How I take my Macro Nail Pics

Isn't this gorgeous??!!

Its a macro pic of Krizia Merman (see full swatch below)

I recently got a new clip on lens on Aliexpress for around $5. Its not the all-in-one kind of a thing with different attachments. This one is just a macro lens that can be clipped on any phone. Its really very good and I am surprised by the pics coz my old faithful point-n-shoot camera cant get as close as this does. So how close does this go?

First up heres a few pics of the product:

The white part is the clip. Incased in it is the black rubber type case which holds the lens.

So you gotta put the lens in the white clip and clip it on your cell.

The back section (see above pic; where my pointer is) that will clip on to your cellphone, while the lens will go right in front of your camera.

Below is a half zoomed pic (as in zoomed in my camera not on computer/pic); the top most one of this post is where its fully zoomed in)

This is how that pretty polish looks like in real

So the deal with this is that you have to go realllly close with good lighting directly on your nails.

Like as close as 1cm or even less and make sure ur hands are steady and you dont let your shadow fall on  your nails. and go clicking!! 

DIY: Make your own Gentle Remover: Nail Care

How many of you balk in disgust at the sight of white, fraying dry skin after you use a Nail Polish remover? Or run to splosh moisturizer on your cuticles?

I may have a solution to help your cuticles feel better!

I know we get Acetone free removers, but they take years/ages to make to polish come off.

Acetone is a good solution to that, but it dries ur skin! And How!!!

I was searching to buy a nice nail polish remover that doesnt try to kill my cuticles and I chanced upon this DIY Gentle remover. Its made on the lines of Zoya's Remove Plus Nail Polish Remover.

Essentially you use acetone coz its very effective to remove nail polish, but add the goodness of glycerin to make sure that acetone doesnt harm your cuticles.

Ready to make it? (if you said oh yeah!!! read further! 

if you already made it, please give your suggestions/tips on how to make this better.)

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Reader Q: What Do I need?

A: A bottle, Glycerin, Pure Acetone and filtered water

Reader Q: Is it gonna be an expensive affair?

A: Nope. 100g glycerin costs Rs.45/- ($0.9) and Pure Acetone costs me Rs: 84 for 400 ml. Water is freeeeeee freeee freeeeee LoL!!

Q: Do I need an empty bottle?

A: Depends if there is room in your acetone bottle you can use that...or just clean out any used up container of a body lotion or body wash/hand lotion etc. The container you are mixing into must be see through. Or you wont know how much to mix.

Q: Ok, I got an empty bottle.. now what?

Put as much acetone as you want..leave room to add and mix other stuff. I have taken an old bottle of M&S body lotion and clean it out with water and soap. I like a bottle with pump for acetone. Makes it easier to use. You may want to try a bit first instead of mixing the whole acetone. 

Q: How much Glycerin to add?

A: Take Glycerin in the cap of the bottle and add to acetone. You'll see glycerin plonk straight to the bottom of the bottle. Now mix it hard by closing the bottle and give it a shake. The glycerin is soluble in acetone, but not beyond a point. 

Q: What is Glycerin?

"A versatile liquid listed as safe for human consumption by the Food and Drug Administration, glycerine is viscous, colorless, and has a slightly sweet taste. Food and drug makers use it in everything from candies to toothpaste." Source

This is bottle before the glycerin was mixed up.

Keep adding Glycerin and shaking it till you see that glycerin doesnt mix anymore. So its helpful to keep mixing as you add along. 

Q: Okayyyy,  the glycerin doesnt mix anymore. Now what?

A: Fret not even if you dont get this exact. I had added roughly 4 capfuls of glycerin without shaking it up. 

Now close the bottle and mix hard. If you have any extra glycerin that wont mix into the acetone it will get mixed as you add water. See, glycerin is completely soluble in water. (bet u didnt know that..haha).

I'd suggest you should add little water little by little and shake it out and see if the glycerin has got mixed. 

Now you wont be able to see any distinguished separation in the bottle. 

Q: Managed that without spilling any of this mixture in my eye.

A: Now use it and come back here and tell me how it worked for you :p

I still have 1/3rd of the acetone bottle left and more than 3/4th of the glycerin left for future use.

Some more FAQs:

Q: This feels slightly sticky!!

