Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 26: Graffiti

Hello polish lovers!

I am back with my next challenge mani, Graffiti.

When I thought about this prompt I immediately thought of the type of graffiti that was shown in the documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop, as apposed to tagging and spray painting.  When I watched that documentary I immediately fell in love with the work of a street artist using the name Space Invader.  Most of Space Invader's work is tile work depicting classic 8-bit arcade game characters, like the space invaders, Pac-Man, the Pac-Man ghosts, and others.  I knew I would not be able to recreate the 8-bit look with polish(although small square studs would have worked, Ah hindsight, always 20/20), so I attempted to capture more the feeling of his work.

I started with a base of 2 coats OPI Lost on Lombard, a brick red crelly.  I only have the mini's from this collection, San Francisco Fall 2013.

Once this was dry I got out BM422 for the brick pattern and Kleancolor Black(I did not use Konad because I wanted the stamp to look more like a shadow and so did not want the lines too opaque).  I then started in with my dotting tool a small striping brush and the following colours:  SHID(Sally Hansen Insta-Dri) Blue-Away, Cobalt Blue, Kleancolor Black, Grass Green, Sinful Colors Snow Me White and Barry M Blood Orange and Key Lime.

Unfortunately I did not use SV but my Nubar Top Coat and did not wait quite long enough for the polish to dry to stop it from smudging.

That is all for this post but I will be back soon with Pointillism.  The last post for today.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 25: Watercolours

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have 3 posts for you...then I will be caught up with the Challenge...just in time for it to end.  That's right, tomorrow is the last day of the current challenge so let us begin.

I will start off by saying I made 4 attempts to finish this mani in time for it to be posted on the correct day, the first looked horrible...not even a fail but just ugly.  The second was going ok until I attempted to clean up and destroyed it with an inopportune sneeze.  The third was my fault as I was now frustrated and did not wait long enough before attempting my gradient and ended up removing most of my base coat.  The fourth is the one I will show you, still not 100% happy but at least it is not a fail.

I will not show you the base alone, I have shown it before, Sinful Colors Snow Me White.  Actually one of my favourite whites as it is almost opaque in 1 coat.  I use 2 to ensure no streaks.

Once this was dry(this time) I got out my trusty sponge and some Barry M polishes: Papaya, Grapefruit and Turquoise, and created a gradient.

I was attempting to recreate the look of one of the first techniques they teach you when you are learning how to paint with watercolors and that is to keep a pool of colour on you page and slowly add another colour to create a slow transition.  I have to say, using a sponge is easier(as long as you wait long enough).

Photo taken with flash

Once this was dry I used OPI Matte Top Coat to make it look more like paint and less like polish.  I used white as a base instead of Papaya because I wanted the colour to look slightly translucent, as true watercolor does.  This is also why I used mostly Barry M Gelly's, although Turquoise is not a jelly and it was the most translucent(and also the most difficult to work with).

That is all for this post but I will be back shortly with Graffiti and Pointillism.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 24: Abstract

Hello polish lovers!  Long time no post;p

Today's prompt was Abstact, and I used this as an excuse to do one of my favourite types of nail art, gradients.  I worn you, I decided to include a pic of what this gradient looked like before clean up!  So messy!  This was inspired by 2 of my favourite Abstract artists, Rothko(who did colour fields), and Bridget Riley(who did, I want to call it, optical illusion paintings).

I created a gradient using all OPI colours, Greenwich Village, Jade is the New Black and Ski Teal We Drop....here comes the mess...

I used a new type of makeup sponge for this, I usually use the really cheap Walmart ones but I bought these on clearance at Winners and they have a much finer texture and create a smoother gradient.  I use a Q-Tip and acetone to do the big clean and then finish with a small brush and more acetone.

Once this was coated in Seche Vite and completely dry I got out my MoYou London Sailor Collection 06 plate and Essie No Place Like Chrome to do some stamping.

I almost like it more before I did the stamping...I need to learn that sometimes less is more...only very occasionally, but this appears to be one of them.

That is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with the next prompt of Watercolour.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go. Day 22: Surrealism

Hello polish lovers!

Today's prompt in the challenge is Surrealism, and I have fallen in love with these nails.  I was originally going to do Dali's The Persistence of Memory but I remembered a painting that I fell in love with in Art History, I loved how graphic it was.

Source

This is Rene Magritte's Son of Man.

