Spring Flowers with Holo Glitter | Gel Polish Manicure

I decided to record myself doing my nails. This wasn't mean as a tutorial more of a nail GRWM but you may learn something from this video. Sadly the video quality is not as good as I had hoped because the colour keeps changing but I think you can still see what I am doing. I hope my next attempt at a nail video goes better. I am hoping to record my own nails every time that I do them and also throw in a few quick nail art experiment videos in between.

Anyway here are the nails I did, I have kept it really simple because I couldn't decide what to do. I wanted to use my new colours and also my new holographic glitter.

Spring Flowers with Holo Glitter Nail Art.

This manicure could easily be recreated in regular polish although I would probably skip out on the loose glitter and use a glitter polish instead.

If you want to watch how I did these nails, here s the video.

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to add them as a comment.

3 Ways to use Glitter with Gel Nail Polish

3 types of Gl Polish Glitter Nails

All of these techniques can be varied by using different polish colours and glitter colours. You can choose to use the same colour polish and glitter or use a different coloured polish and glitter. This looks especially good with method 1 using your manicure colour as the base polish and adding a gold or silver on top. Also with method 2 a black base and silver glitter look nice together. I think I also need to add that the photos do these nails no justice, it is so difficult to get a good shot of glitter.

Sheer Gel Polish Glitter Nail

1. Sheer Glitter Nail
For this method start by applying your basecoat and two coats of colour polish curing between layers, if your colour is not opaque apply more layers. On a palette place a drop of top or base coat and add loose glitter of your desired colour and mix together. Then apply this mixture to the nail, I like to use a dabbing method as it gives more even coverage. Then cure the glitter layer. You can stop here and apply top coat or you can add another layer of the glitter mixture if you want more glitter. Once you have applied your final top coat check to make sure there are no rough areas, if there are then buff the nail and apply another layer of top coat.

Medium Coverage Gel Polish Glitter Nail

2. Medium Coverage Glitter Nail
For this method you want to start the same way as the first method, apply your basecoat and 2 colour coats curing between layers. Get your glitter on a fluffy brush and press the glitter into the sticky inhibition layer. Then cure in your lamp. Now gently dust off ant loose glitter and apply a top coat. Remove the sticky layer and buff the nail before applying a final top coat.

Full Coverage Gel Polish Glitter Nail

3. Full Coverage Glitter Nail
For this method apply your base coat and one coat of colour polish and cure between layers. Next add a second coat of colour but before curing pour on your glitter until it covers the whole nail, shake off any excess and cure in you lamp. Now brush off any loose glitter, apply a top coat and cure. Next remove the sticky layer and buff the nail before applying a final top coat.








Gel Polish Glitter Nails are so easy to do and add such a great accent to any manicure. The colour combinations are endless. I hope these steps made sense, if anyone would like me to elaborate or make a video tutorial please let me know.

Manicure Monday - Anchor Gel Nail Polish Manicure

Anchor Nails - Gel Polish Manicure

Today's nails were inspired by a picture that my client brought in with her, but I can't remember where the photo was from. If you know where this design originated, let me know so I can give credit to the right person.

For this manicure I mixed up a pale blue gel polish colour by mixing a royal blue with a white.

For the ring finger I painted a few coats of white gel polish until the colour was opaque, then I free hand painted the horizontal stripes one at a time curing after each stripe. I chose to cure the stripes individually so that I could get cleaner lines. Although this method is much more time consuming I find that I get better results than when I do all of the stripes at once. The stripe got thinner as they got closer to the cuticle.

For the anchor I free hand painted the stick with cross and the curved bottom and then cured before adding the triangles and a small dot for the top. Finally I added another smaller dot in white to make the whole where the anchor would attach to a chain. The design was then finished with a top coat.

For the thumb we did an opaque silver glitter nail.

I hope you like this manicure, if anyone would like me to recreate this manicure in a step by step video just let me know.

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Braided Nail Art Gel Polish Manicure

Braided Gel Nail Polish Design

Another post starting the same way as always, sorry for not posting in a very long time. I really have no excuse so I'm not going to try make one.

Here is a set of nails I did on myself. I find it hard to describe how to do designs just using photos, so I though I would record myself doing the design. It was my first time doing a braided design and also my first time filming this way. The video isn't the best and I can definitely improve on a few things, like getting closer to the fingers. But hopefully the video gives you an idea of how to do a braided nail design with gel nail polish.

Happy watching. :)

Manicure Monday - Green and Silver Zig Zag Design

Green and Silver Glitter Zig Zag Nails

When I did this manicure my camera battery died and I had to take the picture with my phone, so please excuse the quality.

This is a gel polish design.

This manicure is similar to designs I have done in the past but this is a new colour. My client brought in a picture from the Orly Nail Girls and chose this awesome green colour.

To do the zig zag design first paint the nail with your desired base colour, we chose white, and then dot out the design in your second colour before joining the dots together to make your zig zag.

