JOIN MY APOTHICA GIVEAWAY!!!

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APOTHICA is giving away $25 worth of gift certificate to one of the followers of Art of Nail

APOTHICA is an online boutique that provides makeup, hair care, and many more beauty and skin care products.
They carry premium beauty brands such as Clinique, Too Faced, SkinMedica, DuWop, La Roche-Posay, etc.
Apothica have Master Estheticians available who are willing to help clients choose the right product for them.
Check out their site for more amazing products.

Here's how to join:

Mandatory Rule:
• Become a follower of my blog Art of Nail
And visit APOTHICA and tell me which item you prefer if ever you will win. (2entries)

Optional :
• Become a fan of Apothica on facebook (1entry)
• Follow Apothica on twitter (1entry)
• Mention this post on twitter (1entry)
• Sign up for their newsletter - found at the bottom of their page (3entries)
• Mention this post on your facebook (1entry)
• Mention this post on your blog (1entry)

• Total of 10 entries

Pls. Provide a link if you post , retweet, etc. So I can check it!


P.S the winner will be notified thru email. Don't forget to include your email address so that I can inform you if ever you win! Goodluck!
giveaway ends on : JULY 15, 2011 at 11:59 pm Philippine time.

Cool skittle

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing fine. For this post I have a skittle to share with you from some time ago. I was playing around with some cool toned colors, trying to find an interesting color scheme, and these are the polishes that I used:

China Glaze - For Audrey

H&M - Hunt Me Down

Essence - Tryin' To Be Cool

China Glaze - Secret Peri-winkle

Essence - Movie Star

Then I used my favorite chunky glitter topper from Essence: Blaire! I love the different sizes of glitter and they're even prettier when they're mattified! Speaking of matt, I just bought a new matt topcoat from Claire's and I used this opportuntity to try it out (see last picture). But I think I'll stick to my #1 matt topcoat from Essence, the finish from the one from Claire's is more satin-like and that's just not matt enough for me ;)

I do feel like the combination of colors I used is a bit odd, but at the end of the day it's not that terrible, right? Hahah. What do you guys think of it?

4th of july nails, fourth of july nails, 4th of july nail art, 4th of july nail design, ice cream cone nails, skull nail art. 4th of july nail art, red white and blue nail art design, patriotic skulls, fun 4th nails, fourth of july mani,

i cant believe i got these edited last night, this morning? i forget.......i dont look back once a video is edited and this could be funny...but, these are cute designs for the holiday. have fun, be safe and see you soon! xoxo

i'm your ice cream man

patriotic skulls

pink and white swirls and pearls its barbie nail art design, PINK AND BLACK broken glass nail art. shattered glass nail art. bling bling diva nail art designs

swirls and pearls

exclusive diva design
working in portland this weekend and so i will be uploading my friday tutorials tomorrow (thursday) as there is no way around it. -- rushed but hopefully it will all turn out as right as rain. love and respect.

and ...my somewhat unexpected p-town work trip is throwing back my forum and my gallery art project back....hope to see a forum early next week. all is well ~~seeing explosions in the sky~~~~~ 9,10,11. exciting!

Sushi inspired nails

Hi everyone, now that the contest at Nail Polish Art Addiction is over I'd like to show you what would have been my second entry. In the end I decided to submit the citrus mani because I thought it was more fun and complete and I was happy to have made the right choice after I saw several other sushi entries from other contestants (beautifully executed though!). Unfortunately my entry wasn't good enough to win any prize at all, hahah. Oh well, you can't have everything! But thanks so much if you did vote for me :) Have a nice day!

Tutorial: Zigzag pattern tape mani

Hi everyone, welcome to my fifth tutorial! This time I'm going to show you how I create the zigzag pattern using tape. It's not very hard but it does require some patience because it involves two times of taping and the layers of polish need to be completely dry in order to do that. To speed up the process I recommend using polishes that cover in one coat or a fast drying topcoat for on top of polishes with a longer drying time. So pick three colors and let's start!

Begin with the base color you like (if necessary with a basecoat underneath) and let it completely dry. You can apply a fresh color or use the current polish you're wearing (to practice). Since there will be two more coats of polish applied on top, it doesn't matter if there's a little bit of VNL or tipwear.

Now cut some triangles out of tape to make the zigzag pattern. You'll need two pieces with each layering color. The reason why I use individual triangles is because seperate pieces of tape addapt better to the round surface of nails unlike one piece of tape with the whole zigzag cut out of it in one time, which also tears a lot more easily. (The same goes for the lightning bolt design.)
Place two triangles next to each other on about a third of the nail, with the points towards the tip. Make sure all the pieces of tape are completely stuck to the nail, if not use your finger or a tweezer to push them down and if needed reattach them.

