The light grey base I used was Pelican Gray (China Glaze), but I wish I'd done it on a silver chrome, or even an iridescent powder. I'd like to make a tutorial for this if there's interest, so let me know if you'd wear or try this nail art out!
Showing posts with label grey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grey. Show all posts
Inktober - Breakable
Looking for an easy Halloween design? My "breakable" nails for Inktober day 20 are perfect and really easy. You do need a little bit of a steady hand for the lines, but honestly, if they're uneven, it adds to the shattered effect.
The light grey base I used was Pelican Gray (China Glaze), but I wish I'd done it on a silver chrome, or even an iridescent powder. I'd like to make a tutorial for this if there's interest, so let me know if you'd wear or try this nail art out!
The light grey base I used was Pelican Gray (China Glaze), but I wish I'd done it on a silver chrome, or even an iridescent powder. I'd like to make a tutorial for this if there's interest, so let me know if you'd wear or try this nail art out!
Inktober - Drooling
I'm totally enjoying Inktober, I hope you are too!
In honor of October, I took today's prompt, which is "drooling" to a more Halloween-appropriate level. When I think of drooling, I think of 1) Homer Simpson and 2) mindless zombies. If that's not theme-specific, I don't know what is. So here's my drooling zombie nail art for day 6 of Inktober.
I Googled "drooling zombie" to get some ideas, and found this image to base my design from.
I chose a very undead color, Skull & Glossbones (OPI) for my base, but felt like a little color would pop the drool.
What do you think? Gory and gross, or great?
In honor of October, I took today's prompt, which is "drooling" to a more Halloween-appropriate level. When I think of drooling, I think of 1) Homer Simpson and 2) mindless zombies. If that's not theme-specific, I don't know what is. So here's my drooling zombie nail art for day 6 of Inktober.
I Googled "drooling zombie" to get some ideas, and found this image to base my design from.
I chose a very undead color, Skull & Glossbones (OPI) for my base, but felt like a little color would pop the drool.
What do you think? Gory and gross, or great?
Lemon Concrete
This geometric design was done using Malibu Green (American Apparel), Lemon Fizz (China Glaze) and Concrete Grey (Kleancolor).
This quick post was brought to you by: Life, Always There.
I really wish I could be posting every night, but there's a lot going on behind the scenes that requires special attention and deadlines have to be met, so unfortunately, the routine post schedule will suffer. Trust me though, it's all exciting stuff I will share with you all soon.
Black and White TV
Have you ever watched The Twilight Zone? You have to have seen or heard of it, and if you have, you probably immediately went to black and white. Those classic mystery shows were inspiration for this far-fetched Halloween theme tonight. Though it's certainly not your typical Halloween design, it still applies.
The ombre effect was continued onto each nail, pulling out the base color from each block of three on each nail. The colors used, from darkest to lightest, are Strumming my Nails (Sation), Carey (Zoya), Movie Star (Essence) and Black Onyx (OPI).
I'd also like to take a moment to thank everyone who supported me in the Tadashi Shoji nail art contest. Unfortunately, I wasn't the winner, but the talented Sarah at Chalkboard Nails did win, and I must say I'm thrilled it was hers that won. Her freehand skills were fantastic, and the colors were a unique choice compared to all the other entries. I can't wait to see what the clutch looks like! Congratulations Sarah!
The ombre effect was continued onto each nail, pulling out the base color from each block of three on each nail. The colors used, from darkest to lightest, are Strumming my Nails (Sation), Carey (Zoya), Movie Star (Essence) and Black Onyx (OPI).
I'd also like to take a moment to thank everyone who supported me in the Tadashi Shoji nail art contest. Unfortunately, I wasn't the winner, but the talented Sarah at Chalkboard Nails did win, and I must say I'm thrilled it was hers that won. Her freehand skills were fantastic, and the colors were a unique choice compared to all the other entries. I can't wait to see what the clutch looks like! Congratulations Sarah!
