Marsala Rose Nail Art

So I haven't been such a good blogger this week. I wanted to at least tweet my simple NYE mani, but I maaay have trashed it in some NYE shenanigans before I had a chance to take photos (for the record, I wore Sally Hansen Insta Dri Wined Up with NYC Top o' the Gold Topcoat on the tips). Then I vowed to make it up to you with a full swatch and review of my January Julep Maven box, but I can't bring myself to take this mani off yet!

I chose a Mystery Polish add on with my Maven box, and it turned out to be Coco, this magical oxblood red. At first I thought, "oh...red." Then the light bulb went off. This isn't just any red! This is marsala!

Yes, marsala, Pantone's Color of the Year for 2015, an honor heralded as the indicator for the trends in fashion and beauty for the year. According to Pantone, "flattering against many skin tones, sultry and subtle Marsala is a great go-to color for beauty, providing enormous highlight for the cheek, and a captivating pop of color for nails[.]" When I first saw it I was underwhelmed, but it's grown on me, and the range of polish that fits into the marsala family is phenomenal. It seemed fitting that my first post of 2015 should show you one of them, especially one named for style icon Coco Chanel, the embodiment of the "message of glamour and luxury" that Pantone says a shiny marsala conveys-you know I love my shiny nails. 

Paired with Coco for my accent nail is one of January's new Maven colors, Margit. Margit is a "mushroom with rose shimmer." Julep's glowy shimmers have been hitting on all cylinders for me lately, so even though I've not been crazy about mushroom in the past, I gave it a shot. It proved to be a wonderful balance with the earthy tones of marsala. I kept the earthy+glamorous marsala theme with a rose design, going for bigger, all over roses rather than my usual tiny rosettes along the edges. It is such a gorgeous, sophisticated manicure! I used a large dotting tool and a small detail brush, then followed the same technique I use for the rosettes, just bigger, which allowed me to be a little more deliberate and get a nice effect with just two shades rather than my usual three. The leaves are Julep Ryan. It's topped off with Sally Hansen Super Shine topcoat.

So in the coming weeks, I'll give you a proper swatch and review of my Maven box as well as a review of some natural products I'm trying right now from a brand new maker. I'm also starting to experiment with my lightbox for better photos, thinking about blog design, and kicking around some ideas on what direction I want to go in with nail art this year. 2015 is going to be a lot of fun for SSNB, and I hope to hear all of your thoughts, feedback, and ideas as I go!

Weekend Nails: Dia De Los Muertos

For this weekend's adventure, I took a break from Vamptober for a nail art look inspired by Dia De Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. Like much of the world right now, I'm enthralled by the Mexican sugar skull theme, representing the celebration and remembrance of loved ones who have passed away.

For this design I was inspired by the sugar skull themed makeup designs often punctuated by spiderwebs and roses. Instead of the brighter colors or black base used for Dia de los Muertos nails, I chose a more ethereal color scheme, using Julep Sera and Harlow as my base colors. For the skull accent, I also used Julep Colette (shimmer purple) and Greta (shimmery pink-red). For my rose accents, I used Julep Nellie and Greta and outlined with a black striper, which I also used for my spiderwebs, to give more of a tattoo vibe. My detail work isn't quite good enough yet for the more realistic look I was shooting for, but I think they came out a lot of fun and have the spirit of the look I envisioned.

These nails are a cute reminder that there's more than one fun holiday in October! What do you think?

Wildflowers on Watercolors

Not sure what came over me, but I woke up the other day knowing I wanted wildflowers. After Googling using multiple search terms, I found inspiration on Pinterest. While I don't pin myself, I always find interesting things when Google takes me to a nail art lover's pinboard. This time the design was a pastel watercolor floral from Celine Does Nails. (You can view the original pinned photo here.)

