In an effort to expand my horizons, this past weekend I checked out a documentary about Charles and Ray Eames. You may not know them by name (I didn’t before Friday) but chances are great that you know the art and design masterpieces they created together over several decades. Awesome individually as an architect (Charles) and a painter (Ray), they were best known for their collaborative efforts which led to these popular, innovative, relatively affordable chair designs. Their motto: The best for the most for the least. Here are a few examples….
Ok, whose grandparents had this chair/ottoman set? I’m pretty sure mine did.
The chair present in every doctor’s office in the 1980s…
And you haven’t lived until you’ve napped in one of the Eames’ tandem chairs commonly used in airports…
But what struck me most about the documentary of the lives of the Eames was their house. When an architect and an artist get married and design their own home, beauty ensues. I dedicate my manicure to this…
Here is more information about the history Eames house, also known as Case Study House #8.
For this manicure, I used one coat of Essie Ballet Slippers, a very pale pink, to provide a neutral background for this take on a stained glass nail effect. I used a black Kiss Nail Artist brush to paint the lines. Instead of the primary colors the Eames used, I chose some pretty fall colors for this manicure (Thanks Mom!). I, at random, filled in squares with China Glaze Ruby Pumps (microglitter red), Orly Fowl Play (deep purple with orange and red glitter), Wet n Wild Fast Dry 188.8.131.52.Orange (shimmery orange/gold), and Orly Luxe (metallic gold).
If you get a chance, check out this article about the Eames documentary and see if your local independent theater is screening it. Education and inspiration in one interesting film…
UPDATE 11-22-11: A modern art enthusiast and Twitter friend has given me more info on the inspiration behind the design of this house. Piet Mondrian was a Dutch painter who created this painting and other similar works of art:
The Eames were inspired by his work while designing their house and I was inspired by the Eames. For more info about Mondrian, check out this Wikipedia entry. For that reason, I’ve changed the name of this post to give credit where credit is due.
I realize that many women work in more conservative work environments and are limited to nude and neutral shades for their fingernails. To these women, I say wear some closed-toe shoes and rock some crazy colors on your toenails! But on your fingernails, there may still be ways to sneak in a little bit of pizazz. This nail look was pretty much stolen from one of my nail diva high school classmates I saw this past weekend during my 10 year high school reunion (*gasp* I’ve revealed my age!). The restaurant was dimly lit but her nude polish with a glitter accent finger really appealed to me. So I stole it…she knows I had plans to steal it though 😀
If you’ve scrolled through my blog, you’ll see that the great majority of my designs are not conservative-workplace-appropriate but I hope you nail divas with constraints can try this look.
I painted all but my index fingers with Essie Ballet Slippers, a very pale and sheer cool pink color. It actually took 4 coats for me to get it this opaque :-|. This required a great deal of dry time between coats to avoid bubbles later. Sorry folks, I’m not a sheer polish fan but I love this color and it’s been sitting in my collection for months waiting to be used for the first time. For my index fingers I used 2 coats of Orly Tiara, my go-to silver microglitter polish, and 2 coats of Sally Hansen Extreme Wear Set the Stage, a clear top-coat based polish with large gold hexagonal glitter pieces and smaller gold microglitter pieces. I topped it all off with CND Super Shiney because I don’t think my nails could’ve taken the thickness of my normal Seche Vite.
For this manicure I used the following colors:
Base color: China Glaze Jitterbug (gunmetal)
Red/Orange: Wet n Wild Fast Dry 184.108.40.206.Orange, Wet n Wild Fast Dry Everybody Loves Redmond, Essie Forever Young, China Glaze Phat Santa [I used 220.127.116.11.Orange as the base color the sponged on the other 3 colors one after the other in order to create that fade from orange to dark red]
Aaaaaand it’s an Enamelista Signature mani so it looks different dependent upon the angle you view my hands. I hope I did Optimus Prime proud. Transformers was one of my favorite cartoons growing up. 😀
I went to my first Mani Party last weekend with a few fellow nail fans and it was fantastic! Desiree Mattox, chemist and expert in cosmetic science (envielabs.com), supplied us with a wonderful hand soak, scrub, and moisturizer. She even does custom cosmetics for your specific skin type and custom fragrances using all natural ingredients! Check out the link above!
After the hand and nail pampering, the polishing began! Check out all the fun designs below!
Contrast color ring finger with a J in rhinestones
Summer mani with polka-dotted ring fingers
French manicure with an alternative color scheme and Crackle on the thumbs
The turquoise and gold signature manicure
Girl talk + Manicures = Fun Times 😀
So I was headed to a BBQ Sunday evening but I really needed to redo my nails. I didn’t really have time to research and execute a brand new look so I looked at the bracelet I planned to wear and that was all the inspiration I needed. I quickly painted a design that looked different based on the angle using colors that best matched the bracelet. And with that, I think I’ve found my personal “Signature Manicure”. I love creating the illusion of 2 (or 3) different looks in one design based on the angle at which it is viewed!
