Green and Gold Art Deco Nails

I do enjoy a good bandwagon-jumping-on party!  When I saw the gorgeous art deco nails Whitney at dressedupnails.com posted on Reddit, I knew I had to have a go, warnings about the amount of time it takes be damned!  I'm made of time! Yeah...really should have listen there cos these really do take an extraordinary about of time to do!

To start, I applied three coats of a polish I've been meaning to use for a while, OPI Goldeneye from the Skyfall collection.  It's such a beautiful gold, I have no idea why I haven't used it sooner.  Look at the macro shot below, haven't seen a foil that pretty in ages.  Once it and the extra coat of Seche Vite I added on top cos I'm impatient was dry I set to work with my striping tape.  I've only used it for stripes before so I had no idea what I was in for, trying to get tape ends to line up properly.  I didn't do anything special with the tape, just copied the designs from Whitney, embellishing where I felt like it.  On top of the tape I applied two coats in quick succession of Revlon Posh.  I should have gone with a darker, hunt green like I was originally going to but alas, Posh will have to do.  

The Verdict:  I love art deco everything so this one is a winner for me.  It's funny how the lines look drawn on the green rather than the green over the top but I'm ok with that.  Thanks for the idea Whitney!

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!

Neon Rainbow Zig-Zags Using American Apparel Neons

Ever since I found proper pinking shears the other day in a craft store, they've been sitting on my desk, begging to contribute their zig-zaggy goodness.  I was in the mood for something bright so I five American Apparel Neon polishes and one China Glaze and went to work.

To start, I added two coats of L.A. Girl Delicate.  I wanted a white base so I wouldn't have to do a million coats of the neon.  Once that and the coat of the Seche Vite were dry I cut a thin zig-zag strips of blue painters tape.  I added three strips at a time, making sure each strip was the same height and spaced the same across my nails.  I then added three of the colours.  If you look at my thumb close up, I placed tape where the orange, green and purple are first and applied the red, yellow and blue.  I added another coat of Seche Vite and did the same for the rest of my fingers.  Once they were all super dry, I covered the stripes already in place and added the other colours.  A final coat of Seche Vite and I'm done!

 

The Verdict: I'm really happy with how this came out.  It's eyeball-bleedlingly bright and I even don't mind the white showing through, it reminds me of some erasers I had as a kid.  Personality, you know?  It's also crying out for a Pinterest-friendly infographic as it's not hard to do.... yay Rainbows!

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 :)

Brace Yourselves, This is a Bright One!

Hot damn am I glad that Valentine's Day is over and I can finally stop staring at the collection of pink and red polishes on my desk that I never used.  Sure, it's nice to have all the holidays be inspiration for manis but it gets a bit old after a while.  Now it's all over and done with for, what, a month til Easter, I just had to have a go at a fantastic neon mani I originally found on Pinterest: Sparrow Nails' combination of China Glaze Purple Panic and Turned Up Turquoise Neon.  It's too blindingly bright for me not to!

To start, I painted all but my ring finger in Purple Panic, leaving it to be Turned Up Turquoise.  Two coats is enough with these frosty neons, which is nice.  I added a coat of Seche Vite to each finger because I'm impatient and it makes the taping easier.  I then used my striping tape, painter's masking tape, pinking shears and dotting tools to make the various patterns.  Once they were all done, I finished off with another coat of Seche Vite and a coat of Essie Matte About You.  I've been looking for it for months and months, always missing it but TBBS in Toronto FINALLY had it in stock.  So everything will be matte now because it's the best matte top coat I've ever used.  I've tried Joe Fresh, Nails Inc, American Apparel, all of them can't even a bit compare to how good Matte About You is.  It's just such a matte finish!  Totes worth it.

The Verdict:  I love how abusively bright this is.  It was a pain in the bum to photograph, as you can imagine, but it was worth the effort.  I'm also going to go on again about how good Matte About You is.  Cos it's really good.  Yay neons!

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. 

