SWATCH SATURDAY: Dandy Nails - Chilled Down

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies! Two posts in one day, totally off the hook over here!

Just a simple swatch this time, because I was in the mood for it. Accent nail is inspired by a photo Vanity Projects posted of a Lexi Martone mani that I LOOOOOVE.

Base is three coats of Chilled Down (could have gotten away with two, but taking photos in a lightbox is very demanding in terms of visible nail line). I love this polish. I love polishes that look speckled, and this one reminds me of a bird's egg. A really awesome bird's egg.

Accent nail was done with Shirin, then acrylic paint in blue and white, plus some 1.5mm rhinestones from Born Pretty.

Polishes used:

Dandy Nails - Chilled Down

Mentality Nail Polish - Shirin (I have been ADDICTED to this polish, lately!)

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat)

acrylic paint

liner brush

1.5mm rhinestones from Born Pretty Store

Any seasonally-appropriate designs you'd like to see me do? I don't much celebrate Christmas so it can be hard for me to come up with nail art for the season. If you have any ideas, send them my way!!

xo,

J.

Deconstructed Snowflakes

Nothing to Disclose

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.

Puffball Floral

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies!

I present to you today a look I've been wearing for the past few days, and which I only just took off rather begrudgingly...

I took a lot of pictures of it.

It was inspired by @celinedoesnails on Instagram, though her flowers look a lot more like flowers and a lot less like some sort of Dr. Seussian fluffball, as here.

The base for this manicure was three easy, beautiful coats of Kryptonite. I tried a photo in direct light to try to catch the holo particles, but it didn't work so well. Just know that all the little flecks of white are in fact rainbow in real life:

The rest of the design is acrylic paint.

Weird puffballs they may be, but I kind of like 'em!

Polishes used:

piCture pOlish - Kryptonite

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

acrylic paints

tiny detail brush

Hopefully I'll have something more seasonal for you tomorrow (I am posting this from the past-- ooOOOooo -- and I therefore have no idea yet how hungover I'll be tomorrow). ;)

xo,

J.

Crystal Print

Nothing to Disclose

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.

Water Droplets

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies!

Today's manicure took its inspiration from the base polish.

Not terribly colour-accurate; below photos are better. :)

I was moved to use my custom Tryst Lacquer, Aqueous, again. It does take four coats to opacity, but I love it so much. :) Just look at it!! And then I decided to do some one-stroke water droplets. These are deceptively difficult.

In fact, I did them over about three times. Yikes. And they're still not perfect! If you want to see perfect one-stroke water droplets, visit Lucy -- she's got it down pat. And she filmed a tutorial! :)

In the end, the method that was fastest was the one I was most comfortable with. It really was, for me, a question of getting the white down pat. I think I achieved it best on my middle finger.

BONUS: CAT ATOP LIGHT BOX
seriously what are you even doing up there

Polishes used:

Tryst Lacquers - Aqueous (custom)

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

black and white acrylic paint

one-stroke brush

detailing brush

Can you believe it's October tomorrow (read: for me, 40 minutes from now)? Yikes. It's already freezing where I am, I wake up to 0˚C mornings, winter is going to own me.

xo regardless,

J.

Smudged Lines

Nothing to Disclose

... not to be confused with blurred lines. Very different things.

Hello lovelies! Today's post is an attempt at practicing my line work. It's still SUPER shoddy, but practice makes perfect, right? To do this, I aped this beautiful design by Sammy over at The Nailasaurus.

I began with that polish I told you was the least-me polish I own: two coats of Oui! by Marc Jacobs. I've taken a photo in natural light, at the bottom, to show you what the real colour is like. It's this crazy almost-frosted pink-fuchsia colour. I bought it specifically because I knew I'd own nothing even remotely like it already. :P It's definitely a bit loud for me, but I can see myself pulling it out for flashier occasions!

The silver is all done using a liner brush and Silver Sweep.

It didn't take too long, and the hardest part was keeping the silver from thickening up, since that affected the quality and thickness of the lines I was doing. I kept having to dip my brush into acetone and then into the polish to get a good consistency. AND THEN MY TOPCOAT WENT AND SMUDGED THE LINES (hence the title of this post).

I think next time I'll buy silver acrylic paint. Heh. Oh, and here is a funnily-lit shot of Oui! on its own. My skin looks awful, but it's actually quite colour-accurate for the polish itself:

I cannot pose my cinderella hand to save my life.

Polishes used:

Marc Jacobs - Oui!

Sally Hansen - Silver Sweep

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

liner brush

I have no idea what to do next! The rest of my week may be working on prep for Digit-al Dozen week in October... *wiggles eyebrows* If I disappear until the weekend (when I tackle the G prompt for my ABC Challenge), you'll know what happened!

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.

Distressed Patchwork Nail Art

Hey there!

I have a simple but extremely effective mani for you today. The 'patchwork' look has been around for a long time, but I was finally prompted to try it by Jeanette's gorgeous take on it over at The Swatchaholic. Hers is way, way, way, way³ more beautiful than mine. Her skill is as perfect as her nails are as perfect as her photography-- go check it out!

In the meantime, here are my efforts. :)

The colours show up best in the shade.

For this look, I started with a base of one coat of Filthy Rich, and then dabbed on the remaining colours in a way that seemed to make sense/balance everything out. I used all foil polishes with the exceptions of Filthy Rich (microglitter), Mermaid's Dream (microglitter in a frosty base), and Smolder (shimmer). I went over the dabs twice for texture and opacity.

SPARKLY

It involved a bit of clean-up at the end, but nothing serious. It's an extremely easy technique since it requires no tools other than the brushes that come with the nail polishes themselves!

Here are close-ups of Smolder and Mimi because I felt like the patchwork didn't really show their true awesomeness. Smolder has a deep beautiful shimmer that is actually duochrome (goes golden at sharp angles, could not capture it on camera). Mimi is a royal purple foil that has a hidden bright turquoise shimmer that caught me totally off-guard!

L-R: Smolder, Mimi.  Sorry about the crap clean-up, these were painted & tidied with my non-dominant hand. :)

Finally, I leave you with a purposely blurry shot to show you the shiny glory of the foil polishes. Even though you don't use very much for this technique (it works best when you take off almost all of the polish on the brush), it still packs a lot of colour punch!

Polishes used:

Quo by Orly - Filthy Rich

Zoya - Ivanka, Mimi

Spa Ritual - Conduit, Rusted Lux

Deborah Lippmann - Mermaid's Dream

Maya Cosmetics - Smolder

Poshé (top coat)

Have you ever tried this look? If not, you really should. It looks super-lovely in jewel tones, brights, pastels... any given colour family. Just keep an eye out for light/dark and colour balance!

Until next time!


J.

Traffic Cone Easter Eggs!

These were not supposed to be Easter eggs. They were just supposed to be a palate-cleanser after all the intense cross-eyes-inducing painting I've been up to over the last few days.

I wanted to try out a horizontal version of a simple but really striking look I'd seen over at Chalkboard Nails: Sarah's Reptilian Dot Nail Art. Instead, I just have the world's brightest, most orange Easter eggs gracing my fingertips.

There is no grass in this winter wasteland I call home; this blanket will have to suffice.

I began with a base of Sarychev, with which I am officially in LLLOOOOOVVVEE. Oh, it's so gorgeous. It's also quite sheer, and I would have stopped at 3 coats if I didn't have nail bruises on my left hand from a drawer mishap last month. I like my jellies squishy, which typically involves them being slightly less than opaque. At 4 coats, which is what I used here, it's opaque but also quite thick.

I then taped off the upper halves of my nails and painted This New Sun on the bottom halves (one good coat was plenty). I'm excited to try this polish on its own sometime. I then whipped out my dotting tools and came to realize that I suck at dotting. They're all different sizes!! The large size dots are Cu Blue, which is another polish that deserves its own post; it looks purplish here but is actually a royal blue jelly with major copper shimmer! The small dots on the bottom are Action, which I doubled-up on for opacity but that still didn't quite go according to plan.

The opalescence of the Mylar shows up best in the shade-- these are actually translucent orange circles, not green!

The upper 'dots' are Mylar rounds from the Born Pretty store, which I stuck on with little dabs of topcoat. Positioning these in a way where they were even remotely in line was the hardest part of this look. The second-hardest part was making sure that I was picking up only 1 round at a time instead of several clinging together.

Sorry about the weird background, this was the best sun-shot by a mile. Look at the lusciousness of Sarychev! Look at the juicy glimmer of This New Sun! Man, I love orange polish.

That Mylar round is winking at you!

Polishes/supplies used:
Elevation Polish - Sarychev
Pahlish - This New Sun
Girly Bits - Cu Blue
Essie - Action
Born Pretty Store - mini Mylar rounds
OPI - Nail Envy Matte (base coat)
INM - Out the Door (top coat)
Poshé (top coat)

I have so many ideas for what to do next, we'll see how many I can get done before I run out of steam! ;)


J.

Subtle Springtime Fishtail Manicure

It isn't spring yet. Not quite yet. But the week of the 18th, it'll warm up a bit! And then we'll enter Slush Season, which is the precursor to Spring! (I will admit, I am not fond of spring. I'm fond of early summer. Spring is more of an exercise in mud, defrosted dog poo, dead lawns, half-decomposed leaves, garbage everywhere, and potholes that can blow your tires.)

That aside, I thought a muted appreciation of the soon-to-be change in season was in order.

Na naaaaah!

For this manicure, I used the fishtail manicure technique, as devised (or at least perfected) by Sarah at Chalkboard Nails. I love this look on square or squoval nails; the combination of straight and curved lines is very aesthetically appealing. It's also pretty straightforward to do-- check out her video tutorial-- so, a laid-back manicure with visual punch!

I started with a base of Jacqueline, which is a polish that is a strange mix of thick and streaky. BUT it's also gorgeous, and worth the effort. I might thin it for next time; in general, though, leaving time between coats should avoid cuticle drag. I then painted on two coats of The Way I Am, which is stunning and I think I'll need to buy the full size of it (I only have the mini right now). After that, I painted on two coats of Hellebore, which is perfect for this use because it's very glitter-dense, so it gives major impact without having to goop it on. I chose to pair these two greens because they're fraternal twins! The Way I Am is the introvert and Hellebore is the extravert; both are greens with fuschia accents. (It's hard to see the pinkish sparks in Hellebore from my photos, but trust me, they're there). I then topped it with Glitter Food to smooth out the layers, then topcoat, and done!

And now, because I took a butt-load of photos, I will leave you with all of them! Think of new spring grass and itty bitty wildflowers. :)

And I leave you with this cell phone picture; I found that the reduced quality / slight blurriness helped to better show the sparkle smorgasbord that is Hellebore.

I think I'm going to try a Real Life Floral next! Lucy's Stash has me all fired up about it (though I am nowhere near her skill level, holy moly). We'll see!

Polishes used:
Zoya - Jacqueline
Contrary Polish - The Way I Am
Cirque - Hellebore
Nail Pattern Boldness - Glitter Food
New York Color - Grand Central Station (top coat)

J.