Day 8 of the OMD Challenge-Matte Floral

Posted in Floral, Matte, Nail Art, Nails, Neon, OMD Challenge by Craftynail

Day 8 of the Oh Mon Dieu Rather Awesome Challenge is MATTE. I love matte on top of nail art! And today I’ve got a big bright mattified design for you!

I’m wearing a strengthening base coat and then three coats of Salon Perfect Flamingo Flair. Turns out that this neon has a really crappy formula 😦 Good thing the color is great, or I would just toss this polish aside for good. It’s thick, chalky and streaky and dries very dull. The polish was stacked up so thick that I had to apply a coat of seche vite to help the goopiness settle down. And then I noticed that it was still super dull and flat-looking. It wasn’t the slightest bit glossy- even with a healthy layer of top coat. Good thing I’ll be mattifying it soon anyway!

Then I painted some random tropical looking flowers on top using FolkArt acrylic craft paint and topped it with one coat of MASH Matte Topper. I can’t compare MASH to other brands since it’s the only one I’ve ever tried, but I love it! It was cheap, dries fast, and gives a nice effective matte finish on top of my nail art.

Initially I liked the final result- it was really bright and tropical-looking. And the Flamingo Flair almost seems to glow in the dark in dim lighting. But otherwise, this mani was sorta a let down. My Flamingo Flair chipped in less than 14 hrs. And half of those hours I was sleeping! This was my first bottle of Salon Perfect nail polish… and if this shade is any indication of the quality of their products… then this will be my last! Once it started chipping I couldn’t wait to get it off! On the bright side, that means I can start prepping for my day 9 textured design. See you then! 😀 Oh, and if you’re just hearing about the nail challenge- it’s not too late! You can still join in!
8. Matte :

16Jun2013

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!

11Apr2013

Stamped Leopard with a Gradient

Posted in Avon, Cats, Challenge, Gradient, Matte, Nail Art, Nails by Craftynail

Day 11 of the 30 Day Nail Art Challenge is ANIMAL PRINT! Who doesn’t love animal print? And what’s the foolproof way to get animal print? KONAD! I love my Konad Stamping Kit and plate M57 with leopard print is perfect for today’s theme!

I started with two coats of AVON Nailwear Pro Inspire. This awesome yellow shade is from a special collection of 3 avon polishes called Zenergy and it curiously reminds me of the The Peter Som Trio for Zoya. Hmmm?! Inspire is great because it’s perfectly opaque with two coats which is more than a lot of other yellows can say! I’m glad I picked this one up- it will be great for nail art.

I waited for my yellow to dry and then I did a gradient using a small piece of a makeup sponge and some Orly Coffee Break. It looked pretty cool- I was a little afraid to stamp over top of it in fear that I might mess it up! Ya see, my nail beds are the EXACT same length as the stamping design on my Konad plates. That means I have no wiggle room when I’m stamping…. I need to get the placement just right so it covers my nail completely. I really wish Konad would make their designs bigger!

I finished off the look with some MASH matte topcoat to lock it all in. Matte topcoats go great with busy designs like this. It helps diffuse the light so you won’t have a glossy shine to distract from the design. I think it came out great- I love this wild look! The gradient really helped add some dimension to the leopard print too. Can’t wait to see what the other bloggers come up with! Check out this inlinkz link to see the other designs.

Oh speaking of other bloggers… I’d like to mention that I’ve been nominated for the Liebster Award and I really appreciate it so much! Thank you for supporting my little blog! I haven’t forgotten- and soon I will type up a proper post to thank the girls who nominated me! 😀 Blog on!

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)