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!

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!

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!

Review: Crows Toes Heartless

I've talked about this before but I have a bit of a problem with indie polishes.  I love them, I order way too many off the internet but when it comes time to use them I get a bit stuck.  There's only so many times you can find a complementary base colour, whack the glitter on and then talk about the composition and the consistency.  Odds are, someone's already done it, and probably done it better.  So I feel the need to get creative with it which is hard which is then why I don't post them that much.  ANYWAY, I did actually do something interesting with a very sparkly pink polish from Crows Toes, so let's take a look. 

To start with, I applied three coats of my current black, Essence Back in Black and topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite because I wanted it to dry faster.  Once it was dry and I had waited five more minutes after I thought it was dry, I cut out my zig-zag piece of painter's masking tape and applied the glitter.  Heartless (the polish) is pretty thick so I just needed the one coat to get this level of opacity.  The glitter itself is amazing, super sparkly with different sizes and shades of pink holographic glitter.   Once done, another coat of Seche Vite applied, and I'm done.

The Verdict:  Love the polish.  Heartless is just so sparkly and pink, how could I not love it? It applies well over black too, not patchy, which is always a bonus.  I'm not super sold on the design, but it'll do.  SPARKLYYYY :D

Mixing Glitter Textures: Matte, Metallic and now HOLO Too Yesssss

I'm the type of person whereby if I come up with a good idea for nails, I'll run that idea into the ground by doing it over and over again until we're all sick of it.  Well, as sick as one can get of awesome sparkly glitter.  I was really happy with how my mixed texture glitter mosaic came out a couple of weeks ago so I thought that maybe, just maybe, if I added holo glitter in there as well as metallic and matte, we might win.  Generally.  Let's see, shall we?

I didn't want to just use black again as a base colour so I cracked out my new Urban Outfitters polish, the slate grey creme Storm.  Usual consistency, three coats is better to make it nice and even.  Next was the hard part.  I don't have that much holo glitter - notably missing orange and green - so it was a challenge to get a nice rainbow gradient.  My first attempt was on my thumb with green - blue - purple - red but eh.  My ring finger was much more successful, nice and gradienty.  Usual technique to apply the glitter, starting with a line down the middle then offsetting down two, up three, down two, etc, to create the zig-zags.  Cos zig-zags are cool.  

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The Verdict: I miss my perfect square thumb nail :( Has anyone had, like, actual success with a basecoat to stop nails breaking?  Like OPI Nail Envy?  Anyway, sparkly at least.  Not 100% sure about the grey but I think I'll live :)

I've Got Neon, Holo, Zig-zags, Half Moons and Studs in the One Mani, Yay!

I was contacted a little while ago from Iona from StickyNails Nail Stencils about trying a new product she was working on.  I like to try new things so I gave her custom nail decals/stencils a shot and look!  Her package included a few different patterns of nail stickers but I'm always partial to a good chevron or zig zag so after pulling out the brightest colour combination I could find - Claire's Neon Orange and Pretty & Polished Boombox - I went to work. 

Iona's stencil stickers come on a white sheet of pseudo-plastic, with the designs pre-cut out, ready to lift off.  After applying three coats of Claire's Neon Orange polish with a coat of Seche Vite and waiting for it to dry completely, I peeled off one of the larger chevron stencils and laid it on my thumb.  She warns that these are strong stickers and she's not wrong because the first time you use one, you probably haven't waited long enough, and the base colour is going to come with you when you take it off.  I found that if you press the sticker against your palm first, it's much less ferocious.  The good thing about it being sticky is that you can press it down fully, and get right to the edges.  And your zig zags come out perfectly spaced!  I even used the in-between pieces on another manicure so win there.  Anyway, on my other three fingers I did a small freehand triangle half-moon and surround it with teeny studs from the Essence Nail Art kits I found at Shoppers.  Neon zig-zag stud win!

The Verdict:  I really like the stencils Iona has come up with.  I was able to re-use the same sticker 3-4 times, no issue, and you still get nice, even spacing and clean lines.  Also super digging Boombox as a holo blue, it's absolutely gorgeous and applies really well.

You can find StickyNails Nail Stencils on Etsy, $8-10 a set.  Worth it!

These products were sent to me for my honest review.

Sometimes Subtle is Too Subtle

You might notice I've been a little light on the posts lately.  I have a good reason!  Recently I was contacted by an agency in New York that wanted me to help them make content for Revlon's new Tumblr!  Of course I was going to say yes.  My first entry went up last week and I'm quite proud of it.  As a side note, I wouldn't totally hate it if you liked it on Tumblr, because I like winning, even if it isn't a competition.  THIS WILL BE THE ONLY TIME I ASK THIS, I SWEAR.  Anyway, that hasn't been leaving me a ton of time to do complicated things so it's down to whatever strikes me at the time.  In this case it was an attempt at a black-on-black texture thing with Ozotic 623.

 

You can kinda see what I was getting at here.  I started with two coats of Rimmel Black Satin and once it was dry I cracked out my zig-zag decals and added a coat of 623 to my thumb and ring fingers.  The other three nails got tape for a triangle half-moon.  I love the texture in 623, it looks like granite, which is totally cool with me.  It just doesn't really show up over black.  Which makes sense because it's black too... oh well.  I could tell there was something other than just black going on here, which is what counts.  

The Verdict: Always love Ozotic polishes, they're either ridiculously holographic or interesting in the texture.  And I really like the decals from Sticky Nails.  I get bored with just one colour of polish so I like to throw in a bit of zig-zags in there.  Just remember to stick it to your palm first, kids, otherwise you'll have a bad time.  Tumblr! Words.

Nail decals were sent to me for my honest review.  I really like them :)