Ikat Dress Inspiration

 Two posts in two days!

I wore a new dress to a bridal shower today and used it as an excuse to paint my nails to match my outfit.  I got this adorable hi-low dress last weekend and it's perfect for summer.  I fell in love with the combination of floral and ikat patterns.  I just knew that I had to use it as some nail inspiration.

For this design, I started with a base of "Blanc" by Essie.  I used "Cute as a Button" by Essie, "Fedora" by Sally Hansen, and a brown Bic permanent marker for the design.  To create the floral design, I thinned the coral and brown using acetone.  I then used a paint brush to apply the thinned polishes in a random "flower" design.  To create the ombre effect on the rest of my nails, I used a paint brush (not the brush from the polish) to paint the coral shade onto half of my nail.  I made sure to drag out the edges to create an ikat look.  Once my nails were dry, I used a Bic permanent marker to draw the brown shapes.  Finally, I slowly dragged my top coat over top to make the colours bleed. 

I'm so happy with how these turned out! You can bet that you will see a full floral design in the near future.

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo

Happy Easter!

Since it's Easter, I knew I had to do a decorated egg design for my nails.  I used "Blanc" by Essie, "Play Date" (purple) by Essie, and "Simply Divine" (pink) by Sally Hansen.  I started with a base of "Blanc" before sponging the pink and purple on in an ombre design.  I used white acrylic paint to create the final design.  I like to use acrylic paint for detailed work because it doesn't dry as fast as nail polish so you have a little more breathing room when creating your design.  I kept most of my nails simple with straight up polka dots.  On my ring fingers, I added straight and zigzag lines to make them look more like a decorated egg.  Here is the final product!

Originally I was going to use 4 colours (pink, purple, green, and yellow) but the pink and purple stood out much more than the yellow and green so I stuck with just the two colours.  I'm really happy with how they turned out!

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo

Crazy for Polka Dots

Ok Winter, I'm done with you!  Spring, you can make your appearance anytime! I really needed a pop of colour on my nails to brighten my mood.  For this design, I used "Licorice" by Essie, "Hit the Lights" by Nicole by OPI, "Orange Oasis" by Covergirl, "Cherry, Cherry, Bang, Bang" by Sally Hansen, "Shrimply Devine" by Sally Hansen, "One Time Lime" by Nicole by OPI, and "Blue Me Away!" by Sally Hansen.  I used dotting tools of various sizes for my dots.  Here is the final product!

 

 

Originally I had another idea in mind for the other 3 nails, but I didn't like the way it looked.  I'm happy I decided to paint those nails black because it really makes the colours pop.  

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo

First Striping Tape Design

My striping tape arrived!! I'm absolutely in love.  It is so much easier than trying to cut up tiny strips of Scotch tape.  I got my striping tape from Amazon.ca (thank you mom for the awesome Christmas gift!).  Striping tape is rather in expensive.  I got 30 rolls of tape for around $3.00 and there is a nice variety of colours.

So I obviously had to put my new tape to use right away.  I searched for some inspiration on Pinterest but just decided to go with the flow and see what happened.  On my first attempt, I really liked the pattern I made, but I didn't wait long enough for the base colour to dry so the tape peeled off some of the paint and just made a mess.  On the second attempt, I painted my base colour and didn't do the design until the next day.  This meant there was no risk of my polish peeling off with the tape! 

For this design, I used Celeb City by Sally Hansen and Wicked by Essie (an awesome Christmas gift from one of my students!).

I started with Celeb City as my base.  This is probably one of my favourite polishes because it goes on so well.  Since the glitter in it is so fine, it comes off easily unlike other sparkly polishes.

I then used 4 strips of tape to create a crisscross design on the tip of each nail.  You need to make sure that your tape is long enough to hang over the nail to make it easier to remove.

I then painted my top colour (Wicked) over top of the tape.  The key to getting nice straight lines is to remove the tape while the paint is still wet.  After I removed the tape, I decided to fill the purple spaces with dots using one of my new dotting tools.  Here is the final product!

 When I put my top coat on, the purple smeared a little bit.  I ended up not minding the smears because it gave the silver a slightly purple tinge.  It's only noticeable upon close inspection.

