Friday, October 23, 2015

Pop Art Frankenstein Nail Art

Hey everyone!
Today I have another Halloween design for you, this one inspired by Alex Faction's Pop Art Frankenstein tutorial.
For those of you who may not know him, he is an extremely talented make up artist, he uploads amazing make up and body painting tutorials on Youtube. He's doing 31 Days of Halloween during October on his channel, so when I saw this look I immediately wanted to do it on my nails. Anything cartoonish has a place in my heart. And is it just me, or do those teeth look like the evil minion teeth? LUUUV IT!!

Let's get to it!


For this look, I started off with a black nail polish as my base color and used acrylic paint for the design.
I painted Frankenstein first and to fill in the rest of the nails I decided to use some elements from the body painting than go on painting random Halloween stuff. And since it is a pop art design, what better than the pink tears and broken heart, for that pop of color that we need! For the finishing details I used white paint to do some stitches and outline the tears and heart for the cartoonish effect.
That's pretty much it..

I hope you like it! :)





Polishes used:

Orly Bonder Rubberized Basecoat
Orly - Liquid Vinyl
Orly Sec 'N Dry Quick-Dry Topcoat

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Skull & Spider Web Nail Art

Boo!
I'm very excited today because I just happened to realise that it's been a year since I started the blog! Time sure flies! So obviously, I'm here today with a Halloween design for you!
Since October started, my homepage on instagram has been full of Halloween inspiration either from nail artists/bloggers or make up artists I follow and that really got me in the mood.

Last year I had done a nail design inspired by the Nightmare Before Christmas, so this time I wanted to try something a bit more spooky. I wasn't exactly sure what to do in the beginning, I only knew I wanted a creepy, bloody looking background and the rest came along the way.
This is the design I came up with.


I started off with a white nail polish as my base and then used small pieces of a make up sponge to dab my blood colors on random parts of the nail, trying to stay focused on putting more color on the area around the cuticle and generally on the "outline" of the nail.

Normally, I was planning to use a red polish for the blood and a dark red or burgundy polish on top, to give some dimension and depth to the look. Somehow though when I tried that, it ended up having more of a fuschia tone to it, so I decided to make my own color.
I mixed a bright red polish with a dark brown (one drop of each color every time) to get that dark red color I was going for. I used the sponge to apply it on my nails and after that was dry, I dabbed some of the dark brown in certain spots to make it look more realistic. To finish the background, I took a black polish and used the "dry brush" technique to apply it randomly on my nails.
As for the designs, I used acrylic paint and when everything was dry, I topped them with a fast drying top coat.

Here are more pictures.





I'm really happy with how this turned out.
Unfortunately we don't celebrate Halloween in Greece, but if you guys are celebrating, I'd love to hear about your costumes! :)

Polishes used:

OPI Nail Envy Maintenance Nail Strengthener
Orly - White Tips
OPI - Coca-Cola Red
OPI - Suzi Loves Cowboys
Orly - Liquid Vinyl
Rush 60 Second High Speed Topcoat

Friday, October 2, 2015

Tie Dye Gradient & Geometric Nail Art Tutorial

After uploading the previous post about the tie dye gradient with the geometric pattern, I prepared a tutorial for it. Even though I did explain how I created this look, I thought that something more visual would be helpful. Somehow though, I forgot to upload it. Silly me! So now that I found it, I figured I'd upload it even a little late.
This was the final look:


Now, on to the tutorial!








All the products are listed in the previous post (here). The only different polish I used, was the white one (Seventeen - 103), because it was near the bottom so I threw it away.

This was actually my first time making a tutorial. Feel free to tell me what you think about it!

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Tie Dye Gradient & Geometric Nail Art

Long time no see!
A lot of things were going on during the past months, that made my mood and inspiration go down the drain. To top that, my nails were very weak at that point, so I decided to take a long break not only from blogging but from polishing my nails as well.
Now I'm back and even though summer is typically over, here in Greece it's very hot and sunny, so I'm still in a very colorful mood!

Before we even move on to the pictures, just let me say this.
1. I love gradients even though they're a real pain to clean up.
2. I love line work, geometric shapes and aztec prints on nails and there are so many nail artists out there that I admire just for that!
So after that being said and the title of the post, I guess you can see where this is going..

Here we go..







For this look I started off with two coats of white nail polish as a base, so that the colors I'd use on top of it would pop and applied a fast drying top coat. We need our base to be completely dry before we start "sponging" the color on. Then I took a make up sponge, cut it in a square shape and made it as smooth as possible for the polish to apply evenly. I chose very bright and neon colors for this almost tie dye looking gradient effect, randomly placed them on the sponge (see picture below) and dabbed it onto my nails. After the first layer had dried I did a second layer, reapplying nail polish on the sponge after each use, to get a more intense look. Wherever I felt like I needed more color, I just used small pieces of the sponge to apply the nail polish and topped it again with a fast drying top coat for an even finish.


This is what my nails looked like after the clean up.
PS: You could also leave your nails like this if you like. It still looks very beautiful.
However, I chose to keep going..


After the messy part was over, I took a long bristle nail art brush, that I had trimmed to be very thin and used white acrylic paint to do my line work. Keep in mind that brushes with very long bristles help us to make very straight and long lines, compared to short bristle brushes that are better for smaller details. Once that was dry, I used fast drying top coat (Again!) to seal everything.

