Tie-spiration Gold and Green

Hello, Fireflies!

Time for another round of Tie-spiration, where hubby picks a tie, and I make a mani!

Those of you who have Nabi polish readily available are lucky.  I had to order mine from eBay! I love all the holos I've tried, even though they are scattered, they are pretty pigmented.  This one is Nabi Gold.

I used some tape to create a checkerboard pattern with Above The Curve Anona, an olive-golden-green.

Maybelline Bold Gold is my fave gold for stamping, and it does pretty well for nail art, too. 

Add a little black for contrast and some topcoat!

Bottle shot: Nabi Gold, Maybelline Bold Gold, Above The Curve Anona, and a black nail art striper.

So, what do you think? Does it look like his tie?  Have you ever taken makeup/fashion/nailart inspiration from your significant other's wardrobe?

TRI Holo-Watercolor

Hello, Fireflies!

Today is the first Tri-polish challenge for May.  So, right off the bat, I think, let's put all these colors together and see what we get! I used Nabi Red, which is a gorgeous super-saturated scattered red holo, and Nabi Purple, a dark wine scattered holo, and Polished by KPT Green With Envy, a very sheer pale green scattered holo.

I was inspired by this look from the Nailasaurus to add some black on the sides.  I used some tape and a pair of craft scissors to get the wave, and then painted it with Cult Nails Nevermore.

I love how the blobs of color become more abstract and watercolor-like when bordered by the black - like whatever shape they might have had becomes even more amorphous.  

Bottle shot:  Nabi Red, Nabi Purple, Polished by KPT Green With Envy, and Cult Nails Nevermore.

These aren't colors I'd normally pair together - would you?

NCC - Where you can Say Anything

Hello, Fireflies!

Ok, so technically, there are only 4 challenges per month for the NCC.  I usually do my NCC challenges on Wednesdays, and there are 5 Wednesdays this month.. so, before I knew it, I had done a 5th Movie/Music/TV mani.

Yep, I'm *that* guy.

So, for your enjoyment, I present my 5th challenge for April, based on a song that was used in a movie.

A blank slate, with Revlon Spirit.

Flames..hmm.. 'the heat' stamped with Cheeky 52 and Nabi Red, with a bit of Julep Kyla dabbed on.

 A little sparkle from L'Oreal The True Diamond - 'the light'... 'the light, the heat'.

And a little dude holding a boom box.  If I could draw, he'd be wearing a trench coat.

And, finally, the eyes! "In your eyes, the light, the heat; your eyes, I am complete. In your eyes, I see the doorway to a thousand churches..."

Yeah, I wasn't even going to try drawing a thousand churches.

Here's basically the whole movie, Say Anything, set to the awesomeness that is Peter Gabriel's, "In Your Eyes," the song that broke every girl's heart watching this movie.

"I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen."

Bottle shot:  Revlon Spirit, Nabi Red, Julep Kyla, L'Oreal The True Diamond, and a Sharpie.

'Put googly eyes on your nails," my husband said.  "Put googly eyes on and it'll be like that movie.  It'll be fun," he said.

An InLinkz Link-up

TRI-holo watercolor

Hello, Fireflies!

Last Tri-polish Tuesday for March, and I'm celebrating with a watercolor holo design.  I started off with Different Dimensions Good Evening Clarice, a sheer mint-green with a subtle holo.  If you like holos, you should check out this Indie.  She makes some of my faves.

I placed random blobs of Nabi Sky Blue over that.  Nabi holos aren't very strong, but I think they are so pretty.  Sky Blue has a gorgeous color to it.

Nabi Deep Purple went on over that.  What a gorgeous royal purple.  I've never seen Nabi in stores around me, but there are a couple of sellers on Ebay that sell pick-your-own-color collections, which is how I got mine.

I dabbed on a little more of the green, and then added topcoat to blend everything together. 

It's a Monet!  If you stand far enough away, you can see water lilies, or a landscape.  Can you see the Eiffel Tower in the ring finger? no?  Are you squinting?

Bottle Shot:  Different Dimensions Good Evening Clarice, and Nabi Sky Blue and Dark Purple.

I like to switch up between really defined nail art patterns, and something more random, like this.  What's your favorite type of nail art?

An InLinkz Link-up

Textured Stripes and Flowers - #NailArtForNubs

Hello, Fireflies!

It's Nail Art For Nubs day!  Well, every day is for me, isn't it.  But today, I am joined by other nubbins! Wear what you like, regardless of nail length, I say.

Today's nail art was inspired by this Pin of Nailicious on Tumblr.  I loved the simple bold stripe with the delicate floral accent!  I started with Nabi Silver, a silver holo on the subtle end of the linear spectrum. 

Using my ruler, abacus, and level, I meticulously applied the striping tape.

Yeah, right.  I totally eyeballed it.

