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!!!

52wkCrumpet8: books and brown

This is week eight 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: books and brown (either each alone or combined). I combined. I was convinced a lot of girls would be doing the newspaper transfer mani so I decided to paint bookshelves and be different. And then I noticed lots of girls did bookshelves, so I wasn't so clever after all!

The base is two coats of Essie Sable Collar. I have had this colour for-ever it seems. I bought it in the wrong time of year, then forgot about it in winter. I like the silkiness of the colour but I am still not a fan of Essie. I find their polishes way too thin. I would have needed a third coat to wear this on its own but settled on two as I knew I was painting on top. There must be a reason why I only have four Essie polishes!

I hand-painted all the bookshelves and books – and my wee cat Harvey sitting on top of one shelf – using acrylic paints and thin brushes. Top coat sealed the deal and brought it all together. There are a couple of reasons why I only did my left hand: 1) lazy! 2) too many nail studio clients and I needed my dominant hand to remove their polish and 3) was almost dinnertime.

left side more in the shade

So on my right hand I applied the beautiful – and very, very similar shade to Essie – Fake Tan from Gelicious. This is a rich shimmering coffee brown colour. I kept it pure, so I have lopsided hands this week! But people will think it is on purpose! And I have removed numerous polishes (with non-acetone remover) and the mani still looks top!

That's me for this week! And now I am wondering what Crumpie means with "brush stroke".

An InLinkz Link-up

Quick NailMates update after gel polish removal

Hi again! I was sporting a Gelicious gel base for about two weeks and decided to remove yesterday as my nails had grown out too much. Though the base itself was still pretty good. I wanted to do a quick Nail Mates update as the last times I have used this on gel, I forgot to take pics!

I scruffed up the surface of my nail with my file. In my haste, I often forget this step. But didn't this time! Then I soaked the pads in acetone (about four Menda pumps), placed them in the Maties and slid them on my nails. After about ten minutes I rocked the pink over back and forth a bit to loosen up the pad and slid it off. As you can see from the top pic, the gel polish just flakes off! Most of that literally fell off when I tipped my hand over. Any residuals I could easily scrape off with my nail or a cuticle pusher. So, also a big shout out to Gelicious as their gel polish lasts, and is easily removable!!!

Super easy!!! No dripping, no yucks. NailMates is truly worth the investment. I reuse the pads on myself (clients get fresh pads). So I get multiple uses out of the pads. Of course, if I am removing glitter the pad gets more yucked up so their life span is not as long as gel removal. Here is their website (and I am not getting paid to say this!). Cheers girls!
NailMates website

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

Swirls and dots à la Lucy

Taking inspiration from the queen herself, I was enamored in one of Lucy's current manis. It was all swirls and dots (and you can read about it here!). Naturally, hers is in another league but I gave it a shot. And to be fair to myself, I didn't look at hers again until just now, so was working from memory. I stuck with my same colour combo, day 5 of the gelicious mani base. Since the gel only comes off with acetone-d remover, I used non-acetone remover to get rid of the other nail art and matte top coat.

I used acrylic paints for the whole design. I started with pure white on the pink nail (or on the blue nail of my right hand) then added a tad of red - or blue - (and again another tad) for the other lines. For the dots I mixed the red and blue with white for a similar yet lighter shade. I used the smallest dotting tool for the dots, thin 000 brush for the lines.

right hand

Now that I see Lucy's I realize that my spokes aren't very thin or consistent. But I like my dots! All in all, I think the right hand looks better than the left (blue lines and pink dots vs the other way around). And both hands together look really nice. Normal top coat sealed the deal and also brought the lines together much better.

I will probably put a coat of gel top coat on before the market so I can do manis and not worry about ruining my art. This is day 5 of the gel mani and that little bit of tip wear is still there (has not increased) with no other tip wear to be seen. Below my hands together and queen herself with the most beautiful "template"!!

inspired by lucy

Simple dotted flowers on a line

This is a simple dotticure flower design I did on my current gelicious mani. After two days of solid colours, I was ready for a small change. I decided to only put flowers on my blue nails. I matte top coated the pink ones.

For the pink lines I used China Glaze Pink of Me which is a smokier-greyish-type pink. I dotted two lines of that on each blue nail. Then I used Layla Grass in the Wind for one flower (and corresponding middle dot of the other) and OPI Alpine Snow for the white flowers and the other middle dot. I think I should have done all white flowers as the green is very faint and really doesn't show up as I thought it would. I top coated with Out the Door.

right hand

I do like the contrast with the matte coated pink nails (used Orly matte top coat). Something about pastel and matte. Always looks good. So this is day three of the gelicious mani. Still going very strong with no lifting, loosening or chipping. There is some tiny tip wear on my right index finger but that is most likely my fault for not sealing the tip well enough.

Gelicious blue and pink candy magic

Although I have some new totally fab "normal" polishes to try, I could not resist another gelicious mani. I'll be wearing enough normal colours while I am away soon. I only wore the fourth of July nails for 5 days and then I was over it. The mani was still going strong but enough was enough. They were also a tad thick, too, and that bothered me. All the layers of gel mani and then the nail art and then another coat of gel top coat to protect at glammy mani parties. Funny enough, you couldn't see it - but it felt heavy.

I decided to do a mini skittlette with two beautiful bonbon type shades: Aztec Blue and Strawberry Milkshake. They are so pretty! And I have a nail art idea for the next day or so. Aztec Blue is a robin's egg type blue. Not quite a For Audrey blue, but a beautiful soft shade. Strawberry Milkshake is a creamy pale pink, very delicate. I used three thin coats each. After two coats I was not happy enough with the coverage. Then, of course, cured with gelicious top coat.

The nails shine so much and the colours really pop! I applied an alternating skittlette with the blue and pink. It still takes the best part of 45 minutes to do my nails. Application is key, and wrapping the tips. I tried a new idea of wrapping first then painting my nail but I prefer the other way around. I paint the nail, wrap, then repaint the tips to smooth out. My technique is improving but still need to work on the wrapping to make it cleaner.

In pure digital timer time it takes 6 minutes for the three sets and full mani, but there is a lot of work between the sets. Thirty secs a cure x 4 cures (three coats plus top coat) x 3 sets (left hand, right hand, thumbs). Not really that bad as the mani lasts days. Better to invest in a good foundation and be happy and carefree for days!

I think this is the perfect look for dreary grey days, don't you?! Will update later with some nail art but am happy to rock this for a couple of days alone.