Beautopia - Nail Art for the Masses

OPI Just Spotted the Lizard

beautopia — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 16:39:49 EDT

OPI Just Spotted the Lizard - $8.50

OPI's new The Amazing Spiderman collection is about to be released in store and there has been a lot of noise about this polish. Not only because it's a pretty rad multi-chrome, but because it's a Chanel Peridot (see my Peridot review here) dupe. With Chanel polishes now fairly assaulting wallets at a price of $26, it's nice to see a less expensive alternative to a popular shade. I've got several photos of OPI JSTL, and then below I have a couple comparison photos.

As far as this polish, It's pretty much a dead-on dupe of Peridot. It's somewhat sheer, but with three thin coats you get full coverage. The color in most lights is pre-dominantly an amber gold with a seafoam green and light turquoise showing up from time to time. The wear was pretty average, I tested it for two days and didn't have any tip wear or chipping. It doesn't show stroke lines as much as Peridot, which really didn't have much in the way of stroke lines in the first place; it's just mainly more metallic whereas Peridot does have some foil-like flecks which scatter light a little more. JSTL doesn't really have that and so it has a more linear light reflection.

Click for more photos!

WIN A Hand-Painted Custom Nail Set from Beautopia!

beautopia — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 13:03:22 EDT

To celebrate the grand opening of Beautopia Nails' new Etsy shop, I'm doing a giveaway! Two people will each win a set of custom hand-painted nails. The winners can choose any design on my site or in my shop and they'll be made to order. There are a couple ways to win and you can enter daily if you so desire. I'm trying out Rafflecopter for the first time because putting in names in to the randomizer is pretty time consuming. And this way you can enter multiple times without causing me to pull my hair out and wish fervently for death! :D WIN! The contest will start today and will run until Friday, April 27th and the winners will be chosen and contacted the following day. Good luck!!!

I'm doing a second giveaway on Tumblr if you'd like another chance to win, reblog the post on tumblr:D

Even if you don't win, please check out my shop and if you find something you like, or would like to order a custom set of your own, use the code BEAUTOPIA10 for 10% off your first purchase!

PS: I've never used Rafflecopter before, so if there are any issues, please let me know!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Beautopia Nails Etsy Shop Now Open!!

beautopia — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:43:53 EDT

I know I haven't posted in a few days, but I have a good excuse! I've been working feverishly creating nail sets for my new Etsy shop! I'm so excited and I hope that people actually buy them. It would be a real bummer if they didn't because I feel so proud of the work. I'm really enjoying making the sets. It's a bit of work, and I feel like I've been doing nothing else but I really, really love doing it. I have 15 items already up in the shop, two of which are just custom listings. I am going to give myself a much-deserved night off and go over and have a picnic with my hubby and kiddo at my mom's tonight, though I do plan to give her a mani-pedi. So it's there will still be nails and painting involved, but I will love the instant reward of doing an actual person's nails after a week of painting disembodied plastic.

Also, you may have notice I changed my masthead thingy. I did that to match my new business cards and also the packaging for the nail sets that I have on order. Just doing a little sprucing up around my little piece of the interwebz as I take this little step in another direction. thanks for reading !!!!

Here's a link to my shop, please let me know what you think!! http://www.etsy.com/shop/beautopianails

So, My Hand Was In Ladies' Home Journal...

beautopia — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:05:29 EDT

As far as I know, this is the first time my name or any part of my body has been in a national magazine, so I had to share. My hand/name is in the May issue of LHJ. A couple months ago I got an email from someone at LHJ asking if they could use one of my photos in a column, and of course I said "totally." Very cool. Nothing huge, just a pic of my hand wearing Esse Mesmerize and a little blurb where I said that to me it's a very nautical feeling color. Plus my name. I didn't recognize all the other names, except for Michele Mismas of All Lacquered Up. It's on page 48 if you've got the issue :)

Click to see the pics...

