The super awesome Clara H invited me to come have my nails done again over the weekend!
This time I wanted something a bit simpler than last time, I gave her the ideas of pastel, leopard print and girly.
Here’s what she came up with 😀
Looove them 😀 Exactly what I wanted! Clara is so wonderfully creative and she knows my taste so well.
The nails have a base of pastel pink/orange/purple with light brown leopard print. She then sculpted 3d bows as well as adding in lots of bling to satisfy my love of shininess.
The middle fingers have these massive pearl bows with a metal base, I’ve never seen any of these before but they are so cute! They look awesome on the brighter pink base too.
Close ups of the bling and pearl details:
Last time there were quite a few questions about how comfortable they were to wear. After the first day I really didn’t notice the length anymore, the largest jewels occasionally got caught in my hair but that was fixed with a top coat. Other than that I really didn’t find any difference to having normal nails. By the end of the month I had to file them down a bit so they were the original length and other than top coating occasionally that was the only maintenance I did.
The thumbs are my favorites 😀
Moooore nail photos 😀
I filmed this one too so video coming up soon there.
Clara is going to start doing more in depth video tutorials soon too so if there is anything that you want to see or learn how to do let me know in the comments!
So if you’re in Melbourne and want to get your nails done make sure you check out Clara at Tsumiki salon to book in 😀 And if you’re not in Melbourne go check her gallery anyway for amazing designs.
Following on from my post about Tsumiki Design on the weekend, I was lucky enough to be invited back by their nail artist Clara H for a full set of crazy 3D acrylics. As if I could possibly say no to that, you guys know how much I love nail art! 😀
I’m editing a full video on the process but I just couldn’t wait to post up the finished nail photos because they were so awesome!
Before I arrived I didn’t really have an idea of what kind of design I wanted but James made the suggestion of something Bergamot themed… YES PLEASE! I feel like I’ve been abusing the capslock button lately but I’m just so excited about things that I can’t really help it XD
Clara came up with the rest of the design based on my tastes and style. I played at guessing the design the whole time and was absolutely thrilled with the end product.
I bet you’re sick of me talking and just want to see them already?
YES! She made little acrylic Bergamots, hand painted roses and then blinged the hell out of it 😀 😀 😀On the thumbs she added more super blinged Bergamots holding little tea containers which have “Bergamot Tea” in a curly script. I can’t believe how neat and tiny that writing is!
Here’s a close up so you can see the insanely awesome details:
And with Miss Bergamot herself:
I can’t believe how perfect the little faces are, so sweet!
I can’t say how pleased I was with the design, everything is perfect. Clara clearly has a serious amount of talent and certainly isn’t afraid of hard work considering the complexity of the design! The design was complicated so it was really nice to have someone to chat to during it who had similar interests to me 😀
Clara is certified by the Japanese Nail Association and you can see how skilled she is in her work, I can’t wait to finish editing the video asap so you can all see what I mean.
So would I go back? Most definitely and if you’re looking for this style of nail art or something slightly less over the top definitely check Clara out at Tsumiki Design. If fact if you want to spend a couple of hours drooling over nail art then check out her gallery of past work haha!
Overall I love them, I think she captured my style perfectly and her representation of Bergamot is awesome! What do you guys think??
I feel a bit weird posting things about stuff I have but a lot of people have asked to see my polish collection and as I was clearing it out I figured it was as good a time as any to catalogue them.
Currently I’m storing them on a small plastic set of shelves in my cupboard so nothing very interesting but once I sort it out with the nail art stuff I’ll show you the whole set out.
When your nail polish collection gets to this stage you know you have a problem.
So colour sorted it looks like this:And in my big crazy clean out I cut it down to this (slightly) more reasonable pile.
Individually here is what it was like before, most of these are super cheap ones that James buys when I’m sad about something ^_^
And some more random polish photos because I just like seeing colour coded things all lined up 😀
So there you go! I’m really glad to cull the collection a bit because it’s pretty out of hand XD 1/2 gone now though! Cleaning things out makes me happy!
I know after seeing my monogrammed nails last week quite a few of you were waiting for this review so here it is 😀
I think it’s pretty obvious that I love nail art and when Eileen from Inspired Nails contacted me to get some feedback on her new products I was all for being guinea pig 😀 When that sentence included “custom designed with your logo” I almost had a heart attack with excitement! Stamp something else I own with my monogram? YES PLEASE! We chatted ideas for a while and eventually we came up with some designs together. Did I mention that Eileen is actually a long time reader here so everyone say hello!
