#31DC2014 - Day 23 - Inspired by a MOVIE

Hiya! Day 23 of the challenge calls for nails inspired by a movie. I am not a big movie person, but I work with someone who really likes the minions from Despicable Me (hi Sam!), and while it's not the most original idea (I'm aware that everyone and their grandmother has done minion nails), I really wanted to paint them. So I did!

Indoors with flash

 I used Zoya Darcy (yellow) and Cover Girl Vio-last (purple) for the bodies. The denim coveralls are done with--what else?--Denim Dash by Maybelline. China Glaze Icicle is the silver for the goggles, and Layla Hologram Effect #16 Coffee Love is the brown for the eyes. (I thought this holo brown was perfect for capturing the multifaceted look of an eye, and I was right!) The rest is acrylic paint and a bit of patience ;) Topped with KBShimmer Clearly On Top, and then, for the above photo, I drew on the hair with Sharpies!

We haven't had a lot of sun lately, so these overcasty photos will have to do.

I hope you liked these! I really had fun with them, especially the derpy purple one and his wonky teeth :D See you soon for more! xoxo

EDC-Inspired Water Marble with Butterflies

Hello my beauties! And welcome to all my new viewers! I seem to have a recent jump in pageviews--I hope you like it here :) (I just miiiiight be doing a giveaway soon, so spread the word!)

For now, I want to show you some funky nails inspired by a really cool outfit my friend made for EDC this year!

Happy Paddy's Day! Pot o' Gold in Shamrocks

Hi everyone! Happy St. Patrick's Day! Nobody seems to celebrate here, which is a shame. Oh well. I had enough drinks to make up for the less festive folks around me ;)

I painted a field of shamrocks swaying in a gentle breeze, basking in the sunlight after a rainstorm, and for the accent--the resulting rainbow + treasure at the end of it...

The sky-blue background is Revlon Colorstay #170 Coastal Surf. The rainbow is some assorted polishes I can't be bothered naming off, but I've used them all before--they're Revlon, CoverGirl, and Sally Hansen basic cremes :) The pot and the shamrocks were done with acrylic paint an a small brush. Lastly, the gold in the pot! It's mostly the glitter polish you see in the photo--Milani Jewel FX Gold--but I added a few slightly larger gold pieces from Born Pretty Store:

An actual pot of gold. I couldn't not use it!

If you look carefully, you can see a few pieces that fell out around the pot and are hiding in the grass :)

I sealed in all the glitters and paints with two coats of KBShimmer Clearly On Top.

In shade. I love how the gold stands out! You can see the bits in the grass better here, too.

And one more, to show how shiny the glitters are! *insert anime-esque shine sound effect* sshhhhiiinnng!

Thus concludes my St. Patrick's manis for this year! I'm debating on what to do next... it's technically autumn here now, but it still feels like summer, and I have a really cute idea for a spring design. I think I'm having a... season crisis? Tune in next time to check out which one I pick--or better yet, vote in the comments; if I get a few responses I'll pick based on what you want to see! xoxo

Alphabet Challenge: K is for... Kangaroos in Kona

Hello! It's a fabulously gorgeous sunny day here today, so after I post this I'm going out to frolic! But first I want to share my K-inspired nails with you. At the moment it is not very warm and sunny at all where our subject comes from...

it's the obvious choice for K, amirite?

I like how they match the colour scheme of the blog!

As I was preparing for this post, I went through all my polishes and realised I only have one bottle starting with K in my entire collection: Soulstice Spa's Kona. That's the lovely sky-blue-leaning-cyan you see near the cuticle. I just love this brand. All their creme polishes brush on beautifully and cover in just one coat, and Kona was no exception.

I sponged the tips to make a gradient with Cover Girl Vio-last, which is a bit more reddish-toned purple than it shows in these pics. It is super pretty :D At this point the gradient looked like this:

Apologies. I forgot to photograph this step before moving on with my left hand (which I normally photograph), so you get my slightly shorter-and-more-meh right hand nails in this one. But you get the idea.

I decided it needed some sparkle, because duh, this is Glittericity. So I added a coat of my franken I call Rainbowgasm (INM Northern Lights + SpectraFlair powder) over the top. And then we had this:

I almost skipped the next step because this looked so nice on its own!

A blurry shot, to show off that beautiful rainbow sparkle. "Amanda, aren't you tired of holo sparkles by now? You talk about them all the time." "NO I WILL NEVER GIVE THEM UP (NOR LET THEM DOWN), DON'T BE RIDICULOUS." :D

Annnnd then I took my little detail brush and some black acrylic paint and painted a little kangaroo on the middle fingernail. I just looked up some pics of them online, practiced a few times on paper, and went for it! Topcoated with Seche Vite, and done!

After painting him on with the brush I used a toothpick to gently scratch away some of the edges to give a cleaner line. I apparently went a bit overboard with the ear. In person this is small enough not to notice, but two Australians I know (individual of each other!) said it looked like a dragon-kangaroo hybrid in these close-ups. Oh well, that's even cooler! I should have added wings...

Well, there you have it for my K nails! (Damnit, just this minute occurred to me I should have have drawn Potassium's square from the periodic table on the other hand.) Oh well. Thanks for stopping by! See you next time! xoxo