3D & Freehand Sushi Nails

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope you've been having a great week so far. I'm looking forward to this weekend as I worked last Saturday and bank holiday Monday meaning I missed out on all the delicious sun we were having – of course its just my luck that the weather seems to have changed.

All that said I've been having fun at work, I've had so many lovely customers and experiences.

I've been rather excited to show you today's nail art, I've been itching to post it sooner! Sushi is one of my all time favourite foods but its not so easy to get good sushi where I live...still, I found another way to enjoy it!

3D Hotdog Nail Art

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope you had an amazing weekend – what did you get up to?

On Saturday evening I went to my sisters for a cheeky Chinese and wine evening, I always love catching up with her. Don't get me wrong, its great spending time with my niece and nephew but sometimes its also nice to have proper grown up sister chats!

I've been painting (I'm well into the last week of June on my blog schedule!) and organising my blog posts out, I think switching my posts to twice a week will really take pressure off working and blogging. I feel like this way I can do what I love and work without any stress. I think I found the perfect balance!

Do you have a way to fit blogging in whilst balancing other aspects of you life? I'd love to know, I always find how people do their blog schedules so interesting.

Eye Balls Out! Freehand 3D Gel Eye Nails

Allo polish Pals!

And welcome to the start of another weekend, boy doesn't it feel like the first weeks of January are going so quickly? How are those goals and new years resolutions holding up?

Today's nail art is inspired by two things, the first being the current theme over on Tiny Canvas where this weeks nail art prompt is eyes.

The second source of inspiration comes from my seven year old niece. Now.. When I saw the prompt was eyes I found myself a little stuck. I've done something on this theme before and didn't want to do something too similar. So how does my niece come into today's design? Often when she's concentrating hard on something she'll say “Eyeballs out!” I have no idea where this came from, maybe a teacher at school says it...does it sound like something a teach would actually say..?

Anyway, regardless of where her quirky saying comes from when she saw this nail art she read it aloud and erupted into a fit of giggles!

Cute Animal Rectangular Stamping Plate - Born Pretty Store Review

*This post contains an item(s) that was provided for reviewing purposes however I will as always give my full and honest opinion.

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope you are having a great week so far? My days are SO mixed up, Monday was a national holiday here in Holland so Monday felt like a Sunday and every day since feels 'off'. Do you ever get that?

Today I have another review for you.. I feel like you guys might not like seeing my review posts as much so I am going to try and be really selective on what I show you from now on; I know seeing similar products can get a bit brain-nulling and while I blog for my own happies I also of course really care what you guys think!

Today I have 'CuteAnimals Rectangular Stamping Plate / BP-L063' from the Born PrettyStore to show you; We all know how great my 'stamping' skills are.. ha.. I tried my first ever reverse stamping! Close your eyes, its a sight for sore eyes! 

 Hats, bra's and toupee's off to you, ya genius stampers out there! I have always enjoyed seeing well stamped manicures and hold so much admiration for those who can make such beautifully neat designs. I am not a natural stamper.. and it does not come easy for me, even pairing images and colours I struggle with... so I truly admire your skills!! 

You'll notice on my middle finger I sort of cut out the 'bad dog, police dept' on the decal.. I'm not sure what happened to it.. but it went bye-bye's :'(

The polishes I used this time were Born Pretty Stores 'Together Forever' holographic polish, Born Pretty Store's Black stamping polish and Essie's 'Splash of Grenadine'.

Lets move onto the plate, shall we? This plate has some beautiful full animal patterns which is what really drew me to it, my favourite has to be the dog pattern I used and also the elephants, cats, dolphins.. Actually MOST of them. I also like that this plate comes with some singular smaller animals which is probably ideal for the stamping geniuses of the world who can mix and match patterns and designs together (I am not even going to attempt that!)

I also liked that there was a few of these designs which work really well with reverse stamping an

d that was what I wanted to try most. Overall I think this plate is a great addition to a stamping addicts collection.

What do you guys think of my first ever reverse stamping nail art? Do you own any animal nail stamping plates?

Have a beautiful day, my friends! I will catch YOU again on Saturday! Take care and thank you for dropping bye!

Love,

Ithi

3D Diamond Nail Art Studs (9 Colours, 5mm) - Born Pretty Store Review

*This post contains an item(s) that were provided for reviewing purposes however I will as always give my full, honest and unbiased opinion.

