Nail Art Stickers (Water Decals) - Tutorial

After being a nail art addict for a period, I've yet to touch base on nail art stickers. NEVER. Thanks to my friend, I was finally able to experience my 'first' nail art sticker process!

My dear friend brought us a few nail art sticker designs from her sponsor and got me, along with another friend to choose. I chose a Pink Leopard Printed nail art sticker set for this attempt. Yeah, so expected of me ya? Hehehe...

From the look of it, it's pretty gorgeous, isn't it? Frankly, I was kinda nervous yet curious about how this whole thing works. Nonetheless, I came prepared and my nails were all cleaned before this 'experiment'. That's the most important and also the first thing that needs to be done before anything gets started! Now, let's move on to the process.

First, what we did next was cut out all the nail art stickers individually from the set and put them all into a bowl of water. That's right, a bowl of water is what you need! Leave it be for a good 2-3 minutes before you use a tweezer to pick it up from the water. You will notice the sticker's starting to peel open.

Next, put it over your nail (according to your nail size). Use a cuticle stick to omit the air from the sticker and smoothen the surface.

Once you deem ok to proceed, apply a layer of top coat on your nail stickers. The stickers will start to work their magic (start to bend).

Wait for them to semi-dry, followed by using a nail filer to file the excess away. Once done, it will look like this.

Yes, there's bubble on my nail so please pardon my noob-ness since it's my first try! If you do not wait for your nails to dry upon applying the top coat, here's the consequence you will face (I got mine T.T):

*sob* It's so wasted! I could almost enjoy a damage-free set of nail art stickers on me!

After my dear friend did a few nails for me, I decided to experiment it on my own so as to understand the complexity of doing this.

It really wasn't easy for me to complete the whole process within an hour, which in this experiment/attempt, we took slightly longer than that. Upon completion, I was practically immersed with my own nails!

Another few shots on my new achievement, full view!

I really love this set of Pink Leopard Printed nail art stickers, especially when they're on me!

Well, this was a truly fun and exciting experience for me, though it took us quite some time to complete our nails. I reckon once we are used to the process, the time taken will definitely be much lesser. The nail art stickers aren't costly, hence for those who are not exactly into freehand nail art but want to have fancy nail designs, you may just wanna try it!

 

Kitty Craze, Kitty Nails ~ Hello Kitty

With my recent craze in Hello Kitty (all thanks to that special someone), I decided to do up a Hello Kitty nails for my business trip to KL. I wasn't really confident in freehand, especially a kitty but i decided to do it anyway.

Haha, as you can see from the photo, my kitty design wasn't perfect. As i really isn't a professional at freehand yet, i didn't realised my french manicure was too thin to fit in hello kitty's ribbon! What a muddle-head i am!

Hope it didn't too weird & un-kitty-like in this nail art, hehe...

Leopard Prints French Manicure

One of my favourite DIY nail art I did onto my nails. Though it was the first time painting my nails with this design, I felt so proud of myself, hehe.

Maybe it's time to try out other leopard colours for the fun of it? I do know one of my colleagues LOVE leopard prints to the MAX! Perhaps I shall do another design to surprise her!

Away to Taipei~

O.O Looking back at my blog, I realised I've not been posting since 2 weeks ago. Well, I was away to Taipei for half vacation, half business trip, hence for the missing updates. Connection isn't the best of friend when I was there so it was pretty hard to do even a wee bit of blog post far away at Taipei for me T.T

Speaking of Taipei, apart from the lousy connection I was getting over there, the trip was generally....FUN! How fun? For ladies, it is of cos about SHOPPING! I couldn't even imagine the amount of loot I got from Taipei! There's just too many to begin with! And due to my anxiety to know if I would be able to fit my loot into the luggage, I practically pack them all into my luggage using my ultimate packing skill on a daily basis! That explains why I did not manage to take a lot of pictures of my loot. But not to worry, at least i managed to snap the loot I've gotten from Day 1 (only) and I'll still post my trophies here when I wear and snap them down ^^.

