Split Personality

It's been a very busy few weeks, but our big Halloween bash went off without a hitch. Last week was a whirlwind of activity around here, cleaning, new carpet, new entertainment center, and much less decorating than I would have liked (but still quite a lot). The theme this year was Heaven & Hell, and naturally, the two sides of my personality were allowed out for an evening - including my nails, of course. My only regret is that I broke several nails moving furniture, and didn't have enough length left to do stilettos for my right hand. *sigh*

Above on my right hand, China Glaze "Ruby Slippers" tipped with CG "Liquid Leather" and a fine line of a matte cement color by Nubar (I forget the exact name, and am too lazy to go look at the moment - sorry!). Obviously, this was my "devil" side, so I didn't mind the tip pull or chipping on my thumb. Just added character to the costume, I think.

Below, my "angel" hand on the left. I used one coat of my favorite pearl white from Finger Paints (also forgot the name), topped with two coats of The Painted Nail by Nubar's "Silver Screened". More pearl on the tip, with CG "Tinsel" along the smile line.

I have to say, it's kind of fun wearing two completely different manicures...and I actually got a few compliments, believe it or not. Perhaps I should try this more often? More nail art opportunities...

Next week, a webby manicure I've been waiting *all month* to do. Got Halloween art of your own? Post a link in the comments so we can all have a gander! :-)

Here, Kitty Kitty!

A representative of Sally Hanson was kind enough to provide me with some Salon Effects "Real Nail Polish Strips" for review last week...and I was really excited to try them, especially since I seem to be on this nail wrap kick. I had to take one of the Jamberry shields off (one of the wrinkled ones was just getting dirt stuck under the edges...not good), and conveniently enough, the Salon Effects showed up the day before. So I replaced the Jamberry shield with the Sally Hanson strip (which took me about 5 minutes). I used the same style of pattern on my right hand as the Jamberry strip still on my left hand, for comparison:

You can tell the Jamberry strip by the lifted edge and pixellated design...the Salon Effects has a much smoother look (and it's far lighter too - my nail bed hurt when I took the Jamberry off due to the pressure release). Compared to several minutes per nail for the Jamberry application, the Salon Effects took me about 2 minutes after I removed the Jamberry and prepped the nail bed. 

The most disturbing thing though was when I removed the remaining Jamberry shields. I heated them up a couple of times with the blow dryer, lifting a little, then heating, then lifting, then heating so I didn't have to pull too hard on the strip. Even so, the adhesive on the strip took patches of material off the top of my nails, leaving me with depressions and thinning on each nail. I could tap my nail on the underside of the shield, and it was hard nail material there. Here's a photo - my index and ring fingers had the Jamberry on them: 

It's entirely possible, I guess, that I simply didn't heat the strips enough (though I repeated it several times). In any case, despite last week's enthusiasm, I won't be using these on my nails again. It took awhile to buff out the depressions, and now those two nails will be more prone to breakage when they grow out. 

Incidentally, the Salon Effects nail came clean with nail polish remover, very quickly and left a clean nail bed. 

So this week I grabbed my "Kitty Kitty" sample of Salon effects strips, prepped my nails by filing and buffing, and then applied according to the instructions. There are 16 strips included, which is enough to do all ten fingers, two big toes, and cut up a few to do the rest of your toes. I was too lazy to do my toes (and I have a sprained ankle that would make it difficult), so I just did my fingers. Application is super-easy, no special tools required. The only really important thing is to make sure the nail bed is free of oils. 

The strips are pre-cut...I'd suggest choosing one slightly larger than you need, as it can be trimmed carefully with the orange wood stick after it's on. These do stretch, as they're real nail polish, but you don't want to stretch the patterns too much. When you have the right size, you peel off the clear protective coating, take off the backing, snap off the silver tab (you can grasp these in the center), and press onto the nail, cuticle edge first. 

One thing I really like about these is that due to the stretch and because they're very thin, I was able to work out any wrinkles so they lay smoothly across the nail. Once you get it all smoothed out, fold the excess over the edge of the nail, and use the file they provide with a downward motion to trim it off. 

You can see it left a few wrinkles, but it's okay. Once the excess was off:

I just went over it again and smoothed it out, using the orange wood stick to trim where I needed to (careful, they're still soft at this stage, so they can tear if you stab 'em with the wood stick - but it does take a lot of force to tear one).

It took me about 10-15 minutes to apply all 10 nails, and afterward there's no drying time...they're just done. Super simple and quick. So far they've had great staying power - I wore the black and white one for 4 days with no visible signs of wear, and the kitty nails are doing great so far even with all the showering & cleaning and such, so I'm confident they'll wear for at least seven days.

