I wanted to make a delicate nail design that would reflect the gorgeous colors of egg shells. We are so lucky to have lots of farmers markets in Sonoma County selling farm fresh eggs. They are not only beautiful on the outside, they are also gorgeous on the inside, with richly colored yolks.
I painted each nail with a different egg shell hue, then used MoYou London Explorer plate 03 with Konad White. The base colors are OPI A-Taupe the Space Needle, OPI Did You Ear About Van Gogh?, Orly Decades of Dysfunction, and Color Club Factory Girl.
Today's manicure is one I did for The Lacquer Legion monthly challenge. The theme this month is "Lucky" and I thought about things that I consider myself lucky to have for possible subjects. I am so lucky to be Auntie to two darling, smart kids. So today's manicure is of my little nephew, Baby Magic. Magic was born just four days before his mom died, and he is a little treasure. I love him so much! Dealing with the loss of my sister in law has been heart wrenching, but I find that being creative makes the pain hurt a little less.
I started with a base of OPI My Vampire Is Buff. Then I used a water color technique to add splotches of Morgan Taylor Berry Perfection, Orly Fresh, and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Fairy Teal.
After I topcoated the watercolor layer, I stamped with BM 04 plate using Pure Ice Silver Mercedes. Then I used acrylic paints to add little Baby Magic on my middle finger. His nick name is Magic, his real name is Will. :D I had so much fun painting in his little dimples, which he got from his dad.
Here is the photo I used for reference. I will have to do a manicure of my niece Molly, too! If Molls will slow down long enough for a picture, that is. Look on social media platforms today to see more Lucky manicures. They will be marked #LLlucky
Today I am featuring some of my new stamping plates I got from Pueen! They are gorgeous and I love the full plate designs which let you really customize your images. I paired this plate together with my polish Clockwork, which is available right now in my etsy shop.
I painted my nails with Orly Buried Alive first, then topped most of my nails with my Sonoma Nail Art color Clockwork. On my ring finger I stamped Orly Glitz over the nail with Pueen Plate 57. I topped it all with Seche Vite.
Isn't this color pretty!? I am not sure why I haven't tried it before. The colors in this collection (inspired by Dark Shadows) were super vampy and fun. I bought this at a big discount at Sally Beauty Supply.
Here is the full plate image from the Pueen Palte 57. There are so many ways you could wear this, I just love it. I think I will have to do a Yellow Brick Road mani verrrrry soon! Happy Monday!
These are the nails I did for the Superbowl on Sunday, and I did them right before we were headed out to watch the game at our favorite watering hole. My husband was chomping at the bit for me to get done already, so we could score good seats to watch the game. And so I am sharing these with a caveat: I didn't have time to moisturize and make sure all of my cleanup/lines looked good. I was kind of horrified to look at close up pictures of this mani. SO DRY! With that in mind...
I deconstructed the Seahawks logo. You can see part of the beak on my index finger, and the eyes on my middle and pinkie fingers. On my ring finger is The Beast from Disney's Beauty and The Beast. For those unfamiliar with the Seahawks, one of the players, Marshawn Lynch, is nicknamed 'Beast Mode' for his amazing skills as a running back. So these are my Beast Mode Nails!
The base colors I used were Zoya Dove, Orly Fresh, OPI Ogre The Top Blue, and Sinful Colors Snow Me White. All of the artwork is done with acrylic paints, then topped with Seche Vite. And obviously no moisturizer. What have we learned from this, kids?! Always moisturize your cuticles!
I think it was totally worth it to keep my husband waiting while I finished these. Can you imagine what would have happened if I hadn't?! LOL
Here is a manicure I did to show off 12th Man team spirit for the Superbowl bound Seattle Seahawks! Yes, I live in 49er country, but I am from Washington State.
I used Orly Fresh and OPI Ogre The Top Blue for the base colors, then topped most of the nails with my Sonoma Nail Art glitter 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. There are bottles of this color available in my etsy store right now! On my ring finger, I used acrylic paint to freehand a Seahawks logo.
Today's post is in honor of a Sonoma County team competing in the Little League World Series today! Go Petaluma National Little League!!! It is very exciting for our county to have a team in the Little League World Series, everyone has Little League Fever! :D
The nick name for Petaluma is "P-Town" so that is what I have on my thumb, plus a little baseball on my middle finger.
The Petaluma National Little League team is wearing green and gold at the World Series, so those are the colors I chose for my geometric gradient. I used pieces of tape to mark off the stripes, and then used a sponge technique (see The Nailasaurus for the tutorial) to make the gradient. I used China Glaze Happy Go Lucky as my base, with Orly Fresh and OPI Who The Shrek Are You for the gradient colors.
