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!

 

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!

New Polish Mani

 

OPI My Vampire is Buff, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, China Glaze Man Hunt

I haven't bought nail polish in such a long time, but recently I updated my stash just a little bit. OPI My Vampire is Buff, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook and China Glaze Man Hunt are my newest additions and I couldn't wait to use them in a mani. 

New Blog Design Nails

OPI Ate Berries in the Canaries, Orly Glitz, OPI French Quarter for your Thoughts, OPI The Man with the Golden Gun

Little Nails has had a makeover! Hooray! I tend to get bored quite quickly of how my blog looks, and while I never play around much with the structure and layout of the blog, I like to mix the style of it up every now and then. And when I saw this glitter background I couldn't help myself!

Now, on to the nails... I decided to match my nails this weekend to the latest look of the blog. I used the same polish that I used to make the stripes along the sidebars; OPI's Ate Berries in the Canaries and French Quarter for your Thoughts and Orly's Glitz. For good measure I threw on some Man with the Golden Gun. 

Goodbye Summer Stripes

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI The 'It Color', OPI Dating A Royal, OPI Mermaid's Tears, China Glaze Kinetic Candy, China Glaze Electric Beat

I was in the mood for one last summery hurrah before we settle into brisk Autumn weather, and these stripes were what I ended up with.I usually love the crisp lines you get with tape manis, but this time I painted the stripes freehand with a nail art brush. It's so much easier than waiting for a million coats of polish to dry enough to be able to put tape on!

The next day I was in the mood for something a bit more edgy, so I added some Orly Liquid Vinyl, which has become my holy grail black nail polish. This was one coat people! One! 

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI The 'It Color', OPI Dating A Royal, OPI Mermaid's Tears, China Glaze Kinetic Candy, China Glaze Electric Beat, Orly Liquid Vinyl

Day 22 - Inspired by a Song / Hottest 100 Day Nails!

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI Jade Is The New Black, Essie Coral Reef, OPI Panda-monium Pink, Orly Liquid Vinyl

Happy Hottest 100 Day everyone (and Happy Australia Day too!). If you guys were around here last year, you'll know I love the Hottest 100. I thought I'd start a bit of a Australia Day tradition and have another Hottest 100 themed manicure. This year, it also coincided with my inspired by a song post of the 31 day challenge. This manicure is inspired by the amazing Aussie band Alpine and their album art, designed by Tim Royall. I used nail art tape and sponged on the colour with a makeup sponge. 

One of the songs I voted for was Gasoline which I'm hoping will place really high in the countdown. I'm also seeing Alpine next weekend at Laneway. So excited! I might have to recreate these nails for the day!

Day 12 - Stripes

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, China Glaze First Mate

I had a little nail mail package arrive recently and the polish I was most excited for was OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. I seem to constantly be searching for that perfect, elusive, "wearable white". I had hoped that MBSW might have been it, but on its own it makes me look like I have zombie girl nails. As an alternative to Alpine Snow for a white nail art base colour it's pretty awesome! 

To get rid of my dead zombie nails, I added some sailor stripes! 

Day 2 - Orange

China Glaze Peachy Keen, OPI Hot & Spicy

Day 2 was orange nails and I was in a very stripy mood! I really should've let the stripes dry for a little longer before top coating because some of them smeared so badly. Oh well. 

I have to say that the striping tape may be my favourite nail art thing ever, closely followed by my dotter of course!

Day 1 - Red

Essie Silken Cord, OPI Alpine Snow

Well, I'm jumping on the 31 day nail art challenge bandwagon! Only my wagon started late and is a lot slower than everyone else's. So often have no idea what to paint on my nails so this challenge seems to be the perfect thing to give me a bit of nail direction! 

Day 1 is red, which suited me perfectly, because I bought a dress on the weekend that has red and white stripes so I decided I'd match when I wore it to work.

Fair warning to you all... judging by what I've done these first few days (yes I'm a little ahead!), I won't be posting every day, I may paint my nails out of order (but I'll try to post them in the challenge order) and sometimes I may take the theme for the day as a gentle suggestion rather than a direct order (which you'll see when we get to day 3, the infamous yellow day). 

P.S. I just would like to say thank you to Essie for giving your mini polishes regular sized brushes.  OPI you should take note (and make your mini bottles bigger too!).

Sparkly Hearts and Stripes

OPI DS Extravagance, China Glaze Devotion

I am always amazed at what a little bit of sticky tape can do for a manicure. After two days of DS Extravagance on its own my nails were looking quite worn, but it's such a beautiful colour that I couldn't bear to take it off. My solution was to use some stick tape and China Glaze Devotion to cover up the tips. I haven't worn Devotion in quite a long time. I don't know why though. It's such a great polish! It's opaque in only one coat (all my nails have one coat of Devotion over DS Extravagance) and it's so, so lovely! 

