Art Deco Line Work

Merry Christmas, dear readers! Here's how my mani looks like this year. Not very Christmassy per se, but liking it anyway. :-) The gold in my hands is Essence A Piece Of Forever from the Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 collection. I was only swatching it, but ended up wearing it after liking it so much with the improvised line work, for which I used my trusty striper Ink from China Glaze. Since I'm not confident enough to make such detailed work with my non-dominant hand, I kept my right hand plain black. But it actually looks nicer like this, more balanced  I believe.

Until next time then! Have a great time with your loved ones. :-)

Tutorial: Holly Leaf

Hello, creative person! Welcome to my holly leaf tutorial. Like the design it is inspired by, the freehand cloud, it's quick and simple to make, even with the small additions. What I like about this design (apart from being very Christmassy ^_^), is that it combines the use of different tools, it's a great way to practice both freehand and dotting skills. But once again, it's fairly simple. I hope you'll give it a try!

Start with a green basecolor for the holly and let it dry. Use a basecoat underneath if your polish tends to stain.

Then use a contrasting color to paint a few vertical strokes next to each other, making each one shorter as you near the other side of the nail (like shown more detailed over here). Start each stroke by placing the tip of the brush on the surface and wait till enough polish has dripped off, forming a round starting point. Try to leave enough polish on the brush to do this, but make sure it's not too much either to prevent having a thick, lumpy layer that will take forever to dry.
Tip: If your polish comes with a (big) flat brush, just twist it 90° and use the side. It's easier to make those round edges this way. :-)

Now we're going to give the leaf some veins, using a dark colored striper polish. Start with one main vein across the length of the holly, to which you then add a few smaller veins.
It's likely to use a green polish for this task, as the leaf is green. But if you don't own any, a black, brown or blue will work too.

A true Christmas holly isn't complete without its berries! So finish the design by adding a couple of red dots with a dotting tool. Or place a few big glitters or rhinestones instead, for that extra bit of oomph!

At last a layer of topcoat, et voilà.

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!

The polishes I used in this post are OPI Jade Is The New Black, Color Club Artsy Crafty, Janet striper polish #119 and P2 Fever.

Holly Leaf

Hi everyone! For this post I have another Christmas themed design to share with you: a holly leaf accent nail. :-) I've always loved the shape of holly leaves, so imagine  my excitement when I found out how easy it could be to have that shape on my nails, just by using a design that's familiar on this blog: the cloud design! You can see I didn't have to add much to make it look like a holly leaf. But those who still want a little more detail of how to make the design can use the tutorial that I'll be posting next. :-)

For the accent nail I used OPI Jade Is The New Black, Color Club Artsy Crafty, a blue striper polish and P2 Fever for the berries. And last but not least, that gorgeous gold on the rest of my nails is Orly Solid Gold with a layer of topcoat. It has an amazing matte fisnish on its own, but adding topcoat makes it so sparkly! Perfect for the holidays. I also did a series of Solid Gold manis a while back, you can find them all here. See you next time!

Mint Winter

Hello, dear readers! Here are pictures of my first winter mani this year, on my shorter nails. Stress made me bite every single of them. :-( That didn't happen in years! I still like my nails a tad longer, but that doesn't stop me from painting them. :-) The lovely basecolor is Catrice's I Sea You and on top I drew the bare Christmas tree from my last tutorial, plus cute snowflakes that you can practice yourself with this tutorial from last year. Have a great day!

Tutorial: Bare Christmas Tree

Hello everyone! Welcome to my third Christmas tree tutorial. (You can find the first two here and here.) This one shows you how to make an easy-peasy freehand Christmas tree. Even if you're a nail art beginner, this design is very doable. All you need is a nice basecolor and a striper polish (or a loose striper brush and polish) to draw the tree with. Let's do this then!

First apply your basecolor and let it dry. Use a basecoat underneath if needed.

Then use your striper brush to draw a vertical line in the middle of the nail, this will be the tree trunk.

