Valentine Couture

I've had this design in my head for a week now, and it came out pretty close to what I'd envisioned. I thought I'd just keep it simple this week for my Valentine's Day Manicure.

I started with 2 coats of OPI DS "Couture" - a dark pink holographic color that I just adore. 

 

Then I used my white Migi Nail Art pen to put lattice on my thumbs, and white hearts on each finger. FYI, I found it was actually easier to do the hearts on my left hand upside down. Odd, but it worked. 

  

Then I put pearlized 3D hearts in the center of each white heart to finish them off. I was pretty happy that those hearts almost perfectly matched the base polish.

  

Two coats of top coat, some clean up, and here's what they look like in the daylight (all others above at night w/flash).

 

Super simple and subtle, but blingy in the sunlight! I do love this Couture color - I'd forgotten it was in my collection.



I'm not sure what's up for next week...any suggestions?



Happy polishing - and Happy Valentine's Day! :-)

Flashy Zoya

I've been dying to try out these sparkly Zoya colors since before Christmas. I have "Luna" (Silver glitter) and "Nova" (bright pink glitter), and got out my Migi black/white pen and Essie "Matte About You" to experiment too. I started with two coats of Luna over Zoya basecoat. As you can see, my middle nail finally grew long enough for the break in the middle to tear off, so I'm stuck with a super-short middle nail for a couple weeks. I can't actually cut my nails that short anymore - the skin underneath has grown out past the tip of my fingers (presumably to support my normally long nails). I had to trim the skin off where my nail broke for that one - a painful proposition. You can actually still see the part I couldn't cut sticking up a little past the nail. Thank goodness my nails grow very fast!

Then two coats of Nova on the diagonal (I don't know why, but I'm really drawn to diagonal designs).

As you can see below, I experimented with the design I had in mind on my pinky finger. I often do that because if I need to redo it, it's a very small area to remove/re-polish. I liked it, so I started with white curving back and forth across the colors. 

Then I put black over it, going the opposite way. My lines aren't perfect by any means, but I think the "squiggles" give the design movement and a little dimension.

Then I tried the matte top coat over my pinky nail, just to see how it would look. You can see how the matte is definately a little different below - it accentuates all the little bits of glitter, rather than just being super-shiny. It doesn't really affect Luna much, but I liked it over Nova. Just not with this particular design. I'm still a high-gloss lover at heart.

So I went over them all with two coats of Zoya topcoat, and cleaned them up. Aside from a white mistake on my right hand middle finger, I think they turned out pretty well. They're quite eye-catching and flashy.

What's on your tips this week? Anything fun for these wintery days?

Porcini Matte

I had a hard time deciding what colors to use this week. But I had these (and a few other Essie colors) burning a hole in my polish drawer, so decided to just play around a little. I decided that pink and gray suited my mood at the moment. The pink is "Porcini" from Essie, and has gold mica in it that makes it shimmer very prettily. The gray is "Chinchilly", also from Essie, and really does remind me of a chinchilla's fur. I started with 2 coats of Porcini, which turned out fairly opaque, but left my tips a little translucent in the right light.

 

I couldn't decide whether to do a diagonal with the Chinchilly, or tips, but the translucent issue decided the matter. So I tipped my nails in the gray, which incidentally, was somewhat difficult to work with (odd, since the Porcini was fine). You'll notice my smile lines are a bit "off" - I blame it on the polish. 

I wanted to add some sort of simple design, but not too much. So I got out my dotting tool, and just added a few gray dots falling below the smile line, curving  up and back down.

Then I added a few pink dots above the smile line, for a little added interest. This is where it gets a little funky. That happens sometimes at 1am. I had my Essie "Matte About You" topcoat sitting there, and decided to see what the design would look like in matte.

 

Interesting, no? It looks like porcelain to me, almost velvety, and merges the dots and background colors into what looks like a solid pattern. I was rather intrigued, and decided to leave it that way for the time being.

 

Here's what it looks like today, all cleaned up. You'll notice I've got some tip-pull already...I think that's my base coat. I need to get a fresh bottle. I'm not sure I like how Porcini looks in matte form next to my skin, but I do like how these turned out, over all. I haven't played with this matte topcoat nearly enough, methinks. I may go back over them with glossy topcoat later in the week, just for something different.



