NOTW #1 Double Dotted Ombre

Hello Dahlings!

Back to my personal Rainbow Challenge! Today we have Red-Orange-Yellow ombre nails with black & white double dots and a lil bit of sparkle cuz life is better with sparkles & sprinkles.

Today's starting line up: Finger Paints Lemon Sour, L.A. Colors Wired, Orly Crush on You, China Glaze Rougish Red & Wet N' Wild Red Red.

You're looking at 3 coats on my pinky, index & thumb. I had to do 4 coats on my middle & ring fingers. Crush on You is more of a jelly than a creme & Wired is a really thin creme with delusions of being a jelly when it grows up. Ain't gonna happen! My recommendation is to wear white undies with these 2 if you don't like umpteen layers of polish or VNL. Both could have used a 5th coat for full opacity, but I knew I could hide the VNL with dots so called it quits at 4.

For a lil added fun I added glitter. Tho' it doesn't show well in the photos, it has pinkish red, orange coral & yellow gold iridescent bits.

Here's the rest of the line up: Milani Black Magic & White on the Spot plus L.A. Colors Sassy Sparkles.

Ta Da! I love the fun contrast of black & white double dots! I think they pull this mani together. I used my largest dotting tool for the big dots & the small ball on the other end for the inside dots. The ombre part took way longer than the double dotting due to the extra coats needed. Dotticures are one of my fav quick nail art techniques!

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

NOTW #4 Day of the Dead party nails!

Hello Dahlings!

I thought I was going to leave my dark red nails on until Sunday, but Mr. Inky text'd me this afternoon to let me know we'd been invited to a Day of the Dead party. We went to this couple's DoD party years ago & had fun. So off came the red & on with the sugar skulls!

Tonight's line up: Orly Dayglow, Wet N' Wild Sage in the City, China Glaze Splish Splash, Wet N' Wild Buffy the Violet Slayer, China Glaze Love's a Beach, Finger Paints Prints & Printsess & Orly Liquid Vinyl. Who says neons & brights are only good in the summer? Not Me! LOL

This is 3 coats of Dayglow over my fav base coat. The 1st coat was patchy, the 2nd coat was streaky, but the 3rd coat leveled it all out. In the bottle this polish has a slight blue violet shimmer but it didn't show up on my nails. (Please pardon those very scary cuticles!)

I used my handy dandy dotting tool for most of the elements & my short striper for the teeth. (My cuticles begged loudly for their after mani cuticle oil bath. LOL)

Don't forget Mr Thumb! He's a lil shy & avoids having his photo taken, but was willing to come out & play tonight so he could show off his fancy paint job.

This is the t-shirt I'll be wearing tonight. I based my skulls on the colors & used some of the design elements. I got it (on sale!) at the Alamo when we were in San Antonio a couple of years ago to watch our son graduate from Basic Training. He's a Senior Airman now!

Thanks for stopping by & don't forget to go visit Mimi Manicures so you can follow her awesomeness!

~ Inky

Show Your Love!!! Give-a-way!!!

Hello Dahlings!

My favorite Mistress of Nail Art, no other than Mimi of Mimi Manicures, is hosting a 250 followers Give-a-way! Show her da love by following her & you could win 3 OPI crackle polishes!!!

Now go visit Mimi & show your love for her most awesome nail art!

Mimi Manicures Give-a-way

You're still here? What are you waiting for?
Check back tomorrow to see my Day of the Dead party nails!

~ Inky

NOTW #3 November Rainbow Challenge

Hello Dahlings!

I know I said I'd be wearing the Halloween-esque nail design for a few days, but I couldn't do it. The more I looked at it, the more I wanted it off my nails. So onward to my self imposed November Rainbow Challenge. 1st up: Dark Reds.

I started this mani on Tuesday night & finished up tonight. The line up: Orly Crawfords Wine, Sally Hansen Quick Brick & Glossy. All 3 are shimmers. The hex shaped sponge is from the Essence Nail Art Kit that also had the really thin striper brush I used to make mummy bandages. The 3/4" x 1/4" size is perfect for doing gradients on long nails. This is the 5th time I've used it & I plan on trimming off the painted edges for another go around or two.

Two coats of Crawfords Wine. A great color to wear with a lil black dress! It was a lil persnickety to get off my skin, but some hot water, soap & a nail brush after I did the gradient & let it all cure did the trick.

I really like how this turned out!!! Nice blending, deep rich colors...YUM! As it was getting rather late, I added a coat of Seche Vite, waited for it to fully cure then scrubbed my cuticles. Add apricot cuticle oil & I was off to bed. Looking at this eye candy all day was distracting! LOL

I was going to use China Glaze Stone Cold to stamp with, but it was drying too fast. So I grabbed Orly Steel Your Heart. It worked better than the CG but I had to do some touch ups with a short striper where some of the lines didn't transfer. I used Cheeky XL plate B.

