Nail Juice

Color Club Back To Boho Collection

2012-01-18T15:47:00.002+13:00

This is the darker half of Color Club's Back to Boho collection, released for Fall/Autumn 2011. Boho chic is a cross between bohemian and hippy fashion, in a nutshell. Back To Boho offers you a whole Autumn/Fall nail wardrobe of vintage shades.

Left to right: Speedy Top Coat, Blue-topia, Voodoo You Do, Boho Mojo, Artsy Crafty, Nouveau Vintage and Rebel Spirit.

Boho Mojo

This reminds me of those beautifully designed art nouveau silver mirrors. I am not sure if it is what I was using as a base or not, but Boho Mojo was really watery. This is three thin coats shown here.

Nouveau Vintage

This is one of the most bizarre polishes I have come across! It's brown but green but gold but bronze...all in a sheer maroon base! This really is the image of vintage though, isn't it? It reminds me of old wooden furniture with brass hinges and handles.

Voodoo You Do

A deep gunmetal grey shimmer/frost. To me this gunmetal grey leans a little on the teal or green side of things. I feel like it was pulling my red, yet very subtle lobster tones out.

Artsy Crafty

Artsy Crafty is a great bottle green creme. Such a classy looking nail polish! Mum snagged this one as soon as she sore it! She decided to get rid of OPI Jade is the New Black because she loved this one so much more. Really smooth formula.

Rebel Spirit

When I had first tried this on at night, I thought my dreams had come true! A dark charcoal jelly! But when I tried it again in the day time, it was more of a really dark charcoal chocolate and not so jelly. It is very shiny though! I still like it. Nice smooth formula here too.

Blue-topia

Blue-topia is a very vivid navy. It does dry a lot darker than when first applied. Mum tried it on after me and we couldn't believe we were wearing the same colour! Just a nice rich deep blue navy jelly.

Speedy Top Coat

I cannot express in words how blown away I am by this top coat! But I will try. We've all tried heaps and heaps of top coats and as the days go by you get weary of having to try something new. After trying Essie's assorted embarrassments called top coats, I didn't have high hopes for Speedy.

But as my manicure dried and the day went on, the mind blowing just got better and better! It dries really quickly, doesn't let any denting happen, no sheet marks the morning you wake up... I'm really pleased with it. I have even chosen it over Seche Vite many times.

New Zealanders can purchase the set here, from USA Nails Online for $34.50!

Guest Nails: French Flake Manicure

2012-01-16T11:26:00.002+13:00

My sister let me take a photo of her french manicure!

She used a base of Color Club Milky White Base Coat, followed by a coat of Essie Mademoiselle, topped with NFUOh 050.

Very simple and easy to do :)

Comparison: Wild and Willing vs. Pros and Bronze

2012-01-15T21:59:00.000+13:00

When Pros and Bronze was first released, it never occurred to me that there would be something already out there like it. We hardly ever get rose gold duochromey foils! But Pros has a very close relative... Color Club's Wild and Willing.

Wearing: Pros and Bronze on pinky and middle, Wild and Willing on ring and pointer.

When looking at the bottles, you can find definite differences but once on the nail... it gets a little bit more tricky. This is both two coats of each shown here. Wild and Willing is a bit finer and has a green sheen. Pros and Bronze's pieces are a bit bigger and more sparse.

Wearing: Pros and Bronze on pinky and middle, Wild and Willing on ring and pointer.

They both share a lot of the same characteristics. They both turn gold when not in direct light. You also get more of a copper or pink shine when inside with different light sources. Wild shines green as well.

Pros and Bronze is a Serena Williams polish and is limited edition. Pretty easy to find at the moment, as is Wild and Willing. Wild was released a little while ago but it seems to be easy to find in chemists or online.

Really it all depends on what kind of foil you like and how many colours you like to see :)

Color Club Wicked Sweets on Sale!

