Tribal Nail Art: Summer Colours and Geometric Shapes

One of this Spring/Summer's trends is the tribal print, combined with eye-catching, bright colours. While I'm not actually a fan of wearing tribal print, I thought that it would be awesome to do a tribal-inspired mani on my nails. I've also been seeing a few tribal-inspired nail looks too, so I thought I'd join the club.

Let me show you a few photos that were indicative of the trend that inspired this nail art. The tribal feel is acheived by a mix of bright colours and geometric prints.

(Source)

Here, less geometric shapes, but bright colours nonetheless!

(Source)

For this look, I was really going for the bright shades and geometric shapes feel. The base is Essie Fondola Gondola, the green bit is Nails Inc Spring Mews (which I've used in an NOTD before), while the coral shade is Eyeko Coral (which, if you don't know yet, makes a fantastic pedi colour for summer. The gold lines were done with Orly Luxe, which has to be my favourite gold polish ever, because I keep raving about it.



All this was done freehand. I simply painted Essie Fondola Godola, then I painted Nails Inc Spring Mews and Eyeko Coral at an angle to get the geometric shapes. I then painted over the lines with Orly Luxe, and painted in a small triangle with Luxe as well. It isn't the neatest nail art around, but it was quite fast to do, and if I probably had a bit more control the lines would turn out neater. Oh well, nail art isn't exactly my strongest suite. You can see I really messed up the gold lines badly.



I liked the combination of colours - so gorgeous and summery and girly, as I liked the geometric shapes, but I think it was marred by my own crappy application.



What about you guys? Have you tried a tribal-inspired manicure yet? Tell me!

Girly Nail Art: Spring/Summer Stripes and Pearls

I wanted to do a nail art inspired by some of the Spring/Summer colours I've been seeing around. I'm not very much into fashion in terms of clothes (the way I've got it figured - you either look good in a piece of clothing or you don't, and if you don't, no point wearing it just because it's trendy because you'll just look silly), but I do like appropriating colours I see on the runway and incorporating them into my nail art. After all, isn't there that quote along the lines of "Good artists borrow, great artists steal"? Here is my nail art then, inspired by the fashion runways.

Anyway, let me show you a few of the photos I was looking at that inspired my current nail art. Basically, girliness and sweetness with a little pop of colour.

(Source: Style)

So I tried to use a similar theme - girly, but with a bit of brightness thrown in - as a base for today's nail art. And I liked the pink-and-green combi, too, so I used that colour scheme as well. And because it wouldn't be nail art without any bling, I threw in some pearls for good measure. And that was it, really.




Okay, so not exactly like Prada on the runway. But I quite like it. For the pink base, I used Nails Inc Bruton Street, one of my favourites in terms of the perfect soft neutral pink. The green (or more accurately, aqua) is China Glaze's For Audrey, which I've already done an NOTD with before. The purple is Illamasqua Jo'mina, also a previously featured polish.



This was all done freehand, hence the messy lines. I just painted the pink first, then the green, then the purple. I originally wanted to cover them up with some striping tape, as I like to do when my nail art is messy, but I figured, well, maybe not this time. So yes, you get to see my messsy lines in full glory. The pearls were added last, followed by topcoat.



So there you have it! My runway-inpired girly nail art for Spring/Summer this year. It's pretty easy to do, if you have a steady hand (obviously I don't so it's not that easy for me), and I really liked the addition of the pearls - it really makes it just that little bit girlier.

Caviar, oops, Fish Egg Manicure, aka Bad PR 101: How NOT to Handle Bloggers

Here is my Caviar, oops, I mean, Fish Egg Manicure! I'm sure by now, you would have heard of how Ciate stupidly unleashed a backlash against its own brand. Well, that's a large part of the reason why I'm writing today's post, too.

It all started so well. One of the more unique trends that was coming up this season for nails was Ciate's Caviar Manicure. This basically a nail surface that is polished, and then covered with beads. It lends a texture and look that resembles caviar, hence the name. (I guess maybe "bubble manicure" didn't sound as good.)

