Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Hunger Games: The Nails On FIRE

Today's nail art is actually inspired by the swatch that my buddy Sarah of Chalkboard Nails did for my new polish "Pumpkin Hurl". She did a coat of it over black and then used a matte topcoat. It looked so much like glowing embers, that I had to work it into a mani! So I present: Hunger Games, The Nails On FIRE! (I totally just said that in my head as if I were Stanley Tucci playing Caesar Flickerman!)

I started with a base of Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris (my favorite one coat black) and then added the Mockingjay artwork using gold, brown, white, and black acrylic paints over that. I mixed the other colors into the gold to add highlights and shadows.

It looked pretty cool this way, but I wanted to extend the artwork onto the other nails, and that is where this polish comes into play. I originally developed this color to illustrate the summer fire danger we have in Sonoma County, and I called it Red Flag Warning. But then tragedy struck Yosemite with massive wild fires, so I changed the name to Pumpkin Hurl. The new name is inspired by all of the pumpkin themed contests and fun we have in Sonoma County during the fall. Things like growing giant pumpkins, carving them, eating them, and yes, hurling them through the air with a giant trebuchet.

So here is the mani with one coat of Pumpkin Hurl. You can get a bottle of it in my etsy store this fall! Click here to check it out (and to see the swatch Sarah did that inspired this mani!)

Then I had to top it all with Hard Candy Matte-Ly In Love matte top coat. I am so happy with how these look! I'm totally gonna do this look again for the Catching Fire premier. Happy Hunger Games! 

OH PS (Am I the only one who was totally disappointed that they didn't give Jennifer Lawrence cool fire themed nail art in the first movie? I mean C'MON! That was gonna be EPIC!)

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Tribute to Erin

Today I am posting the first nail art I have done in a while. Two months ago today, my dear sister-in-law Erin passed away suddenly. She leaves behind her new son, born just four days before she died, her 2 year old daughter, and my brother. Things have been really rough and we are all having a hard time adjusting to this loss. Last night I decided to make this simple design to honor her memory.

I painted my nails with Sinful Colors Gogo Girl. The bottle I used belonged to Erin. She was not big into painting her nails, and when I was with my brother right after she died, he gave me her one bottle of nail polish. (I would give all of my polish to have her back...) It was a really nice gesture and I wanted to do something with it to remember her. 

I painted a Gerbera Daisy on my ring finger. This was Erin's favorite flower. I actually did two versions of this flower. The first one was like 7 layers of paint and getting crazy big, so I took it off. Then I looked up techniques for painting a Gerbera Daisy and I was able to do this version. I do like how it turned out. And I learned that it is actually Gerbera not Gerber! (Gerber is the last name of the botanist who found this daisy, but the Latin scientific name is Gerbera.)

Here is a closeup of the artwork. Instead of 7 messy layers, there are about 3 layers of petals painted with acrylic paints. I topped it with my favorite: Seche Vite. 

This is my brother, Erin, and her little girl from a trip I took to visit them in 2011. There aren't many pictures of Erin with her son. But we do have a few and they are precious. I miss you so much Erin!