Category Archives: Nail Art

The Lazy 15: Favourite Disney Character

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Hullo there. Am running horribly late with my Lazy 15 posts (and manicures!). Work has just been a little too all-absorbing lately. Anyway, enough of the excuses and on with the post. Today’s manicure theme…well, actually it was last Wednesday’s theme (oops)…is Favourite Disney Character.

Now I think my mind must be a little too literal because this one had me stumped. I delayed doing it largely because I decided that it was too hard for my limited abilities. And well, yes it is but it was only after chatting with a dear friend and fellow polish addict on the weekend that I decided that vague up my interpretation a little.

I give you my interpretation of the Cheshire Cat:)

Cheshire Cat Manicure

Sorry in advance for the dry cuticles – not my best. taking my lead from thsee images of the Disney version of the Cheshire Cat: http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/pictures/cheshire-cat-pictures.html I attempted to match polishes to the colours in the images. Holding up a nail art swatch stick to a computer screen wasn’t going to provide a perfect match but it is hopefully close enough.

So I used Illamasqua Jan as a base and that’s the colour on the tips of my nails. I then taped across my nails and applied the mauve stripes which was Illamasqua Velocity. I then applied tape across my tips and applied China Glaze Under the Boardwalk with a fine nail art brush in between the tape and the stripes of Velocity. the freehanding of the hot pink was a bit interesting. I’m amazed at how some people can get the most detailed art work on their nails because I can barely paint in a straight line!:) Anyway, once that was dry enough I applied crescent shapes of white stripping polish and then bordered that with black to depict the Cheshire Cat’s massive, mischievous grin. I then applied Seche Vita to the lot.

xx

Please check out the posts of the other lovely lacquerheads taking part in The Lazy 15.

The Lazy 15: Dessert Nails

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Hullo again. And I’m a wee bit late this Lazy 15 post but still, better late than never. Monday’s theme was dessert nails. And I should add – please forgive the quality of the pics as I managed to flatten the batteries on our camera having only just replaced them (argh) so I had to take these shots using the iPad.

This post is going to be the perfect example of my imagination outstripping my nail art skills. I had envisaged macarons as my dessert nails. And what better polish to represent macarons than the delightful Les Desserts d’Antoinette collection by Lime Crime. So starting with a base colour of Lavendairy I daubed five of the six other colours of the collection in vague, wee macaron-like shapes on each nail. From left to right, the colours are Pastelchio, Peaches Cream, Crema di Limon, Once in a Blue Mousse and Milky Ways.

Macaron Nails

Macaron Nails

Macaron Nails

As you can see I outlined each ‘macaron’ with black stripping polish and then a strip of white stripping polish to represent the mascarpone filling.

Of course as soon as I first thought of what to do I knew my nail art skills, or lack there of, would be an issue so, like a good Lacquerhead, I had a back up-plan. I give you my Fairy Bread Mani.

Fairy Bread Nails

Yes that really is Hundreds and Thousands stuck onto my ring finger. I have a horrible suspicion that Fairy Bread may not be something that translates outside of Australia but here it’s a standard food at children’s parties. Not unlike my mani, Fairy Bread really is just slices of the softest, most nutritiously-lacking-in-substance sliced bread you can find, slapped with margarine or butter and then sprinkled with Hundreds and Thousands. Simple tooth decay in seconds:)

And in totally unrelated news I take delivery of a Thermomix tonight so this weekend I am actually going to try and make Macarons for the first time ever. It could and quite possibly will be a completdisaster. Stay tuned:)

Have you been tempted by Lime Crime polishes? Have they had previous collections beyond the Les Desserts d’Antoinette collection?

Please check out the posts of the other lovely lacquerheads taking part in The Lazy 15.

xx

The Lazy 15: Feminine Nails

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Hullo again and I’m back for another instalment of The Lazy 15 Challenge.

Today’s theme is Feminine Nails. Now I decided against soft, fluffy pink nails which would probably be your archetypal feminine mani right? In part because I wanted to go for something a bit different but also because we got carried away watching two more episodes of The Wire tonight so I ran out of time to change my base colour.

