DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Vintage Polka Dots

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Hello lovelies!

TWO POSTS IN ONE DAY! I was so chuffed after my last post that I immediately took to Google and found something else vintage-y to produce for you!

This was inspired by this polka dot pattern I found on DeviantArt. I started with a base of Rue (which took three coats to opacity, and was mysteriously sort of lumpy?), and then did dots with Crescent Heights, Where Did Suzi's Man-Go?, and Blowing Raspberries.

After that, I did two coats of top coat to protect the base, and did the 'watercolour' technique with Chelsea Physic Garden and Moody Blues. I then sealed everything in another coat of top coat. And then bumped my index and thumb badly while opening a bottle of wine. (This is, in a nutshell, everything you need to know about me.)

Polishes used:

Zoya - Rue

American Apparel - Crescent Heights

OPI - Where Did Suzi's Man-Go?

butter LONDON - Blowing Raspberries

nails inc. - Chelsea Physic Garden

piCture pOlish - Moody Blues

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat)

dotting tool

square brush for 'watercolouring'

I like this effect, it's like a kind of verdigris... I look forward to doing it over more complicated patterns, probably using jellies next time for optimal ageing.

AND I FINISHED! AND IN THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY! I'm so pleased. Thank you, Dionysus, for all that you do.

xo,

J.

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

An InLinkz Link-up

DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Red/Green/Gold: Christmas Skittlette

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Hello lovelies! Day 2 of Nubbinses, and the final day of Digit-al Dozen Week, is upon us!

I decided to keep it simple today, with a red/green/gold Christmas skittlette.

Thumb and index are two coats of Chyna, pinkie is two coats of Filthy Rich. Middle and ring fingers are two coats of Shawn, followed by designs in Filthy Rich and some Just Nail nail art fluid that I didn't like enough to keep using (haha).

I regret now not incorporating red into my middle two fingers, but I guess that's kind of the point of skittlettes? And I wish I'd used Filthy Rich for the design from the beginning, I think I would have gotten better lines using it instead of the nail art fluid.

Polishes used:

Zoya - Chyna, Shawn

Quo by Orly - Filthy Rich

Just Nail nail art fluid in gold

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

OPI - Matte top coat (on middle two fingers)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat; on pinkie only)

medium detail brush

GUESS WHAT! We found a house to rent! I won't be homeless come January! It's a really nice house, too, all updated and stuff. I'm really excited about it. It'll be me, my friend Andrew, a couple named Josh and Alyssa, their two young boys, and my cat. A rambunctious house. :) Thank you all for your kind thoughts and words over the past little bit. Now if we could all refocus our positive energy on finding me a job, I'd be all set... ;)

xo,

J.

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

DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Red/Green/Gold: Little Bells

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Hello lovelies! Today is Day 1 of Utter Nubbily Nubbiness.

Augh!! Try not to avert your gaze. They don't bite, even if they're sort of gnarly looking. (And not the good gnarly, like Gnarly Gnails; the bad gnarly.)

I went outside the directive a bit with the base colour I chose for this; two coats of Colline du Charf. I thought I'd need three, and I probably would if my nails were longer, but for this two medium coats were perfect. I love this colour, it's so dainty and stuff. I'm not 100% sold on it as the base to this manicure, though. The bells don't stand out against it as much as I thought they would.

The bells were painted with Shirin and Filthy Rich (the little lines). The string and bell details were done with Camelot. The leaves were done with Shawn and Tracie, and the berries are Nightmaren.

Polishes used:

Elevation Polish - Colline du Charf

Mentality Nail Polish - Shirin

Quo by Orly - Filthy Rich

Zoya - Shawn, Tracie

Pretty Serious - Nightmaren

A England - Camelot

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat)

tiny detail brush

liner brush (which didn't save my lines, unfortunately; what a sorry state of affairs...)

How do you like these? What base colour would you have used?

xo,

J.

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

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.

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

DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Red/Green/Gold Abstract Christmas Tree

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Hello lovelies! It's that time of the month again! (Not THAT time of the month... but that time of the month.)

Digit-al Dozen Week! Yaaaaay!! This week our theme is red/green/gold, which is very seasonally appropriate. I've started with these abstract tree typa things.

I am a terrible blogger. I did these a good month ago and forgot entirely to write down which polishes I used. Augh! The worst! So the "Polishes Used" section today is going to be comprised of my best guess at things. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

I do remember how I did these, though! I started by painting my nails dark green. I then took a lighter green and started dry-brushing in all directions on top of the dark green before the base was fully dry (that's what gave it that texture). I then did dots in the red, and outlined them in the gold.

