DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Black & White Plaid

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies! Remember yesterday, when I said that today's mani was my least favourite? It WAS the truth, and then... well... read on.

I'm not sure why it is, but the moment I heard about the theme for this month's Digit-al Dozen week, I knew I was going to do plaid. It was ~fated~.

I actually had to redo this mani as the first attempt was awful. I know, I'm a perfectionist, my definition of awful may vary from the norm-- but I assure you that, in this case, I do mean awful. So I've spared you the sight of it! Hooray!

Of course, Jacob had to come say hello. And flip up my background and install himself in my lightbox until I coaxed him out of there. 

I began with two coats of White On, followed by thick lines in Ridnitsohkka. I then went into the intersections of my grey lines and filled them in with Recycle to mimic overlapping. I used White On again for the thin white lines, and Camelot for the thin black lines. My linework is improving, hey?

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen - White On

Elevation Polish - Ridnitsohkka

China Glaze - Recycle

A England - Camelot

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat)

thin liner brush

tiny detail brush

I bet you're relieved that today's mani was something more normal, right? I must have been taking a trip through the Twilight Zone yesterday.

xo,

J.

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

DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Black & White X-Ray Nails

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Hello lovelies! Here we are at day 2, and my mani today is a bit of a holdover from Hallowe'en.

Let's be honest here: did YOU have any idea what was going on if not for the title of this post?

DISTAL PHALANGES, Y'ALL. I started this with two coats of Camelot, then dabbed on the circles with watered-down White On and a cotton bud. I then painted on the main bone bits with White On, and used the watercolour technique to sort of moosh the polish around.

I should have gone to find some face paint and painted my whole fingers. That'd have been awesome! And would have contextualized these quite nicely.

Polishes used:

A England - Camelot

Sally Hansen - White On

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

pure acetone for the watercolour technique

one-stroke brush

cotton bud

I'm going to put this out there now: tomorrow's mani is my least favourite, by far. That's why it's going on Hump Day. So, uh, brace yourselves, I guess?

xo,

J.

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

DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Black & White Music Notes

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Hello lovelies!

SO BEGINS DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK #2.

This week, we're doing black and white manis. This is exciting to me. I love constraints like this, I find it helps me to imagine nail art possibilities better than being told to do anything.

For Day 1, I opted to combine my Digit-al Dozen prompt with my ABC Challenge prompt, which was M for Music. This mani started with two coats of White On and one coat of HK Girl on all fingers.

I then put two thick coats of Moonlight on my thumb and ring fingers as accent nails. To be honest, this is one place where I rubbed against my Digit-al Dozen prompt a bit. This would have looked so BOSS with a brightly coloured glitter topper, and I had just the one in mind (Moosh by Happy Hands). Argh! Oh well.

The designs were all done with Camelot and my trimmed-down long liner brush and tiny detail brush.

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen - White On

Indigo Bananas - Moonlight

A England - Camelot

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat -- trying it out, have heard good things, will report back soon)

tiny long liner brush

tiny detail brush

I'm really happy with how the lines came out in this mani! They would have been even better if I'd used a fluid acrylic paint, but for something done with nail polish, I'm quite pleased. :) Come back tomorrow for another black & white mani!

xo,

J.

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

Green Lace Moons

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GUYS. I might have a problem. I can't stop doing lace moons.

These are a little messier than I'd like, but they're killer from a distance!

These are done in the style of Tenshi no Hana -- a queen of nail art, as far as I'm concerned, and the one who (above all else) makes me want to learn how to one-stroke. Go follow her blog. Don't worry about it being in French; if nothing else, go to drool over the images.

For this, I began with a base of Earthshine. (Whoa, Google tells me that's a real word! I had no idea!) It's a beautiful and complex polish. It reminds me of a green version of my beloved custom Tryst Lacquer, Aqueous, but also of a darkened sister to Cirque's Hellebore because it's green with silver flake shimmer and faint but noticeable fuchsia microshimmer. That said, Earthshine requires major patience, as it's a four-coater. You might be able to get away with three thick coats, but then I'd worry about it never drying. As it was, with four thin coats and my trusty 2013 top coat, it still took a while to fully harden up.

The design was all done with white acrylic paint and my omniuseful tiny detail brush. Here is a zoom in on Earthshine on my unadorned Cinderella hand, just in case you needed convincing that it's worth the four coats:

Polishes used:

Indigo Bananas - Earthshine

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

white acrylic paint

tiny detail brush

I have my Follow the Devil ABC prompt still to do tomorrow (but I don't want to take these off!!! HELP). Then it's Digit-al Dozen week! I still have one mani to do for that one, so I'm thinking of maybe combining the two prompts... am I a terrible nail person if I do that? Maybe, hey?

xo,

J.

Megamendung Mani

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Hello lovelies! Told ya I'd be back today. ;)

After the strenuousness of the last mani, I thought it'd be nice to do something more relaxed. So we have clouds à la Indonesian batik. Rainclouds, specifically -- or, in their native language, the megamendung motif.

These were easy to achieve. Paint on broad bands of watered-down acrylic paint, then line the outsides with a liner brush in full-opacity paint. In an ideal world, this print would be perfect one-stroke practice. But I cannot one-stroke to save my life.

