CND Shellac Nail Art - Diagonal French and Polka Dots

Aaaah, it feels good to get back into the nail-art-swing of things. I kick-started the 2014 nail art with Rachel (best known for these and these) and a take on one of cutepolish's designs.

If you haven't already come across cutepolish (where have you been hiding?!) then check out her YouTube channel, her Instagram and her Twitter to keep up to date on loads of fabulous nail art ideas and how-to's.

Rachel brought the design to me from a google search and after a little more hunting it didn't take me long to find it on cutepolish's channel - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXd_nxlEuKA

We changed it up slightly though - pink dots on a white tip and a lilac glitter line instead of purple - and recreated it in CND Shellac of course. So what colours did I use?...

After base coat I used one coat of Negligee then two coats of Cream Puff for the diagonal French tip.

To get an even line on all nails I used striping tape to guide me for the line on the first coat of white so all nails looked roughly the same - don't forget to remove the tape before curing! - and then I free-handed the second coat of white over the top. It doesn't matter if the line isn't that neat as you will go over it with glitter in a little while.

After curing the white I used a medium/large ended dotting tool to add polka dots in Pink Bikini (if you don't have a dotting tool, the end of a hair grip is a similar size). Once the dots were cured I then added a lilac glitter line - using a glitter paste of Mother of Pearl and Gosh nail glitter in 13 Topaz Lavender - cured the glitter and finally added top coat.

What do you think?

Most Gosh Nail Glitters are available from Superdrug in the UK for £4.99 (only the 02 Gold is online, the other colours are all in store). 

Disclaimer - I be not professional, just well practised but if you want more info about my CND Shellac hobby obsession then check out my disclaimer page here. What's not to like about a manicure that actually lasts?!

CND Shellac Intimates Swatch - Bare Chemise

What better way to kick start the New Year than with a fresh natural nude for the nails? I thought I'd start the first post of 2014 with a swatch of my latest Shellac purchases - the glorious 'Intimates' collection.

Back in October, you may have spotted my post that talked about the soon-to-be-released neutrals and naturally they went straight onto my 'must have' list. Sure enough they arrived a week or two before Christmas but until now, I haven't had the opportunity to try them out.

So lets take a look at my first swatch from the collection - Bare Chemise - this is a beautiful semi-sheer nude, a sort of golden, very pale beige as it has the subtlest of shimmers to it and just the right amount of pink tone to keep it chic and not too 'false' looking. Above is 2 coats topped of with top coat.

Out of all 4 colours, I would say that this is the best one for creating that 'mannequin hands' look. A classic nude that will go with literally anything.

Stay posted for the other swatches coming soon...

Disclaimer - I be not professional, just well practised but if you want more info about my CND Shellac hobby obsession then check out my disclaimer page here. What's not to like about a manicure that actually lasts?!

CND Shellac Christmas Nail Art - #10 The Reinvented French

And it's the last Christmas manicure of the season. Simple yet effective with a reinvented french manicure for Jene. She opted for a simple clear, nude base and two suitably festive colours on her tips.

I used one coat of Negligee for the base colour (after base coat) and then with a bit of striping tape help, I created a diagonal along one edge with Sugared Spice. Make sure you remove the tape before curing! I did three coats of the Sugared Spice in the end - the second two coats I did freehand once the tape had given me a nice clean edge to work from. I then repeated the process, three coats, in Tinted Love on the other side of each nail. As you can see in the top photo, I alternated the colours on each hand - like a mirror image.

Subtly Christmassy don't you think? Next up is New Year's nails.... oh how 2013 has flown by!

Disclaimer - I purchased all the products used for this manicure myself, and if you want more info about myself and CND Shellac then check out my disclaimer page here. What's not to like about nail art that actually lasts?!

CND Shellac Christmas Nail Art - #9 Turquoise Trinkets

Yup. Turquoise was most definitely the colour of choice this month. Much like Kate's manicure here, Stacey was completely taken with the green sparkle and opted for the same glitter but a slightly different design for her Christmas nails.

The lace effect on Stacey's ring fingers and thumbs (not pictured) were a design that I spotted on Lindsey's instagram (@wondrouslypolished) - you can check out her full blog post on her design, plus the more intricate thumb detail she did, here.

photo from @wondrouslypolished on instagram

To recreate this in CND Shellac, I painted all nails with one coat of Hotski to Tchotchke. I then added another two coats to the ring finger and thumb (it's just slightly too sheer in only two coats I think) and added two coats of a turquoise glitter paste to all other fingers. The turquoise glitter paste was made up of Mother of Pearl and Gosh Nail Glitter in 09 Turquoise. I then added top coat to all fingers and cured.

Now for the important bit, to create the lace pattern on the ring finger/thumb, do not remove the tacky layer! Using a brush, buff the CND Additive Pigment Effect in Blush Bronze Frost into the tacky layer, completely covering the nail and don't worry if you make a little mess around the cuticles. Then using top coat and a small detailer brush, paint the lace pattern on top. I used a dotting tool to add the dots, but be very careful to not accidentally scratch off the pigment that's stuck to the tacky layer. Cure the top coat pattern and after this final cure, remove the tacky inhibition layer - this will remove all the excess pigment that's not been sealed into the pattern.

