Naturally Nails: Butterfly wing ombre

Hey Hey

Happy Belated Valentine’s everyone! Hope you had a great one with friends, family or special other half. I had a whale of a time helping my friend chase a girl for vday! Mine was spent rather quietly at my other half’s humble abode. We prepared our own army stew pot and basically dumped all kinds of delicious goodness into the stew. HAD A SUPER HEARTY MEAL! And a great time cooking it as well. We never like celebrating Vday on the day itself because everywhere is too damn crowded. Even terrible restaurants sprout ridiculous queues. Yup, just becomes a super turn off even if we had pre booked seats. Imagine Vday when we hit 6.9milion. WOW. I don’t even wanna think about it.

Nonetheless here’s what I did on my nails to celebrate the coming of my recess week! WHOO to being able to leave my nail colour longer than 2 days! =)

Base: OPI The IT colour
Gradient: OPI the IT colour à OPI I eat mainely lobster à China glaze ruby pumps
Design: TFS black, Etude house white

BAM! I am so proud of this design, so proud that it brings tears to my eyes! Real tempted to change my thumbnail now. Can you tell that they are butterfly wings? Specifically it is modelled after the Monarch butterfly! Drew inspiration for 2 vids on YT and put my own gradient spin on it. This is by far, my most ultimate, intricate, awesome nail design ever that took FOREVER to finish. The sheer amount of work that goes into painting on the wing design really takes a toll on your concentration. Nonetheless, the effort is totally worth it. LOOK AT THE END RESULT! A show stopping design IMO. I, obviously love this design the MOST! AMORE! Can't wait to show it off! *Breaks into song* "Oh I just wanna show you off to ,y friends, making them drool down their chiny chin chins"

Fair warning, this design is not the easiest and requires a heck load of patients and a crazy amount of OCDness to achieve

The breakdown

1. Paint a yellow/light orange base colour over the nails (OPI the IT colour)
2. Create your gradient on a sponge and dab all over nails making sure to blend blend blend (Best gradient nail tutorial by nailasaurus     HERE)
3. Wait for polish to completely dry and in the mean while clean up the edges of your nails
4. Using a stripping brush, dip into black polish and draw on the butterfly wings meticulously. This step takes the longest. (Pssst: A good tip is to draw the lines away from you as this makes the brush much easier to control. Sometimes, moving your fingers while keeping the brush in the same place also works)

NOTE: Round out any sharp edges esp where the lines intersect. – This is the part where you need to be very OCD about the edges if not they won’t look real. I couldn’t do them at well as I wanted to but still OK

5. Using a dotting tool/ toothpick, randomly dot on some white dots but rmb to add some where the vertical lines and horizontal tip meet.

6. Add rhinestones as you wish. Use SMALL ones so they look more intricate
7. Wait at least half an hour or more before applying top coat. You do not want to smudge your design after you’ve gotten this far. Patience, patience, PATIENCE!

Tada you are done! And I just lost my train of thought… ok OK right got it back. Basically you want to be very patient with this design. Definitely works with other colours as well. Just model them after the colours of butterflies to make them for realistic. Bear in mind thought that dark colour will not make the black wing design stand out.

Hallelujah! I have successfully made OPI the IT colour work. Terrible colour SOLO but gradient when used with other colours. Added in rhinestones for the fun of it, afterall rhinestones never fail to glam up anything it’s put on. 
Ugh, some of my lines aren’t as crisp as I had wanted them to be and some edges aren’t as round as I wanted them to be but hey, nobody can seem them from afar right! Super proud that I could achieve the same design on my right hand, drawing with my left hand really tested my hand dexterity max. Well right brain, you have served me well!

Swatches:
OPI the IT colour 
OPI I eat mainly lobster
China glaze Ruby pumps

Here’s a narcissistic picture of my thumb on which I think the wing design looks the best on! Probably because there is a bigger surface area to work with so I can draw more lines!

Totally can’t stop looking at my nails now. Imma continue to gaze bimbotically at them through the week and marvel at my work of art! I am not an artist and drawing ain’t my biggest forte, it fact it’s probably one of my worst so being able to pull this off really amazes me. Ahhh there ain’t no better art than nail art. It’s so unbelievably therapeutic. ESP when the you reap the fruits of your labour at the end.

Anyways, CHEERS to the coming of my recess week. This week shall be spent wisely!

~END~
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Naturally Nails: Ocean reminiscence

Heyhey,

It's FEBRUARY already. OMG people, how time flies - before we know it it'll be CNY, Good friday, April fools, labour day, Mother's day, Vesak day, my birthday, Father's day, Hari raya puasa, National day, children's day, teacher's day, Hari raya haji, Halloween, Deepavali, Thanks giving, christmas eve and christmas DAY OMG! That was a mouth full.

I was feeling particularly inspired this week esp because I've been wanting to try out blue ombre nails for the LONGEST, LONGEST TIME. Put on this design the moment I recieved my newest addition to my polish collection in the mail. 
CHECK MY NAILS OUT!