A lot of nail bloggers were inspired by the look, and began doing their own DIY versions. Most brands consider it a good thing, even if these bloggers aren't using their own products (Ciate's manicure sets aren't avaialble til June). The reason is simple - more publicity leads to increased sales, or at least, increased general brand awareness. This was a virtuous cycle - bloggers love a product, readers know about it, brand gets good publicity, and sales.

(Source)

So far, so good. Then Ciate began sending Cease and Desist letters to bloggers (an example here), on the grounds that they are infringing on their intellectual property. Ciate claims that because they are in the process of trademarking the terms "caviar manicure" and "caviar nails", all nail bloggers using either terms are liable for IP infringement.

Of course, nail bloggers, being a tight-knit bunch, were unhappy. The outrage culminated in "Fish Egg Friday", where bloggers all did their own DIY caviar manicures (now re-named "Fish Egg manicures") to express solidarity and unhappiness with Ciate regarding the situation. (One of my favourite posts regarding the entire situation is here.)

As it turns out, Ciate didn't even invent the caviar manicure. It was first done by Dashing Diva more than a year before Ciate, for the Cushnie et Ochs show in 2011. And back then, it was called a caviar manicure too, not as a trademarked term, but more as a general description (like shatter polish doesn't specificaly refer to OPI's shatter range). And yet, if you read the Ciate website, it says, "The inspiration behind the Caviar Manicure™ came about when Charlotte, Ciaté’s Creative Director, was looking to create 3-dimensional nails for a front cover magazine shoot and wanted to develop something feminine, indulgent yet delicately extravagant."


(Screen-capped from Ciate website. Snarky text and red circle added by me.)

So in essence, Ciate is claiming that they invented the cavair manicure, which was invented over a year ago by someone else under the same (non-trademarked) name, and now they are going to trademark it so that noone else (including the original creator, Dashing Diva), can use the words "caviar manicure" or "caviar nails". That's just total and utter crap to me.

Ethical issues aside, this has to do with dealing with bloggers. If it was some skeevy Ebay seller selling fake Ciate beads, then by all means, excercise your IP and slap them with a C&D. But for bloggers, who are individuals acting in a non-commercial manner, and who could be your customers, this is overkill. Even if you have the legal right to do so, a savvy company would not use that as the first step. As I wrote in my previous post the last time something like this happened, it's not a good idea, and I quote:

"However, sending a lawyer's letter right off the bat is a very heavy-handed response given that they are just dealing with one individual, and is one that is too harsh, and bound to give the company a bad reputation. Instead, a much better thing to do would have been to get a PR person to send out a more friendly-sounding email clarifying the situation - that would have gotten the same effect, and have avoided the drama. Justified or not, this is still really bad publicity for [Ciate], which could have been avoided. A lawyer's letter should be the last line of resort, not the first thing you think of, especially when dealing with harmless individuals who are your customers!"

Ciate has since then softened its stance against bloggers, but it does seem like too little, too late.

Anyway, I'm sure you had enough of my ranting (well, what is my blog good for if not ranting I guess!). Let's move on to the actual good stuff - more photos of my very own Caviar Fish Egg Manicure! I'm too late to the party to add in my blog for the link list that's been going round since I was at work all week, so this is not for any type of publicity I could get from the outrage, but more to just express solidarity in my own way.



For this Caviar Fish Egg Manicure, I used OPI's Barefoot in Barcelona as the base. It's been sitting around in my untrieds for over a year, and I can't believe it took me all this time to use this baby. It's a gorgeous pinky-brown sandy neutral, and would look good on almost anyone, I think. Heck, I think this would even make a great lip colour too!



For the beads, I used some random beads I got from Born Pretty Store. Mine were only one colour, but you can get a few colours and mix them together, if you're more artsy than me. In order to get the beads onto the nails, I painted two coats of Barefoot in Barcelona, then basically poured beads over my nail while it was still wet. Some areas are harder to reach than others, so if you want you can dip your nails too. Once I was satisfied with how the beads looked, I added some topcoat to seal everything.



