Pretty Little Lacquer

31 Day Challenge: Day 15

16 08 2013

Hi there! It’s a state holiday today so I have the day off, yay! Day 15, a delicate print, was a difficult task to interpret. Again I tried to keep it very simple. I started with two coats of OPI Berlin There Done That. I placed glitter from OPI Lights Of Emerald City.

OPI Berlin There Done That, OPI Lights Of Emerald City

I used tweezers to place the glitter, which was a mistake. The tweezers picked up too much of the polish and some of it transferred when I tried to place the glitter squares. I watched a great video on the OPI facebook. A toothpick was used to place pieces of glitter. I will try this the next time I want to do this nail art again.

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Tags: 31 day challenge, Berlin there done that, glitter, Lights of emerald city
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31 Day Challenge: Day 14

11 08 2013

Hey there! It seems like ages since I posted. The school year just began, so I’ve had to devote some time to preparing for a whole new set of students. I also am teaching a new course, which means I need to spend even more time on lesson planning.

For the flower task I decided to depict a hibiscus flower. I began with two coats of OPI A Dozen Rosas (appropriate for flower nail art). For the style and flower center I used OPI Little Red Wagon. For the pollen I used OPI The “It” Color.

OPI A Dozen Rosas, OPI Little Red Wagon, OPI The “It” Color

The above was my finished product. I first wanted to use OPI In My Back Pocket for the pollen since pollen tends to be more orange. This blended too much with A Dozen Rosas and didn’t give me enough contrast. You can see below the lack of contrast. I almost forgot to get pictures before I covered the first “pollen” with the new “pollen” that’s why only my ring finger and pinky are pictured.

I am more left brained and not really artistic. This part of the 31 day challenge is forcing me to be more creative and think more about how colors work together.

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Tags: 31 day challenge, A dozen rosas, Little red wagon, The "it" color
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31 Day Challenge: Day 13

29 07 2013

Hey there! It’s the last day of my summer break and today I have my animal print for the 31 day challenge. I attempted to do a cheetah pattern. This is the first time that I have done a cheetah mani.

I started with two coats of OPI Fiji Weejee Fawn. I dotted on OPI Do You Think I’m Tex-y. I then used the black nail art pen from Sally Hansen.

OPI Fiji Weejee Fawn, OPI Do You Think I’m Tex-y, Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen Black

This was the first time I used the nail art pen. I was not impressed. I did not shake the pen enough before beginning so the polish/ink was very watery. The lines bled as I applies the ink. So I shook the pen more to better mix the ink. This only cause the ink to leak out of the tip, luckily I had the cap on the pen or the ink would have splattered everywhere. After getting a better consistency, I could not control the amount of ink that came out of the pen, as you can see some of the lines in my cheetah print are thicker than others. This was not deliberate, it was due to the pen. The only positive to this nail art pen is that I do not have to clean any tools.

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Tags: 31 day challenge, animal print, Do you think I'm tex-y, Fiji weejee fawn, Sally Hansen nail art pen
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31 Day Challenge: Day 12

29 07 2013

Hi there! I missed yesterdays post, eek. I was busy doing some back to school shopping. I also wanted to get some preparations for my parents who generously are daycare for my son. Yesterday’s task was stripes, so I did a tape mani.

I started with two coats of OPI Fit For A Queensland. I taped off sections of my nails with varying widths of tape. Then, I painted OPI Tomorrow Never Dies. When I pulled off the tape some of FFAQ peeled off with it. To remedy this, I carefully repainted some of the FFAQ stripes.

OPI Fit For A Queensland, OPI Tomorrow Never Dies

Tape manis seem so easy to do, but I have still not mastered the technique. I think I’m too impatient to let my base coat dry fully before applying the tape. I have tried both transparent gift wrap tape and blue painters tape. Both seem to pull up the polish underneath. I need to try drying drops or a quick dry top coat before laying the tape. I’ll let you know what works in a future post.

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Tags: 31 day challenge, Fit for a queensland, tape, Tomorrow never dies
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31 Day Challenge: Day 11

27 07 2013

Hi there! I have done this look previously because it is so easy. I used a pin head before I got my dotting tools. I like the variety of sizes that dotting tools offer, but in a pinch a pin works great.

