31dc2013 Day Twenty

31dc2013 Day twenty: Water Marble


         First off I would like to say this was another first for me. I never tried this technique before simply because of how labor intensive it seems/ looks. I've also read that it's pretty hard to perfect. For me it seems like another design that works best for people with long or bigger nails then I, but i suppose it wouldn't be a challenge if it was all easy right? So here we go with my attempt, and by the way, I chose to only do my thumbs middle and ring finger with the water marble technique. The rest of my fingers I kept plain-ish.

     Since it was my first time trying this out I wanted to start simple with a 2 color marble.

       Sorry that ones a little grainy, I have a few other shots that will hopefully show the look off a little better.

        The two colors used are Sinful Colors "mesmerize" which is a dark blurple (blueish purple, purplish blue?) and Julep "Sasha" a nice coral shade.

      I added the dots with a dotting tool to add some more color and interest to the finished look. My top coat smeared it a little bit but you certainly couldn't tell from a distance.

      The finished result was kinda trippy and cool. I want to try this again the clean-up wasnt nearly as bad as I feared. I liberally applied cuticle oil around the nails before the water-marbling to make it  a bit easier. So there it is!

   Steady hands to all!

31dc2013 Day Nineteen

31dc2013 Day nineteen: Galaxy nails


      

            OKAY, so take it easy on me okay?!? This was my first attempt at galaxy nails ever! I see beautiful photo's of this style manicure all the time but never tried it because I figured my nails were way to small to have all that going on them. I still gave it a shot though.

         I started with a coat of Sally Hansen "Black out" for my base. I ripped up one of those wedge make-up sponges.  I gathered up a blue , purple, yellow, and a light blue polish. put a dot of each color on some wax paper, took a piece of sponge for each color and starting with the darkest color started sponging in lines or circles. So first Dark Blue, then medium purple, some yellow, and then because I couldn't find any of my white polishes I used a super light blue for the stars added last.

     I think I got a little sponge happy with the purple. eek.

      Eh not the best, but not the worst either.  I will certainly try this again if for nothing else but to try and perfect it.  What do you think of my first attempt?

     Steady hands to all!

31dc2013 Day Eighteen

31dc2013 Day eighteen: Half Moons

       I love the look of half moon manicures, it can be done so many different ways to achieve different looks, but I feel with simple colors it's a fabulous classic look. As I've mentioned in other posts I love combining creme polishes with something sparkly. When It came to half moon day I knew what I wanted to do!

       I started with two coats of Julep "Sienna" Which is a beautiful white gold metallic polish. This polish has great coverage for a metallic, it's also just very pretty. Now this is where patience is a virtue. You MUST let the bottom coat fully dry! I've seen people use binder enforcers for their circles, but for some reason I can never find them in any of the office supply stores around me so I just use band-aid ends. So once your base is dry you can place your sticker, band-aid, tape or whatever you may be using over the bottom of your nail bed making sure the corners of your nails are fully taped off. I noticed if you touch the sticker or band aid a bunch to get rid of some of the stickiness, it makes the removal a little easier and tends not to pull up your base coat.

        I then went over the top of the nail with just one coat of Zoya "Farah", and then removed my band-aid to reveal the pretty gold underneath. Zoya Farah is such a great neutral polish! it has great coverage and I think it suits my skin tone really well. I may have to get another bottle because I use this one so often. It levels itself out so nicely and has great coverage for something so pale. As you can see from the photo's one coat even over gold was enough for full beautiful coverage.

          I went over it all with some topcoat just for some extra shine.

       SO PRETTY! I personally loved this combo and will probably where it again. I think it would make a nice accent nail. I also think this look is neutral enough for the office, but fancy enough for the office party (not that I would know, I work in a record store pretty much by myself). What do you think of this look?


     Steady hands to all!

31dc2013 Day Seventeen

31dc2013 Day seventeen: Glitter nails

       First off let me apologize for the graininess of some of my photo's. My little macro lens is either no longer compatible with my crappy phone, or my crappy phone is getting crappier. I'm working on a different photo set up. Yes, now back to nails. For glitter day I decided I wasn't going to do any nail art. Instead a swatch of a pretty cool and different glitter polish from my collection.