All in all, this was a really easy manicure to do. I mean, pouring stuff over your nail - doesn't get much simpler than that! The downside though, is that some of the the beads came loose, and I felt like my manicure was going to drop off eventually, bead by bead. I suppose it's great for a night out, but I don't expect these to last more than a couple of days. Besides, I also have this really horrible habit of picking at my nails, and a rough and bumpy texture like that of the Caviar Fish Eggs manicure would really tempt me to pick at them soo much.



The bottom line? I'd probably wear this for a glamorous night out, but not for everyday. And although it's easy to do, you'd have to be quite patient to work with tiny little beads that may be prone to spilling and rolling all over the floor. But otherwise, I think it doesn't look that bad - it's really a hate or love kinda thing, but I am actually starting to get to like it. I just don't think I'll be getting Ciate's version of the beads.

Spring/Summer Pink Nail Art: Neon and Neutrals Colourblocking!

One of the trends this Spring/Summer season has been the contrast of nudes and brights! On the runways this has translated into colourblocked outfits juxtaposing neutrals and bright shades, but there wasn't really any parallel for nail art.

I saw a couple of nail bloggers bringing this juxtaposition to nail art, so I decided to give this a go too! I colourblocked a light neutral pink with a neon pink, and decided to make it my own by adding - of course - some bling!

For the light pink base, I used RBL (Rescue Beauty Lounge, for those who don't use acronyms) Lulu, which is a pretty neutral pastel pink. For the neon pink, I used one of my favourites, Eyeko Punk Polish, and painted it in a reverse-Chevron shape. Eyeko Punk Polish is a retina-searing, neoner-than-neon hot pink, which I love. For old-time readers of the blog, if this looks familiar it's because I've actually used Punk Polish before for a Valentine's Day manicure. I then used some white striping tape to outline the V-shape, and topped it off with a pink gem!



The great thing about this manicure is that even if you aren't great at nail art (like me, for instance), this is still easy to look good. When you're painting the Chevron shape, you don't have to worry about the edges looking neat, because the striping tape will cover that. And when you're sticking on the striping tape, you don't have to worry whether the two pieces of tape will meet nicely exactly in the middle, because the pink gem will cover that. So each step covers the mistakes made in the previous step, leaving you with a pretty good-looking manicure, if I do say so myself. Seriously, aren't I awesome? LOL. (And yes, I totally plan out my nail art to cover up my noob skillz as much as possible. It's how I make my non-existent nail skillz look good).



Anyway, other than hiding my non-existent nail skillz and making them look awesome, I really like this manicure. I went for an all-pink look, of course, but I feel like I should repeat this look with different colours, and perhaps with contrasting colours, even! I mean, the all-pink look is nice, but it can get a little dull.



Anyway, I love this - it's pretty, girly, and Spring-y. And it's actually pretty easy to do, although you'll need to set aside some time to do all the nail polish layering and striping and sticking on the gem. But at least you know it'll turn out looking good!

Nail Art with China Glaze Full Spectrum, Essie Foot Loose, and Striping Tape!

Ever I bought my China Glaze Prismatic Collection polishes, I've been experimenting with these babies, and boy, are they awesome! Even if you don't like how they look on their own (and how can you not?), I love how they really add that extra zing to any mani.

As proof, here's my NOTD (Nail of the day)!

This was a base of Essie Footloose, and then jazzed up with China Glaze Full Spectrum. Essie Footloose is a creme pinky-purple shade that's just perfect for Spring/Summer (which I've featured before), while China Glaze Full Spectrum, as one of the much-hyped Prismatic Collection polishes, needs no introduction. I've swatched Full Spectrum before (together with other Prismatic polishes), but I thought it would still be cool to share my mani with you guys!