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope you are doing well and have a lovely weekend planned! What will you be up to? I think it's going to be a cosy one.

Some of my family are going to a wedding so I wont see the kids very much this weekend but I get to spend time with my parents which makes me happy. My mum has taken up knitting recently so its quite nice to sit together, I paint while she knits. Hobby corner!

Today I have another review for you, this time I am showing you...*Inhales deeply* '9Colours, 5mm 3D Nail Decoration Colorful Rhinestone Sharp BottomManicure Nail Art Decoration'... *gasps for air * Or in shorter words... Mixed coloured Diamond Nail Art Studs. These are come from The Born Pretty Store.

I picked these studs to review as I love different looking studs and diamond shapes are no exception. I like how easy it is to create unique looks with these types of studs. I didn't plan this very well though as I had the idea to sort of stack/sit them with normal flat studs so I could position them differently..but I forgot to pack more studs!

This nail decoration wheel contains 9 different compartments and has emerald, pink, clear, cloudy clear, clear reflecting rainbow, light green, muted pink, bright blue and a sort of lilac shades. You get approximately 45 studs in this wheel and they measure 5mm. They are not as large as these diamond studs I reviewed previously, which I am glad about as this size is much more manageable.

The wheel is slightly different to any I have ever owned previously, rather than twisting the top transparent lid to get to the designed stud compartment the entire lid is hinged and slides off so all the compartments are open, so be warned if you tend to keep your studs in a loose place such as a bag or box that gets moved a lot as if it moves your studs may fall out.

Overall though I am really happy with this little nail wheel, I love the beautiful colours of the studs and I love how nicely they catch the light. I would certainly recommend playing around with them to find unique ways of placing them..unlike me.

I better get my seasons in tune..

I've slowly and reluctantly began making winter themed nail art.. but I'm just not feeling it. Brr.

What do you guys think of these, do you prefer flat bottomed studs? How would you wear these?

Have a beautiful weekend my friends, thank you for stopping by! Don't forget to say hi! :)

Love

Ithi

Happy First Birthday, Tiny Canvas - Birthday Cake/Candle Nail Art!

Allo polish Pals!

I hope you are all doing well today? Have you been upto anything exciting?

Today I have some freehand celebration nails for you! These come about because the community I enjoy being in most of all, Tiny Canvas turns one this month. I've been a member for just under a year and I've made so many friends, I enjoy taking part in the challenges and love seeing posts from all the members. It also have such a friendly community with members of all levels of skill, there is never any nastiness there! HUGE love to Dani and the admin team who really make it a fun place to be!

For this weeks challenge the prompt was birthday cake/candles so I decided to go for some cute 'lil slices!

I began this manicure with my usual base coat, Mezmris Nail Lacquer's 'Armor Up' and once dry applied three thin coats of Essie's 'Bride To Be'. I then added a thin coat of Pro-FX top coat and again allowed to dry. I then moved on to my freehand an started by creating a water colour look using a nude colour.. it kinda looked cool. Until I added a matte top coat but the cakes looked nicer with the matte..arh..

I've been having huge artist block lately and I really struggled to get these today. Even today I spent about four hours painting something different and had a terrible out come, argh! Please hope for me that the inspiration faeries come back soon for me.

What do you think of my cake slice nail art? Are you apart of a nail community you really enjoy?

Have a beautiful day, thank you so much for stopping by! I'll catch you again on Saturday!

Love

Ithi

Freehand Autumn Leaves, Treats & Seasonal Goods!

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope you have settled into the new week with a good comfy feeling.

We're in Autumn... how has this happened? I feel like I need to call Summer on the phone and apologise.

“I'm so sorry I complained about you, I said you were too hot... Please forgive me...Come back.. please don't let it get cold!”

Autumn does have its perks though. I do love the chill and crisp air, then the feeling of coming into a nice warm house and throwing on a comfy pair of big fluffy socks or slippers, feeling your fingers defrost and warm up again is nice too.

For this manicure I began with my Mezmris Nail Lacquer Armor Up base coat and once dry I applied two coats of Essie's 'Cashmere Bathrobe'. I then applied my barrier coat of Pro-FX top coat, just because I like to paint this way... (I know, it probably makes no difference.) Once everything was dry I used my favourite brushes to create my seasonal, autumnal goods. I decided to add some writing. Always, always a bad choice for me as it always looks sloppy but I was happy with everything else.. so booyah.