I'm not partial to pastels, so when I want to emulate a pastel based design, it usually comes out a little brighter than the original. This was no exception. My design ended up more summer than spring, but I think it came out well. I tried a few different types of flowers; some were good, some not so much, but for someone who loves florals as much as I do, practice is good. For this look, I polished each nail a different shade, then sponged the others on top. I topcoated to blend before painting on my floral pattern with toothpicks, a small brush, and dotting tools. Finally, I laid down two more layers of topcoat to seal in the design.

Now's also a good time to mention that I have a new topcoat, Glisten and Glow HK Girl Fast Drying+Super Shiny Topcoat. While I don't feel like I've given it enough time for a full review, after two manis (I also used it on my KISS tribute design), I'm ready to share first impressions.

I've heard a lot about HK Girl as a beauty blogger favorite and had to try it. I was happy to see that the price tag is nice compared to other boutique topcoats. I paid less than $10 for it after shipping, whereas my other current favorite quick drying topcoats, Julep Freedom Polymer Topcoat (which I wasn't wowed by at first, and now I panic when I start to run out) and Oxygen Performance Topcoat, are almost $15 with Maven pricing and free shipping. If you're not a member of the Julep Maven subscription service, they're $18...plus shipping. Yikes! I'm pretty fond of Sally Hansen Mega Shine as well, which retails about the same as HK Girl and is available in drugstores, but takes longer to get completely hard than my Julep toppers do. HK Girl delivers on its promise to dry hard in a matter of minutes and it has a wet shine when dry. Lasting power seems to be pretty good as well. Downsides-it's a little thinner than I expected, and it smells dreadful. It's also only a 2-free formula (according to the website, it does contain dibutyl phthalate). While a 3, 4, or 5-free formula is a bonus rather than a must for me, it's important enough to some people that it's worth mentioning. All in all I like it so far, and it will be nice not to have to wait for a sale to get a topcoat with the qualities I want at a reasonable price, so I'll give it a few weeks to see if it has go-to potential. I'm especially interested in the claim that it maintains the same consistency without thickening for the whole bottle. If that's true (or if it thickens, but not past the thickness of a new bottle of Freedom) they'll have me hooked.

Colors Used

Base Nails:

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Lively Lilac (purple)

Sinful Colors Nice Stems (mint)

Julep Lilou (yellow)

Sinful Colors Cream Soda (pale orange)

Sally Hansen Nail Growth Miracle Sweet Sunrise (pink)

Flowers:

Sally Hansen Nail Growth Miracle Sugar Plum (dark pink)

Sally Hansen Nail Growth Miracle Kiss of Pink (medium pink)

Sinful Colors Boogie Nights (medium orange)

Sinful Colors Cream Soda (pale orange)

Sinful Colors Rainstorm (dark blue; 

mixed with Sally Hansen french tip white for light blue accent) 

Revlon Jaded Night (dark green)

Sinful Colors Happy Ending (light green)

Before the Blog

SSNB recently hit 1000 page views, a milestone that was both exciting and humbling. This blog was created almost entirely for my personal amusement, so even though 1000 views is all in a day's work for the more established blogs, for me it's more than I ever expected. I'm the type of person who likes to always find the art and science to the things I enjoy, so painting nails turned into nail art, which turned into hand and nail care (even perfect manis don't look as good on ragged hands!), which turned into blogging-something that has continuously raised the bar. I'm so delighted that other people are interested in seeing this progression and to be a part of the generous and delightful beauty blogging community. I racked my brain on the best way to celebrate this milestone, and finally I decided the best way to commemorate the occasion was to take a look back.

I've taken pictures of my nails since long before I started blogging, they were just for a different purpose. The primary reason for the photos back then was a reference, in case I wanted to wear a design again. They weren't always great pictures, but they documented designs that I couldn't stop looking at. I'd love to go back and reimagine these sometime.

This one is a matte/shine hybrid, with Sally Hansen Tough Taupe as the base and (I think) Revlon Foxy and Copper Penny as the shades for my toothpick rosettes. I mattified using NYC matte topcoat before adding the flowers. Roses are one of my go to designs because they're so pretty and so versatile. There are a ton of variations on this manicure in my photos, but this is one of the only times I've done a mixed finish design. I wonder why that is-I really like it!    

