Between Two Fir Trees

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies! How are you doing today? It's -40˚ here (which is the same in Celsius AND Fahrenheit -- did you know that?) with the wind chill, so I'm hiding out inside by the fireplace and not moving if I can at all help it. ;)

Today's mani was a bit of a saga. It started chipping almost right away, which has nothing to do with the base polish -- Between Two Fir Trees, a stunning nude-pink base with speckled green and gold metallic and holo hex micro/mini glitter -- and everything to do with the layer of Glitter A-Peel I used. Something about that base and my nails are no longer getting along, it's like trying to stick two magnets of the same polarity together...

Anyway! Between Two Fir Trees went on amazingly well, especially given its pale base; two medium coats was all I needed for opacity. It isn't very rough, but you'll probably want two coats of top coat for better smoothness. I then used the name of the polish kind of literally and used acrylic paints for the fir trees, the snow, and the black cable between the trees. The little lightbulbs are done with nail polish.

I'm actually really digging this one. It wasn't super laborious to do, but it's nonetheless very cute. It helps that I had such awesome inspiration! I ordered four Cadillacquers altogether and this made me very excited to use the other ones...

Polishes used:

Cadillacquer - Between Two Fir Trees

Nina Ultra Pro - Punki Pink, Orange Flame, Solar Flare, Lime Light

Nail Pattern Boldness - Glitter A-Peel (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

acrylic paints

detail brush

long striping brush

Are there any seasonal designs you'd like to see me take on? I have one ABC Challenge prompt for this weekend (P for Puzzle), and then next week is Digital Dozen week again (yay!), but I'm totally curious as to what kinds of things you'd like to see throughout December. I'm a bit of a Grinch if I'm being totally honest, and don't much celebrate Christmas, so sometimes these things are not obvious to me...

xo,

J.

Graffiti Gashin

Press Sample

Hello lovelies!

Today's post features a water decal, something new to me! Let's jump right in, I'll explain as I go.

This look is loosely based on a baseball cap I have, which a long-ago ex-coworker of mine painted with 'gashin' in neon pink in a (much better realized) graffiti style. I will never wear that cap, COULD never wear that cap, but I nonetheless love it to bits.

So when David at Moon Sugar Decals, a newer water decal company, contacted me to do a review for them, I hopped on the opportunity to use these spray can decals. I started with two coats of Moody Blues, one of the new piCture pOlish collaboration shades, and then used a cotton bud to daub on white acrylic paint on the pinkie before applying the water decal. Like all water decals, you trim the decal from the page to the size you want it (I cut off the bottom bit so that I could put it on the bottom half of my nail like this), plop it in some warm water, wait about 30 seconds, then fish it out, slide the decal off the backing, and place it on the nail. 

Now, I don't have a ton of experience with water decals, so I'm not sure how most of them are. I found the Moon Sugar decal to have the thickness of a regular sticker, minus the stickiness (obviously). It was therefore a touch rigid, which meant that I had to hold down the edges for a while to make sure they stuck flush to my (rather curved) nail. It took two coats of top coat to smooth it out, but nothing extreme in that regard. The upside to the thickness is that there's no chance of ripping or distorting, which I hear is a thing that can happen with water decals. And removal was pretty easy, but you'll probably want an orange stick to scrape off the plastic film if you're using full-nail decals. 

One of the really neat things about Moon Sugar Decals is that they do custom work! So if you've always wanted, say, your logo, or a particular lace pattern, or miniatures of your favourite (non-copyrighted) artwork, or anything like that -- the sky's the limit!

Here is a macro of Moody Blues to show you that, while extremely subtle, there are in fact tiny pink sparks in the blue glass fleck base:

Polishes used:

piCture pOlish - Moody Blues (the pink bits are way more apparent in the bottle than on the nail)

Nina Ultra Pro - Punki Pink (on top of white, for the lettering)

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

white acrylic paint

cotton bud

Moon Sugar Decals in spray can (they do ship worldwide, and shipping in free/cheap!)

tweezers for manipulating the decal

This was a fun mani to do! Even if I learned that I'm crap at graffiti lettering. I actually enjoy how the G and the A came out, though they aren't very graffiti-esque...

I have a cold, I'm all stuffed up!! It's the worst! Anybody else sharing a similar affliction? I hope you get better soon~

xo,

J.

Catching Fire

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies!

Today I decided to be topical. I also wanted a bit of a break from detailed work like my last polar enterprise, though this ended up being more of a hard case than I anticipated.

Sorry about the smudging! Topcoat can be a real bitch when it wants to, hey?

My aquatic mani from a long time ago was very popular so I thought that, with the new Hunger Games movie coming out today, it might be nice to try it with fire. It was sort of a bad idea? I mean, it all got smudged and the white unders are peeking out and bah! BAH.

Anyway. I started with two coats of Don't Pretzel My Buttons, followed by painting on the fire shapes with French White. I then painted on the fire bits with the rest of the colours, going from yellow to red.

