Guest Post: For The Love Of Nail Art

Hi there lovelies! I hope everyone is having a good week so far! I definitely am because it is warmer in the mornings, the sun is already coming up earlier and my eyes are very itchy! Yes, spring is truly around the corner! Yay!

As you might remember, I said last week Wednesday that I would have another guest blogger on my blog today. Today I give you the lovely Siobhan from For The Love Of Nail Art, or also known as Lady V! She is a close personal friend of mine, just like Michelle, and having her on my blog just gives me all sorts of warm fuzzies! Her guest mani is also amazeballs! But I'm going to rather let you see for yourself...

Nothing short of Innocent

I’m V for those of you who don’t know. The one of three part crime fighting superheroes that’s M, T and… me… duh!

Thea is like a major cartoon fan and I remember when I crocheted the Invader Zim beanie for a client, how she loved it, so I wondered if I could translate that into nail art. I don’t know why I decided on this because I initially wanted to do a teal mani and make little spectacles for Thea because she’s like a sexy geek, but then I was feeling adventurous so was like let me try this!

Innocent is the worst colour to work with but it seemed to want to look nice for Thea so I’m grateful for that! And I didn’t even need to wear undies!!!

Colours used:

Sinful Colors – Innocent and Snow me White

Essence – Black is Black

Thin bristle nail art brush and a dotting tool.

On my ring finger you’ll see GIR, Mr Invader Zim's robot companion.

On my index finger is I think a Nightmare before Christmas by Tim Burton mannetjie.

Throughout the rest of my fingers is my very first border attempt using the black and nail art brush.

I love that Thea has this dark, unusual side to her. She’s crazy in a cool way.

I hope that you like this Thea because I liked my little concoction and how I got to be out of the box for your mani.

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I don’t know about you but I have to keep my happy squeals in at the moment! How freaking awesome is that?? I adore everything about it! And she called me a sexy geek! *brownie points for Siobhan!* Oh my word, I love this so much!

To see more of Siobhan's great work, go check out her awesome blog! And give her a follow while you're at it!

For The Love Of Nail Art

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Lots of mad love...

Facing off with an old enemy and sparking up a new love...

You look at her with wishing, lusting eyes, hoping you can one day own her. Her touch is cold, wet, unforgiving...yet you can't help but to give your hand to her. She will leave you covered  in anger and misery and emotional pain but she doesn't even give a damn because she knows...you'll just be back for more! A breaker of the stoic, a killer of the heart...a cruel cruel mistress...

Yes people, I am talking about water marbling! She was cruel to me! She hurt me! I didn't want to try her ever again and I kept it that way for more than a year! I will never have to try and do her. Or so I thought...and yes, I am referring to her as a living entity. Nothing that mean and painful could not have a life!

Anyhoo...

See ,when I first got into nail art, water marbling was one of the first techniques I saw after browsing many, MANY nail art blogs. And I loved it! It looked brilliant! And the 2 weeks before that of making dots, drawing lines, achieving a semi-succesfull dry marble/needle drag left me feeling like a boss! I could do anything! ANYTHING! So off I went, getting my tap water ready, putting it in a shallow bowl, grabbing some random polishes and I was ready! Pffft, this was going to be a breeze! So I sat down and I started. I open my first bottle of polish and wait for the drop to fall off the brush. Nothing. I wait some more...nothing! Shake, shake, SHAKE, Dammit my brush touched the water! Next bottle. Open it, wait, wait, shake shake shakeshakeshake and it drips! Yes! But from a too high distance...down to the bottom she goes...meh, polish must be too heavy! * Breath Thea* Next bottle. Open it, it drips nicely, doesn't spread too well but hey, RESULTS! Oooh, need to add my next drop! 1st bottle was too thick, 2nd bottle's polish “too heavy”, can't add the same color from the 3rd bottle so grab the next closest  option...It's not open yet. And it's stuck! Really really stuck! “BAAAABE!”. After my fiance opens it for me, I add a thick drop (after shaking my arm off again) and it just sits there. No spreading and no “Oooh, science” reaction invoking goodness! It just sits! Like a fat pimple before a school dance! *BREATH THEA* Okay! Let's scoop this crap up and start again. 1st drop, spreaaaaad, 2nd drop, spreaaaaad! *happy squeal* Add few more drops, take a toothpick and makes random squiggles in between, happily dip my finger in aaand problem. My bowl is too shallow...”Okay, this is a weird angle but I can work with it”...clean up the polish from the surface but there's a few random polish chunks still drifting around on the water. Whatever! I nailed this! Take out my finger and ...my nail picked up one of those floating things up! “AAAAAARGH! FRAKKING MOTHER SON OFFA AAAAGH!” “Baby, calm down...” “I AM FRAKKING CALM!” *storms off saying a few more loud choice words*