I've included the below photo of my left thumb under direct light so that you can see the holographic shards in Dream, the base polish, sort of in action (it's very cloudy here today, no chance of sunlight):

Polishes used:

Zoya - Dream

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

white acrylic paint

flat brush

liner brush

I've actually put in an order for special one-stroke brushes and acrylics from France, which I will talk more of when they arrive in a couple of weeks. It's a technique I really want to master, and the only way to do that is to practice! ;) Until I want to bang my head against things! ;) ;) Yeah!

xo,

J.

Blue Lace Moons

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Hello lovelies! I told you I wouldn't be gone long! ;)

Today I have a look I'm rather proud of.

I missed my Follow the Devil ABC Challenge prompt for this past weekend, which was L for lace. So I decided to revisit a look I'd done a while ago and try my hand at some more lace moons.

I feel like I've come a ways since then, though it's also because I used my tiny detail brush for these instead of a nail art pen nib. I find I have much better control that way.

Base is two easy peasy coats of Erudite Charm. Zoom the below photo to see the black speckles and blue microglitter in action, plus the wee copper/pink shimmer particles (which are quite hidden on the whole; I wish they were more present). This is a wonderful denim blue and I will probably use it in a jeans look in future.

Lace was done entirely in white acrylic paint. I sourced an image of lace trim from the Internet and went to work. :)

Evidently I took lots of photos of this one.

Polishes used:

Arcane Lacquer - Erudite Charm

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

white acrylic paint

tiny detail brush

I'm still woefully behind on my Digit-al Dozen manis. I hope to have another look for you on Friday, and the rest of my time will be spent playing catch up. See you soon!

xo,

J.

Snowy Windows

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Hello lovelies! It snowed overnight. Winter is officially here. There are a few centimetres on the ground as I type this. I'm getting my winter tires on tomorrow morning, provided I can drive to the tire place on my summers. I'm inconsolable. I hate winter. But it gives me an excuse to do nail art.

For this look, I was aiming for a 'candle through a snowy window' sort of a thing.

I started with two medium-thick coats of Cape Liz. I then did two coats of topcoat to protect the base from what was to follow. I painted on the candlesticks using Shawn, and dabbed on some acetone along the bottom to blur them out. The flames were done with Helios and Sulfur Blaze.

The snow was done with White On and the watercolour technique, which mostly saw me dabbling through polish and acetone with relative abandon. There was no method here; just whimsy. Finally, I took a tiny brush and dotted on the snowflakes with undiluted White On.

Polishes used:

Cirque - Cape Liz, Helios

Zoya - Shawn

Cover Girl - Sulfur Blaze

Sally Hansen - White On

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

When my nails are longer, I think this would be a cute look to revisit with little window frames covered in snow. We shall see. I might be absent for a couple days as I frantically work to catch myself up on Digit-al Dozen work (I did two manis yesterday! Both for December! WHAT). But I won't be gone long, I promise!

xo,

J.

Puffball Floral

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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.

Law of Attraction

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Hello lovelies!

So this is the polish I was drooling over in Sephora:

It's called Law of Attraction and is very aptly named. Unfortunately, it applies like molasses. It's thick as all get-out; shown are three coats which, when given the two coats of Glitter Food it needed and the coat of topcoat to smooth it all out, made for a seriously thick nail. No fun. But it's a canvas, and it needed something!

Random geometric blobs! It's seriously the only thing I could think of that would stand a chance against all that bling. I don't HATE them, but I don't like them, either. They're coming off ASAP. But I can't only show you my successes, can I? ;)

Blobs are all acrylic paint. I wish my white acrylic paint were more opaque. Next time I do something like this, I'll be using my KONAD stamping polish, I think.

I'm really excited! For reasons that have nothing to do with this manicure, but I'm going to tell you Right Here anyway because I hate having photos back-to-back without any text in-between them!! I started a pastels course in the fall of 2010 but only made it to three classes (out of 8) before my schoolwork and exams caught up with me. And I just signed up for the same course again, and am starting tomorrow evening! I'm pretty stoked. I really enjoyed it, last time, and my creativity could use a boost.

Zoom this photo: this polish is so full of bling that not even my lightbox could kill all of the holo!

Polishes used:

Formula X for Sephora - Law of Attraction

Nail Pattern Boldness - Glitter Food

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

Elmer's glue (base coat)

white acrylic paint

striper brush

Would you like to see photos from my pastels class in future updates? I will probably include them until someone tells me to stop, hehe...

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.

Basket Weave

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Hello lovelies!

Sorry for my absence lately, my sweethearts. I've been working on some secret stuff for next week and then wore the base colour for today's mani for three days unadorned (gasp)!

For this weekend, my ABC Challenge prompt was I for iridescent. I had zero clue what to do with it.

So, I totally took it the easiest way possible. Hah. Whoops?

For this look, I started with two coats of Germanicure, which is my single favourite polish of all time. I topped than off with a coat of Iris, which is comprised of tiny iridescent flakes -- how I snuck in the theme for this week! I then painted on the basket weave first in Nightmaren, then in Stardust, and finally used Funny Bunny as an accent.

The below photo shows how Stardust is duochrome; it looks pink in the centre of my thumb and golden at the edges.

Polishes used:

OPI - Germanicure, Funny Bunny

Cirque - Iris

Pretty Serious - Nightmaren

Nubar - Stardust

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

detail brush

I've been going through some rough times in the past week, my friends. (You can tell because my watermarking on these photos is kind of wonky-- I'm definitely spacey.) I'm sure I'll be back to my chatty, somewhat batty self soon. In the meantime, if anybody has any leads on teaching in Korea next year, send 'em my way! ;)

xo,

J.