2012-01-05T12:34:00.004+13:00

Good afternoon Kiwis! Color Club NZ currently has their Wicked Sweet polishes on sale! The set is a collection of scented polishes that smell just like their names suggest.

Wicked Sweet, Gimme a Grape Big Kiss, Get Your Lem-on, The Lime Starts Here, Raspberry Rush and Yum Gum are all only $4.90!

I Always Get My Man-darin is only $1!

You can check them all out here, on their website.

Let me know if you decide to get any!

OPI Samoan Sand

2012-01-04T20:53:00.003+13:00

Samoan Sand has been around for sometime, at least a decade. I have admired it for some time, luckily for me, a bestie gave me one for Christmas.

I love it! It's a great sandy colour, a nice neutral nude creme. I don't know what collection this was originally released it. I have a feeling it just may have been one of those core OPIs from the start.

The formula is really nice. Quite smooth and creamy, dries fairly quickly. This is two coats here and you can still see my tips a little bit. You could build it up if you wanted it to be more opaque by putting more coats or layering over a ridge filler.

This guy yawning decided to cut part of his stomach open on the last day of 2011. So here he is resting up with his sister looking over him.

Do you have a perfect nude?

Nail Art: Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T19:21:00.001+13:00

First and foremost, Happy New Year! Woohoo it's 2012 and we have one year left to live. I hope the nail polish selection is worth it this year!

For my New Years manicure I decided on a glitter gradient. I started with a base of Orly Le Chateau, added a thin sparse coat of OPI Gone Gonzo, followed by OPI Crown Me Already spread just along the tips, and lastly another sparse coat of OPI Gone Gonzo along the tips and up 1/3rd of the nail.

My new camera doesn't seem to be calibrated correctly at the moment. It always sees Gonzo as being quite silvery when it definitely has more blue to it. So bear with me while I try and sort that out!

Any new year resolutions?

Mine are to work harder and be more of a good person.

Butter London Bumster

2011-12-30T17:04:00.000+13:00

I did it. I finally found a Butter London I wanted to spend money on. Butter Londons cost $31 or thereabouts in New Zealand. I've looked at their stand a few times but never found anything super special. Then I saw Bumster. I have been looking for a muted mustard yellow for so long!

Before committing to such a large purchase, I googled reviews on my Mums phone and found that it was a good polish formula wise, most people were just thrown off by the colour. Calling it baby poo etc. But when you are actively looking for a muted mustard, it's a different story.

Butter Londons and Chanel seem to have the same brush and formula goin' on. It was incredibly smooth and gave close to 100% coverage on the first coat. I love Bumster to pieces.

This was my manicure over Christmas, not very festive but I thoroughly enjoyed wearing it! I used OPI Samoan Sand for the moons. I also used Liquid Palisade to create the moon shapes.

Just a little bit of history to Bumster, it was released in a Alexander McQueen themed collection and was named after the place Alex wore his pants I think. Something like that.

OPI My Private Jet

2011-12-27T09:50:00.002+13:00

Today I have the notorious My Private Jet to show you. This polish has changed many times, it wasn't so drastic at the beginning, but now the current Private Jet looks nothing like it's ancestor. I have a photo of the original at the bottom of this post. I never picked up the slightly less holo version, or the version with a teal shimmer. Kind of wish I had picked that teal one up though.

Ancestry aside, this Private Jet reminds me of black sand beaches and granite bench tops. Two things I really enjoy. Don't those little specks look like crushed shells?

One thing I noticed is the crushed shell bits are most holographic in artificial lighting. It was only at night that I started to see them sparkle and glow. I really like the crushed shell bits either way.

One thing I am missing though is that amazing golden and copper shimmer that you can see in the bottle! I've been wearing Private Jet these last couple of days and haven't seen it come out in any lighting conditions. If it weren't for that shimmer I probably wouldn't have picked it up.

The formula was really good, smooth, opaque and dried fairly quickly.

I still have the original bottle but I am too scared to wear it!

