Tag: Nail art

by Izzy • October 15, 2013 • 0 Comments

Mouha-ha-ha!! Ha!ha! I’m sneaking in a Halloween post because I can! I know I promised to show you the rest of my hand painted nails but, I am totally digging Halloween nails right now and wanted to show you guys what I’ve been wearing for the last week or so.
I also wanted to point out that I had decided a few weeks ago to do a UV gel overlay on my nails seeing as how so many of them were cracked or broken and u did not want to gut them down. It has been a learning curve for sure but I think I’m staring to get the hang of these gel sculptured nails thingy! I have done them about three times now (once as a full set and two more times as a fill) and I have only applied a thin coat of gel over my natural nails, I have not used tips to lengthen my nails in any way. I also used the tea bag method to repair any broken or cracked nails. Works like a charm! The difficulty with the at home gel is building up the gel and getting it to stay where you need it to. I also have a small Seche Vite UV light and I don’t think the uv rays of the light actually reach parts of the nail leaving un-cured gel that gets wiped off when you clean up. Always make certain to get the whole surface of the nail is exposed to the light to avoid this problem.
Any how I also wanted to mention that my nail polish seems to last a great deal longer with the gel overlay! I just used a good thick coat of Seche Vite Top Coat on top to seal everything in. I have read that you can also add a layer of builder UV gel on top of your polish nice it is completely dry to really seal it in (I have not done this yet because I like to change my polish a few times a week!)
So here are my Halloween nails:

I used a bunch of stamping plates for the designs on my Cinderella hand and painted the other hand using acrylic paints. I had a really hard time with the brain and as a result it has a phallic look to it. Oh well I guess it will just have to do for the next few days, it is a long weekend this weekend here in Canada and I get to go to my turkey on at my best friend’s house woohoo!

For this look I used:
Essence do you speak love?, grey-t to be here, L.O.L, iced strawberry cream
Revlon spirit
Maybelline Color Show lustrous lime
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear disco ball
Karaja anti shock system N.10
Seche Vite Top Coat
I used acrylic paint for the Frankensteins, Count Dracula and the brain.

Stamping plates used for this look:
Mash 29, 48, 37
Shany SH217, 206
Bundle Monster BM13,
Winstonia W116

I would love to see your Halloween nail art, feel free to share them here!

Next up I will be posting the rest of my hand painted designs! Stay tuned!

all

Hand painted nails

by Izzy • September 30, 2013 • 0 Comments

Wow! I totally did not realize how long it had been since I posted something to the blog. It has been a busy month but I have some pretty cool nails for you today: hand painted mix and match nails! I love Robin Moses and, as most of you know, she is the best nail artist when it comes to hand painted highly detailed nail art. I decided to come up with some cool designs that are on trend. So here they are:

I’m pretty proud of these, the anarchy symbol actually looks like it was painted on a textures wall and the detail in the mushroom is amazing! I used acrylic paints to do each design over a polish base, the design was then sealed using Seche Vite Top Coat but I would probably seal everything using some uv builder gel if I were to paint these onto a client’s nails.
What do you guys think? Have you used acrylic paint to do your nails? I would love to see what you came up with!
Next up you get to see the rest of these bad boys!

nail art

Neon Fantasies manicure

by Izzy • September 11, 2013 • 0 Comments

Hello ladies! Wow it’s been a while since I posted something, but this time it is a good one! One of my favorite nail artists is a young lady named Britney Tokyo, she is amazing and does some great Japanese nail art, if you haven’t found her yet definitely check her out and show her some love, she also participates in the Vanity Projects, lucky duck, she travels all over the US doing nails for those lucky enough to book an appointment! Well I have gone on long enough about my nail crush here are my nails inspired by Britney Tokyo:

The oval “gems” with a silver frame were made by me! I used some oval jump rings for jewelry making and filled them with polish, easy peasey! Same goes for the black round “gems” on the thumbs. I have to say, they turned out really well, once they are dry all you have to do is apply them using clear polish followed by a good thick layer of top coat. The stamps all come from my jumbo cheeky plates.

For this look I used:
Seche Vite Base Coat
O.P.I. Neon colors in ridiculously yellow, formidable orange, riotously pink, white base
Essence party princess
Seche Vite Top Coat
Cheeky beauty rhinestones
LA Splash loose glitter

Nail plates used:
Cheeky Beauty jumbo plates

Up next I have a YOLO Miami manicure to show you so stay tuned!

nail art

Sunken Treasure!

by Izzy • September 6, 2013 • 2 Comments

Hi all! Well it had been a busy time! I’ve been trying to build my nail skills, I tried and failed miserably at the acrylic nail stuff but I’ve had some great success with gel nails! Or more specifically gel overlays. But that is for another post! Today I have my sunken treasure nails on display! I used the seashells I purchased from the nail room a great little site by a young lady in Vancouver B.C. Don’t forget to check it out, she also does nails that are absolutely beautiful!
Ok! Enough talk here is the manicure:

What do you think? Have you guys used the uber trendy shells in your manicures?