This post is a mishmash of reviews, tutorials and discount codes so please enjoy ^_^
This was the package that arrived in my post box:
She even included chocolates (not pictured because I ate them mwahahaha) and some little flowers from her craft stash! So let’s break this review up into the different products: Custom full cover false nails, black/white decals and colour decals.
First up the full cover nails!
Inspired Nails offers a bunch of very pretty designs on their site but what’s more exciting to me is the option to design your own nails and have them specially printed for just US$12. Considering that most regular decent quality sets will set you back at least $15 here I think the price is really good because you can get anything you want printed and it’s cheap enough that you could just get them done for a special event. Some of the suggestions on the site are for corporate logos, photos and pets but I think the best use would be custom matching blog nails for events! I’m a bit biased though haha 😉
So what you get is 20 nails in 10 sizes, the design is printed directly on to the nails and top coated before being sent off. You apply like any other false nail, give it another top coat and you’re good to go.
I received 3 set of nails: pink leopard print with my logo and two of my custom logo design at difference opacities. I submitted my design and she printed several test sets to make sure that the opacity and colours were right which I thought was a really nice touch.
I know with most printers if you submit something and it doesn’t work out first time the response is “sucks to be you” so I was really impressed that she took the time to work with me until we were both 100% happy with the results. I think that’s the difference with working with someone who clearly has a real passion for what they do!
Quality wise the nails are on the thicker side but still flexible. I found them easy to file and cut to shape (they only come in square tips at the moment) but they didn’t splinter or shatter like cheap nails. Very close up you can see the individual ink spots from the printer but unless you’re looking at it 3cm infront of your eyes I don’t think anyone is ever going to notice.
One think I would watch out for in application is that because they are printed on a white base when you file or cut the ends you need to be very careful the angle you do it on otherwise the white base can show up on the tips. If that happens just paint over the tips with a matching polish colour.
In case you were wondering how I apply my nails here is a short video ^_^
Black and white decals!
I love these, they were hands down my favorite thing in the package. These are not those thick vinylish decals that I’ve reviewed before, think of these as like temporary tattoos but for your nails. That’s the best way I can think to describe them!
To apply them you cut out the one you want, dip in water till it’s soaked, slide off the decal and press it onto the nail. Smooth it and add a top coat and that’s it. I love these because #1 they look fantastic when you use the right polish underneath but #2 you don’t need to be a genius to apply them.
These are FANTASTIC for girls who want extra pop on their nails but don’t have the time or patience to sit and paint something themselves. These black and white sets range between $3-10 and the full cover sets come with 24 while the smaller ones like the comic book designs come with 82 in various sizes. For me I think that’s awesome value too because you can again get completely custom designs.
These are the nails that I used my custom monogram ones on for the Adelaide Beauty Conference, so cute! I gave the girls a quick run down on using these while I was there too XD
With these I would really suggest using them over a medium to light base colour and over the top of glitters they just look AMAZING. Glitter leopard print for the win and the fact that you can change up the base colour for different designs makes them very versatile. I have absolutely nothing bad to say about these and I know I’m going to be ordering a whole lot of other designs too.
And in case you were wondering, here is a quick tutorial I made on how to apply them 😀
The Inspired Nails website also has a bunch of tutorials and tips on application so if you get stuck check that out.
Full Colour Decals!
Ok last but not least Eileen sent me a second package with her newly arrived full colour decals and I tested them out last night. These ones are a new product and I found them a little bit more tricky to get the hang of than the b/w ones.
I was sent cupcake ones, Alice in Wonderland ones and also some more of my monogram but in colour. I tried out the monograms and the full cover cupcakes and these were my results.
Eileen gave me some tips on the application because while these ones are still thin they are a bit thicker than the b/w versions.
One quick tip with the color decals because the film is slightly different. Let them dry for a few seconds on a paper towel after you separate them from the backing. Place a drop or two of ordinary rubbing alcohol on your nail and then apply the decal. The alcohol will adhere the decal to your nail and allow you to smooth it out and press it in place before you apply the topcoat. It also makes the decal a little flexible so you won’t have any tearing when you apply the topcoat. However, you can’t “slide” the decal around on your nail if you use the alcohol method. Rubbing alcohol is also called surgical spirit, isopropyl alcohol or ethyl alcohol. Our new packaging will include an alcohol soaked pad with the decals.
