space invaders

I only say that because that's what this terrible little tape job reminded me of when I saw the photo. 

I have been working on my tape skills, in awe of all the gorgeous Art Deco looks I've seen recently. 

As can be evidenced below...I'm still working on it. 

The gorgeous hot pink holo, Orly Miss Conduct, was my two coats base. My favorite part is that even with the SERIOUS sparkle in this baby, removal is a breeze. 

Zoya Tao, my favorite deep gray, looks strangely subpar here, but look at past posts to see what a stunner it is on it's own. And this is one coat!

Recreating A Classic

I remember when I first jumped into the Pinterest waters. I had been hesitant for awhile, but peer pressure had me go from spending five minutes to three hours on the site one night, and I've never looked back. 

I was just getting started with an interest in painting my nails at that point, and I remember my first "nail art" pin:

I remember thinking "holy Jesus that's a lot of work", and filing it into the "never gonna happen" place. 

Well, my chevron stamp color ruined the effect I wanted, so I went with a crackle and I'm pleased to present my take:

The pink is Zoya Reagan, gorgeous deep purple pink. The white is Zoya Purity, covered in one very thin coat of OPI Black Crackle. The glitter nail is China Glaze Nova, which has the perfect mix of larger and smaller holo pieces to cover a nail completely in three coats. 

Outside sparkle cam:

I learned that I need to invest in some stamping polishes, so my blacks aren't grey, but other than that, I'm really happy with how this came out. 

Throwback!

Valentine's Day, 2013

Zoya Blaze with Zoya Purity freehand hearts

The pictures are garbage because this was a quick cell phone job. 

The Zoya Ornate collection remains one of my favorite releases to date. The colors are flawless and have great multiple use applications. 

All-Star Game Support

In honor or tonight's game, I present a tribute to my favorite ball club. 

Created using all Zoya polishes. 

Song for the blue base, Rekha for the red, and Purity for the freehand logo. 

I have loved the Texas Rangers since I was a little girl and attended games with my grandfather. They are a part of me, and I love them through thick and thin. 

We have a good showing in the roster, and I'll be rooting for Cruz, Nathan, and even sidelined-with-an-injury Darvish tonight. 

I hope you have your own favorites, and LET'S GO, AMERICAN LEAGUE!

Welcome Back To the 80s!

It's Jem!

Kind of!



Zoya Jem, a coppery turning purple burgundy shimmery jack of all trades.

Sparkle Times One Million

My favorite combinations come from just rooting around in the drawers of polish.

Zoya Kelly, a creamy, beautiful slate blue, under the total perfection of Cirque XX, a glitter of all sizes and shapes and flashes.  It reminded me of a close-up of the cosmos, or a children's birthday party table.

Little column a, little column b?

And my sunlight lamp/light box wasn't giving me the sparkles I wanted, so I took to the outside.  I had to go vertical to get the sunshine and NOT get the neighbor's chimneys and our fence.

Working The Stripes Again

Eh.

A base of Zoya Raven, striped with Barielle Enduring, OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous, and OPI Glitzerland.

I added too many stripes, and Lucerne... didn't show up as well as I thought it would.  So what could have been cute quickly fizzled into not so cute.  But I worked it out for a day, and resolved to try it again later.

Wherein I Copy Someone Much Better Than Me

I subscribe to a number of nail art blogs, of course, and frequently star things in Reader that I just have to replicate.

Can I break for a second and beg the Google gods to pleasepleaseplease bring back "Share" in Google Reader?  I know that project is on the blade of the axe all the time, but it is a super love of mine, and to add Share back in would be fantastic.

Back to it.

Chelsea over at The Nail Network had the greatest combination of Zoya Noot and Storm the other day, and it stuck in my mind until I got home.  I don't know how she ever picked these two colors to go together, but her nails looked AWESOME and I was jealous.  Zoya Noot is this fantastic kind of darkened olive green creme that's a fantastic one-coater.  Storm is one of the other Ornate collection beauties Zoya released this past winter, a black creme with tons of micro holo glitter.

I never would have picked these two, but I totally should have.  Way to go, Chelsea - this is completely fab.


Enter the replication demon:

The holo doesn't flash under my sun lamp, but in the real sun it's a beast!

The weird lighting reflection makes it look like my nails are rolling waves of...putrid green.
Great.

Close and roiling.

Can't Get Enough Sandwiches

Here's a hot pink variation of the green sandwich I did earlier this month.  I am love-love-loving the way this transforms all my glitters.

Two coats of Zoya Roxy, one coat of Zoya Astra, and another of Zoya Roxy

So squishy!

It reminds me of a terrible Jell-O salad.  Maybe one filled with salt or small shards of foam.
Yummy!

La Isla Bonita

I'm recycling title stuff lately, though I can assure you that this is not South Park related.

Yes, that song has been stuck in my head for days and YES I ONLY KNOW THE CHORUS.
My life is hell.