Ta dah! What do you think? The additive is actually a lot more rose gold than bronze as pictured, it worked so well with the turquoise. I love this technique and can't wait try out some more pigments in this way. Take a look at www.chickettes.com for some more inspiration, especially her video here - I can't wait to give rainbow polka dots a go...

Disclaimer - I purchased all the products used for this manicure myself, and if you want more info about myself and CND Shellac then check out my disclaimer page here. What's not to like about nail art that actually lasts?!

CND Shellac Christmas Nail Art - #8 Rudolph and Gingerbread Men

It seems that Ruby Ritz well and truly made a comeback this season. With its re-release as part of a duo with Wildfire it was a natural choice for many to get that glitzy Christmas manicure - including myself!

Natalie took one look at my manicure and decided that was the colour for her, but she one step further and challenged me to some appropriately festive characters...

These two, adorable, designs were inspired by a couple of google images that Natalie had found. After a bit more research, I found the sweet little gingerbread man stitched to this cute cushion from Miss Shelley Designs at notonthehighstreet.com.

Gingerbread Man Cushion from notonthehighstreet.com £25

And Rudolph is actually a tutorial from the talented Joya's tumblr page (aka Blanket Print Nails). You can see here full post here.

tutorial by Joya at blanketprint.tumblr.com

To recreate this manicure in CND Shellac I used:

Red nails - one coat of Red Baroness followed by one coat of Ruby Ritz
White base colour for the characters - two coats of Studio White followed by one coat of Silver VIP Status
(the light brown used for the gingerbread man and Rudolph is made from a mixture of Faux Fur and Cocoa)
Gingerbread man - two coats of the light brown mixture in the shape of the gingerbread man, then use a dotting tool to add eyes in Faux Fur and buttons in Cream Puff, then the bow tie is one like the red base colour on the other nails (Red Baroness and Ruby Ritz)
Rudolph - follow the tutorial above (making sure to cure between each colour application) using the light brown mix for Rudolph, Faux Fur for the antlers, Cream Puff and Blackpool for the eyes, Red Baroness and Ruby Ritz for the nose.

All nails were finished with a layer of top coat and voila! What do you think? I can't decide if Rudolph or the Gingerbread man is my favourite...

Disclaimer - I purchased all the products used for this manicure myself, and if you want more info about myself and CND Shellac then check out my disclaimer page here. What's not to like about nail art that actually lasts?!

CND Shellac Christmas Nail Art - #7 Charmed Collection Dotticure

Back in October I posted about the new CND Shellac limited edition Christmas 'Charmed' collection and as I'm sure you all guessed, it didn't take me long to add them to my stash! Then the perfect opportunity came to try them all out.... Check out these beauties:

This is Maddie and her Christmas manicure of choice for 2013 or should I say 'dotticure'. We were inspired by a design from Hannah at The Nail Trail that she did in OPI nail polish (I think!):

photo from @thenailtrail on instagram

Although I can't find the design on her website, it was on her instagram (@thenailtrail) and you can find the exact post here or here.

To recreate this in CND Shellac we managed to use the entire Charmed collection, plus a few others:
The base colour is two coats of Studio White followed by one coat of Silver VIP Status.
The dots for the Christmas tree are Frosted Glen and Serene Green and the dots on the other nails are Frosted Glen, Serene Green, Scarlet Letter, Ice Vapor and Tinsel Toast. To create the different sized dots I used two different dotting tools - the Orly Dotter Duo and CND dotting tool that came with the original additives kit.
To the top of each Christmas tree I added silver star glequin from the Born Pretty Store and I finished off by adding top coat.

This is hands down, one of my favourite (if not the favourite) Christmas designs so far! What do you think?

Disclaimer - I purchased all the products used for this manicure myself, and if you want more info about myself and CND Shellac then check out my disclaimer page here. What's not to like about nail art that actually lasts?!

CND Shellac Christmas Nail Art - #6 Turquoise Twinkle

The glitter's out in full force for this one (and turquoise was quite a popular colour choice this year too it seems). Kate's request was for a little Christmas art, so she decided on a tree and a present design for the middle and ring fingers and the thumb (not pictured) whilst her first and little finger were just glitter.

For the first and little fingers I used 2 coats of Hotski to Tchotchke and then 2 coats of a turquoise glitter paste - I mixed together Mother of Pearl and some Gosh Nail Glitter in 09 Turquoise.

The thumb, middle and ring fingers were a little more tricky! As Kate wanted a gold glitter detail, I decided to use an engraving effect that I had seen used before by Holly Schippers (Fingernailfixer). I applied 2 coats of Tinsel Toast, then after curing, added 1 coat of Hotski to Tchotchke. Before curing this, I used a dotting tool to engrave the pattern I wanted on each nail and once happy I then cured that coat. I then used 1 coat of the turquoise glitter paste from the other nails to go over the nail art, re-engraved the pattern, cured again and then finished with top coat.

A little tricky but I like the overall effect of the engraving, I think I might have a little play around with that technique...

Most Gosh Nail Glitters are available from Superdrug in the UK for £4.99 (only the 02 Gold is online, the other colours are all in store).

What do you think?

Disclaimer - I purchased all the products used for this manicure myself, and if you want more info about myself and CND Shellac then check out my disclaimer page here. What's not to like about nail art that actually lasts?!