U Need a Manicure - Heart Nails

Kester Black Violet, Kester Black Periwinkle,  Kester Black Fairy Floss, OPI Dutch Tulips

Golly gosh. It's been a while! Jessica Washick's Half Hearted manicure from U Don't Need A Man, U Need a Manicure popped up on my Tumblr dashboard last week and the second I saw it I knew I had to get my nail art brushes out and give it a go. 

I had to wait a while though, because after having plain nails for what feels like forever, I dove headfirst back into nail art the other day and had my nails done at I Scream Nails. I rocked my cat/pineapple/unicorn/happy cloud/banana nails for as long as possible before taking them off and giving Jessica's heart design a go. 

I Scream Nails - Sydney

My nails on the left, my friend Emma's on the right. 

Kester Black x Trophy Wife Limited Edition Nail Polish Set 2014

Kester Black x Trophy Wife Limited Edition Nail Polish Set 2014

Kester Black Prenup

Kester Black Sugar Daddy

Kester Black and Trophy Wife have teamed up again to create this lovely limited edition nail polish set. 

Prenup is a fabulous purple polish which applied beautifully. Sugar Daddy is the silver glitter polish I've been looking for my entire life! For a long while, I was on the hunt for a simple silver glitter polish that I could wear on its own. I didn't think it would be that hard to find, but everything I had either had too much holo (I wanted good ol' regular glitter), needed a base colour or was just the wrong shade. I'd given up and then I found Sugar Daddy. I popped it over Prenup and was amazed! I could tell it was dense in the bottle but boy was I impressed. For nail art it's pretty much full coverage with one coat. To cover an entire finger was one coat with a little touching up on a second coat. 

You can purchase Kester Black nail polish online (shipping is to Australia and New Zealand only) and in stores. They are five free (no Toluene, no DBP, no Camphor, no Formaldehyde, no Formaldehyde Resin), made in Australia, cruelty free, CCF accredited (Choose Cruelty Free) and vegan!

These polishes were provided to me for review.

Candiipants Squares

Kester Black Blueberry Tart, Kester Black Laugua, Kester Black Blue Raspberry, Kester Black Parrot, Kester Black Periwinkle

Happy New Year everyone! This mani is from forever ago, November 13 to be precise. I painted these nails after watching a fantastic tutorial by Mr. Candiipants. There have been so many fantastic tutorials around lately and every time I feel like doing some serious nail art I already have a tutorial in mind that I want to try!

Pink Chalkboard Nails Distressed Tutorial Nails

Kester Black Poppy, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Kester Black Tutti Frutti, Topshop AWOL, Orly Glitz

Sarah, from Chalkboard Nails, has created what is possibly my favourite tutorial of 2013 - Distressed Nail Art  (check out her YouTube video tutorial here). 

It's super simple, super easy and looks amazing. Originally I was planning on adding the black to the top of this mani, the same as in the tutorial, but I loved the patterns and colours in it as it was and couldn't bear to hide any of it under black. A few hours later I felt like it needed a bit of gold so I took advantage of my dry polish and used sticky tape to add some gold triangles. 

I love this technique so much, I did it another three times. With a darker base and blues, purples and some glitter or gold leaf it makes for a really easy galaxy inspired mani. I loved that combo so much I did it again a few days later!

 

WAH Nails in Blue

OPI My Vampire is Buff, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, Kester Black Blueberry Tart, China Glaze First Mate 

I loved this WAH Nails mani so much that I had to try it again in blue. I kept the design simpler on this blue mani than on my pink mani and I loved the way it turned out. Painting one row of triangles was more than enough! 

WAH Nails Pink Stripes and Zigzags

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Essie Coral Reef, Kester Black Fairy Floss, BYS Black Striper

Like every other nail art fan on the planet, I follow WAH Nails on Instagram. A while back I saw this fabulous manicure by WAH Girl Ellie and had to try it out on my nails. 

This mani reinforced the fact that I really need to keep practising my freehand painting. Some of those zig zags are a bit iffy, but from an arm length away it's hard to notice those little mistakes. I loved this design so much I did it in blue a few days later when this one chipped. 

