C(h)ristmas nail art - scaled gradient tree and presents!

Merry (late) C(h)ristmas! How about a bunch of holo gradients? I went for a quadruple scaled gradient on my ring finger this time, for a Christmas tree effect! The other nails reminded me of abstract presents... somehow. Don't question me.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW ↓!

Plaid nails and looking back at some better plaid nails

It's setback Saturday... can that be a thing?

I did some plaid nails for this week's edition of the weekly nail art challenge (WNAC) I co-host on Instagram along with Kristin of Lacquerstyle and Tracey of MissBellaTracey, because, well, I had no choice: the theme is jewel tones and the prompt is plaid. Therefore I had to put plaid on my nails. Good story, Cristine.

After I was finished I was not really feeling the design and I was all like "well why am not feeling this design tho"... and so I went back in my old plaid nail art archives and things made sense. I was so much better at doing plaid designs years ago, what happened?!?! Guess that's what you get when you commit to the vinyl, gradient and holosexual lifestyle.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW ↓!

Gay American pride flag nails

Gay pride America nails, woop woop! After hearing that gay marriage was legalized in all US states in late June, and that the 4th of July was around the corner, I made some gay pride American flag nails for y'all!!! Red, white, rainbow, and HOLOOOOOOOO

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW ↓!

Black and gold holo glitter pattern

Back to black and holooooooooo cause it's been FAR TOO LONG. This round of June's weekly nail art challenge (WNAC) manis I co-host the WNAC on Instagram along with lovely ladies Kristin of Lacquerstyle and Tracey of MissBellaTracey is holo pattern week, and I had nothing to do with it. *evil grin*

FUN Lacquer 'Million Dollar Dream' gold holo glitter!

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW ↓!

Rose gold-tipped and stripes inspired by a classic watch

A simple classic mani for a change! I was inspired by a new watch I got from Daniel Wellington - it's called the Classic Southampton Lady... which is pretty much the opposite of me (Different Canadian Chick?)

I used straight nail vinyls and french tip nail vinyls to help guide the super straight lines. If you shop at Twinkled T you can get nail vinyls and everything else in their store 10% off with my code SIMPLY!

You can grab this gorgeous minimalist watch from www.danielwellington.com and use my code simplynailogical to get 15% off all products until May 15! They ship internationally and pretty quickly too - mine came all the way to Canada from Sweden in a couple of days!

Bleached neon stripes and directional chevrons: Summahhhhh time

Get directional! How's about some fun neon nails with black arrows cause IT SHALL BE SUMMER SOON THE WEATHER GODS TELL ME. For this week's weekly nail art challenge (WNAC) that I co-host on Instagram along with lovely ladies Kristin of Lacquerstyle and Tracey of MissBellaTracey, the theme was pastel and the prompt was chevrons! Obviously I never really follow rules you know me soon let's just pretend that bleached neons = pastel, mmk?

I used the entire Maybelline Bleached Neons collection (so summer 2014, I know) and single chevron nail vinyls from Nail Vinyls to create this summer easy and eye-catching look!

You best watch the video below cause I talk it in again... oh boy here we go.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW ↓!

Pastel stripes and dots mix and match - Perfect for Easter!

Another girly mani, what's wrong with me?!? Actually it's pastel/simple nails week for the weekly nail art challenge (WNAC) I co-host on Instagram along with lovely ladies Kristin of Lacquerstyle and Tracey of MissBellaTracey. Okay so the prompt was supposed to be 'simple', but I never listen to rules, right? I wouldn't call this simple, but it's also not as complex as some of my gradient insanity soooo therefore it's simple.

I used a couple new polishes from Live Love Polish including a new Floss Gloss one and one from Models Own! New brands to me, and I'm lovin' them!

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW ↓!

Colour-blocking chevrons with the Licence to Polish collection

Salut! Saviez-vous que je suis bilingue?! Mais pas pour le moment car mon clavier n'offre pas de fonction franco car il n'y a pas d'accents... franchement MacBook, franchement!!... j'ai jusqu'a ici avec toi!!

So that's the French nail blogger in me making a brief attempted appearance in honour of today's nail art featuring a stunning collection by a French indie polish company!! Bien que oui! Il était un vernis, which roughly translates to "there once was a polish" in English, is a relatively new company that has launched two collections plus a nail basics set so far! They are run by two French bloggers, and based on our knowledge of French bloggers, it's safe to assume they too are awesome.

I used all five colours from their recent Licence to Polish collection, released this year (2015) to create this simple chevron striping pattern look!

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Christmas throwback: Candy cane nails

So I'm on vacation right now in Florida and yes I'll be slacking on my posts cause the sun here is this magical thing I rarely get to see living in Canada. I also broke my middle nail a few weeks ago so I've had to slow down my reserve stash posts in order to catch up to myself once I can resume doing nail arts and swatches. Expect shorter nails when that happen though! In honor of this, here's a throwback to last year around this time when I had shorter nails (but also just less taken-care-of nails, worse photography, clean-up, etc.)! For what I've done in the past year to bring my nails to their usual better condition you're used to seeing on my blog, check out my Nail Care page.