Then apply your first layering color with a thin coat...

...and carefully peel off the pieces of tape right away. Let the design dry for a while and use a fast drying topcoat to shorten the drying process if needed.
Of course you can leave the design this way if you're starting to lose your patience by now, fanatics continue with step 5! :P

When the polish is entirely dry, repeat step 2, 3 and 4 with your second layering color, but now place the triangles a bit more towards the tip, covering up part of the first layering color like shown in the picture.

At last apply your topcoat, clean up and you're done! Don't forget to moisterize your cuticles afterwards, because when you've had tape on your skin so many times, it can get a bit dry!
Use the design for a full mani for eye-catching nails or cut it down to a few accent nails if you want to keep it simple or feel lazy ;)

Finally some useful tips:

• For my tape manis, all I use is regular stationery tape. But you might prefer something else, so just experiment with different sorts of tape to figure out what works best for you.
• For your base color you can use any polish you like, however one-coaters will allow you to place the tape much sooner because those are usually fast drying. Of course you can also quicken the drying of polishes that require several coats to cover, by applying a fast drying topcoat. (I use Seche Vite). 
• Your layering color(s) can be either a one- or two-coater. Because you've already applied a base color, most polishes that usually take two coats to cover now will do with one.
• Though I mention cutting the tape strips as step 2, I admit it is safer to cut before applying the base color. However, if you've learned how to cut the tape without having it touch your polished nails, it can save you a lot of time.
• You might want to leave the cut strips somewhere else than the edge of your desk/table, to prevent them from getting stuck to the surface while you're busy. You do not want to have to peel them off with your freshly painted claws!
• Apply your top color in one thin (but opaque) coat, this will create crisper lines.
• When you're removing the tape strips, try to remove them individually, if you can, because most of the time your design will come out neater this way
• Using tweezers to remove the tape strips can prevent your freshly painted nails from getting smudged.
• It's not always necessary to start all over if you've messed up your design, often a little touch-up with a nailart brush can solve the problem.
• If you want to use a matt topcoat, use a regular one underneath. My experience with matt topcoats is that they smudge the design very easily, even when it's completely dry. Applying a normal topcoat first will prevent that.
• Moisterize your cuticles afterwards, because the tape can really dry out your skin!
• You can practice this tutorial on your old mani that you applied a day (or more) before. If you succeed, you've got yourself a fresh mani, otherwise you were going to remove it anyway!
• If you feel like this design is too time-consuming for a full mani, you can also use it for an accent nail (or two).
• Have fun and practice makes perfect ;)

I would absolutely love to see your attempt on my design, so feel free to leave a link to your creation in the comment section!

Polishes I used in this post are OPI Big Apple Red, Color Club Where's The Soiree? and Essence Chuck.

fourth of july nails, watermelon nails, cupcake nails, american flag nail, fireworks nails, red white and blue nails, 4th of july nails,

watermelon tutorial

CUPCAKE tutorial

4th of july tutorial

From the desk of Robin Moses

giving away your techniques and your life long dedication to a craft is hard. emotionally, physically, mentally..........i cant talk and paint at the same time very well, i am distracted thinking of other things when i paint. when i paint i usually wear headphones in one ear so i can tune out. i  paint so fast i am not even thinking about what i am doing. to go back in to the world as a noob has given me a glance into what it was to sit at my first manicurist desk, be on par with new girls just out of school. the dirty looks, the mean comments, the whispers and then the friendships and ----the deep sighs of relief when they found out i didnt want to take anything from them. this has ALWAYS been a part of my life. this new adventure online has made me take note of HOW im painting. i never really have put INTO WORDS how i paint....why i paint...what i paint.....i never really considered it painting at all...it is my job and mostly i laugh, and listen. this is the first time in my life i have talked and NOT been listening. in my real life, i talk serious shit. my mouth is filthy. i talk about the most random topics and quotations and things ive heard about weird things ive heard about things i know about things i dont know..

what i know is that MOSTLY, I LISTEN.....i know this...im learning this 'online system' of things....in real life, you can confront someone who is mean or ask them why or when you say thank you....people can HEAR if your thank you is sincere.....here you are forced to stay silent, here, if you say thank you 10000 times, it sounds contrived.

this teaches you control. if you have 1million viewers...what kind of control is there? do you still need it? if i get it, will i want it? will i need it? does any of it matter? i mean, its just watermelons on fingernails, right?

love,
robin

More zigzag

Hi guys, I'm still zigzagging... Today was a very hot and sunny day, so I did a zigzag in a red and turquoise combo, one of my favorites, it's so in-your-face! Which is fine by me, and it matched nicely with my turquoise flip flops :) I used Rimmel's Ruby Me for the red base, it's a beautiful, glossy orangy red jelly. With two coats, there was still a bit of VNL but fortunately I got rid of that after I applied Essence Bella on top with the zigzag pattern. The reasons why I love Bella so much, besides that it's turquoise and a creme, is that it has the perfect formula and covers in one coat, just like another fabulous Essence creme: Chuck.
I hope you like it and enjoy the rest of your day!

