The Neverending Pile Challenge - HAD to Have It...
- Friday, April 25, 2014
- By Missy
- 0 Comments
Digit-al Dozen - Texture - Splats
- Wednesday, April 16, 2014
- By Missy
- 0 Comments
Well....hello there.
Here we are at the halfway mark of Digit-al Dozen week!
To refresh your memory, we are doing Textures this week...how about some bright texture splatters?
Here we are at the halfway mark of Digit-al Dozen week!
To refresh your memory, we are doing Textures this week...how about some bright texture splatters?
Nail-Art-A-Go-Go - Day 26 - Graffiti
- Wednesday, February 26, 2014
- By Missy
- 0 Comments
Yay!
Today is one of my favorite days of this challenge for Nail-Art-A-Go-Go!
I love graffiti - growing up in California and making lots of excursions into LA and surrounding areas, I always loved seeing the paintings scrawled all over buildings and trains. Even in the south now, we live right near a major train line and we get to see some cool graffiti on the trains when they pass through.
Today is one of my favorite days of this challenge for Nail-Art-A-Go-Go!
I love graffiti - growing up in California and making lots of excursions into LA and surrounding areas, I always loved seeing the paintings scrawled all over buildings and trains. Even in the south now, we live right near a major train line and we get to see some cool graffiti on the trains when they pass through.
Digit-al Dozen September Spectacular - Hallowe'en
- Tuesday, September 03, 2013
- By Missy
- 0 Comments
 | Hiya dudes! Here comes Day 2 of the September Spectacular Digit-al Dozen theme we are doing this month. It's 12 days of nail art based on the past 12 months of our challenges, one day for each month past. So today's mani is all about Halloween! MY FAVORITE!!! |
 | Well we are truckin' right through Neon Week aren't we? This is already Day 3? You know that feeling you get when you already miss something before it's over? That's what is happening here. Sads. But don't be too sad because THIS mani today is pretty sweet! |
Today we are doing an abstract splatter design. More of a SPLAT really. You know I like a good splat, it actually used to be my photo watermark if you recall! So I freeform painted a splat design instead of going the typical splatter super messy route!
For this mani (yes, sorry, no bottle shots on this one for some reason) I used a base of Lonesome Dove by Confetti - which is pretty awesome. My first polish from them and I was REALLY impressed with how opaque it was, and it was on sale so it only cost 99 cents! So thats the base. The splats were made using Color Club Wham Pow which is like my most favorite orange polish on Earth. And then Lush Lacquers superfamous polish, Clowning Around for the other 2 fingers.
The splat is basically a few haphazard dots that i drug into the center to create one giant splat, then I dotted/dragged a few around the edges as well.
I love the effect of neons and grey. I did it last year with a flourescent yellow and grey leopard/stripe mani so I was excited to do it again!
So are you on Team Neon yet??
Make sure and visit some of my friends doing Neon Week here:
Digital Dozen Book Week - Day 4 - Less Than Zero
- Thursday, June 13, 2013
- By Missy
- 0 Comments
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It's back to Book Week, on Day 4 now, which means only one more left!
Today's book is by my 2nd favorite author, Bret Easton Ellis. I have read so many of his books it is ridiculous. My favorite is American Psycho, but since I did that last year for the 31 Day Challenge, I chose to do what was my favorite of his books that was made into a movie I loved. Yes, American Psycho was also made into a film (along with a few other books of his), but to be honest, outside of Christian Bale, that movie was atrocious compared to the book. Not that I ever thought they could really make that book into a movie, its far too grotesque for a major Hollywood release. ANYWAY! Come on...
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It's getting down to the wire on Indie Month here.
In all honesty, I will be glad when it's over...I need a break!
Even though I'm already committed to two challenges for the first two weeks in April...so not really a break in site, just a different type of challenge! The shorter ones are always better and easier on me and my left brain.
So today I have a splatter mani I did in all pink. In my head the idea of a completely monochrome splatter seemed really cool...you can decide I guess.
Polishes In This Post:
Sinful Colors - Cotton Candy
Nicole by OPI - Still Into Pink
Pure Ice - Pretty In Pink
Color Club - Yum GumChina Glaze - Fuchsia Fanatic
Nostalgic Nail Lacquer - As If
Here is the roundup of polishes used for this mani. The Pure Ice polish is actually hiding behind the Nostalgic! Either way - lots of pink!
Nostalgic - As If in Macro. I think this might be my favorite macro ever. It turned out precisely how this polish looks, which is freaking awesome. It's one of my all time favorites. Black and white bars, and black, white and pink hex glitters in several sizes all in a clear base.
