2012/09/22

Picture Dump (I)

Just a bunch of pictures
Here's a few more or less successful manis from the last few weeks. I haven't gotten around to post them before due to either laziness or crappy quality of picture and/or nails. So please excuse any stray polish on cuticles (eh, eponychium, to be correct), hang nails, annoying instagram filters, etc... Instagram filters are, by the way, a guilty pleasure of mine. But you should know that I try use them to show of the colours as close to how they look in real life as possible.


I really like the ring and little finger here. They remind me of poison frogs!


Water marble on my nephew Jack.
Hey, I meant them to be uneven!

Ooh, I liked this one. Colour themed and with some bare nail on the middle finger.

A variation of this mani. I loved the other version, but this came out a bit too cute and bridal for me.

This is probably the kind of mani I've worn most in my life. It's quick and simple to make, and it shows of some bare nail which I've always been partial to.

2012/09/17

Galaxoid

Dots on dots over dotting

Disco galaxy nails? Not sure how to term these, but I like it. The smaller dots are made the Arya Stark way: the pointy end of [a] needle. The bigger dots are made directly with the nail polish brush on a zip lock bag (see picture below). I like using dense glitter such as Nails Inc.'s Chelsea Embankment (gold), Chelsea Square (rose gold) and Electric Lane (holographic) as the middle dot. It's like pretty, home-made jewellery to stick on top of any manicure!
 
 
Figure 1.
Figure 2. Because I'm both lousy with cameras and indecisive.

This old spoon experiment I've made a while back was the inspiration, and this was in turn blatantly inspired by Disco Nail. If you are not familiar with Disco Nail, check it out. There's no nail artist I adore more. By the way, that hole in the middle of the tallest palm tree is no hole but a large rhinestone shot in the one angle where it kind of disappears. Curious!

I love to premake stuff like this on zip lock bags. You can make thick dots and let them there to dry for as long as you want. I've used this trick to be able to make manis on my 6 year old niece, who otherwise will smudge it during the eeeendless drying time. Because of that, I have quite the experience with making tiny ladybugs on zip locks...
Products used:
Nails Inc Chelsea Embankment
Nails Inc Chelsea Square
Nails Inc Electric Lane
China Glaze For Audrey
China Glaze Ride the Waves 
China Glaze Pelican Grey
China Glaze Pool Party
China Glaze White on White
OPI Don't Touch My Tutu!
LancĂ´me Le Vernis 011 Piha Black
Isadora Wonder Nail #702 
Isadora Wonder Nail #651   

2012/09/13

Subtle Gradient


My nails are back!

Slowly but steady my hands and nails are getting back into a form I can dare to show off. The first few days after getting back, my cuticles were so full of small cuts and dry cracks that acetone really wasn't something I longed to introduce to them. Ouch. 
 
Here's a simple elegant mani - a purple to brown gradient with gold glitter on top:

Products used:
Essie Bangle Jangle
Essie Chinchilly
Deborah Lippmann Boom Boom Pow