Blobbie Nails

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI Charged Up Cherry, OPI Mod-ern Girl, Kester Black Poppy, Kester Black French Lavender, Seed Lemon, China Glaze Grape Pop

This manicure is pretty much a recreation of my Inspired by a Book manicure from  months ago. Usually my nail art style is quite structured and geometric. I like lines and angles and order but occasionally it's fun to just completely wing it. Just blob the polish on, add some swirls or stripes and it'll all come together.

Day 30 - Inspired by a Tutorial

OPI My Vampire is Buff, Kester Black Poppy, Kester black Peony, Kester Black Fairy Floss, Kester Black Buttercream, OPI The "It" Colour, Essence Nude It, China Glaze Street Chic, OPI Mermaid's Tears

Oh, Mr Candiipants, you sure know how to make a fab tutorial. I was tossing up between a few tutorials for this manicure when this video tutorial popped up on my tumblr dashboard and well, that was that. 

This mani is deceptively easy and looks super impressive. Candice did it on a black background for the start of autumn in the northern hemisphere, but here in the southern hemisphere, spring had just begun, so I did it on a lighter background and stuck with pink flowers. 

Day 29 - Inspired by the Supernatural

Kester Black Starflower, Milani Hi-Res, Milani Cyberspace

I guess this isn't really supernatural inspired, more space robot inspired, but this is what I ended up with! It's been such a long time since I've worn holo nail polish. It was so sparkly!

Day 28 - Inspired by a Flag

OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI Charged Up Cherry

I was quite uninspired by this day's challenge. I tried to find a flag that wasn't for a country, that was a little more interesting or exciting but I ended up going with the good ol' Union Jack pattern. It felt a little weird to have flag nails for no particular reason so I switched the colours up a little. 

Day 27 - Inspired by Artwork

MUD Santorini Sea, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI Dutch Tulips, Orly Liquid Vinyl, Orly Glitz

Inspired by Artwork. Geez, it took me a while to decide what to be inspired by with this one! I was almost going to do Mark Rothko inspired nails with some kind of colour block type manicure but I ended up going for something a little more "nail arty". Joan Miró has always been one of my favourite artists. I saw my favourite Miró, Woman and Bird in the Moonlight a few years ago and it was incredible, but definitely outside of my skill level for nail art! 

These nails are inspired by Dancer which was perfect for nail art.

Day 26 - Inspired by a Pattern

China Glaze A Grape Fit, OPI Dating A Royal, OPI My Vampire is Buff, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, OPI What's With The Cattitude, Kester Black Poppy, Kester Black Peony, OPI Dutch Tulips, Essence Nude It China Glaze For Audrey

I have been painting up a storm over the past few days to try and get through the last days of the 31 Day Challenge. I started it on the 5th of September last year and I'm determined to finish it within a year! There may be some double posts.

Day 26 was inspired by this pattern. I love patterns. 

This one came from a design pattern book and I knew that it'd be great for nail art. It was also a great excuse to practice my freehand painting skills. 

Day 25 - Inspired by Fashion

Kester Black Buttercream, Kester Black Blue Raspberry, Kester Black Paradise Punch, Kester Black Tutti Fruity, Ulta3 Citrus, Orly Liquid Vinyl

It's 31 Day Challenge time again and I figure I should attempt to actually finish my 31 day challenge from last year. Day 26 is fashion. I love clothes but I'm not that much of a fashion buff. Honestly, my favourite fashion website is Go Fug Yourself. It's hilarious. One outfit which caught my attention recently was this one worn by AnnaSophia Robb, on the set of The Carrie Diaries.

Neon colours? Check! Crazy triangles? Check! Sheer checkerboard? Check! Perfect for nail art. A little later than scheduled, on day 358, I painted these crazy nails.

