Showing posts with label nail art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nail art. Show all posts

21.4.14

Swatch, Review & Nail Art! Powder Perfect Troubador Collection

Hello again!
I hope you all had a great Easter break and are slowly emerging from your chocolate induced sugar comas! 

I recently had the pleasure of swatching some new shades from Powder Perfect (read that post here). Today, I'll be showing you some creme shades released in February from the Troubador Collection as well as some nail art that features all 4 shades!


About Powder Perfect
Powder Perfect is an Australian owned, handmade, vegan cosmetics company run by the lovely Jacinta. As well as a huge range of 5-free nail polish shades, Jacinta also creates lipsticks, cuticle balms and other skin care products. Powder Perfect also offers mobile makeup services for weddings and special occasions.



The Troubador Collection

The Troubador Collection

Inspired by songs of chivalrous love sung by bards of old called troubadours, this collection features romantic pinks and dreamy pastels. This is a rolling collection, with more colours to be added in the future. You can view the entire collection here at the Powder Perfect website.

Meaning 'love letter', this crelly is a pastel plum/pink-toned mauve and applies like a dream. It is self leveling and needs 3 coats to build opacity and it dries quickly to a glossy finish. 
My swatches show 3 coats with topcoat.







One half of the ill-fated couple Tristan and Isolde. Before King Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot there was King Mark, Isolde and Tristan. This shade is a gorgeous blue-leaning mint green creme. The first coat does apply a little streaky but that's to be expected from pastels. You need to be careful when applying it to get a smooth, even coat but your patience will be rewarded as this is a truly beautiful colour.
My swatches show 3 coats with top coat.







Isodle
Married to the Irish King, Isolde conducts an ongoing affair with his nephew named Tristan which eventually leads to their demise. This polish is a pastel pink creme with silver holographic micro glitter. As pretty as this shade looks in the bottle, it doesn't really translate onto the nail because of the opaque creme formula. The glitter is for the most part lost beneath the pastel base when applied. Although it does look quite different on the nail, it is still a pretty shade of pink and the glitter effect is subtle. I think this shade would have worked better with the glitter in a crelly base like Salut D'Amor. It applies nicely and dries to a slightly textured finish so top coat is a must.
My swatches show 3 coats with top coat.








Aquitaine is the birthplace of the troubadour. This polish is a yellow-tone bone/creme/nude creme. I was pleasantly surprised by this shade as it actually compliments my skin tone! I tend to have very red toned fingers and most nudes look awful on me but the yellow undertones in this shade really work for me! 
The formula is very similar to Tristan and you do need to apply it carefully to avoid streakiness or dragging. It was actually opaque in two coats but I decided to do an third coat to even it out completely. 
My swatches show 3 coats with top coat.








And now for some nail art! When I first saw these shades all lined up next to each other, I thought that they complimented each other so well and would work together in a gradient! I started with a thin coat of Aquataine then blended the other colour onto a damp makeup sponge (see my gradient tutorials here and here) and dabbed it on my nails. For the accent nail, I applied 3 coats of Aquataine and added some lace water decals from the Born Pretty Store.










Availability
The Troubador Collection is available now from the PowderPefect.com.au website as well as some international stockists. Each 13ml bottle is $10.00 or you can buy the whole collection for $36.00.
Caitlin, xo



11.2.14

Nail Art: AriZona Ice Tea Nails

Good evening :)

Today's post features the first 'proper' nail art I've done in ages! I was inspired by the beautiful design on the AriZona Ice Tea bottle (as have many others). I decided to attempt this design as I've recently invested in some good quality, teeny tiny detailing brushes and thought this would be a great intricate design to test them with!

The base colour is W7 Spearmint and the design was done using acrylic paint mixed with a little water (which seriously helps!)





Caitlin, xo


4.2.14

Nail Art: Born Pretty Store Water Decals Review

Hi everyone!

Today I have a mani that I did a few months ago but only just got around to editing! I got these water decals from the Born Pretty Store. They have every kind of nail art paraphernalia that you can imagine! I've bought many brushes and striping tapes and other various nail art tools from there and have been pleased with everything. Plus everything is really reasonably priced and they also offer free worldwide shipping :)

This was my first experience with water decals and I'm happy to say that it was a pleasant one! Once my base colour was dry (I used Covergirl Lav-endure), I cut out all the little flowers which come on a little piece of card similar to temporary tattoo sheets. Once I had the pieces cut out, I used tweezers to soak them in water so that the design could slide off the paper and be transferred to the nail. After I applied it to the nail, I dabbed it with a makeup sponge to remove the excess water and smooth out the decal. I would recommend using a generous amount of topcoat to finish off the decal design as they were a bit prone to smudging if you fiddled around with the topcoat too much.

I love how they turned out! My nail art skills are no way near being able to pull off this kind of design so it's good that I have such an easy way of cheating with these decals! :)

The best part about these is that they're on sale at the moment! Right now, they're only 0.88USD! You can purchase them here.  







'Like' the Muggle Manicures Facebook page to be notified of new blog posts!

Caitlin, xo


10.1.14

Nail Art: Sparkly Leopard Print

Hello! Happy 2014!

I'm back after a brief (and unannounced) hiatus! Work and family and just Christmastime in general kept me super busy over the past month or so and I barely had time to paint my nails, let alone blog! I've also been keeping busy running my indie brand Moonstone Nail Polish and have some exciting things planned for this year (including participating in next months What's In-die Box!!!)

But anyway, I'm back now :) Let's see how long I can keep up regular posting..

The nails I have to show you today are from about a month ago when my nails where all lovely and long and even (my index is looking a little worse for wear at present).


