Ghosts In The Mist

Hello, Fireflies! 

Today, I have a boo-tiful no-water-marble-turned swirly ghosts mani to show you!  This is straight up a Robin Moses design.  I just did it in polish instead of acrylic, and with much less talent than she has.

Still, this is the first even remotely successful needle drag marble I've ever done, so let's celebrate!

I painted the nail with OPI Glints of Glinda, and then, while the second coat was still wet, dropped little bits of Revlon Sequin (silver), Sally Hansen Raisin The Bar (metallic pink), and Finger Paints Black Expressionism (black) and Paper Mache (white) on one nail at a time.  I ran a small nail art brush through the drops of polish to create the swirls, then pulled the excess polish off my finger the way Robin Moses taught me to.

Using a little more Paper Mache, thinned a little with polish thinner, I added the ghosties and outlined them with the black striper and added the faces.  Then, I added in some of the pink glitter.

Bottle shot:  OPI Glints of Glinda, Sally Hansen Raisin The Bar, Revlon Sequin, Finger Paints Black Expressionism and Paper Mache, and nail art stripers in pink glitter and black.

I think these may be the prettiest ghost nails I've ever done! Brava to Robin Moses for their conception and great tutorial.  Are you more of a fan of the gory Halloween, or the pretty costumes?

TRI-ing on Talons

 

Hello, Fireflies!

Let's just get this part over with, shall we?  Holy Frijole!

You've seen my nubs, so you know these talons aren't real.  They're KISS Everlasting French press-on nails.  I got them from Influenster, and took them for a spin.  After a day, I got bored with the plain French, and started doing different nail art looks, which I'll be showing you in the coming days and weeks.  They do look pretty good, and with a layer of Rica's Glossy Glam, they actually looked more real.  Fooled a friend of mine that does her own acrylics!

For the nude part of the challenge, well, the nail already has a nude part! I accented it with Ooh La Lacquer Matte-terial Girl, a collection of tiny nude/pink glitters in a matte base.

I was inspired by Robin Moses' Heart Flowers design for this look.  It was kinda fun to have a long nail as a base for this nail art.

After setting the background branches with my black striper, I used Avon Mango Melon (which looks red, but it did seem like coral!) with a little Born Pretty holo #3 to make the heart flowers.

Mentality Pastille didn't work for the leaves, really, but I did love it for the 'pollen' of the flowers.   Who needs leaves? This turquoise holo is so pretty.

Some more Glossy Glam, and we're done!

Bottle shot:  Ooh La Lacquer Matte-terial Girl, my black striper, Mentality Pastille,  Avon Mango Melon, and Born Pretty Holo #3.

I'm okay with my nubbins, but it was fun to wear talons for a few days.  There was So.Much.Room on my nails! Do you have a preference for looking at nail art on long or short nails?

An InLinkz Link-up

Jerseyliciously Orange #NailArtForNubs

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's #NailArtForNubs is a design I saw on Finger Food (who was, in turn, inspired by Robin Moses Jerseylicious tutorial)

Both designs were done on long nails, so I'm taking a little leap of faith and trying it on my nubbins.

I started with Aly's Dream Polish Persimmon, a hot, hot, hot orange holo.  This is one spicy persimmon!

I used Revlon Spirit, and it's own brush, to create the outline for the graffiti-like shapes.  I just did what I thought would fit, making sure to make some blobs higher than other blobs.

I'm pretty sure this nail art would have been easier with acrylic paints! Trying to make tiny lines with a black striper is a little challenging, and you can see where I just ran out of room! Like Robin does in her tutorial, I also went over some of the white again to make it pop and clean up some of the lines.

I've never seen 'Jerseylicious' but I have seen The Maxx, and for some reason, this art just reminds me of that style of drawing.  I have just not only dated myself, but also aligned myself as a bit of a geek with that reference, I think.

I really like the contrast between the bright pop of orange, and the stark black and white.

Bottle shot:  Aly's Dream Polish Persimmon, Revlon Spirit, black nail art striper.

So, does this nail art need long nails, do you think?  I'm pretty happy with it!

An InLinkz Link-up

Moon Candy Nail Art

Hello, Fireflies!

Yesterday, I showed you a couple of looks with the Revlon Moon Candy polishes, and today, I'm incorporating one into some nail art. Fancy!

I started off with Takko Lacquer Blushing Nude.  Nude, with a hot pink flash - crazy! I love this.  And, I'm not afraid to say it.. I miss Takko's old round bottles.  These types are some of my faves.

I took the deep wine color of Revlon Satellite and painted a curved/diagonal French tip on each nail.  These are some of my fave tips to do - no tape, no muss, no fuss.  I do have to do a little cleanup where I go over the edge of the nail, but I'm working on my aim.

I added some scrolls, a la Robin Moses.  I love her work - I don't know how she comes up with so many great nail art ideas.

Chunky, funky gold mylar flakies! Definitely a job swishing the brush around, pulling up a few flakies, and rolling and dabbing them off the brush - and trying not to get them all over the place!  I love the look, though.

Top coat smooths it all out.. and, smudged my wine color, too! Argh.  Luckily, it seemed to blend in with the pink flash from Blushing Nude.  In Real Life, it wasn't noticeable.  I love how a little bit of bling catches the light when you move.  It's subtle, but eye-catching!

