DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Monochrome Mehndi

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Hello lovelies!

Last day of Digit-al Dozen Week! With the exception of Tuesday's madness, I think this one was a success. :) And to end off the week on a high note, here are some mehndi designs for you!

I had this idea a long time ago, but never did anything with it because I wasn't sure I'd do it justice. I still haven't really done it justice, BUT I'm nonetheless happy with the outcome.

I started with two coats of Don't Pretzel My Buttons to ask as a nude base, and then painted on the designs using Temperance. 

I then went over only some parts with Tettegouche to darken them up and make them stand out more, to give a look of henna before and after the paste falls off.

Polishes used:

OPI - Don't Pretzel My Buttons

Elevation Polish - Temperance, Tettegouche (limited editions)

medium liner brush

I hope you've enjoyed the week! On the 'good and bad news' front, I won't have any nail art for you next week, as I'll be visiting my tattoo artist and his wife over in San Francisco, exploring the city, hanging out with their pups and chickens and orchids, getting tattooed on my right hip, and generally having an awesome time! I'll report back upon my return. ;)

xo,

J.

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

Between Two Fir Trees

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Hello lovelies! How are you doing today? It's -40˚ here (which is the same in Celsius AND Fahrenheit -- did you know that?) with the wind chill, so I'm hiding out inside by the fireplace and not moving if I can at all help it. ;)

Today's mani was a bit of a saga. It started chipping almost right away, which has nothing to do with the base polish -- Between Two Fir Trees, a stunning nude-pink base with speckled green and gold metallic and holo hex micro/mini glitter -- and everything to do with the layer of Glitter A-Peel I used. Something about that base and my nails are no longer getting along, it's like trying to stick two magnets of the same polarity together...

Anyway! Between Two Fir Trees went on amazingly well, especially given its pale base; two medium coats was all I needed for opacity. It isn't very rough, but you'll probably want two coats of top coat for better smoothness. I then used the name of the polish kind of literally and used acrylic paints for the fir trees, the snow, and the black cable between the trees. The little lightbulbs are done with nail polish.

I'm actually really digging this one. It wasn't super laborious to do, but it's nonetheless very cute. It helps that I had such awesome inspiration! I ordered four Cadillacquers altogether and this made me very excited to use the other ones...

Polishes used:

Cadillacquer - Between Two Fir Trees

Nina Ultra Pro - Punki Pink, Orange Flame, Solar Flare, Lime Light

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

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

acrylic paints

detail brush

long striping brush

Are there any seasonal designs you'd like to see me take on? I have one ABC Challenge prompt for this weekend (P for Puzzle), and then next week is Digital Dozen week again (yay!), but I'm totally curious as to what kinds of things you'd like to see throughout December. I'm a bit of a Grinch if I'm being totally honest, and don't much celebrate Christmas, so sometimes these things are not obvious to me...

xo,

J.

Catching Fire

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Hello lovelies!

Today I decided to be topical. I also wanted a bit of a break from detailed work like my last polar enterprise, though this ended up being more of a hard case than I anticipated.

Sorry about the smudging! Topcoat can be a real bitch when it wants to, hey?

My aquatic mani from a long time ago was very popular so I thought that, with the new Hunger Games movie coming out today, it might be nice to try it with fire. It was sort of a bad idea? I mean, it all got smudged and the white unders are peeking out and bah! BAH.

Anyway. I started with two coats of Don't Pretzel My Buttons, followed by painting on the fire shapes with French White. I then painted on the fire bits with the rest of the colours, going from yellow to red.

Polishes used:

OPI - Don't Pretzel My Buttons, Y'All Come Back Ya Hear?

Nina Ultra Pro - French White

Revlon - Electric

Essence - Fortune Cookie

American Apparel - Lopez Canyon

Inglot - 724

Layla - Fire It Up (Softouch Effect 08)

Sally Hansen - Cinna-snap

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat)

Next up, Outrageous Ville. I'm thinking of something Effie Trinket inspired... makes sense, goes with the theme, might be impossible, you know. The whole shebang.

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.

Pointy Shapes?

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Hello lovelies!

Today's endeavour is C for Colour Blocking. 

I did not colour block. I'm not sure what to call this, but most colour blocking I've seen involved striping tape, and I am not on speaking terms with striping tape. 

So this was (messily!) freehanded with four different polishes on a clear base: Rendezvous (ironically takes FOREVER to dry and WILL smear in top coat... What gives, Seche? What happened to the Vite part??), Love at First Sight, Streetside NYC, and Xixabangma. Of note is that all of these shades were 1 coaters, which I know because I did a plain skittle on my Cinderella hand. ONE COATERS!

I think my top coat and base coat decided to get together and have tons of little bubble babies. I cannot otherwise explain their presence. (Though I didn't see a stork, so I might be wrong.)

I think this look would be pretty sharp if I were to redo it in acrylics. I'd be able to get in a lot more detail. So that's a scheme on the back burner for now, along with all my other schemes, 90% of which I forget the moment I consign them to the aforementioned back burner.

Polishes used:

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

Seche - Rendezvous

Cult Nails - Love at First Sight

Elevation Polish - Streetside NYC, Xixabangma (discontinued! sob!)

detail brush

I'm off to the mountains (actually, I'm already IN the mountains-- I am transmitting this from the past by magic)! I'll be back tomorrow afternoon, so I hope to get in my D prompt for you darlings tomorrow evening. :)

xo,

J.

Teal Paisley

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Hello lovelies! Tonight I have for you a look I posted to my Instagram last night, but posted so late that I wasn't able to get a post up.

I did twin nails with @amylovesnewwave over on Instagram and we opted for teal paisley print in honour of Teal Nails for Scleroderma, an awareness-building campaign that sheds light on scleroderma, a disease that affects the skin and several organs and for which there is no cure.

You can see our mutual attempts by clicking here.

This was a lot of fun to do, actually. I used a base of Jacqueline, with shapes in Tracie and Anna Maria. The gold embellishments is all acrylic paint.

Polishes used:

Zoya - Jacqueline, Tracie

Contrary Polish - Anna Maria

gold acrylic paint

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

Are there any causes very close to your heart that you've tied into your hobbies before?

And a (rather late) happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians! I hope you've all had an excellent day. :)

xo,

J.

Rhinestone Skittlette!

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Tonight I have something blingy for you!

I recently read Marta's wonderful tutorial on skittlette manicures and thought, you know what, I want to give that a try! And then I promptly overdid it.

For this look, I started with a base of My Vampire is Buff, followed with dots in Tempest and a pinkie in Once In a Lullaby (four coats! It's not a very dense glitter, but it IS lovely). I found the rhinestones at Born Pretty and affixed them on a thick coat of Gelous, topped with top coat.

I realize that the pinkie is supposed to be the blingiest and the middle two fingers are supposed to be the intermediates, and I appear to have inverted that order, and it's a whole hunk of hot mess as a result, but I like it anyway. And you know why? RAINBOWS, THAT'S WHY.

Polishes used:

OPI - My Vampire is Buff

Cult Nails - Tempest

Maya Cosmetics - Once In a Lullaby

Born Pretty rhinestones

Gelous

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

'Traditional' nail art is sort of boring to me, but I do like skittlettes because they offer a lot to look at and you can use a number of beautiful polishes without cluttering them up too much. I may start introducing this look into my repertoire a bit more, perhaps in lieu of my Swatch Saturdays (Skittlette Saturdays!) -- any thoughts on that?

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!