Lots of splattering going on here! After I splattered all over my hands AND a couple of my polish bottles, I applied 1 to 1.5 coats of As If. The base has a higher ratio than the glitter does, but it's not thick which works out very well. Nothing worse than a sparse glitter with a terribly thick base. Luckily, this is not that.
I don't generally like using a base that has any of the colors of the glitter top coat, but I like how some of the pink glitters still have visibility, but kind of in a surprising way. Though in this mani, I think my favorite is the tiny white glitters.
As you can see, I matte coated this mani. I had glossy pics too but it just looked way cooler this way so I didn't even bother looking at the other set!
Nostalgic Nail Lacquer is a GREAT polish company...I own only a few of her creations but each of them rate very highly with me.
Here are a few places you can learn more about Nostalgic at:
Well it has been a hot minute since I did a tutorial!
So here is something I thought up in my crazy brain a week or so ago, and since I had some swatching to do and couldn't get to it right away, I decided to get it prepped and make it into a full on tutorial!
So what is a split splatter?
Essentially this manicure is consisting of 3 different nail art technique.
So here is something I thought up in my crazy brain a week or so ago, and since I had some swatching to do and couldn't get to it right away, I decided to get it prepped and make it into a full on tutorial!
So what is a split splatter?
Essentially this manicure is consisting of 3 different nail art technique.
- DIY Nail Decals - painting polish and designs onto a plastic or wax paper surface and peeling them off and re-sticking them to your nail.
- Splatter Manicures - splattering paint all over your nails like a Jackson Pollock painting.
- Tape Manicures - cutting tape into shapes and polishing the remaining space of nail to make a design
Seems complicated? Nope.
Lets get started!
THIS is what we are going after today:
This is a 3 Color Manicure with endless color combo possibilities. And trust me when I say, it really is so easy even a caveman can do it!
You will need 3 Polishes. Generally, 2 polishes and a black or white, but like I said, the possibilities are endless!
For this I have used two colors by Catrice - Miss Piggy Reloaded and Reggaeton. Try and choose colors that aren't Jelly's or lack opacity. When you splatter, you want those colors to pop.
Now the next step is easy but I did not photograph it. Get a piece of plastic that is somewhat thick, like a freezer bag thickness, or some wax/parchment paper. I used parchment paper.
Paint two stripes, about an inch wide (more depending on how long your nails are) and about 6 or 7 inches in length, one in each of your main colors (here, it would be the pink and brown). Paint each shade with a couple of coats, to make sure it is nice and opaque and also so it is easier to remove.
Now include your third/splatter color, and with all three of the bottles open you will begin splattering. For the brown patch of polish I took my pink and white and splattered by dipping a straw in the polish bottle and then blowing the color out onto the brown. Then I repeated this step with the brown and white polish over the pink patch.
Allow these to dry overnight or several hours. You have many coats piled up and it will take a good amount of time for this to try.
Once it is fully dry, peel it up from your surface to get this:
Here is a close up to see in comparison to my hand, how big I made my polish strip.
Next you will take each of these strips and cut them into vertical stripes, just wide enough to fit on half of your nail vertically, roughly 1/2 an inch.
Now, it's up to you if you want to have a color foundation on your nail when you start. I bypassed that as I figured these were opaque enough.
Whether you have a color on or not, allow it to dry and then you will need to use a top coat (or basecoat if you skipped the base color option). Paint one nail with top/base coat at a time. You don't need to allow dry time, once you apply that coat, take one strip (the pink) and apply it to your nail and move it til it's edge is in the center of your nail. Then take the other colored strip (the brown) and do the same, trying to get as close to the edge of the pink side, better to overlap it if needed than to leave a gap in it. Here are all 5 nails with the strips placed on them.
After you have gotten all nail strips applied, your next step is going to be to remove all of that excess polish.
What worked best for me was simply to pull down on the parts that went over my nail tip and rip em off! Then all of the parts that were around the cuticle - easy peasy! Just take your usual clean up brush dipped in acetone and sweep em away - its polish and it really is as easy as cleaning up your regular manicure.
Now is the time you want to make sure all of your seams are pushed down nice and good.
Now you may notice a few patches where maybe you removed to much of the polish decal during cleanup. No sweat - take any or all of your three polish colors and just go back in with the brush they come with and add some dots or sweeps over those bare spots! You can even dot or sweep over the seams to blend the splatters together some and hide any edges.
