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
If you haven't noticed, I'm in a bit of a floral period right now. I think it's this nonexistant winter that isn't providing the quaint excitement of snowy afternoons full of hot chocolate and a good book, or maybe a snowball fight, nor is it warm enough to be expecting buds to pop up and leaves to begin to appear. it's all the crappy things about Winter without any of the good things. So I'm boycotting Winter, and I'm living in denial. It's Spring for me right now. I did this manicure for two reasons; 1) I saw this manicure by BlogNailedIt and was inspired, and I still have one living, albeit beleaguered, flower out in front of the house right now that just won't give up, and it's a pansy. I've got a couple pics from last Spring of a pot o' pansies after the jump from directly after potting them last Spring. They got rather huge over the summer, and all have died but one really determined little guy in the middle. le sigh.
For this design I used China Glaze Sweet Hook as the base, then I used China Glaze Gothic Lolita, Holly-Day and Sally Hansen Lavender Cloud for the flower and the random dotting.
Click for flower pics...
China Glaze's new Electro Pop collection is really inspiring. The colors are bright, beautiful and just beg to be used together. I paired up four of them, along with another China Glaze favorite to make this abstract springy floral design.
Electric Beat, a dusky periwinkle, was used as the base, then I used Sweet Hook and Dance Baby to make the flowers. With Gaga for Green and Electric Pineapple from the Island Escape collection for the leaves. Then I used a black striping polish to do really unstructured outlines to just suggest the form of the flowers and leaves. Without the black it literally just looks like blobs of color, and the black just made it pop.
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Spring has sprung at Vera Bradley, and one of Spring's four new patterns has me yearning for (my husband's gonna kill me so hard) more bags and accessories! Island Blooms is bursting with my favorite colors; citron, teal, white, black and grey. A better color palette there is not, my friends. And the mixture of bold florals and and an accent pattern that would make Frank Lloyd Wright weep with joy are a siren's call to this girl. I decided that I'd pay homage to yet another perfect Vera pattern by replicating it for nails, and it was so much fun!!! I used OPI Did It On 'Em, China Glaze Flyin' High and some striping paints to do this look.
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It's snowing here right now. Yeah. I love snow, in theory, especially on a weekend, but for some reason I'm not jumping for joy as per usual. Maybe it's just that I'm busy, or maybe that the sparkling and magical juvenile glee at the prospect of a snow day is somewhat less appealing when one is the parent and no longer the child. But if I'm being completely frank, I'll tell you I think it's because I broke a damn nail. Yes, just one. But you know that deep down all of you can identify with my horror, my dejected and grudging acceptance of a broken nail; a lost friend. I momentarily considered applying a tip, overlaying it with a thin, harmless little layer of acrylic, but after getting out my powders and liquids, and brushes and all the other trappings of my nemesis, I chickened out and packed up and hid all the acrylic accoutrement back in the far reaches of my closet so I wouldn't be tempted. Instead, I embraced the break this time. My index finger nail had popped off at the free edge, leaving me little choice but to yell "TIMBER!" and take the rest of the girls down. It was actually liberating, and as pudgy and stumpy as my fingers look now, I am enjoying that liberation.
I can type, text and apply eyeshadow primer without a care right now. YAY! I can also apply layers and layers of gaudy, and obnoxious color combinations and designs with reckless abandon, because let's face it, nubbins always look so adorable with an intricate design. So here is a random abstract floral number using shades like China Glaze Electric Beat, Flip Flop Fantasy, Gaga for Green, and Dance Baby and OPI Did It On 'Em all on a base of white.
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This Hollywood-themed manicure was the product of weekend boredom. Using China Glaze Concrete Catwalk, Seche Porcelain, and Wet n Wild Believe Me, It's Real, along with assorted striping polishes. a somewhat kitschy manicure emerges. I didn't really think this one through before I did it, so really it's more of a rough draft, as you could probably tell by the half-assed skyline. The hills should have had a "Hollywood" sign, but I didn't really think of that till I waws done and had hit saturation point in "I don't give a crap, it's a lazy Sunday." The yellow Art Deco striper I used for the spotlights really ended up working better than I'd thought. I'd originally thought maybe I'd need to lay down a coat of white under those lights, but the striper directly over black made it look like actual light instead of acid yellow laser beams. Yay for happy accidents born of laziness! The film is all black striper on a white background, the pinky all black on top of some kickass nearly opaque blue glitter with an nth of purple. love this Wet n Wild polish, must go back for more!
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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I recently picked up Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in Glass Slipper and wanted to do a snowy blue winter scene and decided on snowmen, snowflakes and candycanes! I used Sally Hansen Pacific Blue for the background, then I used Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in Something Blue to do the dusting of snow at the bottom of the scene. I faded Glass Slipper down the nail to look like falling snow, and then with assorted brushes and tools used a white polish to make the snowman body, candy cane and snowflakes. I used some Migi Nail Art Pens to do the details on the snowmen and candy canes. I've had this on for a few days since I took this photo and it's starting to chip a bit, so I think I'll take this opportunity to do a red and green design for Christmas Day!
I hope everyone is having a great holiday season!!! Thanks for looking :D
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We are leaving for a short, but much-needed vacation down to Clearwater, Florida, and though it's the end of November I decided to do a tropical sort of design. A stylized sunset with Orly Snowcone, Color Club Puccilicious, CND Sweet (bottle pictured) and Color Club Explosive, and then I used a black striping polish to make the palm trees and sailboats.
I hope to post a bit while I'm down there, but until then, thanks for reading!
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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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