A Christmas Nail Art Tutorial

So I have some more festive nails for you, and this time I've gone all out...!

These were so much fun to do and took about 45 minutes whilst listening to Christmas songs! How festive of me!

So I'll explain how I did them and hopefully you can recreate them or maybe just a couple of your favourite designs because they are actually quite simple to do when you break them down into their components. 

BIG TIP: Save the most complex designs for your left hand if you are right handed (or vice versa). Also use toothpicks for the detailed parts. Drop a blob of polish onto a piece of paper, and dip the toothpick in and paint away.

So first my left hand...

Left Hand: Penguin, Snowman, Reindeer, Santa, Holly

Penguin: 

-Painted the base black.

-Then did two careful brush strokes rounded at the top of white for the white body, and filled in the gap between them so the penguin had the round white head bits. 

-Then I painted on his teal/blue scarf with a toothpick in a dotting motion. 

-I filled in the nail tip with a black line using the polish brush. 

-Then using the toothpick, dotted on his eyes with black and his beak and feet with yellow.

Snowman:

-Painted the base a sparkly red.

-Splotched on two white circles using the polish brush

-Then I painted on his purple scarf with a toothpick in a dotting motion.

-Then I used black to dot on his buttons and eyes and mouth, and orange for his nose

Reindeer (Rudolph!)

-Painted the base white

-Painted brown polish in the half circle for the head (just use brush strokes off the nail edge for this-really easy)

-Used a toothpick to draw on his antlers with brown

-Used red glitter polish for his sparkly nose

-Dotted white circles on for the eyes using the polish brush

-Drew two black dots in the eyes with a toothpick

Santa face:

-Painted the base a nude beige.

-Painted the top half near the cuticle red.

-Splotched on in a dotting motion white polish on the hat edge of the red and around his face for his beard.

-Used a toothpick to dot on his eyes with black, and his nose with rose pink.

Holly:

-Painted the base red.

-Using a toothpick drew on the three leaves in a wavy pattern

-Dotted on red glitter polish in the middle to be the berries.

So now for my right hand... 

Right hand: Santa buckle, Santa hat, Candy cane, Christmas pudding, Christmas tree

Santa buckle:
-Painted the base red.
-Used a toothpick (the thicker end) and dotted on a black line across the nail.
-Used a metallic gold, and dotted on the buckle in a rectangle shape using a toothpick.

Santa hat:
-Painted the base metallic gold.
-Used the polish brush, and painted a triangle of red ending on the nail tip.
-Used white polish, and splotched on the hat base and white pom-pom at the top.

Candy cane:
-Painted the base green
-Used a toothpick to dot on the white candy cane shape
-Used a toothpick to dot on the red lines in the candy cane

Christmas pudding:
-Painted the base brown
-Used white polish to splotch on in a random way white drip shapes
-Used a toothpick to draw on the two leaves in a wavy pattern
-Dropped red glitter into the middle of the leaves for the berries

Christmas tree:
-Painted the base sparkly red
-Painted on a triangle with green polish, making the edges blurred (for the pine needles)
-Using a gold colour, used a toothpick to dot on the tinsel in a zigzag manner across the tree
-Using yellow polish, used a toothpick to dot on a star shape at the tree top
-Using a toothpick, dotted on red baubles on the tree


So there you have it! Christmas artwork for your fingertips!

What is your favourite design? I think mine would be either the Reindeer or the Pudding!

These have definitely put me in a more festive frame of mind. Hope you are all enjoying the lead up to Christmas!!

Christmas Nails

My nails this week have been painted very festively with my favourite Christmas nail polish...

This is OPI's Gettin' Miss Piggy With It! from the Muppets collection last year. I forgot I had it and then when looking for a festive colour it just jumped out at me. It's better than usual glitter polish because when a few layers are painted on it looks more like a metallic foil of red with silver hexagons spattered throughout. About three layers are needed for opacity, or just paint a couple over any red to ensure all the gaps are filled. 

It really looks like you are wearing sparkling rubies on your fingertips, and this nail polish has attracted more compliments over the last week than any other I own surprisingly! It's very stunning and glamorous to wear, and the perfect Christmas polish. As this polish is no longer available in retail stores, any kind of bigger glitter red polish should have a similar effect to this. 

Also in keeping with the festive spirit, I just thought I'd share with you Melbourne's big Christmas tree in the city square... isn't it pretty!? I love seeing all of the decorations in the city at the moment!

And here is my family's Christmas tree! I love it especially because all of the decorations are individualised and personal, rather than just buying a pack of baubles and chucking them all over the tree with no meaning behind each one. 

I hope all of you are enjoying your Decembers so far and feeling very festive! Lots of Christmas parties and celebrations coming up in the next few weeks, how very exciting :)

Merry first week of Christmas!