A: Thats coz there is more glycerin in the mixture. My first batch was slightly sticky, but then I didnt really mind the sticky-ness as it just as easily comes off with washing your hands in soap water. (which I would normally do after using a nail polish remover anyways). I am happy to not see any more dried, white cuticles.

Q: My cuticles still feel dry!!

A: Add more glycerin. Glycerin has properties to retain moisture from the air around it.

I've read a post about this from Anutka on her blog :Wacky Laki and then made it myself the first time.

You can check her post here. She has a cool blog!!

Got anymore questions?

Do leave your comments, I'd love to hear them.

Tutorial: Easy Square Nails

Have you always had round nails? Or Square?

I used to have round nails till about 7-8 years ago. Then once a manicurist made them square for me. Thats it I never looked back. Its waay more easy to maintain square nails than round.

At first I used to have trouble filing them square and making sure the edge was a straight line.

Till I read this somewhere that it easy to cut nails with a scissor.

Now it barely take me 5 mins to re-size and re-shape my nails.

If you have round nails I suggest you let them grow out till side edges are straight with the nail bed.

Take a scissor, place the lower end against the tip of your finger, keep it parallel to the nail base line and cut.

Before Cutting

After you cut with scissor, this is how your nails will look.

The edges and corners will be really sharp. So here's what you need to do.

Lightly file down at 45 degrees against the edge of the nail. File in one direction, lifting your file back and placing it at the top, not rubbing it up and down. You only need to file lightly, say 3-4 strokes (light) so that the edges of your nail are sealed. 

This will help against peeling and cracking from the edges. Dont file the nail down, you want to maintain the straight line formed by the scissor.

Now file at the corners to make them blunt. Again file in one direction for each corner. A few strokes should do it. 

And Ta-daaaaaa! 

Do you already do this or use another method to make your nails square? I'd like to know.

Stamping Polishes: Non Konads

I did an experiment..*think: lab coat, big cold lab, and loads of polishes to splatter!!*

Bmwwahahahahahaha!

Yeah I had fun!! I have stamped most some polishes I have to check if they stamp well or no.

If some of these dont work for you..jus leave them open under a fan/open room for half an hour and try again. I have stamped them over a white page with black stripes of acrylic paint. For shades that wouldnt show over black..I have used Revlon's Top Speed polish as a base (pink). 

You got any questions..pls leave a comment at the end of the post..and I'll answer.

To see my tutorial on Nail Art stamping: Click here

Colorama Black: Is slightly runny, but stamps decent, specially over bright colours

Colorama Dark Blue (Marinho): Its transparent, runny, doesnt show too well, but shows on white

 

Colobar 21 Mulberry: Too pale, doesnt show

Colobar 09 Icy Silver: Shows well on dark and bright colours

Colorbar 37 White: Shows well on dark..but not too well on bright..kinda ok ok

Colorbar: 18 (mint green): I'd give this a miss as a stamping polish

Lakme Metallics: 040 (gold) Shows well on dark and light colours..but maybe u'll need thick designs for this to show on light bases

Lakme 01 Color crush: This is slightly paler gold as compared to 040 Metallics..but stamps similar to it

Streetwear Golden Mirror 03: Stamps well too. Click here to see how it stamps on red

(Pls dont ask me why I have soo many golds..I still have another 3..in Non indian brands..I bought them all to test for stamping. I've heard the Konad Gold is not good.)

Lakme Metallics 241: This one is a bronze metallic. Shows well over white.. See this post

Lakme Twilight Mauve: Meh...If u ask me..give it a miss. However its a pretty base polish..click here

Lakme: D417 Freespirit from Manish Malhotra collection: Stamps really well over light bases

Streetwear Fuchsia Pink: This is similar to Konads Psyche Pink..kinda Meh...

Streetwear Violet Divine: Seems to show well on white and right bases, looks slight transparent..I m yet to use it as a stamping polish.(will update)

Streetwear Blue Bell: No no..no no..no no..unless u like pale blue on stark white

Revlon Top Speed: Mulberry 59: I like how it looks pastel pink on the white base

Lotus herbal: Cozy Mulberry: Nope..Doesnt work as stamping polish

Hope this helps.

