CND Shellac Nail Art - Blackpool Glitter Edge

Oops! Only a couple of months late but this is Fung-ling's NYE manicure... remember her from her mermaid glitter fade and WAH basketcase manicures?

Well for NYE she wanted something fairly glittery and of course, a little different. So she went for simple chic  Blackpool with a glitter mix around the cuticle edge. I painted the two coats of black first before adding the glitter and to help make the line nice and smooth, I used some of those French manicure tip guide stickers. Just make sure you press them down really well or be prepared for a little leakage!

To create the silver glitter mix I used CND Shellac Mother of Pearl and mixed in some Gosh Nail Glitter in Silver and the CND Additive in Sparkling Silver from the Christmas 2012 Twinkle Collection. I placed the tip guides in reverse on the nail before painting on the glitter edges and made sure I removed the sticker before curing. If there was any slight leak under the sticker, I cleared this up with a brush dipped in acetone, but as long as the sticker was stuck well, the line stayed fairly crisp. I had to add a second glitter coat in places so that the black didn't come through, but this wasn't too difficult to do freehand.

Seal it all with top coat and voila! What do you think?

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 - Stippling with Cityscape and Midnight Swim

Remember those amazing gradient dots (à la Chalkboard Nails) that I did for Jene back here? Well she's back, but opting for a slightly different effect this time.

This manicure was made up of CND Shellac Cityscape for the base and then Midnight Swim over the top. I used to two coats of the pale grey to create a smooth, opaque base, then I roughly painted a French manicure tip using the dark blue. To create the stipple effect I used a small fan brush and some of the blue in a mixing palette, and literally 'stippled' it onto the nail to blue the distinct French tip line I'd created. I then gradually moved the stippling further towards the cuticle to create a gradient effect.

Next step is to try this with a make-up sponge and see if Shellac will conform to the classic nail polish gradient I see so much of online.

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 - Overtly Onyx Crosses

Bloody Stacey! She gets everywhere doesn't she?! Ha, well as you can see her Vexed Violette is gone and she's moved onto the next Shellac colour in the Autumn 2012 release.

We loved this dark steely grey, with the smooth shimmer and almost-black-but-not-quite look. Overtly Onyx looks amazing on it's own but you know Stacey, she didn't want to leave it that. So I added some 1.5mm diamantés in the shape of a cross on both her ring fingers, before adding a final layer of top coat.

Very fashionably on trend dahling!

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 - The Difference a French Makes...

I'm pretty sure you've seen a French Manicure before and probably one done in CND Shellac.

But a simple yet classic French is a rarity for me. I seem to spend most of my time doing them on other people and can never be bothered when it comes to myself.

However, for my Birthday at the end of last year I treated myself. Treated? Well, yes. I'm such a bloody perfectionist that it took me 3 whole hours to perfect this manicure! I know. I'm ridiculous at times.

Anyway, I just wanted to post a before and after as I just love the difference a good old Frenchy looks on the nails and I seem to have captured it pretty well - just excuse the slightly out of focus 'nails au naturel' look!

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 - P-p-p-penguins

Ah, another archive gem! I forgot all about these cute little penguins....

Gemma asked for these late last November following her Granite/Stud manicure here. To say she's obsessed with penguins is quite an understatement, but she had to keep her nail art minimal for work. Hence these little flightless friends adorning just her ring finger because believe me, she would have had them on every nail given the chance!

To create the penguin look, I used a mixture of CND Shellac Blackpool and some Gosh Nail Glitter in Grey Moonstone for the background, then I added two coats of Cream Puff to create the white belly (as one wasn't opaque enough). The eyes were a simple dot of Blackpool and the beak/feet were made using Tinsel Toast mixed with the Yellow Pigment from the CND Additives.

On Gemma's other fingers, she opted for an alternative french manicure using Negligee mixed with a white iridescent glitter that I have and the same glittery black in the penguins, as the tips.

I'd love to try this out with the new Azure Wish when it's released!

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 - Vexed Violette

Well I've dug deep into the nail art archives to find this glittery loveliness that I forgot about... November this was taken if my memory serves me correct!

Of course , I'm sure you've guessed it's Stacey by now. This was her experimentation stage in trying out all the new Autumn CND Shellac colours. After her Peacock mani here where she'd sampled the Midnight Swim, Pretty Poison and Sugared Spice she felt it was about time to move onto some purple in the form of Vexed Violette.

This is two coats of Vexed Violette followed by a sprinkling of Gosh Nail Glitter in Topaz Lavender. On the ring finger I placed some silver star glequins (from the Born Pretty Store I think) before adding top coat.

Perfect purple!

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 - Glittery Peacocks

Get a load of this glittery gorgeous-ness! These were one of my favourite designs to date for Stacey but so bloomin' difficult to photograph - trust me they looked way better in real life!

Inspiration came in the form of an instagram photo from @hairandnailfashion (but I can't now find the original photo). Anyway, Stacey wanted a play around with some of the new Autumn 2012 Shellac colours, so that's exactly what we did.

It started of as a base colour of two coats of Midnight Swim. Then in a palette I mixed some of Pretty Poison with my Gosh Nail Glitter in Jade Green and painted the green feather strokes from the bottom outer corner of each nail up to the top inner corner, with a striping brush. I added some further strokes like this but with Sugared Spice. To make the 'eye' of the peacock feather I started with a mixture of Tinsel Toast and the CND Additive pigment in Yellow in a palette and using a detailer brush painted the slightly oval shape over the feather strokes. I then mixed some of the CND Additive pigment effect in Cerulean Blue with Midnight Swim and added a smaller oval that overlapped the edge of the gold one. I used Midnight Swim on its own, to create one last small oval, again overlapping at the edge of the other two and finished the whole look off with top coat.

Phew! That was a lot of steps! But the end result was pretty darn good if I do say so myself :)

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 :)