I was also a little bored over the weekend and played around with the look of the blog as you may have noticed. It's now filled with paper flowers, which I know have nothing to do with nail polish, but they sure look cute! 

New Skirt Nails (again!)

China Glaze Below Deck, China Glaze First Mate, OPI Don't Touch My Tutu, OPI Jade Is The New Black

These nails kind of matched the new skirt that I wore to work today. Well, the general colours did. I scrounged the interwebs trying to find a photo of it to pop on here but I sadly couldn't (it's green with white apples and the stems are purple and navy, just in case you were wondering). 

I'm really loving using weird nails for my accent nails. I can't remember the last time I did the 'traditional' ring finger/thumb combo on both hands! 

Neon and Grey Nails

China Glaze Concrete Catwalk, OPI Alpine Snow, Ulta3 Citrus

Lately it seems that neon yellow is just everywhere! While it's not a colour I'd usually be able to pull off with clothes (apart from the reflective high vis vest I wear while riding my bike home from work, which I totally rock), I love neon nails. I was feeling a bit boring a few days ago and did a regular mani with China Glaze Concrete Catwalk (which, along with CG Recycle are my two all time favourite greys!). Last night I thought i'd neon it up a tad! 

I also tried 'saran wrap' nails, or 'glad wrap' as we Aussies call it (if we're going for the brand name stuff!) on this manicure. I had been a little bit confused about this kind of mani, but after seeing a tutorial for it on Criminal Nails, it all made sense! For some reason when I'd seen photos, I thought you had to use the cling wrap to dab on the nail polish, not use it to take the nail polish off! Silly me. Anyway, once I figured that all out I just had to try it! Those nails were a little too tennis-bally on their own, so I added some dots. I can't wait to try it with different colour combinations!

The Lucy Appreciation Post, featuring Chanel Frenzy

Chanel Frenzy, Deborah Lippmann I Know What Boys Like, Orly Glitz

My housemate Lucy, who will now be known as the Provider of Fancy Polish was in New York this month, and while she was there she did a bit of nail polish shopping for me. She left Sydney with a modest little list of makeup and just two nail polishes to buy in the US for me (the difference in recommended retails between the US and Australia is just ridiculous). Deborah Lippmann polishes have no stockists in Australia sadly. I desperately wanted Glitter in the Air and Bad Romance and initially managed to restrain myself and only ask her to get those two. But, you all know how it is... I added I Know What Boys Like to the list, because really, I've never come across a blue like it, so I may as well get it! 

Aren't they just lovely. 

Then, a magical thing happened. Lucy was in Barney's buying my precious Lippmanns and mentioned to the lady serving her how they were for me, and how we can't get DL in Australia and the amazing Barney's lady told Lucy that she could pick one of three old DLs that she had floating around to keep for free (Constant Craving, Purple Rain and Brown Eyed Girl). While Lucy was pondering which colour I'd appreciate most, the lady suddenly put all three in her bag and said just to have them all!!! What a lovely lady! And that is the story of how I went from being completely Lippmann-less to being the proud owner of SIX of them!!!  

And the polish goodness continues! Lucy also bought me and our other housemate Anna a Chanel each!! I got Frenzy and Anna got Vertigo. 

After a day of straight up Frenzy I jazzed it up with some Lippmann dots and stripes and some Orly Glitz for added goodness. 

Spots, Gradients & Stripes

OPI Hot & Spicy, OPI Dating A Royal, China Glaze Kinetic Candy

This manicure came about in a very random way. It was one of those ones where you grab a few colours, start painting and see where it ends up. I was watching The Good Wife (I'm super far behind, I only started season 1 last week, but oh my goodness it's a good show!) and painting my nails without really thinking what they would end up looking like. 

I started with some orange nails, and some pale blue accent nails. Since I discovered how easy it is to do gradients I've been a tad obsessed, so I added a gradient on the orange nails. Why not add spots too? Get all the colours on the nail! A vertical stripe here, and some horizontal stripes there and this mani was born. 

I'm still not sure if I love or hate the colour combination, but I'm quite liking the fact that there are three different patterns in this manicure.

Edit: So, I totally thought I'd posted a gradient mani before this one. Apparently not. This was actually the third I'd done, but the first to make it on the blog. I followed Sammy's tutorial at The Nailasaurus, which makes gradients super easy! Sometimes if I'm feeling lazy I'll just paint the different colours right on the sponge in two stripes, instead of mixing and dabbing it on the sponge, although you do get a nicer gradient if you mix them first. 

Cookies, Cream & Stripes

Kink Ink, Essie Marshmallow, LA Girl Uninhibited

While perusing the nail polish section of the interwebs this week I saw Sarah's (of Chalkboard Nails fame) cookies and cream manicure and I thought, finally a use for the mess of a polish that is Essie Marshmallow! 

Because I've been a bit slack (actually quite slack) lately in the nail art department, I thought I'd go all out with the cookies and cream theme and do some stripy nails using tape, as well as black glitter sandwich accent nails. I love how the glitter sandwich looks like cookies and cream ice cream, and the stripes look like stacks of Oreos (yes, we do have Oreos here! I was slightly obsessed with them last year, eating packets upon packets!). 

I'm in the middle of making batch of chocolate chip biscuits at the moment, so this mani is quite fitting! (Here in Australia, we call cookies biscuits, although if people say 'cookie' we know they're talking about)

Another Easter Egg Mani

OPI I Vant To Be A-Lone Star, China Glaze Light As Air, Sally Hansen Celeb City, Milani Silver

Easter only comes once a year, so I've got to get all the Easter egg inspired manis out of my system! I was playing around with my new nail art tape, this time just using it instead of normal sticky tape. It is quite handy! 

I hope you all had a lovely relaxing Easter and the Easter Bunny was good to everyone! I have to go put a Lindt gold bunny out of its half eaten misery now. Yum!

Zoom-Zoomy Lasers

OPI Skull & Glossbones, China Glaze Electric Beat, China Glaze Aquadelic, China Glaze Peachy Keen

After an extremely busy week I was in the mood for some easy yet awesome nails. This mani was created using Jane from Nailside's laser mani tutorial, and a few extra colours. Apart from Peachy Keen, all of the colours I've used are polishes I've been obsessed with lately. I actually keep using them over and over because my desk where I paint my nails is very messy at the moment and I haven't put any nail polishes away in quite a while so all these new favourite colours keep staring at me, demanding to be used in every manicure! 

Happy Hottest 100 Day (AKA Australia Day)

OPI Skull & Glossbones, China Glaze Street Chic, OPI Mermaid's Tears, China Glaze Recycle, China Glaze Go Go Pink

Happy Australia Day everyone! My favourite thing about Australia Day, apart from the fact that you get a day off work, is that it is the day when Triple J does its Hottest 100 countdown! If you're one of my non-Aussie readers, Triple J is a national radio station and every Australia Day they have a countdown of the previous year's 100 top songs, as voted by listeners. This year there were 1,378,869 votes! It's 5pm here in Australia and so far they're up to #39 and two of the songs I voted for have popped up. Hooray!

Anyway, back to the manicure... everyone is guessing that Gotye will take out the top spot this year with his amazing song Somebody That I Used To Know. I voted for it and I really hope it comes in at #1! My manicure is inspired by the video for Somebody That I Used To Know, which you should all watch and listen to. I even stuck it in this post for you so you don't have to go searching for it! 

P.S. I have an increased level of respect for Jane from Nailside and her amazing patience for tape manicures. I did this mani with tape, and because I am an impatient lassie I took most of the sticky out of the sticky tape so I could use it over polish that wasn't 100% dry, so my lines aren't quite as clean as they could've been. 

The weather in Sydney today has been quite un-Australian. It's been pouring rain! I had planned on making a trip to the beach today, but sadly the weather's not really beach appropriate. There's also been a complete lack of sun, so my photos are a bit dodgy today. Sorry!

Update:
GOTYE got #1! Woo! And 8 of the 10 songs I voted for made it in the top 100! Woo!

Patchwork Stripes

China Glaze Heli-Yum, China Glaze Custom Kicks, China Glaze Grape Pop, BYS Black Nail Striper

I was looking at some of the amazing manicures that Erika over at Chloe's Nails has created when I came across her patchwork mani tutorial. When I tried it out I felt like something was missing from my nails, so I grabbed my trusty black nail striper and went on a striping spree! I absolutely loved how they looked in the end and I think I'll definitely be playing around with this whole patchwork thing again soon!

Pointy Glitter Tape Manicure

China Glaze Grape Pop, China Glaze Recycle, China Glaze Heli-Yum, Milani Gold

I've been wanting to do a pointy tape manicure for a while now. I'd been waiting to find colours that go together nicely, and were opaque in one coat. In my Christmas haul of nail polish I got a heap of China Glazes, including Grape Pop and Heli-Yum. I was super impressed with how dense the colour was! Grape Pop was better with two coats, but Heli-Yum was a solid one coater! Finally! I had my matching one coaters for tape manis! I did this mani while watching a movie so I could give each coat enough time to dry before putting the sticky tape on it. Then, at the end for a little bit of extra flair I dotted on some glitter from a bottle of Milani Gold, from the Gems FX collection. 

The one thing that confused me with this kind of layering tape mani was the tips of my fingers. Because I have such short nails I never wrap the edges (I think that's what it's called, when you sort of paint the tip edges too) because there just ends up being polish all over my fingers! So when I finished off this manicure I could see each layer of colour on the tips of my nails, and as they wore, the darker colours underneath became really noticeable. Has anyone else had this problem? The only solution I could think of for next time was to remove the polish from the tips of my nails before the last coat, so the last coat would be the only one on the ends, just like a normal mani. I guess I'll just have to do another like this so I can see if that works!