piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013 - Celebrating the Year of the Blogger

Hi ladies! I hope you all had a lovely weekend! :)
Today I have a super exciting post for you! Today is Aussie brand piCture pOlish's annual Blog Fest! Some bloggers all around the world have been chosen to share some piCture pOlish shades and create a nail design with them. I am so so so excited to be one of those chosen bloggers. :) This is my first time using piCture pOlish polishes!

The 3 polishes I have are Ariel's Tale (a clear base with ocean green glitters), Ocean (a light blue jelly with a holographic sparkle), and Flirt (a bright pink creme). But for now, here is the nail art I came up with...

**Please excuse how nubby and short my nails are right now! But hey, this blog IS 'Ten Little Nubs'... ;)**

On most of my nails I used 2 coats of Ocean as a base and added hearts using Flirt! ♥

On my thumb & ring finger I have created a gradient with Flirt as a base. I sponged on some of Ocean, which created a really pretty dark blue colour over the pink, and then I painted a bit of Ariel's Tale over the top for more sparkle. :)

I even went "on location" to the beach to photograph these! ;)

And here's how I achieved each of the designs...

Click on photo to view larger version...

1. Paint nails with 2-3 coats of Ocean.
2. Paint a square using 2 coats of Flirt onto a zip lock bag. Leave to dry for at least 3 hours.
3. Peel off carefully using tweezers.
4. Use a small heart hole puncher to cut out heart shapes.
5. Add slow-drying top coat to nails and place Flirt hearts using tweezers.
6. Add a generous layer of a fast dry top coat.

Click on photo to view larger version...

1. Paint nails with 2 coats of Flirt and leave until completely dry.
2. Paint strips of Flirt and Ocean onto a makeup sponge. Stamp sponge onto nail to blend colours. Repeat 2-3 times.
3. Add a coat of Ariel's Tale to 2/3 of nail.
4. Clean up cuticles with acetone and a makeup brush, then add a generous layer of a fast dry top coat.

Hope you enjoy this look! I absolutely love the gradient. ♥ I may wear it as a full manicure soon. If you try out either of the looks using my tutorials please send me a photo on Instagram or Twitter! Use the hashtag #tenlittlenubslook so I can see it (I sometimes miss photos in my feed). This goes for any design you see on my blog too. :)

If you'd like to vote for me in the piCture pOlish Blog Fest please click HERE and fill out the form! You could even win some polish for yourself!! Thank you sooo much. xx

Later this week I'll be posting a full swatch & review of the 3 piCture pOlishes in this post. :)

piCture pOlish is available at picturepolish.com.au, and they ship worldwide. They're also available from a few international etailers. Check that out on their Network page. They have soooo many colours to choose from. Everyday Deals

piCture pOlish on Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Google+ | Pinterest

*Product(s) in this post were provided to me by the company or PR for my 100% honest review. For more info please read my Disclosure Policy

Zig Zag Nail Decal Tutorial

Last week when I posted this nail look, I asked if any of you would be interested in seeing how I did the zig zag nail! And you probably gathered by the fact that you're reading this post, that many of you said 'yes'! :)
It's pretty easy but requires a bit of patience so maybe don't do this when you're in a bad mood. ;)

I first saw this sort of technique (sort of) on YouTube from CutePolish but I didn't really like the method too much. She uses sticky tape, paints the polish on, and then cuts it into strips. It does make it really easy to cut into strips, but you leave the sticky tape on your nail, and I found that the tape lifted and peeled after about a day of wear. Tammy from Oh My Gosh Polish created a similar tutorial on how to do the zig zags, but I do it a little different from her method so I thought I'd share it. :)
Just so we're clear, I didn't invent this method & I'm not claiming to, I just wanted to share how I do it!

You Will Need:

- Pinking Shears (or zig zag shape craft scissors - they need to be sharp though! Good quality will give you the best results!) My grandma gave me the ones I have, you can probably find them in the sewing section and Ikea also sells a pair.
- Zip lock bag
- Tweezers
- Nail polish (if that wasn't obvious already...)
- Fast drying top coat
- Regular top coat

Click on the photo to see a larger version!

1. Paint a section of your coloured polish of choice onto a (clean) zip lock bag. Keep your coats as thin as possible! Try to use a polish that you know will be opaque in 2 coats, or even 1 coat if you have a polish that awesome. ;) Wait until the first coat is totally dry before applying your second coat. 
Then leave for at least 3 hours to dry! This is really important so be patient! I tried waiting only 1 or 2 hours and it just doesn't work. The polish won't peel off the baggie unless it's dry. So maybe you can do this at night and then have it dry overnight, or if you do your manis at night, do this in the morning, and then by night time the polish will be ready to go! While you're waiting for the polish to dry, this might be a good time to paint your nails with a base colour, so it'll be dry when you want to add the zig zags on. :) (The polish I've got on as a base is Born Pretty holo #8 that I posted earlier today)

2. When the polish is dry, use a pair of tweezers to carefully lift up the side of the polish and peel it off of the zip lock bag.

3. Using your pinking shears/scissors, cut the polish into strips as wide/thin as you'd like them to be. This will probably vary depending on your nail length and how many zig zags you'd like on your nail. The thinner you cut them, the more zig zags you'll get on your nail. It can be fiddlier to cut the strips small, though so I prefer to cut them a bit wider. I usually put on 3 zig zags per nail.

4. Put a thin layer of a top coat over your nail *not a fast drying top coat!* for your zig zags to stick to.

5. Pick up a zig zag with your tweezers and place it where you want the first zig zag to be. You can move it around if you need to but it's best to just be really careful when you place it because if you try to lift it up, it may be already too stuck onto your nail and it could rip. :( Repeat with as many zig zags you like.

6. Trim off any excess on the sides with a cuticle nipper or nail scissors/clippers and clean up around your cuticles with polish remover & a small makeup brush if necessary.

7. Add a generous layer of your fast drying top coat, and you're DONE. :)

I hope this tutorial was easy to follow! It's my first pic tutorial ever, haha. I actually found it much more time consuming (it took me about 5 hours all together! With waiting for polish to dry and all) and harder to put together than a video tutorial, though. :/ I probably won't be doing many more pic tutorials in the future, just sayin'.