Side note: I have finally bought myself a new camera. It'll take awhile to learn the ropes! I used it for this post but I reckon it could do better :)

China Glaze Ruby Pumps

2011-12-25T07:00:00.000+13:00

If you don't own a bottle of Ruby Pumps, why not? Seriously this polish can do no wrong.

In all my polish obsessed years (four) I am only just starting to get into reds now. Ruby Pumps up until now was the only red I would ever wear and be happy with it. Definitely an all time favourite.

Ruby just glows in sunlight or artificial light. So pretty anywhere. This is two coats here.

Oh yeah,

Merry Christmas!

OPI Congeniality Is My Middle Name

2011-12-24T09:44:00.000+13:00

Look how promising it looks in the bottle! A deep fuchsia with pretty purple shimmer. Sadly this polish missed the mark completely.

Congeniality Is My Middle Name was a disappointment from the start. I wish I had picked up on the red flags earlier. Firstly, the shimmer had completely settled to the bottom, in every bottle I saw. Being optimistic, I saw shaking it not an issue. So I shook it for a good few minutes. It looked really pretty.

We bought a couple of bottles, even one for a giveaway, but when we got home, the shimmer had completely settled to the bottom again. This was in the space of less than an hour. I thought maybe I hadn't shook it enough, so I shook it up again for another few minutes. Only to have it fully sink again within 30 minutes.

Maybe this polish just really doesn't work with my colourings or something. A super red fuchsia base with blue shimmer. Two polar opposite colors stuck together. To me this just didn't work, the contrast was too harsh. Maybe it just isn't my thing, I'm not too sure. I haven't been this disappointed in a nail polish for a long time.

Congeniality Is My Middle Name was also released along with Crown Me Already in the Miss Universe collection earlier this year. This collection wasn't released in New Zealand.

Every time I pick this polish up the shimmer has completely settled to the bottom. I'm sorry OPI but I'm not too keen on shaking a polish for a good five minutes each time I want to use it.

OPI Crown Me Already!

2011-12-23T09:56:00.000+13:00

Let me introduce you to one of my new favourite polishes, Crown Me Already! Hate the name, love the glitter! Crown Me Already is built up of fine silver glitter, small round glitter, small hex silver glitter and big hex silver glitter. So you've got a really nice mix of sizes in there.

I've had a lot of fun with this polish! It looks really neat layered between jellys, on the tips, graduated into another colour, layered....the list just goes on. It even looks great just by itself. I am wearing two coats of it on my toes. Kind of regretting that decision but it does look really nice in the summer sun.

This is two coats. You can see how dense it is and how quickly it builds up.

Crown Me Already was released in the Miss Universe collection released earlier this year. The collection wasn't released in New Zealand, however.

Australis Citrus

2011-12-22T08:54:00.000+13:00

Out of the three Australis polishes I have tried, not one has disappointed me. The formulas have always been spot on and incredibly pigmented.

I think Citrus is new to New Zealand. I checked Australis and they have Citrus described as an orange with gold shimmer... I haven't seen any other orange Australis polishes with shimmer, maybe it just isn't in NZ? Who knows.

These polishes are really cheap too! The first time I bought them they were around $8 but Citrus was $12 or $13.

I highly recommend you try Australis out if it is available in your country!

Purging: Which ones to keep?

2011-12-19T17:13:00.002+13:00

I think we all have that time in our nail polish lives where we feel that we own just a little bit much. As I am moving out of home again for university next year, I really want to trim my stash down! Today I am only showing you a little bit of the stash.

Purging is a hard thing to do... usually I am very strict on myself with the polishes that I keep. Usually it's ones that I don't have a doppelganger of, or I wear it more than a few times a year and most importantly it has to suit my skin tone.

These are my reds. To be honest, the only red I am crazy about is Ruby Pumps. I sort of only own the others because I don't have something like them and fear I will need them at some stage to match an outfit. Now that I think about it, I don't actually wear any red outfits, only ever red lipstick. Hmmm...