Quadruple scaled gradient: Mexican rug inspired madness

Oh ma gawd what in the hell is this?!?! I don't even know. Pretty sure it might be a quadruple scaled gradient...but yeah. I have no more words. My head hurts just thinking about how I did this (and then re-thinking how I really should have done it instead), so you best just stop reading words and look at pics instead.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Neon holo jelly gradient over black and white crosshatch

Oops I did it again... couldn't help myself cause black and white is just so not colourful. Over my classic black and white crosshatch mani I filled in some of the white lines with black and then dabbed on a gradient consisting of pink, purple and blue neon holo jelly polishes from Beyond the Nail. I've reviewed and swatched them on their own and over black here.

Sorry guys, no video because this mani was the product of expermenting and not having a clue what would turn out. Kind of challenging to film and edit a video in which you keep changing your mind. If there's enough love for this design I could recreate it though!

A black tie affair: Classic B&W striping tape mani

Don't yell at me when I call this mani simple, cause I know people on Instagram already have. Let me explain: When I use the term 'simple' I don't mean simple in the execution context but rather in the end result appearance. It is simple because it is a 'cross hatch' pattern with no deviations from that pattern thoroughout, and because it is consistent across all nails, therefore making the pattern simple. The execution of this pattern, however, is somewhat (ha, I say somewhat) time consuming given that each and every white stripe you see is the product of hand placed pieces of striping tape. A striping tape massacre indeed!

This design is a reincarnation of a similar triple-lined cross hatch pattern I did in July, but this time without added the extra blocks of colour around the diamond/square intersections.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Striping tape diamond crosshatch design in red, orange, and white

How's about another pain-in-the-ass striping tape mani? This one may not be as bad as that right angle black and neon green one was, but I did both hands this time, so really you could say the expenditure of striping tape was about the same. I did this one back in mid-June: Why it takes me so long to post things sometimes, I don't know. Clearly I just need to quit my job and do my nails full time.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Mani swap with Dorra of Didoline!

Why is it that all french nail bloggers are so amazing??? I mean seriously. What. The. Heck. I am so happy to share with you today a mani swap with one of them, the super sweet Dorra of Didoline's Nails! Dorra chose to replicate my super time-consuming neon and black hypnotizing square mani and I went the simple route baha and chose one of her Fashion Friday nail arts, this one inspired by the Fausto Puglisi 2015 Resort collection.

Work appropriate mani Monday: Neon and nude

Who says you can't wear neon at work? If someone does, they're lying.

I wore this look for a week at the office and no one told me I was fired. Therefore, you too can wear neon at work. But for real though, I am of the opinion that you can mix nude and neon (at least a lemon-lime neon) and pull it off, assuming it compliments your awesome personality.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Work appropriate mani Monday: Not so appropriate shrinkage

Further to my last post where I exposed the Seche Vite "shrinkage" phenomenon, I thought I'd use this work appropriate mani Monday post to demonstrate more of this top coat travesty.

I originally did this mani back in May, but never published it, because, well, it's pretty obvious why. Look at those horrendous edges! The tip wear without any actual wear! These shots were taken maybe a couple of hours after I painted them. Seche Vite fail.

Seche Vite bottle image credit

Hypnotizing black & neon squares

Further to yesterday's plain corner gradient post, here's the finished product. No, this is not a stamp. No, this is not freehand. No, this is not a pre-cut nail vinyl (I wish, seriously). This is the result of me turning into a crazy person and placing probably over 50 pieces of striping tape one by one while my eyes go crossed.

Chocolate rosettes

Further to yesterday's boring ass striped nails post, I have something more appealing for you that is actually not really my thing: Florals. I don't know why, but I've never been into the stereotypical feminine nail designs (funny, cause nails art alone is gendered feminine), and by that I mean things like flowers, leopard print, paisley, hearts, butterflies..... ugh. *shudder*. Honestly, I can't stand that shit. But that doesn't mean I don't love it on other talented nail artists!

Earlier this month I surprised Margaret of @m_a_tom on Instagram with a mani swap and I chose her floral, stripes, and dotted nail design in part to challenge myself and step outself of my comfort zone in modern/abstract nail art design. Nearly immediately after, in early June, I decided I wanted to tackle the rosette mani again, and used her striped background as my base, just changing the colour scheme to brown.

Work appropriate mani Monday: Tan & white stripes

So you may be thinking to yourself that this is the most basic mani EVER... and that's cause it is. Like many of my other posts, this mani is the prelude to a more interesting mani that will be posted tomorrow. But, because this stage looks rather work appropriate, it suits the bill for today's post.

But it's still boring!

Father's Day finish line

Nailpolis is hosting a nail art contest with a Father's Day theme and obviously I had to participate. I quickly browsed through some of the submitted designs and saw a lot of ties, mustaches, button-up dress shirts, and I thought to myself: yes, that would have been my first thought too, but... I just had to go with something different.

What is special about your dad that separates him from the traditional understandings of Father's Day symbolism? For me, it's racing and Formula 1. Growing up my dad was always watching the F1 or Indy 500 races, he'd save them on VHS back in the day (now you know I'm old) and then watch them all weekend long. I also somewhat grew up in the car industry myself, having helped out at his auto body shop when I was younger and later working in a specialty Porsche tuning/mechanic shop. From acting as a child to working in car shops to reporting on criminal statistics.... Yes, I have quite the interesting career path. Back to the reason behind this design, a racing-themed mani came pretty naturally for this Father's Day themed mani.