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...

Sponged Flowers

 

This week, I thought I'd try something a little different with the sponged designs. Since I didn't have time to edit video last week, I figured I'd just do another static tutorial this week. It was fun, though it did take quite awhile for this particular manicure...

I had a French manicure in mind, with delicate flowers just sort of hanging in the design. As usual, it turned out much differently on my nails then in my head, but I don't think it was too bad for a first try. The colors I used are OPI's "My Daddy's the King" and "Bubble Bath" (though I couldn't get BB open, so I substituted Finger Paint's "Well-Cultured Pearl" for the white), China Glaze "Wine Me, Dine Me" and another OPI, "Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow".

To start, I layered two coats of "MDTK" over a coat of Seche Vite base coat:

I couldn't get my BB open, so two coats of "Well-Cultured Pearl" at the tips, and then one more thin coat of MDTK over the whole nail, to mute the white and blend.

Then I used Here "Today, Aragon Tomorrow" applied with a fine paintbrush to create stems and leaves for my flowers:

And then a small piece of natural sponge dipped into "Wine Me, Dine Me" to apply the flowers.

Two coats of Seche Vite top coat to seal, a little clean-up, and voila! Puffy flowers!

Next time, I'll cut the sponge smaller - the larger sponge tip made it hard to maintain control, but I think a smaller tip will do the job fine. I'll also use a nail art pen or striper brush for the stems...the regular paintbrush just didn't quite give me the control I would have liked.

Nonetheless, I've gotten several compliments on this one this week, so it's definitely getting noticed. :-)

I just got a package of goodies from Glamorous Cosmetics, so next week, a manicure featuring those! Until then, happy polishing...

Clay Flowers

My apologies for the tip pull & cuticle line chips on the "finished" photos this week. I forgot to take these until the manicure was five days old. My bad!

I decided it was time to break out the clay canes again, though I'm not very good at slicing them thin. Here's what the end of this cane looked like before I started slicing it:

After slicing, lots of little flowers...

Then I started with two coats of Essie's "Angora Cardi".

Then I placed the clay circles. I was going to use two on each nail, but considering how thick I sliced them, I decided just one would be better.

Then I used Essie's "Secret Affair" and a toothpick to make dot trails from the flowers (I may have mentioned I'm in a "dots" mood?).

And that's it - two coats of top coat to seal, and clean up afterward. If I could have gotten the slices just a bit thinner...

 
Obviously, I need to practice more with the clay...think I may order pre-sliced next time. They're still kind of fun though, and I actually liked the 3-D effect on my nails.

My apologies for not picking up my awards last week - things were kind of crazy around here. I'll do it this week, promise...

Next week, I feel cloudy skies coming on...until then, happy polishing!

Pink Petals

I was trying to choose (quite literally) between light and dark nails this week. So I let hubby choose, and this pretty "Golden Rose" color from Avon was the winner. Another polish from their fall collection, you can sort of see from the photos that it has gold mica in it to give it that "golden" shimmer. Very pretty polish. I've been wanting to play with these little gold metal petals too, so even though it's not very fall-like, I've got a flowery manicure going on this week.

It's occurred to me that I don't actually show my nails "in the buff" much (because really, if you've seen them once, you've seen them). So I thought I'd post a photo of my naked nails today, so you can see what they look like just before I start polishing them up again. To get to this point, I removed last week's polish, washed & scrubbed, trimmed my pinky nails (they were hitting wrong keys when I typed), filed the edges and buffed the tops (file and buffing done with a crystal nail file). And voila, boring nails roughed up and ready for base coat.
I used Avon's base/top coat, but really need to order some better quality of each. I've been a bit lazy with the ordering lately. One coat of base, then two coats of "Golden Rose".
Avon has a thing for quick drying polish. They have a whole line, actually, but this pro stuff dries nearly as fast. Good for doing a rush polish job, not so good for nail art, especially with these little petal things. I really had a hard time getting these set quickly enough to stick into the top coat.

I started by laying out some petals in a basic flower shape.
Then I added a few extras on the side of the flower for little embellished stems. Would have been much easier with a different brand of top coat - I'd recommend China Glaze, Zoya or OPI. Something that doesn't dry too quickly.
I repeated it on all my nails, then sealed with two coats of top coat over the tops.
Clean 'em up, and voila! Pink and petally. You'll notice my index finger and thumb on my left had are a little goopy in the polish...I had to fix mistakes with layers because the tool I use to pick up stones, etc kept slipping off the petals. Frustrating.
And a shot outside in natural light.
I think I'll be going back to fall browns next week. Until then, happy polishing!

Porcelain Flowers

I'm switching up the post format this week - posting more of a step-by-step tutorial on how I got the nail art look I'm wearing this week. Let me know if it's helpful, or if there's another format you'd like to see, feel free to speak up.

This week's design is inspired by some porcelain rose decals I found at Sally Beauty Supply last weekend. They're 3D roses, and just gorgeous! I picked China Glaze "Cherish" and Zoya "Felicity for the polish colors, and got some gold boullion beads to compliment the little gold beads on the decals.

I started off with 2 coats of Felicity. I should warn you now - I am not a "neat" nail artist...I make a huge mess, and worry about cleaning it up later. Much less stressful for me than trying to focus on working clean throughout. So the photos in this post are true to my working style - messy.

Then I swiped over the bottom corner with Cherish to start creating a "V" at the base of my nail, going the other way to complete it. I don't worry about whether my initial lines are smooth - that's what beads and nail art pens are for.

Then I placed the flower decals in the center of each point. The decals are self-adhesive, but I put them on before the polish is too dry, which helps them adhere strongly. I wear my nail art for 6 days at a time, so I need it to be very strong. After I put the decals on, I went over the whole thing with top coat, paying special attention to the base of the decal.
You'll notice that the decals have little gold balls for accents. I simply extended that with the gold bouillon beads, covering the edges of the green, and then creating little gold "ribbons" hanging from the flowers.

This was my first time working with the bouillon beads. It definitely takes some practice. If the nail is too wet, they'll slip around. If it's too dry, they won't stick. I generally swipe a strip of top coat over a small area, put the beads on, then move to the next area. It's time consuming, but worth it, I think.

After I put the beads on each nail, I used 2 more coats of top coat over the whole design on each nail. Four coats of top coat in all to affix and seal the nail art for a week's worth of wear.

I let them dry overnight, and cleaned up the next morning in a sink of warm, soapy water with an orange stick. And voila - some pretty fancy nail art that reminds me of weddings (or anniversaries - mine is at the end of the week).

So far, they've been wearing well - I did this manicure Saturday night, and all the decals and beads are still very solid. I love the roses, and I'm going to try to get them off the decal backing so I can use them again later. Yes, they do get in the way, and I wore gloves to do some kitchen chores yesterday so they'd be protected. Not something I'd want to wear in sweater weather, but fun for now. I think next time, I'll just do three nails each hand with the flowers.

Pedicure photos on Thursday - until then, Happy Polishing!