I can't wait to try out some more designs with my striping tape!

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo

Thanksgiving Plaid

Since it is Thanksgiving this weekend in Canada, I figured I should do a Thanksgiving themed design.  I'm kind of in love with the plaid trend in fashion right now and have been wanting to do plaid nails for a while.  So instead of doing a traditional turkey on my nails, I went with a plaid design in Fall colours.

For this design I used "Black Orchid" by Sally Hansen, "Blanc" by Essie, "Orange" by Pupa, and "Goldeneye" by O.P.I.  

I started with a base of "Black Orchid".

I got my inspiration from a tutorial created by The Beauty Department.  I painted Scotch Tape and cut it into different sized strips.

I then placed the strips on my ring finger in a plaid design.  On my other nails I added metal stud stickers by Kiss.

Here is the final product!

I hope all my Canadian friends have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo

Galaxy Nails

I've been wanting to do galaxy nails for a while now.  Ever since I saw the beautiful ones that Cristina at Let Them Have Polish did, I felt inspired.  For these nails I used "Midnight in NY" by Sally Hansen, "Eccentric Violet" by Pupa, "Pina Colada" by Covergirl, "Cherry, Cherry, Bang, Bang" by Sally Hansen, "Please See Me" by Sally Hansen, "Funky Limelight" by Essie, "Blanc" by Essie, and "The Donmar" by Nails Inc.

I started with a base of "Midnight in NY".  It's a nice black with multi-coloured glitter mixed in.

I then ripped small pieces off a make-up sponge and used tweezers to dip the pieces in the various colours.  I placed my polishes on a piece of parchment paper.  It makes for easy clean-up.  This is what my set up looked like. 

I dabbed the different colours onto each nail and tried to make them all look a little different.  When I was done, I found that they were missing a little something.  I decided to use my Nails Inc Special effects nail polish to add little holographic flakes.  I think it was the perfect addition.  Here is the final product!

I love how they turned out.  It ended up being kind of a psychedelic galaxy look!

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo

Autumn Zebra

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a bit of an obsession with zebra print.  You can find splashes of zebra all over my house from my duvet to my shower curtain to the accent pillows on the couch (just to name a few).  When it comes to my nails, zebra is kind of a go-to when I'm not feeling overly creative or motivated.

I know it's technically still Summer but the weather is changing and our local Fall Fair is this weekend.  The Fall season kind of inspired my colour selection.  I used "Fedora" by Sally Hansen, "Warm & Fozzie" by OPI, and "Blanc" by Essie (I got a new white polish!). 

"Fedora" kind of reminds me of burlap (which reminds me of scarecrows) and "Warm & Fozzie" has flecks of gold, bronze, red, and green (all Fall colours).  I started with a base of "Fedora" on all my nails.

I then used a fine paint brush with "Blanc" to free-hand a zebra design onto each nail.  I then used "Warm & Fozzie" as an accent on my ring finger.  Here is the final result!

I'm happy with how these turned out.  I would usually use my white Kiss Nail Art Paint to do a zebra design, but the polish has gotten thick.  A nail polish thinner is on the list of nail art supplies that I want/need.

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo

Blue Tribal Nails

This week I decided to go with a tribal design inspired by the tutorial by Nailed It!.  The nice thing about a tribal design is that it doesn't need to have perfectly straight lines.  It should have that hand drawn look so don't worry about making it perfect. 

I started with a base of "White On" by Sally Hansen.  Using white as a base always makes the colours you use that much brighter. 

I was going for an ombre look so I selected 3 shades of blue.  Starting at my cuticles, I used "Blue My Mind" by Sally Hansen, "Please Sea Me" by Sally Hansen, and "Alex by the Books" by Nicole by OPI.  The top stripe was my white base coat that I started with.  When you do your stripes, don't worry about making them perfect.  These imperfections will be covered with your tribal designs.

 

For my tribal design I used "Pure Black" acrylic paint by Folk Art and a fine paint brush. Here's the final product!

  I REALLY like how they turned out!  I'm glad I chose to go with an ombre look when choosing my colours.  You could easily follow the same strategy to create Easter egg nails using pastel colours.

Happy Painting!

Love, Kate xo

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

 

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