52wkCrumpet34: Lilac and teal

This is a very hard mani to photograph, hence only two somewhat useable pics. The colours are not as pink, definitely more lilac. In the photos and in some natural lighting, this pink lilac makes your cuticle area look bleedy. Maybe it is just my skin tone.  I did some fine line mermaid stuff on an accent. This is a gel gradiant mani.

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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.

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52wkCrumpet28: Burgundy-maroon

This is week 28 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: Needle drag and Burgundy-maroon (either each alone or combined). I chose Burgundy-maroon as it is harvest time on all the vineyards – lots of pinot grapes being picked! And it is autumn and I felt like a more luxurious colour combo.

This is a Luxio 100% gel mani and untrieds for me. The burgundy is deep pigmented but with shimmer. Really pretty when it catches the light. On four alternating accents I applied a concrete grey. Two coats each.

Using fine brushed I drew a diagonal French on the grey nails. Then I added a fine line in a glittery blue and some petals. Then I topped with a Swarovski crystal and cured with top coat. I am starting to embrace and enjoy all the rhinestones-crystal-embellishments. Curing in gel really 1) makes them stay on for weeks and 2) leaves no edges to catch on hair or sweaters or anything else.

Am becoming a gel nail art snob!! Am getting addicted to the smoothness of the gel and all the possibilities with the gel. Bye girls till next time!

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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!

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52wkCrumpet24: non-US brand

This is week 24 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: Kids TV and non-US brand (either each alone or combined). I chose the non-US brand as I couldn't think of anything worth wearing for a longer period of time with the Kids TV prompt. And again, this is a mix of gel and traditional polish.

The base is a gel mani of delicate pink-nude with the accents in white. I added shades of green for the gel marbling on the accents (four fingers). The gel I use, Luxio, is a Canadian company. Score 1! I mixed blue and yellow with white to get the green shades (as I don't own a true green yet).

I decided to do a negative space mani on the remaining six fingers (three each hand). This turned in to sort of a skittlette, though mix-matched. Here I used only non-US brands: Sky Blue from piCture pOlish (Australian), green base on the tips is Layla Mojito (Italy), the white hex glitter on the blue is again piCture pOlish (Storm) and I used some Jealousy (again, pp) to help glue the rhinestones (Swarovski - Austria) into place. I did the negative spacing freehand. I was going to use tape but the tape I first tried didn't stick as it was too old and I was too lazy to go get the new one out of the drawer! So, score 2!

The whole rhinestone idea is growing on me. I really like them and have invested in heaps, and continuing to buy more – also studs, larger gems, etc. Only buying Swarovski or Preciosa crystals as they reflect the light so much better. Works well with the gel nail art. The whole 3D thing. Even clients are starting to embrace the idea!!

I am also playing around with my new Foldio lightbox. It is really difficult to photograph your own hands in this smallish lightbox. And also use props. But I love the Foldio as it collapses, therefore mobile, and uses a 9V battery for power! Also, I am using my iPhone with my macro lens on it (sometimes), trying to figure things out. Bye girls! x

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52wkCrumpet22: Orange, yellow and red

This is week 22 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: houndstooth, and orange-yellow-red (either each alone or combined). I chose the colour combo. After some – not much but some – deliberation I have decided to flex the rules just a tad more. I am working a lot with gel and gel nail art through my course and lessons. Depending on how my weeks go, I may sometimes use gel polish for the Crumpie mani, but still follow the prompt. It is that or stop. Don't want to stop.

I just removed the vineyard mani after nine days. Still looked very good, almost perfect still. So, I am late with this as well. I am working off the same base of Luxio nude that I had on (the grapes were normal polish and paint). The three prompt colours were drawn using a quilt blanket technique. The blanket was drawn in the colour, then a mix of the two other colours were painted over the blanket. So, on the yellow blanket there is a wash of both red and orange. Very light but enough to give the nails depth. I added some tone-in-tone glitter as well.

I dabbed stone-like drops on the remaining two fingers in the three colours (and some white). The idea I was going off of was from a fellow colleague but she was able to create much more height as she mixed in acrylic powder. Don't have that. I finished with some of my fab Swarovski rhinestones!

I am using (i.e. goofing around with) my new Foldio lightbox which is totally fab!! Works off a battery and I can take it outside or inside and it folds flat. Love it!! I like the whole summery-ness of this and the depth in the three main nails. Soft, but the colouring is there.

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Vineyard grapes on Luxio gel base

We were invited to a 25th anniversary vineyard party (the Mr's employer) and I decided to rock a grape vine mani. Also, I was super happy that my new shipment of 100% gel Luxio arrived - such a great product. Am totally happy with it and my clients love it.

The base for the mani is two coats of Luxio Delicate (usually my base for French), and then top coated with the gloss top coat. I like the sheer look to the background. Delicate is nude but with a light pink tinge.

