Inside Out Movie Inspired

Hello Lovelies!  Last week's Nail Art Nation weekly prompt was the movie Inside Out.  I had the opportunity to see this movie with my daughter when it first came out and I really enjoyed it.  Even though I missed the Nail Art Nation deadline, I still wanted to create nails inspired by my favorite character from the movie.  Here is a clue to who he is...

Who's your friend who likes to play?
Bing Bong, Bing Bong
His rocket makes you yell "Hooray!"
Bing Bong, Bing Bong
Who's the best in every way, and wants to sing this song to say
Bing Bong, Bing BONG!

Bing Bong, is by far my favorite character.  For those of you who haven't seen this movie, he is Riley's imaginary friend.  He is this quirky creature made up of various animals such as an elephant, raccoon, rabbit and probably a few others.  His lifetime aspiration is to take Riley to the moon in his song powered wagon rocket ship.  This fury lovable guy, helps Joy and Sadness on their adventure through long-term memory.  I won't say anything more because I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.  However, he is an unforgettable character.

I started with a white base color, this time I used Color Club 'Blank Canvas'

I created rainbow stripes, representing the rainbow jets of Bing Bong's rocket wagon using watermarble stripes.  I simply created a rainbow bulls-eye using various shades of Ciate London.  I then stretched it to create curved oblong lines.

I tried dipping three fingers at once and end up with a bit of a problem on my pinky because I accidentally overlapped my fingers.

I ended up redoing my pinky, I performed a bit of clean up, added a bit of China Glaze 'Fairy Dust' to make it more magical, and topped it all off with a glossy topcoat.  I added an acrylic painted image of Bing Bong peaky over the tip of my nail.

 
I did a similar design on my right hand, except I painted his lapel flower instead.

I had some issues with the watermarbling on my right hand but I really like how the rainbow stripes turned out on the rest of my fingers.  The color is a little off on Bing Bong too but it was the closest I could mix up.

If you haven't seen Inside Out yet, I highly recommend it, even if you don't have kids.  It is a really cute movie, and easy to relate to too.  I hope you enjoyed my Bing Bong inspired nails.  Thanks for stopping by, see you next time. 

Your Fellow Plebe,

 

 

 

Sharpie Gradientish Stripes

Hello Lovelies!  A while ago, I was watching YouTube videos of some of my favorite nail artists when I happened upon a bunch of videos of artists using sharpies to make watercolor designs.  I just so happen to have a bunch of Sharpies because I love to doodle...

I picked a few of my favorite colors and I came up with this striped design...

Materials I used:
INM Ridge Free base coat
Sinful Colors 'Snow Me White'
Nicole by OPI matte topcoat
Sharpie markers
Rubbing alcohol
Cotton swabs (q-tips)

I began with a white base polish topped with a matte topcoat.  I highly recommend that if you use sharpies on your nails that you use a white or colored base coat.  Not only will it make your colors brighter but it will also prevent staining, Sharpies are permanent markers.  The matte topcoat is optional but I prefer to use it because I feel it helps capture the colors,  however I noticed it affects the overall appearance.  If you want to go with a more watercolor like appearance do not use the matte topcoat.

I first drew stripes with my markers.  Then to smooth out the colors I used rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab.  I tried a few different methods to blend the colors and what I found works best to create this look was to flood the nail with rubbing alcohol and then dab the nail with a dry swab to absorb the alcohol and the loose colors.  As a side note, if you are using fine tip markers like I am be careful about digging the tip into your base polish, I accidentally did that a couple of times which leaves the surface lumpy and uneven.  If you are purchasing markers specifically for nail art I would recommend going with the medium softer tip Sharpie, this way you are less likely to have this problem.

What is nice about this method is that if the colors blend too much or you rub too much color off you can go back over it with the marker and re-dab it to make it more the way you want it.

Once, I was happy with how these appeared I performed a bit of clean up with acetone and a brush, and applied a final layer of matte topcoat.  Of course, for your final topcoat it is up to you whether you go with a matte or glossy.

