New Year's Eve Nails!

 Alrighty everyone, it may be Jan 2nd but I was hungover yesterday so you get my New Year's Eve nails today!  Much like the glitter challenge, New Year's Eve presents quite the quandary for me as I have to choose just one set of nails, they can be as balls-out-sparkly as I want and there will be partying.  I clearly have no choice but to break out the rainbow glitter, again.  Cos it's New Year's!  I can't not do this thing.

As I talked a friend of mine into hosting the night, I felt I should go help.  And, by help, I mean physically be there, sit on her floor and put glitter on my nails while chatting and watching the I.T. Crowd.  I played around for a while and eventually came up with this diamond pattern.  Using my usual technique, I started with two coats of Rimmel Black Satin then laid a column of glitter down the centre of my nail, inching them around a little til I worked out how many I could fit.  I then just build out the pattern on either side.  You may notice, though, that my other nails don't match.  I'd just started on my ring finger when we noticed it was 7pm, and the party started at eight so it was time to improvise!  For me, that usually means loading up a heavy coat of top coat and sprinkling different glitters on it.  I then proceed to pretend I'm being all cool with my different patterns!

The Verdict: Application isn't quite as good as I'd like but man, did these get me tons of attention at the party.  Which is of course, my favourite thing.  Even from guys!  Aww yeah, everyone loves the glitter.

As a side note, the pictures you see here are a result of my patching up my nails after a hard night of partying.  Glitter mosaics are pretty fragile but super easy to fix.  I'll have a full guide on how to fix them here shortly.

Tutorial: How to Fix a Glitter Mosaic Manicure That's Seen Better Days

Alrighty, so you've seen me do quite a lot of glitter mosaics manicures.  They do take a while to do and if you don't do your nails most days like me, you want them to last as long as possible.  One of the best things about them is that they're actually really easy to fix up, if you have the same glitter handy and a little time.

A perfect time to show you the process of fixing my nails is the manicure I did for New Year's Eve.  I did my nails before the party and over the course of the evening, they...had a bit of a rough night.  I'm very hard on my nails - I get tip wear really easily and my nails weren't in the best shape after a week in New York.  So instead of looking like this:

I woke up to them looking like this (brace yourself):

Sadly, this is rough I am on my nails.  Look at that dirty great chip on my index finger, the tip wear, the missing glitter pieces *shudder*.  IT'S OK, I CAN FIX THIS.  How do I know it'll be ok? Cos the first pieces of all five fingers is the final result *OMG TWIST*.

The first step you need is to take your base colour and refresh your tips.  Make sure you wrap the polish all the way around the ends, and a little bit under your nails.  I find everything wears better this way.  It doesn't have to be super neat as we'll be putting glitter over it and a ton of top coat.  Once done, you should have something that looks like this:

Ok, looks a little better now, huh?  Next, you want to find the glitter you originally used.  You can see I'm missing some of the pink glitter off the tips of my nails, and my little finger isn't looking too good.

Getting even better now.  I've added a little pink in there, and refreshed the glitter on my middle finger.  You just use the same technique you did originally, a little top coat and a toothpick.

The final step is the same as every other mani - a ton of Seche Vite and a paintbrush dipped in acetone to clean up the edges.  I've tried a lot of other top coats but keep coming back to Seche Vite as it seems to penerate deeper layers of polish and smooth everything out.  The paintbrush is also the easiest way to clean up your mani.  Just sweep it around the edges and you'll get a nice curve around the cuticle and no stray splotches.  100% acetone is the best, IMHO, because it's just so much faster than regular remover.  Find a small paint- or makeup brush and just sweep it around the edges of your polish, it's easy to do.

Once you do these, you get this!

The Verdict:  Man, looking at these pictures now I still want to clean up bits but it's too late now.  But look, sparkly!  Hope this helps :)

Fun with Glow-in-the-Dark American Apparel Polishes!

I finally decided to jump aboard the glow-in-the-dark train that's been tootling around lately.  Sure, it's a gimmick but who doesn't like glow-in-the-dark stuff?  I recently came across two new American Apparel polishes - Moon and Neptune - and just had to find the right way to use them.

To start, I applied three coats of Orly Dayglow, my go-to white polish.  These two polishes are quite sheer so I wanted to give them the best shot possible with a white base.  Next, I applied two coats of the white glower, Moon and the blue, Neptune, to alternating fingers.  Application was fine with both these polishes, not to mention interesting to look at the polish itself on the brush.  The glowing particles almost look velvety, never seen that before.  Once done with the two coats, I added the black glitter.  I wanted some kind of pattern for the glow test, what better than large hex glitter.  I used my usual technique and it didn't take much time at all to get the pattern on.

Keep going, nearly time for glowing!

Ta-da!  Glowing!  This was after charging my fingers under a lamp for half a minute - so glowing!

The Verdict:  I like these polishes.  They'll always have to go over a base but they glow brightly enough for me and don't do something silly like take forever to dry.  Will certainly keep me entertained when I go to bed!  Yep, that's a thing.

