Fashion Inspired Nails: Altuzarra and Marc Jacobs Spring 2013

Wacky Laki had a fashion inspired nail art contest recently and I made two entries.  I ultimately decided to go with the Altuzarra entry but both of these designs turned out to be some of the best stamping I've done!

I used butter London Wallis and WnW Black Creme to do this design and stamped with Mash plate 39.  I am not a huge fan of Wallis but I love how this design turned out on my nails!

 Next, I have nails inspired by this incredible Marc Jacobs dress.  This is such a perfect mixture of black and white patterns.  I know I could never pull this off with clothes but it made for some very cool nail art.   I used Bundle Monster plates to make this look with WnW Black Creme and Sinful Colors Snow Me White and topped off  the nails with Sinful Colors Pearl Harbor.

No, I didn't win the contest...there were so many awesome entries so competition was fierce!  But I had fun and impressed myself and THAT is the important thing for a stressed out grad student :)

Pink and Teal Color Block Nails

Yet another dress that inspired nails!  I am on a roll!

Teal Chevron Nails

Someone pinned this dress on Pinterest and it links back to Lulus.com.  I am not even sure about the name on it because it appears to no longer be available.  At any rate, this concoction was the inspiration for my latest nails. 

I painted my nails with Sally Hansen's White On and then stamped the chevron design on each nail in Ebony Hates Chris.  I then used the teal polish to paint over random parts of my nails.  Last, I topped it off with a stripe of Ebony Hates Chris.  I think this experiment turned out cool!

Dior Inspired Tile Nails

As if you haven't noticed, I love recreating prints from fashion.  I loved the print of this Dior dress and it made for some interesting nails!

On these nails, I started with a base coat of Venus and then randomly started placing free-handed rounded squares in Sunny Side Up, Coco-a-go-go, White On, and Blue Lagoon in a checkerboard format making sure that Venus peeked through the edges.  For the blue tiles, I first did a base of white to help the color show true.  I didn't stick with the even, square design because its not easy to keep all the tile uniform.  I like how these turned out and had it not been for this print I doubt I would have ever put any of these colors together on my own.  The only thing I wish to do differently is to find some off white yellowish polish to use for the white tiles.  I think it would make the pattern look closer to the one on the dress.

Betsey Johnson State Fair Print Nails

I love Betsey Johnson's wild and crazy prints and her State Fair print is no exception.  I'm not sure I would ever spend $178 on a one-piece swimsuit nor does any of Betsey's designs come in my size.   However, I can wear her prints on my nails with a little bit of work and some polish!

 Click on the State Fair swimsuit below to be sent to Betsey's website where she sales all of her fabulous clothing and accessories!

 

On these nails, I started with two coats of Raven as my base color.  I then drew in all the print elements such as the four differently shaped flowers, leaves, stems, and bows in Snow Me White.  After the white polish dried, I applied For Audrey, Let's Meet, and Lavender Creme to their respective flowers.  I used a white base for any design on a darker color so that the polish will show true color.  I used Happy Ending to color the leaves and stems and used more Raven to draw back in line detail for the white bows and flowers.  I then took a very small dotting tool to put in the black dots on the large white flowers and bows.  I colored the center of each flower with the colors shown in the print: black for the blue flowers, pink for the yellow flowers, and yellow for the pink flowers.  I also used the same small dotting tool to dot in the white dots on the black background.  Last, I drew in shadow accents on the flowers with complimentary colors and finished these nails with a quick swish of Fast Drying Topcoat.

While these nails are a bit time consuming, they turned out even better than I had hoped and rank in my favorites!

Betsey Johnson Leopard and Roses Inspiration Nails

Yet another set of nails inspired by fashion.  Who doesn't love Betsey Johnson's designs?  I love how she mixes patterns and makes women look their best.  I saw the dress below and leopard print nails are sooo in right now.  I had to break out an image plate and a dotting tool to prep for these awesome nails.

The Betsey Johnson dress: 

Polishes Used:

Sinful Colors Snow Me White

Klean Color's Metallic Yellow

Wet N Wild Black

Julep's Drew

Sinful Color's Soul Mate

Julep's Diane

Wet N Wild's Lavender Creme

Wet N Wild's Burgundy Frost

Insta-Dri's Lickety Split Lime

To get these nails, I started with a clear basecoat.  If you look closely at the dress print, the undercolors of the leopard print range from white to a yellowy gold.  I thought the best way to accomplish this was by a sort of gradient of white and metallic yellow.  First, I sponged on Snow Me White down the middle of each nail.  I then sponged Metallic Yellow around the edges of the nail leaving the tips white. 

Next, using Konad Image Plate M57, I applied Wet N Wild's Black to the leopard print stamp and applied it to each nail.  I used a swab to clean up any stray spots from the skin around my nails.

Now, I think these nails look GREAT like this but since we are doing Betsey's kickass print, I couldn't stop!   I then chose my largest dotting tool and dipped it into Snow Me White.  I applied one to two large dots at random corners of each nail.  Trust me, the design looks better if the roses are placed at differnt spots on each nail.  I then used a smaller dotting tool to put in one to two smaller dots in Snow Me White.  After the dots dried, I applied two different shades of pink to the white dots, using Drew and Lavendar Creme.  I then applied swishes of Drew, Lavendar Creme, Burgundy Frost, and Snow Me White to each rose to simulate petals.  Using Diane, I applied several leaves to each set of roses.  Diane is a very dark green so to bring out the leaves, I also highlighted them with Lickety-Split Lime.  Last, I applied a protective topcoat to save the design.

These nails turned out soooo cute.  Thanks, Betsey, for amazing fashion that keeps your fellow ladies looking sexy and fun.  XOXO!

Louboutin Peep Toe Inspiration Nails

I was basically doing a very long fashion surf today and ran into these Louboutin heels:

Aren't they HOT?!  I decided that since I can't afford $200 shoes that I could atleast have the design on my nails.  Ultimately, I'm not thrilled with the results the first time around but I think I caught the soul (pun intended) of this design.

I suppose I need an even smaller brush for this design or one of those nail pens with a very fine tip because those loopty loops were tough!  I also took some creative license with the loops because I added colors to the inside loops rather than rhinestones. 

Polishes Used:

Julep's Drew as a base

Sinful Colors Snow Me White as the loops

Sinful Colors Why not as the blue string

Sinful Colors Dream On for small and large dots

Sinful Colors Let's Talk for small dots and teardrop jewel

KleanColor's Metallic Yellow for the middle jewel base

Insta-Dri's Lickety Split Lime for small dots

I finished with a clear top coat and that was that!  Also, take a look at the black Louboutins similar to these.  I love the design on those as well.  Let me know if you see these for sale online and where so I can go there and drool over them!