Peacock Nails

Ever wanted your nails to look like peacocks? Well they can now by following the simple steps below! It's actually much easier than it looks surprisingly.

My creative sister painted these on her fingernails and this is how she did it:

-Paint a base coat of shimmery dark blue over the whole nail

-Use a small paintbrush and paint a wide stroke of a medium green across your nail whilst still allowing the blue to be visible underneath

-Paint a thinner stroke of light green over the top

-Swirl a gold/green metallic colour over the top

-Drop a blob of yellow in a circle from the polish brush itself

-Drop a smaller drop of the light green inside the yellow circle

-Drop the smallest drop of dark blue in the middle of both circles (the colour you used for the base)

-Finish by painting a glitter top coat over the top of it all

And voila, there you have it! These are sure to attract a lot of compliments and attention, just like the bird itself!

See the picture down below for the exact colours of polish used for this design.

L-R: OPI's It Colour, OPI's Just Spotted the Lizard, Illamasqua's Nomad, OPI's Unfor Greta Bly Blue, OPI's Did It On Em, OPI's Metallic 4 Life

So what do you think of these nails? Isn't my sister a clever cat? 

OPI 'The Top Ten' Gift Pack Review

What an incredibly clever gift pack for OPI to bring out right before Christmas. Their top polish colours ever, all wrapped up nicely for the price of two big OPI polishes? Yes please!!!

If ever there was a way to quickly expand your nail polish collection... this is it! And who ever gets through a whole big polish bottle anyway? Now I think about it all of mine have gone gunky before I could use the bottom dregs anyway. So this is a great investment, and a brilliant Christmas gift idea.

We bought this gift pack as a congratulations for finishing uni present for my sister. She has posed as the hand model to demonstrate all of the colours below. The red and brown full polished hands pictured further down are my own, because those were the two colours I hadn't tried anything like before, so I was excited to wear them.

Left hand L-R: Alpine Snow, Kiss Me On My Tulips, Tickle Me France-y, Big Apple Red, Vamsterdam.
Right hand L-R: You Don't Know Jacques!, Bubble Bath, Lincoln Park After Dark, Red Lights Ahead...Where?, I'm Not Really A Waitress.

See order above

Alpine Snow: We already owned a mini from another gift pack and a large of this colour. It is a great plain white, but I don’t know of many people who just wear plain white on their nails. I suggest it would make a great French manicure tip, base for a neon or bold polish to make it pop/opaque, or to layer glitter over the top. Kind of reminds be of painting my nails with white out at school though… not so classy now ay?

Bubble Bath: A pretty perfect sheer pale pink, that needs at least three coats to look nice on it’s own. Or it performs brilliantly as a French manicure pink. Makes you feel girly, pretty and classy when wearing this on your fingertips!

Tickle Me France-y: I feel this colour is the let down of the pack. It’s a neutral brown-pink, that’s kind of a nothingy colour. It’s an ugly pink or a pretty blargh brown really.

Kiss Me On My Tulips: A beautiful bright and Barbie doll pink. Perfectly opaque and creamy, and is a great Spring/Summer colour. Gorgeous colour.

Red Lights Ahead…Where?: This is a nice opaque red with slight orange/yellow undertones, but it’s not for me. I already know with my pink undertones and fair skin that this will not suit me at all. However it looks gorgeous on my olive skinned, yellow undertone sister. Extraordinarily bright, it really makes a nail statement.

Big Apple Red: Now this is the kind of red that will suit me! This is a blue based red without a hint of orange/yellow. This is also a bright red but a bit more subdued that the previous red, as the blue base tones it down slightly. This colour reminds me of Frenchy/nautical outfits, and I can’t wait to wear it with a white and navy striped top!

I’m Not Really a Waitress: This is a Snow White-esque, metallic divine red. Absolutely amazing, and I’m not even a red nail fan. Shines like no other polish before, and looks so mesmerizing and magical on. A great festive choice!

How Snow White is this!? Love it!

You Don’t Know Jacques!: I’m not a huge brown nail fan, but this one is a nice brown. A taupe, creamy mid-tone brown.

Vampsterdam: Gorgeous, sexy, intruiging. It’s a dark, purple metallic colour that looks incredibly magical.

Lincoln Park After Dark: Extremely dark purple colour that is basically black, but without the harsh black gothic edge. More flattering. Wish it looked more similar to how it does in the bottle though.

L-R: Alpine Snow, Kiss Me On My Tulips, Tickle Me France-y, Big Apple Red, Vamsterdam.

L-R: You Don't Know Jacques!, Bubble Bath, Lincoln Park After Dark, Red Lights Ahead...Where?, I'm Not Really A Waitress.

And there you have it! This gift pack was $39.95 from David Jones (can also buy them from Myer in different packaging).

So what do you think? Do you like the colours in this gift pack? What is your favourite? 

If you want to take a look at some of OPI's many other great gift packs, check out my reviews here.