Halloween Cutouts
A bit ago I was asked to do some Halloween designs. The original source that asked for the pictures didn't pan out, so I had all these unused Halloween nail art ideas sitting around. I just remembered that I had one more, so I'd like to share that with you today, before it's non-Halloween season. (That's on Wednesday folks...put those costumes together!)
This design used two bottles of polish (similar to my NAIL ART COMPETITION THAT YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY ENTER), Decoded from ORLY and Twiggie from Color Club. I also tried some new and interesting techniques.
The chevron pattern and "Boo" were both done freehand. No big news there. However, the scream face and ghost figure were actually something new I've never done. First, I got a makeup sponge and dabbed a small amount of Twiggie onto the sharpest corner of the sponge. Then, I lightly dabbed a rough outline of the shape of the ghost, eyes, and mouth. (It helped to draw the pattern out on paper first to get an idea of the shapes needed.) When Twiggie had dried, I used a small striping brush dipped in Decoded to draw a clean outline of the shapes over the patches of green. Without a topcoat, this looked strange, so you really need to smooth it all out with a nice layer of topcoat. With that last layer of topcoat added, it really pulls together nicely, wouldn't you say?
This design used two bottles of polish (similar to my NAIL ART COMPETITION THAT YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY ENTER), Decoded from ORLY and Twiggie from Color Club. I also tried some new and interesting techniques.
The chevron pattern and "Boo" were both done freehand. No big news there. However, the scream face and ghost figure were actually something new I've never done. First, I got a makeup sponge and dabbed a small amount of Twiggie onto the sharpest corner of the sponge. Then, I lightly dabbed a rough outline of the shape of the ghost, eyes, and mouth. (It helped to draw the pattern out on paper first to get an idea of the shapes needed.) When Twiggie had dried, I used a small striping brush dipped in Decoded to draw a clean outline of the shapes over the patches of green. Without a topcoat, this looked strange, so you really need to smooth it all out with a nice layer of topcoat. With that last layer of topcoat added, it really pulls together nicely, wouldn't you say?
Webbed Fingers
I don't care who you are, spiders creep you out. If you're not paying attention to your arm, chatting away with your friends or ferociously fingering your phone and you suddenly feel a wisp on your arm, you flinch. Then, when you look down to discover it's an uncomfortably large spider, you freak out. FREAK...the eff...out.
Make you squirm? Here's a much less anxiety-inducing image to put in your mind.
That better? I used Harley (Zoya), Black Onyx and Tasmanian Devil Made Me Do It (OPI).
Breathe. The spiders are over.
Trick or treat.
Make you squirm? Here's a much less anxiety-inducing image to put in your mind.
That better? I used Harley (Zoya), Black Onyx and Tasmanian Devil Made Me Do It (OPI).
Breathe. The spiders are over.
Trick or treat.
Gradient On Fire
After yesterday's inspiration fiasco, I looked to my readers on Tumblr for inspiration. I asked for ideas and some readers happily obliged. smoresz suggested:
I’d love to see a smoky gray nail fading
from dark to light, with a red/orange/yellow sparkle on top of it so it
looks life fire and smoke!
Ask and you shall receive...kinda.
Unfortunately this wasn't the best glitter choice for the manicure so I'm not entirely happy with the result. The gradient was done with Essence Movie Star and Zoya Carey. The glitter topcoat is Phoenix from Pretty and Polished. I wish I had an awesome metallic glitter that would've been appropriate because this beautiful matte just isn't right for the effect. Beautiful, just not right.
I hope I did your idea justice smoresz! Enjoy!
Ask and you shall receive...kinda.
Unfortunately this wasn't the best glitter choice for the manicure so I'm not entirely happy with the result. The gradient was done with Essence Movie Star and Zoya Carey. The glitter topcoat is Phoenix from Pretty and Polished. I wish I had an awesome metallic glitter that would've been appropriate because this beautiful matte just isn't right for the effect. Beautiful, just not right.
I hope I did your idea justice smoresz! Enjoy!
Born Pretty M71 Plate Review
Tonight I'm doing a review for you! Are you excited? You should be, it's good stuff.
