Black and White day of the 31 Day Challenge is always my favorite, because everyone’s nail art always looks so striking. There’s something just so magnetic about black and white as a pair, isn’t there?
I didn’t have any particular inspiration for this nail art, but I did know that I wanted to do white patterning on a black base. I started out with two coats of Orly Liquid Vinyl, and then used my trimmed town super skinny striper brush to add on some arcs and circles with Formula X White Matter. Thin lines were a priority for me this time, so if my white lines got too fat in any areas, I went back in with black and thinned them down.
I added a coat of quick dry glossy topcoat, let it set, and then finished the manicure with a layer of Nicole by OPI Matte Topcoat. If you’re ever doing a matte topcoat, I recommend going glossy first to seal in your nail art, flatten the profile, and provide durability.
Here's my 3rd nail art inspired by jewelry and again I'm being inspired by my own jewelries. And so far it hasn't been so colorful. XD This time I've been inspired by a sequin silver tie necklace that I like. I used some metal stud rhinestones from Born Pretty Store which have an etched checked pattern which I think could symbolize the look of the tie. Then I made some accent tie nails with a square stud and a diamond shaped stud. My other nails got rectangular studs. Really happy with this one! :D
Little more info about the studs. There is six types of shapes of the metal studs and both come in silver and gold. (There are round with holes, rectangular, diamond, round, square and wing shaped.) The special about these ones are that they have this etched checked pattern. I used clear nail polish to attach them and added top coat on top and the studs lasted til I removed them 3 days later. :) This retails for $3.42 and you can use my 10% discount code NGL91 for other stuff which isn't already on sale.
***Some product(s) in this post have been provided for review, however it has not changed my opinion about it/them.***
Black and white with a pop of color is a tale as old as time. It's such a classic combination: black and white on either end of the spectrum, with a color that falls somewhere in between. I had this manicure in my mind for a while now, and just had to pick the perfect base color. I found it in Gelish Tokyo A Go Go, a beautiful, bright pinky-purple.
And there's good news for those of you that don't wear gel: this pretty pink is also available in regular lacquer form from Morgan Taylor!
To begin this manicure, I applied Gelish Foundation before adding two coats of Gelish Tokyo A Go Go. It's just... ugh. So pretty. I'm obsessed.
Then, I used Akzentz Gel Play Paint in white to block out the general shapes of the waves. It was pretty opaque, but I went back after curing the first coat to fill in a couple of patchy areas. I used Akzentz Gel Play Paint in black to add on the thick and thin wavy lines.
Finally, I finished the manicure with Gelish Top It Off.
I was really happy with the outcome of this manicure and enjoyed wearing it quite a lot! It's always satisfying when a manicure you have in your mind turns out how you hoped it would on the nail.
Purchasing Information The Gelish Hello Pretty collection is available from Esther's Nail Center, as well as Amazon.com. You may still be able to find the LE collection in Gelish MINI at Sally Beauty. Morgan Taylor lacquer equivalents are available from Loxa Beauty. Akzentz products can be purchased through Gellipop.
This tutorial post is sponsored by Macmillan. Today's nail art tutorial is inspired by B.T. Gottfred's novel, Forever For a Year. Since the book is all about romance and first love, I've created a look that's perfect for date night. This sultry bordeaux gradient is accented with a gold jewelry-style half moon. It's a look that is chic, romantic, and put together... with just a touch of flash.
Forever For a Year has also provided a date night prize pack for a giveaway! Head to the end of the post for details on how to enter.
For my date night nail art, I used: LVX Cameo (burgundy) OPI Lincoln Park After Dark (dark purple) Essie Good As Gold (gold)
You'll also need a cosmetic sponge, cotton swabs or a latex barrier, and dotting tools in three sizes (large, small, and pinpoint).
With this easy gradient nail art, you'll be date-night ready in no time! And no matter where the night takes you, you know your tips will be looking fresh.
About Forever For a Year When Carolina and Trevor meet on their first day of school, something draws them to each other. They gradually share first kisses, first touches, first sexual experiences. When they're together, nothing else matters. But one of them will make a choice, and the other a mistake, that will break what they thought was unbreakable. Both will wish that they could fall in love again for the first time . . . but first love, by definition, can't happen twice.
Told in Carolina and Trevor's alternating voices, this is an up-close-and-personal story of two teenagers falling in love for the first time, and discovering it might not last forever. In stores now.
Giveaway So now that we've got a plan in place for your date night nails, you're gonna need some supplies! Forever For a Year is hooking up one (1) lucky reader with the following prize pack:
A copy of Forever For a Year;
$25 Sephora gift card;
nail polish and compact mirror.
To enter, just comment on this post describing your dream date night activity!
