lather, rinse, repeat - a henna tattoo looking mani

above; index ~ below; middle nail

I thought I did this look at least 6 months ago - but I did this just last month...... I called it 'peas in a pod' manicure, but it does look more like a henna tattoo pattern. I wanted to try again; using the stripe polish and different size dots and it turned out lovely.

from Peas in a pod mani May 2011

There really isn't much to add to this, so if you need more info, please read the other post HERE. I started off with a base of Avon Bare Necessity, and sponged on Billie Cosmetics Turquois ( lol -it is a light pink with grey tones) I used a black stripe polish, then using a dotting tool I added some shimmery medium purple dots in varying sizes.

I applied top coat on a few nails for a refernce to how TC smoothes out lumps and bumps and helps blend together a sponged look in a photo below. It is amazing how a top coat can smoothe out a lumpy textured polish, doesnt always work on gritty glitters, though.

I used matte top coat for this. I find that whenever I do fancy nail art, and use a shiny top coat I can never get a good photo of the design, so from now on I think I will try to take a photo of my designs with matte top coat.....

this is immediately after i applied the matte TC when it was still wet - so its shiny

stuff I used;
Avon Bare Necessity, Billie Turquois, Black stripe polish, Billie Purple, Claire's Matte TC


my thumb, middle and pinky nails have top coat, the rest are just the sponged on polish


so I cheated! I brushed on the two colours first, then sponged.....

I drew my flower petals or leaves or whatever these are supposed to be

Then added these shimmery purple dots


Avon Bare Necessity


the black stripe polish from The Bargain Shop Canada


... and one more photo!

o

a copy of a copy...... with a *proper* GIF

This is a copy, of a copy. I first saw this on Dee's Polish Endeavors HERE, where she replicated another fabulous mani. Although the art deco stripe polish brush is thin and workable, I think I need to use something much thinner, possibly the 'stripe rite' brand of polish in the future to get a very thin line.

This is 3 coats of a franken I made, followed by the black strip polish, I added some Billie Purple Rain dots, and some clear and pink crystals I did not add TC to this, I kinda liked how it had a low sheen.

I love crystals and rhinestones, but I have this terrible, terrible urge to touch then all the time and want to pick them off - I think I'll have to get back to large pieces of glitter and nail stickers.

my awesome franken

LooGix has been a good gif make for me... hope this comes across alright. Since I am painfully terrible at writing instructions, I want to add more gif's instead of a massively loooong post. It is fun to try new things with blogging, I would love to make more nail art videos in the future as well.

Gif maker

art deco stripe polish in black

Billie Purple Rain

♥

SH Chrome Turquoise, Icing Sandy Beach & Art Deco silver stripe

This is my 'go-to' nail art when I can't think of something to do for my mani's. I started with 2 coats of Sandy Beach from Icing ( by Claire's ), then applied Nailene French Tip Guides on the diagonal across my nail, added 1 careful coat of an older Sally Hansen Polish called Turquoise, for their chrome collection  IN A SQUARE BOTTLE, I remove3d the french tip guides and traced where the two polish's meet with Art Deco silver glitter. When I was certain it was 'sorta' dry, I applied a coat of Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat.

This is a super-duper easy look to achieve, further on in this post is a terrible free-hand funky french I tried to do = FAIL! I can pull off a chevron french manicure just fine - but a regular french manicure I cannot do! So hats off to those who can do that♥

LOL- half way through my nail art - i like how my fingers look all clumsy grasping the bottle

my ONLY photo with TC - my camera died 1/2 way through my photos!

w/ Sally Hansen Chrome in Turquoise IN A SQUARE BOTTLE!!!!!!

LA Colors Art Deco silver stripe glitter - a fine silver glitter

another angle.....

........dim mysterious lighting

..... and a fail I though I would share, I started with 2 coats of Icing Sandy Beach, then tried to free-hand a french mani - NOT HAPPENING, I planned on adding Wet N Wild Sparked because I knew it would help disguise the line and it is a fabulous pink glitter, but it was very thick and ruined this mani further - so I took it off and did something else instead. I'll have to pick up another bottle of WnW sparked very soon - I have had that for a looooooong time and I must have left it open at some point....

I will keep practicing though, if it is a straight line, I can do a decent job without tip guides, but if it is in the least bit outta whack, or it looks woobly or wavy I will stare at it all day, and it will drive me nutz!!!! I cover it up with glitter or just remove it. So now I just use tip guides, mailing labels, tape or whatever I have to try to create a pretty perfect mani.

♥ Sally Hansen Red Carpet w/ Lancone Snob Too ♥

3 thin coats of a pretty taupe with golden micro-shimmer from Lancome Called Snob Too, I have literally had this forever, it's one of those mini Vernis Absolute polish's that you get when you purchase products from Lancome. I estimate this to be approximately 13 years old, if not a year or two older. I used the fabulous Sally Hansen Extreme Wear in Red Carpet, sponged diagonally on the tips. Of all the red-jelly-golden-glass-flecked reds I have, THIS IS THE BEST!