        Here we have 3 coats of color club "fame and fortune".  A bright pink/ magenta tinted jelly with iridescent shards.  I love how squishy this polish looks! The shards in this polish are much thicker then regular flake glitter. They almost look like little pieces of a broken mirror. This polish is quite sheer but does build well just make sure you let each coat dry before adding the next or you'll end up with bald spots.

     Minimal placement was required for the glitter but nothing unmanageable. I Imagine this would be a tough polish to pull off on longer nails if you have a problem with visible nail line, but since my nails are so tiny it works.  Have you tried Fame and fortune on your talons? if so what were your thoughts? I Like it, but mostly because I love most jelly polishes. Until next time!

    Steady hands to all!

31dc2013 Day Sixteen

31dc2013 Day sixteen: Tribal print

      Okay, I didn't make it to the store. I still wanted to give it a shot anyway. Since my delicate print was such a fail, I decided to only try to do the tribal print on my middle finger and thumb. I also tried a new (to me) technique on my pointer and pinky fingers called saran wrap nails. I also added a glitter nail (my ring finger).

      Not sure who coined the term, but I suppose this would be called a skittlette manicure.
On my thumb and middle fingers i started with two coats of julep "niecy" Which is a bright bubblegum creme. For my pointer and ring finger I started with a coat of "Rainstorm" by sinful colors. After that dried I painted a thin coat of julep "jessica" and took some bunched up plastic wrap and dapped up some of the color to create a marble look. To me it almost looked like acid washed jeans which looked pretty cool with the bright pink! For my ring finger I added 3 coats of julep "oscar" a pretty dense gold glitter.

     Once my base polish was dry I free handed a simple design over the pink nails. Finished it all off with a coat of extra shiny top coat and voila!. Not the best but certainly better then my previous post. What's your favorite nail art tool for doing small line work?

    Steady hands to all!

31dc2013 Day Fifteen

31dc2013 Day fifteen: delicate print

    Well one thing I can say is that this was certainly a challenge! Not only was I feeling down, and having a hard time keeping motivation, I was feeling a bit under the weather. Which certainly does not help my patience or my shaking. I get asked quite a bit if I have a problem or what not because of my shaking but all in all it's a family trait passed down my mothers side of the family which is probably one of the few things I got from her side of the family tree, yippee! Well anyway I tried a few different designs and pretty much messed them all up (to my standards anyway). This challenge was difficult for a few reasons. 1.) I have pretty shakey hands  2.) My nails are extremely small (like seriously I know 5 year olds with larger fingernail beds) 3.) I dont have many small paintbrushes and or nail pens, so my ideas become pretty limited.
     So anyway the photo above was my attempt at a paisley print. I definitely need a smaller nail pen or bigger nails haha.

    My attempt at a lace design.

        Ultimately a fail. For some reason my fast dry top coat was making my base polish really gummy, and actually making it take LONGER to dry. When I tried to apply my lines the brush kept getting stuck and dragging the base polish. 

     Last and maybe least, I tried a Henna design. I had the same problem with the brush getting stuck. Was it my fault for being impatient? probably. I think tonight when I get out of work I'm going to pick up some small brushes and maybe a new nail art pen or two and some freakin' seche vite for gods sake why don't I have any seche vite?!?!?!?  erm....yeah...

     Steady hands to all!

Just a silly swatch!

     Alright I'm back! This post I wanted to show you a swatch of a polish I picked up over summer. This will be a short post I promise!

     This is two coats of Sally Hansen fuzzy coat in "all yarned up" over a random light blue (sorry I can't remember what color I used). All yarned up is a combo or yellow, orange, and blue small bar glitters in a clear base.  I've noticed a couple other brands releasing these. Barry M has a line of confetti polishes they are practically the same exact collection. Nails inc have a feather effect line that is also very similar, and China glaze has a on the horizon set that also has these tiny bar glitters but in slightly different shades.

       This polish does remind me a little bit of a fuzzy sweater! It applies pretty nicely not much dapping and no fishing was needed to get an even application. Some of the bars kinda stuck out of the nail line but could easily be pushed to even out. I would love to try this polish in a jelly sandwich, maybe i'll post one in the future. Will any of you be picking up any of these or have you already?

    Steady hands to all!