DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Pond Skittle

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies! Another skittle for you today, and this one's kind of Skittle-coloured!

For this mani, I whipped out my... trusty jellies. YEAH. JELLIES.

This technique is called a 'pond mani' because you sandwich layers of designs between layers of jelly polish, making it look like there is a lot of depth to the manicure. It was invented by someone very clever, and that person was assuredly not me.

The order of polishes, thumb to pinky, is: Guy Meets Gal-veston, Y'All Come Back Ya Hear?, JS34, JS29, and JS28. 

My favourite is JS34. That shade of green makes me go weak in the knees. One might even say that it is particularly... pulchritudinous. *wiggles eyebrows*

There is a fluff in the above picture. You have my apologies for the oversight. But the bows are cute, aren't they??

Polishes used:

OPI - Guy Meets Gal-veston, Y'All Come Back Ya Hear?

Nfu Oh - JS34, JS29, JS28 (all of the JS are discontinued now-- insert sad face here-- you'll have to find jellies elsewhere. I know that Twee & Honey make some!)

Cult Nails - Tempest

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

Rica - Glossy Glam (top coat)

My favourite skittle is tomorrow! Favourite one! I am excited! Watch me deploy my exclamation marks!!

xo,

J.

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

Triangular Rhinestones from Born Pretty Store + Another Guest Post!

 Press Sample

I have a bit of a special post for you lovelies tonight! And not just because I went oval-ish with my nails aaaaAAAAHHHHHH

Born Pretty Store were kind enough to contact me about reviewing products, and I had to jump on these amazing little triangular rhinestones (#17): 1 Box Shiny Candy Colorful Rhinestones Geometric Shape Acrylic UV Gel Nail Art Decoration! Aren't they precious? At 1.5mm, they are definitely on the tiny side, and you'll need some patience working with them, but this look took me about 20 minutes per hand, so definitely not the same ballgame as glitter placement. (At the link above, #18 are 2mm triangles, which might drive you less nutso to place on the nail.)

Pardon the index finger, not sure when/how that happened. :/

This isn't the first time I've ordered from Born Pretty for my nail art needs-- I've purchased from them twice before. Free worldwide shipping is definitely slow shipping (usually about 3 weeks), but I haven't had a package go AWOL and my orders are always correct, which boggles the mind when you consider how many products they stock. They are a fixture in the nail art community for a reason!

This look was simple: paint 3 coats of My Vampire is Buff, apply a NON-QUICK-DRY topcoat where needed, use a dotting tool dabbed in some topcoat to pick up and place the rhinestones, and seal with quick-dry topcoat when done. It's much more subtle than most of the nail art I do, but I'm kind of digging it! They look like Technicolor four-leaf clovers!

AND GUESS WHAT-- I did another guest post! This time, over at Tips and Topcoat! Lou is incredible, you really need to check out her work. Click here to see the post, and again, give her blog some love!!

Polishes used:

OPI - My Vampire is Buff

Born Pretty Store - 1.5mm triangular rhinestones (#17)

Duri - non-yellowing topcoat

la couleur couture - 2013 (quick-dry topcoat)

dotting tool

I'm going to visit family and friends in Montreal until the 29th, so posting will likely be sporadic. I have shipped myself a box of polish to use while I'm there (oh, don't you even judge, you know what it's like), so I promise to at least have posts of SOME sort for you-- likely straight-up swatches (gasp).

AND DON'T FORGET: if you decide to buy these rhinestones (or anything else) from Born Pretty Store, use my discount code ABCQ10 for 10% off your order!

xo,

J.

Neon Brushstrokes

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies! I'm on the fence about this one; maybe you can help me figure out if I like it or not.

I got this idea from Missy's somewhat similar brushstroke-ness-thing. I like hers way way WAY better.

For this look, I began with a gradient of Sacred Ground, Ridnitsohkka, and Tempest. I then did brushstrokes on top with Punki Pink, Solar Flake, Orange Flame, Lime Light, and Charisma. I topped it off with little studs from Born Pretty.

Polishes used:

Cult Nails - Tempest

Spa Ritual - Sacred Ground (this polish is amazing, if you do not own it you are crazypants)

Elevation Polish - Ridnitsohkka (being reformulated; restock due 7 August 2013)

Finger Paints - Punki Pink, Solar Flare, Orange Flame, Lime Light

Zoya - Charisma

Orly - Bonder (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

black 1.5mm studs from Born Pretty

So, yea or nay? I honestly am not sure. I think I liked this in principle way more than in practice. At any rate. Until next time, my lovelies!

xo,

J.

Alphabet Soup

Nothing to Disclose

This will be a quick post -- on my way out the door, and my laptop is going to die! Aie aie aie!! This was an Instagram challenge, and I was assigned the letter W.

All acrylics on a base of Tempest. :) I wanted to go for a simple visual style, like those cards that they put up in kindergartens to help kids learn the alphabet. I hope I succeeded!

Polishes used:

Cult Nails - Tempest

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

acrylics paints

detail brush

I have neons on the horizon! Missy has been inspiring me!!

xo,

J.