I was hoping when I created these that I would be able to blend the colors a little better to create a gradient like design, but I wasn't able to blend them quite as much as I would have liked.  I think if I had skipped the matte topcoat I would have had a better gradient affect.

I do like the bright colors and the rough stripe affect that I was able to create.  They kind of remind me of a pastel version of a Mexican blanket or serape.

As you saw in the top picture I have a ton of Sharpies and I have a few other watercolor type designs that I would like to try out, so expect to see them again in the future.  I hope you enjoyed this nail art design, and found the tutorial and tips useful.  Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

 

 

Freehand Neon Stripes

Hello Lovelies!  I was doing really well keeping up on the Freehand Challenge on Instagram for the last couple of months, but this month I have fallen a week behind.  I had initially created a neon flakie rainbow gradient that I was going to use as the base for this prompt, but couldn't bear to cover it up with any of my not so perfect freehand stripes.  (If you are on Instagram checkout my feed to find the gorgeous gradient I created.)  I spent the weekend wearing and enjoying my gradient nails,  so that is how I ended up falling an entire week behind on the Freehand Challenge.  This is what I ended up creating for the Neon Stripes prompt for last week...

Materials I used:
Base coat - INM Ridge Free
Black base polish - Sinful Colors 'Black on Black'
White and black nail art stripers
Neon Polishes - Essie 'Too Taboo,' 'Serial Shopper,' 'Vices Versa,' 'I'm Addicted,' & 'Sittin' Pretty'
Top Coat - Rica 'Glossy Glam'

I often use white as a base color this time of year because its summer and warmer weather calls for brighter colors.  However, I decided to go with a black base this time around just to change it up a little bit.  I started off with two coats of black polish.

Using a white nail art striper I drew three horizontal lines across each nail.  I started with white stripes so that the neon colors would be brighter and more visible over the black.  Freehand stripers are so difficult to draw perfectly, so these end up very uneven and messy.

With a black nail art striper I fixed up some of my mistakes and evened out the widths of the stripes.  There still not perfect but much better.

Using a thin brush and my neon polishes, I filled in the white stripes.  I used Essie's neon collection from 2014, its not a very good neon collection so a white base is vital to make the colors look neon, which makes them perfect for this nail art design.

I finished up by correcting minor mistakes with my black nail art striper, then performed a bit of clean up with acetone and a brush, and topped it all off with a glossy top coat.

I'm really glad I decided against skipping this prompt and went ahead and created this manicure.  Even though this was not my first intended design for neon stripes, I'm still very please with how it turned out.  It may not be perfect but it still is pretty good.

I may end up recreating this design using tapes to achieve that perfect straight line mani that I so love, but it was good to practice freehand.  Someday, with enough practice I might just be able to paint a straight line without making a big mess.

I hope you enjoyed this freehand design, stay tuned because I have many more posts planned this week.  I will finally get around to testing out some squishy nail art stampers, I also have some new stamping polishes arriving this week, I will be swatching the lovely Gothic Gala Lacquer's Science is Beautiful Collection, and I have this week's Freehand Challenge Ikat nail art design.  All in all, it's a busy nail week.  Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

 



Read Between the Lines

Hello darlings!  With this nail art design, I am finally caught up on my #nailthattechnique Instagram challenges.  Hooray!  And with only one more week left to go (for this month, anyways).  This week's #nailthattechnique challenge is Newspaper Print.  I have created a newsprint transfer design once before, and because I didn't think it was all that difficult I wanted to do a something a little more with this newsprint design.  This is what I came up with...

Materials used:
Base coat - Seche Vite
White Polish - Color Club 'On Cloud Nine'
Red Polish - Color Club 'Red-Handed'
Grey Polish - Color Club 'Tall, Dark, & Handsome'
Pink Polish - Color Club 'Seal it With a Kiss'
Rubbing alcohol
Newspaper clippings
Striping tape
Top Coat - Rica 'Glossy Glam'

I started out with two clean coats of white polish.  I think Color Club's 'On Cloud Nine' has a beautiful clean look to it.  I allowed this to dry till it was set, approximately 30 minutes before proceeding to the next step.