Next week, I have some of thoes Zoya ultra-sparkly glitters to try, and I think I'll see what this matte topcoat does to them. Might as well experiment before the matte trend disappears, right? Or do you think it will stick around for awhile? Do you wear matte polishes?

Cosmic Dot Meltdown

For this week's manicure, I finally decided to dig into my Urban Decay polishes (released last fall). I decided on "Meltdown", with a top coat of CND's new "Effects" polish in Raspberry Sparkles. This was incredibly difficult to photograph with the micro-glitter and foil effect. Hopefully you can get the gist of it.



I made it thorough most of the week without polish, and my nails made it through with only one bad break point. As you can see below, my middle finger ended up with a pretty bad break across it below the smile line. Needless to say, I had to put some clear top coat over it to protect it over the weekend. Not that it helped - the Lippmann "Addicted to Speed" top coat peeled off the next day. Huh. You might notice my thumbnail grew back out to the edge of my finger, which is nice, and the staining is mostly gone.

In any case - I was happy to polish these up again last night, and provide some good protection for that break until it grows out enough to cut off. I started with my normal Zoya base coat, followed by two coats of "Meltdown".

I topped that with just one coat of "Raspberry Sparkles", which added sort of a metallic pink foil look to the top. I know the photos didn't turn out well - if any of you have tips for capturing metallics, I'm all ears.

Then I added flat-backed beads...white iridescent and purple with an interesting pattern in them. Some nails have three, others five. I was going to do dice, but decided to go random instead. These numbers are actually symbolic this week - anyone want to guess why?

Two coats of top coat, some clean up, and voila! I think the color of these is almost "cosmic" looking - I feel like my nails are kind of "space age" this week.

I'm not sure what's up next - I have some serious glittery polishes from Zoya to try, some Essie colors from last fall and more of these Urban Decay colors all unopened just waiting for their turn. Any suggestions?



What's on your tips this week?

Naked Nails - Letting them breathe.

Yes, as promised, those are my naked nails. Last night I took off all the glitter and stones, filed and buffed and then just let them be. As you can see, they're not in very good shape after being slathered in polish for an entire year - normally I let them "breathe" at least every six months, but had too much fun with the nail art last year. I have no idea if it's recommended or not, but I do know my nails seem healthier when I give them small breaks from polish once in awhile.

First I removed the polish -my favorite nail polish remover is Zoya's Remove plus, with the flipper top. If you haven't used one of these bottles, you're missing out. You just push down on the top with a cotton ball, and remover wicks up, so there's no mess or fuss. Super simple. Aside from that and cotton balls, I use my favorite metal cuticle stick to gently pry off any stones or art bits that don't want to come lose. Normally for a good manicure, I'd dip my hands in the paraffin bath a few times and let that cool right after this, but I didn't plug the paraffin in early enough to get it melted. Next week, for sure! After I remove the polish, I wash my hands/nails good, scrubbing over and under the nails with a brush.

 

This is the rest of my nail care "kit" - I have an electric file, my crystal file, cuticle nippers, clippers, and my trusty metal cuticle stick again. I normally don't use the electric file on my fingernails - but it works great for my tough toenails. I did use it to buff my fingernails this time. I use the crystal file on the edges, and when I'm polishing, I use it to rough up the nail surface too.

I broke my thumbnail this past weekend - snapped the tip right off. I had to cut the remaining supportive tissue off with my cuticle nippers to align with what's left of my nail...painful, but it just looked too bad to leave it.

After the edges are done (crystal file), I started buffing the tops. First a light touch with the course sander over the whole nail (I could say filing drum, but really, we all know this is sandpaper for nails, right?).

Then a more fine grit - again over the whole top of the nail to smooth out ridges, nicks, etc.

And finally the smooth buffing tool to shine them up a bit.

Voila, bare, slightly stained nails that are smooth and about as good as they're going to get for the moment.

I'll leave these bare for the week, and will probably break a few (the polish really protects the tips from breakage in my case). I'm going to indulge in a few paraffin baths, keep my hands and nails well-hydrated, and hopefully they'll be looking better next Monday night when it's time for polish again. Before and after photos next Tuesday (and a new design).

With any luck, I'll get used to typing again sooner than that - polish makes my nails "heavier", and when I take it off, they feel incredibly weird for a few days. Makes typing odd. 

Do you ever feel like you need to just let your nails take a break from all the polish? Are you self-conscious about leaving your nails "naked"?