Rhinestone Skittlette!

Nothing to Disclose

Tonight I have something blingy for you!

I recently read Marta's wonderful tutorial on skittlette manicures and thought, you know what, I want to give that a try! And then I promptly overdid it.

For this look, I started with a base of My Vampire is Buff, followed with dots in Tempest and a pinkie in Once In a Lullaby (four coats! It's not a very dense glitter, but it IS lovely). I found the rhinestones at Born Pretty and affixed them on a thick coat of Gelous, topped with top coat.

I realize that the pinkie is supposed to be the blingiest and the middle two fingers are supposed to be the intermediates, and I appear to have inverted that order, and it's a whole hunk of hot mess as a result, but I like it anyway. And you know why? RAINBOWS, THAT'S WHY.

Polishes used:

OPI - My Vampire is Buff

Cult Nails - Tempest

Maya Cosmetics - Once In a Lullaby

Born Pretty rhinestones

Gelous

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

'Traditional' nail art is sort of boring to me, but I do like skittlettes because they offer a lot to look at and you can use a number of beautiful polishes without cluttering them up too much. I may start introducing this look into my repertoire a bit more, perhaps in lieu of my Swatch Saturdays (Skittlette Saturdays!) -- any thoughts on that?

xo,

J.

Pride Week, Adventure-Time-Style

Nothing to Disclose

Today I have a rainicorn for you. Yep. To the chase!:

It's Pride Week here in Edmonton, so a steed made out of a rainbow seemed to make sense. (It does!) And the base of this one is the beautiful Princess Bubblegum -- if Jindie Nails made more subtle polishes like these, I'd own every one. It applied like butter in 3 thin coats and boasts a mix of eeny weeny neon glitters in pink, blue, and purple, plus small neon glitters in pink and purple, AND blue/green iridescent glitters in micro hexes, micro squares, and micro bars. Whew!

Happy Pride Week! Ride on, you rainbow unicorns.

Polishes used:
Jindie Nails - Princess Bubblegum
Nail Pattern Boldness - Glitter A-Peel (base coat), Glitter Food
Seche Vite (top coat)
acrylic paints
detail brush

xo,

J.

Gradient Gingham

I COULDN'T STAY AWAY

The first step to fixing a problem is admitting you have a problem. I probably have a problem, but I definitely don't care.

Now... what to call these? I don't know what these are. Reverse plaid? Regular plaid? Gingham? None of the above? Whatever, I'm going with gingham because then I've got an alliterative title.

It's a super gross, rainy day here today (which is good, it's the first good rain of the season, I can pretty well hear the plants heaving a sigh of relief). As such, I wanted something colourful! And then I couldn't leave a gradient well enough alone.

Turns out I can't use a liner brush worth a damn. Look at that middle finger! For one, it's missing a line (!!!), and for two, it's on a slant! Holy jeez.

For this look, my gradient was made with the Sally Hansen colours over a base of French White to make them pop. I did the lines with Funny Bunny and the KONAD polish. It's a pretty straightforward look!

Polishes used:

Nina Ultra Pro - French White

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Fuchsia Power, Coral Reef, Sun Kissed, Green With Envy

OPI - Funny Bunny

KONAD - Special Stamping Polish in White

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Poshé (top coat)

two sizes of liner brushes

a questionably steady hand

I will still give it a few days between manis for the time being, while my cuticles continue to heal-- they are still nowhere near where I'd like 'em!

J.

SWATCH SATURDAY: Forget You

Many moons ago, Deborah Lippmann came out with a glitter topper called Happy Birthday, and it went on to become a nail blogger darling (well, at least the original version; but I think the new version to be prettier). To me, though, while it was nice, it was missing something. It turns out that something was a black jelly base.

Suh-WOON. A rainbow jelly sandwich in a bottle! When I was in high school, I went through a phase of being what I could only describe as a 'glitter goth'. This appeals to exactly that part of me.

For this, I used two coats of Glitter A-Peel, three coats of Forget You, one coat of Glitter Food, and one coat of Seche. In spite of the coats, it isn't very thick. That's because Forget You, in spite of being very glitter-dense (no dabbing needed for this polish!), is suspended in a miraculously smooth, relatively thin jelly base. It was a real pleasure to work with, almost no clean-up required.

Look at all those layers! I love the glitters peeking through the black jelly. SO MUCH.

Polishes used:

Deborah Lippmann - Forget You

Nail Pattern Boldness - Glitter A-Peel (base coat), Glitter Food

Seche Vite (top coat)

Still trying to decide what to do for Simple(r) Sunday tomorrow! AAAaaaahh.

J.

Pretty Serious Turns 1! And so does Daphne!

Today, 14 May 2013, marks something momentous: the first anniversary of Pretty Serious Cosmetics. Excellent work, Kaz and the gang! To many more fruitful years! Χρόνια πολλά!

It's also therefore little Daphne's first birthday. To mark the occasion, Pretty Serious released a special edition glitter topper called Daphne's Birthday Party. It's a very fun mix of small glitters in various colours. To me, it reads more Mardi Gras than Christmas, and that's a good thing!

