a hoarder's blog

Happy New Year everyone! A tad late, but we are only a week into 2013! Hope everybody had a good start. I was away on holiday in Europe during Christmas season, and took the opportunity to leave my nails bare and give them a chance to take a break from all that nail polish. After all, I was gonna be wearing gloves most of the time! Nobody could see my yellowed nails. My nails grew quite a bit and I cut some of the yellow ends away. They look healthier now in terms of colour, but the dry air and cold of winter took a toll on my skin. Even with hand cream everyday, after every handwash, my skin peeled and my cuticles started lifting off on some nails. Just horrible! There's still some damage now but they are slowly recovering. 

I must say it was rather liberating to be without nail polish for the past two weeks. When I got home, I was lazy to paint, given the condition of my cuticles. But I couldn't resist it no more last night and I decided to just do something for fun. That's when I did the galaxy nail on my ring finger while watching TV. For the rest, I decided to paint them with Ozotic Sugar 902, since the black base was already in place.

So here's one coat of Ozotic Sugar 902 over a black creme (Nails Inc Black Taxi). I also used Ozotic Sugar 902 as one of the colours for the galaxy nail.

Here's the colour indoors. You can see a hint of the duochrome (purple and blue).

More blue

More purple

Pardon the used tip of my galaxy nail. I went to wash my hair straight after and it came out all used up.

And here's a glorious shot of the colours in natural light. Isn't it gorgeous? It just glows!

I bought my Ozotic 902 from startrinkets, but it's OOS there and no more stock is coming in. And so, I suggest getting your Ozotic from OverallBeauty, llarowe, or ninjapolish.

I had a go at galaxy nails today. I always thought it looked kinda complicated and difficult to do. I googled galaxy nails and found some tutorials. I discovered that there are actually different types of galaxy nails designs as explained over here: the milky way, planetary haze, stellar gases, cosmic dust..I'm sure it doesn't end there. I'm not sure what category mine falls in. Probably cosmic dust.

Anyway, I don't have a step by step tutorial for this as I don't have anybody else to take pictures for me. 

Things that I used: a black polish for the base, a white polish, a glitter polish, a pink polish and a light green polish (which incidentally contained flakies), a sponge and a dotting tool. If you don't have a dotting tool, you can use a toothpick or a pin, something with a pointy end. The colours are as you wish. It can be a dark blue base instead of black, and to create your nebulae, you can use a red, a purple, a yellow etc.. Just go with your imagination. 

(This is the tutorial I followed and it turned out looking quite different.)

First I applied the black polish as my base colour. Then I sponged on the light green halfway down my nail over the black. Subsequently I sponged on the pink over the green and the white over the pink to create my nebulae. It may not look perfect at one go, just go over the same colours until you achieve the pattern you are looking for. Remember to let your layers dry before applying new layers because the wet polish might lift off the previous layer of wet polish.

Apply the glitter polish to create the effect of stars in the galaxy. Finish with a few white dots and a top coat. That's about it! Easy peasy! I am rather pleased with my first attempt and so I shall spam you with some pictures.

You can see the holographic glitter on the thumb courtesy of China Glaze Shooting Stars. How appropriate!

Hope you liked it!

What do you get when you throw all these colours together for a mani? 

Watercolour splatter nails! And the only tool you need is a straw. Well, a piece of it, or you'll be blowing your lungs out if it is too long. 

Colours used:

• OPI Alpine Snow
• OPI Banana Bandanna
• China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le
• China Glaze Starboard
• China Glaze Sugar High

What I did was: apply the base colour, then apply some polish at the end of my straw and blow it out from the other end onto my nails, thereby creating the splatter design. Do the same with different colours until desired pattern is formed. And voila!

I've had some comments today like oh, I have a blouse with a print that looks like the one on your middle finger. It just made me smile. Someone also told me that it looks kiddy. Well, doesn't matter, I really like how this turned out. It's messy, yet I find it pretty. 

This is a set that I did for a nail art contest on Instagram. The rule was to use only pink or variants of pink as the main colour. I didn't get chosen as a finalist, but I was really really pleased with how it turned out, plus it was fun to do. It is not my original design by the way. I had come across something like this in different colours previously and had saved the picture to recreate later on.

Colours used:

• OPI Strawberry Margarita
• OPI Mod About You
• OPI Teenage Dream

You'll also need some striping tape and a sponge.

Apply base colour, let dry, place pieces of striping tape in any direction over the nail, use your sponge with another colour (whether complementing or contrasting) and sponge the tips over the tape. After it's dry, slowly remove the layers of striping tape and there you have it!

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen this about a couple of weeks back. I am not too sure what it's called, but I think it's something along the lines of a fishtail or braid mani. Quite interesting to do. The trick is to make the lines meet right in the middle of the nail to create this design. Also, I think it's good to use a colour that is opaque at one swipe of the brush so that the layer doesn't get too thick if you have to go over it a second time (it might also mess up if your polish isn't dry yet). Thinner criss-crossing lines make for a more defined fishtail braid effect. This was my first time trying out, and so I went with thick lines.

Colours used:

• China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le
• China Glaze For Audrey
• China Glaze Pelican Gray

A bit wobbly and not so centred on the right hand.

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have already seen these pictures. I like to post my NOTDs there these days. It's just faster and more convenient for me.

Sometimes when I'm lazy to change to a totally new mani, I like to recycle the one I currently have on. Wear it plain one day, and add something to it for the next day. Here are a few of them.

OPI Mermaid's Tears

Added heart and dots nail art with OPI Sparrow Me The Drama (this was my Valentine's Day mani). Someone commented it reminded her of Dolly Wink.

China Glaze Blue Iguana (really gorgeous blue, but it stained pretty bad and left me with smurf fingers)

topped with China Glaze Liquid Crystal for bling nails (even more difficult to remove with glitter on!)

OPI Lincoln Park After Dark suede for a quick morning mani because it dries in no time

with Barry M silver foil polish to create a half-moon mani for the evening because the suede polish has already chipped at the tips. It's not done perfectly cos it was also a rushed job.

Ciate Sharp Tailoring

topped with various China Glaze Metallic Crackle Glaze for skittle nails.

Butter London Knackered (gorgeous gorgeous duochrome)

and V-tips done with A-England Camelot

Color Club Wild At Heart

added stripes with Eyeko Tea Rose and Color Club Fashion Addict

I think I did this mani a couple of weeks back. I got the idea from a YouTube video and if I show you the original design, I am sure that you will laugh because what I came up with is so far from it. The design had leopard prints, but I went with some sort of zebra stripes instead. Nonetheless, I was very happy with how it turned out in the end. Fun and colourful, I might try it again another time with different colours.

Colours used:

• China Glaze Sugar High
• China Glaze Flyin' High
• China Glaze Lemon Fizz
• Black polish