Nailart Inspired by a Pen

Hoy les traigo un nailart inspirado por otro de mis hobbies, las estilográficas y el arte. Hace años que uso y colecciono plumas estilográficas y a través de los años que he usado esmaltes a veces por pura coincidencia mis uñas y plumas combinan. Entonces se me ocurrió combinarlos deliberadamente y eso es lo que les presento hoy, un nailart inspirado por una pluma. Como base usé una combinación de Essence Off to Miami y OPI Houston we Have a Purple, para los conejitos Finger Paints Papier Maché y para las flores y detalles esmaltes holográficos de Pupa. Espero les guste, gracias por leer!

Today I want to share with you an idea that's been going around my mind for quite a long time. Other than nail polish, my other hobby is collecting and using fountain pens (and blogging about it too). My fountain pen hobby is older than my nail polish addiction, and over the years I've noticed that sometimes, by chance, my nail polish choices matches my pens in current rotation and this gave me the idea of doing a series of nail arts inspired by them.

This nailart was inspired by a Sailor Calligraphy Brush Pen that my boyfriend got me last year. It is a red plastic body adorned with white bunnies and cherry blossom in metallic colors and gold accents. It's based on the maki-e style that is very popular in Japan and looks very elegant. You can see why I was inmediatly drawn to this pen to recreate, it's just stunning.

My first difficulty was finding a matching base color. Although my collection is extensive, it is very lacking in the red/coral department so I had to get creative to achieve a similar color to the body of the pen. So I started with two coats of Essence Off To Miami! a very bright orangey-coral creme and used one coat of OPI Houston We Have a Purple to tone down the color and make it cooler (since it's a jelly it works well for this purpose).

On my pinky and thumb nails I applied two coats of China Glaze I'm Not Lion as an accent.

Once my base dried I hand-drew the bunnies with Finger Paints Papier Maché using a large dotting tool and a fine striping brush. Then I dabbed in a gold glitter polish (Love & Beauty Gold Rush) in the empty spaces.

Finally I added in my flowers using a silver and a pink holographic polish, for the metallic effect. I used Pupa Holographic Silver and Strawberry with accents of Orly Luxe (my cherry blossoms need some work lol). I also used Pupa Holographic Strawberry to add accent to the bunnies ears and painted the eyes with a dotting tool.

I'm supper happy with how this nailart came out, even if my flowers need some work. Those bunnies are way too cute.

Do you have any hobbies beside nail polish? I'd love to hear about them in the comments :) Thanks for reading!

Nailart Spam #2

Uff, no planeaba publicar dos posts recopilatorios seguidos, pero he estado tan poco inspirada en pintar mis uñas y sacar fotos, que me cuesta encontrar una foto decente, menos voy a tener 3 para un post completo. Así que las dejo con una muestra de lo que he usado ultimamente en mis uñas, casualmente son 3 looks que se enfocan en usar diferentes tonos de una misma colección. Los detalles iran debajo de cada foto, espero les guste y gracias por leer! :)

Wow. Sorry guys, I didn't plan on writing 2 of these kind of posts in a row, but I've been uninspired to blog about my nails lately and when I take pictures I hardly find one that I like, let alone 3 for a full blog post for one mani. I also recently broke a nail on a trip and filed them all down, so that's not helping my motivation either :( Anyway I hope you like some of my latest attempts at nailart and I hope to be back with a full post soon.

This one was an experiment with a holo gradient and I used three shades from the Color Club Halo Hues: Eternal Beauty, Miss Bliss and Cosmic Fate. On the accent I stamped with Cici and Sisi #12 with Konad Black and a bit of dotted Nails Inc Baker Street.

Next my Hipster Nails with one of my new Moyou London plates! For the watercolor background I used three shades from the China Glaze Sunsational Jellies collection: You Drive me Coconuts, Are you Jelly? and Keepin' it Teal and followed this tutorial for the effect. Then I stamped with the Moyou Hipster 08 plate and Konad Special White.

Not my best stamping but I'm happy by how completely hipster this mani turned out.

Some freehanded nailart inspired by MrCandiipants using the OPI Euro Centrale collection. For the base I used My Vampire is Buff and for the lines I used the colors that came in the mini kit: Cant' Find My Czechbook, Suzy's Hungary Again, You're such a Budapest and OY-Another Polish Joke (plus a random navy blue we can pretend it's Eurso Euro *wink wink*).

Finally, for this look I used two Picture Polish shades: Imperial and Douceur (from the 2013 Collaborative Shades) and then stamped over them with Essie Penny Talk and Pueen 72 (from the Buffet collection)

And that's it for today's edition of what's been on my nails lately :) I just realized that all of these focus on using several shades of one collection, which is something I like to do, even though I don't usually get a lot of shades from one collection (unless they come in minis).

Do you own a full collection of polish? I do, but only two: the Lime Crime Les Dessert shades (loved those colors) and the China Glaze Sunsational Jellies (because, jellies! lol).

Neons in Fall

Hola chiquillas! Como están? Espero que muy bien. El nailarts de hoy es como raro, porque a pesar de que a algunas el Otoño les llegó de sopetón con lluvia y todo, acá en el Norte el clima sigue bien veraniego xD Por eso este finde tuve ganas de usar mis colores flúor de la colección Sunsational Jellies, que son esmaltes translúcidos que se dan para efectos como degradado o "glitter sandwich" (básicamente es poner una capa de glitter entre dos de un esmalte "jelly", para que se vea como que el glitter flota en el color base). Usé You Drive me Coconuts y Isle See you Later para el degradé y Lynnderella Connect the Dots como glitter (hay un esmalte muy parecido de Color Show que también les puede servir). Espero les haya gustado este nailart de extensión del verano jajaja.

While technically it is Fall on my side of the world, it hardly looks like my city got the memo. The weather is still warm and sunny for the most part, so for the weekend I was in the mood for some neons.

Back in January I got the Sunsational Jellies pack from China Glaze, and today I feature two of the polishes that come in that set.

As a base I used one coat of You Drive me Coconuts, then I added a dabbed coat of Lynnderella Connect the Dots and to finish off the base, one more coat of YDMC. Then I used several coats of Isle See you Later, one of the sheerest polishes from this collection, to make the gradient (following this idea from rebecca likes nails)

I've tried almost all the Jellies at some point since January and I've got to say, You Drive me Coconuts is one of my favorites so far. The formula was super easy to work with and it would have been opaque on its own in two coats. It's a super bright neon pink that freaked my camera, so I went for digital color correction to give you an idea of how it looks. It's eye-searing in real life.

Isle See You Later would have been a huge disappointment had I not know before hand that it'd be almost useless on its own because it's so hopelessly sheer, but thanks to bloggers who are inmensely creative I can still make use of it in gradients, watercolor manis or as a topper for a similar colored base. Points for the effort ISYL.

Lynnderella Connect the Dots is an old favorite. I got it before every brand on the market released a black and white glitter and that's why I went with it. I hold no special love for the brand. I should have waited, now there's a local option available for $4, Meh.

Aaanyway. I used Essence's Peel Off Basecoat for this mani so it was easy peasy to remove (specially after we bathed our dog today, it popped right off).

And that's it. Thanks for keeping up with me! I'm currently trying to get ready for my final thesis presentation (due late April), get my butt to work in a portfolio/resumé AND looking for freelancing jobs. It's been a hectic time :)

Punk Gradient

Hi all! How are you doing? I'm doing fine, but busy. I'm really close to the end of the semester, so it gets really chaotic really fast. Also, not fun, but my last final is on December 28th. Boo.

Anyway, on to more fun topics. Today I have a gradient mani to share with you. Gradients are my favorite way to extend the life of a mani, in cases I don't have time to change my current one, but I already grew bored of it.

Today's mani started with China Glaze Strawberry Fields (which was my first nail polish reviewed here). I love this pink glassfleck and it's a perfect shade for summer (which already got here!).

But I couldn't leave it alone and in less that a day I added a gradient with Essence Galactic Black (it's a shimmery black, but the shimmer is almost invisible in real life). It seemed a little plain so I thought: "Uhm, what can I use to brighten this up?"

Glitter, of course!

The glitter is Love & Beauty Crystal/Multi by Forever 21 (don't we all love the creativity of F21's polishes?). This was also sent to me by the awesome Eileen (since there are no F21 in my country). I loved this polish because the polish is shredded in irregular bits instead of a regular shape, it's really unique in my opinion.

For creating the glitter gradient I just carefully dabbed over the color gradient. I called this "punk gradient" because, somehow, the shredded glitters and the color scheme reminds me of Daft Punk. Yeah, I don't even know how my mind works.

On the macro you can appreciate the irregular shredded glitter and the pastel colors. I really liked this mani and would like to recreate it sometime.

What was the latest mani that you just loved?

Thanks for reading!

The very hungry glitter

Hi guys! Phew, it's been a while, huh? Sorry for the hiatus, lots of things happening. I'm currently attending my last semester of my Graphic Design undergrad, and working on my thesis project. Also, I broke a nail on my 'swatching' hand, it was the saddest nub ever, and I didn't feel like painting my nails or taking pics of them for a while.

But, my nails are slowly growing back to their old self, and today I finally felt like taking pics of my mani :)

Today's mani is a glitterbomb from China Glaze's fall collection On Safari named I Herd That, which was sent to me by the love Eileen aka The Sneakerette.

 I Herd That is one of the two glitters from this collection (I also have the other one, I'm not Lion) and it's a warmer shade, mainly with gold, copper and tiny bits of holographic micro glitter.

 I Herd That was very easy to work with and was practically opaque in 2 coats. I did 3 on these swatches because I had a tiny bit of VNL. It is a very hungry glitter though (therefore the title of this post), I needed 2 coats of Gelous and top coat to smooth it out. Still, it's really worth it.

And for funsies, here's a last macro shot of the amazing tiny pieces of glitter. Do you like this kind of shots? I recently got a macro add-on for my camera and thought it'd be fun to add a macro shots to my posts from now on.

And that's it. Thank you for reading and keeping up with me. I don't know how often I'll be posting, but I hope to write you again very soon!

Soft Mint

Hi girls! Back to your regular scheduled posts. Today I want to share with you one of my favorite manis that I've done lately. It mixes color gradient and stamping. Let's take a look!

My base for this mani was China Glaze Refresh Mint. It's a very pretty mint green and opaque in 2 coats, the formula was a bit on the thick side but nothing a couple drops of thinner wouldn't help. Pastel colors tend to have trickier formulas, but this one was not bad.

Then I added a color gradient with Essence Viva La Green which is a beautiful bright blue-toned green. I haven't worn it as a full mani -yet- so I can't comment on its formula.

Anyway, I stamped over the whole thing with Konad White Special polish and BM-221plate. The flower pattern is one of my favorites of this set, it's so delicate and seemed to go well with the colors I had.

All in all, I really loved this mani. The combination of colors and stamping turned out in a really beautiful subtle effect. I also found that the combination of Viva la Green tuned down a bit of the redness that's typical of wearing pastels (commonly known as "lobster hands")

For the days I wore this I couldn't stop thinking and craving mint ice-cream, hmm.

Do you like the combination of stamping and gradients?

Thanks for reading!

Going out with Zoya Dove

Hi guys! Long time no see, sorry about that. Today I want to share with you the mani that I did last night for going out with DF (we went to one of his friend's birthday party).

I did a mani with Zoya Dove as base in all nails and an accent of China Glaze Tinsel Town on my index finger nails.

Zoya Dove is one of my favorite neutrals. It's a medium grey creme, which only slightly leans to the cool side of the spectrum, very much the color of doves. It's really fitting on my skintone :)

China Glaze Tinsel Town is a very dense dark grey glitter with a gunmetal base. On my pointer nails I applied *one* coat of it over Zoya Dove. This is a glitter you can wear on its own in 2 coats. It has a very good depth as there are varying sizes of glitter (dark grey and silver).

So, there it is. Thank you for reading!

China Glaze - Strawberry Fields

Hi guys! This is my first "real" post, and today I wanted to share with you my newest China Glaze. Strawberry Fields was a shade I had been looking for a while, but didn't want to order online. The other day it appeared on a sale bin in my favorite makeup store, and for $2, I just had to have it :D

Strawberry Fields is a pink glassfleck (with a cool tone) packed with gold sparkles. It originally came out on 2009's summer collection "Summer Days".

This polish has a great formula, it was very easy to work with and opaque in 2 coats. I love the texture of the jelly base with the gold sparkles :) In the swatch above I used Essence's Quick Dry Topcoat, but it's really shiny on its own.

I love that the gold shine is noticeable, but not in-your-face. Is visible in most lights, but subtle.

Overall, it's a pretty nice polish and I loved it. I'm looking forward to trying more of China Glaze's glassflecked beauties.
So, there it is. My first "real" nail polish review. Thanks for reading!