A Year in Review: 2015

Hey Cuties!

     So this Mani Monday's post won’t be the typical me posting a design with steps and random words. Where it’s the last Monday of the year, I’ve chosen to do a Year in Review post. I’m sharing my top 5 favourite designs of this year and hopes for the upcoming year. This was a tough year for me personally, and I took a break at the beginning of the year and didn't post again until September. I've been loyal ever since and am extremely grateful for every reader that continued to read this blog every Monday. Without you, this blog would not be possible! And on that note, here are my top five designs of 2015

5. Snowy Tips

     This is a throw-back to February. It was in the middle of winter, and I felt inspired by all the snow to do a French mani for the winter. I had sand nail polish in light blue and white, and the rest is history. Also it helped tat it was glittery nail polish.

4. Santa (#festivefive series)

     This is the latest design I’ve posted. A part of the #festivefive series, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get all of Santa’s iconic features onto the nail, but only got his face. It’s a great cartoon version of him and includes some of the most important facial features. Beard, hat and red cheeks and nose. 

3. The Fall Tree

     This was the first design I tried by covering a part of the nail with tape, and painting over the tape to create shapes, or in this case lines. In a weird way it gives the design more depth and there’s less worry about painting straight lines. It’s a perfect design for the fall, and if you wanted to extend the design, you can painting leaves blowing across your other nails.

2. Franken-Mani

     This is SO cute! What makes this French mani so unique is that’s it’s asymmetrical. I could have done a symmetrical version of this, but putting it on the slant just adds to the Franken-ness of it!

1. French Mani (Back-to-School Series)

     What makes this design my favourite design of the year? Plain and simple! If you read any of my postings, you’ll know I like two things when it comes to manicures; French manicures and glitter. This design has both. Also, I love the colours!

     If you haven’t been able to tell already by looking at my posts, I LOVE French manicures! Hoping there will me more in the new year. If you think a different design should me number one, or was your personal favourite, share a comment below. 

     I hope you’ve enjoyed reading Cutie Cure this year as much as I have enjoyed writing it! Next Monday, I’m starting a new series for the beginning of the year called Frost Week. It’s a play on the words Frosh Week, in which it’s the first full week of the new year and still early (and hopefully not a long) winter. Until next year, stay fabulous!

Santa

Merry Christmas Cuties!

     It’s Christmas Day, which also means it’s the last day of the #festivefive series. Of course, I’ve saved the best for last; jolly old Nick himself. I hope he came to everyone’s house and spoiled them this year! To celebrate the big man in the red suit, I’ve designed this jolly cartoon version of him. It’s a little more tricky than the previous days’ designs, so pay close attention. Here are the steps:

Tools: 

     Nail Polish Colours: Black, Red, Faint Pink, White

     Nail Art Brush

     Nail Art Dotter

Steps: 

     1.) You can either paint your nail pink now or later on. Start by                            outlining the fluff of Santa’s hat and beard with your nail art brush                and black nail polish. Leave a small space on the top of the fluff for                the end of his hat.

     2.) Colour in his hat with red at the top of your nail. Colour in his beard            and hat fluff with white. Pay attention to where the break in the                       black outline of the hat is when colouring it. 

     3.) With your black nail polish and nail art brush, outline the ball on the             end of Santa’s hat. This is where the break in the hat outline is.                       Colour the ball in with white. 

     4.) Now we can start to add the facial features. This will be created with            your nail art brush and black nail polish. Paint a small line in the                  beard for his mouth. Two eyebrows just below his hat. Two small                  circles below his eyebrow for his eyes. Don’t forget to add a white dot            for a twinkle in his eyes! A small dash below and between his eyes                for his nose.

     5.) With your dotter and red nail polish, put a dot on each cheek, and an            even smaller dot on his nose, because of the cold weather at the                      North Pole.