 

Oh, almost forgotten to mention the manicure I wore during Taipei trip. As I knew I will be a super clumsy + rough person, I deliberately applied a light yet glittery manicure for this trip so I will not be so bothered by the chippings and peelings. Glad I made the right choice!

 

One other interesting thing would be a theme restaurant we went. It's in fact a Modern Toilet Restaurant which typically uses toilet bowls and basins as their dining seats and tables!

What's more, they even use mini toilet bowl to serve our main course. Yucks but interesting!

Do you dare to try? The food's damn nice so if you are visiting Taipei, do try! Leave me a comment if you need an address of this restaurant :D

There was just too many photos from this trip (I took a total of close to 500 photos) so I shall not burst my blog with them. If you like to view the photos, feel free to browse them in my Facebook ^^.

Oh, and we were pretty lucky and fortunate to be able to bump into Gay Trial Parade held outside Taipei Main Station on our last day there! It was really an eye-opener and boy were we glad we didn't miss it! They really dare to reveal, dress and show and I think they really deserves our admiration on their courage!

Lastly, let me end this post with a photo I quite like myself which happens to be a self-snapped shot, hehe. Taipei is definitely a fun place to be, especially if you like both sight-seeing and shopping. Mark this country as one of your must go place if you like a fair of bit of de-stress timeout. :D

Halloween - Spooky-licious Mani

I know it's rather early for Halloween nails, but since I'll be heading to Taipei for work next week (I can't possibly show these nails to my partners!) and most likely won't have the time to do up Halloween nails, I reckon this week is the best period. Thought of the designs for very long, hovering in my mind for weeks before i really lay them down onto my fingers.

Frankly speaking, this is my 1st attempt at total freehand nail art on my nails, not to mention 5 different designs on my 10 fingers. Quite a feat! As a result, I am quite satisfied with my work!

There it is! My very 1st Halloween nails, all done by myself! Took me almost 2 hours to complete the designs on all 10 fingers but I am really happy with the result! Love it, and so proud of my achievement/improvement ^^.

Last but not the least, Happy Halloween everyone!

Patriotic? Nails for National Day

Not wanting to look too patriotic for my own country's Independence Day (too dramatic), I decided to just go along with the color theme instead.

Since my country's flag consists of red and white, this is what I had done for my very own Independence Day (National Day), using China Glaze's Salsa and my brandless white nail art pen.

China Glaze Salsa has very nice application, not too streaky and displays smooth look to my nails. I did not regret buying this from my colleague whom was trying to get rid some of her nail polish collection! Great Buy!

The lines are drawn freehand and I am quite proud of myself to be able to draw the lines 80% straight, haha! Shall improve further ^^.

Dotty Flip Flop Fantasy

I have yet to attempt my nails in full polka dots. So far, only french manicure polka dots but not on full nails. Therefore, I decided to give it a try and what's even more interesting was....I did it on China Glaze's Flip Flop Fantasy, hahahaha! The neon------------with dots-------------

Used my lovey dovey dotting tool with the new black nail art pen/brush I just bought to freehand the ribbon on my ring finger. I gotta admit, the ribbon wasn't drawn perfectly. Practice makes perfect!!!!

It was soooooo bright and outstanding....many of my friends felt irritated by the dots with the neon color, some love it to the max. What about you?

Mickey Mouse Nail Art

This nail art is dedicated to my precious daughter who recently fell in love with Mickey Mouse.

However, instead of doing the common red/white polka dot nail art, I decided to try another design to depict my very own Mickey Mouse nail design ^^. Yet, I may just attempt the common design soon, hehe.

