The Collector - Golden Decals for Your Odder Side

The Collector - Golden Decals for Your Odder Side || I titled these nails "The Collector."

Doesn't it seem like an amalgamation of weird items that you'd find in some spooky antique shop, owned by a weird dude that probably does a little spellcasting on the side?

These golden Wrap Artist decals pair with the soft, pink base in a really cool way. It's a sort of girly-meets-peculiar juxtaposition that I really enjoy!

I began by applying Presto Secco as my gel polish base. It's a really pretty soft pink that I actually bought for bridal season, but that works great year round as a more "natural" look!

Then, I applied the Wrap Artist decals. These are water slide decals, which is my preferred method of application for decals. They just work better! I used decals from both the "Bone Structure" and "Oddities" sheets for this look, but you should really just go look around the Wrap Artist site, 'cause there are so many awesome options.

After blotting off any excess water, I applied my gel topcoat to seal everything in and cured. The decals are very thin - I only needed one coat of gel top to smooth everything away.

I had a few people at work questioning the weirdness of this manicure (though just as many thought it was awesome, too). A client was like, "Um, did you know you have bugs on your nails?"

Yeah, I'm aware, and I love it!

It's a Marshmallow World in the Winter!

Meet my current holiday nails! I sat down to do a festive set the other night, but wanted to take them in a slightly different direction than the usual seasonal fare. I reached for the pastel versions of red and green and combined them with silver accents for a marshmallow winter set. I'm in love!

I used the following gels for this set:
Gelish Look at You, Pink-achu!
Gelish Do You Harajuku?
Vetro Silver Leaf
Akzentz Gel Play in Platinum Quartz
Akzentz Gel Play in White

Since I am still obsessed with all things Japanese nail art, this set is inspired by that style. I'm still working to master their eye for mix-and-matching, but I think I found a pretty good balance here that I'm happy with.

All of the details are handpainted, from the "PEACE" to the snowflakes! I also opted for a peace sign on my right hand, cause my left hand can't handle lettering (plus, it mixes things up a little more!).

I really love this set and my clients have been enjoying it, too! It's nice to feel festive without the traditional "rich red, deep green, glittering gold" color palette.

Carnaval Netting - X-Patterned Nail Art

Today's prompt is "inspired by a pattern" and I don't even know where I took it today, but here's what I ended up with. The candy colored palette has me thinking of Carnaval in Rio, while the X pattern is vaguely reminiscent of netting.

Wouldn't you know it, my base polish fits the theme! It's Gelish Carnaval Hangover, which is my new gel manicure for the week. I completely finished and cured the manicure before adding the designs.

Using a small nail art brush, I added the Xs with Duri - Shocking Twist (pea green), Sally Hansen - Blue Me Away (blue), and American Apparel - L'Espirit (pale purple). I didn't try to make them uniform, especially not from nail to nail, and instead went for a more abstract feel.

The manicure still needed something else, so after the Xs were done, I added black dots wherever the lines met. I think it contributes a lot to the final look!

More "inspired by a pattern" nail art:

• Dark, matte, and dotted
• Partial checkerboards
• Pretty paisley
• Tori Burch ruby floral

Electric Carnival Half Moons

Half moon day! I love half moons and every year during the challenge, I say that I'm going to wear them more often and then I never do. So here's my look for this year -- it started out in a different place than it ended up, which is some kind of mix of "electric carnival," "60s mod," and "old wallpaper." I dig it, but had one main issue, which we'll talk about below.

The base of this manicure is LVX Midori, this gorgeous yellow-green shade that I adore. Like, ADORE it.

However.

Midori has this tendency to seep through and discolor any other shades that are used on top of it (even if there's a coat of topcoat between them). It's worse with light colors, but Midori even altered the deep cobalt blue that I used in my stripes. I didn't remember this when I reached for it, and by the time I realized, it was too late. In this case it was okay, because the color palette ended up looking kinda cool and retro, but this was not originally what I had in mind.

The process for these is pretty easy. I put down two coats of Midori plus a coat of quick dry topcoat. Once it was set, I used half moon nail vinyls to block off the moon area, then painted freehand stripes with JINsoon Cool Blue and Deborah Lippmann Whip It. As you can see, Midori turned Cool Blue into "Cool Teal" and Whip It into coral. Oh well!

Next, I removed the vinyls, and added the arcing stripes in the open moon space. The final step, of course, is to finish with topcoat. Carnival chic!

Here are my half moon manis from the past four years of the challenge:

• Sweet and girly leopard half moons
• Retro striped half moons
• Delicate lace half moons
• Autumnal gilded half moon stamping

TUTORIAL: Easy Sideswipe Nail Art with Negative Space

Who's up for a super quick and easy nail art tutorial? This look is a variation on the distressed nail art tutorial that you may have seen around these parts before. I changed the direction, added a bit of negative space, and made it matte. Easy, easy, easy. Perfect for the gal on the go. Hit the jump to check out the tutorial and see this technique in action.




