Snapshots: Kurta, Summer Dotticure

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies!

I wanted to share with you two looks I completed recently and posted to Instagram, but not here (it happens sometimes, say if something is specifically an IG request).

First up, we have a twin nails look with @thedevilwearspolish based on the design of one of her kurtas. I love these little elephants sooo much.

Polishes used:

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

OPI - Germanicure

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

gold acrylic paint

detail brush

Next, we have a simple summer dotticure requested by a wee denizen of Instagram (only 10 years old!). I of course had to had fun with her request, which was yellow-on-pink dots, because that's how I roll. This is an easy look to recreate if you use a small dotting tool and you take your time.

Polishes used:

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Nina Ultra Pro - Punki Pink (of course, the NEON does not show up, but trust me, it's NEON)

Cirque - Iris (shimmer top coat)

Sally Hansen - Mellow Yellow

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

wee dotting tool

I'm always happy to field requests, so never hesitate! In the meantime, I'm thinking of more neons. I just painted my toes with Sunset (see previous post) and they bloody well glow and I love them.

xo,

J.

Embroidered Moons

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies! It has been a while, hasn't it? Hopefully what I have for you today makes up for the long wait. :)

The inspiration from his mani came from the polish itself. Queen You Dig It? is a collaboration shade between Pretty & Polished and Shipra of Taneja's Bride. The polish was inspired by her wedding attire, and I in turn thought it'd be neat to take inspiration from saree fabric. A beautiful saree has the ability to take my breath away like almost no other. So, while this is a very simple embroidery design, it makes me happy because it reminds me of the gorgeous, intricate embroidered designs that exist out there!

Queen You Dig It? required only two coats for an opacity that I was happy with; one thin and one thicker. It controlled beautifully. My only complaint is that the gold circles didn't want to stick to the brush. Maybe adding more would help with that, and in turn make more of them show up on the nail. But in spite of that, this polish is beautiful. I really love the gold flecks, and how the blue pops.

All of the embroidery was done with acrylics (gold + brown for the darker tone, pure gold for the lighter) and my Just Nail Pure Color #10 brush (which I trimmed down a bit), then outlined with my .005 Micron for extra Pop.

Polishes used:

Pretty & Polished - Queen You Dig It?

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

OPI - Matte Top Coat (top coat)

gold, brown acrylic paints

detail brush

I find that fabric can be an awesome source of inspiration, and I know I'm not alone in thinking that. What are some sources of inspiration that you look to?

xo,

J.

Golden Poppies

Hello lovelies. :)

I've been cogitatin' about a tattoo design for a very dear friend of mine and she loves Mucha's poppies, understandably so, which put me in mind of poppies in general. The unbelievably talented Nail Artist (IG: @riddhisn) is having a Floral/Brand/Sport contest, so I thought I'd enter these, even though they didn't come out even remotely as wonderfully as they exist in my head. As usual.

For this, I began with a base of Tallulah (for opacity-- one coat wonder!) and Order of the Garter (for the shade of blue I wanted). I then did the poppies in acrylics, and outlined it all in Filthy Rich very painstakingly with a nail art fountain pen. I then gave it glitter food and a coat of matte top coat. To make the poppies stand out a bit more, I went over them with shiny topcoat. (This effect is more noticeable in person.)

Polishes used:

Zoya - Tallulah

A England - Order of the Garter

Quo by Orly - Filthy Rich

acrylic paints in a variety of colours

one-stroke brush, detail brush, nail art fountain pen

Nail Pattern Boldness - Glitter Food

Essie - Matte About You

Poshé topcoat (only on the poppies)

Here's hoping you guys like these more than I do! I'm allowed two entries to the contest, so you'll probably have another floral coming your way in the next couple of weeks.


J.

Swatch Saturday: Skittle Manicure of Colour-Shifting Wonder

That has to be the worst title of all time. These polishes, though, are amazing.

For this mani, I painted my thumb, index, and pinkie in Anna Maria. I then painted my middle and ring fingers in Merope. Lastly, I did two coats of Shift Happens on my index and middle fingers. Merope just naturally looks blue and pink-purple simultaneously; it is the most genuinely duo-chromatic polish I own and have ever come across. Anna Maria is deep beautiful shimmery teal and it applies like a dream. Shift Happens is a Clarins 230 dupe and shifts from green to red (and you can see both at the same time on occasion, particularly if you layer it over green, blue, or purple).

Sorry for tip wear; took these photos after 2 days! SO MUCH LOVE

Words cannot express how much I liked this look. It's so striking in spite of being so simple.

Polishes used:
Contrary Polish - Anna Maria
CrowsToes - Merope
Girly Bits - Shift Happens
Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)
INM - Out the Door (top coat)

These swatches are a nice break from intense nail art. :) This was a good idea, it lets me show off some of the beauties in my collection without cluttering them up!


J.

Inverted Chevrons for Easter!

Happy Easter Monday to all who celebrate! I am amused that it falls on April Fool's Day this year. There's only so much coincidence a person can take before they can't help but smile.

This is a very toned-down Easter nail art, inspired by the very talented Emily at Globe & Nail, who did this look with a deep navy and a blingy micro-holo band and it looks FANTASTIC, so go see! Emily also has the best nails, the crispest swatches, and the world's best blog name (if you are Canadian and get the joke).

