World Map

Happy holidays, everyone! I hope this time of the year is especially filled with family, love, and blessings. This post is not about nail art, but on the Christmas present that my sister and I created for a best friend.

 

My friend gave us a worn in pair of white sneakers from Old Navy with the request that we make them look like an old map. 

I sponged on the old map background with acrylics - off white, yellow, brown, and black - with a small piece of sponge  On the parts of her shoes that had dirt spots, I  splotched on the darker paints. 

So, the shoe on the bottom was the starting point; what we were given to work with. The shoe on the top was about 40 minutes into the sponging. I realized that it didn't look at all like ancient paper. 

I ended up applying the paint with a wet sponge so the paint would blend together smoothly, and I added more off white and brown to dim down the yellow. 

Once the background dried, my sister took over to do the finer details. She began by drawing everything out in pencil and then went over it in black acrylic. 

Europe outlined in red on the left; compass rose on the right

Australia outlined in yellow

Northern Africa outlined in green

"Who lives sees, but who travels sees more."

Europe merging into Asia in blue

My sister and I are floored by how great these turned out! Totally would have kept them if they were my size.. Kidding of course..!

Tamara

Snowflakes

Finals are over and the first thing I did to begin a few weeks of mental downtown was nail art. 

I used two coats of Sinful Colors' Tokyo Pearl which is a really pretty pearly white polish. It is really transparent so you have to use at least three coats if you want it to stand on its own. 

I used Tokyo Pearl, Wet n Wild's Rain Check, and Poparazzi's Glam Factor to do a dry marble over Tokyo Pearl.  I took a piece of wax paper and put a drop of each polish  next to each other. You then fold the wax paper to mix the polishes together as much as you want and press it onto your nail. Really easy and a whole lot cleaner than water marbling. 

With the dry marble done and dry, I used Sinful Colors' Black on Black to stamp on the two snowflake pictured below.

Tamara

Glitter Matte

The last few weeks of the semester.. Boy, do I need some support to keep my mind focused!! How are you all keeping up? I just had to do my nails, so I used the simplest, fastest way to accessorize nails... glitter!

I bought this awesome NYC's Top of the Gold top coat at Target some time this year, but I haven't used it. I thought it was about time to change that!

I used two coats of Sinful Colors' Black on Black as the base color. I wanted the gold flakes to be concentrated on the bottom with a glitter gradient going towards the cuticle. I applied the glitter on two times and it was set; the flakes are really packed into this polish so it didn't need additional coats. Love it!! I topped it off with NYC'S Matte Me Crazy because I  can't get enough of black matte. Personally, it's 100x better than its glossy counterpart.

I also tried Top of the Gold on a matte, raspberry toned polish. It looked good in person, but the flakes got lost in the camera.

Tamara

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is upon us  and I decided to do my first nail art for the occasion!

I used two coats of white polish on my ring finger - Sally Hansen's Hard to Get - and two coats of NYC's Park Ave on the other nails. On the nails with Park Ave, I did a gradient of Sinful Colors' All About You which is a gold glitter polish with specks of red in there. On the white nail, I went in with paints to create a little turkey. 

Top coat and done.

 Happy Thanksgiving!

Tamara

Support

After the recent ISIS terrorist attacks in Lebanon and France, my sister suggested that I do a design in support of the nations hurting from the violence. 

I used Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Hard to Get and NYC's Sidewalkers on my ring finger.

 On my thumb, middle finger, and pinky I decided to paint shapes of France, Iraq, and Lebanon with their flags inside of the country. For Iraq's flag, I wasn't able to fit the entire Kufic script into the country. It wasn't meant to be offensive or anything, I just ran out of room. I painted the globe with that portion of the world on my pointer finger with burning buildings on my ring finger to signify the bombings. 

Clear coat. Prays to everyone killed, harmed, and affected. ✌✌

Tamara

Wallpaper

My first try at a full nail stamp, and I think it was a success! I ended up getting pen ink on the pinkie before I had a chance to take pictures..

I used three coats of NYC's Mulberry Street. The only strange thing about the polish I have is that it has a really sharp, old polish smell that I really only get with old polishes. Besides that, it's a great neutral color.  I used Sinful Colors' Mesmerize and Winter Wonder for the stamp colors. I didn't realize how gorgeous Winter Wonder was! It looks like a galaxy was bottled in there! 

No top coat of this one, just a coat of NYC's Matte Me Crazy. 

You da best matte.

Tamara

Fall Sunset

This is a very old design I did maybe two or three years ago on my sissy's nails. I remember using watered down paint and dabbing it on with.. something.. Maybe a sponge, maybe just my brush back then. Dark purple to yellow-orange paint for a sunset with black, bare trees in paint. I believe I used a top coat, waited for it to dry and then applied NYC's Matte Me Crazy - blesses for matte.

Halloween, folks

Another year, another chance to come up with Halloween nail art! I saw a Goodwill ad online that had a bunch of Halloween characters, so I used that to pick out the five I liked the most. I hope you all have a fun and safe weekend - don't get too wild, folks!

I used two coats of Sinful Colors' Let's Talk as the base coat. I went in with Sinful Colors' Song of Summer, Snow Me White, and Exotic Green, and black paint to create my little Halloween characters. The coloring on each character was perfect before I put a top coat on. But right when I did, the purple leaked through the white and light green polishes. Darn. I even redid it - covered up the details with white and light green again and redid the details - but the purple still leaked through. 