This is the monogram on a plain white nail base:
So I gave them a try, once with and once without the alcohol and I would definitely suggest using it to soften them up, without it they go on the nail fine but they like to spring back against the curve of the nail and so while drying mine tore a little bit. With the alcohol I found them to work like a dream and they applied almost as easily and the b/w version.
Full cover cupcake on a pink base:
One more thing to keep in mind is that these ones are opaque all over if you don’t top coat them so a white background can be seen if you don’t use a topcoat (which you really should be doing anyway). The photo below has half topcoated and half not so you can see what I mean:
Still the possibilities with these really excite me because I am imagining using them as a base while adding some diamantes and points of interest over the top. Much quicker than hand painting!
The end result here after top coating was really slick and pretty.
So verdict?
There wasn’t anything in the package that I wouldn’t recommend. The custom full cover nails are good quality and a really cool accessory to have. The designs up there that they’ve done themselves look really beautiful (go check out the Van Gough Starry Night nails and the pink leopard print French tips with diamantes especially!) and there is a good variety of both designs and products to choose from.
The colour decals are pretty awesome too and I can see them as being a great way for people with not much time/skill to have awesome show stopping nails. They are a bit more complex to use but I still think that a beginner could manage it and there are enough extras included in a pack that even if you make a few mistakes you’re not going to run out!
The show stopper, in my opinion, of the group had to be the black and white decals though. Perfect texture, perfect finish, great usability and I think I could put them on in my sleep and still get a great result. They are very forgiving to mistakes so perfect for beginners and are so versatile that I can’t see myself getting bored with them any time in the foreseeable future. The prices are very reasonable considering the volumes and still much cheaper than other places I’ve seen.
DO WANT.
Now what you’ve all been waiting for DISCOUNT CODE!!!
Being a reader herself, Eileen was kind enough to extend an awesome offer to you guys a great discount ^_^
Just type in VIOLET15 when you check out to get 15% off your entire purchase, excluding shipping costs. One use per customer. Expires December 31, 2011
I know a couple of the girls I spoke to were concerned about the shipping costs between the USA and here so here’s a word on that too, they use real-time shipping calculator so there’s no minimum charge rubbish, it’s actually worked out along the way so according to Eileen 1 set of nails to Aus is around US$5 and my whole box of stuff (including lots of chocolate) was under US$7. So even with that added on it still makes it worth it in my opinion.
When the ever awesome You’ve Got Nail mentioned she had a present for me I didn’t think it would be a whole collection of Zoya polishes *_* I had mentioned wanting to try them because the brand is so highly regarded and she gave me the whole Flash collection! I was in heaven XD
From: The lovely You’ve Got Nail gifted these to me! You can get them here. Extra props for the Zoya website because they have so much extra information on the polishes like the finish, the colour intensity on a scale of 1-5 and you can order spoon samples. I very much like companies that go the extra mile like that.
Price: $8 each or $36 for the set
Volume: 15ml
Bottle: Squareish, thinner at the bottom, rounded corners, flared black top. Easy to store and stack, looks very nice, no complaints here.
Brush: Average size, and very flexible. Very smooth bristles.
Drying Time: Roughly the same for all of them. Reasonably quick drying time.
Colour Name: Jolene.
Description: Nice bright slightly blue toned pink.
Thoughts: This whole collection totally lives up to it’s name, it is BRIGHT. These are good bright summer colours, probably nothing office job appropriate here XD Following on from that this pink is a big blueish pink, it’s bright but it’s got a depth that I often find missing from other colours this bright.Good for: -Decora style manicures, I can see this looking good with a LOT of bling over it. -Probably good for Konad because these are all very opaque. -Bright fun summer or spring styles.Bad for: – Office/conservative work friendly manicures.
Colour Name: Maura
Description: Bright as hell orangey red.
Thoughts: This is one of those show stopper colours. You can’t get much redder than this. The thing that really made me love this collection was the consistency. Every single polish had an equally good formula and every one was pretty much opaque in one coat and looked stunning in two.
