Nail Fail/Striping Tape Frustrations

I normally post a "What r u wearing Wednesday?" blog post.  However, I had a fairly frustrating nail art day yesterday so I ended up just posting a picture and description on my Instagram account of what I eventually ended up with. 

Today, I decided to share with you my nail fail from yesterday.  When new to nail art one often has grand ideas for awesome designs but often lack the skills, knowledge, and materials to make them come to fruition. 

For a while I have been wanting to try a design out I seen on a fabric pattern sold through an online fabric store. By the way, online fabric stores are a great source of inspiration with thousands of patterns and color combinations the ideas are endless. 

Anyways, I thought this geometric pattern I found would be interesting yet slightly more complex than some that I have done. With my new Color Club collection in hand I thought I was going to create a really awesome mani. 

Boy, was I disappointed :(.  I started with a skittle mani using every color from the Paris in Love collection except for Fondue for Two. That was to be used as a top color later on.  I then spent a significant amount of time taping out each line with striping tape. It took forever!  I then painted my top color which I used either Fondue for Two or Macaroon Swoon and then removed my tapes immediately like you should.

I had three problems though. One was that using individual tapes instead of single chevron tapes or vinyls made the pattern come out uneven and slightly inconsistent from one nail to the next. This was not such a big deal for me but for those perfectionists out there this could be a major problem.  The next problem that I had was that there was too many individual tapes to remove that I couldn't remove them quick enough so some of the polish was peeling with the tape. This is another problem that using chevron tapes could have solved.  The third problem I had, and I've had in the past was that I couldn't remember the sequence I laid the tapes in (too many tapes to remember). Occasionally, I would pull the tapes out of order and ruin an area. So I ended up completing one hand before I completely gave up on this design. 

As you can see there are runs, pulls, air bubbles, and imperfections in this mani. I think I will try this again but with nail vinyls instead. I just have to find or make some first ;).  I'll be sure to post the new version when I get it right. 

So to all you newbie nail artist out there, not every mani you see is accomplished on the first try. Remember, every awesome nail artist out there had to start somewhere. I'm sure some of them even have a bad day now and again too. So just keep on painting and learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others too. I hope you found this post useful and inspires you to try, try, and try again until you get it right. 

Your Fellow Plebe,

Color Club's Paris in Love Collection Swatches and Review

I know its been a bit since I last posted but I've been having a blast with my family, camping, water parks, and hanging out.  Of course, all these extracurricular activities have made my budget a little tight.  But when I was at the mall the other day I couldn't resist a trip to my favorite beauty supply store.  While I was there drooling over all the lovely polish I want to own, I decided I could afford just one collection.  After a great deal of deliberation I decide to purchase Color Club's Paris in Love Collection.  I chose this collection over all the others for three reasons: 1) Color Club has yet to disappoint me; 2) this collection is much more different than others I own; 3) Color Club is slightly less expensive than most of the other brands I typically purchase.

All of the swatches you are about to see are done with a two coat application.  The lighting does vary slightly because I try to use indirect natural lighting and of course mother nature was not being cooperative.  So in some pictures the lighting looks a little more whitish, these pictures are when the sun was covered by a cloud.

Without further adieu I present to you Color Club's Paris in Love Collection...

This is a beautiful minty green that reminds me an awful lot of mint chocolate chip ice cream.  Future nail art project inspiration.

As the name states I love you (meaning this polish).  As many of you know I'm not really girly and pink is probably my least favorite color, but this color is just too sweet!  I'm finding this shade absolutely irresistible and am looking for an excuse to wear it.

Sadly, this collection doesn't have any true blue shades (my favorite color).  However, I'll settle for this super cute periwinkle-ish somewhat lavender color.  I really like this color against my skin tone, it is very eye-catching.

The name of this polish is perfect.  It translates to "I don't know what."  I personally don't know what to think of this color.  This is not a color I would purchase just from looking at the bottle.  It might be a color I would pick up with a specific design in mind but I'm not sure what that design might be yet.  I really want to like this color but I'm just not sure.  What do you think?

