Showing posts with label monochrome. Show all posts

#33DC - Day 21 - Europe (Black Sand Beach, Vík í Mýrdal, Iceland)

 Hiya guys!  I'm back for Day 21 of the #33DC and the prompt for today is Europe.  I was unsure on what I wanted to do for this prompt for ages, but once I got this idea in my head I was determined to see it through.


Photo credit: Alexandre Deschaume
 This is a photo of the stunning black sand beach Vík í Mýrdal, Iceland in a thick fog.  I came across this photo here on photo.net, and was just blown away by it.  I was pretty nervous about trying to recreate this, but I had a few back-up ideas in case it was a miserable fail so no pressure.

I had an idea I could use a couple of fan brushes to get the base in a sort of jagged gradient, and I actually took pictures of the base too.  I was just making this up as I went along, so I took pictures before adding the next step, as I had no idea whether I would just ruin in completely by adding too much : )
I actually liked it like this, and may have to try this again with other colours at some point.  I did take a striper brush and add a few more dramatic lines to emphasise the effect.
Then I decided I could build some 3D pebbles out of my black textured polish with a dotting tool.  I think I did about 3 or 4 layers in the end.  Took quite a while to dry though : /
That's how it looked afterwards.  Then I got my white polish, and with the skinniest brush I could find, I outlined around the base of pebbles.  This was probably the hardest bit of the whole mani, I did have to go back in with 1 more layer of black on the pebbles, but finally I had this:

Unfortunately, I don't own a really pale blue cream so I just had to go monochrome instead, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out anyway.  A bit weird, yes, but very interesting, especially in real life.  They really did look like little pebbles!
   

 What do you guys think of this, just a bit weird, or pure genius?: p   Want to go have another look at that photo? I know I do, I find it mesmerising!  Don't forget to check out the other amazing ladies down at the bottom.

pekal

#33DC - Day 16 - South America


Hi guys and girls.  I'm back today for Day 16 of the #33DC and the prompt for today is South America.  I was totally stumped on this prompt for ages, and I ended up asking the rest of the Crumpets Nail Tarts on facebook to help me out with inspiration.  I had so many great suggestions from loads of ladies which I'm truly grateful for, they were all amazing.  However, as is usually the way for me, I promptly had my own idea after asking for help!  I know you may all be wondering exactly how this mani is related to South America, and I promise I'll explain after the jump!




This mani is a tribute to some of my favourite Latin Metal bands.  It's a sub-genre of heavy metal with Latin origins, influences, and instrumentation.  They sometimes use Spanish lyrics, Latin percussion and salsa rhythms. I originally picked 5 bands, but I couldn't recreate all of their logos, so I had to narrow it down to 3.  The 3 I used are:
Cavalera Conspiracy
Soulfly

Ill Niño

The thumb and pinky are stamped with Cheeky plate CH31, and the logos I copied freehand with black acrylic paint.  This may not be as pretty as some of the other ideas, but I really like that this mani means something to me personally too.  Plus, I love the studded CC logo, and the Ill Nino symbol.  I wish my nails were a little longer, as my Soulfly logo is a bit squished at the bottom, but never mind!
If I've peaked you curiosity, never fear.  Here's a Spanish version of How Can I Live by Ill Nino.  Warning:  if you really hate heavy music, you may want to just pop down to the bottom and see what the other Nail Tarts have got for you today : D
ps. if you're wondering why he looks like he's miming badly, it's because the video was done mostly in English - the spanish version is from an album.  : )

pekal

UK Indie Month - Pocket Money Polishes - I Want Candy

Hi guys and girls.  I'm back today with another gorgeous UK Indie Polish to show you.  This is I Want Candy by Pocket Money Polishes.  This a vibrant mix of big green squares, smaller pink squares, blue and yellow hexes, smaller red hexes, and tiny green specks.  I love the colours in this polish, they just work so beautifully together, and the overall effect is just so smile-inducing!




I couldn't decide whether to swatch this over black or white, so I decided to do a bit of both!  I'm pretty sure this is 1 coat of I Want Candy, but as you can probably tell from how short my nails are, I swatched this a week or 2 ago, and can't be 100% sure.
This was my first purchase from PMP, and I am really impressed.  The formula on this was lovely, I had no problems at all getting the glitter to cover nicely.  I also bought a second polish from Charlie called Can't Buy Me Love which is gorgeous.  Hopefully, I'll have swatches of that posted soon.
Charlie also has a blog by the same name here where she blogs about nail art and polish.  And just in case you missed it, her Glitter Babies can be bought here.
What do you guys think, are you loving this bottle of happy neon goodness as much as I am?    

pekal

#33DC - Day 12 - Pattern from your home.

 Hi lovely people!  Welcome to Friday.  I'm back for Day 12 of the #33DC and the prompt for today is a pattern from your home.  I don't really have patterns in my home, but I knew as soon as I saw this prompt that I wanted to base my mani on my bedding.

This is my pillow, and I have the matching duvet cover too (duh!)  As you can see, I have done a skittle mani with this as one of the nails.  When me and the Mr went to Download Festival 2011, the guys camping next to us had a monochrome union jack and pirate flags flying from their tent, and we both liked the union jack, so when I spotted this duvet cover set it was a no-brainer.  Probably the most boring story in the world (unlike the festival which is awesome!), but it's where the idea for the pirate themed nails came from.
I started with a base of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure - Lavender Cloud, then freehanded the stripes on the pinky with black acrylic paint, and the flag with acrylic paint and NYC - Sidewalkers.  I've never painted a union jack before, and kind of expected to fail the first time at least, but that wasn't the case.  It's a bit wobbly here and there, but nonetheless I am pleased with how it came out.  The index and middle fingers were stamped with images from Cheeky plate CH49.
For the thumb nail, I painted the union jack as before, then when it was dry, I stamped an image from my new Born Pretty Store skulls stamping plate with Barry M Silver - Foil. I couldn't get it quite central, but I've only stamped once with something that wasn't a full nail image so that's something I need to practise.  When it was all dry, I had to go in with the NYC - Matte Me Crazy matte topcoat since it's based on fabrics.
As always, I'd love to know what you guys think of this....yay or nay?

pekal

Third time's a Charm

Hi guys, back for my 3rd post of the day.  Well, you didn't think I'd leave you without some nail art did ya?  This is just a monochrome stamping mani I did last week.  Nothing special really, but I love monochrome nails.  I think that almost any design works with monochrome colours, you just can't go wrong really!



I originally planned to do all 5 nails the same, but I kinda messed up some of the stamping.  I was really tired, so I just top coated the ones that were okay, and turned the messed up ones into accent nails!
I started with a base of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure - Lavender Cloud.  Then I stamped the rose image with Konad Special Polish - Black and PUEEN27.  For the accent nails, I used a base of Rimmel 60 Seconds - Black Out, which is my go-to black creme until I get my grubby little hands on Camelot by A-England.  Then I added a coat of Golden Rose Jolly Jewels - 118 which is black, white and silver glitter topper.

This isn't perfect, but i really liked wearing it.  The funny thing is, I was actually re-creating one of my pre-blog mani's, and it came out better than this before.  Just my luck!
I will be back tomorrow with the first prompt for the Crumpet's Nail Tarts 33 day challenge.  I can't wait!

pekal

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