On the middle finger we did a full silver glitter nail.

The rest of the fingers and thumb were just painted green.

Yay for me getting this post up on time.

Nail Art

So I had two nail designs to upload for Manicure Monday for the two previous Mondays but I kind of forgot to post them up. So here they are now.

Baby Blue Glitter and Diamond Nails

The first set is a baby blue custom blended gel polish colour. It is hard to tell in the photo but the ring finger is a glitter nail. On the middle finger is a diamond design. I did this design by first painting the nail blue, then roughly painting on the diamonds, then cleaning up the lines by going back with the same blue base colour and finally adding some dots in each diamond in a silver gel polish colour.

Black and White Heart Nails

The next set is a black and white design, all nails painted black except the ring finger which is painted white. Then using a small paint brush I painted a black heart on the white ring finger and a white heart on the thumb. I also went back with the base nail colour to clean up the edges of the hearts.





Wish me luck with getting next weeks Manicure Monday Post up on time.

Manicure Monday - Pink and Silver Nails

Acrylic nails with gel polish

Today we have a set of sculpted clear acrylic nails with a custom blended gel nail polish on top. To make the pink colour I mixed a hot pink with a french pink to lighten the colour without turning the colour into a pastel which happens when you use a white polish to lighten colour.


On the ring finger is a silver glitter finger applied in the normal way. I plan to do a step by step post on this, the next time I do my own nails.

Also on the thumb I stamped some flowers using the Konad m57 plate before applying topcoat.

You may notice the Manicure Monday in the title again, I am planning to post a nail design every Monday if I can keep up with it. I have 3 weeks planned already so hopefully that is enough of a head start to keep up with it. I'm not promising post on any other days but there will most likely be a few other odd posts here and there.

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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Red and Gold Nails

Today I did a set of clear sculpted acrylics and finished with regular nail polish. On all fingers except the ring finger is OPI Red and on the ring finger is Orly Luxe.

These nails are for a wedding, she wanted red nails to match her planned red lips.




Also on the ring finger is some white stamped lace which I did using the m57 plate. We also stamped some lace on the thumb in the Orly Gold Polish.

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Day 22 - Zig Zag Nails

This is a set of gel nail polish nails I did quite a while ago based on a design that Shaaanxo had done. We swapped out the colours to better suit my clients taste.

This is a really easy design to do and can be done with regular polish also.

It seems I do a lot of nail designs inspired by the Orly Nail Girls and Shaanxo. These are just the designs that my clients bring in.

Day 20 - Lavender Daisy Nails

Today I did these lovely lavender and silver nails with white daisies. My client brought in a photo from the Orly Nail Girls but I can't find the specific photo to link to sorry.

This is a nice simple design that still looks amazing.

I mixed two colours together to make the perfect lavender purple.

The silver nail is a silver polish with silver glitter on top.

I made the flowers using a three different sized dotting tools. The original design also had small dots filling the empty space on the ring finger but my client decided she preferred them without.

This design would look lovely in many different colours and you can swap the glitter to gold. The flowers can be done with more petals or with a rhinestone centre. This is also a great design to do on yourself because it doesn't require too much control with your non dominant hand.

This is a gel nail polish design but this could easily be recreated with regular polish.

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.

Day 14 - Pink, Purple and Black Nails

Happy Valentines Day everyone! Today's post is going to be a really quick one because I have been working all day and I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and think of a good idea for a post.

Here are a set of nails I did the other day. My client brought in a picture of this design in different colours and asked me to recreate it. I do not know who did the original design so I can't link to it.

She chose pink, purple and black and also asked me to add the purple hearts and pink stars to the design. We reversed the colours on the thumbs.

This design is done with gel nail polish.

Day 12 - Valentines Day Nails

Here are my Valentines Day inspired nails. They didn't turn out exactly as I pictured them in my head but I thought I'd share them anyway. I ended up just doing a custom blended pink and accent glitter nail on my right hand.

I started with applying to coats of base colour, pink on the pointer and pinky, white on the middle finger. I then made a gradient. White to pink on the middle finger and reverse on the pointer and pinky.

On the ring finger I mixed some gold glitter with some pink glitter to make it fit in with the theme a little better.

I painted one heart on the pointer, middle and pinky fingers in the original base pink.

I painted some roses using the colours I used in the gradient on my ring finger.

On my thumb I did three coats of white and then painted on a heart on the original pink.

If you have any questions on this design or would like a more in depth tutorial let me know.

Day 9 - Triangle Nails

Another set of 21st birthday nails, this time my client brought in four photos of Orly Nail Girls work and we decided to try and recreate this look.

I started by mixing together two gel colours to create the base colour and then painted on the triangle in three different colours. Adding glitter on top of a bronze gel polish to give a little sparkle.

I know it is not identical to the original, we only did one finger and used different colours but I really like the way this design turned out.

It is a fairly simple design but straight lines and shapes are always time consuming.

What do you think of this design?

