Jacaranda-Inspired Textured Gradient

Good day, my dear readers! Spring has come on strongly here in sunny Queensland, and the weather is already starting to feel like summer. I have a massive Jacaranda tree in my back yard, and it's beginning to bloom beautifully. I was inspired by the lovely purple colour and created this manicure!

(click to enlarge!)

Pixie Dust Waterfall | A Nod to the Nailasaurus

Hello hello :) I am working on growing out my poor broken nails. Why do they seem to grow so quickly when they're long and I'm constantly filing them, but so slowly when I want them to regenerate? *douses hands in cuticle oil*

However, as promised, I've taken the opportunity to be inspired by the queen of short nails, Sammy the Nailasaurus! I'm not sure if she invented this technique or just popularised it, but she's definitely made it her own and even has a tutorial on her blog. It's a pretty easy one to do but looks so striking when done with the right colours! I've used some Zoya Pixie Dust shades over black and I really like the jewel-toned result:

Windows 10 Is Here!

Hello! Special post today in honour of Windows 10 launching today! My job involves dealing with the upgrade today in some local electronics shops, so I did a special manicure for the occasion.

Darcy & Solange Are Totes BFFs

Hello! Back with a simple yet striking look--something I've had on my idea list for a while; a French tip look with similar colours in different finishes. I went with bright cheery yellow and reached for two Zoyas!

Ocean Stamping: Born Pretty Store Plate Review

Good day, my beautiful readers :) I'm going to the beach tomorrow! It's been a while, and I'm glad I get the opportunity to go again. I just love lying in the sun and swimming in the ocean!

It was the perfect time to try out my new Born Pretty Store ocean-themed stamping plate!

Outdoors in sun

Click for more!!

#31DC2014 - Day 12 - STRIPES

Hello dears! :) For day 12 of the challenge, I have done some textured stripes. I don't want to take them off!

Outdoors in sun

The base is this nice coral-orange creme, Call Me Gwen-ever, by OPI. Two smooth, buttery coats covered perfectly. I'm still on the hunt for a perfect coral polish (any suggestions??) but this is one I was happy to add to my collection recently.

Indoors with flash, holding Call Me Gwen-ever

I taped off some stripes of varying sizes with striping tape, and added OPI Jinx, a Liquid Sand textured polish of the same shade. I really love the result!

Also with flash, holding Jinx

No topcoat, since I wanted to keep the texture of the stripes.

I'm having a lot of fun with the challenge so far this year! It's been great seeing all the manis everyone's done. As a reminder, here is a list of the prompts:

(credit to Chalkboard Nails for the image)

Even if you haven't participated up to this point, you still can hop in any time! Just share your manis on all your favourite social media sites, with the hashtag #31DC2014. We'd all love to see them :D

Come back tomorrow for some animal print. rawr! xoxo

Nina Star Bright & Striping Tape Bow: An Impractical Yet Adorable Mani

Hola, mis dulcitos! :3 Who's ready for a mani that's pink and girly and entirely impractical to wear whilst doing anything, but is super cute?

Quickie: Pi Day Nails!

Yep, I went there. I am never one to pass on a good geek joke.

Creme base for the numbers is Zoya Caitlin, other nails are Zoya Nyx. (Don't they compliment each other perfectly? I think Nyx was made by looking at Caitlin and going "that's pretty, let's Pixie-Dust-ify that."

Big pi is painted with acrylic paint and a small brush, and the numbers carefully written with a fine-pointed Sharpie. Thumbs not shown, but I did a gradient tip with the textured polish over the creme base. Non-textured bits topcoated with Orly Sec 'N Dry.

Now I'm going to eat pie and... think about circles?

See you tomorrow ;) xoxo

Leather, Lace, & Glitter! :: Sexy Red & Black Lingerie Nails

Well, hello there. I've been expecting you. Let me just slip into something a little more... comfortable ;)

Now then, that's much better ;)

Hehe. Up until now, all my Valentine posts this year have been cute, or funky, or sweet. Today I decided to explore the more risqué side of romance!

I started with the red half-moon manicure, then the black lace trim, using acrylic paints and a thin brush for both. For the accent nail I made this into a bustiere instead, adding corset details, a bust, and some waist-shaping. Cute, right?

