Geometric Nail Art entry

Tip Top Nails South Africa had another nail art competition. The theme for this one was geometric. I really wanted to enter, but I had no idea where to start or what to do.

I know I wanted to have a base of blue, so I started with two coats of Tip Top Blueberry Pie.

 Blueberry Pie is a beaut!

For the geometric part, I painted Tip Top Hysteria and Armourplate on a thickish plastic sheet and when that was dry, peeled it off and cut it into random shapes. I did the same with Hean #225.

I then randomly stuck the shapes on, overlapping here and there. On my ring and pinky I stamped using plate M73 from BPS. The the top left image looked like blocks falling down, so I decided on that and stamped with Tip Top Jazzberry Blue.

I'm not too happy with the stamping, but I'm loving the rest. What do you think? I'm seriously loving Blueberry Pie and I'm already thinking of using it again.

Competition Entries

Glamore Cosmetics had a weekly nail art competition for the past 3 weeks, the last of which ended yesterday. Each week had a theme and I managed to enter each week.

The first week's theme was SPOTS and STRIPES. I really wanted to do something different. I mean, anyone can make spots and stripes. Eventually I decided on this.

There's spots and stripes. I think it's original, right? I used a matte top coat for it, to give the impression of paper, which at the beginning it was very cool and then it started to bubble. So I bought myself a new one and I can't wait to try it out.

Week 2 was of course VALENTINE themed. I had some ideas, none of which quite went according to plan. I had to change and redo some of my nails and by the end of it I was annoyed and just wanted to give. I did submit my entry as I did put a lot of effort into it and it did have a valentine theme. Ish.

I love how my marble turned out, even if it was my second option.

The last theme was marbling. If I had known that, I would have saved the valentine (ish) mani for the marble theme. Anyway, I again wanted to do something different.

I hope this is classified as different. I don't think it's often that you see this colour combination together.

I waited until now to post these, as the competition has ended and the last winners will be announced tomorrow. Wish me luck!

And as always let me know what you think.

Llarowe winner

I haven't mentioned this on the blog before or at least not that I can remember....

But back in August last year, early one Saturday morning (before 6am, early) I got an email from a lady named Sheila telling me that I had won a $500 Visa Gift Card from Llarowe. They had this competition on their FaceBook page for getting 1 million likes. I read the rules, luckily there was some international prizes available and I took a chance.

Instead of getting the actual Visa Gift card, we opted to pay the money into my PayPal account. Which was awesome!!

Naturally I had to buy me some nail goodies!! And a lot of it. And I bought BF something too. This post is to show what I bought with the prize money. And it's in the order I received it. Obviously this took forever and a day with the postal strike that we had at that time. So some of these packages took months to eventually reach me. So obviously this post has been a draft for forever and a day too. So I'm am super stoked to finally share this!!

Firstly, the gift I bought BF. A robot from Portal.

Yea, BF is a real nerd sometimes. Although he claims he isn't.... This connects via USB to a pc and is motion sensitive. I've posted two videos to Instagram if you want to have a look. When it's activated it says some of the things the real ones do in the game.

Next I got me some Mont Bleu Crystal Glass nail files. I've been hunting for a decent glass nail file for a while and when I saw it, I think, on Lucy's Stash, I decided to take the plunge and buy it. I got two sets, one of which I gave to my mother.

Now I just need to learn how to shape my nails properly myself, because I totally suck at it.

Then I finally received the package I ordered from BPS back in August I think. Dotting tools, nail art brushes, decals, new stamping sets, stamping plates, stamping plate holders and decals. Some rhinestones and the glitter that you use for glitter placement.

If you want a close up of anything, or if you want to know what stamping plates it is, just drop me a line and I'll happily send you some shots.

Next up, is a package from Parental Advisory Polish. I ordered this back in November because there was an awesome discount going as it was Maranda's birthday. When I got this box, I for the love of me couldn't think who it was from. Imagine my excitement when I opened it! (I actually got two packages on the same day, but I opened this one first.)

I ordered fuck me boots, happy ending, dirty pickle and tiff's tush. OMG don't you just love those names! And Maranda was so kind to throw in some metallic studs and french tip guides. I love it, as I don't have any metallic studs and the tip guides are the skinny ones, which I think works better for some art than the thicker ones. Of course my mother claimed one of my happy endings (sigh).

