Dragonflies Holo

This manicure was suggested by my friend Lauren after she saw my new holo polishes that I scored on eBay. Yes, I gave into temptation and ordered bottles from the China Glaze OMG Collection. They have a mythic status with nail bloggers due to their amazing linear holographic shimmer. This is different than holographic glitter. I know that I would be happy if China Glaze brought these holos back, it's such a pretty collection.

I started this manicure with a base of Zoya "Caitlin", a dusty lavender. Here it is in the shade. I only have two Zoya polishes in my collection. I really love the formula. This is two coats.

Here's a shot of Zoya "Caitlin" with a flash. As you can see, the color changes a lot depending on the lighting.

I am still getting the hang of using my camera during the stages of painting the manicure. I remembered to take a pic before I finished adding the eyeballs to the dragonfly on the left. And the right side is the ring finger on my left hand, before topcoat. I used a technique that I have seen Robin Moses do, like with her Nicki Minaj super bass nails. She added blobs of color on top of a black background to give it a scale-type look. Dragonfly wings have that scale design, too.

Finished mani in the sun. Click on the picture to see a larger version. The holographic effect really pops in the sunlight. You can see a bit of the glow on my thumb.

I started with the outline of the dragonflies in black acrylic paint, then added the holo polishes on top of the black to create the lacy wings and the glowing eyeballs.

Here are the polishes I used for this design: Zoya "Caitlin" for the base, China Glaze LOL for the eyeballs, and China Glaze 2NITE for the wings. I used Essie All In One Base for a basecoat and Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat to top it all off. What do you think? I think it's elegant and interesting, but not too out there.

R2D2 Attacked By Jawas

So I finally got around to painting my right hand with the other half of the Star Wars design. Like I said, I wanted to do something different than just the faces of different characters from the movies. So I decided to highlight the plight of a little droid who is attacked unmercifully throughout the series: R2D2. On this hand, I portray R2 getting zapped by the Jawas.

There's a pair of Jawas on my pinky finger, the sand and stones of Tatooine on my ring finger, an evil Jawa shooting his gun on the middle finger, the gun blast on my pointer finger, and poor R2D2 surrounded with zaps of electricity on my thumb.

This Jawa means business. (Do you see the sparkle I added to the gun blast? I think it adds a little something.)

Whhaaaaaa beeeeep booop eaaaah!

This was done with my non-dominant hand, so it's not quite as awesome as the Ewok nails. I still think it turned out pretty good. I used Wet 'n Wild Megalast "Private Viewing" for the base color, acrylic paints for the art, and topped it all with Sech Vite topcoat.

Poor R2D2. He seriously gets picked on in the Star Wars movies. He nearly gets eaten on Dagobah, and darn near burns up when accessing the power grid on Cloud City.

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Here are the Star Wars nails together. Ewoks and Jawas: they may look cute, but don't let your guard down! May the Force be with you!

R2D2 Attacked By Ewoks

Oh yes, I did. I went there. In honor of the Blu Ray release of the Star Wars films tomorrow, I am doing Star Wars nails. And I wanted to do them differently than the ones I have seen around the internet. Most designs are just heads of different characters. So I selected a scene from Return of the Jedi in which poor R2D2 gets captured by the evil Ewoks. Poor R2D2, the 'bot can't get no respect!

Here you see Ewoks (including Wicket) capturing R2D2 and tying him to a couple of poles. That's got to be uncomfortable.

Wicket holding a spear and lookin' fierce.

R2D2 in bondage.

I used Sinful Colors "Seaweed" as the base polish. I thought that shade evoked the woodsy feel of the planet Endor quite well. The art was done in acrylic paints with my tiny paint brush, then 2 coats of Seche Vite to protect the design.

This picture is in the daylight. I think it might have been better to place the nameless Ewok (he may have a name, I just am not a big enough nerd to know it) on the pinky finger to balance the design better. But at 2am last night I was ready to be done with this manicure.

So if I had the money (and a Blu Ray player, oh yeah, and an HD TV) I would go out and get the set of Star Wars movies on Blu Ray tomorrow. Alas, I will just have to search for clips on YouTube since I spent all my money on nail polish.

May the Force be with you.

If It Shines

Today I created a manicure around the theme: "If It Shines, It's Mines!" which is the name of a nail blog owned by Michelle in Ireland. Her contest is pretty wide open, you can come up with whatever you think of concerning shiny stuff. I thought a crow picking at a shiny ribbon would be a good way to interpret the theme. Crows can't resist shiny things! I did this as a sort of nail triptych, as it were. Ha ha!

