingly simple to do and I used; Ulta3 polish in Antique Copper, Ulta3 polish in Silver Grey, Seche Vite, Black nail art pen and a thin paintbrush.

I started of by applying 2 coats of the gold colour for the base & let it dry completely.

Then using the paintbrush I used the silver polish to paint small random spots & shapes on each nail. It was really hard to capture the silver on the gold but hopefully these pics give you the general idea.

Next I outlined the silver spots with the black nail art pen. I wasn't too fussed being to precise so I just roughly went around the edges. Once the nail pen dried I applied a coat of Seche Vite. Make sure the nail art pen is compelety dry or you will smudge it like me. Patience is not my strength!

And that is it. Done and done

 

Hope everyone is having a great weekend and doing very productive things like painting their nails!

:)

NOTD: Coney Island Cotton Candy

I have had this nail polish for quite a while and have finally got around to wearing it. I must say I quite like it. I usually go for brighter or darker colours so this is a nice change. I actually bought it with a job interview in mind but never got around to using it. I think it would be a great interview colour, it looks polished and not to over the top.

It's a really pretty sheer pinky pinky nude but it is really high maintenance! I needed 3 coats to get an opaque colour and I had to apply each coat carefully to avoid streaking. The first coat was so sheer and boring that I thought it would not work but it did. It was an effort to apply but now that it's finished I think it may be worth it

I think this colour would look better on a different skin tone to mine but I like it anyway. It's a very clean & simple color. I think I may be a nude nail convert, at least for this week anyway :P 

Are you a fan of nude nails?

Imogen x

Orly Mini Mania

 ..

Happy Monday everyone :)

I'm going through a massive mini nail polish phase. I am a fan of Orly polishes anyway but can't get enough of these mini bottles. I'm such a sucker the teeny cute bottles!

I think mini nail polishes are a great idea; they don't dry up, are super affordable, take up less space and I don't feel guilty about adding to my collection! I don't know about you but it's really rare that I actually finish a nail polish. I am always wanting to try new colours and have only ever really finished few bottles of my all time favourite colours.

Life's a peach, Orange Sorbet, Holla, Lola, Haute Red, Ruby & Chocolate Martini 

I picked these up at a few different shop over the past few weeks and they were ridiculously cheap. I have only worn Life's a peach so far and loved it. Think i will definitely be picking up more of these babies.

Do you like the idea of smaller bottles?

Step by step NOTD

Hello lovely readers, 

This post was completely inspired by the gorgeous Saskia the Style Fairy. She did a post the other day showing her nails she got done at WAH Nails and I fell in love. I can't get enough of WAH Nails so thought I would give it a go at trying to recreate her fantastic nails. 

It's just a black matte nail with glossy black dots. It's not a brilliant job but i had fun doing it! 

If you're interested in how I did my (somewhat shonky) version keep reading...

All i used was a black nail polish, a matte top coat and a black nail art pen

I started off by applying the plain black polish. 

After that dried I applied one coat of the Rimmel Matte finish top coat. This is a new purchase and the first time I used it. It's pretty cool. Easy to apply and dried really quickly. Going to have fun with this product, especially in winter!

I then used my black nail art pen to draw on small dots. Alternatively you could use a clear top coat or polish (which would probably be easier) but I didn't have a paint brush to paint on small enough even dots so I just used the pen. 

Wait for it to dry and that is it. Super easy and pretty nice if you ask me :)

xx

Fresh start

This is my afternoon - a polish change and a trashy magazine yay! I just bought the Rimmel matte topcoat and am itching to try it so expect a matte NOTD v. soon! Has anyone tried it yet?

xx

NOTD: Midnight Affair

Hi everyone!

Here is a quick NOTD. It's Revlon's Midnight Affair. After being impressed with a few Revlon polishes, particularly lilac pastelle and tropical temptation, i thought I would expand my Revlon collection this being one of the latest. 

It's a nice dark blue shade which I like but don't love. In most light I find it appears basically  black. However when it is in the right light it does look like a really gorgeous shiny dark blue. It is a nice dark polish and a welcome change from black.

It's not shimmery like it appear in the bottle which is good as i didn't really want any shimmer to show up. I definitely needed two coats to get a fully opaque nail but found it applied really easily and smoothly which deserves a big thumbs up as I am hopeless at applying dark colour polishes!

Let me know if you like Revlon polishes and what your fav is, I would love to know

x

Glitter Leopard

I got a bit adventurous with the nails today - Glitter leopard. I have been putting of an assignment I have like crazy and this is what I managed to do instead. Very productive I think :p

The photos don't quite do them justice. The leopard print does stand out more in real life and they are pretty sparkly which you can't quite tell in these pictures.  

Here is what I used to create these babies.

It was super easy, here's what I did it;

♥ I started off by applying my Orly base coat

♥ I then applied 2 coats of Essie's Playa Del Platnium (which is a really nice greige)

♥ I then used my Sally Hansen nail art pen and attempted (very dodgely) to create a leopard print pattern.

♥ Ove the top I applied a cheap glitter polish by BYS in silver over the top. The glitter layer works really well at it sort of disguises the leopard print if you have done a bad job like me, especially on my right hand. Next time I would use glitter with a thinner consistency as it covered up the leopard a bit more than I would have liked.

That's it! I was suprised with the amount of compliments I got about them today.  I want to do gold toned glitter leopard next time. I think that would be awesome.

Not long until the weekend, yay :)