Everyone is looking for that perfect red for themselves in a nail, a lip, a shirt?  Whatever.  It can't be too blue, and it certainly can't be too orange, and the reason there are four trillion reds is that there are four trillion lovely shades of people out there to compliment.

This makes my list of top five red nails, in case any of my fellow vampire skin folks out there are still looking.

Zoya Isla

I feel like these two pictures are out of an old Highlights magazine "Can You Spot The Differences?"

I almost couldn't, but there are one or two, and I'm just lazy enough to leave them both posted.

Zoya Isla is a fantastic blue red shimmer polish that absolutely glows.  You see how in the shade it's got some dark reflection to it?  Now that's vampy, my friends.  Two coats will have you out the door, and the formula stays where you place it (as can be evidenced by my brush strokes above that I didn't clean up).  I HAVE OTHER THINGS TO DO.

No I don't.  I'll do better next time, Internet. 

Candy. It's Like Christmas Food.

Ah, the candy cane.  That spun and molded sugar coma just begging to make your mouth and teeth red every year.  You could also lick the end into a form of shank, but it's Christmas!  So you don't.

Well, you shouldn't.

It's fairly easy to do a candy cane on your nails - just get yourself a good white, a sparkly red, some striping tape, and about an hour and a half of your life you can never get back.  Don't forget all the forgiveness you'll have to beg of your family as an endless stream of cuss words flows out of your mouth because the damn things aren't even.

Yay, Christmas!

Zoya Purity and Zoya Blaze

So glittery.  So cuticle flooded.

Strangely thick and runny at the same time.  Oh nail polish gods, what can I do to appease thee?!

If I thought it would have worked, I would have used Blaze as the base and used Purity for the stripes.  My cuticles just do.not. tolerate dark polishes, and will never give up the color, no matter how many ounces of acetone I use to burn them.  They are tortured and refuse to talk - good in a crisis, bad in a polish blog.

Pink In Three Ways

We've discussed this - if it's shiny and colorful, I will (eventually) buy it.

Orly's Pretty In Pink collection caught my eye this year because of the holo bar glitter and holo magenta pink polishes that they were flashing.  So much pink!  The base of this manicure, Zoya Anaka, is an uber shimmery hot pink that's gorgeous in one coat.  I didn't stop long enough to get a picture of it on its own, but you get the picture.  Orly Be Brave, the pink holo bar glitter, needs a lot of coats to be honest.  I couldn't get very many bars on the brush, but the clear base is thin enough that three coats didn't bulk it up too badly.  The payoff in Zoya Electra is much better, but Be Brave's bars have a pink back or pink hue or pink something on them and, well, I already had it out.

Zoya Anaka with three coats of Orly Be Brave

It's polarizing in this little nail blog community of ours, but I love bar glitter.

No, I don't know why this shows up so blue and won't color correct.

For the third wave of pink, I added a thin coat of Color Club Wing Fling, a hot pink shimmery jelly polish.

Like Liza the later years, this manicure is slightly subdued now.

Reach Your Zen

Grab a lotus flower, cross your legs, and pinch your index and middle finger together...

it's time for some meditation.

Zoya Tao stamped with Barielle Enduring and an echo of Zoya Reagan

Playing with shadows of color.

This is my favorite steel gray.

A Pattern Has Been Established

I've been pulling out a lot of reds for the Christmas work, and I'm falling in love all over again.

The Zoya Ornate collection made a lot of people's wishlists when it came out, and for good reason.  Blaze is their red entry - a lovely softly holo'd ruby red that's opaque in one careful coat, or goregously depth intense at two and a topcoat.

You...are...so...beautiful...to me.

Like a sky full of stars...if the clouds and sun had turned everything blood red.
I don't like this world I've created.

Guess What I Gave Up?!?

That freaking Christmas Challenge.

As fun as I thought it would be to force some creativity, it just became a massive burden.  And in true Claw fashion, I quit instead of committing and buckling down.  It's part of my charm.  If I feel like putting any of the remaining things up (tree, wreath, santa), I certainly will and we can celebrate them together.

But in the meantime, I'm getting back to doing stuff that just strikes me as interesting - which is usually pretty awesome by itself.

Today's manicure reminded me of gift wrap.  Maybe it's the gold and green together, and maybe it's the crisp lines.  All I know is that this is another for the "love" column, and it photographed like a champ.

Zoya Logan and accents in China Glaze I'm Not Lion

All that shimmer.  I can hardly stand it.

Ring finger kind of looks like an Anarchy symbol at the right angles.
FIGHT THE MAN, NOT THE MANICURE!

I love this photo.

Zoya Logan is such a boss color.  It has great opacity at one careful coat, it's packed full of golden and green shimmer, and it's just so darn pretty.  China Glaze I'm Not Lion is a super finely milled gold/silver/holo glitter that provides endless sparkle and is opaque in two coats.  It dries gritty, so if you don't like that texture, put a thick topcoat on, and enjoy the shine.

I can't believe that we've only got 12 days until Christmas Day.  Where on Earth has this year gone so quickly?!

