Baby Shower Nails

A good friend of mine had her baby shower in the weekend and I offered to do her nails for the special event. We decided to create a baby blue colour in honour of her baby boy. We wanted to keep the manicure fairly simple so went with a blue and white colour scheme and kept the nail art to a minimum. This is a gel nail polish manicure.

Baby Shower Nails

On her right hand, all fingers were painted blue and the thumb white. I wrote her due date over the the first three fingers with white gel polish and a detail brush. On the thumb I did some dots using a dotting tool and the same custom blue gel polish that was used on the other nails.

On the left hand, all nails were painted blue except the ring finger which we painted white. On the ring finger I did a baby foot print using dotting tools of various sizes and the custom blue colour used on the other nails. On the thumb we mirrored the right hand and did white dots on a blue background.

I love this manicure, I think it is so cute and a perfect manicure for your baby shower and also excellent for a maternity photo shoot.

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Day 18 - Orange and Blue Triangle Nails

Finally, I have a nail design to post about. Today I had a client that wanted a bold and bright  Gel nail polish design. She chose the orange colour and gave me free reign to come up with a design.

I decided to go with triangles and together we chose the contrasting blue colour.

I painted all the nails orange except the ring finger, which I painted blue. I put blue glitter on the ring finger also.




Then onto the triangles, I did a few triangles at a time before setting in the light, then I would add more triangles and add more polish to any triangles that weren't opaque.

Then Top Coat and we are finished.

I know that this colour combination won't be for everybody, but you can swap it out for your favourite colours or use complimentary colours in stead of the contrasting blue and orange that I have used.

This triangle design is quite similar to this design.

F.O.T.D Friday: Navy Blue Intense Eye Tutorial

Intense Navy Eye

This F.O.T.D. is a little different, normally I will be doing my make up for work or going out somewhere and choose to document it for my blog. This time I was bored and thought I'd have a play doing something more intense.

I started the same way as last week applying the Designer Brands Moisturising primer with my hands.

I then applied my Revlon Colorstay Foundation in Buff with my Real Techniques Buffing Brush.

Next I sprayed my face with the Australis Finishing Spray and pressed it into my foundation.

You could powder your face at this point, I forgot so I didn't do it until the end but I used the Rimmel Stay Matte Powder in Transparent.

I then applied the darkest colour from the Revlon Illuminance Creme Eyeshadow in Electric Pop to my lid and blended out the edge into the crease.

I then applied a bright blue eyeshadow to my lid.

I then took a slightly deeper blue and blended it in the crease and outer V to act as a transition colour. I chose to build up the colour with this look, so that I didn't go too dark too fast.

I then blended the edge with a clean fluffy brush.

Next I added an even darker blue to the crease and outer V. I went back into the transition blue and blended the top edge.

I then used a black with blue shimmer in the crease and outer V into the outer edge of the lower lash line.

I then used the same shadows under the eye.

I added under eye concealer to help shape the lower shadow. I used Wendy Hill's A Good Nights Sleep.

I also highlighted my inner corner with a pale blue.

I then went on and filled in my brows before coming back to smudge a covergirl black pencil liner into the lash line. I smudged over it with the black with blue shimmer.

I then lined my waterline and tightline with Maybelline Gel Liner in Black.

I then added Revlon Growluscious Mascara.

I foinished the face with my LA Colors Contour Powder and a pale pink blush and also a highlight.

I then wore a nude lip using L.A. Colors lipliner in Nude, Wendy Hill lipstick in Au Naturel and a nude gloss from Models Prefer.

Please watch the video to see exactly where I placed the eyeshadow. Sorry it is a bit long but feel free to skip throught to the bits you want to see.

Manicure Monday: Colourful Gradient Nails

Colourful Gradient

I haven't had much time to play around with my own nails recently,so for today's post here are the nails I did on my friend.

The photo doesn't really show the manicure off, it looks much nicer in person.

As always I started off with a base coat on all nails.

On the pointer and pinky fingers I painted the whole nail with a pale blue then sponged a layer of purple over two thirds of the nail concentrating the colour intensity at the free edge of the nail. Once this was dry I sponged a purply pink colour onto the tip of the nail.

On the middle finger I painted the entire nail a bright pink colour then sponged an orange onto two thirds of the nail, again focusing the intensity of colour on the free edge of the nail. I then sponged a yellow polish onto the tip. This gradient was the least obvious and great for a more subtle look.

On the ring finger I painted the entire nail yellow then sponged a fluorescent green nail polish over two thirds of the nail focusing the intensity of colour on the free edge of the nail. I then sponged the same blue I had used for the base colour of the pointer and pinky fingers on the very tip of the ring finger nail, because of the green underneath it gives it a minty green look.

I then painted all the nails with a clear glittery polish and a top coat to seal it all in.

Manicure and Tutorial

This is what I have on my nails right now, it's really easy so I thought I would share it with you.

Step 1. Always start with clean freshly manicured nails and remove any grease from the nail plate with nail polish remover

Step 2. Apply your favourite base coat to protect your nails and make your manicure last longer. I am using O.P.I Nail Envy.

Step 3. Pick two nail polish colours, they can be contrasting or complementary. You can even use just one colour. I have chosen Orly Purple Crush (pink polish) and O.P.I Fly (blue-green polish).

Step 4. Using a thin nail art brush and a black acrylic paint brush two stripes onto each nail in a cross shape. The crosses can be different on each nail or the same if you prefer. You can use black nail polish for the crosses if you have it. If you want really crisp lines you can tape off your nails in the cross shape. I don't use tape because your nails must be completely dry before putting tape onto the polish.

Step 5. Apply your favourite topcoat and enjoy.

Don't worry if your crosses don't look perfect close up, I always look at my nails from arms length and if they look good from there I'm good to go.

Nails

Here are a few of the nail designs I have done in the past year or so. Please excuse the poor quality photos, most were taken with my phone.

These are acrylic nails I did on myself. The have a gel topcoat and nail art on the ring finger. They are small purple beads with a flower.

Here are my friends nails, again with acrylic, although with a purple glitter tip. I mixed purple glitter with a clear acrylic powder before mixing with the monomer and applying to the nail.

Another friends nails, this time gels. The glitter was applied before the gel topcoat as well as the pink and blue rhinestones.

Here are my mother's nails with a subtle pink water marble with regular nail polish.

My own nails again, this time with a retro looking design that I absolutely love.

My nails again.... This is bluesky shellac with a glitter on top.

These are my sister's nails, there are two pictures because I think they are awesome. They are my version of a galaxy nails, done using Bluesky shellac over a gel nail overlay.

Any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Frankie.