Now that everything is filled in and cleaned up and should at this point be fairly dry (if your fill in spots were thick, wait a good time for them to dry) - just add your top coat. If you have Gelous, I suggest using it just to spackle any seams up and then finish with a quick dry top coat. But if not, no worries! The seams add to the fact that this is also a tape manicure!
Hope you enjoyed!!!
Please feel free to leave questions in the comments section if any part of this seems confusing!
30/31 Day Challenge - Day 24: Book
- Monday, September 24, 2012
- By Missy
- 9 Comments
Continuing on with the harder end of the 31 Day Challenge - I'm doing another of my favorites - a Book - American Psycho.
Brett Easton Ellis is the author of American Psycho, and next to Chuck Palahniuk, he is my 2nd favorite author. He nails the 80s decadence genre so well, if you don't know American Psycho, chances are you know some of his other books - Less Than Zero, Glamourama, The Informers, Rules of Attraction.
Quite a few of his books have been adapted into movies if that tells you anything.
Amercian Psycho is no exception - it was also adapted into a film and was the reason I now have a mild infatuation with Christian Bale. But alas, the book is much, much better than the movie. It's also MUCH gorier...so much so there were and still are PAGES of the book I have to skip, due to the very graphic detail he gets into about murders. It's a pretty brutal book, but it's got alot of heart and humor.
Brett Easton Ellis is the author of American Psycho, and next to Chuck Palahniuk, he is my 2nd favorite author. He nails the 80s decadence genre so well, if you don't know American Psycho, chances are you know some of his other books - Less Than Zero, Glamourama, The Informers, Rules of Attraction.
Quite a few of his books have been adapted into movies if that tells you anything.
Amercian Psycho is no exception - it was also adapted into a film and was the reason I now have a mild infatuation with Christian Bale. But alas, the book is much, much better than the movie. It's also MUCH gorier...so much so there were and still are PAGES of the book I have to skip, due to the very graphic detail he gets into about murders. It's a pretty brutal book, but it's got alot of heart and humor.
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| So in the book we have our main character, Patrick Bateman. He likes to kill people. So of course on the pinky there we've got some blood. On the ring finger, that there is an old school vhs tape. Patrick likes to 'return videotapes' ALOT, it's usually even an alibi for a murder or 3. And since they are usually porns, I put the XXX there. Ha! |
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| This is not an exit. This is the end of the book and quite a conundrum as to what you just read. It makes you wonder...but I won't spoil it. The index is just some 80s colors splattered. The book takes place in the 80s and its very obvious, from constant talk about 80s music (Huey Lewis, Phil Collins, Whitney Houston) and 80's New York Restaurants (Crayons, the 21 Club, Dorsia). Man, this really makes me want to read the book right now! |
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| And of course, the infamous Business Card part of the book. When Patrick is so wrought with jealousy over hearing someone has a better business card than he does that he goes on a rampage. I love that every guy in his office has the same title of Vice President. |
There you have it. Judging by my Song, Movie and Book Challenges, I sure do like bloody stuff!
30/31 Day Challenge: Day 23 - A Movie
- Sunday, September 23, 2012
- By Missy
- 19 Comments
So today is a fun one, the 30 Day Challenge wants me to do nails based on a movie.
So like yesterday, I'm going with my all time favorite...
I kinda want to show you the nails first and then see if you can figure it out.
Though, the movie is written right there on one of the nails, so I guess that's pointless!
So what's your favorite movie?
So like yesterday, I'm going with my all time favorite...
I kinda want to show you the nails first and then see if you can figure it out.
Though, the movie is written right there on one of the nails, so I guess that's pointless!
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| I've chosen Fight Club - and this is a weird wallpaper I use on my laptop, but it signifies alot of what the movie is about. If you've never seen it, you really should, the plot goes much much deeper than a bunch of dudes fighting. And it's based on a book by my favorite author, Chuck Palahniuk. So that's a bonus. |
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| So some obviously key points in the movie are blood. And fighting, hence the tooth. Also the parts of the film where Edward Norton is reading medical books in which parts of it he reads out "Jack gets Cancer, Jack dies" and the like. "I am Jack's raging bile duct" and "I am Jacks complete lack of surprise" - it goes on and on. |
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| Another key aspect of the movie is soap. Making soap, making bombs out of soap. Burning people with soap. Wow, it does sound pretty violent. But you get Brad Pitt without a shirt through like, 91% of the film... |
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| My favorite part - the tooth. |
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| So we've got blood splatters, our bar of fight club soap, the i am jack speech bubble, more blood and the tooth (not shown here) - I like. |
So what's your favorite movie?