Polishes used:

OPI - Don't Pretzel My Buttons, Y'All Come Back Ya Hear?

Nina Ultra Pro - French White

Revlon - Electric

Essence - Fortune Cookie

American Apparel - Lopez Canyon

Inglot - 724

Layla - Fire It Up (Softouch Effect 08)

Sally Hansen - Cinna-snap

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat)

Next up, Outrageous Ville. I'm thinking of something Effie Trinket inspired... makes sense, goes with the theme, might be impossible, you know. The whole shebang.

xo,

J.

SIMPLE SUNDAY: Holiday Lights

Nothing to Disclose

I lied about avoiding holiday things. But I was seriously stumped, lovelies, I was!

You see, my prompt this week for my Follow the Devil ABC Challenge was N for Neon. NEON! There's a foot of snow on the ground outside (no, not exaggerating) (there may in fact be more than that) (it was -15˚C/+5˚F out today). How the bloody hell am I supposed to use neons at this time of year??

This was my answer. Holiday lights, loosely inspired by Sarah at Chalkboard Nails. (Hers are way nicer, naturally.)

I started this look with two coats of my trusty Camelot, followed by one thick coat of Masquerade for interest. I then dabbed on the white circles with White On (diluted in acetone) and a cotton bud, and dabbed Moon overtop of that for the glow effect (seen below). I painted the bulbs on using undiluted White On and my Nina Ultra Pro neons, used Seraphina for the wire, and topped it all off with top coat.

If I were to do this again, I would bother to dilute the neons with acetone and daub them onto the circles as well, for lighting congruity, but I didn't want to get overly complicated with a Simple Sunday design. I'd also recommend just using white acrylic paint and a tiny brush to do the wire, using nail polish made it way too thick.

Polishes used:

A England - Camelot

piCture pOlish - Masquerade (no longer available)

Sally Hansen - White On

Americal Apparel - Moon (glow in the dark)

Nina Ultra Pro - Punki Pink, Orange Flame, Solar Flare, Lime Light

Zoya - Seraphina

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

cotton bud

acetone for diluting nail polish

medium detail brush

tiny detail brush

I will try to make my next design less holidays-ish, more just plain wintry. Because, I assure you, I have plenty of inspiration in that department. Maybe I'll even do a mani for all your crazy Americans and your way-late Thanksgiving! ;)

xo,

J.

Neon Lace... Typa Thing?

Nothing to Disclose

No idea what to call this one, lovelies.

I haven't done 'real' nail art in a while, it felt good to hammer something out in less than 2 hours! I consequently have something of a picspam for you today.

I started this look with two coats of French White, followed by 2 coats of Clowning Around and 1 coat of Freckles on the ring finger. On the rest of the fingers, I busted out the colours I used for my Watercolour Floral and started with a similar base, then opted for some kinda floral-ish lace-ish pattern overtop, done in black acrylics.

If you need a refresher on how to watercolour with nail polish, please click through to this post here.

Interestingly, I definitely prefer the look on the accent finger instead of the rest of the fingers. The crispness of the black lines against the white background is just too excellent -- I'll have to revisit this in future.

Polishes used:

Nina Ultra Pro - French White

Zoya - Charisma

piCture pOlish - Sunset

China Glaze - Def Defying (this one stains, be careful!)

Lush Lacquer - Clowning Around, Freckles

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

black acrylic paint

tiny detail brush

I'm hopefully going on a MAJOR hike this weekend (45km in 13 hours, because I'm a nutjob), so there may be radio silence until early next week. I'll be sure to make it up to you! And I may have a bit of a surprise in the next day or two anyway... ;)

xo,

J.

Watercoloured Floral

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies!

You thought I disappeared, didn't you? No no. I have been exceptionally busy, though, because we're listing the house next Monday (we found out this Monday), and I have been in hyperdrive to prepare!

All that aside, I DO have nail art to show you. ;)

It's been a rare event, lately, that nail art turns out in a way that pleases me, but that's just what's happened here. I had a rough idea of what I wanted, going in, and it turned out pretty well spot on!

I began with two coats of French White, with two coats of In A New York Minute over top. I then dabbed on Def Defying, Sunset, and Charisma, dabbing pure acetone over each colour before proceeding onto the next. Once done, I did all the outlines in black acrylic, using my tiny detail brush.

I've tried to take photos in a few different lighting conditions, but of course the NEON doesn't really come through as well as it should! I think I'm in love with Sunset. Actually, I'm sort of in love with all three colours -- but if you could only pick one, pick Sunset. Put it on your toes if you must. It's gorgeous.

Polishes used:

Nina Ultra Pro - French White

NYC - In a New York Minute (top coat)

China Glaze - Def Defying

piCture pOlish - Sunset

Zoya - Charisma

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

black acrylic paint

tiny detail brush

It may be a while yet before I get to do more nail art, but I'll try not to abandon you altogether! I do have one mani completed recently that I haven't posted about yet, that will go up either tomorrow or Saturday. Wish me luck with all this cleaning!!!

xo,

J.

