Technique: Dark Clouds

Winter Storm DRACO is here!! I didn’t even know we named snow storms haha. I’m not sure that is necessary. But in light of the storm yesterday, I am posting my dark cloud manicure. If you haven’t seen the cloud mani done before, here is a tutorial. I think Nailside was the first place I saw this done. It is a super easy technique and doesn’t require any additional tools! Just a fairly steady hand to get the straight polish strokes. I’ve seen it usually done with two clouds, but I love this top color so much I wanted to see as much of it as I could!

Here are the polishes I used. Base coat (dark purple) is It’s an Original by Finger Paints. The cloud color/top coat I used is Knackered by Butter London. This one of the coolest polishes I own. It looks best over dark colors, so that is why I used the dark purple as a base coat.

Sorry I don’t have any pics of the dark purple base on my nails but I believe I did 2 coats. Below is a few pictures of the final product. The Knackered is a silver with a sort of rainbow duo chrome. It looks sort of lavender on top of this dark purple, but when you look at the nail sideways it almost looks greyish turquoise.  And the tiny rainbow sparkles in Knackered remind me of rain. Perfect for dark clouds! Love this combo!  

I tried to take a sideways picture so you could see the turqoise duo chrome color but it didn' t turn out the greatest lol.

week 12: Inspired by Song (Oh Christmas Tree!)

Happy Holidays everyone! It’s week 12 of the 52 week challenge and the theme is Inspired by a song. I ingeniously used “Oh Christmas Tree” so I could do some cute Xmas nails! Here are my Oh Christmas Trees including a step by step.

FYI all the polishes are from the OPI Skyfall Collection that my wonderful boyfriend got me for Christmas :) (even the 18k gold flake one!).

Step 1: paint all the nails red! This is The Spy Who Loved Me.

Step 2: tape triangles on a few nails. I did the ring and index finger with the tree facing away from me and the thumb finger with the tree facing towards me. Its just easier to display that way.

Step 3: Paint the green trees and remove tape quickly! This green is Live and Let Die.

Step 4: Golden accents! This gold is Goldeneye I used my mini dotter tool to make a star and a few ornaments. The star at the top was really not as complicated as I thought it was going to be. I just started with a large dot of gold polish in the center of the tree tip, then dragged it straight up. Then I did that 4 more times for the other points of the star. When you drag the polish, do this lightly to avoid digging into the existing polish.

 

Step 5: Purple and red ornaments! The purple is Tomorrow Never Dies and the red is The Spy Who Love Me again (base coat polish).

 

Step 6: Then, to add some extra fancy flare, I painted on some 18k gold flakes on my non Christmas tree nails! This is The Man With the Golden Gun.

 

So, there you have it. Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas tree, how cute are you on my nails!?!

week 11: glitter

Today is week 11 of the 52 week challenge! This is sooo late because the week started on Sunday the 9th, but oh well! The theme is GLITTER!!!! So of course, I had to use as many glitters as I could on one nail... I tried to find ones in my collection that have similar colors. So basically I just picked out the silver with rainbow ones. I would call this a 4-glitter gradient.


I started with a silver polish. This is Smoldering by Revlon.

I basically just painted/dabbed each glitter polish in uneven stripes on my nail. I started at the cuticle with the finest glitter first. This is Glistening Snow by China Glaze.

Next came Ray-Diant by China Glaze. This is one of my favorite glitters.

Next, Pizzaz by China Glaze. This one is new with the winter season. pretty similar to the one above but a little larger glitter pieces.

Now for the largest glitter! This is Pinata-yada-yada by Ulta. I had to do another coat after this picture below because there was a lot of silver still showing.

Heres one more pic... If I ever do this again I would just do 3 glitters and ommit the first one (Glistening Snow). It was the only one that had more of a bright white tint to it. The other 3 glitters had more of a yellowy silver tint.

Combo: Moonraker + The Living Daylights

The poilshes used in this combo are both OPI colors from the Skyfall collection. I think they are my two favorites from the collection actually. Maybe with the exception of the 18k Gold one of course haha. I thought these two just looked fabulous together!

The aqua-silver is Moonraker by OPI. This one took 3 coats to perfect. The first two coats went on very stripy and you could see the brushstrokes. So I basically did 2 really thin coats so they dried quickly and then one fairly thick and even coat to finish.

The glitter is The Living Daylights by OPI. For this large hexagonal glitter I tried to dab on one coat as evenly as possible then I went back in after the first coat of glitter dried a little and dabbed in some more glitter in the empty spaces. I wanted the glitter to be sparse enough so you could see the beautiful Moonraker underneath!

Combo: Navy + Snow-flakes

This is a very simple combo that yields a very special effect! 

For the base coat, a dark polish looks the best for this effect. I used this pretty navy color called Up All Night by China Glaze. The flash makes it look a little brighter than it looks in person.

The top coat used is Snow Flakes by Color Club. This is basically an easier to find and cheaper version of Shine of the Times by Essie. It looks exactly the same to me :). I love it! Here's a couple more pics with different lighting.

Week 10: winter

It is week 10 of the 52 Week Challenge and the theme is Winter. The inspiration of this mani was cracked ice next to snow, kind of like the edge of a frozen pond.

Step 1: Paint nails white

Step 2: paint a coat of Snowflakes by Color Club (or Shine of the Times by Essie)

Step 3: Use clear nail polish to paint a half moon shape on your nail then place glitter immediately to that half moon of polish.

(this loose glitter is from Sally Beauty Supply and it is called Cracked Ice in Mother of Pearl by So Easy) 

Step 4: Paint on 2 thick coats of clear topcoat.

Week 9: Rainbow

Week 9 theme of the 52 week challenge is RAINBOW. This is also the first time I have done this technique on my blog. I decided I'm calling this a dripping paint rainbow.

Just for fun, I painted my nails with matte polish first for a nice contrasting base coat.

So here is my set up: Polishes for the nail I'm doing, 2 cut off plastic cups (one with a couple drops of each polish and one filled with nail polish remover), a thin paint brush or nail art brush, and a folded paper towel.

Below on the left is the red. On the right is after I painted the light pink and hot pink. Not much to this technique. I just dipped the thin paint brush in the polish and painted some thin stripes of alternating lengths.  I did this once with each color, then repeated each color to get a sort of layered look.

In between switching colors, I swished the paint brush in the cup with nail polish remover then wiped it off on the paper towel. 

Here's all the colors I used! (I listed them all left to right)

For Red/Pink:  Burgundy Flirt by Rimmel London, I'm Indi-a Mood for Love by OPI, and Brushstroke blush by Finger Paints

For Orange/Yellow:  Harvest Moon by China Glaze, Peachy Keen by China Glaze, and Pull Over by Sinful Colors

For Green: Navigate Her by Essie and Kissy by Sinful Colors

For Blue: Want my Bawdy by China Glaze, Why Not by Sinful Colors, and I Vant to be A-lone Star by OPI

For Purple: It's an original by Finger Paints and No Plain Jane by China Glaze

phew!! That was exhausting typing all those polish names out. Here's one more pretty dripping rainbow pic!