[Tutorial] Watercolour nails w/ ulta3

How Spring/Summer appropriate are these nails?! After receiving a nail polish package from Ulta3, my new current nail art addiction is playing around with 'watercolour' polishes. These are special polishes that apply transparently and can be built up to intensify the colours. The base of this design is lovely in itself but I added some polka dots to give it a cuter effect.

This nail polish set from Ulta3 comes with 5 colours (1 white & 4 watercolours) for just $10! You can also buy them separately for $2. I was always keen to try out the OPI watercolour polishes but was put off by the hefty price. These Ulta3 polishes work in the same manner and I have read multiple comparative reviews that have suggested that they are even better than the OPI ones! 

Even without comparison, to me the formula for these are close to perfect. Although the white polish is quite standard, taking 2-3 coats to be opaque, it still does its job as a base colour. The watercolour polishes work well with a single coat and do not take long to dry. 

A thing to note about these polishes is that you can achieve a lighter, more pastel shade by removing most of the polish from the brush before applying, or alternately, layer/apply thicker coats to achieve a darker shade. To obtain the cohesive watercolour splatter effect for this tutorial design however, I opted for the first option.

1. Apply white polish until opaque.
2. Before applying the first watercolour, wipe off most of the polish from the brush onto the edge of the bottle. Lightly dab the colour in randomised positions on the nail. Irregularity and inconsistency is the key here. Don't try too hard to make it look perfect because the randomness is what gives a nice effect. 
3. Choose a second colour and apply it in the same way as step 2. You may choose to overlap the first colour in some areas to allow for smooth transitions between the two colours.
4. Choose a third colour and apply in the remaining spaces.
5. Add in some polka dots using a dotting tool.

If you don't like the polka dot look, this is what the watercolour base looks like by itself. It is still pretty and definitely Spring/Summer appropriate! A big tip that I suggest for this design is applying the colours from least to most transparent. What I mean by this is that some of the colours in the pack are more transparent than others; applying the most transparent last means that you can overlap the colours more seamlessly when filling in the remaining white spaces at the very end.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. I'd love to see your recreations on Instagram! (tag me @nailsbynikkih)

*This product was sent to me for review. I maintain that the views in this post are my most honest opinions.*

Bright Accent Nail w/ BPS Tip Guides

The sunny weather has finally come around in Perth and I thought I'd reflect this by wearing some uber bright and fun nails. For this look I used the orange-yellow-pink combo and paired this with an accent and gradient. The accent nail was achieved using a pre-cut sticker guide from Born Pretty Store as you will see in the tutorial below.

These tip guides are so handy and are excellent for achieving a quick design without much prep! They work like any other form of tape design - just stick over a base colour, paint on another colour and peel off the sticker! I found that these stickers stuck on very well, however I do wish they were made a little thinner, as thicker stickers can sometimes mess up the design when you go and peel them off. Aside from that, I peeled cautiously and it all worked out well! If you are interested in these stickers, you can purchase them here. You can also get 10% off at checkout and free shipping with the code HOWG10.

Next onto the polishes! From left to right, OPI 'Alpine Snow', ulta3 'Tangerine Tango', ulta3 'Honolulu' and ulta3 'Pink Hibiscus'.

1. Paint a thin coat of white polish as a base to make your bright colours pop more.
2. Follow up with one coat of yellow polish. Allow this to dry completely before going on to the next step. You may wait it out or add a coat of fast drying top coat to speed up the process.
3. Grab a tip guide sticker and place it in the desired position on the nail. Press down firmly so there are no loose edges.
4. Paint over the sticker with your desired colours. I used orange on the top half of my nail and pink on the bottom.
5. Peel off the sticker immediately while the polish from step 4 is still wet.

You may choose to do this on all your nails or alternatively, use it as an accent. On my other nails I did a gradient with the same colours. Simply paint the colours onto a makeup sponge (as seen below) and dab onto a white base. Top the gradient off with a top coat to blend all the colours together.

And that is all you need to know to achieve this design! Please share your recreations with me on Instagram by tagging me @nailsbynikkih!

*This product was sent to me for review. I maintain that the views in this post are my most honest opinions.*

[Tutorial] Black and White Florals w/ BPS studs

As you can probably tell I've been having a bit of a floral obsession lately! Similarly, I've been loving my black and whites, so this design was inevitable! I decided to pair this with silver to utilise these AMAZING holographic silver studs I received from Born Pretty Store. For anyone interested in buying these for themselves or other nail art products, I have a code for 10% off all items + free worldwide shipping (HOWG10).

For this look you will need black, white and silver nail polish. From left to right I used OPI 'Black Onyx', OPI 'Alpine Snow' and OPI 'DS Radiance'.