After topcoating to protect the paint, I created a second half-moon shape further down on the red, using the colour shown in these photos: Wet N' Wild On the 101. This is the most beautiful polish--a sheer black jelly base with small and large red hex glitters. Over black it is mysterious and shimmers with a hint of the ruby-red, a few coats of it alone reminds me of nails a vampire queen would wear... and two thin coats over red gives you what you see above! It makes the bright base into darker, vampy red full of shimmer. I LOVE it!

Before topcoating with Seche Vite, I highlighted the tops of the 'lovely lady lumps' with Revlon Pink Chiffon and the same striper brush.

Last, as an extra-sexy accent, I used Nails Inc Noho (black leather-effect polish) to add the thick stripe separating the red and darker bit. Did this last, of course, so the topcoat wouldn't mess with the texture. Red stockings with black lace and leather, plus a corset top like that? Sizzling!

Outdoors in shade...

In sun...

And a close-up with the accent nail in focus.

Well, I hope you liked this one! A mani for the more saucy amongst us ;)

What style do you like best for a romantic date--cute and sweet, or sexy and alluring? Any ideas you'd like to see before the 14th? Let me know in the comments, and I'll see you next time! xoxo

Jinxing Pixies -- Textured Gradient + Stamping

Hello hello! Today I want to show you a fun gradient look featuring two Zoya Pixie Dusts and one OPI Liquid Sand. :)

I love these rich colours :D

The two Zoyas were from the 2013 Fall PixieDust collection. The darker purple is Carter, and the fuchsia middle shade (and the bottle I am holding) is Arabella. These are lovely, well-pigmented with the most gorgeous silver sparkle :D I've said it before and I'll say it again--I didn't expect to love the textured polishes, but Zoya made it happen! As soon as I saw these two I knew I wanted to do a gradient with them together. Not only do they look stunning together, but Carter has hints of pink sparkle here and there, and Arabella appears to have purple glimmers, so they really compliment one another perfectly!

I started off sponging these two together for the gradient, and did some more blending with the brush. These are mostly opaque, but juuuust sheer enough for this technique to manage.

However, I can never seem to just do two-colour gradients.. I always want three.. and I realised OPI Jinx would work well with these, so I added her to the tips :) Jinx is such an awesome orangey-coral with a sizzling gold shimmer, and the texture matched the other two very well.

 

I love the final look, although I have to say Arabella kind of gets lost there in the middle, doesn't she? It's arguably the prettiest shade, so this is a shame. I'll have to use her again soon.

Indirect light, to see the colours better.

After a day or two like this, I decided to try stamping over it. It kind of worked. I could see the pattern clearly at some angles, but couldn't get it to photograph very well. I used Revlon #925 Gold Coin and the interlocked "wheat tips" image from Mash plate 44 (not that you'd be able to tell by these pics... but I thought the wheat image seemed just right for these autumn-like colours. and yes, I know it's not autumn anywhere right now. wearing only season-appropriate shades is for squares.)

You can kinda see it..

The pattern really disappears in direct light! But there is a pretty golden shimmer, so that's something.

Well, I hope you liked this one and are having a lovely weekend so far! (Or will do soon. It's midday on Saturday here down under!) See you next time! xoxo

Sweet & Simple Sunday: OPI Textured French

Good day my lovelies! Today I have a couple of quick announcements before I show you the manicure. I'll be quick!

First, as you perhaps noticed by the banner on the right, Glittericity now has a Facebook page! Follow me here to get blog update notifications in your news feed, plus the odd NOTD (Nails of the Day) now and then. It's also where I will share news about giveaways, contests, etc that I come across in the nail blogging community, so you can enter and maybe win too!

Also, today will be the first installment of what I hope will be a weekly feature: Sweet & Simple Sunday. I get a lot of questions about the nail art I do, and quite often the reaction once I explain is, "I could never do that, I don't have all the tools you do" or "I don't have the time/money to invest in something like that". On Sundays I will showcase simple designs that do not need special tools and do not take long to create, but still look great!

Now then, let's get on with it. I picked up a set of 4 mini-bottles from the OPI Bond Girls collection a couple of weeks ago:

As soon as I saw the pink and white ones, I knew what I wanted to do: a textured twist on a classic French!

Pearly and elegant :D Outdoors in sunlight.

