It's Another Doodling Day- Experiments With Lines and Dots

 

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I'm a doodler. I doodle in my sketchbook, I doodle in my notebooks, I draw in my planner and on scrap paper. I also love setting up a set of false nails on bamboo skewers so I can doodle on them with my various polishes as the urge hits me.

I generally keep 10-20 nails on sticks at any time, so that I can hopefully get right into it whenever the urge hits me. I get annoyed if I'm hit with a creative burst and I have to spend 15 minutes prepping. This time I ended up with three nails in similar styles, and I really like them all. They're all very similar, and yet pretty darn different, too.

First, I painted some backgrounds. I wasn't going for any look in particular, so I picked three different base colors to work with: a deep blackened emerald (Hard Candy Envy, YUM!), a deep red, and a brown taupe (Milani Bare Necessity¹). I let those dry while I killed a few minutes on the internet, looking at random stuff. I decided I would use the Milani Nail Art Lacquer in White Canvas I'd been sent to see how it works.

Once they were dry enough to continue, I started with the Envy nail. I wanted to practice painting lines and experimenting with curves, so I started a basic scroll pattern. Once I got going, I really liked what was developing, so I left a diagonal section of negative space between the two bold design sections. Believe it or not, the white curls were really simple to do... it's just a matter of making a swirl, then another swirl. Add a bit of a line, etc... Once I got the basic lines down, I used some envy on the brush to clean up any booboos I made, then used my new dotting tools to fill in the few empty spots with dots. If there's any interest, I can put up an animated gif showing my process.

I really like this one, and I can see doing this in a variety of shades. The bold contrast between almost black and white really draws the eye, and the bold graphic pattern is fun and whimsical. What can I say, I'm really drawn to bold patterns!

Next, I wanted to explore a similar idea, only using geometric shapes instead of organic swirls. As you may be able to tell, I had problems with my line thickness on these. I'd switched to a different brush and I just didn't like it as much. However, wobbly lines aside, I think this is a fun pattern as well. The concentric lines are very graphic and fun, and I'll definitely revisit this as a full manicure.

I started out with the square. I painted the large partial square, then filled in the smaller one. I wanted a third smaller one, but it was just too small! I figured dots would fill in nicely, though. Then I added the partial triangle at the top left, and filled in the smaller ones. Finally, I did the partial circle at the bottom, then filled in the smaller one. I added white dots in the negative space between the shapes, and then for fun I added dots in a brighter red on top of the white negative space dots. I think I should have cleaned up my edges on this one too, though.  Again, if you want an animated gif, just ask.

Finally, I went for the taupe. My husband and I have been kicking around the idea of circuit boards as an inspiration. This is much more open than a traditional circuit board, but it still has a vibe that makes me think of them. I started with the white lines, then added a few red lines. I didn't want a crowded nail, so I then went for some dots in various sizes.

I felt like something was missing, so I pulled out some black to add to it. Much better... the black helped add a punch of contrast that really did energize the whole design. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. It has potential, but I don't think it's really where it needs to be yet. Ah well, it's a good start. Again, just ask if you want the animated process.

Some thoughts about the Milani Nail Art Lacquer: I'm actually pretty impressed with it! The brush is an odd color- both the brush and stem are a sort of yellow color, so when you wipe down the excess it looks pretty strange! Still, the brush is very nice, and the polish is very nice! Opaque and creamy, and easy to control. The brush tends to pick up a lot of polish, but that's how it goes with most nail art polishes I've used. Also, call my crazy but I think the little bottle is adorable! Plus, this one came with a set of rhinestone stickers that are just too darn cute! You'll definitely see those before long...

So there we have it, the results from my recent nail doodlings. I think I'm pretty content with them... what do you think? :D

¹ While I was unsure about the Bare It All collection from Milani, I find I'm reaching for those darker neutrals fairly often! Teddy Bare and Bare Necessity are both cool as heck!

