NOTW: The 50's Red Manicure... vamped up!

It's Sunday once again and that means another nail tutorial! This time I opted for something plain but classy... the 50's Manicure.  In the 1950's, many women used to wear another version of the classic red manicure.  It is essentially the same look, except that the half-moons at the base of each nail are left unpainted.  Instead of the traditional red, I have used a darker nail polish to achieve this look.  The only requirement to get this look yourselves is a steady hand! Let's get started! 

1. Apply a clear base coat all over the nails and leave to dry.

2. Select the colour you want and start painting a stripe of nail polish down the centre of the nail, starting just above the lunula (half-moon) at the base of your nail.

3. Apply a stripe of nail colour to each side of the nail, following the line of the half-moon.  Apply a second coat if desired.

4. Finish the manicure off with a coat of clear top-coat all over the nail.

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NOTW: Zip open some girly fun!... Valentine's Day Tutorial #3

Good morning make-up cakes :) hope you've all bought your gifts for the Valentines in your lives and have everything planned for tomorrow :) However, Valentine's Day is not only for loved-up people so for those ladies out there who are single, I did the last Valentine manicure with you in mind :) I know some of my girly friends who are single and go out together on Valentine's Day for some girly fun without boys and I thought I would steer away from hearts and roses and go for something fun! And what better way is there to represent fun on your nails than by wearing glitter? So let's get started on this fun manicure!

1. Prep your nails with a clear base coat and follow with a thin coat of a nude pink polish to prevent your nails from being stained with the darker pink polish.

2. Apply two coats of a nice bright pink polish on all your nails bar the ring fingers and any other nails you want to make the design on.  If you are going to do the design on all your nails, skip this step altogether.

3. For the design, you will need the same pink you used on the other nails, a glittery pink and a black striper polish.

a) Start by drawing a little upside down triangle at the tip of the nail with the glitter polish and leave to dry.

b) Paint the remaining areas of the nail on the sides of the triangle with the bright pink polish and leave to dry thoroughly.

c) To draw the zips, start from the tip of the triangle that is facing downwards and draw little horizontal strokes with the black polish, working your way down the length of the nail.  Do the same on the sides of the triangle to make it look as if you are opening up the zip!

d) Finally, draw a little circle just under the tip of the triangle and place a pink rhinestone in the middle to resemble the actual zipper.

4. Finish with a clear top coat and you're done!

I hope you liked this nail design idea and that you will try it out yourselves! If you do, please do link me to your photos as I love to see your work :) Have fun tomorrow and Happy Valentine's Day to all!

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NOTW: Pretty Pinks... Valentine's Day Tutorial #2

Hello cupcakes here's my second proposition for Valentine's Day...

I moved away from the traditional red hearts and all and went for something more girly... pinks! Here's how you can do this design yourself!

1. As always, prep your nails with a good base coat.

2. Proceed with two coats of a pearly-pink polish and let dry thoroughly.

3. For the lines, you will need a striper brush and three differently coloured polishes. I used my Eugene Perma shocking pink and plum and elf Rosy Raisin.  Start by making an 'X' with one of the colours at one corner of the nail. One line will have to be more elongated than the other. Move on to the next colour and do the same, a bit further away from the first X but make sure they overlap as in the picture. Finally do the same with the remaining colour.

4. For the hearts on the ring finger, you will need a dotter and the same three colours you used for the lines.  For the solid hearts, just dot two dots near each other and drag them down to form a heart shape. Do a bigger one and let dry.  With a contrasting colour, paint a smaller heart in the latter heart.  For the phantom hearts, just dot little dots in the form of a heart!

5. Finish off with a clear top coat and you're done!

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NOTW: Cherries and hearts for my Valentine... Valentine's Day Tutorial #1

Hello cupcakes :) Here's my first nail tutorial for Valentine's Day! I was inspired to do this by LOVE4NAILS on YouTube. Let's get started :)

1. Start by applying a clear base coat on all the nails and proceed with a white polish to create a French manicure.

2a. Now let's start working on the cherries... I decided to do the cherries on both the ring fingers and thumbs.  Grab a large dotting tool and dip it in some red polish.  Place two large dots on the desired nails in a diagonal fashion as shown in the picture. Leave to dry.

b. When dry, take a black nail polish and do a small elliptical shape at the top of the cherries and with a white nail polish, do little shapes on the sides of the fruit to give them a 3D appearance.

c. To complete the design, draw two thin stems with a green polish.

3. For the other nails, do a grid shape on the tip with a black striper polish and let dry.

4. For the little heart shapes, you need a small dotting tool and some red nail polish. They are very easy to do, just place two dots a little apart from each other in a horizontal line and drag them downwards to achieve the heart shape! I placed the hearts in alternate boxes but it's really up to you :)

5. When finished, just top coat and you're done! 

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NOTW: Flower Galaxy

Happy Sunday everyone :) here's the nail design for this week:

I really like the colour combinations of this one especially the pink flowers which give a nice twist to the manicure. I am really into dark polishes now so as soon as I bought the grey one, I absolutely had to wear it! Let's get started!

1. Apply a clear base coat and follow with a grey creme polish or any other colour of your choice. I used essence colour & go in 35 Movie Star.