During the week my first stamping plates arrived from Ninja Polish and I was keen to give them a try having never stamped anything before in my life. I started on my right hand, just trying out a few different colours and oh my, it’s brilliant!!! Why didn’t someone tell me sooner that stamping was so much fun. It’s like nail art for talentless people (aka me!!!). I absolutely loved it. And after only ten fingernails I think I’ve got the hang of it. Of course I can’t guarantee that the pattern is going in the same direction on each nail but hey, it’s early days:)

Essie Raspberry & Jade Magia Negra

Essie Raspberry & Jade Magia Negra

This is Jade Magia Negra stamped over Essie Raspberry. I didn’t the stamped polish too dark otherwise I feared it would look like bordello corsetry! In fact I tried one finger on my right hand with Chemistry (Ozotic) 526 and believe me, it DOES look like bordello corsetry:)

Initially I had also tried Enchanted Polish Cranberry Cosmo which I thought looked wonderful but the ‘other half’ thought it was too subtle, given its similar colouring to Essie Raspberry. So hence the compromise of Magia Negra.

I apologise for my horrendous cuticles too. Unfortunately they’re not getting enough time to recover between bouts of nail art attempts at the moment. We’re away on a drive with my partner’s Jaguar car club this weekend (mind you, not in a Jaguar ourselves since it’s in a state of disrepair in the garage) so I ought to have plenty of time in the car to show my cuticles some love.

As with my previous two posts, please check out the other lovelies taking part in this challenge by clinking on the links below and then following your noses via their Lazy 15 posts to the inlinkz tabs for The Lazy 15 participants. Here’s a hint – there’s way more than 15 of us:).

http://nails4dummies.blogspot.com.au

http://phoenixnails28.blogspot.com.au

Until next time,

xx


The Lazy 15: Favourite Colour

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Hullo again. And I’m back for Manicure No 6 of 15 which is favourite colour.

Now I have a general favourite colour. You know, the colour that you buy pens in, the colour that you’ll select a toothbrush in, your hole punch, your post it notes. And for me that is purple. I love purple. And I own quite a few purple nail polishes.

However, when it comes to nail polish purple is not, as it turns out, my favourite colour. I like it on my nails. Enjoy it even. But for whatever reason, it is grey polish that I seem to enjoy wearing the most. Greys of all hues, from the silvers through to the charcoals. And I love a simple grey creme too. Dunno why, just something about the colour that seems to suit my pale pinky white freckled skin. So in homage to my love of grey polish, I’ve tried to do a mani using a number of greys.

Lazy 15 – Favourite colour mani

Unfortunately when I was rubbing some cuticle oil into my fingers I’ve somehow managed to twist the polish on my ring finger. Those lines were straight I swear:(. I should have done it again but I was running out of time. Plus ‘warts and all’ remember. So here we are.

Lazy 15 – Favourite colour mani

First we have a further attempt at a marble manicure using China Glaze Recycle, Chemistry (Ozotic) 509, China Glaze Pelican Grey over undies of China Glaze White on White. I was actually pretty surprised that I wanted to try marbling again quite so soon. It worked ok expect I should have used grey undies as I taped too close to my cuticles and lost some edging of the mani when I was removing the tape. Next is Contrary Polish Purple Smoke with two coats of The Hungry Asian Mumbling which is the loveliest mix of silver glitter. My ring finger is Purple Smoke on the base with stripes of The Hungry Asian Zera Grey over the top. Finally on my little finger is Manglaze Fuggen Ugly with a tip of Layla Flash Black.

Lazy 15 – Favourite colour mani

Again sorry for muffing up the stripped mani. It looked good before I managed to bugger it up. But even so I was quite happy with my efforts having never tried such a mixture of techniques before.

So there you go, my efforts at showcasing my favourite polish colour, grey:).

To check out the work of the other lovely lacquerheads doing this challenge with me, please click on the following links as each of these lovely girls have the inlinkz details for each blogger at the bottom of their posts:

http://phoenixnails28.blogspot.com.au

http://nails4dummies.blogspot.com.au

Until next time,

xx