DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Monochrome Oranges

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Hello lovelies! So begins another week of The Digit-al Dozen! This month our theme is monochrome -- varying values of the same colour (including black and white). I cheated ever so slightly for today's simple look.

How did I come about doing a summer look in the middle of winter? I asked my beau to name a colour, he chose orange, this is all I could think of. True story.

I started with two coats of White On, and then filled in the oranges starting with the peel (1964 and Y'all Come Back Ya Hear), then the pith (a mix of Streetside NYC [this is how I cheated; used yellow] and White On), then the flesh of the orange (Y'all Come Back Ya Hear with highlights of Funny Bunny and White On).

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen - White On

OPI - Y'all Come Back Ya Hear, Funny Bunny

la couleur couture - 1964

Elevation Polish - Streetside NYC (discontinued)

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat)

thin liner brush

medium detail brush

Don't forget to check out the giveaway we've got going on right now! I'll be back tomorrow with more monochromatic madness. ;) I've got a couple really nice looks for you this week, so I hope you'll stick around!

xo,

J.

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Subway Map

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HELLO LOVELIES!!

Have you missed me? I missed you, too. I've had a quiet holiday season, which is a good thing in my books. I hope yours was everything you wanted it to be.

I'm, in fact, about to go play some drunken Super Smash Bros. Brawl, because we have a Wii and it's the right thing to do, but first-- I have nail art for you!

I don't even know. Really, not even a clue. I think it was vaguely inspired by subway maps?

My base for this was one coat of Silver Sweep, followed by two coats of Atomic. The thicker lines are done in Camelot, using my striping brush. The wee thin lines are cheater lines; I did those with a .005 Copic liner pen.

Sorry about the cat hair above. Didn't realize I had to sticky-roller my lightbox. If someone would stop sleeping in my lightbox, this would probably not be an issue. Alas, it IS a box, therefore it is to be slept in, apparently.

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen - Silver Sweep

piCture pOlish - Atomic

A England - Camelot

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat)

.005 Copic liner pen

liner brush

What are you hoping for in 2014? I'm hoping for a job, mostly. That'd be a killer start to my year! :)

xo,

J.

DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Red/Green/Gold Poinsettias

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It wouldn't be a holiday season without some poinsettias, would it, lovelies?

No, it would not. (Look at how glorious and long my nails are here! I weep for you, my pretty nails!)

For today's look, I began with a base of two easy coats of Shirin, which is way more gold and way less yellow-orange than it appears on the Mentality website (which is a good thing, for my skin tone). I then painted on the poinsettias with Fire It Up, Tomato, Nightmaren, and St. Petersburgundy. The leaves were done with Recycle and Shawn. The little dots were done with Streetside NYC and Mellow Yellow.

I didn't like these once I'd done them, I found them sloppy, but I think they've grown on me.

Polishes used:

Mentality - Shirin

Layla - Souftouch 08 (Fire It Up)

Joe Fresh - Tomato

Pretty Serious - Nightmaren

OPI - St. Petersburgundy

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Recycle

Zoya - Shawn

Elevation Polish - Streetside NYC

Sally Hansen - Mellow Yellow

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat)

medium detail brush

My adventures in nubbiness start tomorrow! I really can't get over it. I've broken nails before but it hasn't ever really been this bad. It'll take at least a month to get any reasonable sort of length back. But I'm trying not to give up hope! Or, not hope, but resilience. Or something. You know what I mean? Sure you do. *whistles*

xo,

J.

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Catching Fire

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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.

Polar Bear

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Hello lovelies!

Let me start this post by apologizing for my cuticles. Holy whoa are they awful in these shots. It looks like I went up to the Arctic to paint these nails plein air by watching an actual polar bear. (I did not; it was inspired by this photo.)

In fact, he is something of a poor specimen of a polar bear, isn't he? But he was fun to paint, if a bit frustrating to position on two nails.

Water, ice floes, and bear are all acrylic paint. All painted on a base of two coats of White On so I had something opaque to work with.

