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 24 - Product Empties

Here are a few products I finished up this month.

Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser 250 ml I got mine for around $20 from Farmers. This is a cleanser that can be used on your face or body. It is extremely gentle which is great for my sensitive skin. I can't say that it is a miracle product that cleared up my skin but it does not make my skin worse. It cleans my skin without causing a reaction. It has a gel cream texture. I feel as though the Cetaphil, the Comfort Soothing Creme and also the Skinfood NZ Cleans All are all quite interchangeable. They are all gentle cleanser that clean my skin with out causing a reaction or drying out my skin. I would re purchase this cleanser but I am currently trying out a new cleanser.

Orly Nail Lacquer Remover Non-Acetone Formula 473 ml for $19.99 from Farmers. Being a beauty therapist, especially one that loves doing nails, I use up quite a lot of nail polish remover. I always choose to use acetone free formulas because I do have some clients that get acrylic nails. This nail polish remover works just as well as the other acetone free formulas that I have used. But like most acetone free formulas it does take a little extra effort to remove metallic and glitter polishes. I would re purchase this.

Orly Cutique Cuticle Remover 9 ml I think I got mine for around $12 at Farmers. As a cuticle remover this is great, it softens the skin on the nail so you can use a cuticle stick to scrape it off. It is also a great nail stain remover. I don't find that this dries out the skin too much as long as you wash off the product and use a cuticle oil or hand cream as part of your manicure routine. I would re purchase this.

Nutrimetics Comfort Soothing Cleansing Creme 150 ml for $33.01. This is another gentle face cleanser. It has a cream texture and is part of the sensitive skin range from Nutrimetics. The Comfort Skincare range is supposed to be on par with the Clinique Sensitive Skin Range but I have not tried the Clinique, so I can't say whether this is true or not. As I mentioned above, although this is a great cleanser that doesn't make my skin react or dry out, it is interchangeable with the other two cleansers I mentioned. I don't think that I would re purchase this cleanser because it is more expensive than the Cetaphil and I feel as though they have the same effect on my skin.

Nutrimetics Comfort Gentle Toning Lotion 200 ml for $33.01.This is a toner for sensitive skin, a lot of toners I have tried before are too harsh and break me out as well as drying out my skin. This toner is alcohol free and doesn't dry out my skin or break me out. I like to use a toner to remove any excess cleanser on my skin and to make sure that all makeup has been removed. If my cotton pad turns foundation coloured, I know that I haven't washed my face properly. I haven't found any other toners for sensitive skin so I have already re purchased this product.

Nutrimetics Nutri Rich Oil 25 ml for $30. I have already done a review of this product which you can read here. I love this product as a night cream and I have already re purchased this item.

I love empty product posts because if you have finished the whole product then I feel like your opinion has had plenty of time to form, although sometimes you instantly hate a product and never use it so it will never make it to an empty products posts. I guess that's what products I regret buying posts are for. Only four more days of February Fun to go.

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?

Manicure Monday: Nail Care Routine and Nail Art Tutorial

Pink and green nail art

To make up for missing last weeks Manicure Monday, today is a double whammy. I am doing a step by step nail care routine and also a nail tutorial for this look.

First off, let's start with nail care.
Step 1: Trim nails with nail clippers. You only need to do this if you are wanting to shorten your nails dramatically. Make sure not to cut your nails too short.
Step 2: Using a fine grit nail file, file your nails to remove sharp edges and get the exact nail edge you want. This is the point where you can make your nails round, square, pointy etc.
Step 3: Remove excess cuticle. See the video for my rant about what you can use to soften your cuticles.
Step 4: Trim off any hang nails.
Step 5: Buff your nails to remove ridges if you have any. You can skip this step if you want to.
Step 6: Remove any oil from your nails using a cotton pad with nail polish remover on it. This is an important step because if oil is left on the nail, the nail polish will not bond with the nail and it will not last.

Now on to the nail tutorial.
Step 1: Apply a base coat. This will help your manicure last longer and prevent staining.
Step 2: Apply the colour you want for your border all over your nail. I chose O.P.I. Kiss me on my Tulips. I only needed one coat to get the opacity I wanted. If you need to apply two coats, go ahead and do that.
Step 3: Make sure your border colour is dry and then go in with your middle colour. I chose O.P.I Fly. Apply this like you did the first colour but leaving a 2 to 3 mm border of your first colour at the cuticle and side walls. Let this dry and then apply another coat to reach your desired opacity.
Step 4: You can at this point choose to leave it as it is or make a full border by painting your first colour on the tip of your nail as though doing a very thin french manicure. I chose not to.
Step 5: After making sure your nails are at least 90% dry, apply a top coat. Then once it is dry, your manicure is complete.

I would like to add a little disclaimer about the video. This is the first time I have ever recorded myself on camera and you may notice I stumble over my words and ramble quite a lot, so please do not judge. Also the pink does not show up true to colour in the video, it is an almost neon pink. The photo does it more justice.




The files I used in this video are here. And here is the buffer and cuticle pusher.

Mr. Men Manicure

Naked Nails and Orly White Out

I was wearing my Mr. Happy T-shirt the other day and I thought it would make a great, easy manicure. Turns out it is a great idea but not so easy.

I started with a base coat and then painted all my nails white using Orly's White Out.

Mr. Men Manicure

This is where the hard part started. I painted all of the characters using acrylic paint. It was very difficult to mix the exact colours and the colour is definitely off on Mr. Skinny on my pinky finger.

I painted on each characters shape and then outlined in black and added eyes mouth and hands.

The hands where very difficult to do and they didn't turn out how I had hoped.

Because the design was a lot harder than I thought, I decided to cheat on my right hand and just right Mr. Men which is still quite hard to do with your left hand.



Overall I am happy with how they ended up. Close up there are obviously mistakes, but I think you can still tell what I was aiming for and practice makes perfect.

 

Mr. Men Manicure

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.