Dont forget to participate in my INTERNATIONAL Giveaway : here

Stamping Nail Art Tutorial + Tips

I usually get a lot of questions on stamping and tut requests. Stamping Nail art is easy all you need to do is practice a bit and get a hang of it. So I decided to make this post on how do stamping for nail art and a few essentials tips including must-dos and more importantly must-not-do. Also my heart burns when someone wants to stamp but cant. (LOL!) It really does..no kidding. :D

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This is a really long and picture heavy post. But if you really wanna learn stamping, just take out 5 mins and go through it peacefully. 
Those who know stamping, please feel free to point something I may have missed.
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Requirement: Base polish, a Stamping image plate, stamping polish, polish remover/acetone, stamping pad, cotton pads, scraper(plastic card), a flat surface, newspaper or disposable surface.

Step wise:

1) Paint a base polish on your nails. You nails must be completely dry. If they are not dry stamping on it may spoil your base. I would recommend applying a top coat on your base polish. The top coat will be very helpful when you accidentally make a mistake when stamping. Simply get a cotton ball with nail polish remover and gently remove the stamped design. This will not ruin your nail polish.

Step 2.

2) Clean the surface of image plate, stamping pad and scraper with cotton dipped in acetone and wipe it dry. (This has to be repeated after every nail, If you are using a plastic card you may need to clean after a few swipes but the plate and stamper have to be cleaned after each nail).

3) Apply special polish on your stamping plate.
My note: For practice I used acrylic paints on paper. Now special polish/stamping polish is special because it is completely opaque in a single swipe. Konad makes special polish but they are expensive. Small bottle (5ml) costs around Rs.160-170, while bigger bottle (11ml) costs 240-260. As a beginner if you don’t think you want to spend so much since you are not sure if you can stamp or no, Fret not. There are other options. Some tried and tested options are: Colorama black, Lakme Metallics, Darker shades of Elle 18 pops, Lakme and some of your older slightly goopy dark shade polishes might work. Try darker shades over light polish. Most of the polishes available in India are slightly runny and so not opaque in one coat. (I am making another post to swatch all polishes I have including local Indian brands that work as stamping polishes...will update here later).
See below pic on how I apply polish for full nail designs.

For full nail designs: Load ur brush with polish, so that you cover the whole design without going back to the bottle

4) Now scrape the plate with a scraper. My note: I find it easier to use a plastic card (old/expired credit card, student id card ). Metal scrapers that come in the Konad kit work just fine, but they cause scraping marks on the plates which I think will spoil the plates in the long run. One swipe at 45° angle (see pic above) with the card/scraper should scrape of all excess polish. Support the image plate with your other hand. The only polish left must be exactly in the design.

5) Take the stamper and lightly roll over the image. My note: Most people face an issue here. They don’t pick up the image on the stamp or pick it partially. A few tricks to help:

- Always make sure you have cleaned and dried the surface of plate and stamper before hand.

- If you are sitting under a fan, try working without the fan. I find the fan and climate in India tends to dry the polish on image plate faster.

- Be quick..yes real quick. Like you can’t do anything else when stamping nails. Also remember to keep your stamper in front of you..you can’t go searching for it after you apply the polish on the image plate.

- Roll ok...The keyword here is “RrrrOLL” the stamp. Touch one end of the rubber pad at the edge of the design and roll over till the other edge has touched and lift. Make sure you roll over the whole design..not just the upper edge or middle. See pic (above) to better understand how to Rrrroll. After you master the art of picking up the image, you could “stamp” on the image in actual sense of stamp and pick up..but until then Rrrrolll and lightly and quickly. Dont press the stamper hard on the image plate..it tends to not pick up polish if you press really hard.

- If an image doesn’t transfer: try to alter the way of scraping. You might be scraping too hard or too lightly. Sometimes an image maybe be etched too deep or too lightly, scrape lightly with quick fluid movements. Also try to alter the way you stamp to pick up the image. Roll with a light hand/ roll with slight pressure/ stamp with slight pressure. I suggest you try a few combinations of pressure and rolling/stamping till you figure out what suits you best. Sometimes newer stamps have a slight protective coating on it..Use a nail filer or buffer on the stamping pad and file it a bit. You see’ll a few bits coming off it. Please don’t file it down..ok? just say 5-7 swipes in one direction, will make the surface rough enough for polish to cling to it.

