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?

Diamond Cosmetics Drift Away and Valentines Manicure #3

After the pink extravaganza from earlier this week I needed something more subdued.  I am a huge purple fan and have been meaning to try out Diamond Cosmetics Drift Away.  This is a standard Diamond Cosmetics formula and applys like butter, though I did 3 coats instead of the two I can normally get away with for a Diamond polish.  SHAKE THE BOTTLE, yeah I know I am supposed to do that for all polishes. I mean it for this one.  I don't know if it was because its so cold here or what but there was quite a bit of settling/seperation when I first opened it.  I did my normal couple shakes and the first stroke seemed watery and streaky.  After about 30 seconds of mixing it was back to what I am used to from Diamond.

This is an unusual color purple, it looks like a dusty, grayish purple in the bottle but on the nails it has a brownish tint too.  Its really hard to explain, just know its not your standard purple.  It is subdued but interesting at the same time, I really like it. 

 

Drift Away (3 coats) with top slightly more red in real life

I have been waiting to try a monotone hounds tooth pattern from Konad plate M63 so I grabbed my China Glaze LOL and stamped that over the Drift Away.  The LOL is only slightly lighter than the Drift Away and when the light hits the holo its pretty amazing looking.  It was a little plain though for Valentines Day, so I added a flower from plate M21 in China Glaze Millennium off centered on each nail.  The end result is pretty cool looking and I am happy enough with the whole manicure that I have left it on for two days. 

Drift Away base(3 coats), LOL hounds tooth, and Millennium flower, with top coat and flash so you can see the holo goodness.  Excuse the tip wear I took this after I had been wearing it for a while

Photographing Holos is a PITA

So photographing holos is a total pain.  I am totally going to get/build a light box as a result of today's polish.  A month ago I bought a bottle of China Glaze DV8 and has very excited about it.  Two days after buying it I accidentally knocked the box holding it onto the cold, hard, porcelain tile...shattering the bottle and sending gorgeous teal holo everywhere.  I was very sad.  On the positive side it gave me a reason to go buy a new bottle.  I was on a No Buy....ok I still officially am on a No Buy, but I'm not very good at it.  While at the local Vietnamese nail supply store (OMG!  I need to do a whole article on this place) grabbing a fresh bottle of DV8 I also picked up a bottle of LOL.  Its discontinued, if I don't get it now I might miss out.  Right?

Since I have had so many blue polishes on lately I decided to swatch the LOL first.  LOL is a purple linear holo.  I am obsessed with the linear holos like those in the OMG and OPI DS collections, they actually started my polish addiction and I have no willpower when it comes to them.  I was expecting really god things from LOL and I was needless to say giddy about trying it out.

Much like my experience with OPI DS Glamour, initially I was unimpressed.  It wasn't as dark a purple as it looked in the bottle and it didn't really have any of the holo goodness under fluorescent lighting.  Once I caught a glimpse of it under some nice recessed lighting or sunlight though....OHHH MAMMA!  Not as obvious as Glamour but still pretty fantastic.

Giddy and filled with purple, hologram cheer I grabbed my camera and started snapping pictures.  I normally try to take photos without a flash as my pasty white fingers reflect too much light with a flash.  Unfortunately there was no way to see how awesome this polish is without a flash or a better lighting set up than I currently have.  I resigned myself to taking one with and one without a flash, and a close up of the yumminess.

 

Three coats CG LOL and topcoat indoors without (L) and with (R) flash. 

 

 Ohhhh sparkly!

Because it was so overcast and gray out I wasn't getting a lot of light reflected back from this (well, the ladies room at work has great lighting but its just weird to hang out there and look at your nails), so I decided to add some hot pink and a little sex appeal for a Valentines-y konadicure.  Leopard print is romantic right?  No well my idea of Valentines day is skewedt, so this next week's mani's could be very boring or incredibly out of character for me.

CG LOL (3 coats), Fingerpaints Sketched and Etched, M57

Down the Rabbit Hole, How I Became a Nail Polish Addict

I'm still not sure how I came to be writing this. I mean what am I doing writing about nail polish, how have I become addicted to nail polish and nail art....I bite my nails.

Ok I don't bite my nails any more, but I did until two months ago. That's when a friend lent me a bottle of her OPI designer series and told me to paint my stubs. So there I am painting my bitten to the quick nails in this beautiful cornflower blue holo. They looked nice but no magic, no magic until the next day when I went to a football game....then BAM. The sunlight reflecting off the holo was enough to have me hooked.

OPI Glamour DS, you have to excuse the smudges,
my manicure skills are still in their infancy.

The next day I began my trip down the rabbit hole of nail polish addiction. Along the way I rediscovered my inner child, you know that four year who mixed all of the shampoos and conditioners together in the bathtub? Yeah well that kid is back with a vengeance....I love teal, cremes and frankening. Is frankening even a word? It is now.