Robin Moses Poinsettias

I haven't had much desire to paint my nails which is a shame since Christmas has so many nice designs available.  I ended up doing a french manicure with a robin Moses poinsettia on my ring and thumb.  I had just the two dark reds but they really didn't show up well so I did the light pink and it was a bit much but everyone else seemed to like them so I kept the design for Christmas.  Here is the tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ftl7uvyX30 and my recreation.  I used my gold stripper to make the dots in the center.  The picture is sadly washed out so details don't come out well.

Halloween Crackle Design

Some times I feel really lazy (like the length of time in posting these pictures) and take out the crackle polish and do someething different with it.  I did silver and black and it looked really nice so for halloween I did orange and black on my main hand so I didn't have to work too hard.  Simple but something for those who have difficulty mastering painting their dominant hand.  I think I used tape to make the lines nice and straight for these.

Robin Moses Super Easy Spider Web Design

I was so surprised at just how easy this was to do.  Just make sure that your base is wet and follow her steps.  My black base is Love my Nails Black Rage then I used a stripper brush to add the white Quo by ORLY white and then a toothpick to drag the colours to the corner of my nail.  Voilà, done!!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xf-Y-zRa8g

Aquarium nails

My friend gave me a blue polish to try out so I attempted the Chalkboard Nails again only this time as a water scene.  It's been a while since I did these but I think the ring finger has thicker white polish and the other nails it's watered down more.  I like them better but you still get the idea especially when I painted little coloured fish over the design.

Chupacabra Nails

The chupacabra is a spanish creature of legend that gets it name from sucking the blood of goats or other livestock.  Steve Jackson made a game about these creatures which we bought at Gen Con this year.  http://www.sjgames.com/dice/chupacabra/ For Halloween I painted them on my friends nails... and then her boyfriends thumbs then our other friend's thumbs.  I painted the red area white first before applying the red so that the colour would pop out better over the black.  Here are the results.

Yes, it's been for ever since I posted to my blog.  My phone stopped communicating with my laptop and my depression flared up around my sister's birthday.  I have a few new posts to add....

Robin Moses black cats

I began with an ombre using Rimmel 615 Night Before, China Glaze blue in a tiny bottle and I've no idea the name and Sally Hansen Sun Kissed.  These colours took a while to transfer onto my nail but I got them looking pretty opaque at the end.  Then I used my black acrylic paints and added the cats.  For the eyes and moon I first painted them white and then added the yellow to really make them pop.  It's neat when the lights are mostly out you can see the eyes glowing a bit.
I was a bit entertaining as for the whiskers and black part of the eye I wanted an actual cat whisker to do the painting with.  So, there I am crawling all over my living room floor trying to find a cat whisker that had fallen off.  I did finally find it and am very happy with the results it created on the nails.  Tutorial found here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jMLvZs4FxA

Bubbles by Chalkboard Nails

I thought this was a very neat idea and thought I'd give it a try.  I wanted to do them in blue but the blue I would have liked to use was rather glumpy so I opted for Pink Friday NL N16 by OPI and used a red acrylic polish for the bubbles.  I tried to find the tutorial I found but didn't see it on the youtube channel.  Basically I painted my nails pink then placed a drop of very watered down acrylic red paint on my nail and after it had a few seconds to dry a little I used a clean, dry paint brush to soak up the excess polish in the middle which left the ring of red behind.  It's a very cool effect and easy to do if you want to give it a try.  Next time will be with blue and I'll add a few fish to the design.

Newspaper Flowers

I started with a grey polish base and then used rubbing alcohol to transfer the Chinese characters fom a newspaper onto my nails.  Then I tried to follow the Robin Moses tutorial found here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGIZh5h60FY  I am still heavy handed but the black around the flowers is rather thick but at least they look like flowers.

Chinese newsprint Cherry Blossoms

So attempting another Robin Moses Cherry Blossoms design and this one turned out really good.  I started with a grey and then used a Chinese newspaper and added the kanji using rubbing alcohol to transfer the ink onto my nails.  This really doesn't appear very well on the finished design though. Then I added the black branches and used a mixture of red and white acrylic paint and created the cherry blossom flowers.  I layered about 3 different colours of red and when I added the last light colour over the design and looked at my finished product I was pretty darn impressed with myself.  Here is the finished design, although they did look better in real life.
I forgot to add the link of the youtube video.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFn7CONSErA

Converse Nails

I've been seeing these a lot and thought I would give them a try.  They are a bit more difficult than I imagined.  My nails never seem to be big enough for the design I want to do.  I used various colours that I thought would look good as converse but not exactly a rainbow and then went to work using the method described by Nailed It NZ here  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFRpIFW01ac  I love her accent and she does really amazing work. Here is my recreation and her gradient nails.

Chalkboard Nails

For these nails you need either a black or green polish to match the black (or green) board.  You also need a matte top coat.  I used essie Matte about you but there are others as well.  Once the base colour dried I used acrylic paints to draw on some stuff one might find on a chalkboard in the colours of available chalks.  Be creative.  Here is my finished result. They don't need to be perfect as this is supposed to be a child's drawing.

Metallic Animal Print

So, I didn't know what I wanted to do with my nails so I just rummaged through my polishes and found these two dollar store metallics by Kozmic Colours and throught they would look great together.  Then I wasn't sure which to use as an accent nail.... so I asked my cat to choose.  I like her choice haha.  I went a day with them just painted plain and the next night added the detailing.  Here are the end results.