For this look, I did a gradient over Calm & Clear (I painted Calm & Clear over the first coat of glitter for a jelly sandwich effect), then painted on Daphne's name with Hallelujah. I finished it off with a little blue holo heart (not that the holo shows in the lightbox).

Polishes used:
Pretty Serious Cosmetics - Daphne's Birthday Party
Spa Ritual - Calm & Clear
Contrary Polish - Hallelujah
Layla - Ocean Rush (holographic)
PVA glue for base coat
Seche Vite - top coat
detail brush

I promised you a contest entry for yesterday, and I did indeed get it done, but I haven't taken photos yet! It'll go up this afternoon for sure. :)


J.

Candied French

Hello! I thought this one would be easy to knock out both hands in a couple hours, la di da.

FALSE.

This look was inspired by the delightful confectionary nail art of @glitterfingers. Her linework style is so unique, and I love it, and I have obviously not come anywhere near it. But this is still kind of a homage to her work. (I have covered up my free edges in designs because they are irredeemably stained.)

The gummy bear is my favourite.

This began with a coat of ridge filling base coat, followed by a coat of Nail Glow. I then painted everything in acrylics and sealed it all with Seche Vite.

Polishes used:
Essie - Ridge Filling (base coat)
Dior - Nail Glow
acrylic paints in pretty much every colour
detail brush and überdetail brush
Seche Vite (top coat)

What do you think of this one? Worth the effort??


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.

Tutorial: Jelly Watercolour Nails

Hello!

By popular demand over at Instagram, here is a rudimentary tutorial for the jelly watercolour nails I showed you last Saturday.

We begin with two coats of the base colour (I used Funny Bunny), followed by two generous coats of a thick quick-dry topcoat such as Seche Vite or Poshé. The topcoat is important, as it protects the base colour from bleeding during the watercolouring. The base colour doesn't need to be perfect (i.e. if you use a jelly like I did, don't worry too much about unevenness) because it will largely be covered up in the end. Wait until the topcoat is very dry, or else adding other polishes and/or acetone to it will cause it to behave strangely and perhaps go all sticky/mushy.

Gather all the jellies you want to use, plus a flat brush (I used my small one-stroke brush). The brush needs to have a good-sized flat surface but the shape of the tip doesn't matter.

This one stroke brush is stained from the love of projects past. And that sounds gross now that I've typed it.

Dab a few rounded spots of your first jelly colour onto your nail, then dip your brush in pure acetone and dab the side of the brush onto your jelly spots. This is important! Do not use the tip of the brush, you'll just dig into the jelly and cause bald spots. The key is to dab with the side of the bristles so that the acetone and the jelly polish mix and the resulting liquid can be 'dabbed around' the nail. This is hard to explain, but hopefully that gives you an idea!

I have my brush angled up here because I was trying to show the pale orange liquid that formed when the jelly polish and the acetone mixed. If you dab like this, you'll remove your entire spot from your nail, or else just maim it a lot!!

This is what I ended up with after dabbing around my orange spots:

Now I'll just show you before and after shots of each of the other colours of jellies. The process is the same for each.

Once you've gone through all of your jelly colours, wait until they are dry -- this shouldn't take very long, you won't have used much polish and the acetone will speed things up -- and then clean up your cuticles with an angled brush and acetone, topcoat your creation, and you're done!

Please let me know if you have any questions at all, I'll do my best to be helpful. :)

The list of the polishes I used is in my other post, right here.


J.

Sunbeams!

Hello! Today we have sun (though it is still cold), and to celebrate the sun after about a week of snowy dreariness, I did up a cloud mani in which the tips are actually clouds:

This manicure refused to photograph properly in the lightbox, so I don't have my usual picspam for you. (Whether this is a good or bad thing is up to you!) To do this, I began with a base of Grey-t to Be Here. Once dry, I used my striping tape to mark off the lines you see, and painted in the beams with a variety of jellies. Once all the tape was removed, I painted the sun (it's actually 4 separate colours, of which you can see all of 2 in the pictures, weep) and then cloud tips, followed lastly by the little birds.

I despise flash photos, makes my fingers look all shiny, but this way you can see the shimmer in the base colour peeking through the jellies. This was more noticeable in person and very pretty!

Lastly, a close-up of Grey-t to Be Here, so you can see the flake shimmer more clearly. It's predominantly pink, but technically duochrome, going golden at acute angles. Because the shimmer is small-particle, however, that shift is pretty well imperceptible on the nail.

Polishes used:

Essence - Grey-t to Be Here, Fortune Cookie

Nfu Oh - JS20

Zoya - Katherine

OPI - Houston We Have a Purple, Y'All Come Back Ya Hear?, Funny Bunny

American Apparel - Sunshine State

Revlon Top Speed - Electric

Quo by Orly - Lemon Drop

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure - Lavender Cloud

Contrary Polish - Hallelujah (limited edition mini; sent out with the full set of Love Lyrics minis)

GOSH - Nero

Back to the polish with me!

J.