Tamara

Fall Leaves

So not in the writing mood.. But here's three coats of wet n wild's Deadly Dose. It may have needed four, I can't remember, but the gold is pretty transparent. I went in with black paint to draw the outlines of leaves. I used Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Hard to Get and Sinful Colors' Exotic Green and Rich in Heart to fill in the black outlines. I felt like it needed a bit more, so I added spots of "Lipstick Red" foil onto each nail. 

Top coat! 

I like the design - this is my second time doing it - but the orange maple leaf font in center on my middle finger didn't turn out right in my opinion. 

Tamara

Fall Stripes

This was a quick design to get into doing nail art again, so it's not as sharp and clean as I imagined it being. I used two coats of Sinful Colors' Rich in Heart and then used an orangey chrome foil on each nail called "Daybreak".  I laid a strip of glue done along the edge of the foil and placed red glitter done. I added a parallel line of Sinful Colors' Hot Hot Heat on the foil to add another element of red, but I'm not crazy about it.

Top coat!

Tamara

Hozier

 Last Thursday I was able to go to the Hozier concert when he came to Minneapolis! I had seats in the very back of the balcony along with my sister (Tracy) and my friend Jenny. It was actually a great spot - I could see the entire crowd enjoying the performance, but mainly, I didn't have a giant person in front of me. I had a clear view of that beautiful being and he put on one of the most amazing shows I've ever had the pleasure of attending.

I had to do design my nails after the concert, so I used the shirt I bought as quick inspiration. I used two coats of Sinful Colors' Black on Black. I went in with white paint and tried my best to copy the font - I think it turned out pretty well! For the splatter, I watered down the paint a bit and dipped the end of a coffee straw into it. I tired to blow the spots onto my nails. No go on that technique. I ended up bending the straw upward and letting go of it to get the paint to splatter. Top coat to finish!

Tracy got this shirt. I feel like it should be framed, or cuddled in bed with.

Here's the real show stopper. After the show, the three of us waited out by Hoizer's buses with a group of people. After an hour of waiting in the cold while I had a cold, he finally came out at midnight. He only was able to sign things which was upsetting because I wanted and still would have loved a picture with him. BUT the important things: we all got our tickets signed and Tracy still snapped a shot of the man himself.

 Tamara

Spray Marble

Another huge gap of time without doing my nails or posting.. I wanted to get back into the nail art mode by doing a simple technique: spray marbling. This was my very first attempt and it was so fun, easy, and eye catching! 

I started with painting two coats of Sinful Colors' Gold Medal. I set out my usual water marbling equipment: container of lukewarm water, a tooth pick, napkin, acetone, and glue. Plus, I had only one polish - Sinful Colors' Secret Admirer - instead of two or more to use, and hair spray. I started the spray marble process by painting glue onto the skin around my nail bed to my first knuckle. The glue is there so the nail polish doesn't stick to my skin. The polish gets on the glue and I am able to peel it off at the end instead of rubbing polish off my skin with acetone. 

So, I painted the glue on and waited for it to dry. Then I used three drops of Secret Admirer and briefly waited for all the polish to spread out. I used three drops so the polish would turn out black instead of grey. If you look below at my pinky, you can see that the polish is lighter than my other fingers because I only used two drops. 

Once you have your polish in the water, you take your hairspray and aim toward the polish. The polish ends up opening up; all you have to do is pick the spot you like the best and dip your nail into that portion of polish.

I waited a moment before taking my toothpick and clearing the water of polish around my finger. I repeated the process with all of my nails - drop polish, spray, clear the water. When I dipped my fingers in, the glue moistened once again, so I had to wait for the glue to re-dry before peeling it off. God bless, glue!! I barely had any polish to clean off of my skin besides right around my nail bed and under my nails. Top coat and done!

Tamara

Dry Marble

It has been over a month since I've posted any nails designs because I've been constantly busy with my summer course. Believe it or not, I've only painted my nails twice in the past month.. It's been a rough stretch of time.  

I wanted to try dry marbling after seeing sprinklenails' 4th of July design. It is absolutely gorgeous! Although I've seen dry marbling done often, I have never attempted it, instead going right to water marbling. After this design, I think my go-to will be the dry option from now on!

I put down one coat of Sally Hansen's Hard to Get to begin with because I chose Sinful Colors' Pink - a classic neon - as one of my three colors along with Sinful Colors' Sugar Rush and Heavy Metal. 

To begin with, I cut out a square of wax paper. I then painted a stripe of each color onto the wax paper right next to each other like sprinkleanails' tutorial. I folded the wax paper several times until I liked the marble effect that the mixed polish created. Like water marbling, you have to choose which area of the marble that you want on your nail before you apply the wax paper to your nail. I gently rolled my finger over the wax paper so the polish would transfer onto my nail bed.

Repeat with each nail, reapplying new polish when it runs out. 

The clean up took some extra time because Heavy Metal is packed with glitter, but no complaints! I adore how it subtly blended into the pink and blue, yet it still was distinct in certain spots. I LOVE how it turned out!

Chipped right hand that was finally treated to a design!

Tamara