And here is mine.  My base colour is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Blue Away.  I used Sinful Colours Snow Me White and Color Club Silver Lake and a Q-Tip for the clouds.  The Son of Man itself is Nubar Midnight Matte for the suit and bowler hat, OPI My Vampire is Buff for his face, Snow Me White for his shirt, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Rapid Red for his tie, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lickety Split Lime for the apple.  The shadows are Midnight Matte added to the original colour, and the highlight is Snow Me White added to the original colour.

Matte

I ended up liking this so much I did clouds on my other hand and wearing it all day yesterday and today.

That is all for today, but I will be back tomorrow with the next prompt of Oils.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 19: Game Night

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my Game Night nails for you.  So in my house game night is either Scrabble or Trivial Pursuit.  Since we played both of those games on Family Day, they were particularly fresh in my mind.

I chose Trivial Pursuit nails for this prompt.

I chose China Glaze First Mate for my main colour, since it is similar to the background of the game board, and a 1 coater, and I am still in love with it.  My ring finger is 3 coats of China Glaze Oxygen a cream jelly formula.

Once this was dry I added striping tape to create my pie piece shapes and used OPI Pink Friday, Barry M Turquoise, OPI Need Sunglasses?, Orly Prince Charming, Barielle Shades Central Park and Color Club Wham! Pow! to fill in the different categories of questions.  I went with the original colours as apposed to the new ones, the have replaced brown with purple now.

That is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with my Pop Culture nails.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 18: Sci-Fi

Hello polish lovers!

Time for my Sci-Fi nails.  For this prompt I decided to go way back and chose my first fan-dom.  I always loved the Star Wars movies...when I was little it was mostly because of the Ewoks...this was only increased when they came out with the 2 Ewok movies, Battle for Endor and Caravan of Courage and finally with the Ewok cartoon.  So I decided to do Wicket, my favourite Ewok, and the trees of Endor.

On my accent nail I began with 2 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, and on my other nails its 2 coats of China Glaze The Grass is Lime Greener.  For Wicket I used Color Club Wham! Pow!, Butter London Tea & Toast, Orly Prince Charming and black and white stipers.

The trees are A England Dragon and BM407.

Of course I had to matte it.

Anyway that is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with my Game Night nails.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 17: Animation

Hello polish lovers!

Sorry I didn't post yesterday but it was Family Day here in Canada(Ontario to be exact) and we all spent the day together.

So yesterday's prompt was Animation and I took the opportunity to try out some nails that I have been wanting to do since last summer....Adventure Time nails!

They definitely did not turn out the way I wanted them to but I don't think they were that bad for a first attempt.  They all started of a base of OPI Alpine SNow.

I think LSP turned out the best but I will list the polishes that I used here for you:
LSP-OPI A Grape Fit!, and Need Sunglasses with a black striper.
Finn-OPI My Vampire is Buff and a black striper.
Jake-OPI The "IT" Color and black and white stripers.
Princess Bubblegum-Color Club Flamingo, China Glaze In a Lily Bit and the Grass is Lime Greener, OPI Need Sunglasses and a black striper.

That is all for now but I will be right back with my Sci-Fi nails.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 14: Sweets

Hello polish lovers!  Happy Valentine's Day!

Today marks the half way point in this challenge, Yay!

Today's prompt is Sweets, very appropriate for the date.  So I decided to create Valentine Message nails.

Dreaded thumb shot.  So from pinkie down through the nails the colours used are: Barielle Shades Joytini, LimeCrime Once in a Blue Mousse, Orly Mint Mojito, OPI Pink Friday, and LimeCrime Crema de Lemon.  This is 2 coats of each polish except for Joytini, which needed 3.

Once this dried, I again reached for the Revlon Parfumarie in Bordeaux(so good for Valentine's stamping) and BM425 for my text.

Even though these are pretty simple, I received numerous compliments on these nails while I was at work.  Sometimes simple is good.

That is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with my next prompt, Round and Square.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 13: Hearts

Hello polish lovers!

Today, the day before Valentine, our prompt calls for Hearts.  Tres Appropriate!

I began with 2 coats of OPI Pink Friday, a lovely light blue toned pink.

Once this was dry I got out my stamping plates and Revlon Perfumerie in Bordeaux(stamps awesomely).  I used a different image on each finger from Pueen 29 and 41, with an accent in Wet n'Wild Ebony Hates Chris(should have used Konad to make it more opaque).

I think my favourite image is the overlapping hearts, they are just so cute.

