Cheshire Cat

These remind me vaguely of the Cheshire Cat from Disney's version of Alice in Wonderland.

I can't recall when these were done.

Allow me to start off by saying, I attempted my own home made matte top coat, using corn starch and clear polish, as you can see it worked, although that big white splotch is some corn starch that didn't quite get mixed in enough.

The base is "Va Va Voom" by Orly, with the stripes done in "Twilight" by L.A. Girl.

I like my homemade matter top coat, I just need to remember to shake it really well hahah.

Fire an Blood: House Targaryen

This is the last manicure in this month's Game of Thrones theme.

House Targaryen:

Let me begin by saying, this is my favourite manicure of all! And it was so much faster to do than I thought it would be! Also Daenarys is one of my favourite characters from Game of Thrones aside from Tyrion Lannister.

Main Four

 So this manicure is a mix and match type deal. The dragons are the main thing I wanted to emphasize though, so they got the middle finger, then to continue the dragon theme, fire was needed. I tried using a needle drag techinque for the flames but it wasn't turning out how I wanted it so I switched and just painted them on, they look infinitely better this way. 

Thumb Close up.

 Keeping with the dragon theme, I chose to do scales on my thumb because I felt it would be far too dark if I did another black nail. I like the end result of the thumbs. I started with a base of "Cayenne Pepper" by L.A. Colors, and made a darker red to add some depth to each scale. This was super easy and really fast.

Dragons Close up.

 The dragons were also surprisingly easy to do. I began with an oval in red for the heads and some curvy fat lines for their necks, then went in with some black and a fine brush to add eyes, mouths and the frill part on the dragons' spines. I used a dotting tool to dab some "Cayenne Pepper" onto the dragons to make them look like scales. And of course, there's also some fire in the background there :).

I know I've already said this before, but this is my favourite manicure of them all, so much so that I may revisit it later on this year, after all, you can never go wrong with fire breathing dragons! Even though this is the last Game of Thrones inspired mani that I'm doing, I know there are many other houses that can be done, and have been done by others. 

I hope you have a wonderful week! 

Dress Nails (Feet Warning)

So a client of mine asked for nail art that resembled the dress she was wearing to an event.

March 06 2013

The pattern on the dress was very brushstroke-like using a magenta, hot pink and black. The colours I used were "Ahoy!" and "Flying Dragon(Neon)" by China Glaze and "Black Creme" by Wet n' Wild. This was a very quick and easy design to do and the client loved it.

House Lannister (Photo Heavy)

Week 3, we're almost there!

House Lannister nails:

Whole Hand

 So as you know the Lannister's sigil is a Lion, I chose not to use the original sigil for these because its very tough getting a whole lion in there with the amount of detail I would've wanted. So instead I opted for one of the desktop wallpaper lions.

Main Four.

 I also included a fancy chevron french manicure to the other nails, unfortunately the rhinestones on my index finger migrated a bit before I photographed these and noticed it. I added the lion's tail on the pinky because I didn't want it plain, and didn't know what else I should put there.

Thumb Close up.

 This is by far the best looking lion.

The base colour I used for these was "Hey Sailor!" by China Glaze. I painted the lions using a gold/yellow matte acrylic paint. The gold striping tape is from the BornPretty store.

These were fun, but didn't turn out as nicely as I hoped, but overall I'm pleased with them.

Have a good week! And stay tuned for the Finale!

If you would like a set of these feel free to contact me.

Orly "Va Va Voom"; Swatch

I like neon pinks, seeing as I have a few in my stash.

This is "Va Va Voom" by Orly. It's blindingly bright in person, and it was tough getting a decent photo of these. As you can see it dries to a rubbery matter finish. It wears well, no major chips or sudden chunks missing. It is a bit sheer though, so I used about 3 thickish coats. The formula was quite nice and it dried fairly quickly too. Overall a wonderful neon pink, for when you feel like having loud nails.

House Stark (Photo Heavy)

This week its House Stark in continuation of my Game of Thrones month.

Whole Hand

 Let me start by saying, I had a ton of trouble getting the Stark dire-wolf  right, they either looked to fluffy or like they were grinning as opposed to snarling.

Main Four.

 I chose to do some geometric patterns on the ring and index fingers because mimicking the wolf's fur would have made it too busy, and I like the geometric/asymmetrical french going on. The snow on the pinky is because of all the snow in Winterfell and obviously the wolf is the Stark sigil.

Thumb close up.

This one is the best looking wolf, most likely due to the large size of my thumbnail.

The colours I used are: China Glaze "First Mate", with "Wet Cement" by Sally Hansen. I used my trusted Speedball ink and dip nib pen for the black outlines.

If you would like a set of these, as either false nails or nail wraps, send me an email.

Have a Happy Monday!

House Baratheon

If you're one of my peeps on Facebook, you may have already heard that I'm dedicating this months manicures to Game of Thrones, in honour of Season 3 (airing March 31st, 2013).

The first house up is Baratheon!

Whole Hand.

The house sigil for Baratheon is the deer, so antlers were a definite must, as you can see the french on my index and ring fingers are outlined by black antlers, while I have the main deer in the center, even though it's just a close up of the head. 

Main Four.

The deer was done using, believe it or not, regular India ink by Speedball and a nib pen. You can see little crackle marks which appeared after I top-coated, but I love the way it did that. I found that it was a lot easier getting the fine details in using this method than using a brush and paint/polish.

Thumb detail.

I originally wanted to do another deer head on the thumb, but I came across an alternate symbol when I searched Baratheon on Google, it was an image of symmetrical antlers on a yellow-gold background; although my antlers are not symmetrical, I think I came as close as I'm going to.

So now on to the polishes, the base colour I used for my thumb and middle finger is "Fast Track" by China Glaze, from their Hunger Games collection. On the other nails is "Expresso 58" by Kleancolor, a nice rich metallic chocolate brown.

If you would like a set of these, be it false nails or nail decals, feel free to contact me at my email: ayeshaskhan27@yahoo.ca. Please put a subject in, so that I don't accidentally mistake it for spam.

Have an awesome week!