Left to right: Glitter Gal Not Another Red, OPI Guy Meets Gal-Veston, China Glaze Dress to Kill, China Glaze Ruby Pumps

These are some of my favourite polishes. Quirky, pale, sweet shades. I love every one of these to pieces. I can't trim down this area any more.

Left to right: OPI It's a Girl, OPI Steady as She Rose, OPI Skull and Glossbones, OPI Time-less is More

Browns, oranges and rose golds have only started to grow in the stash this year.

Left to right: Australis Citrus, OPI Pros and Bronze, OPI Ginger Bells, OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys

I could not trim down my navys any lower than this. I think I had about eight. They are the largest colour group found in my stash. I feel safe with these ones as I have one in almost every finish if I ever did need it. That is some weak justification if I ever did hear!

Left to right: OPI Russian Navy Suede, OPI Roadhouse Blues, OPI Play Til Midnight, OPI Ink

Lucky last, the greens. I'm still not completely sold on all of these shades. I do however love wearing Uh-Oh and Trendsetter.

Left to right: China Glaze Electric Pineapple, OPI Who The Shrek Are You?, China Glaze Trendsetter, OPI Uh-Oh Roll Down The Window

Do you have any shades you just can't get rid of?

Orly Ma Cherie

2011-12-18T09:05:00.005+13:00

Ma Cherie is from Orly's Holiday Soiree collection for 2011. Ma Cherie is a bright cherry red jelly.

Mum purchased this one because she just can't leave a jelly polish behind. This colour seems to be very flattering on both of our skin tones. Just thinking of all the layering possibilities makes me giddy!

The application was great. Orlys really are good polishes. I didn't actually have any Orlys in my collection until this collection. Orly usually tends to do safer or not as exciting colours as other big companies. They also don't bring as many collections out or do any collaborations with celebrities.

I kinda like this one just for the name as well. Ma Cherie. An all-rounder great nail polish!

Color Club Collections On Sale for Christmas!

2011-12-17T19:10:00.001+13:00

Especially for Kiwis, USA Nails Online has is clearing all of their 7 pack collection for a special price!

Sets available:

All About French 7 pack which includes French Tip, More Amour, Eiffel Tower Power, Femme a la Mode, Au Reviour, Little Miss Paris and Bonjour Girl for $34.50

Foiled 7 pack which has Foil Me Once, Hot Like Lava, Cold Metal, Perfect Mol-Ten, Antiquated, and Lumin-icecent for $34.50

Untamed Luxury Indulgence 7 pack which has Pretty in Platinum, Wild Orchid, Soft as Cashmere, Positively Posh, Nothing But Truffle, Jewel of a Girl and Ready to Royal for $24.50

Untamed Luxury Diamond 7 pack which includes my favourites Red Velvet and Covered in Diamonds along with De-luxe-cious, Ms. Hautie, Resort to Red, Snakeskin and Untamed Luxury for $24.50

Back Stage Pass 7 pack which has Backstage Pass, Fame and Fortune, It's a Hit, Platinum Record, Take the Stage and Wish Upon a Rock Star for $38.50

Back to Boho Shimmers 7 pack which includes Boho Mojo, Nouveau Vintage, Voodoo You Do, Artsy Crafty, Blue-Topia and Rebel Spirit for $34.50

Stock is limited so get your set while you can! There is also a $1 hidden gem on their website if you can find it!

You can find them all, and more, here!

Orly Holiday Soiree Collection for Holiday 2011

2011-12-05T14:43:00.000+13:00

I've got a little sneak peek of Orly's Holiday Soiree collection for you! There were two others that we didn't pick up, a pearly white and a redder version of Oui. We bought these with the deal at Farmers at the moment, buy one Orly get one Orly free!

Firstly we have Orly Oui. Mum bought this one and she absolutely loves foils, gold and purple. She chose this one over the redder toned one because Oui suited her skin tone more. She has heavy pink undertones.

