Spongey Coloured Floral, Nails of the Day

Hello!

I thought about continuing with my monochrome theme, but the weather has been too nice not to do something more bright and summery.

I started with a base of a-England Encore Margot, a gorgeous silvery holo that has not been justice by my photos. I really wanted to see how cremes and a holo base would play together so I grabbed bondi nyc The Limelight (bright green), Essie Come Here (coral) and a blue Misa I can never remember the name of!

before the stamping

I quite like the look of this before the stamping. I really wish the holo translated better, it looks SO COOL in the sun, but I didn't get a chance for a photo.
I used a Pueen plate and Konad Gold Black for the flowers and dots.

I did my best to offset the stamping so I wouldn't cover up too much of the holo base and the sponged colours. I like the final result, and it matched my mood and the weather! I feel like there's got to be a dress or two out there that this would pair up perfectly with.

-L

Monochrome Blue, Nails of the Day

Continuing in the monochrome theme from my last mani, I decided to do something blue.

I wasn't really sure where I was going with this when I started. I grabbed a bunch of my blue cremes, a detail brush and went to work.
I started with a base of bondi nyc Blue Skies - for a fairly light colour I'd consider this an ALMOST one coater! With my detail brush I used a number of blues - and unfortunately I can't remember them all at the moment. I definitely used bondi nyc NYPD, and bondi nyc Midnight Mystery, which are deeper blues. I used a Misa for the lighter blue, but I can't remember what it's called. There may have been another shade or two but who knows!
I then stamped using a Pueen plate 46 and Konad Gold Black.

 

...and then I did this. Probably shouldn't have. I guess I just wanted to add some pizzazz and didn't know how to. So I put a coat of Quo by Orly Glam Trash (which I think is exactly like Orly Sparkling Garbage). It obscures the stamped image, and not in a good way.
The thing about overdoing, or messing up any mani, is that I change my nails so often that I don't let it bother me for very long. I'm always thinking about what I'll be doing next!

-L

Monochrome Green, Nails of the Day

Hello!

I don't do tone on tone a lot, but for some reason I've had green on green in my head all week.

Unfortunately, I dented my ring finger before a had a chance for a photo, sorry!
I found photographing the true charm of this mani very difficult, which is why there's only one pic.

I started with a base of piCture pOlish Honey Dew, a very light minty green. I found it a bit difficult to get even, it would probably require 3 (maybe even 4) very careful layers if wearing alone, but since I was going to stamp over it I left it at 2 on some fingers, 3 on the really patchy ones.
I stamped with, you guessed it, OPI Amazon...Amazoff with Pueen plate 55.
I then layered 2 coats of Cirque Iris and then matted it all.

This looks better in person, promise!

-L

Holy Holo! Nails of the Day

Hello!

I wanted to something a bit “simpler” today, but it didn’t turn out quite as simple as I had hoped.

Most people use a sponging technique when creating gradients. Unfortunately, sponging typically eliminates the linear ‘flame’ in holographic polishes, so I simply used careful application using the bottle brushes to get this look.

diffused lamp light

My thumb to middle finger required a lot of fussing.  I had to apply a lot of different shades to get a good gradient. My ring and pinky finger were totally easy and turned out exactly as I pictured in my head!

direct sunlight

Lacquers used from thumb to pinky: Colors by Llarowe Black Gold, Texas Tea, Color Club Beyond, Layla Coffee Love, Color Club Eternal Beauty, Layla Ultra Violet, Cirque Bejeweled, Glitter Gal Bondi Blue, Liquid Sky Lacquer Swerve, Layla Emerald Divine, Color Club Kismet. I had originally tried using Femme Fatale Ink of the Sea as a purple to blue transition, but it really didn’t work.

shade

 ...and a bonus pic.

 -L

Impressionist Floral, Nails of the Day

Hello!

I’ve really been on a floral kick lately! I think I’m trying to make up for the fact that the real flowers are a bit behind this year, due to such a cool spring.

I started with a taupe-y grey base of Misa Paint My Nails @Work (love the name!) I have no idea how old this is or from what collection it’s from, but here’s a swatch anyway (since I hardly swatch).

I used so many polishes for the flowers I couldn’t keep track of them all. The larger ‘roses’ and leaves were done with a tiny brush while the little orange flowers were done with a dotting tool.

I know not all bloggers paint their other hand as intricately, but I try -- I need the symmetry! But with this other hand I kept the colors slightly more muted, I can’t decide which I like better!

the rarely seen right hand!

