Chevron Holographic Mani

Ever since I finished my last manicure, I’ve been eyeing my bottle of Meet Me at the Disco from Sephora by OPI.  Technically the bottle says it’s a top coat, but I wanted to slather it all over my nails because of its beautiful holo glitter.

Silvery holographic goodness from Meet Me At the Disco by Sephora by OPI.

Because Meet Me At the Disco is supposed to be a top coat, the density of glitter in the polish is a little on the thin side in order to let a base color show through.  In order to not have 10 layers of polish on my nails, I applied it with a makeup sponge so that the excess fluid would get absorbed by the sponge.  Pretty crafty, eh?  Glitter can get chunky in places with that kind of application, so I did end up brushing on an extra two coats of polish straight from the bottle to even out the texture.

Obligatory out of focus picture to photograph the holographic effect. It’s hard to take pictures of holo polish!

For an accent nail, I stamped a chevron pattern onto my ring finger with Konad Special Nail Polish in Flash Black and plate BM-423 from Bundle Monster.

Easy chevron nail art accomplished!

Hope you’re having a great summer so far!  Happy polishing!

 

 

Adrianna Papell Black and Blue Striped Dress Nails

I played in a small recital tonight, so naturally I wanted my manicure to match my dress.  I just bought a gorgeous black and blue striped gown from Adrianna Papell, and the graphic print looked so nice that I decided to put it on my nails.

The fabric print of the dress… and no, it’s not white and gold!

The colors are obviously blue and black, so I tried to use a similar blue that wasn’t too dark and could show the black stripe contrast against it.  Because I wanted to hand paint the lines, I knew I was going to use black acrylic paint for the most part, and I used a sparkly black polish for accent stripes.

The materials from left to right: craft smart acrylic paint in black, Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear in Blue It, and Ulta Professional Nail Lacquer in Rhinestone Rocker.

After applying a base coat, I painted Blue It on all my nails.

Blue It by Sally Hansen. It’s also great for a September birthstone (sapphire) manicure.

I used a striping brush along with black acrylic paint to form stripes of varying thicknesses.  I made the thumbnail a chevron pattern and made a giant chevron out of the other four nails.  I tried to make everything as symmetrical as possible, so my index and middle finger nails are mirror images of my ring and pinky finger nails.

Stripes painted with acrylic paint. It looks like I made blueberry candy cane nail art.

Some of the stripes on the dress have a glittery hue on one side, so I painted Rhinestone Rocker on a few of the sections with a striping brush.

A hint of shimmer gets added to a few stripes with Rhinestone Rocker by Ulta Professional.

After adding a topcoat, everything looks shiny, and the contrast between the black stripes and the glittery ones is less noticeable although still pretty.

All done! Black and blue striped goodness.

It should be mentioned that I didn’t try to exactly copy the striped pattern of the dress.  I just painted the different thicknesses and spaced the lines out in a way that I thought might look nice.

Side by side comparison of the Adrianna Papell dress to my nails. I guess I put the shimmery stripe on the wrong side of the line, but I didn’t try to exactly copy the pattern.

The manicure was a small touch that I’m sure the audience didn’t notice, but it was a nice concert regardless.  Happy polishing!