Thursday, 26 June 2014

More holo! More floral!

Hello!

If you follow the canvaslacquer Instagram account you may have seen this a few days ago. I'm kind of new to this whole nail social media thing, so I'm happy to report this has so far been my most 'liked' look.


I started with 2 coats of a-England Her Rose Adagio. Not sure why the pink doesn't really come through in photos, but it's a beautiful shade (and I'm not typically big on soft pink). For added interest I dabbed on a bit of a-England Dancing with Nureyev. The blue seems to read a bit better than the pink, but overall it comes off sorta silvery.


For the branches I used a-England Briarwood, an amazing brown holo that also stamps beautifully. I used Vivid Lacquer plate 014. Next for the leaves I used Pueen 33 with my usual OPI Amazon...Amazoff, the only non-holo polish for this look, I have plenty of green holos that probably do stamp well, I just thought it might clash too much with all the other holo going on so I opted for a creme. Finally, with a dotting tool for the flowers I used Colors by Llarowe OABTRAD. The little centers are Color Club Kismet.

passiflora
I've been trying to incorporate more visual interest in my nail pics, but I find holding an item and positioning my hand for the photo at the same time incredibly awkward! So here's a rando photo of me trying to pose with one of my passionflower vines.

Do you guys prefer JUST the nails or do like seeing someone posing with something?

-L

Friday, 20 June 2014

Holo Meltdown, Drips

Hello!

Nothing new about 'drips' in nail art, but I had never done a drip mani before, and since I'm on a holo kick right now, this is what I came up with.

holo drips in direct sun

To achieve this look I started with 2 coats of I Love Nail Polish Bottle Service. I really like this shade, you don't see 'warm' silvers too often, but this has an almost imperceptible rose-gold glow from within. 

in shade
Very carefully, using the bottle brush, I painted on thin streaks of 3 colours on each nail: Emily de Molly Cool, Calm & Collected (turquoise-y blue), Cirque Vesuvius (deep pink), and Emily de Molly Moment of Impact (purple).

in shade
I then went back with different sized dotting tools and added a final 'drip' to the end of the streaks.
I considered adding more shading to make it all appear more 3D, but opted out - I find holographic polish obscures details, but maybe next time I try a drip mani I'll use cremes.

direct sun
I'm pleased with my first try, and I'm happy to add this staple "nail art look" into my repertoire.

-L

Monday, 16 June 2014

Holographic Mix with Floral Accents

Hello!

I haven't featured holos in awhile (which is odd since I LOVE holos), so here we go!



So I could utilize many shades, I decided to try the dry brush method to get this cool mix of holographic goodness.

I started with 2 coats of A-England Fonteyn. Then with very little polish on the brush, I randomly splotched on the following: Layla Emerald Divine (green), Color Club Eternal Beauty (purple), Colors by Llarowe OABTRAD (deep pink), and Liquid Sky Lacquer Swerve (blue).


I added the floral image from Pueen 72 using Konad Gold Black. The image was a bit lost at first, so to highlight it a bit I filled the flowers in, using a very light hand and a small brush, with Gosh 24HR Holographic. The difference is subtle but I love effect.


It's so hard not to stare at this mani when it's sparkling in the sun!

-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