Emerald green runway

A while ago I did a neutral-toned negative space mani inspired by Kristin from @kgrdnr, but lately I've found myself swooning over her original photo and wondering what else I could do with it 'cause my beige version was BORING. Well, it was okay, in a meh kind of way, but I wanted something darker that catches the eye like Kristin's original delicious burgundy number. @chorubim showed the nail art world how Kristin's look could take on other dark hues, and Margaret from @m_a_tom showed us how we could use other specialty toppers to line the centre runway down the nail (which then influenced me to use pixie dust last time around). Just as luck would have it, Amy from @mcpolish posted an emerald green negative space mani a couple days ago, after I'd already done my nails almost basically the same! Great nail artists think alike, clearly.

Inspired by a Coach scarf

I know what you're thinking: It's basically May and I'm getting inspired by a (cashmere) scarf?! For what good reason would I have to wear such winter attire during the spring?! Well, if you haven't heard yet, I live in the North Pole (a.k.a. Canada), and I was actually wearing this scarf today. So sad.

Work appropriate mani Monday: Line it up

Full disclosure: this mani is the first step of another mani which I'll post tomorrow. But once I did this step alone I thought it could work on it's own as a work-appropriate look. As you may have noticed by now, my definition of 'work appropriate' has been getting looser and looser.... so let's just say it's appropriate after you got the job once people begin to care less what you look like and more about the quality of your work. The latter should always be the case, but hey, can't stop the world from judging.

Pastel rainbow interlocked reciprocal gradient

This mani was created for Peace, Love & Polish and Nails Like Lace's pastel rainbow nail art collaboration. Nail art 'collabs' are when nail artists get together, decide on a common theme (sometimes pre-determine by the host), and everyone does a design to suit the theme then submits it to the collab host, who then compiles all the mani's into a master collage. This is the second collab I've participated in, and it's so fun to see what everyone comes up with. Here's the final product:

And here's my solo shot:

'Over the top' for Sephora Formula X: Triangles

Ever since I bought three particular shades of green and grey from Sephora's new line of polishes, Formula X, I've been wanting to create a very simple eye-catching geometric mani. I just love the muted neon lime green featured, it's like a lemon-lime colour, maybe more like an amaretto sour made with lime juice colour - a bit murky but so refreshing. That's why the mattifying top coat is key to this mani. It balances out the subtle shimmer that comes through in the textured polish. I loved this mani so much I wore it for 4 days! What, I actually wore the SAME NAIL POLISH for four whole days?! And I got proof (see last photo exhibit: both hands).

Welcome back Mad Men and all that's orange and blue

Mad Men is back on the air for its seventh and final season (nooooo!) and if you're like me then sometimes you get lost in the plot when dizzying 1960's imagery and patterns fill the screen. Couches, pillows, draperies, blouses, so many funky patterns and colours.... drool.

I didn't have any one particular piece of inspiration in mind, but I was going through my stamping plates - which I have little experience with - and I saw one that was reminiscient of some of the patterns you'd see on the show (er, in the 1960's - but how would I know I wasn't even born yet). I decided to go with a white, royal blue and bright orange colour scheme as they remind me of one of Joan's sexy blue dresses, her orange, blue and white geometric dress, and the iconic orange couch seen in the ad agency.

Earth Day: Lights on, lights out

When I was doing my last Earth day mani for Nailpolis' Earth day nail art challenge what I thought was a much more creative idea popped into my head. So off came my Earth in a galaxy mani and then came a split black and white undercoat to prep for this (second) Earth day mani. Phew!

The idea behind this is the 'lights out' theme of Earth day. That is, when the world shuts off the lights for an hour. Even though Earth hour and Earth day are two seperately recognized events, the end goal of raising awareness about the sanctiny of our planet is just the same. Each nail depicts a symbol reminiscent of Earth day or energy use and is presented dichotomously where one half is 'lights out' and the other half is 'lights on'. 

Work appropriate mani Monday: Split personality

Like last week, this mani's work appropriateness is debateable. I argue that because dark coloured nails have made a comeback and are generally accepted in the workplace (see here and here), and because white nails have been universally accepted as office friendly for a while now (see here, here and here), then the combination of the two in a simple clean cut design must be okay!

Maybe dark nails are not ideal for an interview, and so that would eliminate using any dark polish even if only half a nail, but if you already got the job, then why the heck not!

I saw this split look recently done by Aliciatnails on Instagram and so I had to re-create it. Doing so gave me a better idea of what to do for Earth Day nails, so this design actually serves as the base for my next post, hee hee.

Earth spotted in a galaxy

Yesterday's post was my first attempt at galaxy nails, but I originally went into this mani thinking that I would paint an Earth somewhere for Nailpolis' Earth Day nail art challenge. It didn't turn out as I'd envisioned, which is the case for more mani's that I can count :|

But good news is that while I was painting this mani a better idea for Earth Day popped into my head... you'll see that one up in a few!

The Earth was painted with acrylic paints (white, green, blue) and then the continents on the Earth were topped with some green pixie dust for added texture and some Ozotic blue sugar on the water. Can you guess which continent/countries are featured?

Galaxy nails

This mani marks my first ever galaxy nail art. I have no idea why I didn't attempt this earlier, as it's basically a cluster f**k of sexy colour-shifting and glittery polishes that I generally drool over. More than one crazy sparkly polish in ONE mani? Oh, there is a heaven.

Many before me have done galaxy nail art. Some of my favourites include the Nailasaurus, Chalkboard Nails, and the Nail Polish Challenge, but my all time favourite is hands down Wondrously Polished's galaxy mani representing five different nebulas. Crazy amazing.

Okay I'm not going to lie - these don't really look like galaxies. Next time I attempt this I think I'll actually follow a tutorial... there's not supposed to be a calculated method to galaxy nails but there actually should be. I used a sponge that was too large, I didn't allow for enough clustering and saturation of colour, and my stars look like seagull shit. Woops.... there's always a next time.