2. Using a regular make-up sponge, sponge a dark polish in the form of a slant tip on each tip.  I used e.l.f. Metal Madness but since it is quite a dark colour, I alternated with some Orly Dazzle (metallic silver) for more definition and dimension. So, I first sponged Metal Madness, then a little Dazzle and again some more Metal Madness.

3. On the very tips of each nail, I dragged some silver glitter polish for that added sparkle.

4. Top coat all the nails with a clear glossy top coat and place flower rhinestone along the sponging line on the ring fingers.  I chose a light pink, a medium pink and a dark pink flower to add to the gradient effect of the nails.  When dry, top coat the ring fingers once again to secure the rhinestones in place for longer. You're done!

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NOTW: Flower Water Decals

This week, I used Viva La Nails water decals to create my nail design.  The colour, a deep brownish-red, to me signifies sophistication and what better way to jazz it up than with flowers? This was the perfect excuse to try the colour out and also try the water decals. They are very simple to apply, just don't rush and keep a rhinestone nipper (you can get these off ebay for a very cheap price) or a pair of tweezers handy :)

1. Start off with a good base coat to prevent your nails from becoming stained with the dark polish.

2. Paint on two coats of polish all over the entire nails, making sure to leave a hair-line gap on the sides and near the cuticles to further prevent your nails from staining.

3. Now for the fun part!
a) Make sure your nail polish is dry and cut out the designs you want from the water decal sheet and peel off the protective film.


b) Put the decal on a bowl of room temperature warm for a few seconds.

c) Pick the decal up from the water with tweezers/nipper and rest it on the pad of your finger (design facing upwards) and leave the design to soak up the water for a few more seconds.

d) Transfer the design face down on the opposite finger pad and carefully slide the backing off.

e) Pick the design with the tweezers/nipper and carefully lay it on the nail and clear out any air bubbles with the tweezers itself.  For a visual explanation of how to apply water decals, check out this video from the Viva La Nails website :)

4. After approximately a minute, the decal should be dry and it is ok to top-coat the nails with a glossy top-coat :)

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NOTW: YSL Inspired New Half-Moon Nails

Hey all! Here's another NOTW tutorial for you!  This manicure is inspired by YSL's AW 2010 nails seen on their models.  It is basically a French Manicure but instead of leaving the base nude and colouring just the tip, two contrasting colours are used to give it a whole new dimension.

I used different colours though I remained faithful to the purple bottom colour and I did an upside down half-moon on the tips rather than following the natural curve of the nails.

Here's the end result:

If you like what you see, grab two contrasting colours from your stash and let's get started!

1.  Start off by applying a good base coat.  This is always necessary but even more so when working with dark polishes so as to prevent the nails from getting stained.

2. Paint two coats of a base colour of your choice and leave to dry. I used elf cosmetics Party Purple.

3.  Now for the tips, you can either follow the usual shape of a French tip or else do like I did and use curved tip guides to create an upside-down half-moon tip.  Make sure the base colour is dry and affix the tip guides like so:

4. Paint on the second colour of your choice above the tip guide and allow to dry. Here I used Orly Dazzle.

5. When this dries, carefully remove the tip guide and you should be left with something like this:

6. To finish the design, apply a clear top coat and you're done!

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NOTW: Glamourous Fishnets... New Year's Eve Tutorial #2

Here's a way how to wear fishnets without looking trashy...

I am going to be wearing this manicure tomorrow for NYE Celebrations over at our capital city Valletta.  Stay tuned for my OOTN post tomorrow :) Keep on reading to find out how to create this design yourselves :)

1. Since I am used a dark red colour, I painted on two thin coats of a clear base coat instead of one to protect my nails from staining.

2. When this dries, apply two coats of a deep red nail polish or any other colour you prefer. I chose e.l.f. Cranberry and applied it on all nails omitting the ring fingers.

3. On the ring fingers, paint on a French tip with the same colour. 

4. With a medium sized striper brush, create a criss-cross grid design as shown in the pictures.  Leave to dry.

5. Apply a coat of a glossy clear top coat all over the nails including the ring fingers.  You may wish to leave the design as it is or else go on to achieve the same design as mine.

6. For this, you will need some steel beads (I got mine off ebay at a really cheap price for 18 different colours). Dip a dotting tool or toothpick in the clear top coat and pick the beads one by one and arrange them on the nail following the curve of the tip.  Do this while the top coat applied in the previous step is still wet.

7. Allow a few minutes for everything to dry and top coat again to finish!

Happy New Year everyone :)

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NOTW: Shiny Disco Balls... New Year's Eve Tutorial #1

As promised, here's the first nail tutorial for NYE.  It is a very sparkly design for which the only things you will need are a base coat and top coat, a glitter polish and a polish in a solid colour and a dotter/toothpick. Let's get started! 

1. Apply a thin coat of a clear base coat and let dry.

2. Follow with two coats of a glitter polish of your choice.  I used a purple glitter polish here.

3. With a toothpick or dotting tool, place dots in a fashion that suits your fancy on all of the nails. You can choose to place your dots in the same pattern on all the nails, or do like I did here and go with a different pattern. I used a black polish for the dots.

4. Finally, seal your manicure with a clear glossy top coat and you're done! 

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