52wkCrumpet29: Negative space and pastels

This is week 29 of Crumpet's 52 week challenge! The "rules" are very flexible and you have all week to accomplish the mani. As always, must be done on your own nails, using the colours suggested (or parts thereof).
This week's prompt: Negative space and three pastel colours (either each alone or combined). I chose the combo and this is in Luxio gel polish. I am off to a Luxio Nail and Art Workshop this coming weekend and needed a gel mani.

The base is a nude gel. Next came the handdrawn French tips, with a negative space (line) created within the French.

I drew some simple flowers in alternating colours of the pastels, and in random spots on my nails. All was topped and cured and I am ready to go for this week!!

If you are wondering, I am holding a quince. We have a very old quince tree on our property and the fruit is massive, yellow and smells wonderful.

An InLinkz Link-up

52wkCrumpet27: Not worn enough

This is week 27 of Crumpet's 52 week challenge! The "rules" are very flexible and you have all week to accomplish the mani. As always, must be done on your own nails, using the colours suggested (or parts thereof).
This week's prompt: Music and Not worn enough (either each alone or combined). I chose Not worn enough as I had spied this old green a couple of weeks ago and thought "I need to use this again sometime". Today is the day!

This is a one coat base of China Glaze Agro (Hunger Games collection). I love this green!! The hue is an antique metallic shimmer, going into olive green. Fab fall-autumn colour. Very rich and a bit medieval (go Game of Thrones!). I wore it heaps a couple of years ago then stopped. Too many polishes, not enough days.

When this was dry I used acrylic paint and drew flower-fronds in grey shades all over. I like the grey-green combo. Out the Door sealed the deal. This is one of those manis I really like on myself and others. For some reason, painted flowers always look elegant and in some way artistic. I try other things, but always come back to something like this.

An InLinkz Link-up

52wkCrumpet25: lilac and green

This is week 25 of Crumpet's 52 week challenge! The "rules" are very flexible and you have all week to accomplish the mani. As always, must be done on your own nails, using the colours suggested (or parts thereof).
This week's prompt: Mermaid, and lilac and green (either each alone or combined). I chose lilac and green and this time I have done an entirely gel polish mani.

The base was the nude and the green marbling off last week's mani. The flowers were drawn in a Japanese nail art gradation method using lilac, green and white. I purposely left negative space under the flowers so they seem like they are floating.

If all my pics look different it is because I am trying to use my new Foldio lightbox. It is really hard to do your own nails in the lightbox, holding the iPhone. Also trying to take better "both hand pics" as well.

I really like this mani and am getting lots of comments. It is very soft very the colour palette but also different. My fav finger is the index finger on my right hand – so drawn with my left non-dominant hand. I think that hibiscus turned out very well.

One thumb is in the marbling with a side flower. On the other thumb I did a tie-dye marbling effect with and three shades of gel. Below a couple more both hand pics. One is totally out of focus!!! True learning curve this!

An InLinkz Link-up

52wkCrumpet15: dotting tools

This is week fifteen of Crumpet's 52 week challenge! The "rules" are very flexible and you have all week to accomplish the mani. As always, must be done on your own nails, using the colours suggested (or parts thereof).
This week's prompt: dotting tools, and pink and aqua (either each alone or combined). I chose dotting tools and I at first tried combining with those colours but did not like the look at all (big at all there) so did a new mani after a day with just dotting tools. This week has been a fast and furious week and all of these pics were taken at the wrong time of day with almost no consideration to the state of my hands – and after working with clients too quickly after top coating so things got nicked. Truly, the mani looks better in real life in non-microscopic view! This will also explain the lack of photos deemed worthy enough for a blog.

I started with a two coat base of piCture pOlish Marine, a unique sea blue – you could even call it dark aqua. Aqua is a weird shade, goes really from green to blue. But I was not aiming for this but chose it as it is a crisp summer-y blue that I personally have not worn yet.

Then, using dotting tools, I drew little simple flowers towards the tips of my nails. A combo of orange (Zoya Arizona), coral (OPI Live Love Carnaval), yellow (Konad stamping yellow) and white.

right hand

My first mani included hand drawn cherries (which I actually liked, and it is cherry season here) with aqua and fuchsia pink. But I was in a hurry, top coated too soon and the dots smeared too much and I did not like the aqua green. I got a lot of compliments on the mani when I went in to town, but yick, no.

Others in the Crumpie group are also doing a January 31 day challenge so the InLinkz are all a bit combined. I chose the dotting tool link as I skipped the pink and aqua part.

An InLinkz Link-up

piCture pOlish Marine in white floral

This is a polish I bought in the great Candy Girl 50% off sale going .... on still !!! (here the website). The online shop is clearing out some polishes and everything is half price - such a deal!! I have picked up some piCture pOlish colours – and some more Zoya as well!

This is two coats of Marine, a bright blue oceanic creme. Almost turquoise, but not quite. Application was easy and two coats was enough for full opacity.

