Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Christmas Wishes




I really love these nails, they're the ones that I had over Christmas and my family was really impressed with them too!
My cousin told me I should be a pilot because of the hand-eye coordination it would take to do an intricate design like this ~

This design was inspired by a really cute Christmas card our neighbours gave us!
Unfortunately I didn't take a picture with the card, but it's really adorable.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone, I hope you had great holiday!

Products Used:
Essie - Grow Stronger Base Coat
Essie - 624 Mink Muffs
Essie - 752 Turquoise & Caicos
Essie - 1027 The More the Merrier
Mybelline - 390 Audacious Asphalt
Sally Hansen - 300 White On
Sally Hansen - 360 Diamonds and Rubies
Seche Vite - Quick Dry Top Coat
Sinful Colors - 940 Rise & Shine
Wet n Wild - 229C Ebony Hates Chris

~ Becca.

Happy (Holly)days!



Here's another pseudo-Christmas manicure of mine. It has that holiday feel without shoving the Christmas spirit on you completely, (if you can't tell I was trying to go for subtlety this year).

I got the inspiration for this design from a frame in my house:


Isn't it cute?

I had the hardest time when I had to take it off, I liked it so much!

Products Used:
Essie - Grow Strong Base Coat
Essie - 922 Mojito Madness
Essie - 624 Mink Muffs
Revlon - 286 Rags to Riches
Sally Hansen - 360 Diamonds and Rubies
Sally Hansen - 300 White On

Seche Vite - Quick Dry Top Coat

~ Becca.

Miracles in December


Deerly Beloved




So my favourite PJ's have pink reindeer on them which meant that it was absolutely necessary for me to put the pattern on my nails. 

I had the pink base on for a few days by itself before putting the design on and it was such a dated looking pink that I was getting pretty tired of it and was only going to keep this design on for a day. After painting the left hand, though, my roommate and I absolutely adored the design and I just couldn't take it off so I ended up finishing the right hand, too.

It's such a super cute design and it's Christmassy without being Christmas colours. Or it's just a cute winter manicure if you're not into Christmas!

I also have a tutorial for the reindeer here!

Products Used:
China Glaze - 654 Designer Satin
Quo by Orly - 59701 Black
Revlon - 390 Burgandy Flirt
Revlon - 911 Pink Chiffon
Sally Hansen - No Chip Base & Top Coat
Sally Hansen - 300 White On
Seche Vite - Quick Dry Top Coat

~ Becca.

Saturday, December 28, 2013

30 Day Nail Challenge: Roundup!


And with that my 30 Day Challenge for 2013 is done!
Thank you guys for following me through the prompts, (and all the other designs in between).

I think that this challenge really helped me improve the quality of my nail art as well as my creativity. If you're thinking about taking on the challenge as well I highly recommend it even if you do it at your own pace like I did!

What was your favourite challenge?
I think mine might have been the Ouija Board nails, but I love (almost) all of the designs!


~ Becca.

30 Day Nail Challenge, Day 31: Recreate a Challenge!



The last official manicure of the challenge, I decided to recreate my black and white nails from day 7, but decided to change the colour pallet a little to soften it up, (and also because I wanted to use my new Essie polish but that's besides the point).

Here's a comparison if you don't want to search through piles of posts to find the one I recreated:


It was a pretty simple manicure in the first place, but I think my grasp of houndstooth has definitely improved quite a bit, (it actually looks like houndstooth now, yay)!
I'm glad I got to redo it though, because I only kept it on for a day or two the first time around.

One more wrap up post and then I'm done with my 30 Day Nail Challenge for 2013!

(And sorry for being MIA again!)

Products Used:
Essie - Grow Stronger Base Coat
Essie - 846 After School Blazer
Essie - 1037 Topless & Barefoot
Seche Vite - Top Coat

Sephora by OPI - Matte Top Coat

~ Becca.

Thursday, December 05, 2013

30 Day Nail Challenge, Day 29: Inspired by the Supernatural





Well. This is embarrassing. I just realized that I completely skipped uploading day 29 and went straight to day 30.
Here is day 29 for everyone, and it's actually one of my favourite manicures. I think it turned out really well and the wood grain looks pretty good in my opinion. 

