Cat Nail Art

I received a lot of mixed reactions on this design.  The extremes were from my mom, who could only see black and white scribbles even after I told her it was a cat, and from a barrista, who spent a good minute telling me how impressed she was.  I probably should have based it on a different kind of cat; might have been clearer that way, but as always, it looked better in my head and on paper.

Yellow:  Unicorn by Sinful Colors
Pink:  Unnamed by Forever 21
Blue:  Retro Bleu by Bonita
Black:  Black by Santee
White:  Unnamed by Forever 21

Monarch Butterfly Nails

This is my third time doing this design, and, in this case, practice does not make perfect.  It feels like my hand trembles more every time, but the reason for that could either be because my idea of the standard nail length has been getting longer or because of my steadily deteriorating sleeping pattern.

I like this design because it's simple, bright, eye-catching, and fairly easy to draw on both hands.  Plus, it puts my ugly orange polish to good use.

2nd attempt years ago:

3rd attempt now:

I don't know how the orange came out with such a pretty yellow gradient in the sunlight; I wish it'd do that all the time.

Black:  Black by Santee
White:  Unnamed by Forever 21
Orange:  Neon Hot Orange by Nabi

Good, Better, Serperior

I started playing Pokemon Black 2 last week, and I hope I can really get into it without feeling like I'm just replaying its predecessor.  I honestly wish we could get different starters because I only like the Snivy-Servine-Serperior line, and its stats are pretty poor.  I miss the days when I spent the longest time agonizing over which starter to pick.  Anyway, I like Serperior's design, but I can't wrap my head around the fact that it has hands. Also, its name is a pun, which makes it even better.

Anyway, my sister needed a mani so this one was for her.

Black:  Black by Santee
White:  White by Art Deco
Green:  Envy by Sinful Colors
Light Green:  Dressmaker by Milani
Green glitter:  Starry Meteor by Kleancolor

Once Upon a Time

So I misjudged a lot of the colors I used in this design, particularly the Cappucino background--it came out a lot darker than I had anticipated, not the natural pink with the subtle gold shimmer I was imagining.  Oops.  At least there are birds and hearts and white and glitter and ribbons to liven it up.

White:  White by Art Deco
White:  White On by Sally Hansen
Pink (background):  Cappucino by Milani
Pink glitter:  Sparked by Wet n Wild
Pink (cheeks):  Pretty in Pink/Rose Bonbon by Tip Toe/Old Navy
Yellow:  Unicorn by Sinful Colors
Gold Glitter:  Gold Flakes by Jade
Blue:  Savage by Sinful Colors
Silver:  Chunky Silver by Kleancolor
Top Coat:  60 Seconds by Rimmel

You Treepin'

Springtime is so not spring-like right now.  The weather has been all over the place--rain, shine, clouds, wind, everything.  I like the cold weather we get in the morning, but then it'll get really hot later in the day, so the amount of layering I have to do is kind of ridiculous.  Gotta love Cali's fickle, fickle skies.

...Anyway, I wanted spring nail art without getting too Easter-y or floral yet, so trees were the next best thing.  They came out a lot more artificial and candy-like than I expected, but I think that's mostly due to the colors--it's hard to get neon yellow and this really weirdly gaudy pink to give off a natural feeling.  Plus, it's a lot more glittery in person.

Green (leaves):  Envy by Sinful Colors
Green (grass):  San Francisco by Sinful Colors
Green (background):  Dressmaker by Milani
Green glitter (background):  Starry Meteor by Kleancolor
Green glitter flakes (background):  Green Ocean by Sinful Colors
Yellow (leaves):  Funky Yellow by Kleancolor
Yellow (background):  Unicorn by Sinful Colors
Pink (leaves):  Pretty in Pink/Rose Bonbon by Tip Toe/Old Navy
Black:  Black by Santee

More Than Just London Bridges Falling Down

BBC's Sherlock anyone?  I'm absolutely hooked--or at least I would be if there were more than just SIX EPISODES in existence T^T Anyway, I think the show's great, and it's because of this that I took notice of Martin Freeman (who is hilarious, btw and seriously should not have been able to make me cry since I already knew how Reichenbach was going to end but he was just so brilliantly tragic in that episode) and so got the incentive to watch The Hobbit.