Inspired by Chalkboard Nail's 'Blinged Out Leopard', these are my favourite leopard print nails that I've done yet! I love leopard print manis because they're so easy! All you need to do is get a dotting tool and start making splodges and wiggly 'C' shapes :)

For the base I used the relatively new Face of Australia Midnight Fireworks from the Carnivale Textured collection. Being pretty unfamiliar with textured polishes, I was surprised at how much I liked it! I have since picked up two more from the collection. I did need a few coats of top coat to smooth out the texture but I love how it turned out! I used acrylic paint for the pattern.



Caitlin, xo


27.10.13

Shades of Phoenix 'Day of the Dead' Nail Art

I'm back again with some regular blog programming! Today I have some pretty detailed (for me!) nail art to show you :)

I did these nails for the nail art contest that Shades of Phoenix is currently having (it's international and has an awesome prize, go check it out here). The theme is Dia de Los Muertos aka Day of the Dead and you have to use at least 1 Shades of Phoenix nail polish.

Since the only SoP polishes I have are this years Halloween Trio (based on Dia de Los Muertos), I used all three of them! I also have 5 SoP shades coming to me in the mail next week (including the new 'Furies' Trio) so look out for my swatches of those :)

First, I'll show you the base on it's own because I love it! 'Calaca' and 'Mictlan' look awesome together in a gradient!

I started with a white base and used Ulta3 'Carrot Top', 'Royal', and 'Frog Prince' to sponge on the base gradient. Then I used Shades of Phoenix 'Calaca', 'Mitclan' and 'Catrina' over the top.



Then, for my Day of the Dead design, I was mainly inspired by this photo:


and here's what I came up with! I used all acrylic paint except for the pink which is Nutrimetics 'Cafe'.




anddd, mattified using Revlon Matte Topcoat!



I love how it looks matte! Which do you prefer?

You can purchase the Shades of Phoenix Halloween Trio here for only $25

Caitlin, xo


17.9.13

Nail Art: Glitter Gradient

Hey ladies!

Why am I so drawn to pink/purple/blue gradients?! I seem to favour this colour combo every time I do a gradient!

For the base gradient I used Savvy 'Cosmic' and Smooch 'Lazuire'. Cosmic is one of the new Savvy's and it's so beautiful! I love the blue shimmer through it.



The glitter gradient is Revlon 'Heavenly'. I bought the Revlon last week because it was 50% off because I refuse to buy Revlon full price because they all seem to go horrible and gloopy! But I thought that since now I have polish thinner it won't be such a big deal if it does thicken on me (plus it was kinda thick to begin with!). I'll put up with it though because look at those iridescent glitters!

I topped it all off with one coat of Essence 'Gel Look Top Coat' and Seche Vite.


Caitlin, xo


11.9.13

Nail Art: Polka Dot Hearts

Hi ladies!
I did this design to enter into an Instagram contest held by @mrslochness and @ethereallacquer. The rules are that your design has to incorporate hearts somehow and you have to say something nice about another person. The inspiration for this design came from a pair of socks I saw in Target!



I used Essence 'Hard to Resist' for the base and for the dots and hearts I used Essie 'Bikini So Teeny', Australis 'Peek-a-boo', and Sally Hansen 'Cherry, Cherry, Bang, Bang!'.

Caitlin, xo


27.8.13

Nail Art: Simple Feathers

Hey ladies,

Today is Tuesday and that means I have some nail art to show you! It's nothing to exciting or intricate but I love painting feathers so here is my simple feather mani :)

The green is a new polish from Australis called  'Indie'. It has a fantastic formula and I only needed two coats! The pink is also a new addition to my collection, Nicole by O.P.I, 'Pretty in the City'.

For the feathers I used Sally Hansen 'White On' and Borghese 'Chroma'. I regretted using polishing instead of acrylic paint because the polish got a bit difficult to work with. Oh well, lesson learnt!




Caitlin, xo



6.8.13

Nail Art: Homemade Chevron Decals


 Just a quick post today to show off my chevron/skittle mani from a week or so ago. The pastel blue polish is Ulta3 'Soft 'Hydrangea' topped with Ulta3 'Outasight' on my thumb and Australis 'Speck-tacular' on my middle finger. On my pointer and pinky is Smooch 'Lazuire'. And for the chevron decals I used Sinful Colors 'Black on Black'.


 After trying and failing to do freehand chevrons, I opted for homemade chevron decals! If you have some zigzag craft scissors, they're really easy to make. All you have to do is paint at least three layers of polish (letting each coat drying thoroughly) onto some baking paper, leave it overnight and then gently peel it off the paper. Then cut small strips of the dried polish and apply it to your freshly painted (wet) nails, trim the sides, and topcoat! While this technique did work, it was a bit fiddly and time consuming so I think next time I'll just use my zigzag scissors to cut some tape and just use that instead.

Have any of you tried to make handmade decals? How did it go? Leave a comment and let me know!

Caitlin, xo


1.8.13

Nail Art: Purple Leopard Print

It appears that I've been neglecting my blog recently, sorry! I'll try to update it at least twice a week from now on. Maybe I should work out a blogging schedule?

Anyway, today I'm going to show you my favourite leopard print mani yet. I did it as part of @californails #nailartjuly challenge, the final day being 'animal print'. The previous day was 'favourite colour' and I chose to do a purple ombre gradient which I recycled for the animal print day :)

For the gradient, I used Covergirl 'Lav-endure', Sally Hansen 'Good to Grape', and Mode 'XOXO'. Then, for the leopard print, I used Sally Hansen 'White On' with Ulta3 'Royal Fever'.

I also made a little logo thing. Like it? I'll probably have changed it by the next blog post...





I love leopard print so much (seriously, a lot of my clothes and most of my accessories are leopard print) and I love that this technique is so easy!

Would you like to see a tutorial for these nails? Let me know in the comments!

Caitlin, xo