I wasn't really sure what to do for this prompt so I searched around on Google for inspiration and didn't really find any and then this just kind of popped into my head!

Products Used:
Essie - Grow Strong Base Coat
Essie - 624 Mink Muffs
Joe - Plaster
Quo by Orly - 59701 Black
Seche Vite - Top Coat
Sephora by OPI - Matte Top Coat
Pentel Watercolours

~ Becca.

30 Day Nail Challenge, Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial



The last day of the 30 days is upon us!
Wow, while it feels like it went fast I'm also realizing that it took me almost a year to finish a month long challenge. Oh well.
Anyways, this lovely plaid print was inspired by Mr.Candiipants' tutorial which you can watch for yourself here.
It's a very simple and easy to follow tutorial and the result is such a cute flannel print! Yay!

I wasn't originally going to have the jean print for the accent nails but my roommate convinced me that it would be perfect with the flannel ~

Two more posts for the 30 Day Nail challenge, one recreation of a manicure from the challenge and then I have a post planned to summarize the challenge.

Products Used:
Essie - Grow Stronger Base Coat
Essie - 1037 Topless & Barefoot
Essie - 624 Mink Muffs
Maybelline - 20 Styled Out
Quo by Orly - 59701 Black
Revlon - 471 Fashionista
Rimmel London - 390 Burgandy Flirt
Sally Hansen - 350 Heart to Heart
Sally Hansen - 360 Mellow Yellow
Seche Vite - Quick Dry Top Coat
2mm Square Gold Studs

~ Becca.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

30 Day Nail Challenge, Day 28: Inspired by a Flag




Surprisingly, I don't have much to say about this manicure.  I found it to be one of the hardest of the challenge, not because it was a difficult design per say, (though the little sun was killer), but because I had a hard time finding inspiration from flags.

I finally chose to recreate the flag of the Philippines to honour those effected by Typhoon Haiyan. My thoughts go out to all of the people of the Philippines.

Products Used:
Essie - Grow Stronger Base Coat
Quo by Orly - 59701 Black
Sally Hansen - 130 Blue Me Away!
Sally Hansen - 300 White On
Sally Hansen - 360 Mellow Yellow
Seche Vite Top Coat

~ Becca.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

30 Day Nail Challenge, Day 27: Inspired by Artwork





This manicure was inspired by Wu Guanzhong's piece Pine Spirit, which I came across in my art history class. Working in the style of literarati painters before him, Guanzhong was also inspired by the impressionist movement of the early 1900's.
I really like his colourful, abstract vision of the mountains in China and just had to recreate it on my nails. I used watercolours for the design so that I could achieve an effect similar to Guanzhong's.

Products Used:
Essie - 1037 Topless & Barefoot
Revlon - 955 Quick Dry Base Coat
Seche Vite - Top Coat
Sephora - Matte Top Coat
Pentel Watercolours

-Becca.

Monday, November 18, 2013

Halloween Nails

Hi all, sorry I've been MIA once again, I've been really busy!
With that being said, here's a masterpost of all of the different Halloween designs I did this year!







I had some fun with the Halloween designs and I think I got in a pretty good variety. Bloodsucker was probably my favourite of the season even though it was the simplest.

If you want to know any of the products used for the individual manicures just let me know ~

- Becca.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Everybody

Here to keep the comeback series alive is SHINee with a new mini ablum and single Everybody. And obviously a SHINee comeback = manicure, so here we are.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Doctor Who




My first set of fake nails!
These were for my lovely friend Taryn who loves the show.
It was fun making them and interesting to work on since they're so different from doing real peoples' nails.
You don't even want to know how hard it was writing "police" on half of them, (so hard would be the answer if you were wondering).

Products Used:
Essie - 784 Aruba Blue
Quo by Orly - 59701 Black
Revlon - 955 Quick Dry Base Coat
Sally Hansen - 300 White On
Seche Vite - Top Coat
Wet n' Wild - 299C Ebony Hates Chris

~ Becca.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Very Good

My comeback series LIVES!
It seems like artists seem to really like early summer and early October for comebacks. In honor of Block B's comeback I designed a manicure for their Very Good music video.



