The Hunt for fun new patterns

I've mentioned this before, but I often turn to fabric patterns when I'm lacking inspiration for my nail art. I was recently introduced to a website called "The Hunt," where people can post images of things they can't find on their own, and ask the community to help them hunt it down. It's a really fun and unique concept and I ended up browsing their site for awhile. 

I ended up finding this super chic outfit on the site and became obsessed. I found the actual product and I just love everything about it. I could never in a million years pull of leather pants, but I can't get enough of this look. 

The shirt pattern was so amazing that I decided to give recreating it a go. While the site claims this is a "plaid" pattern, I think it looks more kaleidoscope-esque than anything. I would love to come up with a way to create this look easily, but for today, I ended up hand painting and blending this pattern. 

 I think I was so enamored with the fabric because of those amazing colors - even though I didn't have the right turquoise to match that in the shirt. This was a China Glaze heavy mani, with 4 of my 5 polishes coming from them. 

Turquoise - CG For Audrey

Blue - CG First Mate

Purple - CG Purr-fect Plum

Tan - CG Kalahari Kiss

Orange - Zoya Arizona

These are definitely kind of funky, but I'm really how with how they turned out. Happy Polishing! :)

Moroccan Quatrefoil

My passion for nail art has also stirred in me a passion for patterns and fabrics. I now see patterns as something I can potentially recreate or be inspired by and I'm really enjoying that aspect of this nail art experience. 

To the embarrassment of my boyfriend, if I find a pattern somewhere - be it a table cloth, t-shirt or pillow case - I will snap a quick picture of it so I don't forget that I fell in love with it. Then when I get home I often fruitlessly search the internet for a general name of said pattern. Today's search informed me that the pattern I have been wanting to recreate is called Moroccan Quatrefoil. 

One of the very first manis I did that I really truly loved was a tape mani with this pattern. I painstakingly cut painter's tape to create a template I could paint over. Looking back, I can't believe I decided to stick with nail art after how frustrating that process was, but I LOVED how they turned out and was so proud of what I had managed to create. This was before I had figured out how to use my brushes so the idea of hand painting this pattern seemed absolutely absurd to me. Since then I've been wanting to do something else that was inspired by this classic pattern. 

Most quatrefoil patterns that you see create interest by repeating the shape seamlessly over and over. I had originally planned on doing this with my nails, but discovered that that was going to be more frustrating than the original taped one. So I opted for my own version.  

The base burgundy color is China Glaze's Purr-fect Plum and the offwhite is American Apparel's Cotton. 

I'm visiting my parent's place for the weekend and have none of my normal lighting or editing software for watermarks, so I made do. This however meant that photographing the detail with the high gloss shine of Seche Vite did not go over so well. Although the photos shown above are matted, I ended up going back to the shiny top coat for these. I've included the only two photos that managed to not have glare on the top coat. 

Do you have a preference between the two finishes? 

Happy Polishing! :)

Bright Southwest Inspired Print

Happy Friday, Everyone! If you're in the States, what are you all doing for Memorial Day?? Hopefully relaxing and having way too much fun :) I'm up visting my parents for the weekend and get to see my sister as well! Should be a good time :)

While I'm here, I'll be volunteering at an art festival that my Mom helps put together and I really wanted something fun and bright and just out there. I've really loved tribal/aztec/southwestern inspired patterns lately and I decided to go for something similar again since I so loved the last one I did. 

I used 4 different bright colors for this look with a base of My Vampire is Buff because it's just perfect for nail art. I did repeat the same pattern on each nail, but I mixed up the way the colors were laid out and I think that adds some extra interest to these...not that this sort of print doesn't already have a lot going on ;) 

I had a tiny bit of trouble with the light purple color I used because over the green it got completely wasted out and loks like a really light green instead of a light lavender. 

For the colors: 

Green - China Glaze Def Defying

Purple - Julep Renee

Bright Orange - Zoya Arizona

Orange - American Apparel Sunset Blvd. 

 Happy Polishing! :)

Butter LONDON's Rosie Lee with a quick pattern.

Last month Good Morning America had a great deal on Butter LONDON's holiday 3-piece sets (6 polishes for $36!!) so of course I couldn't say no. I mean, come on, those poor polishes were all alone out in the big wide world and I just gave them a home! I'm so excited to work my way through using all of them and to share them all!

For this look, I used Butter LONDON's Rosie Lee paired with Milani's White on the Spot and Zoya's Avery (which I also just got and I love it!). This is a pretty simple mani and once you get the hang of it, you can get it done fairly quickly.

Its it so pretty!?

Happy Polishing :)

Let sleeping nails lie? Pfft!

I am incapable of just letting things be. I like to tinker. I will change my phone background every few days because I'm bored with the current one. My blog background, style and layout will no doubt change several times in the coming months. The same happened with my nails tonight. It's a wonder I've been with the same guy for 7 years ;) 

Tonight, I was especially jonesing to paint my nails but I was still completely in love with my mani from last night. So I started browsing patterns online that I could possibly make work with what I already had going on. About 3 pages in and I came upon this one: 

Source: http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_type=all&includes%5B0%5D=tags&search_query=navy+blue+pillows&page=1

I could have gone with a free hand attempt at this, but I wasn't really in the mood for the potential screwup that could occur and the fallout afterwards. So I went with taping instead. Still a pretty terrible idea! 

I ALMOST gave up on this pattern and had to get pretty innovative in order to make it happen, but here is the result. 

I even managed to get both thumbs!

Happy Polishing.