Inspired by... Part One

I've decided to start my first series! Each Monday, for however long I follow through with this idea, I'll be posting nails that have been 'inspired by' something. This could be a range of things such as, other designs by nail artists - including tutorials, books, art, photographs, fashion etc, etc. I'm hoping this kicks me out of my comfort zone full of gradients and dotticures because I need to learn new techniques and get as much practice as I can.

First up, I have nails inspired by this tutorial from The Nailasaurus. I've seen her do these waterfall nails numerous times, yet I was never confident enough to try them out myself until I saw her video tutorial on them and saw just how simple it really is. I did realise though that my nails probably aren't the best shape for them as they aren't that wide. But I stuck to it and quickly did the design. I used colours that were already on my desk, so that was a lazy move, but I think they turned out okay. They aren't the best, but at least now I've done it once so I can only get better from this point.

I also chucked in a gradient for good measure, because I can never stop myself when it comes to gradients. It's not the best, but I didn't really take my time with this mani even though I should have. 

The colours I used were:
Bikini So Teeny - Essie
Misty Jade - Rimmel
Grapetini - Savvy
Metropolitan - L'Oreal

I hope everyone likes this new series and if you think of something I might be inspired by, let me know in the comments!

Simple Layered Stripes

Today I am showing you a nail design inspired by the latest tutorial from MrCandiiPants. Actually, it's not so much inspired as almost exactly the same as hers, but that wasn't on purpose. Anyway, Candice is one of my favourite nail artists and I always love everything she does because they're so simple and different, plus her tutorials are always fun to watch. 

This design is seriously one of the easiest things I've ever done. As you'll see if you check out the tutorial, you start with a base colour and choose three or so colours to lightly stripe on each nail. I wanted to do light colours and by a happy coincidence I happened to pick almost the exact same colours as Candice did, so you know it was a good combo. I also cut my longest striping bush to make it quite thin, which I had been meaning to do for ages, so this was a good push to trim my nail art brushes.

The colours I used were the following:
Base: Mint Julep - Savvy
Light Pink: Kiss on the Chic - OPI
Blue: Bikini So Teeny - Essie
Green: Misty Jade - Rimmel
Then I top-coated it with my fave one, Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat by Sally Hansen.

(Still having editing problems, just can't get the end result that I want in each photo.)

Hope everyone enjoyed these nails, expect some more variations of these and to see them in future skittlette manis, because I'm completely obsessed!

Teal and Purple Watercolour

Today I have some simple nails to show you and one of my favourite designs to do. This watercolour method uses acetone to dab the colour around on a base of white polish with a thick topcoat to protect it. It's so simple and easy to do and that's why I love it, you can use almost any colour combo and each time it still looks creative and fun. 

The two colours I used were both Essie, the teal is Go Overboard and the purple is Devil's Advocate. I love these colours, especially the latter because this technique shows how lovely the colour really is compared to when it's on my nails by itself as it becomes quite dark and very black-looking, but I still love it and it's a good polish to match with a vampy/dark make up look. I have a Rimmel lipstick that goes perfectly with it.

I feel like when I do nails like this, I always need to top with a matte topcoat as it completes the watercolour look and reminds me of actual watercolour paintings, which I guess is the point, but I don't even bother with a shiny topcoat when I do these nails.

Two posts in one week, look at me keeping up with my blogging! Hope everybody has a good weekend!

Another Essie Watermarble

Today I have an Essie watermarble to show you all. I recently got four new Essie polishes so I had to do a watermarble with them. In this particular design I used Go Overboard and E-Nuf is E-Nuf. I had a whole other plan for this design, which included chevron but that went completely wrong and I redid the the middle and ring finger about three times more saying 'screw it, I'll just watermarble them all'. So I think I need more practice with chevron.

But despite all the mess up, I think this is my best watermarble yet (despite the ring finger which dragged with top coat), there aren't any bubbles or lumps and I'm very, very proud of this one. I've never been awful at watermarbling but I've never been this good either. So I'm happy with how it turned out, and I'm slightly surprised at how well it went.

Hope everyone has been good, sorry for being such an awful blogger still.

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Gradient & Texture

Hello everybody! Today I have a design that I quickly came with, I just sort of grabbed a bunch of polishes and went to work. Everyone knows I love gradients so of course I wanted to do one for this mani. I bought new triangle sponges a while ago and this was the first time using them. They were only a cheap pack of 30 or so from K-Mart but they were much better to use than the one I previously had which were thicker. So I was very, very happy with my gradient. I could have done a third coat to make it that little bit more opaque, but I was happy either way. 

I originally had the glitter that's on my thumb on my middle finger as well, but I felt it didn't quite match in so I was a little lazy and only changed the middle one instead of both. Also, I picked up some of the Face of Australia Carnivale polishes for $2 each a while ago and straight away I didn't like them. I think it was because I had such a bad experience with the Sally Hansen textured polishes that I was indifferent towards these ones, but a quick base of white polish underneath made me love this polish, so I look forward to using the rest of them!

It was an off day for editing, can you tell?

Polishes used:
Manic Panic - Australis
Avenue Maintain - Essie
Bubblegum Pink - Sally Hansen
Mango Slurpee - Face of Australia

I love this mani and I want to create more designs with the textured polish. I never knew I would love it so much. I think I like it because it's not so heavily textured and uncomfortable, it's nice and light and can be used easily in designs.