POLAR BEAR IS GLARING AT YOU (don't take it personally, he's just kind of a grump):

On my thumb, I layered a whack of blue polishes, including Passport Blue, Jungfrau, 204 (a purplish flakie), and Pitaraq:

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen - White On

American Apparel - Passport Blue

Elevation Polish - Jungfrau, Pitaraq

Inglot - 204

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

acrylic paints

tiny detail brush

I have received so many beautiful polishes over the last week, and no idea what to do with them. I'll try to think of something before the weekend, when I have my O for Outrageous prompt for my ABC Challenge and not the foggiest clue what to do about it. Will try to get something tasteful in before I take a leap into the great void of outrageousness!

xo,

J.

SIMPLE SUNDAY: Holiday Lights

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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.

Guest Post by Kate #2!

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Sometimes, I do my boyfriend's daughter's nails. I don't often post about it (in fact, I've only posted about it once before), because I figure there are really only so many iterations of pink and sparkly that you need to see. But today we did something different!

We used Angry Birds stickers! Albeit sparkly Angry Birds stickers (which cause no end of trouble for my camera to focus on).

It is infinitely harder to paint on such tiny nails. Those above are slingshots (they look more like it in person, without the glare). I started by painting two coats of Blue Balloon on all her fingers, then used White On for the little clouds, Mutagen for the grass, and a combination of Dominate and Camelot for the slingshots. The birds, hands, and pigs are all nail stickers I found... somewhere... a long time ago. Sorry about that.

Polishes used:

GOSH Cosmetics - Blue Balloon

Sally Hansen - White On

I Love Nail Polish - Mutagen

Revlon - Dominate

A England - Camelot

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

I will have some 'real' (as in, on me) nail art for you either later tonight or tomorrow afternoon, depending on how much I feel like editing photos, haha. It'll be glowy, though, so hopefully it'll be worth the wait!

xo,

J.

DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Black & White Sketched Flowers

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Hello lovelies!

Todays' mani is an attempt at a technique invented (as far as I know) by Precious Polish. She's busy nowadays, so doesn't get to post as much, but you need to be following her. She's amazing. Her sketchy style (cf., her recent penguin, elephant, and owl manis) is a real coup de coeur for me.

I have not done her style justice. I'm not done aping it, though-- I will find another reason to bust this sketchy style out, I'm sure.

What is up with the lobster hands? I have no idea.

This look began with two coats of White On, followed by sketching in increasing order of opacity: Ridnitsohkka, Recycle, and Camelot. (I'm kind of digging this week's theme if only because it also shows how much you can do with the same few polishes over and over!)

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen - White On

Elevation Polish - Ridnitsohkka

China Glaze - Recycle

A England - Camelot

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

tiny detail brush

Tune in tomorrow for the last instalment of this Black & White week! And it's a blast from the past! (You'll see why.) (No, I'm not telling.)

xo,

J.

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DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Black & White Plaid

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Hello lovelies! Remember yesterday, when I said that today's mani was my least favourite? It WAS the truth, and then... well... read on.

I'm not sure why it is, but the moment I heard about the theme for this month's Digit-al Dozen week, I knew I was going to do plaid. It was ~fated~.

I actually had to redo this mani as the first attempt was awful. I know, I'm a perfectionist, my definition of awful may vary from the norm-- but I assure you that, in this case, I do mean awful. So I've spared you the sight of it! Hooray!

Of course, Jacob had to come say hello. And flip up my background and install himself in my lightbox until I coaxed him out of there. 

I began with two coats of White On, followed by thick lines in Ridnitsohkka. I then went into the intersections of my grey lines and filled them in with Recycle to mimic overlapping. I used White On again for the thin white lines, and Camelot for the thin black lines. My linework is improving, hey?

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen - White On

Elevation Polish - Ridnitsohkka

China Glaze - Recycle

A England - Camelot

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat)

thin liner brush

tiny detail brush

I bet you're relieved that today's mani was something more normal, right? I must have been taking a trip through the Twilight Zone yesterday.

xo,

J.

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DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Black & White X-Ray Nails

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Hello lovelies! Here we are at day 2, and my mani today is a bit of a holdover from Hallowe'en.

Let's be honest here: did YOU have any idea what was going on if not for the title of this post?

DISTAL PHALANGES, Y'ALL. I started this with two coats of Camelot, then dabbed on the circles with watered-down White On and a cotton bud. I then painted on the main bone bits with White On, and used the watercolour technique to sort of moosh the polish around.

