Inktober - Chop

One of the most fun and satisfying birthday activities I've ever been a part of was when my friend took me to an axe throwing event. In a small warehouse with a bunch of plywood mounted to the walls with targets painted on, we were allowed to hurl axes of varying sizes at the wall. The first time I threw one, I didn't throw hard enough. The instructor actually asked me to put more weight behind it, and when that axe lands on the target (or anywhere near it), it brings an insane amount of satisfaction. If you live near something like that, TRY IT! I'll take chopping wooden walls over chopping onions any day. So I used that as my inspiration for Inktober day 24.

What axe-man wouldn't wear plaid? I thought it applied nicely to my theme, and added a little axe logo for good measure. The bright red base is Carmen (Zoya), and the logo's background is You're So Vain-illa (OPI). I watered down the black plaid lines by adding top coat to Black Onyx (OPI) and stirring it up until it looked runny. Then I filled in the black checks with solid black. Easy.

Irish Tartan

St. Patrick's Day has always been a big holiday here on the blog (from shamrocks to bejeweled greens and glittering lines). I'll use any holiday as an excuse for fantastic nail art though, and I'm really happy with this one.

I was inspired by, surprisingly, cookies created by Instagram user @gimmesugah for this design. Misty did a lovely interpretation of a green tartan/plaid on her cookies, and that pattern struck me so much I wanted to recreate it.

I used a pretty random selection of polishes for this design too. The dark green is Emerald Tower (lakur), the white is Look, Don't Tusk (Color Club), the light green is Kiwi Cool-ada (China Glaze), and the yellow is Sunshine (Barielle). I also used some Born Pretty Store heart-shaped studs flipped on their heads to make a perfect little four leaf clover on my thumb.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and celebrates St. Patrick's Day your favorite way!

On Beauty High: Crosshatched Tutorial

Stop by Beauty High today to see another neato tutorial for some sweet geometric nails in my guest post, Awesome Nail Art Idea: The Crosshatched Manicure!

The colors I used are both subtle, so the gradient itself is subtle, but you can punch it up to any mix you prefer. Don't limit yourself to just two colors either if you don't mind the cleanup. I decided to use Blu (Zoya) and Something Sweet (China Glaze).

Painting the straight black lines was really simple too. I recreated it on my right hand, no problem.

The full tutorial is available on Beauty High here, and I'll be teamed up one more time for Manicure Month this July with Beauty High, so keep an eye out for more!