Nail Polishes used: Faceshop Pearl White (nail base), China Glaze Salsa (Red Mickey), Faceshop BK901 (Black Mickey)

You may notice why I have an odd design on one of my nails. That's cos I recently had a cut on it and had no choice but to trim it short & outta shape. Being a nail addict who must put on some lacquers on, I decided to play with designs to hide it away. :P

My Very Own Paw Prints~

Have always wanted to draw paws on my nails but wasn't very confident in using nail art pen, so I left this idea aside till now. Being so hooked onto nail art now, I feel that my confident level is higher and able to pick up my courage into drawing...on nails.

The China Glaze Recycle I bought off from my colleague is just so damn good! For someone who doesn't like applying creme-based nail polishes, Recycle is a breeze when it comes to application! Not streaky at all and all it took me was just 2 coats ^^. As for the paw prints, I used Etude House's white nail art pen to apply. Simple design yet pleasant to the eyes. :D

China Glaze - Recycle

Dual French Tips/4th July Mani...

Hehe...I'm not from the states, but I do like to attempt themed nails sometimes. With 4th July here, how can I resist the temptation?

I didn't really want the usual 4th July nails where they are mostly flag and stars designs. Hence, I tried a more non-conventional design where some may beg to agree on this. My manicure/nail art for 4th July is mainly circling around the color combination, that's all.

This time, I made dual french tips on my nails with Etude House's Chilli Red as 1st french tips, followed by China Glaze's Midnight Mission as 2nd french tips. 1st french tips were done using tapes, while the 2nd french tips were painted freehand. After-which, I covered my freehand-painted tips with dots.

Midnight Mission is on the darker side of the blue family thus it looks kinda blackish under warm light. I know this may not look really like the traditional 4th July nail art but it is my own work with 4th July color scheme.

Some told me they look like castles, some said they look like zippers. What do you think?

Polka Dot, Blue French Tips~

I love french manicure, I love french tips. Such designs never seem to bore me and I simply love it to the core.

In this manicure, I used quite a few brands of nail polishes. For my base color, I used The FaceShop's pearl sheer-based nail polish for all my nails. For french tips, I decided to break the traditional white tips and resort to blue instead. I also used tapes to make my french tips ^^. This blue comes from Etude House Luci Darling series, named Indigo. As for the polka dots, they come from China Glaze's White on White.

If your area has Etude House shop, I will URGE you to grab EVERY single bottle of its Luci Darling series cos they simply ROCK! Formula is wonderful no matter which color I swatch! Gotta admit, maybe I do have a little problem swatching  yellow ones....

Manicure for a wedding~

Did this manicure to attend a friend's wedding recently in May and frankly speaking, I really like this set of manicure cos they look pretty much like gel nails to me...hehe ^^.

The glitter polish comes from China Glaze's Teenage Dream, and I put on some pink rhinestones to make it more bling! Some told me why not use a more prominent colour for the rhinestones but I honestly do not want my own manicures to look too overkill...for the wedding. It's not MY wedding to begin with ya? :p

Received quite a fair bit of compliments from this set of 'bridal' manicure for my friend's wedding, felt so contented!

Under warm light...

Under natural light...

My 1st French Manicure...in RED

I was preparing for another round of manicure which I would like to wear it for my friend's wedding and so, I decided to do up a much more simple manicure few days before I change it again (Will post that manicure soon!). This time, I attempted a French Manicure (finally!) and I had to say, it's my 1st attempt on a French Manicure, hehe.

Pictures say a thousand words so I'm not gonna elaborate further! For my 1st French Manicure, I used China Glaze's Ruby Pumps and Nature Republic's unnamed sheer polish.

As you can see, I haven't perfect french manicure using tape so there's still a little flaw when I tried to do some freehand cover-up...and the little dot of polish I left on one of my nails. :(

As much as there seems to have a lot of flaws here and there, I quite like my 1st attempt of French Manicure, especially in RED! Am gonna attempt more French Manicure soon cos I really like the classy look of it!

