PCH

The band Tokyo Police Club decided they we're going to play one of their songs PCH off of their new album Melon Collie... for 12 hours. And I was there for many of these hours... I heard the song over 150 times... and I still like it.

The base for this was Liquid Leather from China Glaze, and then I wrote the Tokyo Police Club logo using white acrylic.

I also ended up having an impromptu interview about my nail art with the band's vocalist, Dave Monks!

Overall, it was a super cool day, with a bunch of amazing people!

Let's Start A Riot... Fest

In September, I won tickets to Riot Fest, which included The Dirty Nil, Weezer, and Alexisonfire. Considering Alexisonfire broke up in 2012, this was epic news for me, and clearly required some nails.

I wanted to keep everything black and white so I could really tie the nails together, so the base was Liquid Leather from China Glaze, with all details in white acrylic.

Close up of the Alexisonfire nail.

And the Dirty Nil nail.

Fun fact: the father of one of the members of Alexisonfire was my orthodontist. I even used to get Alexisonfire toothbrushes.

Until next time! 

Push + Pull

Friday was actually filled with two shows, one of which was July Talk. You can see my last July Talk design here.
The band recently released their new single, Push + Pull, which inspired the July Talk nail.

The base for this was Sure Thing from Revlon. I then sponged on some black, and white acrylic, followed by using the spotted water marble technique with Sure Thing. I added in some extra veining on the marble, then painted the +, and July Talk using white and black acrylic.

I 100% recommend seeing July Talk if you get the chance. They're one of those bands that is waaaay better live, just because they have such amazing stage presence and energy. They never cease to impress me.

On that note, it's time to end this post. See you tomorrow!

The Holy Ghost Tour

Sunday night, I went to see Modern Baseball for my second time.

They recently released a new album, Holy Ghost, and this was The Holy Ghost Tour. My nails were based on the posters for the tour.

The base coat was Liquid Leather from China Glaze. I then used black, white, and blue acrylic paint to paint the ghost and hand, and white paint for The Holy Ghost Tour. 

It was an awesome show, and I can't wait to see them again!

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'll See You On The Dark Side Of The Moon

So I was raised on rock 'n' roll, and one of the early bands I was introduced to was Pink Floyd. My dad has an original Dark Side Of The Moon album, and it's in amazing shape, so that was the inspiration for this design.

The base for all nails was Liquid Leather from China Glaze. I then painted on the prism using various acrylic craft paints.

A lil close up.

And the nail art with the real deal.

Until next time,

July Talks Because of You...

Another concert post? Ding ding ding! You got it!
As a final bash/celebration of completing the school year, my college got the band July Talk to play for us. I've been a fan for a few years ever since I saw them open for Billy Talent. It's been 3 years of me trying to see them again since, so when I found out they were coming to my school, I was pretty darn happy. And but of course, with a concert comes concert nails.

The base of the nails is Liquid Leather from China Glaze. I then spent several hours painting with my very tiny paintbrush, using acrylic, July Talk, in the two ways it's written on their first, self-titled album.

And my nails in front of the famous Graffiti Alley in Toronto.

If you haven't heard these guys (and girl), I highly recommend listening to them. They're another band that makes me proud to be Canadian.

Later!

Who Are You? (Who, Who, Who, Who?)

I really wanna know...
If the title and the above sentence haven't clued you in as to WHO this post is about, let me tell you: The Who... as in one of the greatest rock bands of all time. Ever. If you still don't know WHO that is, I highly suggest you do a little rock 'n' research.
Back in April, my family, and I went to see The Who. More than 30 years ago, my dad saw The Who's first final tour when he was about my age, and on April 26th, I just might have seen the final final tour... with nail art of course.

The base of my nails was Liquid Leather from China Glaze. I then painted the famous Who logo using back, white, red, and blue acrylic.

The show was absolutely phenomenal, and despite the fact that only two of the original members of the band are alive (and into their 70's), the show was still indescribably awesome. The guys are absolute Rock Gods, and as an added bonus, Ringo Starr's son (as in the Ringo Starr of The Beatles) plays drums for The Who now. Yeah, pretty wicked.

Adieu until next time!

No She Don't Mess Around

Yes, more concert nails. This time for a band that's no stranger to this blog: Cage The Elephant. The nails were based off of a mix of the first, self-titled Cage album, as well as their second album, Thank You, Happy Birthday. 

The base polish of all the nails was Sure Thing from Revlon. I then added the details using acrylic (as always).

Bam. Close up time.

Another fantastic concert by these guys. If you get the chance, I recommend checking them out. I went to see them the next day at a Sugar Beach Session, and they never cease to amaze me.

Until next time,

Afraid Of Heights

This isn't the first time Billy Talent related nail art has been on the blog, and it certainly won't be the last.

In this case, Billy Talent is releasing a new album, Afraid of Heights, and they ended up creating a contest for it based on the lyrics of one of the singles off the album of the same name. Below is my entry. Nail art, of course.

Each nail, with the exception of the eye, night scene, and car radio one, started with a base of Sure Thing from Revlon. The eye nail was a base of Mayfair Lane, which is one of the new spray nail polishes from Nails Inc. The night scene was a base of Liquid Leather from China Glaze, sponged with Die Another Day from OPI and Ruby Pumps from China Glaze. The car radio was a mix of dry brushing Liquid Leather, Sure Thing, and an unknown brown OPI polish, that I think is Suzi Loves Cowboys. All of the details were done with acrylic craft paint. 

That's all for this post. Now just one question: are you afraid of heights?