This color is just so yummy!  This rich creamy color reminds me of chocolate (part two of nail art idea).  This color is so delicious I broke down and ate a Hershey bar while painting my nails. Mmmmmmm...chocolate!

This color was the biggest surprise for me in this collection.  When I was hmmming and hawing during my pre-purchase debate this color reminded me of Look but Don't Tusk from Color Club's Garden Safari collection.  I don't like to purchase colors that are too similar to one another but I also don't like to purchase partial collections (I'm an all or none kind of girl).  Of course, the store was all sold out of Look but Don't Tusk so I couldn't compare them side-by-side in the store and my memory is never as good as I think it is.  You know when you find a pair of shoes and you think that it'll go great with a dress you have at home only to get them home to and discover they will clash horribly with the dress.  Yeah, I have that kind of memory.  Well as you can see Macaroon Swoon is much more yellow in fact it is almost a pale lemon shade.  It is very sweet and I like it a lot.

Here is a side-by-side comparison of Macaroon Swoon and Look but Don't Tusk.  As I said above and as you can clearly see from the picture they are not at all similar so, no dupes here.

I'm really glad I purchased this collection.  As always Color Club doesn't fail to impress with awesome formulas and lovely colors.  My head is swimming with ideas for designs that I can use with these colors.  I hope you enjoyed these swatches and find the reviews useful.

If you like this post show me some love and follow me.  You can follow me through Google Friend Connect by hitting the Join this Site icon on the top right hand side of the screen.  You can also follow me through Google+, Bloglovin, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.  The more ways you follow the more love I feel.  See you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

Interlocking and Overlaping Dots

For this #whatruwearingwed manicure I decided to redo a pattern that I had done about 5 weeks ago with a few slight modifications.  I decided to use this pattern only as an accent, I used a different color scheme, I reversed one nail, and I did it on my natural nails instead of on false nails.

Manicure from 5 weeks ago.

Materials

Base and top coat

Three colors of polish

Dotting tools (in 4 different sizes)

Scotch tape (optional)

For this todays nail art design I used two colors from OPI's Coca-Cola collection, "A Grape Affair" and "My Signature is DC", along with a color from their Muppet's Most Wanted collection "Kermit Me to Speak". (I haved swatched both of the collections.)

For today's design I started with "A Grape Affair" (for the tutorial we'll call this the primary color) on all fingers except my mid and ring fingers.  On those two fingers I applied "Kermit Me to Speak" (we'll refer to this as the secondary color).

  

For my accent nails I painted one third of my nail with my primary color.  You can use scotch tape to create a clean line if you'd like.  However, I wanted to practice my freehand a bit so I did without the tape.

Then it's time to create the interlock between the two colors.  I like to start with my primary color first (the darker color) and then the lighter.  Using a dotting tool overlap the edge of the difference in colors leaving enough space between them to create an equivalent dot in the second color.

With the interlocking complete use a dotting tool one size smaller than the one just used and an accent color.  For my accent color I used "My Signature is DC).  Place a dot slightly overlaping the lighter (or secondary) color dots.

Repeat with another set of dots in the secondary color using the same size dotting tool.  Depending on the opacity of your polish you may have to layer your dots to get them dark enough to cover the underlying color.

Next use the next size smaller dotting tool and your primary color to layer one more set of dots.

Finish this design up using your smallest dotting tool and your accent color to dot inbetween each row and in front of your previous dot.

Of course, don't forget to do a little clean up and add your favorite top coat to seal in your design.

I really like this design because at a glance it looks really complicated yet it is so simple to do.  Not to mention there are so many color combinations you can do with this pattern.  It also look good as a full pattern manicure or just as an accent.

I'd love to see what you are wearing today either #whatruwearingwed on Instagram or post it up on my Facebook page, don't forget to like and follow me while you are there.  Also if you recreate this or any of my other manis post them on Instagram and @polish_plebe in the comments so that I can see them.  You can also follow me through Google+, Bloglovin, and Pinterest too.  I hope you are all enjoying this wonderful Wednesday, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,