Pussy Galore is the lovely pearly pink, and Solitaire is the pearl white with sparse silver glitter. They take a few coats to be opaque (2-3 depending on application) and I didn't want it to be too thick, so I started with a quick base of similar pink and white: Revlon #911 Pink Chiffon and Ulta Snow White. This doesn't have to be fully opaque, nor does the tip line have to be neat--it's just a base for the textured polishes.

Then I carefully painted Pussy Galore onto the pink area, stopping at the line. You want to go slowly with this part, because the trick to the nice smooth line and keeping the same thickness along the whole length of the nail is not to have any overlap of the colours. Once that dried, I added Solitaire over the white. It is quite easy to do this neatly with the polish brush, especially with these OPI Pro-Wide brushes. You can lay the bristles flat and let it create the line for you! The textured polish makes this easier as well: since you aren't going to get a "crisp" line no matter what you do, it's very forgiving.

No topcoat, of course. :)

With their bottles! Inside with flash.

And inside without flash. The texture shows up nicely here.

I couldn't not pose with this pink and white rose-scented sachet! Just too cute.

Annnnd one more, blurry on the thumb and index finger, so you can see the sparkle!

I hope you enjoyed this one, and maybe you'll give it a try! If you do, show me over on the Facebook page :) See you next time! xoxo

Alphabet Challenge: Y is for... Yellow Skittle-y Nails + Dried Flower

Hey, you! Today is the penultimate Alphabet Challenge prompt, and features the letter Y. I knew since about M what I wanted to do for this one... yellow nails featuring these gorgeous dried flowers from Born Pretty Store!

I never get bored of this kind of manicure :D

Taking a bit of inspiration from Marta and her "skittlette" look,  I used as many yellow polishes as I could fit! Here's the rundown...

Thumb: Orly Androgynie, yellow dried flower adhered with topcoat
Index and Small: Zoya Solange
Middle: Sinful Colors Neon Melon, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, and black Stripe Rite polish
Ring: Orly Androgynie, neon yellow studs also from BPS

Let's talk about Androgynie. I've had this polish for ages and I have no idea why I don't wear it more. It's so interesting! It's sort of a gold/yellow-toned black jelly (if that makes any sense) and filled with gold microglitter and medium hex glitters in orange, yellow, lime, teal, and royal blue! It's such a weirdly awesome combination that I am surprised that Orly made it--but very glad they did. It took three thin coats to get the coverage shown above.

Solange is another beauty... yellow/gold Pixie Dust is SO lush. It looks and feels like I have real gold on my fingertips. I can't stop staring at it and definitely want to wear it again soon!

The flower was not as tricky to get on as I thought it would be. I applied a thick layer of a slow-drying clear polish, then used tweezers to place the flower and gently press the edges of the flower as the polish dried to stick it down. Then I used one thick layer of Maya Smoothing Coat For Glitter (tested, confirmed also works on flowers) followed by a coat of Seche Vite. Sealed in and smooth to the touch!

Before topcoat. Wanted to get a photo first in case the topcoat made it go horribly wrong. I am happy to report it did not!

And one more pic, out in the nice yellow sunlight, for good measure :)

Because sunlight makes the neon really pop! You can also see more of Androgynie's and Solange's true natures here.

Little pop of happy bright yellow to pick you up mid-week. Hope you enjoyed this one. See you next time! xoxo

Nails Inc. Bling It On Rebel Nail Art Kit: Review & Skittle Mani

Hello! Today I have a manicure that stands in stark contrast to the almost angelic look of the last one :) I picked up the Nails Inc. Bling It On: Rebel kit not too long ago and have been itching to try it out. I used it as well as a few other polishes to do a punky skittle manicure. Check it out!

badassssssssss :D

I'm really liking this look! Nails Inc. has several cool nail art kits, but this "Rebel" kit is the only one so far that I felt really compelled to pick up. The kit comes in a box that looks like this:

It comes with a bottle of black "leather" textured polish called Soho, ten small silver square studs, ten small Swarovski crystals, ten large ones, ten small black stones, and four silver skulls with crystal embellishments. It also has a bottle of nail glue, but it is a regular squeezy bottle and doesn't have a brush, so I promptly emptied it into one of my other bottles that does have a brush--ha. Oh yeah, and a couple of orangewood sticks for picking up the decorations :)

The leather-effect polish is COOL :D  I didn't think it looked leathery in the pics I saw online before, but in person, totally does. I'm super diggin' it!

