On holiday with evil purple clouds and lightning

A couple weeks ago I went to town with an awkward looking "sea foam" sponge and it actually turned out alright, first with the crazy pink sunset clouds and then layered with a silhouette of a forest treeline. Many asked for a tutorial and I was all lame and hadn't made one cause I had no idea what I doing or how I did it, honest.

Then the Lacquer Legion announced the mani theme for the end of June, and it was "on holiday". Another sunset, maybe a beach or an ocean, you ask? NOPE. Cause on my holidays to a tropical place there's always thunderstorms and shitty weather.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Matte flakie skittle over black for McPolish

So Amy of McPolish aka Polish Etc. recently reached 10k followers on Instagram. As someone who I followed since I started my own nail art/Instagram journey about five months ago, I wanted to congratulate her not just through reposting her giveaway photo, but by re-creating one of my fav manis of hers. Mattifying flakies is also one of her favourite things to do in her spare time, actually I'm pretty sure she mattifies almost every mani with flakies. All hail to McPolish, queen of #matteall alltheflakies.

The glitteriest holo nail art in all the land

Recently I posted four delicious swatches of Painted Polish by Lexi's holo glitter intoxicator line. The crowd went wild, kittens started meowing at record high pitches, and people died. Well, maybe only if a car came in 'drunk on holo' paint, then someone might die because of the reflective and sparkly properties which would in turn blind drivers in oncoming traffic causing a crash. That's why mirror chrome cars were banned from the roads, but whatever. Driving while drunk on holo? Amazing.

The Painted Polish shop is now open for pre-orders on all these holo glitter polishes and some new ones too as I post this. Shop now or you might miss out and you will basically regret it for the rest of your boring dull life.

Here's some nail art I made with these four babies. Now THIS is a real glitter gradient.

Tri-colour curved scaled gradient

Guest posting today over at Frankie Hunters Nails. Frankie lives in Austria and yes, some of her blog is written in Austrian... or is it German... what the hell do I know?! Luckily I did not have to learn a new language, and you'll find my guest post in English here.

Frankie asked me a few weeks ago to share a scaled gradient design with her readers and I happily agreed! The inspiration behind this mani was summery colours (all Essie), but not neon in the in-your-face-sense, as I wanted to go with a bit more of a relaxed summer colour scheme.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Green creme and duochrome quatrefoil: Third attempt

About a month ago I posted my second quatrefoil nail art attempt, and back in May I posted my first. The way I see it, the first attempt was a fail as I wasn't paying attention to where I was placing those goddamn first dots, as Margaret of @m_a_tom on Instagram so kindly pointed out to me (for her helpful hints, see here). The second was better, but I realized later that I'd placed the little ticks that extend from the dots at the wrong intersection... woops.

The 'quatrefoil' technique initially came out of the genius mind of Christabell Nails earlier this year, and many have gathered the courage to try. After this, my third attempt, I think I can go without the quatrefoil mani haunting my dreams for a while.

Pictured: Swarovski bella chrysolite earrings (I believe they're discontinued now)

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Cat love for Cassie nail art collab

Two weeks ago Cassie of @cassgooner on Instagram lost her dear kitty, Milly. Nine of us cat-loving nail artists decided to get together in attempt to put a smile back on Cassie's face in light of the news. As a mother of two furry children, I can imagine (though I don't want to) how heartwrenching it will be when my babies move on. To me it's the same thing as losing a family member, since after all, kitties are children to some of us. In the spirit of remembering Cassie's beloved Milly and in recognizing the space our cats hold in our hearts, eight talented nail artists on Instagram and myself collaborated on a 'cat love for Cassie' nail art collab.

You can see the original IG collab post and response here

The ladies who participated alongside me include: @magnifiquenails @nailsbyjema @rillwatermist @narmai @nailsbyrizz @adifferentshadeofpolish @lilyandjinks @nailsandtowel

 Here's my solo shot:

Saving Pacific Blue by the chevron

Some of you nail polishaholics may have heard that Sally Hansen has changed the formula (and thus the colour) of 'Pacific Blue', a polish in the Extreme Wear line. See here are here for examples of this controversial and blasphemous corporate operations change.

Capital Polish and Reinovate initiated a movement to push back again the SH corporation by organizing a nail art/polish swatch collaboration of the original Pacific Blue in which we nail freaks stand in solidarity and demonstrate (non-violently, of course) the amazingness that is the true Pacific Blue.

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!

Forest silhouette over pink and purple cloudy sunset

Further to yesterday's post of an ad hoc pink and purple cloudy sunset thing, here's the actual finished mani. I was inspired by a photograph taken by my friend. She used real film photography (ancient, I know) to process the film. I just loved the rich pinks and purples in the cloudy sky above the forest treeline.