Christmas Ruffian

Thing 1

Hi everyone, this is Thing 1!  Thing 2 decided to go visit her fiancee's family for the holidays, and I got bored and started playing around with colors for a festive ruffian.  The colors I used were OPI 's I'm Not Really A Waitress and Orly's Meet Me Under The Mistletoe.  FYI Thing 2 tried to wear Waitress, but she looks better in true reds than she does in blue reds so she opted out of trying this look.  I forgot to take pictures for 6 days and had to bathe four dogs so they do have a little tip wear.  Other than that they have held up very well and I am VERY hard on my hands.

Halloween Black & White Water Marble

Thing 2

This is an attempt at a Halloween water marble.  I was going for a spider web design, but it didn't out as well as planned.  It was difficult to make the white thin enough to form a true web.  The results weren't what I hoped for but I still like them.  I used one coat of OPI Alpine Snow as a base, and China Glaze Rainbow and Chanel Black Satin for the water marble.

I apologize for the bare pinky.  I totally forgot I didn't have a good picture of the finished manicure.  This time I decided to include process photos to show how things look.  Please ignore the board.  I use it for a work station base to attempt to contain messes.  Normally I use two pieces of Scotch tape per finger.  One piece goes over the tip of the finger and either side of the nail.  The second piece encircles the finger.  As long as the finger is dunked too far into the water, those two pieces of tape satisfactory for keeping polish off the skin.  Two pictures show the dunking process.  Normally I don't do two fingers at once, but it was late and I was tired.  You can see what the fingers look like right after being in the water, and what they look like after the tape has been removed.  There generally isn't much polish around the nails and what is there comes off after a trip through the shower.

Newsprint Nails

Thing 2

I saw this a while ago and really wanted to give it a go.  Here I used OPI Skull & Glossbones for the base color.  The process is fairly simple.  Cut out nail size pieces of newspaper to cover the nails.  Once your polish is dry dunk your nails in a shot glass of vodka or rubbing alcohol then quickly press the newsprint on your nails and hold.  Don't move the paper around or the print will be blurry.  Carefully remove the paper from the nail and you should have a lovely newsprint tattoo!  Apply topcoat and enjoy.

Next time I think I'll try placing the newsprint first and applying alcohol with a cotton ball to the back.  The alcohol evaporated quickly and made it difficult to get a good transfer.  Another thing to try in the future is the comics!  Favorite nails are right pinkie and index finger.

Monochrome Magnetic French Tip

Thing 2

I just got my first two Illamasqua polishes!  They are from the "Theatre of the Nameless" collection.  I've been wanting to wear something creative but also one of my new polishes.  It has taken a week to decide what to do for a manicure.  For this I was feeling greens, so I used Illamasqua Kink and LCN Green Temptation.  The LCN is exiting because it is a magnetic nail polish!  I applied two coats of Kink for a solid base, and let that dry completely overnight.  I cut guides from Scotch tape and applied them to my nails.  Once they were in place I applied Green Temptation and used the magnet on my nails one at a time.  I removed the guides after finishing with the magnet.

The magnet effect doesn't show up as well in the pictures as it does in reality.  The effect shows up better on the right hand nails.  This is without top coat to maintain the rubber finish of Kink.

Neon Leopard

Thing1

This manicure was so much fun.  Thing 2 did the most of the work as practice.  She is practicing getting perfect cuticle lines without having to clean up.  She decided on an adjacent complementary color scheme using blue violet, yellow orange, and orange.  The colors are China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le, Sun Worshipper, and Orange Knockout.  

The left ring finger was used an accent nail with Orange Knockout as a base.  The leopard spots went back and forth on which colors were used for the center and the outer ring.  This design wasn't difficult, just time consuming.  We waited for each layer of polish to dry on the design before moving to the next stage.

Neon Rainbow!

Thing 2

This is what happens when a person loves color just a little too much.  Neon rainbow nails made life amazing for several days.  A person just can't resist smiling with that brightness at their fingertips.  Left hand:  China Glaze Rose Among Thorns, Orange Knockout, Sun Worshipper, and Celtic Sun.  The green is a mix of Celtic Sun and Nina Ultra Pro Lime Light.  Right hand:  Nina Ultra Pro Lime Light, Blu Blaze, and Punki Purple.  The teal on the index finger is a mix of Lime Light and Blu Blaze.  The purple on the ring finger is a mix of Blue Blaze and Punki Purple.
 

There is really no difference between the green mix and Lime Light.  Mixing the neons and applying them was ghastly.   All of these are neons and I applied a layer of OPI Alpine Snow underneath to make the colors pop. Since the polishes are neon they have a somewhat matte finish. 

I was bored with this after a few days so I decided to add OPI Black Shatter.  It didn't turn out so well on all the nails.  The best nails were from my left hand with the lighter colors.  The darker colors barely showed through the Shatter.

Monochromatic Ruffian

Thing 2

Sometimes it's fun to play with color theory.  Here I chose to use three different blues for a Ruffian manicure.  I used Sinful Colors Midnight Blue for a base and Zoya Phoebe as an accent base on my ring finger.  After those were dry I used Milani Cyberspace as my top.  I put two coats of MB and Phoebe for the bases, and three to four coats of Cyberspace to make it really opaque.  It looks really icy and winter friendly to me.  I prefer the MB nails to the Phoebe nail. 

You can sort of see the holographic nature of Cyberspace, especially in the first photo.  I really wish I had to Photoshop to color correct and provide more accuracy.  Cyberspace could be described as baby blue.  Scrangie has an excellent swatch here.  The holo on this baby is linear, which means it actually makes a rainbow on your nail instead of simply flashing colors.  The Milani Holographic collection is so lovely. 

I fell kind of bad for not  posting in a while.  I've been injured and just haven't felt really creative lately.  Pain can do that to a person.  I will endeavor to post more often and to keep things interesting.