Ruff

The past couple weeks have been busy ones. In two weeks time I've walked 70km (43 miles), gone to two concerts, seen a documentary premiere, did the Color Me Rad colour run, attended a Sugar Beach Session, witnessed an engagement, and eaten a lot of ice cream. It's the documentary premiere that brings us to this post today.

Born Ruffians, yet another locally grown band I've seen many times (and love dearly) filmed a short documentary called Ruff, Ruff, Ruff with the help of the radio station Indie88 of their 3 back to back shows in December in Toronto. You can check that out here. The band ended up having a premiere of the documentary, and I went to check it out. But I can't go to a band doc premiere without a little bit of nail art, right?

The nail art comes from Born Ruffians latest album Ruff, that came out last year. The black base is my go-to black polish, Liquid Leather from China Glaze, and the band name is in acrylic.

And here's a close up.

The documentary is pretty cool, so I definitely recommend checking it out! 

See ya guys later!

It's Been Awhile...

So... It's almost been a year... And I could make a million excuses as to why I haven't posted in forever, but really, it just comes down to laziness. And also busy-ness. I went off to college, met new people, had fun, did (lots) of schoolwork, went to concerts, and went to Disney (by myself) on a whim. Very busy. That being said, there has been no shortage of nail art in the time since I last posted, but it's all been posted over on my Instagram rather than here. I want to change that. Time to get back to bloggin'.
I figure to start things off, I'll post one of my most recent designs, and kind of work my way back. Not sure how many of you are reading this, or any of you at all, but here we go.

So I went to a concert last week (I know, big shocker). The band I saw is one I've seen several times, an epic Canadian punk rock group called PUP. Small doggy dog. Now PUP just happened to have released their new album, The Dream Is Over, and in true Nail Guru fashion, I had to paint it.

Here's a close up. It took about 5 hours to paint this. I have no idea how many top coats are on this baby. What I can tell you is that I started with a base of Sure Thing from Revlon, used a ton of acrylic craft paint, and created the fire by using rubbing alcohol compound and Sharpies. More on this in a future post. This was followed by the above mentioned unknown amount of my new fave top coat, the gel nail polish in 01 absolute pure from essence. I've got like 4 bottles of the stuff right now... and it only costs about $3.00. 

And here's a super embarrassing photo of me and this poster both wearing The Dream Is Over... Soooo embarrassing, one of us is going to have to change. 

There you have it: The Dream Is Over by PUP on my nail. It was the best concert I've ever been to... and I've been to a lot... 

See you guys soon with more nails!

Mindsweep

 I went to see the band Enter Shikari, and, as always, I painted my nails after their album artwork.

All nails were a base of Black Leather from China Glaze.For my pinkies, pointer finger and thumb, I used blue, purple, pink and red acrylic to paint synapses, as well as a bit of Plum Seduction from Revlon for a brighter magenta in certain spots. On my ring finger, I sponged on some of Yoga-Ta Get This Blue from OPI, then painted the Enter Shikari logo and synapses with white and blue acrylic. Finally, I painted "Enter Shikari" on my middle finger using white acrylic.

I got a chance to meet Rou and Rory from the band, and they thought my nails were awesome!

They also posted them on Instagram!

Hope you guys enjoy! 

Where Are Youuuu? And I'm So Sorrrry!

As many of you know, I am a serious music lover, so here are some more band inspired nails. This time: Blink-182.

I started with a base of Sure Thing from Revlon for all of my nails. I then dry brushed Plum Seduction from Revlon and Club Prive from L'Oréal on my nails. On my ring finger, I painted the logo on using black acrylic, then added the name using a light tan and black acrylic. Finally, I splattered black acrylic on m,y nails using a toothbrush.  

Hope you guys enjoy!

Ghost Town

Alright kiddos (I have no idea why I said kiddos), it's about that time again to show off some band inspired nail art. This past Saturday, I went to yet another Ghost Town concert, and did some more Ghost Town nail art (you can see the previous manicures here, here, and here). As before, the designs are all inspired by the wonderful Alister Dippner, who is the mastermind behind the Ghost Town artwork. 

Alright, let's start with the left hand. Both my pinkie and thumb were galaxies, with a base of Frostbite from China Glaze, then Plum Seduction from Revlon and white acrylic sponged on. I finished it off with some white acrylic stars. My ring finger is a base of Black Taxi from Nails Inc., and then the Ghost Town logo was painted with white acrylic. My middle finger is inspired by the cover for the song "Acid", with a base of Sure Thing from Revlon. All the details are acrylic, except for the galaxy on the hair, which included Plum Seduction. On my pointer finger, I painted part of the cover for "I'm A Disaster", starting with a base of Black Taxi, and a sponging of Miss Universe from Essence. Then the details were painted with acrylic. 

On my right hand, I my thumb was a "Pizza Kitty" in acrylic, with a base of Black Taxi and sponging of Miss Universe. My pointer finger was an Alister Dippner styled Pikachu, also with acrylic, on a base of Sure Thing. On my middle finger, I painted "Bessie the Cow" using acrylic, with as base of Black Taxi. My ring finger was an Alister inspired Mickey Mouse, with a base of Sure Thing and painted in acrylic. Finally, my pinkie was another a galaxy.

Here's a close up of "Acid".

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!

111 Songs

So the rad dudes from Hollerado released some new music. And as always, I love it. But this time, it's a little different... Basically, they wrote 111 songs. Yeah. 111. That's a lot of songs. But there's a really cool concept behind it, which you can read more about here. Now, along with the first 3 of the 111 songs came the album artwork, created by this guy right here. It's pretty rad too. So rad, in fact, that I painted some nail art of it. Here we go.

I started with a base of Sassy from Revlon. Then, using black, yellow, white and orange acrylic, I painted part of the album artwork. 

Hope you guys enjoy!