Tutorial Tuesday: Classy Stripes

Hello!

Finally, another tutorial is here! This time I teach you how to create this classy mani, that works really well on both short and long nails!

Until next time!

xoxoxo

Captain

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How to make your short nails look longer: The Ruffian

Hello there!

Today I have a really easy to recreate mani for those of you who have trouble growing their nails! It is the so-called "Ruffian Manicure", but what it has to do with ruffians, well, I haven't the slightest idea! If anybody knows, please comment! 
This is my first ruffian:

This is how you do it, and how you optically lengthen the nails. The latter depends on the colour choice, so that is why it is specified here:

You need:

1. a base coat

2. a top coat 

3. two lacquers with good opacity (and preferably short drying times); 1 darker colour and one significantly lighter colour.

Now to work!

1. Apply a base coat

2. Apply one layer of the darker colour. If it is not opaque enough, apply a second layer, but otherwise don't worry, most of the nail will be covered with the lighter polish anyway.

3. Take the lighter polish, and carefully polish the nail, while leaving a gap between the light polish and the cuticles. Polish towards the tips and also leave some space at the sides of the nails. The dark polish has now created a frame everywhere around the nail except at the tip, which creates the lengthening effect. If needed (probably) add the second layer of the light polish. 

4. Let it dry a bit and then add top coat! 

And you're done :) For this, a bit of a steady hand is needed, but it is not hard, so with a little exercise you will quickly master this technique!

I used Essence "Prom Berry" and "Hello Marshmallow!", which are part of the new collection. I will have swatches of Prom Berry on Sunday! ;)

I feel girly with this mani! ^^

Don't forget, feedback is very welcome!

xoxoxo

Captain

Once in a Blue Moon - Painting it Blue for Autism Awareness

Dear followers,

We're painting it blue again, this time on my, the Captain's nails. I really needed to try out these multicoloured caviar beads that I recently purchased from Max Make-up. They were really really cheap! And since I have no money, that comes in handy ;) They really made this mani a happy, yet sophisticated one:

Both with flash

I first painted my nails with a base coat and ridge filler from Etos. This one is very gloopy and hence does not apply easily. It does however fill out most of my irregularities (and there are a LOT). Then I took one of my favourite blues, that unfortunately remains nameless, HEMA no. 23. It is a dark royal blue creme, that appears lighter in the bottle than on the nails. I painted my nails with one coat (which is almost opaque). Then I waited for it to dry and harden. As soon as I thought it was ready, I took out some french tip guides from Essence, and placed them, not at the tips, but at the base of the nail, as to create half moons. Never had a half-moon mani before, so I thought I'd try. They're not supposed to be be done with the french tip guides though, but it was the only way it would work with the caviar, of course. Normally one would create the moons the other way around, namely by sticking a circular piece of tape on the base and painting over the rest of the nail. But of course that would not work in this case. Anyway, after the tip guides, I put some top coat on the base and poured over it the caviar. Then I gently pushed down the beads, in order for them to stick better. Then I removed the tip guide, and to my shock, only half of it would come off! OH NO!

Apparently, my polish was not as dry as I had thought. Oh well, I thought, let's try and salvage this horror. I gently scratched off the stickers and that worked reasonably well, except for one or two fingers. I had started with my right hand, so when I started working on my left hand, I made sure to make the stickers less sticky (place it on various parts of skin on your hands and arms first ;) ) and applied them one by one. This worked better.
After the caviar, I added one more coat of blue to the non-caviared parts of the nails, and took the two upper photos. 

I did not want my mani to be ruined by the upcoming hair-wash festivities that I have each morning, so I decided to add another layer of top coat to it all. This is tricky, because the colour of the beads is easily dissolved in the varnish. So dabb it on quickly and don't touch it anymore! I learned this the hard way... Below, you can see the vast colour difference between my middle and ring finger caviar beads... 

These photo's were taken the next morning, and as you can see, the mani survived sleep and hair washing! Although, you can see some sheet imprints... Oh well.. As we speak, I'm still wearing the mani and it has survived a second night of sleep and a second shower! However I didn't have to do dishes yesterday, so it's lucky ;)

Daylight & Outfit

My right hand (that I couldn't have done without the Lieutenant) in daylight: 

Flash

I'm totally in love with this mani. It makes my nails and fingers look longer! As you can see, I have very short fingers, and they can appear very much like sausages, but with this mani, my hands look pretty <3

Do you like the half-moon/caviar look?

xoxoxo

Captain 

Butterfly of Love

Hello beauties!

