Spiderweb French

I think I might like creating spiderwebs a bit too much! LOL! I got the idea for this mani from a post on Mini Nail Blog. My nails aren't as long as hers but they are nearly the same shape so I thought I'd give it a try. I started with two coats of Sally Hansen InstaDry Orange Splash.

I then used Cult nails Deal With It to create an uneven french tip.

And with a striper brush I used China Glaze Urban Night to create the spider webs.

 Right hand.

Left hand.

Frankens: Good enough to swap

So in my last post I mentioned two frankens that I made and swapped for two polishes from Amy over at I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous. Well here I am to tell you all about them!

First up is Make a Scene, a bright orange with copper and holo glitter. To make this polish I used Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter, All About You, Serena and Chloe, Pure Ice Hot Tamale, and Supernail glitter in Sunset & Silver Rush. This is actually the first bright orange that I've made. I had been trying to think of a color that was different from all other frankens I had done and realized that orange was not on my list yet. Considering my love for the color I just had to rectify that oversight!

This is two coats of Make a Scene with one coat of OTD top coat.

I just happened to be wearing this when I finally bought OPI A Roll in the Hague and just had to use it. So I did a diagonal tip with Rill in the Hague with a line of Pure Ice Jaguar to delineate the two orange polishes.

And if you think it can't get any better than that wait until you see the next polish! Prestidigitation is a gorgeous (if I do say so myself) purple jelly polish absolutely PACKED with iridescent and holo glitter. I lost count of the number of facebook notifications I got just after posting some of the following photos in one of the Facebook groups I'm in. The following photos show three coats of Prestidigitation and two coats of OTD top coat. Yeah, it's a bit of a hungry glitter and a pain to get off but oh so worth it!

Taken with flash

Close-up 

Full sun

Full sun

You better be clicking those photos to get the full effect because if you don't you are really missing out! To get such a glitter-packed polish I used Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter, SH HD Laser, WnW Blue Wants to be a Millionaire, and China Glaze Flying Dragon (finally, a good use for Flying Dragon!).

Luckily the ingredients for both of these polishes are still readily available so I was able to make a second set to send to Amy and keep the originals for myself ;)

Random Swatch Spam

I've had a bunch of swatches building up in the folder I have for blog photos so I think it would be a great time to post some of them so I can clean out the folder a bit. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the order of any of these.

 China Glaze Solar Power

Zoya Kate, artificial light

Sinful Colors Mercury Rising

Essie Sexy Divide, shade and sun

When you can't find the sun . . .

. . . Paint sunshine on your nails! Well, that was the idea anyway. So I got out my bottle of China Glaze Sun Worshiper . . . and three coats later I still had VNL! D: Either this polish is not representative of most neons or I must be spoiled by Zoya's neons which cover to opacity in just two coats. Still, I love the color itself.

So, rather that just continue to layer coats on until it reached opacity I decided to layer something else on top. I chose Sinful Colors Serena & Chloe. Here's two coats over Sun Worshiper:

I loved the contrast of this with my sugar dish from my tea set!

And since I'm still experimenting with all the flakies I got I decided to layer Finger Paints Asylum on top:

Not content with that I decided to try some nail art but I had no idea what to do. This was before my stamper arrived so I couldn't use my plates at this point. I should have known better and just let it be. But no, I couldn't do the smart thing. So I grabbed Zoya Harmonie and managed to totally flub everything.

I know, most of you will probably actually like it, but it just wasn't what I was picturing in my mind. I really should learn to have a concrete plan before going ahead with these things.

Oh, by the by, I have started up a Facebook page for my blog! I haven't figured out how to get a button for it in my sidebar yet though so until then here's the link: Painted Pixies on Facebook. Hope to see you over there!

Belated Holiday Nail Art

I was just now looking through my unposted photo stash and realized that I never posted my Christmas or New Year manis! Shame on me! So I'm posting them now. Better late than never . . . right?

First up is a mani I did for a friend at school. I used Milani Ruby Jewels and Pure Ice Peach Sorbet:

Next is the mani I did the week before Christmas. The base is Zoya Sooki with a coat of Milani Ruby Jewels. The stripes are China Glaze It's Alive and Sinful Colors This is It and the "snowflakes" are NYC French Tip White. I think the glitter on top is Wet n Wild Hallucinate.

And last but not least, my New Year mani. The base color is Borghese Stellare Notte with one coat of Finger Paints Motley, Wet n Wild Blue Wants to be a Millionaire sponged on the tips, and a second layer of Motley on top.

Franken Time! : Astral Plane

Have I ever mentioned how much I love frankening? Well I do. I wish I could afford to buy little bottles so I could franken more often. I've only been able to make four frankens so far but I absolutely love it. This time I decided to play around with some holo polishes. I had one I bought at Halloween time that I really wasn't in love with so I picked that one to use as a base. It's a berry-toned red with sparse holo glitter, very sheer, kind of odd smelling, and it takes forever to dry. Most of those faults are fixable though when frankening.


