C(h)ristmas nail art - scaled gradient tree and presents!

Merry (late) C(h)ristmas! How about a bunch of holo gradients? I went for a quadruple scaled gradient on my ring finger this time, for a Christmas tree effect! The other nails reminded me of abstract presents... somehow. Don't question me.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW ↓!

Colourblind eye test dotticure

Time to test your eyesight... what shapes do you see? Nothing? Not seeing anything yet? Ya me neither, but whatever, here's some confusing dottier fishtail nails!

Last Friday for the weekly nail art challenge I co-host on Instagram I did up some bright & black neon fishtail nails as a second attempt because THIS (down below) was my first attempt, and I was like, k no, ew. In my video tutorial on YouTube I asked you guys if you cared to see a tutorial for this dotticure that looks like those colourblind tests, and many of you said yes??? Why?? JUST WHY??? In any case, here it is!!

Floss Gloss 'Lean'

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW ↓!

Holo Christmas Jellies from Beyond the Nail

It's holo jelly time - Christmas style - with Beyond the Nail! You may recall I swatched their summer galaxy collection a couple months back. The two polishes I have to show off today are the same in formula - a linear holo jelly that go on sheer and can be built up to full opacity in 2-3 coats! Below are 2 of the 10 polishes in Beyond the Nail's Christmas collection. On my accent nail I've re-created a cross-hatch plus gradient look I did a while back - it uses the 'lead-lighting' technique by layering colourful holo jelly polishes over a pattern of white and black I made with striping tape.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Geometric square colour-blocking easy nail art

Some random modern-ish nail tip colour-blocking thing going on here! I made this using a white polish plus new polishes from Color Club's Made in New York and Seven Deadly Sins collection. Some of these are now available from Live Love Polish, a new online polish retailer (great for those in Canada and the US but they also ship internationally!). I used striping tape to mark off the 'grid' sections, and filled in some of the squares, then removed the tape. Super easy and great in any colour combo!

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Glam Polish: Holos from the December 2014 collection

Winter is here to stay! For most of the year! Well for me anyways, being in Canada and all, summer is like the shortest season ever to actually see the sidewalks. Whatever, new seasons mean new nail polish collections to me, so there's that. Especially holo ones like Glam Polish's limited edition Mid-Winters Dream Collection, inspired by icy winter at its finest! This December 2014 collection boasts whimsical holo-day hues galore. I've got 5 of the 9 total polishes in the collection here for review. The whole collection will be available for purchase on December 4th directly from Glam Polish (based in Australia), or one of their international stockists. If you're in Canada or the US be sure to check Harlow & Co.'s website first, they will be stocking them soon!

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Neon rainbow reciprocal scaled gradient

I'm back to my old ways with this mind-bending gradient business! I've been doing a lot of holo glitter looks these days, partially because I'm on a glitter kick and partially because I've been given a lot of glitter and holo polishes recently. If you're not already a nail blogger of sorts then you may not know that when polishes are provided to you, you must make use of them as agreed upon so the generous companies who provided them get the product showcasing their unique creations deserve. But now back to what one of my favourite things to do ever is, come up with crazy gradient designs, notably the scaled gradient and the reciprocal gradient! Check out my Gradient Guide for more on these concepts.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Textured fishtail braid nails

Wow, it's not holo glitter?! Nope, but still kinda sparkly, so s'all good. Today's nail art features three of the new Color Club textured polishes from the Seven Deadly Sins collection. I posted a couple others and some macro brush shots of the entire collection here, and today I have a particularly dark but nonetheless edgy look for you!

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Holo and creme intricate reciprocal gradient with striping tape

Gradient + holo + striping tape = meeeee! I had some fun with this one, that's for sure. Thanks to Live Love Polish, a new online polish retailer, I got to try out one of the infamous Color Club holographic hues (Kismet) along with a teal China Glaze creme I've been lusting over (Shower Together - what a name btw). 

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Fall-toned asymmetrical colour-blocking with matte textured glitters

Colour-block cause why not! A simple asymmetrical colour-block featuring three new polishes from Colour Club's Made in New York and Seven Deadly Sins Fall 2014 collections. These three colours just go so well together and are fresh and fit for this fall weather we're having over here in Canada. Although with our luck, it will be snowing next week and I'll be reaching for deep blues and iridescent white flakies. Enjoy fall manis while they last!

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Mani swap: Teal colourblock holos and a rainbow scaled gradient

Ohhh boy, we have a revolutionary post on our hands today that is going to go down in mani swap history! The talented French nail blogger Faustine of La NPA Mouton and I have been plotting this franco-anglo-blogger assimilation scheme for probably two months now and I'm so happy that things finally came to fruition. As I've raved before, French nail bloggers are stupid awesome and their impeccable attention to detail is just INCROYABLE.

I was struck by Faustine's teal colour-block combo mani, but evidently I don't have her fantastic collection of teal holos so I had to get a bit creative and actually make a teal creme holo with a holo top coat from GG Couture. Faustine was inspired to re-create my neon rainbow skittle single chevron scaled gradient, one of the first few that I ever did using the technique! She definitely nailed it!

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Neon holo jelly gradient over black and white crosshatch

Oops I did it again... couldn't help myself cause black and white is just so not colourful. Over my classic black and white crosshatch mani I filled in some of the white lines with black and then dabbed on a gradient consisting of pink, purple and blue neon holo jelly polishes from Beyond the Nail. I've reviewed and swatched them on their own and over black here.

Sorry guys, no video because this mani was the product of expermenting and not having a clue what would turn out. Kind of challenging to film and edit a video in which you keep changing your mind. If there's enough love for this design I could recreate it though!

A black tie affair: Classic B&W striping tape mani

Don't yell at me when I call this mani simple, cause I know people on Instagram already have. Let me explain: When I use the term 'simple' I don't mean simple in the execution context but rather in the end result appearance. It is simple because it is a 'cross hatch' pattern with no deviations from that pattern thoroughout, and because it is consistent across all nails, therefore making the pattern simple. The execution of this pattern, however, is somewhat (ha, I say somewhat) time consuming given that each and every white stripe you see is the product of hand placed pieces of striping tape. A striping tape massacre indeed!

This design is a reincarnation of a similar triple-lined cross hatch pattern I did in July, but this time without added the extra blocks of colour around the diamond/square intersections.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Striping tape diamond crosshatch design in red, orange, and white

How's about another pain-in-the-ass striping tape mani? This one may not be as bad as that right angle black and neon green one was, but I did both hands this time, so really you could say the expenditure of striping tape was about the same. I did this one back in mid-June: Why it takes me so long to post things sometimes, I don't know. Clearly I just need to quit my job and do my nails full time.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Mani swap with Dorra of Didoline!

Why is it that all french nail bloggers are so amazing??? I mean seriously. What. The. Heck. I am so happy to share with you today a mani swap with one of them, the super sweet Dorra of Didoline's Nails! Dorra chose to replicate my super time-consuming neon and black hypnotizing square mani and I went the simple route baha and chose one of her Fashion Friday nail arts, this one inspired by the Fausto Puglisi 2015 Resort collection.