     This is one of the more complicated designs I’ve done this year, but it’s totally worth it in the end. for those of you following me on Vine, this week’s #festivefive designs are now up. For those of you not following me on Vine, you should do so! Stay tuned next week for an announcement of a new nail art series in January. I hope you all have a wonderful day, full of family, friends and turkey, and until next time, stay merry!

Rudolph

Hey Cuties! 

     It’s Christmas Eve., therefore it is also day 4 in my #festivefive Christmas Characters series. Today’s character is the one who will guide Santa’s sleigh tonight; RUDOLPH! This is a basic design that’s straightforward and easy to follow because it’s geometric shapes. Here are the steps:

Tools: 

     Nail Polish Colours: Black, Brown, Blue, Red, White

     Nail Art Brush

     Nail Art Dotter

Steps: 

     1.) Paint your nail with the background colour of your choice. I chose a             sparkly dark blue, because he guides Santa’s sleigh through the sky                filled with stars at night.

     2.) Paint an upside-down brown rectangle for his head in the middle of              your nail.

     3.) To give him ears, paint two angled black lines, going to opposite                    angles, from the top of the triangle. Paint two smaller black lines,                going off from the first lines. 

     4.) Dot a red nose on the bottom point of his head.

     5.) Dot or paint two black ovals on his head. Dot or paint two smaller                  white dots in the two black ovals.

     This is a very easy (and cute) reindeer design to do. You may choose to do a different reindeer and personalize it in your own way. I figured the glittery background was enough shine, so I decided against glueing a red jewel on his nose, but if you want to go ahead. 

     For anybody following the Vine account, I’ve been having difficulties with my editing software, so I hope to have these designs up on it before the new year! Until tomorrow, stay merry!

Elf

Happy Hump Day Cuties!

     It’s day three in my #festivefive Christmas Characters series and two days until it’s the big day! I hope you’ve been enjoying the designs so far, and possibly trying out your own versions of them. For day three I’ve done an Elf design. Not E.L.F. the makeup brand, but one of Santa’s little helpers. I chose to stick with a red and green theme, but if you’ve watched enough Christmas movies involving the North Pole and Santa’s Workshop, you should know their outfits come in MANY colours. Here are the steps:

Tools: 

     Nail Polish Colours: Black, Green, Red, Yellow

     Nail Art Brush

     Nail Art Dotter

Steps: 

     1.) Paint your whole nail green. This will be the main colour of Elf, so                  you may choose red instead.

     2.) Paint on its neck decoration by painting red triangles (pointed                         down) across the top of your nail.

     3.) Paint a black belt never the middle of your nail.

     4.) Paint two yellow buttons above the belt and one bellow the belt.

     5.) Paint a yellow square buckle in the middle of the belt. The buttons                and the buckle should line up.

     A super cute design to get your #elf on before Christmas. Unfortunately, this design won’t help you finish wrapping presents or finish last minute shopping. Stay posted over the next two days for the last of the #festivefive Christmas Character designs. Also don’t forget to check out Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest for extras. Until tomorrow, stay merry!

Frosty

Happy Tuesday Cuties!

     3 days til Christmas and day 2 of my #festivefive series. I hope you enjoyed Ging yesterday, and possibly eating some gingerbread! I’m hoping to get my hands on some before the big day! As much fun as it is to decorate gingerbread men and gingerbread houses, it’s even more fun to play in the snow to burn off those calories. 

     How about building a snowman? If you don’t like snow, or there’s no snow in your area (yet!), how about trying out this Frosty design. Here are the steps:

Tools: 

     Nail Polish Colours: Black, Green, Red, Orange, White

     Nail Art Brush

Steps: 

     1.) Paint your whole nail white.

     2.) Give Frosty a nice top hat. Paint a vertical black line near the top of              the nail, then colour in a square, still showing some of the white, on               the top of the line,

     3.) How about keeping Frosty warm? Either using a nail art brush or                   your nail polish brush (which I found easier), paint a green and red              striped scarf on the bottom of your nail, and finish it with an outline             in black.