You will also need some silver studs. As you can see, they have a beautiful holographic effect that allows them to sparkle in the light. This particular pack comes with 300 studs for USD$4.20. In general, studs are quite versatile decorations, so for my design I chose to use them in the center of my flowers.

Finally, you will need a dotting tool and a fine paint brush for detailing! Alternately, you can use a toothpick to achieve the same effect!

1. Apply a black polish to your nail. I used 1 coat.
2. Dip a dotting tool into white polish and proceed to dot on flower shapes, leaving some space around each flower for step 3.
3. Use a fine paint brush dipped in white polish to draw a few leaves coming out of each flower. Fill in any gaps with small dots.
4. Use a toothpick dipped in water or tweezers to pick up the studs and place them carefully in the centre of each flower.

Amazingly, that's all that's required for this design! It can easily be incorporated as a sophisticated accent nail or as a full manicure if you have the patience! Please share your recreations with me on Instagram by tagging me @nailsbynikkih

*This product was sent to me for review. I maintain that the views in this post are my most honest opinions.*

[Tutorial] Tropical Floral Nails

The weather here in Perth has been rather gloomy recently, so I thought I'd liven up my life a little with some tropical floral nails. I absolutely love this design! I was inspired by @polishpeach on Instagram when I saw her lovely nail art that you can see here. Her choice of a pastel yellow and lighter pink have such a pretty effect, though I personally chose to go a little more tropical with a bright yellow and red.

For this design you will need various colours, a thin paint brush and also a dotting tool (you can also use a toothpick). From left to right the colours I used were OPI 'Big Apple Red', OPI 'Pink Friday', Ulta3 'Honolulu', The Face Shop 'GR502', Sally Hansen 'Mint Sorbet' and Sally Hansen 'Black Out'.

1. Apply a yellow polish onto your nail until opaque (I used 3 coats).
2. Use a dotting tool and a stippling effect to draw red flowers onto the yellow polish. Dot red nail polish onto a piece of paper, dip the dotting tool and start by giving the flower 5 petals. From there, shape the flowers until the desired look is achieved.
3. Use a thin paint brush dipped in pale pink polish to draw V shapes on each petal.
4. Use a dotting tool dipped in black polish to form a black dot onto the centre of the flower.
5. Use a dotting tool dipped in yellow polish to form dots at the base of each petal, near the black dot. (This step is optional, depending on if you prefer the look of the flower in step 4 or 5, though I personally feel that the yellow makes the flower much more blended in with the background.)
6. With the thin paint brush dipped in green polish, draw leaves coming out from the flowers.
7. Use the paint brush to add detail to the leaves by using a mint green polish.

And this is the finished result! The design can easily be used as an accent nail or if you have enough time and patience, done as a full manicure as below.

The steps to this design may seem quite complex, but I can assure you that it is not too hard to achieve! I'd love to see any recreations of this design by tagging me @nailsbynikkih on Instagram!

[Tutorial] Floral Chevron Nails

As you are probably aware, I have been inactive on both my blog and Instagram for quite awhile now. Over the past months I have had to deal with a couple of issues and decided to take a break from doing nail art designs. I am now ready to get back into it all with new tutorials and designs to come! 

Floral nails seem to always be my fall-back design as I feel they never fail to make your nails look highly sophisticated and impressive. I felt a bit adventurous and attempted to incorporate the floral look into a chevron design.

For this design you will need a white polish, a green polish and three shades of pink. From left to right, I used the colours OPI 'Alpine Snow', Ulta3 'Pale Dahlia', OPI 'Pink Friday', Sally Hansen 'Bubblegum Pink' and Sally Hansen 'Mint Sorbet'.

You will also need a couple of other nail art items. I used a dotting tool and thin paint brush to assist me with the flowers, however using a toothpick will also allow you to achieve the same effect. I also used striping tape, and two different sized pink gems (optional).

1. Apply a white polish onto your nail until opaque. I used 2 coats. Let this dry completely or apply a layer of fast drying top coat.
2. Cut two pieces of striping tape and place on the nail in a V shape.
3. Paint the lightest pink shade onto the tip of the nail, making sure you are careful not to go over the striping tape.
4. While the polish is still wet, peel off the striping tape.
5. Use a dotting tool or toothpick to dab on a few pink blobs. Use the medium pink.
6. Use a thin paint brush or toothpick to draw on small curved lines. Use the darkest pink.
7. Use a thin paint brush or toothpick to draw small green petals next to the flowers.
8. Finish off the design with a layer of top coat and place some pink gems along the V line created earlier.

