One Stroke Iris

Finally decided to try one stroke painting! I don't think I did too badly for my first try, though I will definitely have to practice more! I tried to paint bearded iris flowers, as those are by far my favorite flower.

 I started with three coats of OPI Samoan Sand, as it's a really good nude tone on me. The iris flowers were painted with white and purple acrylic paint and a chisel-tip brush. I used a touch of yellow at the center of each 'fall' petal to represent the fuzzy beard. I thought about doing multimedia nails with flocking powder, but figured that would make it lose some of the delicacy of one-stroke.

 I touched up the tips of the flowers with a thin line of white, to make them pop a little more. Lastly, I used Zoya Hudson on my ring nail to accent. It was fortunately almost a perfect match to the purple acrylic paint! I also had fun adding some bling, because I have quite a few nail gems that I need to use!

 Even my dominant hand turned out okay!

Colors Used:

 OPI Samoan Sand

Purple, white, green, and yellow acrylic craft paint

Zoya Hudson

Foil Fun!

 I happened upon a lovely foil kit in TJ Maxx the other day, and of course I had to get it! I was excited to get another bottle of foil glue, as mine is getting rather gloopy and I just hadn't gotten around to ordering more on Amazon. However, this kit had a hidden gem! In addition to lovely foils, and quite a large quantity of each color, this kit came with a topcoat that WORKS for foils!

 On my left hand I used the included topcoat as a protectant before adding a layer of Seche Vite. On my right hand I experimented with other products to see if I had anything that would not pull, wrinkle, or drag out the foil. On my pinkie I tried OPI Nail Strengthener, as I'd heard some people had success with non-topcoat products. No dice there, it really started to pull the color away.  On my ring nail I tried Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Clearly Quick to see if a thinner topcoat would sort of work. That was really disastrous, with tons of wrinkling! On the remaining nails, I sort of did okay with NYC Demon Glow, which is a UV Active topcoat. Still, those were nowhere near as smooth as the cheapo top coat nails on my left hand!

 These two photos really highlight the difference! The top photo, my left hand, has the cheap topcoat and significantly less wrinkling.

 Oh, and to accent the purty purty foil, I added some fun star glitter to my ring nails.

 Here's the bottle of generic-looking foil top coat. It has absolutely no smell, but is the consistency of regular nail polish. I checked the box, and it lists the ingredients as water, glycerin, cellulose gum, and a host of cosmetic preservatives. So now I'm totally tempted to experiment with mixing my own water-glycerin combos to see if I can recreate the results!

Rainbowflakes!

 Today I decided to just enjoy a polish that was begging to be tried, and I held off doing much in the way of embellishments. I love it!

 First off, I wanted to try a polish that Garnet of The Nail Rainbow had gifted me. OPI Ink is a wonderfully shifty dark purple that moves from a warm to cool purple depending on the lighting. I knew I wanted to try a dark base today, but I wanted something with a little more life than flat black. This worked amazingly well!

 The magical flakie topper is Dance Legend 603, and it is like a broken rainbow in a bottle. I only used one coat on each nail to get a huge splash of color! I have seen photos where people used more than one coat for more of a full coverage mosaic, but I was in love with the more scattered effect. These flakes shift from orange and blue all the way to green and yellow, and just look amazing.

I did decide to throw in a long diamond stud as an accent, and for a little extra fun I changed it from standard gold to a bright orange by painting it with a little ORLY What's the Password?

Colors Used:

OPI Ink

Dance Legend 603

ORLY What's the Password?

Magnetic Memorial

 Time to play with some magnetic polish! I wanted to have fun with more Memorial Day nails, while also experimenting with magnets. I don't have any magnetic polish I would truly call 'red', but this reddish purple did the job fairly well! It rather reminds me of those 'country style' or 'rustic' more subdued color schemes.

 I began by using a base coat of China Glaze White on White. I knew I would be using tape, so I wanted to wait until it was as dry as possible. I then placed two pieces of striping tape side by side to make the stripe wider. Next, I painted over it with two coats of Sinful Colors Captivate Me. On the second coat, I used a magnet to apply a diagonal stripe effect. It still showed up well after the tape was removed! China Glaze Sparks Will Fly was used over the bottom fourth of the nail, and I used the same magnet to add more effect. The magnet was easy to align, and using the same one did make it seem more cohesive.

 I decided to leave my middle and ring nails as one solid coat of each magnetic polish. I absolutely adore Captivate Me. It reacts amazingly well to the magnet, and has a brilliant holo glitter that really shines in the darker patches. Sparks Will Fly doesn't show the magnetic pattern as crisply, but it had a wonderful formula.

Lastly, I did my thumbs as half-and-half of each magnetic polish split by a line of white. I had some metal star brads that weren't intended for nail art, but I cut off the spines and sanded the edges, and it worked perfectly!

