Swirls on Scouse

 For a little inspiration, I asked the Random Number Generator to pick a polish for me. It fell on Butter London Scouse, a beautiful blue shimmery polish with a bright purple flash that gives it a duochrome effect.

 I really like the formula to Scouse. It's a bit thin, but three coats is enough for full coverage.It's so shimmery! I adore this shade of blue, and when you add in the purple flash it's just perfect to me.

 I didn't want to cover all of the lovely blue up, so I decided to just accent things with a stamped design and some studs. I used SpaRitual Copper and a design from Pueen plate SE01A. I love these new Pueen plates and can't wait to use them some more! The studs are actually 'nail heads' from the scrapbooking section at the craft store. I love their copper color and they're the perfect size for nail art.

Colors Used:

Butter London Scouse

SpaRitual Copper

Pueen plate SE01A

Floral Paisley

 I'm catching up on my backlog! These nails were done for NPQ's Hippie Challenge and they were so fun to both paint and wear! I rarely wear yellow polish but this actually worked out well.

 To start I used Butter London Jasper, which is one of my favorite yellows. It's nice to find a yellow that applies so well and needs less than three coats. Once that was dry, I used nail guides to block off a half moon at the base of each nail and filled that with OPI A-Taupe the Space Needle. I decided on the moons to give some contrast to the pattern.

 The flowers were added with a small dotting tool.  I used quite a few different colors:
Sinful Colors Southern Belle (Fuchsia), China Glaze Capacity to See Beyond (Aqua blue), OPI Call Me Gwen-ever (Orange), Sinful Colors Poudre (Light orange), and Seche Delicate (Pink). A little acrylic white paint was used for the centers of most flowers.

This pattern was much easier than it appears, it just required a bit of patience. The hardest part was trying to make sure I didn't repeat the same shapes in the same orientation!

Colors Used:

Butter London Jasper

OPI A-Taupe the Space Needle

 Sinful Colors Southern Belle

 China Glaze Capacity to See Beyond

OPI Call Me Gwen-ever

 Sinful Colors Poudre

Seche Delicate

The Cake is a Lie

 The challenge of the week was 'cakes', so of course I went the geeky route with Portal references. This is one of those designs that looked okay on my hand but didn't translate as well to photographs. Still fun, though!

 To give the nails a bit of a grungy effect, I started with Sinful Colors Cool Gray and sponged on some OPI Alpine Snow. It resulted in a bit of a dirty/textured white that I rather like. For my thumbnail, I did a companion cube. I probably should have stuck with a straight-on perspective instead of the corner view, but it was fun to paint! The different shades of the box were done with more Cool Gray mixed with a little Wet n Wild Black Creme. The heart was painted in CQ Pink Folle.

 Since I wanted a bit more control with the black, I did both my index and middle finger with acrylic paint. If you can't read it, my index finger says "The cake is a lie" and has a smudgy hand print on the top and five tally marks at the tip.

My ring finger was done with a base of Seche Astute, a dark brown. Frosting highlights were done with some Wet n Wild Wet Cement, which is a mid-tone greyish brown. The cherries were painted with Sephora by OPI High Maintenance. Lastly, I used more High Maintenance for the turret's eye on my pinkie.

Now I really want to play more Portal!

Colors Used:

Sinful Colors Cool Gray

OPI Alpine Snow
Wet n Wild Black Creme

Wet n Wild Wet Cement

CQ Pink Folle

Seche Astute

Sephora by OPI High Maintenance

Swirly Hearts

 This design was originally done for the week of Valentine's. I was in the mood for something a little more minimalistic (for me at least!) and so I decided to do hearts and swirls on a gradient.

 I started out with a base layer of OPI Alpine Snow, then used a makeup sponge to apply the gradient. The darker gray shade is China Glaze Out Like A Light, and the lighter is Sinful Colors Cool Gray. 