I started with the leaves, fatter than normal as grape vine leaves, in acrylic paints. I mixed green, black and silver to give the leaves a shimmer. I highlighted them with a lighter tone of the same (mixed in white) and then with a tad of white. Then I drew curly vine-y branches in black acrylic.

For the grapes I used a two tone mix of purple polish (OPI A Grape Fit and China Glaze Rendezvous with You). I drew them on with a brush. Then I highlighted them with A Grape Fit, followed by white acrylic paint. I outlined a couple of the grapes in black to give them a hand painted look.

When done, and dry, I top coated with Poshé for a super shine to match the gel gloss top coat. Whew. Then I did my right hand. I really like the look and am quite happy with the result. A couple of people even noticed – but not as many as I had hoped!! Tja, they were all too busy drinking wine!

52wkCrumpet16: film

This is week sixteen 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: film and holo (either each alone or combined). I chose film and am...

truly stretching this out on a limb here. I realize this and am hoping for compassion from the Goddess Crumpie! This week coincides with my Japanese Nail Art challenge workshop and was so loving the gel marbling that I wanted to do a mani myself on my nails. My all time favourite film is "Death on the Nile" (this coming from an old film exec!). It was set in the late 20s-early 30s and this is a mani I could envision the ladies wearing at the time. Art Deco marble, red elegance and rhinestone sparkle.

I started with one coat of Thankful, a nude. This was topped with Antique Rose, a bronze-y tan shade. This set the base for the marbling (each layer was cured). I used Queen of Hearts as the first red (a brick shimmer) and swirled and dabbed the gel with a brush a tad dipped in clear gel. This was cured. Then I applied a thin coat of Cranberry and did the same again. In the end top coat was applied with rhinestones on the accents.

The accents are different: one is classic French, the other inverted French. I like the inverted better myself. The marbling resembles holo, but it is not!

Again, I apologize for the faux pas and will be back on track next week. But the marbling was so much fun and so creative, as you can mix together heaps of colour combos. Working with gel in this instance is quite easy, once you get the technique down. And you should know your colours so you can get the effect you want. Happy week all x !

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3D cable knit Japanese gel nail art

Happy 2015! Who would have thought a year ago that my first post this year is about gel nail art??? Not I... I am a bit grateful that this week is a slow salon week (everyone must be too busy soaking up the rays and generally being lazy!). This gives me time to practice my Japanese Nail Art lessons. The blue cable knit nail is the exact lesson recreation and the brown one is my interpretation.

For the nail art I am using soak off Gelicious gel polish that I offer in my studio. The instructor uses real gel and that is probably a lot easier to work with, i.e. gives better results. But I do not offer hard gel or extensions so want to work with what I offer for clients. I learned quite a bit while just starting the blue nail, but I wanted to finish it – errors and all.

In the lesson Jasmine worked off a blank nail thus having a negative space cuticle smile area. I did change that for my blue nail and added a light coat on only the cuticle side of the nail of Sympathy Hook Up, a light grey. Then I followed the lesson using Aztec Blue. I did not mix in clear gel with the paletted blue as the soak off is easy enough to work with. And I do not have a matte gel top coat so I top coated then added a coat of Orly matte top coat. When that was done I started on my other nail.

Here I think I did a better job. I understood what the technique is supposed to accomplish and why you do certain steps. This is just the very beginning of my gel nail art so I still need to understand and learn a lot. I started with two coats of French White but did not top coat and just continued. I blobbed some white on my palette and using a fine long brush I started with the two middle lines. I placed them further apart than on the blue nail and made the line a tad wider. That gave me room to build the lines and also for a larger cable pattern. I cured.

Then I drew a larger cable pattern in the middle and cured. Then I added different sized dots on the side and cured. The whole point of curing as often as you can bear to is that the gel starts to run. By curing it almost immediately you keep the thin thick lines and can keep building up. I did small sections at a time and kept adding white gel to areas that needed more build up. Maybe up to five times in some areas, others just three.

It is true that the top coat will eat up the layering and slightly squish it down. So I made sure I had a good relief on the nail before continuing with my idea. I cured a final time with the white.

When I was happy with all I added a thin coat of Chocolate Binge to the surface. I went over and over the nail with an almost empty brush to get the coat as sheer as I could.

My idea was to have the white shine through the brown, like gradiented wool. I am quite proud of myself (pat, pat) for figuring this next step out by myself! I dipped a wide brush in rubbing alcohol and very, very gently stroked over the nail. You have to work in one stroke from the top or bottom of the nail. If you start in the middle then you get holes of white. Then I cured. One coat of top coat finished off the nail, cured and wiped.

I am really happy with these and so look forward to my lessons!! Using the soak off gel was no problem. Now I have two nail art samples in my gel nail art display!!!! Go Neiru!!!