Saturday, February 8, 2014

Indigo Nails Lab - courses

I am so excited! I 've always been watching acrylic nail videos on youtube, without having much of a clue about what it is.. For the last 3 years I have been a gel girl, all the way. Only did 3 sets of acrylic nails, the first on 2011..

I had asked my educator back then to show me the acrylic system (liquid  & powder, I mean), and she did 1 of my nails. That was all, but to be fair, I hadn't taken the course with l&p..

Now that a few years have passed, I still wanted to learn, but watching was not enough for me.. I wanted to learn properly and practice, and I had this opportunity with Indigo.. My educator was there all the time, and I feel I saw so many things..! I am so excited, I can hardly wait for the end of the month to get my supplies and start practicing, plus, I am also going to attend the 3d course next week..

Yeah, I know I already said that, but I am so excited...!!!

    

Love is music

Another Valentine's design:) This time I combined colors and added some music..


I applied silver polish on the index finger (base Glamorous silver, and tiny iridescent glitter by Orkide on top), plus some ss8 clear rhinestones, black polish on the middle finger (China Glaze "Liquid Leather") and a bright pink polish on the rest.

2 accent nails have a handpainted music theme, done with water based acrylic paints.

Start by making the key (with a little heart-twist for the special day) and some heart shapes on the right. Add the pentagramm (or something close..) to the blank parts. Highlight the dark motif with l.pink paint.

I also applied some of the glitter polish I used for the index on the cuticle area of thum and pinky...



I started with the pentagramm, and I had to separate the hearts and music key from it. If you make the pentagram last, without touching the other shapes, you will have zero touch-ups to do:)

For the other hand, you can use the plastic bag method, if you like. The entire design will be a piece of cake if you have music themed stamps, or decalls.. all you'll have to do is change some parts to heart shapes.


 I uploaded the tutorial on youtube, if you want, you can check it out by clicking here.

I hope you like the idea:)

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Wild hearts - Valentine's nailart

This time it is a combination of animal prints and hearts in a sweet purple color.


I used a combination of gold glitter for the background: 1 coat of CG "I Am Not Lion), decided that it was too light, and applied a second very light coat of OPI "Bring On The Bling". The result was something in between, which suited me perfectly:)

Then I used a seloteip, pressed it on my hand to make it less sticky, and placed it on the nails, leaving a diagonal french tip. I sponged white polish, so that it would not become too thick, but it could dry a lot faster. Covered with topcoat to smooth the surface.


 I painted two heart shapes on ringfinger and thumb, using black acrylic paint, and made a zebra print. I am not very proud of the zebra, I have been shaking and using the worst striping brush ever, that doesn't bent at all.. Then I mixed brown paint with white and made irregular spots on the glitter part. Outlined with black paint to complete the leopard pattern.

 
I mixed purple with silver to get a dark purple shade and filled the hearts leaving a thin black line as an outline. Then I mixed purple and white, to get a very light purple shade, and filled the dark purple, leaving out just a tiny bit showing.. Highlighted with white.

With clear polish, I added a row of rhinestones where the two rints meet, and only 2 rhinestones between the hearts. Covered with topcoat carefully, and after a few minutes, I topcoated again (always making sure not to cover the rhinestones with my thick top coat and loose the shine).

  
If you are interested in the tutorial, click here

Heartbreaker - easy valentine's nailart

Using a simple toothpick again... Of course there are so many things found at home that you can use for nailart, especialy for perfect round dots, but I prefer the toothpick, because I think you can do everything with them.  I filed the one side to make it almost round and left the other one pointy, as it is.


I painted all my nails with black polish (Liquid Leather by CG) and used acrylic paints for the design. I made it in red, but you can use any color of your choice (pictures edited, so that I could show):



First, I made the lips. I painted the upper lips as a wide M. I started from the center and did one half to the left, one half to the right, using the thick part of the toothpick and red acrylic paint. Then I made the lower lip and then the broken heart. I used the pointy edge of the toothpick to write "kiss" and paint the middle of the hearts.

Then I carved 2 lines on the upper lips and 3 on the lower lips, using the pointy side. I added some green paint in the red, to make it darker, and added shades. Then with very light pink, I addded highlights..


It is easier than it looks, and definately something you can do with a toothpick:)

If you are interested in watching the video, click here.