Nemo and Dory

I painted these in May of 2016…so I should probably actually post them. I just wanted to wait until I had enough disney-themed manis to post them all in a week! Whoops.

This mani was inspired by Finding Nemo. Yes, these are super-stylized, yes I still think it’s cool!

I got the idea from Klo’s to me, although she used much brighter aqua for her underwater…I wish I had a similar blue but I just don’t! So mine is more of a teal-based blue. Either way, I loved her idea for the surf!

Colors
~ Light teal: Maybelline – Green with Envy
~ Teal: Zoya – Wednesday
~ Light blue: Zoya – Rocky
~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy
~ Dark blue: Zoya – Ling
~ Dory blue: Sinful Colors – Endless Blue
~ Yellow: WOW – #301
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Orange: Zoya – Thandie

That’s all for today! Any other Disney or Pixar movies I should work on painting (I mean, and hopefully posting less than a year after they were initially painted)?

Neon Chevrons

I saw these on pinterest (with a nifty tutorial) months ago, and have been waiting for the perfect time to attempt them myself. Ta-da!

The design (and color choices) are lifted directly from Sassy Shelly. I’ve seen other people attempt similar things with results that I find mediocre…what struck me about these was the color combo and color order, so I tried to emulate that! I then went ahead and added a 3D glittery bit…because.

Of course, I don’t own any of the colors that she used (nor do I own any Cirque polishes, sadly, as they are expensive), so I made do with what I had. The end result was pretty good! Her white stamping polish is much better than mine, and her peachy-ornage is darker (mine is a pastel neon). I also STILL somehow don’t own just a plane holo topper. I need to get on that. So I used a coarser one which doesn’t look quite as good. I also don’t own wavy stencils, only chevron ones, so my nails have sharp points. Otherwise, I think its a pretty decent replica!

Colors
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Green: Essie – The More the Merrier
~ Blue: Zoya – Rocky
~ Purple: L’oreal – Paparazzi Pleaser
~ Pink: WOW – #371
~ Orange: Maybelline – Bleached in Peach
~ Holo: KBShimmer – I Only Have Ice for You

I basically just followed Shelly’s tutorial! It took a while mostly just to let the base colors dry, but was quite simple. This also reminds me that I should make more stamping decals! If I make them thin and use them the same day, they actually bend to my nail shape :-p

Swirled Chevrons

Another of my recent favorites! This was something I never would have thought of myself (and I actually had to do a lot of touch-ups to the middle layer to make it look how I wanted) but was really fun to do!

The design was inspired by @mymaynails although honestly I do like her colors better! I tried to color match but I don’t have a neon enough teal-blue, so I changed it up and did pale teal/hot pink/dark purple. I really need to get on a set of neons or bleached neons.

Unfortunately, this was the first time I’ve tried dry-marbling using a stamper and my results did not look a stood as hers! I ended up re-smushing some more purple and blue tones, since the pink really wanted to dominate. It ended up pretty good though!

Colors
~ Teal: Maybelline – Green with Envy
~ Pink: Revlon – Bubbly
~ Purple: Zoya – Monica

Hope you enjoyed!

Falling Flakes

Happy after-Christmas and third day of Hanukkah! I need to get a move on making some menorah nails if I want them edited within the next 5 days :-p.

These were inspired by @simplenailartdesigns, although its a bit hard to say anything with a blue gradient and snowflakes was inspired by any particular person, its such a common design!

Regardless, I like how these came out. I added little silver glitters to the center of the snowflakes a few hours later, so the sunlight photos have glittery bits too 🙂

Colors
~ Dark blue: Maybelline – Midnight Swim
~ Blue: Zoya – Ling
~ Light blue: Zoya – Blu
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamps: BM – 323, Born Pretty Plate – L008

Hope you enjoyed!

Candy Swirl

Short post today, because I forgot to write this over the weekend and I need to head into the hospital for work!

This was inspired by Pet Nails although I cannot seem to find her blog anywhere! Googling “pet nails nail art” is a sure-file way to get pictures of people’s dog’s painted toenails!

My nails are not so varied as hers nor are my lines quite as thin…I almost wish that I had looked at her image while I was painting mine! Mine are fine, but her’s are better and I could have done them exactly. Whoops!

Colors
~ Pink: Revlon – Bubbly
~ Orange: Wet n’ Wild – Sunny Side Up
~ Yellow: Maybelline – Citrus Collide
~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy
~ Purple: Essie – Full Steam Ahead
~ Glitter: Sally Hansen – Diamonds
~ Black: Wet n’ Wild – Black Creme

That’s all. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving (if you live in the US)!

Cityscape by Night

This mani took forever and I LOVE it! The only problem were some trapped air bubbles which I’ll talk about in a bit.

This was inspired by @ponkle. I actually made the black sheer jelly myself. I bought a wet n’ wild top coat but it dries slower than grass grows, so I decided to add a few drops of the wet n’ wild black creme to it and make a sheer jelly polish for lace and things like this! I like it much better this way, although it still takes forever to dry. At least I can safely add a real fast-drying top coat!

That being said, the black sheer jelly I made took three coats to even be a little visible…and I didn’t wait quite long enough between layers! Thus I ended up trapping a bunch of air bubbles. When I matted the final product, they all jumped out! It took 24 hours for them to really appear…so my initial photos look great but my sunlight photos look odd. I decided to just show one below…lets pretend that the bubbles are stars in the sky? That works, right?

Colors
~ Nude: Zoya – Chantal
~ Black: Wet n’ Wild – Black Creme
~ Yellow: Maybelline – Citrus Collide

So, these aren’t quite Halloween-y, but I figured a cityscape by night was at least seasonal! Next week I should have some real Halloween manis (assuming I have time to edit them between wedding planning!). I was going to do a whole how-to-DIY post on making wedding centerpieces out of fancy fake flowers and putting together a chuppah but I ran out of time for that as well. :-/. Anyway, happy Friday!

Celestial Spheres

Looking back over nail artists who inspire me, I’ve realized that a number of the women who’s nail art I loved years ago and who eventually persuaded me to try my own hand at nail art have faded out of existence. The two biggest names that make me very sad are WorkPlayPolish and KaylaShevonne, both of whom were extraordinary. Even the ones who are still around post infrequently, like ChalkboardNails. One of the only ladies who predates me and has stuck around posting amazing nail art day after day is Cathy at More Nail Polish. So this mani is inspired by and in homage to her!

I actually went through the past 3 or so years worth of her nail art….at least what is on instagram. I personally hate instagram, I like being able to say things about my nail art and post more than one photo…and IG takes all of that away. However, it is good for quick scrolling!

While looking, I found a number of things I liked…one of which reminded me that I hadn’t worked with blue recently AND that I had this really cool stamp that I had never actually used! So here we are, with some art inspired by MoreNailPolish.

Colors
~ Darkest blue: Maybelline – Midnight Swim
~ Dark blue: Zoya – Sia
~ Blue: Zoya – Ling
~ Glitter: ORLY – Sparkling Garbage
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Stamp: BM – 610

Anyway, this concludes the 31 Day Challenge of 2016. I almost made it! *sigh* who knows what I’ll be up to next year, but hopefully I’ll still be posting! It makes me sad that so many women give up on their blogs, and that they do so without warning. I want to know where all the people I used to follow have gone off to! If I ever do have to stop posting (which I’m sure will happen during intern year of residency), I will at least give warning, I promise!