Pris' Nails: Green

Showing posts with label Green. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Winter Holiday Challenge: Festival of Lights

Quick post for the third and bright day of the Winter Holiday Challenge: Festival of Lights!

I chose to keep it simple, but colourful. One coat of Date in the Moonlight (Essence) composed the perfect dark night sky. The silver thread connecting all the lights was striped with Bring On The Snowflakes (Sephora by O.P.I.).

The colourful bulbs were dotted using several different polishes. Red (011), green (067), and orange (028) were Milano, that my grandma bought me in France. Blue was also Essence: Gleam In Blue. Yellow was a no name neon from Salomé on top of Amarelo Pop Art (Colorama). New Lilac (Pure Ice) was ~~imposed~~ chosen by my sister. Also upon her request were Bronze Sculpture (Finger Paints) and Morgan Le Fay (a england). The last touch of sparkly was Na Mira 3D (Impala).

I loved doing this mani. It was probably the quickest I've done in a long time, and it turned out so cute and cheerful! :-)

xoxo

PRIS

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Brasil-sil-sil!!

Yes, it's Brasil with 's', because that's how we write it in Portuguese! :-D

Remember Sarah? She organized an amazing Keystone event at work, appreciating staff and their cultures. I couldn't pass a Brazilian mani, could I? ;-)

For the 'costume', I wore a Brasil navy blue T-shirt, jeans skirt and Havaianas (Brazilian world-famous flip flops).

Havaianas required painted toes. One coat of Azulcrination (Risqué) over Midnight Affair (Revlon). Gorgeous combination! Revlon gives the opaque base, and Risqué makes it shine!

My goal was a green and yellow french mani, but I just couldn't get it right. I chose to alternate them instead. Both are New York Color: High Line Green and Lexington Yellow. Same colours were used for the free-handed piece of Brazilian flag, completed by Azul Biônico (Colorama).

Unfortunately I have no good pictures of the Havaianas, but Sarah took one during the event and even posted it on Facebook!

xoxo

PRIS

Friday, November 9, 2012

Choose Me!

Still in love with Essence, the one I picked next was Choose Me.

I didn't expect it to be a sheer glitter polish, so I got disappointed at first. I needed 2 or 3 coats (can't remember exactly) for opacity, and removal was a nightmare (as with any glitter polish). But the colour is gorgeous!!

It's probably better as a layering polish than as a stand alone. Haven't tried it yet, but I'll post it here when I do. :-)

xoxo

PRIS

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

"This Is Halloween" - Graveyard

We're geting close to the end of the "This Is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge!

As I post twice a week (on Tuesdays and Fridays), my Monday entries have gone live on Tuesdays throughout this Challenge. This means that today's post should've been "Trick or Treat!" (which I'll publish on Friday), but I'm still on yesterday's prompt "Graveyard". (Yeah, I'm anal like that... :-p)

This theme has a bit of sentimental value (polish days?), even though some people may find it weird. Little sis likes cemeteries. Patty likes strolling along the tombstones, reading the inscriptions, admiring the crypts. During family vacations, we've joined her in this sightseeing more than once. It's definitely interesting!

OK, I know there's a difference between cemeteries and graveyards. But Patty likes them both the same, so I couldn't do tombstones on my nails without thinking of her! ;-)

Base colour is two coats of Date in the Moonlight (Essence). It could be a one coater, but I preferred dealing with thinner coats and doing it twice. This polish dries SO quickly!! There's a nice blue shimmer to it, but hubby couldn't see it at all and kept saying it was just a dark grey...

We didn't do a good job in capturing that shimmer, but I found a great picture by Lola in the Nail Polish Forum, and an awesome post by Les Ongles de Chamallow.

The tombstones were Carbonite (Revlon), which is a great one-coater, and black details were with my go-to black, Black Expressionism (Finger Paints). The sparkly round silver moon was Bring on the Snowflakes (Sephora by O.P.I), and the grass growing over the tombstones was High Line Green (New York Colors).

The grass-like look was achieved mixing two different shades of green flocking powder I bought in a 4-pack at Michaels. I'd already attempted plush nails before, and failed miserably, but I thought that trying it small could work better. And it did!! :-D

The sparkly glittery addition was Glitter Goblin (China Glaze). I loved the colours on this one, such a Halloweenie combination!!

Have you seen the spooky graveyards the other ladies in the challenge came up with?

xoxo

PRIS

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

"This Is Halloween" - Zombies

Onto the third week of the "This is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge, I wasn't that excited. Zombies are not my thing, and my mind was blank...

...suddenly, I had that lightbulb moment: Zombie Farm!! Hubby plays that on his iPhone, and I started looking for pictures to see if they were doable. Guess what? They were!!

Green was the base colour for my zombies. Not being a big fan of green, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try all my light greens!

Right hand was from an Italian brand, Milano, that my grandma bought for me in Paris, earlier this year. It seems to be a drugstore brand, and it has no name, only a number: 067. Application was easy, no problem with clean up, and it was a one-coater!! Looks like a good stamping polish. I can envision some interesting Christmas designs! :-)

For the left hand, I used High Line Green (New York Colour) and on the non-zombie nails I topped it off with Ivy League (Sally Hansen), which I had already used for the St. Paddy's mani.