This is such a simple design to achieve, yet it has the effect of making your nails look very sophisticated and pretty. I'd love to see any recreations of this design by tagging me @nailsbynikkih on Instagram!

[Tutorial] Brocade Nails - Maybelline NY Australia x nailsbynikkih collaboration

A couple of weeks ago I was thrilled to have been asked to do a collaboration with Maybelline New York Australia! I gratefully accepted and they sent me the new Maybelline Color Show Brocades collection (along with some other goodies) to play with! The limited edition collection boasts 5 beautiful metallic-esque, glitter shades that certainly reflect the 'brocade' look. They are available for $5.95 at Priceline and Target until March!

I was asked to do a video tutorial for a design using the new collection and in the end, this is what I came up with! The design requires a couple of different tools and polishes but it is easily achievable and very versatile!

To learn how to achieve this look, watch my video below! I'd especially like to thank Victor Zhang, who helped me shoot and edit the video, and James Jung for assisting. Enjoy!

[Tutorial] The Trend: Gradient Nails

The Trend

Gradients have become one of the most popular techniques for nail artists, whether they stand on their own or are incorporated as a base for a design. What makes gradient nails so great is that they are so customisable and can easily be achieved by anyone with the right tools. This look uses a sponge to dab on various polishes and has the effect of creating well-blended colours.

The Look

This is the look that can be achieved with the tutorial below. There are many gradient tutorials on the web, some using other techniques, but this is the way that I personally do it. I chose to do a gradient with different colours and I have just realised I unintentionally made the gradient the same as my blog background!

The Technique

The polishes I have used for this manicure from L to R are: OPI 'Alpine Snow', OPI 'Mod About You', Revlon 'Charming', Ulta3 'Soft Hydrangea', OPI 'Gargantuan Green Grape', Seche Vite fast drying top coat and China Glaze 'Fairy Dust (optional). This may seem like a lot of different polishes but the look is customisable to whatever colours you have and wish to use, whether it be 2 or 3 or more.

You will also need a makeup sponge of some sort. These may come in various shapes and sizes.

1. Apply a white polish onto your nail until opaque. I used 2 coats. Let dry.
2. Paint the colours you wish to have in your gradient straight onto the makeup sponge (see below). Dab the sponge 1 or 2 times onto a piece of paper and then sponge onto your nail. Let dry.
3. Repeat step 2 again and again until the gradient is at the intensity that you would like it. Make sure you wait for the previous layer to dry before dabbing on the next layer. If the layer below is still wet, the sponge may pick up previous layers and it may ruin the gradient.
4. Apply a fast drying top coat onto the gradient. This should smoothen out the gradient and make it look well-blended.
5. Clean up the edges of your nail with acetone. I used a cotton tip to do this.
6. (Optional) Add a glitter of your choice onto the gradient. 

This is what my sponge looked like in step 2 above. I painted the lines so they would match the length of my nails and I used this small part of the sponge for the whole manicure.

The possibilities for this look are endless. I chose to create a gradient with different colours but you may choose to use monochromatic colours or as little or as many colours that you wish. For other gradients that I have done previously you can look here and here. You may also wish to incorporate this look into a design as I have done here, or as a background for other art.

[Tutorial and Review] The Trend: Jelly Sandwich (Essence 'Ticket to Paradise')

The Trend

To the nail art newbie, the jelly sandwich may just be a yummy type of food, but to the nail art connoisseur, the jelly sandwich is a fun nail art look that is easily achievable with the right products. You may have heard of the term ‘jelly’ thrown about by nail art fanatics and wondered what they were talking about… well we will demystify it in this post. This trend has been around for awhile now and has grown in popularity recently with a major increase in the jelly sandwich polishes available from indie brands.

What is a Jelly?

In all its simplicity, a ‘jelly polish’ is any polish that has a semi-transparent look to it, as opposed to a ‘cream polish’ that applies fully opaque. 

In the comparison above, on the left is one coat of an orange jelly and on the right is one coat of an orange cream. You can see that the nail line is visible with the jelly polish and that it has a semi-transparent finish.

The Look

This is a typical ‘jelly sandwich’ that can be easily re-created with a good plain jelly polish and some loose glitter.

This polish is Essence ‘Sun Said Red’. It is the jelly polish I have used for this look and comes from the new Essence ‘Ticket to Paradise’ collection. It is described as having a ‘semi-transparent gel-like texture’ and is available in a range of 4 colours. The whole collection that includes a shimmer powder, eyeshadows, lip glosses, hair mascara and lip liners are exclusive to Priceline stores and will be available in December.

This is one coat of the jelly polish.