Kleancolor - Chunky Holo Purple

Hello everbody, for today's post I have a purple pretty to show you, it's Kleancolor's Chunky Holo Purple, so unbelievably gorgeous and sooo smelly. Chunky Holo Purple is probably what heaven should look like, and hell should smell like... I really can't stand the smell, it's like pure toxic! Each time after I polished one nail, I just had to run to the other side of the room for some fresh air, no kidding... It was truly the most unique and crazy looking way of polishing I've ever done, lol.

Anyhow, Chunky Holo Purple is a multichrome glitter polish with a medium purple base. The color of the average sized glitters shifts from yellow, orange, red, to green, turquoise and blue. It's like a rainbow of glitters in a bottle, so pretty! However, the polish was really sheer on its own and it didn't look like it was going to build up so I applied two coats of it over two layers of OPI Funky Dunkey. Though the yellow, orange and red side of the multichrome showed up better on the nail than the other colors, it looked stunning. But, it was also very hard to capture in the photographs! I'm still not sure what it was. There was plenty of sunlight, which is usually a good thing when I take my pictures, but maybe this time it was just a bit too plenty? So imagine what you see in the pics, but with a hundred times more of the yellow/orange/red shimmer of the glitters, this especially counts for the bottle! Also it leans less towards blue, my camera isn't very good in picking up purples!

I heart close-ups! :)

So here I mattified it. Now you can see how much glitter there actually was on my nails. In the pics of the glossy version the glitter seems very subtle, but they were really present and sparkly in real life.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ahoy, mummy!

Hello dear readers :) For this post I've got something from the vault again. The weather pretty sucked this week, so I haven't been able to do a lot of photographing. I hope it's going to get better from now on, because I'm dying to take some decent pics again! Let's go to the mani then. I was wearing Ahoy! from China Glaze as my base color. But since I found it a bit sheer I applied it over two coats of NYC Rosy 

Knows. The day after I did the mummy tape pattern on top using Color Club Where's The Soiree?. I intentionally let the black top color cover all the tips, so you can't see my tipwear anymore, shhh! ;) Thanks for reading!

EPIC collaborations, v tutorial, robin moses and anaarthur81, anaarthur81 "V" robinmosesnailart, "V" makeup tutorial, snakeskin nail, nail art, nail art snake, snake woman, green snakeskin nail, ripped skin nail, ripped snake skin, alien skin, alien nail art, alien ana arthur, robin moses snakeskin, snakeskin tutorial,

ROBINS PORTRAIT AND SNAKE nail tutorial HERE!

ANAS epic makeup tutorial HERE! (SUBSCRIBE TO HER!!)

fingernail modification FOR XBOX 360 "rapid fire" mod HERE
anyone who knows me, knows that mostly everything i have is modified with acrylic and paint etc. the laptop im typing on is modified because of a design flaw. the table im typing on is modified because the wheel had a design flaw....everything has design flaws and i like to problem solve using fingernails and glitter...lol...just kidding..but seriously...im being serious and here is one mod here. enjoy and subscribe....pass the word and help me retire .... :) my love and thanks and see you monday ----stay fabulous

V-gap

Hello everyone! For this post I'd like to show you another tape mani I did this weekend. I was wearing OPI Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ and the next day I wanted to spice it up, so this is what it became. It's not Sophy Robson's famous V-gap, but still a V-gap right? ;) It wasn't an easy choice finding a color other than black to suit the burgundy red of Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ, but then I remembered saying in a previous post how China Glaze Jitterbug just goes with any color, so this was my chance to prove it, haha. I think Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ looks really pretty with Jitterbug and that the whole design looks kind of editorial. I also mattified it to see what it would look like and I still haven't decided yet which version I like better... Help me out! Haha.
Thanks for reading! :)

Mummy XS

Hi dear readers! Today I've got something from the vault to show you. It's a mummy mani I did the other day, using extra small tape strips. I was wearing Orly Ancient Jade as my base color and on top I used Essence Chuck. As I told you yesterday in the comparison post, Chuck is very well pigmented and has a great formula, which make it a perfect polish to use for tape manis.