So for this look, I used Orly Bailamos for the base color (teal), then Essie Shift Power (gold) on one side of my nail. I sponged Orly Luxe (another shade of gold) on the line separating Bailamos and Shift Power then included a stripe of Art Deco Gold Glitter on the golden side just to add a little pizazz. I think turquoise and gold make a good color combo!
P.S. I’ve been thinking of doing a swatch gallery–to paint my nails with every color I own once and taking pictures to document them all. But the thought of doing 80 or so manicures feels like such a daunting task…I’ll have to keep you guys posted. Below is an example from a loooong time ago, way before this blog was even thought about. The color is OPI A Good Man-darin Is Hard To Find.
In fashion, I most admire the designers and stylists that are able to combine more than one trend in a single look while keeping it from looking ridiculous, i.e. mixing floral and stripe patterns or purposeful color clashing. You have to have a keen eye to make sure your clashing looks well-planned/chic and not thrown-together/tacky. As I’ve been studying up on nail trends for the summer, OPI’s Shatter polishes (along with China Glaze’s Crackle, etc.) are holding on to their popularity among nail artists and nail polish fans alike and neons are popular again for Summer 2011, especially those with a very fine micro shimmer or creme finishes. But Zoya’s Mod Matte Summer Collection caught my eye because they’re a matte finish unlike every other major polish brands’ summer collection that I’ve seen. While I love Zoya’s colors (and will probably end up picking them up eventually) I decided to go the cost savings route for this mani.
I wanted to combine the OPI Shatter Movement (yes movement), the neon summer nail color trend, and the matte finish trend. After A LOT of experimenting on practice nail tips and my own nails, I settled on this half-and-half design. I applied a base coat, then one coat of China Glaze White on White because it’s a good base for neon polishes. Next, I painted half of each nail with China Glaze Shocking Pink and the other half with China Glaze In The Lime Light. It took 2 coats on each side to get the opaque color you see in the picture. Next I applied one coat of OPI Silver Shatter diagonally across one half of each nail then followed with one coat of OPI Black Shatter on the other diagonal half. Interestingly, all 4 of these colors dry with a matte finish, but to add an extra layer of protection, I finished with one coat of Essie Matte About You.
Does it kind of look like a girly graffiti to anyone else? 😀
From what I read, matte finish polishes and top coats don’t last nearly as long as high gloss finishes so I won’t be sad if this starts chipping sooner than I’m used to. For now, I’m loving it.
1. Yesterday, I almost bought a color that I already owned. Something about the color in my hand seemed familiar and I’m glad I put it back before buying it because I would’ve been quite disappointed once I got home. It has come to a point where I actually don’t know what I own and what colors I’d still like to add to my collection. Time to reorganize my nail polish collection, eh?
2. Also yesterday, @OPI_PRODUCTS on Twitter asked its followers “What does your collection look like?”. I’ve only been really interested in keeping up with nail trends/collections for a little less than a year, but in the last 6 months my collection has exploded. Here’s a little photo timeline of my collection over the past six months.
I had just gone from keeping my nail polishes in my linen closet on a little tray to a plastic shoe box. I was so proud of myself!
But by March 2011 one shoe box was no longer enough. I had also begun amassing lots of other supplies (nail polish remover, q-tips, fabric, etc) that could not be contained in 1 shoe box.
By April 2011 even 2 plastic shoe boxes wasn’t enough, so I found these little shelving units and bought 3 of them.
Sooooo after watching some YouTube videos on how other nail polish addicts keep their polishes organized, I decided on two 3-tiered cabinet shelving units from Bed, Bath, and Beyond to display my collection.
Here it is as of 5-9-2011 😀
Row #1 – Base coats, top coats, nail treatments, glitter top coat, shatter top coats, nail art stripers
Row #2 – Orly (16)
Row #3 – Essie (5), OPI (8 full size, 3 minis), 7 Wet n’ Wild Fast Dry
Row #4 – China Glaze (20)
Row #5 – China Glaze (8), Nina Ultra Pro (1), Ulta Professional (2), Barielle (1), Wet n Wild Megalast (1)
What’s not shown? My supplies — nail polish remover, foil for glitter polish removal, lace, tulle, nail clippers, nail files, nail polish thinner for reviving old polishes, paintbrushes, dotting tools, etc.
In the end, I had to make some tough cuts. Many of the non-professional, drug-store brand polishes were left in a plastic shoe box. I only anticipate using those colors if I need extra detailing for nail art.