Saturday, 23 April 2011

Happy Easter!

Warning: This is a pretty lengthy post.

Happy Easter everyone! I got my inspiration at this post from www.frmheadtotoe.com. Ya know, I didn't really think about doing a tutorial till I was done with both hands. Shows you how smart I am huh.

Anyway, here is what I used for my Easter nail art. I used pastel colours as a base, and painted a rabbit on my index finger, a chick on my ring finger, and painted the rest to look like Easter eggs. I googled "Easter eggs patterns" so I know what to draw heehee.
First I used a Faceshop basecoat, and the polishes are named accordingly from thumb to pinky.

Thumb: Gargantuan Green Grape by OPI
Index: PP401 by The Faceshop
Middle: BL602 by The Faceshop
Ring: Fiercely Fiona by OPI
Pinky: 63 by Rainbow (a random brand from Sasa)

To paint in the bunnies and dot my nails, I used my two-way nail brush and pen. It really is very handy and I find it so much easier to do nail art now as compared to using brushes or tape-stencils* or matches/toothpicks.

Unfortunately the two-way nail brush and pen does not colour code their nail polish so I can't tell you exactly what I used.

Thumb:
Because the thumbnail is the biggest nail I decided to do the most intricate pattern on it. On top of a pastel green I used a hot pink to zigzag across the nail and then an orange to outline it. It was supposed to be a sparkly orange, but somehow the sparkles didn't transfer to the tip. It still looks ok though. The nail still looked empty, so I accentuated it using yellow dots.

Index:
Have you ever realised that when you point at things or order something from the menu you would be showing your index finger (unless you normally point with your middle finger). So I used the most eye-catching pattern on my index finger. I used PP401 by the Faceshop as a base, and outlined a bunny before filling the rest in. That pink is so cute! It's got a pearly sheen and it's such a delicate pink. Perfect for bunnies. I suggest putting in as little black as possible. After that dot two ovals for eyes, and one red dot for the nose. Then dot the eyes with a tiny bit of white. That way it'll look more lively :)

Middle:
The middle finger is still reasonably big, so I drew purple stripes across the blue nail. I must say it turned out really nicely. Definitely doing this for all my nails someday when Easter is over. I did vertical stripes for my right middle finger. If you do try out vertical stripes, draw thinner stripes.

Ring:
The chick is probable one of the easiest to draw, because all you really need to do is dot the eyes (both white and black), and draw a little triangle for the chick's beak. I don't really know what I can do to make it look more chick-like. Jen from frmheadtotoe had jagged white eggshells at the bottom which I didn't bother myself with. But when I showed it to my sister she thought it was a happy face. So now I can't look at my chick without thinking about happy faces xD

Pinky:
The easiest to do! I like dots. Somehow something that is so simple can jazz up your nail. I used white from the two-way nail brush and pen to dot all over. But using a toothpick or matchstick (depending on how big you want your dots) will do fine too. I over-dotted my pinky in the picture. But on the other finger, it has less dots and it looks better than the over-dotted pinky.

So in case you want to attempt nail art from one of the nails without attempting the whole thing, here they are in order of difficulty from most difficult to easiest:

1) Rabbit
2)Zig-zag easter egg
3) Stripes
4) Chick
5) Dots

I feel like this is a really text-heavy post. I should take more pics during the painting process. This whole nail art probably took me about 3 hours including drying time. I topped it all off with the Faceshop top coat. That is all for today. Bye~

*I don't know what the real name is called but to do nail art easily you can cut out the shape of your nail art, stick it onto the nail and colour in the background. Yep. So. Much. Effort!

Tuesday, 19 April 2011

OPI Review: Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous

Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous is simply marvelous indeed. It took me three coats to get to that colour, and I am so impressed with the colour. The photo does not do it justice. Not only is it a dark silver, it also has greeny-pink microglitters all over it. I love this colour so much.

This colour is so amazing that I actually don't want to do anything on it even though I've taken out my Konad plates. That's how good it is.

New favourite nail polish? I think so. :)

Saturday, 16 April 2011

OPI Review: Gargantuan Green Grape


I loved the colour when I first saw it but when I put the first coat I was honestly shocked. It was so streaky! And I had such high hopes for OPI too after hearing rave reviews about it and how it was 'the high end product for nail polish'. But, I realised that if you don't press the brush down too hard (which I do alot), you'll get a thicker and smoother coat. After two - three coats (three for me) it'll be fine.

Nowadays I apply the Faceshop nutrition coat under my base coat, but if I just apply base coat with the green on top somehow the colour goes on alot easier.

All in all, I think maybe I just have to get used to the nail polish, and wait a little longer for it to dry. I can tell that it definitely doesn't wear down as quickly as other nail polish. But for the streaky first coat, I think it's not really my favourite nail polish. Gorgeous colour though.

P.S.: I have already sent in the orders for the spree, but if you still have any last minute orders
for the next few days, I'll see what I can do :)