DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Vintage Polka Dots

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Hello lovelies!

TWO POSTS IN ONE DAY! I was so chuffed after my last post that I immediately took to Google and found something else vintage-y to produce for you!

This was inspired by this polka dot pattern I found on DeviantArt. I started with a base of Rue (which took three coats to opacity, and was mysteriously sort of lumpy?), and then did dots with Crescent Heights, Where Did Suzi's Man-Go?, and Blowing Raspberries.

After that, I did two coats of top coat to protect the base, and did the 'watercolour' technique with Chelsea Physic Garden and Moody Blues. I then sealed everything in another coat of top coat. And then bumped my index and thumb badly while opening a bottle of wine. (This is, in a nutshell, everything you need to know about me.)

Polishes used:

Zoya - Rue

American Apparel - Crescent Heights

OPI - Where Did Suzi's Man-Go?

butter LONDON - Blowing Raspberries

nails inc. - Chelsea Physic Garden

piCture pOlish - Moody Blues

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat)

dotting tool

square brush for 'watercolouring'

I like this effect, it's like a kind of verdigris... I look forward to doing it over more complicated patterns, probably using jellies next time for optimal ageing.

AND I FINISHED! AND IN THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY! I'm so pleased. Thank you, Dionysus, for all that you do.

xo,

J.

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An InLinkz Link-up

Subway Map

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HELLO LOVELIES!!

Have you missed me? I missed you, too. I've had a quiet holiday season, which is a good thing in my books. I hope yours was everything you wanted it to be.

I'm, in fact, about to go play some drunken Super Smash Bros. Brawl, because we have a Wii and it's the right thing to do, but first-- I have nail art for you!

I don't even know. Really, not even a clue. I think it was vaguely inspired by subway maps?

My base for this was one coat of Silver Sweep, followed by two coats of Atomic. The thicker lines are done in Camelot, using my striping brush. The wee thin lines are cheater lines; I did those with a .005 Copic liner pen.

Sorry about the cat hair above. Didn't realize I had to sticky-roller my lightbox. If someone would stop sleeping in my lightbox, this would probably not be an issue. Alas, it IS a box, therefore it is to be slept in, apparently.

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen - Silver Sweep

piCture pOlish - Atomic

A England - Camelot

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat)

.005 Copic liner pen

liner brush

What are you hoping for in 2014? I'm hoping for a job, mostly. That'd be a killer start to my year! :)

xo,

J.

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.

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Deconstructed Snowflakes

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Hello lovelies! Just a quick post tonight, as I'm off babysitting with my friend Andrew and we literally just took the toilet apart because one of the kids threw a toy train down it earlier in the day and it was irredeemably clogged. Ah, children. Little bundles of joy and unrestrained havoc.

Anybody who follows me on Instagram or Facebook saw something sort of vaguely like this that I did yesterday. Well, that started chipping almost immediately (blasted Marc Jacobs polish!!), so I decided to redo it in more seasonal colours.

All of this vertical-line-ness started with my seeing this manicure by the inimitable Spifster. She's an amazing nail artist and you should be following her. At any rate, I could do various iterations of this design over and over again forever.

I started with three coats of Dream, and the white is Tempest, all done with my striping brush and a dotting tool. With these seasonal colours, I thought I'd do something that looked, well, seasonal. When I finished, I thought it looked like Picasso's take on snowflakes, hence the title of this post.

Polishes used:

Zoya - Dream

Cult Nails - Tempest

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

striping brush

dotting tool

Like I said, expect more of this kind of thing from me in future! But I will go a bit more detailed in my next nail art for you, my lovely readers, because you're here for the Good Stuff. ;)

xo,

J.

SIMPLE SUNDAY: Holiday Lights

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I lied about avoiding holiday things. But I was seriously stumped, lovelies, I was!

You see, my prompt this week for my Follow the Devil ABC Challenge was N for Neon. NEON! There's a foot of snow on the ground outside (no, not exaggerating) (there may in fact be more than that) (it was -15˚C/+5˚F out today). How the bloody hell am I supposed to use neons at this time of year??

This was my answer. Holiday lights, loosely inspired by Sarah at Chalkboard Nails. (Hers are way nicer, naturally.)

I started this look with two coats of my trusty Camelot, followed by one thick coat of Masquerade for interest. I then dabbed on the white circles with White On (diluted in acetone) and a cotton bud, and dabbed Moon overtop of that for the glow effect (seen below). I painted the bulbs on using undiluted White On and my Nina Ultra Pro neons, used Seraphina for the wire, and topped it all off with top coat.

