A step by step Zombie accent nail tutorial!
Here’s a quick picture tutorial on how I did my accent nail of the zombie manicure I’m currently rocking to celebrate the return of one of my favorite shows on tv right now; The Walking Dead!
1 – You’ll need 4 colors of acrylic paint for this. Black, White, Magenta and Green.
2 – Some fine nailart brushes and a fountain pen, if you’re careful with your topcoat you can also use a permanent fineliner pen for the black lines. The topcoat will smear this easily though, so please watch out if opting for that version!
3 – A tiny bit of water and I personally use a bit of plastic to mix my acrylic paints on.
4 – Start with a polished nail. I choose Catrice Planet Tokyo out of the current Neo Geisha collection because the idea for this manicure came off a set of shoes called Zombie Stompers by Iron Fist and those are a nice bright green. Wait until your nail is completely dry before working with the paints.
5 – Dab two rows of teeth, don’t be too precise, these are zombie teeth we’re talking about here! And also add two white splotches where the rotting pink flesh around the eyes will be, this will make the pink that we’re painting over it pop. Most colors in acrylic paints are a bit jelly like and the white will help them become opaque.
6 – Once the white is dry, paint the pink over the white splotches, you can be a bit messy if you want, it will only add to the rotting flesh effect.
7 – Once that bit is dry (and acrylic paint dries quite quickly if you don’t paint it on too thick) make two white circles for eyes.
8 – To add to the Zombies sickly green color use a bit of light green for a bit of contrast in the face and also highlights.
9 – After everything has dried the hard part comes. Thin your black acrylic paint and use it with your little fountain pen to add on the black. Again, don’t be too precise, the skin is yucky looking so a dot or line of extra black won’t matter too much. Just make sure the eyes, nostrils and teeth stand out and you already have quite the face. I made sure to add in cheekbones and the little lines over the teeth that you usually find in real skulls as well to add to the image of a creepy little zombie.
On my other nails you can see that I just painted a few stripes with foilglue and once that had dried I dabbed some glitter onto them and used my black acrylic paint to add some cracks and lines to kind of match my zombie’s face. But you don’t have to do that if that’s too much for you and you just want a little pet zombie on your nail.
And we’re done! I hope you’ll try this tutorial for yourself and you’ll show me how you did!
Posted in 2013, Acrylic paint, Black, Catrice, February, Glitter, Green, Links, Magenta, Manicure, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Opaque, Oumaxi, White | 
7 CommentsYou are not alone
Bullying is not funny. It is not cool. It is not right. And more importantly, it is not okay.
Most of us are thankfully residents of countries that support tolerance and many of our families have settled in these places simply for that reason. Generations later, it is our responsibility to perpetuate that message of tolerance across our new social platforms, including the internet.
As members of the nail polish community, we all share a love of beauty, color, and lacquer. Other than that, we are remarkably different: from our race to our religion to our hair color and even to our polish application techniques. To look down on anyone because of those differences is completely unacceptable and today I take a stand against that. I refuse to allow other people’s view of “normal” dictate how I behave, believe, and blog.
In solidarity with a multitude of bloggers linked below, my purple manicure represents my proud commitment to the No H8 movement. Today, November 8, I dedicate my post to ending bullying of any kind and to encouraging diversity and imperfection among our colorful community.
My experience with bullying, where do I start… and how do I tell, because honestly, it seems like I’ve stopped remembering it all.
I’ve never been a skinny girl, ever. And I’ve been bullied a lot because of that when I was a child and early teen. But because I felt my parents had gone through a lot already as they lost two children before having me, I decided never to tell them. I wanted to protect them but never had the courage to protect myself. Had I known what I know now, that not telling them and them finding out later hurt them even more, I of course would have told them all about it. But hindsight is always 20/20 right? Nothing I can do about it now and it still hurts them to this day that I kept quiet about it. That being said, I don’t think anyone deals with bullying easily, well maybe the bullies do, but certainly not the victims or their loved ones.
On to the manicure! Today I am wearing a purple nail polish gradient with a Lotus painted on it to show the victims of bullies that they’re not alone and that they too can grow past this moment. You see the ancient wisdom of the Hindus teaches that life has to be lived to evolve. Staying in deep slush if needed, like the lotus does, and using the same slush to evolve better and better, the mud the flower grows from slides off and will stay on the bottom as the lotus rises above it. The deeper the slush, better and stronger the flower.
If you are experiencing bullying of any kind, online or in real life, please know that there are people there to help and that you’re not alone. Hang in there, it will get better eventually, I promise.