The other package was from BPS. Some awesome decals and a nail polish bottle holder. To keep it from sliding around, which is a problem for me. I ordered two glass nail files here too, but obviously I'm sticking to my Mont Bleu ones. My mother claimed one of these ones already, even with the set I gave her.

There was also this random little packet with the package, that I (again) for the love of me don't know where it came from. In this packet was a stamping plate, decals, silver hexagon glitter, 3D flowers and loads of rhinestones. BF was like, I probably got some one else's order too. I actually think that when I placed this order BPS had a thing going that if you spent over a certain amount, you got a free gift. It's the only explanation that makes any kind of sense. Or there is actually some one out there that didn't get their BPS order.

I also ordered some polishes from Llarowe. I felt that I needed to order something from them, for the awesome prize I got. 

Isn't that just to die for? I mean, I have Emily de Molly polishes!! I got some vinyls as well and I can't wait to try them out.

There is some lightning, chevron and starburst ones.

And lastly, at least I think it is the last I ordered with my prize money. I mean it took forever!! Stamping plates and decals.

And more stamping plates!!

Omega Nails South Africa winner

Omega Nails South Africa, My Manicure Madness and Do My Nails hosted a competition on their FaceBook pages for glitter pots that was sponsored by Omega Nails. As I mentioned on my facebook page, I was lucky enough to be one of the winners, as there was one winner per page.

I contacted the lovely Gael from Omega to organise delivery and while I was doing that I ordered two of the Omega treatments, Omega Labs Ultimate Growth2, one for me and one for my mother with whom I would have to share the glitter pots.

Gael was kind enough to send my mom a little something something... And she was even more kind by sending me some samples. I was also very impressed with the way everything was packaged. It was made up nicely and you could really tell that effort was put in to it. And that made it even more special.

I've said this to some people and I'll say it again. The people I've met in the nail art community are some of the kindest and most generous people I know. I mean where have you seen people randomly sending you things without even knowing who the hell you are?

I had just started following Michelle and she kept mentioning using this thing called "striping tape", I was like wtf is striping tape?? So I sent her a message on Facebook and she explained to me what it is and then offered to send me some! Like huh? Send me some? Suuuure! Obviously not gonna say no to free stuff (saying that tongue in cheek, knowing she might read this).

But that's not where it ended... It is where it started though and I completely fell in love with this community and it still manages to astound me. I just hope that one day I would be able to give some things away to somebody that just starts out. And be able to show the same amount of generosity that was shown to me. The kind part I'm not too sure about.... I'm a bitch after all :p (LoL)

Anyway, I will be posting on the treatment and see if it works for me. So keep a look out for that. Also if you want to order anything from Omega you can visit the website www.glamore.co.za or you can email Gael on gael67@telkomsa.net.

Tip Top Nail brand shutting down

It's with mixed feelings that I write this post. Utter sadness and at the other side of the scale, excitement.

Today, Tip Top Nails South Africa announced on their FaceBook page that they will be closing at the end of 2014. This is very sad news, I joined their page about 2 years ago. I fell in love instantly. And then I bought some of their products.... Miraculous Results and Cuticle Oil. And for the first time in years, I had hope. Hope that I could have "talons", the ones that you only see in nail art blogs. Then it happened and all thanks to Joan and the wonderful Tip Top Team.

I even won a prize and got third place in a nail art competition. Yes, me. Who knew?

That is also the reason for the excitement. After such a long postal strike, I finally got my prize!!

As you can see, I got a brush, some rhinestones, two 3D bows and three polishes. They are from left to right, Grape Dance, Protein base coat and Cool As A Cucumber. 

The awesome part is that I don't have any of these polishes! So WooHoo!

Now the problem is, getting me the polishes I don't have. Like Meringue Surprise and Red Rendevous (although my mother said I can have hers) and Sitting Pretty.

Now I'm just sad again, when I think of how many awesome polishes I don't have yet and time is running out...

But to Joan and the Tip Top Team, You guys were the best and I hope the next venture you tackle will only go from strength to strength.

