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
I've long been a fan of Pucci prints as they're colorful and bold and always interesting, so I decided to try to emulate that style of pattern for a nail design. In the end, I didn't really think it looked very Pucci-esque, it's a little too random, but all-in-all I do like it a lot and the color combination was really cute. All of the design was done with a striping brush and six different nail polishes.
Products used:
- China Glaze Recycle
- China Glaze White on White
- China Glaze Concrete Catwalk
- China Glaze Aquadelic
- China Glaze Dance Baby
- China Glaze Sweet Hook
- Seche Vite topcoat
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
Essie Armed & Ready - $8 at drugstores
I randomly found A&R at Target the other day, and I was super happy. I'd been looking forward to finding it. I'd also anticipated an army green, but what I got was a deep warm grey with bronze shimmer. Gorgeous nonetheless, but definitely a bit different than I was expecting. I asked my hubby what color he thought it was... He came up with "grey-greenish" while we were sitting in the car in traffic, so in indirect sunlight. Yeah in some lights it has a whisper, a mere suggestion, of green, but mostly it's grey. The bronze shimmer is hidden in most lights, but it does pop out nicely in bright light, so it's a nice bonus. In low light, the base is really nice and creamy and really looked nice next to my beigey skin. It applies VERY nicely, two coats is more than enough. You know what it really reminds me of as far as finish? Chanel Paradoxal! It's creamy, dark, dusky and has the hidden shimmer. It's a grey Paradoxal!
I've wanted to do "graffiti" nails for a while and this is as close to that as I've come. I was inspired by a random photo of a mid-70s woman with a ratty old Union Jack tee. You know I love to do Union Jacks, but I thought this deconstructed black, white and grey version really was pretty cool. I've been getting pretty tired of Crackle polishes in general lately, but I thought it was perfect for this design, it makes it look like a nasty, dirty brick wall, so awesome.
Products used:
- China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
- China Glaze White on White
- Wet n Wild Black Creme
- China Glaze Crackle Cracked Concrete
- China Glaze Purple Panic
- Black and White Striping polish
- Seche Vite
I've seen a few manicures over the last few weeks with this technique of outlining the nail, and I haven't found a name for it, so I'm gonna go ahead and call it "Vignette" for the sake of titling purposes and convenience. At first I wasn't very fond of the look, but it's really grown on me, so I decided to give it a try myself. This manicure was inspired by this manicure by MadelinePooleNails. I added a little color and some mixed metal action to make it more quirky. For this manicure I used China Glaze Electric Beat and Contrete Catwalk, and OPI Glitzerland, along with black, white and silver striping polish. The technique is pretty simple but definitely makes a statement, in my opinion. Despite the business of the look, the longer I wore it the more elegant it felt to me, which surprised me given the helter skelter nature of the manicure.
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It's been forever and a day since I last posted, but in the interim I've graduated from my nail technology course and taken my State Board exams. Glad that's all over! Anyway, I've not been doing as much crazy art lately due to time restrictions, unfortunately, but I did do something with two of the new China Glaze Holiday 2011 polishes I picked up recently.
Tinsel Town is already becoming one of my favorite polishes of all time. It's a gorgeous granite grey with multi-sized silver glitter that makes the finish look so interesting; almost textured, sort of like fresh blacktop. I decided it reminded me of granite all around so I went for that sort of look by first polishing all the nails with a couple thin coats of Icicle, a standard-yet-solid choice for a silver micro-foil polish. Then I painted random curvy sections of each nail with Tinsel Town. I delineated the sections with a black striping polish from Sally Beauty, and finished off with Seche Vite to seal it and make it shine. Not complex, but it was very pretty to look at. Hope you like it!
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Another one of my favorite Vera Bradley patterns is Baroque. I bought a kisslock clutch last Fall when it first came out because the pattern, honestly, is just irresistable. I love the swirlies and the dark grey and citron, especially together. I've been meaning to do a Baroque inspired nail design for a long time, but I couldn't decide just what to do. I'm not good enough yet to re-create these types of swirlies and I didn't have the right sort of grey. I figured that OPI Who The Shrek Are You? would work for the citron, but then came China Glaze Electric Pineapple and the wheels started turning. It's a perfect match for the citron in this pattern. Then last week I got the Metro collection from China Glaze and Concrete Catwalk is a perfect match for the grey. So I set out to do a manicure that evoked the whimsical feeling of the pattern with these colors. Please realize that this is not meant to MATCH the pattern, it's inspired by it. I'm not 100% happy with it, but I do like it.
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Essie Smokin' Hot - $8 at essie.com
Part of Essie's Winter 2010 collection, Smokin' Hot is a deep eggplant-tinged grey that is part of that dark and dusky family of colors that is so on-trend right now. It applies pretty well; only slightly sheer. Two coats made it opaque enough to my naked eye to make me happy. It wore exceptionally well, which is usually a big concern for me with Essie polishes. I wore this for three days without a chip under a coat of Seche Vite. The color is pretty unique with a couple exceptions. It is a creme, but it is quite similar to Chanel Paradoxal as far as the base color. I've included a few comparison photos of that after the jump. The color is really rich and neutral, making it a perfect choice for just about any skin tone or depth. I think it's a big winner.
NEWS!! : My blog sale will be up hopefully by the end of the day tomorrow, maybe tonight, depending on how things go. It's for the nail polish portion. I know I told a few of you I was hoping to do it last month but I've been so busy and I figure if I want to get it done before it gets too close to Christmas, I'd better do it now. I've got the photos taken and edited, and all I have to do is post it. Look for a post here to tell you it's up, and then the link will be found at the top right of the link bar at the top of the page.
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