Similar pose to above, but with flash--I think it shows the texture better.

I used a few other polishes as well, obviously. Let's go down the list!

Thumb: Nails Inc. Soho Leather Effect polish + skull decoration
Index: Hot Topic brand silver polish. No name, but it's really nice. And the bottle has fishnet pattern and a skull on it, so it's kind of fitting for this mani :D Then of course, two of the small black stones.
Middle: Nails Inc. Soho, one silver stud, one small crystal
Ring: Hot Topic silver polish, then a coat of OPI Black Shatter
Small: Zoya Dahlia, one of the Pixie Dust matte-glitter shades

The Leather Effect polish says that for best results, one should apply it without basecoat. I never go without basecoat though, so I ignored this, but followed the rest of the instructions, which was to allow the first coat to completely dry before adding a second. The texture looks great to me, so I don't think my basecoat (which was Seche Retain, btw) negatively affected it.

Zoya Dahlia is similar, in that you're meant to apply 2-3 coats while letting them dry fully in between. The results are spectacular! I didn't think I'd like these Pixie Dust shades as much as I do.

Anyway, the non-textured nails were topped with Seche Vite and... now I'll stop blathering and just show you more pics, since that's what you came for! :P

Click to enlarge--you can really see the texture of the leather-effect polish here, as well as the difference between it and Dahlia. They feel almost identical, but the Pixie Dust shades all have silver sparkles included.

Close-up of the thumb with the wee skull accent. They stayed on surprisingly well, despite getting caught on absolutely everything. Didn't budge until I was ready to remove the manicure and (carefully) pried them off.

So... yeah! Hope you enjoyed this rockin' look. I will definitely play with this kit more in future posts. If you're interested in picking one up for yourself, they can be found at the Nails Inc. website, or at Sephora (for a lot cheaper, if you happen to be in their shipping area)! Or you know, the actual store, but that involves scary things like "leaving the house" and all. ;) Anyway, see you next time! xoxo

Challenge Day #27: Inspired by ARTWORK

Good evening, my lovelies :D Today's post is making up for the one I missed the other day... the artwork challenge! There are of course SO many great choices out there for artwork inspiration. I had another idea in mind, but then my best-work-friend Jennifer came in the office with a new piece she had painted, and I immediately decided to take my manicure inspiration from that! She's an awesome chick and a talented artist, and didn't mind me stealing her idea for my nails for a day. Thanks, Jenn! Here's the manicure...

I used to doodle this kind of thing a lot. I think the technique might have a name, but I'll be damned if I can remember it now.

...and here is her painting that inspired it :D

With my Linksys switch in the background. In case you were wondering what the glowy dots were.

Just as Jenn did with acrylic paints on the artists' board, I started with a rich dark red colour--China Glaze Adventure Red-y, to be precise. I waited until that was fully dry, and then applied a fairly thick coat of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, an awesome slightly off-white polish I've mentioned before. I think it pretty closely matches the colour she used. When it was still wet, I very gently used a sponge to remove some of it, so the red could peek through--and to add texture.

I then waited until the white was in the tacky stage of dryness, and used a toothpick to draw the meandering lines across the nails, scratching through to reveal the layers underneath. I varied the pressure used so that in some places the red showed, and in others, the bare nail. I then let that dry completely, and filled in alternating areas with a yellow frankenpolish and my small detail brush. The polish is a complete mix--a sort of goldenrod yellow I made a long time ago, plus a tiny bit of red and green added to make it closer to the mustard colour used in the original painting.

I skipped adding topcoat, so I could retain the rough texture and more matte finish. In retrospect, I should have added a matte topcoat for more authenticity, but I'm only just thinking of this right now as I'm writing this post, and it's too late. DANGIT.

Better pic, I think. I thought the rough texture would bother me, but I actually loved it. I kept touching my nails all day. Ha. That makes me sound a wee bit crazy... >.>

And last, posing with the painting. Don't worry, Jenn, I didn't actually touch it with my fingers!

Perfect. You can hardly tell where the painting stops and my nails begin, amirite? LOL

And thus concludes today's artwork-inspired post. Next time is "inspired by the supernatural", and while that's such a weird prompt, what cool timing that it fell on Halloween! I didn't even plan that, I SWEAR. But I'll post it tomorrow as well as the manicure that I'm wearing with my costume--so it will be another double! xoxo