I should have gone to find some face paint and painted my whole fingers. That'd have been awesome! And would have contextualized these quite nicely.

Polishes used:

A England - Camelot

Sally Hansen - White On

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

pure acetone for the watercolour technique

one-stroke brush

cotton bud

I'm going to put this out there now: tomorrow's mani is my least favourite, by far. That's why it's going on Hump Day. So, uh, brace yourselves, I guess?

xo,

J.

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DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Black & White Music Notes

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Hello lovelies!

SO BEGINS DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK #2.

This week, we're doing black and white manis. This is exciting to me. I love constraints like this, I find it helps me to imagine nail art possibilities better than being told to do anything.

For Day 1, I opted to combine my Digit-al Dozen prompt with my ABC Challenge prompt, which was M for Music. This mani started with two coats of White On and one coat of HK Girl on all fingers.

I then put two thick coats of Moonlight on my thumb and ring fingers as accent nails. To be honest, this is one place where I rubbed against my Digit-al Dozen prompt a bit. This would have looked so BOSS with a brightly coloured glitter topper, and I had just the one in mind (Moosh by Happy Hands). Argh! Oh well.

The designs were all done with Camelot and my trimmed-down long liner brush and tiny detail brush.

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen - White On

Indigo Bananas - Moonlight

A England - Camelot

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat -- trying it out, have heard good things, will report back soon)

tiny long liner brush

tiny detail brush

I'm really happy with how the lines came out in this mani! They would have been even better if I'd used a fluid acrylic paint, but for something done with nail polish, I'm quite pleased. :) Come back tomorrow for another black & white mani!

xo,

J.

CHECK OUT WHAT THE OTHER TALENTED LADIES OF THE DIGIT-AL DOZEN ARE UP TO:

Snowy Windows

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Hello lovelies! It snowed overnight. Winter is officially here. There are a few centimetres on the ground as I type this. I'm getting my winter tires on tomorrow morning, provided I can drive to the tire place on my summers. I'm inconsolable. I hate winter. But it gives me an excuse to do nail art.

For this look, I was aiming for a 'candle through a snowy window' sort of a thing.

I started with two medium-thick coats of Cape Liz. I then did two coats of topcoat to protect the base from what was to follow. I painted on the candlesticks using Shawn, and dabbed on some acetone along the bottom to blur them out. The flames were done with Helios and Sulfur Blaze.

The snow was done with White On and the watercolour technique, which mostly saw me dabbling through polish and acetone with relative abandon. There was no method here; just whimsy. Finally, I took a tiny brush and dotted on the snowflakes with undiluted White On.

Polishes used:

Cirque - Cape Liz, Helios

Zoya - Shawn

Cover Girl - Sulfur Blaze

Sally Hansen - White On

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

When my nails are longer, I think this would be a cute look to revisit with little window frames covered in snow. We shall see. I might be absent for a couple days as I frantically work to catch myself up on Digit-al Dozen work (I did two manis yesterday! Both for December! WHAT). But I won't be gone long, I promise!

xo,

J.

SWATCH: Durm und Strang

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Hello lovelies!

Sometimes you just need to swatch something.

Today's swatch is Durm und Strang, which I like as much for its name as for its look.

I just have two wishes for this polish: that there were more lime green hexes, and that the base was more jelly to allow depth. I like that it's a two-coat polish (one thin, one thicker to get at those elusive bits of green), but I wouldn't mind a third coat if it meant more jelly awesome.

The accent nail is a watermarble of Green with Envy and Pelican Gray over a coat of Silver Sweep. It's subtle but I like it.

Polishes used:

Scofflaw Nail Varnish Manufactory - Sturm und Drang

Sally Hansen - Silver Sweep, Green with Envy

China Glaze - Pelican Gray

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

Rica - Glossy Glam (top coat; I've learned it's best to really wait until your base polish is starting to dry before putting Glossy Glam on it, or else you will be dealing with a lot of shrinkage)

watermarbling paraphernalia: cup of room-temperature filtered water, toothpick, masking tape, cotton buds...

I'll be working on nail art this week, but probably in anticipation of Digit-al Dozen week next month. I'll try to get something in for you lovelies to look at!

xo,

J.