DIY: How to cut your own FIMO nail art slices from canes

DIY: How to cut your own FIMO nail art slices from canes

Tutorials Cosmetopia Digest   Wednesday, March 12, 2014

This is not a tutorial as much as a DIY learning experience.

In a moment of inexplicable brain-melt last year, I concluded that it was cheaper and better to buy full FIMO canes rather than pre-cut slices. The canes came in - all 50 of them - one cuter than the other, and I had visions of gorgeous nail art featuring the strawberries, the kiwis, the leaves and the cute butterflies. The first time I tried to slice the canes, I got each round at least a millimetre thick and highly uneven. You can see the nail art I did with those extra-thick slices here. I decided to try again. 

Read on to find out what happened when I tried to cut thin FIMO slices out of the canes.

Stamping nail art tutorial basics I: Simple mistakes to avoid; tips, tricks and pointers

Stamping nail art tutorial basics I: Simple mistakes to avoid; tips, tricks and pointers

Tutorials Cosmetopia Digest   Thursday, November 07, 2013

Stamping nail art is easy to do and always in vogue; you can't go wrong with it if you get some simple basics right. After receiving - and answering - some questions on how to do stamping nail art, I was asked to do a detailed post for beginners. I am not an expert on stamping (or any other nail art) and have my messy-stamping days, but I found that there are quite a few tricks that many of the videos tend to miss out on.

As there are several facets to stamping nail art, I'll be doing this in three parts - this one is on the equipment used. Part II will be the step-by-step tutorial on stamping nail art and part III will be a list of non-Konad/special polishes that you can stamp with. All will be detailed posts, and picture-heavy. If all goes well, I will eventually be sharing step-by-step tutorials for FIMO, ombre, watermarbling, splatter, tape and other kinds of nail art. Suggestions/hate-mail welcome.

DIY: Make your own leave-in conditioning hair spray

DIY: Make your own leave-in conditioning hair spray

Hair care Cosmetopia Digest   Sunday, August 25, 2013

Ever struggled with a tangled hair's nest on your head after a shower? And wondered why all those leave-in conditioners and styling sprays don't perform the miracles they claim to? There really doesn't seem to be any point in spending on every new serum or spray that hits the market when they all work (or don't work) equally well/badly. Here's how you can make your own leave-in conditioning hair spray which works as well as anything available in the market. I love mine and even take it along while travelling.

What you need for your homemade spray conditioner:

DIY: Make your own nail polish remover dipping bottle

DIY: Make your own nail polish remover dipping bottle

Nail polish Cosmetopia Digest   Friday, August 09, 2013

You've seen the Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover (read review here) and some dupes - they made waves over the blogosphere when they came out and the Bourjois polish remover is my Holy Grail. I love it and will continue to buy it, but thought it would be fun to try making a homemade version. Here's how.
Ingredients:

DIY: How to make a light box or tent for beauty photography

DIY: How to make a light box or tent for beauty photography

Tutorials Cosmetopia Digest   Thursday, August 01, 2013

I can barely tell one end of a camera from the other, and hate getting behind it. Which isn't very helpful for a beauty blogger. I can't be bothered to frame a photo, get it set in natural light and all that rigmarole, so I just point, shoot and leave. A colleague recently told me my problem was bad lighting, especially indoors, and that a photography tent would help quite a bit.
A light tent, it turns out, costs around $100, so I decided to make my own crude, inexpensive light tent without spending a penny, though I'll eventually have to confess to my family that I'm the one who used up every bottle of glue and inch of tape in the house. And if you have been reading my Facebook page, you'll know I didn't have much glue to start with after my niece presumed the gluesticks were deodorant/perfume and applied it all liberally over herself when no one was looking.
The beauty of this is that even if you are, like me, the swot who failed art, craft and needlework (I went to an all-girls' convent school), you can still make a usable light tent. Here's how.

What you need to make your own light box for photography:

DIY makeup storage ideas: Storing nail polish bottles on the wall

DIY makeup storage ideas: Storing nail polish bottles on the wall

Storage Cosmetopia Digest   Saturday, June 15, 2013

I don't like storing my nail polish bottles inside a cupboard, drawer or shelf - I would always be taking out all the bottles anyway to compare and contrast and finally decide. But keeping around 198 bottles spread out would mean I wouldn't have space to walk around.

DIY: How to make your own natural cuticle oil with home based ingredients

DIY: How to make your own natural cuticle oil with home based ingredients

Skin care Cosmetopia Digest   Sunday, February 03, 2013

Home-made natural cuticle oil ready for use

This weekend, I decided to experiment with making my own cuticle oil. I had read about this on the internet a while ago as a great treatment for horribly peeling and ridged nails. I’ve spent goodness-knows-how-much on nail treatment and think it is cheaper and healthier to make your own natural cuticle oil. For one, you can be 100% sure your version contains no preservatives or harmful chemicals, unless the raw materials also contain said chemicals.

Here's what you need to make your own cuticle oil at home:

How to make your own nail polish at home: DIY tutorial

How to make your own nail polish at home: DIY tutorial

Nail polish Cosmetopia Digest   Wednesday, January 16, 2013

So I made my own nail polish, thanks to "how-to's" on the internet. I used the cheapest brands of clear or sheer base coats I could find and a tonne of glitter and eyeshadows that I didn’t want any more to get these nail polishes - mostly neutral, because of the ingredients I used. The process was very easy and took very little time and effort, even for a klutz like me. And, since I went in for cheap brands from the corner store, it cost me hardly anything.

Here's how you can make your own nail polish at home with easily available ingredients.