Koi Nails inspired by Natasha Wescoat

Let me preface this post by pointing out that I have done nails inspired by Natasha Wescoat before.   I really loved her "Gold Coast" painting and did some very similar nails.   Natasha recently posted a picture called "Koi and Cherry Blossoms" on her Facebook page and I am in love.   Unfortunately, we are about to move and need all the money and less things we can get so no paintings for me:(  Still, I had to tackle this nail art and sometimes, I feel like a freakin' Van Gogh with all my art imitatin'.  

*Side note:  Natasha was the first person to see these nails because I messaged her a picture and she responded "Omg that's awesome!!! Thank you for sharing that!"  so I think I have her blessing!*

Incidentally, I believe the Koi painting is still available for purchase on Etsy here.

So here is Natasha's gorgeous painting:

And here is my attempt at flattery in its sincerest form:

I started with  Orly's Nail Armor and then applied one coat of Sinful Colors Snow Me White.   Next I applied a gradient using Milani 3D Holographics Cyberspace and Hi-Res.  It was a little more subtle than I planned but as you can see it worked out great!   Next I used a ton of oranges, pinks, reds, peaches, WnW Black Creme and Sinful Colors Snow Me White to free-hand on the koi and the cherry blossom details.   Yes, it took a while and I watched about four episodes of X-files before finishing this manicure but it was so worth it!   I topped all nails off with one coat of essence colour and go space queen which is an iridescent glitter.   I finished this manicure with a coat of Seche Vite and went to bed! (but not before posting pics in some of my FB polish groups like a fiend!)

 

I think these turned out wonderful with a little bit of work and patience and a tiny nail art brush:)    If you can't tell, I am trying to get back into nail art because I did get a little swatch happy there for a while.  I still have 100s of unswatched nail polish but nail art is where I started and while I've gone on to buy loads of gorgeous indie and non-indie polishes and have delved into frankening and polish mixing, I think nail art should always be on my blog.   I love all things nail polish and that's not going to change:)

My Ten Friends Space Sauce

So with the ongoing hiatus of Nerd Lacquer, my pretty--nerdy polish obsession was severely in need of some new polishes.  I found MyTenFriends on etsy a few months ago and was immediately enamored with her polishes! 

Today, I have MyTenFriends Space Sauce for you.

Space Sauce is a sheer blue base with silver micro glitter, small and large silver hex glitter, and silver shard glitter.   Because its pretty sheer, it would probably take several coats to get full coverage. 

I have Space Sauce on top of Milani 3D Holographics Cyberspace so any holo you get is from the pic is going to be from that...I repeat, Space Sauce is not holographic! 

Still, it is absolutely gorgeous and would be a perfect topper for polishes.

You can buy MyTenFriends here and you should, you REALLY should ;0)

Late January Polish Haul..The best so far!

 A friend, her teenage daughter, and I had a crafty night last night that turned into nail polish madness. We went to Ulta and I bought the Austin-tacious Turquiose and Nicki Minaj Save Me glitter by OPI.  I also had to have Orly's Space Cadet.

 This morning I hit a local K-mart with my husband and we were quite taken aback with how abandoned the whole place looked.  But I was on a mission to see if I could get some of the Jordana glitters. 

While at K-mart, also picked up the above polishes.   The hard to find Gem Crush Lady Luck magenta and silver glitter.  All the displays I keep finding only have six of the Gem Crush colors.  I also grabbed a Jordana polish with glitter called Purple Glam.  Last, I grabbed two Milani glitters in Teal and Lavender.