Big Bang Hearts

I was in the mood for something "hot" last week - and the tiny bottle of Urban Decay's "Big Bang" jumped right out at me from my polish stash. Feeling lazy and not wanting to cover up much of this delicious color, I decided to go with simple glittery tips and heart decals - easy as it gets.

 

I started with two coats of "Big Bang" - which applied very smoothly. I love how much this shimmers, but it does make it hard to capture in a photo. The flash bounces back, and it looks dull without. But I used the flash for the demo photos so you could see how bright it is. Yes, it really is that bright in person. 

 

I used China Glaze "Tinsel" for the tips - just one coat, enough to give it a good shimmery effect, but not enough to completely hide the color underneath. 

 

These decals are self-stick, and made by "Fingers" if I recall correctly. I have to say, they're some of the best decals I've ever used - they don't sink down into the polish after application, and they lay perfectly flat on the nail. I definitely need to order more of these if I can find them online (picked these up at a drugstore as a rare find). 

 

 

Two coats of top coat and some cleanup - voila! These last two photos are without the flash, so you can get the "lower light" scoop. I'm really quite enamored of these - simple, but eye catching. Sometimes I just feel like bright nails. 

 

 

Until next week...Happy polishing!

Grungy White Widow

I was trying to get in the mood for hearts and flowers this week...but decided I wasn't quite ready for pink or red and white. so I decided to try a couple more Urban Decay polishes - "Grunge", a nearly-black green, and "White Widow", which I really thought was going to be more white instead of sort of champagne colored. I like the color, it just didn't have the same effect with the green that I was envisioning. In any case, I started with two coats of White Widow (which does look white here with a flash):

Then I did the tips in Grunge, with a wicked-looking point in the center.

 

I had some little 3-D hearts, and when I thought WW was going to be "white", I chose blue and yellow to match, I should have gone with red - would have gone better with the WW "champagne" color. I put two hearts on most nails, varying depending on how much room I had available.

I don't think they turned out too badly though...just needs a brighter white for the background.

 

A little clean-up, and voila! The color of White Widow is very close to true in these last two photos, so you can see what I mean about the champagne color.

 

Next week, I'll go pink and white and hearts all over for Valentine's Day...



Happy polishing!

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?

All Wrapped Up

This week, I needed something quick due to switching my manicure days around. So I decided to "wrap up" my nails in festive China Glaze "Emerald Sparkle", with some little red bows I found in my nail art stuff. This is a super-quick manicure, if you're looking for something speedy.

First step - two coats of Emerald Sparkle over one coat of base:
Then I used a silver Stripe-rite nail art brush to slip a "ribbon" down the center of each nail. Normally I would offset this to the side a little, but the bows are largish, and my nails are very curved, so they work best in the center to make sure the edges seal down. It's annoying getting stones of any shape caught in clothing, hair, etc.
Then another silver "ribbon" across the first:
So there are little ribbon crosses on each nail, like a ribbon on a package.
Any embellishment will work for the next step - one year I did red nails, white stripes and little clay peppermints at the intersection. I used these cute red bow-shaped stones, one in the center of each intersection, set in top coat.
Two coats of top coat over the whole thing to seal, and clean 'em up!
Voila! A neatly wrapped tip for each finger.

What's on your tips this week? Anything festive?