Mom's Pick

So, on facebook there was a post for having your loved one pick the colours of your next nail design.  Well I had my mom over and she picked my colours for me.  She knows I love purple so it played the theme in my nail art last week.  (yes, I'm delayed at posting the pictures)  The light purple is an old dollar store polish by Misslyn number 815, the dark purple is Revlon Plum Glitz and the pink is another dollar store purchase Sweet Serenity.  I did my nails one morning when awoken by construction outside my house so there wasn't a design in mind, I just played around with colours and patterns and ended up with this.  Not my best work but I'd only gotten 4 hours sleep so what can be expected?

Pink Flowers with Silver

I found this lovely flower pattern done by Tarteofraises and I wanted to give it a try.  I put the colours (8808 Shocker by Rimmel and NL N16 Pink Friday by OPI) on thick and quickly and then tried to pull them down towards the corner of my nail but it didn't work so well.  I tried with a toothpick and then my paint brush but neither really got the look I wanted.  I went with it anyways and added the silver using Quo by Orly 59703 Platinum Glitter which is a striping brush. I know that when Chris really likes it I've done a good job.

Black and Gold Chevron Tip

I got this idea from a picture advertising Cult Cosmetics.  It looked simple enough. I started with a Wet n Wild black and did the first half of the chevron from mid nail diagonally across until the tip.  For the other side I didn't go quite as far up the nail for that side.  Once dried I then went over the short chevron side with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 485 Golden-I from the middle of the nail where the other side started that way it has a symmetrical look but with gold on the one side. As I attach the images I realize the original has the gold alternating sides... whatever...  haha

Yellow Flowers

If you leave clover around long enough it flowers with cute little 5 petal flowers.  I dried a few and put them on my nails.  I haven't perfected how to not have them fall apart between drying and applying but I got a few that turned out okay.  I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear: Sun Kissed 150 as my base for the yellow nails and Sally Hansen Hard as Nails 300 White On  for the flower nails.  I then applied the dried flowers that dried in one piece and added a bit of needed bling to my middle nail with a stone from a gem wheel.

Canada Day Nails

All ready for Canada Day with my maple leaf sticker making the design so much easier.  I used Sally Hansen Diamond Strength 360 Diamonds and Rubies for the outer fingers and Sally Hansen Hard as Nails 300 White On  for the middle fingers to create the flag colours and then added the sticker and put my top coat over it all.  I'll probably end up picking the sticker off tomorrow since it's got a point that didn't sit well but it looks nice for the picture!!

Canadian Colours

Since I have gay pride on my one hand I needed some Canadian colours on my other.  I went with a water marble technique, still trying to work on that too.... Fewer mishaps this time.  The thumb turned out the worse and as you can see I just omitted it from the pictures.  haha  Colour used were Sally Hansen Diamond Strength 360 Diamonds and Rubies and Sally Hansen Hard as Nails 300 White On.

Toronto Gay Pride

Toronto is hosting World Pride this weekend and I'm showing my pride colours.  I love working with a rainbow and have done similar designs before.  I tried to ombre this one a bit but it didn't quite work out.  It's still nice looking and gets my support shown.  As you can see I do not stick with just one brand of polish.  Below are Sally Hansen Hard as Nails 300 White On, Sally Hansen DIamond Strength 360 Diamonds and Rubies, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails 150 Sun Kissed, Avon sunshine, Revlon Top Speed 330 Emerald, Kozmic colours dollar store no name blue and Revlon Top Speed Dress Code.

Essie Bungle Jungle

I bought this polish because it's a pretty red and was on sale at this discount store I occasionally visit.  I went again and it was even more discounted so I bought 2 more bottles then needed something to spruce up the colour and added this pretty gold from Billie cosmetics to make a french tip.  Simple but I like it.

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Robin Moses Cherry Blossoms

I decided to do a design I have done before but it was so well received by friends and just so gorgeous and easy to do I wanted to give it another whirl.  I need to stop mixing my paints too much.  My pink blossoms should be a mixture of pinks and lighter pinks but they're all the same colour because I over mix.  I remember doing this with a white chocolate and dark chocolate bark I made once.  "Less is More" just doesn't seem to compute well with me. As always practice practice practice.
I also bought 4 new polishes on the weekend.  2 for $4 was a deal I couldn't pass up.  This is the White On 300 by Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear.  Only two (thick) coats and I got good coverage.
Here is my end result as well as the video for trying it on your own.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zm5Cr-flNQ

Not so Simple Pink Stripes

I began this manicure with First Love by Pure Ice as my base and then added Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Fuchsia Power 320 and then a no name pink to make the two main colours of this design.  Then I mixed white and red acrylic paint to make a very light pink for the lines.  I really need to make a very thin liner brush because I am WAY too heavy handed as seen by my attempt at the thin lines that are supposed to divide the two pinks from each other.... Not very happy with the design but they match the colour scheme of my Robin Moses roses on my other hand.  Here is the design movie, I just did my own thing to recreate this design. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS725ID8IDE

Attempt at Robin Moses Roses

I wanted to be pretty in pink this week and attempted a Robin Moses design.  I have to admit it doesn't look as good as I would have liked but I made the attempt.  I started with First Love by Pure Ice and then used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Fuchsia Power 320 a no name pink and then made a light pink with good coverage using a mixture of white and red acrylic polishes for the final rose lines.  They didn't really look like roses, but then practice makes perfect, right?  You can see the Robin Moses design here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTZ5qN4_jwc I just used the below image as my guideline.  Robin makes many roses in her designs.  This is my attempt at recreation.