This look was actually really easy to acheive. I first painted Essie Foot Loose as the base, then added on China Glaze Full Spectrum. After that, then I added on the white striping tape, which I got from Born Pretty Store. The good thing about adding on the striping tape is that the tape actually hides my messy edges when I painted out the shapes with Full Spectrum. In these photos, you can see the striping tape sticking out at some of the edges of my nail, as I wasn't very good at estimating lengths. I ended up using a nail clipper to clip off the extra striping tape sticking out! (Please don't laugh at me, it was my first time using striping tape!)



I really like this mani - it's girly, but still fun and eye catching, and has just the right bit of glitter for those who are glitter shy. And I have to say, I think the Prismatic polishes look fantastic layered - the different sizes and colours of glitter really add a bit more dimension to the nail. I'm definitely glad I got these, and I'm still looking for more ways to experiment with them!

Easter Nail Art: Pastel and White Stripes!

Look at my Easter nail art for this year! It's all pastel-ly and stripe-y and totally inspired by the shades and designs of easter eggs! Although it's pretty simple, I really like how it looks. I know it isn't the most original nail art out there (if I'm not wrong, there are TONS of people doing Easter stripes nail art too), but I feel like for once, I actually did freehand nail art without screwing it up (too much), so this look is special to me!

For the base I used RBL Lulu for the pink, Illamasqua Jo'mina for the purple, Nails Inc Spring Mews for the green, and Maybelline Banana Puddin' for the yellow. I don't have that many pastels, so this was about it I think. Still, I was glad that they worked together without clashing or anything. For the stripes, I just used this LA Colors white striper that I got from another nail blogger sometime ago (I believe it was Scandalously Polished, but her blog is no longer up. *sobs*). I was worried that the striper would be too sheer, but it turned out alright.



Being pastels, some of these shades had difficult application - that's the thing about pastels, for some reason, they're always trickier to apply than un-pastel colours. Nails Inc Spring Mews and Illamasqua Jo'mina were good, and fully opaque in two coats. (I've actually featured Nails Inc Spring Mews before, not just once, but twice, for my Valentine's Day nails, and I've also blogged about Illamasqua Jo'mina too.) RBL was sort of a two-and-a-half-coater, meaning that it was opaque in two coats, but still streaky, so I had to use three to even everything out. Maybelline Banana Puddin' was just a pain in the behind to polish - it needed a full four coats before it was opaque and not streaky. (I've actually complained about Maybelline Banana Puddin' before, but in the end I just put up with the application for the colour...it's hard to find a yellow that looks great on my skintone.)



Anyway, despite the painful application on some of the colours, I really love my Easter manicure. It's not particularly original, or perfect, but I'm really loving it. I know Easter isn't really all about eggs and bunnies and things like that (it really has a much deeper meaning to it that's so powerful), but I figure that anyway I can celebrate Easter on my fingers can't be bad.

OPI Pink Friday Nicki Minaj NOTD: Just Celebrity Hype?

OPI's Nicki Minaj Collection, released sometime back, was quite well-received by the blogger community. I think part of all the hype was just because it was Nicki Minaj, you know? I personally didn't find the collection that inspiring or original, in that similar colours already exist elsewhere.

Anyway, I got OPI Nicki Minaj Pink Friday in my Vanity Trove last month, so I thought that since it was one of the much raved-about colours in the collection, I should at least do an NOTD with it, right? So I busted my mini-bottle out and did a mani with it.



I know a lot of bloggers have liked it, and about how it's such a great pink. Apparently this was Nicki Minaj's favourite colour (not hard to see why, I guess). Perhaps it's the celebrity factor, but this didn't do much for me. It's a light pastel pink with a warm lean, which would make it ideal for warm-toned girls looking for the pastel pink that won't look ashy on their skintone. And in that sense, it brings something to the table, since most pastel pinks are cool-toned. But otherwise, I found the colour just meh. It didn't look particularly great on my skintone, and I mean, pink-lipstick-similarity aside, this colour is a big yawn to me. Another pastel pink? Great, let's just move on.

