Simple Aquatic + a Guest Post!

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies!

So, I survived part of the Skyline Trail. 36km worth of trudging around with beautiful views. I pinched something in my right hip and my feet have a collective 6 huge blisters, so the last major ascent/scree was not going to happen. I need to work out more before tackling 12 hours' worth of hiking!

But I do have nails for you today!

I'm doing an ABC challenge with my buddy @thedevilwearspolish on Instagram. We're calling it the Follow the Devil ABC Challenge and doing one prompt a week. This week: aquatic! I decided to keep it simple.

I started with two coats of Lavender Cloud, followed by Skylar for the water. I then went over Skylar in some places with Arctic Sunrise, Aqueous, and Love Letter to Kurt Vonnegut. Little shine details in Tempest, topcoat, and done!

Zoom in on this one for all the shimmery awesomeness of the polishes I used:

And I have a surprise for you! I did a guest post over at Gnarly Gnails, run by the inimitable Missy! I love Missy to death, she's the sweetest and has always been so encouraging in my blogging endeavours. One thing I've always appreciated about her swatches is that they show you exactly what you need to know about a polish. They're professional and sharp-looking, but they do not sugar-coat how a polish actually behaves. It's really refreshing! And did I mention she's sweet? Click this teaser image to go see my post, and give her blog some love!

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen - Lavender Cloud

Zoya - Skylar

Girly Bits - Arctic Sunrise

Tryst Lacquers - Aqueous (custom)

Scofflaw Nail Varnish - Love Letter to Kurt Vonnegut (limited edition)

Cult Nails - Tempest

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

I'm working on another surprise! I will have that for you on Wednesday sometime. I may even be able to get something up either tomorrow or Tuesday, fingers crossed!

xo,

J.

Sideways Rainbow Braid Nails

This was going to be SO GOOD. Like most things I've tried lately, it didn't quite work out that way. It's not a total disaster, it just isn't the awesomesauce I was expecting.

I've been seeing a lot of braid nails around, so I thought I'd give it a shot, but sideways, and rainbow. All things are usually better when rainbow. A lot of the colour variations aren't showing up in the photos (especially the pinky; those are 3 very distinct colours of purple, not that anybody would ever know!). This was terrible to clean up, so please don't examine my cuticles-- they're a war zone. :P

And then I bumped my ring finger and pinky while making dinner. Sadpanda.

Polishes used:

Layla - Softouch Effect 08

Inglot - 724

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Pronto Purple, Cinna-Snap

Essie - Action

American Apparel - Lopez Canyon, Sunshine State, Crescent Heights

OPI - My Paprika is Hotter than Yours

Zoya - Shawn, Sylar, Mira

Revlon Top Speed - Electric

Pretty Serious Cosmetics - Blue Gums on Boxing Day

Elevation Polish - El Cap

Girly Bits - Arctic Sunrise

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri (top coat)

Dior Gel Coat (top coat)

Until my next outrageous and unfulfilled adventure, my darlings!


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.

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.

YODA YODA YODA

Warning: this one's gonna be a bit picture heavy! And I just bought a light box, and I have no idea how to use it, so some of these are overexposed like it's going out of style (which it is; it is out of style).

A friend of mine posted a photo to my wall of Zoidberg nail art, suggesting in a way that I do nail art that uses all 5 fingers together instead of treating them as 5 little separate canvases. He then jokingly said, "Do Yoda!"

So I did Yoda.

HIYAH!

This took forever and a year, but I'm pretty pleased with the result. Not sure that it looks like Yoda (and Younger Yoda's hair is creepy and I wish I'd just left him bald), but it took a lot of patience and layers and so I love it on the principle of effort paid.

This is my source image:

I butchered him ;___;

This is another image that popped up while I was searching:

I may need this in my life.

I began with a base of Jaded (two coats; it's a beautiful, subtle scattered holo polish in a nice crelly finish but mine was mysteriously sort of... sticky? So I may thin it just a bit in future) and one coat of Street Magic. The combination was super-pretty, so here is an shot of it. Excuse the dry cuticles; that's what prepping with acetone will do to ya.

I'd get into the actual painting method, but it was long and complicated (and sort of not really a method); it involved sketching the source image at a 1.5" x 1" size, transferring it to my nails (this was a pain), outlining with black acrylic, and then doing a sort of riff on Paint by Numbers to get the colours down.

MOAR HIYAH!

If you zoom this, you can see micro-cracks in the acrylic paint, and that's WEIRD.

 Putting the pose together requires a very awkward hand position. Ouch.

Last one, I promise. I wish I could do straight lines better with my detail brush. Poor lightsaber.

BONUS: the lightsaber glows in the dark! I couldn't get the neon green colour out of my acrylics (working only with sap green), so I made up for it by making it glow. :)

I love that the lightsaber is the only thing you can see. You get the idea!!

Polishes used:
Tryst Lacquers - Jaded (base colour)
Girly Bits - Street Magic (on top of base colour)
OPI - Nail Envy Matte (base coat)
INM - Out the Door (top coat)
Poshé (top coat)
GOLDEN Open acrylic paints (highly recommended; do not dry out as fast)
0/10 brush of pure detail looooove <3

Not sure what I'll do next, but it probably won't be so involved. Heh.


J.

Harlow & Co. Valentine's Day 2013 Contest Entry

A great many moons ago (ok, I suppose a month ago), Harlow & Co held a Valentine's Day nail art contest via their FB page. I decided to enter and came up with the below:

This is an extremely uncomfortable hand position, just in case that wasn't obvious.

More after the break!