I also wanted to tell you all that I'm working on a bigger post with tips and tricks to improve your taping skills, because I know some of you still have trouble with that. So if you have any questions regarding tape manis you'd like me to answer, just post them in the comment section of this post and I'll include the answers in the upcoming 'Tips and tricks' post. Have a great night :)

Comparison: Blues

Hi everyone! This comparison is specially made for Ivana, who was wondering how similar OPI's Dating A Royal and Essence's Chuck are. I also included two other blues that were worth comparing. The difference between all four polishes was hard to see in the bottles, but once applied one the nail their true colors became more noticeable. The blues I used from left to right:

China Glaze - First Mate (1 coat)

OPI - Dating A Royal (3 coats)

Essence - Chuck (1 coat)

Diamond Cosmetics - Blue Bell (2 coats)

Formula-wise all of them are decent, with OPI and Essence with the greatest. First Mate's formula is a bit thicker than the others but still manageable. And I love the fact that in can cover in one thicker coat. In the bottle it's harder to see, but once on the nail the difference between the navy blue of First Mate and the royal blue of Dating A Royal is quite clear. The formula of Dating A Royal is bit thin, but really nice to work with. And even though it does require three coats (or 2 thicker ones) for opacity, the great formula, short drying time and nice brush make it a very fine polish! Next is Chuck, which I don't have anything to complain about. The formula is just perfect and I love how pigmented it is. As you can see Dating A Royal  and Chuck are close but definitely not dupes. Chuck is brighter and consists more purple. One that I would call a Chuck-dupe is Blue Bell, which I wasn't that happy about. It applies quite uneven with the first coat and even though a second, thicker coat fixes that and makes everything smooth and opaque, the too flexible brush was a bit of a bummer. So clearly, Chuck's my favorite of the two, plus it's cheaper and I like the bottleshape better, haha.

So I hope this comparison was useful to some of you, and just let me know if there's anything I can change. Good night!

Bonus pic! I added China Glaze Calypso Blue on my thumb, turning this comparison mani into an ombre (of course it would've been better to have a lighter blue on my pinky then...)

GONE FISHIN fishing nail art tutorial design, ZEBRA ANIMAL PRINT WITH RAINBOW HEARTS nail art design, LIGHT PINK AND BLACK BUTTERFLY DESIGN FOR SHORT NAILS. simple nail art design.

gone fishin

zebra print with hearts

whimsical butterflies

From the desk of Robin Moses

Hello!

     I would like to say that my Facebook page is full.  My forum being built and will be directly linked to robinmoses.com.  We will DROP and take off running from there and until then, please meet me here, my YOUTUBE and my FANPAGE .  The production of my forum has been slowed but not halted and should be up soon.

Robin

Post script: I do not like the word "fan"

Citrus inspired mani

Hi guys! I participated in yet another nail art contest :) This is my entry for the Good Enough To Eat contest at Nail Polish Art addiction. My entry had to be food-related and food seemed like a really fun and broad subject to me, but I had such a hard time coming up with something! After a lot of branstorming I finally had citrus fruit in my mind but it took me until the last week before the deadline to translate it to a design on my nails. I simply loved the stylized shape of a sliced citrus so I used that to create a summery, abstract pattern with exotic colors.

Please have a look at all the other creative, delicious entries at Nail Polish Art addiction and vote for your favorite. There are 48 of them, so you don't want to miss that! :)

Dating a laser mani

Hi guys! For this post I have a laser mani to show you. I used yesterday's mani for it, OPI Dating A Royal. And on top of it I used China Glaze Jitterbug, a stunning must-have polish, in my humble opinion. It has a dark grey base with a foil-like shimmer finish, which looks edgy on its own, but matches any other color as well. I like it a lot :) To make the laser pattern show up better I added a matt topcoat afterwards, the one I use is from Essence.

If you like to do this look yourself, just have a look at the tutorial. It's quite simple and a fun way to combine different colors or finishes. Thanks for reading!

NAILS MAGAZINE AUGUST 2011, 20 FRENCH MANICURE ADAPTATIONS BY ROBIN MOSES, PINK AND BLACK chevron nail art, PURPLE off center chevron nail art, RED AND GOLD indian wedding french nail art design, COLORFUL alternative french with floral nail art design, bridal white scalloped french nail art design, diagonal french with multi colored palm trees nail art design tutorials

chevron french

off center chevron french

indian wedding alternative french

alternative french with flower design

scalloped french

diagonal french with palm trees