Anyway, that is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with my Sweets nails for a special Valentine's Day mani.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 12: Camouflage

Hello polish lovers!

I am back with my Camouflage nails for today's prompt.  Since I am a Canadian girl and it is winter, I decided to to snow camo.

I started with 2 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls,  a perfect dirty white.

Once this was dry I got out my medium and small dotting tools and got to work.  The lightest gray is Barielle Shades U-Concrete me mixed with My Boyfriend Scales Walls to make a lighter shade, the next gray is Color Club Shabby Drab and the black is OPI Black Onyx(the black is done using the smaller dotting tool.

I really enjoyed these and will definitely have to do them again.  Of course I had to try matting them and I love that too.

That is all for today, but I will be back tomorrow with my Hearts mani.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 9: Inner Geek...Doctor Who!

Hello polish lovers!

I took today's prompt to mean what makes you geek out or what do you fangirl about, and for me, that's Doctor Who.  I love Doctor Who, although I have to say I took a break when Tennant regenerated into Smith, but Smith won me over, and has since become my favourite Doctor, although Tennant is still the prettiest.  Although I have seen Doctor Who enemy nails in the past, I only looked at Google images of photos of the actual villains for these nails and any similarity is not intentional.

So for today's prompt I decided to go with some of my favourite Doctor Who villains... because we wouldn't need a Doctor if there were no villains around.  All nails have a base of 1 coat of OPI Black Onyx.

On my pinkie nail I have done an Adipose...probably the cutest problem the Doctor has ever had to face(and it reminds me of the Tribels from the Star Trek universe).  Who's a cute little fat alien(literally)?  An Adipose is.  I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and a black striper to create.

On my ring nail I have a Dalek, the Doctor's worst enemy...the destroyer of Gallifrey.  I used Nubar Sunset Matte, Essie Go
od as Gold and a black striper to create.

My middle nail is a Cyberman, a machine with a human brain...but lacking humanity.  I used Essie No Place Like Chrome and a black striper to create.

And on my index nail I have The Silence...originally confessors created by the Papal Mainframe, a splinter cell tries to kill the doctor on more than one occasion, no one remembers them once they are no longer in site, but definitely one of the creepiest enemies....along with the Weeping Angels.  I used Barry M Lychee, a black striper, and Color Club Silver Lake with a detail brush to create.

I, of course, had to Matte this(because I have a problem).  I wonder how many other participants chose Doctor Who for their Inner Geek nails.

That is all for now, but I will be back tomorrow with my Night Sky nails.

Until then, polish happy!

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 8: Still Life

Hello polish lovers!

I told you I would be back!  So lets get started...I began with 2 coats of China Glaze Lemon Fizz, a soft butter-cream yellow(I have a few by different brands that look to be similar colours if anyone would like a comparison).

Once this was dry I got out my trusting dotting tools and a detail brush and got started.

The vase is Color Club Pucci-licious, the stripe is Color Club Silver Lake, the leaves are Orly Mint Mojito(light green) and OPI Jade is the New Black(dark green) and the roses are Barielle Shades Euphoric(lighter raspberry) and OPI Visions of Love.

I was kind of going for a Van Gogh look for the vase of flowers but its hard to make nail polish look like brushstroke-y oil paint.  I really love how the full roses look, better than the buds in the vase.  The last time I did roses I used a small dotting tool and dabbed in C's while this time I put a dot of the dark colour in the center of the wet polish and used my thinnest dotting tool to swirl the two colours around.

The roses are my favourite freehand that I have done recently, and I cannot wait to show you my mani for Camoflage...but that is later in the week.

I will be back tomorrow with my Inner Geek nails...I will give you a hint...EXTERMINATE!!!

Until then, polish happy!

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 6: Neon

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my mani for the challenge prompt Neon.  I love neon! Especially for summer, my toes, and usually fingers are dowsed in neon from June till September.  I am always looking for another good neon to add to my collection.

I am showcasing 2 of my newer neon's today.  I started with a base of Orly Glowstick, your quintessential highlighter yellow.

This has been colour corrected because my camera took one look, said AHHH!!! and ran in the other direction, like a little baby, from the neon awesomeness.  This very close to real life though.  I love the Orly neon colours, I have Melt Your Popsicle as well, awesome traffic cone orange! This is 2 coats over a base of 1 coat of OPI Alpine Snow.

