Abstract, again

Fashion mold

Random blebs of colour seems to be my favourite design. This one reminds me a bit of mold (an old yoghurt way back in the fridge? I can't be the only one to keep forgetting those). "Eeeew", you might say. "Oh, no", I'll answer, "it's fashionable mold".

 

I really should throw that yoghurt out.

Products used:  
OPI Alpine Snow
Zoya Rica
A homebrew experiment
...and mixes of the two latter

Abstract + Caviar

Abstract greyscale with caviar beads

The last couple of weeks, my computer has been breaking down every time I'm trying to update this blog. It's been a shitty computer from the beginning, Minecraft has never run properly, for example. That's ok. You need a monster computer for that anyways. But, a year ago, I was not able to play Minecraft at all anymore. I was ok with that, and moved back to playing Heroes of Might and Magic III, possibly the greatest game ever made. Then, all of a sudden, I could not even play that. It's from 1998, darn it. It should be ok, I would think. But no. Oh, well. And now, here I am, hoping that I will be able to get through a blog post before my poor computer cracks under the pressure.

Here's hoping, because I've got a neat caviar manicure to show you:

This is a really quick and simple thing to do. Black background, freehand random white stripes, smudge them with your finger, fill in some grey, black and white after a fashion. Add blobs of caviar beads. Done!

Products used:
Deborah Lippmann Fade to Black
OPI Alpine Snow
(Grey is a mix of the two above)
Ciaté Headturner Caviar Beads
Deborah Lippmann Addicted to Speed Topcoat

UPDATE:

As requested, here's a step by step tutorial.

Please excuse the badly focused pictures - you need to be a bit quick for this to work,

and taking pictures between the steps is neither recommended for the quality of the pictures nor for the quality of the manicure...   

Abstract (VI)

Black and White and Pink

For me, meditation could be defined as "to without aim or goal paint nails randomly while watching Game of Thrones for the fourth time". Of course, third, fourth or fifth time doesn't really matter, as long as I don't have to pay attention very closely. The scenes at the Wall are the best for this - it's all just snow and men in black garbs anyway, nothing much that changes between the cuts. Perhaps the white snow covers and black crows still managed to nestle their way into my head for this mani, because black and white was what I ended up with:

 

I couldn't resist embellishing he Robert Motherwellesque abstract background with some pink rhinestones. I really enjoy the contrast between the raw and random black and white pattern with the pink jewels - a thing that otherwise would be too cute for me to stomach.

  

Products used:

China Glaze White on White

Wet n Wild Ebony hates Chris

Rhinestones from Claudia Nail Decorations

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!

Lancôme Le Vernis 011 Piha Black

Isadora Wonder Nail #702 

Isadora Wonder Nail #651   

Abstract (IIII)

I've got green thumbs!*

* Not shown in picture: green thumbs 

Just some random sprouting emerging from a golden soil french tip. I'd like to think I have a pinch of Per Kirkeby-spirit thrown in there: 

All polishes used were custom mixed on the go.

Abstract (I)

  B/W + neon

Inspiration: oogling Disco Nails and the Illustrated Nail

Five different abstract designs using black, white, neon pink and rhinestones:

Tutorial for ringfinger here, and for middle and pinkie here.

Products used:

China Glaze Liquid Leather

China Glaze White on White

China Glaze Pool Party

Barry M Croc Nail Effect

Depend Art Liner in black and white