31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 14: Flowers

So I've failed yet again at posting on time for this challenge :/ If anyone is waiting with bated breath every Tuesday and Friday...well, I'm sorry I'm always late! haha I actually had this manicure painted and photographed late last night but I had some misgivings about posting them. I decided to sleep on it and after looking back over my photos, I decided to use these as my flower nails!

What were my hesitations, you ask? Well, I was putting a ridiculous amount of pressure on myself for today's mani. I feel like on the whole I am relatively good at doing floral manicures but that has become a bit of a double edged sword! I feel like I've got to outdo myself every time I do florals and I've managed to let it stress me out - sad right!? ;) Please tell me I'm not the only one who is crazy and does this to themselves!? 

I was also a bit hesitant about using this design for my flower look because I don't think they are immediately recognizable as flowers. They are very abstract and more of a sketched and messy look (Meghan and I were totally on the same brain wave with our flowers!) and I thought that maybe I should stick with a more realistic look. In the end, though, I'm really happy with this mani. 

I just got all the cremes from the OPI San Francisco collection and was itching to use them! I started out with a base of Skull and Glossbones and added a top coat (I like doing this because it lets me easily remove errors with acetone). With First Date at the Golden Gate, I painted the red flower petals, followed by In the Cable Car-Pool Lane with the smaller purple petals. The leaves are several messy lines of A-Piers to be Tan and then with a tiny tiny detail brush and black acrylic paint, I did all my outlining. I didn't worry too much about how clean my line-work was or if I painted outside the lines because I wanted the messy, sketched look. 

What do you think of these? Do you prefer realistic flowers or more artsy looking flowers? 

Happy Polishing! :)

An InLinkz Link-up

Manicure Monday - Darling Poppy Inspired Print

Happy Monday, everyone! Hope your day is flying by so that you can run home and relax tonight. My latest Mani Monday tutorial is now up over at the Lulu*s blog and I wanted to share with you guys what I put together! I put together a look inspired by this Darling Poppy print dress and I've hopefully made it easy for you all to recreate it as well :) You can find the tutorial for this here. What do you think of this look?

Happy Polishing! :)

Lulu*s Floral Tutorial

Hello my dears! I've put together another tutorial for the Lulu*s Blog and I love how these turned out! I was inspired by one of their many adorable dresses and these are fairly simple to recreate. I think you could definitely mix and match whatever colors you'd like and these would still be fun. Be sure to check out the blog post about them! :) 

Happy Polishing! :)

Face Off Mashup: Ashwin and Amy

As a part of our celebration for Skull Appreciation Day we're presenting you with the "Fan Submissions" part of our Face Off exhibit. We asked our readers to submit their own skulls using the template that was provided, then we faced them off against each other, and we now proudly present for your viewing pleasure, the final results.

This Face Off mashup contains two submissions from students at Westfield Middle School, in Bloomingdale, IL. The students did these in their art class taught by Deyana Matt.

This one is by Ashwin Saravanapandian, age 13.

This one is by Amy Xie, age 14.

FACE OFF: Skull-A-Day VS Street Anatomy 

May 31 - August 25, 2013 

International Museum of Surgical Science 

1524 N. Lake Shore Drive Chicago, IL

Nail art funk? No problem! Paint flowers!

I have been seriously failing at keeping up my posts lately! Ahh! For whatever reason, I've been in a bit of a funk when it came to my nail art the past few weeks. I've been stressed and busy and this past weekend I literally just read...and it was so fabulous! I forgot how much I miss reading and I am definitely going to have to make it more of a priority :)

I decided to do some funky rose like flowers to get me out of my funk and I really love how they turned out. I think it was just the thing to get my creative juices flowing again so hopefully I'll be posting regularly again soon!

This color palette is a little different but I think it still works. I used a ton of color and my medium length striping brush...which one of these days I'll have to actually take a picture of for reference. Also, I apologize in advance, this is a picture heavy post. Also, also, don't mind the sad paper cut on my middle finger ;)

 And for the colors! I'm going to try and be good about sharing all the colors I use even when I use a lot of colors. 

Base

American Apparel Manila

Flowers 

China Glaze Kalahari Kiss

American Apparel Sunset Blvd.

Essie Tart Deco

Essie Raspberry

Leaves

American Apparel Peacock

Outlines

China Glaze Prey Tell

What do you think of these? Did you get to do anything fun over the weekend?? Any great books you've read lately or that you recommend? 

Happy Polishing! :)

Funky Floral

Yeee! Can I just say that I am so super duper uber excited about this mani!? I'm sure that by now you all know of my passion/love/obsession with floral looks (and hopefully you're not getting tired of them!) and this manicure is just making me so happy to look at! Prepare for photos!!

This didn't actually start out as well as I had originally hoped. I had done almost 4 nails of another floral look but was really hating it. Sometimes I will push through with a design and hope that once I'm finished and have added a top coat that I'll finally like it. But that didn't happen with my original look.  At all. So, I scratched what I was doing and plunged my painted fingers into my super awkward acetone tub from Target (I mean, it's pink and has weird bristles and is just...weird...but works wonders!) and started fresh. And I'm so happy that I did! 

I ended up with these super funky flowers and am just so freaking happy with out they turned out. I absolutely love when I create something that I just want to stare at for hours. It doesn't always happen and I'm so proud of myself when I'm able to create something I really truly love. I hope you love them like I do! 

 I used a TON of colors for this look. The base is OPI's My Vampire is Buff, which is frankly, my favorite base polish for nail art. It's just subtle enough, but still has enough depth and warmth that it really works well with so many different pallets. 

 As for the other colors, there are so many! Please let me know if you are curious about any color in particular.  

I used a few different brushes for these  - a tiny detail brush, a long and thin striper brush, and a medium sized striping brush. The thin striper is what I used to create the purple outline around everything, and while it is definitely a finicky brush to use, it really give nice thin lines. 

What do you think of this look? Am I crazy for being so in love with them?? Also, would you be interested in a tutorial of any of the flowers? I don't think I could do all of them, but I would definitely be up for the crowd favorite :)

Happy Polishing! :)

Wondrously Polished X Lulu*s Tutorial

Happy Monday, all! 

I got to work with Lulu*s again this week to create another Manicure Monday look! Since it's Spring time I wanted to create a pretty floral look...and I was actually inspired by my new blog background. I'm only slightly obsessed with the new bright colors and the background so I figured, why not recreate it on my fingers?! 

Here's the manicure I did and be sure to check out my guest blog post on the Lulu*s for the how to tutorial for this look :) 

Happy Polishing!