Saturday, April 30, 2011

Three Variations on French Tips

Greetings Jellybeans!

Just a quick post of 3 different fancy french tips I wore over the course of this week. The staining on my nails finally grew out and I can do these again. I really missed it.

Sorry about the chipping on the pink french. I didn't get photos until the next day and I'd done some weaving on my tapestry so they got a bit mangled.


I used Sally Hansen Insta Dri Whirlwind White for the tips and stamps. I used BM09 and BM03 for the images. I used Art Deco Baby Pink to delineate between the tips and the rest of my nail, and added a bit of pink to the stamps as well. Topcoat - Seche Vite.


For this black and White manicure I used a base of one coat of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails with Nylon Encore.


I put Sally Hansen Insta Dri Whirlwind White on the tips, and used Art Deco Black to delineate. I used the same black and white polishes with dotting tools in various sizes to create the flowers and dots. Topcoat - Seche Vite


I drew two little parallel black lines down the side of each nail closest to my pinky and lined up the dot bubbles with it.

In the shade you can see the glitter.


And this is a purple variation of the same manicure, using Nicole by OPI Count On Me (a pretty pink and blue shimmer) Wet n' Wild French White Creme, and Art Deco Magenta.



Except I didn't do the two parallel lines at the tip I just continued the bubble effect.



Thanks for stopping by!
Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

JQ




Saturday, April 23, 2011

Black and White Filigree and Joe Twilight


Hi everyone! Happy Easter!

Sorry I didn't wind up getting any Easter themed manicures done for this weekend, but I did continue to play with my stamps. I did this filigree manicure to match a black and cream outfit. That pic up top is a bit too blue, but the one below is more accurate. You can see where I dinged my middle finger, thinking my polish was dry enough to rifle through my bag. I was in a frantic hurry to get out the door to a critique and I should have given it just a few more minutes.


I used 3 coats of a frankened Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear White On, which I added several drops of yellow to get it to a more creamy colour. I stamped using GOSH Nero and image plate BM21, and had to double stamp every nail except my pinkies.


I am really REALLY excited about the new Bundle Monster plates! eee!


This is two coats of Joe Twilight over 1 coat of Joe Moss. I should have used one more coat of Moss underneath but it still looked good. Joe has a Matte top coat which I picked up the other day and have yet to try out. I also got a Joe metallic purple called Grape which I hope will stamp.


Joe is a Canadian brand of polish, available through Superstore.


Thank you everyone for stopping by and I hope you all have a good weekend with family or friends or chowing down on a huge chocolate bunny(that's me)-- however you roll through Easter!


JQ

Friday, April 15, 2011

Blue Veins


Hi everybody!

For this manicure I used 1 coat of Sinful Colors Cream Pink, and sponged on a very pale frankened pink at the tips to look a bit like spray paint. I then stamped using a gradation from Revlon Royal to Sinful Colors Love Nails (a pretty pale shimmery sheer blue) in the hopes that it would show up more on the lighter pink. It did actually. The pattern is more washed out than it appears in reality.


I used Konad Image Plate m60 paisley again for this manicure. It really is one of my favorite designs. I promise I'll do a different one next time. :)

This is sunlight:


I didn't capture the really pretty shimmer in the dark pink or much of the shimmer in SC Love Nails. I was really happy with this manicure, although it was a WEE bit bright. Just a wee bit.


Thank you for stopping by! I hope everyone has a really nice weekend!

JQ



Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Blended Red Paisley

Hi everybody! I hope your week is going well! Mine has been pretty sunny and wonderful. No complaints here!

This is the manicure that I've been sporting the past 4 days. It's finally chipping and I'm excited to try something new.



For this manicure I used 3 coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On that I frankened into a creamy colour by adding about 14 drops of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Yellow that didn't have a name. I just didn't want a glaring white for this one.

Once that was fully dry I used image plate m60 paisley pattern, and painted one side of the image with Revlon Matte Suede Ruby Ribbon, and the other side with OPI Off With Her Red. I scraped a couple times to blend the colours a little and then stamped each nail so that the darker red was at the base. Seche Vite and voila!

This is in the shade:


And direct sunlight:



Thanks for taking a peek!

JQ




Friday, April 8, 2011

Blended argyle with GOSH Metallic

Happy Friday everybody!

Lately I've been playing with stamping using my GOSH Metallics over similar creamier base colours. ABOP left me a note last entry saying it would be cool to see some stamping with more than one colour on the plate. I had been thinking the same thing! I've seen some pretty awesome multi-coloured stamping around the blogs and I figured I'd give it a whirl!


I'm THRILLED with it! I decided I'd use a dark base so that I could really see the contrast this first time. For my base I used a frankened black Wet n' Wild that I made into a slightly shimmery charcoal grey. I don't own a single charcoal colour! What?? The closest I have is OPI My Private Jet and it's more brown-y, plus I thought the holo sparklies might detract from my pattern.



Left to right: Seche Clear, frankened charcoal colour, GOSH Metallic Green, Blue and Pink, Seche Vite. Konad Image Plate M60. I painted a coat of Seche Clear, then one thick coat of my frankenpolish (it was teh gooey but it dried fairly quickly), then dragged the brush from each GOSH metallic across the image horizontally first with pink, then blue, then green. When I scraped I did it in the same direction I brushed on the polish, and I did it a few times just to blend the colours together a bit. I stamped so that the pink is at my tips every time. Next time I want to try diagonal.



Once again with the scaly look. I DIG. It's fun because I'm trying for a very reptilian quality with the tapestry I am currently working on. It actually distracted me from weaving yesterday because I kept admiring how my nails looked next to the leaf of my rose at the lower left hand corner.


Here's a couple more shots of the polish outdoors and indoors. The colors are actually a bit deeper in reality so the transition is quite visible. I just can't get enough of it!


In the two shots where you can see my thumb, you can see that it gets a bit messy on the one side. Even the Konad full nail images are not wide/long enough for my thumbs. The tip and the right side I tried to stamp on a little extra and it's gibbled but from a distance it doesn't draw attention. :P

Thanks everyone for stopping by and I hope you all have a great weekend!

JQ

Monday, April 4, 2011

Brocade Filigree

Hi everyone!

I couldn't wait to try another brocade style manicure with metallic pink and some filigree. I used 2 coats of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Commander in Chic, and then stamped using GOSH Metallic Pink and the filigree image on BM21. Seche Vite top coat and voila!


Honestly my cuticles don't look that scary in RL. Yay macro!

The colour is off in all of these shots. I couldn't capture how ridiculously pretty/purple/pink this mani is. This next one just looks grey and silver on my laptop.


I am super proud of the results, because I was using a BM full nail image and those are too darn small for my nails so I had to double stamp every nail but my pinkies. It's pretty much seamless! Woohoo!


I don't know why my camera decided to go all artsy with this shot. Must have been because I opened up the blind to the left and the light was just so. I included it because it's rad. it makes me wish I had some super fine holo polish to use for stamping.

Thanks for popping by!

JQ

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Minted Brocade



Hello everyone!

I wish I could be making more frequent posts but I've been working on a large scale tapestry project and it wreaks havoc on my polish, so I haven't been playing with my nail art lately. Yesterday evening I took a little time out to pamper myself.


Because I have been weaving a lot I have had fabric on the brain. I adore the richness of handwoven or otherwise hand manipulated textiles. One of my favorites is that brocade type fabric where the pattern is metallic or shiny and the background is matte.


More often than not it is a floral pattern but I went with a retro bubble stamp from Konad image plate m65. I used 1 coat of Seche Base, and 2 coats of Revlon Minted. Then I stamped using GOSH Metallic Green. I finished with a coat of Seche Vite.


I'm really digging the metallic stamps over a similar matte colour. I think next time I'll actually use a floral motif.

Hope everyone is gearing up for a fabulous week. Thanks so much for visiting!

JQ