The Salon Effects strips cost $9.99 retail at my local drugstore...it's a bit pricy for just one manicure, but for a special occasion, vacation or whatever, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend these. Excellent product, in my opinion.

I have some Broadway Nails full wrap stickers to try as well, but the Sally Hanson rep sent some crackle polish I'm dying to play with, so next week, something a little less sleek. ;-) 

Until then, happy polishing!

Stars 'n Stripes 2011

I know I said I'd do video...but I what can I say? I was catching up on The Bachelorette while I did these (it's my husband's fault I got hooked - he went out with the guys one Sat. night, and it was on, and I just kept watching...yeah. Annoying, I know. But I digress...).

Anyways...I used my favorite Seche Vite base/top coat, along with Sparkly Nails red striper, Avon's "Splendid Blue" and Pure Ice "Platinum". I really waffled with whether to use the stars or not, because if those little points don't get pushed into the polish pretty well and coated heavily with topcoat, they can be uncomfortable to work around. Dangerous even. In the end, it just didn't look right without them, as you can see.

I started with two coats of Pure Ice "Platinum", which isn't the right color white, it's too pearly. Pretty, but cheap polish - I'm tossing all of this stuff out, I think, as it bubbled on me too.

I topped that with diagonal stripes with a red striper brush courtesy of Sparkly Nails. They sent this to me quite a while ago, but the polish was still nice and thin, and applied very easily. I was actually very impressed by the quality after so much time has passed. Great red color too.

Then I applied Avon "Splendid Blue" diagonally across the stripes, covering about half the nail. I'll get a video of this technique eventually, but I start with a single line across the center of the nail, and work out to the edge from that. Two coats, to cover all the polish underneath.

I liked the way this looks, but I'm sure you can see why it needed stars or something...the blue is just too overwhelming otherwise. So a thick coat of top coat, then press the little stars in firmly, then two more good coats of top coat to seal.

I cleaned up with an orange stick in the shower (the Pure Ice was hard to get off too), and clipped any errant star corners with a fingernail clipper to ensure the safety of myself and those I might brush against. And voila! A very patriotic manicure, I'd say.

I had a little tip pull - also the Pure Ice, I think, and my neglecting to wrap the polish around the edge.

Hope you had a fabulous holiday - until next week, Happy Polishing!

Catchin' Up

Apologies for disappearing in December - the holidays sort of got away from me. So today I have a couple finished manicures from Christmas and the first week in January to show you, and then next week I'll have a new tutorial to post.

For Christmas this year, I used these cute decals from Born Pretty. Speaking of which, Born Pretty has offered Nail Art Tuesday shoppers 10% off your order when you use code: SQUOVAL15 at checkout.

The fun part about the Christmas mani (aside from those lovely water decals) was that my silver polish was way too thick. It was hard to work with, but it also made a 3-D, almost "fuzzy" line at the tips.

Last week I got some fun new Finger Paints polishes that I can't recall the names of just now (don't worry, you'll see them again). I decided to do a gradient with China Glaze "Tinsel" between the white and purple. I love how it turned out, very "winter whimsical", I think.

So that's what I've been up to polish-wise - next week, China Glaze "Dorthy Who?" and full nail stickers.

Until then - happy polishing!

All About A Russian Party

I was trying to decide what to do this week, starting really late, and was super-tired. So I opted to try a gradient again, and had moderate results (mostly due to being really tired, I think). The colors I used are OPI's "Russian to a Party", a reddish maroon w/gold shimmer and Sinful Colors "All About You" - a sheer gold glitter.

To start, I layered two coats of RTAP over base coat.

Next I put a thin layer of glitter over 3/4 of each nail starting at the base.

Then another coat of glitter, stopping a half way up the nail:

And finally one more strip just up at the base of the nail.

Two coats of top coat and some clean-up finishes it off nicely. 

I got the glitter too thick in spots...next time I'll be more careful about that. It takes a light touch to get the gradient effect. I may actually try with one of the CND effects polishes next time. 

Born Pretty sent me some free stuff to review, including some fun black crackle polish. So next week, a tutorial on crackle polish - should be very cool, I think. Until then, happy polishing!

Coppery Fall

Apologies for disappearing, fellow nail art lovers. October kind of got away from me in a big way, and I dropped the ball here. But things are back to normal now, more or less and should be from here on out.  Ready for more nail art? Me too. :-)

Last week after all the Halloween hoopla, I decided a lighter fall manicure was in order. I started off with two coats of Zoya "Penny" over Zoya's Anchor base coat (above). Then I went over the tips with Zoya "Kalima", which is a gorgeous bright orange copper color. I really love these two polishes together...

