Stamped Dotticure

Attending a recent* funeral I decided to try and match the blouse I was wearing. Not a bad attempt I think. I'm fairly certain the color is Covergirl's Star Wars Limited Edition "Emerald Blaze" duo chrome over a black polish. I really should have left it solid black to match my blouse better but I had just gotten that Star Wars polish and was eager to play with it. I think the stamp is a Born Pretty plate with a stamping white over it. I did this mani pre-pandemic and I really don't remember what I used. 

*I started to write this blog post over 3 years ago. It's been sitting in my drafts folder for way too long so trying to finish if off.

Dot Mandala

I love the look of dot mandalas. I just don't have the hang of doing them myself quite yet. While this isn't bad, it's not quite right yet. This mani was done a few years ago (I'm working on getting my old posts up) so I'm not entirely sure what colors I used. As a guess I'd say mostly Sally Hansen.

Ali's Wedding Nails

My co-worker got married this past weekend and asked me to do her nails for her. I'm not a professional so I was super flattered to be asked. We brainstormed several different things for what she liked and she surfed Pintrest for art ideas before she settled on this simple black tip with a gold heart accent. The base color is Finger Paints Endless Wear "Nude Sketch" that matched her dress nearly perfectly and the tips were done with Wet n Wild "Black Creme" and a striping brush. The gold heart was done in Maybelline "Bold Gold" and a dotting tool. Simple and elegant.

Congratulations Ali!

Almost a 31 Day Challenge: Day One~Red

I really did intend to do Chalkboard Nails challenge again this year. I even started on the first 2 challenge manicures (Day One: Red and Day Two: Orange) but I just fell into a slump. Maybe I will still do it, but for now here is what my Day One: Red was gonna look like. I've been doing Crumpet's SIMPLES challenge for a few weeks leading up to this and had dots on the brain. This is (I think) Essie "5th Avenue" and Sally Hansen "Red-io Active". I was kinda trying a dot gradient, but I think the dots were slightly too large. I did like it and even posed with one of my newest Dragon Eggs. I love how it looks like the glitter on the dragon egg :D

Ingress ~ Enlightened

I've mentioned it before on my other blog, but I'm a big girl. I don't mean grown up, I mean I got more than a little meat on my bones. As such I've been keen this year to loose some (or alot) of weight. I took up jogging which, on its own is fine, but I just discovered a video game that ties very nicely into my wanting to get up and work out. It's called Ingress and it is a world wide, GPS based, capture the flag type game. You capture points (called portals) for your team. The catch is these portals are actual sculptures, interesting buildings, or works of art in your town. You have to physically go to these locations. This game gave me the excuse I was looking for to go for a long walk or jog. You can procrastinate when you're just listening to music and walking, but when you get a notification that the portal you captured yesterday is under attack today? You grab your shoes and try and get it back now! Its way more fun and addictive than you would think it would.

Anyway, there are 2 teams and I play for the green team (my fav color) called the Enlightened. The blue team is the Resistance. The idea behind the game is a new energy is leaking into our world called Exotic Matter (XM for short). The Enlightened want to study it and see if it can be harnessed for good. The Resistance believe no good will come of it and it was sent to control human minds. The theory is XM has been leaking for a long time and has shaped mankind's will for generations. It even has affected our minds and made us shape our art in a manner that will allow it to leak thru faster (hence portals are usually art sculptures. We unknowingly made them into patterns that will allow XM to come thru).

To do these nails, first I painted them all black using Orly "Black Vinyl". Then using a striper brush I painted white lines and free handed the enlightened symbol using Cosmetic Arts "Picture Day". I used the water color technique to make the foggy field areas (when you connect 3 portals in a triangle it makes a field between them and gives you lots of experience points.)

Then I painted over all of it with Sinful Colors "Irish Green" a bright green jelly. I hoped you wouldn't see the green over the black, but it did show up somewhat. Next time I'll have to be more careful with the jelly.