Okay, so maybe it wasn't that bad and I am a bit of a drama-queen but afterwards I just felt like I could not do water marble. At all! And frankly, I didn't want too. It sucked and was over-rated!

That being said, I am currently taking part in the Tip Top Nail Art Concept. Tip Top gives us a nail art technique to try for the week and they post it up on their page the next Monday. It's not a competition and purely for fun! Until I saw the new concept for the past week. Water marble. Yeah, I may have sworn out loud when I saw this. I did not want to do it! Nope! Not at all...but in the spirit of taking part I decided to try it again...

Nail Polishes used:

• Tip Top French Manicure White
• Tip Top Nail Chic Cha Cha Cha
• Tip Top Nail Chic Ripped Me Red

Tools used:

• Dotting tool

Other:

• Polystyrene cup
• Tooth pick
• Filtered water, room temperature

I'm not going to go into the process like I usually do to explain exactly how I did this because I think everybody has probably seen water marble techniques everywhere. I am going to go into my experience with it though.

As you have obviously figured, I wasn't looking forward to this technique but I went in with an open mind. And I've been meddling with nail polish for more than a year now so it's a little smarter mind (Heavy polish! *facepalm*)! I spent one evening just playing with my Tip Top polishes, checking which ones spread the best, which ones are the most opaque, drying time etc. I also used filter water instead of tap water and let it sit outside for about an hour to become room temperature. And I used a polystyrene cup. It's not too wide and it's the perfect depth for me! Oh, and I watched a crap load of YouTube videos!

This experimentation really paid off because it actually worked! IT ACTUALLY WORKED! *angels sing* I only had to redo 2 of my nails because I accidentally messed acetone into my water, which caused the polish to spread too much. But honestly, I enjoyed it! So much that I think I might be a little obsessed! I love this technique now!

I am very proud of my results! And I'm happy! Giving something a try that I hated reunited me with an old love and I couldn't be happier!

I hope everybody has a great week and if you read all the way to the end, kudos and thank you!

If you would like me to swatch any of the colours you saw in today’s post, please let me know via email or drop me a comment below. More than willing to oblige!

Lots of mad love...

Easy Skittlette Mani

Hi there lovelies! Everybody having a good Friday? Ever find yourself having one of those days where you feel like you have nothing to say? I am totally in one of those funks today so I'm not going to bore you with pointless ramblings and trying to be funny because I will just suck! So onto the mani then!

*Warning: The pictures ahead contains nubbins. So y'all need to hide yo kids, hide yo wife, and hide yo husband 'cause I'm about to show some skin in here!

Nail Polishes used:

• China Glaze Spontaneous
• China Glaze Secret Peri-Winkle
• OPI Grape...Set...Match

Tools Used:

• Striping nail art brush
• Dotting tool

On my middle finger I layed down 2 coats of China Glaze Spontaneous for my base and then went in with my striping brush and made a few stripes with China Glaze Secret Peri-Winkle. On my ring finger I layed down 2 coats of China Glaze Secret Peri-Winkle for my base and made the dots using my big ended dotting tool and OPI Grape...Set...Match.

On my thumb I again layed down 2 coats of China Glaze Spontaneous and made polka dots using my big ended dotting tool and China Glaze Secret Peri-Winkle. Finally, on my pinky and index finger I simply layed down 2 coats of OPI Grape...Set...Match.

It's a simple skittlette mani and I actually really liked how it came together! I love these colors and think they compliment each other beautifully!

I hope everybody has a great weekend! 