Once this was dry I got out my dotting tool and used Alpine Snow, again as a base, dotting randomly across my nails.  When this dried I went over the dots with Models Own Bubblegum.  I have found with neon, if you don't use white base the colour below will leech and change the colour you are placing over your base.

 This is still looking slightly orange, again my camera's fault, cannot handle the neon.

That is all for today, but I will be back tomorrow with the Day 7 prompt of Primary.

Until then, polish happy!

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 4: Monochromatic

Hello polish lovers!

Today is Day 4 of the Nail Art A-Go-Go Challenge and our prompt is Monochromatic.  I decided this was a good time to show a polish that I picked up at Sally's recently, OPI's Gargantuan Green Grape!  But wait, I have shown GGG before, haven't I?  Well yes, but this is the original formula...which is actually green, as apposed to light blue.  I don't know if OPI re-released the original formula, or if they managed to find old stock, but I was just happy to finally have the colour that I thought I was getting(blue version bought online...damn old photos that aren't accurate).  If you want to see the blue formula, you can see my post here.

Without further ado, Gargantuan Green Grape!

Love, love, love, love, love!  I know this is not a great formula, it takes 3 coats to be opaque, but I love the colour.

When this was dry I used OPI's Jade is the New Black for my stamping(I discovered it worked well over light colours) and BM406 plate.  I like the image, it is very organic and reminds me of seaweed.  I used the regular polish brush to create dots on the nails at the center of the images spirals.  I topped with SV, as usual.  Oh, and the Nubar Diamont Top Coat does work for stamping without smearing.

That is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with Day 5, Contrast.

Until then, polish happy!

Nail Art A-Go-Go Challenge, Day 1: Achromatic

Hello polish lovers!

Today, as promised, I have my first mani for the Nail Art A-Go-Go Challenge I am participating in.  Today's prompt is Achromatic, which means grey-scale or lacking colour.  I started out with 1 coat of OPI's Black Onyx (yes I finally broke down and got a good black, this is really opaque and none streaky).

I was really pleased with my first use of this as a base for this art.  Once Black Onyx was dry I decided to use part of a plastic bag and some different grey's to create a variation of the Saran Wrap technique.

The colours I used were all Color Clubs, Lady Holiday, a light grey is part of the Harlem Lights collection, Shabby Drab, a mid-toned grey with a slight purple undertone, and Silver Lake, the bright silver(also an awesome stamping polish).

I love the dimension the silver gives these nails and ended up liking them so much I did my other hand and wore them for a few days.  When I do these again I think I will add some splotches of the black on top of the grey to give it even more dimension.

That is all for today, I will be back tomorrow with Day 2, Jewel Tones.

Until then, polish happy!

Nail of the Day: Alpine Snow with MoYou London Stamping

Hello polish lovers!

Today I am back with my nail of the day...although it is one I wore a few days ago but I am trying to get my photo's built back up so I have changed my nails 3 times since I got back from vacation.

Having just come back from the Caribbean, I was feeling bright and floral, so that is what I did.  I started with 2 coats of OPI's Alpine Snow, one of my favourite whites...I need to get a backup bottle badly, fortunately I think it is part of the permanent collection.  I especially love when I use it for a stamping base and have a tan, it looks very good...more of a tan than I have now, obviously.

Once this was coated in SV and dried I chose the colours I wanted to stamp with.  I used Models Own Bubblegum, a neon pink that I discovered, through The Crumpet, stamps beautifully...I definitely need to get more of their neons.  I used my MoYou London Pro Collection 10 and the cherry blossom design for all fingers except my ring finger, which I stamped in Color Club Abyss and a different floral design from the same plate.

I love the contrast between the 2 colours, while the floral designs and the white base help to keep the design cohesive.  I actually loved the pink and green together so much, I used them for the next nails that I did as well(post coming soon).

While at my local Walmart today I found some of the new Sally Hansen Satin Glam polishes...mine had 4 colours, and picked up Silk Onyx, so look forward to a first impressions and review of the newest Sally Hansen line, coming soon.

Until then, polish happy!

Christmas Challenge, Christmas Character Prompt.

Hello polish lovers!

I told you I would be back!

So this is my Christmas Character prompt mani.  I chose Frosty the Snowman.  I also did The Grinch, but I may show that in a later post.

This is 2 coats of China Glaze Frost Bite, which I felt was appropriate.  Once this was dry I went to town with my stripers and various polishes, which I will list below the photo, to create my scene.

