Basket weave WAH Inspired Nail Art

One day I looked through the price list of the WAH Nail Art Salons. Looking through, I saw plenty of designs that I wanted to try. I settled on the basket weave look. It's very simple and only requires a base color and striper brush. 

I started with two coats of Illamasqua DWS. It's a medium grey polish with an excellent formula. It was the first Illamasqua purchase which sparked my love for their polishes. Currently I only own two but I am looking to add more of their lacquers to my collection. Next, I used a black nail art striper brush from Sinful Colors to create the basket weave design.

All photos are under artificial lighting.

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

Minnie Mouse Nail Art

Recently I've been getting into doing nail challenges off instagram. I participated in one challenge which involved recreating the nail art of @bedizzle. The concept had to stay the same but colors did not have too. 

Looking through her gallery, I come upon an adorable nail design inspired by Minnie Mouse. As an avid Disney fan, I knew this look would be the one I would recreate. The design features nails of a silhouette of Mickey and Minnie, a depiction of Minnie's bow, a picture of Mickey and Minnie kissing, Minnie Mouse heads, and polka dots.I recreated her design and altered some of the colors. Every nail started with a base of four coats of Essie Pink a Boo while my index nail had a base of two coats of Essie Blanc. The red used in this design is Revlon Red Hot Tamale. The black was Spoiled Visually Slimming and a nail art striper. 

I'm very proud of this freehand design. It took a while but the result was well worth the effort. I sincerely feel my skills are greatly improving as of late.

Close up of thumb silhouette of Mickey and Minnie Mouse

I'm really in love with this design. It was a fun process of recreating someone else's design. Admittedly the thumb and middle nail were quite challenging. It would have been much easier to use acrylic paint though I wanted to achieve the design using purely lacquer. I incorporated pink into the design since it seemed fitting to Minnie Mouse's personality.

What do you think of this design? I think it's fun, cute, and happy. I wish I lived closer to Disneyland or Disneyworld. I feel like this design needs to be worn at a Disney theme park. It's too cheery not too. :)

Have a great Monday!

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

The Joker from Batman Super Villain Nail Art

Ever since I did my Avengers nail art look, I've loved the look of comic book inspired nails and nerdy nails in general. Since my personality and lifestyle screams nerd how could I not seek to create other nerdy nails? Problem is that I never know what to start with. Especially when I have nails' block, the nail enthusiast's version of writer's block. Luckily I have great friends that can offer me up with inspiration. I planned on doing a superhero themed manicure but the suggestion of the Joker, the "super villain" from Batman, was too good to pass up. There also seems to be plenty of nail love given to the superhero but not the villain of the story. Hope you can see the resemblance. 

I used Essie Mojito Madness as a base for this freehand design. The polishes I used for the design where: Milani Precision Nail Art Brush in Black (lines), China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses (Joker's tie), China Glaze Marry a Millionaire (suit), Sally Hansen HD DVD (suit), Essie Blanc (face, hand, playing card), and Revlon Red Hot Tamale (creeper smile, heart). I based my Joker off a comic depiction of this man in a purple suit with a green tie. The Joker's signature is playing cards so with my thumb I opted for the ace of hearts sort of a cop-out for a joker playing card. :) 

All photos are under artificial lighting. Comment below if you are wishing to know details on how I created this look. 

Close up of thumb.

He looks very dashing in his suit. So which side are you on: superhero or super villain? Furthermore, should I embark on creating an equivalent Batman nail design? Perhaps for the new movie in July.

Anyways, using comic book characters, whether super hero or villain, as nail inspiration is quite fun. I tend to simplify or cartoon-ize by nature. I love the end result. I really enjoy creating manicures that are fun to make, look at, and share. Let me know how you feel about this design. Have a great day!

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

Diamond Jubilee Inspired Nail Art

Two weekends ago, I found myself captivated by all the Jubilee nail art on Tumblr. One of my favorite tumblr blogs is The Illustrated Nail. This salon came up with gorgeous designs to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's reign for sixty years. Furthermore, I was inspired to create my own nail art for the event. One of these days I've got to visit the UK-and go to all the amazing nail artists out there.

Each nail is different besides the ring and thumb nail which both feature Union Jack flags. The pinky nail has a crown design. The middle finger has a diamond for the diamond jubilee. The index nail has the number 60 on it. All photos taken inside with artificial lighting.

Nail Art Breakdown:

Pinky:Crown formed by placing individual hex glitters from Milani Jewel FX Gold. Base of Revlon Red Hot Tamale. Two blue dots added with Nails Inc Baker Street.

Ring: British flag done with base of Nails Inc Baker Street, Milani Precision Nail Art Brush in White, and Revlon Red Hot Tamale.

Middle:Base of Revlon Red Hot Tamale. Diamond created with Milani Jewel FX Silver with black lines surrounding shape with Milani Precision Nail Art Brush in Black. Baker Street added to sides of tip.

Index: Baker Street base. Milani Jewel FX Silver used to create 60. Red Hot Tamale on tip. China Glaze Love Marilyn over red.

The crown and the thumb flag. To create designs using a large glitter polish use a toothpick to pick up and place individual glitter pieces.

Have a great week! Mine's going to be stressful but rewarding.

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

Jil Sander Inspired Striped Nail Design

Hi! One day I was searching online and found this post. It featured nails done by Hey, Nice Nails! based off a Jil Sander sweater that Kanye West sported. I loved their design and just had to try it with my own style using neons of course. :)(Original design here and simplified version)


The base color is Illamasqua Rare,layered on top of China Glaze Snow to improve opacity. The design colors are all neons from Color Club: Edie, Poptastic, and Pucci-licious(neon green, pink, and purple respectively). The stripes were made using a nail art striper. I used the simplified version found on Hey,Nice Nails! as a guide for my design.


I really enjoyed recreating and wearing this look. I'm in love with the design for sure. Using neons led to a super bright standout manicure. It was a look not to be ignored.


All photos are taken inside with artificial lighting.

Illamasqua Rare is extremely difficult to photograph. The bottle photo below is a very accurate representation. 

Have a great(long)weekend!

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

You Da One Rihanna Inspired Nail Art

Have you seen Rihanna's music video for her song "You Da One"? Music tastes aside, in the video she  sports a great manicure. Rihanna is one of those stars on top of her nail game. She takes risks rather than falling back to nudes. Her nails in the video are white with black triangle v-gaps. 

To recreate her look, I used China Glaze Snow as a base. Next, I taped my nails to expose a triangle section on the bottom and applied Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme. Taking off the tape revealed the triangle pattern like Rihanna's. 

Her nail shape is rounded and pointed compared to mine. So, in order to make my nails look more like hers, I traced to the corners with black to give it some contouring almost. You can see this on my pinky nail. I'm not sure how effectively it works, but to me it seemed to make a difference. I really like Rihanna's nail shape. I'm debating whether or not I should round off my nails. All photos are taken in artificial light.

Searching online, there are many posts and videos featuring this design. Rihanna continues to impress me with her nail designs. More stars should take note of her style.

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

Nicki Minaj/Robin Moses inspired nail art

I can never leave a creme polish alone.

It's true. Every time I wear one I have an instinct

to add nail art.

Last post I showed OPI Did It On 'Em which is the base to this design. I took inspiration from Nicki Minaj as well as a YouTube video from nail genius Robin Moses.

If you would like to know the colors used to create this architectural design please leave a comment below. Basically it was a process of painting different colored triangles and shapes and then outlining with black polish. Of course, I had to add glitter.

(close up of thumb nail)

Have you ever taken nail inspiration from a celebrity?

On To The Next Polish,

Katie