Merry Christmas and Christmas nails

Wish you all a Merry Christmas! Did you all get lovely gifts? How did you celebrate Christmas? I had a great time with my family. There was a small Christmas party at our society's club house. It was fun.

We had 7 days #Festivenails challenge going on at Indian Lacquer Lovers group on facebook. I managed to come up with 5 designs. You can check out my previous designs here

1.Christmas tree and Elf nail art
2. Snowflakes nail art

Today's first design is Peppermint swirls nail art. Using a paint brush I freehanded these on my thumb,index and middle fingers . On accent and pinky I applied glitter polish over silver base. I used the tutorial on http://www.grandmakeup.com/swedish-swirl-nail-art/ to make these swirls.

                            

Christmas tree and Elf nail art

Hello everyone! How are the holidays going on? I am looking forward for Christmas Celebrations :)

Today I have two #Christmas manis to share with you all but with my tiny nails. Guys I happen to break two of my nails and then cut all my nails :( They look so small now. I could come up with only these simple manis for Christmas.

First one is pretty simple. I made Christmas tree on my thumb and accent nails and random dots on the rest of the nails. I used OPI Alpine Snow, Maybelline Downton Red, Maybelline Verde Palmeria and #WnW

Gold Fergie for this design.

Snowflakes Nail art for Christmas

Hello Everyone! How was the weekend? Mine was good. Watched Dhoom 3 movie...aahhh..it was disappointing :(. Had more expectations from - DHOOM. Anyways Christmas is nearing and there are so many #Christmas nail art challenges going on. Here is my first mani for this holiday season - #Snowflakes nails.

                                              

                                                       

Nail Art inspired by painting - #ILLNail art challenge

Hi friends! How are you all doing? We are nearing Christmas holiday season. Are you all excited ? I will posting my Christmas manis soon :)

Today I have nail art that I had made few weeks back but didn't find time to post. It was for #ILLNail art challenge inspired by art and the condition was to use only three nail polishes. Phew it was tough to decide which colors to choose.

Finally I came up with this. I used three nail polishes and acrylic paints for this look. This nail art is inspired by a painting found on google.

                                      

Sally Hansen Pacific Blue with stamping

 

 Today I have blue polish and some stamping for you all. I am a sucker of blue polishes and have so many already. My new favourite is Pacific Blue from Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear collection. I am in love with this blue polish. Sally Hansen Xtreme wear collection is priced at Rs250 and available in most of leading Indian stores; these polishes are awesome and dry pretty fast.

  

 

 

 

I am new to the world of stamping and learning the art of stamping. I wanted to try out some images from my Cheeky stamping plates collection and used OPI's Alpine snow for stamping. Isn't the blue and white combination beautiful?

 

 

                                          

 

On my thumb, index and middle finger nails I used image from CH5. They reminded me of spaceships :) . For my accent nail I used all stars pattern from CH4 and on pinky small star's pattern.

 

                                     



 

  

 I had difficulty using small images on these cheeky plates like the small star pattern, those tiny spaceships on the CH4 plate. My Konad stamper just didn't seem to pick up the entire image. I guess it could be the etching on these plates. Did any of you face similar issues with smaller images?

Waterfall manicure

Hello friends! I am enjoying my two weeks of stay at Hyderabad(my maika) hence MIA these days. I have been so so lazy these days. I got my stuff that I had ordered from US - Bundle Monster CYO plates, WnW nail polishes, few cuticle care products. I couldn't wait to try out these polishes and here is what I came up with - Waterfall manicure. This is inspired by The Nailasaurus. She is simply awesome.

                                           

I painted my accent and pinky nails with Color Club - Miss Bliss holo and rest of the nails with WnW Tickled pink polish. This is my second holographic polish and I must say I am in love with Colorclub holos.

                                

Then with a nail art striping brush I used rest of the polishes to create waterfall pattern using this tutorial - http://www.thenailasaurus.com/2013/07/waterfall-nail-art-tutorial.html. Here is the end result. I really liked the waterfall mani although I bumped my middle finger you can see that spot clearly in pics.

Let me know what you guys think of this mani. Also check out The Nailasaurus's tutorial.

5th Wedding Anniversary Celebrations and Nails

Hi All, How was your weekend? Mine was fantastic. 23 Nov'13 was our 5th Wedding Anniversary. I can't believe it's 5 years already; time flies!!!My hubby gifted me some really nice nail art stuff. Thank you so much my love :) Special thanks to my cousin from US, my mama and mami; who made this happen by getting this stuff for me from US. I couldn't have asked for more :)

Here is a sneak peek of what I got -

1. Kleancolor neon mini set nail polish

2. Konad stamper and scraper

3. Cheeky Stamp plates

4. Coloclub Holographic - Blue Heaven 

5. Seche Vite Top coat

6. Maybelline Color show - Clearly Spotted

7. Revlon Matte Top coat

8. Set of striping tapes

A random pic that we clicked on that day with all the funky stuff on :) 

The mani I wore for my anniversary - Maybelline Color Show Lavender Lies topped with Maybelline Color Show Clearly Spotted. I added Revlon Matte top coat to it. Totally in love with the matte effect :)

     

Cheeky stamping plates are my first ever stamping plates. I was really excited to try them out and here are two simple manis using the Cheeky stamping plates. I used Colorclub - Blue heaven to stamp on Maybelline Colorshow Denim Dash polish.

