‘When the rich wage war, it’s the poor who die.’ -Jean-Paul Sartre
Browsing Tag:
She Sells Seashells
How many cheat days do you suppose we’re allowed on the 31 Day Challenge? Since I used water decals for this mani, I’ll count today as one of mine!
These are from She Sells Seashells and it’s the first time I’ve ever used all-over water decals so I didn’t really know what to expect. I was really impressed by how easy it was to trim them to the right size and then how smooth they applied. There are a few creases here and there, but nothing too noticeable, and that’s mostly my fault for rushing. What I liked about these was they disintegrated with acetone so it was very easy to clean up around the edges where I didn’t cut them to quite the right size.
For this nail art, I used Essie Go Ginza for my base colour. You definitely need a very light base with these decals.
The water decals are from She Sells Seashells and I topped it off with Glisten & Glow HK Girl.
I’ve always been a strong believer in ‘less is more’ but sometimes you just gotta go for it. This mani has a little bit of everything – gradient, stamping and embellishments – but boy oh boy, does it work!
For the gradient, I used The Lacquer Labe Ultra Violet as my base colour and created the gradient with Sally Hansen Back to the Fuschia. There’s a gradient video tutorial here.
I topped the gradient with Cirque Liquid Laminate and snapped a few pics (below) before I added the art.
I stamped on the fishnet / mermaid scales pattern from Bundle Monster plate BM209 using The Lacquer Lab Moonshine and used another coat of Liquid Laminate.
Finally, I added all the little gems using top coat and a wax pencil. The selection you see is 1mm Swarovski Flatbacks, Gold and Silver 3.5mm shells and 1mm Flat Back Pearls with a shell embellishment from She Sells Seashells (currently out of stock).
After I took these pictures, I added a layer of Liquid Laminate over the details and not a single thing fell off before I removed everything 24 hours later!
This video is completely different from any of the tutorials I’ve done in the past and I had so much fun making it. Quite a few people have asked me how chevron decals are used and I think the best way to answer is to show you a few different ways to have fun with them and hopefully answer any questions about the decals themselves.
Items used
C H E V R O N D E C A L S
Nail Vinyls (Grey)
She Sells Seashells (Pink)
Nail Vinyls (Grey)
She Sells Seashells (Pink)
L O O K 1 | T H E C L A S S I C
Barry M White
NYC Hudson Breeze
L O O K 2 | C R A C K E D
Barry M Rose Hip
NYC Peach Popsicles
The Lacquer Lab Ultra Violet
L O O K 3 | T H E G R A D I E N T
Barry M Huckleberry
NYC Blue Sky
Barry M Cancun
T O P C O A T
Glisten & Glow HK Girl
C L E A N UP
Flat Nail Art Brush
Pure Acetone
If you take some inspiration from this video, I’d love it if you tag #looknailasaurus when you post your look on Instagram so I can see.
So I’m just scrolling through Instagram one day when I’m tagged by @dilemmanails in a photo of the most perfect nail embellishments I could ever hope to see – tiny little T-Rexes! Luckily for me, the embellishments are from She Sells Seashells, a UK based nail art store and one of my favourite places to buy nail decor online. I snapped some up for myself (along with a few other items!) and set about waiting for the postman to pop the package through my door.
When they arrived early this week, I couldn’t wait to try the embellishments out. I love that they’re really tiny so they don’t take up too much space on my little nails. It’ll be fun to try out some other ways of wearing them!
PROTIP: If you have curved nail beds, bend metal decals like these gently around a pen or the handle of nail art brush to match the curve of your nails. That way you won’t get bits sticking out and catching on things, the embellishement will sit flush to your nail.
What I used
Barry M Vanilla
Barry M Espresso
Revlon Sequins
Glisten & Glow HK Girl Top Coat
I’ve been in full on Summer mode this weekend – waking up with the sun, filling the freezer with ice cubes and, get this, wearing flip-flops! With one thing or another, it’s been almost a week since I painted my nails and when I finally sat down today, I had it in my head that I must use summery colours. I tried brights, I tried pastels but nothing stuck. In the end I opened up a drawer, pulled out the first two polishes that I fancied and it turns out that my heart was singing for much more muted tones. The resulting nail art is nothing special, just a strange mix and match but I’m happy with it for today!
The polishes here are OPI French Quarter For Your Thoughts and Revlon Cloud.
I topped a few nails with Seventeen Off The Wall, black and white glitter topper.
The Anchor is from She Sells Seashells it’s all topped off with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.
They say that ‘Done is Better Than Perfect’ and it’s a mantra that I’ve been trying to adopt recently. I’m a perfectionist to the core which can be a great thing but also means that I procrastinate whenever I doubt my ability to complete the task at hand to ‘perfection’. I have so many ideas scribbled down for this blog but because of that mind block, I’ve been putting them off for too long.
This weekend, I told myself that enough is enough – my blog has become too formulaic, too predictable and it’s no fun for anyone! I want to start mixing things up and I think the best way to do that is to proclaim my intention to you guys. If I say it, I have to do it right? And I figure that the best way to do it is to push forward with a new set of ideas. Even if it’s not perfect, it’s better than nothing!
I won’t be doing anything too drastic. There will still be a lot of my ‘regular’ posts like this one with some nail art and a bit of chat but I want to splice in some other types of posts too, like little extra treats to fill things out at least once a week!
I used Kriston 05 as my base colour as it’s a very light shade of mint.
Using the Saran Wrap technique, I created the mottled effect with the Kriston shade, NYC Water Street Blue, NYC Blue Sky and Rimmel Aqua Cool.
I added some of the Silver Triangle embellishments from She Sells Seashells. I gently curved them first using a pair of tweezers so they’d sit flush to my nail.
The stamped designs are from MoYou Plate Fairytale Collection 06 and I used BK Matte White.
It’s all topped off with a Color Club Top Coat.
