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!

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!

Combo: Fresh Winter Snow

Ugh I am so embarassed. I had an old copy of the schedule so I thought that week 6 of the 52 week challenge was winter, but it is not! Whoops, it is actually "Inspired by a Game" so I guess I will have to do some new nails tonight! Darn it... the one week that I actually did it early haha oh well. Here's a pretty sparkly pale blue combo!

It's not quite winter weather yet here in the Chicago land area, but hey this combo is still pretty to look at :). I went for a simple combo of polishes to make a fresh winter snow look.

First polish: 2 coats of a pale blue or white polish. I used "I Vant to Be A-lone Star" by OPI

Second polish: 1 coat of a sheer, iridescent polish. I used "Rainbow" by China Glaze

Third polish: 1 or 2 coats of a pearlescent glitter. I used "Make a Spectacle" by China Glaze

Here's one more pic, but the one at the top of this post definitely looks the best on how this turned out.

Combo: Teal+Glitter+Matte

So I just broke my middle nail. It was a sad, sad day. I hate when my nails are different lengths so I had to cut the rest! So sad. So I needed a cute combo that looked good on my teeny tiny nails. I think the matte coat really made the Teal color look velvety. I love it! And Usually I don't like matte top coat on top of a sparkle/glitter polish but since this one was such a fine glitter... I made an exception :)

I did the teal on all nails first (Fly by OPI). Then on the 2nd and 4th finger I painted 2 coats of Kissy by Sinful Colors. Then to top it off one coat of Matte About You by Essie.


Tada! there you have it. Simple but very attractive combo.

Technique: Freehand Fishtail

I just saw this technique the other day on Reddit Laqueristas. It looks sort of like a fishtail braid. I've seen people do it much thicker than this, but if you layer the polish swipes you can get the stripes much thinner... like this!

After you've done your top coat on all 10 nails, set up all your striping polishes unscrewed in the order you want to use them. Here is mine all set up. Colors from left to right are: Why Not by Sinful Colors, Orange It's Obvious! by Essie, Houston we have a Purple by OPI, Fly by OPI, and Electric Pineapple by China Glaze.

Here's a step by step pic tutorial of how I did this fishtail look. Basically its just an alternating layered striping technique. You just use the polish brush for the stripes. The last step is in the next pic.

After you finish the striping you cover up the bottom in your base color. I used a nail art brush for better control.

Tips:
- Use a thin polish if you can and make your stripes as thin as you can.  The thinner the stripes the less the layers mix together.
- Use a sheer polish if you want the layer overlaping to show up.
- GO SLOW. this is why I only did two nails each hand. I had to go very slow to paint in a straight line.
- to have more control of your brush, steady your "painting hand" on the surface your painting. i.e. rest the pinky or ring finger of your painting hand on the table your left hand is resting on. This should steady your hand a little bit.

Technique: Missoni Gradient

This Technique was inspired by the Missoni Print. Below is a swatch of Missoni pattern for reference. My rendition almost looks a little easter egg-ish, but oh well!

For my base, I started out with thisa yummy yellow-green color (Fiercely Fiona by OPI).

then I did my first zig-zagged line as close to the top as a could. Almost like a zig-zag french! For all the lined detail I used a Nail Art Polish called "Magical Nail" by max Makeup Cherimoya. You can get like 12 of them for $15 on amazon. This one is Lavender.

Next color I used was Miss Sergeant. This one I tried to draw as close to the first line as I could, bit still leaving some space between.

Next, I used Blood Diamond. This one is much more spread out.

And lastly, to make it look more like a gradient, I filled in the yellow triangles on my nail tips with this blue color, Neon Aqua.

Tada! My try at a Missoni Gradient. I think if I do this again, I will try using tan as the base color and try to make the zig-zag more vertical. Then maybe it would look less easter eggy haha.

Technique: Summer Stripes

These fancy stripes are such a fun summer look! They take a little bit of time, but they are worth it. I’ve gotten tons of complements since I did these nails.

These fancy stripes are such a fun summer look! They take a little bit of time, but they are worth it. I’ve gotten tons of complements since I did these nails.

The way I usually do taping is to tape one whole hand first. I suggest taping your least dominant hand first because your second hand will have to be done with wet nails. 

