Awesome Mix Vol. 1 (Or, Guardians Of The Galaxy Nail Art)

Have you seen Guardians of the Galaxy yet?  If you haven't, you should go now.  Today.

In fact, if you still have your safe-for-work beige polish on, skip to Step 2 (and then while you're waiting for Step 3 to dry, you can buy your tickets online), and you'll have some awesome nail art to go along with the awesome soundtrack that you'll soon be hearing!

Here's a list of the Things You'll Need for this nail art:

1. ScotchBlue Painter's Tape
2. Beige Nail Polish (that matches the look of aged parchment) - Used here is You're So Vain-illa by OPI
3. Red Nail Polish (or an orangish-red to be more precise) - Race Red by OPI from the new Ford Mustang Collection matches perfectly for this occasion
4. Sharpie fine point Permanent Marker in Navy
5. Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (but an image of said soundtrack will suffice if you have not yet purchased this great collection of music)
6. Groot - You will need to buy a Groot.  No, really, you will need him later…. Ok, not really.  But he is adorable.  So having a Groot handy is fun 
7. (Not pictured) Scissors
8. (Not pictured/optional) Cardstock - to stick the painter's tape on once it has been used
9. (Not pictured/optional) Tweezers - to pull the painter's tape off your nails (see Step 3 below for a better understanding)

"You will need to buy a Groot."

Step 1 comprises of the base color.  Above is pictured 1 coat of base coat + 3 coats of You're So Vain-illa by OPI + 1 coat of quick-drying top coat.  Wait for this to completely dry before moving on to Step 2.

"Step 1 comprises of the base color."

Here is where you will need to have your painter's tape handy.  Start by cutting 3 different sizes of strips of painter's tape.  You will have 3 different "categories" of thickness, where each category should have 10 strips of tape that are all roughly the same thickness.  After all the cutting you will have a total of 30 strips of painter's tape (provided you have 10 fingers which you are painting).

• Category 1:  Will be placed at the bottom/free-edge of the nail.  Also, these strips of tape are the thinnest out of the 3 categories.
• Category 2:  Similarly thin compared to the width of the tape strips in Category 1.  Consider these the "middle strips" as they will go between Categories 1 and 3 on the nail.
• Category 3:  The thickest strips of painter's tape you are cutting.  These pieces of tape will be used to mark the highest point on your nail where the second color will reach.

Now to place the painter's tape:

Start by placing a Category 1 strip of tape at the bottom/free edge of your nail, but far enough up your nail so the bottom stripe of nail polish you will be layering on in Step 3 is thickest at the bottom of your nail than it will be for the other two stripes that will be painted (scroll down to Step 3 for image reference).

Move on to placing the strips of painter's tape from Categories 2 and 3 on your nail.  Category 2 will go above Category 1, and Category 3 will be the top-most strip of tape, being placed a sliver above Category 2.  The end result will be 3 strips of tape for each nail.

The easiest way to make sure the gaps/lines will line up evenly between all of your nails is to go nail by nail, starting at the bottom/free-edge of your nail and working your way up your nail.  Repeat on the next nail, making sure that each strip of tape for each Category lines up with the same Category strip on the other nails.

"...3 strips of tape for each nail."

Step 3 consists of layering on your red polish.

The faster you pull off the strips of tape after painting, the less likely you are to have "strings" of polish, where the polish has become tacky and sticks to both the nail and the tape, and leaves a tiny string of polish in the gap where the the tape once was.  For this reason, only paint one nail at a time.  After painting one nail (up to the bottom edge of the Category 3 strip of painter's tape as mentioned in Step 2), quickly pull off each strip of tape on the nail.

Pull the strip of tape off the nail in the same horizontal direction it is laying on the nail.

Repeat the painting and pulling-off process for each nail until all 10 nails have been painted.

 "...only paint one nail at a time."

Step 4 is the simplest step, but you need to wait the longest amount of time before starting.  You will be painting a top coat on top of your newly-created stripes.  If your stripes are not dry, you will get streaking…and then you'll have to start all over at Step 1 (after taking off your almost-completed nail art creation), so wait a while before painting on the top coat!

"...wait a while before painting on the top coat!"

Adding the text is the last step!

