Twinsie Tuesday: Animal Inspired

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Today we’re all showing manicures that are inspired by an animal.  Of course the first thing I though of was a leopard print, then a zebra; both of which I’ve done.  I thought about trying a giraffe, but decided on snake skin.  This is a technique I’ve been wanting to try for a while and I decided this was the perfect opportunity.

I hope you can all see that this is supposed to be snake skin.  I wasn’t surprised when my husband couldn’t tell that’s what it was supposed to be.  He said it just looked like some grungy design.  When I pressed him, he said it sorta looked like bricks.  I said, “Well, I’ve already done bricks and this isn’t what that looked like.”  I totally see snake skin when I look at it, but I know what it is.

To get this look, I painted my nails with Julep Nessa, a metallic yellow.  Then sponged on some Julep Selena, a mossy green, in random blobs and spots to get a bit of a variegated color.

Then I stretched some lace over my nail and lightly sponged on some Julep Boris and Nicole for my red scales.  I thought Boris and Nicole was the perfect color for this because it’s a brick red with a golden brown shimmer in it.  Very pretty!  I got a little too much polish on a couple nails so the design didn’t quite show through, but I’m still quite pleased with this result.

Be sure the check out all the other manis today:

Amanda of Amandalandish
Anna of Going to the Showing
Anne of Grape Fizz Nails
Ashley of Art Evolve
Brandi of The Collegiate Nail
Chelsea of Nailed Blog
ChiChi of I’m Just Me…ChiChi
Cordia of Srsly Swatched
Elizabeth of Did My Nails
Jenn of All That is Gorgeous
Jenna of I’m Still Thinking
Katherine of Haul of Fame
Maribeth of Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite!
Marisa of Polish Obsession
Meredith of Polish and Charms
Nory of Fierce Make Up and Nails
Sarah of See Sarah Swatch
Tara of Polishy of Truth

Peachy Gradient

My sister is getting married in less than two months.  In addition to making the wedding cake (yes, I make cakes too!  I know, a real Jackie of all trades!), I’m sure I’ll be doing everyone’s nails. 

I’ve been trying to come up with a few subtle options that will merely act as an accessory, rather than take any focus away from the bride.  The manicure of the bride and bridal party shouldn’t be the first thing people notice when they’re attending the celebration.  Coral is one of her colors.  This isn’t exactly coral, but I just can’t get enough of this polish lately.  This is Revlon Peachy.  I sponged it on the the top half of my nail for an understated look.  At first I thought it was a little too subtle, but I’ve decided it actually looks really classy.  Adding the glitter, Nina Ultra Pro Opal Elegance, to it made all the difference.

I love how it just sort of blends right in my naked nail and skin tone, but doesn’t look like mannequin hands.  You’ll probably see a few more wedding options in the weeks to come.  I wish the cake was going to be as fast and easy to create.

Revlon Whimsical Gradient

I swatched Whimsical a while back and was unimpressed with it.  One day I saw a post where someone had layered it over a gradient and while I’m not a fan of Whimsical by itself, I liked the gradient.  So I decided to give it a go for a baby shower I was going to.

Aren’t these the perfect baby shower nails?  A blue gradient for a baby boy and you could easily do a pink gradient for a girl.  I think I will name Revlon Whimsical my official baby shower polish.

I first tried it with a white base coat, did the blue gradient and added the Whimsical, and hated it.  The white made it too stark and I used a blue that was too dark.  I started over.  I sponged a gradient of Sinful Colors Aquamarine on to the tips of my nails without using a base color.  The first coat of Whimsical was so sheer that if it weren’t for the glitter, you wouldn’t know it was there.  It looked like a blue gradient over naked nails.  I actually looked pretty cool, but wasn’t what I was going for.  Three coats of Whimsical later and I had my finished result.  I topped it off with Cult Nails Wicked Fast.

I’m really liking this mani and plan to wear it for the weekend.  What do you think of Whimsical being layered like this?  Do you like Whimsical or Deborah Lippmann GITA by themselves?

Twinsie Tuesday: Ombre

This is my first Ombre!  Believe it or not, my stash is pretty small compared to many others.  I like to play and experiment with nail art more than I like to collect polishes.  I might have 200 polishes.  I haven’t counted in a long time.  For my ombre, I chose pink because that was really my only option.  I have tons of blues and greens and lots of other stuff, but none that really worked well together or were all the same finish.  Pink it is!

You know me, I can’t just leave it with plain old polish.  I had to play with it.  I started with a framed ombre, but wasn’t all that happy with it.  I like my pinkie, ring and middle fingers, but the index and thumb colors are just too close.  You can’t really see the framing.  So I started over on my other hand.

Again, I couldn’t leave well enough alone and went with a gradient ombre.  I got the idea from The Swatchaholic.  Her illustrations look much better than my nails do.  I actually really like all but my middle finger.  The colors are just too contrasting so it doesn’t make for a good transition.  To be honest, I liked each mani better before I went all nail art on them.  While I do like both results, I should’ve stopped white I was ahead.

The polishes I used are: Sinful Colors Easy Going, OPI Pink Friday, Milani Pink Hottie, LA Splash Blowfish Purple, Sally Hansen Berry Tantalizing Creme, Color Club Reddy or Not and China Glaze Velvet Bow.  I finished everything off with Poshé top coat.

Be sure the check out all the ombres today:

Amanda of Amandalandish
Anna of Going to the Showing
Anne of Grape Fizz Nails
Ashley of Art Evolve
Brandi of The Collegiate Nail
Chelsea of Nailed Blog
ChiChi of I’m Just Me…ChiChi
Cordia of Srsly Swatched
Jenn of All That is Gorgeous
Jenna of I’m Still Thinking
Katherine of Haul of Fame
Marisa of Polish Obsession
Meredith of Polish and Charms
Nory of Fierce Make Up and Nails
Sarah of See Sarah Swatch
Tara of Polishy of Truth

Gradient

I loved the color combination of my Slices of Color mani from Saturday, so I stuck with those polishes and tried out a gradient.

I’ve done gradients before, but this time around I tried a slightly different technique.  Rather than ripping off little pieces of sponge and doing each color one at a time, I applied all the colors to a full make up sponge and did them all at once.  I actually really liked this technique.  I would say the only issue I had with doing it this way is that it can be hard to paint the stripes on the sponge to line up on your nail the way you want.  Two colors would have been easier to do this with than four.  I love how they bleed together with this technique.

I don’t feel like it photographed as well as it actually looked.  My colors were China Glaze White on White, Revlon Peachy, Julep Selena and NYX Sepia.  I purposely used a top coat that I knew would smear the colors a bit to help with the blending effect, Jordana Quick Dry.  For the extra shine I finished it off with Poshé.

This is definitely a sponging technique I will be using in the future.