Lavender Lemon Nails

OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, Kester Black French Lavender, Seed Lemon, BYS Black Striper

I saw a manicure on Pinterest recently and tracked it back to SuPa Nails (while we're on the subject of Pinterest, I hate it when people pin without links back to the source. So annoying!) Susanne is a nail art wizard and the second I saw this manicure I knew I had to have it on my nails. Can't Find My Czechbook and French Lavender were already sitting out on my desk and all of a sudden my nails were like this! Well, a good while later they looked like this. Seriously, this was super tricky and it just goes to show how talented someone like Susanne is! First I tried creating the diamonds with tape, but with four colours and not ever waiting long enough for the polish to dry it did not go well. I ended up (painstakingly) hand painting the diamonds with a nail art brush. I definitely need to practice my brush skills, so I'm sure this kind of mani will be popping up on my nails a lot over the next couple of months. 

Deep Violet x French Lavender Gradient

Kester Black French Lavender, Kester Black Deep Violet

I feel like I should do gradient nails more often. They're surprisingly easy if you don't mind the clean up and they always look fab! 

Anna from Kester Black sent me some of her polishes a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't resist starting with a gradient. French Lavender and Deep Violet are both from Kester Black's Winter Garden collection (which you can buy online and in store around Australia and New Zealand) and match each other perfectly. Winter Garden is full of polish gems but I'll flail over the collection as a whole shortly. It deserves its own post. I was so excited that I went from 'playing around with a few' to swatching the entire collection. I couldn't help myself! 

These polishes were sent to me for review.

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013 - Celebrating the Year of the Blogger

piCture pOlish Ocean, piCture pOlish White Wedding, piCture pOlish Dorothy

Welcome to the most epic post in the history of Little Nails! This is my 2013 piCutre pOlish Blog Fest post. piCture pOlish is an Australian brand with the greatest tradition. Every year they have The piCture pOlish Blog Fest and invite bloggers to review their nail polishes. 

This year's Blog Fest theme is Celebrating the Year of the Blogger and has an emphasis on nail art.

As soon as I heard which shades I was getting and the whole nail art side of it I knew exactly what I was going to do. It's not new news that I'm obsessed with making nail art sticker/decal stripe things, usually with a chevron pattern and over the past few months I've found that piCture pOlish shades (and Ozotic shades, also sold by PP) are fantastic for this kind of nail art. They seem to be more flexible than other brands and the strips never crack when you handle them. 

This time I thought I'd branch out from the chevron pattern. I played around with stripes and triangles and ended up with a red, white and blue mixed manicure. 

And just in case you want to try this kind of mani out yourself, I've whipped up tutorials for the decals which are at the end of this post (warning, I may have gone slightly overboard! The general concept of each tutorial is the same but it's always fun to try different patterns)

Dorothy is a red glitter polish. It's actually tiny silver glitter in a red jelly base and doesn't need many coats to get the great red colour. 

Ocean has piCture pOlish's amazing little shards of rainbow goodness, what I've previously described as "particles of magic". They're suspended in a blue jelly base. I wouldn't call this kind of polish a glitter, but it has a lovely sparkle and glimmer to it. 

White Wedding also has "particles of magic" in it. It's absolutely impossible to capture on camera the rainbow hidden inside this colour. It's definitely a wearable white and was great to apply. Three coats was more than enough. 

All shades can be purchased online at www.picturepolish.com.au and if you don't live in Australia don't fret, you can purchase piCture pOlish all over the world through their network partners. They also have everyday deals to take advantage of.

You can find piCture pOlish all over the internet including Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Once you get the hang of sticking down the polish pieces it's really easy to make cool geometric patterns and the possibilities are endless. This is all the same method, just with different shapes. I use tweezers and a dotting tool (or a pen or pencil if you lose your dotting tool like I did) to apply the polish pieces. Sometimes I'll dampen the dotting tool with clear polish or even remover to make it easier for the polish pieces to stick to the dotter. 

 

These polishes were provided to me for review

Check out all the other amazing Blog Fest participants:

I Know What Pandas Like

Deborah Lippmann I Know What Boys Like, OPI Panda-monium Pink

I've been a little obsessed with the 'solid colour pointer finger accent nail' recently. I couldn't help but add some stripes to this mani also, which are unfortunately a bit streaky. I was too keen on the topcoat!