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!

Vampy Red Gradient with Nails Inc Victoria

I've been doing a lot of glitter mosaics lately and sometimes you have to do something a little different.  I've done some gradients in the past but never had too much luck, mostly because I thought I knew more better than the makeup sponge technique.  Turns out that it's the best for smooth gradients, I'm silly and should listen to the internet more.  Just as well I did because now I get amazing vampy red nails!

It seems that the trick to gradients is the base colour.  Light colours need white, dark colours need a dark base with a solid creme polish as the lighter colour.  Here, I started with two coats of Nails Inc Victoria, a beautiful deep, dark red jelly.  Once it was dry - seriously, let it dry otherwise you get dings like on my ring finger - I painted a stripe of Essie Fifth Avenue on a makeup sponge and laid a thinner stripe of Victoria next to it.  I then dabbed it on my nails, working up and down ever so slightly to get a nice blend.  I was having some difficulty building up the opacity in the red tip so I ended up just straight applying Fifth Avenue to the tips of my nails then blending it in with the gradient.  

The Verdict: I love this so much I can't really believe how well it came out.  It does take a while and a few layers of gradient-ing to get it smooth but it's so worth it in the end.  Mmm, vampy. 

Stamping and Gradients, Finally Coming Together in a Cutesy Package

Are you ready for the most cutesy nails ever seen on this blog?  I'm starting off with a warning cos they're a bit ridiculous.  So I've been on a bit of a gradient kick lately ever since I figured out that you just have to follow all the tutorials out there.  I saw a particularly awesome pastel and paisley design on tumblr the other day and thought I'd give it a shot.  Not only did the gradient work, the stamping did too!

To start, I applied two coats of L.A. Girl Delicate and, once dry, painted strips of Revlon Pink Lingerie, Urban Outfitters Mojave and Revlon Cloud on my makeup sponge.  Three coats of dabbing got my colours nice and even, smooth.  I have trouble getting in around my cuticles so I helped the coverage along a little with applying the polish directly.  Once the gradient was dry, I waited another ten minutes before starting my stamping. Trust me, there's nothing worst than getting all the way to the stamp application stage only to have layers of wet polish ooze out under the stamp *shudder*.  So after waiting ten minutes I waited another ten.  Then, using my Konad Black Special Polish and BM-320, I actually got the stamp to apply.  I've always had issues with getting the stamp on the stamp but turns out being quick with the scraping and then using a rolling motion to pick up the image, I actually got a good result. 

 The Verdict: Of course I love this.  It took too long and was so risky with the stamping on the top for me not to love it.  My bf came up behind me as I was editing these saying "Oooh, who did those?" cos they were so awesome.  And cute, I like cute.

Rainbow Scratch-Off Art Nails!

I might be a little behind the times but I've just gotten in to Tumblr in a huge way.  Pinterest was getting a bit same-y so I've been trawling the tumbles for nail ideas.  Sooo many I really should start writing them down.  Anyway, I saw this amazing spin on laser nails where instead of stripes of colour under the black, it was a smooth gradient.  Since I can do gradients now, I had to give it a shot.  My tumblr is polishallthenails.tumblr.com/, by the way.  End shameless plug!

I wanted super bright colours for my gradient so after applying two coats of L.A. Delicate - any white will do - I painted squares of China Glaze I'm With The Lifeguard, Sun-Kissed, Sky High-Top and Pool Party on my makeup sponge and went to town.  Turns out it's no more difficult to do a four-way gradient than it is to do one that goes top to bottom.  You just paint the pattern on the sponge and just make sure you line it up properly on the nail.  Once it was completely dry and I'd waited another five minutes, I cracked out the striping tape and created my zig-zags.  The tape isn't the best application I've ever done but it kinda adds to the whole scratch-off art theme. 

The Verdict:  I kinda love how this came out.  I'm sad my thumb didn't come out so well but the rest were colourful enough I'm ok with it.  Also please ignore the overly photoshopped cuticles, my hands don't handle winter especially well.  I never touch my nails themselves, if that helps :)

Overlaid Rainbow Gradients!