What are your favourite things about Autumn? I've never really enjoyed the colder seasons but I think that's changing slightly with each year that I get older. I do think its rather nice being under a snug blanket with a good book while its horrid outside. Roll on the cuppa soups, too..!

What do you think of my autumnal nail art? Have you worn any seasonal nail art yet this year?

Have a beautiful day my naily friends! I'll catch you all again on Wednesday!

Love

Ithi

Freehand Rainbow and Rain Drop Nail Art

Allo polish Pals!

How are you doing today? I hope you are doing great!

I've been doing my best to reorganize myself, I'm normally not too bad at it and while I still have a whole bunch of manicures to keep sharing with you I sort of lapsed on the editing side. Never mind, all caught up and ready to go now. I think! 

I finally updated the 'About Me'  - I've always been honest about myself but I always 'held back' there are things there you may or may not have known about me. If you fancy, I'm not forcing you to read it, ofc haha!

Today's manicure is one of my entries for the Facebook community, Tiny Canvas - if your on facebook and have not joined... You should! Its just a lovely bunch of ladies all sharing their passion for nail art!  They used to throw a weekly challenges however now Dani (@Stormysway) has changed it so you can see the next few upcoming prompts in one go, which fits in perfectly with my OCD planning and scheduling, it means I have been able to take part in more of the challenges – yay!

The prompt for this challenge was weather.You guys know me by now.. I'm a sucker for a good rainbow!

For this manicure I began with my with my OPI's 'Nail Envy' and once dry I applied three coats of Essie's 'Bride To Be' to all my nails except my ring finger.

On my ring finger I applied a blue polish from a new up coming indie brand called Mezmris Nail Lacquer. (I've been lucky enough to be a first trial tester of her polishes. If you follow me on IG You'll know I am insanely in love with her base and topcoat already - I'm pulling out the Nail Envy less and less) Omg the silver shimmer...love love.

I applied a layer of Pro-FX because I like a barrier between my polish and art and then proceeded to create a rainbow ruffian to my nude nails. I applied some water drops and sealed everything in with a final coat of Pro-FX. On my pretty blue ring finger I added a stud from the Born Pretty Store (Here is my stud review)

I think this is a pretty simple manicure but I kinda like how it turned out. I redid the ring finger about three times, first I was painting the sun but was too unsatisfied so I decided to just go with the stud and I kinda like how it worked together even more! What do you guys think?

Have you had nails influenced by weather types before? What do you think of this manicure?

I hope you have a wonderful day, if you liked this nail art please be an angel and share using one of the buttons below (I'll be super grateful!) I'll be back Tuesday for more nail fun!

Love

Ithi

10g Dazzling Glitter & Freehand Watermelons - Born Pretty Store Review

*This post contains an item(s) that was provided for reviewing purposes, however I will as always give my full and honest opinion.

Allo polish Pals! 

How are you all doing today? What kind of a weekend did you have? Let me know your weekend highlight :)  The weekend was CRAZY-FUN for me! - normally I am telling you that not much happened!

Me and Mr Bravo traveled to Bramant in Holland and got to catch up with my sister and family! I know it wasn't long since I was home but considering I've seen them very few times this year it was so nice, and so much fun! We had lunch out, we ordered them Dutch food they had not tried and I got to see my two favorite little friends (niece and nephew!) and of course it was lovely to have a weekend away too. All with so much thanks Mr Bravo's brother and sister in law who helped us meet up at the right places and so on :) I'm thinking of compiling a life style post (Wow, a first!) just to cover the last few weeks. Mr Bravo and I ended up stopping in Rotterdam in between our train and subway rides on the way home. The weather was gorgeous. We don't always get to do fun stuff.. and we could. SO WE DID. :)

Today I have a review of '10g Dazzling Nail Art Glitter 7 Colours' from The Born PrettyStore to share with you. I'll be showing you the '8840' colour choice.

I want to start by saying I don't tend to use loose glitters like this too often. I guess the reason why I do chose them when I do is because I see so many really cool indie polishes packing a ton of unique glitter colours and shapes and I get a lemming so bad! This is actually when I ended up picking this colour selection!

This comes in a little screw top bottle and contains 10g worth of glitter, and let me tell you something... the bottle is packed! You'll get a lot to play with although I doubt most people want to cover all of their entire nails. Or you can, you do what makes you happy!

