I Love You... "I Know"

If that title doesn't ring a bell, WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOURSELVES? GO WATCH THE ORIGINAL STAR WARS. Okay, kidding, but seriously, Star Wars is good, so it's always worth watching, but I'm not going to force you to watch it. That being said, if you absolutely aren't aware, "I love you" and "I know" are an iconic exchange between the characters Princess Leia and Han Solo, which brings me to this mani from last December.

Pretty sure the base for these was Surfing Paradise from Island Girl Hawaii. I then went in with black, white, and brown acrylic to paint Leia, Han, and the speech bubbles.

Close up of Leia.

And one of Han.

So are you guys Star Wars fans? If so, what's your favourite one? As a little kid, I was always partial to Episode VI... mainly cause I thought the Ewoks were cute...

Adieu until tomorrow!! 

Bow Down... To The Higher Power

The Dirty Nil is a local band I've been listening to for a while now. Back in February, they released their first full length album, Higher Power. I went to one of their record release shows, and of course, I painted some nail art in honour of it.

The nail art is based off of the album cover for Higher Power (you can see the album cover here), which was painted by Alex Roulette. This guy took about 5 hours to paint.

I honestly can't tell you what the base on this design was, because there was so much paint layered on top. I'm pretty sure I started with Sure Thing from Revlon, with a bit of Surfing Paradise from Island Girl Hawaii, but I'm not positive. I then proceeded to add all of the detail using various colours of acrylic paints. To create the blue smoke, I used watered down white acrylic paint, as well as blue Sharpies with rubbing alcohol compound.

A super close up to see the detail.

I later added a matte top coat.

So because I had so many layers of paint and polish, the whole design literally popped off my nail in one piece... I've never experienced this before, but it was certainly interesting.

Hope you guys enjoy! And if you guys like some rowdy rock 'n' roll, definitely give The Dirty Nil a listen!

I Hate Everything

Don't be alarmed by the title; I don't hate everything. But Wednesday Addams certainly does, which brings me to the theme for my current nails.

I started with a base of Surfing Paradise from Island Girl Hawaii. I then painted Wednesday using black and white acrylic. On my middle finger I painted a ribbon banner using white acrylic, then outlined it and wrote "I hate everything" using black acrylic. Finally, I painted a skull and roses on my pointer finger using black and white acrylic.

Hope you guys enjoy! (Or maybe don't enjoy, cause I'm channeling Wednesday Addams? ;p) 

Read Or Die

Over the years, I've come to realize, I'm a lot less "ride or die" and a lot more "read or die". I just really like books.

On my left hand pinkie and right hand ring finger, I painted the word "no" using a black and white striper. Next, on my left ring finger and right middle finger, I started with a base of French Quarter For Your Thoughts from OPI, then painted Blue Away from Sally Hansen, Baker Street from Nails Inc., Blazed from Wet 'N' Wild, Lightening from Sally Hansen, Surfing Paradise from Island Girl Hawaii, Khaki from Joe, and Suzi Loves Cowboys from OPI. Then I added on some black and white using stripers, and painted on "ride or die" using a black striper. Finally, I painted "read" using a white striper. My left middle finger and right pointer finger were a base of Sure Thing from Revlon, followed by 3 layers of hairspray water marbling using Black Leather from China Glaze, Finally, my left pointer finger and right pinkie were Baker Street.

Do you guys like to read too? What's your favourite book?

Hope you guys enjoy! 

Breathe... and Take Me Somewhere Warm

For those of you lucky enough to live somewhere warm, well... you're reaaaaaally lucky. The temperatures here have been around -20 Celsius, and lower, for a couple months now. Everything is frozen. I can't actually escape the cold right now, so I did the next best thing; I painted the tropics on my nails.

Bear with me guys; there were a lot of colours used for this design.

Pinkie: I started with a base of Sure Thing from Revlon, then sponged on Blue Away from Sally Hansen, Let's Get Lost from Essence and Yoga-Ta Get This Blue from OPI. I finished of the sponging with a little bit more of Sure Thing to create some clouds and highlights in the water. Finally, using green, black, white and yellow acrylic, I painted on the palm leaf. 

Ring Finger: I started this nail with a base of Sure Thing as well. Next, I sponged on Let's Get Lost, Plum Seduction from Revlon, Yoga-Ta Get This Blue and Blue Away for the sky. I also sponged on Electrified from Quo by Orly, Sun Kissed from Sally Hansen and Hot Tamale from Sally Hansen to create part of the sky and the setting sun. I added in some clouds using black acrylic, and Hot Tamale. Next, for the water, I painted on black acrylic, then sponged Let's Get Lost and Sure Thing on top. I also sponged a tiny bit of Hot Tamale on to be the reflection of the sun. Finally, I painted in the palm tree using black acrylic.

