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 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 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 16: Doodles

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my Doodle mani.  I decided to recreate the design that I used to put in all my notebooks when I was bored in High School.

I started with 1 coat of China Glaze First Mate.  This is a new polish for me and I am kind of obsessed.

Sorry about the size of the watermark, I pushed the wrong button.

First Mate is the perfect navy blue, blue in all lights, it is not like some navy's where you have to be in certain lights or it looks black.

Once this was dry I used a small dotting tool and China Glaze At Vase Value and began creating my doodles.

In case you hadn't noticed I have been using the new polishes I got quite a bit recently, but they are so spring like and I am so ready for winter to be over.

That is all for today, but I will be back tomorrow with my Animation 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!

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!

Christmas Challenge Day 2: Winter Nature

Hello polish lovers!

Just a quick post tonight with my Winter Nature mani for the Christmas Challenge I am doing.  Today's post is not a complete fail but I should have used a darker mix for my sky before adding the stamping to make it stand out more.  Also excuse the fact I forgot to take photos before the stamping so you could see what the sponging looked like on its own.

I started with 2 coats of China Glaze White on White and then used various unnamed Color Club greys and a bit of makeup sponge in tweezers to create the sky, dark with snow.

I let that dry and then used Konad white polish and BMH02 to stamp on the stylized tree design.  I let that dry and used my black striper to create bare trees in the foreground and coated with SV.

Told you it would be quick, I will be back on Tuesday with a non-challenge post.

Until then, polish happy!

33 DC Day 31: 3 Favourite Polishes

Hello polish lovers!

Sorry this post is late but I am working 2 jobs this month to make extra money for my trip in January and am in the middle of nine days straight, its a good thing all the polish work is done its just editing and composing the posts I have left to do.

So yesterday's prompt was art using your 3 favourite polishes.  It was hard for me to limit my polishes to 3 and to choose favourites.  In the end I decided on China Glaze For Audrey(most used polish), China Glaze Fois Gras(farvourite brand) and Essie Good As Gold(favourite stamping polish).

I began by coating all fingers except for my index with 2 coats of For Audrey, my index finger got 2 coats of Fois Gras.

Once this was dry I began adding my bumps to create a cloud mani, using Essie Good As Gold.

Once that was dry I added Fois Gras to all fingers except my index, which got For Audrey.

I coated in SV to complete the design.  I have to say I really love this colour combination and I will probably break it out again in the future.  This was my first time doing a cloud mani so a few of my soft curves are a little too straight, but that is definitely something I can work on.

I will try to be back tomorrow with Day 32, Shapes.  It may be late at night by the time I get it posted but sometimes that is just life.

On a side note my new Moyou London plates arrived today and I already have one on.  Perfect transfer and great image quality.  I got the sticky stamp as well and I love it!  I will post a more in depth review once I have used more of the plates.

Until tomorrow, polish happy!

33DC Day 27: 3 Patterns

Hello polish lovers!

For the 3 Patterns prompt in the 33 Day Challenge I decided to go all out preppy.  I mean, argyle sweaters and Burberry bags and the like.  I wanted understated but statement making, if that makes any sense.

I started with yet another unnamed Color Clubs from my infamous sets.  This one, I have decided, is Give Me a Hint, and this is one coat.

An awesome greige, and its opaque in 1 coat!  I don't care what this polishes name is, I want to marry it! Even Barry M's Lychee(which I love) is a solid 2 coat-er.  I SV'd this and let dry before I started my freehand.  I decided to freehand the designs except for the accent which is stamped.

My pinkie and index fingers are Burberry patterns, I was really impressed with how much control I was able to achieve considering this is only the second time I have attempted this, and the first time on myself.  My middle finger is argyle, which I have done before but always manage to make look slightly awkward.  I used the same 3 stripers for these two patterns and then used Konad black and PUEEN22 for the lattice rose image, which I felt worked well with the overall preppy theme.

I really like how this turned out overall.  I will definitely need to bring back the Burberry pattern another time, maybe using different colours.

I will be back on Sunday with my next Falling for Nail Art Challenge, which is entering its final week.

Until then, polish happy!

33DC Day 26: Inspired by Pinterest and Falling for Nail Art Challenge: Jewel Tones

Hello polish lovers!

Its strange that I did not work today and yet I am still doing this post so late in the evening.  I guess that is what happens when you use your days off to complete all of the nail challenges that I had left to do.

I am doing this as a double post because it is almost time for me to go to bed and it is easier for me to combine these 2 challenge posts than to separate them.

So first of my Inspired by Pinterest mani.  I was inspired by Lucy's Stash tutorial on basket weave freehand patterns, seen here.

I started off with a base of 2 coats of another unnamed  Color Club, a colour that was close to the inspiration colour, a greyed out purple(although the CC is more greyed out than purple), that, based on swatches I have decided is Shabby Drab.

This was actually very flattering on the nails and a gorgeous grey/purple creme.

Once this was dry I followed the tutorial and used Wet n' Wild's Ebony Hates Chris and a detail brush to create the design on my index finger.  I wasn't really impressed with the lack of control I had with the brush so when I moved on to the ring finger I decided to use a black striper instead.  I feel that worked much better for how clean I wanted the lines to be.