This was my first time using the caviar beads for an entire nail! I got so many comments on it. It's also the first time I used my chain! I was so excited, you have no idea. I love it, I want to use it all the time. I had it just stuck on with a clear coat as first and it stayed for about 2 days, but then it came off and I used nail glue to keep it there the rest of the week.

If you haven't seen the video you should go watch it. It's not really the type of music I listen to, but it's very good (haha) and really catchy.
Congrats to Black B on the comeback, it was well deserved after all the drama.

Scenes for the nails and products used are under the cut. Enjoy!

~ Becca.

Monday, October 21, 2013

30 Day Nail Challenge, Day 26: Inspired by a Pattern




I may have changed the coulours a tiny bit so that I could use the new nail polishes that I bought. I'm really happy with this design as well as how the colours look together.

I had originally planned to have the thumb and the ring finger have a different design, (like the center of the reference pic, with a lot of little triangles), but I liked this design so much I decided to make them all the same. Glad I did, I think having another pattern would have overwhelmed the design.

Products Used:
China Glaze - 654 Designer Satin
Essie - 845 Vested Interest
Essie - 941 Good as Gold
Essie - 1037 Topless & Barefoot
Quo by Orly - 59701 Black
Revlon - 955 Quick Dry Base Coat
Seche Vite - Top Coat

~ Becca.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

30 Day Nail Challenge, Day 25: Inspired by Fashion




I've been excited about this prompt since the beginning of the challenge. I love having an excuse to go through all the runway fashion scouring for interesting prints since fashion is one of my biggest inspirations for nails!
This one is inspired by the Marc Jacobs Spring 2014 Collection, (that can be viewed here). I thought the print was fun and kind of felt heavy enough to be wearable in fall even though it's part of the spring collection, (and from the amount of this print in the collection it looks like the designer was as taken by this print as I was).

As for the nails themselves, I forgot that the purple Essie looks more red in the bottle than it does when it dries, so that's what accounts for my base being slightly more purple. But I really do enjoy this look, even thought the colour scheme ended up being a little off.

Products Used:
Essie - 929 Recessionista
Essie - 1037 Topless & Barefoot
Quo by Orly - 59701 Black
Revlon - 955 Quick Dry Base Coat
Seche Vite - Top Coat

~ Becca.

Wednesday, October 09, 2013

30 Day Nail Challenge, Day 24: Inspired by a Book

From Index to Pinky: Insight/Foresight, Clairvoyant Sight, Angelic Power, Speak in Tongues

From Index to Pinky: Deflect/Block, Heightened Speed, Soundless, Strength
The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices are two of my favourite series and my love for them culminated in this manicure.
I can finally have runes without being a shadowhunter!
If you're interested in where I found the runes, (because I didn't just make them up myself), you can find there here on Cassandra Clare's blog.

Products Used:
Essie - 941 Good as Gold
Joe - Plaster
Quo by Orly - 59701 Black
Revlon - 955 Quick Dry Base Coat
Seche Vite - Top Coat
Wet n Wild - 229C Ebony Hates Chris

~ Becca.

Saturday, October 05, 2013

30 Day Nail Challenge, Day 23: Inspired by a Movie



Two posts in two days! Are you guys proud of me?

Anyways, these are my movie nails, inspired by Beastly. They're pretty simple but I think they're cute. The big rose is always a killer, but aren't the little roses on the thumb cute?

These are the two images I used as reference:



I chose to base this manicure on Beastly because my best friend and I had just watched it and I thought that Kyle/Hunter's tattoos would be fun to put on my nails. If you haven't seen the movie, here's a trailer!

Products Used:
Essie - 1037 Topless & Barefoot
Quo by Orly - 59701 Black
Revlon - 955 Quick Dry Base Coat
Rimmel London - 390 Burgandy Flirt
Seche Vite - Top Coat
Sephora - Matte Top Coat

~ Becca.