Tag Archives: sponging

14 Jan

Almond Blossoms Nail Art

Hi Girls!
Sorry for the break in our regular programming. I got hit by a nasty cold and suffered through a 6-day-long sinus headache. It was pretty horrible. I’m feeling better now though and only have a mild headache, so I thought I’d get on here and share these with you today.

Have you ever decided to do a design, get all excited and worked up to do it, only to start regretting it as you begin to nail it down? (See what I did there?) That’s what happened to me when I embarked upon this challenge.

If you have been around a while, you know my favorite piece of art is Van Gogh’s Starry Night. I like it so much that I dedicated quite a bit of time to paint it on my nails. My next favorite is his Almond Blossom painting. The very talented Jacqui of Craftynail did a look inspired by this painting last year and it turned out lovely.

I wanted to challenge myself and see if I could do another forgery, and I kept coming back to Almond Blossoms because I just love everything about it. So I decided to go ahead and give it a shot too and let my OCD kick in and try to match the colors and technique as best I could to the original. See for yourself and tell me how you think I did.

Almond Blossoms nail art with decorative bottle

Here is the original just for reference. There’s nail art and then there is nail ART! Please do take a moment to notice the detail work. 😉

Almond Blossoms by Vincent Van Gogh
Source Wiki

I had planned to feature this awesome design for my blogiversary, but I was so run down and tired that I only had time to get the background part done and had to add the details a couple of days later. I used 15 polishes total for this look, plus some black and dark brown acrylic paint for a few spots on the branches. That’s almost ALL polish! Acrylic is much easier to work with if you do detailed work as it doesn’t dry too quickly, but it also does not smooth out and blend with top coat like polish does. So polish is always my preferred medium.

Almond Blossoms four fingers

If you look closely, you will see that each of the nails on my left hand are copied from sections of the actual painting. (Bonus points if you can spot them!) I worked more loosely with the designs on the right hand as I didn’t want to be up all night trying to match it so closely.

Almond Blossoms on cinderella hand

Well, I hope you love these as much as I do. I will leave you with a few more pictures as I just couldn’t bear to leave them out. What is your favorite work of art? Have you done any designs based on works of art? Please leave a link below because I would love to see. Have a fantastic day and don’t forget to make someone smile.
Hugs,
Rach

Almond Blossoms thumb and side view
Almond Blossoms with Chic bottle
Almond Blossoms four fingers another angle
07 Nov

Pink and Purple Sparkly Tips

Hello!

I hope this post finds everyone doing fine. I had EVERY plan of doing my nails several times this week, and it looked like it was going to happen until news showed that a tropical storm was developing to the east of us, and we found ourselves bracing for Super Typhoon Haiyan which will make landfall in the Philippines in a few hours. It is going to be devastating for those directly in its path. While the eye will probably pass over Cebu Island, we are not directly in the path so we aren’t expecting the full hurricane-force winds. But we are still expecting some very strong winds and lots of rain and we are doing our best to prepare. Please say a prayer that the storm will lose strength quickly and pray for the safety of those in its path.

On a happier note, my joint giveaway with Blooming Nail Cebu ended this week and I was able to contact the winners and get each package/packet sent on their way. Giveaways are such fun! I’m thinking the next one I do will give you the option of extra entries if you create and submit nail art according to a theme. What do you think? Would you join?

I’m showing you a sparkly mani today to cheer me up after a day full of gloomy, cloud-filled skies.

Outdoor shade

Isn’t it pretty? It’s very eye catching too! I started with 2 coats of Jocarste #28 which is a light pink foil polish that is easy to apply and easy to remove. Then I sponged on Jocarste #8100 which is a gorgeous glitter bomb with purple, gold (multi sized) and silver holo bits in it. My amateur skills were unable to capture the holo sparlies in my lightbox and it was not a sunny day when I sported these nails so you will just have to appreciate the pretty glitters and imagine how extra special it was with a holo twist. #8100 is very different from #28 in that it is a PAIN to take off. I guess all glitters are like that though. Maybe it has just been a long time since I did glitter tips but I was muttering under my breath about how I would throw way this bottle if it wasn’t so darn pretty. Yeah, I know… much bigger problems in the world. Tiniest violin and all that. Ha! Glitter tip manis are some of my favorites and apparently you all like them too because I get a ton of hits on this look I did early this year.

Lightbox… soooo shiny!

Well, I’m off to get some more things ready. I wanted to post something so things wouldn’t be too quiet around here this weekend. See you soon ladies and have a great weekend!

Hugs!

25 Sep

Doctor Who Nail Art

Before I get to the nails  I want to take a moment and thank you all for the wonderful comments and for liking my photos on FB and Instagram. Y’all make this so exciting. I even got a couple of award nominations over the weekend! Yay! I’ll have to get to that soon. I have been so bad about keeping up with those. :O oopsie!

