Polar Bear

Nothing to Disclose

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.

Sea Turtle Hatchling

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies!

I know, I've neglected you. Things over the past weekend or so were very busy, lots of showing and in general lots going on. But I've got a post for you tonight, and another for you tomorrow!

Today, I have a turtle for you. Turtles are cute.

I did this little guy out of entirely acrylics, as part of a bestie twin nails endeavour with @rachelsequoia (if you have Instagram and are not following her, you are out of your bloomin' mind).

He turned out a lot more stern than my source image. Gah! Oh well.

Polishes used:

none!

acrylics in all sorts of colours

size 0 flat brush

tiny detail brush

I have a bootcamp in the morning so I'm off to hit the hay. And, seeing as I just finished watching Robot and Frank, I may also need a cathartic sob into my pillow. Such a good movie, but so sad, guys. And it summarizes nicely the differences between my boyfriend and I: at the end he chirps, "That was cute!" and I weep and state, "That was devastating!" LORDY. See it if you haven't.

Until tomorrow, my pretties, and remember to wear waterproof mascara when watching movies!

xo,

J.

Elephant!

Nothing to Disclose

I finally got some time to do more detailed painting. And while I think the trees are kinda meh, I do like how Mr. Elephant turned out. :)

I wanted to do elephants ever since I did the kurta design, with its little embroidered elephants. Elephants are smart and sensitive and huge and awesome. So yeah.

This is all acrylic paint on a base of Gobi-- which is, of course, a desert, not a savannah. But I liked the tan sort of colour with its slight holo and green shimmer (you get some of the green shimmer in these photos, but the holo dies in my light box). It's sort of an enigmatic nail polish, constantly looking like something sort of new. It was an iffy choice for this project, because it's so low-contrast to what I painted, but you live and you learn!

Polishes used:

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Elevation Polish - Gobi (shop is in maintenance mode until the evening of 31 July)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

acrylics in every imaginable colour

teeny detail brush

SO, BIG NEWS! You may notice something new in my right sidebar! That is correct, Born Pretty Store has been kind enough to generate a coupon code for my readers!! Next time you're in need of nail art supplies, I strongly recommend you mosey over and take a look at their selection, as it's pretty astonishingly vast. On checkout, just use code ABCQ10 for 10% off your order, no expiry date! This is not an affiliate code or link-- I get no part of the sale-- but if enough people use my specific code, then Born Pretty will give me a gift certificate to giveaway to you lovelies, and I like giving you guys presents! <3

I'm next working on a triplets nail project with two very talented Instagram ladies, so stay tuned for that either tonight or tomorrow!

xo,

J.

Starfishies!

I was in the pharmacy the other day and this blue polish, Blue My Mind (haha), called out to me. So, today, I used it for some quick 'n' dirty nail art: starfish!

For this look, I went with two coats of smooth, buttery blue polish-- such an awesome colour in person, a bright shimmery primary blue, it's like Wonder Woman blue. I then painted the starfish with acrylic paint.

All of the designs are based on real starfish! I think starfish are so neat. I love how they move, how they hang out on things at low tide, how they're these little mechanical masterpieces when they're prying things apart... pure awesome. Plus they're cute.

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen - Blue My Mind (Salon Effects line)

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat; do not skip base coat with blue polish, though this one doesn't seem to stain!)

Seche Vite (top coat)

acrylic paint

detail brush

J.

FLAKIE GRADIENT OH YEAH

This one is going to be picture-heavy. There was no way for me to capture the true multi-chromatic awesomeness of this manicure, but I gave it my most valiant shot. This is my take on the matte flakie gradient over at More Nail Polish.

drool

A quick run-down of the method here, and then I'll let the photos do the talking. I started with a base of GOSH Nero, a super-opaque black creme. (Actually, it's kind of thick, so I thinned it down some to get it to better self-level.) I then did vertical stripes of Nfu Oh 38 (red-orange flakies that shift to golden-green), Inglot 205 (golden-green flakies that shift to aqua), Nfu Oh 39 (bright green flakies that shift to turquoise), and Inglot 204 (glowing deep blue flakies that shift to royal purple; this is the only transition that I just couldn't eke out for these photos). I did the same pattern on my ring fingers, except using horizontal stripes, and I mattified the middle fingers.

more drool

excuse the lesser quality; I was drooling away in the car for this one so I had to use my phone

rainbowsssss

I am unclear on how I will ever one-up these puppies

Here is a huge picture to show the multi-chromatic shift as I change the angle of my fingers:

editing this in Photoshop made me realize how much I suck at Photoshop

And, lastly, an awkward, too-dark video to show this manicure in action. Maybe eventually I'll be better at stuff like this. Not going to put any money on it.

While I was out stomping around in the snow taking most of the above photos, a raven came to visit! These photos do absolutely no justice to his(?) size. A seriously amazing bird. The height of my forearm, easy, with (of course) an impressive wingspan. Love!

And just for the heck of it, I got my Black Milk order in the mail yesterday, and now that I own Mucha leggings, my life may well be complete:

La Trappistine leggings by Black Milk Clothing, as viewed through a crappy phone pic

I am plotting seriously awesome things for the beginning of next week, which I hope I will pull off as awesomely as I have them in my head. We shall see!

Polishes used:
Nfu Oh - 38, 39
Inglot - 204, 205
NYC (New York Color) - Grand Central Station (topcoat; loving it so far)
Essie - Matte About You


J.