Next is Ma Cherie! I love this one just for the name. Kinda sounds like machete though... Anyway, we weren't planning on getting Ma Cherie but after we saw the nail swatch in store, we saw how bright and jellyish it was!

Le Chateau is a very dark teal jelly. You can see the teal clearly on coat one but it goes quite a bit darker with just coat two. I experimented layering NFUOh 50 between it, you definitely need thin coats to see the flakies more clearly, but so nice!

Of course we both picked up a bottle of Androgynie! There's nothing like it! A very dark charcoal brown with a fine gold/brown shimmer, along with rainbow hex and holographic glitter thrown into the mix. One thing I noticed with Androgynie is that the glitter tends to sink, alot. You can kinda see it in the photo above, a huge area of silver glitter.

Simply just roll it between your hands before using and you get all this extra glitter!

Here is a quick swatch of Angrogynie and Le Chateau with NFUOh 050 layered/graduated between two layers.

Full swatches and reviews coming shortly!

Stocking Fillers!

2011-12-04T21:22:00.001+13:00

This post is a round-up of special offers in New Zealand at the moment! Just in time to fill some stockings! You will find deals for OPI, Orly and Color Club. I will make new posts as I find more deals!

ORLY is currently buy one get one free on full sized polishes at Farmers stores. They usually retail for around $25 each.

OPI is currently 3 for 2 at Life Pharmacy. They usually retail for around $25-$27 each.

OPI is also buy 2 and get 20% off or buy 3 and get 30% off at Farmers stores.

Color Club currently has Youthquake on sale for $1! Limited stock. This usually retails around $15. You can find this here.

Color Club also has their treatments (Cuticle Soothe, Dry Ice, Vitabase base coat and Vivid top coat) for sale at $11.90 and $12.90, limited stock. These aren't sold in stores as far as I know. You can check those out here.

Color Club's Smash Hit (black crackle) is on sale for $9.90! Retails for $15. You can find it here.

Color Club also has The Lime Starts Here, Yum Gum, Raspberry Rush, Gimme a Grape Big Kiss and Wicked Sweet scented polishes on sale for $9.90! Usually retail for $15. You can find them here.

And lastly Color Club has these cute little mini packs of Wicked Sweet scented polishes and Femme Fatale (Worth the Risque and Revvvoloution!) collections for $19.90, retail for $29.90. You can find those sets here and here.

Today I managed to get some polishes with Mum so we halved some of the deals. I bought OPI Pepe's Purple Passion, OPI I Juggle Men (what kind of name is that?), Orly Androgynie and Orly Le Chateau. Yes, the ORLY HOLIDAY COLLECTION IS OUT!

Are you going to pick anything up?

China Glaze Trendsetter

2011-12-03T16:49:00.000+13:00

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend so far! My family is hosting the annual Summer Driveway BBQ so we have been doing a lot of cleaning and cooking today. But today I have China Glaze's Trendsetter to show you!

This seems to be a shade that you either love or hate. I was interested in Trendsetter from the word go. I really love wearing it. I don't know if it suits my skin tone all that well but I appreciate the weirdness Trendsetter has to offer.

Trendsetter, when applied looks a little more khaki and turns slightly more yellowy when it dries. I really like the golden shimmer too, so fine. The formula is nice, mine tends to run on the thicker side of things but nothing a little bit of thinner can't fix! Great coverage.

I've read a lot of what people associate Trendsetter, mostly being poo or fungus. But I mean, if you think about it, you could associate just about any nail polish with a negative connotation. You can change that connotation with something more desirable and positive, something that you like.

Just now thinking about why I like Trendsetter, it's might be because I am a huge lover of mustard and that's what comes to my mind first. I asked my sister what she thinks of it and she says it reminds her of clay. She loves to make things out of clay. Mum says it reminds her of curry powder, my Mum loves making different curries.

How do you feel about Trendsetter? What do you associate with this colour?

NFUOh 073

2011-11-30T21:36:00.000+13:00

NFUOh not only does really cool flakies, but they actually do some really nice other finishes too.