Day Five - Shaaanxo inspired nails

Here are a set of nails I did on a client for her 21st birthday. She brought in a photo of Shaaanxo's nails and I did my best to recreate the look although the colours are slightly different to what shaaanxo had.

I'm not going to go into detail on how I achieved this design but I can do a tutorial in a future post if anyone wants me too. I used four gel polish colours and some gold craft glitter. All lines were done freehand.

Mint and White Heart French Manicure

Long time, no blog. Feels like I start every post with something along those lines and a promise to post more frequently from now on. No such promise this time, I will do the best I can to post more often but I will most likely fail to do so. 

The upside to being absent for so long, I have plenty of photos of nail designs that I can now share with you. Instead of lumping them all together in one post, as I have done previously, I thought I would give more detailed explanations of each design in their own separate posts.

This first design is using three polishes, a white (Orly White Out), a minty green (Orly Gumdrop, is slightly more minty in person) and an optional glitter polish I used Wasabi. I can't remember the brand name of the glitter polish, but if anyone needs to know I can search it out for you.

I start with basecoat as always then apply a few coats of Orly Gumdrop, you can use any colour you prefer. Then using the white polish draw to semi circle shapes at the tip of the nail overlapping in the centre, creating the heart or lip french. This shape of french is very easy to do because the brush does most of the work for you. You may need to do two coats of the white if the colour underneath is showing through. You could stop here if you want to, but I chose to continue and using a dotting tool and the same white polish I added a few white dots along the line of the heart tip.

You may see in the photo I added a few rhinestones, which you may like to do also, although I prefer the design with out. At the time of this manicure I had on some very grown out acrylics which I was being lazy about removing so I added the rhinestones to disguise the acrylic nail which was most obvious on my ring finger.

I know that was a very rambly explanation, so if you have any questions do not hesitate to ask.

Pink and Rose Gold

Orly Je'Taime and Orly Rage

So, it seems I have been a little obsessed with changing my nail polish this week.

I loved the Orly Luxe polish I used in my last post so much that I couldn't wait to try out its sister Orly Rage, a lovely rose gold colour. I paired it with Orly Je'Taime for a pretty girly manicure.

Orly Je'Taime is semi sheer, but I don't mind this because it is quite a nude pink anyway.

I chose to add dots of O.P.I Kiss me on my Tulips to give a bit of colour to the manicure. I also added pale pink rhinestones on my ring finger.

What's your favourite nail polish?

Yellow and Gold Manicure

Orly Hook Up and Orly Luxe

I have bought quite a few new nail polishes recently and I wanted to try some out so now there are two manicure posts this week.

Today I am wearing Orly Hook Up the yellow colour and Orly Luxe the gold.

Hook Up is quite a sheer yellow. In the photo I am wearing three coats and you can still see the whites of my nails through it. It also has a sheen to it.

Luxe is a beautiful gold colour. It is pretty much opaque with one coat but I always do to coats for good measure. It is everything I have ever wanted in a gold polish and I have wanted one for a while. I always bought a silver (shine) and rose gold (rage) version at the same time. Its great to do an accent nail in the colour of your jewellery fr a subtle matching manicure.

I have to say I was a little disappointed with Hook Up's opacity but I could always put a base of white underneath. But the disappointment is over ridden by the awesomeness of the Luxe polish.

Manicure Monday: Accent Nail

Orly Goth and Orly Rio

I have been slacking in my blog posts for a week or so now but I've been very busy with work since doing a deal on GrabOne. I'm not sure if I will be able to keep up with three posts a week but we will see how I go.

On my nails at the moment I am wearing Orly Goth and Orly Rio on my ring fingers.

As always I used a base coat. Today I used Orly Nail Defense.

The goth colour is an opaque black with small silver glitter pieces in it. It looks more glittery in the bottle than it does on the nails. Because the black is opaque the glitter doesn't show through too well. Also as with any glitter polish it is hard to get the glitter evenly spread over the entire nail. For me most of the glitter stays near the cuticle. The finished look is a fairly subtle glittery black. From arms length you can barely see any sparkle but up close it looks a little like the night sky. If you are looking for a lot of glitter you would be better off going for a plain black and then adding a coat of clear glitter polish over the top.

Because I can never just have plain nails, I had to do an accent nail. I chose to use Orly Rio because t is just a beautiful colour. It is a pinky purple with a little bit of a duo chrome look to it. It is gorgeous and bright and a happy colour.

Both colours were opaque after two coats. As with all Orly nail polishes I have tried the finish is not as shiny as other polishes like OPI. I think this is because they are designed to be used with a top coat. This is fine for me as I always use a topcoat. The top coat I used is Orly Polishield which claims to fuse with the nail polish to make it last longer. I find this top coat gives great shine and makes my nail polish last at least 10 days.

I love accent manicures for when I am being lazy or in a rush. There are endless colour combinations and I don't think I will ever get bored of it.

This is what's on my nails this week. What are you wearing?