Holo quatrefoil - the first attempt

A couple of months ago the talented Christabell Nails invented a crazy-awesome nail art pattern using a dotting technique which she dubbed 'quatrefoil nails'. Based on what appears to be a vintage-looking wallpaper 'quatrefoil' design, this nail art is created using only two polish colours, a dotting tool, and a tiny paintbrush (or toothpick). Easy, right?

Not so easy. I didn't really pay attention to the technique or the execution, and I only watched maybe 20 seconds of Christabell Nails' original quatrefoil tutorial. Shame on me! That's why I failed, 'cause I didn't listen. Moral of the story: Listen to your parents, stay in school. Or just pay attention to the whole mani tutorial.

Work appropriate mani Monday: Nude & blue chevrons

Here's a simple but striking look that I'm going to argue is work appropriate no matter where you work. Bland beige nails is so 2002. Today you can pull off nude nails with a twist at the office and still be taken seriously (I would say this about any nail polish though... so maybe don't listen to me).

I used four Essie polishes (including 2 specialty ones from the Encrusted Treasures collection - see swatches and a review of this collection by Polish Aholic) to create this look. Nail vinyls in the shape of single chevrons were used to guide the application of the three mid-nail arrow-looking shapes.

Fun with acrylics: Inspired by chandelier art

A while ago I bought a print/canvas with chandelier art that complimented a chandelier-style floor lamp I picked up from Urban Barn. I traced the chandelier art piece back to Working Girls Design Inc., who designed it, but you can buy it or other ones like it almost anywhere, such as on Overstock.com.

A couple weeks ago I picked up some acrylic paint to try out (for nail art, of course) and I found myself wanting to re-create the chandelier art piece and its 'teardrop' effect. In other words, where the words of what seems like a corny love letter were cried on causing some of the ink to blur (wah wah, someone call a wambulance).

It's not a perfect replica, and I'm still not happy with my paint brush size (I had trimmed one down but it was still frayed, arg).

Heavy metal belt

Good morning! Well, for me anyway, it's nearing 10am and I can actually see sun out my window. Today I have for you a heavy metal look, inspired by a belt and testing out more uses for OPI's new chrome polish from the Gwen Stefani collection.

Inspired by Hudson's Bay navy blue socks

Back in March I posted Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) nail art stripes with the traditional white/ivory background and primary coloured (+ green) stripes. This time around, I've got the reverse HBC nails, or the signature stripes over a navy blue background, which generally looks something like this area rug. My direct inspiration featured in the pics is this pair of women's HBC socks.

Sometimes you should just leave things alone

Two days ago I posted a 'returning' white to grey gradient mani which I turned into a chevron returning reciprocal gradient the day after. If that wasn't confusing enough, I decided to add some dots. What happened though, really, was that I thought the chevron mani looked like my kitty Menchie because of the grey and white zig zags, like her fur. But it wouldn't be like Menchie without some pink (the colour of her collar).

So, I confused an already confusing mani and ruined it. I blame the kitty.

Greyscale chevron returning reciprocal gradient

You're probably seeing the title of this post and thinking um what are you trying to say, girl? You have inhaled too much nail polish. So yesterday I posted a grey to white twist on the traditional gradient mani. My (rather convoluted) explanation included how a 5-point gradient whose colour point on one end of the nail returns by the other end (this is different than a traditional gradient, where the mani has a different colour at each end of the gradient).  I explain how I did this to the best of my ability below!

UPDATE (June 12, 2014): Video tutorial below!

Work appropriate mani Monday: Grey and white gradient

Here's a simple twist on the traditional polarized gradient. Usually gradients begin with one colour on one end of the nail and transition to another by the other end. Here I've created a five point gradient using three colours (white, light grey, medium grey), but had one end of the colour scheme (white) hit the nail at both ends, leaving the darkest grey in the middle only. Let's call this a returning gradient since the white seen on one end of the nail returns by the other end.

Coucher de soleil - une soirée à Paris

Savais-tu que je connais le français ainsi que l'anglais? Okay let me just stop there before I thoroughly embarrass myself.

This nail art, based over the summery neon gradient I posted yesterday, is a silhouette depiction of some well known Paris landscapes. Have I ever been to Paris? No. Have I ever been to anywhere in Europe? No. In fact I've never been out of North America. So very lame.

Let's be NE-honest...

...if neons symbolized the beginning of summer, then I should still be wearing dark polish. In retaliation of the tretcherous weather (rain, clouds, rain, wind, rain) we've been having in Canada as of late, I've painted my nails the brightest neon possible.