I love I Love Nail Polish: Fall 2014 swatches with a twist

...say that 10 times fast and see if anyone doesn't think you're crazy. If you love holos, multi-chromes, but want to also satisfy the nail art bug in you then you're in for a treat today cause I'm introducing swatches with a twist! Featuring the stupidly amazing 11-piece Fall 2014 I Love Nail Polish (ILNP) collection which boasts holos and multi-chromes galore, and an accent nail using various nail vinyls from my ever-growing stash of these amazing little plasticy things that make nail art all that much easier and fun.

Let's get to it! Pic heavy :)

ILNP 2014 Fall collection - available Sept 12 from ILNP.com

 

VIDEO SWATCHES AT THE END OF THE POST!

Nail art hack: How to get clean, smooth lines with your paintbrush

Today's post is a little out of the ordinary as I am going to show you a trick that will ameliorate your nail arts! Specifically, brush work. I'll show you how using oil on your brush helps to soften the bristles while keeping the shape/form of the bristles 'together' as opposed to fraying all over the place.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Teal for Pshiiit: Turquoise holo gradient with swirls and glitters

Photoshop fun today in honour of Camille from Pshiiit who recently reached 200k followers on Instagram! Camille is hosting a contest with the theme 'Teal for Pshiiit' and the rules are to post a pic inspired by the colour teal. It doesn't have to be nails, but to be creative. Evidently I still stuck with the nails theme, but I tried my best to get creative with my prop setup (an ode to French nail blogger flawlessness, really) and by exercising my ancient Photoshop editing skills leaving only teal colouring behind and super imposing a pic I took of custom made turquoise glitters @missbellatracey gave to me behind Pshiiit's official blog logo. How'd I do???

My entry into Pshiiit's 200k giveaway contest on Instagram - see other entries here

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Pretend vacay: Greek waters with saran wrap and water decals

Opa!! I am not Greek and I have never been to Greece butttt.... I would totally go if someone would buy me a plane ticket and pay for some sweet accomodations on the ocean with a private balcony and infiniti pool... any takers? Anyone?

In any case I got these awesome gold angled swirl water decals from Born Pretty Store and I immediately knew I must do a Greece-inspired mani. I used the saran-wrap technique to sponge on spots of polish for the muddy looking waters thing going on on the majority of the nail. The tips were topped off with the one and only 'Buzzed on blue' by Painted Polish by Lexi, which I have swatched here cause it is so awesome.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Starburst holo scaled gradient skittle for Nailpolis celebration

Scaled gradients like you've never seen them before! And a triple scaled gradient at that! This mani is my abstract interpretation of the theme celebration/party for Nailpolis' 1 million Facebook fans contest. My first thought was 'fireworks', and my second though was 'I don't want to actually paint fireworks!' Away with literal interpretations! Bring on the crazy.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Turquoise & green returning reciprocal chevron gradient

Another mind bender from the Gradient Guide, this time a new and improved version of the grey and white returning reciprocal chevron gradient I did a few months ago. This look can be done with any colour combo your heart desires! I went with a turquoise and green theme, holding onto summer as long as I can. Chevron mini nail vinyls are from Nailvinyls.com.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Wavy blue holo triple scaled gradient

It's been a while since I've done a triple scaled gradient, mostly cause they're tricky and time consuming and I've been lazy. In any case I got some new A England holo beauties and the combination of their gorgeous deep blues had me inspired to create this triple scaled gradient with wave nail vinyls as the gradient divider. Ahhh like a swim in the deep ocean, so refreshing!

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Ermahgerd rainbow gradient recreation

The lovely Kristin of @ermahgerdperlish on Instagram is hosting a giveaway and for recreating one of her mani's I get an extra entry, yay! Obviously I was drawn to this one because it's rainbow and super obnoxious. My favourite!

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

BTT Drunk kitty construction: Do not let wasted kitties pass

Today's mani is 1.5 months in the making... not because I actually spent 1,056 hours doing it, but because I leave far too manis hanging out in my 'to edit' folder and hence I am the worst person ever to do a #bestietwinnails with. Tracey of @missbellatracey on Instagram puts up with my slow-pokeness as she is a true Saint and so here we finally are today with our meticulously planned out drunk kitty construction manis!

See the original post on Instagram

Turquoise rocks using irregular sea foam sponging technique

Random nails again! Random in the sense that I used a completely random technique to create what you see here, which kind of resembles turquoise agate rocks, maybe?? Or underwater coral pieces? I was inspired by the Base Coat Top Coat's pink agate rocks, mind you hers are far more detailed. I have NO IDEA how she hand painted this in all that irregular perfect detail. Pretty sure she used a tiny detailed brush and beat the hell out of a realism painter near you. Nevertheless, I worked with what I had and used a 'sea foam' sponge to create this look.

