I used ORLY FX: Black Pixel as the base and Zoya Pixie Dust: Stevie as the overlay. With no tools to work with, I cut off the fuzzy end of a Q-Tip and used the end to pull down the design. I realized that I need to make sure that there isn't much air movement in the room I'm working in because it made the polish dry faster than I wanted it to. As a result the design turned out bulky and didn't last more than a day. It was at this point though, that I knew I wanted to explore this avenue. I found a hobby in that design, and I wanted to see it through.
Over the following weeks I purchased lots of tools on amazon... many of which I don't know the purpose, they were bundled together with the tools I wanted so I bought them anyway.
At this point, I've got all these fun tools and 5 polishes to work with... A little imbalanced... Easily remedied though. I went from 5 to almost 100 polishes in 2 months. Yes, I know, I have an addiction problem but it's ok now because I've got a goal.
My next design was a little bit better, but not by much...
I used Wet N Wild Fast Dry: 9.0.2.1.Orange for the base and Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear: Red Carpet and Salon Perfect: Brown Sugar for the overlay. The idea started as abstract, but my friend said it looks like thanksgiving flowers so that's what we'll go with. Even without any fans on there was still too much air flow in the room I was working in so the red clumped up.
Next, I decided to try abstract again, was more successful this time, but still had some issues.
I used China Glaze: Running In Circles for the base and Revlon: Posh for the overlay. Hind sight says I should have switch the overlay and the base so the sparkles were the accents, and I should have chosen a different brush to make the stokes smaller.
Right about now is when I started following http://www.reddit.com/r/RedditLaqueristas/ consistently. This forum is full of amazing artists with awesome design ideas, and they are a great inspiration to me! There are lots of new ideas out there to try!
The first idea I chose turned out pretty well considering it's all freehand and it was my first try...
I used China Glaze: Bizarre Blurple as base, Sinful Colors: Purple Diamond for the dots, and Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear: Strobe Light for the stripes. All in all not too bad. again chose the wrong brush for the stripes but it's an improvement.
I learned quickly that I don't like trying to do tighter designs with large glitter polishes, but I had just gotten this new polish and tried it anyway...
I used China Glaze: Bizarre Blurple (I love this one if you couldn't tell) for the base and China Glaze: It's A Trap-Eze for the overlay and thumb. I love this polish!!! It's terrible for small designs! I was trying to make it look like a bomb burst starting from my thumb and fanning out across my fingers, but because of the glitter the smaller lines didn't look right so they turned into fatter lines and kind of ruined the idea I had going. That being said, I don't think this looks bad at all, just not what I was going for.
When I got my new greens in I wanted to do a simple design to show both greens well but not go overly complicated. As far as I'm concerned I succeeded.
I used Sinful Shine: Man Hunt as base and Sinful Colors: Mint Apple as overlay. The picture is a little blurry but I still like it. :)
On Reddit the big thing lately is water marbling and I was watching a YouTube video on it. In the addition videos there was a video for magical fairy landscape. WAY COOL!! I just loved the way her's turned out. Mine is a little different because I didn't have access to a newspaper to do the print background but I still love mine :D
I used Sinful Colors: Rise & Shine under ORLY: Sparkling Garbage (one of my favorite polishes of them all) for the base and Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear: Black Out for the overlay. I'm getting better at the small lines. and I just love how this turned out! This original mani was finished Tuesday July 9th and here it is today (July 15th):
Not only is this mani my favorite, but it's the longest a mani has lasted on my natural nails ever! I'm so happy with it!!. This is also the first mani I used this:
to help me design easier. This thing is amazing!
After this many I had to put it on a swatch stick so I could have it for keeps, because eventually this one will go away.
On this I used Sinful Colors: You Just Wait as the base and Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear: Black Out as the overlay. This one turned out amazing too!!! I just love it!
That same night that I did the Fairy Lanscape, I started out with this:
I used Sinful Colors:Happy Ending as base, China Glaze: Running In Circles for the overlay, and ORLY: Sparkling Garbage for the accents. I'm not entirely sure what this started out as but it turned out kind of cool looking. We'll call it abstract on accident.
Since I've had my Fairy mani on I've wanted to design but don't want to take it off so I've just kept using swatch sticks, they make great test subjects :D Here are some other designs I've done so far in no particular order. (there's no real story to them other than I was watching shows and designing at the same time... Sometimes not a good idea)
I used Sinful Colors: Rise & Shine as the base, Wonder Beauty Products: You're My Cuppy Cake as the outer overlay, and Sinful Colors: Mint Apple as the overlay border and design.
I used Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear: Black Out as Base, Sinful Colors: Happy Ending as the grass and stems, and Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear: Hot Magenta, Plum Power, and Strobe Light as the flower heads.
I used KBShimmer: Witch Way for the base and final overlay, and Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear: Crushed, Plum Power, and Hot Magenta for the flower
I used Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear: Plum Power as base, KBShimmer: Witch Way as the outer overlay, Emerald & Ash: Helix Nebula for the stripe in the middle ( I know it doesn't look different because of the crappy quality of the pic, but it's actually a darker blueish purple) and Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear: Flirt for the outline and small lines.
One of the other big things right now is stripes with nail tape. I saw a friend on her blog do use this idea with a textured top coat and I thought it looked cool so I tried it. Looking back I probably should have used colors that were a little less similar but oh well in person it still looks cool and there is more contrast.
I used ORLY: Sparkling Garbage as the base, and Zoya Pixie Dust: Vespa as the overlay. :D
The two most recent designs I've done have been inspired by two of my closest friends.
The first one is my rendition of Henna for my friend Boudi. She's an amazing henna artist and there's no way I can come close to her designs in this but it still looks good.
I used Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear: Cherry Red under Sinful Colors: You Just Wait for the base and Salon Perfect: Brown Sugar for the design. She loved it. :D
My last one was inspired by a very fiery red head who is my best friend. :D
I used Wet N Wild Fast Dry: The Gold & The Beautiful as the base, Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear: Crushed, Wet N Wild Megalast: Under Your Spell, Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear: Cherry Red, and Pure Ice: Hit The Floor for the flames (in order starting from outside the flame in to the middle) and the dots.
I've had several attempts that have failed miserably but I threw them out before I started this blog. From here on out I fully intend to post every design I attempt good or bad so I can track my progress from the beginning.
Until I design again...
Lady Vollaina Victoria