True Rainbow Fish Nails

I do a ton of posts with glitter.  That's fine, I love glitter.  What does tend to happen though is that I stick to the little glitter.  There's actually a reason for this!  I hate any manis that don't sit 100% flat.  If a piece of glitter sits up or catches, it's coming off.  The tiny glitter is perfect in that it doesn't catch, always sits nice and smooth.  I was sorting through my bag of glitter (I have a Sephora gift bag that's filled to the top with pots of glitter :D ) and realised I have a really great set of glitters that work in a nice rainbow gradient.  I've been having more luck with getting glitter to sit properly lately so I gave it another shot.

So the trick with working with larger pieces of glitter is to make sure that every piece you apply is tamped down all the way around.  I've had success with first applying two to three coats of a base colour - I usually use Rimmel Black Satin because it cleans up well - and a medium swipe of a non-quick-dry top coat, like Sally Hansen Invisible.  You don't want to submerge the piece of glitter, but you want the top coat to swell up around the sides of the piece.  Make sure you trim any pieces of glitter sticking off the ends of your nail too.  Finally, slap on as many coats of Seche Vite as you can stand.  I've used three here.  Sounds like a lot but Seche Vite dries so fast and seals the tips so well I'm ok with it.  It's been 24 hours with this mani on and I've only lost one piece of glitter so far.

The Verdict: I love how this looks.  It could only be improved with holo glitter but not everything can be holo, dammit Laura! Some people might think I've gone over the top with trimming all the glitter to fit but this is how I like my nails to look.  It's so sparkly and rainbow-y, it's worth the effort.

Black, White and Gold Zig Zag Nails!

As much as I love the glitter mosaics, every once in a while I feel the need to do something different.  I stopped in at a craft store on the way home tonight as they tend to have all kinds of supplies I might be able to shoehorn into a manicure.  Along with a new, tiny paintbrush, I picked up painter's masking tape and metal craft scissors with a zig-zag blade.  Oh yes, I'm going to have fun with these!

I spent a good couple of hours watching The Mitchell and Webb look and staring at the scissors, trying to decide how best to use them.  I finally decided to try zig-zag strips as it's something I've tried to do by hand before but stopped because it was taking too long.  To start, I applied three thin coats of L.A. Girl Delicate, a shimmery white creme.  Once it and the coat of Seche Vite were totally dry, I cut thin strips of the painter's tape and laid them on my nails.  I then added the black and gold over the top, Rimmel Black Satin and Revlon Gold Coin respectively.  

The Verdict: I'm really happen with how these came out, especially with the gold accents.  I'm also super happy with how my index and ring fingers are holding up.  They both have breaks but are holding together with the tea-bag method.  It actually works really well - you cut a tiny piece of tea bag and stick it over the break with nail glue.  Hang in there, nails!

Review: Ciate Jewellery Box over Revlon Gold Coin

My previous job had a incentive program that let you "High-5" people when they did a good job, or agreed to swap with you.   This lead you to collect points that could be redeemed for a bunch of different stuff.  I obsessively hoarded my points and when I left, I managed to cash out these points for a ton of gift cards.  Unfortunately these gift cards could be used at Sephora so I did what any normal person would do - spend $120 on nail polish :D.  Sure I could use this for more productive things but too bad, I want fancy nail polish! 

A particular stand out of the polish I grabbed at random like I was on one of those competitions that gives you all you can grab in two minutes was Ciate Jewellery Box.  I don't own anything like, and that's impressive, given the amount I have. Jewellery Box is a clear polish with absolutely minuscule black glitter and larger gold holo glitter.  It's actually super opaque which surprised me - I initially fully layered it over Revlon Gold Coin but moved to a gradient as no gold was showing through!  Black and gold is always a good combination and glitter this tiny makes for a very interesting texture.  

The Verdict:  I love this polish and am now going to have to keep my eye out for more.  If only it wasn't $17....

Sunset Gradient Maze Nails!

So I may have mentioned that I'm not working right now.  My company kinda collapsed a bit, but that's ok cos we were compensated.  My life right now is me, sitting at my computer at strange hours of the day and night, talking to my cat and occasionally my boyfriend.  It also means for some weird reason that my impulse control has gone out the window.  I dyed my hair from a box which is a terrible idea if you're blonde and when one too many nails broke on my photo hand I got fake nails.  Wooo! It's kinda hard to type but I'm digging them a bit.  They're all long and not too thick.  They're long enough now that I feel comfortable totally copying an amazing design Chalkboard Nails did the other day.  I'm not kidding when I say copied.  Go look at her stuff.  Not afraid to say I both love her and hate her a bit, she's too good!

