#31DC2017: 2 .Orange

So we got past day one, people! Heck, it's the most I've blogged in over a year so I am pretty stoked, knowhatimsaying? #31DC2017 make you blog real good, guuuurl!

I'm going to jump straight into today's prompt because it's Saturday and let's be honest, you have better places to be, you social butterflies you! *cries alone in a corner*

2. Orange:

For my base I started out with 2 coats of Morgan Taylor Funny Business and then a coat of China Glaze Pick Me Up Purple. I then made stamping decals with Mundo De Unas White, OPI In My Back Pocket & Born Pretty Store plate BP-73.

I kinda love how the purple base makes the orange pop! And let me tell you, if you want good purples, whatever spectrum it may be, Morgan Taylor is where it is at! Morgan Taylor Funny Business...I love you! *motorboats all my purple polishes*

Spazzy Stripes!

Hi there you sexy beasts! Raaaaawr! Why the rawr? Because it’s Friday! Do a sexy rawr to the person sitting next to you!!!...What’s that? The person next to you is a creep? Ok fine! Do a sexy agonising painful scream in their direction. Did they run away in terror?? YOU’RE WELCOOOOME! Also, can we take a minute and stare at my sexy new blog banner?? My Viking man has mad skills right?! I’ll do a sexy rawr to him any day. PS...If anyone is interested in using his mad design talents, give me a shout. He does this type of thing to make a bit of pocket money so the more design work, the more Burger King and polish he can buy me! #WINNING

So since it’s Friday and we’re all in a lazy easy mood, I decided to keep today’s nail art easy. No big explanations, no big hoorah of what inspired me and no diddly nonsense because let’s be honest, you’ve heard enough of that from me today.

I started by laying down 2 thick coats of China Glaze I’m With The Lifeguard as my base colour. When this was dry, I double stamped over the green using Bundle Monster plate BM-316, Sinful Colors Snow Me White and WOW Nail Polish #393. 

See? So easy it almost feels like cheating. Buuut besides my camera hating neons and making my skin tone look different in every picture, I liked how this came out. Simple but kinda funky!

Lots of crazy MAD love...

#NailAnarchy - Christmas In July *PIC HEAVY!*

Hi the lovelies! Hmmm...can you smell that?? I hope it’s the smell of your morning breath still in bed because it is Saturday and you deserve to sleep in dammit! Anyhoo, no long intro’s today because I have an epic post up today!

So...In January a bunch of girls from the Nail Anarchy group decided this whole Christmas only happening once a year thing just sucks. So we took Christmas into our own hands, decided to play Secret Santa with each other and BOOM! Christmas in July!

I pulled my favourite bok, Ordinary Misfit and was ecstatic because c'moooon! ORDINARY MISFIT!...it was short lived. Michelle, I love you but damn girl, you are hard to shop for and try and be original! Do you know that you already own like half the worlds polishes??? But with some snooping and her Elfster wishlist I pulled it off! YAY ME! Feel free to go check out her Secret Santa post HERE.

Now my Secret Santa turned out to be acidicice and maaaan, did she do gooooooood! I mean like REAL GOOD! *happy squeals* High 5’s all around for Heather! *throws confetti* So, shall I show you??

Such bleachy neon goodness!

SPARKLES! Sparkles EVERYWHERE!

MOTHERFRAKKING TARDIS! TAAAAAAARDIS! *spazz spazz spazz*

Dat splatter pattern though!

OH MY GLOB! This stamper is AMAZING! AMAAAAAAZING!

In my box was the following beauties:

-  Body Scrub (sorry, forgot to take a photo and can’t remember the name. It’s in my shower! LOL)

-  Tip Top Nail Chic Lime Time

-  Tip Top Nail Chic Peach Soda

-  Tip Top Nail Chic Strawberry Pop

-  Tip Top Nail Chic Milkyway

-  Tip Top Nail Chic Diva Glam

-  Tip Top Nail Chic Sparkle Queen

-  LA Girl Sputter

-  Griffynstor Temporary Tardis tattoos & nail tattoos

-  Stamping Plate (From Born Pretty Store)

-  Iridescent rhinestones (From Born Pretty Store)

-  Squishy double sided stamper & scrapers (from Born Pretty Store)

-  CANDY!!!! (Sorry again! Basically inhaled when I opened my package)

She did so good right?? And man, I am going ape crap about the squishy stamper! It is such a game changer! It actually goes into my cuticle line! That has never happened before! *faints* Thank you so so much H! You are a SUPER STAR!

I can’t leave you without a mani right? So here is a Christmas In July-esque mani I did.

I started out by laying down 2 coats of Tip Top Nail Chic Diva Glam. When this was dry I used Bundle Monster Plate BM-323 for the snowflake image and Mundo de Unas 68 Sky Blue.

Again, a HUUUUGE thank you to Heather! Tons of hugs and pokes!

Lots of mad love...

 

#31DC2014 - Day 16: Geometric aka ...Do I need a aka?? Nah!

Hi lovelies! Okay, is it just Pretoria or did your seasons also not get the memo about making a slowish “transition” into the next season?? Just over 2 weeks ago we were freezing our butts off and now we are complaining about how hot it is! No pleasing us, is there?? Now if only we can get some rain so this damn static will get the hell out! IT HURTS DAMMIT!

 

Day 16: Geometric Print 

I once again did not have too much inspiration for this post except for I knowing that I had to use Morgan Taylor Hot Hot Tamale. She has been sitting in my polish case since 1 September and she has been calling me! I swear it! So after digging around in my stamping plates, I found a geometric-esque pattern that gave me happy feels and went to town.

I started by laying down 2 coats of WOW Nail Polish #393 on all my nails, except for my ring finger. I then placed stamping decals that I made using WOW Nail Polish #393, Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Morgan Taylor Hot Hot Tamale and Bundle Monster Plate BM-414, on my nails. On my ring and index finger I cut the decals with a straight line and covered only certain sections of my nail. I also lined the area around my cuticle with WOW Nail Polish #393 and a thin are brush. Lastly on my ring finger I layed down 2 coats of Morgan Taylor Hot Hot Tamale and placed little triangles on the nail that I made with polish blobs that I cut down.

 

Really camera?? Of all the times I want you to make a polish shine in all her glory you go and spazz out?? Just because she is bright and luscious! *gasp* Shame on you! Other than that I think it looks quite cute! Not too hard to do and still fun! Oh, and have you noticed my nails are shorter? Stupid tear that turned into a full on break on my index finger. But luckily I like shorter nails!

Lots of mad love...

 

Twinsie...Thursday? Kind of!

Good morning lovelies! It is almost spring and I am psyyyyyyyyyched! It is getting warmer (all though the weather fore cast says we are in for 1 more cold spell! Grrrrrrrr!), new, fresh smells are popping out all over the place and I am just generally happy! Also, yesterday was EXACTLY 7 months till my wedding day you guys! Too much excitement! We have a crap load to do but it’s going to be worth it! EXCITED!!!! ...can you guys tell I’m in a really good mood??

Now on to the nails! NAILS! *cues mad guitar riff* NAAAAAILS! Twinsie nails to be precise. I am lucky enough today to have a kind of twinsie post with the crazy talented Ordinary Misfit. Last week she showed me a mani she wanted to do and I told her I did the exact same one a little while ago so we decided, let’s be Twinsies! Whoooo! Our mani’s are inspired by THIS post by The Nail Polish Project so a HUGE SHOUT OUT to her!

I started out by laying down 2 coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White on all my nails. When this was completely dry, I placed striping tape on all my nails to make triangular type of shapes and filled in the spaces using China Glaze Grape Pop, China Glaze Recycle and China Glaze Flyin’ High, pulling off the striping tape immediately after all the areas were filled. When this was completely dry, I stamped on two of the filled-in spaces per nail using Bundle Monster plates BM-201, BM-319 and BM-422. I did this by taping off the sections I didn’t want to fill and stamped like I normally would.

I really liked how this came out! It made me a little sad that my camera decided to stuff up China Glaze Flyin’ High and made it look more blue than it actually is, and it isn’t nearly as killer as the original mani by The Nail Polish Project was but I like it none the less! Now...get your butts over to Ordinary Misfit to see her awesome attempt and give her some love while you’re at it. She deserves every bit!

Lots of mad love...

Flowery Animal Print

Hi lovelies! Today something shocking is happening...I do not have a lot to say! True story! Feeling a bit meh at the moment so not going to bore you with the details. Let’s rather get to the nail art!