Here are the rules:
One entry per person.
Giveaway open to US addresses only.
Must comment with a valid email address to be reached for your prize.
Must be 18 years or older (or have parent's permission) to enter.
Entries close Friday, July 31st, 2015 at 11:59pm MST.
Chosen winner will have 48 hours to reply to the notifying email, after which a new winner will be chosen.
I remember when I was a kid, one of my favorite times of the year was when we released ladybugs into the garden during Sunday School. They had boxes of ladybugs for us, and we got to set them free into the garden to help manage the pests. They'd crawl all over us, and we'd run around looking for where they'd landed in the dirt. Their bright red backs always stood out against the dark soil.
I think that butter LONDON has nailed that bright, vibrant red-orange ladybug color for this lacquer, fittingly named Ladybird. I applied two coats for the base - the formula is smooth and even. It has that sort of squishy feel to it, without showing any nail line.
Then, I added some black spots in various sizes to take the ladybug look even further! Try using a pencil eraser to "stamp" on the largest spots, and a dual ended dotting tool for the other sizes.
You may or may not know this about me: I'm obsessed with CND's work at Fashion Week. For this look, I was inspired by their nail artistry for The Blonds F/W 2015 show. The theme was the ultimate contrast between utopian and dystopian, with post-apocalyptic elements and all the amazing drama we've come to expect. If you're at all interested in high fashion nail art, I highly recommend you check out the CND lookbook for the show.
Some of the elements in their nail design focused in on black and white, and I wanted to do the same. I ended up with a manicure that felt somewhat abstracted, sort of tribal, very contrasted.
I used CND VINYLUX Weekly Polish in Black Pool and Cream Puff for my interpretation, and while I tried my best to channel the "hopeful apocalypse" look, I think I need a bit more practice with the theme!
Do you keep up with Fashion Week comings and goings? I know I'm a bit late, timing wise, with this one, but I just couldn't let it pass.
Today I'm showing the matte version of my Stamped negative space heart nail art which I showed you three weeks ago. For more info about the actual nail art you can check out the original post and let's check out Essence nail art satin matt top coat further. And yes, "matt" isn't a typo, I guess it's because it's sold i Germany. As all matte top coats it dulls the black quite much and the "matteness" stays matte and don't feel shiny the next day. It dries considerably slower than most matte polishes and if you apply shiny top coat on top later(like dots to create a cool nail art effect) it still look dull and almost dirty. Therefore this only works for full matte nails, so next time I'll go to Claire's and pick up another of their matte tc's. Basically this works, but it's not my favorite matte of all the ones I've tried.
Polishes and materials used: MoYou's special black nail polish ZTIZ (black creme nail polish) Image plate - KD27 (russian image plate) Essence nail art satin matt top coat
***Some products in this post have been provided for review***
Rival De Loop is an exciting budget brand I've found here in Germany and I've bought and tried a bunch of colors so more to come, but this is the first swatch. 406 is from Rival De Loops basic line of colors and is a black creme with a 8 ML bottle. To my disappointment it wasn't a one-coater, for some reason that has become my standard, it is years since the last time I encountered a black creme which didn't cover in one coat. It wasn't too bad though, I ended up with 2 coats and because it's more jelly like it's very shiny even without tc. The brush is wide, flat, and rounded and easy to work with, the formula was slighly thin and I was close flooding my cuticles several times. It's an okay black creme, but next time I'll buy another one, black creme's just should be one-coaters... Don't you agree?
I'm usually never fast with the challenges in the Nail Challenge Collaborative; it is one theme, four manicures which can be published any time during the month. Usually I do one NCC-mani/week but post them in the end (because I'm too lazy/occupied to do it asap). However this month I'm fast, and that correlates to why I was "late" last month. The theme of March is inspired by fashion and I couldn't hold my self, so did this one as soon as I knew the theme. XD
I was inspired by this dress:
And I was so hyped on trying my first negative space nail art (which if you haven't noticed are/will be the nail art trend of 2015). Said and done I freehanded hearts, I outlined them with a fine liner brush and then filled in "the blanks" creating the negative space hearts. It looked okay but I wanted some "lace" too, sadly my collection of full image stampings are a bit sparse and I didn't find something thin but still "lace like", so I ended up with these swirls. Still like it though. Trying to figure out if my nails looks discolored or not on the photos, I didn't find them that irl at least. Oh, the only downside with this is that "the apex" of the nail had so few coats so I was worried that I'd break them but luckily I didn't. Soo.. what do you think?! :)
Polishes and materials used: MoYou's special black nail polish ZTIZ (black creme nail polish) Image plate - KD27 (russian image plate)
An InLinkz Link-up ***Some products in this post have been provided for review***
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