Radioactive.

It's been a long time since I've posted a Polish of the Past! April last year since the last one.

This nail art, though not particularly original or spectacular, did really pop visually. It's been the most popular thing on my nail art deviantART account for as long as the account has been running.

I think the yellow was a Stargazer polish I owned at the time, and the symbols were done in acrylic paints.

Enjoy this blast from the past!

No Worries.

 

This amazing blue is Koh 'No Worries (217)', one of the most vibrant nail polishes I've ever seen in my life. The pictures truly don't do it justice, it's absolutely astonishingly beautiful. It takes a few layers, but then you've really got something.
Not sure when this picture was taken, but we can judge it was a once upon a time where I still painted down to the cuticle.

I wholeheartedly recommend this polish to anybody that likes blue even in the slightest. You won't regret adding it to your collection.

The Culprit.

An oldie, but a goodie. Originally done late August 2011, this style of mani (which I've come to refer to as half rhombus) has easily become one of my absolute favourite and go-to kinds (hence I call this post 'the culprit' - this mani is to blame for my frequent use). They're relatively easy to do and don't comparatively take as long as more elaborate styles of nail art, but when you choose the right colour combination they'll make no less of an impact. People tend to compliment these whenever I do 'em!

Used here are Koh 'Metallic Green' for the lower layer (though through use of top coat the 'holo' effect was reduced as they sadly do) the pinkish/purple is Essence's 'Do a Floating Pirouette' from the Ballerina Backstage LE.

Danger, danger, high voltage.

I used to really love watching Miami and LA Ink, and being an artist (albeit not of the tattoo variety) myself, that aspect of the shows just really appealed to me.
I think most will agree it's not hard to be impressed by Kat Von D's artistic ability. She's just good and I find her work inspirational.
Back in November 2010, Kat Von D held a booksigning of "The Tattoo Chronicles" in Amsterdam which I happily attended (I say happily, but there was also considerable time spent waiting outside) and I really just wanted to do some nail art for the occasion. I based it on the 'High Voltage' jacket she wears and styled her tattoo shop after. 

My buddy Lars, Kat Von D & myself.

Now, this mani is a pretty special one to me because Kat von D actually saw and liked it. (I originally hadn't planned on showing off but I thought 'what the hell!') She said she'd wanted her brother to take a picture, but the people of the American Book Center were trying to hurry everybody along so it never happened (it was insanely busy so I can't say I blame them.) 

I also recommend the book, by the way.

If you have a problem, if no one else can help...

..and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team.

One might not quickly think to link the "girly" hobby of nail art to "macho" shows like the A-Team, but I happen to love both and have actually been fortunate enough to meet Dirk Benedict (Face) and Dwight Schultz (Murdock) at conventions in the past.

When I like something, nail art generally follows, and the A-Team was no different. This nail art was originally done July 30th, 2011.

Of course the visual icons of the A-Team are the incredibly recognisable logo and B.A.'s van, so that's what I went for here. 

And remember kids, Mr. T never actually said "I pity the fool" in the full run of the show.

Sherlock Holmes.

Originally done back in August '11, I've been saving this one to post on a "rainy day".. that is to say, if I ever ran out of things to post. However, I do polish my nails fairly consistently so I figured it was time to finally just type up a post for this and put it here!
Sherlock Holmes nail art I was (and am still) quite proud of. The base polish is '02 Copper Rulez!', a magnetic polish from Essence's LE 'Metallics'. No actual magnetic effects in this mani, though, I just thought the copper was a suitable colour to go with Holmes.

Hues of Blues.

Another non-current picture.
The blue consist of various layers; it was intended to be 'Bogota' bij Herôme's W.I.C. collection, but I found it to be so sheer I had to layer it. Underneath is an almost pastel cyan blue polish by Manhattan with Bogota on top, and I believe I tried a light blue polish from Essence in there somewhere.

The blue crackle is Miss Sporty, which crackled into much smaller pieces than I'd have liked. My other experience with crackle polishes lies with OPI's black shatter, which when applied with a relatively thick coat, crackles into nice big chunks, as I'm sure you know. I couldn't seem to replicate that kind of crackle with this blue.
But of course, this is a budget polish, and for the money I paid (€1.99 - no money at all) I can't say I'm disappointed. It's a nice shade of blue with an application I otherwise find acceptable. Having said that, Miss Sporty's black crackle crackles (what an overuse of the word!) just fine.

Starry Night.

 

Older nail art again. Done in April 2011, for a school assignment! Getting points for polishing nails, isn't that just living the dream? I study Art & Design, and at some point we were given the assignment to recreate a famous painting/work of art (that wasn't the Mona Lisa) in an 'unusual medium'. I chose to do van Gogh's 'Starry Night' in my favourite material.  The teacher seemed to quite like it, and she'd never had someone do nail art for her class.

Polishes used; see labels

If anybody is interested, I still have pictures of how I did this pretty much step by step.

Shol'va!

  Natural light, sadly a bad quality cellphone picture.

An oldie but a goodie? Done March 2011.
I'm a big science-fiction fan, as a result it'll come as no surprise Stargate SG-1 is among the shows I like. So this nail art is rather clearly based on everyone's favourite Jaffa, Teal'c!
Not the world's neatest mani but hey, I still like it. Even if my pinky-nail was oh so short!

The gold is a YSL polish that applies like a dream. It covers well, isn't streaky, has a very nice shimmer and it's just marvelous in any aspect. If gold was more my colour, this would undoubtedly be one of my favourite polishes because it applies so well (I prefer its silver counterpart!)
The brown is a polish from Hema's own brand, which is very cheap and reliable. You'll rarely be disappointed by a Hema polish. Not really visible in the picture, but in real life it has a rather interesting pinkish shimmer to it. That's actually the reason I picked it up in the first place. It's subtle, but nice.

 

Horrible lighting which is unfortunately the best I can do at the moment.