Category Archives: Tutorials & Tips

Nail Art Tutorial: Spider & Web Nails

Natural Light Spider & Cobweb Nails Nail Art Tutorial & Swatches smaller Oh, the tangled webs we weave…or paint! 😉

Here are some really simple Spider & Web Nails I did not long ago. It’s all freehand and doesn’t take long to do.

Looking back now, I wish that I had done more spiders and just one cobweb as the accent nail because I like the spider more than the web.

This Hallowe’en nail art reminds me of Charlotte’s Web. Do you remember that children’s book? It was one of my favourites, and I also enjoyed watching the movie. Oh, Wilbur was so cute, but I really fell in love with Charlotte.

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Nail Art Tutorial: Frankenstein’s Monster Nails

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Frankenstein Nail Art Tutorial Hallowe'en Nail Art Tutorial Frankenstein Monster Nails Today I am really excited to show you some more Hallowe’en nail art: Frankenstein’s Monster Nails!

I wore them for 4 days straight. Unfortunately, during that time, the sun only came out once, but I was busy and couldn’t take photos, so I only have flash and natural-light photos to show you. Hope you don’t mind!

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is my favourite novel of all time. I love the author’s way of writing in such a descriptive and flowery way – it helps me visualize everything like I’m watching a movie.

Back in 1818, people sure knew how to craft sentences and make them sound so poetic. And I admire how they flossed an impressive vocabulary!

If you haven’t read the original text, I highly recommend you do. It’s so much more than just the Hallowe’en character that a lot of people have identified it with.

The first time I read Frankenstein was in university for a humanities class. It was the biggest surprise. I thought it was going to be boring and cliche. It wasn’t! And I had trouble putting the book down. I literally read it in 2 days…on the bus, the subway, in my bed… (Sigh, I so need to re-read it.)

There’s deep philosophy and a myriad of allusions to other famous literature.

I really empathized with the monster more than with Frankenstein. The nameless monster was actually really intelligent and even taught himself how to read! He desperately wanted to be loved and to feel a sense of belonging, especially after he was harshly denied all ties to the only familial bond he knew. I could understand why he ended up lashing out.
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Nail Art Tutorial: Mummy Nails

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Mummy Nails Nail Art Tutorial & Swatches Today’s Hallowe’en nail art: Mummy Nails!

I decided to put a little spin on it. I tried to go the underground-graphic-novel route for my mummy nail art.

Classic mummy nails consist of more horizontal lines, but, as you can see, I changed it up by adding lots of thick diagonal and vertical lines. I felt like this gave it more of a wrapped and comic-sketched feel.

This is another design that’s super simple to do – you need 3 colours and it’s just freehand lines and dots.

Plus the cool thing about giving them red eyes is that if you accidentally smear them while putting on a top coat (like I did), it actually gives them that bloody-eye look, which is tres chic avec les momies, n’est pas? 😛

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Smorgasbord Sundays: From Mary’s Desk – Some Things I Learned While Blogging (Part 1)

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SwatchAndLearn.com Blogging Tips & Tricks I may not be a blogging veteran who served time in the Nail Polish War and travelled the seven seas fighting for colour freedom. I don’t even have any cool badges or pins.

But after sticking with Swatch And Learn since July 25, 2010, I have learned a lot of valuable lessons that I feel are worth sharing.

I strongly believe that everyone can contribute. It doesn’t matter if you have very little blogging experience or even professional blogging experience – we can learn from each other and I have learned from others.

This is my contribution.

Today’s Smorgasbord Sundays post is a little different than my previous ones. Firstly, it’s way more text-heavy than picture-heavy. Secondly, there are lots of photos of my face. And thirdly, I have finally admitted to being The Cheshire Cat.

I will talk your ears off about jealousy, perseverance, and how to get over other common blogging hurdles. If you don’t want to listen, that’s okay – there’s no audio.

My intention is not to be preachy, and I swear to you that I wasn’t wearing a white collar while writing this. My goal is to share my thoughts and advice with you because I’m curious to see whether or not you feel the same way. Sometimes issues that bloggers face are swept under the rug, and that rug may be a little too small to conceal what has become the elephant in the room.

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Nail Art Tutorial: Witch Nails

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Witch Nails Nail Art Tutorial & Swatches I’m having a lot of fun doing Hallowe’en nail art, so I’ll keep going with it. 🙂

There’s nothing more classic than a witch on a broom flying across a moon, cackling as the menacing wind makes her cape flutter.

Since this is one of my favourite Hallowe’en scenes when I was a child, I decided to do Witch Nails this time!

(Turn your head to the right to see it better…hehe, or just look at my horizontal swatches of it later on in this post.)

Hope you like ’em. They’re really fast to do as long as you have the stamping plate. Even if you don’t, perhaps you could freehand some pointed witch hats on your nails and maybe put a broom on an accent nail.

Also, consider adding some glitter on the moon to highlight it and to give it that extra bit of magical twinkle!

I left it plain and classic. I encourage you to put your own creative touch on your nail canvas! Have fun! Continue reading →

Nail Art Tutorial: Skull Nails

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Skull Nails Nail Art Tutorial & Swatches The next Hallowe’en nail art: Skull Nails! They’re really easy and fast to do. Plus you’ll only need two colours, so hopefully more of you will decide to replicate this!

Yes, the teeth are super long, but you can tweak this design as you see fit. You could make your skulls smile, you could add some stitches, or you can go the lazy route like me and just draw vertical lines.

Even though it’s not perfect, I think that this is a fun design you can do in a snap.

Also, with just a few easy modifications, I can see how you could turn this into ghost nail art. (I’ll probably try this out later, too!)

P.S. Later on, I may try to do skull nail art that looks more menacing like The Punisher. We’ll see! Continue reading →

Nail Art Tutorial: Candy Corn Nails

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Halloween Candy Nail Art Tutorial & Swatch Hurray! It’s October! Why am I so excited? Hallowe’en is right around the corner, and it’s one of my favourite holidays in the entire year.

I’ve actually been prepping a few posts for this month to make sure that I get in some Hallowe’en nail art. And I still have plenty more ideas that I need to work on.

To start off the first festive nail art extravaganza, I bring you Candy Corn Nails! Who doesn’t love this yummy seasonal candy?

Funny thing: I’ve always been self-conscious about the shape of my ring-finger’s nail – it’s narrower at the top near the cuticle and then flares out. But, for candy corn nail art, the shape actually makes it look more like the candy! 😀 Woo hoo! Continue reading →