Born Pretty has tons of amazing nail products, as most of you have seen and probably partaken in. One of these products is their stamping plates, which is what I'm reviewing today. In particular, I'm taking a look at plate M71.
The plate consists entirely of small images not meant to cover your whole nail. Perhaps the most famous and well-known design on the plate is the Hello Kitty head. You've seen it before though, so I decided to use a different design (more on that later).
The designs on the plate are all quite cute, and they design I tried is cut at just the right depth. Picking up the design was not an issue, and it transferred beautifully (taking user error out of the picture).
The plate is slightly larger than Konad plates, and is obviously a different shape. There is no backing on the plate, but it's never bothered me. Here's what I'm sad about, which probably won't affect anyone else. The larger size doesn't fit into my little round container where I conveniently keep all my plates. :( Sad.
In addition to the plate, they sent me a scraper and stamper.
The scraper measures and acts exactly as the Konad scrapers.
They're both metal, both easy to handle, but unfortunately, they both scrape the plates to death. I still recommend cutting up an old gift card and using that to scrape your plates.
The stamper's rubber piece used to pick up the design is the same size as both the original Konad stamper, and the extra large stamper, as you can see here.
The length of the tool itself is much shorter than the other stampers though.
At first I thought I'd hate the size, but it's actually nice to work with. You can kind of cup it in your free hand's fingers, and it maneuvers well. I don't like the texture of the rubber. It doesn't provide as much give when you're pressing it down on the surface of the plate, so if you've got polish you're stamping with that's a bit less thick in consistency, you won't have as easy as a time picking it up. I ran into this problem with the first polish I tried as stamping polish, and eventually wound up switching to the Konad stamper.
Like I mentioned earlier, the design transfers quite well with the right polish. I used Black on Black (Sinful Colors) for my design.
The base is Carey (Zoya) and the yellow dots are Happy Go Lucky (China Glaze).
Overall, I would recommend buying the plates. They go for about $4.00, and even if you only grab one, you won't have to pay for shipping. What's even better? You can use the coupon code given to those readers of my blog: C10X31 for an additional 10% off.
Oh the good things just keep on coming!
The Born Pretty products shown in this post were sent to me for review by the company.
Born Pretty has tons of amazing nail products, as most of you have seen and probably partaken in. One of these products is their stamping plates, which is what I'm reviewing today. In particular, I'm taking a look at plate M71.
The plate consists entirely of small images not meant to cover your whole nail. Perhaps the most famous and well-known design on the plate is the Hello Kitty head. You've seen it before though, so I decided to use a different design (more on that later).
The designs on the plate are all quite cute, and they design I tried is cut at just the right depth. Picking up the design was not an issue, and it transferred beautifully (taking user error out of the picture).
The plate is slightly larger than Konad plates, and is obviously a different shape. There is no backing on the plate, but it's never bothered me. Here's what I'm sad about, which probably won't affect anyone else. The larger size doesn't fit into my little round container where I conveniently keep all my plates. :( Sad.
In addition to the plate, they sent me a scraper and stamper.
The scraper measures and acts exactly as the Konad scrapers.
They're both metal, both easy to handle, but unfortunately, they both scrape the plates to death. I still recommend cutting up an old gift card and using that to scrape your plates.
The stamper's rubber piece used to pick up the design is the same size as both the original Konad stamper, and the extra large stamper, as you can see here.
The length of the tool itself is much shorter than the other stampers though.
At first I thought I'd hate the size, but it's actually nice to work with. You can kind of cup it in your free hand's fingers, and it maneuvers well. I don't like the texture of the rubber. It doesn't provide as much give when you're pressing it down on the surface of the plate, so if you've got polish you're stamping with that's a bit less thick in consistency, you won't have as easy as a time picking it up. I ran into this problem with the first polish I tried as stamping polish, and eventually wound up switching to the Konad stamper.
Like I mentioned earlier, the design transfers quite well with the right polish. I used Black on Black (Sinful Colors) for my design.
