NAIL FAIL: Quilted Nails

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Hello lovelies! Today's post is a rant post: I hate quilted nails.

I had to do quilted nails for the Follow the Devil ABC Challenge, for the Q prompt. They're soooo messy looking! It seriously challenges my perfectionist streak! But I can't skip the prompt, so up they go...

I started with 4 coats of Mirth-- a number that surprised me (I was hoping for fewer), but works in this case because it meant the polish on the nail was thicker. I applied a coat of HK Girl, and waited about 5 minutes. When the polish was dry to the touch but still indentable, I used one of those individual flossers to make the quilting indentations, which was the frustrating part -- not perfect enough! I then painted on the stitching with Passport Blue and dotted on Shirin.

Polishes used:

Mentality - Mirth, Shirin

American Apparel - Passport Blue

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat)

individual flosser

dotting tool

liner brush

I've got some important news stuff to let you know: I'm going on hiatus until January. This is because I'm moving to the new house tomorrow and we won't have Internet there until early January. I will still have cellular (on my phone and iPad), so I'm sure to get little snapshots up for you here and there on my Instagram. (If you don't have an Instagram account but would like to follow along anyway, try my Facebook page-- I will be trying to cross-post everything.) But posting to the blog will be essentially impossible without Internet at home, so I'm taking a holiday break from all of my yammering! (You're welcome. ;) )

xo and happy holidays,

J.

SWATCH SATURDAY: Dandy Nails - Chilled Down

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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.

Copper Pattern

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Hello lovelies!

Welcome to Saturday! At least, Saturday where I am. 

Today I have a very simple look for you, because I'll have to take these off sooner rather than later to do my ABC Challenge prompt (Q for quilting). But I kind of like them anyway!

This started with two coats of Lights Will Guide You, an almost black green with flake emerald shimmer and copper hexes in three sizes. It's a beautiful polish (I'm all over anything copper or rose gold, lately) but it stained my touch-up brush something fierce, so I'm somewhat wary of what'll happen to my nails. I will update this post tomorrow after removal to tell you how it went!

The designs were all done with a liner brush, a dotter, and a medium detail brush and Penny Talk. I don't know where I was going with this pattern, it just popped into my head randomly! I would have liked for Penny Talk to be more yellow-toned to go with the hexes better, but from a distance you can't really tell.

Here is a thumb macro to show you the depth and the flake shimmer!:

Polishes used:

Cadillacquer - Lights Will Guide You

Essie - Penny Talk

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat)

liner brush

dotting tool

medium detail brush

You know what I like about Saturdays? PANCAKES. My current partner makes pancakes for his kids and I. I love pancakes almost as much as I love waffles, and I actually own a waffle maker, so that should tell you something.

xo,

J.

DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Red/Green/Gold: Christmas Skittlette

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Hello lovelies! Day 2 of Nubbinses, and the final day of Digit-al Dozen Week, is upon us!

I decided to keep it simple today, with a red/green/gold Christmas skittlette.

Thumb and index are two coats of Chyna, pinkie is two coats of Filthy Rich. Middle and ring fingers are two coats of Shawn, followed by designs in Filthy Rich and some Just Nail nail art fluid that I didn't like enough to keep using (haha).

I regret now not incorporating red into my middle two fingers, but I guess that's kind of the point of skittlettes? And I wish I'd used Filthy Rich for the design from the beginning, I think I would have gotten better lines using it instead of the nail art fluid.

Polishes used:

Zoya - Chyna, Shawn

Quo by Orly - Filthy Rich

Just Nail nail art fluid in gold

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

OPI - Matte top coat (on middle two fingers)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat; on pinkie only)

medium detail brush

GUESS WHAT! We found a house to rent! I won't be homeless come January! It's a really nice house, too, all updated and stuff. I'm really excited about it. It'll be me, my friend Andrew, a couple named Josh and Alyssa, their two young boys, and my cat. A rambunctious house. :) Thank you all for your kind thoughts and words over the past little bit. Now if we could all refocus our positive energy on finding me a job, I'd be all set... ;)

xo,

J.

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

DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Red/Green/Gold: Little Bells

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Hello lovelies! Today is Day 1 of Utter Nubbily Nubbiness.

Augh!! Try not to avert your gaze. They don't bite, even if they're sort of gnarly looking. (And not the good gnarly, like Gnarly Gnails; the bad gnarly.)

I went outside the directive a bit with the base colour I chose for this; two coats of Colline du Charf. I thought I'd need three, and I probably would if my nails were longer, but for this two medium coats were perfect. I love this colour, it's so dainty and stuff. I'm not 100% sold on it as the base to this manicure, though. The bells don't stand out against it as much as I thought they would.

