Thursday, May 31, 2012

China Glaze Light as Air and Elixir Lacquers Supa Sugar Bee

Blah blah blah headache

3 coats China Glaze Light as Air, I did a terrible job cleaning up:



With 1 coat Elixir Lacquers Calypso:





Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Kleancolor Peaceful Heart

This is Essie Power Clutch. This is supposedly green, but I think it's definitely a gray. Then I added 3 coats of Kleancolor Peaceful Heart. I had to do some fishing for the hearts, but if you didn't fish I would guess you'd get hearts on almost every coat.

Peaceful Heart is green and gold glitter and blue heart-shaped glitter in a clear base.



Monday, May 28, 2012

Impressionist Tutorial

This is a tutorial for the background design of the art I did here. This is definitely a subtle design, more noticeable with lighter colors. For my water lilies I used blues and greens and purples, for this tutorial I used pinks and oranges and purples.

I apologize in advance for the picture quality, I was trying to work fast. Also, everything but the final product is pre-cleanup.

Final Product:


I started with Kleancolor's Metallic Fushia, a one-coater.


I then used a white to sponge randomly over each nail.



I continued to sponge every pink, purple, orange, red, and sparkle in my collection. 



When it started to get dark I added more white and silver


I then soaked a sponge in Non-acetone nail polish remover. 


I then mixed the remover with some of the original color:



I used this this to sponge over each nail.

Here are some good pictures, after clean-up.



It is a lot of work for a subtle design, but I like the way it came out. 








Friday, May 25, 2012

So Sorry

I'm very sorry for my lack of updates, my Intracranial hypertension has been really affecting me.

Maybe it would be a good idea for me to have a couple of guest posts as back up for days like this. Any takers?

Monday, May 21, 2012

This little piggy

I'm working on a tutorial for my Impressionist nails, so this will be short and sweet. 

I started with 3 coats of Spoiled Permission to Proceed. Obviously, it still has some VNL, but it's a cool, creme green somewhere between Kelly and Lime. 


I then added this adorable design using brushes and dotting tools. 

I got sooo many compliments on this manicure, I thought it was super cute. 


Thursday, May 17, 2012

Inspired by Monet

I'm not going to lie, this is by far the best manicure I've ever done!

I did this for Kayla's nail contest. I was inspired by my favorite piece of art, I have loved Monet for as long as I can remember. I think his Water Lilies series is so serine and beautiful, I wanted to do an impressionist-like design.

I will have a tutorial up for my impressionist nails next week, but for now, enjoy my nails. :)

The inspiration:








Here is my left hand (natural light):


And here is my right:

A closeup of a few fingers on my left hand, you can really see all the colors I used on the background here!

 This picture is very color accurate:

And as a bonus... my work area after I finished!!


What do you think? Would you like a tutorial?


Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Sticks 'N Stones

Finally!!!!

This is 2 coats of Funky Fingers Riot (I got mine at Five Below), and 2 coats of Sticks 'N Stones, which I finally got at Ninja Polish.


Quick post toady because I have an awesome one for you all on Friday!

Monday, May 14, 2012

Elixir Lacquers: Blue & Green Blondes and With a K

Warning: This is going to be a long, picture heavy, post!

My wonderful brother gave me 8 amazing Elixir polishes for my birthday (note: I mean I picked them up and he bought them, lol), these are my first indies! You can buy these polishes here.

First is Blue & Green Blondes.


This is described on the website as: "Green micro glitter, gold mini hexagon glitter, and large blue hexagon glitter suspended in a clear base." The swatches I'm showing are 3 coats over black.



 And here is a close-up of the bottle.

























Next is With a K.


The website describes this as: "Silver and electric violet holographic micro glitter with violet prismatic hexagon glitter, suspended in a violet jelly base." It says that it is opaque in 2 coats, but I doubt that! Here it is shown with 3 coats over Kleancolor's Metalic Fushia.  



There is a noticable holographic in person, but it won't show up in the pictures. 


All the bottle shots I took ended up blurry... sorry! 


Friday, May 11, 2012

Yodel me on my cell

Just a quick swatch today, I'm having a bad day with my Intercranial hypertension.

This is OPI's Yodel me on my cell from their Swiss collection. I actually had this done at a salon a couple of weeks ago. :-O I don't like how much she squared off my nails though.




Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Awesome New Sunglasses

The other day I got these awesome new sunglasses


Of course they inspired me!

I started with 2 coats of Ulta Mango. A medium pinkish coral with gold micro-glitter. 





I then added a gold crackle pattern using BM 208. I then (regrettably) added a coat of CG Cowardly Lyin'. I then used a the Konad m57 plate.





Not a perfect match, but pretty cool:


Monday, May 7, 2012

OPI Senorita Rose-Alita

This is a pretty, dusty medium pink with gold micro-glitter. I used a random black, gold, and silver polish with a dotting tool.



Friday, May 4, 2012

Cinco de Mayo

¡Hola! En honor al Cinco de Mayo lancé esta entrada del blog enGoogle Translate. Voy a volver a colocar en Inglés en la sección de comentarios. Tengo curiosidad por lo terrible que esta traducción es.


Empecé con 4 capas de Zoya Snow White. Tengo una relación amor-odio con el blanco esmalte de uñas. Creo que se ve súper impresionante, pero es un dolor en el culo para entrar.




Luego utiliza la técnica de gradiente con OPI Hey Vito is my Car Red-y y China Glaze Four Leaf Clover.




Entonces freehanded un "5" y la palabra Mayo. Pensé en el 'de', perono podía entender por dónde ponerlo.



¿Qué piensa usted?

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Fresh Paint Blue Steel Gradient

This is the first non-glitter gradient I've ever done that I think was slightly effective.

I started with 2 coats of Fresh Paints Blue Steel. I'm not sure if the store 5 Below is everywhere (it's like a Dollar Store but with everything under $5). I've never seen Fresh Paints anywhere else. This color reminds me of blue jeans, and it stains like crazy when taking it off. This picture isn't totally accurate, it's more blue than green in person.


I then used Something like this with the Blue Steel and my Sally Hansen Black Out