Just for my readers, with love.

The glitters come in bright green, bright pink, metallic blue and white hexagons as well as little bars of white glitter.... I suppose these are perfect for some fancy glitter placement but I looked at the bottle.. and then I looked inside my heart...And I decided to pat it all on! Cover the nail! Let there be (neon) light!...Ahem.. I sealed it all in with my top coat and removed any excess from around my nails.

Since applying my top coat they seem to have stayed on pretty well. I am not finding bits everywhere!I really like the colour combination and the sizing of the glitter pieces.I really, really like them and I also love the idea of having a few more colour variations to go with freehand designs.

I decided to do some rough sketchy bluey/green lines and added my freehand watermelon pieces on top. I am sure you guys would find amazing ways to wear this but I thought wearing it as a full accent nail would be a really fun thing to pair with my watermelon freehand art.

What do you think? Do you like this freehand/glitter combination? How would you wear this glitter?

If you liked this nail art please, please be a SUPER sweetpea and click a share button below, sharing is caring!

Have a beautiful day my friend, Catch ya again on Wednesday!

Love

Ithi

Nicole Diary Water Decal Review - Pt. 2

*This post contains an item(s) that was provided for reviewing purposes however I will as always give my full and honest opinion. 

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing today? I hope you are having a great week so far. I have been exploring Holland on Doris, I managed to get to the first subway station after the one at the mini mall! Its so weird riding on the opposite side of the road so I am sticking to the bicycle paths, the real road scared me a little, ha!

Today I have two more water decals to share with you from Nicole Diary. In case you missed my first review you can see it *Here*. So far its been nothing but a lovely experience, I am really enjoying how unique these water decals are and the ease of application.

I'd also like to mention that Nicole Diary have very kindly offered readers of IthinityBeauty a free gift worth up to $5 when you order from their Amazon/Aliexpress store and add the code 'ITH2016' to your order note - Isn't that super nice of them?!

This first design can be found: Here.

This first design is a beautiful combination of full pattern and sheer areas (in between the pattern) for this reason I decided to pair it with a beautiful silver holographic glitter underneath. Can you see the sparkle popping through the pattern and even under the decal colours? The colours on this decal are green, red and black and work beautifully together. I kind of get a Native American/Dream weaver feeling from them, don't you? I could be wrong. This manicure got me so many compliments!

This design can be found: Here.

The next set of decals are much more simpler if heavy patterns are not your thing. I think there's something really soft an feminine about this doodled/silhouette pattern. I feel like it would be well suited to some kind of soft furnishing! To keep the elegant and feminine look I decided to keep this manicure very light. I created a gradient using Rimmel's 'Breakfast In Bed' and Essence's 'A Girl With A Pearl' with a single accent of Essie's 'Beyond Cozy'. I finished by adding my decals and a single light green stud (Should have gone more pastel) and applied my Pro-FX topcoat.

I absolutely love both designs. You guys know me, I'm not shy of a full patterned nail! I also like that I can sneak glitters underneath for a little sparkle-pop! I think they would both be great for different occasions or as accent nails if you like a simpler but still super pretty manicure. I'm eyeing up the first one for big toe nail accents!

What do you think of these designs – which one do you prefer? Would you like to see how I apply my water decals in a video tutorial?

Have a beautiful day my friends, I'll catch you on Saturday!

Love

Ithi

Freehand Mountain Scene and Orca Whales

Allo polish Pals!

How was your weekend? Do you feel revived and ready to take on the new week?

I continued with my walking and while I was very unwell on Saturday I had a fabulous Sunday with all my Dutch family coming over to celebrate Mr Bravo's Mother for Mothers day.

I also...I'm still shocked at this, received a beautiful pink and blue bicycle. I had absolutely no idea and it is so wonderful as it gives me a little more freedom and independence. I can also just go for a ride if I don't feel like doing a walk. This bike is very different to the English bikes I had growing up so tomorrow I will go on a test drive. Considering my feet don't touch the floor when I sit on the seat I could end up in a hedge! By the way, I called her Doris!

