Mags' Tropical Nail Art

Hello Everyone!

Today I'm doing a quick post to show you my tropical nail art, or hawaiian shirt nail art :p
I'm going on holidays tomorrow so I wanted bright neon nails to go with the sun and sea! The picture really don't do justice of how bright they really are!

Once again it's a gradient, I can't stop from doing them since I got liquid latex, because clean-up has never been easier. And I also stamped some hibiscus flowers, to fit the tropical theme.

I know, once more, I used the Claire's Neon polishes, you are probably tired of that, but it's been such a long, sunny and hot summer, it's all I have been wanting to wear lately :) Bear with me!!

The suitcase is packed and I'm all ready to go have some great time!! Weeee
I'll see you when I come back!
-Mags

Mags' BPS Review & Fruity Nail Art

Hello Everyone!

The last review I have for you is for another Born Pretty Store's stamping plate, it the fruits pattern plate from Ia Qin An number Y004.

This plate is perfect for the leadlight technique or the reverse stamping. Its fine sketched lines make for a beautiful finish.

You get strawberries, grapes, apricots, pears, lemons and apples. Yummy!

When I saw how fine the lines were I have to admit I was a bit worried they wouldn't stamp well, but I was pleasantly surprised! You do have to stamp quickly though as there isn't a lot of polish to stamp with so it dries very fast. But nothing impossible.

I decided, to do neon fruits (I know , what a shocker ;p), because why the Hell not, right?

Aren't they so yummy looking?

That's it for the Born Pretty Store reviews for now, I hope you found them useful. Remember you can use the code BESG10 to get 10% off on all the website.
I'd like to thank BPS for sending me those 4 products to review, I do like them all, and I would recommend them. I didn't get paid by or am I affiliated with this company, I just really liked the products.


I'll see you next time!
-Mags

Mags' BPS Review & Neon Watermarble Nail Art

Hello Everyone,

today I'm doing the third review from Born Pretty Store, and this time it's nail art studs we're going to talk about.

In this very well packaged pot (trust me, the cat dropped it on the floor twice and it didn't open or exploded, phew) you get 2 shapes of studs. The rounds are full neon colors (yellow, orange, pink, green, blue and purple). The squares are 2 colors (1 black + 1 color) with different patterns. As much as the neons ones are fairly common, the square ones are quite original.

The studs are nicely flat and rest nicely on the nails. I have no cons about those really.

And as you know I had to do some nail art because life without nail art is sad!
So I went the easy road as for the studs, and picked the simple neon ones, but then I did a watermarble accent nail, so you can't blame me. I hate watermarble and I very well suck at it, but for some weird reason, I decided to do this (probably got secretly inspired by my friend +Elie Corzo ) and I did it, first try, no mess (well almost, did dip 2 fingers instead of one because i'm clumsy) and the result was great!

The Claire's Neon polishes I used for the watermarble worked incredibly, which let's face it, is a first for me.

Those neons studs over black look amazing!! Remember that you can use the code BESG10 if you're tempted (or for any other temptation ;))

We got one more review to go!
I'll see you next time!
-Mags

Mags' BPS Review & Beach Nail Art

Hello Everyone,

today I will do the second review out of the four I have for you. This time I am reviewing an ocean themed stamping plate .

This stamping plate is quite different from the usual beach stamping plates, it has a lot of different designs, granted they are not really complementary but you can easily do nice designs with it. If you like it and want it, don't forget that you can use the 10% off code: BESG10.

The images are well sketch and they stamp quite well. The only negative thing about it, is that on the website, they advertise a different image than what you really get, the stripes and stars one. It annoyed me, because it was one of the images that made me want that plate. I could have not mention anything but I'd rather let you know, so you don't get disappointed.

But I was not about to let that stop me! It was really challenging trying to find inspiration today but I decided to start doing my nails and 'winging' it! The results ended up being super pretty, so I guess sometimes, just sit and start doing your nails, inspiration is bound to come!

On a white base, I did the gradient stamping technique using the wavy design and 3 shades of blue, then stamped in black the palm trees and star design. Hey what do you know, palm trees on my nails, again! (someone stop me!!)
And then because i couldn't align the designs to save my life, I had a gap between the end of the nails and the start of the palm trees (yes on all the fingers), I decided to do tiny islands, but then I went even further (told you I was winging it), and decided to frame the whole nails!
Matte top coat on top and bam I was smitten! I love them so much. Blue, check, summer nails, check, palm trees, check, starfish, check, framed nails, check....what's not to love really!!?!

I'm finishing the post with a close up of the design!

Thank you for reading, I'll see you next time!
-Mags

Mags' Paradise Palm Trees Nail Art

Hello Everyone!!

Once again I'm coming here and sharing a palm trees nail art. Can you all tell I'm longing for my vacation to start? Two more weeks to wait, so in the meantime, I'm bringing paradise to my nails.
I did those in a hurry before meeting friends for drinks and diner so they aren't as prefect as they could be. Also the pics are not the best quality for the same reason :/

I've done a gradient again, mostly because I think it's what goes best with palm trees but also because I recently bought some liquid latex (yeah I know finally!) and couldn't wait to try it out. It works like a charmed and helps reducing the clean up time. I went to an "Halloween" shop in my City instead of spending a fortune on an indie website which just re-bottle liquid latex and humph the prices.