Breast Cancer Awareness and TT Competition

As you all know, it's October and it's breast cancer awareness month. And everywhere there has been some amazing nail art popping up to support this campaign. Michelle at Ordinary Misfit did this beauty as part of the #31DC2014. And I found some awesome ones here on FB. There's even a tutorial for a Pink minion! How cool is that?

Anyway, as usual, Tip Top Nails South Africa was running a nail art competition to support this campaign. The rules, use any colour pink and white and the pink ribbon needs to be on one of your nails. And you need a pretty picture to support your art.

I had such a lot of ideas, watermarble, dots, stripes and gradient. But I didn't want to do dots as I'm waiting for my dotting tool set from BPS. Which is taking forever, as we have a postal strike at the moment. Damn you, South African Post Office! Anyway, this is what I settled for.

I painted two coats of Melting Marshmallows, for my dots (yes, I know I said no dots) and ribbon I used Red-dy Steady Go. This is such a pretty colour! I've been looking for a nice rosy colour and this is it. For my gradient I used, Sexy Bikini and Pot O' Berries.

My gradient has improved... I can tell, trust me. I think my pinky came out quite nicely. My ribbons are a little wonky though, but it's all for a good cause after all. Oh and the heart.... It's my earring that I made myself. Yes, bragging a little.

I am also super proud of my mom and my colleagues, they all entered!



My mom's entry,



Margaret, my colleague,

And this is Danielle's work, also a colleague.



As I said, I'm super proud of them.

Oh and if you wanted to get something from BPS, you can use my code.

Spring Bling

I'm having a love affair with Tip Top Nails South Africa's polishes. I don't have an acurate number, but I have over 50 bottles of polishes, a couple of cuticle oils and their amazing Miraculous Results. Thanks to the combination of MR and cuticle oil and wearing gloves when I do housework and being super careful at work with the crazy amount of filing, I have managed to grow and keep my nails at a lenght I love! My nails have never been the lenght it is now and I really love it. Whenever I talk about my nails I start grinning like an idiot, which I'm doing right now at my screen :D In actual fact my middle finger nail broke just before I did this mani, I knocked it a couple of times and eventually I think it had enough. I don't think the lenght lost is that noticable

Anyway they are again having a competition on their page. This one is a Spring Bling competition. So they looking for pastel colours, no art and lots of bling. Again I wasn't sure what I wanted to do,  I wanted to do another waterfall mani, but I didn't want to be predictable. I remembered seeing a mani, where there was a silver nail, with lots of glitter. And I wanted to try that, but what would the rest of my mani look like?

So I settled for this...

Here I used Tip Top Fairydust on all my fingers except my ring finger. There I did 2 coats of Armourplate with 2 coats of Snowcapped glitter over that. I then did 2 coats of Snowcapped glitter on my pinky, thumb and middle finger. I started more than halfway up my nail with the first coat and halfway into the first coat, I started the second. Hoping it would appear as a glitter gradient. On my index finger I placed a tear drop shaped gem. I looooove how this turned out. Its so sparkly and I keep catching glimpses of the glitter and then I have to admire my handiwork. In retrospect I should have maybe used Galaxy glitter, it has more of a holographic colour and would probably have shown better on the Armourplate, but again I really loved the way this turned out.

For some reason though I struggled my ass off to take a decent picture. In the previous pic I don't like the shadow behind my hand and you can see the wonky shape of my index finger very clearly. It actually seems that I ended up with polish on my cuticle, but that is not the case.

With this picture, its really not very clear. I'm actually very dissappointed with these pics. I've taken them over multiple times, but I'm just not happy with the outcome.

What do you think? What picture is your favourite? I submitted the last one.

P.S. I tied third place :) So yayness. Joan, the CEO of Tip Top, has given all of the entrants the option to email her and get the opinion of the judges. So naturally, I did just that. I wanted to know what they thought, regardless of the fact that I was a winner. So the response was:
"An excellent improvement. Lovely, pretty entry fitting the colours, spring and bling in. The towel in the picture does kind of ruin it but we thinks she did really well and listened to the advice she was given last time."
So I was like eeeeek, its not a towel, but a blanket and I use it or a red one to take my pictures on. The reason for this being that I had read somewhere that a cluttered background distracts from the actual art itself. Guess I won't be using those blankets again... But now to find a neutral background... Any suggestions?