For this one, I used #Maybelline Colorshow Bold Gold to stamp on Wet n Wild - Color Haze of Love

I am new to stamping and still exploring it. Enjoying the stamping world !!!

Leopard print nails with Gradient

By now, you all must be knowing my love for Leopard prints. I totally love them and the best part is that they are super easy to make. These Leopard prints are inspired by a top. Aren't they gorgeous!

This was the theme for #ILL Nailart Challenge - Gradient with pattern.

       

  

I started with white polish as base. Once it was completely dried I made gradient of light blue, lilac and pink polish using sponge. Then using black polish made Leopard prints and this is the end result.

Really love the way they turned out. Gosh I am so obsessed with Leopard prints!!! Have you tried out animal print nails? Which one is your favourite?

Festive nails - #ILL Nailart Challenge

Hi Fellas! What's going on? This weekend was exciting. I met my dad (who was here in Pune to attend a wedding) and some of my relatives. . I finally got my goodies from US. Hurray!!! So happy :) Also watched Krissh 3. It was ok ok types. When would Bollywood stop adding unnecessary songs ...uffff!!!

Here are two manis I made for #ILL Nailart Challenge - Festive and Diwali nails themes on Indian Lacquer Lovers facebook group.

Here I made Akash diya on my thumb nail, Lakshmi footprints on index finger, diya on my pinky and colorful,sparkling sky on middle and accent nails.

This one is simple red and gold stripes with Ganesha free handed. I really liked this one.

Do you like these? Let me know what you think about these manis.

THE VERSATILE BLOGGER AWARD

Hi friends! How are things? How was your Diwali? Mine didn’t go well. I was sick and my son is still unwell. He is doing better now. Hope he gets well soon.

Alright coming to today’s post. I have been nominated for ‘Versatile Blogger Award’ by three lovely ladies – Subha Bose, Rachna Sharma and Asmitha Vivek. Receiving an award is always encouraging :)

                                          

A big hug and thank you for nominating me and sorry ladies just didn’t find time to write about this. So caught up in life for past few weeks. 

Here are seven things about me –

1)      I can speak English, Hindi, Telugu, Marathi, Kutchi and broken Kannada. Now this is coz I am a Maharastrian, born and brought up in Hyderabad whose neighbors spoke Kannada and married to a Kutchi J. I have lost touch with Kannada though.

2)      I dislike men who underestimate women or feel women should sit at home and take care of only household or are too orthodox and have restrictions on women. I feel women should be given equal rights and opportunities as men and treated with respect. After all women are equally strong.

                                                     

3)      I am a total foodie. It is really difficult for me to control on food. Whenever I join gym I diet only for those months and manage to shed few pounds but then I get back to my old bad eating habits. Need to control it J

             

4)      I am a shopaholic. I might go over board and buy things at a go. In fact after starting my blog, I have realized I have purchased so many cosmetics and most of them are untouched or just used couple of timesL. I have decided not to spend more than Rs500-1000/month on cosmetics and that I will not buy something which I wouldn’t really use much. Let us see how long I stick to this ;)

                                      

5)      I am Libran and truly have typical Libran qualities like being Independent, making friends, being social, peacemaker, being Indecisive. If a situation arises, I simply cannot hurt someone’s feelings and might comprise on my likes to make the other person happy or just to bring a smile and yes at times it’s really difficult for me to take decisions just coz I want to make sure I have taken the best possible decision J My husband surely knows this quality of mine very well.

                                        

6)   I love pets. We had a dog when I was a kid. I owned 6 cats and a small aquarium couple of years back when I was in Hyderabad.

                             

7)      I am lazy and hate waking up early but unfortunately I have been in early morning shifts for the past 4 years and wake up @ 5-5:15am Mon-Fri L. I try not to miss my afternoon/evening nap especially since my son doesn’t sleep before 11:30pm-12am in the night. Let me tell you guys all the laziness vanishes once you have a kid. I feel so very zonked. I tend to fall asleep while travelling without even realizing it J My hubby keeps yelling at me – Don’t sleep in the cab!!!

                                             

Yeah yeah I know I have made 7 things sound like 70 big things J …lengthy post.

Now comes the toughest part – nomination of 15 other bloggers.  Here are my nominations –

1. Arshita Dhara from http://indiannaturalbeautyandmakeup.blogspot.in
2. Arzoo from http://simplyprettyandhealthy.com
3.  Anwesha Bh from http://nailfull.blogspot.in/
4.  Natasha from http://natashabhatt.blogspot.in
5. Aditi So-sareefrom http://www.sosaree.blogspot.in/
6. Shipra from http://milliondollarlooks.blogspot.in
7. Shayoni from http://www.sweetandbitterblog.com
8. Sugandha from http://www.glammegal.com
9. Parul from http://preciouspearlmakeup.blogspot.in/
10. Anu Sriya from http://thecherryblossomgal.blogspot.in 
11. Cook dokoo from http://cookdokoo.blogspot.in
12. Saniya from http://beautynbuzz.com 
13. Fiona from http://makeuptricksandtips.blogspot.in/
14. Kriti from http://hairfashionbeautyblog.blogspot.in
15. Mommyn heels from http://mummynheels.blogspot.in/

PS: All images have been taken from Google

Tribal Nails - #ILL Nailart Challenge

Hello friends! How is Diwali preparation going on? I would be going to Mumbai with family for Diwali. I am totally excited :)

These are tribal print nails I did for #ILL Nailart Challenge for Indian Lacquer Lovers group on facebook. I really loved the way they turned out. 