…and a bonus pic.

-L

Rebecca Minkoff Inspired, Nails of the Day

Hello!

My Cynthia Rowley mani was a big hit, so I decided to do another ‘inspired by fashion’ mani.

This is my beloved Rebecca Minkoff mini M.A.C. bag. I’ve been trying to think of ways of interpreting this into nail art for months. I tried last week to do a tape mani that failed miserably.

the muse

I went with stamping instead, and I think it turned out pretty well. It’s not an exact replica of the weaving on the bag, but it captured the same essence.

The base is Quo by Orly Femme Fatale. I stamped with Vivid Lacquer 009 using bondi nyc NYPD. The accent nail is OPI (Gwen Stefani Collection) Push and Shove, it represents the signature chain and hardware on all her bags.

Push and Shove accent

Push and Shove was painted on over top of Femme Fatale because I forgot my plan when I was painting my base. The chrome finish reacted kinda weird and almost had a shatter/crackle effect! I had to paint 3 layers to get it even.

These inspired by fashion manis are really working for me!

-L

Long Weekend, Nails of the Day(s)

Hello!

I’m sharing two manis in this post since I don’t have too much to say about them. They weren’t total fails, but neither one really turned out the way I was hoping so I didn’t really love either of them, but I thought they were at least worth a quick note (plus they both inadvertently wound up with a vintage feel).

This mani I wore for Easter dinner. The stamping was really only successful on my thumb – I felt like the patterns were competing a bit too much on the other nails. However, I really do like this colour combination. The base is OPI Don’t Bossa Nova Me Around, the green foliage is OPI Amazon…Amazoff, and the floral parts are Zoya Odette. I used a Pueen plate from the Buffet collection, but I’m away from them right now and can’t remember the number, sorry! I want to attempt something like this again, I'll just have to be more mindful of keeping the different colours/patterns separate.

vintage fabric print mani

In this mani I used another Pueen plate from the same collection, again, I can’t remember the number. Also again, I used Amazon…Amazoff to stamp the images (can you tell I love this polish?!) I then haphazardly tried the ‘leadlight’ technique that’s been going around (filling in stamped images with jelly polishes), but I wasn’t all that successful. I started with a bit of yellow and wish I had stopped there. The red isn’t so bad but the purple doesn’t really work, and ends up showing too many brushstrokes. When I was done with all that, I added a coat of Essie Matte About You to give it a sort of vintage tropical fabric vibe. Alana (who’s family is Jamaican), said it’s called “batik”.

batik-esque print mani

Hope you had a great long weekend!

-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

Galaxy Nail Fail, NOTD

You win some, you lose some.

I've done galaxy manis before, not sure what happened this time around!

I don't mind the way my thumb turned out, but I guess my sponging on the other nails was too haphazard, and maybe my colour choices weren't great. I don't know.

abstract galaxy

I still wore this for a few days, and was still complimented at the bakery! So maybe not a total fail!?!

abstract galaxy

-L

So Shifty, Nails of the Day

Hello!

Apologies for the short absence, I had long work days to contend with last week - PLUS sending out CANVAS lacquer orders!

In my last NOTD post, my vertical gradient had a faux-mulitchrome effect, and since so many brands have been releasing these lacquers lately, I decided to do a full mani with these trendy finishes.

2 coats of multichrome lacquers over black

The earliest iteration of these polishes were pretty sheer (ie Ozotic's 500 series, now discontinued), but the latest releases have pretty good opacity on their own in a couple coats.. However, that being said, a lot of bloggers agree that the shifty multichrome effect is more apparent over black. Therefore I'm showing these polishes at 2 coats over plain black (Essie Licorice).

Index: I Love Nail Polish Birefringence, Middle: I Love Nail Polish Mutagen, Ring: piCture pOlish Aurora, Pinky: I Love Nail Polish Cygnus Loop

In person, Mutagen has a subtle rose-gold highlight that is present in most light, but is apparently very camera shy.

Follow us on Instragram (canvaslacquer) to see a quick little video of these colour changes in action!

shifty multichrome mani

Look at all those colour shifts! As you can see, the effect on my index and ring fingers are very similar, but pp Aurora has added glitter...
Which brings us to a point a lot of people have been making - how unique are these releases? It is very likely that the pigments being sourced are all the same, making the combinations available finite, so it's been up to each brand to find a way to make their version unique.

