Gnarly Gnails: Color Family: Black

Rockabilly Luau - Chopped Merc

Wednesday, July 18, 2012
By Missy
8 Comments

Welcome to the 7th and final Mani in my Rockabilly Luau Theme Week!

I was contacted by Rockabilly Luau asking if I could come up with some Luau themed nails they could show the ladies attending the event as inspiration. I was so excited I decided to dedicate an entire week (or more) to it!

Most of the manicures you have seen for this theme include tutorials, I imagine a lot of people viewing these won't be familiar with some terms and techniques, so I am going to try and break it down as best as I can for everyone, and not just my regular readers.
To see all of the manicures in this theme - click here!

I have had an absolute blast working with Chris from Rockabilly Luau and gotten so much inspiration from this theme. If you are in the Atlanta area, you should definitely check out this event!

So let's get started on these 'Chopped Merc' nails!
In case you're wondering what on earth this title even means - well...I took today's inspiration from chopped lowrider Mercury's of the 50s and 60s...much like this:

photo credit - americandreamcars.com

Ghost flames and pinstripes on a flat black hot rod!

The stuff Rockabilly dreams are made of....

Here is what you will be achieving:

For this look we start with Zoya Dovima. It is a matte black polish but it's not a true black. It's more like an extremely dark gunmetal grey, with shimmer. This is imperative to be able to get the slight distinction between our base and our flames, the base must not be a straight black.

Next our stamping plates - flames and the closest image I could find to a pinstriped design.

Now take a glossy black opaque polish and use it to stamp the flames on 3 nails and your thumb. Leave one nail unstamped for your pinstripe accent nail. After I stamped I coated them in a matte top coat, but if you want a little more distinction between your base and your flames you can skip that step and keep the flames glossy.

Next take a red polish (I used Sally Hansen Rapid Red) and stamp it on your accent nail and top with matte top coat. Clean up any excess polish on your fingers and you are all set! How easy was that!?
This would also look sweet with white polish.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and this series! I know I did!

For more information on the Rockabilly Luau - please visit their website at rockabillyluau.com - the event is August 4, 2012 in Atlanta, GA.

P.S.
Don't forget to enter the Gnarly Gnails 400 Follower Giveaway!
Ends 7.31.2012 and is open Internationally!

And also the Gnarly Gnails 500 Follower Giveaway!
Ends 9.01.2012 and is open Internationally!

Blogger: Makeup Withdrawal

Monkey See Monkey Do Monday Featuring: Makeup Withdrawal!

Monday, June 18, 2012
By Missy
14 Comments

Brand: Layla

Who Doesn't Love a Layla Rainbow?

Sunday, May 27, 2012
By Missy
9 Comments

Challenge: Adventures in Stamping Sundays

Adventures in Stamping Sunday - Queens Day!

Sunday, April 29, 2012
By Missy
5 Comments

The lades in the AIS group decided to switch things up this weekend and do a stamping based on Queens Day - I think it's great to celebrate other countries' holidays, I always like to learn about these things personally.

Here is some wiki info on this holiday:

Koninginnedag or Queen's Day is a national holiday in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Celebrated on 30 April (the 29th if the 30th falls on a Sunday), Koninginnedag is Queen Beatrix's official birthday. Though Queen Beatrix was born on 31 January, the holiday is observed on 30 April as it was the birthday of her mother and predecessor, Juliana. Many of the traditional activities are held outside, and observing the holiday in April makes suitable weather more likely.

The holiday was first observed on 31 August 1885 as Prinsessedag or Princess's Day, the fifth birthday of Princess Wilhelmina, heiress to the Dutch throne. On her accession, the holiday acquired its present name, Koninginnedag. When held on 31 August the holiday was the final day of school summer vacation, leading to its popularity among children. Following the accession of Wilhelmina's daughter Queen Juliana in 1948, the holiday was moved to her birthday. Her daughter, Beatrix retained the celebration on 30 April after she took the throne in 1980. Beatrix altered her mother's custom of receiving a floral parade near a royal palace, instead choosing to visit different Dutch towns each year and join in the festivities. In 2009, the Queen was carrying out this custom in the town of Apeldoorn when a car was driven into a crowd surrounding the royal family's vehicle; seven people in the crowd were killed, and the car's driver also died soon afterwards.

