Frozen Olaf Nails

With the recent deep freeze across the US, I decided to paint Olaf from the movie Frozen. What better way to stay happy in the cold?

To start, I applied and cured 2 coats of color TC06 from Aimeili (literally called Glitter Purple to Glitter Blue) along with their gel base and top coat. This gel polish is from their thermal collection, so the color is dark purple in the cold and turns into a medium light blue when it’s warm. The jelly formula also has different sized pieces of silver glitter in it, which remind me of snow.

Here’s a shot of it mid-transition!

Winter Landscape Nails

I mentioned the other day that my work with New Camerata Opera was hugely inspiring and that it spurned the creation of some glam punk sheep nail art. I didn’t want to leave the 2nd production of the double bill out, so for closing night, I did nails that were loosely based on the opera Savitri by Gustav Holst.

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“Ambe’s tenor rang out with youthful ardor, and Budiardjono’s bass-baritone had the dignity of his archetypal message, while Aslam’s low and gracious soprano was especially thrilling, earth-mother and warrior heroine together.” -John Yohalem, Parterre Box . TICKET LINK IN BIO . #newcamerataopera #thefleatheater #doublebill #gustavholst #johnblow #baroque #classicalmusic #opera #theater #nyc #thingstodonyc #culture #liveperformance #innovative #dynamic #engage #excite #educate #music #dance #savitri #venusandadonis #soprano #baritone #tenor #mezzo #countertenor #tickets . @nyoperaalliance @thefleatheater

A post shared by New Camerata Opera (@newcamerataopera) on Dec 1, 2018 at 8:36am PST

I used the trees from the projection and the color palette of the costumes as the inspiration for some winter landscape snowy trees nail art.

I started by painting my nails a pale shade of blue. This polish from Julep is called Joanna and is a cross between periwinkle blue, lavender, and gray with the prettiest shimmer in the formula.

2 coats of Joanna look like sheer heaven.

Glam Punk Sheep Nails

I had the wonderful opportunity to play with New Camerata Opera last week for their double bill of John Blow’s Venus and Adonis and Savitri by Gustav Holst. Everyone sounded amazing, but I was especially inspired by the costuming for the production of Venus and Adonis. They went for an MTV 80’s glam rock/punk interpretation of this 17th century opera with vibrant neon pinks and black mesh, leather, and lace.

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@bstar630 and @slindroth as the title characters in “Venus and Adonis”. . TICKET LINK BIO.

A post shared by New Camerata Opera (@newcamerataopera) on Nov 29, 2018 at 1:41pm PST

After our first dress rehearsal, I promptly went home and created these nails.

I started by painting my nails white with Laguna Moon Classic Soak-Off UV-LED Gel Polish in color CL361.

2 coats of gel polish were applied with each coat cured at 30 seconds with a UV/LED lamp.

Radioactive Frankenstein Manicure

It’s less than a week away from Halloween! Do you know what you’re putting on your nails yet?

I’m probably going to end up changing my manicure again before the big day, but I wanted to do a cute take on Frankenstein first! It’s been awhile since I’ve done some freehand nail art, so it was nice to pull out the brushes for this one.

I started by painting my nails black except for my ring finger, which I painted green. I used What’s A Tire Jack? from Sephora by OPI for the black color and Radioactive from Formula X for Sephora for the green shade.

This color combo looks very Wicked!

Lucky Dog St. Patrick’s Day Nail Art

This post is getting published a little late, but I wanted to show you the nails that I did for St. Patrick’s Day. I came up with a cute idea that took some of the main themes of the holiday (green, luck, rainbows, pots of gold, and 4 leaf clovers) and created something that wasn’t necessarily so clichéd with some freehand nail art.

It all started with this lovely shimmery bright kelly green shade from China Glaze called Paper Chasing.

I applied 3 coats for maximum coverage and allowed them to dry before proceeding.

My idea was centered around a fictional dog named Lucky who has a cloverleaf marking around his eye. My breed of choice for this was some sort of terrier with floppy ears. I painted him mostly white with brown details and a pink tongue just for fun. I decided to place him on my middle finger so he would be the center of attention.

This doggy is very happy to be so lucky!

On my index finger, I chose to write his name in script. My penmanship with acrylic paint has apparently gotten much better over time!

I combined the rainbow and pot of gold elements together in the sense that I made a rainbow dog food bowl and filled it with golden dog kibble. While I used craft smart acrylic paints for pretty much all of the freehand work, I used a gold glitter polish from Nicole by OPI called Carried Away for the golden kibble.

Unicorn Nail Art

Happy March, everyone! I’ve been meaning to do some unicorn nail art for awhile just for fun, so let’s get on with this magical manicure!