My personal collection also includes multichrome lacquer from Hits MariMoon, Enchanted Polish and KBShimmer. Between all these I think I'm totally covered and won't be needing anymore, I'm pretty sure I now have all the colour combos possible and would be buying dupes or near dupes if I kept collecting (as it stands I think I currently do have a few dupes already).

Just for the hell of it, I stamped on a few different images from several PUEEN plates. My silver stamping polish of choice is Nicole by OPI Positive Energy. I have a silver Konad Special Polish, but it's not a great as the NOPI! The Konad transfers fine, but the NOPI actually has way better opacity.

-L

Stamped Vertical Gradient, Nails of the Day

I love gradients. For some reason I find doing them vertically more challenging than horizontally, but I love the effect! I usually use cremes, and I've tried holos once or twice, but I've never used all shimmers, and I'm quite pleased with the result.
Because it has a slightly metallic finish, at a glace it almost looks like I could be wearing foils (which I have yet to try even though I picked up a Ciate kit from Winners a couple months back).

vertical stamped gradient, notd

Unfortunately there's some tipwear since this is day 3 with this mani (my day of photos were a bit messy, the clean up on this was a real pain). In lower lighting this sometimes looks like it's a multichrome polish, shifting with the curve of the nail - love it!

I used a base of CoverGirl 'Silver Lining'. I like using it as a base for a lot of nail art, such as my Monet mani.  It's not too grey or too metallic, it's closer to a shimmery off-white if you ask me, which I prefer to a stark white.
For the gradient I used Misa 'Let's Go Green', China Glaze 'Frostbite' and Nyx 'Purple'.
I then stamped using VividLacquer plate 019 with Konad 'Gold Black'. In the bottle this appears quite shimmery, but it almost never translates onto the nail, so it's pretty much my go-to black stamping polish.

Anyone else find vertical gradients harder than horizontal, or is that just me?

-L

Monet on my nails, Nails of the Day

Hey hey!

After my sister mentioned that one of my galaxy manis reminded her of Van Gogh (quite the compliment!), I decided to pay homage to another artist.

Monet's Waterlilies series has always been a favorite of mine - I hope I haven't done it too much injustice!

My thumb turned out the best. I think it's due to composition. Since my thumb is the largest 'canvas' (see what I did there?), the scale of which I made the pads and lilies really works. I kept the same size on my other nails, but I should have made them a wee bit smaller. Live and learn!

I need to work on my freehand art, but part of the problem is definitely not having a lot of practice with nail art brushes. Lots of bloggers say they cut their brushes down to size. I've done so, but not sure I did it right.

Monet on my nails

Overall, I'm still pleased with this. Not having a lot of practice, I think I took on a pretty lofty challenge and did OK! It helps that impressionism doesn't require a great deal of precision.

I finished this mani with a coat of Cult Nails Wax That, since I figured an old painting shouldn't look too glossy.

Tropical Vacation, Nails of the Day

I'm going away for bit, so these seemed highly appropriate.

tropical sunset NOTD

As much as I'm looking forward to this vacation - I'm also really excited about coming back because we will be launching the CANVAS lacquer Etsy store! Please stay tuned!

-L

Daisy Pond, Nails of the Day

I found this 'pond' effect technique on a few different blogs and decided to try it myself since the process seems pretty straightforward.

Wow. Use the washroom, have a snack, get comfortable because this takes a looooong time to do.
But! That being said, I really do like the results. Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to photograph this when it was fresh, so please excuse the dryness of my hands and the bit of tip wear (I've done a lot of dishes today).

daisy pond

This technique is basically just layering - but you have to wait for each layer to dry before moving on, or you'll get a smeary mess, but it really is worth it - I'm looking forward to experimenting with this 'pond' effect!

-L

A sneak peek at Mother of Dragons

I'm really excited to show you guys my Nails of the Day this evening.

Mother of Dragons is from our upcoming Ice & Fire collection, and this one is of course inspired by Daenerys Targaryen.

Mother of Dragons contains fine green holo, wine squares, a mix of iridescent squares and hexes, with a good sprinkling of gold shimmer in a deep green jelly base. Perfect for a Khaleesi. 

Below I'm showing two coats on my thumb before stamping the dragon image, and after.

Two coats of Mother of Dragons

...and here's the rest.

I absolutely love the complexity of this polish, and I promise as soon as you see it in person it just screams dragon.

I've never stamped in this triptych style before, but I think it turned out alright!

This lacquer will be available mid-March when our Etsy store goes live - stay tuned.

-L

Nails of the Day

My nails of the day

water colour technique with stamping

-L