Another gripe I have about Pink Friday is the application. This is kinda thick, so it tends to pull and be really streaky upon application. If you're lucky you can get away with two coats, but mostly I used three to even things out, and it ended up looking a little bit thick in the end. It doesn't really have the best application. I was hoping for a really opaque two-coater, but this wasn't quite it.



Anyway, I KNOW that this is the same shade as Nicki Minaj's lipstick, and that it's cool and all, but for some reason I can't like this colour. Maybe it's the crappy application, maybe its the fact that pink (seriously, pink lipstick aside, why would an artiste known for making daring sartorial choices put a pink in her nail polish collection?), or maybe it's just that the colour doesn't look all that great on me. Overall, I feel like this is a over-hyped colour I could do without.

St Patrick's Day Gold Leaf Nail Art!

We don't really celebrate St Patty's Day here, but hey, give me any reason to wear green nail polish and I'll be all over it! By chance I also happen to have some real gold leaf on hand, so I decided to use it for my nails - after all, what's St Patrick's Day without a pot of gold?

The gold leaf was actually supposed to be used for cooking (you know, like decorating food), but obviously gold foil nail art is so much more fun :p The green nail polish is ASOS Paints by Ciate in Pixie. For this nail art, I just painted two coats of ASOS Pixie, and then layered the gold leaf on top.



Since the gold leaf is quite thin, I used tweezers to handle it. I didn't want to cover my entire nail with gold foil although that would have been cool (gotta leave some for the food), so I did a diagonal design instead. For me the challenge was getting the gold leaf pieces that were the right shape and size onto the nail. Sometimes I had to tear bigger pieces apart too, to get smaller ones that fit better on my nail.



I actually thought of doing something more St Patrick's Day-ish, like do a four-leaf clover or something, but I figured out that it would probably be better to just let the gold leaf shine on its own. I didn't want to overcrowd my nails!



Anyway, I really like how my nails look right now. I love that the gold foil really adds some bling to my nails, and is really nicely offset by the green. I'm not sure if you can fully see the effect in these photos, but in real life, it looks absolutely amazing. I'll totally need to try out gold leaf with other combinations (glitter polish? A darker base, e.g. black?), but for now, this makes me happy!

Reverse Chevron Manicure Tutorial with OPI Nicki Minaj Shades

When I got my Feburary Vanity Trove, my mind was just racing with all the possibilities for some nail art fun. Finally, I settled on these pink and black glitter Chevron nails.

These were pretty easy to do, too. The tutorial below shows you just how easy it is.

1. First, paint your base colour. (I'm assuming you already have base coat on, of course.) Here I used OPI Pink Friday from the Nicki Minaj Collection.



2. After the base layer is dry, stick tape on top of the base layer in your desired Chevron shape.



3. Then, paint the top shade from the taped area to the ends of the nails. Here I used Wet n' Wild Black.



4. If you want to jazz up your Chevron, add a little glitter! This is OPI Save Me from the Nicki Minaj Collection.



5. Wait for the polish to dry, then peel off the tape, and viola! Chevron nails, with glitter on top!



Lastly, here are a few final tips I hope you'll find useful. Firstly, before you lay the tape over your base layer, make sure the base layer is really, truly dry. If not, the tape will peel the base layer off your nail. Also, for a sharper Chevron edge, wait til the polish is dry (or mostly dry) before peeling off the tape. If the polish is too wet, it will smudge when the tape is being peeled off.

I like this combination very much, I like the contrast of pink and black, and I also feel like the holo and silver glitter in Save Me really stands out against the black. I actually got these polishes in my Feburary Vanity Trove, so if you're interested you can check out Vanity Trove.

Nicki Minaj Super Bass Inspired Nails: White and Hot Pink Crackle!

Say what you will about my music taste, but I gotta admit that Nicki Minaj single, Super Bass, sure is catchy. (I know the song isn't eactly new now, but believe it or not, I've listened to this song so many times that I can rap the entire song by heart! Who says nerdy Asian girls can't rap, huh?) I really like the video as well - so bright, colorful, and candy-like. I mean, just look at her outfit!

