Tutorial Followed - Acid Leopard Nail Art

I saw the tutorial for this manicure earlier in the week when Colette first posted it and as soon as I watched it I knew I wanted to try it.  Colette is one my biggest nail art inspirations.  I've tried several of the water marble tutorials she has posted on Y0uTube but I haven't had much success making them look very good.  But I love watching all her videos and I obsessively check her blog for updates every evening before I go to bed. 

So Colette posted this tutorial on how to create "Acide Leopard" nails.  I followed the tutorial to the letter aside from using more of a creamy, opaque white as the base rather than a sort of shimmery white like she used. I also picked up the same nail art pens as she used in her video.  I must say it looked like she had a much easier time using it than I did. It was a catch 22 because I tried using the pen before I put my top coat on but after sponging the paint was not smooth and I couldn't draw a half circle for anything.  So I put on a coat of seche vite which made the surface smoothe, but seemed too smooth for the polish in the nail art pen to soak in.  I might add this was my first time ever trying leopard print free-hand so I'm happy with how it turned out. I think I will be better next time I use it.

So here is how it turned out on me:

I am so geeked over this manicure!!!  Thanks to Colette, for breaking this down into steps that are easy to follow. For my very first time sponging polish onto my nails, I am extremely happy with how this looks. And best of all, I think the world of sponging has been opened to me and I am having lots of ideas of how I can incorporate the technique into other designs.

I might throw some matte top coat on this tomorrow after work - I am curious to see what that will do to the look.  But either way, I like this so much I think I will keep it for a few days.  I want to show it off at dinner with some girlfriends on Tuesday night.

Purple Holo on Purple Jelly

Tic Tac #251

China Glaze - IDK

I can say with certainty that this is manicure is one of my favorites that I've ever done.  That Tic Tac color is the one I bought at my local nail salon after my last pedicure.  And I just think the holographic color really pops on top of that bright purple jelly.

Nicki Minaj Colors

OPI - Pink Friday (Nicki Minaj Collection)

OPI - A Grape Fit

OPI - Fly (Nick Minaj)

I was expecting Pink Friday to be a much brighter pink, but it's still a pretty shade.  The glitter one is fun too but I'm really annoyed with glitter tips because they never seem to be smooth and I always end up scratching myself.  I only kept this a day - I wasn't super thrilled with it.

Black Monday

This past Monday was a sad day all across the frigid state of Wisconsin, our beloved Pack having lost in the first round of the playoffs.  As I said in my last post, I had vowed to wear black on my nails the next day if they lost the game. 

As it turned out, the Packer's loss also coincided with a happy event:  the arrival of my first bottle of Magnetic Polish!!  I first saw this online before Christmas but didn't actually buy it until last week.  I ordered it from Amaz0n, and it was a splurge.  It's called Trafalgar Square and it's by a company called Nails, Inc. 

So basically, you paint your nails with one coat of this.  Then, one nail at a time, you paint another coat, then hold the magnet that's embedded in the cap over the nail and it makes the following design:

I think this looks AWESOME!  The first time I did it, it didn't turn out well, so I had to take it off and start over.  Before I did that, I decided I didn't want to waste any of it, so I thought I'd use a dark color underneath for the first coat instead of a layer of the magnetic.  I used a dark blue thinking it might look cool if it showed through a bit, but you can't really see the blue except by the cuticle where it looks crappy. 

Anyway, I thought this was an appriately dark polish to wear on a day of mourning. Now that I've seen how this stuff works, I would really like to have some of the other colors.  I know there is a purple and I might have to splurge on that one sometime in the near future.  I also want to try using this effect with some other shapes and colors.



Packer Backer

My boss' wife is an adorably sweet woman who is so thoughtful!  I sometimes post my manicures on f@cebook so she knows I am a nail art junkie.  She happened to see these "nail tattoos" at a store somewhere and picked them up for me.  So sweet!!  I thought that was such a nice thing to do. 

I got them the weekend after the regular season, so I decided to save them for the playoffs.  I did these nails last Saturday in hopes that it would bring us luck in the first round of the playoffs on Sunday.  I was originally going to use one on each finger, but it took me a few tries to get the hang of applying them, and I ended up wasting too many so I just put one on the middle finger of each hand.  Then I used a striping brush with some yellow and green acryllic paint (my first try using them and I was satisfied and glad I ended up buying them - they will be perfect for doing nail art without using/wasting too much nail polish.)

Unfortunately, my Packers mani did not bring them luck, and they ended up playing like absolute crap and losing in a disasterous fashion.  It sucks, especially after they played so great all season and only lost one game.  But the way they played that last game they didn't deserve to win.  It was sad and pathetic. 

Now, I'm no fair-weather fan.  I stick by my team to the end.  Having said that, I had decided that if they won I would wear the Packers manicure to work on Monday and celebrate with my fellow fans; and if they lost I would wear black polish the next day.  About halfway through the 4th quarter it started to become pretty clear that the game was not going to turn out as I'd hoped, and by the time it was over the Packers mani was long gone and I was already working on my Black Monday Manicure....

 

Putzing

A couple Saturday afternoons ago, I was just playing around and came up with this manicure.  I never ended up wearing it out of the house, and I wasn't particularly thrilled with it but oh well.