As I was getting ready to take a photo of my finished nails, Frau Meyer decided I needed to stop what I was doing & pet the cat. So I multi-tasked! LOL Yep! I got cat hair stuck all over my fingers from the cuticle oil. Oh well, at least my nails turned out mostly how I'd hoped.

~ Inky

NOTW #2 Halloween-esque

Hello Dahlings!

I usually leave my mani on for at least 2 days, but those carrots were bugging me. I went web surfing this afternoon looking for inspiration & I found it on LOVE4NAILS YouTube channel. You can see it HERE. I changed the colors to be more Halloweenish & added flakies.

Here's da line up: Ruby Kisses Whiter Than White; Sally Hansen Three D, Resolution & Cyber; Nubar 2010 & Sinful Colors Nail Art Lazy Girl.

This is Ruby Kisses Whiter Than White at 2 coats. If I were leaving more of it showing I might go for 3 coats cuz it's a tad bit streaky, but it does the job.

 

I do like this mani better than yesterday's nails, but as yesterday's nails were rather lame, almost anything would be an improvement. LOL

 

Oh looky! You can see the lack of downward curve on my nails along with a smidge of flakie sparkle.

 

This will do until later in the week. I hope to do a mani for each color of the rainbow featuring either the gradient or ombre technique in November. I figure it's a good way to appease a bunch of untried polishes whining at me from their storage drawers.

Thanks for stopping by! ~ Inky

P.S. Please think safe happy thoughts for our blogging sisters who live on the east coast of the USA!

NOTW #1 pumpkins or carrots?

Hello Dahlings!

When I asked for ideas for my last Halloween mani of da year, Kristine of Pink & Polished suggested Jack-o-lanterns for my last Halloween manicure, so I went her idea. Tonight's lesson was that I can carve pumpkins way better than I can paint them on my nails.

This was my jack-o-lantern in 2006. The faces & letters were cut all the way thru. The full moon background was created by carving away the skin of the pumpkin. This is my usual pumpkin carving style. Somewhat detailed & labor intensive.

These are my pumpkin nails. Yep! I definitely need to practice this design so  next time they look like pumpkins, not insane carrots.  

 

 Polishes used: Finger Paints Are You Blue?, Wet N' Wild 9.0.2.1.Orange, China Glaze Riviting & Agro, Joe Jet. I used my detail & short striper for the details.

This is Are You Blue? by it's self. It's pretty enuf & went on OK, but it dried a bit streaky as metallics are prone to do. Since I was going to be painting over most of it, no biggie, but this would drive me nuts if I just added top coat & called it good enuf.

Granted, I almost never use just one color & call it good enuf. LOL I know most folks do just this every day, but I have an issue with leaving well enuf alone. I have to do MORE even if it's just glitter or crack or a french tip for contrast & texture. One of the things I love most about nail art is that there really isn't a wrong way to do it as long as you aren't hurting yourself & like the results. I can't give myself an A+ on this mani, but I'll take the C and try to learn from my mistakes.

~ Inky

NOTW #3 I vant to paint your nails!

Hello Dahlings!

I seem to have been possessed by the Spirit of Halloween Manicures! I don't usually do 3 in a week, but there have been so many great manis out there to CASE (Copy And Share Everything) that I just had to up my game to fit the ones I most want to do in before the 31st. And now on to the art...

This manicure was inspired from 2 sources: Luvable Nail's YouTube video playing HERE & Nail Wish's Day #6 Halloween mani HERE.

After my usual base coat was dry, I gave magnetic polish another go. This time I used China Glaze Magnetix Attraction. This one was also a pita to get off my skin, but I had better luck with the magnet. I used the magnetic cap from a Finger Paints magnetic polish & turned it so the lil bridge one is supposed to place on the cuticle was just past the tip of my left pinky nail & the edge of the cap was resting on my cuticle. I did the same for my left thumb. The wave pattern is reversed, but I can live with that as some of the pattern is covered with red polish & upside down beats none at all.

I used L.A. Colors Color Craze Hot Blooded for the dripping blood & Wet N' Wild Wild Shine French White for the fangs. I used a dotting tool to place red polish near the cuticles & to make the bottom of the drips. I used a short striper (it's about 5/8" long & easier to control than the 3/4" - 1" stripers commonly used for nail art) to fill out & connect the drips & to paint the fangs. Last step was a protecting coat of Seche Vite.

I think I can squeeze in one more Halloween manicure before da season of spookiness is over. Any ideas on what I should do? Jack-o-lanterns? Ghosts or ghouls? I do want to do more with my GITD polishes...stay tuned!

~ Inky