Here's the polish before:

I decanted about a third of it into my only empty bottle. Then I added Wet n Wild Hannah Pinktana for more holo glitter and City Color Purple to turn it more purple. It still wasn't a deep enough purple for me though so I added a touch of Cover Girl Nailslicks Dark Denim, an almost-black blue. I think you'll like the results, I certainly do. I've decided to call it Astral Plane

Swatch on wheel is three coats of Astral Plane, no top coat

 On nails is two coats China Glaze Gothic Lolita, two coats of Astral Plane, OTD top coat

And here is ChG Gothic Lolita on it's own, two coats and OTD top coat:

Hoot Owl

I can't believe I'm only now getting around to posting this one. I bought this polish on my birthday and it's taken me this long to use it, get photos and post them. Well without further delay I give you L'Oreal Owl's Night:

This is two coats of Owl's Night and one coat of OTD top coat in full sun. I almost didn't need two coats actually but since I'm far from being perfect I decided two coats would be better. I'll admit it now, I am a complete sucker for almost any polish with a gold shimmer/sparkle/what-have-you so this one was a definite must have. I love the color, I love the application, I love this polish <3

Only one thing can make a good polish better and that is nail art! Since I really liked the earthy tone of this color I decided to stick to something subtle so I taped off my nails and put a stripe of Sinful Colors This is It down the middle.

It was perhaps a bit too subtle. So for a bit more definition I used China Glaze Midtown Magic to put a thin stripe on either side of the first stripe. MUCH better!

I just might have to do this mani again sometime :D

All Stitched Up

EDIT: If this shows up in the wrong place then Blogger screwed up. It's supposed to be posted on Oct 30, 2011.

You didn't think I'd neglect to post at least one Halloween mani did you? Halloween is my favorite holiday, edging out Christmas by a narrow margin, I couldn't possibly neglect it here on my blog!

The mani I'm posting about today is one I'm very proud of. I admit though that it wasn't entirely my own idea. I was inspired by I'm feeling Nail-Venturous' Funky Frankenstein French mani, though I did add my own twist to it. So, to whet your appetite here are the polishes I used in my design:

I used Sally Hansen Green Tea as an all-over base, then used tape to cover what I wanted to keep that color. Each hand had one finger each painted with the following polishes: Nina Ultra Pro Burnished Bronze, Essie Sexy Divide, Essie Sole Mate, Zoya Paz, and Sally Girl #812156. Then I applied two coats of China Glaze Ghoulish Glow and did the stitches in Sinful Colors What's Your Name over the top.

Sally Hansen Green Tea

My rarely seen right hand!

Please excuse the bandage, I sliced my thumb open at school while cleaning my scissors ^^;

And the best part is yet to come!

So, you know how I said I put two coats of Ghoulish Glow on there? Well I decided to try getting photos of the glow in the dark effect . . . and I actually succeeded! 

Bottle pic

Right hand

Left hand

I love love love how the glow is brighter over the Green Tea but still visible over the other colors! I'd love to see what all of you have been putting on your nails for Halloween!

Peacock Gradient

OMGosh what is this!? Two posts in one day!? Amazing! I seem to have a whole bunch of material piling up so I might even get another post done in the near future . . . maybe >.> Anyway, on to the important stuff: nail polish!

Now, I know the China Glaze Metro collection came out recently so you've most likely seen swatches of this one already but since I decided to get Midtown Magic with a bit of my birthday money you get to see it again! I must say though, this one is totally worth seeing again. And again and again and again. This dark dark brown polish with copper, gold and orange sparkle is quite a beauty and it makes me sad that I only got to take photos of it alone in artificial light. I really need to get some poster board for a light box.

The application was great and I was pretty impressed with the drying time as well. I don't own many China Glaze polishes but I think I may just have to change that.

Since I was feeling a bit down yesterday I decided to indulge in a bit of polish therapy, both shopping for and using of. I picked up Petites Utopia, Petites Color Fever 24k Gold, and a berry-toned version of one of the nameless polishes I mentioned in my Birthday post, you know, the ones with the rose decal and holographic glitter. Then I used the two Petites polishes for some awesome nail bling!

First I sponged on 24k Gold:

And let me tell you, you DEFINITELY need a top coat with this polish! It's like wearing sandpaper otherwise but the coverage was great, completely jam-packed with glitter.

And then I sponged Utopia on over the tips:

Artificial light

 

Sunlight

Sunlight with Midtown Magic bottle

Talk about bling and sparkle! I hope you're loving this combo as much as I am!

Bliss-Full

Some polishes are better to wait on buying until you can hold the bottle in your hands and SEE the color right in front of you. I discovered this the hard way with China Glaze Flying Dragon. It is a lovely purplely neon . . . with pink and blue glitter. When I saw it online I thought it was a shimmer but when I held it in my hot little hands I realized it wasn't so. Ce la vie.

After a couple weeks of using other un-trieds I picked up Flying Dragon, said "oh, all right" and applied it. It was a bit streaky (do not use neons on top of Revlon's Calcium Gel Nail Hardener or use a thin coat to start) so I ended up with three coats when all was said and done.

A very nice color but I swiftly grew tired of it. I didn't want to do a completely new mani however so I tried thinking of ways I could embellish it. And then one of my friends at school made a comment about polishes she'd used in high school and I had a sudden flash of inspiration.

So, when I got home I went directly to my oldest polishes, the one's I'd gotten in high school and college. I reached in and snagged my well-loved bottle of Liquid Euphoria Bliss. Yes, you read that correctly. Bliss. That bottle is about ten years old and just as lovely as the day I purchased it.

I put one coat of Bliss over Flying Dragon and hot damn if I didn't fall in love with it all over again. Every time I use it I rejoice that I have rediscovered my love of polish <3

Here you can see the predominating purple with the coppery-red flash.

And here is the green flash with a bit of navy blue undertones.

And now I'm really wanting to wear this again! I need to get some polish thinner so I can use her sister, Euphoric and my old Sally Hansen Prisms!