I picked out these three shades to try NFUOh 073 over:
Top to bottom: Essie Marshmallow, OPI Curry Up Don't Be Late and I have a feeling it's China Glaze Platinum Silver.

At first I just tried one coat (obviously) to see how much effect 073 had on the polishes. The frost and pearl finishes didn't let you see much of 073, I think a creme, sheer or jelly is more friendly for this kind of thing.

Here we go on to two coats! 073 over Essie Marshmallow and naked nail were turning out to be my favourites. Although I really loved 073 by itself, I would probably never wear it that way.

The formula of 073 is great, smooth and thin. The only iffy NFUOh formulas I have experienced have been from the more sheer, french colours.

Please enlarge the photos to see the detail! It really is a pretty polish, looks great in all lighting situations too.

Now I don't really know where to buy these in New Zealand but there is a site called FabulouStreet.com that ships internationally. USA residents can even get free shipping.

OPI Dating a Royal

2011-11-29T21:26:00.000+13:00

Today I have OPI's Dating a Royal to show you! Dating a Royal was first released in the Mod About Brights collection 2008. I think the only other colour I have ever tried from that collection was The 'It' Color and I remember it being horrid on me. Maybe that's where my dislike for yellows began...

Dating a Royal is a mid-blue jelly. It's not as sheer as half the OPIs from the Texas collection but it is still a really nice polish to layer things with, franken or just wear on it's own. Dating a Royal is incredibly glossy, as with most jelly polishes.

The formula is ok. Not bad, not amazing. I find jellies to be quite watery and tend to not be as easy to control. Dating's formula is along those lines but like I said, it's not as sheer or watery as the Texas collection so you can have that bit more of control.

The Mod About Brights collection was added to the main line OPIs so it's not hard to find at all.

Mode Rock Me Sweet

2011-11-27T10:38:00.000+13:00

Mode is one of the cheapest polishes around in New Zealand. They used to be only $2.50 each but now they are up to $4.50 or $4.99 each. They can be found in most chemists in a big plastic bowl.

I've bought a few of their polishes before and the quality is actually really good. The only thing is their range can be limiting. You've got all your standard colours but they do have some real stunners and they occasionally bring out newer shades.

Rock Me Sweet is relatively new. I'm thinking it must be for the holidays but they never have a special display, they just chuck them in the bowl with all the others. However I did notice there was four new glittery shades, much like Rock Me Sweet but in red, silver and black. I wasn't really wowed by the others so I just got Rock Me Sweet.

To be honest, I am still a little sad that I never picked up China Glaze Mummy May I and was hoping this polish would get rid of that lemming... No such luck. Rock Me Sweet is mostly that pinky-purple glitter in a sheer purple base but it has some sparse silver glitter in there too.

The formula of this polish is great! Really easy to paint on. I did quickly test it over a mani to see how sheer it was and I could almost see right through it. So I decided to wear it over Color Club Ready to Royal.

The wear was more than I was expecting. I went to my Nana's house for some intense sewing over three days, not a single chip! It looked just as pretty as the day I painted it on.

I highly recommend trying out these Mode polishes if you haven't already!

Color Club Red Velvet

2011-11-25T18:59:00.000+13:00

Today I want to show you my favourite polish at the moment, Color Club's Red Velvet. Red Velvet is from the Untamed Luxury collection released last year. There were a couple of stunners in that collection, Covered in Diamonds being one of them.

Spring and Summer are one of my favourite times of year to wear vampies, really dark shades. Quite often they have a beautiful subtle shimmer that really stands out with brighter light. Red Velvet is so pretty out in the sunlight. It is a bit more hidden in doors but it's probably one of those polishes that only you know that it's there. Like wearing special undies.

Look at that glow! Red Velvet went straight up to my all time favourites list the first time I wore it. There are a couple of duplicate shades out there, the only one I know off the top of my head is China Glaze Lubu Heels.

