Our next challenge theme is stripes! As yesterday was my mother's birthday, I decided to use her favorite color as the base for my nail art: yellow! This color was part of a large nail polish gift set that I received from my mother for Christmas. It came with like at least 20 colors! Here's a swatch of the yellow. It looks a bit mustardy which I wasn't expecting from the bottle color. Was not a big fan of it by itself, especially with my skin tone. Once I got the stripes on; however, I loved it! As you can see, the red I used for my last mani left some staining.
Sephora Formula X: Zap
For the stripes, I used some cheap striping brushes which is why you can see some of the strokes. Overall, I really like this mani. It is much more successful than my chevron attempt! I took a couple different types of photos to show in different lighting. The black is Sephora Formula X: Dark Matter, and pink is Sephora Formula X: Eureka.
I'm back! My last post was in November. A number of things happened then. My computer died. The holidays came. The shit got real on writing my dissertation. I had little inspiration for nail art and littler amount of time! I did do a sunrise gradient, but didn't get around to taking photos. For Thanksgiving, I did a manicure for my sister of owls similar to one I did earlier with water decals. For Christmas, I did my sister's and my own nails, but it's a bit late to post that, so I will probably just wait for this December to do so! I did a stamping mani for Valentine's day, and I may post that even it's a bit late. Like last October, I found a similar nailart challenge for March.. so here we go!
I think it was made for last year, but that's ok! As you can see, I am already behind. The first one is for chevron. For those not in the know, chevron is basically zigzags. It is a new-ish trend going around in the nail art world, and there are a number of ways to do it.
1. free hand with a marker or nail art pen
2. paint tape and use regular or pinking scissors as a sticker
3. cut tape with regular or pinking scissors and paint and paint over it as a stencil
I chose to use pinking scissors and then paint over it. It didn't turn out quite as nice as I would of liked. I believe this is due to me using too much polish and rushing when lifting the tape off of my nail.
As today is Casimir Pulaski day, a Polish holiday celebrated in Chicago, and tomorrow is Fat Tuesday (or paczki day), which is also big in Chicago, generally celebrated by stuffing yourself with Polish donuts known as paczki, I went with a red and white (the colors of the Polish flag) theme. It's pretty great that these two days ended up next to each other this year!
I used OPI Big Apple Red as a base color with a glittler topper by SOPI Be-claus I said so. The white is the new sephora nail polish Formula X White Matter. Topped with Setche Vite.
Not a terrible first try, but not great.
I need to show off my new ring, too! I decided to try a second way to do it on my index fingernail. This time I used my nail art pen. The problem with it was that the white is just too transparent. It may have worked better with a white base and red pen. Alas!
Overall, not much of a sucess, but I really love the red base and glitter combo. You can't tell, but it looks like red ruby slippers! Love!
If you are curious about the strange Polish customs, here are some links!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_Pulaski_Day
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C4%85czki
And lastly, as crazy as it sounds... I found paczki in Fort Collins, Colorado yesterday! Yum yum!!
Remember, remember the 5th of November...
A local dinner theater is playing V for Vendetta tonight, which inspired me to do some nail art. I went a bit simple, but it turned out well. I love how the black tips look.This also gave me a chance to try out the new red polish that I recently bought. I let my boyfriend pick out a color for me, and I am very pleased. Much better than the cheap-o polish I used for the bloody nails. Overall, this red polish went on smoothly with no streaking and almost complete coverage with one coat (I used two). I highly recommend this if you are looking for a nice apple red. Not the best clean up job..
OPI Big Apple Red
Zoya Raven
Sally Hansen nail art pen
Au revoir to October. I have ambivalent feelings about the end of this month. I love fall, and this month's nail art challenge was really fun. However, November brings colder weather and the holiday season, which I love. Okay, well not the biggest fan of the cold (especially now that I live in a place that has winters again), but I LOVE hats and scarves and gloves and boots!