Grab your Sharpie (in Navy, because the regular Blue hue comes across a bit too vibrant for the aged parchment look).  As "Awesome Mix Vol. 1" is the name of the album/mixtape/soundtrack (and a very important part of the movie) split the title across all of your nails to get your art spread out along a larger canvas!

Don't add top coat after writing!  Yes, this makes the overall manicure more temporary, but unless you are sure your top coat will not cause streaking of the lettering, skip the top coat and wear this art tonight!

"Don't add top coat...!"

There you have it!  You're ready to go see Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy!  Or watch it again!  And again!

Extra picture of Nail Art + Groot!

Woot, woot!  Groot, Groot!  Dancy, dancy!

Can you guess what's written on my right hand?  If you've seen the movie you should have some idea.

Have you created nail art for a movie recently?

CoverGirl Catching Fire Nail Stickers in Flamed Out and Seared Bronze

WooHoo!  The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is coming out on November 22, 2013 and it's already the 10th!  Less than 2 weeks left!  So to get ready for the movie you have to decide on your nail art, right?  How about wearing some of the CoverGirl Catching Fire Collection made specifically for the movie?

There were 9 nail polishes made to go along with the collection, and today I have one to share with you.  I found the CoverGirl Catching Fire Collection at my local CVS, and the first time I saw it, they only had the glosstinis (the nail polishes) and the other makeup products, but it wasn't until last week that I spotted a larger display at my same CVS (while they still had the smaller display up) that had the nail stickers as well.

The first time around I was only interested in the nail stickers so I bypassed the nail polishes, but the second time, after seeing the nail stickers I was drawn to this glowing red polish that I thought would look great under the nail stickers.   This is 2 coats of Rogue Red with top coat in direct afternoon sunlight.

Now for the nail stickers.  First up, Seared Bronze:

Next is Flamed Out:

In terms of ease of use, the stickers are plastic so they are more malleable than the paper nail stickers some companies have, but you can still easily end up with ridges if you have very rounded nails.  I would say if you use nail stickers often, these are easier to use than the Revlon stickers, but harder to smooth out than the ones from Sally Hansen.

If you are looking for the nail stickers, they do seem to be slowly showing up, but I haven't heard anyone else say they have found the stickers.  I've seen the nail polishes at Walgreens, but the only display with the stickers was at CVS, and while it seems like there are supposed to be 6 different sticker selections, the display at CVS only had these two.  If you wanted to see what this display looks like, you can look at my pic on twitter.  It is a full stand display, so if you haven't found the nail stickers yet, keep looking for bigger displays to come in to your local drugstores.

To see the full makeup collections and full looks created by CoverGirl for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, you can visit the CoverGirl website HERE.

Are you going to see The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and if so, do you already have your nail art planned?

The Red Queen vs. The White Queen

Day 3 of 3 for the Countdown to Alice in Wonderland: 3 Days of Wonderland inspired nails.




This manicure was inspired by the conflicting Queens depicted in the new Alice in Wonderland movie.


First up...the Red Queen...

image from trailers.apple.com

Now the White Queen...

image from trailers.apple.com

Aren't those posters amazing? Great nail polishing inspiration!


To capture the juxtaposition of red against white, the two colors I chose were Orly in Gogo and Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Red Carpet. Gogo is a pearlescent white creme with a hint of silver glitter that almost makes it look dusty, but that's why I like it. For the red I chose Red Carpet because it's a vibrant red glitter that sparkles brilliantly and really catches your eye.





And here's a (sort of) close-up of the heart decal. When I first saw these nail stickers at Rite Aid, I was already planning an Alice in Wonderland inspired mani with this sticker. It just seems perfect for the Red Queen. A red heart, with X's throughout it, topped with a crown? What couldn't be more perfect?


The decals used are by Fing'rs Edge, which I picked up at Rite Aid for under $5US.





Enlarge the image below (just click on it), to see all the beautiful shine and glitter-sparkle that the red polish shows.




So what are your thoughts on this final mani inspired by Alice in Wonderland? Did you do a manicure/nail design for the new Alice in Wonderland movie?


Thanks for looking. Bye for now.