Purple Flowers

After completing a pictorial for the gradated dotted ikat look, I decided I wanted something quick and easy to do as nail art.

These are the famous Mr. Candiipants flowers; she has a tutorial on YouTube (start from 1:00 if you want to skip her characteristic intro-ramble) for anybody wanting to know how to do them. They're easy as heck and I love the visual punch they have! I made mine bigger than hers just because I was feeling something in-your-face, but you can make the petals larger or smaller by adjusting how little polish you leave on the brush. I used a dotting tool for the middles, but you can use the nail polish brush if you wipe pretty much all the polish off and are very careful.

I used three shades of more-or-less neon purple (which of course aren't showing up properly), plus a neon green for the little leaves.

Polishes used:

Zoya - Charisma

Models Own - Pukka Purple

Elevation Polish - Pic du Gar (deep almost neon purple jelly -- may be my favourite new purple)

Nina Ultra Pro - Lime Light

A England - Camelot

Cult Nails - Tempest

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

small dotting tool

Another easy look (plus tutorial) will be up tomorrow, and then I'm off to Victoria for the weekend to be pampered at the Magnolia, have high tea at the Fairmont Empress and, of course, nosh at Re-Bar! So excite!

xo,

J.

Gradient Gingham

I COULDN'T STAY AWAY

The first step to fixing a problem is admitting you have a problem. I probably have a problem, but I definitely don't care.

Now... what to call these? I don't know what these are. Reverse plaid? Regular plaid? Gingham? None of the above? Whatever, I'm going with gingham because then I've got an alliterative title.

It's a super gross, rainy day here today (which is good, it's the first good rain of the season, I can pretty well hear the plants heaving a sigh of relief). As such, I wanted something colourful! And then I couldn't leave a gradient well enough alone.

Turns out I can't use a liner brush worth a damn. Look at that middle finger! For one, it's missing a line (!!!), and for two, it's on a slant! Holy jeez.

For this look, my gradient was made with the Sally Hansen colours over a base of French White to make them pop. I did the lines with Funny Bunny and the KONAD polish. It's a pretty straightforward look!

Polishes used:

Nina Ultra Pro - French White

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Fuchsia Power, Coral Reef, Sun Kissed, Green With Envy

OPI - Funny Bunny

KONAD - Special Stamping Polish in White

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Poshé (top coat)

two sizes of liner brushes

a questionably steady hand

I will still give it a few days between manis for the time being, while my cuticles continue to heal-- they are still nowhere near where I'd like 'em!

J.

Studs and Spots

Hello lovelies,

I sat down to do a complex architectural mani for a contest, and found out that I had zero energy for it. Nada. So I decided to play with texture instead.

Water spotting looks cool when it works, but it is even more finicky than water marbling. Here's why: TWO variables (polish and spray) instead of one (polish). You could find a polish that works well for spotting, but your hairspray (e.g.) doesn't work at all, or some permutation of the above. Nutso. These two polishes also spotted into a completely different way, which I thought was neat!

Nonetheless, this mani (after much trial and error) didn't turn out badly. I think it looks pretty cool. The base is 1972, which is a much pinker lavender in real life, but everything going on made my camera unhappy. :) It was glorious to apply, as all la couleur couture polishes are; I also think they have my single favourite brush of all time.

Polishes used:

la couleur couture - 1972

Essie - Penny Talk

Nina Ultra Pro - French White

hairspray

tape (to cover fingers)

1.5mm silver studs

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Seche Vite (top coat)

As I mentioned yesterday, I'll be taking the week off to try to get my hands/nails/cuticles back to a healthy state, because they are incredibly unhappy right now. I will play it by ear as I go. I'm also finding that I've run out of steam when it comes to nail art, so I think taking a short break will do me good. Absence, fonder heart, blah blah blah!

See you soon! ;)

J.

Neon Animal Print

... Now those are three words I never thought I'd say. This has to be the most un-me nail art I've done so far, and I'm in love with it nonetheless.

For this look, I started out with a base of Spirit, then painted on various blobs / stripes / dots / curves in the neons. Once dry, I used black acrylic paint for the leopard spots and the... miscellaneous stripes? Not sure what the heck animal I ended up with, there. (It's my very first time doing any kind of animal print; please be gentle.)

I've tried to take photos in various lighting conditions to capture the neon, but no photos ever really do capture neon. Neon is the vampire of the 80s and it refuses to show up in photos.

I find it fitting that I painted these yesterday, when it was +30˚C out, and took photos of them today, when it is +15˚C out (and was +5˚C this morning!). I live in a terrifying place.

Polishes used:

Revlon - Spirit

Nina Ultra Pro - Punki Pink, Orange Flame, Solar Flare

Finger Paints - Silkscreen Green

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)
Seche Vite (top coat)
black acrylic paint
striping brush, detail brush, tiny dotting tool

Hoping and praying for the warmth to come back,

J.