For this look I used:
O.P.I. My boyfriend scales walls, blue my mind
Essence tropical heat
Essence caviar beads
Cheeky store rhinestones and pearls
Shop The Nail Room sea shells
Seche Vite Top Coat

Up next are my neon fantasy nails inspired by Britney Tokyo a wonderful edgy nail artist from L.A. I love her work, it is always vibrant and fresh, I just wish I could get my nails done by her, maybe some day…

nail art

Love Letter Nails

by Izzy • August 30, 2013 • 1 Comment

Hello all! It’s been a little while since I posted on the blog but I’ve been trying to get a bunch of nail art done… Check out my IG for a sneak peek!
For today I give you some carrier pigeon love letter nails! I used some nail tattoos from the nail art display at Walmart, check it out they have a whole line of Fing’rs heart 2 art nail art products. I painted a striped air mail ruffian around a few nails with some acrylic paint. Add some heart shaped “stamps” to finish it all off!

I have used these nail tattoos in the past and they are easy to use, just make sure to cut the tattoos down to size before applying them. These were a little more difficult to apply because all the images are separate and you really need to avoid slippage during the application process.
Anyone else use these? Let me know what you think of them!

For this look I used:
Fing’rs nail tattoos
Seche Vite Base Coat
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear red carpet
Maybelline Color Show porcelain party, shocking seas
Acrylic paint for the stripes
Seche Vite Top Coat
I also used some cute heart shaped rhinestones from cheeky beauty.

Next up I will be showing you some sunken treasure using seashells I ordered from Shop The Nail Room!

nail art, Robin Moses Inspired

Robin Moses Tiki Gods

by Izzy • August 21, 2013 • 0 Comments

Hello! So today I am super duper excited to show you my version of Robin Moses’ nail art featuring Tiki Gods. For those of you who have yet to discover Robin Moses she is a definitely a master of the nail art world. Everything she does is hand painted and she has a ton of video tutorials on YouTube. You must check her out! Anyhow since I love this woman’s art I subscribe to her channel on YouTube and I was so floored when I saw her Tiki Totem nails that I vowed to reproduce them! I pulled out all my polish and all my brushes, started the video and followed along step by step ( anyone else hear NKOTB?) and this is what I came up with:

What do you think? I think they turned out pretty well, they are not as clean as Robin’s but I’m pretty proud of them. Needless to say I used the seche UV top coat on those puppies and babies them quite a bit, all in all I wore them for about 10 days! That UV top coat really protects you polish.

For this look I used:
Too many polishes to name!
Seche Vite Base Coat
Seche Vite UV Top Coat

Next up I have some Love Letter nails using nail tattoos the new nail art display I discovered in an unusual place, stay tuned to find out where…

nail art

Hey, Nice Nails! Inspired manicure

by Izzy • August 4, 2013 • 0 Comments

Hi all! As I mentioned before, I am on vacation and have been having a hard time accessing my blog remotely. Please forgive this time lag between my last few posts.
Today I have a double whammy for you, not only am I showing you a manicure inspired by the amazing ladies at Hey, Nice Nails!, if you don’t know these ladies from South Beach you have truly been missing out on some fantastic nail art, go to their website and check them out this instant! That’s an order!!!
I am also trying out a new to me UV topcoat by Seche. The manufacturers of the topcoat claim you can use regular polish under the topcoat and that, like the Seche Vite Top Coat, it cures the layers of polish underneath. Too good to be true? Maybe, but me thinks I shall put it to the test! And test it I did, not only did it cure the layers of polish underneath it lasted 10 days!!!!! Yes, I kept my polish on that long. I thought my vacation would be the perfect time to try this product and man, was I right. I really put this product through its paces and it held up amazingly well, while I had a really hard time fighting the urge to pick at my manicure it still managed to look good throughout the 10 day wear period.
Ok, enough talk here are the pictures you actually came here to see:

I loved this manicure, it really turned out well. I had been wanting to try a nude manicure for a while but always ended up covering the nude with bright colours.
After 10 days the accent nail on the middle fingers peeled off, that was my cue to pick off the polish on the other nails! Lol. Here is a picture of the 10th day of wear:

As you can see the other nails don’t look too bad, I suspect the polish peeled off because of the rhinestone adornment on those nails, the other nails were not peeling quite so badly and were only peeling around the edges. Another sign that this is a miracle top coat: NO TIP WEAR! Seriously, there was very little tip wear on my nails, even where I had capped my tips the polish was still clinging to the edge of my nail. This is major, as some of you know, tip wear is usually the reason I change my polish, I hate it! This product eliminated that.
For this look I used:
Seche Vite Base Coat
Essence café olé
Seche Vite UV Top Coat
Cheeky Beauty tape and rhinestones

Next up I will be doing a mermaid nail so stay tuned!