The base is Carey (Zoya) and the yellow dots are Happy Go Lucky (China Glaze).
Overall, I would recommend buying the plates. They go for about $4.00, and even if you only grab one, you won't have to pay for shipping. What's even better? You can use the coupon code given to those readers of my blog: C10X31 for an additional 10% off.
Oh the good things just keep on coming!
The Born Pretty products shown in this post were sent to me for review by the company.
Eyelet Skirt
If you haven't already joined Pinterest, I suggest you get yourself an invite...quick! It's full of some of the best things on the Internet, especially when it comes to beauty. It takes out all of the work of finding the cute outfit, and puts that burden on its users, who happily and readily pin things they find interesting. Find the right board, and you're set! I used a pin I liked for the inspiration of my manicure today.
This was a relatively simple manicure to do, though I'm unhappy with how bumpy it wound up being. The layers are composed of mainly China Glaze's, including Below Deck, Life Preserver, and Peachy Keen. I've made a mental note to break out Below Deck more often. It was hiding at the back of my Helmer, but it'll be used more now that it has seen the light of day. The only non-CG I used was Beige Blast (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri).
 |
| Pinned from http://www.spool72.com/58417/727604/Dresses/Heirloom-Eyelet-Dress.html |
This was a relatively simple manicure to do, though I'm unhappy with how bumpy it wound up being. The layers are composed of mainly China Glaze's, including Below Deck, Life Preserver, and Peachy Keen. I've made a mental note to break out Below Deck more often. It was hiding at the back of my Helmer, but it'll be used more now that it has seen the light of day. The only non-CG I used was Beige Blast (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri).
Show Your True Colors
I owe every bit of inspiration for tonight's manicure to an unlikely, but highly inspiring source: PixelgirlPresents. I found this site when I first got a laptop for college in 2006. That was six years ago, but now outdated Dell I was given as an awesome present from my Dad makes it seem like much longer. PixelgirlPresents offers graphic artists a chance to get their work on peoples' desktops, phones and electronic screens of other sorts. It's all run by one girl, and the submissions are always unique and colorful. I'm a fan of bold patterns and designs, so I've had this bookmarked for a long time.
Browsing it the other day for an updated background, I stumbled upon something I looked at and thought to myself, "Katy...you need to put that on your nails." I give myself great advice sometimes, so thanks past-me for that great thought (and for quickly saving the picture to your phone to reference later).
Browsing it the other day for an updated background, I stumbled upon something I looked at and thought to myself, "Katy...you need to put that on your nails." I give myself great advice sometimes, so thanks past-me for that great thought (and for quickly saving the picture to your phone to reference later).
The design I used as my guide was by the artist Plumeology, who, judging by their PixelgirlPresents bio page, has only submitted one design to the site. They do link to a company webpage though, and it seems they're a design company offering services like logo design, advertising, and business name consultation. See? Unlikely source for inspiration! If you're in San Diego, I bet they offer some pretty designs if their work is anything like their logo.
So, without further ado, here's my interpretation of their beautiful logo!
I used Load (Illamasqua) as the base. The plumes were done with Electric Pineapple (China Glaze), Sea Breeze (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri) and Dream (Savina). Yes I know, I'm reusing colors, but I keep getting drawn to the same bottles. The decorative swirls beside the plumes were done with Pelican Gray (China Glaze), and it was all freehand. Maybe that's why only two nails got the treatment.
You Dotty Girl!
Another lovers' affair, broadcast for my viewers to see. This is truly getting out of hand.
This time, I have a reason though. I'm going to enter one of my nail designs in Sarah's (Chalkboard Nails) nail art contest. She's encouraging her readers to participate in an all-dotting tool themed contest. The winners are chosen by Sarah and her panel of judges, so this isn't a plug for your votes. In fact, I think you all should enter! Entering your designs will inspire other designs for everyone to try out, so in a way, everyone wins a little. Plus, everyone knows how to use a dotting tool, homemade or store-bought. It's a great, fair way to allow nailers of all skill levels to enter and possibly win a $20 gift card to Llarowe.