The base polish is by Essie and it is called Borrowed & Blue. My hubby went with me to Ulta the other day (yes, he is a saint) and saw me drooling over this shade of baby blue. I put it back, knowing I have other baby blue polishes, but he encouraged me to get it. I know! I am so lucky.

The ribbon of silver is made with nail art foil that I got at dollarnailart.com. This is only about my 4th time working with nail art foil. It's a little tricky. This shade is called "Fiber Optics" and has a little holographic shimmer.

You can see some of the shimmer on my thumb and ring finger. Nail foil acts weird when you top coat it, so it's not as awesome as when I first applied it. Ah well, it works in this design.

While I am not ambidextrous, I am getting much better at painting with my left hand. I added a bit of "ribbon" design to my right hand. The middle finger did not work out so well. I tried using the glue that had been sitting on my palatte for a while and it had gotten a little gunky. Lesson learned!

Here are the items I used to make this manicure: acrylic paints in black and white, The Best Glue Ever (to apply the nail art foil), All In One Base from Essie, Essie Borrowed & Blue polish, Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat, two sizes of nail brushes, and my plastic lid palatte.

Here's the Essie polish Borrowed & Blue. It's so precious, I just love it. Lighter than a Tiffany blue, and really gorgeous.

Here's the bit of nail art foil that I used to make the ribbon in the design. It can be a little tricky to work with, but it is a fun tool to use in nail art. Check out Robin Moses on YouTube to see how she works with foils.

The entry cutoff for the contest on If It Shines is on September 30th, at which point you will be able to vote for your favorite designs. I can't wait to see what other artists come up with! I will feature the link to voting here when she posts it on her blog. 

Tomato Festival Nails

I did these tomato nails to wear to the 15th Annual Kendall Jackson Heirloom Tomato Festival! I am so excited because this is the first time in 6 years that I will be able to attend the festival, but not work at it as well. Yipee! The festival is an amazing celebration of tomato inspired dishes, wine, entertainment, and fun! I have a special sun dress picked out to wear with brown hues, so I wanted to do tomato nails, but something subtle to match my dress.

I only did the tomato pattern on the ring fingers of each hand. The design is simple and whimsical at the same time. I used a method that I see Leslie of Nail Polish Art Addiction use often, in which she paints with black first, then adds the color. That way you don't have to painstakingly outline each piece.

I got carried away while working on this nail and forgot to take pictures at each step, but you can see that one of the tomatoes does not have any red on it yet. I started with black shapes and built up from there.

Here's the base color without any tomatoes on it. I used Revlon 916 Chocolate Truffle. This is two coats topped with one coat of Seche Vite. The tomato designs were painted on using acrylic paints and a teeny tiny nail brush.

Thanks for checking this out, I will do better at getting step-by-step pictures on my next tutorial. I can't wait to pig out on tomatoes tomorrow. Have a great weekend!

How much would you spend on a bottle of polish?

After reading many blogs and seeing lots of photos of the gorgeous (and legendary) China Glaze OMG Collection of holographic nail polishes, I bit the bullet and got one on eBay. I am kind of embarrassed to say that I spent $23 for this bottle of polish. Anyone who was smart enough to stockpile China Glaze OMG Collection polishes back in 2008 can make quite a few bucks on eBay today. They originally sold for like 8 dollars, right? Sigh... what's a girl to do? But I am SO happy that I bought this polish.

Two coats of China Glaze LOL (a purple holo) under regular lamp light. I did these nails last night and could not WAIT for the sun to rise to see their magic holo effect.

Tadaaaa! Here is China Glaze LOL in the sunlight. I added a few little filigree scrolls to some nails using a silver acrylic paint. I used Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat to seal them and protect them. I am already seeing a little bit of wear on nail tips after less than a day. Oh well, it's so gorgeous, I don't care!

And here is a quick video, because I really wanted you to see the way the holographic polish looks. The formula is a little weird (can apply with little bald spots), but coats well in 2 coats.

So how much have you ever spent on a bottle of polish? Would you ever pay a lot of money for a shade that has been discontinued (like the OMG Collection)? Are there certain brands you love but just don't buy because they are way too expensive (ahem, Butter London, cough)? I have heard about a polish called Unicorn Puke by Cult Nails that sounds amazing, but who knows how hard it will be to find. And the upcoming Muppets Collection by OPI has me considering taking out a loan so I can get every shade.

Welcome to Sonoma Nail Art!

I am happy to start sharing my nail art with you! Eventually, I hope to do a few tutorials on my designs. In the mean time, check out some of my favorite past nail designs. Please feel free to comment with any suggestions for designs you would like to see, or any questions about the products and tools I use. I am an amateur, so I just do this for fun. Thanks for checking me out!