OPI Alpine Snow, green striper, China Glaze Foie Gras, Mabeline Color Show Audacious Asfault, black striper, Pop Beauty Glam in unknown peach for flower, red striper for nose, A England Galahad and Essie Good as Gold.

This was really fun and time consuming to do, I ended up wearing it for a few days with my snowfall mani on the other hand.

Now that I am finally caught up I feel better.  I will be back soon with my New Years mani, and that will be my last post until I am back from Vacation.

Until then, polish happy!

Trying to get up to date.

Hello polish lovers!

Ok...I am sorry...I have been away for far too long.  It has been crazy busy here and although I have been keeping up with the Christmas challenge and painting my nails frequently for some reason finding time to edit the photos and post has been difficult, so I will be doing 2 Christmas posts today to catch up.

So first off is Christmas food.

I started with 1 coat of Revlon Parfumerie in Bordeaux, one of the scented polishes, a lovely cherry red.

I was actually quite impressed with the colour and the formula for this polish...unfortunately it started chipping after one day.

 Once this dried I added China Glaze Foie Gras, leaving a half moon of Bordeaux by the cuticles.  The white for the icing is OPI Alpine Snow and then used green and red stripers for the holly and berries.

The finished product is my Christmas Food, Christmas Puddings.

That is all for this post and I will be back soon with my Christmas Character's mani.

Until then, polish happy!

Christmas Challenge and Moyou London First Impressions

Hello polish lovers!

Ok so I am a bad blogger.  I said I would post on Tuesday and I didn't.  Sorry, we ended up doing a bunch of Christmas baking and had a big family dinner and then made marzipan so my day really filled up.  So to make up for my broken promise today is going to be a longer post.

I will start with my Christmas Challenge post for Day 3 which is Holiday Colours(I will say I am totally lost for the next few prompts).  I started with 1 coat of China Glaze White on White.

I think this polish has thickened nicely as I use it and is now totally opaque in 1 coat where before it took 2.

Once this was dry I got out my smallest detail brush and OPI I'm Not Really a Waitress and China Glaze Running in Circles and created a candy cane stripe.

I used a white striper to clean up the lines and top coated in SV.  INRAW is an awesome holiday red!

And now on the the Moyou London plates.

I picked up a number of plates recently...using The Nailasaurus's promo code...yay for savings!  I purchased a variety of plates from a number of different sets...but most are from the Pro line because I found I was really into the patterns.

 This is Pro 07, I fell in love with the owl and the handwriting, to say nothing of the awesome hounds-tooth.  The handwriting was the first image I used and that mani will be at the end of this post.

 This is Pro 10, I love the amazing floral branches in the right hand corner, sorry the pic is fuzzy, didn't notice until I was editing.

 Pro 15, as a former Art major I could not resist the Warhol and Liechtenstein images.  I love Pop Art.

 Pro 06...I am unable to resist a good dandelion fluff...need I say more?

 Sailor 6, I love the repetition of waves and this has some great ones.

 Sailor 7, more great waves, you will see the Bridget Riley-esque one in an upcoming post.  Also fish!

 Suki 1, more owls! I couldn't not get one of the artistic plates...even though I think it will be harder to use.  I can see polish getting everywhere!  The patterns are clear and intricate and the peacock is gorgeous!

And last but not least Kitty 11..because I became addicted to having birds on my nails from the Messy Mansion plate and this is the next step.  I am totally going to do a cat gets bird mani:)

So, the quality...is the best of any of the plates I have tried...and this includes Konad.  All lines are clean and clearly deeply etched...but not so deep as to cause pressure smudging, you know, the smudging you get when there is too much polish on the plate and it squishes onto the clean areas.  I got none of that on any of the images I have tried so far.  I also found the variety of plates fantastic...they definitely have something for everyone...whether you are a Princess or Biker or anything in between.

I also got the white squishy stamper and scraper and I am completely in love!  The stamp is so soft that I don't have to wait as long before stamping because there is not as much pressure transfer.  Also because this is a rectangular stamper it is easier to line up my images and make them straight and centered on the nail.

Overall I am very impressed with MoYou London plates and would definitely get more.  You can get your plates here.

And here is what I did with my first attempt:

 The base is Color Club Evolution and I used Seche Hypnotic to stamp, it looked a lot like ink.  Any voids in the stamping was my bad for not putting enough polish on the plate and no fault of the plate itself.

Ok, sorry for the image overload but I am in love and I want to spread it around.

Until next time, polish happy!