Bayleef Nails Inspired by Ane Li (with Pictorial)

Hello friends! As many of you know, a young and inspirational nail artist recently passed away. Ane Li sadly passed away as a result of suffering from depression. Although I did not know her personally, I was a huge fan of her cute designs; and it is with a heavy heart that I write this blog post. Ane had such a creative mind, and that's what stood out to me about her.

Upon, people of the nail art community have decided to pay tribute to Ane Li, and this Bayleef design is the one I chose to recreate. For those of you interested in seeing other tribute recreations to Ane go check out the #sharingtheloveforaneli tag on instagram.

Continue reading to see how I (re)created these nails...

Quick NOTW: Sunglass Nails on my Cinderella Hand

Hello friends! This is just a quick NOTW update as I will be uploading another one very shortly. I actually did two different designs this week, and I am wearing very different designs on my two hands. The contrast in the designs and the quality of the art on my hands makes me feel very strange since I've always had very similar art on both hands.

I can't say I feel great about the finished product on my cinderella hand today, but after a shift at work and completing a more detailed design on my left hand, I got lazy and sort of just winged it. I do still really like this design, but the way and the techniques that were used to execute it could've probably been done a lot better. This makes for a very cute summer nail design and I'll definitely be looking forward to doing this design again!

Quick Post: Beach Inspired Nails (with Pictorial)

Hello friends, I hope you're all enjoying your summer! It's been so hot here in the past few weeks with barely any rain, so it just feels dry all the time. I really wish I could spend a day sitting by a beach. A day off from work would be so nice, but that's not happening anytime soon, so my nails will have to do. These beach nails I'm wearing right now are for the beach prompt for SNCjuly2016. 

For these nails, I finally used the fan brush that has just been sitting around in my storage bin been the past year. I avoided using the fan brush because I just didn't know how, and none of my designs really required the techniques that could be executed with the brush. I really like how it turned out though, the ripples in the water looks more realistic. From this experience with my fan brush, I know that I definitely want to try doing more designs with it!

Continue reading to see how I created my beach nails...

Ancient Egypt Nails for SNCJuly2016 (with Close-Up Photos)

Hello friends! The next prompt for _nailaddiction's Summer Nails Challenge (#sncjuly2016) is "Egypt", and this is my  Ancient Egypt inspired manicure for the week. As a child, I was always fascinated with Ancient Egypt. I was particularly drawn to the mysterious and beautiful symbols that adorned the tombs of the great pharaohs and their intriguing calligraphy. With this week's design, I tried my best to incorporate some of the gorgeous symbols that are commonly associated with Ancient Egypt.

On my left hand, I am wearing a Uraeus (cobra) on my thumb, which was used as symbol of royalty or authority and represented the Goddess Wadjet. This cobra, along with the striped design on my index and pinky fingers, were inspired by the mask of the mummy of Tutankhamun. On my middle finger is a scarab, which were very popular amulets in Egypt. This is followed by the Sun God Ra depicted as a bird. On my cinderella (right) hand, I went with more simple designs. The symbol on my thumb is the "Eye of Horus", which represents royal power, protection and good health. Next is the Ankh which symbolizes life. Finally, I decided put a Mau (cat) symbol on my ring finger because the ancient Egyptians worshiped them.

I feel very strange when I look at my hands because of the difference in the designs. With one being so simple and so bold and the other colourful, my eyes don't know which hand to focus on! Both of these designs makes for very beautiful manicures though, so to see how I created them and for a closer look at these designs, please continue reading....

Tutti Frutti Nails + BornPrettyStore Item Review!

Hello friends, and Happy July! The year's half over already, can you believe that?! This month, I was asked by _nailaddiction on Instagram to join in her summer weekly challenge; the prompts looked so fun that I had participate! The first prompt of this month is "fruity" nails, so I did some mix & match of different kinds of fruits. Last year, at around this time, I did a bunch of fruit inspired nails nails as well; if you wish to see those, click here.

A couple of months ago, I received a mini palette ring from bornprettystore. I've use it quite a few times to create various looks, but I finally got around to actually taking some pictures of the process! The ring is one of the cutest nail art tools I have ever seen! They're super easy to use and makes clean-up so much faster. Prior to getting this palette, I would regularly use yellow sticky notes, tiny pieces of wax paper or tin foil to mix my paints/polishes. Though such materials were easy to find, they were messy as I would always mistakenly place my brushes on them by accident and make a mess of my tools. With this ring on my hands at all times, there is little to no chance of me leaving my nail tools around and having them roll into the palette. This palette is also reusable and reduces the amount of paper and foil waste I produce each time I do my nails.

To use this cute nail palette, simply dab a small amount of polish or paint in one of the tiny wells and use as you would any other palette. The medium used may dry up a quickly due to the shallowness of the well, but water, nail polish thinner or acetone may be mixed in to get it to return to a workable consistency. The palette ring does come with a tiny cup that you can use to hold the thinning liquids but I did not find it very helpful since tilting my fingers around to draw the designs would prompt it to spill out. However, you can choose to use the cup to hold a larger amount of acrylic paint, such as black paint when outlining. Once done with the palette, simple wipe off the polish with some nail polish remover or the acrylic paint with water. It's as easy as that! I'd honestly give this cute ring a 5/5 because it makes my life so much easier and is way more environmentally friendly than using tin foil or paper! Not only is this ring super cute, but it is also practical.

Now, without further ado, here are my tips and tricks and a pictorial on how to create these super fun nails...