All in all this was quite a time consuming design, but I believe it's fun, eye catching and well worth a try. Feel free to leave comments with your thoughts! :)

Polishes used:

OPI Nail Envy Maintenance Nail Strengthener
Seventeen - 103
Orly - Purple Crush
Orly - Risky Behavior
Orly - Key Lime Twist
China Glaze - Too Yacht To Handle
Sinful Colors - Endless Blue
Seche Vite Fast Drying Topcoat

Friday, June 5, 2015

Alice in Wonderland 3D Nail Art

Long time no see! It's been almost two months since I last posted anything here, but I'm back with good news. Another award!! I won 1st place for Nail Design! I'm so excited and I want to share my experience with you!

The beauty school I attended, "Eva Beauty Studies", hosted its 8th Annual Competition on June 3rd with the theme: Fairytales, Cartoons and Comics. Groups of three were formed to work on a model with the theme of their choice, in order to present a total look. Each person specialized in Hair Styling, Nail Design and Makeup. There were 18 groups and 4 awards: 1) Best Hair Styling, 2) Best Nail Design, 3) Best Makeup, 4) Best Total Look and plenty of gifts for the winners.

All groups had amazing ideas and put a lot of effort in their work! Unfortunately I didn't manage to take pictures because it was crazy! You can check "Eva Beauty Studies" facebook page, they'll be uploading pictures during the next days if you are interested.

My theme was Alice in Wonderland. In the first competition I participated (post here) I was mesmerized by all the awesome 3D nail art that I had seen and I decided that I had to try it ! So what better opportunity than this? I got to see the Disney Movie again, to take screenshots. (I admit, I saw it more than once and really enjoyed it!!) And started working!

Making this kind of 3D nail art was a new thing for me, up until now I had only done flowers. It was a very time consuming process because of all the details I wanted to put in the pieces. But all in all it was very creative and worth all the time spent on them!! Enough with my blabbing, let the picture shower begin!!

I had to sculpt really long acrylic nails for all the pieces to fit properly. So here is a picture before everything was attached to the nails.


And after..




And some close-ups...











Last but not least a picture of my beautiful team! And a special thank you to our model for being so patient!! (Just in case you were wondering, I'm the one on the right.)

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

When Negative Space Meets Half Moons

First post for April! Yayyy!
You can't imagine how much I've missed making nail art and sharing it with you! I recently started working and my schedule is very busy, so unfortunately I won't be able to post as often as I would like. But I promise I won't disappear!!

Since the weather is still undecisive here, I thought it would be a good idea to make a dark manicure, using two polishes I hadn't had the chance to try out. I used "Skating on Thin Ice-land"from OPI's Nordic Collection, a beautiful plum color, along with some french manicure guide stickers (ebay) to make the half moons and negative space design. Finally, I used "Turn on the Haute Light" from the Coca-Cola Collection to add the silver details.

I tried to keep it simple and I am very pleased with the end result. What do you think?





Polishes used:

Orly Bonder Rubberized Basecoat
OPI - Skating on Thin Ice-land
OPI - Turn on the Haute Light
Orly Sec 'N Dry Quick-Dry Topcoat

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Painting the Roses Red

They say spring is here, but I have a hard time believing it..Here in Athens the weather has a different opinion! It's a little cold for the season and at times it tends to be cloudy..So I decided I had enough of that and wanted to bring spring back..And where else? My nails of course!

A few days ago during a class at nail school, our teacher showed us different types of easy yet eye-catching patterns. I instantly fell in love with this vintage floral design and so I had to recreate it and share it with you. It's too beautiful to keep it all for myself!!

For this design I used a black polish for the backround and the rest is all acrylic paint. I started off with white and red paint for the flower shapes and put in the details with those same colors and pink as well. I added some green leaves and to finish the pattern I used some light blue to make tiny daisies and a little bit of yellow for the dots inside. Finally, I sealed it with a fast drying topcoat to protect the acrylic paint from coming off and of course to make them nice and shiny!

I really love this and I can't wait to try it in more color combinations!! If you have any suggestions feel free to leave comments. :)





Polishes used:

Orly Bonder Rubberized Basecoat
Orly - Liquid Vinyl
Orly Sec 'N Dry Quick-Dry Topcoat

Thursday, March 19, 2015

OPI My Voice Is A Little Norse Swatch

In the past posts I showed you swatches of all the creamy colors in the mini Nordic Collection and today I have a swatch of "My Voice is a Little Norse", the only glitter polish in there. I was never really a big glitter fan, but the past year something's happened to me and I'm so excited to share this one with you. I think it's gorgeous!!

This is a holographic glitter in a very sheer grey base. It gives a good coverage compared to other glitter polishes I own and in the pictures I have three coats on. Although I think you'd need to apply it with a sponge in order to get a more opaque result. As for the texture, it's a bit gritty and when it comes to topcoat I'd say it's very thirsty! LOL. In the swatch I've used two coats of a fast drying topcoat and you can still see and feel the texture. You'll need at least three coats of topcoat for a smooth look. Either way, textured or not, I love it!!

Normally, I would only wear glitter polish as an accent on my nails, but I really like how this looks on a full hand. Maybe because of the grey-ish base? I don't know! It's just hypnotizing!!





I also took pictures of it over "How Great Is Your Dane?". This is only one coat of "My Voice is a Little Norse" and one coat of topcoat as well.



Polishes used:

Orly Bonder Rubberized Basecoat
OPI - "My Voice is a Little Norse"
Orly Sec 'N Dry Quick-Dry Topcoat