 The hearts I freehanded with China Glaze Tip Your Hat, a lovely bright red, shaded with some ORLY Ignite, another great red creme a few shades darker. I then outlined each with a thin brush and black acrylic paint and added some swirls. I know the swirls aren't the greatest - I need to practice some more! I then added some white highlights to each heart and helped define a few swirls so that they would stand out more against the gray.

Colors Used:

OPI Alpine Snow

China Glaze Out Like A Light

Sinful Colors Cool Gray

China Glaze Tip Your Hat

ORLY Ignite

Sunset Timelapse

 I love gradients, and I love painting skies! That said, this didn't turn out as good as I hoped, but it's still fun. The idea I had was to paint a progressive time lapse of a sunset. Gotta love excuses to paint clouds and gradients!

 I laid down the base gradients as follows:
Thumb: Morgan Taylor Don't Touch Me I'm Radioactive to Julep Bess to Tea Beauty Mint Leaf
Index: Julep Bess to Tea Beauty Mint Leaf to ORLY Flawless Flush
Middle:Tea Beauty Mint Leaf to ORLY Flawless Flush to Julep Cassie
Ring: China Glaze One Track Mind to Morgan Taylor Don't Touch Me I'm Radioactive to Salon Perfect Bellini
Pinky: China Glaze Liquid Leather to China Glaze One Track Mind to Essie Fear or Desire

 I then used a small brush to brush on some clouds on each nail. I used a mix of the base colors to get the appropriate shading on each cloud. On the brighter nails the clouds are shaded in blue, where the later clouds take on a pinkish hue. I used a toothpick and some acrylic white paint to add highlights to the clouds as well as stars to my nighttime pinky.

On my middle finger I added a sun glow in OPI I just Can't Cope-acabana. I also used more Essie Fear or Desire to add a bit more color to my ring nail. Lastly, the horizon was added to each nail tip in China Glaze Liquid Leather.

Colors Used:

Morgan Taylor Don't Touch Me I'm Radioactive

Julep Bess

Tea Beauty Mint Leaf

 ORLY Flawless Flush

 Julep Cassie

 China Glaze One Track Mind

Salon Perfect Bellini

China Glaze Liquid Leather

Essie Fear or Desire

OPI I just Can't Cope-acabana

Fly By Night

 Trying to give some love to some of my long list of unused polish! The random number generator chose a black crackle polish for me, Revlon Fly By Night. I paired this with the chrome Sally Hansen Purple Alloy. The different quality of the super chrome polish means that the crackle effect normally wouldn't work as well, so I topped it with a clear coat of polish before applying the crackle. For a little extra pizazz, I topped it with ORLY Shine On Crazy Diamond. Everything works with super bright scattered holo glitter!

 Revlon Fly By Night is a very good crackle polish! I love it when the spacing of the cracks turns out uniformly on the first try. I know crackle polishes are not really in fashion, but they're still fun for me!

 Colors Used:

 Revlon Fly By Night

  Sally Hansen Purple Alloy

 ORLY Shine On Crazy Diamond

Back to Blogging!

 I'm back! Sorry for the long absence, I fell out of the habit of regularly blogging. I'll try to post some of my backlog. So happy to be back! These nails were inspired by a little notepad given to me by a friend, and were originally painted December 5th, 2014.

I started with a base of OPI Alpine Snow topped with Nicole by OPI Others Pale by Kim-parison to get a super light beige background. For my thumb and ring finger, I used a base of Color Club Lavandarling.

The damask-ish design was painted with a mix of Morgan Taylor Varsity Jacket Blues for the lovely bright blue and SpaRitual Shoot for the Stars for the dark purple. Gold accents were added with Sally Hansen Liquid Gold.

On my accent nails, the butterfly was painted in more Varsity Jacket Blues and outlined in more Liquid Gold. The leaves were done with OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow and flowers in OPI Alpine Snow. I added a little accent gem to the center of the butterfly to match the notepad.

Colors Used:

OPI Alpine Snow

Nicole by OPI Others Pale by Kim-parison

Color Club Lavandarling

Morgan Taylor Varsity Jacket Blues

SpaRitual Shoot for the Stars

Sally Hansen Liquid Gold

OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow