We survived the end of the world!

Congratulations, everyone! We've survived the unofficial end of an era as 'predicted' by the Mayan calendar but for all we know the calendar writing guy could've just had a heart attack and didn't get to finish writing 2012.

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and I have to apologise for being extremely lazy and not doing a Christmas nail entry. Creativity is the last thing on my mind while I'm on break from uni. I just want to be boring and whack on a few layers of glitter since foils make removal a breeze.

Every year needs to be kickstarted with confetti! Lots and lots of confetti!

Base is Zoya Ivanka. One of my all time favourites. Even though it reminds me of a time of bitterness because I never got to watch Wicked. I love musicals. I wish my life was one but too bad I can't sing.

Then it is topped off with something that is even better than a thousand cherries! I love cherries, just saying, to give you the comparison. Sephora's Spark-tacular! Confetti in a bottle. How could anyone resist?

Happy new year, everyone. Thank you for putting up with my laziness for yet another year. I really need to discover a way to make nail polish dry in the blink of an eye (not even joking). Then I'd have amazing nails everyday. Then this blog wouldn't be so neglected anymore. Then you won't hate me for not updating.

I love you all, best wishes for 2013! ♥

Giveaway winners + dabbles!

It seems that I lied when I said a few hours because somehow it turned into a few days. But better late than never. I think it should become my own motto since that is how disorganised I am.

Without further ado, the Grand Supreme winner is...

 

Lynette! Says the random number generator. I counted the numbers by chronological order of when I received each email. You are the proud parent of 2 bottles of rhinestones, 2 canes and a dotting tool (great for picking up rhinestones).

And da-da-da-TA! The Ultimate Grand Supreme is crowned...

Min Hee! Congradulations, girl! I hope you'll take good care of my minty dessert babies.

Thank you all for your participation. I promise that there are plenty more giveaways to come. I'm in the process of organising another one, in fact.

Onto my own nails. These were meant to be watercolour nails. You know, the ones that are dissolved by polish remover like how normal watercolour paint is dissolved by water. But my OPI Alpine Snow (Matte) base didn't seem to like having remover on it so these turned out as a dabbing effect instead. Still pretty awesome. I've invented a new nail art (wishful thinking).

Summer is fast approaching Sydney so I thought I should pick more floral tones to match how excited I am about summer!

These somehow remind me of the Qing dynasty pottery but in pink. Nonetheless, I am still very proud to have these happy accidents on my nails.

My first giveaway is now closed!

Thank you so much for your entries!

The winners will be revealed in my next post, which is coming up in a few hours.

Nude beauty

I'm a huge fan of nude nail polish. I think they're the nail polish equivalent to the little black dress. Every girl needs a bottle in their stash.

Orly Pure Porcelain has a very prominent pink undertone. But it works great for yellower skin tones because the pink is hushed down by its colder colour.

 I've been wanting to do something with the spikes for quite some time but didn't want to just go with the usual grunge sort of look. I think putting them on a nude base definitely gives them a touch of elegance.

The nude is really a refreshing break from this season's neon invasion. Hope you guys like this as much as I do. And don't forget to enter into the giveaway if you haven't already!

Don't judge a bottle by its glitter

Thank you guys for your entries into the giveaway so far. Remember that it is closing soon so keep those emails coming! I was kind of hoping of drowning in electronic mails.

This was meant to be some Halloween thing but since Australia is a bit of a kill-joy when it comes to American festivities, I decided to tone down the spook factor (until it is non-existent) and celebrate the colour black instead.

To be honest, I've never painted my nails as plain black before. Partly because I have talon-like nails. Glitters all the way!

The base is just a plain black. Here comes the trippy part. The bottle I'm holding is China Glaze Snow Globe. The glitters appear all white and pure and innocent in the bottle. I thought I'd be having a winter wonderland crossed with unicorn snot on my nails (which I was in fact looking forward to).

But to my surprise, a very pleasant surprise, the glitters turned into a much darker, almost fluorescent-like glow! I hope that mutated transformation was spooky enough for you folks.

I think I've found my new favourite glitter.

[CLOSED] My very first giveaway! Ends 12 November, 2012

I feel so treasured by everyone's continued support even though I am a very lazy blogger. I really wanted to give something back. I know this isn't much but I hope you'll like it and still enjoy it.

We all love to win. But I am one of those extremely unfortunate people who never, I mean NEVER win anything. No raffles, no online entries, nothing. So it actually makes me very happy being able to give and make someone feel lucky and hopefully break their unlucky streak.

I talk too much. I'll get on with the prizes.

I'll be drawing out 2 winners. Think of them as the Ultimate Grand Supreme and the Grand Supreme (but not as fancy). I should really stop watching Toddlers and Tiaras. But it is one  addictive show. Youtube needs to upload more episodes. Sorry, side tracked.