Give the tree some branches with a couple of horizontal lines. Make each line longer as you near the edge of the nail.
Don't worry if the lines aren't perfectly straight, they're branches after all! ;-)

Finally complete the winter look with some simple snow(flakes) here and there, add topcoat once everything's dry, and you're done! :-)

I personally like the tree bare and simple, but for the full Christmas feel, you could add a couple of Christmas balls with a dotting tool and maybe even a shiny tree topper.

Tip: To clean your nail art brush, pour a little bit of nail polish remover in a small dish or the lid of the bottle. Let your brush soak in it for a few seconds and dab it a couple of times on a cotton pad. Repeat this until your brush is clean.

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!

The polishes I used in this post are Catrice I Sea You and a Janet striper polish in white.

Shine like a star

Hello everyone! I hope you're having a merry Christmas with your loved ones. This year I'm rocking this star pattern that I made with a new image plate from Essence. It's only available in a set including a stamper and scraper, which I already have, but I really wanted the star design. The star shapes I have on other patterns are quite small which makes them harder to work with and less recognizable. (And besides, €3 for the whole set is a pretty good deal!) I used Color Club Where's The Soiree as my black, as usual, and the gold is China Glaze 2030. This look isn't very Christmassy per se, but I love it anyway. So much that I might even wear it again for New Year's Eve ^^ Happy Holidays!

Sweet Snowman

Hi guys! For this post I've made this chubby little snowman design by Rins from Simply Rins. I saw it on her blog just a little while ago and fell madly in love... I couldn't stop looking at all ten of them on her nails, because they're just too cute! So many, many thanks to Rins for this adorable design! Seriously, don't you want to hug it? ^^ I used acrylic paint to draw the snowman and the base color is Essence Viva La Green. I love the color because it's not that typical mint green that we've come across many times in the past few years. It's a bit darker and quite vibrant, although it doesn't really show in the pictures (where I'm holding OPI Spark The Triomphe as decoration heehee). Rins also made a tutorial for this design which you can find in the orignal post here. Make sure to check it out, as well as the rest of her blog, she's created plenty of other amazing (freehand!) looks, very inspiring.
Thanks for reading and see you soon :)

Abstract Christmas tree

Here's a little bonus post that shows the design from today's tutorial "in action" :)

The green is China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses on top of OPI Jade Is The New Black and the gold is China Glaze 2030. Good night everyone!

Tutorial: Abstract Christmas tree design

Hello everyone! Recently I posted my second Holiday tutorial, which shows you how to make a traditional Christmas tree shape. But for this tutorial I have an abstract take on the Christmas tree, for the more modern nail art fans who are looking for something different. All you need is two polishes, tape and something to act like your tree topper. I used a rhinestone, but you could also use one larger (star shaped) glitter, a sticker, a stamping design and so on. Be creative ;-)

First apply your base color (with a basecoat underneath) and let it dry completely. If needed use a fastdrying topcoat to quicken the drying.
I used a fine glitter as my base color to make it more festive, but you can also use a regular cream, a subtle shimmer polish or one with a foil finish etc. Just make sure it's not too dominating, because you want to keep the Christmas tree the center of attention.

Cut off two regular tape strips which you'll use in step 3, and a few small ones to make the garland in step 4. The best way for me to cut (fine) tape strips, is by cutting off a little piece of the tape roll first which I then stick on the scissorblade, like shown in the picture. I let it stick out on one side (right in de picture), depending on how big I want the strip to be. This allows me to make very thin but also straight strips with relatively little effort.
A tip: to keep multiple small strips the same size, use the thickness of the scissorblade as standard.

When the base color is entirely dry, place the two regular tape strips on your nail, forming a chevron shape.

Then place the small strips randomly accross the chevron to form the garland. Important is to remember the order in which you've placed them, for a quick removal and neat result afterwards. With opaque tape this shouldn't be a problem, clear tape on the other hand... To make it easier with the latter, you can place the tape strips per direction. So first apply the ones going in one direction (upper left for instance), then the strips going in a second direction (upper right). All you have to remember now are the ones lying on top.
When all strips are in the right position, press them down firmly and apply your layering color.

