Blue on Blue

I wish I'd gotten a photo of a nail design I did a few months ago.  Dark brown background, dark red and medium brown flower.  It was subtle, and I just adored it.

Since I couldn't get that one back, I decided to try a totally different design along the same tack: Dark blue background with medium blue swirls.  I wasn't sure how much I liked it at first, but it grew on me.

I didn't realize until this very moment how similar the ring and pinky finger designs are. Whoops.

Creating the design took me way too long!  Turns out, being right-handed and trying to use my left hand to create those delicate swirls is NOT EASY.  The process itself is straightforward - Sinful Colors' Aqua for the base, Heaven's Honolulu Orchid for the design.

There is a little bit of glitter too, since I elected to throw on a layer of Zoya Snowsicle.  Honestly, it was that decision that made me hesitant to like this design; it was almost overpowering, even though the glitter in Snowsicle is tiny.

In any case, I got lots and lots of positive comments for this (including one who was completely amazed that I'd done them myself), so I'm happy!

Pink Marble

I think it's been established that I'm a fan of swirly nail art.  I just adore abstract, and the swirlier it is, the happier I am.  So when I was browsing YouTube yesterday looking for nail design inspiration and found a technique for mixing two colors for a marble swirl effect, I was ON IT.  I've always loved pink and black together, so I didn't even have to spend much time considering what colors to try.

LOL UR NAIL SHAPING

The process for making this design sounds harder than it actually was.  I started out by doing two coats of pink to get a solidly opaque base.  When that was dry, I painted black polish starting at about the 1/3 mark, then used a long, narrow nail brush to paint a smooth line between the transition from black to pink for a more professional look.  Using a tiny brush typically reserved for eyeliner, I put little dabs of pink and black together on the black section of nail, then quickly swirled them together before they dried.  Topcoat.

I was really worried after the first nail was finished, because it looked kind of weird.  But I was resolute - I was going to finish this!  The instant all the nails had the same swirls on them the effect became much stronger, and man, if it doesn't look awesome!

The biggest downside to this design is that the marble section of nail ends up with a thick slab of polish that takes a while to dry and is susceptible to smudging - and, surprisingly, chipping.  I created this design last night, and by morning the polish on one nail had already chipped.  I indignantly slapped a bit of black on there to keep it looking good, but it's been troubling me all day.  I fear that, despite how much I like the look of this design, I'll have to remove it sooner rather than later.  Phooey.

Mondrian Abstract

Artwork by Piet Mondrian is oddly divisive; his work is the type that most people refer to when they say they don't get modern art. This kind of stuff:

Maybe it's so utilitarian because it was the Great Depression?  Imagination is expensive.

Bold lines, sharp angles, seemingly random colors and placement.  It's aesthetic, to some.  Personally, I'd never hang this kind of artwork in my home, simply because it's not my thing.  I can appreciate it (kinda?), but overall, meh.

This kind of artwork on nails?

Works a whole lot better!

The lines are... mostly straight.

It was surprisingly easy to do.  I painted Zoya Jolie in a wide swath down the right side of the nails, ensuring I didn't cover the left third at all, and that the line between then was relatively straight.  When that dried, I painted Zoya Goldie starting at about the third mark away from the cuticle, maintaining the side line.  There was room for minor error since the black would be covering it, but not too much room.  The dots are there because dots are awesome, obviously.  Not that Mondrian ever actually included them.

Layer of top coat, and it's done.  Obviously, any two colors would work great instead of the Jolie and Goldie, so long as the second color is opaque enough to cover the first - and maybe not even then.  Lines can be rearranged, colors added.  This is super versatile.

And probably one of my favorite designs yet.

First Successful Nail Art

So much mediocrity! I'd painted a few pretty things, but nothing really unique and fun. Then, a few days into March, I found this video. Me: "I MUST TRY THIS." I've always loved abstract everything, and really, really enjoy taking abstract photography, so abstract work on my nails is just the logical next step.

Obviously, being painfully limited in color choice, I didn't have the colors called for in that video. But Sinful Colors' Merlot and Aqua are quite pretty together, so that's what I used, along with Sally Hansen's white and Sinful Colors' Black on Black.

In the future, when my creations and this blog actually start overlapping in time, I'll have pictures for each step of the process. For now, the video linked above has the steps, and this is my result:

SWIRLY

It's a bit busier than I would've liked, but for a first try at anything fancier than a swoosh with dots, I was pretty happy with it. I got a number of compliments from strangers on it, too!

EGO BOOST.

Next up: My first real, successful, actually-pretty-and-even-elegant nail design.