This is my very first nail art tutorial, so please bear with me if its not too clear. The photography is much more difficult than I imagined. Kinda hard to take pics when my nails are still wet. Got abit of paint on my camera..hehe. Oh well..hope u likey:)
(This may be abit complicated for beginners. Maybe I should have started with a simpler tutorial...I'm having my second fitting tomorrow n I wanted to try out a design I might use for my wedding :P hehe..sorry!)
1. Start off with filing your nails into your preferred shape. I prefer squarish nails myself cos I think it looks nice n neat.
2. Paint one coat of any nude or light coloured polish.
3. Squeeze a little white acrylic paint onto a palette. Various brands of acrylic paint can be bought at any art store.
Cut off a small piece of sponge
(any kitchen/ make-up sponge will do...different textured sponges will give different results. Basically, Fine sponge=fine texture, Coarse sponge=rough texture *duh!* hehe)
4. Using your thumb n index finger, squeeze the small piece of sponge into a roundish shape.
Dab into the paint.
Do a few test dabs on a piece of paper first until the paint thickness is consistent.
5. Using the same dabbing motion, apply the paint onto the tips only.
Start at the ends and dab inwards. You can vary how hard you press down the sponge to transfer more or less paint. Press harder at the tips, n lighter as you move inwards to get a fading pattern.
Don't worry about getting paint on the sides.
The paint texture on your nails may look a little rough now, but its ok.
6. Wrap an orange stick with cotton wool and dip it in polish remover to clean the sides. (I dunno why its called an orange stick, but its pretty useful n cheap too. Can be bought from most shops like Watsons at the manicure section.)
I prefer to buy a 'roll' of loose cotton wool rather than cotton pads cos I find it lasts longer this way n I can pull out whatever I need from the pack. I can also stick the orange stick in and twirl it to wrap the cotton around it.
7. After cleaning the sides. Add one more coat of the same nude polish.
8. Add one coat of FINE glitter polish.
9. Add one coat of COARSE glitter polish to bottom half of nails only.
*Just to show what the different sized glitter polish looks like.*
10. Using the 3D Nail art kit I bought I will add a rose to one of my nails. Basically its quite simple :dip the brush into the liquid, then dip into the powder.
Takes alot of trial n error to get this techniqe right. eg. if u want bigger flowers, the brush must be wetter so that when you dip into the powder, a bigger 'ball' will form. Vice versa, if u want smaller flowers, dip in the liquid but slide the brush against the cap to remove excess liquid so it won't pick up so much powder, hence u get a smaller 'ball' to work with.
If all else fails, a rose nail art sticker is also nice. N nowadays they have 3D stickers too! So if you want to save the hassle of all this liquid n powder, I think stickers are nice too.
11. Illustration of how to build up a rose flower step-by-step.
12. Add a layer of top coat n whilst nails are still wet, apply various crystals to your nails. Here I randomly stuck on 1-3 crystals on each nail.
I use Swarovski crystals bought from Arab Street. The 'picker' you see in the top right hand of the pic was bought online. Its like a plastic stick with a knob of soft wax on the end. The wax can be shaped to pick big n small gems. The wax is sticky, so when u touch it to a crystal, the crystal will just stick on. Very very useful! If not a tweezer will also do, more 'le-chay' but still can do.
13. Top off with one final layer of top coat! Whew almost there!
14. VOILA! Sit back n admire your BEAUTIFUL nails!
Always been curious about 3D nail art...u know the kind u see in japanese magazines where the girls have really crazy nails with lots of flowers and stuff. Well, I found this 3D kit from a cart store at Junction 8....it had loads of other nail related stuff. Alot of really nice nail stickers, jewels..etc. A bit ex though...this kit cost me$49.90. :( Oh well...been looking for quite a while. And the instructions are all in Japanese! Ai yo! So I just follow the pics and try try. Quite difficult to get the right shape and consistency...more practice for me.
Can you believe how cute this is!?! 
Hmm...think my hubby will be quite happy with these Hello Kitty cabin crew....
I'm gonna steal all these stuff...