     4.) A snowman is never fully dressed without a face! Paint on Frosty’s                coal eyes and coal smile.

     5.) Draw a angled triangle in the middle of Frosty’s face for a carrot                    nose. Draw lines on it for the ridges.

     This design has a bit more work to it than others, but it’s totally worth it in the end. As with all my designs, especially today’s and yesterday’s, customize it however you choose, or copy my Frosty. Maybe give him a ball cap and a bowtie. Or pigtails and a necklace. Either way, be creative and think outside of the box. Until tomorrow, stay merry!

p.s. After I wrote this, I realized it's also the first day of winter. How fitting!

Ging

Merry Monday Cuties!

     It’s day one in my Christmas series! All this week I will be posting Christmas character designs in celebration of Christmas, in 5 DAYS!!! Today’s design is a gingerbread man, and a very stylishly dress gingerbread man. Just as fun as an edible one, you get to decorate it your way. Let's get started!

Tools: 

     Nail Polish Colours: Brown, Red, Yellow, White

     Nail Art Brush

Steps: 

     1.) Paint Ging. The easiest way I found to do this is by painting a star,                and then extending the limbs and head to a body form.

     2.) Decorate Ging! You can follow my design or create you own.

     This is a super fun design to do for the holidays. Especially if you don't get a chance to make and decorate an edible version. Check out my social media account, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr, all this week as well, and you can follow the hashtag #festivefive for the designs as well. So until tomorrow, stay merry!

All Wrapped Up

Merry Monday Cuties!

     I figured I waited long enough for a Christmas French mani. This is not a typical French mani, with the single line on the tip of the nail. It’s a French mani all wrapped up (hence the name of the post)!Even though there’s a horizontal line in this, you can just do the single line and bow, and still say it’s all wrapped up! ;-P

Tools: 

     Nail Polish Colours: Red (Optional Glitter Red)

     Nail Art Brush

     3D Green Nail Art Bow

     Nail Art Glue

Steps: 

     1.) Paint a horizontal line near the top of your nail. You can choose the              thickness of it, but make sure to keep it consistent.

     2.) Paint a vertical line, same thickness of the horizontal line, off to the               left, and crossing the vertical line.

     3.) Glue the green bow where the two lines cross.

     Another fun and simple christmas design. As always, it’s a very versatile design. You can switch the colours of the “ribbon” (red lines), the colour of the bow or paint the background colour or “wrapping paper”. 

     Stay tuned to Twitter for the theme of next week’s Christmas theme! As promised, I will be posting Monday through Friday next week on here, Instagram, Tumblr and Twitter. Until next time, stay fabulous!

Asymmetrical Christmas Tree

Merry Monday Cuties!

     Who has their Christmas Tree up already?! I sure don’t, but I hope to get it up ASAP! Whether your tree is up or not, you can try this super easy and funky Christmas Tree design. Why go for a plain-old perfectly symmetrical and triangular Christmas Tree, when you can show off this quirky version of a Christmas Tree? Here are the super simple steps:

Tools: 

     Nail Polish Colours: Green, Red, Blue, Purple, Yellow, White

     Nail Art Brush

Steps: 

     1.) Paint a green zig-zag (or “M” shape), on your nail. It won’t really look            like a tree, but it’s more about the flow and points of the tree. 

     2.) Using the other above listed colours, or your own choice, paint dots               on the “Christmas Tree” for ornaments.

     3.) Paint a yellow star on top of the tree.

     Super quick, super simple. I chose to do a nude nail because I’ve never done one before, and I thought this would be the time to try it out. If you don’t want to use a nude nail for your design, give your tree a background colour of your choosing. 

     Don't forget to follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr for a quick glimpse of designs if you don’t have time to read the full blog. And if you try this design or any other design post here, don’t forget to tag @cutiecure in it. Until next time, stay fabulous!