Recreate Another's-Valentine's Week Challenge

Happy Valentine's Day. It's the last day of the challenge!! Oh my gosh I've really enjoyed this. It's been great having a focus for a week.

Day 5-Freestyle/Recreate Another's

Today's prompt was either doing your own design or recreating one that someone had done during the challenge. I really wanted to do a riff on what someone else had done since there have been so many great designs this week. I chose to take inspiration from Valerie Wilson at Nail Artsy. She did a purple background with a simple and beautiful rose design on it.

Here's my take:

without flash

I started with a base of Zoya Belinda which is an absolutely gorgeous deep purple. I then added the rosettes with a nail art pen.

I then added a layer of deborah lippmann Diamonds and Pearls which is just a beautiful shimmery overlay.

with flash

I then blinged the heck out of my ring finger (can you see that the bottom jewel is a heart?).

It's obviously not exactly like Valerie's but I was definitely inspired by her design.

I'm so glad I took part in this challenge. There are much longer challenges which I hope to be a part of but I know I'll have to plan it a bit better!!

Happy painting friends!

An InLinkz Link-up

Purple Bling

Carrying on with more of the polishes I got in my recent nail mail, today I'm featuring two purples from a england. The first one is the lighter purple called Jane Eyre and it is simply stunning. The second is Avalon and it appears almost black but there is a beautiful purpley shimmer when it catches the light.

I accented this just with some simple purple rhinestones in a wavy design.

with flash

I like the simplicity of this design and wish I had gotten better pics. I just built myself a light box to even out my lighting so hopefully my pictures will be better in the future (though I'm still trying to get used to it).

So far I've loved all my a england polishes and I would love to get the new ballerina collection. Maybe I'll have to wait for my birthday ;)

Happy painting friends!

Ariel

Contained in my nail mail the other day were five piCture pOlishes. This is a brand from Australia I've been dying to try as there are so many good reviews on other blogs. I was not disappointed! I decided to use serenity (a really pretty blue/green with a ton of shimmer) and jasmine (a beautiful lavender colour with lots of little bits of colour).

I did a manicure very similar to my New Years one from this (last?) year.

I called it Ariel as someone at work mentioned that it looked like the colours the Little Mermaid wears. Being the massive Disney fan that I am, I latched right onto that connection!

I used two coats of the jasmine and one coat of serenity. I LOVE piCture pOlish!! The formula is amazing, it goes on like a dream and it's so heavily pigmented you don't need many coats. And just look at that gorgeous colour! I'm obsessed! I want all the colours now, lol.

You can purchase these colours and more through Nail Polish Canada. (I think I'll be buying more soon!)

Happy painting friends!

Purple Fracture

My husband went go-karting for his birthday and I went along for the festivities after but did not partake in the karting. What's a girl to do but her nails! My BFF had just grabbed me a new Zoya called Mason and I knew I had to use it so it formed the base of the design.

The silver was just a nail pen that I used to draw on the solid silver area and then the fractured look over the purple.

with flash

I was going for a fractured type look but one of my friends said it reminded him of a giraffe, lol. This was pretty simple to do but I think the effect is quite cool.

Happy painting friends!

Sea Dragon

One of the blogs I follow religiously, Wondrously Polished (click name for link), had an amazing design the other day and I knew right away that I wanted to do a version of it. The polishes I used for this look are Sally Hansen Triple Shine Sparkling Water (turquoise), Beautifully Disney Ocean Mist (green) and Essie Sexy Divide (purple).

I started with a black nail pen and drew in the rough shapes.

I then went in with the colours and a small paintbrush and painted in the various colours. When I finished that, I went back over the black lines with the nail pen.

Don't they look like scales?! I was going to go with mermaid but then someone at work said "sea dragon" and I was sold!

I love these colours together and was so sad to take it off. I had planned to wear it for a couple days but I got nail mail through that day and couldn't resist trying out my new colours.

Happy painting friends!

Foxy Fingers!

I saw something similar to this on Nail It Magazine's website. They have a lot of good ideas so check it out if you're ever stuck for a painting idea.

I started with a basic black from Rimmel and then painted on the purple using Essie The Lace is On making sure to follow the line of my cuticle.

I think this is so simple but super sexy! I might try this again but add some bling to it.

This was actually harder to do than a lot of my designs simply because you need to make sure your curve it exact. 

Love it!

Happy painting friends!

Ooh, Sparkles!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go! And so I decided to do some festive sparkly nail art.

This pic is a bit out of focus but you get the idea! I'm still struggling with finding a good camera area to take pictures but hopefully I'll figure it out soon :)

For this look I started with a base of No. 7 Damson Dream. It's one of my favourite colours (and really goes on like a dream!)

I then sponged on a gold glitter from Color Club. I'm really loving the glitter gradients right now. They are relatively easy to do and I love the dramatic effect they give.

Perfect for a Christmas party!

Happy painting friends!

The Answer My Friend...

When I used the Orly Mash Up Collection the other day for my mother in law's birthday nail art I really wanted to use it again for something else. I love the colours; they are so bright and amazing. I decided to use two of them Orly Pretty Ugly and Orly Harmonious Mess. I painted them on and decided to do some flowers. I'm not really sure how they turned into dandelion fluffs but here we are :)

When I finished this mani I thought, "Wow, it would be great for spring!" It's probably not appropriate for November but I don't really care. It's bright and happy and that makes me feel good! Who says you need to stick to the seasons in nail art?

I could have benefited from a bit of moisturizer around my cuticles as they are looking mighty dry in some of the pictures!

I hope this gave you a breath of the spring.

Happy painting friends!

It's a Mickey Birthday Party!

Today is my dear mother-in-law's 60th birthday! I wanted to celebrate by doing some nail art for her since I can't be physically with her (for those of you who don't know she lives in England). When I think of my mother-in-law I think of bright happy colours and Disney, lol. My husband's family, like me, are Disney fanatics so I really wanted to incorporate the Mouse into the design.

Here's my Mickey Mouse birthday party nail art. On each nail there is a different base colour (listed later in the post), some polka dots, Mickey heads (some with birthday hats), and then random other dots and streamers.

I think this design is really fun and pretty much what I was going for. My mother-in-law is an extremely vibrant person and that is reflected in the design.

I hope she enjoys the design and has a fantastic birthday!

I used one coat of Sally Hansen White On for all my fingers (to make the next colour pop) and then painted on the colours as follows to form the base:

Thumb=Joe Fresh Lime Juice (green)
Index=Orly Mayhem Mentality (orange)
Middle=Orly Harmonious Mess (purple)
Ring=Orly Choreographed Chaos (pink)
Pinkie=Orly Pretty Ugly (blue)

(Mickey heads, birthday hats, dots and streamers were done with nail pens)

Happy painting friends!