November Sky Nails

Sorry for not uploading sooner- Charter Communications has been a pain in the butt lately, and even though we pay a lot monthly for them, they seem to think internet access is a priveledge and not a right for their paying customers.
Anyways, here is a simple nail art design I came up with that is inspired by the bare trees and gray skies this time of year. The base color is "Bergen" which is from Julep (was limited edition this summer, not sure if it's still available), a lovely slightly shimmery blue-gray. I just added trees with a black nail art pen and a few dots in the background to represent chevrons of geese flying south. On my left index finger, my geese got smeared when I applied topcoat too quickly, but I thought the effect was cool.

Matte Dots and Lines

After painting my nails plain pink (Revlon Posh Pink) for a job interview yesterday, I decided to just add some simple dots and lines for a more interesting manicure. I added some horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines in various combinations on each nail, then filled in one line with black dots.
I thought a matte topcoat would look best with this design.
They are a little sloppy because I free-handed them, but I really should have done this with nail striping tape.

Velvet Underground Bananicure

Here's a nail art tribute I did for Lou Reed/ The Velvet Underground, which takes inspiration from the "Andy Warhol" and "Loaded" album covers.
For my Andy Warhol banana nail, I first painted my nail white and let it dry completely. Then, I wiped most of the polish off of the brush for my yellow polish and drew a banana shape. This probably would have been more successful on a longer nail. When that was absolutely, completely dry, I used a black nail art pen to add high contrast to the banana.
For my "Loaded" inspired nails, I did a simple three color gradient like the smoke coming from the underground on the album. The three colors I used were Essie "Tart Deco" and OPI "Lincoln Park After Dark" and "Grand Canyon Sunset." I first painted my nail with "Tart Deco" then added the two other colors on a blending sponge and blended until I got the effect I wanted.

Vintage Wallpaper Nails

These nails were inspired by some vintage 1940s wallpaper prints I saw online recently. Most of these floral prints consisted of dark, muted flowers and a dull green ivy on an off white or buff colored backdrop.
To begin, I painted all of my nails with "Kelsey" by Julep, which is a sort of pale peach color. Then I added large dots of Essie "Lilacism," Revlon "Cherries in the Snow" and OPI "Grand Canyon Sunset." While those were still wet, I swirled some of the peach color into them to give the illusion of petals and some depth to the design. With Maybelline "Tenacious Teal," I added leaf accents to the flowers I made and painted ivy designs on my index and ring fingers. My main recommendations are to choose a pigmented opaque green polish and to let your base color dry completely before creating your flowers.

Galaxy Nails and New Logo!

Here is my take on the very popular Galaxy nail art. After a little experimentation today, I figured out some preferences, what looks good and what does not. I figured out:
-Black is a much better backdrop than dark blue
-Add white to the black before adding a sheer polish of another color
-An eraser at the end of a pencil works much better than a dotting tool for adding planets
-Too many large stars detracts from the effect
-Adding a finely milled glitter top coat really ties it all together. I used Sally Hansen "Disco Ball" for this.
-To get a neater look, add colors in band across the nail, much like how galaxies really look in the night sky

Look to your upper right. See my new logo? I'd like to thank Danny Anduza, my wonderful boyfriend, (www.dannyanduza.com) for making it for me. Soon, maybe, this blog will be a respectable, professional looking thing with a cool background and watermarks and such. Also, I shot these images with my new Canon Powershot camera, so no more cell phone pictures! Yay!

-Emmy

Candy Corn Ombre Nails

These are just a really simple, subtle candy corn colored ombre mani for the fall. I started with a white base, then added yellow and orange (Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, Kleancolor Neon Orange) to a blending sponge and then applied that to the top 2/3 of the nail.
Some gold glitter might be cool to add, but I chose to leave it as is.

Dia de los Muertos nails

Here is an incredibly easy design for Halloween/ Day of the Dead you can do as just an accent nail or on all of your nails. This was very easy for me to do on my opposite hand also. The design is basically just strategically placed dots.
To begin, I started with an off white base- mine is "Transcend" by Sparitual. Then I just took my polish brush and added two dots for eyes. The orange I am using is a Wet n' Wild polish called "Sunny Side Up." After that, I took my nail art pen and drew two little black shapes on the base of the nail for a sort of contour, added four little dots in a diamond shape for a nose, then added dots around the eyes, a line for the mouth and a small triangle shape on the forehead.