Good for: -Grabbing attention -Flame themed nail art -Probably good for Konad because these are all very opaque. -Bright fun summer or spring styles.
Bad for: – Office/conservative work friendly manicures. -Any remote kind of subtly.
Colour Name: Jancyn
Description: Traffic cone orange. Can’t put it better than that.
Thoughts: Love this colour because it’s completely versatile. It’s pretty and could work in so many different ways, I’m thinking this with black lace tips for Autumn, or white polkadots for Summer. I don’t normally like oranges but for some reason this was my favorite out of the collection.
Good for: -Halloween themed nail art, reminds me of pumpkins and candy corn. Man I wish it was easier to get candy corn here!! -Probably good for Konad because these are all very opaque. -Bright fun summer or spring styles.
Bad for: – Office/conservative work friendly manicures.
Colour Name: Dana
Description: Darker deep pink, in some lights it verges on the red side of things.
Thoughts: This is one of those fun colours which seems to be different in any number of lighting situations. Sometimes it’s a bright pink, sometimes it’s almost a deep red, it’s a very interesting colour combination either way and it sets it a bit apart from being just another boring pink.
Good for: -A slightly different/modern take on all of the old fashion red manicure designs. -Probably good for Konad because these are all very opaque. -Bright fun summer or spring styles.
Bad for: – Office/conservative work friendly manicures.
Colour Name: Robyn
Description: Bright sky blue.
Thoughts:
It can be hard to find variations of blue polishes but this is a nice change! Out of all of the polishes in the collection, this is probably the one with the most variation between coats. It’s very build-able so I imagine you could create some really interesting designs especially with multi layered konading.
Good for: -Sky/rainbow nail art -Probably good for Konad because these are all very opaque. Would like to try using this to multilayer konad. -Bright fun summer or spring styles.
Bad for: – Office/conservative work friendly manicures.
Colour Name: Perrie
Description: Redish purple.
Thoughts: Out of all of the colours in this collection this one is probably the only one that isn’t immediately bright and summery. It fits with the collection when you look a them as a whole but by itself it kind of reminds me more of an overcast kind of day. Not that it’s a bad thing, I actually really like the colour and it did feel a little easier on the eyes after all of the super brights 😉
Good for: -Good base or highlight for gothic designs. -Probably good for Konad because these are all very opaque. -Spring/summer themes without going too far over the top
Bad for: – Office/conservative work friendly manicures. -Being bright and cheery on it’s own
VERTICT: As a whole I loved the collection, while they aren’t exactly colours I would wear plain every day they are all versatile and opaque enough to be really valuable colours for nail art. The formula is smooth and has a great smooth consistency which makes it easy for beginners to get a nice finish. The price per bottle is reasonably cheap for Aus so I wouldn’t hesitate to order. DO WANT.
So remember that leopard print nail art I was talking about when I reviewed Molten Metalics from Face of Australia? I actually got around to doing it! No, it’s not particularly original and I’ve done the same pattern a bajillion times but it’s still hard to not look at in the sunlight!
I’ve previously done a video tutorial on leopard print but some people have trouble following videos so here’s a nice easy quick photo tutorial of the steps.
What you need:
3 colours of polish
Thin brush
Clear topcoat
I’m using false nails, these were the only ones I had left in my stash and they weren’t quite the correct size or the shape I prefer unfortunately. Kind of makes me want to grow out my natural nails again or get awesome glitter acrylics but I just don’t have time or patience for it at the moment >_<Start with clean, filed nails.
Apply 2 coats of base coat and wait until completely dry. The base colour I used was White Gold.
The next colour I’m using is Gold. This is where the tiny paint brush comes in handy!
Paint little splotches all over the nails randomly.
They don’t need to be even or the same size, you can make them as big or small as you like.
Last colour I’m using is Bronze.
Use the tiny paint brush to edge the spotches. Don’t worry about being neat about it and don’t go around the edge in a complete circle, you want it to be broken up into 2-3 parts with gaps between them.
Let it dry, apply a clear top coat for extra shine and you’re done!
You could reverse the colours to put a light leopard print on a dark background for a really pretty effect too.
This is a really good pattern to break your teeth on if you’ve never tried nail art before because it doesn’t matter if you make mistakes 😀
Illustrator. Strong tea, knitting, watercolours, and making a video game called Moonlight in Garland. Living with her adorable husband Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.
