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!

week 6: inspired by a game

Week 6 of the 52 Week Challenge theme is “Inspired by a Game". I couldn’t think of a good idea for the life of me and then I looked at my desk and saw my Rubik’s cube. Not really sure it is considers a game, but I love playing/sloving it :) My best solve time is 1:26. I had to paint it with nail polish because I used it so many times and the colors were wearing off. Anyways, so that was my inspiration!

Here is my left hand with the first two colors.

Here’s the added blue. I just took my time and did it freehand, but you could also use tape for straighter lines.

Then I used a black nail art polish to do black lines separating the colors.

Here’s the steps to the Rubik’s cube I did on my thumb with the black nail art polish.

Here is the right hand with the orange, white and green polish. Turned out pretty good I think!

These are the colors I used. From left to right they are:

Pull Over by Sinful Colors, Why Not by Sinful Colors, Lacquered Up by Essie, Limelight by Ulta, White On by Sally Hansen, and Orange, It’s Obvious! by Essie.

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: My take on DOTS

dot, dot, dot...

I just did these bold and bright nails yesterday. I was trying to think of something original that would catch your eye. Surprisingly this look came out just how I was picturing it in my head, well close at least... I was picturing a close up of an old style comic. My boyfriend says it reminds him more of a rubber duck and bubbles… either way I think its fun!

Colors used: Pull Over by Sinful Colors, and Nail Art Pen in Bright Blue by Sally Hansen.

I am officially in love with this nail art pen. It was soooo easy to use, even on my right hand! It wasn’t gloppy and it has a very pointy tip ideal for any type of design you can think of! Just try to think outside the box (and not use the tacky designs on this box haha)

Now, everyone can make a dot..  I'm sure you all have seen dotted manicures or even experimented a little yourself. However, starting with larger circles and reducing to small dots like this makes a gradient effect that looks 10 times more stylish, and just as simple with the nail art pen. 

I didn’t look up comic pictures until after I was done with the nails.. I guess it doesn’t really look the same *tear* but it's around the same idea haha. I definitely want these nail pens in every color so I think I might try something more like this pixilated pic soon ;)

<3 Lala

Technique: Accent Heart

The Accent Heart

For this technique I used 2-3 coats of a dark color (here “Dive Bar” by Essie) with a small accented heart in a lighter version of the base color (here “Gorgeous” by Sinful Colors). 

An easy way to find a good accent color is to concentrate on the shine or sparkle of the base color. In this pic you can see that Dive Bar gives off a turquoise/aqua glow, almost the same exact color as the Gorgeous color I picked for this accent heart.

If you are using a solid or matte color for your base coat this trick wont apply but I will make a post on solid/bright colors later ;)

To actually make the heart I used the pointed end of a cosmetic Q-tip. These Q-tips are awesome for accents or fixing mess-ups. Very handy! I made sure the Q-tip had a good blob of nail polish on the tip and started at the “humps” of the heart. From there you can drag the blobs down to a point to form a heart and just adjust with a new clean Q-tip or even toothpick if you need to fix some edges. 

Voila! Don't get frusturated if you can't make it perfect the first time. I sure didn't ;) just keep at it and only do one nail if you want. It's more classy anyway.