Spring Florals (with Pictorial)

Hello friends! For a while, it finally felt like spring had come because the temperatures were so high! I really enjoyed taking walks outside without a thick jacket. Sadly, it snowed again yesterday and the temperatures are low once more, boo. I'm actually really anticipating seeing flowers bloom again. All the stores are already beginning to set up their garden centers and I could not more more excited for it! I hope they have lots of pretty succulents and flowers in stock this year. On the bright side, the two little succulent I got weeks again are growing quite nicely and are bringing a nice splash of color to my room.

A couple of weeks ago, my mother and I were flipping through our flyers and I came upon a booklet of  spring fashion from The Hudson's Bay Company; I saw an amazingly cute dress with this quaint little floral pattern on it, and I knew that I needed to put it onto my nails! I tore the page from the booklet and kept it for inspiration. They're amazingly cute. I love how the subtle the tiny bunches of flowers are. Added to the nude background, I think this pattern is just so perfect for spring. I left a bit of  negative space on a couple of my fingers because I had originally anticipated to add some pearl studs or gold accents. However, in the end, I decided against doing it because I didn't want anything ti draw attention away from the simple subtlety of it. 

Anyway, continue reading to see a pictorial in how I created these nails (and more pictures)...

Waves for WNAC2016 (with Pictorial)

Hello friends and welcome to my second post of he week! These days, I've been working around 6 days a week at this small family diner type place and it's been very difficult to keep my nails long or square. It's very tricky for me to keep my nails in a square shape since the corners always manage to chip off no matter how careful I am. I really enjoy the look of square nails on my hands though, they make my short stubby fingers look more elegant; but I guess I'll have to have short little nubs for the time being since they're the most practical.

While scrolling through instagram yesterday, I made the decision to join in the Weekly Nail Art Challenge once more. I quite enjoy how WNACs are planned out and how the prompt dates always correspond with my schedule.  The monthly theme for June 2016 is the beach (how fitting!) and the first prompt is water inspired nails. This prompt gave me that little push I needed to do a nail design that I've had saved in the back of my mind for a while, but was too lazy to do. 

These nails are inspired by a woodblock print by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai named The Great Wave Off Kanagawa. Hokusai makes wonderful woodprints and I especially love pieces of his work that involved water because they have so much movement and power in them. Obviously, my version of them take on a more simplified and line-art like approach. I tried very hard to create more movement in the waves using the black lines. I also added little tiny birds to fill up the negative above the waves and to make it look like an ocean scene.

Read on to see my tips and tricks fo creating these nails (and a step by step pictorial)

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:

Simple Cobalt Accented Nails (with Pictorial)

Hello, hello! I cannot believe that it is already the end of August, where does the time go?! It seemed like just yesterday when I moved back home, and now I'm packing up to go to school again. Summer slipped through my fingers and I can definitely feel autumn creeping in slowly. It's been feeling quite chilly around here recently too; I've already begun to spend my days wrapped up in my warmest blanket and curled in a ball. I am not ready for this, and nothing will ever prepare me for the cold Canadian winters. 

Anyway, this design is the very last of the August weekly nail art challenge , and I must say, I am very proud of the fact that I actually followed through and completed the challenge. I've been very interested in various nail art challenges before, but I've never gotten off my lazy butt long enough to actually complete a set, so I'm giving myself a pat on the back for this. In all honesty, it was a lot of fun to do, but I am uncertain if I will be keeping up with the other weekly nail art challenges to come because I am unsure of how busy I will be during the school year.

This, by far, has to my favorite out of all the August WNAC themes. I have to admit that I found it quite difficult to picture these two colours coming together in the way that they did, but I am super happy with the results. This design also gave me a chance to use a polish I have not used since last summer- 'Bubble Trouble' (by L'oreal). It is just the most gorgeous polish ever, I love it so much, and I have no idea why I've neglected it for so long.

Now, without further ranting, here are my tips and tricks on how to create your own version of these nails:

I'm Feeling Rosey

 

Oh hello, hello! I I know that I haven't updated in a very long time, and I apologize! On the plus side though, I finally graduated from high school; four extremely tiring years are finally over! No more late nights and long weeks doing arts projects and living off coffee or less than an hour a sleep for me! I am so ready for two months of relaxation and spending some quality time with my friends before we all part ways for university. Although I know that I'll miss people dearly, I am more than ready to pack my things up and move away. Speaking of packing up, I still have no idea of how I'm going to move all of my nail polishes and nail art supplies to my dorm!....But I'll climb over that mountain when I get to it.

Now, I know I haven't been updating this blog (or my Instagram...sorry), but I have not stopped doing my nails. In fact, I have a plethora of pictures stored, that I just haven't posted yet, though there were a few designs that I neglected to document. These are the nails that I have on right now. They feature one of my most favourite flowers- roses! These are actually quite different from the rose designs I usually do, because they are a lot more detailed. The techniques however, are quite similar, but instead of using just one colour for the roses, I used four. I am in love with this design, it's so much more detailed and the roses just seem to pop out, especially against the nude background! And I don't know if it's just me being weird but, sometimes, when I finish a design, I have this one part or one rose in this instance that I adore so much more than the rest. Is that weird? 

Anyhow, I've ranted enough (for now), so... Onto my tips and tricks:

Simple Gradient with Subtle Rose Accents

Hello to all! I apologize for not posting sooner, but I have no good excuses; I've just been really lazy and I have not been photographing any of my new manicures. This is actually a manicure I had on a couple of weeks ago; and  unfortunately, as you may have noticed, I had to cut my nails short again because they just kept on cracking and chipping! No matter how careful I am, my brittle nails are just too weak to face the world. Winter weather is so hard on the nails, I can't wait for summer to come so that I can wear my nails long again. 

Recently, I've started to really enjoy doing and seeing gradient nail designs- they're so simple yet they can look so elegant and cute. In my pre-blogging days, I did not like gradients at all... probably due to the fact that I failed to make them look how I wanted them to. But, it's like they say, practice (and patience) make perfect! Actually, I've also recently started to really enjoy nude nails as well...combine the two along with my love for roses and you get this manicure (I'm sure more designs like this one are sure to come in the near future). 

Here are my tips and tricks to create your own version of this manicure:

French Foliage

I've really been hoping for spring to finally come to Canada, but the ground here is still covered with thick layers of snow- and it does look like it's going to melt away any time soon (we just had a mini blizzard a few days ago too)! So I took the best of both worlds and I combined white colours of the snow, turned it into the buds, vines and flowers I want to see and I created this really dainty and delicate looking manicure.

Here are some tips and tricks on how to create your very own French Foliage Manicure: