Camo Nails

This one actually looks a lot more difficult than it is...you just paint your nails in base colour, I used a metallic nude and then put dab the other colours with your regular nail polish brush. I had 2 game rangers and hunter compliment me on these!

Denim Zipper Nails

 

This was favorite, I didn't want to take them off! I found the water decals on Ebay for $2 including shipping. I put a black metalic nail polish from LA colours and then used the saran wrap method to sponge on some grey then put the decals on randomly. For my accent nail I measured approximately the size of the zipper and put a nude polish on the whole nail. I then used a normal nail polish brush to make the V and filled it in. I'm not a fan of the "exposed bare" nail personally so I preferred to use the nude polish.
On the pinky I just put on some rhinstones to glam it up, not that this manicure needs it!
This was the only time I did not use a top coat because I wanted to rough denim like finish. I only used a top coat on the pinky nail to seal in the rhinestones.

Aussie Dreamtime Nails

Australian Dreamtime nails were my goal but really they just came out as pretty dots. The effect is lovely nonetheless....

Watercolour Nails

I absolutely loved these, the picture unfortunately doesn't do it justice. I painted all my nails while and then use the saran wrap method to put the other colours on top. You just take a bit of saran wrap and put a bit of polish on it then dab it on your nails as you like. To top it off I used a light glitter polish that caught the light beautifully but you can't see it very well in this shot :(
It's better to use sheer polishes for this effect and don't be scared to make a mistake because you can always dab another colour on top.

Braided Nails

 
Lots of tutorials out there for this one, mine didn't turn out as nice as I would have liked but it's still quite nice!

Puzzling Nails

This design is my own with the exception of the puzzle nail. I was playing around and came up with this.
The tutorial for the puzzle can be found here
It's actually a lot simpler than it looks!

Yin Yang Nails

 

I loved this design and it was so easy to do thanks to Jen Fabulous tutorial. I searched through a bunch of them that wanted me to spend ages cutting out tape and sticking them on my nails...I couldn't be bothered. Jen has a fab suggestion of just drawing an S shape with a nail striping brush and filling it in. Voila!
I used to use bobby pins to make dots but then found a whole set on ebay that cost me $5 including shipping from China. Done! You can also find them on Amazon or what not. Striping nail polishes are also quite cheap, about $1 a pop. I only have these in a few colours, mainly white, black and a few random colours. I use the brushes for the random colours and dip them in my other colours if need be and then just clean off the brush rather than buying striping polishes in every colour under the rainbow.

The link to the tutorial is here

Stripe 'N Feather Nails

 

This one is more sophisticated but quite simple to do. Any black, grey and white polish will do. I bought the gold striping tape at a local mall, the whole strip cost me R20 ($2USD). It takes a bit of getting used to but once you get the hang of it, it's quite simple.
I used the "rolling method" to stripe the polish. You place the brush at the end of the nail and keep it still, rolling your finger right to left or vice versa to actually paint the nail. It really helps for those with shaky hands!
The feather is a real seagull feather that I picked up at the beach...it's nice to live in Cape Town :)
I don't use any kind of glue, I just paste in on the nail while the polish is still wet. I then put my favorite top coat on to seat it.

I should add that my top coat is the only thing I splurge on because I feel it's the most important step of the manicure. I use Sally Hansen Insta-Dry, it really does dry almost instantly and protects my nails from chipping. My manicures last me 1 week or longer and I give full credit to my beloved top coat!


When it comes to base coat, I also like the pricier stuff because it saves my nails from turning yellow and gives the nail polish a good foundation to stick but I'm not monogamous in my choice of base coats, I like to try different stuff out.

Intro To Me And My Nails

Hello All!

I've been obsessing over my nails for several months and thought I should join the nail blogging community to spread the love!

What I like to think is a little bit different about my blog is that I don't buy the expensive brands (not that I don't love them) but I live in South Africa and don't have R100 (or $10USD) to buy 1 nail polish and I don't find it necessary. There's lots out there at bargain prices so I'm not monogamous in my brand choice. Whatever is cheap, cheerful and gives me options works for me!

My designs are mostly from others, I'm now beginning to branch out and do my own random things but a lot of it was taken from many of the popular bloggers out there and I will credit them if I've taken their tutorials (that is, if I can remember).

If I see interest in this blog and you want to know how I achieved it, just let me know and I'll give you tutorial. Because I'm just starting this blog I won't be identifying colours and brands and I will post pics from the past few months and quite frankly I can't remember what colours I used back then. I have over 100 polishes in my collection currently! Most of which is Sinful Professionals, LA Colors, some Sally Hansen and lots of random brands!

It all started with the Galaxy nails. I love how this turned out and I do remember the tutorial I used from Cute Polish. Link is here



I then progressed into Peacock nails, I didn't use a tutorial for that as I couldn't find one that I like, I instead chose to copy a picture as best I could and it turned out like this...and the obsession began....