Ombre Chevrons

Sigh.

Why do I do this for you guys? I mean, I've got 3 tests this week, and an essay rough draft due on Thursday, plus marching band practice for 3 hours after school, 40 minutes of flute practice a day, and a season of Lost that needs finishing, and yet I still take valuable time out of my weekend to paint my nails and blog about them.

Answer:

Because I love doing it 

What other reason do I need? 

Case in point, let's look at this week's nails, shall we?

So uhm I know I said I love doing this...but dear God by the time I finished these I was so happy, because these nails were a PAIN. 

But they look great. so whatever 

And I promise that these look so much better in person. In person it's harder to see the places where I screwed up. 

:P

So the pretty gold base here is China Glaze-Blonde Bombshelll, which is this awesome yellow gold glittery base. You all know how much I ADORE blue and gold together!

The blues in order, from light to dark, are Essie-Lilacism, Orly-Snowcone, a blue polish from China, and Butter London-Royal Navy. That polish is my love. I have never found a blue that I love as much as Royal Navy. Apologies to the 30+ blues in my stash. 

But seriously like if I could marry a bottle of nail polish, it would be Royal Navy. 

I used striping tape to block out the lines, then painstakingly went in with the polish brush and did my best to paint between the freaking lines. I failed and spazzed a couple times. 

I did a reverse ombre on my ring fingers and thumbs as an accent nail.

So yeah it was kinda a bad idea for me to have painted every single one of my nails like this, because each nail took like 10 minutes to do, something that I did not realize until I started my left hand. 

I really wanted to not do anything on my left hand and just leave it gold, but you know how I'm like really OCD about this sort of thing. Of course they had to match!

So don't get me wrong, I really like these nails alot. I think they're pretty and they stand out and they're overall awesomeness. Let me just tell you that a lot of people think I wear fake nails or appliques or something. I think I need a shirt or something that says "I paint my own nails" on it. I dunno. That'd be cool.

I'm just saying that I'm probably not going to do a design this time consuming for a while. You're all just lucky that I had practically no homework this weekend. 

So yeah 2 coats of topcoat made them smooth and shiny and ready to wear! Yay! 

Now my hands are really cold and I have to pee.

And here's my cat

Just because he was being really cute today. 

Ok that's all guys and thanks for reading as always!

~Nova

Sunday Nail Art-Tan, Brown, and Gold

Hi everyone! How've your weekends been? I've been watching lot's of Twin Peaks lately, which I guess is a little old for me, seeing as it was made in 1990, but it's SO GREAT! It's started getting really creepy and dark, which is just how I like it!
 So anyway, it's starting to get chillier here in NJ, and that can only mean one thing...autumn's here! I actually like fall alot, sweaters, blankets, my birthday, apple cider, and, for nail people like me, fall nail polish colors! Unfortunately for me, I'm really not a fall colors fan. I mean, reds, oranges, all these berry tones and dark greens, I'm not saying I hate all fall colors, you all know I looove me some navy! But in my head these fall colors just don't go together nicely. However, there is one fall palette that I like and will use, tans browns and golds! I love all the great brown shades that come out in the fall. And although gold is more of a "festive" color I suppose, I always put it with the fall colors. So today's nails are going to feature those exact colors:

Tan brown and gold! So this is one of the simpler designs I've done...it's also my first time ever trying chevron nails. I picked up these great chevron craft scissors at Michaels the other day, so I was like awesome I can do chevron nails now! Yay!

How it works is, you take some tape, I used masking tape cuz I prefer masking tape to scotch tape, and use the craft scissors to cut strips of the tape and boom, instant chevron "stencils"! I did get a little ocd though about the width of the strips, so yeah it kinda took me a while to cut all the tape. Idk i just get like that sometimes...

The dark brown is OPI-Berlin There, Done That, the fine gold glitter is Sally Hansen-Golden Rule (I am like so into that glitter right now! I can't explain it's just so awesome!), and the lightest tan/nude is OPI-Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh?. I am still unable to get over the amazingness of that name. I think it's my favorite polish name in my entire collection. And I have a polish named Nova!

 So after all the base colors were dry, I used a toothpick to put a piece of large gold glitter on my index fingers and pinkies, near the cuticle. (the glitter on my index finger is catching the light and looks green :P). Then I gently pressed my little tape chevron stencils onto my ring fingers and thumbs, and just painted the other colors on top. It was so easy!

I really like these nails, and I'm going to have to keep practicing with my chevron-ing. I really love the chevron look, so be ready for more chevron designs in the future!
Also my cat has been occupying my desk chair all day...I guess he thinks it's his chair now. I had to do my physics lab on the floor. And I'm sitting on the floor typing. Because I can't use my chair. Thanks a lot cat.
So thank you for reading guys! I have to go and find out who killed Laura Palmer now so...no spoilers!  

http://www.defectivegeeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/tumblr_lgkyodqE8C1qgrkbso1_500.jpg

Dale Cooper is the best.
I'm serious Twin Peaks is like my new favorite thing. 
Ok I'm done obsessing now. 
Byee
~Nova

Sunday Nail Art-Bumpy Chevron Design

Hello everyone! How's everyone's weekend been goin? I'm actually in New Hampshire right now with my mom. She's attending some sort of conference thing here, I'm just taggin along. It was like a 5 hour drive, but it was fun. We listened to every single Muse album EVER in chronological order...and there are 6 albums. WHEEEEEE!!!!! I wrote up a couple posts before I left so as long as this computer doesn't spaz out or something I should still be able to post the next couple days. 

So these nails I did yesterday, and God are they COLORFUL! It's so summery and bright and pretty and AWESOME! I couldn't think of a good title for this post so I'm just calling it a "bumpy chevron look" which I guess is more or less accurate. 

The base color I used for these nails was OPI-My Vampire Is Buff. God I can't get over how that is a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference. Kinda weird cuz that polish was from the Euro collection and I have no idea what Buffy has to do with Europe...but whatever. It's a super pretty off white color that was like, MADE for me, given my looove for off whites!

All the other colors are Essies. The green is The More The Merrier,  the light blue is Turquoise & Caicos, the pink is A Tart Deco, and, my camera's arch-nemesis, the RED that looks ORANGE but is really RED, is Saturday Disco Fever.

To do this design I took my medium sized "fluffy brush", which is what I call it because I have no idea what it's actually called. I don't have a picture of it but it's sorta fluffy(duh). It's not a striping or detailing brush it's more like a paint brush. And it tapers to a smaller point at the end. It behaves just like a regular polish brush, like the brush you would find in the bottle, but its tapered tip makes it easier to make finer lines. It was perfect for this design and I just dipped it into the polish and used it to draw lines in a bumpy, chevron-y pattern.

I used my smaller detailing brush to make the thinner lines just redefine the "bumps" a little better, like in my ring finger above. 

This design was pretty easy, but it kinda took a while. The only thing that really sucked about it was that Saturday Disco Fever and Turquoise & Caicos needed a white base before they could be layered on top of the other colors. It was kind of a pain. Also you had to keep waiting for the previous layer of polish to dry before applying another. That's the main reason this design took such a long time.

I finished off this design with 2 coats of top coat and done! Let me just say that doing this design was extremely uncomfortable, partly because I was in an awkward position and mostly because I REALLY had to pee, like the second I started the design. Advice: ALWAYS PEE BEFORE DOING YOU'RE NAILS.
So what do you guys think of this? I really liked the color combo I used, it's just so summer, yaknow? 
That's all for today, I'll see you all next time!
~Nova