Grand Supreme Prize:
 

♥   1 bottle of pearl bows
♥   1 bottle of silver rhinestones
♥   2 nail art canes (as shown in the photo) that you can slice up and stick onto your nails (the slicing is such an addictive process)
♥   1 nail dotting tool (which I actually use to pick my rhinestones up)

Ultimate Grand Supreme Prize:

♥   1 set of minty dessert nails + double sided nail stickers for application

It comes in 8 different sizes with 2 in each size like in the photo. I've got to apologise in advance if you find them too short if you have a long nail bed. From experience, I tend to have this habit of making really long fake nails because they obviously look better when I'm painting them. But the person receiving them never really wears them because they're too long to look natural on their hands. No-one likes to have talon claws.

The rhinestones don't seem to show up on camera. I promise that the set is much shinier in real life.

So there are the prizes. Here are a few rules for entering.

1. Please email all entries to vintageplum@gmail.com by 7PM AEST 12 November, 2012
2. You do need to be a follower of this blog.
3. The email needs to contain your google username (so I can double check if you're a follower because I'm pedantic like that).
4. Email subject/title: GINGERBREADMANNE GIVEAWAY [your username]
5. Purely optional: something that you'd like to see in my next post.

The winners will be drawn out at random by that number generator website so no human bias there. They'll receive emails confirming the entry then will be contacted for postal addresses. Because you know, it will be very hard for me to personally deliver a parcel that is destined for anywhere outside of Sydney.

Good luck to you all and I really hope you do enter. Otherwise I'd end up looking very stupid. Across the globe. Stupid world wide web.

Sponge nail art: Mini tutorial for gradient nails

Sponging is one of the fastest and easiest way of creating amazing nail art designs. Galaxy nails are usually done through this technique. My favourite, though, would be gradient nails because the porous texture left by the sponge makes blending super duper easy.

Feel free to click on the image below to enlarge the tutorial.

 I like to cut up my make up sponge into smaller bits so I'm not wasting it. I'm pretty sure that kitchen sponges would also be fine. Another great tool is the spongey eyeshadow applicator. Make sure to gently dab off any excess before dabbing the colour onto your nails. I like to dab on the tip colour first then go back and dab on a bit of the base colour if the tip is too overwhelming.

The trick is actually not to worry about being messy or too fussed about the bumps left by the sponge while you're dabbing. A layer of topcoat will fix everything down with a super smooth surface.

The end result:

Base colour: Essie Splash of Grenadine
Tip Gradient: OPI Dim Sim Plum

You have no excuse not to have gradient nails. I will take over the world, with a sponge at a time.

In a shimmery meadow

Uni is back for me. Which means long periods of inactivity and ugly, chipped nails. I have been good though. So I thought I should celebrate with a splash of glitter.

Base colour: OPI Stranger Tides
Glitter: Bloom Seoul

Apologies for the blurry photo. My hands are not as stable as I thought. Huge over estimation of myself. Plus I took it on the train. Got a few strange looks but a girl's got to do what she needs to do for her nails.

I love this green so much. I've also updated my watermark stamp thing. I am open to criticism.

Starry-eyed love (for you, honey)

Galaxy nails are something I've been wanting to try for quite some time. Each time I try to make them happen, I'd be reminded of the fact that this stupid nail art design needs a tool that a normal nail painter wouldn't have lying around his/her house: a sponge.

I know what you're thinking, "why not just use a dishwashing sponge?" Gee, I wish I had thought of that BEFORE I had finished the design.

So this was done using a make up sponge. I think they work much better than cleaning sponges, anyway, since make up sponges are a lot finer, which means greater control while dabbing.

Base colour: OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue. And a lot of glitters.

This is the first successful nail art design in weeks. Now I'm pumped to experiement with other designs!

Muted pink

I love matte. Sometimes it is just too garish to wear colours that are practically neon.

Base colour: Revlon Fuchsia Fever. Top coat: Essie Matte About You.

I am definitely "matte" about matte. Ever so punny.

Doubly bubbly

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who loved rhinestones. But evil top coat polishes decided to dull the sparkle of her beautiful, shiny rhinestones. She had no choice but to wear the lustreless rhinestones in shame with hidden frustration. One day, she made an amazing discovery! Pearly finishes will not be destroyed by top coats. She set off to work immediate.

This is the result. Base colour: Essie Over the Top.

I had even managed to take a photo of my right hand. DSLRs are really really heavy.

That hopeful little girl is still yet to discover the perfect top coat that won't dull her rhinestones.

Midnight garden party

I can't believe it's been so long (over half a year) since my last post. I'm so sorry! No-one probably reads this anymore, which makes me feel even more guilty about it.

I haven't stopped painting my nails. It's just that it doesn't happen very often anymore, because my course is still a killer.

I remember almost 2 years ago, I bought quite a few packets glow in the dark stickers. But I've never been a fan of floral stickers because over the top rhinestone blings had always seemed to come out on top (I'm so punny).

These babies in action!

What it looks like the other 99% of the times. Base coat: Essie Something Borrowed. French tip: OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui.

I'll be uploading again real soon!