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