Nail Art: Heart Patches

This is another Valentine's inspired nail design. I'm still in the heart shape frenzy but I wanted a base color that is non-traditional for the occasion. Luckily, a recent polish haul from Digital Traincase arrived 2 days ago and I was anxious to use one particular shade. I figured I could come up with a design that would make this color fit for Valentine's and the result was heart patches.

Take a look!


Heart Patches Nail Art Design

This nail design is symbolic. I've had my heart broken too many times, I don't know if it's still working. I sometimes feel my heart is a quilt, mended with patches, just so it could keep going. I'm sorry for being cheesy. It's just that this particular nail design says a lot about my heart.

Anyway, my idea was to come up with something simple but with a twist. I took inspiration from my personal feelings and came up with the concept of heart patches.



Base color is 2 coats of OPI Fly from the Minaj Collection. Application is a breeze and opaque in 2 coats. This is my favorite among the colors in the collection.

I hand painted the design using acrylic paints, a detailing and striping nail art brush.



I must say that I truly find this shade gorgeous. I was staring at my nails after polishing and I didn't want to lose its beauty by coming up with a Valentine's inspired nail design that is colorful. What I wanted is to enhance the color and figured that using only black and white can help me achieve my objective. I think it did.



On every nail, I painted one big heart and one small heart. The big ones are outlined in black and I made stitch marks all around the heart as how you would see on patches. I used a striping nail art brush for the stitches. No outlines for the small hearts because I wanted to emphasize the heart patches. Oh, and I added a few white dots on random places just because. :)

Here's a close-up look:



I personally love how this turned out and I hope you liked it too. And I also hope this will send out the message that although hearts can be broken, what matters is stitching the broken parts back together so it could love again.




I have a few more nail art ideas for Valentine's before the day comes. Don't forget to subscribe here and not miss any of my nail designs.

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Nail Art Tutorial: Cluttered Hearts

I received a comment at the Simply Rins YouTube Channel, requesting a Valentine's inspired nail art that is cute and unique. The following day, I doodled some nail design ideas. I know hearts are overrated for the occasion but it was the only thing I wanted to paint on my nails. That night, I showed my sister 3 designs and asked her what she wanted best. She chose this cluttered hearts nail design and I obliged. ;)


Cluttered Hearts Nail Art Design by Simply Rins

I find this Valentine's inspired nail art design cute. I need your help though, in deciding if this is something unique. This is also a very simple freehand nail art that features an easy way of how to paint hearts.



I consider this a pink ombre nail art as I only used pink hues from the base color to the design itself. Base color is 2 coats of Zoya Sofia, a very dark pink with a hint of purple. Application is smooth and easy. I really wanted a dark base since I trimmed my nails and I think darker shades makes shorter nails look sexy.

I painted the design using acrylic paints. To achieve the ombre look, I used 2 shades of pink for the hearts and white for the small dots I added to fill in odd spaces.



If you remember my Flower Power Nail Art, this is very similar to that idea. But instead of flowers, I painted clustered hearts. I wanted to achieve that wallpaper effect again.



This is a fun yet simple nail design for Valentine's that would look great on short or long nails. For alternatives, use various color combinations according to your personal preference. At top of mind is two-toned combo, red and white or black and white perhaps. I think that would look elegant. The choice of colors can make a big difference on the outcome of a nail design.

Here's a closer look at this cluttered hearts:



I'd like to share with you this video nail tutorial of how I created this Valentine's nail art:



I know it's only January and we have a few more weeks before we celebrate the day of hearts, but I figured it's never too early to wear love on your nails.

What do you think of this nail design for Valentine's Day?




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Nail Art: Chinese New Year 2012

On January 23, the Chinese will be celebrating its 4709th year. Here in the Philippines, the Chinese New Year is considered one of most important and most celebrated festival among the Filipino-Chinese community. My contribution to this occasion is a Chinese New Year nail art.

The Chinese New Year does not have a specified date. It varies every year, depending on the lunisolar Chinese calendar. This calendar is marked by 12 animals that comprises the Chinese Zodiac. 2012 is the year of the dragon.

I created this freehand nail design using the traditional red and gold colors of the Chinese, added a dragon and a Chinese girl as nail accents.