Colors Used:

China Glaze White on White

Sinful Colors Captivate Me

China Glaze Sparks Will Fly

Memorial Day

 Time for some Memorial Day nails! I rather like how these came together. I wanted to something patriotic without going over the top (saving that for the Fourth of July!) and I got to play with my star-shaped hole punch, fun times!

 I started with a base of Sally Hansen Resurrection, which is a mid-dusty blue. Next, I used a porous sponge to dab on some lighter blue with Essie Rock the Boat, followed by a touch of NYC Pinstripe White. It's a thinner white, so it did its job without overwhelming everything.

 The multicolored stars were a bit of a process. I can make a tutorial if anyone is interested! I started by using my star hole punch to cut a star out of a piece of regular tape. I then applied the tape firmly to the nail. Next, I used one coat of OPI Alpine Snow. That polish dries quickly, so I followed that up with stamping an angled ray design from Pueen plate 30 using ORLY Ignite. After that, I brushed SpaRitual Undercurrent across the top third of the star. It was hard to guesstimate where the star design actually was, since I was using clear tape. It didn't turn out too badly, though! I then carefully removed the tape, pulling from both sides to avoid problems with distorting the design.

As a last touch, I used a striper brush with SpaRitual Undercurrent, as well as the nail art striper polish Sinful Colors Bad Chick and Shany 07 (a bright red) to make little banner decorations at the tips of my ring, middle, and thumb nails. I then tossed on some tiny nail studs to just add a little extra shine.

Happy Memorial Day!

Colors Used:

Sally Hansen Resurrection

Essie Rock the Boat

NYC Pinstripe White

OPI Alpine Snow

ORLY Ignite

SpaRitual Undercurrent

Sinful Colors Bad Chick

Shany 07

Pueen 30

Totally Teal

I love finding surprisingly awesome polish in places like Claire's and Icing. There are definitely some under-appreciated treasures! I've had this glitter sitting in my collection for a bit, and now that I've tried it, I'm in love!

 To begin, I used two coats of Ulta Dance Teal Dawn, which is a gorgeous dark teal with a subtle shimmer. I love this shade of teal! The downside to this polish was that it is a staining monster. I had both base coat and strengthener under this, and still I had a slight bit of staining on my nail bed. My cuticles were nightmare to clean up! Still, part of me thinks it's almost worth it for the awesome color.

 The glitter I used is Claire's Mardi Gras. The name surprised me, as I mentally picture Mardi Gras to always include purple, though that could just be me. The glitter is a mix of teal hex glitter, yellow-gold square glitter, large white hexes and bars, and a scattering of small white and teal glitters in a clear base. I love the base for this, it's just the perfect thickness to pick up a good amount of glitter. I was almost able to just swipe this glitter on with the brush, though I did dab a little to get good color spacing.

As an extra touch, I added little glittery teal studs that conveniently matched the glitter to my index and pinkie nails. I then grabbed a few squares from Mardi Gras to accent those nails. So shiny!

Colors Used:

Ulta Dance Teal Dawn

 Claire's Mardi Gras

Chrome Gradient

I stopped by the store this week and was so excited to see the Sally Hansen Color Foils! I love super-shiny polish, and decided I had to pick up a few. They have a formula similar to OPI Push and Shove, but don't require the extra special base coat. I decided to try something a little less controlled than I normally do, and I ended up with this interesting experiment!

 I started with two coats of ORLY Saturated, which is a super intense purple. It dries matte, and dries quickly, so it was a bit of a challenge to get even coverage.

 Next, I dabbed blobs of the Color Foil on a piece of scrap foil, then dipped my fan brush in to pick up the gradient. I found this nifty fan brush that has sections of bristles removed, so it ends up with widely spaced stripes on one stroke. Starting from the base of the nail, the three color foils I used were Sally Hansen Purple Alloy, Minted Metal, and Liquid Gold.

Even over the matte neon purple, they easily dried to that super-chromey shine. Photos really can't do it justice!

Colors Used:

ORLY Saturated

Sally Hansen Purple Alloy

Sally Hansen Minted Metal

Sally Hansen Liquid Gold

Swirly Blues

After swatching out Morgan Taylor Rhythm and Blues on Sunday, I really wanted to play with it more! This was the result of me just having fun with whatever came to mind, and  I love it!

 Since I already had Morgan Taylor Rhythm and Blues on my nails, I pulled out my striping tape and placed it haphazardly across each nail. Next, I painted over the nail with OPI Alpine Snow, then carefully removed the striping tape.

 I also wanted to test Rhythm and Blues as a stamping polish, so I used a swirly design from Pueen plate 46 to contrast with the lines from the striping tape. It worked wonderfully! As a little extra touch, I decided to tint sections blue using Sally Hansen Ice Tint from the Palm Beach Jellies collection. I actually think the tinty topcoats are rather fun!

