Saturday 17 November 2012

MOVEMBER nails (nail transfer tutorial)

Hey guys! Today I'm going to show you my MOVEMBER inspired nails and incorporate a tutorial on how to use nail transfers.  Yep I was a bit of a cheat and used moustache transfers I bought off ebay.  They are so easy to use and apply so I'm going to show you how.




Nail transfers work on any nails, whether they are; short, long, fake, covered with nail polish or natural with no polish.  Today I decided to do a multicoloured french manicure ( I showed you how to do your own french manicure in this post http://zanesnails.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/french-manicure-tutorial.html ) on mine before applying my moustache transfers.


To apply your nail transfers you will need; the transfers, a pair of sharp scissors, a pair of tweezers and some water.


The first thing you want to do is pick the size of transfer that will fit your nail (if they are too big you can trim them a little and hopefully not destroy the design).  Once you have one that fits you want to cut it out, try to cut as close as possible (I made this mistake the first time I used them and had a lot of clear left around them and they didn't sit well on the nails).  

I find using a pair of tweezers helps to do this.


Once you have cut out your transfer you want to use the tweezers again to grab it and dip it into some water for about 20-30 seconds.  When you take it out the white backing paper will come off easily.


Then all you need to do is place it where you want on your dry nail (you need no glue or wet polish at this point) and let it dry.


When you have finally placed all your transfers onto your nails and let them dry cover them with a coat of clear nail polish to set your transfers in place. 


So that's how easy it is to apply nail transfers and there are so many different kinds you can get online or in the shops! :) 






Thursday 15 November 2012

I'M BACK!!!! :D

Hi my friends and followers! Sorry it's been so long, I've been really busy and ashamed to say have been putting off updating my blog for ages as I'm still finding it pretty time consuming.  Although I have been taking pictures of my nails so I will upload them all for you.  So here we go . . . 



These nails were inspired by my friend Amy.  She was round at mine so I could do her nails before going away on a cruise and she decided on the grey pictured above on my ring finger and we decided to do the same colour on her toes and a row of the decals (also seen on my ring finger).  This inspired me to use this grey along side some brighter colours and decals myself for my own holiday nails.

The polishes I used were all nails inc and the decals I actually got in a pack from poundland.  I decided on the yellow/gold triangles for my ring fingers and small diamontes at the base of each other.  They are really easy to apply, some people use nail glue or gel but I just use clear nail varnish and place them on with a small amount of the polish on a cocktail stick just enough for it to pick up the decal.  Place a coat where you want to stick your decals, put your decals on straight away and once dry coat and set with another coat of your clear polish.



These nails were inspired by a purchase I made on holiday; a large tub or small sequence/large glitter I suppose you could say.  Again on my ring finger (pictured in the middle on the top row) I decided to go wild and coat the whole nail with the sequence, just using clear nail polish to stick them down as before.  With these I started from the bottom, worked around the side then filled in the middle.

I decided to go with a purple theme, (mind you the picture makes it look more pink than purple).  The pinky finger I used a few different shades of purple to create a leopard print (you can see how to do this in my previous blogs).  The ring finger like I said above I covered with sequence.  The middle finger I painted a pale purple and at the tip painted it like dripping paint/blood I suppose you could say, I don't know the actual name for it.  The pointer finger I think it's called again had a base coat of light purple and I then using clear polish to stick them down placed a row of sequence.  Finally on my thumb I made a triangular shape with the sequence at the tip of my nail and randomly dotted all the other polishes used on the rest of the nail.


These nails were inspired by breast cancer awareness month and tickled pink.  I just an array of my different shades of pink polishes (again all nails inc).  The main feature nails were my thumb (heart tip, shown how to do in a previous blog, as well as a pink leopard pink on the pointer finger which I've previously shown you how to do).  As for my ring finger I went to Sally's (because I wanted them there and then, but you could get them online, and probably cheaper) and bought a set of nail art brushes, basically they just look like thin paint brushes (I'll try and upload a picture for you).  So I used the thinnest brush and dipped it into my polish and tried my best at painting the ribbon/logo for breast cancer awareness, I have to say this did take me a couple of attempts!! Getting used to using these brushes does take a while, I wouldn't say I'm that good with them yet, mind you I haven't practised much! 


This nail art I can't really say was inspired by anything, more of a stick them on and see what happens.  I bought the decals on ebay and as per usual didn't really read the description properly, I thought they would be bigger and I could use them to make a 3-D phone case, but as you can see they were tiny!  So I came up with a few little ideas, tried things out, one of which was my full ring finger covered but that looked terrible, and as you can see I ended up just sticking to a triangle.  


It's important to remember nail art is all about trial and error, be creative and see what happens, you never know you might surprise yourself! So go on and have a go and don't be worried about trying out decals, even start of cheap with ones out of poundland and see where it takes you!