My dominant hand which needed a bit more cover up, as I have had some trouble with the gradient (yay for heat wave!).

As usual, the black is just plain acrylic paint. Which is easier to work with than polish.

I hope I made you travel with my nails, I keep looking at them and picture me on a white sand beach with a cocktail in my hand, the wind in my hair and the waves crashing endlessly. Sigh, 2 MORE WEEKS!

See you next time!
-Mags

Mags' Psychedelic Circular Gradient Nail Art

Hello Everyone,

today I felt adventurous and decided to dip my toes into the great unknown and try something new, aka a circular gradient. I finally mastered the gradient technique so I figured doing a circular one would be easy peasy. And in a way it was, but not without some struggles, like trying to center it on the nail and surprisingly, applying the polish on the sponge to form a bullseye! But those little hiccups didn't make me abandon, so I stick through it and managed somewhat to do what I had in mind!

I slapped on some psychedelic stamp which wasn't the best quality, nor a centered image, but the result is quite cool, so I'm not gonna complain too much!

As you can see, the stamp isn't of great quality as there is a lot of 'blind' spots. But from far it's not noticeable. So there's that I suppose :) And I have centered the gradient on my nails (as much as I could) but forgot that the stamp isn't centered! Gah! You live and learn! At least the pinky is aligned!

I have spent few hours de-frosting my freezer so I got some booboos on my fingers and my hands aren't in the best of shape, but nothing will stop me from having fancy nails!

I hope you like this design! The colors I chose aren't the ones I usually wear but it's very fresh and summery!

Until next time!
-Mags

Mags' Retro Palm Trees Nail Art

Hello Everyone!

When it's 30°C, the last think you want to do is do your nails, you'd rather plunge into a cold bath and read a book while you're slowly getting comfortable and cooling off. But you know, when you're addicted to nail art, you won't leave a chipped mani on for another day, so I had to do what I had to do!

I decided to recreate a design I saw on Pinterest (you can follow me there if you'd like). I really wanted to do a palm trees nail art again, they are one of my favs along with nautical nail art.

It kinda has a retro feel to it and I love that! I didn't want to bother doing a gradient, everyone who has done their nails during a heat wave of Hell, will avoid doing gradient or anything complicated as the polishes get gooey real fast!

I could have bothered and use tape for the lines but I didn't :) It's all freehand again, it was just quicker to do it that way.

The colors are perfect for this weather, would probably have loved doing them with neon colors, but like +Fabiana N I don't have that many neon polishes either. Yeah I know, it has to be rectified! I'm working on it!

I hope you enjoyed this manicure! Have a nice end of the week and see you next time!
-Mags

Mags' Freehand Lemon Nail Art

Hello Everyone,

here is a quick blog post on my lemon nail art. It's freehand, so there's not many things to talk about!
Just a tip though, do not do your nails, with tiny details when you haven't eaten anything all day, the shaking is quite difficult to work with ;p

Catrice - Blurred Limes
Claire's Neon - California Girl
Essie - Blanc
P2 Perfect nail hardener base coat
HK Girl Top coat
Picture Polish - Monroe
ESIS color 44

My dominant hand, a bit more shaky than usual (lesson learned, eat first, paint after)

I had to do a lemon shot, didn't I? 

Hope you all had a great weekend!
-Mags

Mags' Mix & Match Nautical Nails

Hello Everyone!

I have a nautical nail art for you today! I absolutely LOVE nautical manis! I think it is my favorite kind of nail art to wear! So as soon as summer starts, it's only natural for me to create one. This year is no exception!

As you can see I went for a mix and match kind of mani. There are usually not my cup of tea but I couldn't decide on one design so i did them all :)

Before I go into the manicure detail, I want to take a moment to express my absolute adoration of Kiko - Electric Blue! It's hands done my favorite polish of all time! That color is magnificent and I always reach for it whenever I want to do a blue nail art or when I just want plain nails. It's Glorious!!

For this look I used Essie - Blanc as a base for my ring and middle fingers. I made a gradient using Kiko - Baby Blue, Kiko - Electric Blue and Barry M - Blackberry and topped it with a little gold shell from Born Pretty Store.

For the middle finger I used nail vinyls again from BPS and Barry M - Blackberry, and topped the look with a anchor metal sticker. The metal anchor was such a pain to use, I should have curved it before applying, but i ended up managing to stick up fairly well.

You can see that the anchor is a bit damaged from me trying to stick it down! You live and learn :)

The rest of the fingers were less complicated to make, just few dots here and there using Catrice - Goldbusters. I ended up adding a thin layer of a shimmery polish from Berangé called Bleu Désir on top of Blackberry on my little finger.

With this kind of design, it is quite easy to do your dominant hand:

Everytime I look at my nails my mind  wanders on faraway beaches and sunny skies! Oh how am I longing for my holidays! To pass the time, bringing the holidays to my finger tips was the only thing to do!

I couldn't resist taking a macro shot of the little shells studs!

Until next time!
-Mags