Milani White Canvas, Hard Candy Envy, Milani Bare Necessity were
provided by the manufacturers or their PR firms for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Oooh, New "Soft Stamp" Nail Stamping System- Very Cool!

I know, I know. I've become a bit obsessed with this whole nail art thing. I do that, sorry. But I have found the coolest new thing and I just have to share it with y'all! I'm sure if you've tried Konad, you know that it's not as easy as it looks. Scraping and stamping, getting a clean print and transferring that print to your nails without it going smeary and wonky can be really tough to do!

But tonight I was surfing the web because I've got insomnia again, and I found this "Soft Stamp" system. It looks really interesting! There's no scraping, and you can use ANY polish with it, even glitters! (At least, that what the ads say... :D)

These stamps are made of rubber, and you end up letting the polish dry partially before applying it to your nail. That seems to me like it would make getting a clear transfer a lot easier! You can also layer colors, so that you have more than one or two colors in a design! The abilities with this system are so intriguing!

I've composited several of the image plates into an image so you can see what types of images are available. They're cute cute, plus there are a few really unique images that Konad just doesn't have anything like.

For example, just look at A27. I think anyone could get full coverage on any nail, even big toes! Plus, the opportunity for multiple colors, for gradients, for just plain creative fun... I'm just itching to play with these! You can use just a flower, just a leaf, a section of vine... use whatever you want, you've got plenty of options!

I'm including the sample of designs made with A27. They're so cute! You can see how some flowers are done with multiple colors, and some are all one color. I love the white on black, and the grapes are so adorable! See why I wanna play with it??

There's a large selection of stamps, as well as combination packs that come with both 2 stamps and polishes. I'm pretty impressed with the whole deal, actually. Just look at the sorts of designs you can make!

 

They're available in several places: on eBay and from Alexander Cosmetics, and apparently they're sold at the Face Shop. I can't vouch for any of those, of course. I wish I had the money to get a few of these to experiment with. That'll have to wait, though, until I get a few Etsy sales. Ahhh, the life of a poor starving artist! ;)

Til next time, my lovelies!

Sally Hansen Salon Effects- The Coolest Thing to Hit Drugstores Since Penicillin!

Oh. My. Dogs in heaven. I saw the COOLEST thing tonight... Wait. Let me back up.

My husband and I go walking every day. Sometimes we go during daylight hours, sometimes we go at night. But every day we walk, and we often walk at WalMart, because it's large, it's climate-controlled, and I get a buggy to hold on to while I'm walking if I need it, and if I get too fibro'd out I can get a scooter to scoot my way back to the car. While we're there, I look at goodies that interest me.

Tonight we were walking and I found a big Sally Hansen display in the middle of the walkway. I stopped to look, but the polishes didn't really interest me all that much. But my husband had meandered to the other side of the display, where he said, "Oh my. Laynie, honey... you need to see this. You're really going to like this."

I had no idea what he was talking about, but generally if he says that, he's right. He knows me very well. So I walked around to the other side of the display, where I immediately got so excited I lost all ability to speak coherently.

What did I find that was so darned exciting? Lovelies, I found the most exciting thing I've seen in drugstore cosmetics that I've seen in AGES. I found the Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips.

Do you see this? Do you see how utterly stupendous these are? Look at those patterns- there are pretty normal neutral colors, there are fluorescent colors, there are glitters, there are glorious patterns the likes of which I've only seen with MINX. The photo above is only a small sampling of the section I saw tonight!

I saw pink camouflage, multicolored multi-size glitter, denim, lace, fishnet... too many to list here! I am absolutely DYING to try these, seriously. I cannot WAIT!! They sell for $8.50 at WalMart. I'm not sure of the price at other locations.

What do you think of these? Are you interested in trying them out?

China Glaze Tronica sneak peak!

Oh my goodness, y'all... Erin from Persistently Polished was lucky enough to find a shop selling the China Glaze Tronica collection, so she posted some wonderful swatches of them for us! I am absolutely drooling over this set of polishes, and unfortunately I'm on a no-buy for the foreseeable future. I can look at swatches, though, and think to myself how pretty they are!