After your taping is done on your one hand, start with the painting. Before you start, Set up your bottles on a paper towel opened and in the order you want to use them. This way you can paint and remove tape quickly. 

Colors I used (left to right): Fly by OPI, Fiercely Fiona by OPI, and Orange, It's Obvious! by Essie

Paint one nail at a time, and remove the tape immediately after taping. Below is the first painted nail before the tape is removed. Try to not run the paint into each other so your brush colors don’t mix.

Don’t forget to finish with a good topcoat! Don’t want all your hard work to chip right away. Make sure your nails are dry before you apply topcoat.

Good luck and happy summer times ;)

Technique: Feathers

It makes me sooo sad that I only posted once in May and this is my first June post! Must be the wonderful Chicagoland weather now. It's too nice to stay inside and blog!

Well here is a pretty fabulous and fairly easy technique. Try it on one nail each hand if you don't have that much confidence in your nail art skills. I did all 10, but that's because I have this great nail art polish (STRIPE RITE by So Easy) and it was a piece of cake!

Here's the color I used for the base. Pink Friday by OPI:

And here is the steps I used to make the feather. First was the stem, one simple swoop. Then branches on each side of the stem (step 2 and 3). Then the last step I lightly filled in the branges with more feathers. Real thin wispy lines. Just blend them together a little. Ta da! feathers.  

And as you can see in the finished photo on top that I alternated where the feather was on the nail. It made it more fun and interesting.

Happy Polishing!

<3 La

Technique: Glitter Layered Gradient

I am getting so excited for the Hunger Games movie to come out this weekend! I was so excited I had to buy another Hunger games polish. I think this is my new favorite. . . Luxe and Lush by China Glaze! It’s the glitter polish in the above pic. It looks kind of like broken crystal or quartz. Very Hunger games Capitol style. I just |love it.

 

For the base I used a very pale pink. This one is Step Right Up! By OPI. I used 3 coats because I didn’t want it to be transparent.

Below is only one coat. As you can see the glitter to polish ratio is quite small. So I decided to do a layered gradient!

Below left is the second coat of glitter polish. I started about a third up the nail and did an even layer. Below right is the third coat of glitter polish about two thirds up on my nail.

To apply this glitter polish thicker you have to dab it more than swipe it.  If you swipe to fiercely the glitter comes right off with the brush. If you dab with the brush, the glitter pieces stick to the nail better.

Add a top coat and there you have it! A glittered layered gradient. Only downside it is quite a few coats of polish. Next time I will probably only do 2 coats for the base.

Happy Polishing!

|La

Tip: The French Tip

For my first “Tip” post I thought it would be fitting to write about everyone’s favorite nail tip- the French of course!

My secret is the Sally Hansen French Manicure pen. SIDENOTE: I feel like I have been writing a lot about SH, but they really do have so many great nail accessories ;). This pen can be great if you know how to use it!

The first tip for these perfect tips: make sure the pen is very saturated. This is important because you don’t want to have to do a second coat- that can get super messy and ruin your first coat (cue enormous frustration). To make sure the pen is saturated, press the pen down firmly on a paper towel for about 2-3 seconds. If it looks too saturated (polish is dripping off the tip) then just lightly dab (don’t wipe) the pen tip on a paper towel.

Second French tip tip: start at the corners of the nail and work towards the middle. When I do this I don’t worry about getting some polish on my skin. It comes off pretty easily and it is only on the top. My main concern is always getting a straight line that looks the closest to what my real nail underneath looks like. I usually don’t like filling in more white polish than the white of the nail. However, if I have one stubborn nail that is a little shorter, I tend to go a little lower with the polish so it looks even with the others.

Third tip: Use a nail care stick to fix your mistakes. First, the pointed end can be used for straightening your French lines like in the pic to the left. I usually do this step immediately after each nail. If you wait to long, the polish dries and then smudges or drags the polish when you try to fix your mistake. Secondly, the beveled/angled end of the stick is perfect for getting smudges on your skin, like the pic below. I usually do this after I complete one hand. If the polish is dry you can always use a Q-tip dipped in polish remover.

Finally I usually finish my French tip with a light pink. Only with one coat though because I don’t what the color to interfere with the bright white French tip. Here I used Step Right Up! by OPI. This pink actually looks less pink and more like natural nail.

Yay for less frustrating French Tips!!!