The bells were painted with Shirin and Filthy Rich (the little lines). The string and bell details were done with Camelot. The leaves were done with Shawn and Tracie, and the berries are Nightmaren.

Polishes used:

Elevation Polish - Colline du Charf

Mentality Nail Polish - Shirin

Quo by Orly - Filthy Rich

Zoya - Shawn, Tracie

Pretty Serious - Nightmaren

A England - Camelot

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat)

tiny detail brush

liner brush (which didn't save my lines, unfortunately; what a sorry state of affairs...)

How do you like these? What base colour would you have used?

xo,

J.

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

DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Red/Green/Gold Poinsettias

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It wouldn't be a holiday season without some poinsettias, would it, lovelies?

No, it would not. (Look at how glorious and long my nails are here! I weep for you, my pretty nails!)

For today's look, I began with a base of two easy coats of Shirin, which is way more gold and way less yellow-orange than it appears on the Mentality website (which is a good thing, for my skin tone). I then painted on the poinsettias with Fire It Up, Tomato, Nightmaren, and St. Petersburgundy. The leaves were done with Recycle and Shawn. The little dots were done with Streetside NYC and Mellow Yellow.

I didn't like these once I'd done them, I found them sloppy, but I think they've grown on me.

Polishes used:

Mentality - Shirin

Layla - Souftouch 08 (Fire It Up)

Joe Fresh - Tomato

Pretty Serious - Nightmaren

OPI - St. Petersburgundy

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Recycle

Zoya - Shawn

Elevation Polish - Streetside NYC

Sally Hansen - Mellow Yellow

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat)

medium detail brush

My adventures in nubbiness start tomorrow! I really can't get over it. I've broken nails before but it hasn't ever really been this bad. It'll take at least a month to get any reasonable sort of length back. But I'm trying not to give up hope! Or, not hope, but resilience. Or something. You know what I mean? Sure you do. *whistles*

xo,

J.

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

DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Red/Green/Gold Holly Berries

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Hello lovelies!

Today's Day 2 mani is a day late; yesterday was full of existential greyness. Sorry about that. But here I am!

Holly berries are the easiest thing to do, in terms of holiday designs. They also hold a special place in my heart because they're one of the designs that I distinctly remember doing when I was a kid, using only toothpicks. 

I remember quite literally nothing about the polishes that I used for this mani. You have my sincerest apologies, but there's no way I'm going to be able to throw together a Polishes Used section for you today. 

The only thing I remember is that the base is, as best I can recall, Nails Inc.'s Mayfair. It's a pearly off-white that seemed worthy of the season. Macro time!:

I broke my index nail down to nub yesterday, too, just in case it wasn't apparent that it was a Really Bad Day. I have one look for tomorrow for Day 3 completed on my normal nails, and then I have to figure out if I'm up to the challenge of doing Days 4 and 5 on nubs. Eeeek. I'm a bit ashamed?! Even though there's nothing to be ashamed OF?!?! So yeah.

xo,

J.

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

DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Red/Green/Gold Abstract Christmas Tree

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Hello lovelies! It's that time of the month again! (Not THAT time of the month... but that time of the month.)

Digit-al Dozen Week! Yaaaaay!! This week our theme is red/green/gold, which is very seasonally appropriate. I've started with these abstract tree typa things.

I am a terrible blogger. I did these a good month ago and forgot entirely to write down which polishes I used. Augh! The worst! So the "Polishes Used" section today is going to be comprised of my best guess at things. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

I do remember how I did these, though! I started by painting my nails dark green. I then took a lighter green and started dry-brushing in all directions on top of the dark green before the base was fully dry (that's what gave it that texture). I then did dots in the red, and outlined them in the gold.

Polishes used:

Zoya - Shawn

American Apparel - Crescent Heights

Layla - Softouch 08 (Fire It Up)

Quo by Orly - Filthy Rich

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

no top coat, to preserve the texture

dotting tool

liner brush

I think this is my favourite mani of the entire week. I have so much Real Life stuff going on, and have had for what feels like an eternity now, that my nail art has been suffering. To date, I haven't even broken out the acrylic paints! Unheard of!! Please to be sending me your most fervent "please don't be homeless and jobless" vibes, thanks in advance...

xo,

J.

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

Puzzle Pieces

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Hello lovelies!

Today's post is all about my Follow the Devil ABC Challenge prompt: P for 'puzzle'.

This is a pretty straightforward look. It took waaay longer than it should have, though.

I started with a base of two easy peasy coats of Where the Wild Things Are. It's a beautiful polish, but it's subtle, so you won't get the full gorgeousness of it through my photos. There's a macro down near the bottom that will hopefully help with that. I am always drawn to greyed-out blues / blue-toned greys like this. Add in tiny silver glitters and iridescent glitters and micro-shards and, well, you have a polish with my name written all over it. Plus it applied like a charm, requiring almost zero cleanup.

