Saturday, July 26, 2014

Arr Matey! A Dead Man's Mani - Inspired by Messy Mansion

Happy Saturday! I hope ya'll are doing something fun later today. I am celebrating a friend's birthday on a yacht tonight, so I know I'll be having fun later. But onto the nail art!

So today I have a mani to show you that I absolutely love. A few months ago, I discovered an Australian company called, Messy Mansion, which sells nail art supplies such as stamping polishes, stamping plates, stamping tools, and a few other bits and baubles. When I discovered that the owner of Messy Mansion had come out with a pirate plate, I knew I had to have it. I loved Messy Mansion's original design so much, that I decided to replicate it.


Let's get 17th century.


The design itself is pretty straight forward. I started with a neutral beige base, and once that dried, did some background stamping in light gold using the map image. Finally, I used some black stamping polish from Konad to add the bigger images.

The shine from the gold and the matte look from the black stamping polish really stuck out to me. I liked the look of the different finishes so I decided to skip a topcoat all together (this is not matted). 



And now a random little fun fact about myself. I am also a rare coin collector! So the actual hobby is called numismatics which is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, and paper money (according to Wikipedia). Because I was wearing a pirate mani, it seemed fitting to pose with one of my pirate coins!


The coin you see above/below is called a Spanish real, pronounced REE-AL (specifically a 2 real). While it is not specifically a "pirate coin" (i.e. medallion from the Pirates of the Caribbean lol), coins of this type were the most common silver coin of late sixteenth and seventeenth century Spain. Hence, a lot of these have been found in shipwrecks dating back to that time. In the modern day and age, the real has become associated with pirates and all their misdeeds. Although this one is not from a shipwreck, it is over 200 years old and  a very cool piece of history.

And of course who can talk about pirate stuff without referencing the Pirate of the Caribbean movies? So in the 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean movie (At World's End), the characters keep referencing the 9 "pieces of 8". So, what does that mean exactly? Well, back in ye olden days, the Spanish dollar was also known as an  eight-real coin or the piece of eight. But why do they call it a "piece" of 8?

Well, here's your answer.


Antiquity Period Designs can explain it a little better than I can:

"Early coins, valued by their weight and metal content rather than at 'face value', could be broken into pieces to make change. The Spanish milled dollar was known as a piece of 8 because it was worth 8 reales; the expression '2 bits' to mean a quarter of a dollar comes from breaking the milled dollar into 8 'bits. "

So an 8 real coin was a complete coin, that could be broken into 8 pieces. Therefore, the entire thing was worth "8". And a "piece" of 8 was literally a piece of a coin, which could potentially be broken into 8. And now you know!

Hope you enjoyed today's history lesson!



Like what you see? Check out my other designs on pinterest!

Charming Charlie - Taupetastic (base)
Maybelline - Bold Gold
BM 414 - Ship wheel
MM 37 -  pirate skull, small ship, small cross bones, compass

SOURCES
http://www.antiquityperioddesigns.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=324
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_real
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_dollar

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

KB Shimmer Holographic Top Coat

Fortunately, for those of you who love holo polishes, I am still on my holographic kick and have another lovely holo polish to show to you today. For those of you who don't like holo's...oh well. So today, I would like to introduce you to KB Shimmer's Prism Break, a stunning holographic top coat.


Unfortunately, when I did this mani, the weather outside was pretty cloudy so I don't have a photo for you guys in full sun. The photos for this post were all taken indoors in natural light. However, even indoors, Prism Break boasts a very pretty linear holo effect. To give you a better idea of what Prism Break adds to undies (a basecoat lol), here is the original color, Essie Lapiz of Luxury, without Prism Break. Swatch from The Lacquer Log (click photo to be taken to original site).


And here is the after. Now get ready for tons of photos.




I absolutely love Prism Break. The formula was wonderfully smooth and applied easily. With one coat, it added a fabulous holographic sparkle, without too much graying (normally lower end holographic top coats just seem to gray polishes). Anyway, this is a great linear holographic top coat and I am definitely glad I purchased it. What do you guys think? Are you a holo fan? If so, what are your favorites?


Like this design? Check out my others on pinterest!


Essie - Lapiz of Luxury
Milani - White on the Spot
KB Shimmer - Prism Break

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Magenta and Blue Holo Gradient

So in a previous post, I mentioned that I had just discovered the sparkly wonder of holographic polishes. Well ladies and gentleman, my obsession is not over yet.

Recently, I had the luck of finding a nail polish warehouse/wholesaler in Brooklyn. Because she was going out of business, she decided to begin selling some of her inventory to the general public (normally wholesalers only sell to Salons or other stores). I picked up tons of decals, 3D nail art, and of course, polish. But probably my best purchase from the trip was a set of holographic polishes from Nabi, two of which you see in the gradient below.


Now in all honesty, I had never heard of the company, Nabi, before. But the polishes were only $2 each and they had so many sparkles. I am a sucker for anything sparkly. I have about the same attention span as my cat. But moving on....The formula was great and had some lasting power. I had complete opaque coverage in two coats and the dry time was pretty fast.

These photos were taken outdoors in the shade.


In the shade, these are very pretty polishes. You get nice rich colors and quite a bit of sparkle.


But then you add sunlight and BAM! All the sparkles. (taken outdoors in full sunlight)



And here is a close up taken in full sun. 


So I am totally happy with this purchase and definitely recommend these holos. Although some other brands such as KB Shimmer and ILNP have a bit stronger rainbow effect, this brand's effect is pretty cool. After doing some research it looks like Nabi isn't really sold in store, but you can pick up some Nabi polish sets on Ebay or Amazon. Happy polish hunting!




Like what you see? Check out my other  designs on pinterest!

Nabi - Fuscia
Nabi - Ocean Blue
Bow Charm - wholesale supplier

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Speckled Cement

Hey everyone! Just a quick post today to show off a very cool glitter topcoat. This one is called Clearly Spotted and its from the Maybelline Color Show collection (which you are probably sick of hearing me talk about). I love this topcoat in particular because it is a black and white glitter, a polish which normally can only be found through indie companies. However, as I mentioned in a previous post, main stream brands (e.g., Maybelline, Revlon, etc.) seem to be trying to compete with the indie polish craze.


Although I am a big supporter of indie brands, I do have to say, I love this polish. Clearly Spotted is composed of small and large, circle and hexagon, black and white, matte glitters in a clear base. Try saying that 10 times fast lol.


I decided to pair this polish with Color Club Muse-ical, a dark gray creme that looks like it might be one standard deviation away from black. My final result? A mani that might be mistaken for someone's finished basement floor. LOL

Thanks for stopping by! :)


Like what you see? Check out my other designs on pinterest!

Color Club - Muse-ical
Maybelline Color Show - Clearly Spotted

Friday, July 4, 2014

Fireworks, Glitter, and Independence

Let's party like it's 1776!
Happy July 4th everyone!

XOXO, On Wednesdays, We Wear Polish


California Velvets - Deep Black
China Glaze - Salsa
KB Shimmer - Low and Be Bold
Sally Hansen - Multi-Faceted (navy blue and silver glitter, pinkie)
LA Girl - Speckle (red and white glitter, middle)
Julep - Fireworks (red, white, blue glitter, thumb)
Water Decals - nail polish supply store (closed)