I will be doing a Top 20 ( a la' MUA on my blog very soon and S.H. Red Carpet is on it )

Red Carpet is a Jelly Finish with glass flecks, I reccomend sponging with CREME polish's, becuase they offer the most coverage, there is a lot of thin spots in this mani, but I really wanted to wear this polish.


This ended up looking like I clawed a bunch of people during Christmas shopping sales, I had something else in mind when I picked out these two polish shades to combine. Every time I wear Red Carpet, the glints of gold in the glass-flecks mess up my ability to focus my camera = does anyone else have that problem?

below- Lancome Snob Too; 3 thin coats

(= everything old is new again =)

So; I started off with 3 coats of Snob Too -  this is probably the most colour accurate photo

I sparingly slapped on some of the red carpet, making sure to add it thinly -and- in a jagged line with the polish brush right outta the bottle.

I brushed Red Carpet from the jagged line, making sure that the polish did not 'pool' anywhere, and not laying it on two thick.

I sponged over the jagged line, and used the polish brush to add more of the Red Carpet from the sponged area tot he tips of my nails.

Finally I sponged over my whole nail with the Red Carpet, slowly filling in any sparse areas.

... with Top Coat  ( I smacked my ring nail into my desk - dang! )

Here the texture of the sponging is very evident

and after a coat of Nailene Top Coat

indoor florescent

 ♥

♥ Crystal Slushies & Nail polishing LAW ♥

3 coats of Icing by Claire's Putty Concrete, followed by a hap-hazard 2 coats of Pure Ice In The Mood, then a final light sponging of Pure Ice In The Mood. When it was dry I topped it off with a coat of Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat, and added a medium sized Nailene Nail Crystal to the corner of my nails, on my thumbs I added a large and med. sized crystal.

It's not my best work at sponging, but that is the beauty of  sponging.... it always looks good!

My new way to sponge is to polish up to 2/3 of the area I want to have the sponged look, then sponge over that area and fade it into the base colour..... this way it doesn't take alot of repetitions of sponging to get the look I want.... I will have to do a tutorial in photos of that soon, becuase a sheer-ish colour like Pure Ice In The Mood, needs alot of coats for opacity, so I can only imagine how many times I would have to go over my nails sponging with it.

 I had planned on sponging a white glass flecked polish over this taupe base, but I looooooooove this blue glass-flecked polish; Pure Ice In The Mood. We are in the middle of a blizzard at the moment, so no sunshine pics. I did include a little more info ( with pic's ) about applying moisturizer carefully around your cuticles before paining - helping to prevent an acetone clean-up.... thats further in this post.

The false nails I am wearing are an older dis-continued Fing'rs brand artificial nail; I loooove these nails! They can still be found at some dis-count stores and on E-bay and a drug store from England.

Also; why in the frigg is this showing up as my leading photos in other people blog rolls! grrrrrrrr...............

..... a little fuzzy but a good pic of these future pine-cones

Icing Putty Concrete 3 coats ~ NO top coat

outdoors during a BLIZZARD!!!!

3 coats with no top coat ~ indoor fluorescent

R @1  coat - left 3 coats with Nailene TC

LOVE 4 YOUR CUTICLES! In my last blog post I wrote about how I apply moisturizer to my cuticles around my nail bed....any type of moisturizer will do! I used to use Vaseline, but I find that using any good moisturizer that sinks in and doesn't leave any residue when it is time to take photos.... I just peel off the offending cured polish ( LOL) and take my photos!!! I wouldn't worry too much about the brand or quality as long as your skin absorbs the moisturizer it forms a protective barrier over your skin = which polish will not adhere to.

You just need a light layer - in my photos I really blobbed it on so the camera would pick it up

Unfortunately when I painted my nails today - I did not make many mistakes, but the next time I paint my nails I will make sure to do a messy job so that I can get more photos of this in action! It works - it's awesome..... save your cuticles!

Here are two photos of me applying the lotion with a angled brush.....

-check out how dry my skin is~ thats from latex gloves -

Another AWESOME tip; about 10 minutes before I use polish remover to take off my polish, I apply moisturizer to my hands, cuticle's and under my nails, I make sure it sinks in and then I use nail polish remover to remove my polish..... I truly feel that these two steps have escalated me into the stratosphere of hand modeling and made me Canada's most fabulous hand model.

Also just for funz......Here is a pic of Fing'rs discontinued 'trophy wife length' nails that I love so much.  I love the shape, thickness and length of these nails = not exactly practical as I am doing tonnes of Christmas crafts in the evenings. I always get a big bubble on my right hand ring finger - but other than that these fit my nails perfectly. I wish that these were still commercially available, they do show up in discount stores in Canada and the USA

The glue at my cuticles, above, is easy to file away.

... and  two more