For this, I pulled out what I feel is the quintessential Easter polish: Adeste Fidelis [sic]. Named for a hymn (English version is "O Come All Ye Faithful") that the polish's creator once saw Pavarotti sing in the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Montreal, she took the cathedral's interior as her inspiration in putting together the colour scheme. I think it's as classy as a glitter possibly can possibly be, and, though it is obviously intended as a Christmas polish, the medium pink and pale green glitters remind me of the Easter dresses I used to wear as a child.

Because I chose to paint the bottoms a different colour altogether, to maximise the effect of the matte topcoat, I only taped off the chevrons once, and then freehanded the band of gold. This was probably not the best of ideas, but it wasn't a TOTAL disaster.

A coat or two (as needed) of Glitter Food to smooth everything out, followed by quick-dry topcoat and Matte About You on the tips (freehanded as well), and they're done!

And, finally, a close-up to show you just how complex Adeste Fidelis is. A lot going on, but somehow it never becomes overwhelming!

Polishes used:
Smitten Polish - Adeste Fidelis
Rescue Beauty Lounge - Plié
Quo by Orly - Filthy Rich
Nail Pattern Boldness - Glitter Food
INM - Out the Door (top coat)
Essie - Matte About You (top coat)
one-stroke brush

I hope you're nomming on chocolate right now! I sure am. (Though this isn't new; I pretty much always am regardless of the occasion.)


J.

St. Patrick's Day Nail Art: Nyan Pot-O'-Gold!

I had ZERO inspiration for St. Paddy's Day nail art until I was lying half-awake in bed this morning. And of all things to find inspiring, an outdated meme is a weird one. I probably ate too much sunomono last night (noooo, not possible!).

May I present: Nyan Pot-O'-Gold.

I dunno guys, it seemed appropriate.

I started with a base of Passport Blue, which I coated with my 20-grade Spectraflair topcoat to give it some pizzazz (yeah, I used 'pizzazz', deal with it). I then used white acrylic paint to draw the 'shadow' of the rainbow and the pot of gold. The blacks/greys are also acrylic paint, as are the little star details. The gold is nail polish, as are all the colours of the rainbow.

I tried to make the rainbow segments shorter at the end to denote them 'fading away' (kind of), but it didn't work.

On my thumb, I kept it simple with two (amazingly easy, gorgeous) coats of Liquid Leprechaun (HOW PERFECT?!). It was smoothed out with one coat of Poshé pretty well-- I'm noticing just the tiniest bit of texture now, about an hour later, so it's probably a 2-coater, which is excellent considering how much glitter it packs.

And I leave you with this purposefully blurry double-shot to show you the sparkly goodness of the Spectraflair topcoat and Liquid Leprechaun:

Polishes used (rainbow colours are in italics):
American Apparel - Passport Blue
Indigo Bananas - Spectraflair topcoat (20-grade)
Quo by Orly - Filthy Rich
Nails Inc. - St. James
Essie - Action
Revlon Top Speed - Electric
American Apparel - Crescent Heights
GOSH - Blue Balloon
Zoya - Mira
Pretty Serious - Liquid Leprechaun
OPI - Nail Envy Matte (base coat)
Poshé (top coat)
Black & white acrylic paint

Set in Lacquer has a contest going for St. Patrick's Day nail art, so I'm thinking I will submit this there. I can't expect it'd win (good grief, it's a riff on Nyan Cat, let's be serious), but it can't hurt to try to branch out and meet new people!


J.

FOIL MANI OF DOOM: What Happens When You Use Craft Supplies For Nail Art

Were I Taylor Swift, I'd be furiously scribbling away right now. This manicure and I are never, ever, EVER EVER getting back together. It's awful and I hate it.

I also took these photos outside in -10˚ weather, because I love you, you know.

I'm trying something with these subtler watermarks. I initially thought huge, tacky watermarks would deter stealing, but then came to the conclusion that nobody is likely jonesing to steal these, so I may as well play it classy.

Oh, foil mani, I so wanted to love you.

I found this awesome variegated foil at the neighbourhood art store and thought to myself, "Hey, Ciaté has some fancy set out with stuff like this, I bet this works just as well!" If it does in fact work just as well as this, I'm not clear on why anybody would ever buy/use it.

This is as close to a macro as I'm willing to go, and it makes me cringe.

I started with a coat of Poshé base coat (I tried nail glue over base coat first and it was a hot mess), then waited for it to be semi-dry and swiftly pressed a little square of foil into my nail, smoothing it as best I could with a couple of fingers, trying to get into the corners, etc. Didn't work. Jagged edges, breaks, holes, the whole shabang. Once I got it to a state that was at least half-decent, I gave it a light coat of CND Super Shiney top coat to seal it. Then, once dry, to cover up the awful edges, I did a box frame with black polish (should have used acrylics, my GOSH Nero is in full thickening rebellion) and my one-stroke brush. Because of the crinkly texture of the foil, it was impossible to get a smooth line, so you ain't getting a true macro of this one, sorry bub.

All in all, this took forever, I only did one hand, and I spent most of my time going cross-eyed. I think it looks pretty neat for what it is, but will leave this to more talented folks than I.

I like that my watermark is basically invisible. I think that's called defeating the purpose.

Polishes/supplies used:
Poshé quick-dry top coat
Speedball Simple Leaf metal foil in Variegated
CND Super Shiney top coat
GOSH Nero
One-stroke brush (squared-off)
Buttload of patience

Think I'm going to go for something simple next, and will be ambitious again nearing the end of the week...

J.