Tanzy Citrus & Nail Files

This week's manicure is a bright summer design - I'm hoping if we celebrate the first day of summer properly, the nice weather will stick around awhile. I even have a video for you, although it's a bit blurry right where it counts (good grief - third time is a charm?).  But first, lemme show you the polishes that I received yesterday for review from The Painted Nail via the publicist for Nail Files, a new TV series that starts tonight. They were kind enough to send me a video of the show, and I watched it last night. I thought it was great - it's about a salon owner in Hollywood. Super dramatic, of course, but most reality TV is. In any case, I'll be watching online since it's on the TV Guide channel and I don't have cable. Anyone going to watch with me?

These are the polishes they sent - and the photo does not do these justice. Nubar is the maker, and the colors are just fabulous and sparkly. I'll have a manicure with these for next week.

So...back to the citrus. I started with one coat of Seche Vite base coat, and one coat of Finger Paints "Well-cultured Pearl" to provide an opaque base. Then I layered two coats of Zoya's "Tanzy", which I am completely in love with. It's so sparkly and shimmery - even when it's dry, it looks wet due to all the sparkle. Nail bling!

I set the clay canes in a thickish-coat of Seche Vite top coat, making sure to press the edges down as well as I could. Clay can be kind of rebellious, and tends to curl at the edges sometimes. The nice thing is that even if it sticks up a bit off the nail, the edges are blunt enough on a round cane that they don't get stuck on things often.

Here's the video - apologies for the blur!

And the finished look once more, all cleaned up.

Next week, I've got my sights on that "Malibu Dreams" - the hot pink polish above from The Painted Nail.

Until then, Happy Polishing!

Clay Flowers

My apologies for the tip pull & cuticle line chips on the "finished" photos this week. I forgot to take these until the manicure was five days old. My bad!

I decided it was time to break out the clay canes again, though I'm not very good at slicing them thin. Here's what the end of this cane looked like before I started slicing it:

After slicing, lots of little flowers...

Then I started with two coats of Essie's "Angora Cardi".

Then I placed the clay circles. I was going to use two on each nail, but considering how thick I sliced them, I decided just one would be better.

Then I used Essie's "Secret Affair" and a toothpick to make dot trails from the flowers (I may have mentioned I'm in a "dots" mood?).

And that's it - two coats of top coat to seal, and clean up afterward. If I could have gotten the slices just a bit thinner...

 
Obviously, I need to practice more with the clay...think I may order pre-sliced next time. They're still kind of fun though, and I actually liked the 3-D effect on my nails.

My apologies for not picking up my awards last week - things were kind of crazy around here. I'll do it this week, promise...

Next week, I feel cloudy skies coming on...until then, happy polishing!

Santa Canes

Santa Claus is coming - are you ready? I hope he brings me some fun new nail art stuff...

This week's manicure is all about China Glaze and clay canes. I started with CG "Emerald Sparkle", and topped it with a thin coat of CG "Tinsel" for that frosted, sugary look. Then just a coat of top coat to set the cane Santas and candy canes in, and another top coat to finish. Unfortunately, I didn't get the clear clay in the crook of the candy canes pressed down tightly enough, so you can still see them if you look close enough. But I did get them sliced fairly thin - they stick up less than a regular rhinestone does above the polish. I wish I could have gotten the Santas sliced a bit thinner - it's hard to see where to slice on the white cutting board I've been using. Time for a colored board, maybe?

Here's a flash picture - in the right light, these are very sparkle-y nails (though for some reason, the flash makes the clear clay around the Santas stand out more - that doesn't actually happen even in bright light):
I *will* get the hang of cutting the cane slices thinner - it's a resolution for the new year!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Have a safe and happy holiday... and beautiful nails, too!

Peppermint Gifts

I know, it's not Tuesday...but I was going to try to get a better picture of these before posting. Doesn't look like that's going to happen (the better picture) - just no time, so I'll just post them as is.

I had grandiose ideas for swirly peppermint red on white designs, with the clay cane peppermints on top. Things have been a little crazy around here lately though, so I had to go for "quick and easy" instead. They still turned out pretty well, I think...

The base is China Glaze "Ruby Pumps" - one of the most popular polishes ever, and also one I just got finally after months of watching other people wear it! It's very sparkly, a bright blue-toned red that is perfect for Christmas. The white stripes are just Sinful "Snow Me White" using a striper brush, and of course the peppermints are from a clay cane that I sliced. I'm very proud of myself for slicing them super-thin this time...they barely stick up off the nail at all (less than a decal/sticker would). Woohoo! I'm getting better...

Next week, full-on Christmas nails for the holiday.

Fun with Fimo (Clay) Canes

Last week, I couldn't help myself, and ordered some clay canes from BeautyTech (linked to the right). Basically, these are made from fimo or other clays, and rolled together into a pattern, then reduced to itty-bitty diameters for nail art (and other things, of course). Above you can see some of the canes I bought - I picked out several, and got two "grab bags" of ends/imperfects. I'm pretty pleased with what I ended up with...

So of course I had to try them out right away when I got them on Friday, and decided the green leaves went best with my green marbled nails. You can see how small they are in the picture above. These particular canes are baked before they're sent out, and then you have to slice them yourself. This isn't too difficult, except the thinner the slice the better, and that really does take practice. You really want to just shave off a very thin slice, which is easier said than done. But I didn't do too badly, I don't think. I'll keep practicing. Here's how those turned out (bad flash, sorry):

So this week, I wanted those red maple leaves on my nails. Unfortunately, I didn't get them sliced as thinly as I'd like, and I think what I may do with the rest is go back and hold them with wide stamp tweezers so I can slice them thinner. They don't look too bad as is, I don't think - just like transparent bubbles on my nails with leaves suspended in them. The ones on my middle and pinky finger are the thinnest I sliced - both are thinner than the average 3-D nail sticker.

I did get them sliced thinner than the leaf cane, so even just two canes into it, I'm getting better at slicing. It's occured to me that I need a teeny tiny little mandoline for slicing (like I have in the kitchen for onions & tomatoes). That would really make easy work of it, and I could adjust the size of the slices as needed (sometimes it would be nice to vary the heights and layer them). Maybe I'll see if I can make one out of a wood planer or some such tool.

This week's polish is China Glaze "Cross Iron" with a stripe of OPI's 18k Ginza Gold on top.

It was quite a lot of work to get the clay slices back *off* my nails last night - especially since I ran out of my favorite Zoya polish remover. I think I may have to soak my nails for a few minutes in polish remover with the clay. Once they're on, they're on! I just applied them in a coat of wet topcoat, then a very generous top coat layer to finish.

I'm hoping to get some more fun nail art items in the near future, but these should keep me busy for awhile. I do love playing with new things!