Oh man, it's getting super hard to keep coming up with ideas so I'm just going to keep on plumbing different techniques.  I'm super into sponge gradients these days so I thought I'd try my hand at overlaid gradients, in rainbows of course because they're the best.  And that way, I get to show off my giraffe ring!  We all win!  Well, we would have had I taken more care to remove the yellow polish stains from my fingers :/

To start, I applied two coats of my new white, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  Everyone seems to be using it these days and I can see why, it's one of the nicer, more even whites I've used in a while.  Next, I loaded up a makeup sponge with stripes of China Glaze Pool Party and Surfin' for Boys and American Apparel Neon Yellow to create the underlying gradient.  I'm getting pretty good at gradients these days, I find that I just need the two coats of gradient.  Makes things quicker.  After a coat of Seche Vite, I applied my criss-crosses of striping tape and liberally applied China Glaze I'm with the Lifeguard and Towel Boy Toy, with American Apparel Neon Violet.  I wasn't having much luck with getting opacity in reasonable time with the sponge (getting the tape off doesn't work well if the polish fully dries) so I cheated and just painted the stripes on.  Works if you don't look too close.  Finally, finally, a coat of Essie Matte About You because I'm obsessed with it.

The Verdict: Eh.  The underlying gradient didn't come out with enough colour delineation, the orange and green aren't great together and my clean-up job was terrible.  I want to try this again though, maybe with a black and white gradient over a strong red base colour.  Could be interesting.  No hate on Matte About You though. 

Sparkly Stepping Stones Nails!

I've been super into Tumblr lately and I've been seeing some people do fabulous things with a glittery base and solid patterns atop it.  I just had to try it out myself after seeing what Whitney at Dressed Up Nails and Stephanie at Sincerely Stephanie have done recently.  By the way, I kinda hate you Whitney, you're just too good and it makes me incredibly jealous! 

I loved the idea of using Color Club glitter polishes from Christmas last year so I started off with two coats of Sugarplum Fairy and then just painted half my nail with Beyond the Mistletoe.  Both are completely awesome and sparkly micro holo glitter, the former slightly purple-toned, the latter slightly green.  I wish I could do the glitter justice, it just doesn't come off in photos! Once dry, I dotted on Wet'n'Wild On A Trip, Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, Nina Ultra Pro Blu Blaze and Nicole by OPI "Baby" Blue.  So many polishes!  But look, sparkly!

The Verdict: Love how the sparkly mixes with the creme polishes, almost like stepping stones on a river of glitter.  That's for me, that's for sure.  Fits with the gradients I've been obsessed with lately too.  Yay sparkly!  Man, I finish a lot of posts like that.  But I like glitter.  So 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.

Review: China Glaze Holographics in a Dot Gradient

Hello!  Again, not dead, just still trying to find time for getting home after work at like 7ish, going to the gym, making dinner, doing my nails, taking the photos, editing them and writing the post all in the one night.  I used to have a good system where I'd take the photos at night and write the post at lunch at work but damn my new socialable co-workers!

Anyway, like any person who ranks how awesome something is by how rainbow and/or sparkly it is, I was pretty damn excited to see the new China Glaze Holographic polishes show up at my local beauty supply place.  I mean, you all saw how great the OMG Collection was, right?  Yeah, this isn't that great.  Not by a long shot, especially with the stunning effort Color Club is putting into their new holographic polishes which I just found at the Winners on Spadina.  Run on sentences, hooray!  I very nearly bought all twelve of the China Glazes on the spot, thinking at the time that the fluorescent lighting in the store must be the reason they weren't that holo.  Nope, not the lighting... 

So having picked up Infra Red, Galactic Grey, Sci-Fly By, Strap on Your Moonboots and Take a Trek, I wanted to find a way to incorporate them into the one manicure.  Giving I'm a little short time these days, a dot gradient fit the bill perfectly.  I started with my usual two coats of Rimmel Black Satin then, using a smaller dotting tool, I did my dot rows, starting at the cuticle and working upwards.  I don't have the greatest lighting for holos - it's set up for smooth, even light - but there aren't rainbows.  All you see is the texture you get with these polishes and the teensiest hint of rainbow and that's it.  

The Verdict:  I was so excited about these polishes and they're just so not exciting in person.  I mean, they're still interesting polishes but compared to Color Club Halo Hues 1 and 2, well, it's not even a comparison.  You'll see.  I have the new Halo Hues and if it weren't for already having done the mani, I wouldn't even know the China Glaze existed.

I Don't Even Have a Title for This, There's Too Much Going On

So I knew I wanted to do something glitter tonight but I wanted to not just be your run of the mill glitter pattern.  When I found my favourite blue holographic glitter it hit me: RIDICULOUSLY BRIGHT GRADIENT WITH SPARKLIES OVER THE TOP CAN'T NOT BE AWESOME.  So that then.

