Blue and White Pottery Inspired Nails

Hello friends, how are you all this week?  It feels almost like spring where I am right now, and not at all like a typical February here in the GTA. My boyfriend visited me last week and the weather was just gorgeous, it was so warm and sunny! I really hope that this weather lasts until summer, though that'll be unlikely. This week, I actually really wanted to do a spring inspired design because of how spring-like it feels outside. However, not wanting to jinx this beautiful weather, I decided against it. 

The idea for the design came to me because my mother showed me a post from her chinese website about dresses inspired by traditional blue and white pottery designs. I've always found traditional chinese pottery to be extremely beautiful. I've spent many hours as a child staring and admiring the the beautifully glazed ceramics.

With this design, I decided to that it would look best if done purely with nail polish. Normally, I would prefer using acrylic paints for such intricate designs, but I did not have any paints in this colour (I definitely need to add some more colors to my collection). Plus, acrylic designs tend to look a bit more flat compared to polish based designs and  I wanted to achieve that glazed ceramic feel without having to add thick layers of topcoat. That being said, I had not worked with nail polish as a medium in a while and I was definitely not used to how fast the polish dried up! It was certainly quite a fun process, and I think that I'd enjoy trying this with some acrylic paint in the future.

Anyway, without further ado, here are my tips and tricks on how to create these nails (and some more pictures)!

Poinsettias (with Pictorial)

Hello friends! We are less than two weeks away from Christmas, can you believe it? Although I'm still smack in the middle of  exams, I decided to take a  much needed break from studying and relax with some holiday themed nails (luckily, I have a few days gap before my next exam). I cannot wait for the break to start! I've been so tired as of late and my sleeping schedule is non-existent. I really wish I could just snuggle up in my blankets and watch netflix with a cup of hot chocolate all day.

I guess I'm continuing the nature themed nails from last week as well, with even more red and green plants. Poinsettias are so pretty! I used to be fascinated with them as a child, because the entire plant just looks like one huge flower. I also used to really enjoy playing with the little buds in the idle, I would always take one out and play with it for some odd reason (I was a strange child). Maybe I should bring a poinsettia home for Christmas this year, just to bring a little extra green into the home for these dreary winter months.

For this design, I decided to do something different. I used a black base color! I don't think it's something I've ever done before, so this was a complete first for me. Straying away from my usual white base was an interesting experience! The design definitely looked a lot more dull than I intended for it to be;and not being unable to fix mistakes was a little nerve wracking (due to the base color no being pure black). Overall, I quite enjoyed this experience and look forward to doing similar things in the future, which means that I need to start stocking up on black polishes!

Without further ado, here are more tips and tricks (and a pictorial) on how I created this look....

Christmas Foliage (with Pictorial)

Hello friends! It's really starting to feel like Christmas, isn't it? I love seeing holiday decorations, they make everything so sparking and they stand out so beautifully against the dark winter days. I've really been itching to do Christmas designs recently since this is the only appropriate time to do it! Honestly though, I  wish that we could have these festivities twice a year, just so everything could be cheerful and decorated.

After going through my stash, I've come to realize that I lack green colored polishes and acrylic paints. Due to this, this design looks slightly mismatched in terms of the colors. The the yellow-green color I used to draw the leaves contrasted the color of the polish on my index finger to make it look much more blue than it actually is. This design would be much more well executed if the green colors were consistent... It look like I should definitely go out on a polish haul!

Read on to see how I created this look as well as some tips & tricks on how to create this design...

Quick NOTW Post: Maroon Fall Leaves

Hello friends! It's starting to get chilly here already and the trees are turning beautiful shades of orange, yellow and red. It's absolutely magnificent. One of my favourite memories as a child were the long road trips that my family and I took to see forests of beautiful leaves. Once, we even took a ferry down a river, and the view was breathtaking.  It's something we haven't done in years because of me being so far away for university. Every year, I do designs with leaves because of how much I love autumn.

Due to my my upcoming assignments and midterm exams, I didn't have time to do a more detailed design. Despite not having any colours, I wanted this design to show some movement as if the leaves were falling. Honestly, I will probably redo this design again in the future with cleaner lines. 

Autumn Leaves (with Pictorial)

Happy autumn to you all! The weather here reflects the season so well, its gotten super chilly already, and to be honest it's really quite nice (except that I can't wear dresses and not freeze in the mornings anymore). Soon all the leaves will start to change colour and I'm so excited! When I was younger my parents and I would go on road trips to more northern parts of Ontario to look at all the beautiful leaves. I would always collect a whole bunch of leave and wax them to decorate the house.

Obviously, my manicure for this week was inspired by those memories. I wanted to capture some of the autumn leaves in my nails so I used a nude base to emphasize them. I actually did a similar manicure around 2 years ago (but unfortunately I cannot find any picture of them). I honestly think that these nails are perfect to welcome autumn, and I cannot stop staring at my hands because the colours make me so happy.

Continue reading to find a pictorial and more information on how to create these nails: