Christmas Mosaic Nails

 I found it really hard to decide what I wanted on my nails this Christmas. I wasn't feeling the literal approach (Santa hats, reindeer, snowmen etc.) I had just done a lovely set of white and gold Christmas nails on my friend and they were gorgeous but I didn't want to copy.

I had also just taken part in the Neiru fine lines workshop and was wanting to try out some new techniques. I decided to try out mosaic nails but make them Christmas themed by using red, green and gold.

Mosaic Nails are relatively easy to do and can be adjusted to suit your abilities. If you find it difficult just make your lines thicker, if you find it easy aim for the thinnest lines possible. I did do this design with gel nail polish but I am sure it could also be done with regular polish or acrylic paint.

Christmas Mosaic Nails

I will give a brief rundown of how to do mosaic nails but if you want a more in depth look at how i did my Christmas nails check out the video below.

I started with base coat then applied a nude pink colour as my base so I would have to do less coats when filling in my shapes. Next I took a fine liner brush and painted lines on my nail, some straight, some curved. Intersecting at different points. It's up to you the shapes you want to create and also how many shapes you want on you nail. Make sure not to make the shapes too small otherwise it is harder to colour them in.

After the white outline is set its really just colouring in. Like I said I chose red, green and gold for Christmas but you can use whatever you like. I counted the shapes and tried to divide the colours evenly but I also didn't want any touching shapes to be the same colour. When filling in the shapes you can correct any of the white lines that are too thick.

After the shapes have been coloured in, you may need more than one coat, I traced over the white lines perfecting them as much as possible. Then topcoat and the design is complete.

Uninspired and Overwhelmed

WARNING: I feel a rambly post coming on.

I don't know where or how to start this post, I guess I want to start by saying this is not a pity post. I know that barely anyone sees my posts and I'm not writing this so you can feel sorry for me. I need to write somethings down and get them out of my head and for me posting things online helps me feel more accountable for myself. As though putting things on the internet means I have to follow through with any commitments I have made otherwise the entire internet will be disappointed with me.

I already feel on the verge of tears and I don't even know what this post is about. I may be having a quarter life crisis. I think the biggest thing going on for me right now is that I'm not where I though I'd be at 24. All through my teen years, possibly even younger I have had this idea that I would have a home a husband and children by the age of 25. I always thought my mum was crazy for having her first child at 27, I though that was so old. Yet here I sit at 24 with none of the things I had planned for myself.

Maybe I should just look at the positives, I'm lucky enough to have a part time job as well as run my own small business from home doing something that I love, I have a roof over my head, meals to eat every day and a loving family, so why can't that be enough.

I'm stuck in a cycle of wanting to follow my dreams and being realistic. I would love to continue the way I am now, my business steadily growing. I have been open 21 months and have gained almost 250 Facebook likes which is great but realistically it is not enough for me to survive on. I already made the decision to take on a part time retail job so that I have a constant income but now I am faced with deciding to continue as I am, hoping that my business will take off and it will be a full time career or letting it go and finding a full time job.

A full time job would limit the amount of time I can put into my business and if I were to find a job in the beauty industry that I am qualified for, it would be a conflict of interest to continue my own beauty business.

Perhaps if I had some idea of what to do with my business to help it grow but I find myself uninspired and unsure.  Don't get me wrong, I love what I do. I love the smile on peoples faces when they are really happy with their treatments. I have so many ideas of what I want to do, I want to get into airbrushed makeup, tanning and I would love a complete new gel polish system complete with fancy LED light. But these things all cost money that I do not have. I have to keep my business gaining money not losing it. Was I naive in thinking I could start my business without getting a personal loan? Is a loan what I need to grow my business or would I just end up in the exact same situation with a huge loan?

Sometimes I feel as though there is so much that I want to do, I just don't know where to start so I choose to do nothing. I know that this is going to get me nowhere but I don't no what to do.

Am I stupid for posting this? Is someone going to find this and look down on me?

I wish I could wake up tomorrow and have everything exactly the way I had planned.

Enough of the pity party, a few things I am proud of this year.

I found a job in retail and I have really enjoyed learning new things and growing as a person. It really has helped me with my people skills.

I reached the year anniversary of my beauty business and through it have met so many wonderful people. I feel as though I have grown as a nail artist and I am now able to do designs I previously thought impossible. This is mainly thanks to my clients bringing in pictures of beautiful designs that I push myself to recreate.

I have also made an effort to be more health conscious, I made a YouTube video about this. As of today I have lost 4 kg. Mainly thanks to reducing my fizzy drink intake but I have also enjoyed exercising for the first time in my life. I definitely wouldn't say I have mastered the art of regular exercise but I try and I have recently have been enjoying boxing for fitness.

I think this post is getting a bit long so I will finish up. If you have made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read and I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

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.