Dip-Dye Tribal Nail Art

beautopia — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:13:39 EDT

I liked the other day's watercolor nails a lot, so I used a similar technique for this design. I started out with a nude base color, then used three different polishes to make the "dip-dye" look. I put a dab of each color and used a brush and some acetone to wash it out in a line up the nail. Once I had all the colors in, I used a brush with some black polish to make some random zigzags. I wanted them to be somewhat haphazard, because I wanted it to have a sort of distressed look. It reminds me of this batik sarong I used to have, and I like it!

Products used:

Sephora by OPI XOX Betsey
CND Sweet and Anchor Blue
Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow
Wet n Wild Black Creme

Click for another photo..

För Sverige i tiden - Sweden Flag Nail Art

beautopia — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 17:08:25 EDT

Here's a pretty self-explanatory nail design, the Swedish flag. I took some liberties with my interpretation, but I think it's recognizable for what it's meant to be. I did large flags on a couple nails and then small flags sort of scattered over a couple and the pinky, hell, I have no idea what that's supposed to be. I love the colors together on the nail, especially with the white!

Products used:

Wet n Wild White On
Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow
Finger Paints Blue Raspberry Taffy

Spring Watercolor Nail Art

beautopia — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 12:42:11 EDT

The new watercolor trend is so pretty, and I wanted to give it a try since the weather is becoming so beautiful in my region right now. The basic technique is to paint the nails a base color, and then with several colors one after the other you dot a small amount on the nail and sort of blot it out with a larger brush with a little acetone in it. The beauty of this technique is that the less "perfect" it is, the better, so the expertise level on this would probably be at "Novice." I think there are videos on how to do this on YouTube, so search for "Watercolor Nails" and you should find something. The only trick is to use *just* the right amount of acetone to dab the paint around, and not to dab too much or it will get muddy. Paint a few nails white and give it a little practice to see what you come up with. I think it's really pretty, and with just a couple colors blotted on, it would also make a pretty background for other art on top, or even some metal studs.

Products used:

Sally Hansen Lavender Cloud
CND Sweet and Anchor Blue
China Glaze High Hopes
Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow

Click for more photos...

Sand Storm Nail Art

beautopia — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 13:20:35 EDT

I recently found Nails Inc Fouberts Place on clearance at Sephora, and was really excited to use it, but I just found myself not in the mood to wear anything too dark or drab no matter how pretty the color. So I decided to make it part of a design. I paired it with a much lighter polish in the same color family and a gold to add a little bling. Fouberts Place is a gorgeous olivey taupe and it's very pigmented, almost a one coater by the way.

Products used:

OPI Skull & Glossbones
Nails Inc Fouberts Place
Orly Luxe
Seche Vite Topcoat

Royal Cabochon Nail Art

beautopia — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:13:52 EDT

I'm still in the process of figuring out how to do a gradient to my own satisfaction and it's not turning out like I'd prefer, however I did like the final product that resulted here, even though it's not how I originally pictured it. I think a lot of the reason I liked this despite my technical failure is the color palette. I really loved these colors together. I added some gold to the edge and the result sort of reminded me of a cool cabochon on a vintage cocktail ring or something, hence the name.

Products used:

Sephora by OPI XOX Betsey
Illamasqua Jo'mina
Nails Inc Belgrave Place
Orly Luxe
Seche Vite topcoat

Springy Tribal Mix Nail Art

beautopia — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 10:01:55 EDT

I recently got a backup bottle of China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy, one of my favorite summer polishes of all time, and something weird happened. My new bottle is a lot lighter and less warm in tone than my older bottle. I do love the color of the new bottle too, and I thought it looked awesome next to Aquadelic and Electric Pineapple so I did a springy tribal look.

Products used:

China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy, Aquadelic and Electric Pineapple
Sally Hanson Salon Lavender Cloud
Wet n Wild Black Creme
Seche Vite topcoat