The Avengers Superhero Nail Art

So, let's get things clear. I'm a total nerd. Furthermore, I have a fascination for superheroes. I was, however, late to the Avengers. I only saw the Iron Man films before watching the Avengers. I didn't see it opening weekend. When I got around to viewing the film, I was hooked. I had to see Captain America and the other films. And with pictures of inspiration on the internet, I had to have the Avengers on my nails.

I came upon a design featuring the Avengers with half of their body on each hand. Unfortunately, I'm not sure of the original source of my inspiration.

To create this look ten nail polishes were used. These polishes included: Ma.nish.ma Rocket Green, Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme, Sally Hansen Blue It, Revlon Red Hot Tamale, Orly Luxe, China Glaze Snow, H&M Dazzling Nude, Orly Mirror Mirror, SpaRitual Howl, and China Glaze Happy Go Lucky. All work is freehanded. This design did take awhile.

Pictures were taken under artificial lighting. Please excuse the non-traditional background. I had to get the help of a family member to serve as photographer.

L to R: The Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor

Have you seen the Avengers yet? Who's your favorite superhero? My favorites are Batman and Iron Man. Not exactly sure what that says about me. 

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

Polka Dot Glitter Nail Art

Hope everyone is having a great Tuesday! I think I've come down with some disease but luckily it's not too bad yet.

Anyways, I've always like the look of 3d nail art and wanted to try studs and sequins. However, I don't own any loose glitter to create a look. I do own a significant amount of glitter polishes with some containing particularly large glitter pieces. So, by placing individual glitter pieces I can create looks reminiscent of loose glitter designs.Below, I've shown a polka dot sequin look. It involves taking individual hex glitters and placing them on the nail with a toothpick. I used the same method in my last design for the jubilee. It's tedious but well worth it.

The base is Nails Inc Baker Street. I really can't stop wearing this polish. Then I created a V-design using Illamasqua Rare. The hexagonal glitter pieces are from Milani Jewel FX Gold. They were individually placed with a toothpick into a polka dot arrangement. I love how they shine and look like tiny sequins on my nails.

All photos are taken under artificial lighting.

I really like how the glitter pieces look from different angles such as this close up photo demonstrates.

To be honest by the time I finished one hand I was reluctant to continue to individually place the hexs. Though the effect is in my opinion worth the time. Would you spend the time individually placing glitters? I always use manicures as a means of procrastination so it works quite well for me.

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

Cover Band Sticks n Stones

Can you believe it? Two posts in one night? Yeah, it's happening.


The latest nail polish craze are indie polishes. Polishes created by individuals and not the usual big name brands. I have a great deal of respect of the creators. I'm in awe how some brands can create the most unique and interesting shades. I wish I knew where to get the glitter that they use. I'm always lusting after square glitter.


Anyways, I dove into indie polishes with one of the most sought after, Cover Band Lacquers Sticks n Stones. Sold by Ninja Polish, the restock of this polish and Nail-venturous Floam, have caused several website/server crashes. After many missed opportunities, I was able to get my hands on this amazing black and white glitter. Why "Cover Band"? The polish is a homage to Lynnderella's Connect The Dots. I'm not sure if I ever will be able to get a Lynnderella, so I'm content with the imitation. 


The polish primarily contains black and white glitter. The is some blue microglitter in it. There are black and white hexagonal glitter of different sixes. White and black bar glitter. Square glitter, my favorite. It's just an amazing combination. 


The photos display one coat of Sticks n Stones over two coats of Nails Inc Baker Street.(Refer to my last post for a full review) All photos taken under artificial lighting.

Lately, I've had great luck with polishes. I feel like this polish could be the gateway drug to an indie polish obsession. There are so many brands I'm not sure where to start. Any suggestions?

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

Nails Inc Baker Street

Ah, the weekend. I'm glad it's finally here.


This post features my new favorite polish: Nails Inc Baker Street. I absolutely am in love with this cobalt blue. It applies flawlessly in two coats. I think this could be a one-coater if you apply thick enough. It's a gorgeous and vibrant creme cobalt blue. Seriously, I've used this polish in the last 3 out of 4 manicures and my last pedicure. As an owner of hundreds of polishes, that is saying something.