I wanted to make coloured tribal prints.I first painted my nails with yellow polish and once it was completely dry using a brush, made patterns with orange and blue polish. Then using a toothpick added tiny dots. Isn't it pretty? What do you guys think?

INDEPENDENCE DAY – 15TH AUG NAILS

“15^th Aug’1947”, this is the date when India got its Independence. Tomorrow India would be celebrating its 67^th Independence Day. On the occasion of Independence Day, I thought to come up with a tricolored manicure.This is what I ended up with. It is simple, super easy and not going to take much time.

All you need is –

1. Any Orange polish/paint (I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear SunKissed)
2. Any White polish/paint (OPI Alpine Snow)
3. Any Green polish/paint (Combination of Maybelline Verde Palmeira and Prestige Hope)
4. Any Blue polish/paint (Maybelline Marinho)
5. Tooth pick or Dotting tool
6. Sponge (Could be a makeup sponge or kitchen sponge)
7. Q -Tip and Polish remover for clean up

I started off with a base coat, followed by two coats of white polish. Once the white polish was completely dry, I took a sponge and added three colors – Orange, White and Green to it and created gradient using sponge technique on my Thumb and Ring Finger.

On the rest using the same colors and a blue color, I added dots of different sizes and then some cleanup. Once the polish was completely dry, added top coat and that is it J

                                                 

 Let me know what you guys think about this Mani. Do share your 15^th Aug nails.

Happy Independence Day!!!

What are FOUNDATIONS and How to choose one

Hey friends! How are you all doing? Sorry for MIA my toddler son was sick last week, he is fine now :) Just wanted to share with you all that I have been nominated 'Versatile Blogger' award by some of my blogger friends. Thank you all for it. I will talk about the award in my coming posts.

This is long pending post. I have received so many requests to do a post of make up essentials. I am starting with Foundation.

What is a Foundation?

Per Wikipedia, Foundation is a skin colored cosmetic applied to the face to create an even, uniform color to the complexion, to cover flaws and sometimes, to change the natural skin tone.

Before you choose a foundation, it is very essential to understand your skin tone and type. Foundation should always be an exact match of your skin tone. While trying out foundation always apply it on your jawline instead of wrist. This would give a better idea on how the product would look on the face. I have observed that many tend to go for a shade lighter than the actual skin tone which makes them look so artificial. Probably coz folks feel this would make them look gori gori (fair skin tone).

These days there are wide variety of foundations available in market; it is difficult to decide which one to go with. Here are some tips that will help you find your match.

     Identifying Skin type:

• DRY SKIN – For people with this skin tone, foundations which are cream based, liquid cream based work the best. These give a much needed dewy look. It is always advised to moisturize skin before applying a foundation. Matte finish/Oil free foundations should be avoided.
• NORMAL/COMBINATION SKIN – I would say people having this skin type are really lucky as their skin is not extremely dry or oily.  They can choose anything from liquid, cream-to powder compact, stick foundations. Matte finish/Oil free foundations should be avoided.
• OILY SKIN – Oil free, matte foundations, pressed powder foundations, mineralized powder/loose powder based foundations work best for this skin type as they soak excess oil from the skin. Cream based foundations should be avoided.

Identifying Coverage:

• If you have clear skin and even tone you would need a foundation with sheer or light coverage.  I would suggest to go for a BB cream or tinted moisturizer.
• If you have light pigmentation/pimple/acne scars, look for something with medium coverage. Note that you can always build up foundation by adding more product.
• If you have really bad acne scars/spots that you want to hide then go for a full coverage foundation. You could also use a good concealer to hide marks.

At the end of the day, make sure you remove make up else this would lead to clogging of pores and you will end up having pimple/rashes. For beginners, I would recommend using products that are not waterproof. You could apply foundation using use either your fingers/foundation brush, make up sponge. I prefer using my fingers.

I have very dry skin and have used Liquid foundation, cream based stick foundation (all through the year) and all in one base foundation too(which I use in summers & rainy seasons). Off all these I really love my stick foundation – Loreal Ideal Balance Quickstick Balancing Foundation – Buff Miel 335.

Dotted Flower Nail art

Hey guys, here is another simple and easy design - Dotted Flowers.

Here is how I did it. I first painted my nails with black polish and allowed it to completely dry. Using a dotting tool added big dots with white polish and then on a random basis added small dots around the white dots with different nail polishes. Here is the end result. I love it :)

                                             

These are the nail polishes used. I used a dotting tool but you could use toothpick also.