Saturday 27 July 2013

Ikat Chevron

As you can tell from the background on my blog, I'm a HUGE fan of chevron patterns.  I've been wanting to do a chevron design on my nails for a while but I didn't want to take the time to tape off each line.  I knew I wouldn't be happy with the lines if I did it free hand (I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my nails).  I was watching The Marilyn Dennis Show the other day and they were creating their own Ikat pillows.  Ikat is a fabric dying technique which results in a pattern that looks like the dye has bled through the fabric.  I started looking at Ikat patterns in google and came across my inspiration.
 
I remembered coming across a tutorial on Pinterest.  Concrete and Nail Polish created a great, easy to follow tutorial.

I started with a base of "White On" by Sally Hansen.
 I then used a small polish brush that comes in the Kiss Nail Paint bottles to begin creating my design.  I love the grey and yellow look so I chose "Grey Matter" by Rimmel and "Hit the Lights" by Nicole by OPI.
Here is the final product! I'm so happy with it.
 This design could easily be changed for any season or holiday:

  • pastels for Easter/Spring
  • red, white, and green for Christmas
  • blues and silvers for Winter
The possibilities are endless!  Not just with this design, but Ikat in general.  Here is an Ikat design I did before I started blogging.

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo


 

Saturday 20 July 2013

Psychedelic Water Marble

It's been quite a while since I've done water marble nails.  The main reason I haven't done it in a while is because it's a little time consuming and messy.  I've been wanting to do one for a while now and finally got the time.  There is a great tutorial by Pack a Punch Polish.  For this design, I used White On by Sally Hansen, Fuchsia by Pupa, Orange by Pupa, Green With Envy by Sally Hansen, and Blue Me Away by Sally Hansen.  
This is one of my favourite colour combinations
 I started with a base of white.  When doing water marble, starting with a white base makes the colours much brighter.
 When choosing my polishes, I tried several different colours.  Some polishes just don't spread out when you drip them into the water.  To increase your success, use filtered water that is at room temperature.  Some people tape around their nails to keep their skin from getting polish all over it but I just find this time consuming.  Nail polish remover and a shower cleans up your fingers just fine.  When it came to dripping my polishes into the water I went "pink, orange, green, blue" 3 times. Here's the final product!
 My ring finger being more orange than blue was a happy accident (an unintentional accent nail).  I am so excited about how these turned out!
 Happy Painting!

Love Kate, xo

Wednesday 10 July 2013

Feeling Fishy

As promised, here are the 4 new polishes I bought a week ago.  They are from Covergirl's Glosstini collection.  I love them all and I really can't decide which one I like best.
Appletini

Orange Oasis

Pina Colada

Bahama Mama
When it came to a design, I was bound and determined to use all four colours.  For a while, I've been wanting to do a fishtail braid design.  I started with the fishtail design on my ring finger.  I followed the tutorial from The Beauty Department )http://thebeautydepartment.com/2012/07/nailed-it-7/).
Like I said, I was bound and determined to used all 4 colours, but I had yet to use "Bahama Mama".  I decided to continue with the fish theme and add fish scales to my middle finger.
Woohoo, I used all four!  But I felt like my pointer and pinky needed a little attention.  Again with the fish theme, I added a different type of fishtail to those fingers. Here is the final product!!

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo

Monday 1 July 2013

Canada Day Nails

I always enjoy doing theme/holiday nails.  It always presents the added challenge of trying to stay within a theme by using specific colours and/or symbols.  For my Canada Day nails, I did a simple search of "Canada Day" in Google to look for some inspiration.  I saw a lot of flags and fireworks and when I saw pictures of a moose and a beaver I knew I had to put them onto my nails.  I used the following two images for inspiration.
For this design, I used "The Spy Who Loved Me" (red) by O.P.I., "Yellow Ochre" and "Coffee Bean" acrylic paint by Folk Art, "White On" by Sally Hansen, and "Black" and "White" by Kiss.
I started with a red base on all my nails.  I realized after the fact that none of the pictures I took of my base colour were clear so I had to take a picture of my right hand.
 
Here is the final product! I knew I would struggled to create a perfect maple leaf so I substituted a heart so symbolize my love for my country.  However, I wish I had done my flag nail horizontally instead of vertically so you could see more red.  Oh well! It's all about trial and error :)  I used a small paint brush to paint the characters and tape to tape off the white area of my flag.

  
I'd have to say my favourite part of this design is the moose.  He might just have to make another appearance at Christmas time.  Perhaps with a red nose to turn him into a reindeer a.k.a Rudolph.


As much as I like this design, I can't wait to take it off and try some of my new polishes.  I have 4 new summery colours that I'm super excited about. I can guarantee that you will see them in my next post.  Until then...

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo