Aqua dotticure

Hello ladies, my next mani an aqua colored dotticure:

Couple of months ago I've seen a beautiful mermaid scales mani at one of my favorite blogs -  The Nail Polish Challenge. I thought the idea was awesome and wanted to recreate this mani for ages. I should have looked at the pictures again before dotting away- I forgot to order the dots in the scale pattern. I still like the result, but it's not even close to Kelli's pure awesomness.

I used different shades of teal/mint green and my biggest dotting tool. It did take some time to create this mani, but it was exceptionally easy :) China Glaze Kinetic Candy (lightest aqua shade) Kiko #344 (medium aqua shade) Kiko #387 ("dirty" aqua ) Kiko #527 (aqua shimmer) Kiko #530 (dark glitter) Next time I'm definitely going for more glitter and more darker dots, like in my inspiration :)

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31DC2013, Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial. Camo Nails!

It was hard to go back to the  31 Day challenge from last year, but with only two manis left,  I just have to finish it!!!
The last "Inspired By" topic is "Inspired by a tutorial". There are so many techniques I haven't tried yet - lead light + stamping, pond manicure, free handed roses, etc., etc. I also though military/camo manicures look kind of cool... So here are my first camo nails:

I planned to add some dark, almost black green as well, but after I did my thumb I chickened out and left the rest as it was:

A friend of mine said she liked my thumbs better. And I still cannot decide ;) Maybe my thumb just had too many small spots... Next time I'd go for bigger shapes as on my middle and ring fingers.
Which alternative do you like more?

Pointer and pinkie: dark teal Leighton Denny Femme Fatale (got in a set in TK Maxx)
Camo Pattern: light green OPI Stranger Tides, medium green Formula X Fearless (my NY super haul), Leighton Denny Femme Fatale
Studs: 3mm square studs from ebay

There are a lot of tutorials on how to create military nails, but I these these two the best for me:



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31DC2013: Day 11, Polka Dots

I'm still determined to go through the September's nail art challenge. Unfortunately I can just do 2 or 3 manis a week - so I'm proceeding at snail's paste ;)
I only remembered the "dots" as the next topic, so I've made a dotticure, but not one with polka dots... So what, I decided - dots are dots! ;)

Base color: 2 coats of Essie's Midnight Cami
Dots: A-England Holy Grail
Glitter: Northern Lights Top Coat

The Northern Light top coat has some beautiful holographic glitters. But it is not so dense to overpower the design you've made. It just adds some sparkle to your mani. Love it!

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31DC2013: Day 09, Rainbow Nails

The 31 Day Challenge was for September, so I'm officially late now. But it is so much fun and I'm learning a lot. So I'm still following it through. But man, have I struggled with the next topic...
I rather like simplicity and clear lines, so rainbow colors all at once are just a bit too much for my taste. But challenge is a challenge, so here I we go:

Cloudy nails  have been present in many blogs last summer, so I wanted to try it out. It's VERY easy to do,  so I'd probably recreate the sky-only-mani next summer.

Base color: white - Cult Nails Tempest
Sky: randomly sponged blue CG Towel Boy Toy and used white polish and a dotting tool to create clouds.
Rainbow: I used most of my China Glaze Neons for the rainbow, thinned with nail polish thinner. I went over the lines several times to create the desired opacity.

 Red - I didn't have a matching shade, so I mixed CG Pool Party(hot pink) and a drop of OPI Big Apple Red
Orange - CG Japanese Koi (my favorite color for pedicure - hot neon orange)
Yellow - CG Sun Worshiper
Green - CG I'm With The Lifeguard
Blue - Towel Boy Toy (light sparkling blue)
Dark Blue - Essie's Midnight Cami
There is CG Fairy Dust as a sparkle over the rainbow.


Well, I probably wouldn't wear another rainbow again, but it was good to learn how nail polish thinner can be used to add the watercolor-y consistence to a nail polish.... ;)

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#31DC2013: Day 02, Orange nails

Well it was tough. While thinking of something orange, only carrots , oranges and pumpkins came to my mind. Not really creative ;). Than I thought about all those abstract rounded geometrical patterns in the 60ies or 70ies. Orange and brown, orange and teal... There the idea was born, but with my beginner nail art skills the realization was impossible.
I wanted to use Essie's rich chocolate brown, which is not that pigmented in one coat, so that ruled out any stamping patterns. So I used the dotting tool  (for the first time, btw :) ). Since I was unsure I'll manage to create some circles without accidents, I used acrylic colors. That was unexpectedly easy! So this is the result:

Base color: two coats of pumpkin orange Nyx 114 and rich chocolate color Essie's Lady Godiva
Pattern: acrylic paint in brown and orange applied with dotting tool
Glitters: on thumb, index and pinkie fingers Nfu.Oh #44, which is a flakey golden glitter in orange tinted jelly base Read More......