Mario Batali's Orange Crocs Nail Art

Are you familiar with celebrity chef Mario Batali? He's known for his Italian food, cheerful demeanor, and, possibly most importantly, his orange Crocs. Those foam clogs are so darn memorable, and people either love them or hate them.

Whenever I do my perforated leather nail art look, people inevitably comment that the nails look like Crocs. So this time, I decided to embrace it and use the technique to represent Mario's orange clogs for orange day of the 31 Day Challenge!

For this nail art, I used:
OPI In My Back Pocket
OPI Matte Topcoat
Essie Blanc
American Apparel Hassid
Perforated leather nail art tutorial

So of course we've got his crocs on my middle and pointer fingers. Then I freehanded a chef coat on my ring finger, with a bit of negative space, and striped accent nails on my pinky and thumb to represent a patterned apron.

I personally find these nails hilarious. I love when nail art is a bit cheeky! What do you think? Too much, or just enough?

Want more orange? Here are the orange manicures I've done in the past:

• Orange with dotted accent
• Orange fruit tips
• Orange gradient chevrons

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Pink Perforated Leather & Diamonds

If your Facebook feed hasn't made it obvious enough: it's Valentine's Day! For my holiday manicure, I chose to go with something sweet and cute but with a little bit of quirk. Enter the perforated leather technique, which I first showcased in my Lacquer Legion post. It certainly looks different in pink, but honestly I am still just as in love with this now as I was then. A silver texture finishes off the look with lots of sparkle.

For the perforated leather nails, I used OPI Kiss Me I'm Brazilian from the Brazil Collection. I tried to pick a pink shade that would be plausible as leather, if that even makes sense, and I think this one worked nicely.

If you want to try the perforated leather look for yourself, be sure to read my step by step (which I've updated with a few new tips and tricks) to get the details. The matte topper I used is OPI Matte Topcoat.

The accent nails are two coats of OPI It's Frosty Outside, a silver texture from the Mariah Holiday Collection. Honestly, it's gotta be in my top five texture polishes to date, maybe even top three. It glimmers in the light and has the perfect amount of roughness. Without waxing too poetic, it reminds me of a giant pile of thousands of diamonds.

Wishing you all a wonderful Valentine's Day! For those of you without a romantic Valentine, take the day to express your love to your family and friends, and give yourself some love, too! Don't forget, you can always grab one of my Valentines for nail polish addicts and tell them how you really feel.

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The Lacquer Legion Reinvention: Perforated Leather and Neon Faux Splatter

I'm so excited this morning because today is the first post day for The Lacquer Legion! I put together this new nail art challenge group to bring the nail community together in 2014, and I'm proud to have some talented ladies on board as admins with me: Rebecca Likes Nails, The Nailasaurus, and Work/Play/Polish. This month's challenge was reinvention, and I've interpreted that in a few ways for my manicure today.

First, you may have noticed that I have reinvented my own nail shape! I have been wanting to take the plunge and go round for quite a while now and I thought this would be a fitting time. I'll be able to refine the shape a bit more as my nails continue to grow, but I am happy with the way the round shape looks on me! I know I can always go back to square, so that's a nice safety net too.

Second, I thought it would be fun to reinvent the splatter manicure. I love splatters but they can be a bit unpredictable at times and are definitely messy. I started with a base of Essie Blanc, and then painted two coats of Orly Glowstick, a neon yellow, over the top. Then using a small nail art brush, I freehanded black splatters over the top with American Apparel Hassid.

Finally, I tried to reinvent the idea of nail texture. I've seen some great examples of 3D textured nails that were created without texture polish like The Polishaholic's quilted manicure and Nina Nailed It's cable knit sweater nails. For my accent nails, I created a perforated leather effect by pressing a dotting tool into semi-set polish. I later did some googling and learned that I wasn't the first to come up with this effect; check out The Daily Varnish and The Beaulieu Review!

Here is the step-by-step on the perforated leather nails.

1. Paint your nails with two or three coats of whatever color you want the leather to be.
2. Apply a thick coat of quick dry topcoat and give it 20-30 seconds to set. I used Seche Vite.
3. Apply two thicker coats of matte topcoat and give it 30-45 seconds to set. I used OPI Matte Topcoat.
4. Using a large dotting tool, press down into the semi-set polish. You want to press with medium, consistent pressure all the way down to the nail. 

BONUS TIPS!

• Work two or three nails at a time so the polish doesn't set too fast. 
• If you are having trouble with the dotting tool pulling up the partially set polish, wet the end to keep it from sticking. You will need to continually repeat this throughout the process.
• If your matte topcoat is leaving bubbles in the centers of the perforated holes, dip a small nail art brush in acetone and use it to gently erase the bubble.

I'm so so happy with the way these came out, and I can't wait to continue using this technique.

If you are participating today, make sure to hashtag with #LLreinvention. If you missed this month's prompt, be sure to keep up with The Lacquer Legion on Facebook and join us next month!

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