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Monday 30 September 2013

Autumn Sunset

I struggled with today's nail art; I just couldn't seem to find inspiration. I started doing it without any real clear plan but I'm pleased with the turnout.


I started off with a base of Salon Perfect Light My Fire which is such a gorgeous deep orange with a beautiful shimmer. Can you tell I love it? I then sponged on a gradient using Joe Fresh Mulberry which is a browny purple with a shimmer.


I then went in with ye olde time nail pens and drew in the trees, birds, and grass. It looks very sunsetty if I do say so myself.



I think the only thing I would do differently would be to put a gradient on the accent (ring) finger. It just looks a little plainer than the rest of the nails.

It's been raining like absolutely crazy where I am so I don't think I'll be seeing any beautiful sunsets for a while!

Happy painting!

Sunday 29 September 2013

I Wish I Had a Dress With This Pattern! (Watercolour Nails)

I think I've found one of the easiest nail effects to do! All you need is nail polish, saran wrap and some patience during clean up. I can see me wearing this when I get back to work. It's so easy to do!



I love love love this look!! I don't even know that the pictures do it justice as it's so pretty in person and really looks like a watercolour painting.


I started with a base of L'oreal Sweet Chiffon which is a light pinky colour. I then took Essie For the Twill of it (a grey that shifts from green to purple), Vested Interest (a grey/green) and The Lace is On (a shimmery magenta) and blobbed on big spots of each (along with the Sweet Chiffon) randomly around the nail.



Here's where the magic happens; you take a piece of saran wrap and squish it onto the top of your blobs and just tap around on the polish to spread it. Then peel off the saran wrap and you get this amazing pattern! I considered doing a tutorial for this look but I'm just going to give you the link to the website I got this look from, Polishandpearls. Jen does a great video tutorial and I highly recommend you watch it if you would like to try this look out.

Because I like to give options and show you other colour schemes, here's another one:


For this one I used a base of LA Colors Color Craze light beige (no name was actually attached). Then I blobbed on Orly Moonlit Madness (deep red) and Sea Gurl (pewter metallic), and LA Colors Color Craze bronze (again no name attached).


There will be clean up. Oh yes, there will be clean up. Because you are squishing large blobs of polish you are bound to get it all over the sides of your nails and into your cuticles. You can avoid the majority of the mess by either putting tape around your nail so you can just peel it off after or use white school glue. You paint the school glue around your nail, let it dry, do your art, and then scrape the dried glue off taking the excess nail polish with it.

You can do any color combo you like but I do recommend using a light base as it will make the colours you blob on top pop a lot more.

Happy painting friends!!

Saturday 28 September 2013

It's Sweater Season (Argyle Tutorial)

This time of year is great because you get to bundle up in warm sweaters and get all comfy cozy. One of my favourites is the argyle pattern and I thought I would do my next tutorial around that.

First off, here is the finished product:


Let's get started!

My base coat is Essie Cashmere Bathrobe. I absolutely love this colour! It's a deep grey with a touch of shimmer to it and I think the name is fantastic. It's from Essie's 2013 Fall Collection.


Then using striping tape I taped off an X in the centre of my nails. The trick to striping tape is to put the tape on all of your nails at once so that you don't have to fiddle with it while your nails are wet.


Very carefully I then painted a hot pink colour (sorry it's not marked with a name) by OPI into the sides of the X and removed the striping tape quickly to attempt to keep the lines clean.



You should end up with something like this:


Don't worry if it's looking a little messy. That's what clean up is for! I then took one of my handy nail pens in a bright forest green colour and drew the lines in.


Once that was completely dry I cleaned up the edges with a brush and my acetone.


Then topped it off with Revlon Matte Top Coat to give it the look of wool.



I'm "falling" in love with these colours, haha!

Something you may want to try instead of free handing the lines onto your design is to use the striping tape for the lines and just cut the tape to size. It would mean that your lines would be perfectly straight! Plus, striping tape comes in a multitude of colours so you could use whatever colour fit your motif.

Here's an example of what I mean (colours= Sephora by OPI It's totally karma, Jessica Pink Explosion):


And with a matte topcoat:


And here's an example of another colour scheme using a nail pen for the lines not striping tape (colours= China Glaze Sparks will fly, Color Club What a Drag).


What's your favourite colour combo? Do you think this is something you could try out?
Hope you enjoyed today's tutorial. Happy painting :)

Friday 27 September 2013

The Leaves are Falling!

The weather has changed of late and it's time to bust out the autumn colours. My mom has been saying for a week now that I should start working with my fall colours and so we sorted through all my polishes (finally!), got them all organized and I felt like I could start on some seasonal nail art.