StopBullying.gov
Report Cyber Bullying
National Suicide Prevention Hotline - 800.273.TALK (8255)
Eradicate H8
To add your own inlinks cluster, follow this link:http://www.inlinkz.com/script.php?id=209435&nojump=1&key=ILvt%2F7LV2mN4w and pick one of the codes provided to add to the HTML part of your blogpost.
Posted in 2013, Acrylic paint, Awareness, For a good cause, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, November, Purple | 19 CommentsNail of the day – Lilo & Stitch nails.
Did you ever have something on your nails that made smile every time you see them? It could be your very first gradient, an amazing holo or a rare indie polish, but I bet you know that feeling, right?
Today I am showing you a manicure that has made me smile all day now for several reasons. First of all because this is my first manicure using acrylic paint instead of ink, and it’s turned out quite well I think. And second of all because it’s of one of my favorite cartoon characters ever, Stitch!
I may be in my thirties but man, I absolutely love the Disney movie Lilo & Stitch and I’m not to afraid to admit that, it’s just such an adorable movie and if it were in any way possible I’d have a Stitch as a pet!
So when I read that Taylor of Nailed to the T was going to do this Disney Nail art contest to celebrate her blog turning 1 year old and her daughter’s birthday who is turning 4 this month, I couldn’t help but participate and try to recreate my favorite cartoon characters on my nails! Happy Blog Birthday Taylor and Happy Birthday to your adorable little A, I hope she likes these nails!
May I VERY proudly present, Lilo, Stitch and her doll Scrump:
Aren’t they adorable?! I’m so in love with these I keep looking at them and smiling!
By the way, for those of you who haven’t tried painting with Acrylic paint on your nails, you should totally give it a shot! It’s easier than it looks! You just have to understand the basics of painting and have a very small brush. As for the painting, you should start with the base and filling it in with the highlights and use the dark colors last . Also Acrylic paint is easy to correct. If you do something wrong and you’re in the beginning stages still you can wipe it off. And if you are in the end stages you can always paint over your mistake. It really is that simple. By the way, I used this set of Oumaxi acrylic paint that I ordered off of eBay a while ago and they’re a dream to work with. Perfect consistency and beautiful colors. I highly recommend these!
The brush I also got off of eBay, I think I used the middle length of this set.
So, what do you think of these? Do you think I may have a shot at winning this contest?
Posted in 2012, Acrylic paint, Essence, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nails, Nails of the week, Oumaxi | 14 CommentsVideo – How to do nail art using acrylic inks.
And that’s how I created the nails I posted yesterday. I hope you enjoyed the video and that it inspired you to try out this method yourself.
You can buy the inks, brand Daler Rowney, and the pen shown in the video at an artist supply shop, craft store or even on eBay. The white polish I used underneath the design is O.P.I.’s Alpine Snow to get a nice clear image for the video. The inks are usually so opaque though that you can use any color you like.
If you decide to try this, I’d love to see your work! Link me in the comments if you want.
Nail of the day – Acrylic ink extravaganza.
Today I’d like to share with you the nails I’ve been rocking for almost week now.
I love them so much that I made a little step by step collage on how I created them, using a nailwheel, 3 colors of nail polish, a little piece of make up sponge (not pictured) a fountain pen and acrylic ink.
- These are the nail polishes I used. Apart from a base and topcoat of course. From left to right are: Essence - Via Airmail!, China Glaze – Beach Cruise-R and China Glaze – Sweet Hook.
- This is the pen and the inks I used for this little step by step.
- First, paint your nail a base color and let it dry.
- Create a gradient on a little make up sponge by putting a stripe of all three colors on it and dabbing it onto the nail like so.
- Once the nail polish has dried you can start drawing on it using acrylic ink and a fountain pen.
- Make the pattern as large or small as you want, I nearly stopped at this point liking this design very much already but deciding to push for more as I have a weakness for full nail designs.
- This is the nail once I was finished drawing with white.
- I’ve added some blue details to it to make it look extra special.
- After all has dried I’ve topcoated my nail and hey presto, you have your very own portable piece of art at your fingertip!
Tomorrow I’ll show you a little video on how it all works, so don’t forget to come check it out!
Posted in 2012, Acrylic, Acrylic paint, Basecoat, Beauty, Blue, China Glaze, Cream, Crème, Essence, Fashion, Lilac, Manicure, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Opaque, Purple, Topcoat, Trend, White | 8 CommentsMani update – Neon-ized it!
Do you ever have this problem of enjoying the time consuming nailart you’ve done but just are not feeling the colors anymore?
