Monday, August 29, 2011

220: tutorial - water marbled nails

I wanted to start a new feature called "manicure monday" just because we tend to do our nails a lot! I'm gonna try to accompany most with a how-to but if it's just simple, I'll just do photos! COOL?? WELCOME TO MANICURE MONDAY~~

We're gonna start this feature with a pretty complex technique called "water marbling". I remember learning a similar technique in the 90's for colouring paper... but recently, I saw that our friend & past model, Rachel had tried it out & it looked really cute! It seems like a pretty long process & it does require both patience and a lot of time, but the result turns out unique.


This was our first time trying it & some nails were ugly & some looked awesome. So I'll preface this with telling you that it may require a bit of practice to achieve a nice look.


you'll need a bunch of nails polishes. 3 at minimum!
one for a base coat (we used the peach) and the others for the marbling.


tools you'll need:
- room temperature bottled water (apparently it works better than tap water)
- a cup or bowl that is disposable (the nail polish will ruin it)
- toothpicks
- nail polish remover
- cotton balls/makeup remover pads/q-tips for cleanup


first, base coat your nails with a light colour. then set up your work area!
fill the glass with the water (i'm using a disposable shot glass), put down the paper towel in case you spill and have all your nail polishes open so you can access them quickly.


Now taking a generous brush full of polish, drop a drop (ummm) on the surface of the water. I found that I really had to load up the brushes by tipping my bottles to the side. You'll instantly see the polish disperse across the surface.


Working quickly, grab another colour and drop it in the center of the first colour. It will spread as well...


Then quickly drop another colour in (or if you're only using two colours, you can just alternate)


Continue dropping as many colours as you would like, I typically did about 5 or 6 drops.


Then grab your toothpick & begin dragging the tip through the surface of the nail polish, pulling the design.


these are some designs I was able to create by just dragging the polish across to a single point.


Now take one of your fingers & dip it in at an angle.
Make sure to hold your fingernail UNDER the surface of the water. JUST HOLD IT THERE.


You'll notice that there's a bunch of nail polish still surrounding your finger.
You have to take a toothpick & pick up the rest of that nailpolish so that your finger doesn't end up looking double-dipped. get it? :)
take what's left on your toothpick & just wipe it on the papertowel.


Now when you pull your finger out, your nail is marbled!
but so is your finger... a lot of people like to tape their fingers to avoid that, but I didn't want to waste tape :(

I'm debating whether using tape or nail polish remover is less wasteful though!


So continue the process with all of your nails!


It's a ridiculous mess on your fingers, but a quick cleanup with nail polish remover is easy!


Then just topcoat!

At first, I was a bit discouraged because the first few nails were kinda ugly. It's quite a bit of work for an okayyyyy result and it wastes quite a bit of product too, but I'll give it another try with some different colours before I say that it's more trouble than it's worth.

Have you tried water marbling yet?

xoxo

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Thursday, August 25, 2011

219: call for sponsors!


photo by carrie jade

We're looking for sponsors for our blog!
As a promotion, we want to give all our first-time sponsors a special bonus... anyone who signs up before Sept 1st, will receive an extra month FREE OF CHARGE. Simply sign up for a month or two at ANY size & your second month is free. Try us out-- our prices are reasonable!

Check out our sponsorship page for more details on how to participate & how to maximize your presence! :)


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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

218: birthday party

I turned 20-something a couple days ago & celebrated all weekend long. My parents took us out for dinner on friday & a bunch of my friends came over to celebrate on saturday! I had an amazing time with them all & even got a bunch of unexpected gifts! Feeling super lucky to have such great friends & family :)

quick photo summary:





























xoxo

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Monday, August 22, 2011

217: galactic

thanks for the encouraging comments on our galaxy shorts, guys!
i'm pretty excited to have them all listed on our etsy shop now:



click to check em out in detail!




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Friday, August 19, 2011

216: la ink

Do you guys remember us talking about meeting Kat Von D? About a year ago, she bought some items from our shop. It came as a total surprise that she found us & liked our stuff, so we wanted to thank her in person during her book tour. Read the full entry here.

Well, I got a tweet from Katrina (aka The Demure Muse) that said:
Omg Kat Von D is wearing a @lipgloss_black skull cutout tee on tonight's episode of LA Ink!!!

WELL HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY TO ME :)
I got Matt to pvr the episode so I could take pictures of the TV screen. bahahha. She only wore it in this one scene where the doctor makes a housecall. lol.




kat von d in our skull cut out tee!



Isn't it cool to kinda have something 'immortalized' into a tv show? I'm just thinking about the fact that this'll end up on DVD eventually and people may or may not watch it for years to come...? I mean, of course I've got my own photos and blog constantly chronicling our lives and our projects... but the celebrity factor. and the fact that we love Kat Von D. OMG, I should stop because I'll end up revealing how starstruck I get around celebs.

From the previews of next week's episode, it looks like she wears the tee again but has cut off the sleeves & made the collar bigger! I'll take pics of my tv again when it happens. hahaha. and we're waiting anxiously to see the rest of the season to see if she wears anything else we've made ♥

xoxo

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215: never-nude

Today I decided to take my own advice in my galaxy print tutorial & put it to use. I painted 6 pairs of cutoff shorts. hahaha



Sam was getting rid of a BUNCH of pairs of pants. some too big, some too small... so we decided to reconstruct them into some teeny shorts. There's still some studding and leather patching that I intend to do but I hope to have a bunch of them posted up in the next couple of days :)

YOUR THOUGHTS?
do you love or hate trashy/destroyed fashion?

xoxo

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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

214: omg sale!

we've gone crazy. we're holding on to tooooo much inventory and we seriously need room for our new stuff in the works. so take advantage of this mad clearout, ok? we only usually ever do 20% off but this is serious.

go:


50% is taken off at checkout with the use of the discount code. shipping is free on orders over $150 and this offer is only for a LIMITED time! ♥

xox

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213: tutorial - cupcake nails

This week is my birthday! Have I told you that already? This Sunday! So the nails of the week shall be birthday themed. < :)

cute right? it's pretty easy to make a cupcake on your nails, whether you've got short or long ones.


colours used: china glaze pink underground (that I got from loose button, orly instant artist white, la colors atomic, opi mat-adore red.


start with a contrasting base coat (i'm gonna do it on my ring finger)


draw the "cup" part. it's a rectangle. woooo.


using a striper, draw the stripes on the cupcake liner


glob on a 'muffin top'. any general round scoop shape will do. haha


put a cherry on top!


using a toothpick, you can dot on the sprinkles!
if you're fancy you can do rainbow sprinkles.


I didn't particularly want cupcakes on EVERY nail so I alternated nails & decorated the others with stripes, dots & chevrons.

xoxo

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