So I pretty much had to do this design even though I didn't have the only two colors this design called for. (Maybe I'll redo it someday when I actually get brown, grey, and season three... =o=) I tried to make brown by mixing polishes, but it's like, not possible; I looked it up and tried like every color combo suggested.  But alas, no brown... I tried to put tan over the black in a last-ditch effort for brown, but it just made the design runny, and now it's sort of messy... So yeah, it's more like a messy, dirty black-and-white (though it looks more navy than it is) photo than the vintage-y feel I get from the original picture.  I guess it's okay though, since I deviated quite a bit from the original in terms of spacing and building design anyway.

This is the pic I based the design off of.

...I should have looked at it while I drew because now that I see them side-by-side, they don't even look remotely similar... o__O"

Black:  Black by Santee & Liquid Leather by OPI
White:  Unnamed by Forever 21 & White by Art Deco
Tan:  Bamboo Shoot by Sally Hansen

Collared

Whenever I'm lacking inspiration, I tend toward floral patterns just because they have so much variety and tend to be pretty simple, but I want to use those as my last resorts, so.  I was just rolling around in the mess I call my room, noticed one of the pea coats in my closet, and thought why not?  I'd been seeing so many different kinds of shirt collars everywhere recently and was going to end up drawing them sooner or later anyway, so instead of in my sketchbook, they're on my nails.

L to R:  Button up, Knitted sweater with shirt collar peeking over, Collar with ribbon, Collar with tie
Thumb:  Pea coat

White:  White by Art Deco
Red:  Diamonds and Rubies by Sally Hansen
Red-violet:  Joy by American Eagle Outfitters
Yellow:  Unicorn by Sinful Colors
Black:  Black by Santee
Chunky silver glitter:  Chunky Silver by Kleancolor
Silver with glitter:  Elegant Mode by Jade
Green:  Teal Marble by Cherimoya
Silver:  Tokyo Pearl by Sinful Colors
Lavender:  No More Drama by Essence
Primrose:  Plum Baby by Revlon
White:  White On by Sally Hansen
Blue:  Savage by Sinful Colors
Lighter, glittery blue:  Hottie by Sinful Colors

Aqua Fresh

It's been a while ^^" and ugh, I didn't really keep up with doing nail art and/or taking pictures of them--much less actually posting them online, but most of them were really simple anyway.  This design's really easy and random too, but I love the Atlantis color, so I decided to just post it anyway.  And it totally reminds me of my old toothpaste.  I might redo it someday because by the time I took the pictures, it was already almost a week into chipping -3-

Black:  Black by Santee
White:  White by Art Deco
Transparent background glitter: HD by Milani
Blue-green glitter:  Atlantis by China Glaze

Merry Christmas

Wow it's been a while but here's another one.  I was going to try to squeeze in another design before Christmas, but I just want to hang out with people during the break so I don't think I'm going to make it xD So anyway...

. : Merry Early Christmas! : .

L to R:  Holly, Lights, Tree, Candy Cane
Thumb:  Present (by request of a friend)

Black:  Black by Santee
White:  White by Art Deco
Red:  Diamonds and Rubies by Sally Hansen
Green:  Envy by Sinful Colors
Silver:  Elegant Mode by Jade
Red multicolor glitter:  A Sparkle Yule Love by OPI
Pink:  Pretty in Pink/Rose Bonbon by Tip Toe/Old Navy
Yellow:  Unicorn by Sinful Colors
Gold:  Gold Flakes by Jade
Multicolor glitter:  Starry Silver Glitter by New York Color
Red + Green glitter:  Snowman by Blue Cross Beauty Products

Disneyland

My mandatory field trip for my Disneyland and Urbanism class was, of course to Anaheim's DL <3 So I thought I'd do my nails for the occasion.  It was sort of a weird trip though: I discovered a ton of rides I never knew existed, I saw the rainy-day version of the parade, there were already Christmas deco up that I don't remember ever seeing before, and I found that I can now analyze just about everything about Disneyland from its layout legibility to its trashcans... My childhood will never be the same >__>

Jungle Cruise:  Our tour guide narrator dude was SO funny, this officially became my favorite ride <3

L to R:  Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Goofy
Thumb:  Pluto (I swear he looked better before, but I kind of smudged him after applying top coat...)

I thought about adding some glitter to add a little Disney magic, but I like how bold the colors turned out without it.

Black:  Liquid Leather by OPI & Black by Santee
Yellow:  Mellow Yellow by OPI & Unicorn by Sinful Colors
Red:  Diamonds and Rubies by Sally Hansen
White:  Unnamed by Forever 21
Peach:  Bamboo Shoot by Sally Hansen
Blue:  Marino by Borghese
Green:  Envy by Sinful Colors
Light green:  Dressmaker by Milani