. love & sunshine & nail polish .

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Abstract

This is a style of nail design I first saw while browsing on Pinterest. It looks really cool and intricate but is actually really simple to create.

To create this design, all you need is a little bit of scotch tape, a bunch of colours, and some patience. I placed the pieces of scotch tape down on a plastic surface (so it'd be easy to peel up) and painted my colours directly onto each piece. While these dried, I painted my nails white so that the colours would pop.

Next I took a small pair of sharp scissors and cut little triangles and stripes out of the pieces of painted scotch tape and used a tooth pick to help me place them where I wanted on my nails.

After I had all my pieces positioned and stuck down onto my nails where I wanted them, I painted on 2 thick layers of top coat to seal in the tape.

You could definitely do this design with a number of shapes, I think squares or little stars would look really cool as well.

Base Colour: Sally Hansen - White On

Design Colours: ACO - Hot Coral, Electric Ocean, & Mint Green

Maybelline - Fierce n' Tangy; Sally Hansen - No Hard Feelings

Top Coat: Pro FX Long Wearing UV Top Coat

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Frosted Tips: relief from the heat

Seeing as the weather has been relentless the past few weeks in bombarding us with heat waves, I decided to create a look that was frosty and cool.

Taking inspiration from the much-loved Ombre Nail, I created these frosted tips by painting my nails a cool turquoise colour and then using a sponge to lightly dab on the silver. I must admit though that I wasn't able to photograph them quite how they look in real life, on my hands they actually look much more "chilly" - for lack of a better word.

Painting the silver nail polish directly onto the sponge is the best way to achieve this look as it's easy to control how much paint goes on the nail, and you can dab it here you want it to get even and smooth coverage.

Also, please excuse the look of my cuticles! My hands were really dry when I photographed these!

Base Colour: ACO - Deep Green

Frosted Colour: ACO - Frozen Night

Top Coat: PRO FX Long Wearing UV Top Coat

. love&sunshine&nailpolish, Cait xo.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Long time coming

Hey guys,

Sorry I haven't posted in over a month! I've been painting but I keep chipping my nails before I can photograph them the way I want. Anyways, here is a design I did yesterday that I think turned out really well. It started as just a half and half design and then I just kept adding to it.

I made this design by painting a base colour and then using tape to get a straight line for the secondary colour. Then I used a nail pen to draw the line across the middle.

At first, I had drawn little white dots into the little circles on the side, but then my nails looked too much like Pokeballs, so I added the little sequin on top. To place the sequin where I wanted I just used a toothpick to pick them up one by one and place them on my nails.

Base Colour: OPI - Barefoot in Barcelona

Secondary Colour: Sephora for OPI - Looks like Rain, Dear

Nail Art Pen: Sally Hansen - Navy

Sequin: Sephora for OPI - Traffic-Stopper Copper

Top Coat: Pro FX Long Wearing UV Top Coat

. love&sunshine&nailpolish, Cait xo.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

More Stamps

Hey all,
Sorry I haven't posted in a week! I've been working full-time hours at my job and got super busy recently. BUT, I did still find time to do these nails and post them for you. I really like how well the silvery stamp shows on the blue.

The stamp got a little smudged on the pinky finger, but I was in a rush and wasn't bothered by it enough to fix it.

I also wanted to send a shootout to all my friends that have been inspired to start doing more with their nails than painting solid colours - You're all doing an awesome job! :)

Base Colour: ACO - Electric Ocean

Stamp Colour: ACO - Vegas Gold (ended up looking silver once stamped)

Top Coat: PRO FX Long Wearing UV Top Coat

Stamping Plate: Bundle Monster - BM 205

. love&sunshine&nailpolish, Cait xo.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Half n' Half

This is a really easy design, all you have to do is paint on your base colour and let it dry completely. Then use scotch tape to make a line across your nails, painting the second colour on top. Peeling the tape off while the nail polish is still wet makes the cleanest line between the two colours.

Base Colour: OPI - Mod About You

Top Colour: ACO - Deep Green

Top Coat: PRO FX Long Wearing UV Top Coat

. love&sunshine&nailpolish, Cait xo.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Reader's Request

Hey guys! I've had some friends ask me to do specific designs that they wanted to see, so I thought I'd open up the floor to all of you - What do YOU want to see me try next?

Leave your requests in the comments section below and I'll post all of the designs you suggest!

Lattice Nails

I decided to switch it up with this one and make the ring finger different. The gold polish in this design stamped surprisingly well, while the peach polish I used ended up looking more like orange once I had a few coats on. The lattice design ended up looking kind of like snakeskin or dragon scales to me.

Also, I just got new nail polish remover and I recommend it to anyone who paints their nails often and hates how long it takes to get the stuff off with generic brands of remover. The stuff I just got is called Onyx Professional remover and it's 100% acetone, meaning you should give your nails some time to breath between removing old polish and adding new. You can find it at Walmart and a bottle of 473 ml will cost you about $4.

Base Colour: ACO - Hot Coral

Stamping Colour: ACO - Vegas Gold

Stamping Plates: Bundle Monster - BM 208 & BM 209

Top Coat: PRO FX Long Wearing UV Top Coat

. love&sunshine&nailpolish, Cait xo.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Birthday nails

It was my friend's birthday this past weekend and these were the nails I decided to create. Needless to say, one night out at the bar and these poor babies got chipped as hell and I had to take them off.