For this I started with two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. After letting that dry I used three different sized dotting tools to add OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! Ok fine, OPI Suzi Takes The Wheel, and OPI Thanks A Windmillion.

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI Thanks A Windmillion, OPI Suzi Takes The Wheel, OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! Ok Fine

I love dotting. It’s a technique I can actually do on both hands since it takes little coordination from my left.

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Tags: 31 day challenge, My boyfriend scales walls, Nein! nein! nein! ok fine, Suzi takes the wheel, Thanks a windmillion
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31 Day Challenge: Day 10

26 07 2013

Hi there! This will be the beginning of MFA, my first attempt, posts. I have never done a gradient look. I followed the tutorial done by the Nailasaurus. This was super simple to do and I will be doing this again once we have to go back to work.

I started with two coats of OPI Got A Date To-Knight. On a piece of aluminum foil I dropped this shade and right next to it dropped OPI You’re Such A Kabuki Queen. I mixed the section where the two drops met using a toothpick. I took a makeup wedge, dabbed the end in the polish, and then applied it to my nail.

OPI Got A Date To-Knight, OPI You’re Such A Kabuki Queen

The mistake I made was using a Soft Shade with this technique. It did not mix well with the more opaque color, it could not hold it’s own color. I tried to even out the gradient by sponging on Got A Date To-Knight over the center where the two colors were supposed to be more blended. Using two more opaque colors that can mix evenly is what I recommend.

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Tags: 31 day challenge, Got a date to-knight, gradient, You're such a kabuki queen
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31 Day Challenge: Day 9

25 07 2013

Hi there! This task was a fun one. I chose to do skittle nails, a very easy way to accomplish the rainbow. I wanted to use different colors from the days since a rainbow includes all of the previous color challenges. I actually went out and purchased a new orange, yellow, and blue since I didn’t have more than one of those colors. I purchased a new green to complement the rest of the shades. I really like how all the polishes are pretty clean and true to the spectrum, my blue is lighter than true blue however.

Thumb: OPI Girls Just Want To Play

Index: OPI In My Back Pocket

Middle: OPI The “It” Color

Ring: OPI Green-wich Village

Pinky: OPI Can’t Find My Czechbook

This day of the challenge opened my eyes to the wonderful world of OPI brights. These shades are not necessarily work appropriate, but luckily being a high school teacher allows me a little more freedom in my choice of style.

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Tags: 31 day challenge, Can't find my czechbook, Girls just want to play, Green-wich village, In my back pocket, skittle, The "it" color
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31 Day Challenge: Day 8

24 07 2013

Hey there! One week down, another week to go. OPI Not Like The Movies is one of the more awesome polishes in my collection. It is an amazing green/purple duochrome. There are also itty bitty silver sparkles. I also love the grey undertone it has. Choosing this for challenge day 8 has reminded me that I need to use this more often.

OPI Not Like The Movies

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Tags: 31 day challenge, Not like the movies
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31 Day Challenge: Day 7

23 07 2013

Hey there! Another easy task, black and white. I wanted to do something new like laying black lace over a white polish, but I figured I should KISS (keep it simple silly) and leave the new techniques for later in the challenge. I layered OPI Black Shatter over OPI Kyoto Pearl. Kyoto Pearl is a pearly white polish, which can show streaks similar to OPI Sahara Sapphire. The Black Shatter hid these streaks nicely. I haven’t used this polish in ages, I couldn’t remember if it was better to use a thin layer or thicker to get the best crackle. You can see my index finger the layer was too thin so it didn’t crackle well at the tip. My ring finger had a bit too much polish so it didn’t crackle enough.

OPI Black Shatter over OPI Kyoto Pearl

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Tags: 31 day challenge, Black shatter, Kyoto pearl
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31 Day Challenge: Day 6

22 07 2013

Hi there! This was a really easy task in the challenge for me. I have tons of purple polish, it’s my favorite color! I love the polish I used for this. OPI Merry Midnight is a dark purple with red flakies and blue glitter. I used 2 coats for this pic.

OPI Merry Midnight

Thanks for coming by. Happy Monday!

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Tags: 31 day challenge, Merry midnight
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