Guest post from Ooooo Shiny - Neapolitan ice cream inspired nails!

Moana from Ooooo Shiny is guest posting on Nailed it NZ today! It's a good thing, too, as I have NOT done any study and I really need to catch up! I think this mani she's done is so adorable!

Hi there! My name is Moana, I'm 28 and I live in beautiful Montreal in Quebec, Canada. I have a nail art blog called Ooooo Shiny! and I've always been a big fan of Jessie! I'm honoured to be doing a guest post for her today.

This nail art was inspired by neapolitan ice cream! You know, the delicious mix of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry? I know, I know, usually there's only vanilla and strawberry left because everyone eats the chocolate and leaves the rest.

This ended up being an Essie party - every single nail polish I used for this nail art is by Essie. More info about that at the bottom of the post.

Jessie here again - just saying that Moana has a nail art competition running at the moment that has an amazing theme AND the first 50 entries get a prize! Whaaaa? There's a link to it at the bottom of this post :)

Aaannnd my inspiration, for good measure (plus, who doesn't like ice cream?). This photo was taken from this blog post and does not belong to me.

I loved working with these fimo shapes. This was my first time using this product. They held really well, much better than rhinestones or striping tape. They look like they're just sitting on the nail, they don't curve in order to fit their shape. This give them a cute 3D look. You'd think it would make them peel off quicker but I had no problems at all!

I really loved wearing this nail art and I was actually sad to see it go. This doesn't happen all THAT often, believe it or not... I'm usually always excited for the next manicure! But I almost feel like re-doing these ones all over again. I have more fimo shapes, so maybe I'll just make a similar model sometime soon.

Thanks so much Jessie for having me guest post on your blog! :) And now, here are the polishes I used as well as a rundown of the technique.

The polishes I used:

• Base: Essie - All In One Base
• Creamy berrylicious pink base: Essie - Adore-a-Ball
• Chocolatey brown tips: Essie - Merino Cool (I just bought this one and I love it!)
• Vanilla white dots: Essie - Blanc
• Top coat: Essie - Good to Go

The technique:

I applied a base coat, then four coats (yes, four!!!!) of Adore-a-Ball. I don't know why, but Adore-a-Ball came out really streaky, so I had to use 4 coats for it to become opaque enough that it would hide the streaks. I didn't remember this polish being so finicky... Oh well, they were thin coats, so in the end it didn't cake up too thick. Still annoying, though.

This was my first attempt at freehand French tips! I just used the brush to me Merino Cool bottle, took a deep breath and tried to follow the natural curve of my nail tip (I could still see it through the creamy pink base). I think I did alright, especially when working on my right hand! I knew the little strawberries would cover up a bit of the line so I didn't stress out too much about it, and it turned out just fine. I might try to freehand my tips from now on.

Then I used a dotting tool to add some vanilla white dots over my tips, with Essie's Blanc (which, by the way, means "white" in French). I then dabbed a little bit of top coat where I wanted to place my strawberry, and used an orange stick to place each fimo shape properly, finger after finger. Then I top coated over the whole thing, fimo and all.

These were some of my most resistant nails ever. Maybe it's because I used all Essie polishes? Something about the formula being compatible? I don't know, but they were a pleasure to wear and they resisted countless dishes from my dad's 75th birthday party!

Thanks for posting today, Moana! I really need to try out those fimo shapes sometime, thanks for introducing me to them :). Don't forget to check out her blog, Ooooo Shiny! She also has a brilliant nail art competition going at the moment that I entered my Endometriosis nail art into, so go add yours HERE!