Then right away, carefully peel of all the pieces of tape. Try to remove them individually if you can, because this will create crisper lines. When you're done, give your design a little time to dry.

At last, finish your design with a sparkly tree topper and seal your work with a layer of topcoat. Tada!

Finally some useful tips:

• For my tape manis, all I use is regular stationery tape. (For this particular tutorial I used painters tape for better visibility.) 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. That way it's certain that the base color is dry.
• 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 China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses and 2030.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Hi guys,sorry I've been MIA for a while.. I've been busy with my family and relatives and with my new hobby photography... Anyway, Christmas is just around the corner, one
week to be exact... One week before the birthday of our savior Jesus Christ... How do you celebrate your Christmas? AsChristians, we celebrate it by praising and thanking Jesus Christ for coming and saving us all from our sins... That is how much he loves us... It's time for us to return his kindness and love... Most of us celebrate Christmas by spending time with our loved ones, exchanging gifts, and being kind to others... We sometimes overlook the real meaning of Christmas. It is the birthday of "Jesus our Lord and Saviour". We should praise, greet, and thank HIM first before we do all the other stuff we got used to doing every Christmas. Merry Christmas everyone! Hope the true spirit of Christmas be upon us everyday!

Christmas Fever

Hello everyone :) For today I have the mani I made after finishing the tutorial for the Christmas tree design with tape. The tutorial already received many comments, so thanks a lot for that! :) The beautiful red base color is P2's Fever. I love how elegant Fever is, the shimmer's just gorgeous and the finish is especially great for this month of the year. In the pictures you can see that the bottle has a golden glow, however that's not the case in real life, just a plain and perfect red shimmer! For a higher party-factor, I added a coat of Milani Gems. It looked fine with the glossy finish, but I mattified it anyway, so I could see all the different colors better ^^ Thanks for reading!

Tutorial: Tape Christmas tree design

Hi everybody, welcome to my second Holiday design tutorial! In this tutorial I'll be showing you how to make the classic Christmas tree shape, with the help of tape for perfectly crisp lines. The design isn't too difficult to achieve, but you do need to cut and place many tape strips, so you may want to use it for accent nails only if you'd like to save yourself a lot of work ;-) Let's give it a try, shall we?

First apply your base color (with a basecoat underneath) and let it dry completely, if needed use a fastdrying topcoat to speed up the process.
With more detailed designs, I usually recommend using a plain base color to keep the focus on the design, but because that typical, zigzag shape of a Christmas tree is so simple and easy to recognize, we can go for something bolder this time. How about a (duo)chrome, a holographic polish or a sparkly glitter? Or perhaps just a simple but elegant shimmer?

Cut off two regular tape strips which you'll use in step 3, and four triangles for the rest in step 4. The way I cut the triangles is by first cutting off a little piece of the tape roll which I then cut in half diagonally, like shown in the picture.
Of course you can do the cutting before step 1, I personally like to cut the strips while I let my base color dry. But I have to be careful then, otherwise the tape might get stuck to my nails and ruin the polish. So admittedly, it is safer to start with cutting 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.

When the base color is entirely dry, place the two rectangular tape strips on your nail, forming a chevron shape.

Then one by one, place two triangle shaped tape strips on each side of the chevron, with the points towards the center of the Christmas tree to be.
When you feel like all the tape strips are in the right position, press them down firmly so that they stay put on the surface. Then apply your layering color with a thin but opaque coat...

...and carefully peel off all the pieces of tape right away. And there it is, your classic Christmas tree design! Seal your design with a layer of (glitter) topcoat or add a rhinestone tree topper as a finishing touch. Merry Christmas!

Finally some useful tips:

• For my tape manis, all I use is regular stationery tape. (For this particular tutorial I used painters tape for better visibility.) 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. That way it's certain that the base color is dry, plus this design is great for covering up tipwear!
• 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 P2 Fever and China Glaze Millenium.