Here I have the last theme of the October nail art challenge: costume. This year, I didn't dress up as anything for Halloween, so I am going with some nail art that would have matched my costume from last year. I went to visit some friends in my college town, Champaign, Urbana. I went as a "dark" fairy with a color theme of black and purple.
For this mani I went with a gradient of purple to black. I tried to experiment with a variety of lighting to get the best view of. This mani turned out great, but it takes the perfect lighting to get the full effect. Sadly, I don't have a great camera for this purple yet, so I did the best I could to capture the beauty of these colors. I've had this on for a couple of days, I am just late for posting it!
Zoya Raven
OPI Plum Full of Cheer
In this one you can see it best on my middle finger.
Monsters?! Nobody said there was going to be monsters! -Fidget from the video game Dust: An Elysian Tail
There were a lot of ways I could have gone with this, making it a great theme. Originally, I wanted to do mummies, but the striping tape that I ordered hasn't arrive yet, and I was too lazy to do it with regular tape. Thus, I went with some Frankenstein monsters. I can always do the mummies next year. I've seen quite a few of these floating around this week; here is my interpretation of them.
I used a nail art pen and dotting tools.
Base color: China Glaze Gaga for Green
Zoya Purity and Raven for the eyes
So today we have a rare peek at the elusive right hand! My love of the critter art was so great that I didn't want to take it off. Plus, I want to see how long the waterslide decal will last. Thus, my right hand is making its debut. Generally, this is a pretty accurate portrayal of my work:
Luckily, I decided to try out a new technique for the blood theme. It turned out to be relatively easy and not so hard to do onto my right hand. The technique is using a straw to create a splattered look. Basically all I did was pour some polish into my paint palette, dip a straw end into it, and blow over my nails. easy peasy! One tip that I can give you is to put on your top coat after the base and let it dry. That way, if you mess up, you can take off the splatter with acetone without messing up the base. Just make sure you redo the top coat and wait for it to dry before trying again. The same goes for stamping. Also, make sure the splatter is totally dry before applying the final top coat. I waited half an hour, and it still smeared when I applied mine (I use seche vite btw). I think it may have been the quality of the red polish.
While preparing for this theme, I realized that I only own one actual red nail polish. Even more, it is a tiny little bottle from a set and is about gone. I ended up just buying a 99 cent bottle from the drug store, as I didn't feel like driving out to ulta to get a brand that I like. I got what I paid for, sadly! I think it looks a bit Dexter-ish. Speaking of Dexter, the ending was so lame.
Also, I want to comment on the white polish that I have been using. It is the only one that I own, and overall, I am not all that happy with it. I plan to buy a couple different brands and do a review blog after the holidays. I have read, though, that generally white polishes are a bit lacking. Any suggestions?
My boyfriend is not a fan of this one. He says it looks too real, so it really bothers him. haha
Zoya Purity
Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby
CRITTERS! So I would say that of all the Halloween themes, I was looking forward most to critters. I had so many ideas, I had a hard time choosing! At first, I was going to try to do a different critter for each nail: cat, bat, mouse, owl, and spider. I then realized that A. that was a lot of work and B. that doesn't leave me a lot of room for future Halloween critters if I do it all at once, so I decided to go with something more simple... and I love it! I have to say I am very happy with how this turned out. I ordered some owl nail decals on a whim from amazon.com. I didn't know this, but they are something called "waterslide" not stickers. Basically, you cut the picture out of the paper, let it sit in warm water for 35 seconds, and then put it on your nail. It looks like I painted it on there, too! I bought these from a company called alexcole. $3.99 for a sheet of 18 (plus shipping). I let the polish and top coat dry before adding the decal and then applied more top coat. I actually went for a swim in between polish and decal. I'm not sure how long it will last, since the product recommends use on acrylic or gel polish. Plus, I'm going for another lap swim tonight, so we will see the durability of it. Also, please feel free to leave comments or questions!
Essie: Little Brown Dress
China Glaze: Kalahari Kiss