On my index finger you can't even tell what the pattern is supposed to be, but it is much clearer on my ring finger.  I will have to remember that I really have much more control over the brush if I use as striper rather than a detail brush.

I used a silver square stud from the Born Pretty Store and another unknown Color Club on my middle nail.

Now on to the Falling for Nail Art post for the theme Jewel Tones.

I started out with a base of 2 coats of Color Club's Editorial, a colour that appears to be a dupe of Chanel's Peridot(which I do not own, and therefore cannot do a comparison on), a green to gold duochrome, which my camera would not capture in any in focus shots.

Once this dried I used China Glaze's Tongue & Chic, a dark teal, and Bundle Monster BM422 to create a diamond pattern.

Please ignore the black smudge on my ring finger, I wanted to do a larger black diamond on its own but the stamp did not co-operate.

Anyway, this is the end of my double post for today but I will be back on Friday with my next 33DC mani.

Until then, polish happy!

Falling for Nail Art: Baked Goods

Hello nail polish lovers!

Today I have my Falling for Nail Art Challenge with the theme Baked Goods.  I really had to stop myself from using my apple pie image for this one but I somehow managed to restrain myself.

For this challenge I started with a base of 1 coat of an unnamed Color Club lavender/periwinkle that I think is Pucci-licious, based on swatches.  I loved adding to my Color Club collection but not having names on the bottles is a giant pain in the ass.  If you think this is a different CC colour please let me know, also this colour is slightly less blue in real life.

This colour must have some neon pigment in it because it dried slightly matte.  Once the base was dried I started to add my design, of a cupcake, of course.  I used Lime Crime's Crema de Lemon for the wrapper, and then used a yellow striper for the shadows.  The frosting is China Glaze White on White with yellow and red stripers for the sprinkles.

I added the SV too early, since I am more used to applying it over stamping, and ended up with the red striper smudging and bleeding into the white.  Except for that I was actually quite pleased with how this turned out.

I have been doing so much nail art between the challenges that I have been leaning towards more plain nails, so I wanted to show you one of my favourites from last week.

The base is another of the unnamed Color Clubs, I think it is either Look Book or Style Icon, and this is 3 coats of the deep jelly like red that is the closest to oxblood that I have.  The studs are small gold rounds from the Born Pretty Store and the reason that one of them looks silver is because I took this photo after a day at work and apparently I wore through the top coat and took the colour coating off that one stud.  I really enjoyed how simple and sophisticated this mani was and I think it totally appropriate for Autumn.

That is all for today, but I will be back tomorrow with my next 33DC mani.

Until then, polish happy!

Falling for Nail Art: Fireside

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my Fireside mani for the other challenge I am doing at the moment, the Falling for Nail Art Challenge.  The only thing that I could think of when I saw the theme for today was fire itself, so that is what I did.



As I said in my previous post I completely forgot to take pictures of my base without my freehand on it, which is unfortunate, because it is gorgeous, I will be sure to post again with it sometime.  I am on a bit of a Color Club kick because I just got 18 new colours and I want to test them all out.  The color I chose for my background is another unnamed but I have decided based on swatches that it is Apollo Star, an antique gold that is opaque in one careful coat(another one coat-er! I am in heaven).  Once this was dry I dug out stripers in Yellow, Red, and Neon Orange and created a reverse waterfall to create my fire.

Sorry Blogger is doing the same thing to my photos again, this is getting ridiculous! UPDATE: fixed.

At lease this time it didn't change the colours on my nails but for some reason it is making them look much lower quality than they are, I will have to look into this.

Anyway, that is all for now,  until next time, polish happy!

33 DC Day 19: Pattern in My Wardrobe

Hello polish lovers!

So today's challenge was to be inspired by a pattern in my wardrobe...I have very few patterns in my wardrobe so I decided to use my new infinity scarf.

I love the colour and pattern in this scarf.  Its black, burgundy, copper, grey and white in an painterly flower print.  I was really excited when I managed to find pretty similar colours in my polish stash.

I started with a base of 1 coat of OPI's Alpine Snow and then worked from lightest to darkest.  The grey is Butter London's Billy No Mates(I found it at Winners on clearance), copper is Essie's Penny Talks, burgundy is Seche's Bella(awesome 1 coat-er), and a black Nubar striper. I then coated with SV.

Of course I had to matte it for the finishing touch to make it seem closer to the scarf.

That is all for now but I will be back in a bit with my Falling for Nail Art mani.

Until then, polish happy!

33DC Day 16: South America

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my South American mani for the 33DC.  This was another theme that I struggled with but this time Google was my friend.  My inspiration was a combination of a couple of different prints I found.

I started by painting 2 halves of my fingers with OPI's A Roll in the Hague, the other 2 halves with Color Club's Bright Night, and the other 2 halves in OPI's Don't Talk Bach to Me and Color Club's Mambo.

Once that had dried I used Wet n'Wild's Ebony Hates Chris to create my center, with a white Nubar striper inside that.

It's not my favourite of the designs I did for this challenge but I liked it better than I thought I would.

That is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with my Hallow e'en Challenge Skulls and Skeleton's mani.

Until then, polish happy!