DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Black & White Music Notes

Nothing to Disclose

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:

DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Hallowe'en Skittle

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies! It's the last day of my very first Digit-al Dozen week! I SURVIVED.

Today I have for you a Hallowe'en-ish skittle. I saved it for last because, A) I think it's the most accomplished in terms of what a skittle manicure is really all about, and B) it means it's closer to Hallowe'en proper.

Where do I even begin with these? Okay, okay. Thumb is two coats of Lopez Canyon with Xixabangma detail. Index is one coat of Streetside NYC with Camelot detail.

Middle finger is one coat of Xixabangma with Lopez Canyon / Streetside NYC / Camelot detail. Ring finger is two coats of Camelot with studs. Pinky is two coats of Lopez Canyon with two coats of 205 layered over top.

Don't even ask what the middle finger is; I have no answer to that question.

Polishes used:

American Apparel - Lopez Canyon

Elevation Polish - Streetside NYC, Xixabangma

A England - Camelot

Inglot - 205 (flakie)

1.5mm studs from Born Pretty Store

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

Rica - Glossy Glam (top coat)

detail brush

dotting tool to pick up studs

Do you have any Hallowe'en plans? I went out and bought a pair of plaid satin pyjamas and a grey satin half-robe today, because I am going as Hugh Hefner. That's right. And my older boyfriend will be outfitted with bunny ears. :) We have three (THREE) Hallowe'en parties to go to, all of subsequent weekends! Phew!

xo,

J.

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

FLAKIE GRADIENT OH YEAH

This one is going to be picture-heavy. There was no way for me to capture the true multi-chromatic awesomeness of this manicure, but I gave it my most valiant shot. This is my take on the matte flakie gradient over at More Nail Polish.

drool

A quick run-down of the method here, and then I'll let the photos do the talking. I started with a base of GOSH Nero, a super-opaque black creme. (Actually, it's kind of thick, so I thinned it down some to get it to better self-level.) I then did vertical stripes of Nfu Oh 38 (red-orange flakies that shift to golden-green), Inglot 205 (golden-green flakies that shift to aqua), Nfu Oh 39 (bright green flakies that shift to turquoise), and Inglot 204 (glowing deep blue flakies that shift to royal purple; this is the only transition that I just couldn't eke out for these photos). I did the same pattern on my ring fingers, except using horizontal stripes, and I mattified the middle fingers.

more drool

excuse the lesser quality; I was drooling away in the car for this one so I had to use my phone

rainbowsssss

I am unclear on how I will ever one-up these puppies

Here is a huge picture to show the multi-chromatic shift as I change the angle of my fingers:

editing this in Photoshop made me realize how much I suck at Photoshop

And, lastly, an awkward, too-dark video to show this manicure in action. Maybe eventually I'll be better at stuff like this. Not going to put any money on it.

While I was out stomping around in the snow taking most of the above photos, a raven came to visit! These photos do absolutely no justice to his(?) size. A seriously amazing bird. The height of my forearm, easy, with (of course) an impressive wingspan. Love!

And just for the heck of it, I got my Black Milk order in the mail yesterday, and now that I own Mucha leggings, my life may well be complete:

La Trappistine leggings by Black Milk Clothing, as viewed through a crappy phone pic

I am plotting seriously awesome things for the beginning of next week, which I hope I will pull off as awesomely as I have them in my head. We shall see!

Polishes used:
Nfu Oh - 38, 39
Inglot - 204, 205
NYC (New York Color) - Grand Central Station (topcoat; loving it so far)
Essie - Matte About You


J.

Flakie Swap Mani + Stamping + Matte

There has to be a more elegant way of phrasing these things.

When The Polishaholic's collaboration shade with piCture pOlish, Mallard, arrived in the mail, I decided it really needed to be paired with its kissing cousin, Sephora by OPI's 212-Sephora. And then I had to screw around with it some more, because that's how I roll.

DOUBLE CLAW ACTION (flash on left, daylight on right)

I cropped that one aggressively to spare you the sight of my awful little wrists. You can kind of guess at the horror as it is, but I promise the worst got the chop.

For this, I did a swap mani with Mallard on my left hand and 212-Sephora on my right, switching the polishes for the double accent nails (middle and ring). I then stamped the giraffe(?) print image from Bundle Monster plate #BM-313 on both my ring fingers using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Silver Sweep. Then I top coated the double accent nails with Essie's Matte About You.

Whew.

As I tenderly pat the leather couch.

This was my first time stamping, ever, so the outcome was a little wonkier than I'd like, but it'll do. The following photo shows the flakies in action: while Mallard's show up very orange and very green at the same time, 212-Sephora's are predominantly copper-orange that shift to green at extreme angles.

Stamping wonk!

A close-up to show how the matte topcoat brings out the flakies more:

go macro lens, go!

A bit about these polishes... Mallard applies slightly thick, but it isn't at all unmanageable (like buttery, but a notch more viscous). Its first coat shows off the (surprise!) VERY teal base of the polish, and it's opaque and emerald-shimmery at two coats. The flakies are sparse and medium-sized, and it's easy for the base polish to cover them up. 212-Sephora was a huge PITA. I know lots of bloggers are fond of SOPI polishes, but I've yet to find a single one that doesn't make me want to punch something. It was alarmingly streaky on the first coat, and super-watery. I expected the base to be thinner to account for the different kinds of glitter, but I haven't had a polish make a run at cuticle-flooding in a long, long time, and yet this one did. It's a black-brown base that ends up looking like a dark bronze-khaki when at opacity. It needed a generous three coats to get there and to even everything out. Its flakies are smaller and more numerous, and its shimmer is coarser (almost micro-glitter) compared to Mallard's. It also technically contains holo particles, but good luck finding those on the nail. Mallard's thickness meant that Good to Go again played its magic shrinkage trick, though it wasn't so bad this time. I think I'm going to have to start a database of which top coats shrink which brands of polish...

And I leave you with an awkward and vaguely evil hand-clasping. Deploy the skeleton fingers!

In case you find this way intimidating, know that I took this photo with a blanket over my front like a bib.

Polishes used:
piCture pOlish - Mallard
Sephora by OPI - 212-Sephora
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Silver Sweep
Essie - Good to Go
Essie - Matte About You


J.


PS: LOOK WHAT I JUST GOT! Tortoiseshell mani, here I come.

Elevation Polish nail mail! <3