I started with a base of Sinful Colors Snow Me White and stamped over it using Bundle Monster Plate BM-223 and WOW Nail Polish #393. Using a dotting tool I made simple flower shapes  with OPI A Oui Bit Of Red and China Glaze Recycle.

Much like this post today this mani is sweet and simple! I did love the look though. For some reason, animal print patterns as a base for other designs work pretty damn well! 

PS...Remember to go vote tomorrow, South African loves! GO GO GO!

Lots of mad love...

Stamping Decal Method Tutorial

Hi lovelies! Heck, I’ve just had one of THOSE past few days. My days in general weren’t bad! Not at all! It’s just like some people were born with a talent to completely ruin it for you with their negativity and crap attitudes. People like that, you suck! Seriously! Buuuuut I decided to not let it get to me because I had an amazing weekend! Not only did I get to hang out with 2 of my closest friends the whole long weekend but I met the most amazing ladies at the Johannesburg Bloggers Who Bless meet-up on Saturday! I truly felt blessed in every sense when I left there and I can’t wait for the next meet-up! Ladies, you ROCK!

Now, on to some nail art. Today is truly a first for my little blog because it’s going to be my very first pictorial/tutorial on Madness!! I’ve done a few for Heather at Femme Lifestyle but I decided it’s high time I do a tutorial for my own little space. I decided to go with the decal stamping method because I got quite a few requests for it after I did it in THIS post. Before we go on though, I unfortunately do not know who was the first person who came up with this technique but first my exposure to it was through Nailz Craze. I will also put up a link to her tutorial at the end of this post, just in case you could do with someone else’s perspective on this technique.

You’ll need:  
- Stamping Plate
- Stamper with rubber end
- Thin nail art brush
- Clear nail polish
- Few colors of nail polish of your choice
- Tweezer
- Top Coat
- Cleanup brush  
- Acetone

Click on Pictorial to make it larger.

Step 1 – 2: Start by picking up the image of your choice from a stamping plate and wait for it to dry. I used Bundle Monster plate BM-319.
 
Step 3:
Using nail polish colors of your choice, fill in the negative spaces with the thin nail art brush and wait for it to dry. The colors I used was China Glaze Make An Entrance and Tip Top Nail Addict Aliminium.

Step 4:
Lay down a generous layer of top coat over your filled in image and wait for it to dry properly! I like to use Essence Gel-Look Top Coat because it’s a bit thicker than your normal topcoat. I also leave it for about 2hours so I know the decal is properly set but I'm sure 30mins would be enough.

Step 5:
Using your tweezer, lift the decal slowly off of the stamper’s base.
 
Step 6:
Lay down a thin coat of top coat down over the nail you want to add the decal to. Leave it until it’s feeling slightly tacky and then lay down the decal over the nail. Using a light touch, smooth the decal down onto the nail and give it proper time to dry.

Step 7:
Using your clean up brush and some acetone, clean away the excess of the decal and lay down a coat of your favourite top coat to smooth it all out. Le viola, you are done! Side Tip: Pre-cutting your decal to the shape of your nail is an awesome idea, which is only something that dawned on me now *facepalm*. Or use small nail scissors to cut off most of the excess before you start the acetone clean up.  

Phew, long post! I do apologize for that but I hope you found this useful! This is one of my favorite techniques and it’s a great way to spice up conventional stamping. Like I said, Nail Craze is the first place where I saw this done so for her tutorial, click HERE.

Lots of mad love...

Guest Post: Holo'd up acidicice!

Hi lovelies! I have a nice little change of scenery for you guys today. Heather from acidicice asked me to do a guest post for her last week for Valentines week. Of course I said yes (You can see the post HERE) but I asked her to do one for me too. She is a fellow blogger who blogs about life, love, her kiddies and of course, nail art (WIN!)! Since I know that she loves holographic polish, I asked her to do something with holos and flowers. Let’s see what she came up with...

Holos & Flowers

Hi everyone! The super talented T has been so kind as to ask me to do a mani for her as a guest post. T did a Valentine's guest post for me, which you can read HERE. My prompt was holo and flowers. I knew just what I wanted to do with that!

This mani was a lot more challenging than I anticipated. Not because of the prompt, but because I've been sick and so I've been hopped up on meds that make me shake terribly. I was trembling so badly it was difficult to get any kind of precision going. Even cleaning up was a wobbly business. But, I had a deadline and powered through it! Onto the nails, then!

