Elegant Flower Print

Here's another stamping plate design. I'm starting to get better at achieving clean lines and covering the entire nail. I think the grey and white looks elegant but fun at the same time.

Base Colour: American Apparel Nail Lacquer - Factory Grey

Stamping Plate: Bundle Monster - BM225

Stamp Colour: Sally Hansen - Whitewind White

Top Coat: Pro FX Long Wearing UV Top Coat

Also a big thanks to my friend Kim for letting me paint her nails!

. love&sunshine&nailpolish, Cait xo.

Ombre Nails

Ombre nails (and hair) are really popular right now so I thought I'd take a stab at recreating the look myself. This technique is a little bit tricky, but is easy to perfect with practice. You can do this design with 2, 3 or even 4 colours, but I've found that the more colours you try to squeeze onto your nail the less smoothly they tend to blend. I chose bright blue, turquoise and minty green colours for my nails as they would blend more naturally together into a gradient.

The easiest way to achieve this look is to use a small makeup sponge and paint your polish onto the skinny end from lightest to darkest, or darkest to lightest in my case, noting that the colour on the tip will be at the base of your nail. I painted a white colour onto my nails before sponging on the other colours so that they would be brighter. You may need to reapply the paint onto the sponge with each nail, and sponge some nails more than once to get a smooth blend between colours.

Base Colour: Sally Hansen - Whitewind White

Ombre Colours: ACO - Electric Ocean, Deep Green, Mint Cream

Top Coat: PRO FX Long Wearing UV Top Coat

. love&sunshine&nailpolish, Cait xo.

Wild times at Western

I just finished university at UWO and have sadly moved back home. With Mustang pride (and a lot of great memories) still coursing through me, I decided to do a design with my Alma Mater in mind. To celebrate and remember all the wild nights at Western I chose a zebra print design from my new stamping plates and our purple and white school colours.

These stamping plates are really cool and a great way to get exciting nails without too much fuss. This was my first attempt using them so I haven't perfected the technique quite yet.

I ordered my stamping plates online from Bundle Monster and it was a pretty good deal. I got 25 plates, each with 4 or 5 stamp designs, for around $28 including shipping. Smaller kits can also be bought at Walmart (where I went to get the actual pink little stamper) or at the "As Seen on TV" store in most malls.

Base Colour: Sally Hansen - No Hard Feelings

Stamping Colour: The white that came with the stamp

Stamp Plate: Bundle Monster Plate BM-223

Top Coat: Pro FX Long Wearing UV Top Coat

. love&sunshine&nailpolish, Cait xo.

Bows and Dots

Here is a simple design that is super cute any time of year. You can easily switch up the colours to match the season. I chose to do a bright indigo colour and added the polka dots and bow with a pink nail art pen that turned out looking a bit more reddish once on top.

Base Colour: ACO Electric Ocean

Design Colour: Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Hot Pink

Top Coat: PRO FX Long Wearing UV Top Coat

Happy Painting!

. love&sunshine&nailpolish, Cait.

Ocean Inspired

For my first post I was inspired by memories of my recent trip to Punta Cana, and all the fun water-related summer activities that we'll all soon be enjoying. This first design is easy and great for beginners who want fabulous looking nails that are a breeze to create.

For this design I chose a bright turquoise as my bottom layer and applied two coats to get a nice even finish. Once that dried, I used a makeup sponge to lightly dab on the glitter layer, working down from the tips. For this technique it's important to paint the polish directly onto the sponge, re-applying when needed. I finished off with two layers of top coat to seal in the design and voila! Ocean-y nails that are reminiscent of mermaids!

Base Colour: ACO Mint Cream

Top Glitter Colour: ACO Day n' Night

Top Coat: Pro-FX Long Wearing UV Top Coat

. love&sunshine&nailpolish, Cait.