Happy New Year

This is my last post for 2012 . . . and what a year it has been!


A couple of personal highlights include starting this here blog-a-rooney, the birth of my beautiful niece, Ada, and a recent trip home to New Zealand.


What does 2013 hold? Who knows! But what I do know is that my poor wee nubbins have been thrashed these last six months trying out various polishes, and now it's time to give them a rest for a couple of weeks. But before I do, I want to show you a stamping style I was playing around with yesterday - Zebra stripes!

I must admit, I haven't stamped a lot because I have found it difficult to find polishes thick enough and colour combo's that work. That said, I'm really into animal prints on nails at the moment (I love anything to do with Africa/animals), and I think this turned out pretty well. Unfortunately, the black polish just wouldn't remove itself from the skin around my nails so it looks a bit messy, but that's black for you!

 

 

Staying with the animal theme, I've recently done tiger stripes (below), Leopard/Cheetah spots, Peacock Feathers, even paws!

 

 

 

 

But now it's time to grow some strong nails and so I thought I'd try out 1000 Hour 3D Nail Wraps (purchased from my local Priceline store).

 

 

 

 

They were really easy to apply - you basically just peel them from the sheet, stick the rounded end down at your cuticle and smooth them over. You then cut the excess off with scissors and then neaten them by using a nail clipper so they accurately match your nail tips.

 

And as you can see, I've continued with the animal print theme with sparkly cow print fingers (well, that's what I'm going with anyway)! I also have some Sally Hansen giraffe nail strips to try out at some stage in the future and they also have a snake print which I might pick up if the price comes down. Are there any other animal prints I could try? Suggestions please!


Finally, I just wanted to wish you all a Happy New Year for 2013. I hope it's a good one for you, and if not, I hope you get through it as best you can!

NN

Christmas done/Going dotty

Well, the world didn't end, and another Christmas has gone for another year.  Phew!  I hope Santa was able to leave something nice for you!


Time now to concentrate on relaxing, post Christmas sales, and New Years Eve . . . With that in mind, I guess it's now time to start creating "party" nails.  Woo hoo!  Glitters and bright, shiny, sparkly colours (I'm so tacky!).  Oooooh, I mustn't forget my glow in the dark polishes . . .


Strangely, I discovered my dotting tool on Christmas Eve.  I've had it for a couple of months with the intent of creating I'm not sure what, but I just hadn't gotten around to using it.  As you can see from the pics below, I went a little overboard . . .

For the above pic, I used Kleancolor - Black and the following Ulta3 flouro-like colours for the dots - Purple Pumps (purple), Jelly (green), Tahiti (orange), Citrus (yellow) and Fruit Tingle (pink).

For the mani above, I used Kleancolor - Black, with Sally Hansen Nail Prisms - Diamond.

For this creation, I used Sally Hansen Nail Prisms - Diamond as the background, with Kleancolor - Black, and Ulta3 in Purple Pumps and Jelly for the dots!


If you don't have a dotting tool, you can pretty much use anything that has a small, round end - the pin heads of sewing pins are ideal because they come in so many sizes, and you can push the sharp end into the end of an eraser pencil so it's easier to hold whilst you're placing the dots.  Go ahead!  Try it for yourself.  You'll get addicted too!


NN

Bold and Bluetiful

Amidst all of the Christmas nail art I've been painting, there are a couple of other colours that I'm really loving at the moment.

Above:  Sally Hansen - Pacific Blue, with Sinful Colors - Hottie over top

I know that Pacific Blue has been out for a while, but I can't stop looking at it!  It would have to be in my Top 10 favourites.  And the other day, I discovered that Priceline had a stand full of Sinful Colors, so of course, I had to get a couple.  This pairing is a match made in nail heaven!  Loves it!

Above:  Australis - Blue Tiger


Staying with the cornflour blue theme, recently Australis bought out some new colours - Blue Tiger being one.  I've been checking it out for a while, wondering how close it actually was to Pacific Blue.


Here's how close:

Pacific Blue:  On little and middle fingers
Blue Tiger:  On ring and index fingers


Honestly, the only difference I can spot between these two are the finishes - Pacific Blue has more of a shiny finish, whilst Blue Tiger is more matte.


They're both so pretty - I just can't decide.  OK, I'll wear 'em both.


NN