I painted L'Oreal Pop The Bubbles on the top half of each nail, and Hidden Gems on the bottom.  I actually wanted it to look like a gradient, so I purposely let the colors mix in the middle.  Which you may not actually believe, because that's the sort of thing I would tell you to cover a mistake, but in this case is actually true.  I'm the blogger who cried wolf!

Hidden Gems is the real star of the show for me.  I love how the light blue specks in it are actually the same color as Pop The Bubbles, so it looks like the shimmer carries all the way through the nail.  I totally planned that.  Now you'll never believe me.

Decals were the easy solution to getting the flowers to show up over the busy and textured background.

Bottle shot:  Nabi Silver, L'Oreal Pop The Bubbles, and Hidden Gems.

Do you like to mix patterns, like florals and stripes?

(Did you miss it? I reviewed my February Ipsy bag earlier today.  Click HERE for the post!)

An InLinkz Link-up

Sunday Stamping - Undah Da Sea

Hello, Fireflies!

It's time again for Sunday, Sunday, Sunday Stamping! Today, we'll be *blub* *blub* under water!  My version of water starts with Nina Ultra Pro Twinkle, Twinkle.  I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a textured polish or a rough glitter.  I was actually glad to have it a little textured, because I felt that would add to the 'under water' effect. 

You believed that, right? Good.

I found this cute image on my stamping plate DRK-C, and used Finger Paints Silver Sculpture (a lilac-leaning silver) for the stamping.  Totally adorable, right? I only wish my nails were big enough for the whole stamp.  

I used different parts of the stamp on different fingers, and then I decided to create a backwards 'decal' look by painting in some of the fish 'n things. 

I love how colorful it turned out, like a kids' toy aquarium!

I used a lot of different polishes while painting this scene.  Bottle shot:  Nina Ultra Pro Twinkle Twinkle, Finger Paints Silver Sculpture, Revlon Spirit, Nabi Gold, Liquid Sky Lacquer Marisa Lander's Dancing Flames, Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer 2014, Cover Girl Silver Lining, and Born Pretty Holo #3.

What would you like to see under the sea?

Stamping Sunday - Bleeding Rust

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's stamping challenge was to use a plate whose number ended in '2'.  It was kinda fun to go through a bunch of plates and just choose something I liked.

I bought a bunch of Nabi holos a while ago from a seller on Ebay, tried a few, and the rest have sat around in the mountain of untrieds.  I picked Tawny from the pile and fell in love.

Even though these bottles are very similar to the Layla Holographics, these polishes are nothing alike.  Laylas have an incredible mirror holo, but are super finicky and look best over an aqua base.  Nabis are more of a tightly scattered holo.  They can drag if you don't let the layers dry, but they're not finicky.

I'm so in love with this rich wine color. 

I really liked this pattern on Winstonia W112.  At the time, I thought it looked a little like a circuit board.  Now, I'm thinking more Greek-themed.  I used Maybelline Bold Gold to stamp with.  It's one of my fave stamping polishes, and I was so stoked to find a couple of bottles on clearance at Target this past week! It was like Christmas came early this year.

But wait, you say.  That doesn't look gold.  It looks reddish. 

Well, Tawny bled through the stamp when I applied top coat.  It was an unexpected, but quite welcome effect! I think it's so cool, and I couldn't have planned it any better. 

I loved it so much, I had to do the other hand. Here's what it looks like right after the stamp is applied, before it has a chance to bleed.   Sooo different!

I took this pix much later.  Look at how both stamps have turned reddish as Tawny bled through the gold.  So cool.

Bottle shot:  Nabi Tawny, and Maybelline Bold Gold.

Have you ever had a happy accident like this, where the final result wasn't what you thought it would be, but it was so much better?

Summer Challenge Gradient - Nabi Holos

This is the penultimate post of the Step Into Summer challenge!  I love the word, "penultimate".  It's a fancy way of saying, "next-to-last". 

And, speaking of fancy, I used holos for my gradient challenge.  Dem holos is fancee.

The base I used is called, "Pefite Teal" by Nabi.  I looked many times, studied the label.  Yes, Pefite.  I don't know what that means.  Maybe it was supposed to be "petite."  Maybe it's in reference to a place in Africa called, "Pefite."

It doesn't look teal to me, either.  The whole label is a LIE. (/the cake is a lie)

This gradient is no lie, though!  I used Nabi Ocean Blue in the middle, and Nabi Navy Blue for the tips. 

I kinda suck at the whole 'seamless' gradient thing, and the nice thing about holos is that their texture gives you a hand with that.  I basically just painted the three stripes and then did a little sponging to blend.  I would have liked it to be a smoother gradient, but I just haven't gotten there yet.

Here's the bottle shot:  Nabi Pefite Teal, Ocean Blue, and Navy Blue.

I found these Nabis on Ebay.  They were fairly inexpensive, and the holo isn't very strong, but they were easy to use, and I like the colors.  What do you think of these Nabi holos?