Colors Used:

Morgan Taylor Rhythm and Blues

OPI Alpine Snow

Sally Hansen Ice Tint

Pueen 46

Swatchy Sunday - Morgan Taylor's Rhythm and Blues

Continuing with my weekly theme of doing at least one swatch post every Sunday, here is an awesome polish I picked up this week. This is Morgan Taylor Rhythm and Blues, and it is AMAZING. I can't believe this was in a 50% Off Clearance section. The following photos are just one coat of this lovely foil polish.

The color is a lovely blue-silver that seems to shift based on the lighting. Indoors and in the shade, it leans more toward a blue pewter, but in the sun it brightens a bit.

 I imagine this would work amazingly well as a stamping polish, and I can't wait to give it a go! 

 Dry time was amazingly fast, and application was a breeze. I did have the normal foil frustration of getting itsy bits of glitter on my skin during clean-up, but a quick wash with water removed all of that sparkle!

Snow White

 Time for some Disney nails! I've been meaning to do Disney princess nails for a while, mostly because my friend challenged me to do so. Of course, I had to start chronologically, which meant tackling Snow White! I decided to do images of the evil queen and Snow White in the Magic Mirror.

 I began with Sinful Colors Black on Black on my thumb and ring nails. I then sponged OPI I Just Can't Cope-acabana onto the top half of each remaining nail. I actually rather like the effect in person, though in the photos it turned out a little darker and less dramatic.

 Next, I painted the tips of the non-character nails with Salon Perfect Baby Blues, followed by adding red details with Essie Hip-anema. I then used Sinful Colors Bad Chick (a striper) to add a thin white line to clean up the blue. Lastly, I added a little oval diamond near the base of each nail. I thought about adding more gems, but I didn't want to ruin everything by going overboard.

 For the character portraits, I used entirely too many polish colors. I just have too much fun using strictly polish for things like this, even though I could probably get a cleaner effect by using acrylic. But because this blog is mostly a way for myself to keep record of what I've done, I'm just going to list them all out.

Snow White:
Sinful Colors Black on Black (hair)
ORLY Dare to Bare (Skin)
Sally Hansen Pacific Blues (dress)
Salon Perfect Baby Blues (Sleeves)
Essie Hip-anema (Red details)
China Glaze White on White (Skin highlights, white details)

Witch:
Sinful Colors Black on Black (hood)
ORLY Dare to Bare (skin)
Seche Astute (skin shading)
China Glaze White on White (hair)
Essie Hip-anema (apple)
Essie Maximillian Strasse-her (Green glow)

 Lastly, I added green-gold detailing to the mirror frame using the awesomely duochromey Revlon 1000 Volts. Woo! I mattefied at the end mostly for the sake of avoiding glare for these photos. I did include one glossy photo at the very top, to show the increased depth of color.

 Colors Used:

Sinful Colors Black on Black

OPI I Just Can't Cope-acabana

Salon Perfect Baby Blues

Essie Hip-anema

Sinful Colors Bad Chick

ORLY Dare to Bare

Sally Hansen Pacific Blues

China Glaze White on White

Seche Astute 

Essie Maximillian Strasse-her

Revlon 1000 Volts

Let It Shine

 Taking a bit of a sharp change from my stormy nails on Sunday, today I did bright and sunny nails! They definitely make me smile! I wish my skin looked better next to yellows and oranges, but it's not the end of the world. I found an image online that I decided to recreate. I had to simplify some aspects due to time, sadly.

 I started out with two coats of China Glaze White on White. Next, I used the bottle brush to paint a curving swath of orange OPI Where Did Suzi's Man-go, starting at an angle on my thumb nail, then running near the tips of my other nails. I followed that with the hint of a yellow stripe using OPI I Just Can't Cope-Acabana.

 I then pulled out my stamping plates. I used Pueen 36 with some Sinful Colors Feel the Vibe, a bright orange, to add a circular pattern to my thumb and pinkie where that second yellow stripe was visible. I then used Pueen 05 with more yellow polish to add the random crosshatch design to the orange.

Salon Perfect Ray of Light, a nail art striper, was appropriately used to add the sun rays across each nail. I used a combo of oranges to make the sun itself. Sinful Colors Bad Chick was used to separate and clean up sections of the orange curvy line. Lastly, Zoya Jinx was used to add the itty bitty birds and the second palm tree. Whew!

Colors Used:

China Glaze White on White

OPI Where Did Suzi's Man-go

OPI I Just Can't Cope-Acabana

Sinful Colors Feel the Vibe

Salon Perfect Ray of Light (Striper)

Sinful Colors Bad Chick (Striper)

Zoya Jinx

Pueen 36, 05