Category Archives: OPI

The Lazy 15: Water Marbling (or be afraid, be very afraid!)

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Hullo again. Apologies as I’m a bit late with mani number four. But water marbling is completely foriegn to me and I didn’t have sufficient down time to give it a go until yesterday. And boy oh boy, do you need clear time for this!

The polishes I used for this particular attempt were all OPIs: Moonraker, Tomorrow Never Dies and Bogota Blackberry. Now both Moonraker and TND were brand new and BB I’d used once. But even so I still found it quite slow to drip into the water so I added thinner. Aside from getting the polish to drop fast enough, the other big problem I had was getting the polish to spread. I found that the first polish would generally spread ok but that subsequent to that the polish circles wouldn’t expand very far. I was using ordinary tap water and I’ve since heard that that may be an issue. I’ve bought some distiller water now but I think I need time to recover from the experience before I try water marbling again. I will try it again though!

So below is the final outcome. After five hours of messing about my desk was a pigsty so I just went outside to take these photos rather than set up the light box. Also I apologise for the cuticles – despite using scotch tape, clean up was still a bitch. Added to which I nicked my right hand middle finger cuticle which bled profusely so I did my left hand instead, not wanting my wounded right hand to be exposed to acetone. Being left handed my clean up was even more underwhelming than it would have been on my right hand.

Watermarbling attemp

Watermarbling attempt

I did a number of trial runs with different polish brands and combinations. Some of the results of these I posted on Instagram (@Lacquercarefactor). The first was a total fail but then each after that was a slight improvement. So yes, I get that this takes patience and practice:). The other thing I struggled with was that I knocked the finished product on my index nail and then a bit of dried polish landed on my middle nail whilst I was applying top coat. So I actually had to do those again. The first version of the above was better looking than this but by that stage I was over the fun of making a huge mess with polish.

Also, I’ve still not managed to get hold of the inlinkz HTML code, so here’s a link to the blogs of just a couple of the lovely Lacquerheads doing this challenge and from their posts you can access the inlinkz of everyone one else who is part of this challenge:)

http://phoenixnails28.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/lazy-15-nail-art-challenge_7077.html 

http://nails4dummies.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/the-lazy-15-mani-4-water-marble.html

Until next time:)

xx

The Lazy 15: Gradient Manicure

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Hullo. I’m back again with manicure no. 2 of 15.

Now I’m the first to admit I have no natural talent when it comes to nail art. Haven’t had much experience of it really and because on the couple of occassions I have tried it it is such a disaster it becomes self-fulfilling in terms of my avoidance of it. So that was what was in my mind when I put my hand up to join with the girls in getting this challenge underway.

Today we have gradients. Oh boy. I see so many blog posts of absolutely stunning looking gradients. What those photos don’t show is how bloody hard it is to get a decent let alone a beautiful looking outcome.

I attempted a gradient once previously for Polish Days. It was such a dismal effort I gave up and didn’t even photograph it.

Today’s effort it has to be said was only marginally better but at least it was an improvement. Now here’s a shot of the polishes I used. I recently acquired the OPI SkyFall collection and, having only had the chance to wear a couple of them thus far, I wanted to use some polishes from this collection. I chose three that I thought reflected each other in texture: The World is not Enough, Goldeneye and You Only Live Twice.

Skyfall Gradient

I decided to apply a white base colour to my nails, thinking that the colours would stand out better. I used China Glaze White On White.

Once that was well and truly dry I applied the three polishes to a piece of sponge and dabbed one finger at a time before reapplying. I ended up doing three coats of that. I then did some initial clean up around my nails before applying Sech Vita and proceeding to clean up my cuticles. Here’s the result.

Gradient Manicure

By the time I took photos of this mani I’d spent the afternoon preparing my tax return and doing some filing in the study and you can see the tips have already started to wear a bit.

Now without meaning to be a downer, I have to say I am disappointed with my effort and I was very tempted to take it off and start again. However, I decided not to and to show you this, warts and all, because the point of this exercise is to make me try different nail art techniques. With that there are gonna be some butt-ugly manicures but also with each one there will be plenty of learnings to take away. And that’s the most important thing for me.

So what’s my take away from this one? First is that I wouldn’t use a base of white undies next time. At least not with colours like these. The white undies made the red polish at the top of the cuticles very pink in places which wasn’t the look I was going for.

I’d also be more careful to check the texture of the polish I used. Whist in the bottle all three of these polishes seem to be similar in texture, Goldeneye is actually very much a glitter whilst the others are very fine micro glitters at most. What this meant was that where Goldeneye was on the nail was more raised than the other two polishes on the nail. And for cleanup, oh lordy don’t get me started on what a beast this lot, and in particular Goldeneye, were to clean off from around my fingers and my cuticles. Just awful.

Which leads me to my third take out which is that next time I’ll remember to brush some Vaseline on the skin around my nails to make clean up a little bit easier.

Finally I don’t think I waited long enough between coats on this. The World is Not Enough in particular was a bit watery in texture and because I wasn’t waiting long enough for each coat to dry I ended up not allowing the colour to build up enough.

So that’s it. I will definitely be trying again because I would love to be able to do a decent gradient manicure but next time I will apply my leanings and also stick to creme polishes….at least for now.

I’m trying to get hold of the inlinkz HTML code so you can link to the lovely girls and guy who are doing this challenge with me. Once I have that I’ll insert it here.

In the meantime I would love to hear of your experiences with gradient manicures and if you’ve got any tips for me that would be wonderful too!

xx

Polish Days – Polish Geometry

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Hullo.

