I have to tell you, doing this series is so much fun so far. It's a fun challenge for myself. Though there's very little information in the books about some of the districts, which will make it a little challenging, I think it's fun to come up with something for each one. I plan on making my way through the districts in order and then I have some other designs based on The Hunger Games I'll be adding to the series. In the end, the series will hopefully be pretty sizeable. In the meantime, it's a lot of fun. On to the description!
District 4 in The Hunger Games is home to a ocean-based society. They make fish hooks, they use nets and tridents to fish, and overall it's a somewhat wealthy district. To reflect this rich ocean culture I painted the nails with sea greens, coral red for the, um, red coral, and gave it some gilded accents to reflect the fact that this district is a bit more rich.
Products used:
- OPI Thanks a Wind-million
- OPI Red Lights Ahead... Where?
- Sally Hansen Fairy Teal
- China Glaze 2030
- Seche Vite topcoat
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Products used:
- China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
- China Glaze Reggae to Riches
- Sephora by OPI Opening Night
- China Glaze Millenium
- Seche Vite Top Coat
I did this right before I changed my nail shape from square to oval. Man, it feels weird to see them so square, lol. Anyway, I'm really into half-moon manicures right now, and I like the added interest of contrasting colors and a little something extra to deliniate the place where the colors meet. I used China Glaze Reggae to Riches for the base, which is a beautiful bright magenta shimmer with a really, really intense blue flash to it. Then for the rest of the nail, I used the incredibly well-pigmented Opening Night by Sephora by OPI which is a rich sapphire shimmer. For the line of "beads," I used a dotting too and China Glaze Millenium. I'm thinking of trying this same manicure out with black, white and grey soon, I think that would be really elegant. Maybe with some 3D pearl action...
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I've been wanting to do a zebra gradient for a while, and I finally gave it a whirl. I used some polishes from the newest OPI and China Glaze polishes together to make a nice rainbow along with a striping brush. with the flash the deliniation between the colors is really obvious, but in most lights and not so close up it looks like a true gradient, which is cool. Very excited to try this with neons and then over black instead of white.
Products used:
- China Glaze White on White
- China Glaze Purple Panic
- OPI A Roll in the Hague
- OPI Did It On Em
- China Glaze Aquadelic
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For the third installment in my Hunger Games nail art series, I continued on with the districts. This time it's District 3 which we know from the books is mainly and electronics. For this nail set I did a circuit board, some random holographic based lightning bolts, some bright blinky light thing and then lastly the 3 for the district done in a digital style. It's a really abstract interpretation of the district, but I thought it was colorful and fun, and definitely felt sort of electronic-y.
Products used:
- GOSH Holographic
- Wet n Wild Black Creme
- OPI Who the Shrek are You?
- Sparitual Yes I Can
- China Glaze 2030
- China Glaze Purple Panic
- CND Anchor Blue
- OPI Rinse Charming
- OPI Roll in the Hague
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Recently at NYFW, CND did a really cool look they called Flirty Flowers for Rachel Antonoff's runway show. I think it was a real eye-catcher for everyone considering the interesting pattern and the use of bright, bold colors juxtaposed on the small canvas of the nails. I wanted to recreate it, and in fact did start out by using CND Anchor Blue as they did, but I found it was far too dark to get the look in the photos without adding a lot of white to it. I'm probably not using the same technique they did, so maybe they added the Anchor Blue designs while the white was still wet, but either way I ended up using different polishes to acheive this look.
I painted the nails white, added the blue "petals" freehand with a brush, then added the red to the top, using a thin brush to get the red into the angles left behind by the blue.
Products used:
- China Glaze White on White
- China Glaze Electric Beat
- OPI Red Lights Ahead... Where?
- Seche Vite Topcoat
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Essie Shine of the Times - $8 most drugstores
I have seen Essie Shine of the Times in just about every drugstore and big box store I've visited in the last month or so, so I know it's relatively easy to find at this point. I had been seeing it everywhere on the internet and decided I didn't need it because I have Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, a bunch of Nfu-Ohs, the Finger Paints flakies, and more random flakies and honestly don't use them often, but SotT really impossible to resist in the end because when I finally gave up and just picked the polish up in my hands to examine it, I realized it was different than all the others I mentioned above. The shards of mylar are more finely milled, which does a couple things; 1) there is more variation in color because since these are light reactive to a point, the larger the shard, the less color in the area the shard takes up (therefore the smaller the shard, the more shards per area equaling more color!), 2) the surface appears, and is to a certain extent textured rather than just a bit of interesting color being randomly scattered over the surface making the finish look irregular and sort of gross. So overall, SotT is better than a lot of flakies. SH Hidden Treasure had, to this point, been my favorite overall in the mylar glitter category as it had somewhat small particles and was very dense on application. SotT is the new point to which the bar has been raised, y'all. woot! The only weird thing is that there are some random plummy purple colored specks in the polish. You'll see what I mean below.
