19 November 2012

Challenge Day #30: Inspired by a TUTORIAL

Well, hello there friends! Sorry for the long delay! I have been travelling and then busy/jetlagged/working/catching up for the few days I've been back. But I have not neglected my nails, so I have a few manicures lined up to show you soon! Today's will be a very special one--something super blingy for an occasion I attended last night, and the fulfillment of challenge #30: inspired by a tutorial.

As you can see by the right sidebar, I follow a lot of nail-art blogs. I also subscribe to loads of talented artists on YouTube! One such lady is Anna, aka JapanNailsAndMore. She does some of the most dramatic and gorgeous nail art I've ever seen, often inspired by the Japanese (hence the channel name... duh). They go above and beyond what Westerners call nail art, applying lots of gems and 3D acrylic designs that often extend well off the nail in all directions and even include the fingers! She also has some of the most creative techniques I have seen even for regular painting and decorating. Go check her out, she's fascinating! And has a lovely soothing voice in which she explains everything to boot. ^_^

Anyway, as soon as I saw this video, I was in love. Was just waiting for the right time to recreate it, and that time was last night! I attended a charity ball hosted by the Margarita Society, a local organisation that raises money and Christmas toy donations for charities all around the area. Having grown up very poor and benefitted from this sort of charity in the past, it is a cause that is dear to my heart and I always try to do something like this around the holidays. Doesn't always come with a fancy party, though! But since it did this year, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to go crazy and recreate Anna's blingy design!

Epically shiny!

Anna explains the process in her tutorial, so I won't go into exhausting detail--go watch her video! But the black I used was Piggy Polish Right BLACK At Ya, and the glitter is Sally Hansen Gem Crush in #08 Glitz Gal. I then used a pack of oversized, sticky-back scrapbooking rhinestones very similar to hers, and some nail glue to attach them. Few layers of Seche Vite topcoat sealed them all in. This was so fun to wear--they were catching the light better than any of my jewelry!

Without flash, so you can see the shapes and placements of the gems better.

I got so many compliments on these! My dress was a strapless black floor-length ballgown, corset-ish around the middle and then larger at the bottom, with a simple white band across the top. I felt a simple dress was perfect to accessorise this way, with lots of fun jewelled accents on my bag, shoes, fingertips, etc.

With my bag and one of the shoes, so you can see how well they went together!

And one more, so you can see that both hands match:



I'm glad to be back on here! I hope you missed me a little bit at least :o I'll be away the last half of next week, but as I said, I do have a couple of manis lined up that I plan to post, so I won't leave you as long again! Next post will be the last one of the challenge, a recreation of your favourite day. Then I'll be free again to do nails with only my own imagination as my guide. :D Yay! xoxo

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Lots of glittery love to you! xoxo