If you would like me to swatch any of the colours you saw in today’s post, please let me know via email or drop me a comment below. More than willing to oblige!

Lots of mad love...

Guest Post: Ordinary Misfit

Hi there lovelies! Today I'm not going to have a big intro or talk nonsense like I usually do because I am having my very first guest post! It is one of two posts that you will see over the next two weeks and both posts feature guests that are not only great nail polish/art bloggers but also very close to my heart because they are very dear friends to me! Like the “if you hurt them I will hunt you into your grave” type of friends!

My first guest is Michelle from Ordinary Misfit and I am immensely honored to have her take over my little space here in crazy land today. I can not tell you how excited I am to show you this mani because, well, just look for yourself:

Inspired by Alice

I am absolutely honoured to guest post here today. Talk about pressure though!

After a recent conversation with Thea about Alice in Wonderland (I will leave that story for her to tell :P) I knew that I had to do Alice in Wonderland inspired nails for this post.

This is so out of my comfort zone it’s ridiculous! I don’t do free hand anything. I can barely draw on paper, not to mention my nails. I loved the idea though and I think it is really cute (also a huge thanks to acidicice for bouncing ideas around and all the help with this design). I might not get good marks on execution but you can’t deny the idea is super cute right?

Right, I used a bazillion polishes so I will go through each nail. I started with my pinky. This nail represents Alice herself. She is the first character we meet and, of course, the main character. I started with two coats of Tip Top – Beach Babe that represents her dress. I then did a white French tip with Sinful Colors – Snow me white. This represents her apron. I then lined the white tip with my black striper and stamped a black bow from Pueen12. This represents her headband and ribbon.

Alice then meets the white rabbit. I used Sinful Colors – Ruby Ruby to represent the white rabbits red jacket. I then used my white striper to make his ears. I also used Sinful Colors – Snow me White to make the half circle representing the white rabbits pocket watch. I then used Revlon – Gold Rush for the border of the watch and my black striper for the dots and the hand of the watch.

Next is Cheshire Cat. (PINK!!) I used Tip Top – Sherbet Angel and once that was dry I used striping tape and Tip Top – Grape to Meet You to make the stripes. I then used my black and white stripers to make his big old cheesy grin. Next up was Tip Top – Sun Kissed (over white) to make his goofy eyes. His nose and eyebrows were also done with the black striper.

Time for Mad Hatter! This was the hardest one for me to do. I started with a base of Sinful Colors – Snow me White. I then freehanded the hat with Tip Top – We have an Agreen-mint. Yes, I freehanded! Eeek! I used Catrice – I’m not a Greenager to make the darker band on the hat. I then tried to make the white card with “10/6” using my stripers, my dotting tool, another dotting tool. You name it. (yes that is also how many time I redid it) In the end I decided to just leave it be and hope that the intention of it is enough. :P

Lastly, on my thumbs we have Queen of Hearts. Another one I tried quite a few different ways. In the end I went with a base of Sinful Colors – Black on Black. I then used one red rhinestone heart and one clear rhinestone heart down the center of my nail.

In the end we have a journey with Alice through her Wonderland!

Thanks so much for having me Thea and I hope you liked this design! It’s such an honour to be featured on your blog!

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See what I mean?? Huh?? Amazeballs! Like Michelle said, we had a conversation once where I said I have a very soft spot for Alice from Alice in Wonderland. All the Disney heroines gets a castle or a prince or something amazing in the end of their journeys but all Alice got was an acid fueled mind trip that turned out to just be a dream?? Poor girl! So needless to say, I LOVE this post!

To see more of Michelle's great work, hop on over to her blog! You wont be disappointed! And while your at it, you can also follow her at the following places:

Ordinary Misfit

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Lots of mad love...

Tip Top Nail Art Concept: Lace

Hi there lovelies! I hope everybody is feeling good and happy because I am! I have no idea why, but I am just Spongebob today! And it's a Monday! Who has ever felt happy on a freaking Monday? But I am...and I like it! I think it has to do with the fact that we are very close to my favorite time of the year. From September to about end December is probably the most awesome time of the year to me. But we'll talk about that in more detail some other time...

On to today's post...

As you probably saw last week Monday, it was the first week that I took part in Tip Top Nails South Africa's Art Concept. This weeks concept was a little bit more simple in the sense of it didn't involve freehand nail art but for some reason, I found it pretty tricky!

The concept for this week was Lace. Not “paint lace on your nails” because that I could probably do with a bit of effort and a steady hand. This was “take a piece of lace and stick it on your nails”. Easy peasy right?? Wrong! Okay, I’m exaggerating a little bit. It's wasn't hard. I just made it hard for myself! The lace I chose was a little too thick, it was crumbled up when I found it so it kept on lifting when I pushed it down on the nail and with all the moving and sticking down of the lace, I pretty much ruined  the polish underneath so a few I had to redo. In the words of Sweet Brown...Ain't nobody got time for that!

Nail Polishes used:

• Tip Top French Manicure White

Tools Used:

• Tweezer
• Scissors

Other:

• Lace, pre-cut to the shape of your nails

I started off by laying down 3 coats of  Tip Top French Manicure White. When this was dry, I layed down a thin coat of top coat and placed the lace over the wet top coat. In hindsight, I should have probably waited till the top coat felt tacky before I placed the lace but hey, so you learn! When this was properly dry, I added a good amount of top coat to seal the lace.

Overall, I didn't mind how it looked! The only thing that really put me off this mani was the texture! Liquid Sand doesn't have anything on this! Once you add the topcoat, it pretty much feels horrendous when it rubs against anything else...especially bedding! And with the lace being a bit thick, a second coat did not help at all! But the look is pretty neat so I might just try it again sometime! 

Lots of mad love...

FB Page Profile Picture: Take 1 - Abstract Flowers

Hi there lovelies! How is everyone? I'm not too bad, just developing flu. Nothing unique, I know! It happens to almost everybody every winter. It's just that I have been bragging all season long that I didn't get sick this winter! Frakking A! And I was almost there! Winter is almost finished and it would've been a WIN for me! ...But no. No tiger blood Charlie Sheen winning for me. Murphy is a cruel mistress, I'm getting the flu and David Tennant is still gorgeous. Balance has been restored, I guess?!

Anyhoo...

As most of you have probably seen, there is a really bland profile picture on my Facebook page. I absolutely dig my banner! It's very cute, even if I have to say so myself! The profile picture? Nah, it's just boring! I honestly had no idea what to put there! So I just took a picture of glitter polishes at an artsy angle. It's mediocre, I know. I'm sorry!...But then a friend gave me an idea a few weeks ago. Why don't I just take the color scheme of my banner and do nail art with it? Dark red's, plums, purple and black over a white base! And nail art I can do! *high five*

Nail Polishes used:

• Sinful Colors Snow Me White
• WOW Nail Polish #393
• Tip Top Nail Chic Crushed Grapes
• OPI A Oui Bit of Red

Tools Used:

• Small thin nail art brush
• Dotting tool

I started out by laying down two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White. When this was dry I made random cross patterns on my nails with OPI A Oui Bit of Red, using the polish bottle's own brush. I then went in and added little random swipes of Tip Top Nail Chic Crushed Grapes between the gaps of the crosses with my thin nail art brush. To finish the flowers off, I took a dotting tool and added a few dots to the centre of my little flowery creations. It didn't look flowery enough for me though so I took some Sinful Colors Snow Me White and on the “petals” of the flowers I made a few swipes with my nail art brush.

I also added a little star flower on each nail by making crosses with OPI A Oui Bit of Red and Tip Top Nail Chic Crushed Grapes and the nail art brush. I then just finished them off by adding a dot in the middle with my dotting tool.

This mani isn't perfect but I really liked how it came out. Almost like abstract flowers! When I added my topcoat, it caused a bit of dragging on some of the nails but I actually didn't mind! It added a bit to the whole “abstract” look. Also, I realised I NEED to do a swatch post on OPI A Oui Bit of Red. It is such a sexy color! SEXY! Rarw!