Here's what I came up with:


I started with 3 coats (I probably could have gotten away with 2) of Joe Fresh Bronze. Then I busted out my paintbrush and got to work on the leaves which I did in a mixture of OPI Magazine Cover Mouse (red), Salon Perfect Light My Fire (orange) and Salon Perfect Kiwi Kiss (green). No look is complete without using a nail pen so I grabbed a dark brown and outlined the leaves and added the veins.



I wish the colours on the leaves were a little more saturated but I like the effect they give. It makes me excited for this time of year! I can't wait for Thanksgiving and Halloween (and all the cool nail art I can do around those two themes).

Hope you enjoyed! I leaf you with one more picture (couldn't resist the pun! sorry Laura)


Thursday 26 September 2013

We Scare Because We Care! Monsters Inc. Nails

Ok, I know. I just posted Disney nail art yesterday but I've really been wanting to do some Monsters Inc. nails and I'm really proud of these ones! Monsters Inc. is one of my favourite Disney movies (although I have a lot of favourites!)



On the thumb we have the Monsters Inc. symbol, on the index we have Boo's door, on the middle is Mike, on the ring is Sully and on the pinkie is Randall.



For the thumb I used two coats of Sally Hansen White Out and then using (you guessed it!) my nail art pens I drew in the M and the eye.


On the index I used White Out again and then again used my nail art pens to draw the details on the door.

On the middle finger I used Sephora by OPI It's Totally Karma as my base and then I painted on the eye details using a paint brush and a mixture of colours to achieve the desired results.

On my ring finger I used Color Club Evolution for the base and then used something I've never tried before, velvet flocking powder. I bought it off eBay about a month ago and haven't had cause to use it but I thought it would be perfect to replicate Sully's fur. I painted on my base coat and then when that dried I used a clear coat and dotted that on randomly for the purple spots. I then sprinkled the flocking powder onto the nail and had to push it down into the clear nail polish so it would stick. I shook off the excess and repeated with the blue powder. It's not as "fluffy" as I was hoping it would be but I think it looks cool.

On my pinkie I used Sephora by OPI I Don't Bite to represent Randall's skin and then I went in with a craft scraper and roughed it up a bit to make the scales. I don't think it comes across in the photos very well.



I really enjoy these nails. I think they are super fun! Let me know if there is any Disney art you'd like to see (or any other suggestions you may have!)

Wednesday 25 September 2013

Hey Mickey you're so fine...and Minnie is pretty cool too!

Yeah, more Disney nail art!! I am now on the Island and have access to my dad's camera so hopefully you'll notice a difference in the pics. I have spent the majority of the afternoon so far trying to figure out how to put a watermark onto my pics and I've learned two things:
1) It's way way harder than I previously thought
2) I rely A LOT on my husband to help me with computer things

As I am not near him right now, I'm trying to figure things out on my own and it's not going well! That's life I suppose and I'll just have to keep plugging away at it.

On to the nail art! I thought I would do some more Disney nail art as I love it oh so much. If you aren't familiar with my love of all things Disney, you soon will be as I'm sure I'll be doing a lot of art around this theme :)


I love them oh so much! On the thumb is Minnie Mouse polka dots with a bow, on the index is Mickey heads with red polka dots, on the middle is Micky's shorts, on the ring is a red, pink and white confetti and on the pinkie is Mickey's glove.



So what did I use?

Thumb=Colour Club Look Book (possibly my favourite red!) and then using a tapered cotton swab I dotted on the white polka dots using Sally Hansen White Out. Then I added in the black bow using my black nail pen.



Index=Sally Hansen White Out and then using a tapered cotton swab again I painted on the Mickey heads and the red polka dots.

Middle=Kleancolor Golden Nightmare and then using the trusty cotton swab I roughed in Mickey's shorts. When those were dry I added in the buttons using an Art Club yellow and then outlined everything with a black nail pen.

Index=Sally Hansen White Out and then two coats of OPI Minnie Style (which is actually a range of Minnie Mouse inspired nail colours).

Pinkie=Kleancolor Golden Nightmare and then again with the cotton swab and some white to make the glove. Finish it off with black accents and job done.



Whew! That was a lot!! I hope you love the pics and the nail art. I do :)

And just because she is really cute (and a bit of a mess), here's a pic of my dog.


Monday 23 September 2013

It Hits the Spot!!

I like to have my nearest and dearest pick out 2-4 colours for me to use in nail art. Gives me new inspiration! So today I had my mom pick out colours for me and she went straight for the red (no great surprise there!!)

The colours she chose were a basic black, a basic silver and No. 7 Salsa which is a fantastic lighter red. I did one nail art with stripes that I was really dissatisfied with, so I took it off and decided on dots.


This look was actually super easy to do. I started with 2 coats of Salsa and after that dried, I went to work on the dots. I used the end of  the handle of one of my brushes dipped in the silver and dotted on the larger of the dots. Then I used the tip of a tapered cotton swab to do the smaller black dots. You could really use any item you've got lying around that would give you the size of dot you were looking for. I've actually just ordered some real dotting tools off of eBay today and when they arrive (in about six weeks!) I'll let you know how they are.