Middle Finger: Like the other nails, this was a base of Sure Thing. I started by painting the tree trunks using Surfing Paradise from Island Girl Hawaii, then added detail to them using black acrylic. I then added in some of Surfing Paradise for the ground. Next, I added the plants into the design using black, white, yellow, and green acrylic, as well as High Line Green from NYC. Using white acrylic, I painted the surf board, then added the details using black and blue acrylic. I touched up the leaves and this nail was done.

Index Finger: Sure Thing was the base for this nail as well. I then sponged on Yoga-Ta Get This Blue, Let's Get Lost, Plum Seduction, Blue Away and Electrified for the sky. I then used black acrylic to paint the silhouettes of the buildings and palm trees.

Now I can have a mini vacation on my nails.

I hope you guys enjoy!

Vote Zod

Well, it's starting to look like January has become all about music nail art, with this being my second band inspired design. This design is inspired by the Billy Talent Hits album that came out last year.

As I'm sure you all know by now, I'm a huge Billy Talent fan. You can see my past Billy Talent inspired manicures here, here and here. I fell in love with all the artwork for this album, so it was time for another BT tribute. I started with a base of Black Taxi from Nails Inc. on all of my nails. Then, I sponged on Suzy Loves Cowboys from OPI, Surfing Paradise from Island Girl Hawaii and Sure Thing from Revlon on my ring finger. After that, I painted on the bird's skull and skeleton keys featured on the cover of Hits using black and white acrylic. On my pointer finger, I painted a tie using Revlon Red, which if the name didn't give it away, is from Revlon.  Finally, I added a "Vote Zod" button on the tie with red, blue and white acrylic, which was based off of art for the song Kingdom of Zod.

Hope you guys enjoy!

O Captain! My Captain!

As I'm sure many of you now know, last week we lost a legend. I have to say, it's the first celebrity I've felt truly saddened about losing. I mean usually, when a celebrity you like dies, you're sad at first, but it passes quickly. You didn't actually know them, you just knew the characters they played on the big screen, but this time, it's different. Whether it was watching him as Genie, helping to turn Aladdin's life around, making us laugh as he masqueraded as Mrs. Doubtfire or encouraging us to "seize the day" as Mr. Keating in the Dead Poet's Society, Robin Williams will be missed greatly. And so, today's manicure, pays tribute to Robin Williams.

My pinkie is High Line Green from Sally Hansen, and represents the movie Flubber. On my ring finger, I used a base of Sure Thing from Revlon and then painted the quote "O Captain! My Captain!" in black acrylic, which is from the movie Dead Poets Society. My middle finger is a base of Sure Thing, followed by a gradient of Frostbite from China Glaze and Casino Royale from OPI, then the Genie from Aladdin painted in acrylic. My pointer finger is flowers painted in acrylic (representing Mrs. Doubtfire's floral print dress) on a base of Sure Thing. Finally, my thumb is a base of Sure Thing, then I sponged on Surfing Paradise from Island Girl Hawaii and Unplugged from China Glaze. Then, using acrylic, I painted on Hook.

As a second tribute to Robin Williams, I doodled with some Sharpie and created a fake tattoo.

So, Robin Williams, you will be greatly missed.

Hope you guys enjoy.

Salt in the Air, Sand in My Hair...

Hey guys. I feel like this is the millionth time I have apologized for my absence this year, but sorry I haven't been posting. I actually had a few manicures to post, and just when I was ready to upload them, my computer died. And I mean died. It wouldn't even turn on anymore. And then it took our family several weeks to buy a new computer tower. To make matters worse, there are several laptops in my house, but none have photoshop, so I was unable to edit photos and apply my watermark. But now I have a computer again. So it's all good. And here is one of my last manicures.

This manicure was inspired by Andy Davis, who is an artist, most likely better known as a designer for Billabong clothing. I'm a huge fan of Billabong clothes, with their beachy and relaxed style. Despite the fact that I'm a Canadian girl through and through, I still adore these clothes, especially since I love being at the beach. I had already seen his work, but I didn't really know who Andy Davis was. It wasn't until I went to Hawaii and bought some Billabong clothes with his designs that I really found out who he was. I pretty much fell in love with his designs right away. I love the simplicity and vibrancy of his illustrations.

So now to the nails. All my nails started with a base of Surfing Paradise from Island Girl Hawaii. I then applied two coats of Sheer Nude from Orly to my pointer, ring and pinkie fingers. To those three nails, I also applied two thin coats of white using my Sally Hansen French Tip Pen. All the designs are acrylic and a black striper. On my thumb is a beach scene, my ring finger is Pelly the Pelican (you can get swim shorts and bikinis in this pattern). My middle finger is based of a tank top I bought in Hawaii and my ring finger is the Andy Davis logo. Finally, my pinkie is inspired by the pattern of the surfboard of a surfer girl Davis designed.

I hope you guys enjoy, and for all of you back in school, good luck!