Sunday, September 19, 2010

Nail Art Fun: Essie Chinchilly and Viva la Nails!

I love nail stickers and nail gems, because they can really dress up a manicure, and they accommodate people of all sorts of inclinations. If you don't have much time, simply slapping on a sticker will do. On the other hand, if you want to do intricate little designs with nail gems, that's also perfectly possible!

For this NOTD, I wanted to make a girly, yet not all pink-and-swirly NOTD, so I dressed what was otherwise a boring grey NOTD. I used these nail stickers and nail gems from Viva la Nails. Aren't they absolutely adorable? I used a pack of nail stickers that had teeny tiny little rhinestones on some of the stickers, and a pack of black gemstones.

viva la nails

For the base I used Essie Chinchilly, which by the way is the most gorgeous grey creme I've seen. It's grey, but it doesn't have much blue in it, and in fact it does seem to have a tinge of green compared to other greys, so it's perhaps the most ideal grey I've seen for warm-toned people. I love this one because it's not too cool-toned. And application and pigmentation was excellent, to boot.

Then, using a pair of tweezers, I picked up the black gemstones one by one and stuck them along my smile line on the nail, parallel to the free edge. Or at least attempted to, since not all my lines were perfect. And then I stuck on some flower nail art stickers for interest.

This is the final result:

Essie Chinchilly and Viva La Nails

I don't know about you, but I'm absolutely in love with it! I loved how the Viva la Nails art stuff totally glammed up my grey mani. And I love how it's fun and feminine without being OTT, you know? It's a very happy medium as far as nail art is concerned.

I wore these for a good while before I finally decided to remove them, and I didn't have any problem with them falling off or peeling off my nails. I applied two coats of topcoat (one slow-dry and Seche Vite on top of it), so I think that really secured them.

essie chinchilly and viva la nails

I'm totally enjoying the Viva la Nails nail art stuff, I have a bunch of their stuff, and it's really good quality - no tacky stuff that falls apart here! I love that they have individual gemstones, stickers, and even some less conventional items like feathers! (I'm still trying to figure out what to do with a feather on my nails, but if I ever do, you can bet you'll be hearing about it!) They're UK-based, and shipping is cheap (2.95GBP and up) and fast when I placed my order, so if you want to get anything from them, I highly recommend it!

10 comments:

  1. these stickers are the bomb. i am so rubbish at nail art and i think these would just be ideal for me!!

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  2. That's so pretty! I wish I had enough patience to do nail art!

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  3. cute! it looks elegant and understated at the same time. I like it! I love the black rhinestones, they are the best

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  4. Classy, but fun--I really like it. I need some black rhinestones in my life!

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  5. Its really nice how you've combined the grey nail polish and black stickers. I love Chinchilly, I just bought it and can't get enough of it :-)

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  6. In North America, Sally's Beauty Supply sells some great nail stuff too. I like that you left a little gap between the tip of your nail and the gems - I always struggle opening things with the gems right at the edge.

    nationalvixen.blogspot.com

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  7. Love this! I love the Essie polish too.

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  8. I didn't know this even existed. LOL every time I see nail art I just assume they got it done at a nail salon.

    I will have to look into these stickers. very cool

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