That’s the problem I had with my Monochromatic Manicure. I just needed some color after rocking the black and white for a few days. So what I decided to do is give in to the current neon and gradient craze and sponge some of my neons over this to make it look more summery. Because neons are usually quite sheer it would show the pattern still so I wouldn’t feel like I had wasted my time drawing all kinds of stuff on my nails when I’d only wear the manicure for a few days.
This is what they ended up looking like:
And this is what I used to achieve the effect. Please ignore the condition of my neon yellow, I know it looks miserable but it was in a bag along with a few polishes that broke when I flew back from vacation last year and I haven’t taken the time to clean that one up just yet…
Pictured are:
- China Glaze – Purple Panic
- Essence nail art twins – Gabriella
- Kiko – 336
- China Glaze – In the limelight
- China Glaze – Celtic Sun
- A cut up make up sponge
Have you tried gradient nails yet? If so, what colors did you use?
Posted in 2012, Acrylic, Acrylic paint, Black, Blue, China Glaze, Duri, Essence, Fashion, Fuchsia, Gradient, Green, Hot, July, Kiko, Manicure, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Neon, O.P.I., Pink, Purple, Rainbow, Rejuvacote, Seche Vite, Sheer, Sponged, Style, Summer, Trend, White, Yellow | 4 CommentsMonochrome Monday
First a little explanation of the word:
mon·o·chrome [ˈmɒnəˌkrəʊm] noun.
1. a. A picture, especially a painting, done in different shades of a single color.
b. The art or technique of executing such a picture.
2. The state of being in a single color.
3. A black-and-white image, as in photography or on television.
Now on to my nails and the inspiration I used. I decided to free hand this challenge. Don’t get me wrong, I love stamping, but I do it all the time and I just wanted to do something unique this time.
A little while ago I decorated some smooth pebbles with a little pen and acrylic ink and a lot of people liked them. My mom keeps the ones I made for her in a little glass bell on her patio table.
From left to right, on the picture on the right, you see Rejuvacote which I always use as a base, next to that is my Seche Vite topcoat. The bigger white bottle is my white acrylic ink. Next to that a beautiful small bottle of BK’s black holo and in the back on the right is Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees. The pen I used is laying in the foreground. It’s just a simple fountain pen that comes without cartridges and that you have to dip in ink to work. The ink I bought at an artist supply store a while ago, along with the other three basic colors yellow magenta and blue, and of course black, that way I can mix almost any color I would like.
After I had painted my nails with Suzi Skis and my ring fingers with the BK holographic polish and they were completely dry I started to draw on my nails like I had on the pebbles, just kind of going with the flow. Not having planned any pattern beforehand I came to this end result and I hope you like it! It did prove to be a bit of a challenge to draw with my left hand onto my right fingernails but I think they came out really well. I’m slightly ambidextrous and did not know it I guess!
I hope you all enjoyed this post and will become inspired to give something like this a go yourself sometime!
Posted in 2012, Acrylic, Acrylic paint, Basecoat, BK, Black, Clear, Cream, Crème, Duri, Grey, Holographic, July, Links, Manicure, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, O.P.I., Opaque, Rejuvacote, Style, Theme, Topcoat, White | 16 CommentsHelp a girl out?
- The competition has ended and alas I did not win, thanks so much for your votes though!-
I don’t like begging for things, but right now I’m going to anyway.
Bundlemonster has organized a nailart contest on Facebook where they are giving away 25 of the newest bundlemonster sets to the nicest nailart.
Today the voting has started and I would love it if you would spare me a vote and if you really like my nailart, spread the news for more votes.
This is my link, and this is the picture I submitted:
You can vote for it once every day, I’ll understand if you don’t do that of course but I’d love it if you tried. ;)
Have you submitted your own art to this contest, I’d love it if you linked below so I can vote for you in return!
Posted in 2012, Acrylic paint, Blaze, Bundlemonster, Contest, Give-Away, Manicure, Multichrome, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Ozotic, Purple, Shimmer, Stamping, Stamping system, White | 7 CommentsCute Strawberry Nail art tutorial video!
Learn how to make this cutie here:
This is a little strawberry nailart tutorial requested by the lovely Marjolein of the artismakeup.nl.
If you do not know her and her fantastic make up tutorials yet, you should certainly check her out!
Coming soon… More nailart videos & tutorials!
Music used in this video is Imagine Magneta by Dan-O @ Danosongs.com
Posted in Acrylic paint, Black, China Glaze, Essence, Fruit, Green, Nailpolish, Nails, Permanent marker, Pink, Red, Topcoat, Tutorial, Video, White, Yellow | 14 Comments
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