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' Flower Pastel Gradient Nail Art

Hello Everyone!

It's been a while since my last mani, but with the crazy heat wave we've had here, doing nail art was not the first thing on my mind. But we have a bit of a breeze before the heat comes back so I took this opportunity to do my nails!

I've done a pastel gradient, and a flowery accent nail. The flowers are done using the one stroke technique but with nail polish and not acrylic paint. So it doesn't work as well but still looks nice. The outlines are done with black acrylic paint.

I am trying a new base coat, that I recently purchased, it's the P2 Brittle Stop. My nails have this stupid tendency to peel so I hope it will help with that.

Close up on the flower

The other hand

That's all for today, it was just a short post!
See you next time

-Mags

NPQ Challenge - Gradient - Showcase

Gradients are awesome. Either on their own or as a base for stamping or other kind of nail art, it's important to learn how to do gradients! Good thing it's not that hard and a little bit a practice goes a long way! If you have never done gradient, you can follow our tutorial HERE.

Last week's challenge, gradient was dedicated to +Sarah Short as she's our official Gradient Queen, and to thank her for setting the weekly challenge for the pasts 2 years!

Lots of entries last week and to chose only a few was a hard task, but here's the selection:

+Katolin O 

+Natalia A 

+Anne est Vernie 

+Dante Bianchino 

+milena pencheva 

+Francine S. 

+Crystal Bond 

+Estelle Aker 

+Anatasia Kamelia 

+Chaw Myat

_________

+Keely Gallagher 

+Fabiana N 

+Sarah Short 

+Magali Neuville-Bisceglia 

This week we are focusing on the good things in life, cakes!! So get your cooking straight and make your nails feel all delicious!

31DC2014 Day 10 - Gradient

Today is the last challenge of the 1st part of the 31DC: colors. Gradient is on the menu and who doesn't like a pretty gradient mani? Certainly not Mags and Fabs:

Mags 31DC Day 10 nails

Fabs 31DC Day 10 nails

If you are curious to see what other members are doing for day 10, go look on our community: NPQ

You can also go check our blog linkup for the members that own a blog: HERE

NPQ Tips - How to do Gradient Nails

Gradient nails are beautiful, easy to do and can be effective on their own or a great base for stamping, stickers or any kind of free hand designs.

It does require a certain amount of cleaning but it's so worth it.

Photo credit: +Mary Daniel 

The most common technique used is sponging. Using any kind of sponge (make-up sponge are the best though) you will easily achieve a perfect gradient finish.

- Prepare your nails and paint them in the lightest of the color you will use for the gradient

- Let dry completely.

- Apply the colors of your gradient on a sponge and dab it on the nail. 

- Wait for it to dry and repeat until you achieve the depth of color desired.

- Clean up

- Add top coat to smooth it all and blend everything nicely and you're done!

Here is a tutorial by the Nailasaurus: 

If you ever want to try or want to check different ways to make gradients, here is an awesome YouTube video by Meliney that will teach you all that:

OMBRE NAILS | 5 WAYS TO CREATE | RAINBOW GRADIENT NAIL ART TREND 2013 How to Easy Design Tutorial

Photo Credit: +Sarah Short 

Additional tips & tricks:

- Try to hold your sponge parallel with the nails and sponge in an up and down motion.

- This look works better with colors that compliment each other or that are close to each other (orange/yellow for example).

- Always apply top coat to smooth the gradient and achieve the perfect blend.

- You can ease of the cleaning process by taping your finger like you would before watermarble.

If you like those technical guides, tips  tricks feel free to request more of them on any technique you would like to master, we will happily create one for you!