I wanted a gradient using creme polishes, preferably in a blue-green-yellow gradient.  Four American Apparel polishes fit the bill so I set to work using Imperial Purple, Passport Blue, Malibu Green and Crescent Heights, purple through lime green respectively.  I just used the normal sponge method: start with a white base, paint stripes of polish on a makeup sponge in the same height as your nail, apply maybe three light coats, making sure you move the sponge up and down a bit to blend it all in.  I found that I sometimes need to apply a colour or another at the tips or cuticles, to make sure the white doesn't show through.  Then, using a top coat I found at Dollarama because I really didn't want it to ever dry, I went to work with my blue glitter and orange stick.  This loose dot pattern really doesn't take long if your glitter spread out - I can knock out a finger in under five minutes.  Top with lots of proper top coat like Seche Vite and you're done. 

The Other Hand: It's not really practical to both hands like this so I usually loosely match the style of my right hand on my left.  This time I went for an ombre mani, using each of the four colours on each finger and a random purple on my thumb.  I then sprinkled on the same glitter, to get it to match.  You really can't tell that much and no one really pays that much attention.

The Verdict: I really like how bright and colourful this one is.  Can't go wrong with bright AND sparklies.  I especially like how the glitter blends in around the purple but stands out at a contrast against the lime green.  Success!  Despite taking forever to clean up!

Review: Femme Fatale Cosmetics Party Grenade with Rainbow Neon Gradient!

Since I started my new job, I have the money to buy alllll the indie polishes my little heart could desire. It's not a good idea for me to then go to Llarowe because I ordered the most enormous package of polishes you could imagine.  Such a good parcel day when that got here.  Anyway, my goal with this delivery is to try to find new ways to show you indie polishes.  It's too easy to just slap on a base colour  with the indie polish on top.  I must find a way for that to take a lon time!

Femme Fatale Party Grenade is so packed full of square, diamond, hex, matte, shiny, holo and misc glitter I can't even find words to describe how amazing it is.  It even applies well - this is just one coat on each finger.  You get a better result if you fish around a bit but you don't need to, and it doesn't get too thick if you do. 

   I wanted a crazy base colour to go with this amazing polish so I figured it was time to a proper rainbow gradient.  Starting with two base coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, I went to work with 12 different neon polishes.  Using both sides of three little pieces of makeup sponge, I sponged three colours on each nail, keeping one polish in common on each side of the nail to keep the rainbow smooth.  So if I used a, b and c on one nail, I'd use c, d and e on the next, etc. I used China Glaze, American Apparel and Urban Outfitters polishes but there's just too many to list here.  If you want to know one in particular, just let me know in the comments.   

The Verdict: I'll definitely be doing more of these horizontal gradients, as they look so cool.  It's almost like having a duochrome polish frozen in time - looking from the sides makes the polish look completely different.  Party Grenade is so amazing too - I love all the difference shapes of glitter.  Especially when there's so much glitter in the bottle and it looks like this!

V-Shaped Rainbow Gradient Nails!

Hey, hi, sorry, not dead, just went to Cuba again.  I took my mum who's visiting from Australia and it completely blew her mind.  So much sun, so warm.  Let's get on to the nails though, cos that's really why you're here.  So I've been into Tumblr lately and I've been seeing a lot of sponged gradients with a V shape taped over the top.  I was feeling bold at the time, so let's take a look, shall we?

To start with, I applied two coats of my favourite white creme polish, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. I wanted a nice neon gradient to go over the white so I grabbed American Apparel Neon Violet, Urban Outfitters Ringo and Urban Outfitters Baby Boy.  These seemed like bright neons but gradiented together turned them a much bolder colour than I expected.  I did the usual trick, painted stripes of the polish on a makeup sponge and stamped back and forth slightly to get the colours as even as I could.  I dabbed a little of the pink on my tips as it's hard to get some of the colours thick enough, with some polishes consistency.  Once done, I applied a coat of Seche Vite then laid my tape on.  I found it easiest to use two pieces to make sure I got my lines were I wanted them.  A find coat of Seche Vite and I'm done. 

The Verdict:  It's a really bold look this one, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it.  I do wish I'd cleaned up the white before I put the colours on but oh well.  Just be careful with your acetone and you won't get the white peeking through like I have here.  It's different, that's for sure!