For this look, I used:
Color Club - Je Ne Sais Quoi
Essie - Too Taboo
Julie G - Cabana Boy
Glisten and Glow - HK Girl Topcoat
Essie - Matte About You Topcoat
Kolinsky 777 French/round brush
Pure acetone

If you don't have a round brush, give it a go with whatever clean up brush you have handy! Of course, if you'd rather, you can always go for the classic hole-punch-reinforcement-as-half-moon-stencil method, too.

Mix things up by grabbing different color combinations, skipping the matte topcoat, or using a nail vinyl as your negative space stencil. The possibilities! Share your versions with me on Instagram by tagging @chalkboardnails and hashtagging #hellochalkboardnails.

Purple Galaxy Nails, Inspired by the Pelican Nebula

Galaxy nails day for the 31 Day Challenge! I don't do galaxy nails nearly enough. They create such a stunning effect for so little effort. For this year's nail art, I was inspired by a photo of the Pelican Nebula that I found on NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD). I didn't end up using enough pink in for the look to match exactly, but that's okay. I love the depth in these.

Nail polishes and supplies used:
OPI Who Are You Calling Bossy?!? (black)
Zoya Sailor (navy)
LVX Orchid (orchid)
Misa Loveliest of Lilacs (medium purple)
Nicole by OPI American As Apple Pie (red)
Nicole by OPI Yoga Then Yogurt (white)
China Glaze Lotus Begin (light purple)
Formula X Freaky Like Freud (holographic glitter)
Triangle makeup wedges
Edinburgh Realism #4 nail art brush

I started by painting my nails black. Then, I used a torn piece of the makeup sponge to apply a bit of navy on my nails -- admittedly, that part doesn't really show as well as I was hoping it did. Using new bits of sponge for each color, I sponged on streaks of red, then medium purple, medium orchid, and light purple.

I mixed a bit of white polish with acetone for a thinned out, watercolor effect, and used it to do a bit of freehanding inside of the light purple sponging (you can see it in the middle of the large purple nebula sections). A holographic glitter, used sparingly, gave the effect of distant stars, while white polish and a pinpoint dotting tool created some closer objects. The final step was to freehand a handful of stars with cross lensflare.

Go where one girl has gone before:

• Maroon and yellow galaxy nails
• Hyperspace jump nail art
• The Pleiades Star Cluster galaxy nails

Handpainted Geometric Gradient Facets

One difficult thing about the 31 Day Challenge, for me, is that even if you have extenuating circumstances (like, say, you fall asleep watching Monday Night Football), you still have to get the next day's manicure done. When I woke up on the couch at 1:30am this morning and realized I had geometric nail art to do, it was pretty tough to drag my ass over to my nail table. BUT I DID IT! Because that's how I roll.

Nail polishes used:
Misa Dusty Magnolia (nude)
LVX Orchid (pink)
Misa Loveliest of Lilacs (purple)
JINSoon Cool Blue (blue)

The technique for this nail art is pretty simple to break down. I painted my nails nude, and then began adding geometric facets with a small nail art brush and pink polish. About a third of the way down the nail, I started doing the facets with purple. Two thirds of the way down, I did the facets in blue.

The last step was to blend the gradient. I created custom blends of pink/purple and purple/blue, and painted them in the areas where the colors met. It looks pretty seamless, especially at arm's length.

This year, I've changed the "tribal print" prompt to geometric in an effort to be more culturally sensitive. Here are the manicures I've done in the past:

• Peach and yellow patterned
• Stenciled hand cave paintings
• Navajo blanket weaving

Fireflies in the Field at Sunset

We don't have fireflies where I live, and I've always been fascinated by them. I've spotted them off the side of the road on a couple of family vacations, but nothing more! There's something so romantic about them, isn't there? I attempted to recreate a bit of their firefly magic in today's gradient nail art for the 31 Day Challenge.

Nail polishes used:
Misa Loveliest of Lilacs (purple)
Misa Lovely Lychee (pink)
Seche Wild One (coral)
China Glaze Happy Go Lucky (yellow)
American Apparel Hassid (black)
OPI Matte Topcoat
Yellow acrylic paint (firefly halos)

This nail art started with the sponged gradient. I painted on my purple base, and then used a triangle makeup wedge to sponge on a gradient of purple, pink, and coral, with the coral at the tips to mimic a setting sun. After that was finished, I used a small nail art brush to paint on the grass/rushes with black polish.

I used the bubble technique and yellow acrylic paint to make the firefly halos. Be sure to check out my quick tutorial for this technique if you've never tried it before! I added a dot of yellow polish in the center of the halos for the little fireflies themselves, and finished the manicure with a layer of glossy and then matte topcoat.

This manicure has quite a few steps, but none of them were particularly hard! It's all about layering techniques and styles for good effect. I'm so pleased how these turned out and I think they really read as fireflies in a field.

Check out my gradient manicures from past challenge years:

• Pink ombre manicure
• French manicure gradient
• Textured leather gradient