Paint it YELLOW!!

Man, I feel that I haven't been getting time to do any posts.
I have been having a hard time lately with people criticising me for my nail art, not in the aspect of how good or bad it is, but more along the lines of "Where do you get the time, don't you clean your house?" "Don't you have better things to do?"
And you know what, SCREW you all. I don't have to answer to anyone. I make time for myself. Because if I don't, who will? Some people are saying that when I have children one day I won't be able to do it then, but you know what? Even then I will make time. Why should I lose who I am and what defines me, just because it has happened to them? Sure, maybe right now I don't understand it, maybe one day I will, but for now, I am who I am.

Anyway enough of that, on to the nails!!
A friend of mine recently had a profile picture competition on her FB page, Do My Nails. The theme was Paint it Yellow.

I wasn't too sure what I wanted to do, but I really wanted to try to do a waterfall mani. I wasn't too sure either what yellow I wanted to use. I only have two, so I decided to try the one I haven't used before. It was Tip Top Nails South Africa's Summer Secret. And I have to admit, I do not like this one, not because of the colour itself, but even after 3 coats and a white bottom its still not opaque. My special brand of OCD does not allow for my nail line to show. But let me share the full mani.



It's not bad, considering that I got a lot of compliments for this one. Most people said it looked like fire, that wasn't the plan, but hey, I'm not complaining. I used my nail art brush and made the stripes with Tip Top Cherries in the Snow, Salsa Pop and Armourplate. I actually really like how this turned out. My lines aren't all the same lenght or very straight, but I think that is what makes it very cool.

Like I mentioned I'm not a fan of the yellow polish, don't get me wrong, I love the colour, but the fact that it's not opaque, annoys me to no end. I'm really not sure if I'll use it again. Maybe I could use it for a glitter sandwich... What do you think?

Oh, my mother liked it so much she had me do her nails the same way...

For her I used Tip Top As the beat grows on, I just loooove this neon green!



I'm gonna try a waterfall mani again some time, maybe with some blues or pinks and maybe with some more stripes... I think I was going with the less is more look ;)

Freaky things and Nail Art Competition

My goodness, it feels like this is way overdue. I was planning on doing a post last weekend for my mani that I did with Tip Top black forest and glow in the dark decals I got from BPS. I also did some dots with Essence glow in the dark top coat, but alas, BF went and bought Diablo III: Reaper of Souls.

Does that not make you want to play it? This is the reason why there was no post last weekend, my plan was to do the post Sunday, instead we ended up playing the whole day. Eventually started to realise it was getting late when we had to put the light on.

Let me share the mani with you (I did share it on my Facebook page)....

I actually got a "nice" from BF, never before have I gotten that! His only problem was that the stars are all sharp edges and the dots are round edges and it doesn't go... And I was like whatever. Anyhoo, what do you guys think? Let me know ;)

On to the reason for todays post. Tip Top Nails South Africa has a nail art competition at the moment, which ends tomorrow. You have to get a man in your life to choose 3 colours and do an accent nail with those colours. And take a beautiful picture. So obviously I asked BF and he gave some colours, some ideas, changed his mind, changed his mind again and then he had me google some things... Like this very creepy Green bottle blue tarantula.

Suuuuure, to certain people it might be pretty, but not this people. Ugh not a big fan of big blue and orange spiders, imagine finding that in your house! Besides this little wonder he had me look for a vampire squid, by this point I was starting to think WTF??

Little creepy right? And lastly he had me look for this...

Now this I can live with. Its so bright and pretty :) This is a poison dart frog, one of many. Theres even one named after a strawberry.

So finally I have my 3 colours and a workable idea. I used sunkissed, black forest and jazzberry blue. I have another yellow, not too sure what the name is right now, but I settled for sunkissed as it also has a shimmer like jazzberry blue.

And as you can see my top coat smeared my spots :( I hate it when that happens. I was very tempted to redo it, but I thought screw it. In retrospect I should probably have waited a little longer before I top coated. Too late now.

The other part of the competion was to take a pretty picture with the art, so this is my picture that I submitted to the competition.

What do you think? BF said to me it turned out better than what he thought. Probably because of what he had in mind...

Let me know what you think or like my Facebook page Sarcastic by Nature.