Another rosette variation I've never repeated for some inexplicable reason is this girly white based rosette mani. I can't even begin to remember all of the colors I used, but I was so happy with the result!











I don't remember what inspired this cheerful under the sea design, but I do remember I liked it enough to wear it for several days. The base is Sally Hansen X-treme Wear in Blue Me Away with Mellow Yellow for the little angel fish. The coral and starfish are another Sally Hansen shade, Hard as Nails Mango Tango.








Finally, here's my gradient butterfly mani. I'd love to try these again now that I have steadier hands and am more skilled overall. Yes, I know everyone does butterflies, and it takes forever to do, but it's soooo pretty! I'm not sure which colors I used.

My skills were fledgling and my photos simple, but they get the job done when I need some inspiration. Tell the truth-do you have a stash of blurry pics of messy manis that you can't bring yourself to purge?

Louboutin Summer Florals

As much as I love them, nail art joy cannot be sustained on rosettes alone. There are tons of hibiscus stamps and stickers out there, but freehanding these big, cheerful flowers seemed like an easy option for a sunny summer floral.

For my hibiscus flowers, I used a dotting tool to create five heart shaped petals with Julep Laree, the pink used as my primary mani color. Then I used a tiny flat brush to soften the middles of the petals with Model's Own Golden Peach, followed up with a few dots and a cute little stamen with Julep Nessa (also the background color on my accent nail). I added a few dots as needed in the background, and my bright Hawaiian print was done! 

This mani is all about color fusion. Nessa, Laree, and Golden Peach are all complex polishes with a golden undertone that gave the finished result a soft glow. But wait! There's more!

You may recall my fascination with the Louboutin mani- polishing the back of the nail as well as the front. While I've tried it a few times, I've had limited success. This time, I used Golden Peach to create an all-around tropical look, and it came out pretty well. I used my tiny flat brush for this as well, and used reenforcers (the little circle stickers you use for repairing torn notebook paper holes) to protect my frontside polish while painting on two subtle coats. I had a little chippage and blotchiness, but with such a soft, shimmery color, it doesn't bother me too much. Golden Peach is a color that I haven't really warmed to as a primary shade, but it looks perfect here and is a match made in Heaven with gold infused Laree. I'm also in love with Nessa, but yellows look weird on me. The combination of two colors I can't quite get a handle on with Laree, a color that's on the short list of polishes I could wear every day if I had to, made for a very satisfying mani! 

My First Leadlight Nail Art

Always late to the party, I saw some leadlight nail art pop up in my Bloglovin' feed and I lost my mind. For those of you who are like me and have to be hit in the face before you notice a trend, leadlighting is when you stamp a design over a white or light background, then use jelly or sheer colors to give a watercolored or stained glass type look to your nail art, like the recent floral (yay florals!) post from ProcrastiNails. I tend to strongly prefer opaques over sheers, leaving the sheer polishes that find a way into my collection to languish. This is a great way to put them to work, and greatly increased my appreciation for sheer polishes.

For this design, I used Sally Hansen XTreme Wear White On underneath and Black Out for my stamping. I used sponging instead of a dotting tool with my sheer polishes for a less defined, hazy gradient. NYC Color Precious Peacock (I was SO disappointed when that one was sheer!), Sinful Colors Purple Diamond, and Wet N' Wild Megalast Retro Mint filled in the design, with Sinful Colors Mint Apple as my main mani color (yes, I bought more Sinful Colors polishes, shut up).

What do you think? I'm still doing some trial and error, and I'm interested in trying the more defined technique like the one in the Messy Mansion leadlight tutorial, but I've been happily sporting this mani for several days- that never happens! I think now I need more stamping plates.

Summer Floral

Sorry for the long time between posts-I've been equal parts uninspired and gloomy lately, which has not made for creative nail art. Lots of glitter gradients and back-to-the-well stuff. However, some sunshine has started to lift my mood, and thanks to a gift of a bunch of untried Sally Hansen polishes (thanks Mom!) my nails are slowly looking like me again. To celebrate the start of summer, I used a new color scheme on a favorite pattern.

Florals and stripes are so much fun together, and super versatile. With this classic rosettes and wallpaper type design, I usually use a mint or pale jade green as the base with pink rosettes and copper and green stripes. This time I went with a glowy pink and chrome green as my base colors for a brighter, more summery take on the same technique. For my pink, I used Julep Laree, a "golden pink taffeta shimmer" from my May Maven box. The fine gold shimmer in this color gives it a coral glow, and coral is my "I need all of them" color this spring. Laree is out of stock right now, but it's one that's worth waiting for- so pretty! I used my other Maven color, Saaya, as the peachy stripe in the wallpaper nail. I've decided, at least for now, that I don't care much for Saaya on its own, but it accents beautifully.

I used Laree and Saaya, with a touch of Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl, for my rosette accent nail details. Rosettes are done to death, but I just love them. For my leaves, I used Sinful Colors Rise & Shine. As the base of the rosette accent nail, I used a color that was the surprise standout of my recent haul, Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear in Ivy League. This bright green chrome looks fantastic with my medium-dark skin tone, and is a great pair up with these gold shimmers I'm loving this summer. It takes a few coats, but applies surprisingly well for such a chromy polish. Since Julep polishes tend to run a little darker than the swatches online, I also strongly suspect that it's a pretty close dupe for Julep Tatum, a color I've been on the fence about getting. Speaking of Julep dupes...




During my uninspired swatching, I do believe I found one! One of my very favorite colors is Julep's bright raspberry creme, Nellie. In trying on a few colors, I happened to notice that one of my new-to-me colors, Sally Hansen Nail Growth Miracle in Sugar Plum, was almost an exact match. They're so close that I'm wearing Sugar Plum on my big toe and Nellie on the others, and you can't tell the difference. But don't take my word for it...

Sugar Plum on the right, Nellie on the left, no topcoat

See? Twins! Nellie applies a little thicker, which means one coat vs. two of Sugar Plum for best coverage, and Nellie is ever so slightly deeper, but at a glance, they're virtually identical. I'm not sure if Sugar Plum is easy to find anymore, but Nellie is out of stock right now, so it makes me happy to basically have a spare!

What do you think? Does a new color scheme make florals fresh, or do you prefer a different floral pattern for summer versus your cold weather look?

Weekend Nails: Water Decal Skittles

This weekend I played with a classic red, white, and black color scheme inspired by my simple, cute, and ridiculously cheap Marilyn Monroe t-shirt. While I haven't been brave enough to try the Marilyn themed tutorial-in-which-she-makes-it-look-easy from Robin Moses, I crave Marilyn nail art, and this is a step in the right direction. For this design, I used Sally Hansen XTreme Wear in White On and Black Out, Julep Catherine, Pure Ice Dazzle Me, and water decals from the Born Pretty Store (sheet BLE1770 at the link).

The polka dotted heart design on my middle finger is a direct ripoff from Kim_Ciil at Smioss.com. The rest of the designs I kind of played by ear.

This is also my second attempt at painting the back of my nails, a la this Louboutin inspired nail look from The Manicure Addict, for a little extra glam. The first time was a quiet flop. This time I made a huge mess with epic levels of smearing- my hands looked like a crime scene- but it worked out much better. It occurs to me that "wing it" is not really a strategy for success with this particular look, especially on short nails, but trial and error is the best way to figure this stuff out. If I can get comfortable doing this, think of all the fun we can have with color combos! I started with a dotting tool for the first layer and used a short pointed brush to touch up. The hardest part is the feeling that there's something under my nails; I have to fight the urge to "clean" the polish out.

I think next time a more deliberate approach is in order, possibly with some kind of tape contraption to make the cleanup easier. While far from perfect, I had fun playing with some new techniques. What do you think?

Stamping For Beginners

As you may know, I recently started stamping, and I'm pretty happy about that. It was a calculated risk, because I'm not exactly the most coordinated gal, but I've had some success with it. I'm a natural researcher, so while I waited impatiently for my kit to arrive, I must have looked at 50 tutorials. Last weekend I did some simple flower stamping, and that process made me think about the things a new stamper might want to know.

First, here are some great resources:
Lacquer or Leave Her's Nail Stamping 102 post is fantastic. I tend to prefer a wordier blog style with lots of pictures (nooo! really?), and this post both shows and tells the process clearly and gives some great tips on what polish brands stamp well.

For those of you who are more step by step picture people, Nail Art 101 (who I love, by the way) have a good visual step-by-step with a few tips thrown in at the end.

Finally, for our audio-visual learning types, this video from Elleandish hits the basics in 4 minutes or less. She's using a stamper almost identical to mine, which was cheap and works great.

I've also started picking up a few of my own best practices for nail stamping. In the images here, I'm wearing Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Going Grape and stamped with Sally Hansen Hard As Nails in Pumping Iron. I usually shoot for more opaque polishes to stamp, but I wanted a more subtle, faded look to compliment Going Grape's amazing duochrome effect. Robin Sparkles shows how well metallics can look in a stamping design in her Valentine's design video. Here are my own tips for those of you in the same boat as me:

- For me, one of the challenges has been figuring out what colors to use together. Black and white are always winners, but try colors in the same family for an elegant effect, like a dark green over seafoam or deep aubergine over lilac.
-Stamping is a great way to get mileage out of thickened polishes, too- thicker polishes stamp really well. For more pronounced designs, every black and white I've tried have worked fine, and Julep cremes have worked well, too-Gayle stamps like a dream.
-Roll the stamper all the way across the nail rather than trying to dab on the design. I'm constantly half stamping, so be careful about that.
-Sometimes I use more than one design and stamp twice on different parts of the same nail to make a look that's all mine.
-Finally, I always use a thick coat of quick dry topcoat before stamping. Then if I mess up, I swipe a q-tip dabbed in acetone over the design and almost never have to redo the whole nail, even if it takes two or three tries. Seal it all in with another layer of topcoat, and you've got it.

Isn't Grape Going fabulous? I'm falling madly in love with Sally Hansen duochromes. What stamping techniques have you picked up, and which stamping looks do you still covet? What polishes are made for stamp art?

I Love You, Florals!

I love floral nails. I love daisies and sunflowers and violets and roses and nonspecific blobs with petals. Cartoony and realistic, vintage and modern, I love them all. I want to try every floral nail design there is. I know that's hyper girly. I don't care. I like what I like. If my nails remind you of an old woman's wallpaper, I'm probably in love with them.

Tonight I chose Julep Nellie as my base with no idea what to do with it, just that I wanted a color I love to stare at for a few days while I'm deciding what to paint for this month's Lacquer Legion prompt (which is "Lucky," by the way, in case you're thinking about participating). What to wear when I don't know what to wear? Floral, of course!

While I was deciding on a design, two coats of Nellie dried. Then I used my White Out Salon Perfect striper to create my chevrons.

Then I mixed a drop of Nellie and a drop of a white polish together with a toothpick and used that color to make splotches all over the white areas.

After that, I took the toothpick and used Nellie to finish my rosettes. There are plenty of rosette tutorials online from people who are much better at this than me, so I'll spare you my "process"- let's just say I wing it. From there, I dab tiny dots of Sally Hansen Jade Jump, followed up with Revlon Jaded Night right next to it as leaves. I topped my accent nails with Wet n Wild Clear Nail Protector and two coats of MegaShine. I love them. They're perfect.

Not particularly original, I know. But they're classic and lovely, and some variation of vintage roses will probably always be on my list of go-to looks.