Today I have a manicure that I killed! I was really happy with everything until I overloaded it with top coat and caused the worst bubbles I've ever had the privilege to see on my nails. You guys know how fussy and hard I can be with my creations... In the past I would scrap things and start over if I felt it wasn't good enough to show you guys and while I still want to only upload the best... I can think rationally that..”I put a lot of hard work into this, I spent a lot of time over it and I did really like it” so.. I'm going to share it anyway. Isn't that a personal improvement?! Lol. :)

I started with my usual base of OPI's 'Nail Envy' and once dry I added two coats of Essie's 'Tart Deco' and allowed to dry. From there I began to fill out the sky by using my acrylic paints to make a gradient with pinks and yellows. I added my trees and mountains (I clearly need some practice at mountains) finally I added the water and the Orca whales. I then proceeded to drown this piece of art in top coat. Its not even the top coats fault, It is my fave top coat which doesn't normally do this. I just... flooded it like it was the real sea. Opps.

Besides the bubbles I am still really happy with the effort I put in for this manicure, I know I worked hard and tried new things so the challenge was great.

What do you think of my whaley manicure? Have you ever had any topcoat disasters?

Have a beautiful day my lovelies, Lets regroup on Wednesday, shall we? :)

Love

Ithi

Deconstructed Flag / Red Vs Blue - DIY Decals

Allo polish Pals!

How are you today?

I made a HUGE MISTAKE!! You guys were not supposed to ever see this post, I basically put the same date on a couple of posts and had planned to allocate proper dates to my blogging schedule... and then I forgot. In the end I didn't like this manicure and had planned to change the pictures to another manicure I had created... so you got two posts in one day and now I will be frantically trying to replace nail art to keep my posts upto date. Haha.... Opps. I'm human ;)

Today's manicure is another DIY decal creation. I know my colour combination is pretty in your face... I couldn't decide what it reminded me of more – Superman Vs Spiderman or Cold Vs Hot.

Silver Bling Mixed Rhinestones - Born Pretty Store Review

Allo polish Pals!

How are you doing today?! I hope you all have a lovely weekend! I don't have anything too special planned this weekend. Maybe some exercise but I'd love to really get myself in gear, get back to being as organized as I was at the start of the year.

I normally have lists floating around everywhere telling me what post goes up on what day, what I still need to complete, random ideas I have and more.. so I'm going to try and use this week to get it back!

Today I have some really simple but cute little studs to show you from the Born Pretty Store.

Now I know a lot of people will have wheels like this, I know I had clear rhinestones as one of my first pieces of nail art but I just feel like these are slightly prettier.. more like raindrops! These are Silver Bling Mixed Rhinestones.

DIY Dry Marbled Pastel Decals

Allo polish Pals!

How are you doing today? I hope you are doing great! Do you have any goals set for this week? I think I am going to start setting myself goals...

I currently have have no internet besides cheekily hopping on to Mr Bravo's 4G here and there (obviously sparingly, Don't want to wrack up a huge phone bill) so I wont be able to comment and stuff until Tuesday (Hopefully the tech can fix it!)

Today I have some more DIY decals. I really enjoyed these nails because it was an easy way to get the water marble look without the failure risk. Its a more guaranteed way of getting marbled nails!

For this manicure I began by using some clear polish on a piece of old flooring (I'm not fancy enough for one of those special mats.. but hey if it works!) I allowed that to dry and painted my first base colour alternately. The polishes I used were Rimmel's 'Peachella' and 'Wild-er-ness', Model's Own 'Blueberry Muffin' and 'Banana Split', Essie's 'Mint Candy Apple' and China Glaze's 'Something Sweet'. I used a tooth pick to marble all these beautiful pastels together and set a side over night to dry.

The next day I painted on my favorite base coat, OPI's 'Nail Envy' to my clean nails and carefully peeled off my decals using pointed tweezers. I lay them onto the nail and gently patted them to get them to stick to my nails (They sort of warm up and stick to the base coat) I cleaned off any excess and took it one step further by adding a white border with acrylic paint and some simple gold sequin studs.

What do you think of my non water marble..marble? Have you tried making your own decals?

I'll keep you posted about my internet situation but luckily enough I have posts hanging around :)

Have a lovely day!

Love

Ithi

Essie: Fiji Swatch & Review ★★★★/5

Allo polish Pals!

How are you all doing? I hope you are having a great week so far. Tell me something positive in your life right now :) Today I'll be off to go clean and help out at Mr Bravo's Gran's house. After the flu I am looking forward to actually..and properly getting out of the house for a while!

Did you have anything nice planned for today?  I do have an Essie Shade to share with you today – This is Fiji.