Surreal Garden with Dragonflies

Hello!

Today's look could have been two separate manis. I wasn't sure what I was doing exactly when I started, and even though I'm happy with both looks, they don't seem that cohesive.

I started off with a base of piCture pOlish Atomic. Some of you must be sick of hearing what I use as a base since it seems it always gets covered up anyway! I'm often intending for some of the qualities of the base polish to shine though, but it rarely turns out that way.

pre clean up and stamp

On my thumb, index and middle finger I used a combination of sponging and dry brush technique for this ethereal look. Polishes are Misa Lash Out, Motives Tahiti Surf, Misa Let's Go Green, and Elevation Polish Wuyi Mountain. On my ring and pinky, with the same techniques, I used Duri What a Keeper, Elevation Polish El Cap, Cirque Vaudeville and Cadillacquer Pinkman.

The grass is from Vivid Lacquer plate 14 and the dragonflies and stars are from plate 19. The flowers are from Konad plate m53. I love the surreal garden, and the whimsical dragonflies, but they don't necessarily work together do they? What do you think?

Bonus macro to show off some shimmer:

Pretty Shimmering Pie Floral

Hello!

After making a conscious decision to use more holos, I've now decided I need to give more of my shimmers some shine.

I used Elevation Polish Limestone as my base. In the macro below you can see hints of the gold flakes shine through the gradient. The 'pie' gradient is made up of Elevation Polish El Cap (bluish purple), Duri Showstopper (pink) and Misa Let's Go Green (green, duh).

shimmery 'pie' gradient pre-stamp

The flower image is from Bundle Monster 220 and I used OPI Eurso Euro and Live.Love.Carnival.

...and here's a bonus macro that our Instagram followers seemed to enjoy.

-L

Nail Fail

Hello!

Sometimes what you dream up in your mind doesn't end up translating well to your nails.

This is one of those times. I quite like the way the gradient turned out, so I'm disappointed I ruined it with this poor stamping.

I started with 2 coats of Cult Nails Let's Get Dirty, which is neither here nor there since no evidence of it comes through the gradient. I had originally intended for all 4 shades to be visible but the lines I created on the sponge were too wide. The gradient colours are Duri Showstopper (pink), Essie Naughty Nautical (turquoise), and Essie Sexy Divide (purple).

I then used different parts of a lily bouquet image from Vivid Lacquer 014 with Konad White. Crap. Nothing against the image plate, I just didn't plan my stamping well. It looked so stark with just the white that I used a couple Nfu-Oh jelly polishes and filled the image in a bit, but still looks crap!

Since I change my nails so often this really isn't the biggest deal, I only lived with it for about 24 hours before taking it off. Win some, lose some.

Do you wear your fails or do you scrap them immediately?

-L

Dusky City Skyline, Nails of the Day

Hello!

Today's look is sort of a practice run for a similar idea I've been playing with in my head for awhile, but I'm not going to reveal all the details yet!

I started with 2 coats of bondi nyc Chasing the Sun.

Orange is certainly not my first pick of polish shades, but I quite like this! It reminds me of creamsicles.

I then sponged on Duri What A Keeper (blurple with hidden shimmer) and bondi nyc NYPD (the deep blue). The sparkly 'stars' are Color Club Magic Attraction, which has holo that unfortunately didn't translate in photos.
I stamped the buildings from Vivid Lacquer plate 004 with Konad Gold Black and the moon with Vivid Lacquer plate 017 and Konad Silver. I purposely didn't use my usual NOPI because it's actually more opaque than the Konad special polish and I wanted the moon to look a bit more ethereal.
The tiny building lights are OPI I Can't Cope-acabana, using a cut down brush and just barely dotting it onto the surface.

I took an iPhone photo with flash, and it made the moon look really cool!

The glare of the flash even gave me perfect stars in the sky!
Hope you like this look as much as I do!

-L

Cynthia Rowley Inspired, Nails of the Day

Hello!

I’m really excited about sharing today’s post because I love the results, it may be my favourite mani to date!

I was really stumped for inspiration. Now that I’ve been putting my nails on the internet I was having serious performance anxiety. I cleaned my nails and mulled over my options for hours. HOURS.

I finally decided to interpret my Cynthia Rowley scarf. It’s so bright and floral – perfect for spring!

I started with my go-to base, CoverGirl Silver Lining. I was getting sick of doing linear gradients so I painted a tri-colored wheel  thingy on my sponge and rotated it for each finger. The tricky part was remembering which way it was oriented when I went back for more layers!

the first stage

The colours on the wheel are bondi nyc Teal Magnolia, Duri Showstopper and L’Oreal Royalty Reinvented. I’ve used Showstopper for a number of gradients, but for some reason last night it was not behaving well. It kept balding instead of building so at the last gradient layer I added a bit of bondi nyc Fuschia-istic to make the pink as opaque as the other colours.

the final product

I pulled out 5 different stamping plates but didn’t end up using them all. I used Pueen 46 and bondi nyc The Limelight over the purple parts. I really love this colour combo, I just wish it was more obvious.  The image transferred well but it’s just not as opaque at one layer, and I didn’t double stamp for fear it would look too messy. I used the same image and stamped with OPI Amazon…Amazoff over the teal parts (it stamped beautifully and I look forward to using it again). On just my thumb I used Konad m4 and bondi nyc NYPD, as a trial. I like the contrasting accent for my thumb, but I thought it would be too bold for the rest of my fingers so I put NYPD away.  Instead I grabbed Konad m53 and bondi nyc Chasing the Sun and stamped some flowers over the pink areas. This unfortunately was barely visible, but created a lovely shade, so not a total loss. I turned to Nyx Purple instead for the flowers. Everything got topped off with Glisten & Glow HK Girl.

the mani and its muse (the scarf)

I posted this on our Instagram account yesterday (canvaslacquer), and was asked if I would enter it into a spring themed contest. The prize is basically a shoutout from 3 beauty bloggers, but it would really help the CANVAS cause so I’m going to enter. Wish me luck!

-L

Easter/Spring Mani featuring Emily de Molly 'Frail Promise', Nails of the Day

Yay! Spring has FINALLY sprung in Toronto. My spring inspired mani ended up looking a bit Easter-y, but since it's coming up anyway I'm quite satisfied with the result!

First I started with a base of Colors by Llarowe Precious Metal (shimmery grey). My thumb and ring finger are featuring Emily de Molly Frail Promise. I only needed 1 coat for the glitter payoff. I tested this on a nail wheel previous to using it in this mani and discovered that I def prefer it at one coat, at 2 coats I found it a bit too busy for my taste - but to each their own!
I love the colour combination of the glitters, which is what lead me to choosing the colours for the gradient. The green is piCture pOlish Jade (shimmery minty green) and the pink is Duri Showstopper (shimmery pink).
I then stamped over the gradient using Vivid Lacquer plate 019 and Konad White. I was having a hard time getting the images to transfer cleanly - but that was definitely due to my white polish getting a bit old, and  nothing to do with the plate.

I don't typically show my thumb, but since I didn't get as much of the aqua glitters on my ring finger as my thumb I decided to include it, better tying all the colours together.
However, that being said, I still didn't feel it was as harmonious as I'd like it to be, so I topped everything off with a coat of KBShimmer I Only Have Ice For You, a sparkly holo glitter.

The difference is subtle in pictures but more apparent IRL. I LOVE the added sparks of holo over Frail Promise.

Here's a closer look.

Hope you're all able to enjoy the beautiful spring weather!

-L