They seem to be less holographic than the OMG collection. That could be a plus for some people, but it makes me feel less sad about not being able to buy them. Anyway, I totally think you should scoot over to Persistently Polished and check out those swatches!

Til next time!

Oh dear... That didn't work out like I hoped it would.

I told you yesterday I'd share the Konadicure I did on top of H&M's Goddess On Stage. I didn't say it would be pretty, unfortunately...

I had the best intentions, as usual. I wanted to brighten up the deep tones of the purple base coat, and I thought that gorgeous new pink holographic polish I won from Scandalously Polished would be perfect for the task. Pink goes with purple, I thought to myself, and I like holographic polishes. This should be GREAT!

I had such high hopes. I pulled out my stamping set and flipped through the plates, trying to decide what look to go for. I'm not a floral person, but my plates have an absolute TON of flowers. I'm starting to figure out ways to use them that I like, though that's a totally different blog post. For this one, though, I settled on the Hot Topic fauxnad plate with the stars. I thought they'd be cute in pink.

I then grabbed my Lumene Natural Code Nail Styler in 11 Make Impact. Instead of going for a straight-across look with the stars, placing them in the same place on each nail, I decided to place them "randomly" on my nails, trying to make everything look cute depending on the amount of space available on the individual nails. This wasn't a bad idea, exactly, but it just didn't look right. Somehow, it didn't look like there was a finished design on my nails. Instead, it looked like I had random crap stamped onto them.

Key word there? Random.

 What to do? I decided maybe dots would help fill in some of the space, and make things look more... I don't know. More like a cohesive design, instead of just random crap on my nails, I guess.

See, I have a problem. I'm a bit of a perfectionist. While I see other people's stamped nails and think they're adorable, I can't help but see every tiny flaw in my own stamped designs. I end up hating almost every stamped design I do.

So I pulled out my new dotting tools and set to work. I applied some big dots first to fill in the negative space, but that didn't help. Instead, I had pale stars surrounded by bright freakin' pink dots. Oh yea, that's attractive.

So I added some smaller dots. I did some randomly, others in small curved trails around the stars. And the more I added, the busier it got, and the uglier it got. I couldn't figure out what else to do with it, so I said to heck with it, added topcoat, and called it a day. Then I went on Twitter and complained that I think Konad just isn't for me. :D

Now, looking at the photos, it doesn't look as bad. But trust me on this one... somehow, the photos don't capture the not-quite-rightness of this one. I was very, very happy to take my polish off and try another manicure. Of course, that one made me cuss too, but in the end I was happy with things...

... but that's a story for another day!

H&M Goddess On Stage- I'm Feeling Sorta Purple

Some days I'm in the mood for something light and airy, something feminine. I want to feel delicate, and a pastel color is absolutely perfect. Let's just say today is not one of those days.

Instead, I went for a vampy purple, something that would stand out on my nails and make me feel the slightest bit ... hmm, evil? Seductive? Sassy definitely isn't the word, although it's probably related to it.  It's one of those mysterious shades that draws you in, that hints at a hidden past or a secret kept deep inside. H&M's Goddess On Stage was exactly what I was looking for.

I got this polish in a prize package from Scandalously Polished, along with about a million other polishes. This polish absolutely sang to me, calling to me. I'd used it in an earlier Konad failicure, but I wanted to wear it as a full manicure on its own. I wasn't disappointed.

Goddess on Stage is stunning. It's an almost black reddish purple that has an almost hidden shimmer. In some lights it passes for black, but in others the shimmer will catch the light in an absolutely stunning display. I wish the shimmer showed as much on the nail as it does in the bottle, but it's still very pretty.