Then I drew some lined petals - really nothing fancy, was a quick mani - in white acrylic paint. I added some blue and some white glitter in the petals using two more pp finds = Splash and Storm. I have had Storm for a while but just got Splash as well. Not a lot of photos, as pretty easy peasy - but fun and really pretty and summery! Cheers girls x!

Lemon Meringue Gelicious based floral nails

We are off this weekend to a family 80th and as suggested earlier, I have my nails done to match my outfit. I am wearing a black and white chevron striped dress and yellow shoes.

I started with a base of Lemon Meringue Gelicious. Personally I haven't worn gel in a while and I got all inspired by clients who were requesting gel manis. For me, gel manis are the best working mani as I use non-acetone remover on clients, do not harm my own art and don't have to refresh that often. On the flip side, though, I don't wear as much different nail art as I would like to. I applied three very thin coats of Lemon Meringue, a soft pastel yellow, and then cure top-coated.

Initially I was going to do feathered stripes in black and white but I tried that on one nail and didn't like it. Then I was thinking of doing hibiscus like flowers but went off that as well. Finally I decided on freefall petal flowers and bursts of white and black.

Using acrylic paints, I drew the basic flowers and bursts in black then filled in the petals with grey and also added some grey bursts. Then I highlighted the petals in white and yellow, adding some bursts here and there. When all that was done I added some black dots and top coated with Out the Door.

right hand

I am very happy with these and think they match my "ensemble" perfectly!! I am a bit anxious going in to the weekend as there are some members of the family I have yet to meet – in fact, I don't even know if they know I exist! But I think all will be good and I am looking forward to it! Bye girls! x

Blue skies and acrylic painted waves

This post is late as I have been tiki-touring with my son who is visiting! These are blue nails as his favourite colour is blue. I really like how this mani turned out and in the end, it was not that complicated. I am still wearing it at the five day mark - they look no different than these pics taken on day one.

I started with a one coat base of white (I used China Glaze White on White) and top-coated that for a quicker dry time. Then I sponge-gradiented a two-tone blue all over the nail. Not as a typical flowing gradient, but more of a botched look. I used piCture pOlish sky and OPI Can't Find my Czechbook. I alternated between the light and dark colours being on the top and bottom of the sponge. Then I top-coated again.

I mixed light blue and white acrylic paints and using a flat brush in a one-stroke technique I painted waves on the tips of my nails. This was really just drawing stripes with the flat brush in two tones. I tried to only go over once to keep the saturation but had to top up a couple of places. Then I drew simple orange half-flowers on the side of the nail and highlighted with white dots and reflections, and blue lines. Thumbs got two flowers! One last coat of Out the Door brought it all together.

Clean-up was a bit more involved as the sponge work was messy (though I applied Vaseline around my cuticles first). But I got there in the end. I have gotten heaps of compliments on these. They have a pastel look to them as the background is a mellowed blue. The sponge work created a nice canvas that has depth but is not over-powering. Even the Mr liked it!

right hand

Coral-red-caramel color block ruffian design with striped tips and flowers

Wow! Had no idea what to call or how to concisely describe this mani. I guess I have been going to SEO school too much as that is what it reads like. I wanted to personally use my new Zoya Cashmeres (that I won - thx Zoya NZ). I have used four of the six colours on clients already, but I wanted a turn at it. My next mani will probably be blue based (to celebrate my son coming to visit!!), so I wanted something very non-blue.

The base is a two-tone. I started with one coat OPI Live.Love.Carnaval over the whole nail. This is an absolutely fab summer coral - bright and carefree. My fav from the Brazil collection. I applied a second coat only on the cuticle end and up the one side. Then I applied two coats of Zoya Livingston on the one side, steady Freddy in a line up the middle. Livingston is a good dense red. A tad orange-toned vs blue-toned but still red. Doing your own nails is goofy as you approach your hands at an angle (well, I do) so some of my middle lines are slanted. Funny enough, my right hand looks leveler than my left.

Using Zoya Flynn I created a ruffian on each nail. Two coats here. Flynn is a beautiful shade and very cashmere-y. A camel caramel latte light brown. Definitely opaque in two coats with the red and coral underneath. I can imagine this being a really good year-round base for glitter and nail art. I top coated with Out the Door and started mixing acrylic paints.

The tips were painted using four shades of red, orange, coral and rose pink. I used a long thin striper brush, alternating colours between the nails. I think I started with coral and worked from there. When done I placed some white dots randomly around the tips. I think this would be a good idea for the entire ruffian as well – but I was too lazy to do that and left it with the tips. The tips almost look like sugar spun, kind of. From a distance.

I thought I was finished but the nails needed more, of something. So I painted petals with Livingston and using black acrylics added wisps and lines. In the middle of the flower I applied a dot of China Glaze Blonde Bombshell, a really thick micro gold glitter. Another idea was to apply rhinestones but that would be a waste as I am sure I will redo my mani Sunday night. Another coat of top coat and done. Also, I only did my left hand  and my accent right as time - and patience – was running out.

right hand without accent done but with harvey

This is a very warm soft feeling mani. The caramel shade looks like tanned summer skin and the coral and red together just give a Caribbean vibe.