33 Day Challenge: Chevrons

I'd like to think I'm pretty good at doing chevrons. I love tape, I've done chevrons heeeeaps of times with it, I even free-handed some not long ago and they looked decent. So when I had to have four, maybe five goes, at today's prompt, I was a bit surprised with myself.  I decided to take the extremely simply road of stamping and stud-sticking. Could this wrong too? Thankfully, it did only a hardly noticeable bit.

I used two coats of Sally Hansen's Scarab and one coat of Seche Vite as a base. I stamped the chevron pattern with Bundle Monster's plate in BM-201 (did I need to state that?) with Essence in A Piece Of Forever. Simple enough? I managed to miss the tip of my index finger but I just kept going. I applied a coat of Ulta3 in clear and started sticking these 2 mm square studs from Born Pretty Store in a chevron pattern. At this point, I top-coated the stamped nails but not the ring finger. After my last attempt top-coating studs, I've learnt to take photos before I do. I have now top-coated it because well, no one wants nail studs in their dinner, do they?

So there you have it, my interpretation of the chevron pattern. I would call it Rustic Studded Chevrons. Any imperfections *cough*crooked studs*cough* just add to the rustic feel of this mani, like vintage jewelry...

Close-up because I wanted one and that studded chevron was too... rustic. That one is better appreciated from afar.

I actually have (what I think is) a good idea for the next prompt, Indian. Until then, check out some of the other ladies from this challenge. There are some good manis below.

Til next time, 

Laura

September Tri-Polish Challenge Day 3 AKA Nail Fail

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Day three of the September Tri-Polish is upon us a lot quicker than I realised. For some reason I thought I had a post ready for today but turns out I didn't. I had to come up with a quick and simple mani that would use all three colours. I haven't done a lot of gradients in my polishing life but I knew they were easy enough to me to tackle in no time and the pink I've been using was perfect for stamping. So a stamped gradient it was.

I started with two coats of Essence in Absolutely Blue as a base and let it dry. I then painted three coats of Absolutely Blue and China Glaze in Sweet Hook with a sponge to create the gradient. This is where it started to turn into a fail. The sponge I used was too rough and left little holes on the wet polish, which after three coats of coloured polish and two of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri topcoat, turned into BIG, chunky bubbles. 

I soldiered on and stamped over the gradient with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Sonic Bloom, which dried a little too quick on the stamper. Lack of foresight from my part there. :( I redid three of my fingers but they still didn't turn out great. Sealed it all off with two coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. 

Not only are they B-A-D, they are also chunky. All those layers of polish and topcoat aren't making this mani look any better.

I thought of doing a different mani altogether but then remembered I have a life to attend to. Here are other good manis that you can look at after my fail. :)

Till next time, 

Laura

Valentino Inspired Manicure

I love (virtually) rummaging through the online New York Mag fashion sections for inspiration for manicures. Think all those designer collections that appear on Vogue and Elle but at your, er..., fingertips for free. Today, I've got a manicure loosely based on the one of Valentino's Couture Collection dresses for the 2013 Fall.

I look at the details, colours and textures to see how they can be translated to the nails without being too literal. When I came across the above dress I knew I wanted on my fingertips!!!

I must warn you, the details of the nail art wasn't great but I liked how it all looked together and that's the main reason I'm putting the photos up. I know it's not perfect but this blog is also part of the journey towards amazing manicures... Deep, aren't I? Haha!

I started with four coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Peatal Pusher for the nude base then stamped the pattern only half way up the nails with Bundle Monster's BM-201 plate using Konad Special Black polish. I sealed it with a coat of Seche Vite to make sure the stamping wouldn't come off when I placed the stickers for the half moons. I don't actually know if that would happen but I wanted to be safe rather than sorry. 

Once the Seche Vite was dry I put on half of a round sticker in each finger and striping tape on the tips as french manicure guides. I carefully painted  Ulta3 Black Satin on and removed the tape and stickers as soon as I was done with each finger. Finished it all off with one last coat of Seche Vite.

There was a lot of smudging, crooked half moons, bad and excessive clean up, major shrinkage on my pointer and the french tip lines weren't as crisp as I had hoped.

The photos weren't turning out either and each of these photos were taken at different times because I just couldn't take a good one. I could keep going about how this was a bad experiment but one thing I managed to accomplish was to get out my comfort zone and think how I could create a mani from a dress. I think this is one of the most creative things I've come up with and that makes me a tiny little bit proud. I would  usually shy away anything that involves creating arty things.

What do you guys think? Do you have sources of inspiration?  I hope you guys enjoyed the mani.

Till next time,

Laura