Give Your Eyeballs A Break

Having just come home from an Ulta raid, thank you buy 2 get 1 free, I was swatching and searching for inspiration.  Looking to take a break from the uber-bright holiday colors (I know, I know - HERECY!!!), I wanted to do something soft and pretty.

And apparently barely noticeable.  But I like subtlety sometimes, so I'm rolling with it.

Zoya Erika and Zoya Dove

Erika is this perfect girly pink with little golden shimmery flecks to warm it up.

It's a gorgeous office day neutral, or base for a Nikki Minaj tribute?

The saran wrap method involves painting a thick coat of a second color on top of your first, then smashing some crumpled saran wrap on top, giving you a marbled effect without all the annoying water.

Yay!  Brain matter!

Swirly and soft and s...ingular?  I have no idea.

This process took almost no time, and I really like the effect.  I think, for this one, the muted colors did me more harm than good as you can't really tell the effect.  Because it's so time-effective, I'm sure that I'll do this one in a cornea searing combination sooner rather than later.

Candy Storm

These are terrible pics of Zoya Storm if you're looking for the signature holo flash, but the Internet is full of them now - Google in peace, my friend.

I was looking to add a splash of Christmas interest to this dark look, and thought some candy cane-like stripes might do the accent trick.  Let me say again if you're not familiar with the Zoya Ornate line, their holos are glass flecks, so clean-up is an absolute breeze!  No glitter to soak off!

Zoya Storm with Accent in China Glaze Cranberry Splash

Little bit of blur on the thumb shows how pretty those glass flecks can be with the right light.

Punchy.  I like it.

If You Come To My House, I'll Make You Get A Manicure

It's a new rule.


Very recently enforced.


Today's victim, er, recipient, is my lovely younger sister who has a wedding to attend this weekend.  The colors are red and black, so I splashed out my favorite holiday, maybe ever, red, and a black creme for a little funk french.

Zoya Blaze with Sally Hansen Black Out tips

Cuticles really aren't in bad shape.  Way to go!

The pretty.  She enchants me.  As does that dry skin - it's called lotion.

Make a claw!  No, not like that, like a panther!  COME ON!

I think I laughed more trying to force someone to contort their hand into the "right shape" in the light box than I have in a while.

Hope you like it, sister.  And if anyone else is in need of a polishing, well, come on down.

Sandwiches Without Peanut Butter

I've never been on the PB bandwagon like so many of you fools out there.  Every once in a while I get a hankerin' for some, but one sandwich and four hours of sucking the roof of my mouth later, I'm over it.

Luckily, today's manicure is carb and food glue free!  All you need is a good jelly, some glitter, and a couple of nails that need dressing up.

Zoya Frida encapsulates Butter London Henley Regatta

And I go la la la la la - she's got the look...but uh-oh...that giant pinky is coming straight for you!

Aaaaaaargh, it's going to get you with its tiny irregular nail tip that I didn't even see until just now.
Nice filing, clawface.

The microglitter is a PITA to clean up, clearly, but man this payoff is so so worth it.

I had tried a jelly sandwich previously, again using Frida and another sparse glitter I thought would go well with it, but I hated it.  I think the difference this time was I used two coats as a base, instead of one, which works much better for my personal aesthetic.  I just don't like the super transparent ghost finish that most jellies have, so I "made it work".  Butter London Henley Regatta, a fantastic blue/green micro shimmer suspended in clear base, made the perfect partner for this one.  Frida turns everything this really ethereal turquoise that is just gorgeous.  I mean, sparkly in all lights mood elevating fantastic.

After Thanksgiving Means CHRISTMAS!

Might as well.  They push the pumpkins and make room for the fat man in November around these parts, and the problem is not new.  I have satellite radio, and one of my presets is Radio Classic (with Greg Bell).  I caught part of some show, maybe Burns & Allen, where they were griping about Christmas decor going up in November in the 1950s too.  So hush-up, 2012 - this is nothing new.

Green + Red = Instant Christmas Manicure, and if you multiply that by dots, you get a lot of...something.  So here is a quick guide to my favorite kind of down the side dot manicure.


First - decide on a basecoat.  For this particular set-up, I did two coats of Barielle Enduring, a really clean white creme

Like ridge-y fallen snow.

Next, use the largest dotting tool you want, and make three dots at the top, bottom, and right, of each nail.  Follow that with the next size dotting tool, in an alternate color, right next to those.  I chose China Glaze Ruby Pumps and Barielle Date Night

The virus is spreading.

Now go one size down, and fill in the spaces between the larger dots, and so on and so forth.  I wish I could say there is a surefire pattern, but there's not, and I think that's what makes it so pretty.  I got a little carried away with this one, and crammed too many in for my personal taste, but I still like it.  Go crazy or go conservative - it's your festive use of time.  I added in China Glaze Cranberry Splash and Zoya Ivanka

There's no hope for the patient.

They've succumb to the dots.