Chinese New Year 2012 Nail Art Design

Each year, Chinese communities all over the world celebrates the coming of a new year with hope of attracting prosperity, peace, and closer family ties. Here in our country, I have witnessed Chinese families preparing and displaying a variety of food for the festival. Dragon parades and dances are also practiced, particularly in China towns across the country.



Base color is 2 coats of A-England Perceval. A lovely metallic red. Application is smooth and easy. I polished Deborah Lippmann Believe on both accent nails.

I painted all designs using acrylic paints and a detailing nail art brush.

Here is a closer view of the 2 accent nails:



A week ago, my nail on my left ring finger broke. Normally, that would bring me down and I'd lose my motivation to do some nail art. Well, it still did ... a little. But I figured my readers are forgiving and they wouldn't mind if I post nail art photos with one of nails falling short in length. I'd like to wait for it to grow back instead of trimming my other nails. :)


Dragon head as accent nail on my left hand.

I wore 2 accent nails for this nail design. I painted a silhouette of a dragon on my left index finger to represent that 2012 is the year of the dragon. I wanted to paint at least half of the dragon's body but since I have relatively short nails, I decided to just paint the head. I'm quite happy with how it turned out.


A cute Chinese girl as accent nail on my right hand.

On my right hand, I decided to paint a Chinese girl. But instead of giving her the squinted eyes of most Chinese, I gave her big round eyes. I added a few eyelashes on the side of each eye and I think that made her look more Chinese, aside from her hairstyle. I love how she turned out too. She looks like a very sweet kid.



I didn't want to leave the other nails bare. I chose to paint swirls and dots since round objects were always considered lucky by the Chinese people and I want that to reflect on my Chinese New Year nail art design! I didn't have a gold acrylic paint so I thought of mixing a golden yellow shade.

This nail design is particularly dear to me as I was born on the year of the dragon and I'd like to believe that this would be an amazing year for me. I'll be keeping the faith that 2012 will turn my life around.

Will you be wearing a Chinese inspired nail art to celebrate the Chinese New Year? What are your ideas?




I hope you enjoyed this freehand nail art design. I'm inviting you to subscribe to this nail art blog to receive updates whenever a new design is uploaded.

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Nail Art: Pine Trees

I spent last weekend with 3 amazing friends in Baguio, the City of Pines. The night before our road trip, I mustered the energy to do my nails. There were no choices. I instantly wanted to paint pine trees on my nails. I figured that it was the most appropriate nail design for our mini break up north.


Pine Trees Nail Art Design by Simply Rins

After several attempts on painting pine trees, I was almost about to give up. I couldn't come up with something that satisfied me. But being stubborn has its perks sometimes. I didn't want to go on this trip without pine trees on my nails. So I kept trying until I felt happy with the results.



I used Orly Kiss the Bride in 2 coats for this design. I was choosing between this very light pink shade or a light blue one. I hand painted the pine trees using acrylic paint and a mini striping nail art brush.

I believe that the base color helped made the pine trees pop out because it was almost white and I painted the pine trees using thin and thick strokes for texture.



It was a good thing I was working with acrylic paints because I made several attempts before I finalized the design that appealed to me. I didn't have to redo my manicure after every attempt. This is just one of the many advantages of working with acrylic paints for nail art. If you are interested, find more advantages here.

Here's a closer shot of the nail art:



During my initial attempts of painting pine trees, I used at least 2 colors because I was aiming for a little shading. I am seriously not good with that and I wanted to try. But somehow, the design always fall short of my expectations. So after a few more tries, I decided to stick with my personal style, clear colors and neat lines. On the other hand, I also wanted some texture. I came up with the idea of using different thickness on my strokes. I think it worked really well.

From creating this Pine Trees nail design, I've learned that you can get the effect of shading or add texture by using thin and thick lines.

Here are a few shots taken during our stay in Baguio City:


Pine trees nail art with actual pine trees on the background.


Holding actual pine tree leaves!


Another shot with pine trees as background.

Baguio has a very cold climate and to avoid dryness on my hands, I was constantly applying hand lotion. I see now in the pictures that my hands needed more moisturizing.

How will you rate my pine trees nail design and my attempt to add texture using various line thickness?




If you liked this nail design and would like to receive free updates whenever I post a new nail art, I am inviting you to subscribe here.

