Nail Art of 2012

It has been a long long long long while...10 months, in fact.  Eh, never claimed I didn't stink at keeping up with such things.  Since my last post, I've only done a few manis that I'm particularly proud of or really liked (read: bothered to photograph) anyway.  Mani day is usually Sunday, and I'll admit that mostly I've done rather simple ones - just a regular polish +/- a coat of glitter on top or the like.  From mid-November to mid-January I got moved to a much more physical dept at work, so it became much harder to avoid chipping or complete shedding of my varnish.  A new base coat may have had something to do with a whole nail of polish coming off too, but that's up for debate. 

Anywho. I've had some good ones, too.  And now that I'm back where typing is the main order of the day I'm willing to put more effort in again. Like what I did last Sunday; I'm not taking it off 'til the cows come home because it took so long to do!  (It's been a week already and with due vigilance in topcoat reapplication **knock on wood** still no chips!)

So now it's time for a quick-and-dirty run down of some of my best or most-liked manis of 2012.  :) *DISCLAIMER: Q&D does not necessarily mean short!*

                              

    

These were very prom-like.  Did the silver lines with my dotting tools.  The slanting curvy lines helped hide imperfections.  Then I topped it with a fun shiny white-iridescent flake polish (from the China Glaze Hunger Games collection...Lush & Luxe I think) which also helped mask uneven lines.

 

This was a lot prettier than my phone's camera in my home at night would have you believe.  The glitter is actually very pink, a slightly darker shade than the pearly pink base color.  The multitude of glitter sizes  aided the "pink champagne" effect.  Which I really love.

This is about as long as my nails can go without becoming a hindrance to typing, writing, opening necklace clasps, etc.  I hate the sounds of nails on a keyboard.  Very annoying to me, and I'm the one with the nails.  Anyway!  I did this one with the help of good 'ol scotch tape:  carefully trim off the jagged edge, stick lightly to skin first to take away some of the excess glue, then line up on nail and paint! I did the lighter blue as the base then put on the 2 small pieces of tape before painting on the darker blue glitter jelly.  Because it's a jelly base, I was able to gently, carefully nudge any stray blobs back into place with a toothpick to keep the lines more or less neat.

        

These pics are simply to illustrate the smoothness required for a holographic polish application...see the glossy smoothness? Those are my bare nails-no clear coat.  For holo polish, get a 3 or 4-way buffer file and put in the time.  It's very worth it.  The closer your nails are to acrylic-nail smooth, the better the polish will behave and ultimately look. I probably could've done a better job on my left thumbnail. 

So this is my one holographic nail polish that I own--isn't the affect just fabulously gorgeous?  I wanted a holo so very badly.  The price of them was really holding me back though. This one is Jade by LAYLA.  You get 10ml (about 2/3 the amount of a typical polish bottle) for like $14-15!  But I had a coupon and knew holo collections tend to be limited time only, so I did cave in and go against my normal polish-budget limits.  I was too late to get a color I wanted (purple, blue, or pink) and all that was left was this jade or a neutral.  I actually do really like the jade now though...mints actually work with my skin tone, and I didn't have much green polish at the time.  No idea why I didn't take a pic of an entirely finished hand.  More on holos to come though (I promise!--It's what inspired me to get back to my blog!)

This is the polish rack that I built; wood, not foam board.  I won't go into how I made it without a specific request, since I think only my friend who inspired the project (i.e. has her own already) is the only one who will read this.  :)  But this pic is actually pretty old - it's chock-a-bock full of polish now to the point of me putting them across the top and leaving all my bases and toppers and acrylic paint on the floor.  So a new one is in order this spring.

This one is obviously a pedi, not a mani.  And I hadn't at this point cleaned up the excess topcoat around my cuticles, so please forgive the messiness. I was pretty proud though.  Did a salmon and lavender diagonal colorblock on each nail and then used my dotting tools to do the white flowers & silver leaves along the color join.  One of the tools is rather pointy and that was used to etch in the petal "creases/veins" before the polish dried. I then added a bit of glitter polish on top of the design area for a little extra "shiny" =D    

I will say that nail art is much easier and faster when you can do it all with your dominant hand!  I am getting better with my left though.  

This was my favorite October Halloween mani. It is NOT my design though - that credit goes to IHaveACupcake on YouTube.  She's pretty flipping creative and amazing and made it look so easy!  Took me forever.  Was my first (and come to think of it, only so far) design using acrylic paint.  And thank goodness for acrylic!  Because with acrylic, you can wipe away mistakes with rubbing alcohol without messing up your polish basecoat underneath.  :)   I did my right hand first; for me it's best to start harder and then progress to the easier hand.  Otherwise I may never do the right hand.

  I kept this for two weeks; it got its one and only chip on day 12.  My other October manis were Halloween colored, but nothing special (i.e. black polish w/red/orange/lime duochrome fleck glitter, silver crackle over lime base, etc).

Another "champagne bubbles" glitter gradient.

November & December kinda got away from me nail-art-wise. My October manis left my bare nails looking absolutely disgusting.  The black I had the first week dyed my nails orange. Then it was a witchy raspberry glitter for a week which was fine. Then the lime I had under the silver crackle left my nails stained virulent, highlighter yellow. The stain combination (orange halfway up topped with neon yellow) equated to a gross tequila sunrise effect.  

So I decided it was time for a new, better basecoat.  Sally Beauty Supply carries a yellow-stop product that I figured was worth a try.  Now I could be wrong, but I really think part of its mechanism is forming a barrier that prevents the polish from properly adhering to the nail.  Because suddenly, entire nails of polish would pop off at work (to see it you would think you were holding a press-on nail).  First one nail, then another.  I tried it for a few weeks. Tried layering it with a sticky bonder base in various combos.  Still no luck.  But it does work as far as preventing polish stains is concerned.  So my nails are once again normal.  Thank goodness.  I mean, I rarely am without polish, but I like having the option to go bare in a pinch! 

These were fun.  Painted the white base then used my craft-store art brushes to do the free-hand red stripes (love China Glaze's Ruby Pumps- such a great RED glitter polish!).  Sadly, these didn't last long before starting to pop off.     

For Christmas, Santa put a bottle of Essie's First Base in my stocking.  It's still being tested.  But I will try to let you know!  If anyone else has a favorite base coat that does a good job preventing those horrible polish stains, please comment!  :) 

So that about does it for 2012! A new post for my first crazy-good mani design of 2013 and my wonderful Valentine's Day Gift (SpectraFlair!) to follow!