DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Vintage/Shabby Chic Floral Wallpaper

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies!

Lookit this! An on-time post!

Debbie did a floral wallpaper-type design yesterday, and I had recently seen Katy's invention of this design over at her blog, and I was inspired to give it a shot! It is something of a "second-class" design for me because I didn't invent it myself, but I'm trying to give myself a break this week. :)

For this design, I started with three coats of Don't Bossa Nova Me Around, from the new Brazil collection. It went on pretty smooth, but needed 3 coats for opacity. I then painted the roses with Poco a Poco and the leaves with Crescent Heights (I wanted to use CG's Budding Romance but my bottle won't open and I'm an impatient human being).

I then took my tiniest detail brush and went in with Camelot to do all the lines. In retrospect, I should have used Revlon's Dominate (my go-to dark brown) because it would have added to the vintage feel. I'm kicking myself over it a bit.

Polishes used:

OPI - Don't Bossa Nova Me Around

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Poco a Poco (no longer in production)

American Apparel - Crescent Heights

A England - Camelot

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat)

medium detail brush

tiniest detail brush

Today I was called into the office of the place I'm trying to work for, to meet the other admin assistant who currently works there. It was super nice, she's a total sweetheart. I know they have yet to call my references, and I'm hoping that goes well... but I'm otherwise feeling a bit better about my prospects now. :) Yay!

xo,

J.

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

An InLinkz Link-up

Elegant Rose

Nothing to Disclose

 Hello lovelies!

Today's manicure took a smidge longer than usual-- not because of the design, but because I was a bit loath to paint over the base colour!

This is what I came up with for the E prompt of my collaborative Follow the Devil ABC Challenge: elegant! I think roses are pretty elegant? Don't most people think that? They do, right? Anyway.

Base colour is two beautiful, no-clean-up-required coats of Let's Get Dirty, a super-sophisticated greyed out lavender (or lavendered-out grey, depending on how you see these things) with pinky beige tones. Kind of hard to describe! I love the wax finish it dries to, but I wanted to speed up the process (and seal my art), hence the glossy top coat.

The whole design was done with watered-down white acrylic paint and my detail brush.

I kind of think this would make a neat bridal look (and it could be tweaked to match the bouquet!), don't you?

Polishes used:

Cult Nails - Let's Get Dirty

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

white acrylic paint

detail brush

Next prompt is F for food, and I have no bloody clue what I'm going to do about that one. Help?!

And, in passing, I should mention that I'm sending happy vibes to all those who might be starting school against these past few weeks. September is always hard, but you'll make it through!

xo,

J.

Plaid and Roses

Nothing to Disclose

Did You Know: I have never done rose nail art before. How is this possible? Am I forgetting something? How did I go this long-- anyway.

Fixed that!

This look was done for a bestie triplets nail look with IG users @glitterfingers and @i_heart_nailart, both of whom are as lovely as they are skilled. I've already threatened to track @glitterfingers down in the UK to have her do my nails, holy jeez.

This is almost all polish, and more complex than it looks. Started with two coats of Tempest, followed by two coats of Iris (she is not showing up in these photos, but the added dimension of the mini-flakes is lovely in person). The solid stripes are Pelican Gray, the dark stripes are Recycle, the dots are Camelot. The roses are Mount Augustus with lines in Pic du Gar. The little leaves are Pastelchio with lines in Anna Maria. Only the black outlines of the roses are black acrylic paint.

We hope to be the nail art version of the Three Musketeers and do joint efforts every 2 weeks or so, and I cannot wait-- working with talented artists gets my creativity going like no other!

Polishes used:

Cult Nails - Tempest

Cirque - Iris

China Glaze - Pelican Gray, Recycle

A England - Camelot

Elevation Polish - Mount Augustus, Pic du Gar (shop will be reopening 31 July in the evening)

Lime Crime - Pastelchio

Contrary Polish - Anna Maria

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

black acrylic paint

detail brush

xo,

J.

One-stroke Roses

Hey, guess what! One-stroke is harder than water marbling. By several orders of magnitude. I used up a whole nail wheel only to end up with a mediocre result anyway. Those who can do one-stroke well are MADE OF MAGIC.

@seizethenail is having a contest based on 'tattoo style', and I've always found that one-stroke roses look like tattoo roses. Of course, I ended up with wild roses, not red roses. And I can't one-stroke to save my life. And this looks like wallpaper. SO IT GOES.

These are all acrylics on a base of Black Expressionism. (What a weird-ass name for a polish.)

Polishes used:
Finger Paints - Black Expressionism
Nail Pattern Boldness - Glitter A-Peel (base coat)
Seche Vite - top coat
acrylic paints
one-stroke brush
detail brush


J.