Source

Anyway, while I was watching the video and singing/rapping along, I thought - I could do my nails just like her outfit! So I did, and here is the result:

This look is really simple to do, thanks to the awesomeness of shatter polish. Here I used Wet n'Wild White for the base, and over it I put BeautyUK's Shatter Polish in Punk. Punk is a bright neon pink, which I absolutely love - I don't think there's a shatter polish colour quite like it.



I know Nicki Minaj's outfit is more animal print-ish than shatter polish, so I guess if you have a Konad plate that has a similar pattern it would probably work as well. But I don't, so I just cheated using my shatter polish.



I know shatter polishes aren't quite the trend anymore, but on the occasion that I use one, it still makes me smile. And I was just inspired by Nicki Minaj's outfit to bring it out!

Spring Aqua Nail Polish Comparisons: China Glaze and Nails Inc

Varying shades of light green-blue (aqua, mint green, etc) seem to be a huge hit for Spring this year, especially with China Glaze's Aquadelic making a storm among nail polish lovers. I wasn't tempted by Aquadelic, since I already had two similar shades in the same colour family, so I thought that I'd swatch these two shades for you.

The two shades I'm comparing are China Glaze For Audrey, which has been much-compared to Aquadelic, as well as Nails Inc Spring Mews, which came out in the height of another green nail polish craze, Chanel Jade. I had bought both For Audrey and Spring Mews separately, so I hadn't realized that there was some similarity between the two. So here they are!

L - R: China Glaze For Audrey, Nails Inc Spring Mews, China Glaze For Audrey, Nails Inc Spring Mews

As you can see, the two are actually pretty similar, although they aren't exactly dupes. China Glaze For Audrey is a little more blue-leaning, while Nails Inc Spring Mews is more green. I'd say Spring Mews is actually a little bit more mint green-ish to me than aqua. Otherwise, the brightness and the creme finish of both colours is the same. I actually used Nails Inc Spring Mews in a Valentine's Day springy NOTD, so more photos of Spring Mews in action are available if you're interested.



L - R: China Glaze For Audrey, Nails Inc Spring Mews, China Glaze For Audrey, Nails Inc Spring Mews

So, do you need both? sure enough, both shades are different enough to own both, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that unless you're a nail polish fanatic (like me), for your average Jane (or Joe), you probably don't. Which shade to choose would probably be down to your skintone. If you're cool, then a blue-leaning shade like China Glaze For Audrey would work better for you, while if you're warm, then a shade with more green, like Nails Inc Spring Mews, would look slightly better. As for me, I'm keeping both!

Valentine's Day Nail Art with a Spring Twist!

Valentine's Day is drawing near, and so is Spring! After my Valentine's Day Candy Hearts eye look, I decided to do some Valentine's Day nails! I wanted something that was Valentine's Day, but still on-trend for Spring, and not all drenched in pastel pink and flowers (shudder). And I wanted something that was me.

So I incorporated all of these elements into my Springy Valentine's Day nail art! I used a popular colour for Spring 2012, mint, as a base, and I gave it a little Valentine's lovin' with the yellow hearts. And of course, I made it me with the addition of gold glitter!

For the base, I used Nails Inc Spring Mews, a gorgeous mint green creme that was opaque in two coats. This little baby was put up for adoption by her first owner, and when I adopted her, she was in a really bad shape, all dried up and crusty. I had to nurse her back to health with some nail polish thinner, and now she's good as new. Then, I added some gold glitter near the tips, using less towards the end. And lastly, I added the cute little hearts!



I really like this nail look - it's sufficiently girly without being too much, it's sufficiently Valentine's without being nauseating, it's sufficiently Springy without being a slave to trends, and it's got bling! All my favourite things. The only thing is, I feel like I didn't do the glitter gradient as well as I would have liked. Loose glitter can be hard to work with.



That's my take on Valentine's Day nail art. Fresh, springy girliness! I'm still feeling inspired, so you'll be seeing more nail looks themed around Valentine's Day, but with a twist - you can bet, they're not going to be pastel pink flowers!