Koninginnedag is known for its nationwide vrijmarkt ("free market" or flea market), at which many Dutch sell their secondhand items. It is also an opportunity for "orange madness" or oranjegekte, for the national colour, when the normally straight-laced Dutch let down their hair, often dyed orange for the occasion.

Now, on to the nails!

For this look I did a multi-layered nail with a stamp on top.

Started with a marbled nail using the saran wrap technique and Orly You're Blushing with Fingerpaints Black Expressionism. Wish I'd have shot this part first as it was a pretty cool marble look, a little too much black though!

Then I stamped a crown on the thumb and a damask/wallpaper type design on the other fingers. In hindsight I should have done this look in orange based on the Queens Day description, but I kinda was thinking of skipping this challenge until the last minute and I was already in a different color scheme!

For the stamping I used the goldish Claires Magnetic polish.

Blogger: Top Coat It

It's Monkey See Monkey Do Monday!

Monday, April 23, 2012
By Missy
12 Comments

Color Family: Black

Circus Style

Friday, April 13, 2012
By Missy
7 Comments

Last week when we all swapped blogs over at the Purple Crumpet Fairy, this is what I did for Debbie as a guest poster to her blog. I also did a tutorial, so if you'd like to see how to do this mani and not just the piccies, go check it out HERE.

I've decided to call this design Vintage Big Top, because it totally reminds me of an old circus flyer, with the tan/parchment color of aged paper and the roughed up and faded blacks of the ink.

Here is what you'll need:

Base Coat (I used a strengthener first, then a base), Light tan/Cream color, Black, Matte top coat, makeup sponge, star stickers, striping tape (and not shown, tweezers and scissors and either a dotting tool or paintbrush)

Start with nail strengthener.

Apply base coat, I use CND Stickey

Apply your cream color. I used Essie Barefoot & Topless.

Here is 3 coats of Barefoot & Topless (no cleanup here, sorry!)

Now you wait. Because I used 3 coats of the Essie, I did not want to add a quick dry top coat as another layer, and I had time, so I waited. I waited about 2 hours. If you don't have the time and either don't mind the extra layer of polish or didn't use as many coats of polish on your cream shade as I did, I would for sure suggest you use a quick dry top coat to speed this along. You want to make sure your polish is very very dry, because next you will be taping off and don't want your base polish getting pulled off!

Next you will need to get out your stars and striping tape.
The stars can be found at any office supply store in the labels section.
The striping tape I got off of ebay.

Apply your star sticker to your pinky, I like to do most designs slightly askew/off center.
Make sure it's stuck down good so no polish seeps under.

Get your sponge!

Get your black polish! The more pigmented/opaque the better. I used Finger Paints Black Expressionism.

Apply a few drops of polish to your sponge, like so.

Dab the sponge once to get the excess color blob off.

Sponge on your black over the entire nail until it begins to get tacky. Don't overdo this step or your black polish will begin to pull back up. If this happens, no big deal, just apply a little more to the sponge and re-sponge the nail until you get the coverage you want. You want it to look sponged and not full coverage, that's what gives it that vintage look when some of the light base shows through.

Remove your star sticker, use tweezers if necessary.

Apply your striping tape to make a few pinstripes. Again, make sure its tacked down on the nail good so that no polish seeps under.

Sponge it up!

Remove your striping tape.

Take a dotting tool or end of a paintbrush and make some polka dots on your middle finger, like so!

Next do another striping tape situation for the index finger like you did for the ring finger.

Apply a couple of off center star stickers to the thumb and sponge!

Remove those stars - voila!

Now is when you will want to clean up with a paintbrush and some acetone. At this point, do your other hand, mix it up. I did one nail on the other hand black with
cream dots to change it up a little. Black with cream stripes would be cute as well. After you've done both hands and cleaned up both hands you should be dry enough to
top coat. Make sure you give the color time to dry, as you can see in a few places I didn't wait long enough and my black smeared.