As promised, a blog post about my entry in Tip Top Nails South Africa's nail art contest! The theme of the week was "hearts and animal print" and the task was to perform this with only nudes, pinks, reds, purples and browns (and this  time, black was permitted), as it was last time. After long contemplation on WHAT TO DO AND HOW TO BE ORIGINAL, while still being beautiful, it hit me: Butterfly wings! I had never done this before, so now was the time:

I used Catrice "Sing: Oh, Champs-Élysées" as a base, and then sponged on Essence "What do u think?" and "Fame Fatal", mixed with a little pink polish. Then I took my black striper from Max and freehanded the wing structure. I started with a diagonal base, and then a curved line at the top. Then I connected them and curved the edges where they meet. Then I put a little Essence "It's just a little crush" on the bottom of the wing. Then I took the red "Fame Fatal" and my dotting tool, and created the hearts. I sealed it all in with topcoat, and done! 

I took a look at all the other entries, and nobody else had a butterfly design, so yay! Me happy ^^

xoxoxo

Captain Lothwen

Lava Flow Swatches and Nail Art

Hi dear followers!

Today I want to show you this beautiful polish I picked up the other day, W7 "Lava Flow". It is, like "Salt 'n Pepper", a white jelly with glitters, but this time, not only black, but also red ones! Small black and red hexes and some larger red hexes as well. Here it is:

Lava Flow in direct artificial light

Daylight

Daylight

Then, I decided to mattify it with HEMA matte top coat. It's even better then! Look:

Matte, artificial light

LOVE IT! All of a sudden, it looks so much smoother! Of course, after that, some nail art needed to be done, so I took out my striper and freehanded this:

Left: Artificial light. Right, Daylight

Daylight

Let's call it Lava Flow Deco. I love how the glitters look when mattified, and home the glossy black accents spice it up! It looks very sophisticated, all of a sudden :)

What do you think?

xoxoxo

Captain

My first Stained Glass!

Happy Tuesday!

I entered my first Stained Glass mani ever into a contest of Tip Top Nails SA, as part of a 12-week during contest, in which you have to submit a new mani every week. The first task was to create a stained glass or mosaic effect, using only red, pink, purple, brown and nude shades. I wanted also to create a pattern, but that is easier said than done! In the end I was semi-pleased, as I hope I will eventually be able to do this a lot more neat. And since acrylic paint was forbidden, it was hard ;)

I used Essence "Iced Latte" as the base, and then drew on the frames with my black striper from Etos. Then I added the colours. Red is Essence "Fame Fatal" and the violet-red is "Berry Me" form Gosh. 

Do you like it or do you think it's too messy? 

xoxoxo
Captain

Athena

Whoohoo! Athena's here!

Athena, or Pallas Athena, goddess of wisdom and art and law and war strategy. The wise owl accompanies her on her many journeys.

With wisdom, my mind springs to blue. And being just and strategic screams silver to me :P So here it is!

I first started with a layer of Essence "Midnight Date". It is opaque in just one layer :D Well done Essence! And it's such a gorgeous colour... Bright blue, with a greenish shimmer (that sadly wouldn't be captured on camera). 

Then I saran marbled (for a video tutorial, check out Kat's most recent video!) with W7 "Silver".

It came out all gorgeous and shimmery :D Of course her favourite animal cannot be left out, so I used my pink striper of Janet to draw it on, and I used two little rhinestones from Essence for the eyes.

What do you think?

xoxoxo

Captain

Summer Field

Hi wonderful followers!

Sorry we didn't post yesterday, we didn't get the chance :(

We'd like to show you this lovely mani we did for Captain's second cousin :) It was inspired by the fact that we are longing for summer ;) It's kinda cold here! So we created Summer Field:

The green base is Catrice "King of Greens". The flowers were done using a dotting tool and Catrice "Heavy Metallilac", Rimmel "Sky High", Essence "Shopping Trip in Soho", "Kiss on top of a Rock" and "Little Miss Sunrise".

Also, Captain entered 2 nail art contests, one which she shared on facebook, the other is on instagram! This is the first time ever she did this, exciting!!!

Have a beautiful day <3

xoxoxo
Lieutenant & Captain

Bubble up! For short & long nails

Hi people! 

Today we want to share with you an easy dotticure, that is flattering on both long and short nails. 

We used Catrice "Heavy Metallilac" for the base, and dotted with La Femme white polish and Essence "Let's get lost" (blue) and Etos Quick Dry nr. 09 (orange). The dots were placed using my trusty dotting tool. We used 2 very different hand models: One girl with medium/long length nails, as shown here:

And one girl with short nails:

As you can see, this simple mani works well on both! The asymmetric design optically lengthens the nails.

What do you think?

xoxoxo

Lieutenant & Captain