Black Hearts

 

I know, I missed Tuesday. It's been a busy week! But I thought I'd post these today, because this coming week I have some pretty heart-patterned foils to try and hopefully they'll turn out to show off for Valentine's Day...

I still wasn't really "feeling" the hearts thing last week, so I decided to go a little "Joan Jett" with a black hearts manicure. The base color is Nubar's "Iris Dust" (which I adore), and the hearts were hand drawn (like you couldn't tell, right?) with a black Nubar nail art pen. I actually don't think they turned out too bad for hand drawn art...and the shaky edges kind of fit with the whole "black hearts" thing. ;-)

I used Zoya's "Suvi" underneath the nails, and that seems to have stopped the tip pull issues I've been having lately...

These photos are from today - and while there are lots of cracks and wear showing, I think it's worn pretty well considering this is day seven for this manicure.

Next Tuesday, provided it works as it should, a shiny heart foil manicure provided by OMG Nail Strips. I'll be playing with those tonight!

Until then, happy polishing...

Wild Branches

Alrighty then! Finally got some time to crop these up and photograph this week's finished manicure. Thanks for your patience - it's been a long and rather frustrating week. I'm more than ready for the weekend!

 

Thanks to Glamorous Cosmetics for providing the black nail art pen I used this week - the formula is lovely to work with, and I do really love the shape of the bottles. Much easier on the hand than some round bottles I've used. 

 

I wanted something easy last weekend, so I decided to just start drawing, and see what I could come up with. First though, a nice, shiny base of Nubar's "Wildlife", one of my favorite Nubar duochromes. It looks gold, maroon or green depending on the light. Very cool. Two coats did the job nicely:

 

 Testing the pen tip - looks like it's working great! You might want to squeeze out a little (doesn't take much) and wipe it off on a paper towel a few times just to get used to the flow before using it on your nails...much easier once you have a "feel" for how fast the polish is flowing.

 

I started in a corner, and went diagonal, then just kept adding branches. There was something on TV while I was doing these that inspired the little dotty "blooms" on the end of each...I think they're both fun and a little alien too.

 

 I topped it off with my normal 2 coats of Seche Vite, and called it good. My "after" pics show a bit of tip pull, and a little chipping a the base, but considering I've been wearing this all week, it's not too bad for the wear, really:

Next week, something suitable for the Fourth of July - break out the red, white & blue! 

Until then, happy polishing...

Wild Stones

The last two weeks my manicures have just not turned out the way I wanted them to, unfortunately. Thankfully, aside from that annoyingly placed break you see on my middle finger and a little tip-pull, this one turned out pretty well. I love, love, love Nubar duochromes!

I used Sally Hanson "Triple Strong" as a base tonight (see below), Nubar's "Wildlife", a green & pink duochrome for my color, large rhinestones from Born Pretty Store for the artwork, and Seche Vite top coat to seal it all up. The rhinestones were complimentary, if I remember correctly (it's been awhile). Everything else was on my dime.

I started with the Triple Strong to try to stabilize that broken nail until it can grow out to where I can comfortably cut it. When you have nails as long as mine, the "quick" under the nail grows out longer than the finger, so I can't just cut the break off at the top of my finger (not without taking a lot of skin too). Triple Strong normally works really well (it's got epoxy in it!)...but tonight before I took photos, something heavy slipped out of my hands and yanked the break apart again. Stupid thing...my own fault for not being more careful.

After the TS, I applied two coats of Wildlife, which you can kind of see some of the color differences in the above non-flash photo. Gorgeous, beautiful polish, IMO. One of my new favorites, and the formula is awesome, as usual.

Just a simple design this week - three stones on each nail, alternating pink and black. I just brushed on a coat of Seche, seated the stones in the tacky polish, and then sealed with another coat of Seche over the top.

Would you believe I didn't realize I'd lost a stone already until I looked at this photo tonight? Must not have gotten that one pushed down all the way...bummer!

Obviously, I've gotten a bit lazy - not wrapping polish over the tips, etc. It's because I've been starting my manicures really late (like 1am). Next week, I'm starting earlier, no matter what, so I have time to do a better job. That's kind of the point, right? ;-)

Until then, happy polishing!

Starry Purple Beach

Sorry for disappearing again there. The past few weeks have been *crazy*! Thankfully things are kind of slowing down a little bit. This week, I felt dark and purple-y, so I pulled out Nubar's "Purple Beach" duochrome, which is just an awesome color. It's dark and broody, but with an amazing green/gold tone in the right light. One of my new favorites.

I started with two coats "Purple Beach" over a base coat of Seche Vite:

Above with a flash, below without so you can sort of see the color variation (sorry it's so blurry!):

Then I simply took these great star stickers, and put them on to just accent the color a little.

Two coats of Seche Vite top coat, and some clean-up results in an unfortunately blurry photo, but you get the idea:

When you have a color this great on it's own, sometimes less is more when it comes to nail art, I think. I just wish I were a better photographer...though I think our camera might need replacing too. ;-)

Until next week, Happy Polishing!