Sunday, April 29, 2012

Revisiting Grapes

Today I've recreated one of the first designs I ever did on my nails, a grapevine design courtesy of Robin Moses. It matches my dishes, and I still love it -- and it was a heck of a lot easier to do this time around, now that I've convinced my fingers they're going to move the way I want them to move!


Monday, April 16, 2012

Caviar Copyright?

About a month ago the European nail polish brand Ciaté announced that it had just developed the new big thing in nails, and is working to copyright both the term and the look. 


Maybe I'm confused, but I didn't think it was possible to copyright a craft technique. A product? Of course. But the technique? I think not. Needless to say, there are several individuals in the nail art communities that aren't just thrilled they're trying to pull this. Will it succeed? Unlikely. But it's just kind of rude, don't you think?


Here's the look they're attempting to corner the market on:




The bubbly ones, that is. The leaf & rose are just me doodling on my nails. As I do. The doodles & the beads here are over OPI's 'You Don't Know Jacques', a creamy dark grayish beige (greige).


Anyway, this look is achieved by this incredibly complicated process: You put on nail polish, and then drop microbeads on it while it's still wet. See, wet polish is sticky, so they stick to it. They've been used for a couple decades in multiple crafts, including nail art. If you want to go back a few months on this blog, I used them as the center of the flowers that ended up 'ghost flowers' - they're the bright gold that didn't fade. You put beads onto polish, and get pretty bright beads in your manicure. This look was blogged over a year ago by Dashing Diva, you can see it here: http://thepolishexchange.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/caviar-nails-by-dashing-diva-at-cushnie.html. So, this is an existing technique with the look and how to recreate it made public over a year ago.

And this is what Ciaté is trying to copyright.

I'll pause a moment to let you think about that.

Ok! So it's kind of a fun look, though even with a protective top coat I'm going to be very impressed if this lasts two days, just because of the high profile border it leaves at the nail tips and edges. I'll come back and let you know just how long it held up.

If you're wanting to reproduce this look yourself, you will need:
1) Some nail polish. Pick a color, any color, they'll all work.
2) Some micro beads. These can be found at any craft store, any online craft store, most any online seller of a wide variety of items (ebay, amazon, etsy, pick your poison)
3) A bottle of clear polish, if desired, to use as a topcoat to attempt to extend the life of your manicure.

If buying these things is just too much hassle, you can just get it all together for about $15 from Ciaté. It won't have a flower, though. Or a leaf.

Update:
Well, after almost two full days, I'm actually very impressed at how well this manicure is holding up. There's some very obvious tip-wear, and I think the double coat of good thick top coat (I use Seche Vite) made a huge difference, but even with that I didn't expect them to hold up as well as they have.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Newspaper Nails

I tried do do Newspaper Nails a year or so ago, and it just wasn't being cooperative. They just didn't want to pick up the newsprint. And then just recently, Robin Moses did a couple of incredible tutorials that included how to do them well, and then proceeded to make them go from cool to absolutely frigging awesome. And I absolutely love them.

 What's not to love? It's kind of antique, kind of steampunk, and all kinds of awesome.



Evidently I wasn't the only one to think these were a really awesome design, so my mom came over to get a new look. On her gorgeous long nails I'm jealous of. But that's okay, I'm not bitter...


Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Baby Blue & Brown


Brown & baby blue has always been one of my favorite color combos. It was juts a matter of time before they ended up on my nails, I suppose.

Just for a touch of extra fun, I had to add a heart to my pointer finger out of micro-beads. Because I can.