Nyan Cat Nails

Today I'm sporting some free hand Nyan Cat nails!

I'm kind of a geek at heart.  I love internet memes in all their fabulousness.  If you're not sure what Nyan Cat is please educate yourself on its ridiculous ridiculousness here. The most fun is had when checking out the 'flavors' of Nyan.

For an inspirational contest on Instagram I did Nyan Cat nails inspired by the internet!

:D

I used Butter Londons Blagger as the blue backdrop then used Essie Blanc to draw a white outline of the rainbow and Nyan Cat. I painted the pop tart base in OPIs Don't Pretzel My Buttons and did the frosting in Ciatés Strawberry Milkshake.  The sprinkles are Essies Off The Shoulder.  The cat fur is OPIs Moon Over Mumbai using China Glazes Liquid Leather for the outline details and Blanc again for the high lights.

The rainbow was painted usind Essies Really Red, Essies Meet Me at Sunset, China Glazes Sunshine Pop, China Glazes Gaga for Green, Juleps Claire and Essies Play Date.  Finally stars were painted using Blanc again!

I'm in love with these cuties.

OPI Black Spotted

Instagram has delivered me a lot of great things! New nail friends, lots of lovely fans, a platform to post all my nail art and now it's given me OPI Spotted.

The nail community on instagram is really amazing. We all share ideas and new polishes and often throw great contests to keep everyone on their game! When OPI Black Spotted was released everyone and their mom went gaga for it.

Spotted is a top coat that is very unique. Some people relate it to something like shatter polish. Instead of leaving shatters across your nail Spotted will leave behind spots that resemble an oily look.

Now for the bad news. Unfortunately Spotted is only released in France. Yep, like Oui Oui, Eiffel tower, bike racing France. It was to be released in France only as part of OPIs Spiderman Collection in the Summer of 2012. In other countries the collection was being released with a shatter polish instead of Spotted. For us in the states we were shattered (haha...shattered)! I've heard the reasoning behind this is because there are some ingredients in it that will not pass the FDA approval in other countries. Conflicting reports say that it is not the ingredients but instead a patent issue that will not allow the polish to be released in other places.

Regardless, this just created a frenzy of demand and not a lot of supply. Spotted quickly started going anywhere from $50-$100 on eBay.

Luckily for me one of the girls I was getting to know on instagram, who also has a polish addiction, was visiting Europe right around the OPI spiderman collection release. Her kind soul picked up some extra bottles of Spotted for her nail friends in Instagram. Since we live relatively close we met up in person (she wasn't even a 40 year old man!) and we hung out and she hand delivered Spotted to me!

I had a splatter manicure on I had done and slapped Spotted on over it as soon as I was home and this was the effect I got.

Ooh lala! Later I did a more planned manicure using Duri Voodoo, a matte neon pink with the Spotted over top. I thought the neon color would make a nice contrast.

My most recent Spotted mani was over the top of a rainbow gradient manicure I did for The Color Run.

OPI Spotted is a really unique polish that I really enjoyed.

A big fat thank you to my girl @sasha2750 for the amazing polish. <3

My Nail Art Style: Free Hand!

My nail fan base is mostly located on instagram where I can be found under the name @dulllikeglitter. The nail community has been passing a tag around asking what your nail style is. Well, mine is free hand!

I feel my best nail art is what I do with some polish and brushes. Here's a showcase of some of my favorite free hand nails so you can see what I mean.

Drip Nail Tutorial

This is a drip design I came up with when I was going to a Flogging Molly concert. I wanted something fun and bright for summer but also rockable.  Mission accomplished.

Sorry for the bright back lighting but it was the only way I could get the neon colors to really pop and come across!  I started with Orly's White Tips to really make the neons pop. I used Milani's Pink Rocks! for the thumb, China Glaze's Orange Knockout for the pointer, Sun Worshiper for the middle, Celtic Sun for the ring and In the Lime Light for the pinky.  

Here's a tutorial to get the look for yourself.

1. Paint your nail a white base (another light color could work too!) and let it dry.  Paint your tip with the color drips you would like.  

2. Using a dotting tool or the end of a pin dot some drops at different levels on the nail.  

3. Using a small brush connect the dots to the tip in a line. Paint the drips wide towards the top so it appears as if they have collected and dripped down.

4. Add smaller drips in between the larger drips if you desire!

5. Seal the design with a clear top coat.  This will make the design look more fluid and glossy.

I ended up outlining this design with Sally Hansen's Black Nail Art Pen for an outline and I really liked the outcome.  If you've got a steady hand it gives a lot of pop to the manicure.  

Nail-Venturous: Floam!

I have always been attracted to swatches of the fabulousity that is Floam.  This polish is a matte glitter polish.  The polish itself isn't matte, the actual glitter pieces are.  There are tiny green, yellow and blue pieces in it that when layered resemble the play material Floam.  You may remember seeing the cheesy, ridiculous Floam commercials on Nickelodeon throughout the entirety of the 90s.

Here it is!

Floamy! My friend Sasha was convinced it was little grains of sand so I broke my macro lens out.  They appear to be very small hexagon shaped glitters.  (Sorry Sasha)

The polish went on very thick, I believe because there is a lot of suspension base in this polish to hold all the glitters.  I put two coats on over OPI's Fly as an underwear coat to create a more solid look but I think I could get complete coverage in three coats without Fly.  

The polish dried very textured, even with a top coat.  Usually glitters wear easily at the tip because they get pulled or chip off but Floam didn't seem to have that problem and it lasted very well! 

Floam is made by Nail-Venturous but is carried by Ninja Polish at www.ninjapolish.com.  It sells for $9 a bottle when its in stock.  It is very often not in stock but you can sign up on their email list to get an alert when they receive a new shipment for sale.