November Monthly Mani Favourites

Last day of the month so here are my top 4 monthly mani favourites. So good to be doing nail art again after a 5 month hiatus!

Ksubi Nails

Sometime when I really love a mani and want to wear it for more than 14 hours, I rope in one of my friends so I can paint theirs instead so these are the beautiful Anastasia's nails. I wanted to practice my outline technique and I love the colour combo of black and clear so this is what I came up with! When it was done, her boyfriend pointed out that they look like the Ksubi symbol so that's what we called them.

While I love this design, I think the execution is pretty average. I definitely need to cut down my brush for finer lines and practice a bit more!

Multicolour Drips

I'd seen this design done a lot around Halloween with a white base and red drips for blood. I loved the idea but I wanted to change it up a little bit, so I used bright cremes instead! The colours I used were Sephora Dinner for 2 (pink), Sephora Curacao (blue), Essie Blanc (white) and two Kiko colours for the yellow and green.

I started by painting my base colour. Then, using another colour I used a match stick to place dots at different places up and down my nail. I used the same colour to join the dots and fill the empty space with a fine brush.

I love how this turned out, I think I'll have to redo them for halloween too!

TUTORIAL: Acid Wash

As promised, I've put together a small tutorial for how to do your own acid wash nails! I love this because it's such a great result for such a small amount of work.

 

Firstly, here's what you will need:

- Nail polish remover
- Top and base coat | I used O.P.I Start to Finish for both
- White nail polish | I used Essie Blanc
- Blue nail polish | I used Sephora Curacao
- Cotton tips

And here is how to do it:

1. After applying your base coat, apply two coats of a creme blue nail polish. Even if your blue is opaque after one coat, I would recommend doing two anyway as you will need that extra layer later on. Finish with a top coat.

2. Make sure your blue nail polish is COMPLETELY dry and then apply two coats of a white nail polish. Ensure you cover all the blue on your nails even if it means flooding your cuticles!

3. Soak a cotton tip in nail polish remover and gently wipe away at random parts of the nail until you are happy with the design.

4. Clean up with an angled brush and nail polish remover/acetone then seal with a top coat!

Super easy right?! Let me know if you give it a try!

Movember Mani

I picked up Essie The More The Merrier in duty free at Milan airport and I have been truly and deeply in love with it ever since. So what better way to wear it than with some cheeky moustaches over the top! The moustaches were done with a free hand brush and Sephora Black Lace.

Remember you can follow me on instagram @nailfinery !

Acid Wash

Ahh sweet 80s acid wash. While this mani might border the fine line between v cool and v tacky, I absolutely love it. It's super simple and easy to do on both hands as well! I will post a tutorial for the nails in a day or so and then you can try them yourself. I used Sephora Curacao for the blue and Essie Blanc for the white.

I also wanted to include a comparison between the first time I tried these nails (about 18 months ago) and now. Hopefully it's pretty clear that the top one is the former and the bottom one the latter! One of the best skills I have learnt is how to clean up - it's amazing what a difference it makes to a mani. I think the randomness of the design it much better now as well. 

Hopefully I can keep on progressing like this with the next 18 months!

Dotticure

For some reason, I have never been good at dotting. I know it's so easy but something about it has always had a mental block about it for me. So I thought I would take this problem head on and practice...and no better way to do that than through a dotticure!

I simply used a match for the large dots and a toothpick for the small dots. I started off with two coats of Essie Blanc as a base and then used three Sephora colours Curacao (blue), Black Lace (black) and Dinner for 2 (pink) for the dots. After sealing it with a top coat, I'm pretty happy with my progress with dotting! I need to work a bit faster to avoid some of the dots "pulling" (see where the white specks are in the middle of some dots) but otherwise I think I will be doing a lot more dots in the future.

Black with Gold Accents

After 5 months backpacking with no nail polish at all, I caved and bought myself the basics from a well place Sephora at the Rome train station. One of the great things I picked up was a set of three gold nail decoration pots - with gems, caviar and gold leaf! Immediately I knew I wanted to pair it with black and this is what I came up with!

When I first wanted to do this design, I planned on having the accent nails as being fully covered with the gold foil. However, it was just way to fragile to even try shape it to my nail and apply it without ripping! Instead, I used two sets of tweezers and very carefully ripped it into small shards and then placed them on my nail with a wet top coat. I actually think in the end this look is much better! I used Sephora Black Lace for the polish.

I always forget to take photos of my thumb but it has the same design as my pinky and index finger. I love this design, feels good to be doing nail art again!

The Face Behind Nail Finery

Hi! My name is Hannah and I'm based in Sydney, Australia.

I've ALWAYS loved painting my nails from a young age. I've been admiring nail art from afar for the last two years and dabbling in a little bit of it myself, about a design a month or less. In June 2013, I left home to go backpacking around Europe for 6 months and made a strategic decision not to take any nail polish with me.

Fortunately, after 5 months I broke my promise and bought myself a couple of basic colours, some studs, glitter, cut down some brushes and collected sponges, tape and matches for nail art tools. Since then I'm trying to get at least one design done per day. I'm super excited to be reunited with my nail art supplies at home in 12 days and have more than 5 colours on hand!

I paint my own natural nails. I don't use acrylic paint or stamping plates. If you are in the area, I would be more than happy to paint your nails! And I would love to be a swatcher for anyone.

Outside nails, I study Bachelor of Education at Sydney Uni, I work as a nanny and I really really love bacon.

You can contact me by
Facebook - Nail Finery
Instagram - @nailfinery
Email - nailfinery@gmail.com