And now for a parade of pics!




Hope you've enjoyed this installment. Let me know if you try out some dotted nail art!!

Step by Step, Oh Baby, Gonna get to you girl... (My first tutorial!)

I've had some requests from people to do a step by step breakdown of some of my nail art so here is my first attempt at doing that.

First, here is a pic of the finished look:



 So how did we get there?

Step 1 (We can have lots of fun...)

I painted my nails with 4 (yikes) coats of Barry M Blue Moon. It's such a beautiful colour but does take a lot of coats to get it opaque.




 Step 2 (There's so much we can do)

I took 5 different colours (one for each nail) and using the corner of the brush, blobbed on rough circular blobby shapes. Not very technical I know, but you don't need to be precise when doing this. You are just roughing out the shapes for the roses and provided that they are reasonably round, you're good!



 Step 3 (It's just you for me)

Taking a nail pen in a creamy/nude colour, I roughed in the petals of the roses. Again, it doesn't have to be anything too technical; just rough rose shapes and the effect really comes out.



Step 4 (I can give you more)

Then using another nail pen (I do love them oh so much!), I did some simple green leaves.


 Step 5 (Don't you know that the time has arrived? Which I always thought was Don't you know that the time is right? but Google disagrees with my inner 12 year old's memory.)

I did some clean up with my 100% acetone nail polish remover and a simple (small) paintbrush and then topped it off with a top coat (in this case Colour Club's top coat as I love the seal it gives). And voila! You should have something akin to what's below. If you are interested in getting into nail art at all, I highly recommend picking up some nail pens. They have saved my bacon with detail work on more than one occasion. You could, however, just do the lines using regular nail polish (as that's all that is in the nail pens anyway) and a detail paintbrush.


Unfortunately all my pics came out a little blurry and there didn't seem to be anything I could do to fix that. However, we are heading to the island tomorrow so come Wednesday I should have some clearer pics for you courtesy of my dad's camera.


So I told you what I used for my base but here is what I used for my roses from left to right:

Thumb= Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Coral Reef
Index=NYC Wine Bar
Middle=Sephora by OPI Curve-aceous
Ring=Essie Using My Maiden Name
Pinkie= China Glaze That's Shore Bright

I love this and will be so sad to take it off! I hope the pictorial tutorial helped (and I hope you enjoyed the NKOTB references!). Please let me know if you think I missed out on any information or if anything isn't clear.



FYI: They have discontinued? the Sephora by OPI collection and it is all on 50% off right now on the Sephora website (at least for Canada). I really like this range and have a bunch of the different colours in my collection. I am pretty sure they aren't in their stores any more as they have made way for their new lines but there is a ton of selection online.





Sunday 22 September 2013

Two for the Price of One

Hello friends! Today is an exciting day as I have two different nail art designs to share with you and it's a family affair. The first comes courtesy of my BFF and pseudo-sister. She is awesome and has given me a present a day for 12 days after my surgery. It culminated yesterday with a gift of nail polish! Who doesn't like a good gift of nail polish?!? It's always so exciting to get new colours :)

The brand is Crush by Boathouse but unfortunately they don't have any names attached to them.


I started off doing a side gradient with the three colours (pink, blue and a really deep purple) and then added some silver dots using one of my nail art pens,



And because I like a good bit of sparkle, I added a top coat of Sally Hansen Diamonds.





I dig it! The pics don't really do it justice unfortunately but stay tuned as mid next week I'll have access to my dad's camera.

Now on to my second lot of nail art. I asked my dad to pick out 2-4 colours for me to make into some nail art and he chose 1) Beautifully Disney Ocean Mist 2) Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow 3) Sephora X Perplexed

I myself was a little "perplexed" as to what to do with these colours and had to think long and hard on what to do. So I did what I do...gradient!

I started by painting on 3 base coats of the Mellow Yellow (it's a little streaky so needs more than my general 2 coats for a base). Then I painted alternating stripes onto a sponge of the other two colours. (Ocean Mist is the green and Perplexed is the chrome.)


When I finished I was a little scared! It looked like I'd dipped my hand in the swamp, yikes!


But I wasn't deterred; I felt I could still make something cool out of this. So I went to my trusty nail art pens and picked a copper colour to go with the swamp mess and went to work making some leaves.


The flash kinda got in the way of this pic so here's another...


Do I love it? Ummmm, it's not my favourite but it's kinda cool. It wouldn't be a style I would rock on a regular basis and I don't think the pics do the style any favours but it's interesting. I might try this type of gradient with an open leaf design with a different colour combo.

Hope you enjoyed this double dip!