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Nail Art: Cherry Blossoms ... a Remake

I was working on a project for a magazine one night and they particularly requested for a remake of the Cherry Blossoms nail art I did for my mother last year. Only to realize that I really didn't need to do it on my nails. They wanted some of my floral nail art recreated on a nail wheel or artificial nails. But since I did the Cherry Blossoms on my natural nails, I figured I'd share it here nevertheless.


Cherry Blossoms Nail Art Design by Simply Rins

This nail design has always been considered classy because of its simplicity and subtlety. Choose nude colors for base if you want to play it down and a more lively background color if you want it to be a little more interesting. In any which way you decide to wear it, it will always come out looking elegant.



For this remake, I decided to wear 2 coats of Misa Pay Days Are Happy Days as base color. I hand painted the cherry blossoms using acrylic paints, striping and detailing nail art brushes. This is one of the polishes I bought from Digital Traincase. Do check out her online shop for the latest nail polish and cosmetics collections.



Here's a parting shot:



Have you tried a Cherry Blossoms nail design? What base color did or would like to use?

If you found this nail art post interesting, please subscribe to get updates whenever a new nail design is posted.

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Nail Art: Brown Ombre and Dots

My first nail art for this year is an ombre. Gradient is a term I often use to refer to this kind of manicure but I was introduced to the term "ombre" that most nail art bloggers say in their posts. Honestly, I really don't know what it means. Thanks to ever dependable Google, I learned that it is a French word for shading.

I have been wanting to do something like this ever since I saw one but at the time, my nail polish stash is very limited in colors ... it is still until now, but has grown a little. When I finally decided to finally try one, brown was the first color that popped in my mind. So I looked for 5 nail lacquers that would create the look.

Here's my brown ombre manicure:


Brown Ombre Nail Art Design by Simply Rins

I polished the nail on my pinky with the lightest color and the darkest on my thumbnail. You can do it the other way around. It would really depend on your personal preference.

What I like about this nail art is its simplicity. I don't think it can get any simpler than this. If you know how to polish your own nails and you have the colors to work with, this is probably the simplest nail art ever! Also, if you're trying to get into nail art, I personally think this is a good start to be comfortable decorating your nails.



Here are the polishes I used, in 2 coats each:

• Pinky: Orly Pure Porcelain
• Ring: Misa Pay Days Are Happy Days
• Middle: Orly Country Club Khaki
• Index: Essie Mink Muffs
• Thumb: Faceshop BR802

Important things to remember when creating an ombre nail art:

• Work with nail polishes that have the same finish or texture.
• The lightest color is not necessarily white.
• If you can create an ombre nail art with subtle transitions of shades, I think that would look absolutely amazing.

I really liked how my first ombre manicure turned out. I plan to do more soon, especially with my favorite color. :)

After a few days of wearing this, I decided to add a design. Since it is still January, I wanted to wear something with dots. From where I am, we have this belief that wearing polka dots to welcome a new year will bring good luck and wealth. This is also the reason why we fill our pockets with coins too during the new year. Unfortunately, I do not own a single polka dot inspired piece of clothing. How sad is that? But it is never too late for anything, right? So I decided to add random dots on my ombre nails.



I used white, yellow, and pink nail polishes to create the dots in different sizes. I have mixed feelings with the outcome but I did love the color combination. I'm not sure if I should have used darker shades of colors for the dots.

What do you think?




P.S. My camera is with my sister for the weekend when I did this nail art. Thanks to nanay who lent me her digicam until I got mine back.

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The Start of My 2012

I'd like to greet everyone a Happy New Year and at the same time apologize for my absence. My 2012 started with a busy schedule, topped with the fact that I got sick. I am still recovering from a very bad cold and my work doesn't seem to be helping to let me get enough rest.

Also, my left thumbnail broke during the new year and it was bad. So I am taking the time to let it heal and grow to a decent length before I start painting my nails again. I took this accident as a sign to let my nails rest for awhile. I really hope you don't mind. I have some nail art ideas lined up and I can't wait to share them with you. I'll be taking the rest of the weekend off and will be back next week for my first nail art design.

For the meantime, I have setup the Frequently Asked Questions page. I have been receiving inquiries and I thought this page would help to get instant answers to FAQ. If you have other questions that you would like to ask me, please use this contact form.