My base color was an indigo wonder from Beauty Bigbang, 009 in their Holo Polish series.

Beauty Bigbang Holo Polish 009 is full of magical rainbows that are perfect for a unicorn theme!

I’ve been feeling lazy about doing freehand stuff lately, so I opted to use plate L045 from Harunouta to assist me with this manicure.

I chose to use the unicorn from the top row, 2nd image from the left, and the shooting star 2 images to the right of that for this manicure.

Mardi Gras Nails

This week is full of holidays, so here is some Mardi Gras nail art to get the good times rolling!

I planned to do a rather intricate design, so I didn’t go for a solid shade across all my nails. I decided to use a golden shimmery yellow (Nadia from Julep) alongside a glossy black (Johnny from Julep) for my base colors.

I first did a preliminary sketch of my mask with pencil and paper to give me the confidence to paint it across two of my nails. The sketch looked way better, but I also was painting this design late at night and was getting increasingly more worried that I wasn’t going to get enough sleep because I knew this wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought!

In any case, I used craft smart acrylic paint in black to paint the mask, then used a striping brush with gold holographic polish (Heart of Gold from Born Pretty) to paint diagonal lines across the mask to form a diamond harlequin style pattern.

Dried Flower and Damask Print Nails

I’m bringing you some more flower nail art to brighten your day today!

Again, I’m featuring some dried flowers from Born Pretty Store. Stay tuned for a review on these flowers coming soon to the blog!

This time I used the little lavender blooms from the far left. Some prep work is needed before starting to paint.

I gently pulled the petals from the husks and trimmed down the brown parts with a small pair of scissors before setting the blooms aside. Be very careful that the area is not drafty because the petals can blow away very easily!

Dried flowers can be messy, so work over a piece of paper for easy clean up.

For the nails, I started by painted everything with a shimmery lavender polish called The Color to Watch from OPI.

This polish is a little sheer, so it takes 3 coats to get the look in the photo.

I wanted to add some stamping to my nails, so I picked some pretty prints from the L026 plate from Harunouta to do the job.

I chose to stamp with the 2 square designs in the top and middle rows, 2nd column from the right.

I alternated my chosen patterns on each nail, turning the stamper 45 degrees for a diagonal placement to change the look. That pretty lavender lacquer is Born Pretty Stamping Nail Polish #271.

A very subtle and classy damask print design will complement the flower petals that are added next.

Blowing Bubbles Nail Art

It’s getting close to the beginning of a new year, so I wanted to try to make a whimsical looking manicure. I don’t know about you, but 2017 was a doozy and not particularly one of the better ones! Here’s to blowing away the bad stuff and wishing for something wonderful for 2018!

I tried to pick a pretty light blue base to act as my sky backdrop. This color is called Siren Melodies from Femme Fatale, an indie brand, and my pictures don’t do it justice. Aside from the beautiful crelly mix that allows the holographic glitter particles to show through, this periwinkle shade also is iridescent and has a pinky-purple sheen at different angles that gives this color a lot of dimension.

 

I made a silhouette of someone blowing through a bubble wand with a combination of stamping and freehand work.

Texas Strong Nail Art

Apologies for the lack of activity lately. The beginning of the new school year is always a tiring and busy time for me, and I haven’t had much time to paint my nails.

A friend from Texas had requested that I do some Texas Strong nails in light of the recent hurricane activity there. The victims of Hurricane Harvey have been pushed aside in the minds of many after Hurricane Irma hit the US not long afterward. Many prayers go out to those who are still recovering from both disasters. I’m grateful that those that I know who are in the affected areas are safe.

In any case, the first thing that came to mind with my Texas Strong design was to paint the state’s flag and a small version of the state on my nails. For those who don’t know what the Texas flag looks like, here it is:

Public Domain, Link

I started by painting my index finger blue and the rest of my fingers white.

The blue polish is called Oceanic and the white polish is called White Matter, both from Formula X.

I did the star by hand with a small brush and craft smart acrylic paint in White. To get a more symmetrical look, I placed dots where the 5 points of the stars would be and then connected the dots.

To ensure that I got straight lines between the white and red sections, I applied a piece of striping tape to use as a painting guide, then I brushed on red polish (Pyrotechnic by Formula X) over the top part of my nail.

The text “Texas Strong” and the state of Texas on my pinky were hand painted with a detail brush and craft smart acrylic paint in Black. A generous amount of Seche Vite top coat finished off the look.

It’s a simple design that gets the point across. I wish I could have done something big and grand, but I’m still struggling to find the time to do everything these days.

Hope everyone is safe and well out there! Happy polishing!