Week 28: Tupac Hologram

I know the Tupac hologram at Coachella is old news, but I was watching Jimmy Kimmel and he had Gary Oldman reading from R. Kelly's new memoir Soulacoaster and mentioned the Tupac hologram; I have been wanting to do hologram nails and thought OMG Tupac is perfect! (If you want to watch the video - which I thought was somewhat funny- just follow this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh8Fe3liIIc)

So to do my Hologram nails I started with a sheer iridescent base coat and printed out the pictures I wanted to use- in this case Tupac, music notes, and lyrics from the song "Me Against the World." The whole process was very similar to newsprint nails; I soaked the images in rubbing alcohol then pressed them onto my nails. This time I let the sheets of paper dry on my nails so that I had to soak them in water to take the paper off but it left a film of paper on them which made everything cloudy which I thought improved the whole look. I think this method would work great for any manicure since you can print pictures of whatever you want to transfer to your nails. To finish the manicure I just sealed it all in with a top coat.

The Tupac images turned out the best, I think it was because there was so much more ink the music notes were really fritzy but actually the lyrics were okay except I forgot to flip them before I printed so they are all backwards, that is important if you want your image to go on one way you have to print it the opposite. I hope you don't think I'm cheating by using the same technique as the newsprint nails, I thought they were different enough that it could slide. Let me know what you think below!

Week 27: Stained Glass

I have actually been wanting to do stained glass nails for a while; but I had an elaborate plan that involved colored tissue paper (which I do not posses and kept neglecting to purchase.) Finally I decided, screw it, if I want to to stained glass nails I will do stained glass nails... and so my friends, here we are.

I used a toothpick (of course!) to draw on the panes, if the lines criss crossing my nails can be referred to as panes, in black. Then I used a few of my sheerest colors for the colored glass I found my Revlon Glimmer Gloss ( the red one) to work out the best because it doesn't have a sparkle but still goes on sheer, which, now that I think about it is probably why I don't use it very much otherwise. I used four different colors a purple, yellow, green and the previously mentioned red. The green is kind of hard to see so if it just looks clear or slightly grey, that's the green you're seeing.

I would still like to try this with  the tissue paper, if I do I'll post it here Toodles!

Week 26: Fireworks

This wednsday is the fourth of July, aka America's independence day! Nothing says fourth of july better than fireworks. To show off my American pride I sent up patriotic flares in red, white and blue.

The blue I used was a dark navy and the red really didn't show up on my black background either; about my third nail in I came up with the grand idea to paint all the fireworks in white and just cover some up with red and bue to make the colors stand out more. The above picture is of all nails with white based fireworks.

This is what my first nail looked like wiht nothing under the blue and red to make them pop...

 

the blue firework is in the top right-ish corner and the red is in the bottom right corner. I think if I were to do these nails again I would actually light fireworks from them, just kidding, but if I could figure out how to do it (safely) I totally would. Do they use fireworks to celebrate independence days in other countries, or is it just an American thing? If you know please fill me in below.

Happy Fourth of July!

Week: 25 Porcelain

Ok, so this week I did a freehand of what I thought porcelain looked like. Then, when I had finished, I actually looked up a picture of porcelain on google, this is what I found...

My nails aren't nearly as intricate but they do look delecate. Hmm I just noticed that the objects in this picture are soda cans, I wonder why. Anyways I started with (as always) a strenthening base coat, then I painted a milky white base and (finally) added the design, in blue, using the pointy end of what is actually supposed to be a cutical pusher.   

I'm really pleased with them, my nails turned out more like broken shards of an ancient vase or plate than a whole and healthy saucer. Should I have added more detail? I'm conflicted, on the one hand less is more but on the other hand, shouldn't more be more? Weigh in below!

Week 24: Tiara Tips

This is my regal twist on the french tip. I painted my nails black and then used a toothpick to draw little tiaras on the tips in silver (which you can't really tell fro the above picture.)

To add a little glitz I stuck some gems on my tiaras.  I've  already lost a lot of my gems at work (why must retail be so hard on my nails?) But I think they still look okay.
From far away you can't really tell what is on my nails; although I have gotten a lot of complimentson this manicure so far. Any suggestions on how to make my tiara tips better, besides more artistic tallent? Could this be the new french? Let me know!

Week 23: Jaws

This is my very first post from my new laptop! That's right, straight from my very own bed. This week I did shark nails which aren't completely finished; I still have to add teeth, but there are so many layers that have to dry I just ran out of time. Tomorrow I will add new pics of my sharks and their pearly whites but for now you get this...

These nails were inspired by the shark dress that MIA wore to an H&M launch party way back in 09. For some reason I thought about that dress the other day and I remembered absolutely loving it so I thought hey, why not? I promise I will have pictures (complete with teeth) tommorow. Tah-tah!

As promised finalized sharks complete with their chompers. Duh-duh Duh-duh Duh-duh. Watch It!

Week 22: Glamouflage

So just four and a half short hours ago I graduated from High school! To my graduation I wore a military inspired dress that my mom made, and thought my nails ought to complement that, enter... Glamouflage!

To create it I used four different colors: a metalic green, a metalic bronze, and a tan covered in shimmery gold (and of course a top and base coat.) Earth colors + Metalics = Glam Camouflage aka. Glamouflage. What do you think? Does it even resemble camouflage? Let me know!

My Graduation Cap