Cheers!

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My Top 10 Nail Art Designs For 2011

It's true that time flies when you're having fun. In a matter of days, we'll be welcoming 2012 and I'm excited and scared at the same time. Excited to embrace another chance to make life better and at the same time scared of the unexpected. A lot of good things happened to my nail art blog this year that I am very thankful for and most of my nail art designs have actual stories behind them.

Before the year ends, I'd like to share with you my top 10 nail art of 2011. This list is NOT based on page views or popularity. This list is based on those personal stories that accompanied these nail designs, stories that made an impact on my life. I believe this is a good way to reflect on things that happened this year.

Let's get started. Here are my top 10 nail art designs for 2011:

10 - Nail Art: Feeling Blue
I painted this nail art to help me cheer myself up from a bad break-up. It was my most personal post to date and I really appreciated all the kind words and support that you all gave me. More particularly, I will never forget a fellow nail artist who sent me an email aside from the comment she left, that gave me comfort. To this sweet lady (you know who you are), thank you.

09 - Nail Art: Flower Power
This floral nail art has become one of my personal favorites and if my memory serves me right, I wore this for almost a week. I was very fond of this design because I thought it looked like decals or full nail stickers. I also created my first successful video nail art tutorial using this floral design. It has been one of my fulfilling moments in nail painting. I'd like to recreate this using a different color one of these days.

08 - Nail Art: Smurfs
The Smurfs nail art is one of the most memorable and the most time-consuming I've ever done. My parents were away for a vacation at the time I did this. I got busy with responsibilities that it took me 2 days to finish my Smurfs nails! I could have opted to just have an accent nail but I originally wanted to paint something Smurf-y on all my nails and in the end, I was happy with the outcome. The experience taught me patience and it made me realize how much I love nail painting that I was willing to do my nails on installment basis.

07 - Nail Art: Keroppi Wannabes
I am not fond of the color green and this was the first time I challenged myself to wear one. After I polished my nails, I was still uncomfortable with the color. So I wanted to paint a design that would make me see this color in a different way. The first idea that popped into my
mind was to paint frogs because it's green! And honestly, those frogs did help me like the color green because after that, I bought a few green nail polishes to add to my stash.

06 - Nail Art: Spider Tips
The 6th spot goes to one of my Halloween nail designs. One day, I was out and I was looking for a basic orange nail polish. When I found one, I also spotted a neon orange nail lacquer and seriously thought of buying that instead. Well, I did! I know I couldn't carry wearing a full neon orange manicure, that is why I decided on nail tips instead and added spiders to subdue the bright color. I liked how it turned out a lot that I wore this for a full week, during an out of town vacation with my mom and sister. This nail art taught me how to think out of the box.

05 - Nail Art: Brown For A Wedding
There are times that I felt I needed to always come up with complicated nail designs because I don't want to see people get disappointed when they look at my nails and see something "ordinary". This particularly happens when I'm with people who knows that I am a nail artist. They somehow always like to be impressed. I wore this simple floral design for a cousin's wedding and I decided to think only about pleasing myself. It was the time I realized that we should wear our nails for ourselves. If appreciated, that's great! If not, it shouldn't really matter.

04 - Nail Art: Halloween Polka and
Nail Art: Christmas Tree Ala Polka Dots
These 2 nail designs is a tie for 4th. I've received emails from nail art beginners that expressed that they were having some difficulties. I came up with these designs to inspire them, that something as simple as polka dots can create amazing designs.

03 - Nail Art: Manny Pacquaio ... Again
I was invited to feature some of my nail designs in a local newspaper and in television a few times. Those experiences were overwhelming. The most memorable is when GMA Good News TV featured me working on a Manny Pacquaio nail art. There were doubts if I was really doing nail art on my nails and this television feature helped me clear the smoke.

02 - Nail Art: Reindeer
This Christmas nail design has become one of my favorites too. I wore this longer than usual. It also inspired a number of fellow nail artists to recreate it for the holidays. But what really makes this Reindeer nail art special is that I received the most emails (via contact form) because of this design and reading those messages is humbling. Reading emails that lets me know how I inspired them is always elevating. Thank you for taking the time to write me.