When my base polish was dry, I did the newsprint transfer.  This is fairly easy to do, and doesn't require anything too elaborate.  Clip pieces of newspaper with a sufficient amount of print on them to a size slightly larger than your nail.  Soak the clipping in rubbing alcohol for about 20-30 seconds (I used the bottle cap of my rubbing alcohol as a little bowl).  I used 91% isopropyl rubbing alcohol, you can find this in any department or drugstore.  Then place the print side down onto the nail and apply pressure.  I found the more pressure I applied the darker my print appeared on my nail.  This is why its important for your base color to be completely dry before performing this step.

I repeated this process on all my nails and applied a quick drying top coat.

Though I like the look of these simple newsprint nails I decided to take them one step further.  When they were dry I used striping tape, and applied various width stripes horizontally across my nails.  Primarily leaving the printed text areas exposed.

With my tapes in place I alternated with red, pink, and grey filling in random stripes.  I peeled the tape immediately after an area was painted to prevent as much pulling as possible.

I performed the necessary clean up and applied a final layer of top coat, and that is how I created what I am titling Read Between the Lines nail art design.

As a side note, you may notice some color streaking on these nails.  Sadly, that is due the top coat application.  I thought this was because I was applying the top coat too soon and not allowing the polish to dry enough before top coat application.  However, I have used Rica 'Glossy Glam' top coat on the last few nail art designs, and it seems no matter how long I wait this has been occurring.  Also, I noticed with this nail art design that after it had time to cure (dry completely) that there was a severe amount of shrinkage.

I snapped the above picture, about 12 hours after application and you can see at the tips and smile lines that the polish has shrank back from their original placement.  I do cap my tips (paint the free edge of nail) both with polish and top coat when doing my nails, but this still occurred.  I commonly use Seche Vite for my top coat, and I have heard people complain about it shrinking.  I've even had Seche Vite shrink on me but usually only with older bottles that have become thick and goopy.  This is the worst case of shrinkage I have ever come across.

I really like the glossy shine of Rica's 'Glossy Glam' top coat and it dries fairly quickly, but it doesn't seem to be a good fit for layered nail art designs.  I think in the future, I will use Rica's top coat for basic polish designs or very simple (single layer) nail art designs.

Though this design had a few hiccups and the execution of it turned out poor, I still like the concept and color choices.  I think I'll try this again in the future using a top coat I know will work better for this many layer.  I hope you like this design (even if it's not perfect).  Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

 



Vampy Candy Cane Stripe Nails

nail art is actually for tomorrow's Winter Nail Art Challenge group on Facebook.  The challenge is for Christmas Candies.  I actually had a lot of trouble with this challenge after failing at a watermarble and a drag marble design. I finally gave up and reached for my stripping tape.

I ended up doing a traditional candy cane design with a slight color twist.

Materials

Base and top coat

Black, white, red, and silver polishes

Strippers or stripping brush

Stripping tape

I started this look off with Sinful Colors 'Snow Me White' and Revlon 'Black Star' on my ring finger.  I applied a quick drying top coat to the white to speed up the drying so that I could use my tape with confidence.

On my accent finger I used a white Art Club stripper and drew candy cane shapes.  I then used a red Art Club stripper and stripped the candy canes.  I then used a silver stripper and filled in the more barren areas with little silver dots.

For all of my other fingers I laid out my stripping tapes and used my three colors, black, red, and silver to fill in the stripes.  The red I used is Formula X 'Atom + Eve'. 

After a little clean up, a bit of touch up on my stripes, and an application of a quick drying top coat.  I ended up with some relax eye catching candy cane nails.

I am really enjoying the two nail art challenges that I am participating and loving all the Christmas nail art designs that I have been seeing.  If you are enjoying these designs, stay tuned because there are many more to come.  Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

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