Anyway, for these nails I finally got the makeup sponge gradient to work properly.  Turns out a white base is a really good idea.  I started with two coats of L.A. Girl Delicate then painted stripes of American Apparel Neon Yellow and Neon Blue, with Urban Outfitters Hottub in the middle on a sponge.  I then just dabbed it on my nails.  The colour choice was incredibly inspired as you get a wonderful yellow-orange-pink-purple-blue sunset gradient.  I added a coat of Seche Vite cos it never hurts then freehanded the maze design using LA Colors Art Deco nail art polish.  I thought about using tape but that's just too much work.  A final coat of Seche Vite and I'm done!

The Verdict: Man, this design is amazing, I wish I'd thought of it!  I also don't mind my new fake nails even though they woke me up last night cos they're taking a bit of getting used to.  Yay gradients!

My Most Complex Rainbow Glitter Mosaic Yet

It's no secret that when I get bored, I troll ebay for glitter.  I set myself a $10 budget, search for "holo hex glitter" or something, sort by buy it now and lowest price + shipping and go nuts.  I got a new package in the mail today and turns out we all have different definitions of "rhombus" as my rhombus glitter was distinctly hexagonally shaped.  Whatever, it's an excuse to the most rainbowy nails I've ever done.  They're so sparkly they're actually casting little rainbows on my keyboard as I type this.  Sure, they took a long time to do but look how sparkly in these static images!

To start, I did my usual base, two coats of Rimmel Black Satin.  It cleans up well and doesn't do weird things to my glitter so it's a good base.  Then, using my usual technique and Sally Hansen Invisible top coat, I got to work with my glitter.  I've been having a lot of luck lately with starting with a column of glitter straight down the middle of a nail then building out from there.  I can usually find half pieces of glitter in my little pile to fill in around the cuticles.  I do love a neat line of glitter.  In case you're wondering what I'm holding, yes, that's my fabulous peacock bracelet I never wear because it's the wrong shape for my wrist but like having around anyway.  Makes for a good sparkle complement. 

Oh, and if you do do this (heh, do do), I did a walk-through on how to fix glitter mosaics after you've had them on a few days.  It's here, if you're interested :)

 The Verdict:  I know a lot of you don't have the time or the inclination to do a manicure as complicated as this, and that's ok.  I like to spend my evenings watching movies or TV so it's not like I'd be doing anything else.  Just don't post the "Ain't nobody got time for that" gif and I'll be happy.  That gif dogs me where-ever I go.  I have time for that!  One day the general public (not you guys, you're awesome) will accept my glittery lifestyle!

Pink to Blue Ombre Mermaid Nails

Ok so yeah, I know I just did this kind of manicure but it's totally different, I swear!  I found more pink glitter so the colours blend together nicely and I spaced the glitter out more!  Pretty much though it was the Reddit Monthly Meetup on Saturday night and I wanted sparkly nails.  What more can I say!

To start, I did the usual two coats of Rimmel Black Satin.  Someone remind me to get a new bottle, cos it's getting a bit gluggy.  Anyway, next you'll need a think swipe of your non quick-dry top coat, I'm currently using Sally Hansen Invisible.  You almost can't apply this thick enough because you need to reallllly smush the glitter in there, so no bits stick up.  If I even have one piece of glitter sticking up, I can maybe go six to ten hours before I'mma need to get rid of it.  It's the main reason I trim all my glitter to fit, so it's nice and smooth.  I've found that with the big pieces of glitter, start in the middle with a column in your colour run, then just build out either side.  I also find the top coat will apply better if you leave a tiny gap between each piece.  Once you're done, you really can't apply too many coats of Seche Vite.  I think this is three? Yeah, sounds about right.  Make sure you run the top coat along the edges of your nails too, it'll stop the edge pieces coming off.  

I should go to bed now, so sleepy, hence the tone of this entry!  But look, sparkly: 

The Verdict: I would normally call this just a colour gradient but it feels very ombre-y to me so I'm going with that.  And sparkly.  So sparkly.  Yay!

Overlaid Red, Black and White Gradient Nails!

Ever since I did this mani recently I've been wanting to do a better version.  The colours seemed like they would work together but it just didn't turn out how I wanted.  I wanted to try again and decided to learn from my original mistakes.  For example, make sure you use a super opaque creme polish on your top layer, don't bother with horizontal stripes and using thicker lines looks cool too.

To start, I applied three coats of Rimmel Stiletto Red.  Once it was dry, I used a makeup sponge, painting three quarters of a nail's worth in Sally Hansen Pat on the Black (ironically really a dark maroon) and a thin strip of Stiletto Red to help it blend in.  After letting it and the coat of Seche Vite dry completely, I cut thin strips of masking tape and layered on OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Rimmel Black Satin.  I found Black Satin a little sheer so I ended up blobbing on the black first with the brush then gradient-ing over the top.  Another coat of Seche Vite and it's done.

 The Verdict: I'm happy with how the gradients came up but I think I'm still on the fence about how the end result looks.  It reminds me of something I can't quite put my finger on.  It certainly is eye-catching though, so I guess that's a good sign?  I don't know, I think I'm going to try one more time, maybe with striping tape, see what super thin stripes look like.  Yeah.