01 - Nail Art: Snowman Parade
The no. 1 spot goes to those 10 snowmen I did for Christmas. It was the nail design I wore during the Philippine Blog Awards 2011. Simply Rins won Best Beauty and Fashion Blog (Luzon) that night. I think it was the first time a nail art blog was recognized like that and I considered it as a big step to the nail art community. But mostly, it was also the night I was approached by some of my blog's followers and the feeling is simply amazing. It is a pleasure to have met you in person.




Do you have a favorite among my nail designs? I'd like to hear from you. :)

2011 was a good year for this blog. Surprising opportunities came and I was able to reach out to more nail art enthusiasts. I'm looking forward to sharing with you more nail designs on 2012, that are interesting, creative, simple, and inspiring. I promise to continuously seek ways on how I can improve this blog.

Please join me for another year of nail art designs and friendship by subscribing here.

Cheers to the new year! :)

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Nail Art Tutorial: Fireworks

Another year is about to end. In a few days, a new year is upon us and we are given another chance to do things better. A lot of good things happened to me and this blog that I am thankful for. That deserves a separate blog post. For the meantime, I'd like to share with you a simple new year nail art design. I painted fireworks!


Fireworks Nail Art Design by Simply Rins

I chose Orly Goth in 2 coats as background color. The fireworks were painted using various colors of acrylic paints and a short striping nail art brush.

I also chose to paint different colors of fireworks in random places on all my nails. Another option is to have just one color for all the fireworks. But I guess fireworks is really a color display, so a lot of colors is in order.



My mom said that the design looks like a flower. Looking at it, I think she's right. But perhaps it can be both since fireworks do look like flowers without a center. I'm still happy with how this came out. It looks festive and the colors will fit perfectly for the celebration. When I look down on my nails, I can imagine mini firework displays. :)



The design appears complicated but it is relatively easy to do. Here's a video nail art tutorial that I prepared for this fireworks nail art design:



Thank you for watching! If you found this interesting, you may to subscribe to my YouTube channel or subscribe to my feeds so that you will not miss any updates from me.

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I'm Telling The Universe

I've heard a lot of people say that if you want something so bad, you have to shout it to the universe so that whatever you want will a find a way to get to you. Okay, here goes. I'm telling the universe that I really (really!) would like to have these Deborah Lippmann's nail lacquers:



From left: Do Ya Think I'm Sexy, Good Girl Gone Bad, Stormy Weather, and Billionaire.


As much as I wanted to give these gorgeous bottles to myself for Christmas, I couldn't find them here. And although I can find them available in online stores, shipping cost to this part of the world is either unavailable or too expensive for me.

Oh, and dear universe, I'd like Deborah Lippmann's Edge of Glory 3D Holographic nail lacquer too. ;)

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Nail Art: Penguins and Snowflakes

Everyone is probably super busy right now, preparing for the celebration of Christmas Day! Here in the Philippines, we are now excited for noche buena, the night of Christmas eve. Family and friends gather together for a feast when the clock strikes midnight on the 25th to celebrate Christ's birthday.

It's the 24th here and I want to share my last Christmas nail design for the year before the lazy bug of the holidays bite me. I decided to wear a nail art that would remind me of the north pole. It was a choice between polar bears and penguins. The latter won.


Penguins and Snowflakes Nail Art Design by Simply Rins

This is a freehand nail design of penguins and snowflakes. I painted 4 penguins with scarves, 2 on each hand. I would have wanted to paint 10 penguins, but I was pressed for time. On the other nails, I painted snowflakes.



Base color for the penguins is Sally Hansen Black Out in 2 coats. This is my ultimate favorite black so far and my bottle is almost out. Have to buy a new one soon. For the snowflakes background, I used 2 coats of China Glaze Blue Sparrow. It's one of my favorite bright blues that I think is perfect for the holidays.

All designs were painted using acrylic paints, a detailing and striping nail art brush.



I painted the scarves for the penguins as nail tips of alternating red and green, to keep it simple. I also added pink blush on the cheeks for cuteness and I figured their cheeks are naturally rosy because of the cold weather from where they live.



And so yes, I'm wearing penguins and snowflakes for Christmas. It's a wonder I am not wearing something red, my ultimate favorite color and consequently, the color of the season. I guess I needed something different.

I'd like to end this post by greeting all of you, whom I consider my friends, a Blessed Christmas. :)

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