Llarowe sells some of the coveted international polish lines like Glitter Gal and HITS to United States customers who can't get these polishes elsewhere. Good news...Llarowe ships just about everywhere else as well!
With that awesome prize and an additional two mystery prizes valued at $10 up for grabs, I had to enter.
I've done lots of dotting designs, so I had several to go on, but I wanted to enter something new. Hopefully I made the right choice with this design.
The base for this design is Skull and Glossbones (OPI). The various dots were done using my reliable dotting tools and Grape Pop (China Glaze), Planks A Lot (OPI), and White On (Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear) (in order of darkest to lightest). I chose to go with a purple theme to match the dotting tools themselves. Dang those little guys are inspiring!
This time, I have a reason though. I'm going to enter one of my nail designs in Sarah's (Chalkboard Nails) nail art contest. She's encouraging her readers to participate in an all-dotting tool themed contest. The winners are chosen by Sarah and her panel of judges, so this isn't a plug for your votes. In fact, I think you all should enter! Entering your designs will inspire other designs for everyone to try out, so in a way, everyone wins a little. Plus, everyone knows how to use a dotting tool, homemade or store-bought. It's a great, fair way to allow nailers of all skill levels to enter and possibly win a $20 gift card to Llarowe.
Llarowe sells some of the coveted international polish lines like Glitter Gal and HITS to United States customers who can't get these polishes elsewhere. Good news...Llarowe ships just about everywhere else as well!
With that awesome prize and an additional two mystery prizes valued at $10 up for grabs, I had to enter.
I've done lots of dotting designs, so I had several to go on, but I wanted to enter something new. Hopefully I made the right choice with this design.
The base for this design is Skull and Glossbones (OPI). The various dots were done using my reliable dotting tools and Grape Pop (China Glaze), Planks A Lot (OPI), and White On (Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear) (in order of darkest to lightest). I chose to go with a purple theme to match the dotting tools themselves. Dang those little guys are inspiring!
Take On Dots
The love affair I'm having with dotting tools is hot and heavy, but they've got some fierce competition now.
Color Club polishes are scooting their way into my easy heart. I used one tonight as the base of my manicure, Rebel Spirit. This deeply dark brown is super pigmented and only takes two coats to reach its pure magic. I was sort of shocked to be honest since most of my Color Clubs came from Ross for a whopping $7.99.
I was truly tickled when it came time to clean up my clumsy right hand. Dark colors are absolutely dreadful to clean up, and usually require a few coats of cleanup before your skin looks clean. This dark brown, stuck on my cuticle area, came right off once I started cleaning up. So if you haven't already picked up some of the darker colors from Color Club, give them a shot.
Like I said already though, I have a serious love affair going with dotting tools, as expressed here.
In addition to Rebel Spirit, I used Unicorn (Sinful Colors), Sugar High (China Glaze), and Pelican Gray (China Glaze).
UPDATE 2/26/12
This manicure got great praise from you guys! I made a tutorial so you can recreate it yourself. The color combinations are endless!
Color Club polishes are scooting their way into my easy heart. I used one tonight as the base of my manicure, Rebel Spirit. This deeply dark brown is super pigmented and only takes two coats to reach its pure magic. I was sort of shocked to be honest since most of my Color Clubs came from Ross for a whopping $7.99.
I was truly tickled when it came time to clean up my clumsy right hand. Dark colors are absolutely dreadful to clean up, and usually require a few coats of cleanup before your skin looks clean. This dark brown, stuck on my cuticle area, came right off once I started cleaning up. So if you haven't already picked up some of the darker colors from Color Club, give them a shot.
Like I said already though, I have a serious love affair going with dotting tools, as expressed here.
In addition to Rebel Spirit, I used Unicorn (Sinful Colors), Sugar High (China Glaze), and Pelican Gray (China Glaze).
UPDATE 2/26/12
This manicure got great praise from you guys! I made a tutorial so you can recreate it yourself. The color combinations are endless!
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