Being (a) generally lazy, and (b) crap at nail art, has largely kept me out of Polish Days. It wasn’t because I hadn’t tried. I’ve twice attempted manis for previous Polish Days events. It was simply that on both occassions, to quote Mark Weber, I ran out of talent.

And my initial effort for today was awful too, a complete fail. But after chatting on Twitter with A Lacquered Affair, I thought I’d give it one more crack. And it’s far from perfect but well, who cares. I give you my first second attempt at a tapped mani.

OPI Deutsch you want me baby & Jade Fascinio Violeta

I didn’t mean for it to look quite so pentagram-ish. All a bit sinister and witchy-poo really. Or would if it weren’t bloody bright orange and holo purple. This is two coats of OPI Deutsch you want me baby because that’s what I happened to have on my nails already. Refer to first paragraph above re ‘lazy’. Having whacked on some tape I applied two coats of Jade Fascinio Violeta and then waited what felt like an age (but turned out to be not quite long enough) before attempting to remove the tape. Let that be a lesson to me. Patience is a virtue, particularly when it comes to nail art it would seem. Anyway, after only slightly buggering my index and middle finger nails in the tape removal process, I slapped on two coats of Gealous and a coat of Seche Vita.

OPI Deutsch you want me baby & Jade Fascinio Violeta

So this is my slightly wonky take on ‘Polish Geometry’. My take away from this exercise? Make sure your top colour polish is a quick drying, very opaque one coater.

I gather that Hannah’s Polish Days events are getting more and more participants each time so checking out all the participants’ posts is going to take a while but get cracking because there’s certainly been some very talented lacquerheads take part in pervious Polish Days.


Late April Nail Mail

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I’ve been keeping the postman busy of late. Almost feel like I should leave out some biscuits and a pint of milk:). So I thought’s I’d do a quick post covering the new arrivals but with more pics than words for once!

First cab off the rank was not really nail mail as such, rather an emergency purchase on a recent work trip interstate. I’d been rushing to do my nails before heading to the airport only to wreck the mani beyond repair by the time I’d boarded the plane. So on arrival at Melbourne airport I snapped up some nail polish remover, a Revlon base & top coat and OPI Bogota Blackberry.

I put these on that night in the hotel room whilst I was working away but I didn’t take any shots before I removed OPI BB on my return Monday night. Safe to say it wasn’t my best effort at applying nail polish but it was better than the wreck mani it replaced. Love the colour of OPI BB but am just not patient enough when I don’t have a quick dry top coat handy:(. The Revlon Base+Top Coat is not something I’d normally buy as I’m not overly keen on Revlon polish but it was all that the chemist at the airport had. I have no idea how it fares with other Revlon polishes but the OPI BB reacted strangely to it and split like water from oil when I applied the first coat of OPI. I let it dry and then chanced a second coat. Still a couple of weird gaps where the OPI BB just wouldn’t take to the Revlon BC so I had to add a third and fourth coat. Hence a bit of marking on the mani as even several hours later by the time I finished working and went to bed, it still wasn’t completely dry. I will never both with the Revlon BC+TC. If you like it and want it, let me know. Going free to a good home. OPI BB was one that I’d had in my mind for a while but felt it was too similar to some polish I already have. But of the range available in that particular chemist shop it was the pick.

Ok next are a few Etude House polishes I picked up of eBay to try. EH BL505, Shimmering Blue and Satin Purple. Of these I’ve applied BL505 over an old mani on one hand so far and I’m looking forward to trying it on its own. In the bottle it has a beautiful blurple duochrome sheen but that doesn’t translate to the nail. Still stunningly bright and shiny though.

 

Next is Clarins 230. It was on eBay for what I decided was a moderately reasonable price given what I’ve seen it listed for in the past so I eventually caved and bought it.

Next was a third bottle of Max Factor Mini – Fantasy Fire. I’m loving it so much but those damn bottles are so so tiny that I wanted to make sure I had a reasonable supply.

 

Then Monday my next order of Nfu Oh polishes arrived. Squeee! Think these are what I was most excited to receive. I only got my first two Nfu Ohs (#51 and #40) a few weeks back but was so blown away by #51 that I knew from that point on I was addicted. So below we have #50, #56, #51 (back up bottle!), #52 and #59. IN LOVE!

 

Next are my first Butter London polishes. Left to right we have Chancer, Branwen’s Feather, Marrow and Scoundrel. Am tossing up whether to also get hold of The Black Knight, Lilibet and Knackered.

Sigh. It’s tough for the Butter London’s. Normally I’d be really keen to try them but many of the other nail mail I got this last week and a bit outstrips them rather. Speaking of which, I was very naught and gave into my lust for more duo and multichromes by getting both sets of Mari Moon from Hits Speciallita. Below from left to right are:

 

 

I’m ridiculously keen to try all of these. I love the slightly kitch packets they come in, there’s something slightly retro about the packaging that reminds me of things from my childhood, like my sister’s collection of teen mags she’d keep squirrelled away in a wee suitcase under her bed. We’re talking the Bay City City Rollers, Leaf Garrett and Kirsty McNicol.

But it doesn’t stop there. Last but not least my first ever Cult Nails polishes arrived yesterday. They come in fantastic packaging, some sort of natural fibre paper. I’ve no doubt these wont be the last purchase from Cult Nails. Am very keen to try them.

 

Left to right are Mind Control, Seduction, Time Traveller and Vicious.

Phew so that’s the nail mail. There’ll be some more to come next week but beyond that I’m going to (try) pace myself and just buy one or two polishes every now and again when I see something that I love. I’ve developed a good basic collection over a fairly short period of time so from here on in the pace of polish acquisition should ease up a bit. Should. :)