Another Tape Mani

I loved my last tape mani so much that I wanted to do another one.  This time I decided I'd only two two accent nails on each hand.  MUCH faster and I think the design stands out more with solid fingers on either side of it. 

OPI - Dating a Royal

OPI - Alpine Snow Matte

OPI - That's Hot Pink

I have just been drawn to these colors lately.  I've used at least one of them in several of my last designs.  So today I decided to put them all together and I just love the combination. 

In other amazing news... I finally bit the bullet and ordered the magnetic nail polish that I've been wanting.  I can't wait to see how it looks in real life on my nails.  The pictures that I've seen online just look so amazing.  I can't wait to try it out!  According to Amaz0n, it should be delivered to me on Thursday.

And also, I am super proud of myself because that is the first bottle of polish I have bought in over a week.  Which is a long time for me.  :)



Inspired by Nailside

This was my attempt to follow the Explosion Tape Mani tutorial that Jane of Nailside posted.  As you can see, it didn't turn out nearly as perfect as hers, but for my first attempt I thought it wasn't bad.  Pleae forgive the pre-cleanup picture, but this manicure took me almost 3 hours and by the time I was done I didn't give a rip if I had polish all over my hands.  I just wanted it to dry so I could go to bed! 

Here's my right hand, which didn't turn out as bad as it could have, but doesn't look at all like the tutorial.

I was originally going to try using a different color scheme, but then I decided that I really liked the colors she used, and thought it would be easier to stick with the scheme while following the tutorial. 
I am definitely going to try this again sometime, with different colors. 

Here is what I used:

OPI - That's Hot Pink

Orly - Liquid Vinyl

China Glaze - Icicle

I'm thinking I might tackle this again over the weekend and see if I can do a better job.  I need more practice at tape placement. I had a hard time visualizing what it would look like after the tape came off.  Also, next time I'm going to try cutting all the tape before I start sticking it on and maybe it won't take as long. 

Blue Checkerboards

This manicure was inspired by a tutorial on Chloe's Nails for checkerboard manis.  I wish she was still blogging - her nail designs are such an inspiration to me!

I followed the tape tutorial that she posted, but after I was done it didn't look anywhere near as perfect as hers, so I decided I better add the white stripes in order to cover up the uneven lines.  Then I added the blue dots in the center to tie it all together and called it a day.  I'm happy with how this turned out, although it's a bit thicker than I would like, simply because I put a thin coat of Seche Vite on after each layer of the checkerboard.  I know I need to work on clean up but I'm too lazy to do it right now! 

Here are the polishes I used:

OPI - Dating a Royal (absolutely in LOVE with this color!!)

China Glaze - Sky High Top

OPI - Alpine Snow (Matte)

White Striper

Dotting Tool

Pardon the hot mess on the cap of the Alpine Snow... there was a rather unfortunate incident involving the brush flying out of my hand and spraying polish EVERYWERE. 

I was at Michael's the other day and found a set of three dotting tools.  I was just there looking for dotting tools about a month ago and they didn't have any.  This time I was there looking for something else and happened to see them.  Now that I have some proper dotting tools I'm going to try some more polka dot manis.  The ones I have done in the past were all done with toothpicks!  

New Year's Eve 2012

This was my sparkly new year's eve glitter mani.  Of course the amount of sparkle in this picture is nothing compared to what it looked like in real life, but it was cute and it matched my outfit.  I also did my makeup with purple and glitter.  I figure new year's eve is one of the few nights a year you can get away with looking like a glitter bomb.  I loved it!!

Had a great time with friends on new year's eve.  I even won 1st place in a game of Texas Hold Em'!  Here's to a wonderful 2012 for everyone.  Can't wait to see how many creative manicures I can try out this year. 

Christmasy Nails

I ended up choosing the candy cane design for my trip at Christmas.  I just added the red tips and the silver line before I left.  I left that on until the day before Christmas, and then I changed to a manicure of every other nail red and green, with gold tips on them all.  That was my manicure for Christmas day and I wore that until I got home on the 27th.  I was having so much fun with my family that I completely forgot to ever take a pic of my Christmas nails.  Oops!

Also, I discovered something while I was at my grandparents' house:  doing other people's nails is much harder than doing my own.  I did my sister-in-law's nails and I wasn't really happy with how they turned out.  I just did red with white tips and a silver stripe in between.  She said she liked it of course, but I felt like I have done better on myself than I did on her so I was a bit disappointed in it.  At one point I actually had her sit next to me and put her hand in front of me facing the way my hands face when I do my own nails.  That made it somewhat easier.  Her nails are shaped much differently than mine so that may have had something to do with it. 

I have to say I'm kind of glad the holidays are over because my nails are so stained from using red on so many manicures lately.  I want to stay far far away from it long enough for my nails to outgrow the stains.  It wil help that I cut my nails immediately when I got home from Christmas.  Although I love the way my nails look when they're super long, it's just not practical.  I need to be able to type as fast as possible, and when my nails are that long I just can't go as fast as I'm capable of. 

Hope everyone who might be reading this had a great Christmas!  Mine was great - I had a wonderful time especially hanging out with my 4 year-old nephew.  He is such a joy!