Planchette

Originally I had planned a blood moon mani for this last week of October. Although, every attempt it fought me, so next year perhaps.

So instead I bring you a blingy planchette (you know the little pointing device for Ouija boards).

I hope you all have a safe, happy and positively frightening Halloween!

See you next week with some Christmas themes.

Colours used:

"Howl You Doin'" China Glaze
"Black Out" Sally Hansen

Pink Galaxies

These looked much better in person, the "Fairy Dust" made them really come to life. For these I was inspired by Black Milk Clothing's  Pink Galaxy Leggings (you can see them here).

The colours I used for these nails are: "Black Creme" and "French White Creme" by Wet n' Wild; "Ahoy!", and "Evening Seduction" by China Glaze; and "Fuchsia Fever" Bye Revlon. I topped them off with some "Fairy Dust" (China Glaze) and "Disco Ball" (Covergirl).

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 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!

Newspapers

    A bit late, but yesterday was Family Day (a public holiday) so I took the day off from posting.

Feb/17/2013

The colours used are "White French Creme" and "Black Creme" by Wet n' Wild. On top of that I did a newsprint transfer, which did not turn out very well, and added some silver striping tape to finish it off. Overall not a bad design, but next time I'll use fresher newspapers to get a better transfer.

OCC Inky; Swatch

I've got another swatch for you today, this time it's
Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics' "Inky".

"Inky" by OCC

Inky, is a very dark shade of blue, it's almost black it's so dark. It wears wear, but will stain if you go without a basecoat. I used 2 coats here, but with 1 thick coat it would be just as opaque, one of the reason's I'm loving OCC's Nail lacquers lately.

Have a Good Weekend!

Nyx: Robotic Swatch

A while back I purchased a few nail polish goodies via la internet. They finally arrived but I'm going to swatch them one by one and slowly so I don't expose my nails to too much acetone at any given time.

Here's one of them:

Dec/26/2012

I apologize for the chip in the middle finger nail. Onwards! So this is "Robotic" by Nyx Girl polish. I've never tried Nyx's nail polishes before, and I have to admit I'm not fond of them. It's chipped after one day (the thumb is completely gone), and this is done with 6 coats, it's incredibly sheer, which can be a plus in some instances but not when I was expecting a solid colour.

On the plus side, I do like this shade, its a blueish green that's nearly black with blue/green shimmer to it, it's a subtle shimmer, but it does remind me of China Glaze's "Smoke and Ashes".

I should buy a few more Nyx polishes to determine if they're all this sheer, but I'm hoping they aren't, all of that aside, this colour chips to soon for my liking.

Purple Clouds

These next few weeks are going to be hell, but here are some quick and easy clouds for you!

These were done with "Flying Dragon(Neon)" by China Glaze, "Silver Sweep" (Sally Hansen), and "Black Creme" by Wet n' Wild. Really simple, really quick, and super cool.

There won't be much posting for these upcoming weeks, but hopefully once my hours drop down again, I'll have some more time to spend on my nails.

Have a good week!

Flashback Friday: Geometric Pink

This was more of  a nail fail than anything else. But I will try it again one day when I have a steadier hand.

September 9th 2012.

 The base colour for these was "Tickled Pink" by Wet n' Wild. Please excuse the fact that I didn't clean up around the edges. I just hated it so much I had to remove it immediately. 

Happy Jack-o-lanterns

My first idea failed, so here are some simple Jack-o-lanterns instead!

Just something really simple. The base colour is "Hi Pumpkin" by OPI. The black sheer glitter you see ombred on the other nails is a glitter polish I made. I'm calling it "Juvenile Batfish" after the glitter mixture I purchased from an eBay seller.

Halloween Water Marble

Oct/21/2010 to Oct/31/2010

Halloween marble design. Used "Black Sand" and "Lickety-Split Lime" by Sally Hansen for the water marble. Used some Konad Halloween stamps with their Special Polish in "Black".

Flashback Friday: Abstract French

May/10/2010

Another black tipped french, only with some white dots and swishes. "Black Creme" by Wet n' Wild.

Flashback Friday: Pink Flowers and Black Tips

Jan/31/2010

Simple black french, with some hot pink flowers. Used very transparent paint for those flowers. Anyway, the base colour is "Sheer Pink" by Revlon, the tips are "Black Creme" by Wet n' Wild.

Pink Flamingo

A day later, but yesterday I was the equivalent of a zombie.

August/11/2012

 

Here is a swatch for you, I was too tired to do any nail art, and the ones I did try did not want to turn out, so I just gave up. We have here 2 coats of Orly's "Va Va Voom" a nice neon pink, with 1 coat of Nina Ultra Pro's "Pink Flamingo" to dull it down a touch.

I did manage some nail art, here is a 3D flower I sculpted in black acrylic powder on my thumb nail. I used Color Club's Nail Art Liner in "Bronze" for the gold-ish outlines. I hope you enjoy, and I promise more fun nail art after my exams are done.

I Herd That

Kind of early, but I've heard rumours that the Internet will be down tomorrow for some dumb reason. I bought some new polishes after having my dermals removed on Friday. Here's one of the polishes I picked up.

July/07/2012

The base colour is "I Herd That" from China Glaze's 'On Safari' collection. It's a nice sandy glitter polish with hints of copper, it dries matte so if you want it glossy use a fairly thick top coat, and multiple layers. I dressed it up with some black hand painted flowers.

Flashback Friday: Chevron French

Sept/03/2011 to Sept/05/2011

Simple white roses on a black chevron french. Base colour is "Sheer Pastel Nude" by Kleancolor with "Liquid Vinyl" by Orly for the tips.

Flashback Friday: Pink Roses

June/12/2012

Base colour is "Shocking Pink (Neon)" by China Glaze, with one coat of "Fairy Dust" on top of the index, middle and pinky fingers. I painted some little black roses on my ring and thumb nails.

Enjoy!

Dinosaurs

This week I went for something simple, since I've had a lot of heavy art nails lately. Here's a raptor skeleton for you. He looks more like a dragon to me, but w/e. The base colour is OPI's "Cozu Melted in the Sun".

Flashback Friday: Inverted Molds

So a little note for you all before the fun stuff. Seeing as all my Friday posts are old mani's from ages back, I', going to officially start calling them "Flashback Fridays".

April/15/2011 to April/23/2011

Inverted molds, a different type of acrylic nail system. I bought mine off of their website here. I find they give a nice finish (not needing any buffing to get a glossy shine) although my application is sloppy seeing the bubbles trapped under the molds. I used my own gold glitter acrylic mix for these.