Polishes used:

Zoya - Shawn

American Apparel - Crescent Heights

Layla - Softouch 08 (Fire It Up)

Quo by Orly - Filthy Rich

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

no top coat, to preserve the texture

dotting tool

liner brush

I think this is my favourite mani of the entire week. I have so much Real Life stuff going on, and have had for what feels like an eternity now, that my nail art has been suffering. To date, I haven't even broken out the acrylic paints! Unheard of!! Please to be sending me your most fervent "please don't be homeless and jobless" vibes, thanks in advance...

xo,

J.

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

Deconstructed Snowflakes

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Hello lovelies! Just a quick post tonight, as I'm off babysitting with my friend Andrew and we literally just took the toilet apart because one of the kids threw a toy train down it earlier in the day and it was irredeemably clogged. Ah, children. Little bundles of joy and unrestrained havoc.

Anybody who follows me on Instagram or Facebook saw something sort of vaguely like this that I did yesterday. Well, that started chipping almost immediately (blasted Marc Jacobs polish!!), so I decided to redo it in more seasonal colours.

All of this vertical-line-ness started with my seeing this manicure by the inimitable Spifster. She's an amazing nail artist and you should be following her. At any rate, I could do various iterations of this design over and over again forever.

I started with three coats of Dream, and the white is Tempest, all done with my striping brush and a dotting tool. With these seasonal colours, I thought I'd do something that looked, well, seasonal. When I finished, I thought it looked like Picasso's take on snowflakes, hence the title of this post.

Polishes used:

Zoya - Dream

Cult Nails - Tempest

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

striping brush

dotting tool

Like I said, expect more of this kind of thing from me in future! But I will go a bit more detailed in my next nail art for you, my lovely readers, because you're here for the Good Stuff. ;)

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.

Megamendung Mani

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Hello lovelies! Told ya I'd be back today. ;)

After the strenuousness of the last mani, I thought it'd be nice to do something more relaxed. So we have clouds à la Indonesian batik. Rainclouds, specifically -- or, in their native language, the megamendung motif.

These were easy to achieve. Paint on broad bands of watered-down acrylic paint, then line the outsides with a liner brush in full-opacity paint. In an ideal world, this print would be perfect one-stroke practice. But I cannot one-stroke to save my life.

I've included the below photo of my left thumb under direct light so that you can see the holographic shards in Dream, the base polish, sort of in action (it's very cloudy here today, no chance of sunlight):

Polishes used:

Zoya - Dream

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

white acrylic paint

flat brush

liner brush

I've actually put in an order for special one-stroke brushes and acrylics from France, which I will talk more of when they arrive in a couple of weeks. It's a technique I really want to master, and the only way to do that is to practice! ;) Until I want to bang my head against things! ;) ;) Yeah!

xo,

J.

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.

SIMPLE SUNDAY: Blood Splats

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Hello lovelies!

So, remember yesterday when I was worried about my being hung over today? GUESS WHAT.

I'm posting from the past again! The point of my inebriation levels of last night are totally moot! How smart is this? I should post from the past more often.

It's not a Hallowe'en season without some blood splats. Now, I need to have a word with you all, here. It's of critical importance, and should be known in a post-Dexter world. It's not really blood splatter, it's blood spatter. I know, I know. It's a bit like how the Classicist in me flinches whenever somebody calls them pottery shards instead of pottery sherds. Drives me nuts! Thank you for listening to this mini-rant.

This look started with a staggering four thick coats of Naked. It doesn't even give me mannequin hands! All that work for nothing! Needless to say, especially given its price tag (I got it on clearance, thankfully), Naked does not come recommended.

The accent finger is two coats of Chyna. This polish reminds me of Dorothy's shoes and does come recommended. So classic-looking in spite of the texture!

The blood splats (it's not really spatter, it's much more haphazard splotches, I think) were done first in Fire It Up, and then in JS42 for depth. The whole thing took about a half-hour for both hands, making this Simple Sunday appropriate.

Polishes used:

Deborah Lippmann - Naked

Zoya - Chyna

Layla - Softouch 08 (Fire It Up)

Nfu Oh - JS42

medium liner brush

Have you done any Hallowe'en manis yet? This feels so out of my comfort zone, haha!

xo,

J.

