Dress Dotticure

Hello, Fireflies!

Two posts today! I needed a little nail art in my life, so I wanted to show you this dotticure I did to match a dress.  I've used this dress as an inspiration for a stamped nail look before, too.  It's one of my fave dresses.

Slashy Shirt - #NailArtForNubs

Hello, Fireflies!

I like to change my nail polish a LOT.  Yeah, I know, you're feigning surprise.  If I'm going out, I like to have my nails be inspired by my outfit, so that's what I did for today's mani.

I started off with this gorgeous purple/berry holo from Northern Star Polish, Janus Rising.

I made some slashy swipes randomly across each nail with an iridescent blue nail striper.  This just looks strange! Thankfully, we're not done.

Milani Rapid Orchid looks like black, but it's really a dark grey-purple. It's just about black.  It's pretty much as close to black as you can get without actually being black.  My husband would look at it and say that it's black.

I think it looks better with the white highlights.  It breaks up the other colors.

Here's the shirt I was wearing.  I love how the blues pop out of the mani and the shirt when placed together.

Bottle shot:  Northern Star Polish Janus Rising, Milani Rapid Orchid, blue and white nail art stripers.

This was fun and easy to do.  No rules, every nail is a little different, and no one can say you messed it up! Best of all, easily replicated on the non-dominant hand. Would you wear a slashy/messy nailart like this?

An InLinkz Link-up

Two posts today!  If you missed it, I reviewed my March Birchbox subscription box.  Click here to see it!

Matchy Monday - Brown Spots and a Dog

Hello, Fireflies!

Time for another Matchy Monday Mani.

I'm so glad that its at least seasonally appropriate to break out all the fall polish colors.  I love rich, warm browns and jewel tones.  This golden brown beauty is Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics ISherwood (say it out loud. - I Sure Would!)

That gold shimmer just slays me.  Yum.

When my husband saw this pix, he thought I was making Domino nails.  Hmm. Well, we're not done!  These were made with a dotting tool and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.

Then, I added dots with Orly Enchanted Forest. As I'm typing this, I realized that I used polishes named iSHERWOOD and enchanted FOREST.  I subconsciously made a Robin Hood mani!

I did make a few more dots with Isherwood to add a little more depth and cover some mistakes.  Then, the topcoat makes it all nice and pretty.

This dress has a simple black top, and the skirt is this camo-type pattern of dots.  I thought my nails looked a lot like it!

Bodie couldn't resist trying to figure out what was going on, and I couldn't resist showing you my curious, cute puppy dog.  He is the sweetest love sponge of a dog!

If you do any manis inspired by an outfit, I hope you'll post them on my FB wall - I'd love to see them!

Matchy Monday - Swirly Psychedelic Stripes!

Hello, Fireflies!

Lots of pix today, because I'm showing you a step-by-step building of a multi-color stripe-stravaganza that I did on both hands to match a dress I wore.

It starts off innocently enough, with the dreamy, soft grey of Zoya Harley.  I'm not sure what happened on my middle finger.  I love Zoya, so I refuse to blame them for it. :)

This soft green is Zoya Tracie.  I just used the polish brush, lightly, on the thinner side, to make these squiggly lines.

Next, I used two polishes from a new-to-me line Cliche'.  They are from Portugal, and I got them in a blog sale, so I'm not sure how widely available they are in the US.  You can find them on Facebook and on their webpage, though if you don't speak Portuguese, you'll need Google Translate, or something similar.

The brown polish is called Fashion, and the purple one is Rock.  I liked both of these formulas - even, well-pigmented application, and Rock has some shimmer that I dig.  You dig?

I used black and white nail stripers to outline and highlight some of the stripes, similar to the pattern on the fabric.  It's getting a little messy, but I'm not one to clean up much before I'm done - especially with so many colors.  But it's cool, ya know? Goin' with the flow.

A mani like this really needs topcoat to smooth out all the different colors and make it look cohesive.  Plus, a little shine distracts from small mistakes in the paint job!  I'm all about distraction.

Afterwards, I noticed that my lines were a little less squiggly on my right hand - probably because it was harder to control and my nails are a little shorter on that hand.  I do like the look, though - it has taken a bit of practice to be able to do nail art on both hands, but it's worth it!

Here's the dress pattern I was following.  Groovy, huh?

And, finally, the bottle shot:  Zoya Harley, Zoya Tracie, Cliche' Rock & Fashion, and nail art stripers in black and white.

So, Cool Cats, are you feelin' the Groovy vibe of these stripes?  I dig it, man.

Once You Stamp Over Black..

...You'll want to go back to stamping over a light color, because it's soo much easier! Well, maybe just for me.  I had such a time making this mani, and it's maybe my worst stamping ever.

I started with Shany plate SH04, and the single cartoony flower.

My first mistake was trying to use Sinful Colors Whipped (the black matte) as my base.  I'm too spoiled by Cult Nails Nevermore, thick, glossy one-coat black.  So after 2 nails of streaky, thin mess, I just went back to Nevermore.

