Artsy Wednesday: Earthquake or Seismograph mani!

This kind of nail art, I like.  I can do it all with brushes in the bottles of my polish, it's simple, and people will probably ooh and ah when I go to the bank or grocery store, which is always a fun little ego boost!

I used two Pretty & Polished colors as my base; Olgite, a shimmering, duochromey blue with pale purpley-pink at certain angles, and Concoction, a deep purple jelly with holo glitter and iridescent flakies and small glitter (I KNOW, IT'S AMAZING).

Here, I have 2 coats of Olgite:

This polish is a nice opacity, and dries quickly to a satiny finish.  It's not matte, but it's not a full shine, probably due to the pigmentation.  I like it!  I did notice that my second coat needed to be a little thick to prevent dragging the first coat and creating bald patches; the polish wasn't hard to work with, it's just worth noting that a thicker second coat is worth it.  Plus, Olgite dries quickly, so no problemo!

Next, I put 2 coats of Concoction on half of each nail:

This polish is sheerer than Olgite, but two coats still provided good coverage (at least of the color of Olgite). This polish is pretty darn gorgeous, these pictures don't do it justice.  It's got a great depth, and the smidgeon of flakies in the polish give it a special twist!  I'll do lone swatches of Concoction soon, so you can really see how it pops!

Finally, paint a wiggly line down the center of your nail.  You can do this a few ways; add strips using the brush of the polish, add strips using a nail art brush, add a wavy line with a nail art brush, add zig-zags.  As long as it kind of looks like a seismograph, you've done your job!

I used GOSH Holographic Hero; I figured my nails were too dark to use black.  These turned out a little more Flash Gordon than Seismograph, but I really like them anyway!

I'm really honored to be able to participate in Artsy Wednesday, and you should all DEFINITELY check out these other, very talented Artsy Wednesday participants.  

Pretty Purple Polish

Lab Muffin

Maria's Nail Art

Valiantly Varnished

Unnaked Nails

Nail & Polish

Beauty Gnome

Lacquered Lunatic

Disclaimer: The Pretty & Polished polishes featured in this blog entry were provided for review.  All opinions are my own and have not been influenced in any way.

10 Day Nail Art Challenge Day 10: New Year's Eve!

Happy New Year!   I had a wonderful 2012, and I hope 2013 is good to all of you.  Have a wonderful time celebrating tonight!

 Cobalt blue, color-changing shimmer, holographic tips and stars, does it get any more festive?

Artsy Wednesday: Tape Manicure

Striping tape, that is!  I made a plaid-icure using striping tape and my new Mari Moon multichromes; these pictures aren't perfect, but they captured the color shift best, and that's something I am really really loving about these polishes!

To get this plaid-ish, wrapped-present-ish look, paint a layer of black, and then a layer of your multichrome (because multichromes can be kind of thin, and these bottles are pretty small so I wanted to make sure I didn't waste time on a lot of layers).  Let everything dry (I waited probably 20 minutes), then add your striping tape in a plaid pattern. 

 Paint over your striping tape with one layer of a contrasting color, wait for it to dry, then peel off the tape.
You really do have to be careful with the tape, as I ended up peeling a big chunk of polish off of my ring finger when I pulled it off!  I was able to fill it in with a polish brush, but it wasn't quite as neatly done as a tape manicure should be.

I'm really honored to be able to participate in Artsy Wednesday, and you should all DEFINITELY check out these other, very talented Artsy Wednesday participants.  

Pretty Purple Polish

Lab Muffin
Maria's Nail Art
Valiantly Varnished
Unnaked Nails
Nail & Polish
Beauty Gnome
Lacquered Lunatic

Artsy Wednesday: Saran Wrap nails!

Crinkling up saran wrap and smashing it onto your polish sounds like fun, doesn't it?  I figured this would be an excellent opportunity to see if I could salvage a chipped manicure with this method.  I don't like crackles, another way to hide chips (even though I think they look like chipped polish anyway), so this was a method I was excited to try!

First, my old manicure.  Not bad for almost a week of wear, but still pretty raggedy:

Next, with a layer of polish painted on and then saran wrap smashed into the wet polish (done one nail at a time, to prevent issues with dry polish getting gummed up):

LOVE IT.  The peeks of blue through the copper?  Perfection!  I'm going to have to try different color combos, I love this style!

I'm really honored to be able to participate in Artsy Wednesday, and you should all DEFINITELY check out these other, very talented Artsy Wednesday participants.  

Pretty Purple Polish

Lab Muffin
Maria's Nail Art
Polished Genius
Valiantly Varnished
Unnaked Nails
Nail & Polish
Beauty Gnome
Lacquered Lunatic

Swatchathon: Zoya Cool edition

Well, it's time to wrap up Zoya week here at An Accent Nail, and we'll finish out the color showcase with the cool-toned Zoyas.

First off we have Edyta and Yara, two deep greens with gold shimmer.  Edyta is a blackened forest green, while Yara is a dark khaki-olive green. I'm amazed both of these colors work with my skin, as you'd think one or the other would clash, but I think the shimmer in both softens the base colors enough to make them much more universally wearable  Both have fabulous coverage and very easy-to-work-with formulas.

 Index/Middle: Edyta, Ring/Pinkie: Yara

 Index/Middle: Edyta, Ring/Pinkie: Yara

Next up, Frida and Ki.  While these look slightly similar in the bottle, they're night and day on the nail.  Frida is a teal jelly polish; it's great for layering, but on its own it'd take 4+ coats to become totally opaque.  It also has a fabulous sheen to it when it dries, much shinier than most polishes without a topcoat!

Ki is a purple/sage duochrome that is metallic in finish.  The color shift is noticeable both on the nail and in the bottle, and this polish is an awful lot of fun to wear.  I love a duochrome, as it makes gazing at my manicure (which I often do when bored) much more interesting.

Index/Middle: Frida Ring/Pinky: Ki

 

Index/Middle: Frida Ring/Pinky: Ki

Our next head-to-head is Skylar vs. Tallulah.  Skylar really surprised me when I got it; I was expecting a dusty blue with a hint of shimmer, but this polish really sparkles!  It's not glittery, more of a glassfleck-like shimmer, but it definitely packs more of a punch than meets the eye.  Tallulah is a wonderful saturated blue raspberry color; it's a great color for nail art, and really pops.

 Index/Middle: Skylar  Ring/Pinky: Tallulah

 Index/Middle: Skylar  Ring/Pinky: Tallulah

These next polishes are some real gems.  Kotori is a sheer-ish blue shimmer with a blackened base; the depth to this polish is just incredible.  I did need 3 thin coats to get rid of visible nail line, but the dry time isn't too bad and the punch this polish packs is worth it.  Akyra is a teal shimmer, with smaller shimmer particles, in a blackened base.  It's also sheer, took 3 coats, but is such an unusual color that I again think it's totally worth it.  It's like a robins egg at night!

Index/Middle: Kotori  Ring/Pinky: Akyra

 Index/Middle: Kotori  Ring/Pinky: Akyra

Let's look at the green shimmer twins in Zoya's retinue, shall we?  Ivanka and Apple look super similar in the bottle, and while they're "similar" on the nail, they're definitely not duplicate colors.  Ivanka is an emerald or jungle green with a fair amount of gold shimmer involved, while Apple is more of a lime green with more gold shimmer than Ivanka.  Apple had fuller coverage at 2 coats, but I think Ivanka has more depth of color.  I'm glad I ended up getting both; this is similar to the Tiffany/Rica duo where one color (Ivanka) would be better for fall/winter, and another (Apple) for spring/summer.  

 Index/Middle: Ivanka  Ring/Pinky: Apple

 Index/Middle: Ivanka  Ring/Pinky: Apple

Purple time!  Neeka and Dannii have similar finishes, a metallic shimmer, but are totally different color-wise.  Neeka is a dusty plum with gold and micro-purple shimmer, while Dannii is a light metallic violet-lavender with gold and silver shimmer.  I liked Neeka so much with my skin that I promptly did a full manicure with it once I was done swatching!  

 Index/Middle: Neeka, Ring/Pinky: Dannii

 Index/Middle: Neeka, Ring/Pinky: Dannii

Next, our summer duo.  These two are nothing alike, and technically Creamy is a warm tone, but I had nothing comparable to either of these so I slapped them together.  I think they're fairly complimentary, actually.  First we have Creamy, a yellow polish.  This one has a tricky formula, with patchiness even at 2 coats, but a third would fix that up.  Zuza is a metallic turquoise that people blew their stacks over this summer! It is a very nice color, but I found that application required a gentle hand to prevent dragging and bald spots.  However, the color payoff in both of these is great, so I'm overall glad I have them both in my collection.

 Index/Middle: Creamy, Ring/Pinky: Zuza

 Index/Middle: Creamy, Ring/Pinky: Zuza

That's all folks!  That's all the Zoyas I own (for now, hah!), I hope you enjoyed Zoya week as much as I did!

Who doesn't love a duochrome?

I love duochrome polishes; it's almost like an opportunity to wear more than one polish at a time. I think they tend to make a manicure more fun to look at.  Today, I'm wearing Orly's Space Cadet over Julep's Anne.  Space Cadet is a pretty sheer polish, so having an undercoat kept me from having to use 3-4 coats of polish on my nails.  I did an accent nail of Virtual Violet, a holographic purple.

Left to Right: Space Cadet, Virtual Violet, Space Cadet

In full sun, it was hard to tell that I had 2 different polishes on, but in medium light (indoors), the duochrome effect of Space Cadet really shone.  It shifts from reddish-purple to a dark chartreuse, and is pretty spectacular as a polish!

Space Cadet is somewhat hard to find; it came out in fall of 2010, and isn't part of Orly's core line.  Some Ultas have had the Cosmic FX collection in stock (I just found mine two weeks ago at the local Ulta), but otherwise, online is your best bet.  Hard Candy has a polish called Beetle that is a dupe for Space Cadet, and you can find that color at almost any WalMart, so that may be the easier route to get this fantastic color!