Crystal Print

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Hello lovelies!

I'm sorry for my radio silence, again. I've been throwing together a post that will remain top secret until tomorrow (not for my blog-- that's the only hint I'm giving you!) and that has been taking up some of my time. But I'm here with a mani for you today!!

My original plan was to do this on a base of Happy Hands' Am I Not Yours? (that link will bring you to Instagram proof thereof). But then my body reacted weirdly with the peel-off base coat and all of my nail polish literally popped off my nails the next day. WTH.

I look jaundiced in this photo; please ignore... my liver is working just fine (I assume).

So instead, I'm bringing you this design atop three coats of Crystal -- there is no good reason why she is as sheer as she is, this polish, let me tell you. Zoya could have thickened it up by increasing the metallic flakie content and it would still have applied just fine, while causing me fewer headaches. So, there's a warning for you. But aren't the blue-and-gold flakes just gorgeous??

This design is actually a copycat of a mani done by @rheatheylia on Instagram (click that to be taken to her original), based on a skirt that she owns. Isn't it lovely, though? I had to take a stab at it. The design was done using white acrylic paint.

Polishes used:

Zoya - Crystal

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Rica - Glossy Glam (top coat; AND BE WARNED, IT SHRINKS ZOYA POLISHES)

white acrylic paint

tiny detail brush

Who here has explored the Formula X for Sephora polishes yet? I found one that may or may not have made me gasp in the store. I'm definitely wearing it next, but I'm not yet sure what I'll be putting atop it... so stay tuned for that!

xo,

J.

Denim

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Hello lovelies!

Today's mani is my attempt at denim nails.

This is another one of those looks I could do over with acrylics and just go bananas on the fabric's weave and the stitching. It's probably best for my sanity that I opted to do this with nail polish and a fan brush.

I started with one coat of Passport Blue, then used my fan brush to brush on Skylar and then Marble. The stitching was done with a detail brush using Passport Blue and Streetside NYC (because it is optimally opaque).

While I'm not convinced these look like denim, I do find the overall effect really pleasing. I would love to do this with other colours of 'fabric' and 'stitching'. IDEAS. MOAR IDEAS. I should actually write these down.

Polishes used:

American Apparel - Passport Blue

Zoya - Skylar

Spa Ritual - Marble

Elevation Polish - Streetside NYC

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat) (did 2 coats to prevent staining, FYI)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

fan brush

detail brush

It turns out I'm still not caught up! Gotta do my E prompt next. I think I'll leave these on for a day or two before tackling that one. :) I start exercising again tomorrow morning after three weeks of inactivity, wish me luck (I will sorely need it) (that was kind of a pun)!

xo,

J.

Simple Aquatic + a Guest Post!

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Hello lovelies!

So, I survived part of the Skyline Trail. 36km worth of trudging around with beautiful views. I pinched something in my right hip and my feet have a collective 6 huge blisters, so the last major ascent/scree was not going to happen. I need to work out more before tackling 12 hours' worth of hiking!

But I do have nails for you today!

I'm doing an ABC challenge with my buddy @thedevilwearspolish on Instagram. We're calling it the Follow the Devil ABC Challenge and doing one prompt a week. This week: aquatic! I decided to keep it simple.

I started with two coats of Lavender Cloud, followed by Skylar for the water. I then went over Skylar in some places with Arctic Sunrise, Aqueous, and Love Letter to Kurt Vonnegut. Little shine details in Tempest, topcoat, and done!

Zoom in on this one for all the shimmery awesomeness of the polishes I used:

And I have a surprise for you! I did a guest post over at Gnarly Gnails, run by the inimitable Missy! I love Missy to death, she's the sweetest and has always been so encouraging in my blogging endeavours. One thing I've always appreciated about her swatches is that they show you exactly what you need to know about a polish. They're professional and sharp-looking, but they do not sugar-coat how a polish actually behaves. It's really refreshing! And did I mention she's sweet? Click this teaser image to go see my post, and give her blog some love!

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen - Lavender Cloud

Zoya - Skylar

Girly Bits - Arctic Sunrise

Tryst Lacquers - Aqueous (custom)

Scofflaw Nail Varnish - Love Letter to Kurt Vonnegut (limited edition)

Cult Nails - Tempest

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

I'm working on another surprise! I will have that for you on Wednesday sometime. I may even be able to get something up either tomorrow or Tuesday, fingers crossed!

xo,

J.