Bottle shot:  Takko Lacquer Blushing Nude, and Revlon Moon Candy Satellite.

What do you think about adding a little bling-bling to nail art?  Would you rather keep it simple with just one color and the flakies, like in yesterday's post?

Harvest Time #FallingForNailArt

Hello, Fireflies!

It's harvest time! So, it got me thinking about food.  Which got me thinking about pie.  Pumpkin Pie.  Liquid Sky Lacquer Pumpkin Pie, to be precise.  It's that perfect 'cooked pumpkin' shade of orange holo.

I was watching a Robin Moses video where she demonstrated some 'old school' nail art - stuff she did back in the '80's.  I wore nail polish then, but I wasn't into nail art.  I was really only allowed to wear champagne and frosted pink, back then - maybe a red for a special day.  Black was for the 'bad kids.'  Oh, how times have changed.

I used Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics ISherwood and Above the Curve Let's Tan-GO for old-school stripes that reminded me of waves of grain.

All the oranges, yellows, and browns are perfect colors for fall.  These stripes also make me think of hay, maybe stuffing a scarecrow!

The magic that is topcoat smooths everything out.

Bottle shot:  Liquid Sky Lacquer Pumpkin Pie, Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics ISherwood, and Above the Curve Let's Tan-GO

Ready to rock some old-school nail art?

Flash Scrolls

Hello, Fireflies!

I couldn't resist some of the multichrome holos from Darling Diva Polish's Queen collex.  The three I picked up are *gorgeous*.

First up, Flash.

Named for the theme song for the movie, "Flash Gordon."  The movie wasn't so great.  I'm not a huge fan of the song, either, even though I love me some Queen.

But this polish? Wow.  Really, WOW.   Look at this gold and purple.

And then to yellow gold and orange..

Greenish gold?  Is this the same polish? yep!

At first, I thought I'd add just a simple black French tip with Finger Paints Black Expressionism.

But, then, I couldn't resist adding a few scrolls a la Robin Moses.  I love scrolls, but I haven't yet mastered doing them - especially with polish - so, I keep practicing!  I'm pretty happy with these, I will admit.

That color change slays me.  So many colors at once, all changing every time the lights hit it a different way.

I didn't want to take this off! Such a gorgeous polish.  I'll have two more from this collection to show you, but there are 6 all together.  Are you as much in love with Darling Diva Polish Flash as I am?

Falling for Nail Art - Great Pumpkin

Hi, Fireflies!

For my Great Pumpkin nail art, I was inspired by Robin Moses!  I never thought I would do pumpkins like these before.

I started with a holo - Enchanted Polish Congratulations.  I love orange-y/gold/bronz-y type shifters.

For the pumpkins, I made the shapes with Too-Cute-icle Hot Shades.  Bright orange pumpkins!

Maybe I should have gone darker with the outlines and used Hot Shades for the main color.  I thought that Above the Curve Let's Tan-go would be pumpkin-y.  I used a small nail brush to paint in the curves of the pumpkin.

I used Zoya Hunter for the stems of the pumpkins, and a mix of Hunter and Sinful Colors Pistache for the vines.

Maybe there wasn't enough contrast between EP Congratulations and the pumpkins, but I love that orange glow and that holo.  Such a gorgeous polish!

Bottle shot:  Enchanted Polish Congratulations, Too Cute-icle Hot Shades, Above the Curve Let's Tan-go, Zoya Hunter, and Sinful Colors Pistache.

Are you ready for the Great Pumpkin to rise out of the pumpkin patch on Halloween?

The Darker side of Contrary Polish

I love wearing darker polishes.  I know I have li'l nubbins, but I don't care - I'll wear what I want!  I hope you will, too.  I want to show you a couple of Contrary Polishes I picked up that have a bit of a darker side to them.

Mystery.  I think this was part of Contrary's Holiday collection, but I'm not sure.  I found it on sale at Llarowe, and I'm glad I did.  I love brown polishes, and the gold shimmer in this one is so pretty.  Gold and brown are so nice together.

I wanted to do some nail art, so I picked a color that I thought would help bring out that shimmer.  This is Sinful Colors Zincing of You, and the beginning of Nailside's infamous cloud mani design.

I also really love blue and brown together, so I used China Glaze Adore, a metallic blue, to finish the cloud and to add some dots.  I'm loving all this metallic shimmer!

Lopsided bottle shot.  Oh, Blogger, why u no fix this?

Bright Night.  It's actually a bit of a dark night to me, but there is a bright blue shimmer to it, which adds some really pretty depth to this polish.

 

I was inspired by Robin Moses' design for 'Elegant Blue Tentacles" to do this version: 

I even did my right hand:

I used Barry M. Gelly in Blueberry for the 'tentacles', Barry M. Blue Moon for the dots, and added the iridescence with Sally Hansen Sea and Be Seen.  Bottle shot:
 

You like Contrary Clouds or Tentacles?


If you'd like to find out more about Contrary Polish, you can find them on Facebook.  She sells minis via e-mail through her blog, but you can buy full-size polishes through Llarowe, and some other e-tailers (she has a list on her blog.)