CND Shellac Nail Art - Monarch Butterfly Wing Manicure

OK, second post of the day and as promised, more Hotski to Tchotchke!

Last night I manicured the lovely Stacey again (just check out how much her nails have grown since her first shellacking here!) and she wanted something that she had never had before. I showed her a photo of a beautiful Monarch Butterfly Wing manicure by Michèle from lacquerized and she instantly fell in love...

So she picked out the Hotski to Tchotchke and the shellacking began:

Now, let me first warn you, this took AGES!!! But for my first attempt, I don't think I did too bad. If you want to try and recreate this look, these are the basic steps that I did to get the design:

First I prepped the nails (cuticles, scrub fresh, filing etc.) then applied base coat, cured for 10 seconds, followed by two coats of Hotski to Tchotchke, curing for 120 seconds after each coat. I then poured some Blackpool into a ceramic palette and used my thin Orly detailer brush to paint on the black detail. I used the thin end of a dotting tool to neaten up the gaps and make sure my black lines were as even as possible, then I cured the black for 120 seconds. I used my dotting tool again, and some Cream Puff, to add the dots to the black edge, cured for 120 seconds. And last but not least, added top coat and cured for a final 120 seconds.

For a more detailed tutorial, check out this fantastic YouTube video (which I unfortunately found after I had done the manicure!) which shows you the steps for normal polish and uses a sponge effect base colour too.

What do you think? I L-O-V-E it!! And will definitely be trying this again with different base colours.

Disclaimer - All products used for this manicure were bought myself, for more info about myself and CND Shellac please check out my disclaimer page here. I might not be a professional, but I sure love me some Shellac nail art :)

CND Shellac - Hotski to Tchotchke, Purple Purple & Glitter Fade

First post of two today as CND Shellac's Hotski to Tchotchke seems to be flavour of the weekend!
OK, well not quite just this weekend as the above manicure is from around a month or so ago, I just forgot to post it!

I introduce you to my gorgeous friend Becca, she's a new mum and really fancied a treat so I offered to do her nails for her on one evening away from the bubba. She loved a swatch I had of Hotski with some glitter fade so we went for a similar look with a twist on her ring finger...

As you can see above, I applied two coats of Hotski to Tchotchke to every nail, except the ring finger, where I applied two coats of Purple Purple instead. I then made up two glitter pastes with my Gosh Nail Glitters in Amethyst Purple and Turquoise. I painted a the purple glitter paste in a fade on all the Hotski nails and then on the ring finger, painted the turquoise glitter paste in a fade. I sealed it all in with top coat and voila!

Stay tuned for some more Hotski nail art coming up later...

Disclaimer - All products used for this manicure were bought myself, for more info about myself and CND Shellac please check out my disclaimer page here. I might not be a professional, but I sure love me some Shellac nail art :)

CND Shellac - French Manicure with a twist

 It's been a long time since I posted some Shellac french manicures, so here two come along at once! But with a slight twist of course....

CND Shellac Beau and Cream Puff with silver Konad Stamping

CND Shellac Strawberry Smoothie and Cream Puff with pink glitter swash

Let me introduce you to my friend Maddie, who I am bridesmaid for later this Summer (check out the sparkler on that finger!). She had heard about me doing Shellac so I offered to show her what it's like and see if she too would catch the gel-polish bug!

Both times I have done her nails, she has opted for classic french manicure, but Maddie being Maddie, could not leave it at that and so we added a couple of extra little twists to make them her own.

First time round, I used one coat of Beau for the base colour and then added one coat of Cream Puff for the tips. She got a little excited over my vast array of Konad designs and decided on three different stamps to use. So before I added top coat, I stamped the hearts and stars designs from the M3 plate onto alternate fingers, using my Konad silver polish. On the thumbs (not pictured) I stamped the butterfly design from the M68 plate, again in the silver special polish. Finally I added top coat and I was done. I quite like that the stamps aren't hugely noticeable until you look closely.

Second time round, she wanted french again but wanted 'the pink more pink'. So we went for two coats of Strawberry Smoothie before adding one coat of Cream Puff for the tips. She decided that glitter was the way to go this time, so we picked out my GOSH nail glitter in Rose Quartz. Then, instead of just applying top coat, I mixed it with a little of the pink nail glitter in a palette and then used a nail art brush to apply it to the nails. So the top coat had the effect of a glitter sprinkling in it. I like the way that the glitter is picked out in the light but it's not too much so that the nails are overly 'glitzy'.

Of course, both looks are easily created with normal polish too - they just won't last quite as long!

Disclaimer - All products used for this manicure were bought myself, for more info about myself and CND Shellac please check out my disclaimer page here. I might not be a professional, but I sure love me some Shellac nail art :)

CND Shellac Nail Art - Rosebud with Blackpool and Cocoa Moons

Evening all! It's been a while! I still have a small manicure backlog which I start to clear and then other things come up. So while I remember, I wanted to quickly show you a new Shellac idea I tried out on my dear friend Jene around 3 weeks ago.

She flashed her issue of Vogue at me when I popped over to do her nails for her and she was set on wanting some moons. She ideally wanted some pastel shades, but with Shellac's lacking in that department, the closest we found were Cocoa and Rosebud.

So I applied two coats of Rosebud for the base colour and then we randomly applied a black moon, in Blackpool, to three fingers and the rest got Cocoa. To get the smooth outline, I used some french manicure stickers but at the base instead of the tip of the nails. The moons did need two coats, which meant after the first curing I had to apply the second coat free-hand, but this wasn't too tricky once I had the basic outline.

Let me know what you think.

(PS. Please excuse the poor photo quality - iPhone again!)

Disclaimer - All products used for this manicure were bought myself, for more info about myself and CND Shellac please check out my disclaimer page here. I might not be a professional, but I sure love me some Shellac nail art :)