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: Nails Inc Cornwall

I was really excited about the Nails Inc Feathers collection.  Bar glitter that looks like feathers and isn't giant, meaning it's unlikely to stick up?  Yes please.  When I finally found two of them at Sephora, I couldn't find a way to use them.  I tried with several different base colours either the white or the blue blended in, meaning I lost a lot of the texture that made the polish so interesting.  Sifting through my colours, I found one that seemed to fit my requirements and away I went. 

My base colour, Urban Outfitters Blue Velvet, turns out to dry the exact same blue shade as Nails Inc Cornwall but I WILL NOT BE DISCOURAGED.  Blue Velvet is a gorgeous shade of periwinkle blue and after applying it, I felt compelled to try a taped pattern I saw on Reddit Laqueristas the other day.  So once Blue Velvet and the requisite coat of Seche Vite were dry, I went to work with my striping tape.  I've seen people do this pattern in three steps but I found that if you were careful and lined it up properly you could do it all in one go. OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls is opaque enough that one thick coat was enough too.  Then, on my remaining fingers, I did the usual glitter gradient technique of painting a thin coat 3/4 of the way down the nail, then 1/2, then 1/4.  Cornwall is actually really nice to work with, I'd love to see more of this small bar glitter.

The Verdict:  As surprisingly difficult Cornwall is to match with a base colour, it has an interesting texture and that's all I really ever want in a polish.  Just make it different, I'll be happy.  I also love the taped pattern, good job person that came up with it.  I'll find you!

Black and White Optical Illusion Nails!

I'm kinda late to the party cos I've only recently discovered tumblr.  When I did though, oh the hours that were wasted.  Especially when I see a post like this and think that would totally be a good idea to start doing at midnight.  Oh, not so subtle promo: I am on tumblr and post most of my manicures, if you're into that. 

To start, I applied two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls - still my all time favourite white - and topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite.  After I waited for that to dry, and waited another five minutes. I  taped off the tips of my nails with painter's masking tape and did the initial stripes using striping tape and Essence Back in Black.  Any black will do, this one was just at hand.  Once all my tape was on, I pressed everything down, to make sure I had no leaks.  This is why you gotta wait for everything to be super dry - you don't want to squish it.  Once I'd done all my fingers and the next coat of Seche Vite was dry, I tried lining the tape back up and applying the reverse stripes.  I did my thumb before giving up because it wasn't really working that well - it's super hard to see through opaque blue tape.  I resorted to free-handing the remaining stripes but I'm not happy with that either - not crisp enough.  And they look like umpire nails.  But at least they're different!

The Verdict:  Meh.  They took forever and aren't even a bit sparkly, so eh.  I think I'll try this again with brighter colours and clear tape, see if I can't get the second lot of stripes perfect.

Review: Art Deco mani using Floss Gloss Stun, Dimepiece and Partybruise!

I'm always on the lookout for new polish brands and I'd seen Floss Gloss around the place and thought I'd give it a shot.  I'm so glad I did because they are so very super sparkly and awesome.  I've been moving away from the traditional polish reviews lately as I like to contribute to the internet something that hasn't been done before. I really wanted to try out these polishes so the hardest part was trying to find out how to incorporate a coral, very dark brow, gold glitter and silver glitter polishes in the one mani.  Why not jump aboard the art deco train and do something with triangles and call it art deco?

I initially did a mani involving coral and brown stripes over the gold and silver glitter but it really wasn't working for me.  For my second attempt, I started with two coats of Partybruise, a really awesome brown so dark it could be black.  Application was good - you only need the two coats - and it's something different from just using black all the time.  After it and my coat of Seche Vite were dry, I went to work with my tape.   I started by cutting "M" shapes out of painter's tape for the silver polish.  Dimepiece has excellent coverage for a purely glitter polish - I only needed the one coat here.  After adding another coat of Seche Vite and letting everything dry, I switched to clear tape and taped off the V's for the gold polish, Stun. Everything was sealed off with another coat of Seche Vite and I was done.

The Verdict:  These polishes are awesome and not too expensive either.  I didn't get to post the vine of this manicure, but the one above is using the same silver glitter over Sally Hansen Celeb City and it'll give you a true idea of just how amazing it is.  And yay, art deco!

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!