This is two coats of the jelly polish. You can see that it is such a beautiful polish with two applications. The finish on this polish was very glossy and the drying time was not too bad at all. The formula was excellent and the colour pay off is well worth the $2.95 price tag. I wish I had a bigger bottle! Highly recommended!

The Jelly Sandwich

Now to the fun part…with such a transparent application, jelly polishes can be used to make the humble jelly sandwich. It involves an assortment of glitter sandwiched between layers of the polish!

1)      Paint one coat of a jelly finish polish.

2)      While the polish is still wet, add any combination of loose glitter on top. I used pink, dark blue and silver hex glitters.

3)      Apply another coat of the jelly finish polish on top.

4)      Add more glitter.

5)      Apply another coat of the jelly polish.

The possibilities for this look are endless! The trick is to apply multiple sandwiched layers to get the effect that the glitter is actually embedded into the polish. With the finished nail there should be some depth to the look, with some glitter looking deeper than others.

*The products were sent to me in a press release, but I maintain that the views in this post are my most honest opinions.*

[Tutorial] The Trend: The Floral French

The Trend

Floral tips per se have not yet become a nail art trend, but I thought I’d do a tutorial and make it one! Its two components, the floral design and the ‘french manicure look’, are trends in themselves and work nicely together to make a simple yet elegant design. 

The Look

This is the design that can be achieved in this tutorial. I’d like to call it the 'Floral French'! The flowers were completed using a dotting tool and a thin paint brush.

The Technique

The colours I have used are from L-R: OPI ‘Alpine Snow’, Essence ‘Ben & Cherries’, OPI ‘Elephantastic Pink’, Ulta3 ‘Soft Hydrangea’, Sally Hansen ‘Blue Me Away’ and The Face Shop ‘GR502’.

I also used a large dotting tool and a very thin paint brush, but you can also use a bobby pin and a tooth pick.

1)      Paint your nail a base colour. A white base will make the flowers pop out more.

2)      Using a large dotting tool, paint some light pink blotches.

3)      Repeat this with a light blue.

4)      Blob a bit of dark pink nail polish onto a scrap piece of paper, dip in a thin paint brush and carefully paint thin ‘C shaped’ lines onto the light pink base.

5)      Repeat this step with a darker blue onto the light blue blotches.

6)      Finally, add some green leaves with the paint brush.

With those simple steps you can achieve some pretty floral French nails. Try this with any combination of colours and tag @nailsbynikkih on Instagram to show me!

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Inspiration and Suggestions

This design was inspired by @liana_riches on Instagram. She did half florals and paired them with some simple stripes. You can find her here (she does a killer one-stroke floral)! 

[Tutorial] The Trend: Chevrons

The Trend

The chevron trend has become a popular design for nail artists in the recent years. A chevron design incorporates an inverted V-shaped pattern and may refer to a series of zigzag-like designs or simple V shaped designs. The best thing about this trend is that it looks highly sophisticated but is fairly simple to accomplish. It can be done alone, paired with other patterns and works well with any colours!

The Look

This is the design that can be achieved with the tutorial below. This chevron print uses a self-drawn and self-cut tape technique. There are also other ways of creating chevrons but I will do tutorials for these in future posts.

The Technique

The polishes I have used in this manicure are China Glaze ‘Flip Flop Fantasy’, China Glaze ‘I’m Not Lion’ and Seche Vite fast dry top coat. You will also need scissors, a pen and some tape.

Before you begin painting your nails at all, some preparation needs to be done. Use a pen to draw a zigzag pattern on some tape. I use masking tape because I find it does not rip as easily when it is cut. Continue drawing these zigzags parallel to the first one. Carefully cut out these ‘zigzag strips’ and place onto the edge of your table.

1)      Paint your nails a desired colour, until it is opaque.

2)      Place the ‘pre-cut zigzag strips’ onto the nail, leaving gaps the same width as the strips. Press these down firmly.

3)      Paint your nails a second colour until it is opaque.

4)      While the polish is wet, remove the tape immediately. 

You can repeat the chevron design on all your nails or mix and match with various patterns! On my pinky and index fingers I placed one of the zig zag tapes about 1/3 of the way down my nail and painted the gold at the tips only.

For a more clean and professional look, you can buy pinking shears which enable you to cut the zigzags without drawing them.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Also, be on the lookout for future posts on other chevron methods! 

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Features and Suggestions

Suggestion #1: Go the black and white chevron! Pair this with some statement red and you have a fun and classy look!

These nails are by @graciezac on Instagram. You can also find her on http://itsallaboutthepolish.blogspot.com.au/

Suggestion #2: Combine the chevron design with 'watercolour nails'or gradients.

These nails are by @xxlovelauren on Instagram. You can find her on http://talesaboutnails.wordpress.com/