This Is Halloween - You Pick My Art Mummy

I know a lot of people who are super excited that Halloween is this Friday - I'm one of them ^_^  To celebrate, I have decided to upload one (or more!) Halloween-themed designs every day through Friday! :D  Let's start with last Friday's You-Pick-My-Art winner - the mummy!

I used Zoya's "Evvie" for the background color and the rest us freehand painted using acrylic paints.  I wanted to do a mummy that is not your traditional mummy wrapped in bandages and such.  Most mummies actually aren't found wrapped in bandages like that - only Egyptian royalty was really done that way.  I'm pleased with how it turned out!  I wanted it to look like it was crawling out of its coffin/grave, perhaps one that is on display in a museum!  I added a red eye to give it a real creep factor, since every time I tried just black/gray, it looked a little off.  Like I said, I'm pretty happy with it!

Here's a more creative photo, cuz I'm artsy-fartsy like that :P

Have a wonderful Monday, and keep an eye out for another Halloween-themed design tomorrow!  See you soon <3

First Ever "Bestie" Nail Design!

So in the nail art world, there's a thing called "Bestie Nails," and it is when you and another artist collaborate to do a design, usually based off a picture or another nail design.  It's pretty neat, and I've seen lots of examples that are just too cool!

Last week, for the first time, I was asked to do a Bestie design!!  Of course I said yes, especially when it was a mermaid themed design!!  Originally it was just me and this other artist Rizzna, but one more, Dess, wanted to join in, too, and I'm so glad she did because her art is amazing!

We chose a beautiful picture of a mermaid's silhouette against a sunset.  Here's the reference image:

Image Found: Here

Now unfortunately, Rizzna was unable to participate this time around (though we will definitely be collaborating in the near future!) so it is just mine and Dess's design.  Here they are:

Here's a larger image of my design ^_^ :

I took a little artistic liberties and added more vibrant colors, and Dess and I also added long flowing mermaid hair :)

I think they turned out so wonderfully, and I am so honored to have been able to collaborate with such an amazing nail artist!  I look forward to doing another bestie design with Dess again soon :D

Dess runs a wonderful Facebook page called Upload and Share Your Own Nail Art Creations you should check out and give a "like."

I hope you enjoyed the art.  I've been sitting on this design for a while, I'm so glad to finally be able to share it with you all ^_^

On my Facebook Page, the winner for this week's You-Pick-My-Art i:s Captain Amelia from Treasure Planet, so I will be working on a design for Monday.  Have a wonderful weekend!  See you soon! <3

Princesses and Villains: Ariel and Ursula

The indie polish brand Ice Polish launched a "Happily Ever After...Not If I Can Help It!" princess/villain line of polishes.  I had the pleasure of reviewing Cinderella and Stepmother a while back as a pre-release.  After she launched the full line, I snagged all the rest that I didn't have, because they are so beautiful!!  Ice Polish is one of my favorite indies because she has one of the best formulas I have come across.  In the pics I'm about to show you, I've been wearing the polish for 4 days with no wear, tear, chips, or any kind of damage.  It's a darn good polish!

So after acquiring all the princess/villain duos, I decided to do something fun with all of them!  I wanted to hand paint each princess and villain on top of their corresponding nail polishes.  I am going to try to post one set a week for you for until all 6 sets are done.

Without further ado, here is the first duo: Ariel and Ursula!

As you can see, Ariel is a beautiful coral pink color with a light holographic effect in the sunlight and very subtle light green (the color of her tail) micro flakies.  Ursula is a dark, almost metallic purple, also with a holographic effect, and dark purple micro flakies.  Both were opaque in 2 coats, dried under a minute to a semi-flat finish.  

I gotta say, I love how my Ursula turned out!!  Pretty happy with that one ^_^  I didn't intend to make Ariel's neck look so pencil-like, it just happened that way when I was trying to paint her hair to look like it was flowing in front of it.  Oh well :P 

Both polishes (to my knowledge) will be available for purchase in a few weeks when the shop re-opens.  In the mean time, I have Belle/Gaston, Cinderella/Stepmother, Mulan/Shan Yu, Aurora/Maleficent, and Jasmine/Jafar left to paint for you! :)

Which princess/villain duo do you want to see next week?  

Nail Art: Flight of the Phoenix

I am having an unusually productive Monday so far - went running this morning for the first time since May (now that the weather is *finally* cooling down), and went straight to yoga for an hour and fifteen minutes of vinyasa (don't know how good of an idea that was, we'll see how I feel later on in the day :P ).  Pretty good so far!  And tonight, I GET TO USE MY NEW BOW FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!  Can you tell I'm excited?  It's been all dolled up with nowhere to go since Wednesday - I am PUMPED! :D

So to continue this awesome Monday, I want to show you the nail art I created from last Friday's You-Pick-My-Art theme of "Fire."  I designed a Phoenix, and this is how it turned out:

I feel very "meh" about this art.  AFTER I painted it, and it was too late to go back, I saw a different way to paint this that would have turned out better.  Oh well, c'est la vie, I will improve the design on a later date and restore my dignity :P

I used one of Above The Curve's "Friday the 13th" polishes for the base coat.  It's a gorgeous dark brown with a holographic effect in the sunlight.  It was the perfect color as a backdrop to complement the fire tones of the Phoenix.

I hope you like the art!  This Friday will be another round of You-Pick-My-Art, so stay tuned to my Facebook page!  I will have some more art coming your way this week, as well, using one of the mystery colors from Model City Polish's Mystery Grab Bag :)  Have a GREAT Monday, everyone!! <3

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