Some XM just floats around, that's the white dots I added after the green jelly. I am adoring this mani even tho very few people will understand it. If you get a chance, check out the game. And join the Enlightened! :)

Check out this great commercial for it! *Note: I am not paid for this. I wish I was, Google has deep pockets. I just really enjoy the game and like to talk about it.*

*Technical Difficulties* apparently I can't access YouTube on the mall's WiFi. I'll try and add the vid later.

Mickey Mouse Party!

We had a Mickey Mouse party at the store I work at this weekend. We wore disney shirts and mouse ears and of course I had to do my nails to match my shirt. I forgot to take a picture of it, but it has the work "Mickey" in rainbow glitter. I also just got a new striping brush so I decided to give it a bit of a work out. The rainbow is (from red to purple) Essie "5th Avenue", Sally Hansen "Lighting", "In Record Lime", "Blue Me Away", and China Glaze ... I forgot the name. Something Lilac. Hang on, I'll see if I can look it up. Ugh, I don't remember and I'm not at home right now. I'll update this when I get home and can look at my bottles.

Anyway I topped it off with China Glaze "Icecap" to match the glitter on the shirt. The ring and thumb got "5th Avenue" dotted with China Glaze "Snow" to mimic Minnie's dress. Then because it still looked a bit plain, I added dotted Mickey heads in Cosmetic Arts "TGIF". I'm really kinda digging the way this turned out. I think I might have a picture I sent to a friend on my cell phone of the shirt an ears I was wearing. I'll see if I can find it...

 (to be updated in a couple hours...)

SIMPLES Week 5 Updated

There is a reason you shouldn't work ahead of the class. There were very specific rules we needed to follow for week 5, but since I worked ahead I didn't know them. So here is the week 5 mani I did that followed the rules properly. China Glaze "Snow" with "Celtic Sun (Neon)" over it and dotted with LA Girls black dotting polish. It looks greenish in the picture but its actually a neon yellow.

SIMPLES ~ Basic Dots

So yeah, I'm just gonna skip over the month of May. No real reason, I just got busy and time just slipped away. It happens. But back to business. I've joined another new FaceBook group, this time one started for the sole purpose of introducing people to nail art. It's called SIMPLES- Nails Art from Muggle to Mastery. It was started by Debbie Crumpet of The Crumpet. It's a wonderful way to get new people interested in nail art by starting very basically and working your way up to more complex designs. The first month was dedicated to just getting people used to the idea of having more than one color on their nails, but I did this manicure with week 5 in mind. Dots!

I started off with a coat of Wet n Wild "Black Creme". I've been having some problems with my undies showing around the edge of my nails so I purposely didn't paint this coat right up to the edge.

I then did 2 coats of Orly "Haily's Comet" The fact that the undies didn't go all the way to the edge is nearly invisible in real life, but for some reason this picture shows it clearly on my thumb.

I then used my new dotting tools I just picked up at Wal-Mart to make big and small dots on just one side of the nail. I used an old discontinued Sally Hansen color called "Black Pearl Chrome". Sally Hansen has just released new chrome colors and I'm dying to pick a couple up and see if they match up to the old discontinued chrome colors.

And there you go! A very basic dot manicure that I really love. I think I'll go back and do the first 4 weeks as well. I'd like to follow along, I'm sure there are techniques I've never done before. Here is the plan for SIMPLES:

Let's Just Paint

Week 1 - Plain Accent Nail

Week 2 - Plain Skittle

Week 3 - Ombre

Week 4 - Saran Wrap

Basic Dotting

Week 5 - Dotting Tools - Basic Dots

Week 6 - Dotting Tools - Mixed Dots

Week 7 - Dotting Tools - Multi-Coloured Dots

Week 8 - Dotting Tools - Dots Within Dots

Back To Bases

Week 9 - Splodging

Week 10 - Watercolour

Week 11 - Gradient !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Putting It Together

Week 12 - A Splodged Base or Saran Wrap Base With Dots

Week 13 - A Skittle with Dots

Week 14 - A Gradient with Dots

Dotting Tools Do More Than Dots

Week 15 - Ruffle

Week 16 - Leopard

Week 17 - Camoflage

Week 18 - Flowers