Finger Paints Paper Mache is my standard white for stamping, but I don't know what was the problem.  I suspect it was the hand lotion I put on - oh, so carefully to avoid the fingernails - but probably got all over, anyway.  The stamp wouldn't stick, or it would smear.

Luckily, the shirt I was wearing it with is an abstract floral print, so the highly imperfect flowers actually went with my outfit.  Like a Renoir, it looked great from far away, but a hot mess close up!

Macro shots are so unforgiving.  In the Real World, it's rare for anyone to notice the level of detail or need for perfection that there is in the Nail World.  So, even though it wasn't very good, I wore it anyway - and the people who saw it liked it!  A 'flaw' can sometimes be the very thing that makes the art pretty or unique!

Matchy Monday - Grey Rose Dress

Hello, Fireflies!

Welcome to another edition of Matchy Monday, where I do my mani as inspired by my outfit!

Think you know what this is?

Surprisingly, it's NOT OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, but it sure looks like it.  It's Color Club Silver Lake. 

The rose and crosshatch pattern on Pueen 22 reminded me of my dress pattern, so I stamped with Finger Paints Black Expressionism on all my nails.

I added lines with a black and grey striper.

I also added grey and white to the roses, but in retrospect, maybe I should have added more black.

Isn't that rose ring super cool?  I love how it mimicked the dress.  I have earrings that look like the ring, too.

A better look at the nails against the dress pattern.

I really like this dress, too.

Bottle shot:  Color Club Silver Lake, Finger Paints Black Expressionism, and stripers in grey, black, and white.

I usually wear color, but I do so love a monochromatic look! Only the red lipstick for a spot of color.

Matchy Monday - Oops, wrong pink..

Hello, Fireflies!

So, I teach part-time at a local University, and I enjoy dressing up on the days that I teach.  I also enjoy matching my nails to my outfit, and have been showcasing these on my "Matchy Monday" posts.

Well, how about a not-so-matchy Monday?  I thought this polish would work, and it's absolutely beautiful - Reverie in Rubellite by Hare Polish.

That orange glow absolutely slays me.  It's so pretty.  And, as it sometimes goes, the biggest strength of this polish was also to be its weakness.

BM-211 had this flower pattern that I thought would compliment my dress, so I stamped using my trusty Finger Paints Black Expressionism.

I love how the orange glows through the pattern.

Got to have a full mani to wear to the job, right?  It's so pretty... and when I put it next to my dress, it was WAY too orange.  Complete clash.  I had a sneaking suspicion, but I was too lazy to go get the dress and compare before I did all the stamping and cleanup.

So, I had to take it all off.

By this time, it was late, and I was tired.  So Zoya Roxy got to go solo.  It doesn't need any embellishment, really, with that lovely subtle glitter.

See?  Perfect match with the dress color.  That flower stamp would have really looked nice, though.

Have you ever scrapped a mani because it was the wrong shade for your outfit?

Matchy Monday - Dots and Stripes

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's look was inspired by my dress.  I love how it turned out!  There's a lot of pix, so I hope you'll check it out after the jump!

Matchy Monday - inspired by my Indian-print dress

Hello, Fireflies!

Today, I have a simple, but beautiful color polish to show you:  Barry M. Copper.

I love a microglitter like this that has flashes of other colors.  The pink and chartreuse are what drew me to pair it with one of my favorite dresses.

This dress has, what I like to think of as, an Indian-style print.  Some areas of the dress are tan with a pink hue, like here:

And other parts have this pattern with greens and blues and even rust colors.  I love how this makes the polish seem more green and gold!

One of the reasons I like changing my polish every day is to see what inspiration I get from what I wear - even if it's to pick out the right purple to wear with my t-shirt!  Are your nails inspired by your outfits?

Matchy Monday - Inspired by my Nude/Grey/Black circle dress

Hello, Fireflies!

Ok, I admit that I screwed up the stamping yesterday, so hopefully this will make up for it.

Isn't this a gorgeous base?  It's a nude holo, but it has a chrome base.  This is Vulnerable from Different Dimensions.

I used the rainbow-ish pattern on Winstonia W111.  Yes, just like yesterday, only now you actually get to *see* it.

Look, I stamped *all* the nails!  Even on my right hand.  I used my go-to stamping black, Finger Paints Black Expressionism.

Then I took a grey striper and filled in a few of the half-moon areas.  It's delicate, but gives a very subtle highlight.

A right hand appears! Always nice when a nail art can be done on both hands.  Even better when it looks good on the nubbins.

Here's a look at the pattern on my dress that I was matching.  No one noticed that they matched, but I still felt HOT.  Kinda like wearing matching lingerie - no one else really has to know in order for me to feel sexy.

Bottle shot:  Different Dimension Vulnerable, Finger Paints Black Expressionism, So Easy Stripe Right grey striper.

Do you like to match your nails to your outfit?