I started with a base of Tip Top Miraculous Results to protect my natural nails. I then painted 4 coats of my Born Pretty Store Holographic Effect Nail Polish #1 on all of my nails. Even though it is very sheer I could probably have gotten away with 3. After that had dried I stamped the top image of my PUEEN 27 stamping plate with Essence White Stampy polish on all my nails except my ring fingers. I stamped those with Essence Magic Carpet Magnetic nail polish with the right hand full nail image from the same PUEEN plate. I top coated them all and there you have it! I hope you guys like it!

Thanks again for having me T. It has been an honour!

---

Aaaah, I absolutely love what Heather came up with! The colors and stamping go together beautifully and that picture with the perfume bottle is stunning! STUNNING! Thank you H, for bringing such prettiness on to my blog today! It was a huge honor!

To see more of Heather's awesome nails, you can follow her at the following place:

Blog

Facebook

Twitter

Lots of mad love...

Valentines Day Nail Art: Part 2

Hi lovelies! I'm here again with the second round and my official Valentines Day mani. I'm posting this one quite a bit late because that way, I kind of have the best of both worlds time wise. Like I'm not just celebrating Valentines Day with my lovely local people but also people in other countries that are quite a few hours behind us. That way, I am literally stretching my time!

Let's get into the mani, shall we?

I started out by laying down 2 coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White. When this was dry, I created a water marble pattern using Tip Top Nail Chic Sherbet Angel and Nubar Competition Red. Lastly, I wanted to add a little bit something extra to the mani and stamped over the water marble using Bundle Monster plate BM-411 and Sinful Colors Snow Me White.

So this is a really short and hopefully sweet post but I don't think you want to be spending your Valentines Day reading a silly post, do you? Nah! I hope everybody gets spoiled rotten and has an absolutely beautiful Valentines Day.

If you would like me to swatch any of the colors 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...  

Stamping Decal Method Fun! YEAH!

Hi Lovelies! It's Tuesday, the 3^rd week of 2014, pretty much everybody is back at work and things finally feel like they are sloooooowing doooown...Pshhhh, right! Where the hell did the first 2 weeks of the year go people?? I don't know and that scares me!

But enough rambling from me. Before we get to todays mani I have a teeny tiny favor to ask you guys! I am busy swatching my whole collection of polishes! Yeah, apparently I am a sucker for punishment! I'm almost finished swatching my OPI Mini Packs and then from there want to start swatching my full size bottles. What I want to do is swatch each color type, 1 brand at a time so that things wont get confusing and I'll have some sort of archive going on the blog. For example, China Glaze Blues, Nubar Reds, Tip Top Nudes etc... My problem is I don't know with which brand to start. I currently have a little poll running on my Facebook page so if you guys would be so kind to go and vote, that would seriously be awesome! Pleaaaaaaase!!!! Link to poll HERE.

Okay! Now for le fun stuff!

Quite a while ago I saw a lot of fellow bloggers experimenting with the Stamping Decal Method. Finally I decided that I need to climb aboard this pretty bandwagon so I gave it a go! Please excuse me if my pictures look a bit yellowed today. They turned out a bit foggy for some reason so I had to play around with my GIMP Color settings quite a bit!

I started out by laying down a base of China Grape Pop on my index finger, China Glaze Spontaneous on my middle finger and OPI Do You Lilac It? on my pinky. I then added the stamping decal to my ring finger that I made using Bundle Monster stamping plate BM-313, China Glaze Grape Pop, China Glaze Spontaneous, China Glaze Starboard, OPI Do You Lilac It?, Nubar Greener, Nubar Pasadena Purple, Nubar Green Tea and Tip Top Nail Chic We Have An Agreen Mint.

To finish off the look, I added some dots to my other fingers using my medium sized dotting tool, Nubar Green Tea, Tip Top Nail Chic We Have An Agreen Mint, China Glaze Starboard and WOW Nail Polish #393.

Gaaaaaah, I really like the Stamping Decal Method! It is taking stamping to a whole new level and I love it! I've already done another mani with this method so you will see that also one of theses days. Now, would anyone like to see a tutorial on this? Please say yes because I just want another reason to do this!

If you would like me to swatch any of the colors 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...