Fall Houndstooth

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies!

I hate doing gradients and I hate doing patterns that are finicky, so today's venture was interesting, to say the least.

The ABC Challenge prompt for this week is H for houndstooth. I rather like houndstooth, actually. It's probably my favourite pattern. BUT. When I do it in large quantities, things tend to get out of hand. They go wonky. They're subject to entropy. You get the idea.

In this case, my squares kept getting closer and closer together. Dagnabbit!

I began with a base of a gradient using Coney Island Queen, Martian Sea, and 347. (I hate gradients, I hate cleaning up after them, oh heavens it is The Worst Thing after water marbling clean-up.) I then painted on the houndstooth with the KONAD polish. If you need a questionably useful refresher on how to do houndstooth, please click here. (And while we're revisiting the past, why were my cuticles so much happier then than now? Now they're like overgrown brambles! Augh!)

The claw! Haven't seen that one in a while.

Polishes used:

Pahlish - Coney Island Queen

Pretty Serious - Martian Sea

Inglot - 347

KONAD - Special stamping polish in white

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

Rica - Glossy Glam (top coat; sort of smudged things in places, boo...)

medium and tiny detailing brushes

make-up sponges

cotton swabs and swear words for clean-up

I have the BEST holiday nail idea. Isn't that frustrating? Useless for the next almost three months... But I can't help it! The season makes me think of being cosy, not creepy/frightening as Hallowe'en deserves. So it gggoooeesss.

xo,

J.

Elegant Rose

Nothing to Disclose

 Hello lovelies!

Today's manicure took a smidge longer than usual-- not because of the design, but because I was a bit loath to paint over the base colour!

This is what I came up with for the E prompt of my collaborative Follow the Devil ABC Challenge: elegant! I think roses are pretty elegant? Don't most people think that? They do, right? Anyway.

Base colour is two beautiful, no-clean-up-required coats of Let's Get Dirty, a super-sophisticated greyed out lavender (or lavendered-out grey, depending on how you see these things) with pinky beige tones. Kind of hard to describe! I love the wax finish it dries to, but I wanted to speed up the process (and seal my art), hence the glossy top coat.

The whole design was done with watered-down white acrylic paint and my detail brush.

I kind of think this would make a neat bridal look (and it could be tweaked to match the bouquet!), don't you?

Polishes used:

Cult Nails - Let's Get Dirty

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

white acrylic paint

detail brush

Next prompt is F for food, and I have no bloody clue what I'm going to do about that one. Help?!

And, in passing, I should mention that I'm sending happy vibes to all those who might be starting school against these past few weeks. September is always hard, but you'll make it through!

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.

Gradated Ikat

Helloooo lovelies!

Today's mani is my attempt to mash together the gradated dots look and the ikat look, inspired by a pair of shorts I bought recently.

The writing on my finger is because these are a contest entry. :) I figured this was a lot easier than awkwardly holding a small scrap of paper!

For this look, I began with a base of My Vampire is Buff. This is an excellent pale nude shade, but it's also a bit of a PITA as it requires four thin coats to reach opacity and uniformity. Boo, hiss! I wouldn't do it if the results weren't worth it, though. On the opposite end of the spectrum, my experience with 2013 (the top coat, not the year) have been AMAZING so far. This is my first time using it, and it goes on so well (more liquid than Seche Vite), the brush (as with all lacc colours) is my favourite thing ever, and no shrinkage!!! Glory hallelujah! I'll keep testing it, but this may be my holy grail top coat. :O

I then mixed up some ultramarine blue acrylic paint with white and/or black to make three different shades of blue, and dotted them on using my smallest dotter, starting with the lightest and ending with the darkest. It was a time-consuming process but very easy.

Polishes used:

OPI - My Vampire is Buff

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

acrylic paint in blue, white, black

smallest dotting tool

something to distract from the monotony

I had a post planned for tomorrow but I've deemed it sub-par. Now I'm plotting out what the heck to do! I'll keep you all posted. Literally. Haha! Dum-dum-TSCH.

xo,

J.

EDIT: Here's a pictorial if you'd like!

Snow Bengals

Hello!

This was my second attempt at this particular bit of nail art, and while I'm still not convinced it looks anything like its inspiration, I wanted to get 'er done for the inimitably sweet @lilyandjinks. The inspiration was the marbled markings on the eponymous Lily, a beautiful snow Bengal you can see in action here, here, here (oh GOD the CUTE)... and here. I'm basically in love with her.

The background is definitely more Lily but the markings ended up darker than I was aiming for, and are therefore a bit more Jinks. So, I guess I'm just all kinds of Bengal-happy over here.

For this, I used a combination of Temperance, Tettegouche and Dominate (with accents of Jacqueline for highlights) on top of a sponged gradient of Kalahari Kiss, Jacqueline and Spirit. I used nail polish thinner to help blend everything a bit.

This was supposed to go up yesterday but Spamalot was a mostly unanticipated bump in my schedule! Still, I hope it was worth the wait.

Polishes used:

China Glaze - Kalahari Kiss

Zoya - Jacqueline

Elevation Polish - Temperance, Tette (formerly Tettegouche)

Revlon - Spirit, Dominate

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Nail Pattern Boldness - Glitter Food

Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri (top coat)

Poshé nail polish thinner

size 0 flat brush, nail art brush

J.