October Favourites 2012

Now that October has ended, it's time for a rehash of my favourites for the month!

Beauty Favourites...

Beauty

– Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua foundation (in the colour Beige Rose 10)

I purchased this foundation a few weeks ago after all of the hype about it inspired me to get my hands on it. I’ll do a full review of this soon, but I will say it has a gorgeous finish and is so luminous and gorgeous on the skin. It seems to even get better on my skin as the day progresses somehow! It's a great every day foundation, and I'm really happy with it so far.

Nails

–Essie’s Boxer Shorts

Without flash

With flash

This polish was purchased online because it’s not available in Australia for some reason. Boxer Shorts is a bluey purple creamy polish, that looks different in different lights. I was convinced it was blue until everyone said it was purple and then I’ve felt confused ever since! It’s so gorgeous on every skin tone and it is a really pretty, happy colour. I think it’s hopped into my top five nail polishes of all time already! I just love it more than most polishes I’ve tried ever.

Skincare/Bodycare

– Dior One Essential Skin Boosting Super Serum

This is just incredible. Goes on after toning and before moisturising (I do it at night before bed). It just leaves my skin baby soft and it looks so glowing and fresh in the morning after I’ve used it. You know how sometimes your skin feels a bit rougher and you can sometimes feel tiny little bumps on your forehead caused by dehydration? This completely wipes them out and rehydrates your skin, leaving it softer and smoother than ever.

General Favourites...

Food

- Sweet and Salty Popcorn (Coles brand)

Source

I don’t even like popcorn, but I love this. This is actually addictive. My friend brought it over and was like Kate you will love this. I initially was disbelieving as I never eat popcorn because to me it tastes boring, but this is something special. The salty sweet thing just works, and creates a dream team of flavor that is unbeatable in my opinion. Perfect for movie nights and a relatively healthier snack if you feel like junk food.

TV Show

– The Vampire Diaries

Source

This show has escalated so fast up the line of my favourite shows that it’s jumped into my absolute best top favourites. And keep in mind I watch an insane amount of TV shows! To be honest it seemed stupid before I watched it, but after a few episodes I was addicted to the drama, the thrill, the characters and the romance. The best romance ever, mind you. I LOVE DAMON! If you watch it let me know who you are rooting for Elena to end up with! If you don't watch it, then start now. You won't be sorry.

DVD

– Man on Fire

Source

Source

I wanted to watch this movie because my friend said the film Taken ripped the idea off from this film. It was very similar, but as a whole I preferred Taken as I just love that film. But this was still really good, but kind of dark and depressing and a bit slow in parts (which Taken is definitely not!). 

I feel that this film's iconic status can basically be attributed to the littlest actor in the film - Dakota Fanning. She is an absolute star and she acts better than most adults I've ever seen. When she acted scared or worried or anything in the film I felt like my heart was being ripped out and felt like crying! Look how cute her little face is in that picture above awww! After watching it I googled Dakota Fanning's other films, and put them all on my list of must see films! She made this film.

Film

- Argo

Source

I saw this recently as my boyfriend picked it as our movie choice, and it was actually amazing (good choice Rich!). It's based on a true story where Iran takes some American hostages and it centres around the CIA's elaborate and crazy plan to smuggle them out unnoticed. They do this under the guise of filming a (fake) Hollywood movie, and the plan is just so crazy it might actually work... see it to find out what happens! It's full of thriller, on the edge of your seat moments, with humour and drama too. Ben Affleck directed, produced and was the lead actor in this film, and I think he did mighty well!

Clothing

– Black lace peplum top from Portmans

This top is amazing for many reasons. It’s feminine and girly and pretty, and the sheer lace up the top looks so lovely. It’s so flattering as black is slimming, it cinches in at the waist and slightly flares out into a peplum design over my stomach. But it’s very subtle for a peplum which I like. It looks great over a skirt or jeans and is very office or just general life appropriate.

Jewellery

– Rose gold and silver coin pendant necklace from Mocha

My lovely auntie bought this for me as a present and I just love it! I wear it almost every day and it goes with everything. I love rose gold teamed with silver, and the design is so pretty. The necklace feels nice and sturdy and really good quality whilst still having a delicate chain. I just love this necklace so much and it goes with everything in my wardrobe.

Item

- Glasshouse Christmas Party candle 

I recently posted about this candle in my Christmas haul. It has made my whole room smell like Christmas and the smell is just so incredibly festive and delicious and such a pleasure to my nose. It has an orange/ginger/nutmeg/sweet spicy smell. Pick it up before it all sells out because it is a limited addition!

So there you have my October favourites! Hope you all had a great October and Halloween, and if you are in Melbourne that you are enjoying the racing season and Spring! 

Hope your November has started off well :) I've got a four day weekend ahead of me so I am incredibly happy! xx