Let's call this the irregular sea foam sponging technique!

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

ILNP duochrome holo drybrush over black

Actually easy nail arts today! I've had a few people comment on my Instagram page that they'd like to see some ideas for easy nail art. Here's a straight up drybrushing-with-the-polish-brush technique that's super easy to do. Obviously I had to make it a bit more out-there to suit my overly dramatic style so I've used holo duochromes (that's right, holo AND duochrome) polishes from ILNP* over a black creme base.

Pic heavy cause it's so hard to capture the shifting shades of the two duochrome polishes I used and the holo! *crying kitty emoji*

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Neon holo jelly skittle over black to white gradient

A couple weeks ago I swatched and reviewed six new neon jelly holo polishes from Beyond the Nail's summer galaxy collection. Here I have five of the six used in a multi-coloured skittle over a black to white base gradient. I got this idea when I tried their pink holo jelly over a clear to black gradient. Unfortunately this jelly over a white-to-black-gradient didn't turn out as I thought it might in my head. Looking back I should have used two coats of the jellies (I used only one) because it looks a little streaky over the white ends of the nail. I opted for just one coat because I find doing two or more coats over the black dilutes that dark contrast I wanted to preserve. And these jellies are so perfect over black, amirite?!

There is no video tutorial for this one because I was in my fast-paced experimentation zone. It's essentially the same as the clear to black gradient video tutorial, except just do a white to black base gradient. There's a pic of this step below.

Giveaway! Homemade holos and snowy glitter stunner

Here's a bit of an unusual post for me: A fellow nail artist on Instagram, Tracey of @missbellatracey is hosting a giveaway in celebration of reaching 5k followers and is including four homemade polishes as part of the prize! Now she isn't a 'polish maker' per se, but rather just comes up with concoctions in her basement and sells a few to some colleagues at work and the like. Well I don't know if she has a basement, but that's how I'm picturing it. Before you start drooling over these swatch photos, I have to sadly inform you that you can't exactly buy them anywhere, but you can win them if you enter her giveaway! Alternatively you could just hassle Tracey on Instagram and demand that she sell some and ship them to you. That might work too.

Twin nails: Multi-coloured skinny chevrons over a white base

Mani swaps are so 2013! Bestie twin nails is where it's at. Nah, I'm just messing with you, they're both still cool and fun to do but I feel like people generally go for the mani swap because it's easy. In other words, all ya gotta do is pick a mani that the other person did and re-create it. Now,  twin nails, on the other hand, requires EFFORT ladies. Cause you have to find a pattern or something online to be inspired by, and it ain't easy. Rough life for us nail bloggers.

Today I've got a twin nails mani with the lovely and talented Lisa of Loud and Lavish inspired by a completely random chevron pattern we found on Google. And guys, she's only 16!! So much talent. When I was 16 I was playing with Sally Hansen's Prisms collection and putting a different colour on each nail and calling that nail art. Back then nail art wasn't a 'thing', people just thought I was tacky. LOOK AT ME NOW, naysayers.

Twin nails with Lisa of Loud and Lavish

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Bleached neon corner gradient with white directional right angles

... that title was a mouthful. Remember my 'hypnotizing black squares' over neon green corner gradient from last month? Remember how I spent hours slaving over striping tape placement in order to achieve the uniform directional look? No? I do. Hours of my life I will never get back. BUT NOW I have a solution! Introducing right angle nail vinyls that come in varying thicknesses from as thin as striping tape to about triple that thickness. You can buy them straight from the Nail Vinyls shop online. If only the many talented (and patient) ladies who recreated my ridiculously time consuming mani knew this before they, along with I, committed nail art suicide.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Simple summer tribal with freehanded detail

Today's mani was painted yesterday (wow, this never happens) as opposed to months ago because I decided last minute I wanted to throw an entry into Margaret aka @m_a_tom on Instagram's mani competition she's hosting for reaching 10k followers. Congrats, Margaret! The contest was to create a mani inspired by one of Margaret's nail arts, and as you may recall, I have previously recreated some of Margaret's work and she has similarily re-created mine, so this one is a completely new one for me!

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Lorde gone mild: Clear to black-tipped gradient with pink holo jelly

When I was playing with my new neon holo jellies from Beyond the Nail (see swatches and review here), it dawned on me that I should probably try and create a more modest mani using these unique and extremely versatile polishes, as opposed to the colour crazyness that I've demonstrated can be done with these polishes here and here. I went for a more uniform look and thought I'd try out just their pink polish, Supernova, over a black to clear gradient after finding out how awesome these polishes looked over black. If Lorde were to take it down a notch and try on some pink lipstick for a change, perhaps her nails would look like this as opposed to the 'frostbitten' look she's popularized (which, like a lot of 'haute couture'/runway styles, is really impractical for us people who live here on Earth).

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!