One problem that I noticed is that I got tipwear very quickly with it. While I can usually wear most polishes for at least 2 days without noticeable tipwear, I noticed it after just half a day with Goddess on Stage. However, I'm not sure if it's the polish or the new base coat I'm using. I've recently began using Qtica Natural Nail Growth Simulator to see if I can get some length on my nails. So far, no luck... but it's only been less than a week or so. I think it might need more than that to show a difference. I'll have to try this with my usual base coat again to see if it wears better.

As I mentioned earlier, I used this polish to stamp with in an earlier manicure. It stamps really well, if somewhat faintly. Unfortunately, it only shows up well on lighter colors- on dark colors it doesn't show at all. That's not surprising, when you consider how dark a polish it is to begin with. I can't complain about it, though. It stamped beautifully on the last manicure!

Overall, this is a polish I'm glad to have added to my collection. I'm tempted to put a coat of Sally Hansen's Mist You over it, or perhaps my CND Sapphire Sparkle. I think either of those could make this look gorgeous! *jots this idea down into the notebook of planned manicures*

Tomorrow I'll show the manicure I tweeted about. Unfortunately, I tried to Konad over Goddess on Stage and kinda made an ugly look. It's a failicure, unfortunately, although the pictures make it look less of a failure than it really is. But that's for tomorrow...

Til next time!

My Favorite Manicures and Posts of 2010

Since I listed my favorite polishes of 2010 yesterday, I thought I'd look back over the year at my favorite manicures. As much as I wish every post could be the best I've ever written, I know that's just not going to happen. Overall, though, I'm pretty satisfied with how the blog has progressed. It's been a wild ride, and shows no sign of stopping soon!

Before we get started, I have to share. I learned something just now, actually... all this time I thought I'd been blogging since March. Instead, my first post was June 24! I've come a long way in 6 months! :D

Let's start with manicures. I have to include the one I was wearing for my very first post. Man, I was so nervous to post that! I'd spent days working on getting the blog to look right, to build my tag for posts and get things set up the way I wanted them. I kept fiddling and tweaking, and realized if I didn't just bite the bullet and post something I could nitpick myself into never posting at all.

So, I took a deep breath and posted this- a night sky manicure that my husband actually suggested I do. I remember using silver and my Gosh Holographic for the stars...

Not long after that, I posted my Pride of the Wild nails, a manicure that is one of my favorites, ever. It's not even anything that difficult, but I love it lots. I have a big thing for gradients... you may have noticed. :D

These spent a while on Etsy but haven't found their forever home yet. I haven't decided if I'm going to put them back up or not. I may save them as a prize for a giveaway. What do you guys think... save or sell? :D

I couldn't leave out my splattered nails. These were a fun idea that I definitely plan to revisit now that I have better tools to create the splats with. I was hoping the holographic base would show nicely under the splats, but unfortunately it was pretty overwhelmed by them. The shiny rainbowy goodness just didn't show much at all.

I also did a version of these using black as the background and a vivid rainbow of splats. I'm not quite sure which version I like better. I think I need to do a few more attempts before I make a decision! :D

Then there's the monster nails. Omg, do I even have to tell you how much I love these guys? It all started with a simple, "What if...?"

Some to think about it, lots of things I do start with "What if...?" Kind of scary, when you think about it. Now I understand why my husband sort of cringes when I say it!

These took a long time to create, but a good portion of that was me being too anxious to finish them. I was afraid I couldn't finish them and make them look as good as I hoped for. I couldn't, but I finally realized that's ok. They don't have to look exactly like what I was planning.

And finally, there's the nail art that took me forever to finish- the black lace nails, with actual lace embedded into the polish. No, I didn't use acrylic or gel to embed these. That would have made more sense, perhaps. No, I used good old nail polishes and a lot of elbow grease.

They're worth it, though. They got me noticed for something I can't talk about just yet. You'll know soon, though... as soon as I can talk about it, I totally will!

And that's my favorite manicures of 2010. Do you agree? Do you have a favorite I've done that you don't see here? If so, post a comment and tell me. I'd love to hear!

As for next year, I've got some great things planned, and even started! I can't wait to share!

Til next time...