New and Old Cheshire Cat

Day 2 of 3 for the Countdown to Alice in Wonderland: 3 Days of Wonderland inspired nails.




(Another name I have for this manicure is "Down the Rabbit Hole" because the bright pink and blue clash brightly against each other, giving a dizzying look.)


So this manicure design was inspired by the differences and similarities between Disney's original Cheshire Cat, and the new Cheshire Cat in Tim Burton's adaptation.

image from www.dailypictures.info

image from cinematropolis.wordpress.com

I took the pink from the old Cheshire Cat and striped it with the blue from the new Cheshire Cat...and then added some glitter....





Colors used were Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Fuchsia Power, Wet and Wild Craze in Glitz, OPI in Absolutely Alice, and Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Blue Me Away!...



Step 1 consists of cutting even strips of blue painters tape, so you will have an alternating pattern of tape and nail (as shown on the right nail below).


Then you stripe on the pink polish being sure to layer it evenly and quickly, so you can then pull up the strips of tape on each nail as you go. The size of your strips of tape will vary on nail length and how many stripes you want to fit onto each nail.







After painting the pink polish onto the nail and letting it dry, you then cut 5 pieces of tape (if you are going to have 6 alternating stripes of color). One piece of tape will be used to cover the pink stripe closest to the root of your nail, while for the other two pink stripes, one tape strip will cover one edge of the pink, and the other piece of tape will be laid down over the other edge of the pink stripe so that both edges of each pink stripe that have a chance of touching the blue nail polish will be covered.





This is what the final product of the blue and pink stripes will look like.








Steps 3 and 4 consist of adding glitter to the stripes. For Step 3, start out adding the pink glitter on alternating nails by taping off the blue polish with the same pattern used in Step 2 of cutting 5 slim pieces of blue painters tape, and then laying the pieces down so that the edge of each blue stripe of nail polish is covered completely.


For Step 4, once the pink glitter has dried, tape it off so you can start painting the blue glitter. The same pattern of 5 slim strips of tape to segregate the pink stripes from the blue (as used in Steps 2 and 3) applies here.





Once you are done with your glitter layers, you'll want to add at least one layer of top coat to all the nails (possibly adding a second layer of top coat to the nails with the glitter polish to smooth out the finish).


So, what do you think? The outcome is really bright and sparkly in real life, I'm really loving this look.



This concludes Day 2 of 3 for the Countdown to Alice in Wonderland: 3 Days of Wonderland inspired nails.

Thanks for looking. Bye for now.

Countdown to Alice in Wonderland: 3 Days of Wonderland Inspired Nails

Day 1 of 3: "Through the Looking Glass"


So this manicure begins the three day countdown to the release of Disney and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland movie! As a product of the Nightmare Before Christmas Era, I tend to like most of Burton's films, but I am especially excited for this one. Doesn't it look magical?

image from trailers.apple.com

So another name I call this mani is "Johnny Depp as the New Mad Hatter". From the commercials it looks like Depp makes an amazing (and crazy!) Mad Hatter. And, since the main focus of this mani was to use an OPI Alice in Wonderland nail polish, I used Mad as a Hatter.

image from trailers.apple.com

So here are the two colors used: OPI's Mad as a Hatter and Sephora by OPI's Queen of Everything. Mad as a Hatter is a multi-glitter and Queen of Everything is a goldish-silver foil.




For this design, I wanted Mad as a Hatter to stand out and be complemented by the silver foil Queen of Everything, so I used ND1: Half and Half that I showed the tutorial for Here, though it is quite self explanatory - just layering one color over the other, the glitter over the foil.


Queen of Everything came out a little streaky as most foils tend to (this is only one coat, with Mad as a Hatter layered over in one coat, followed by Seche Vite as a top coat), so if you ever use or plan to use Queen of Everything, I would recommend two thin coats to even out the look.




Below you can see all the lovely colors that are in the multi-glitter Mad as a Hatter. Silver, purple, gold, green, red, orange...the list is endless, and it's almost hard to tell where one color ends and another begins. Perfect name for a lovely dense, fine glitter.




This concludes Day 1 of the Countdown to Alice in Wonderland: 3 Days of Wonderland Inspired Nails.

Thanks for looking. Bye for now.