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Reverse Stamping Sari Print Manicure

by Izzy • July 8, 2013 • 1 Comment

Hello readers!! Today I have a super duper exciting manicure and new technique to show you! I’m calling it Reverse Stamping and I discovered it on the amazing Art of Nail blog! This woman is a genius! You start off your stamping process as usual: put the polish on the plate, scrape off the excess, use your stamper to pick up the design. Here comes the genius part: take coloured polish and paint directly onto the loaded stamper!!!!! What????? Madness?!?!? Wait for it! We are not done ladies and er, gents! Once the polish dries on the stamper: YOU STAMP YOUR NAIL!!!! This is stamping in colour people! We have gone from the dot matrix printer to a full on colour laser printer! Ok, I’m really excited about this and, I’m sure plenty of others have already figured this out but I had not.
So, here it is my Reverse Stamping Sari Print manicure:

I love love love the way this turned out and I ended up wearing it for almost a whole week. In fact, I’m still wearing it as I type up this post. The key to success with this technique is using as little polish as humanly possible while still applying enough colour to the stamper using only one stroke. The more polish you leave on the stamper the blurrier your outline becomes.
Have any of you tried this technique? If so let me know how it turned out! Don’t forget to check out the gifted artist who inspired this manicure and get the tutorial on her blog “>Art of Nail
Not sure what to do next but I’m pretty sure it will involve some colour printing

all

Magical Unicorns

by Izzy • July 4, 2013 • 0 Comments

As promised in my last post here come the unicorns! I’m not usually a unicorn type of girl but lately I’ve been digging pastels and for some reason it also makes me think of a unicorn colour pallet. I started with some pastel base colours and a metallic accent, on the pastel blue index fingers I finally got around to using an O.P.I. glitter from the Wizard of Oz collection. I then stamped on some designs from my Winstonia and Pueen nail plate sets. I wanted the thumb and pinkie to look like my unicorn was running then leaping into the air, so I changed the orientation of my stamp before applying it to the nail. Added some bling and a top coat and Bam! Chapter!

I love the way this turned out, this may be a little too girly for some but I really liked wearing it out and I received a few compliments on them. Whoot! Whoot!

For this look I used:
Seche Vite Base Coat
Revlon cloud, sunshine sparkle, vixen
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear bubble gum pink, celeb city
Hard Candy crush on raisin
O.P.I. Lights of Emerald City
O.P.I. Rapid Dry Top Coat

Nail plates used:
Winstonia W111, W117
Pueen 46

Stay tuned, I will be trying out a new stamping technique for my next manicure it should be interesting…

nail art

Neon Watercolor Bubbles

by Izzy • June 30, 2013 • 0 Comments

Today we have a neon watercolor manicure using a new (to me) technique. I’ve done watercolor manicures before but I used nail polish and acetone to achieve the look, this technique uses watered down acrylic paint.
1) Start with a base coat of neon pink and white polish as per usual.
2) Take some plain old acrylic paint and water it down (the amount of water will determine the sheerness of your bubbles).
3) This is where the patience comes into play: apply drops of the thinned paint onto your nail, let it dry around the edges (it becomes matte as it dries) and soak up the remaining liquid in the center using a pointy cotton swab. Repeat the process until all the nails are done, this takes a really long time but it looks amazing!
4) Top coat as usual.
I used acrylic neon paints and the bubbles literally glow in the daylight!

I want to give credit to the wonderful nail artist who inspired the technique but I can’t for the life of me find her again. If anyone knows who demonstrated this technique please let me know so I can give the credit. *Update! Thanks to my instagram friends I have figured out where I saw this technique! The wonderfully talented @nail28tsenwei showcased the technique but it was @madamluck that was the inspiration for my look
For this look I used:
Seche Vite Base Coat
O.P.I riotously pink
Revlon spirit
Delta acrylic craft paint neon pink and neon yellow
Miracote top coat

No nail plates this time!
Next up I will be channelling my inner 6 year old and doing a pastel unicorn mani, stay tuned!

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