Raindrops and Cloudy Bubbles, with Tutorial

I recently purchased and wore Illamasqua Raindrops, which used to be a cult favorite (and difficult to find, at that). It was lauded for it's soft shimmer and delicate flakes in a pale grey-blue base, and I loved a lot of the swatches that I saw of it online. Unfortunately, the polish fell flat for me. I didn't think it looked great on my nails, and I expected it to be a bit more soft and jelly-like vs. opaque. I decided to embellish it with some cloudy bubbles.

Though I think the technique has been tackled by a few people, I first saw this specific technique, with acrylic paint, on @madamluck's Instagram, though a few people have mentioned that nail artists may have been doing it for a while now. I filmed a video while I was doing this nail art, and the process is pretty easy.


Thin out acrylic paint with one part paint and one part water. Place a bead of the thinned paint on your nail and then use a dry brush to soak up the excess paint from the middle of the bead. This should leave a ring of paint on your nail like a bubble. Repeat as necessary, wiping off the brush in between bubbles. Finish with topcoat.

I do think the cloudy bubbles helped me enjoy this manicure a bit more, though probably not enough to make me keep this polish in my collection. Sorry Illamasqua! While I normally love your lacquers, this one just didn't do it for me.

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Swoony Gradient (Lilac to Red)

Another day, another set of gradient nails. It's hard to say which color combination I like more between this one and the 70's green and brown combo I did a few weeks ago. I do love this, it feels very lovey-dovey and is sure to make you swoon!

My bottle of Illamasqua Jo'Mina had just arrived in the mail and I was itching to use it. I knew I wanted to use it in a gradient, but was unsure what to combine it with. I almost went with Essie Butler Please but switched to American Apparel Downtown LA at the last second. I love the way this turned out, so I'm glad I called the audible, but I'm still curious what the Essie pairing would have looked like. I may have to do that one at some point!

I've been getting a lot of requests for a gradient tutorial lately. I've switched up my process from the way I used to do it, so I hope to be able to film a demo video soon. Be on the lookout!

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Geometric vs. Organic Floral Nail Art

Hey fine folks, I'm sorry I've had such a large gap between posts lately. Like I briefly mentioned earlier,  I've been really busy working on a huge project at work. I'm going to do my best to prepare some posts this weekend though, so hopefully there won't be too many more big gaps!

I was determined to do some nail art last night and decided to start with a floral. Now, I love florals (I've definitely done my fair share of them!), but I wanted to punch up the design a little bit. I thought it would be cool to contrast a harsh, black and white geometric checkerboard against the soft organic floral nails. I love the way they stand out, so rebellious!

I freehanded everything in this manicure with my medium length striper brush. I probably have a checkerboard stamping plate somewhere but I did want to challenge myself a bit and freehand those nails, too. I did force myself to be a little less controlling about the checkerboard lines than I normally would have been. That's kind of ass-backwards, huh? Controlling myself into being less controlling?

Colors used in this manicure include:
Cult Nails Tempest (white)
American Apparel Hassid (black)
OPI My Vampire is Buff (bone)
Lime Crime Peaches and Cream (lighter orange)
OPI Call Me Gwen-ever (darker orange)
Illamasqua Jo'mina (lighter purple)
China Glaze Crimson (darker purple)
China Glaze Def Defying (green)

I wish the Lime Crime polish would have shown up better in my photos. In person it has a much better contrast to the pale cream background.

So, what do you think about this geometric vs. organic manicure? Too much, or just bold enough?

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Yellow and Teal Leopard Print

Hey guys! I just have a quick post for you before I go to bed today. The other day, I wanted to do some nail art but didn't have a ton of time to do anything intricate, so I went for some sexy leopard print! I used the same technique as I did in my leopard print tutorial and it took barely any time at all.

I knew I wanted to use yellow, so I reached for Nicole by OPI Hit the Lights, which is part of the new (and currently in stores) Selena Gomez Collection. Then I had to figure out a contrasting color. Eventually I decided to go with Illamasqua Noble. The black spots are American Apparel Hassid.

I think this is probably my favorite leopard print color combination to date! The yellow is so cheery and it pairs nicely with the aqua blue.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

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Ornament Half Moons

There's still a bit of time left to squeeze in some holiday nail art! Today's design is intended to look like sparkly, glitter-embellished ornaments hanging on a tree. I chose to use the half moon technique to make the ornaments. You can find an example of how to do them in my extremely old post found here.

The bases of the ornaments are (from pinky to thumb) Illamasqua Baptiste, Nicole by OPI Pretty In Plum, MAC Hyper, LCN Ruby Red, and OPI Deutsche You Want Me Baby. The green of the "tree" is mostly Zoya Logan with little bits of China Glaze Running In Circles brushed on. The gold glitter on the ornaments is China Glaze I Herd That, the gold attacher pieces between the hook and the ornament were done in Zoya Ziv, and the hooks are Color Club Worth the Risque.

This didn't end up quite as I envisioned it, but it has grown on me a bit. I do kind of wish that I had done the ornaments in plain creme shades... with all the glitter, flecks, holo, and metallic finishes going on, they seem to get a bit muddled. Still though, quite festive! :)

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Cirque Objet d'Art Glitter Gradients

Hey folks! Hope you're having a nice Saturday! This afternoon's post includes two glitter gradient manicures that I did using some of the polishes from the Cirque Objet d'Art Collection.

First we have a gradient from the cuticle up using Cirque Galinda on a base of Illamasqua Cameo. I am so enamored with this glitter! It's a mix of sizes of pearly white glitters and contains bit of iridescent shimmery particles as well. I see snowfall when I look at it and that makes me happy.

My second glitter gradient goes from the tip of the nail down. I began with a base of three coats of Cirque Cape Liz (also from the Objet d'Art Collection!) and then added a gradient of Cirque Hellebore. This manicure looks like a brushy watercolor painting of a field of grass and a hazy sky to me, or maybe some seaweed underwater. Either way, I was pleased to learn that these colors complemented each other well. Hellebore also has some interesting pink sparks in it that show up when the light hits it just right, but unfortunately it is hard to capture in photos!

I had no problems with formula on any of these polishes. They all applied nicely and the glitters had good density!

The Cirque Objet d'Art Collection is available for purchase now on cirquecolors.com as well as from international stockists Pshiiit Boutique and Mei Mei's Signatures. The Cirque polishes in this post retail for $13. You can also follow Cirque on Facebook for news and other updates!

Products provided for review.

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