Here you can see a detail of the baseball. I did the baseball with white, black, and red acrylic paints. After the artwork was done, I topped it with Seche Vite topcoat.
This manicure also fits into the geometric manicure theme that a few of my friends are doing. You can see more fun manicures below. Petaluma plays today at 5pm Pacific time! GO PETALUMA!
GO TEAM! Personally I am hoping the Patriots win, but I don't really care either way. In honor of today's Superbowl Game, I have painted Superbowl nails. They are fairly simple, since I don't really have a team affiliation either way. I am pretty sure my husband will cheer for the Giants because he hates Tom Brady. :)
I polished my nails a base green color to match the AstroTurf, and then painted a bunch of little footballs flying by on my middle and ring fingers.
The base polish is Orly Fresh, and I really like this color. I actually painted the base polish on the night before I did the artwork. I went to a friend's house to watch movies, and one of the girls there said my nails looked like little green apples. :) This is two coats.
To paint the footballs, I started with black acrylic paint. I could have started with brown, and then outlined in black, but I thought this route would be easier.
Then I topped the black shapes with brown acrylic paint. If you go a little too far with the brown paint, you can always touch up with a bit of black acrylic paint.
Finally, I added white acrylic paint for the stitches on the tops of the footballs. Then I sealed everything in with Seche Vite top coat. My friend Sarah said these looked like the wraps you can buy at drugstores. If you do any design in a repeating pattern, you could achieve the same effect.
Have fun watching the game (or watching the commercials)!
As promised, here are some pictures of the nails I did for members of the bridal party at my Wedding Part Deux! When in Reno, I offered to do nails for anyone in our group who wanted them. Here are the ones I managed to snap pictures of (I didn't get my sister's nails on camera, darn it!)
Here are my mom's nails. I made a few designs before we left for Reno so that she could pick out a design she liked (and also so I wouldn't have to bring a massive amount of polishes and supplies with me). This kind of mod retro pattern appealed to her. I painted most of her nails with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Coco A-go-go (a really pretty bronze color), then painted an accent nail on each hand with Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris, a one coat black polish. On the black nail I used bronze and gold acrylic paints to make this pattern. I like it! Very dramatic.
Here is mom showing off her mani while holding a glass filled with champagne. And this was BEFORE we went to the chapel to renew our vows. (LUSH!) Just kidding! :)
My sister-in-law said I could do whatever I wanted, so I did a quick swipe of OPI Diva of Geneva on her nails and used the silver Orly Nail Art brush that I got from my Secret Santa to give it a fun fireworks-style burst on the ring fingers.
Even my little brother got in on the fun. I painted Diva of Geneva on his thumb, then used my gold acrylic paint to do the University of Washington 'W' detail. Go Dawgs!
Yes, this is what my brother wore to the chapel. It was a really laid back service, as evidenced on my Wedding Part Deux post. :)
And finally, no I did not paint this for anyone in the wedding party. This is my Unicorn Puke nail art that I did a while back, inspired by the amazing nail polish from Cult Nails called Unicorn Puke. Maria of Cult Nails is hosting a contest right now for nail art that showcases Cult Nails polish! I entered this picture in the contest. I hope to win and get some awesome nail art supplies as well as Cult Nail polishes. You can vote by heading to their Facebook page and 'liking' your favorite design. The cool thing is, Maria will ALSO be giving a prize of nail polish to one of the people who likes the nail art. You don't have to submit your own picture to win, just vote for your favorite!
Please take a second to like my Unicorn Puke nails on Cult Nails' Facebook page. I really appreciate it!
Another quick nail design before I head out on vacation. My hubby and I are headed to Reno to renew our vows on New Years Eve. We got married there 5 years ago on New Years Eve and now we are headed back! It should be fun. I have a mani in mind for the ceremony, but here is a quick celebratory nail design with simple nail art.
This is a base of OPI's Didgeridoo Your Nails? with some Orly Silver Glitter nail art on the ring finger. I got the Orly Nail Art from my Secret Santa at work, way to go Secret Santa!
I may not be posting again for a few days, so Happy New Year my nail buddies! Have fun and be safe. Choose a designated driver or take a cab!
This is probably the goriest of the nails I will do during this challenge. I like Halloween for its sense of fun, magic, and nostalgia. I am not into gore and serious scary stuff. In fact, I just had to go through a haunted house for a story I am working on, and it was not a pleasant experience. My heart was racing when I finally got out of there! So here is a creepy manicure featuring a creepy dude: Freddy from A Nightmare on Elm Street!
I thought about doing Saw nails, since there are lots of rusty metallic implements used in the Saw movies, but I honestly just hate those movies, and I couldn't bring myself to do it. So I thought about it some more, and remembered that Freddy Krueger hangs out in dirty warehouse/boiler room types of places where there's lots of rusted dirty metal things.
I started with a base of Orly Glam Rock, a matte gold shade. This photo shows the base color before I did any cleanup.
Then I sponged Revlon Steel-her Heart (which when you think about it, is a kind of gruesome name for a Halloween manicure!) over the ends of each nail to give it a dirty appearance.
Here's the beginning of Freddy Krueger. (And I used a pic of Robert Englund as Freddy as my model, not the new Freddy as played by Jackie Earle Haley.)
Here is Freddy almost done. His ear got kind of out of control. I should have worked on that a bit more...
Then I added his glove on my ring finger. I used gold paint mixed with a bit of black paint for the fingers, and silver for his razors. Creepy!
If I scratched myself while wearing this manicure, wouldn't that be weird? Like Freddy was somehow possessing my manicure??! You see why I can't handle haunted houses? My imagination is way too vivid.
Polishes used in this manicure: Orly Glam Rock, Revlon Steel-her Heart, Essie All In One Basecoat, and Seche Vite Topcoat.
Tomorrow it's rainbow nails! How in the world will I work Halloween into rainbow nails? You'll have to come back to find out!
This past weekend was really busy! I went to the Halloween and Vine art show on Saturday, and on Sunday it was the Great Handcar Regatta. This is an insanely awesome event. It's a steampunk/utopian extravaganza featuring all sorts of cool handcars that are raced along tracks in downtown Santa Rosa. People dress up in great costumes and there are fun performers all over the place. This is the Regatta's 4th year in Santa Rosa, and hopefully not the last. We are supposed to be getting high speed rail soon, and that may mean no fun on the old railroad tracks in downtown next year. My outfit was fun (I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of me wearing it!) and of course, I did steampunk nails to match.
Here are the finished nails. I did these based on a design by Robin Moses, but changed up the colors to match my outfit (which I didn't take pictures of, grrr!). Watch Robin's great video to see how to do these nails.
I used Revlon Creme Brulee for the base and then sponged on Orly Glam Rock (which has a matte finish) on the tips to give the nails a slight gradient. This design on its own would look great, if you didn't want to steampunk it up.
I added the first set of gears and cogs using a small nail art brush and a copper colored acrylic paint by Folk Art.
Here's the second layer of gears in a gold acrylic paint. I like how the Orly Glam Rock is peaking through the design.
And finally I added some white paint to the gold acrylic paint to create a lighter gold and did a final set of gears and cogs to finish the design. I topcoated with Revlon Quick Dry Topcoat.
I found these lacy cuffs at Hot Topic. Gotta love goth kids for their cool accoutrements! It cracks me up to shop at Hot Topic, where kids are trying to find their own style at a corporate clothing and accessories store. "I'm so different, just like everyone else!"
Here are the polishes I used in this mani: Revlon Creme Brulee, Orly Glam Rock (matte finish), Essie All In One Basecoat, and Revlon Quick Dry Topcoat.
WARNING! The next picture may offend some people! Part of the fun at the Great Handcar Regatta was demos by cheesemakers, sauerkraut makers, Ask a Vegan (LOL), and this next one: Butchers. Sonoma County is foodie central, and our local food blogger actually raised and slaughtered this pig, to understand the whole food chain. Many of us like to know where our food comes from, and some of us raise our own food in gardens and such. But few will actually raise livestock and harvest it. So this was really fascinating to see.
I watched this butcher take this young pig apart using just one knife. And it wasn't a big knife. He was quite expert at removing each of the cuts. What was so interesting was the amount of waste that is left over after getting the meat from the animal (about 40%). I guess that is a good argument for eating less meat. Choose high quality sources, and eat it sparingly. Meat is much more wasteful than vegetables. But tasty!
Here are a few of my friends at the Great Handcar Regatta. They had a booth where kids could make small cars from zucchinis and such and race them on a track. I love that little Jackson made his own little car from wine corks. Who needs a freakin zucchini?? Hilarious.
And here is my antique beaver skin top hat that I gussied up with ribbon and feathers. The pink matched my blouse. I am really bummed that I didn't get a picture of my whole outfit. Ah well...
If you want to see some of the fun of the Handcar Regatta, check out this video montage. I will have to try to take more pictures next year, besides tons of pig butchering photos. LOL
