Italian Marble Nails

Just after I finished these nails I noticed quite a few people on instagram had had very similar ideas - maybe a new trend emerging?
The technique I used has been around for quite a while and the results are always fun and interesting. You can get so many different looks from this one technique, if you want to try it for yourself click here for an easy to follow tutorial (not affiliated with me in any way)
For my look I first painted all of my nails (after a base coat of course) with OPI 'Black Onyx' and applied a coat of fast drying top coat to speed up the drying process for the next step.
Once everything was completely dry I cut some pieces of washi tape and taped off the triangular sections on my nails. I placed drops of OPI 'Alpine Snow' and 'Black Onyx' into the open section of my triangles one at  time, covered them with a piece of plastic sandwich baggie and kind of 'smooshed' the polishes gently for a second to blend them, removing the plastic then the tape straight away for clean lines. The thing I love the most about this technique is if you don't like it the first time, just add another drop or two of the colour you want and smoosh again ;)
After I had finished all of my 'marble' triangles and let them dry I outlined them with a thin line of silver acrylic paint and then sealed it all in with my favourite top coat, HK girl from Glisten and Glow.

I'm really quite pleased with how these nails turned out :)

 

Thanks for joining me, have a wonderful day wherever you are!

K xx

Heroes in a half shell and long lost loves - TMNT

When I saw there was another incarnation of one of my favourite cartoons of my (relative) youth, I knew I HAD to do some nail art to celebrate!  I can still name all four of them too, can you? (No googling!)
Although I'm a bit old school and much prefer the cuter version of the late '80's than the more 'realistic' looking ones of 2014.
I mean let's face it, there's nothing 'realistic' about four turtles living in a sewer, eating pizza and taking instruction from a rat!!?! lol Even so, it's still one of my favourite old cartoons and although I always enjoy doing my cartoon nails, this is definitely one of my favourite mani's I've done to date.


Polishes used:
OPI - 'Alpine Snow'
Orly - 'Iron Butterfly'
Glisten and Glow - 'HK Girl top coat'

There's method in my madness .... somewhere

On my white nails I started with their  heads, simply because I'm impatient and wanted to see how they would look and I still hadn't entirely decided what I was doing in the background - Pizza?Sewer bricks?Pizza?Sewer bricks?Ooh maybe a star burst?
Happy with my turtles I started experimenting (turned out I liked the sewer bricks best) and ended up entirely covering my base polish with my acrylic paints lol talk about doing things the hard way ;)

On the Orly nails I very carefully painted the new TMNT logo with acrylic paint. Considering how much my hands shake, I'm really pleased with how it turned out :D
I sealed everything in with two coats of My HK Girl top coat to help extend wear - especially where there's a lot of paint at the tips.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

(heroes in a half shell)

 Thanks so much for stopping by, have a wonderful day wherever you are :)

One Stroke, We have Success!!!

After watching probably hundreds of tutorials on the one stroke painting technique, attempting too many times to count and failing miserably. I came across This tutorial by Tartofraises on You Tube - she's an ahmaazing French nail artist with incredible brush control and she makes everything look so easy - anyway, I figured I stood a chance at success with this design so off I set.
I painted my nails with a base of OPI 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls' and added a coat of China Glaze 'Matte Magic' held my breath and jumped in.
AND IT WORKED!!!
It even looks pretty good (if I do say so myself, which I obviously do because I just did :P ) I just used my regular acrylic craft paints, nothing special and a flat brush approximately 5mm wide that came in one of those cheap nail art brush sets that you buy online.
I added some slightly OCD paint 'splatters' to add a bit of colour and then topped it with two coats of my fave top coat - Glisten and Glow HK Girl. Why always two coats? Because I hate my nails not being completely smooth and often one coat isn't quite enough to take all the bumps out. Plus it gives it added protection and wear time, I can usually get a week out of my mani's with the two coats but everybody's physical chemistry will be different ;)

Such a proud moment!

 

Thanks for taking the time to read, have a wonderful day wherever you are! ♥

Me and you and a dog named Chester

At the moment I'm in the middle of applying for a mortgage to buy the house I live in. Well...... I already own the house I live in but it's a long story :/ Anyhoo  the bank are taking their sweet time making a decision, or at least letting me know what's going on with the process.
About the only thing that's been keeping me sane during this whole thing (and it may sound silly to some) has been my nail art.
The simple repetitive process of applying the polish, the forced calm while you wait for each coat to dry. Then the drowning out of the rest of the world as you concentrate on those tiny strokes that will (hopefully) become something beautiful and worthy of being grabbed and exclaimed about.
When I'm not painting my own nails I'm practicing on false nails, testing out new and different designs and techniques.
It's still Winter here in New Zealand, so during the day it's just me and my dog Chester

 inside by the fire having in depth conversations (he's more of a listener than a talker) solving the world's problems as I paint.
He usually gets the best spot in front of the fire, but I don't mind, my paints dry too fast there anyway ;)

This is what today's efforts have produced:

Over a white base I sponged a gradient of Essie 'Where's my chauffeur?' and 'Absolutely Shore' then added a coat of Glisten and Glow HK Girl top coat to blend. With my fine detail brush and acrylic paints I added my daisies first, then my swirled 'roses' and some little dots of babies breath to fill in the gaps. Two last coats  of Glisten and Glow HK Girl top coat to give it a smooth finish and a gorgeous shine!

I hope you're having a lovely day wherever you are! ♥

My First Blog Post Ever .... please be kind :/

Wow, so I'm actually doing this, starting my own blog.
I guess I should start by introducing myself? Obviously as the title would suggest my name is Kyleigh, I live in the beautiful small town of Motueka located in top of the South Island of New Zealand.
I love everything nail related and have a particular passion for nail art. I currently own around 900 - ish polishes (I'm actually too scared to do a proper count ;) ) and I have recently converted a spare room into my polish room (so they can breed in private ;) )
I'm a collector of everything Wonder Woman or English Bull Terrier related.  I have an 8 year old EBT named Chester who is basically a 3 year old in a dog suit who is a constant source of amusement!
I'm fast approaching my midlife crisis - a.k.a. my 40th birthday in October (Aarrrggghhh!!!!)
Below is a little taste of things to come, I hope you'll join me on my journey into blogdom :)

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