DIY Nail Art Tutorial – Lavender Bling.

As some of you may know, I’m living on a budget now thanks to the house renovation. Have cut down on a lot of luxuries, particularly manicures/pedicures. My last one, a spa manicure/pedicure at that, was a free one thanks to a voucher given to me by Kerol. Thanks babe!

Since, my nails have been left unattended for weeks and they’re now stubby and unkempt :(

Today, I couldn’t stand any longer looking at my ugly nails so I decided to do-it-yourself. Felt like back in college, where I used to DIY my own manicures courtesy of student budget. I used to rock cheap, long, plastic nails at school so much so that I was asked (read: forced) to cut them off on the spot for a netball game, FML.

This is how my nails look like now.

# – DIY manicure ftw.

I opt for this design because it’s foolproof, and mistake-friendly. I shall call this the Lavender Bling :P

# – Lavender coloured polish, pink glitter polish and silver glitter polish. I love this DHC brand from a stall at The Curve (near Royal Selangor Pewter and Nokia). They’re very reasonably priced and dry up nicely.

# – After applying base polish, apply the lavender polish. It’s very sheer and just gives off a slightly pastel purplish sheen.

# – Next, apply the silver glitter polish at bottom half of the nails.

# – Then, apply the pink glitter polish at the upper half of your nails. At this point, the colours will look abit flat.

# – Lastly, apply silver glitter polish over the pink glitter polish to create a gradient and more 3D effect.

# – Voila, Lavender Bling!

# – Rocking the Lavender Bling.

# – Am very pleased with the results. Saved at least RM60 for this manicure :D

Happy cause I don’t have to walk around with banshee nails now.

Simple Girlish Nail Art

The secrets to professionally manicured looking nails are the shape of the nails, cuticle management and the condition of the polish.

Square shape nails are the best. It looks timeless, easy to maintain and easy to cut – just cut across! You can also prevent in-grown nails with square shaped nails. I do like stubby schoolboy nails too, it’s very trendy and it’s so practical.

I naturally don’t have much cuticle to shout about so I don’t deal with them at home. Unless you’re completely sure on how to cut your cuticles, please leave it to the professionals to do it. If you must do it at home, make sure your tools are always sterilised (boil it, bbq it whatever). And don’t be obsessed with cutting! You never know when you’d cross into the infection & puss territory.

My favourite polish are OPI but they cost a bomb -_- I use some Elianto and Face Shop too and are only attracted to their selection of colours. I find Stage Cosmetics’ polish too runny and tend to create bubbles so I avoid them. Had a couple of Lancome and Dior and they ARE AWESOME but I really can’t justify spending money on them. I wish someone would bring in U.G.N.Y because the quality of the polish is really good for the price – even coating and hardly any bubble. I got my U.G.N.Ys from Singapore. I recently discovered a brand called DHC at a little standalone stall at The Curve. I’ve never heard of it but it’s apparently made in Japan and cost me only RM7.90 per bottle. I bought a couple of colours on a whim, didn’t expect much but was I surprised.

You should always make sure you’ve got a base coat and top coat. Base coat is to prevent discoloration to your nails and top coat is to preserve your polish. Strong coloured polish still eats into transparent base coat pretty effectively. To counter that, I use a trick I’d learned from an ex-colleague – use a beige or skin colour polish as your base coat because it lessens the discoloration. Okay, technically the rate of discolouration is still the same, but it’d be discoloured with a colour that matches your natural nails hence less obvious ;)

Also, always have cotton buds in hand because you can use them to clean up all the messy bits. One of the biggest giveaways to an amateur DIY is polish overflowing onto the flesh. Be meticulous and clean. Sometimes, I just wait for it to dry up and then sort of lift up the stray colours from my flesh with a tweezer.

Here’s a tutorial’s on simple girlish nail design:

Simple Girlish Nail Art
#1 – A base/top coat & 2 colours – one for base and one for tip. Here I use DHC’s No. 86 (a 3D-ish pastel purple) & No.115 (silver glitter).

DHC is by far the best glitter polish I’ve ever tried. The previous brands I bought were terrible, you could never get the glitter on or they just clump together stubbornly. DHC’s glitter coverage is even.


#2 – End result. Taken with flash.


#3 – Closeup with no flash.

It’s very easy, after the base coat, just paint your nails as per normal with the base colour. Wait for it to dry a bit and continue with the tip colour. Swipe left to right across the tip of the nail – easy peasy. As it’s glitter, it’s much more forgiving than say a solid white colour so even a n00b with shaky hands can do this.

Since I have so much time now I’d probably do more tutorials on simple, practical nail arts. Ah, the life of a housewife :)

DIY nail art tutorial

love the weekends. finally some time to pamper myself. i got my lashes done yesterday, and this morning with charlie lying calmly at my feet, i even got a manicure done. i’m so productive :)

since i’m at it, i might as well post a tutorial on how i did it. you need a clear nail polish, a coloured nail polish (mine is blue), a glitter nail polish (mine is gold glitter) and nail design stickers! i’ve had the stickers for the longest time and totally forgot about them. glad i stumbled upon them while searching for my manicure kit.

#1 – what you need: clear polish, coloured polish, glittered polish and nail art stickers.
nail polish

of course, before any paint job, it’s good to shape your nails into the desired shape, buff em up and get rid of the cuticles. they will ultimately make your nails look much better. that said, i’m just too lazy :P

#2 – first, paint your nails with the clear polish.
clear polish

#3 – then, paint french tips over your nails with the blue polish.
blue polish

takes some practice to get every tip at similar width but you can cheat with the french tip stickers. might also get a little messy at this point, but be patient and wait till it’s all done and dry before you get rid of the excess nail polish.

#4 – now wait for your polish to completely dry before you handle the stickers. 45 minutes to 1 hour is the safest bet for cheap nail polish :D
stickers

#5 – it’s better to use a tweezer to lift the stickers up cause you may chip your nail polish doing it with your finger nails. now stick them on your nails, like this.
stickers on nails.

#6 – then, apply a little glitter polish over the empty area of your nail design, like this.
glitter.

lastly, finish it off with a good layer of clear polish to seal off your design.

#7 – and voila, DIY nail art!
DIY nail art.

cost almost nothing. all you need is time and a wee bit of patience.

ladies, do you prefer your manicure DIY or done by a manicurist?

oh, and this picture is in response to ky’s comment. i is pr0 ok!

#8 – right & left hands
pr0