Nails Inc Baker Street is famous as the polish Beyonce sported after the birth of her baby daughter Blue. I can definitely see why it is receiving so much attention. It's stunning. I don't have anything quite like it.


The color was hard to photograph for me. Though the photograph below captures the color exactly. I just wasn't able to get multiple stellar photos.

Nails Inc is currently one of my favorite brands. Though I don't have many of their polishes I have fallen in love with the ones I have. Has anyone seen their new sprinkles collection? They will be mine.

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

Red Sparkle Bows

Hope everyone is having a good weekend! Not posting since Tuesday isn't that bad of me, right? Anyone following the Jubilee celebration? Currently, my brother is residing in London and I'm extremely jealous that I'm not there. Personally, I channeled my inner wahnails girl and created Jubilee nails for the occasion. That's not what I'm sharing today as my camera cord is fried :( but hopefully I'll have that up soon! (Edit: instagram photo preview here!)

Today's design is a simple bow design using a red glitter on top of a periwinkle creme. While I attempted using nail art tools the design seemed to be better when I didn't. So, the bow you see here was created with the regular polish bottle. 

The periwinkle is Essie Lapis of Luxury.Besides mint cremes, this is my favorite nail color. I can see myself buying all the periwinkles as what happened with me and mints. By the way if you buy Essie's retail it's called Lapiz of Luxury (which really annoys me, why do companies have to change names?). The red glitter is China Glaze Love Marilyn, a primarily red glitter with some silver hexes added. This is another easy design to create that yields great results.

All photos are taken inside with artificial lighting. Yes there are a lot of photos indicating my love for this simple but cute design.

Close ups of the bow.

Let me know if I should include less pictures. Not going to lie, sometimes I get carried away. Any periwinkle polish suggestions? I need them all. :)

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

Drip Manicure

Good morning! 

Today I'm actually sharing a manicure that I did not like. I liked the concept but I think I chose the wrong colors for this design. Ever hear of drip manicures? Basically the design features a secondary color "dripping" down from the tip. 

I started out with a no name pink polish from the Sephora collection. The formula wasn't impressive. Then I added sparkle with Confetti Pink Confetti, a sheer pink tinted glitter. I used China Glaze Snow for the drips.

All photos are inside with artificial lighting.

As a general rule the more pictures I post the more I like a manicure. I didn't particularly like this design. I think it would have looked better with brighter, bolder colors. Colors more my style, I guess. I was debating whether or not to post this. Everyone has manicures they don't really like so I thought I would share mine. Who knows, maybe you really like this. People seemed to like this when I wore it.

Anyways, I'll stop ranting. Love it or hate it. My feeling is meh.

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

Flakie Lavender Nails

Happy Memorial Day! Thanks to all who serve to keep the United States safe.


Now here's a somewhat old design...


The story to this manicure is as follows. Wore a lavender creme, got bored of it. Put a mint green triangle in the middle of all ten nails, got bored of it. Then added a flakie polish. I didn't take photos in between steps unfortunately.


The lavender polish is Revlon Gumdrop. It's the perfect shade of light purple and even smells like gumdrops. The triangles were created by taping off a section to expose a triangle space. I believe the mint green to be Revlon Minted. The reason I'm not entirely sure is that I do have an affinity for mint greens. I can't seem to stop buying them though I have slowed down my purchase rate. The flakie polish is Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure. I found this polish around the release date in a random Walgreens. I remember how excited I was afterwards.

Do you tend to refresh old manicures by changing an aspect or do you do a look and keep it that way?

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

Pastel Blue Bow Design

Good evening! Hope you have had a good weekend so far. Mine was great but exhausting. I got to go to a music festival and hiking with some close friends.

So, the design I'm sharing with you tonight is basically a pastel blue french tip and bow design on a pale yellow background. The yellow was hard to capture on camera though I feel like the last two photos portray it well. Sorry if the various backgrounds annoy you. I was trying to get a good picture and tried various places in my house in order to do so. The pale yellow is OPI Banana Bandana. It's my only light yellow and it has a decent formula. The blue is Essie Borrowed & Blue. It's one of my favorite shade of blues. Please excuse the nail growth shown here.

If you're in the U.S., hope you're long weekend goes well. Is anyone doing any patriotic themed nails? If you're not in the U.S., hope you had a great one! I know I did. 

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