You know I can't resist bling...so I dug out some yellow rhinestones, and outlined the smile line with them on my thumb, plus added one more to the tip. I decided the smile line was too much, so I just placed one stone in the point of the other nails. All stones were set in one coat Zoya Armor top coat.

Then I sealed it with two more coats of top coat, which you may note bubbled a bit. My top coat is old...I sense a nail supply order in my near future...

And voila! Simple coppery fall nails...super-simple and pretty subtle overall.

Next week, something darker under the last of my yellow rhinestones...until then, thanks for visiting and happy polishing!

Black Splats

 

My apologies for missing last week - I did a candy corn manicure I thought was an abject failure, though I got a ton of compliments on it. This week I was going to do orange "splats" on my black nails, but decided I liked this gold glitter instead. Unfortunately, it's insanely hard to photograph - which is too bad since I love how it turned out. 

I used stencils ordered from Nail Art Delights - these fun paint/blood splatter marks. 

Since I was originally going to use orange, I started by painting the undersides of my nails with Pure Ice orange for contrast. 

Then I did the tops with two coats China Glaze "Liquid Leather" over one coat China Glaze base coat. I love LL - the best shiny black out there, in my opinion. 

This is when I started experimenting. I had Sinful Colors "All About Me" on my manicure tray - it's a transparent gold glitter. I wanted to see what it looked like over the black, so I brushed a coat over my pinky nails. 

I wish it would photograph better - it looks almost brocade-like. So I decided to do my splats in that, and started with a coat of fast-dry top coat, and then secured a stencil over my thumbnail. 

Filled it with the gold glitter...

And pulled it off. A word of warning on these particular stencils. Due to the wide open spot in the center, it's hard to get these off without warping the design. Go slow, and don't just pull from one corner, pull evenly along a whole side. 

I finished the rest and sealed the design with two coats China Glaze top coat. I used one of the Avon nail art corrector pens for clean-up...the only problem I have with these is they run out too quickly. I need to play with the refillable style again. Here's a yellow photo that shows the design just a bit better: 

And one in regular light: 

Next week, I'm doing a glow-in-the-dark webs design for our annual Halloween party. Until then, happy polishing!

Blue Foils & Broken Nail

When I ordered from Adell at Nail Art Delights last spring, she was generous to include a free roll of nail foil, and a bottle of adhesive. I've been meaning to try them all summer, and last week, when my index fingernail broke off below the tip of my finger (meaning I had to cut all my nails way short to match), it seemed like the perfect time. If you haven't tried foils before, they're super-fun and easy...but I'm hoping those of you who have tried them can help me - see the end of the post.

First, photos of my poor broken index nail. For some reason, my nails always seem to break off *below* the tip of my finger, so I can't actually do much about the cut until the nail grows out. Here's the difference in length after I cut my index nail down:

*sigh* And here are my poor nails after being hacked off. I've always been very sensitive about my fingernail length for some reason. When I was in elementary school and was made to cut them super-short for piano lessons, I cried. Seriously.

You can see the break there. Painful stuff. Don't mind the roughed up surfaces there - I'd just filed and buffed the tops to prep for polish.

So I started with 2 coats of China Glaze "Blue Island Iced Tea" - one of my favorite sparkly blues.

Pretty, yes? After the polish is dry, it's time to apply the adhesive. It only takes a thin coat, and you have to let it dry until it's just tacky on the nail (I lost my instructions, so if this is wrong, someone correct me, please). You can do designs, or stripes, or whatever - the foil will only stick to the adhesive. When it's tacky but dry-ish, it's time to foil. As you can see, the foil has two sides - the side you can see the design on, and a brown side:

The brown side goes on your nail. You can cut it, but I'm too lazy - I just start at the end, and press a section to the prepared nail. You can use a cotton ball, I just used an orange stick to smooth the foil over the nail surface, and make sure it makes good contact with the adhesive.

Then you just pull the leftover clear plastic off, and voila! Pretty foil on your nail.

Here's what four looked like, and to the left you can see the used foil paper. If you miss a spot, dab a little adhesive on and let it dry, then just use one of the smaller unused bits still on the backing. Super-easy.

So here's my problem. When I tried to put China Glaze top coat over it, the foil smeared. Zoya worked slightly better, but still tore the foil. Any foil mavens out there? What do you use to seal your foil designs?

I ended up having to redo these the next day - foil has no staying power without some sort of protection. I have *plenty* left though, and will be ordering more, so stay tuned for more of this technique later.

Next week - glittery gold and rhinestones. Until then, Happy Polishing!