- Practice. Yes practice makes a woman perfect!! I had given up on stamping before I picked it up with vengeance after I saw all the lovely blogs on internet with stamped nail art. Yes!!! For 6 months I kept myself happy with doing freehand dots and stripes on my nails. Then, I first tried to stamp using acrylic tube colours as Konad was not easily available in India then. I practiced picking up stamped images on stamper using acrylic tube paints. They don’t dry so fast, are thick and to some extent opaque. But remember they won’t work on your nails coz the stamper causes the image to squish and the paint being thick and wet will squish. Plus I am not sure if these are safe enough to be used on hands as we eat food with them. I practiced then on paper....you’ll understand the flow of things better once you’ve managed to stamp on paper a few times. Now try the same with thicker/older polishes on paper. After you get the hang of picking up an image on stamper, practice picking up smaller designs with thick image cut outs and then move on to bigger, full nail designs and delicate full nail designs.

6) Now Stamp on your nails. My Note: Again rrrroll the stamp over from one side to other side gently. If you manage to pick up the image on stamper but are not able to transfer on your nails, it probably means the polish is drying on the stamper. So BE QUICK or Quicker. Once you get the hang of stamping on your nails, you’ll be able to align the image better with your nails..so don’t worry if your stamped images are in different directions initially.

7) Now Start all over from point 2 :p

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Must-Not-Do:

- Dont go searching. Gather all materials before you start stamping. My stamper keeps rolling away and after I scrape polish and I have to dart about things in a flurry to search it. Keep all things where you can see them.

- Try using acetone or polish remover that does not contain essential oils or nail conditioner. Acetone helps remove the left over polish effectively without leaving any residue.

- Do not press stamper too hard on your nail because chances are, the design will smudge.

- Dont use a regular top coat after stamping. Most top coats will bleed the stamped design. There are special quick drying polishes available to use over stamped nails. Konad has one, another is Seche Vite and Poshe. The trick is to not brush the same area more than once and do so lightly. Letting the nail polish brush go over the same area more than once can smudge your design if it is not yet completely dry.

Must-Do:

- Clean the image plate and stamper after every nail is stamped. Both surfaces must be dry before you start again. If you find cotton fibres sticking to your plate, scraper etc.. try using a cotton ear bud/Q tip/ or Lint free cotton pads. I find cotton gauze also works well. Just cut them in small pieces beforehand.

-Practice

- You need to be quick..really quick. The last 4 steps need to be done in under 10-15 secs. Apply special/stamping polish, scrape, stamp plate and stamp on nails. Once you scrape an image..wipe off the scraper on the newspaper /disposable surface on which you are working. As in continue the scraping movement onto the paper and drag it down till most of the excess polish is wiped onto the paper. I find that this way I don’t have to clean the scraper much.

- Always have a bottle of nail polish remover and some Q tips ready

- Clean up after you stamp your nail. I take a brush dipped in acetone/ polish remover. Remove excess remover and lightly make small to-and-fro strokes while moving it around your nails and cuticles. Good stamping skills but no clean up looks gross. Take a thin short bristle brush or a flat brush zero number. You’d need one whose bristles are not very flouncy, but little flexible. Also helpful to stamp before you take a shower, If I have small bits of polish around, just use your thumb nail and scrape very gently around your cuticles while in a warm shower.

- Enjoy Your Nail Art :D

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I know this sounds like a lot..but believe me it is not. I have just tried to cover all points that I can think of. Stamping is not difficult, nor time consuming. It used to take me an hour to do 10 nails, now it takes me 10-15 mins max to do stamping on all nails.

All you got to do is practice. Watch a couple of videos on you tube and practice with a non expensive polish on paper.

FAQ:

What to buy/ where: Konad/Faux kits are easily available online. I would suggest one to buy a basic starter konad kit with one plate, one scraper, stamper and white polish. Once you get the hang of it, your options are plenty. You can indulge in Bundle Monster, MASH, Cheeky plates which are resonablly priced and come in a set of around 20 or more plates. Add more stamping colours and build your collection..after you successfully learn to stamp.

I think I have covered most points..but if you find some missing or have any questions, please let me know in comments below.

Happy Stamping!!!