OPI Canberra't Without You is from the Australia Collection, which I believe was from Spring/Summer 2007 has been sitting in a drawer in my house since it first came out. I bought it, swatched it, marveled at it's beautiful shards of glitter in the peachy nude base then promptly forgot about it. Three years later I sat here wanting to re-create the Lace Manicure again, (check out my first attempt here), so I kept an open mind and started rifling through my drawers for the perfect nude base. By itself it's not the most exciting color, but every girl needs a polish in her stash that matches her skintone. They just come in handy! Canberra't is my perfect nude, and I used it here as a base for two nail looks that are really sexy and appropriate for Fall.

This time around, armed with a better base color and an actual Konad Special Polish in black to make the designs more crisp, I thought I'd have a better time of things. It worked a lot better, but I have to say I'm really looking forward to when my nails grow back out from my surprise nubbin attack this week to try it again. Long, lacy nails sounds hot.

Click for more...

Ahh, the lace manicure; an inventive and creative nail art option that is the brainchild of Barielle celebrity manicurist Elle. The amazing mani she created uses actual lace and resins to seal the look. Aside from the easy, breezy Konad, I'm completely bereft of nail art skillz, so I went through my plates to see what I could do. Turns out there are designs that are very obviously begging to be made into lace. Namely the fishnet from plate m57 and the floral (I like to call it toile) pattern from plate m71. For the base I used three coats of Essie Like Linen and then let it dry completely without a topcoat. Then I used OPI Black Onyx to stamp on the fishnet on all nails, then the floral pattern on all nails. I sealed the deal with Seche Vite topcoat. While it's obviously imperfect up close, it's killer at arms length, and very sexy. The nude color underneath elongates the finger but there's still something going on on the nails. Love this and can't wait to try it over red. Woo Woo *wink*!

Here's a How-To video about how to use the Konad Stamper. It's crazy-easy, I'm telling you.

Here is the original bona fide lace manicure by Elle. If you want to give the real thing a go, grab some lace and check out this tutorial by Megan McIntyre from Beauty on a Dime.

Click for another pic!