A long time ago I remember reading people being disappointed with how much red glitter was actually showing up in Lubu Heels and a few people were recommending to add one layer of China Glaze Ruby Pumps over the top.

I tried this out over Red Velvet and while it was pretty, I still loved that black base with subtle red shimmer poking through. So you may like one variety of wearing this shade more than the other.

If you are a New Zealander and are interested in buying this polish, I have seen a few around in pharmacies and chemists for around $15. You can buy the one half of the Untamed Luxury collection that Red Velvet is in, online for $39.00, which works out to be around $5.60 a polish. Click here for the link.

Nail Art: The Joys of Thinner

2011-11-17T12:01:00.001+13:00

It only just dawned on me why I haven't been doing as much nail art these days, it's because all of my glittery polishes are so thick! Luckily mum had a bottle of thinner on hand.

I was reunited with an old flame, Sinful Nail Junkie. To think that I even considered getting rid of it because I used it no longer makes me want to,
(ﾉಥ益ಥ）ﾉ︵ ┻━┻

For this manicure I used Color Club Ready to Royal as the deep purple base, a small and short layer of NFUOh 050 followed by a sparse coat of Sinful Nail Junkie, topped with another thin coat of NFUOh 050.

Just a little bit more on Sinful Nail Junkie, here is a different look I did with it for the new year of 2010:

And here is a franken with it in it as well as Sinful UFO (orange version of NJ):

I hope you have a great week!

OPI Who The Shrek Are You?

2011-11-13T15:58:00.000+13:00

Summer is just around the corner so I thought I'd revisit one of my old favourites, OPI's Who The Shrek Are You. New Zealand never got this collection in, so your best bet is to buy online. It should retail for around $14-$16NZD.

The formula in this polish is really weird. Do you remember OPI's first set of Mattes? Like if you didn't paint it on evenly it'd crack up (kind of like crackles) and shrink in places? Shrekkie tends to do that on the first coat. I even had a perfect circle appear in this manicure! Coat two and three tend to not do that though and fix it all up.

I haven't work Shrek in awhile, when I first bought it I think I wore it for two weeks straight! I think I need to get more accessories or clothes (shoes maybe?!) in this shade.

Nail Art: The Importance of Grid

2011-11-11T08:01:00.001+13:00

I'm slowly getting back into nail art. It's sort of like a bug, you get it in bursts. Anyway, about the title. At university we've been working on a brief for creating our own wallpaper and we've all been learning about how important a grid is in setting up a recurring pattern.

I'm not sure if you remember this dress from another post or not, but it's what I wanted to wear for my final presentation along with some pretty nails.

I wanted to mimic the pattern and colour from the dress so I quickly painted up a few ideas I had. The colours used here are OPI Roadhouse Blues (navy), OPI Skull and Glossbones (grey) and China Glaze Dress to Kill (red, love that name btw).

I really loved how graphic the first nail looked with the navy flowers on the grey base. The second nail I also loved, the third was ok but wasn't as strong or bold as the first two. The last nail was pretty blah. I decided to go with both the first and second nails!

Here is where the grid comes in! Keep in mind that I did do my left hand first and didn't use a grid. Total mess. I do recommend getting some practice in before going straight into this lol. I really liked how the design looked at this stage. I may just have to have this as a mani on it's own one day.

Now Roadhouse Blues gets covered in Skull and Glossbones. I was a bit iffy about this because the grey looks quite a bit softer over the navy. I'll have to make that bit work better I think.

All finished! I think this was before I put top coat on. Because after I did it sort of smudged bits of the navy out and streaked. It wasn't major or overly obvious, but I knew it was there! >:( I used Essie 3-way Glaze for the top coat. Usually it serves me well, but not today...

An "in the shade" pic just for good measure.

To do all of this I just used the flat end of a dressmakers pin. I desperately searched my apartment for a dotting tool and only found toothpicks. I've had bad experiences when using toothpicks for nail art and I found a rogue pin in my couch so I decided to use that.

Here is also a picture of my cat.