In descening order of darkness: Canmake No.50, Essie coat Azure, OPI what's with the cattitude, OPI liquid sand Get my number. 

I swear, the pictures don't do this justice at all, this design is one of my best designs EVER. G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S not just IMO but in my friends' and family as well, got quite a few compliments ^^ The way the blues transition into one another and the way that the liquid sand sparkle in the sunlight just give me the image of the ocean. Not talking about the green waters here in Singapore but the crystal clear blue waters of other coasts. Heck, this doesn't even need the afternoon sun to do it justice, it twinkles so beautifully indoors as well. It's got this whole inner glow thing going on. All in all i really LOVE this one. Beautiful MAX.

Rmb how I was saying in my last gradient post (click here) that I would try out the whole paint a base layer on nails first and then create the gradient on the sponge including the base layer itself to create a more natural blended effect. WELL I did it here and boy were the results awesome. Achieved the most natural ombre EVER you could barely see where the colours end.

Here's how I did it

The breakdown:1. Using the darkest blue of your gradient (Canmake No.50), apply a base layer to the nails
2. Using a sponge, paint the colours in descening order of darkness on the sponge and quickly transfer to the nails. Use a dabbing motion and make sure to move the sponge up and down the nails to blend the colours better. Do not over do the dabbing (don't want muddy looking coloours) and be sure to work quickly as dry polish will stick to the sponge as you dab and remove itse;f from your nails
3, Apply glitter coat of your choice to make the transition look that much more seamless. (make sure that your glitter coat is sheer enough for the colours below to peek through, for obvious reaons. Don't want to waste that gorgeous ombre you just created on your nails of course)
SEE 3 simple steps and your done. It doesn't take long at all to do but looks like you spent hours and hours on it. 

Tip: if you feel that you lost some of the colours through the blending process, just add the corresponding colour to the sponge and dab in the deficient areas. I call this "spot dabbing". For those of you who are perfectionistic like me. xD

Can I just say again how I think this combination is awesome. THIS.IS.AWESOME! 
Thank goodness I can keep this combination on my nails for longer than usual =) More time to show it off to the world! Ok joking I don't really flaunt my nails but it still feels good when people notice it. C'mon they are blue for crying out loud, how not to see!
Warning: This is however, not very CNY appropriate so please do not rock this look if your family is extremely traditional.

Here's a picture of under the light of the evening sun.


Here's how they look under the sun. The camera cannot capture the shine of them but I don't blame the camera cos I think even the best of cameras may not be able to capture it. You can't focus on the glitter yet capture the "refraction" of light from the glitter piece. Just doesn't work that way.
Yes yes went a little overboard with the photo spam but can you blame me?

Anyways, if you ever try this out, totally link me in the comment below. would love to see them!

Ok got a test coming up this Monday so... I gotta hit the books before I sink into an abyss of no return. One of my friends posted a very wise post: One has to suffer 2 types of pain in life - the pain of discipline, or the pain of regret. Very true, VERY TRUE. I am a very free spirited person and consequently have no discipline so.... I probably always go through the latter. Sigh....
On a brighter note. I'm done with my CNY outfits. Got my 2nd outfit online. How convenient it that! xD

~END~
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Naturally Nails: Punk-y Purple gradient nails

Heyhey

1 week of school has just come and gone like that. I'm currently high from severe lack of sleep but no matter, will crash and burn later. Planning to go watch Les Miserables tmr so hopefully I'm able to wake on time!

Since the precious the weekend is here, although somewhat semi destroyed by a saturday tutorial at 8am....... what better way to get into the party mode than with a polish post! 

Base: Etude house black
Purple: OPI planks a lot (pirates of the caribbean)
Tips: Nubar Vaso
Ring finger glitter: Essie set in stones

Basically used the sponging technique to create the gradient. Love the effect of my ring finger the best!! I'm like half half with this design. Really love the colour gradient and all but the blending could have been a little more natural! Totally being perfectionist but YEAH! 

Here's what I came up with. I must say I struggle a little with this. Couldn't get the perfect way to blend the black into the purple without it looking crazy messy. Right after I slapped my polish on though I came up with the method - paint a layer of black polish over and let completely dry. Created black and purple gradient on sponge and dab instead of directly dabbing purple directly. It should theoretically produce better results. Will test it some when, some time.

Ugh! The unblended edges really irk me. Guess this is what happens when you don't blend your makeup properly either. Fatal move. I will perfect this gradient technique!

Tips from my experience: 
1. Use a glitter top coat to even out the gradients better
2. Works very well with lighter colour gradients (i.e Medium pink to pink etc)
3. Glitter/ shimmer polish blend much better

Here are some of my other gradient posts:
1. Kpop inspired (my favourite)
2. Pink gradient 

Ahh! Shall enjoy the rest of the weekend while it still lasts. Nothing beats lazying on the couching and flipping through channels looking for a good movie. That's the life. MONDAY PLEASE GO AWAY

~END~
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