If I were to do this again, I would bother to dilute the neons with acetone and daub them onto the circles as well, for lighting congruity, but I didn't want to get overly complicated with a Simple Sunday design. I'd also recommend just using white acrylic paint and a tiny brush to do the wire, using nail polish made it way too thick.

Polishes used:

A England - Camelot

piCture pOlish - Masquerade (no longer available)

Sally Hansen - White On

Americal Apparel - Moon (glow in the dark)

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

Zoya - Seraphina

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

cotton bud

acetone for diluting nail polish

medium detail brush

tiny detail brush

I will try to make my next design less holidays-ish, more just plain wintry. Because, I assure you, I have plenty of inspiration in that department. Maybe I'll even do a mani for all your crazy Americans and your way-late Thanksgiving! ;)

xo,

J.

Guest Post by Kate #2!

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Sometimes, I do my boyfriend's daughter's nails. I don't often post about it (in fact, I've only posted about it once before), because I figure there are really only so many iterations of pink and sparkly that you need to see. But today we did something different!

We used Angry Birds stickers! Albeit sparkly Angry Birds stickers (which cause no end of trouble for my camera to focus on).

It is infinitely harder to paint on such tiny nails. Those above are slingshots (they look more like it in person, without the glare). I started by painting two coats of Blue Balloon on all her fingers, then used White On for the little clouds, Mutagen for the grass, and a combination of Dominate and Camelot for the slingshots. The birds, hands, and pigs are all nail stickers I found... somewhere... a long time ago. Sorry about that.

Polishes used:

GOSH Cosmetics - Blue Balloon

Sally Hansen - White On

I Love Nail Polish - Mutagen

Revlon - Dominate

A England - Camelot

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

I will have some 'real' (as in, on me) nail art for you either later tonight or tomorrow afternoon, depending on how much I feel like editing photos, haha. It'll be glowy, though, so hopefully it'll be worth the wait!

xo,

J.

DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Black & White Lined French

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Hello lovelies! Saved you the best for last.

At least, I think they're the best. I may be biased, though, because this look was done before the move, when my nails were in their long, squoval glory. Oh, how I miss them. GROW, NAILS, GROW!!!

You know, I only noticed that the lines on that one stud were facing the wrong way after I'd taken photos, so I'm going to pretend it was on purpose.

This look started off with a coat of Nail Foundation and a coat of Nail Glow. Once dry, I taped off the French tips with those sticky guide thingies (you know the ones), and sponged on a gradient of Tempest and, if memory serves, Recycle. I then removed the stickies, used Camelot to freehand on the thick lines, and topcoated/stuck the studs on.

At the time, the following ring was brand new to me, so I had to include it in photos. Mostly because it's by Bliss Lau, and she rocks killer geometric nail art like this all the time.

Ooh, aah.

I really AM pretty happy with these. Better than the last time I tried this, don't you agree?

Polishes used:

Cult Nails - Tempest

China Glaze - Recycle

A England - Camelot

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

Dior - Nail Glow (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

studs from The Nail Room (a word of note: these come holo-looking, but acetone removes the holo)

liner brush

cosmetic sponge (for the gradient)

I can't believe that's it for another rendition of Digit-al Dozen week! Where does the time go? Next month is full-on festive, so you've got a month to whip out your Non-Denominational Wintery Holiday decorations and get in the spirit! (And I promise not to mention anything more about said N-D.W.H. until then!!!)

xo,

J.

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DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Black & White Sketched Flowers

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Hello lovelies!

Todays' mani is an attempt at a technique invented (as far as I know) by Precious Polish. She's busy nowadays, so doesn't get to post as much, but you need to be following her. She's amazing. Her sketchy style (cf., her recent penguin, elephant, and owl manis) is a real coup de coeur for me.

I have not done her style justice. I'm not done aping it, though-- I will find another reason to bust this sketchy style out, I'm sure.

What is up with the lobster hands? I have no idea.

This look began with two coats of White On, followed by sketching in increasing order of opacity: Ridnitsohkka, Recycle, and Camelot. (I'm kind of digging this week's theme if only because it also shows how much you can do with the same few polishes over and over!)

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen - White On

Elevation Polish - Ridnitsohkka

China Glaze - Recycle

A England - Camelot

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

tiny detail brush

Tune in tomorrow for the last instalment of this Black & White week! And it's a blast from the past! (You'll see why.) (No, I'm not telling.)

xo,

J.

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DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Black & White Plaid

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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.

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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.

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