Jul 31, 2015

MonthlyManiFavorites: July 2015

Here are my nail art favorites from the blog this July, which ones are yours? Let me know in the comments section below and don't forget to follow NailsContext on Facebook and Instagram. Enjoy!!!

Jul 29, 2015

Polka

Simple Black and White Polka-Dot nails. Polishes used are Butter London's Cotton Buds and Union Jack Black.

Jul 28, 2015

Book Review: The Rumor

It's been more than a year since I posted any Book reviews on my blog. Even though the main focus of this blog is nail art, once in a while I like to share my Henna art, my travel experience or book review of the latest book that I read.

Recently one of my followers on Instagram asked me to post the review of a book I read. Some other's asked me to post the review of every book I am reading. This made me think why not start posting book reviews regularly.


So here is the the review of a latest book that I read. The book is a new one called THE RUMOR from one of my favorite author's – Elin Hilderbrand. I have read all her books and love each and every one of them. The Rumor released in June, 2015 and me being her biggest fan had to read it rightaway.

Elin Hilderbrand's novels have all been set on and around Nantucket Island (she lives on that Island). Reading her novel makes you want to go and live on that island in summer. The story of THE RUMOR, as the name suggests, is about a set of rumors surrounding the families of two best friends Madeline and Grace. Some of the rumors are true and some are just made up. From beginning to end this book keeps delivering! You won't be able to put it down. The characters are real and story line is great. You will fall in love with Grace's garden ( I wanted to sit on the Adirondack chair and stare at the harbor for hours) and would want to eat the lunch spread, that she makes. This is a great story of how a small rumour can effect everything in that person's life and all those around them too.

If you haven’t read Elin Hilderbrand books, then run to the nearest library or book store and start now with whichever book of hers, you find first. My first book of Elin Hilderbrand was Castaways. I saw the book at a book fair and decided to borrow it from the library so I can try the author and her writing. By the time I was finished with it, all her books were already in my library queue and new ones were pre-ordered. I assure you that you will be addicted with her books and would want to read each and every one of them. Her writing style is clean and easy, which is what I prefer.

I would rate The Rumor 5/5. A must read (I finished it in 4 days).

What do you think of this new Book Review section on the blog? Do you like it? Would you like to see more book reviews in this space? If so then let me know in the comments section below. If you want to see which book I am reading - look up the tag #sonyreads on Instagram.

Jul 26, 2015

Tutorial: Ikat Print

Hi All, I created a step-by-step tutorial for you all to create Ikat print nail art from my last post.


For this nail art you would need -
1. Nail Polishes.
2. A thin nail art brush.
3. Top Coat.
4. Base Coat.

Step 1. To start, first paint your nails with a base coat to protect your nails.


Step 2. When the base coat is dry, on top of it paint your nails with a base polish. I used a grey polish called Sally Hansen's Wet Cement. Make sure you polish dries completely, before you attempt Step 3.


Step 3. Now using a nail art brush, create two white irregular triangle shapes on each of your nails. For white polish I used Butter London's Cotton Buds.


Step 4. Using your second color (I used Zoya's Darcy - a perfect yellow shade), place a small amount in the middle of your white triangles. Follow the general shape of the white triangle. It doesn't have to be perfect.


Step 5. Now using a black polish and a thin nail art brush, outline your white triangles. Be careful not to make the outline too thick as you still want to see the white underneath. Black polish I used here is Butter London's Union Jack Black.


Step 6. Now add black polish in tiny triangles inside the second color(yellow) triangles that you created. Make sure yellow is still visible, as it's the brightest color of this design and gives the wow-factor to it.


Step 7. Once all the nail art is dry, seal it with your favorite top coat. That's it, EASY isn't it.

If you liked this pictorial and would like to see more of these for other nail art designs, let me know in the comments section below. You can also communicate with me on Facebook and Instagram. Enjoy!!!

Jul 24, 2015

Ikat Print

I wanted to do Ikat nail art for a long time and thought it was finally the time to go ahead and execute it. I couldn't decide what color combinations I wanted to use and hence came up with Grey and Yellow one as I haven't seen anyone do an Ikat print in these colors before. I used a very thin nail art brush to create this nail art. The polishes I have used are Butter London's Cotton Buds (My favorite goto White polish) and Union Jack Black. I also used Zoya's Darcy and Sally Hansen's Wet Cement. To learn how to get this look on your nails, in few easy steps, click HERE. Hope you all love this.

Jul 21, 2015

You Can Count On It

OPI has come up with Infinite Shine collection. It's a collection of nail polishes which are 5-Free (Formaldehyde, Toluene, DBP, Formaldehyde Resin, Camphor) and gives you gel-like shine that lasts until you take it off. You can read the review of another polish in this collection that I reviewed before HERE. The polish I am reviewing today is called You Can Count On It. What attracted me towards buying this polish is it's beautiful neutral shade and the shine that comes with it.

Jul 19, 2015

Simple Purple Nails

Sometimes all you need a simple mani, nothing over the top, nothing new. So I created this really simple purple nail art and as you can see didn't even take its picture until after 2 days. The polishes used are Revlon's Lily (my favorite mauve shade) and OPI's Parlez-vous OPI? You can see another nail art using these two shades and more, here.

Jul 17, 2015

Henna Series : Eid Mubarak

Hello Friend's, on this joyous occasion of Eid, want to share my henna design with you all. It's been a while since I posted any Henna designs done by me so here is one.

EID MUBARAK EVERYONE

Jul 13, 2015

Go Green

GO GREEN with this simple gradient green dots nail art. See another similar gradient green nail art which I did 2 years ago HERE.

Polishes used are - Revlon's Jaded and Emerald City, Urban Outfitter's Girrl Like You, Butter London's Jaded Jack and Cotton Buds, Charlotte Russe's "Unnamed" Dark Green Color.

Jul 10, 2015

Minions

Who else is excited to see the MINIONS movie, which is releasing today? I am so excited about watching it that I decided to paint my nails into tiny Minions and match them with my cute little Minion toys :D :D :D

Watch the movie this weekend and let me know in the comments section below, how you like it.

Jul 8, 2015

Molecules

Something about today's nail art reminds me of molecules and my Chemistry lessons from school ;) I used Michael Kor's Passion (You can see it's swatch HERE) and Formula X's Provocative (My first Formula X polish - a pretty pale blue shade) to create this nail art.

Jul 7, 2015

Nail-ed IT: Fourth time around

Hello Friends. I am very very excited to share with you that my Citrus nail art got featured in the July/Aug issue of Nail It magazine. This is the fourth time they have featured my nail art in their magazine(you can see the previous magazine appearance here, here and here) and also couple of times on magazine's web page before (you can see it here, here and here). I am SUPER EXCITED about my nail art being featured in the Magazine, FOUR times and cannot stop smiling :) You can check out the nail art featured in the magazine HERE. I had posted it back in May.

Jul 6, 2015

Pretty in PINK

Pretty in PINK is what I like to call this soft nail art. Polishes used are Butter London's Fruit Machine and ColorClub's holographic polish is called - HALO-GRAPHIC (#978). You can see it's swatch HERE. I created the waves by using Hawaiian Waves Nail Vinyls from Twinkled T.

Jul 1, 2015

Seeing Red

Let’s face it, every one can use a bit more bold and fearless in their life (Like the color RED). You can do that by going for something with more subtle hints of red like in your polish or in my case, my red nail polish art. I created this design free-hand using a nail art brush and some dotting tool. Polishes used are Chanel's Dragon and Butter London's Cotton Buds.