Great news girls!
I’m officially out of the nail art funk! (and the crowd goes wild)

My submission for the 31 day challenge today would be considered a stretch for many but not so much for me. The theme is “Inspired by a book”. While Doctor Who is obviously a TV series, I have never seen the show. The Shutterbug, on the other hand, is an avid fan and I happened upon a collectors item book at a used book store and flipped through it to familiarize myself a bit. So you see how this qualifies as “inspired by a book” for me. The Shutterbug has been aching for Doctor Who nail art and she came up with what she wanted and told me the ten nail designs she wanted and we went from there. I have never watched Doctor Who so she had to explain most of them and show pictures.

Doctor Who nail art: fez, blue suit, dalek, 3d glasses, two hearts, TARDIS, Cyberman, andipose

From left to right we have The Doctor’s (Matt Smith) fez, The Doctor’s (David Tennant) blue suit, a gold Dalek, The Doctor (Tennant) and his 3D glasses, two hearts representing The Doctor’s two hearts, the TARDIS, a Cyberman and a little andipose guy. On the thumbs below we have tally marks from the episode with The Silence and a galaxy nail.

Doctor Who nail art: tally marks from "The Silence" and galaxy nail

Do you like them? My favorite is the gold Dalek. I think they all look cool and The Shutterbug keeps saying they are the most awesome nails ever so I think I executed her dream look well. Hopefully those of you who are Whovians (????) like them too.

This is my first time photographing someone else’s nails in the lightbox so the pictures are a bit different. I think you get the picture.

I used a ton of supplies to do these and I’m not going to list them all but here’s a picture…

doctor who nail art supplies

I hope you are all having a great day. Today was our day off and we got to go out and run some errands and play with the kids. Good times!

Hugs!

23 Jul

Reverse Gradient Leopard Print

All products used were purchased by me or given as a gift to me by a friend.
All opinions are my own. 🙂

Day 22 of the Rather Awesome 31 Day Challenge Giveaway is “animal themed” and I’ve been hankering for some leopard print. 

Have you ever had an idea for some nail art that looked amazing in your head but didn’t quite translate the way you expected on your nails? Yeah, me too. But this is NOT one of those ideas.
I wanted to try a reverse gradient leopard print manicure (I’ve never seen one of those) and picked a color scheme and went all in and look what I came up with….

TADAAAA!!!

Oh yes! This look rocks! I’m not usually one to toot my own horn but I did GOOD! I started off with one coat of Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet then sponged on Mint Sorbet, CG For Audrey and L.A. Colors Atomic with a makeup sponge. Then I used a dotting tool with Mint Sorbet and Atomic for the spots and outlined them with Chic Black Velvet. This is definitely not a subtle look but I think it’s a lot of fun. 🙂 I’ve got a fun day out tomorrow and I’m excited I’ll be rocking these pretties all day.

I hope you guys love these as much as I do. Have a great day!

17 Jul

Crazy Tribal Nails

Howdy folks! I hope you are having a great week. It’s been a crazy busy one here in Nailinatorville. I’ve been cleaning and cleaning and the children have so kindly been providing me with more and more to clean up. Meh!

Anyway, on to the good stuff. The Rather Awesome 31 Day Nail Challenge is halfway done! I can’t believe it! It’s not too late to join if you want to. The ladies participating are very talented and super sweet! I love the support the nail art community has for one another. Keep it up gals! I’ve been having fun coming up with designs and I’ve got some great ones for the next couple of weeks so stick around. Day 17’s theme is “gradient” I decided to go with a look I’m personally on the fence about. I saw this mani by Finger Painted a month or so ago and was simply amazed at the awesomeness of it. I knew I wanted to try something like it and so I tried my hand at something similar. While I didn’t copy it exactly it is similar in patterns and bold colors. What do you think?

Please excuse the pitiful pictures. :/
I’ve had a great reaction to these nails but I’m just not 100% sure it’s for me. Know what I mean? I think I could rock this if I stick to just one color combo and tribal prints. This is more the style for The Shutterbug who absolutely loves these. I think she would prefer them in trueneons which I just couldn’t bring myself to use. 🙂 Would you wear these? Have you done any nail art that you feel isn’t really you but you would love it on someone else?

Things needed for this mani:
A daring I’m-going-to-try-something-crazy attitude.
Lots of polishes. I used the following.
Thumb – Oh My Golly Mojito and Klik Mango Shake
Index finger – Klik Ube Shake and Jewel
Middle Finger – Oh My Golly Jive and Klik Lazy Pink
Ring Finger – Klik Navy Blue and Baby Blue
Pinky – Oh My Golly Mojito and Klik Neon Purple
Makeup sponge
Black acrylic paint
Striping brush and detail brush

Toodles!

%d bloggers like this: