Shut Yer Pie-HOLE!

Wow! It's finally here, March 14th! It's PIE day! I love pies, my favorite is definitely pumpkin pie, but lemon meringue is a very close second. I like making pies too. One time I was in a rush while making a lemon meringue pie, after I finished cooking the lemon curd, I poured it into the cooked pie crust. Then, forgetting that I had just pulled the crust out of a 400° oven, I grabbed it with bare hands to level out the filling. Needless to say, it hurt. :)  Anyway. To celebrate PIE day I dec....What?  It's PI day?!  Well, I guess that makes sense, 3.14 and all. Wait til 3/14/15, then it'll REALLY be Pi! 

Well, to celebrate Pi day, I painted PIE nails! WOO!

I used: 

Thumb: Blueberry pie 

Essie Bags to Riches as a base, shaded with a dash of H&M Rust, and a pinch of Barielle Coco Bar. For the pie filling I used Zoya Anja. I topped it off with Essie Matte About You, and used Seche Vite top coat to make the filling part shiny like real blueberry filling.

Index: Dutch Apple pie

Color Club Earthy Angel as a base, with American Apparel California Trooper, Essie Bags to Riches, H&M Rust, and Barielle Coco Bar sponged over it to make the crumb topping. Topped it off with a sponged on coat of Essie Matte About You.

Middle: Cherry pie

American Apparel Port as a base, with American Apparel California Trooper to make the lattice, and Essie Bags to Riches, H&M Rust, and Barielle Coco Bar to shade. Topped it off with a sponged on coat of Essie Matte About You, and Seche Vite top coat to make the pie filling shiny. 

Ring: Pumpkin pie

H&M Rust as a base, with Barielle Coco Bar and MAC Rich Dark Delicious sponged VERY lightly over it to make the speckles of the spices in the pie. I used white acrylic for the whipped cream, with a mixture of Lotus Herbals Pure White, ALDO Sea You in Ibiza, and American Apparel Hassid to shade it. Topped with Seche Vite top coat.

Pinky: Lemon Meringue pie

American Apparel Cotton as a base, shaded with MAC Rich Dark Delicious, Color Club Earthy Angel, and Essie Bags to Riches. Topped off with sponged Essie Matte About You.

It was like warm apple pi?

You Don't Know Jack!

Oh, what I wouldn't do for a Sourdough Jack, or one of those grilled deli sandwiches right now, with some awesome JITB fries, and ranch dressing. Maybe a GINORMOUS Dr. Pepper or Oreo milkshake to wash it down? Yes, please. Plus, how can you not love the JITB mascot, Jack?! You know those portraits of Jack in the restaurants that have the plaque that says 'Our Founder'? Well, you can order them from the company, and yes, I bought one for Chris for his birthday a few years back. :-D It's pretty much the coolest thing ever. Chris is also drooling over the Jack halloween costume, he really wants a big Jack head, I'm pretty sure he'd wear it everywhere if he could.

I've had Jack on my list of nail art ideas for what seems like ever. I actually had to go back through my nail designs to make sure I hadn't done them yet, because I couldn't imagine that I hadn't. Well, I didn't...until now. I originally planned to make this manicure a progression of the different versions of Jack over the years, but I decided to stick with the current Jack that we all know and love.

So, who's going to send me a cheeseburger?

I used American Apparel Hassid as a base, with white acrylic paint for the head (white nail polish never seems to cover over black), shaded that with a mix of the paint and American Apparel Hassid. For the hat, I used American Apparel Manila, then shaded with Barielle Coco Bar. For the eyes, I used ALDO I'll Sea you in Ibiza, the nose is American Apparel Hassid, and the mouth is Zoya Carmen. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Extra ranch, please.

Holi WOW!

Handfuls of colored powder smeared across your cheeks, thrown in your hair, rubbed on your forehead, color EVERYWHERE. Fun or nightmare?  Definitely FUN. It might have been one of the most fun experiences here in India so far! If you're all like 'What the F is she talking about?', I'll tell you. Today (if you're in the States, or yesterday, if you're on my side of the world), is/was HOLI!  Holi is the Indian festival of color, celebrating the coming of Spring! :) Hindus believe that it is saying farewell to winter, and hello to the abundance of Spring colors. I believe that it was a BLAST. It was kind of like a snowball fight with colored powder, and when you 'whitewash' someone, they're left with a face like this:

I decided to do a nail design based on my Holi experience, a colorful array of splatters covering my nails simulating the splatter of powder everywhere on skin, clothes, hair, and the floor. :-P

I have to admit, I like this hand better- I realized I liked the splatter effect over the skin AFTER I started cleaning up my left hand, so I took a pic of my right hand too. I feel like it better conveys the spirit of the celebration. :)

I used Lotus Herbals Pure White as a base, with Zoya Carmen, Essie Vermillionaire, American Apparel Manila, Nicole by OPI I'm a Belieber, Lakmé Fast & Fabulous Aqua Blast (an Indian brand), China Glaze Grape Pop, and Jesse's Girl Beach Baby . Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

A few more pictures- one of my colleagues and I, and one more after I got some more color - green, to be exact. :-P

Rusty Nail

Sorry, this isn't the Rusty Nail of the Drambuie and Scotch variety, or the kind that gives you tetanus, it's definitely the nail polish variety. :) I've always loved the look of rusty metal (unless it's on my car or a rollercoaster :)) and I've had this idea in my nail art idea notebook for a while now. I've always wanted to paint my walls with that paint that rusts, it looks rad. You paint the wall with this black primer, which had iron particles in it, then apply this solvent, and the whole wall transforms into every color of rust imaginable, it's pretty damn cool looking. I wonder how long it takes the solvent to do its job?  

Anyway, I give you rusted nails. :)

I used Zoya Loredana as a base, with sponged rust consisting of H&M Rust (meant to be!), Barielle Coco Bar, and Finger Paints Cordur-Orange.  Sponged some Essie Matte About You over the rusted bits so they would still have texture, but wouldn't be shiny. 

Just My Type.

If you've been reading this blog for a while, or know me in person, you know that I'm a graphic designer. One of things I remember hearing more than once from one of my design professors, Linda (or was it Barb?  Fellow VC-ers, help me out), was that if you could choose only one typeface for the rest of your career, it better be Helvetica. 

Helvetica has gained a somewhat cult status, with apparel, documentaries, and millions of devotees. I was struggling with what nail design to do today to follow those pimple nails (really?!), and I was watching 'The Voice' (yeah, I know, I watch it to drool over Adam Levine) and saw something in the show that reminded me of Helvetica. It was then that I knew I had to add to the bevy of Helvetica-themed things, and paint on my nails the iconic name (and representation) of every designer's favorite typeface. This was actually semi-difficult, because I didn't want to mess up. That said, it's not perfect, but I tried to do it justice! :)

I used Nubar Stronghold as a base (this color applies like buttahhh, I've never used it as a base color before), with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On for the lettering. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite topcoat.

What's YOUR type(face)?  Pleeeeease don't say Comic Sans. (or Papyrus)

Is Zit Ok?

Ok, so I KNOW these are gross, and some people are going to cringe and whatnot, but I KNEW I had to do them. :-D  I thought of the idea last night just as I was falling asleep, so that must mean it's a good one, right?!  lol  That's what I'm telling' myself.

What better use of those nail pearl things, but to make PIMPLES?!  (Granted, this is only a better use if you want zits on your nails, which obviously I do.)

I used Deborah Lippmann Naked as a base (I'm sure this is what she had in mind when she created it), and then variations of a mixture containing Deborah Lippmann Naked, Nicole by OPI Redy to Runaway Love, and American Apparel Port. I used Born Pretty Pearl nail gems to create the 'pimples', then painted over them. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite topcoat.

Go ahead and say it: Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Fair and Square

I'm not totally sure where this design came from in my brain, but here it is. I originally set out to do a very different design, but I'll definitely need more practice before I can pull that one off, it's a tad too intricate.

Despite not knowing what inspired this design, I really like how it turned out, like extreme closeup pixellated lines of color.  Sorry this post is a bit on the short side, I spent much of my night composing a post on my other blog, Just Another Day in India.

I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On as a base, with:

Thumb: MAC Rich, Dark, Delicious for the darker brown, and MAC Rich, Dark, Delicious mixed with American Apparel Cotton for the lighter brown.

Index: RBL No More War for the darker green, and RBL No More War mixed with American Apparel Cotton for the lighter green.

Middle: American Apparel Peacock for the darker teal, and American Apparel Peacock mixed with American Apparel Cotton for the lighter teal.

Ring: American Apparel Port for the darker red, and American Apparel Port mixed with American Apparel Cotton for the pink.

Pinky: Finger Paints Cordur-Orange for the darker orange, and Finger Paints Cordur-Orange mixed with American Apparel Cotton for the lighter orange. 

Topped all nails off with 2 coats of Seche Vite topcoat.