Chrsitmas Baubles

Just a quickie tonight.  Finally just got the kids to bed and still have presents to wrap before Santa arrives.

Here is a quick Christmas mani I wore yesterday.  The base is OPI Designer de better from the Muppets collection.  Totally love that polish which I just got in the mail on Friday.  The baubles are stamped in Konad special polish in red and green, using the bauble image on the Bundle Monster plates.  

From a distance this mani looks nice a Christmassy, but up close I think they more look like upside down balloons.

Goodnight everyone. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with your friends and families.

Kitty Kreations - Nahla Nails

Welcome to a new series of posts I'm calling Kitty Kreations.  They will all be nail art inspired by our beautiful little kitties.  Once I've done our kitties, I'll probably do some for my mum kitties too - and trust me, that is quite a number of kitties (past and present).

To start off I have Nahla nails.  This is dear little Nahla.

Nicknames: Noodles, Nudie, Nudie pants, Narly Nu.

Isn't she just the prettiest little girl.  She has the most gentle nature and is the softest and snuggliest kitty I've even known.  Mum found Nahla down at the local shops, looking all lost and worried many, many years ago.  No one reported her missing so she became ours.

And my mani inspired by Nahla.  The base was wobbly lines and squiggles using OPI DS Desire, OPI Opening Night Gold and Nubar Jewel.  Then stamped with Konad Black with  Zebra stripes.  Yeah, I know Nahla is not a zebra...

But here is her furry little leg next to my polished nail.  See where I was going with this.

Although these nails are of Nahla, I'm dedicating the post to my mums kitty 'Tomus' who died yesterday.  He was so like Nahla in temperment, such a gentle and cuddly big boy.  I'll eventually do a specific nail design for Tomus, but for now, kisses to you and Mum. xxx.

Konading with Ulta3 Gold Rush Fever

I decided I had to spice up the black Glitter Gal holographic polish I was wearing, and what better base to test out if the newly released Ulta3 Gold Rush Fever was good for konading.

I thought I would do a comparison with my favourite gold polish for konading with - China Glaze 2030.

As you can see, these are darn close.  Gold Rush Fever isn't quite as opaque as 2030 and it has a more antiqued finish, whereas 2030 looks slightly more rose coloured. 

For $2.25 I think Ulta3 Gold Rush Fever is a fantastic konading polish.

Bronze leopard

This polish is an NYX called Bronze.  It was kind of 'meh' to me so I deceided to Franken it up with some more glitter.  I added pale gold, yellow gold and orange glitter and also 'copper reflecks' all which I bought online from TBK trading.  They have the most amazing range of glitters, micas and pigments and I have been having so much fun franking different polishes up using Ulta3s as my base.  But more on them later.

Heres a pic of the glitters and copper reflecks.

The final polish was just amazing, and the above photo doesn't do it justice.  There was so much glitter and bling shining through the leopard spots.

So far I've only used the leopard print from this plate.  I know I will get to the zebra print soon.  Not sure about the lacey lines, might be a bit to prissy for me.

Playing the blues

I'd been wanting to use the music lines and piano keys from konad m73 for ages and couldn't think what colours to use.

Then my mum found this beautiful blue polish by Artmatic that she had had for ages. I don't even know if its still available. But I've got some other readily available polishes that are similar, and I'll do a comparison swatch soon.

I stamped this using konad special polish in white, the topped it with two coats of Seche Vite.

I was so happy with this design that I actually left it on my nails for a few days, which is really saying something from me as I like changing my polish almost daily.

Here is my m73 plate.  So far I've used two of the images from this plate.

It's my turn to konad

Just a quick one, because I forgot to post yesterday.

This was China Glaze - It's my turn from my last post, stamped with Ulta3 Chocolate Cake using plate m63.

That's all.

Fluro spatters

This is another Konad design I did a couple of months ago. It was the first one I did using real Konad special polish. I thought it probably didn't matter about using the special polishes. But it really does. I've only got black and white at the moment, but hope to build on that soon.

This design was NYC (same as Ulta3) Citrus as the base, then konad plate m70 for the splatters. It looked really good. But my only problem was with a top coat. I don't have the konad special top coats, and really don't think I will ever get them. I tried a top coat on my pinky, and the black all smeared. So I didn't bother with top coat on the other fingers. I have since worked out how to apply Seche Vite top coat to konad without this problem, but thats another post.

I've also read that you should put on a coat of top coat before you stamp with konad.  That way if you stuff up, you can usually remove the konad design without having to take off the entire base.  I will have to try this.

Here are the stamping steps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Konad plate 70, which has four full nail designs and one tip design. I then painted the plate with Konad special black polish and used the konad scraper. Then roll the stamp onto the plate, then roll it onto your nail.

Holo nail art

Can there be any better combination that holographic nail polish and nail art stamping. I don't think so.

Here we have OPI DS Original stamped with Konad special polish in black.

This design uses image plate m73, which has four full nail designs and a heart tip design.  I then painted the plate with Konad special black polish and used the konad scraper.  Then roll the stamp onto the plate, then roll it onto your nail.

I love the idea of this, its just that I'm a unco at applying it.  No matter how hard I try I can't get the damn konad stamp lined up right on my finger. I think I just need more practice.

Konad silver white argyle diamond pattern

I actually got this idea from someone else's blog. Sorry it's a while ago now and I can't remember who to give the credit to.

Its one of my first Konad efforts and I think it shows. I also didn't clean my polish on the cuticles very well.  This is Revlon Diamonds are Forever for the base then Konad special white polish with m60 stamp.  This Revlon polish is really beautiful and I pinched it off my mum (thanks mum!).  Its a very sparkly foil finish silver polish.

This Konadicure was before I got Seche Vite so I just used a Revlon top speed top coat, which did smear the white polish.  Although luckily with the silver beneath its not that noticeable.

The effect looked very pretty, almost matrimonial.  I could see a bride wearing it with a white dress with sparkles.

Swirly shiny konad

This effort, whilst not my first, was one of my first konad designs. Actually I think it was my second one, but is was certainly the first one I took a photo of. Konad is pretty cool (despite the name - but more on that later).

The base for this was Max Factor Nailfinity in 'Angel nails'. A very pretty pale pinky mauve foil finish polish.

I then stamped over it using plate m63 with the brightest red polish I had. But because it's not a konad special polish the colour really thins out on the stamp. That's why the stamp looks pink.

The final effect was still pretty, and I got lots of comments about my nails.  I really like this stamp on plate m63, I've since used it quite a few times.

This was two coats Angel nails then stamped.  Revlon speed dry top coat (done before I had my Seche Vite).