Recycled Manicure

In my previous manicure where I painted my nails with Lubu Heels, I attempted a simple nail art with the help of 10 tiny (or not so tiny) rhinestones. After wearing them for about 4 days, some of my rhinestones dropped (unfortunately). In order not to waste my Lubu Heels' manicure, I decided to recycle it...

With my recent haul of 5 lovely dotting tools that come 10 different dotting sizes (at the precise timing), I dotted my 4-day old manicure away! The silver nail polish I used for dotting comes from China Glaze's The Ten Men.

As you can see from the picture, there was already a little chip from my thumb. However, I really hate to waste this manicure when the rest were pretty fine, only with the rhinestones bailing on me, hence the thought of recycling them. Not too bad of a recycled manicure ya? ^^

Lubu Heels, Pretty & Stunning~

My original plan for the 'Manicure of the Week' wasn't supposed to be this. My intention was to try to swatch OPI's Not Like the Movies which Angela had T-loan to me when I mentioned to her about buying. I'm glad I did not! OPI's Not Like the Movies is just too streaky for me to like it & thus, I change my color for the week.

China Glaze's Lubu Heels on the other hand, is so smooth to apply on my nails! I believe their brush is one of the main factor for the easy application.Was seriously lacking inspiration for nail art due to me struggling with Not Like the Movie's streaky application, I decided to just put on some rhinestones on my nails instead. The picture isn't doing justice to both the color and the rhinestone perhaps due to the lighting. But! The outcome from Lubu Heels' is absolutely stunning!

I know there can be more done to my nails to just putting some stones on them but please understand the frustration I had to go through to remove the nail lacquer I thought I'd like prior to this...Argh.

Tape Manicure + Fimo Nail Art

Alas, I am finally performing 2 types of nail art into 1, hehe...This time, I actually tried tape manicure + fimo nail art to see how nice/bad it'll turn out...on my first attempt on such combination.

First, I applied China Glaze's 'Side Saddle' on my nails. They actually looked kinda chocolaty purple but the chocolaty color has won the upper hand.

Pardon the mess - Forgot to clean up before snapping them down...

Next, I used scotch tape to perform tape manicure over my nails with Etude House's nail lacquer (no name). It's a peachy color though.

 

Looks more like gold than peach color ya? It puzzled me too when I saw the result...

Last but not the least, I added fimo ribbons onto my nails for more drastic effect!

There you go! My very own combination of manicure nail art! What do you think? Does it look nice and pretty? I kinda love the outcome of my very own manicure combination and I can't wait to try out more designs, my very own creation! ^^

My Adventure with Fimo Canes

I really envy those people who had the luxury of time to go for manicure that turned out with pretty nails and nail art. Due to my heavy commitment with my child, I really can't afford the time to go for such enjoyment. And so, my recent obsession with nail lacquers spurred me into a craze of DIY manicure.

I've discovered from a shopping website that Fimo Canes a.k.a Polymer Clay are available for sale. Those fimo canes are those tiny weeny 3D sorta object which you can attach them on yr nails. I've seen photos of manicured nails with them and hence, I go ahead & ordered some fimo canes to try them out.

When my package arrived, I was so super happy with it & upon opening it, I finally saw how the fimo canes looked like...

Note my finger against the canes. VERY small only! They are not more than 5cm long per cane but they seriously make hell lot of fimo slices out of these little small rod canes! I cut them myself using a penknife & depending on your own preference, you can cut them up thick or thin ^^.

There, my own private collection of fimo cane slices cut all by myself. There's even a Hello Kitty design with it (center compartment)! Found the flower pretty matching to my current nail color, China Glaze's Flip Flop Fantasy & decided to conduct my 1st fimo nail art experiment.

Tada~! Though I think they will look better with more fimo but I really don't wanna waste my fimo slices when I already plan to change my nail color with another soon.

Am planning to order more fimo canes soon once I accessed my March's credit card damages! Can't wait!