Thursday, March 11, 2010

First Non Konad Nail Art

Recently I have seen several pictures of some simple geometric nail art that I thought I had a pretty good chance  of replicating.   The first was the Zoya nail designs for the Leanne Marshall show during fashion week in NY.
The second are the designs that All Lacquered Up reported were being used by CND for the Diego Binetti show.

I liked the look of both of these but I had no idea how to accomplish either (I can't freehand) until I discovered this manicure from On Beauty and Polish and the swoop technique from Lacquer Laine.

I really liked the idea of a holo design (mainly because I thought it might hide an goof with the shininess) so I started with a base coat of China Glaze DV8.  Let me take a minute here to rave about how incredible DV8 is.  This is hands down my favorite holo that I own.  Some holos don't really look holo in certain lights but DV8 glimmers in dim and bright light, artificial and sunlight.  Aside from the holo...the color is fantastic.
China Glaze DV8 (2 coats) with top
Next, I used French manicure strips to tape off part of my nail and painted the bottom half with China Glaze LOL.  I used 2 coats because my first coat was a little uneven, this mad the overall manicure a little thick but it still looked pretty good.
CG DV8 and LOL
I was happy with how this turned out but as the day went on I felt more an more like a court jester because the colors were so bright.  Next time I am going to try it with more subdued colors or only one bright one.  Its interesting that the linear holo pattern stayed the same even though it was bisected in the middle of the nail.  Does anyone else have any unique ways to use french manicure strips?

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Rock the Red Pump - China Glaze Ruby Pumps

Today is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness day and keeping with that theme today I wore my red patent leather peep toe pumps and a China Glaze Ruby Pumps mani. 

Ruby Pumps is one of my favorite polishes, it is a perfect color red for me, it has glitter, and it is a jelly.  I mean what more could a girl ask for?  Oh and it gives complete coverage in two coats without any of the lumpiness of a regular glitter.  Its nice and smooth like a foil.  This is one of those polishes that even non lacquerheads and people who like mom colors can appreciate...I mean its red nothing wrong with that and the glitter stands out but its not in your face (like the glitter in a polish like Dorthy Who?).
China Glaze Ruby Pumps (2 coats) with top

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Konad Plate Contest from Painted Lady Fingers!

Diana at Painted Lady Fingers  is having a contest for 8 Konad plates.  Even better this it for the 8 NEW plates.  This is a totally awesome opportunity to add to your nail art stash ladies.  Go check it out.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Friday Franken - The Deranged Milliner

Alice in Wonderland comes out today and I am very excited, I love Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, and Helena Bonham Carter.  I had planned all along to pick up OPI Absolutely Alice and Mad as a Hatter for the weekend of the release but I am an epic procrastinator.  So when I went to Ulta last week to grab some and found that they were all sold out I was a bit annoyed.  My week was too busy to get down to the nail supply stores in the metroplex so I decided to use my shopping failure as a topic for my Friday Franken.

My goal here was to dupe Mad as a Hatter and I think I did pretty well though there are some differences.    From the pictures I saw there is a royal blue and more gold in Mad as a Hatter and I didn't have the right blue available.  I compensated with a little aquamarine.  Mine is darker it seems, I had a really hard time finding good close ups of Mad as a Hatter.
Deranged Milliner (3 coats) with top
Deranged Milliner close up
Materials:
  • Various Martha Stewart Glitters (list is at the bottom)
  • Wet n  Wild Clear
  • Pinch Dash Smidgen Measuring Spoons
  • Funnel
  • Ballz 
  1. Measure out 1 smidgen of each glitter, mix them well in a container while dry.
  2. Add clear and ballz.  Shake.
 
The mixed glitter before polish

I used a bunch of Martha Stewart Glitter in this, at least one color dissolved  but I'm not sure which it was, I suspect orange and green but I need to test them.   I grabbed these at Michaels in packs.

Does anyone know which glitters do/do not dissolve?

Mega list of glitter....
Garnet, Orange Sorbet, Yellow Barite, Charoite
 
Sour Apple, Aquamarine Crystal, Turquoise, Lapis Lazuli

Blueberry Slush, Watermelon, Feldspar, Sugar Plum
Sterling, Onyx, Hematite

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Metal Madness - Failed Manicure and an Old Konad

So I had planned to swatch New York Summer Hot Metallic Gold for today but last night I decided to upgrade my computer.  So after a trip to Fry's and 2.5 hours spent swapping out my memory, processor, cpu fan and motherboard (read that as take the entire damn box apart and rebuild with the new parts) it was late and I didn't have time to change my polish.  I did have time to bleed all over my jeans as the cooling fan has sharp bits on it.

So instead I am posting one of the first pictures I took of my nails. This is China Glaze Avalanche (lavender metallic) with the zebra pattern from M57 China Glaze Millennium stamped.  I haven't swatched/reviewed either of these yet but I have used multiple times.  The Avalanche is pretty but you end up with pretty awful brushstrokes, totally alright if you are Konading with or over it though!  Millennium is great to Konad with though it does tend to dry really fast.

Sorry about the crappy photo quality, this was taken with my phone and no flash.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Metal Madness - Fingerpaints Easel Come, Easel Go

Last week I was in Sally hoping for awesome clearance nail polish and I stumbled across a Fingerpaints that looked more like a bottle of Minx than polish.  The best part is that it had a giant orange clearance sticker on it, yay!

Easel Come, Easel Go is a silver foil that looks like molten silver in the bottle.  I just knew it was going to be more than the average silver nail polish.  The formula was amazing and I had glossy, metallic nails in 2 thin coats.  Up close there is a slight texture but at arms length it really looks like my nails have been chromed.  The best response about this little gem is something one of my students said during lab today, "your nails are very distracting today, I was having a hard time paying attention to notes because they are so shiny."

I think this a a pretty close dupe for Orly Shine from the new Foil FX Collection but I still haven't bought that one yet.   

Has anyone else tested out Shine and Easel Come, Easel Go?
Easel Come Easel Go (2 coats) with top
 
Ooooooh shiny! Easel Come Easel Go up close and personal
 
I match my coffee mug!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Metal Madness - Orly Iron Butterfly

For my second metallic this week I choose Orly Iron Butterfly (also in the recent package from Head 2 Toe).   Let me start by saying I love this polish...LOVE.  I saw swatches on line and new that I had to possess it. I even liked how this one looked matte!
 
Orly Iron Butterfly 3 coats no top, excuse the dirty cuticles please, this stuff is a beast to get out of dried skin.
It applied nice and thin and smooth, though that means all the ridges in my nails are apparent.   Again as a matte, foil-like polish it dried pretty much instantly.  Application was easy and full coverage was easily attained with 2 coats (though this is 3 since I had issues with 2 chipping).  As a matte this looks like really tarnished silver or pewter, a blackened silver if you will.

I am not sure If I can really call this a metallic, I mean it has silver in it but it also has a lot of black/charcoal.  It reminds me a lot of Man Glaze's Matte is Murder except more sparkly.  Up close it was almost like a black matte with silver micro glitter though.
Close up of Orly Iron Butterfly without top.  Its blurry but you can see the weird mottled pattern that is present in the Orly Metal Chic Metallic Matte collection.  The Glam Rock has a similar pattern.
I had a REALLY hard time keeping this on my nails, it just kept chipping.  I'm not sure if it was my base coat or what (I am thinking about trying the Orly Bonder with it, has anyone used it?).  Eventually I just touched up the chips and slapped on a top coat to solve the problem.  Interesting side note...when you remove this polish (and the Glam Rock) you end up with a nice smooth layer of just the silver initially.  The remover seems to take the gray or copper polish off before the silver foil (I think its foil).  This made touch ups easy as pie since I could use a dab of polish and have a nice smooth surface of silver foil to paint.  No weird ridges from filling in chips. 
 
Iron Butterfly (3 coats) with top
As much as I love this as a matte, I love it even more with a topcoat on it.  It gives the polish a whole different look.  Much more black and silver glittery and less tarnished metal.  The gloss seems to accentuate the individual silver bits and make the charcoal look darker.

 
Iron Butterfly with top coat up close and personal
I didn't get the Solid Gold as it reminds me a lot of OPI Bling Dynasty, well the antiqued gold part does.  I know the style of polish is completely different but I already have 3 antique gold polishes.  Does anyone have both Solid Gold and Bling Dynasty?  How close are the colors?

Monday, March 1, 2010

Metal Madness Day 1 - Orly Glam Rock

Ok so for day one of Metal Madness week I decided to try out my brand new bottle of Orly Glam Rock.  I fell in love with both this and Iron Butterfly after seeing them on Scrangie recently.  Of course I had ignored them for months at Sally's and had to order them from Head 2 Toe, but happily they were still available and it gave me an excuse to place an order.

This is an interesting polish, I think it is a foil but I am not 100% sure.  It applies thin and covers completely in 2 coats (though I did 3).  On a side note, don't try to paint your nails with polish that has been sitting on the porch all day after being delivered when it is below 40 degrees outside. The polish looked mixed, I shook it even more and its still applied funky.  I painted at night and had some inconsistencies so I waited until morning and then started from scratch with a nice room temperature bottle.   It dries to a matte finish which I wasn't crazy about on the Glam Rock, but it does dry very quickly!
 
Glam Rock (3 coats) with flash
I had a really hard time capturing how copper this polish looks.  It is kind of a mottled copper with silver up close.  I wasn't loving it matte so I put on a nice layer of Seche.
 
Glam Rock (3 coats) with top.  Again it isn't nearly this gold in person 
  
This photo show how copper Glam Rock really is

See how the silver and copper are mixed together on the nail.  Its really unique.
One of the things I love about copper is it seems to look great on everyone.  One of my friends painted her nails with it too and we took a picture so you can see how nice it complements a wide range of complexions (because yes I am pasty white).