Pink Camo!

Posted in Gradient, Matte, Nail Art, Nails, Studs by Craftynail

It’s Father’s Day in the US today ! My dad is the best! He’s what you’d call a Mr. Fix It. It’s so comforting to know that if the crap hits the fan – my daddy will be able to fix it it for me! He’s a woodworker and a real outdoorsman too. He’s into camping, hunting and all the typical guy stuff.. so I thought it would be fitting to try some camouflage nails for today’s holiday!

I was googling images of camo for like ever… until I decided to just pick up a brush and go for it! As my dad would say, ‘stop farting around and get to work’. So that’s what I did and here’s what I came up with! There’s no planning needed- just pick a few camo colors and start painting some splotches! I started with a very light pink base color called Kiss the Bride by Orly. Then I used a detail nail art brush to paint the splotches using China Glaze Dance Baby (medium pink), China Glaze Westside Warrior (dark army green) and Orly Faint of Heart (cream grey). I also did a gradient accent nail using the same colors and some silver studs. Lastly, a matte topcoat works well to transform it all into a smooth uniform design. I love my MASH Matte topcoat!

Have you tried camo nails before? If not, you might want to give it a go!

6Apr2013

Summery Pink Panels

Posted in Challenge, Nail Art, Nails, Neon, Orly, Panels, Zoya by Craftynail

Today is PINK DAY as part of the 30 Day Nail Challenge. I created a nail art design I’ll call pink panels using only a dotting tool . I started with two coats of Orly Kiss The Bride– which is pretty watery and streaky. If I was wearing Kiss the Bride on it’s own then I would definitely have needed three coats. Then I selected the following three pink polishes for my panels/squares:

OPI ♥ Elephantistic Pink

Zoya ♥ Ali

China Glaze ♥ Dance Baby

I used my smallest dotting tool to shape the squares. I got pretty good control and clean corners from using that tool- I’m sure I woulda muffed it up if I used a paintbrush! This design was pretty easy to do, but a little time consuming. I’d say the squares took me about an hour from start to finish. I like the outcome and how the Zoya Ali looks like so bright against the other pinks! I didn’t realize how neon Ali is- I will definitely be wearing it this summer!

Now I’m inspired to try this look with green polishes – I bet it would look like a tortoise shell 🙂

20Feb2013

Ruffle Nail Art

Posted in China Glaze, Dotting, Matte, Nail Art, Nails, OPI, Orly, Revlon, Ruffle, Tutorial, wet n wild by Craftynail

I’m so excited about this nail art technique called Ruffle Nails! Every nail fanatic needs to try this- it’s easy and has lots of wow factor. All you need to do is grab your favorite polish shades and a dotting tool (or bobby pins) to make some over-lapping rows of dots (it helps to use the largest tool you can find so the dots aren’t too small). If you’d like to see a step-by step tutorial here’s a great one by Chalkboard Nails. Now that I’ve discovered ruffles- I’ve got all these ideas swimming around in my head- neon ruffles, rainbow ruffles, black n white ruffles… I want to try them all!

My first attempt came out much so better than I expected! I casually worked on this design while sitting on the couch and I honestly didn’t try too hard. I figured I’d end up taking it off with polish remover and then give it a real go later. Well, I couldn’t believe how cute my test mani came out so I took some pics! I used some of my favorite green and purple polishes here… and I think the matte topcoat really pulled it together nicely. The variety of colors and the satin finish made my fingertips look like fimo clay! ↓

I went with a cool color combo of blue, pink and grey for my second design. ↓

One thing I like about the ruffle technique is that it’s so easy, you can even do a great job on your ‘other’ hand! I’m right-handed so my left hand nail art usually looks good, and my right-hand comes out how should I say… non-photogenic? LOL. Well, not with ruffles! Try it out for yourself and let me know your results!

♥ Mood struck polish as my base (teal)