I then painted on the squares in white acrylic paint. And here's where it took forever: I had to go over them three times to get them to opacity. (And they still aren't COMPLETELY opaque.) Argh! Once done, I used a dotting tool to place the 'interlocking' bits of the puzzle pieces in mostly random order. So long as you have a dot per side of a square, you're good to go.

Finally, here's the macro I promised you. Check out the golden/green shimmer, too!

Polishes used:

Cadillacquer - Where the Wild Things Are

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat; two coats to smooth out the bumps from the dots)

white acrylic paint

one-stroke brush for painting the squares

dotting tool

This cold I've got just won't kick the bucket. I'm a snifflemonster. I'm making tons of soups to try to rectify this, and I'm sleeping like a sloth, but still I sniffle. SNIFFLEZ 4 LYFE.

xo,

J.

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.

Graffiti Gashin

Press Sample

Hello lovelies!

Today's post features a water decal, something new to me! Let's jump right in, I'll explain as I go.

This look is loosely based on a baseball cap I have, which a long-ago ex-coworker of mine painted with 'gashin' in neon pink in a (much better realized) graffiti style. I will never wear that cap, COULD never wear that cap, but I nonetheless love it to bits.

So when David at Moon Sugar Decals, a newer water decal company, contacted me to do a review for them, I hopped on the opportunity to use these spray can decals. I started with two coats of Moody Blues, one of the new piCture pOlish collaboration shades, and then used a cotton bud to daub on white acrylic paint on the pinkie before applying the water decal. Like all water decals, you trim the decal from the page to the size you want it (I cut off the bottom bit so that I could put it on the bottom half of my nail like this), plop it in some warm water, wait about 30 seconds, then fish it out, slide the decal off the backing, and place it on the nail. 

Now, I don't have a ton of experience with water decals, so I'm not sure how most of them are. I found the Moon Sugar decal to have the thickness of a regular sticker, minus the stickiness (obviously). It was therefore a touch rigid, which meant that I had to hold down the edges for a while to make sure they stuck flush to my (rather curved) nail. It took two coats of top coat to smooth it out, but nothing extreme in that regard. The upside to the thickness is that there's no chance of ripping or distorting, which I hear is a thing that can happen with water decals. And removal was pretty easy, but you'll probably want an orange stick to scrape off the plastic film if you're using full-nail decals. 

One of the really neat things about Moon Sugar Decals is that they do custom work! So if you've always wanted, say, your logo, or a particular lace pattern, or miniatures of your favourite (non-copyrighted) artwork, or anything like that -- the sky's the limit!

Here is a macro of Moody Blues to show you that, while extremely subtle, there are in fact tiny pink sparks in the blue glass fleck base:

Polishes used:

piCture pOlish - Moody Blues (the pink bits are way more apparent in the bottle than on the nail)

Nina Ultra Pro - Punki Pink (on top of white, for the lettering)

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

white acrylic paint

cotton bud

Moon Sugar Decals in spray can (they do ship worldwide, and shipping in free/cheap!)

tweezers for manipulating the decal

This was a fun mani to do! Even if I learned that I'm crap at graffiti lettering. I actually enjoy how the G and the A came out, though they aren't very graffiti-esque...

I have a cold, I'm all stuffed up!! It's the worst! Anybody else sharing a similar affliction? I hope you get better soon~

xo,

J.

Winter Skittle

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies!

Tonight I have a skittle for you, which is a phenomenon relatively unheard of, from me.

I was running low on inspiration and so I thought it might be nice to indulge in The Season and do a winter/holiday-theme skittle. It helps that we've received a foot of snow over the past 24 hours and all I really want to do is curl up in bed with hot cocoa and never set foot outside ever again...

I started with a base of two careful coats of All Bidness, a black linear holo with gold flakes (I took some photos in direct light to show the holo, and others in indirect light to show the flakes). So here's the thing-- it was crazy thick. I pre-ordered a few CbL polishes and all of them are thick thick thick. I don't know if this is unique to the pre-order session I took part in, but I needed to let you know. Some polish thinner should fix everything up just fine, though, and in all other respects these polishes are lovely.

I then painted on all the designs with white acrylic paint and a combination of various striping and detail brushes. Yes, I realise that I have an eight-pointed snowflake, a thing that Does Not Exist. It occurred to me after the fact, thank you for not passing too hard a judgment on my poor soul. ;)

Polishes used:

Colors by Llarowe - All Bidness (the holo is stronger than my photos show!!!)

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

white acrylic paint

liner brush

detail brush

I am seriously so low on inspiration these days, I have no idea why. I think it's because all of my mental energy is going into finding myself a place to live, come January, AND finding myself a job to afford a place to live. Ay carumba. It's a mess.

xo,

J.