Pink & Purple Argyle Nails for Valentines!

The Back Story (feel free to skip):

After taking a bit of a hiatus from nail art I got back in the mood for something extra fun for Valentine's Day.  Not that I'm a high-maintenance die-hard Feb 14th devotee, but I like that my husband and I both make an effort to get each other just a little something and plan a nice dinner out (but never on the 14th, which is too crowded for my taste).  

I checked out some of the art vids on YouTube, but nothing jumped out at me.  I had the hubs pick out my colors and attempted to do a water marble.  However, these polishes weren't having it.  (Some polishes won't spread in the water and don't lend to marbling at all--some just don't get along with certain others.)  It's always trial and error there.  But I wanted to stick to the colors he picked (ever take the time to help someone out and then they never bother to incorporate your input? - you eventually stop helping). 

So what to do? I was playing with the idea of pink hearts and remembered seeing argyle done with hearts substituted for the diamonds and thought, perfect!  I Googled argyle pattern images and figured out the color scheme.  I did some tests on my nail wheels and decided to forget the heart part - it wasn't coming out right.  And now I'm extra glad I did. It was pink & purple enough for the 14th, but not so Holiday-centric that I needed to take it off this weekend.  

The pics and tutorial (with step-by-step pics):

I practiced on my nail wheels with my LEFT hand until I felt confident in my technique.  (I needed to know I could do it well on both hands before investing too much time.)  The tutorial is below these "final result" pics if you are interested.  I recommend waiting until you have a whole afternoon, so your one hand can dry prior to starting the other hand and you won't have to worry about ruining your work.  I also start with painting my right hand first to the get the hard part over with, but that's me.

Not bad, right? There's probably an easier way, but I'm not very good at keeping things the right size and in a neat row when free-handing, so I used a striping technique so that the diamonds basically formed themselves.

From left to right: ORLY - Royal Velvet,  FLOWER - I Lavendare You!, &  FLOWER - Cosmos-Politan
(FLOWER is Drew Barrymore's new makeup line, which so far I love.
Unfortunately, it's only available at Wal-Mart , one of my least favorite places.)

Ideally one would start with the light color as the base.  I already had the pink on for a base, which meant thicker layers (more drying time) to get the colors right and more light purple diamonds than pink.  So if you notice the light purples and pinks are swapped out in the tutorial pics, that is why.

On left: How the brush is when purchased.
On Right: How the brush is when I'm through with it >)
Seriously, you need a teeny tiny brush to do clean detailing.

I painted the design using inexpensive art brushes (purchased at a craft store and trimmed til just the tiniest bit of brush is left) dipped into the polish, which I dab a glob of onto a paper plate (above right).   Sorry for poor picture quality on the brush close-up (left).  Sadly, my phone camera is the best one I own  :P

After your light base color dries, start by making a big "X" - thin lines at first - on each nail with the indigo-violet (which ends up being the most frequent diamond color and serves as the background color).  Carefully thicken the stripes of the "X" until happy with the width.  The thinner your stripes are, the more diamonds you'll end up with:

              

Then, using the original "X" as a guide, paint the rest of the nail with diagonal stripes in both directions, trying to keep the light purple spaces between stripes the same width as the stripes themselves.  [Also try to keep the paint layers as thin as possible to keep dry time to a minimum; it's okay if the colors are a little sheer...these are basically just a guide for now.]  I did 3 lines in each direction, adding one stripe above and one stripe below each "X" stripe.  If you do the same, you now have 4 light diamonds in a whole lotta indigo.  Let this dry a titch:

 

Now for the pink.  Notice that at each place your diagonal lines cross, they form a diamond.  It's probably easy to see the diamond outline due to it having 2 layers of polish at those intersections.  Carefully paint these diamonds with the pink, using the light purple diamonds to the left/right/top/bottom as a guide - the points of your light purple and pink diamonds should touch.  I outlined them first for illustration purposes, but it's not strictly necessary (although it does help to keep your paint in the lines when filling them in):

Now that all of the diamonds are outlined, go in with each color and carefully retouch any wobbly lines/mistakes and add more polish to any see-through areas until the color is to your liking (I put a repeat of the last pic above to illustrate the difference)  Let this dry a bit:

The last part is what makes it iconic argyle - the thin lines forming diamonds between the diamonds.  A contrasting color works best.  I liked silver (I used China Glaze - Icicle) better than white, which was so much contrast that I felt it distracted from the main design.  I also used dots rather than attempting to stripe - dots allow more color to show through and mask crookedness well.  I used my teeny dotting tool, but a sharp toothpick is also perfect for this.  Start by placing a dot in the middle of each diamond, then connect the dots with diagonal lines:

    

Alternatively, I ended up just placing 5 dots in each diamond: one dot in the center and one dot centered along each edge (NOT the points - see the left pic: the dark purple diamond toward the lower right).  I found this made the spacing more consistent, but both techniques work:

After a few minutes of dry time (you don't want this to smear!) apply your favorite top coat and Ta-Da!!  Argyle!

I actually went with 2 good coats of topcoat and have been rewrapping the tips every other night.  I'm currently using Out the Door.  I used to used Seche Vite, but I hate the Toluene (which is a neurotoxin; to which most people are exposed via inhalation...so no, the fumes causing that potent, horrid smell aren't exactly benign).  I don't love love Out the Door...it requires more dry time and doesn't do as good a job at "leveling" the polish .  But it does protect well against chipping and still dries more quickly than a typical topcoat.  I think I will be trying Essie's next time, even if it is a little pricier.  A good base and top are worthwhile investments.  Your thoughts on topcoats are of course always welcome!

Hope I didn't ramble too much and I hope you find this fun!  Next blog: SpectraFlair! Enjoy!

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!

Birthday Manicure: Dotted French Tips

So my birthday was this past week (the 11th) and it was time for a new mani.  I had my outfit planned out and thought I'd do the matchy-matchy thing with my nails.  So marine blue, silver, and white it was!  But what to do?  Didn't really have the time for a water marble, so I thought I'd try my hand at a simple nail art.  I'd only done one before (a simple diagonal color block; sorry, no pics) so I wanted to keep it simple, and I knew I wanted to use my new dotting tools that I got for Valentines Day (I sent him a wish list; he would never have known to get them himself!).  You can find great kits with various ball sizes on amazon for ~$5-10.  You can also use simple household objects- bobby pin tips, ball point pen tips (preferably dried out), alteration pins (the kind with ball-tipped ends) stuck into a pencil eraser...just to name a few.  But I do like the size variety and comfy fat handles of these. 

Double-ended.  The balls are all the same on the left, but size varies on the right

I chose to do a French tip manicure, with dots along the color join to help disguise my amateur hand-painted tips  :)  And I was really happy with it for a first go!  Again, I took pictures to show my bub.  (He gets to see them and say nice things whether he wants to or not-hehe! ;D)  I can't wait to try more dotting-tool nail art.  All of the polish colors are by Wet N Wild Wild Shine.  The blue looks much more teal/green-toned in these pics than it really is.  

#443D-Bijou Blue, #449C-French White Creme, & #468-Metallica

By now the corners are starting to chip, so it's time to sign off and break out the remover.  Yep I'm one of those who can't stand a chipped manicure.  Don't know if I'll repaint tonight, but at the least I'll have a clean slate tomorrow!  Until next time!

In-tro-duc-tion! (You have to sing it ala Schoolhouse Rock!)

Well, here we go.  All set up so I reckon I should post something.  :)  Yeah, you heard me right:  reckon.  My vocabulary is a strange mish-mash of all sorts of regional vernacular, so you'll get everything from "big words" to "ya'll".  Some times you feel like a nut, some times you don't.

So I'm getting into this whole blog thing due to a recent upsurge in love of makeup and sart. I've been reading more beauty blogs and when I actually went to post on a friend's blog the browser was like, "set up an account!".  So here we are.  My biggest plans are to post about my two big "Ta-da! - Look what I did!" hobbies:  nail art and knit/crochet.  Weird combination, I know, but I'm a little bit girly-girl, a little bit old soul.  We'll see how it goes.  For now it'll probably be more nail-oriented since I've put knit & crochet on hold.  


Next post coming soon, stay tuned for pictures of a few of my recent nail art designs and other girly endeavors (read: I need to build a polish rack soon!).