So this is my first take on a profile picture for my Facebook page. I think I'm going to do a few of these over the next few months because I need to keep my page looking “fresh”! ...And I really like the combination of the colors! Two birds, one stone right! *Disclaimer: No birds were harmed in the making of this post. No birds will be harmed in future posts. Vote Madness Nails for president!*

If you would like me to swatch any of the colours you saw in today’s post, please let me know via email or drop me a comment below. More than willing to oblige!

Lots of mad love

Tip Top Nail Art Concept: Leopard Print

Hi there! I hope everybody had a great weekend. Mine was superb! I was super lazy and spent the whole of Saturday on the couch under a blanket! Glorious! 

Tip Top Nails South Africa has been running a nail art concept on their Facebook page for the past few weeks. I haven't been able to enter so far due to life and its things but this week I put aside a little time and gave it a go! This is not for a competition but a fun concept to practice your skills! It is open internationally, the only requirements being that South African participants please use Tip Top nail polish.

This weeks concept is Leopard Prints. I adore any type of animal print! They're easy, look amazing and very versatile when it comes to styles to wear them in. The color possibilities are endless!

Nail Polishes used:

• Tip Top French Manicure White
• Tip Top Nail Chic Black Forest
• Tip Top Nail Chic Blue Meets Green

Tools Used:

• Small thin nail art brush

I went with a simple approach of three colors and an accent nail. On my index, middle and pinky finger I layed down 2 coats of Tip Top Nail Chic Blue Meets Green. When this was dry, I added random blotches of Tip Top French Manicure White with the polish bottle's brush. Lil side note: If you use this method rather than a dotting tool, make sure you have very little polish on the brush. When the blotches are dry, I made random “C” and “U” shapes around the blotches with Tip Top Nail Chic Black Forest and a small thin nail art brush. I also made little spots and markings between the blotches to fill the spaces up a bit.

I did the exact same as above with my ring finger and thumb but just used Tip Top French Manicure White for my base and Tip Top Nail Chic Blue Meets Green for the blotches.

For more information regarding the Nail Art Concept, go to Tip Top Nails South Africa's Facebook page. They also do amazing information posts regarding nail care and run stacks of international competitions. It is definitely worth a like!...Just saying! 

If you would like me to swatch any of the colours you saw in today’s post, please let me know via email or drop me a comment below. More than willing to oblige!

Lots of mad love

Bright Freehand Nail Art

Hi there loves! It's Friday! Yay! Also, it's a public holiday in South Africa today so frankly, I'm in a stupendous mood!

Before I get to today's post though I just want to wish all the ladies a happy Women's Day. To all the mothers, the sisters, the girl friends, the best friends. All of us have that exceptional woman in our lives who make it worthwhile, even if it's just being able to make the perfect cup of coffee. I hope I can strive to become that woman one day that someone will look at and say “She really is an exceptional women!”.

Now to the fun stuff!

A few weeks ago I found this great pin on Pinterest and the first thing that popped into my head was TRON! I knew I had to try and recreate it but just instead make a black base and use the Tron colors...That didn't happen though. Halfway into the mani I threw Tron out the window and decided to add 2 more bright colors to the mix.

Nail Polishes used:

• WOW Nail Polish #393
• Tip Top Nail Chic We Have An Agreen Mint 
• Tip Top Nail Chic Grape To Meet You 
• Tip Top Nail Chic Solar Flare
• Tip Top Nail Chic Jazz Berryblue

Tools Used:

• Small thin nail art brush
  
  
  
  

  

  From Left to Right: TT Jazz Berryblue, TT Solar Flare, TT We Have An Agreen Mint, TT Grape To Meet You 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

I started out by laying down 2 coats of WOW Nail Polish #393. Then with the thin nail art brush I went in and freehanded the pointed shapes with the different colors of polish, filling in the spaces with the same color toward the insides. At the parts where I made my lines a little too thick I just went in and corrected those parts with the nail art brush and the black polish again.

All the Tip Top polishes I used worked great in this mani! They are very well pigmented so I didn't need to build them up too much. Some of the lines I even got away with 1 layer.

I got a lot of compliments on this mani. I even got scowled by my co-worker because I wanted to change my nail art two days later. I guess that counts as a success right!

If you would like me to swatch any of the colours you saw in today’s post, please let me know via email or drop me a comment below. More than willing to oblige!

Lots of mad love