I love mylar over dark colors, but because this is so dense and makes such a neat textured looking surface, I decided to use a light, delicate color under it for once; China Glaze White on White.
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For the second installment in my Hunger Games nail art series, I did nails based on District 2. In the books, that district is described as having several principal functions; it is home to stone cutters, it supplies the majority of Peacekeepers, they manufacture weapons, and the snow-capped mountain housing the military nervecenter called "The Nut" by the rebels. So in this nail set you see The Nut, the district number, elements of a Peacekeeper uniform as shown in movie trailers, a stone wall, and a gun silhouette. All elements are hand painted.
Products used:
- China Glaze Concrete Catwalk
- China Glaze Recycle
- China Glaze White on White
- China Glaze Sea Spray
- Wet n Wild Black Creme
- acrylic paints
- Seche Vite Topcoat
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Tagged with:
nail polish, nails, black, white, grey, nail art, China Glaze, Mountain, gun, The Hunger Games, lovewritewin
Nubar Polka Dot Collection - $20 at bynubar.com
The Polka Dots set actually contains Black Polka Dot, White Polka Dot and a Diamante Topcoat for that price. Not too shabby. I really liked both of these polishes. I applied WPD over black and BPD over white to give you as much contrast as possible.
Both polishes are nice, but I prefer Black Polka Dots. It's a lot more unique, and black glitter is just cool. Both have mostly small glitter with a dash of larger hex glitter. It's not hard to get the glitter to transfer but you'll have to maneuver the bottles around before applying to get the hex glitters near the top. Don't know why. The black one is pretty straight forward, but the white one... the glitter is this pearlescent white, first of all. It's pretty but it likes to suck up your base color and go all discolored. I let it stay on the black one for a while and the small glitter turned blue. Plus the white large hex glitter are prone to be broken when you get them on the nail so about 30% of them are shards instead of a hex. Either way, I like it. I actually liked when the glitter went blue, it looked cool, but if you want white, this might be inconvenient. The black makes anything look really cool and speckled and makes the purchase of the set worth it, in my opinion.
Side note: I just noticed Nubar has soak-off gel polishes... Has anyone tried them yet? I'm pretty much decided on buying the Orly GelFX kit but just wondering. I daydream constantly about China Glaze developing soak-off gels. That'll be the day.... *le sigh*
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This manicure inspired by 10 Crosby Derek Lam SS12 RTW includes China Glaze Gaga for Green and Aquadelic and the colors are such a perfect match for the ensemble in the picture that it's scary. When I was perusing the Style.com app for inspiration, this is one of the photos that really called out to me. I love the graphic nature of the black and white with pops of geometric colors. I recreated it with those two China Glaze polishes with the addition of a white polish and a black striping polish. Also, in case you didn't notice, I filed my nails into ovals! Big change for me, as I have had sqaure nails just about all my life. They're still short yet, but I want Rihanna nails, and I will have them if it's the last thing I ever do! *Evil laugh*
Products used:
- China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
- China Glaze White on White
- China Glaze Aquadelic
- China Glaze Gaga for Green
- Black striping polish
- Seche Vite Topcoat
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I've been dying to do something that incorporates these two shades. My winter coat is the same color as Nails Inc Belgrave Place and one day I held something bright orange against it and I've had a one track mind since then. I didn't want something busy and I wanted something that was simple and only incorporated these two colors because the two of them together make such a statement on their own. I painted the nails orange first, then when it was dry I applied some nail art striping tape from dollarnailart.com. I applied the purple over it and then waitied (not quite long enough, sadly) for it to dry and applied topcoat. The concept for the manicure was inspired by pshiiit.com! If you haven't seen her work yet, check it out! It's in French but the photos really are breathtaking.
Products used:
- China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
- OPI A Roll in the Hague
- Nails Inc Belgrave Place
- Nail art striping tape
- Seche Vite topcoat
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