Totally Cool Nails's Zombie Tutorial taught me how to draw the zombies. I followed the same technique for the Zombie Farm zombie on my thumb. Hubby didn't recognize it at first, but he was all proud when I showed the picture that inspired me... ;-)

Black details were either with Black Expressionism (Finger Paints) or Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Black. If you ever use the pen, careful with your skin. It stains and there's no polish remover that will get rid of it. It only goes away after a shower... Roguish Red (China Glaze), Snow Me White (Sinful Colors), and Amarelo Pop Art (Colorama) were also used for the red, white, and yellow details.

As ugly as Zombies can be, it turned out to be a very cute design! :-)

What will we come up with next??

xoxo

PRIS

Friday, September 7, 2012

No more chickenpox!

After playing with the dotting tools and getting bothered by all the staining caused by Doce Orgulho, I wiped it clean to try something else: Ocean (Revlon).

I bought it during my haul with Lidia, and it came in a kit with Fire, my go-to Red.

They are both from the Top Speed collection, and I figured Ocean would be as easy to play with as Fire. Boy, was I wrong!

Ocean was wild, and dried way too fast. Faster than I was able to cover the whole nail, causing some dragging and requiring a second coat to even it out. Clean up was not that easy either...

The colour made it all worth it, though! :-)

xoxo,

PRIS

Friday, August 31, 2012

St. Paddy's!

Last St. Patrick's Day, hubby and I were invited for a St. Paddy's potluck. We were told to be creative with green stuff - dishes, outfits, etc. Joe (the host) demanded a green curry meatball prepared by the chef (hubby), and my contribution was worn on my nails. ;-)

Mom called my nails tacky, I had to explain it was St. Paddy's!

The green base coat, Ivy League (Sally Hansen), was opaque in 2 coats. The Gold and The Beautiful (Wet n Wild) was free-handed on the tip, because my attempts with tape were not successful. Luckily, the gold glitter in clear base does not highlight the imperfection.

The rainbow laid on top of Chow Chow (Risqué - Risqué ♥ Dogs collection) was an attempt at a dry marbling. I can't remember all the colours that were used, but it was a bunch of different brands. Which leads me to my lesson learned: use the same brand, so the colour expand equally and the layers of the marble are similar. Not perfect, but I was quite happy with the results!

And there's always a pot of gold at the end of (or under?) the rainbow. To reach full opacity, I used 3-4 coats of the gold glitter. The shamrock was a free-hand design with Ocean (Revlon) following a tutorial.

To complement the nails, I wore a green dress and put on green eye shadow. ;-D

xoxo,

PRIS

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Patty's 2nd swatch

Later in the week, I decided to swatch another of Patty's requests. I tried Besouro (Risqué) in one hand to see how it looked and take pictures. I ended up staying like that for a couple of days, but nobody noticed. :-p

Beetle (Besouro) was easy to apply and clean. It's a purple metallic duochrome, reflecting purple and green. Really nice shimmer, even caught a work colleague's attention, who asked me which one it was.

Unfortunately, no sun to help with the pictures once again.... :-(

xoxo

PRIS

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Polish Days: Olympic Nails

Here comes another edition of Polish Days! And this time, it's #PolishOlympics!!

Check out my debut, if you wanna know more about it!! :-)

Once again, Hannah (the lady behind Polly Polish) is doing an amazing job organizing this polish addicts round-up!

If you'd like to take part in the next Polish Days, check out how it works!

Onto the nails:

It all started with a blank canvas: Kate (Julep). One streaky coat, covered by a generous second coat.

The Olympic Rings were composed with dotting tools.

Jet Set To Paris (L'Oréal), Amarelo Pop Art (Colorama), Black Is Back (Essence), High Line Green (New York Color), Fire (Revlon) were used for the larger colourful dots.

Smaller dots with Kate on top gave the illusion of rings.

The flags are the story of my life: born in the US, raised in Brazil, living in Canada.

The red stripes were free-handed with the aid of long striping brush, using Big Apple Red Creme (New York Color).

Azul Biônico (Colorama) is responsible for the blue sky, and Kate sealed the deal with the stars.

For Brazil, the canvas was High Line Green (NYC), free handed over by Lexington Yellow (New York Color) and Azul Biônico (Colorama).

A hole punch through a film of Big Apple Red Creme (NYC) is responsible for the perfect Maple Leaf. Applying the tiny leaf is somewhat of a challenge, and a top coat is my best friend during the process! ;-)

Some themed glitter gave the sparkle this mani needed to shine. What, you don't remember the glitter? No problem, here's another pic! :-p

On my pinky, you can see America The Beautiful (Julep). Didn't pick up any stars, though. On the thumb, O Canada! (Julep). A (Canadian) friend said it reminded her of Christmas, and it made her happy! ;-)

I had so much fun with these Olympic Nails! A little bit was added each day, and by the end of the week I had the complete set.

Thanks again Hannah for organizing this. And thanks to all the ladies who are also taking part on #PolishOlympics! It wouldn't be a Polish Day without each and every one of us! :-)

Make sure you check 'em out!