Nailed It | The Nail Art Blog: OPI

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Extra Christmas

My name's Katy and this morning I listened to Christmas music. It just felt right in the moment, and I harbor no shame about it! Halloween had it's time to shine, and now Christmas is on my mind, especially after getting the Shine Bright collection from OPI! So with a little push from OPI, I made this look featuring colors from the collection and Swarovski Crystalpixie exclusive shades that came with the colors.

I used all 4 of the Swarovski shades: Crystal Shimmer, Copper, Rose Gold, and Chrome.

All the gels used for this look are from the Shine Bright Collection, including:

Multi-Dimensional Diva
Dressed to the Wines
Snowfalling for You
Gingerbread Man Can
This Gold Sleighs Me
Twilight Tones
Optical Nailusion

I also used Alpine Snow (OPI) beneath Optical Nailusion for the base of the 3 middle fingers to punch up the contrast, and then some of the outline details were done with Kokoist gels Bluey White and Maxi Black. (They're amazing for detailing!)

Matte-ful Botanical

If I could poll the clients I work with to learn which collections from OPI they like the most, the popular vote (and electoral college vote) would wholeheartedly agree that it's been OPI's Fall collection every time since I've been working as a nail technician. So, to pay homage to past Fall collections and to scratch the itch to continue to make beautiful nail art posts, here's a fall botanical scene for you to enjoy.

All but the rusty orange (It's a Piazza Cake) are from the Washington D.C. fall collection back in 2016. The yellow is Never a Dulles Moment, the raspberry is OPI by Popular Vote, and the army green is Suzi - The First Lady of Nails.

Don't those seem fitting as we come to the end of day 4 of the presidential election?

All the botanical illustrations were hand painted over a blob of My Vampire is Buff (also OPI) with Black Hole (from INM). I topped it all with OPI's Matte Top Coat as well. (Has anyone else really been vibing with the matte top coats? It all started for me when I did a friend's nails back in September for Halloween.)

Inktober Day 29: Shoes

Home stretch for Inktober 2020! Today's prompt is "shoes", and rather than do the typical converse nail art, I gave it a little spooky spin.

The green base is Secret Garden Posh (lakur), and the orange is Sunset Blvd (American Apparel). Black Hole and White Porcelain (INM) provided the rest of the look, plus little silver rivets of Push and Shove (OPI).

Inktober Day 28: Float

It was pretty obvious with it being spooky season, and with a prompt like "float", that I was going to do an homage to "It"...the origin story for all creepy clowns.

The colors I used were Licorice (essie), White Porcelain (INM), and Having a Big Head Day and It's a Piazza Cake (both from OPI).

I also apologize for the late post. I was fully engulfed in a new (to me) docuseries called "The Vow,"

Inktober Day 26: Hide

If anyone has a cat, you're familiar with their antics. One of the cutest is when they're "hidden" but their tail or ears are poking out, but you pretend they're actually hidden, just like when a child plays hide and seek. So sebrodrick's Ghost Cat Collection was the perfect inspiration for today's prompt.

The background yellow is The "It" Color from OPI...one of my personal favorites.

Inktober Day 25: Buddy

There's one "buddy" that comes to mind for most people, especially if you're in Colorado right now and the snow is falling. Here's the infamous Buddy the Elf for day 25 of Inktober!

This little Christmas-in-October look with Buddy the Elf wasn't difficult to create, but it did require a few polishes:

Cement the Deal (OPI)
Pale to the Chief (OPI)
Get in the Expresso Lane! (OPI)
Chyna (Zoya)
Cece (Zoya)
Gravitron (Misa)
Tumble Bug (Misa)
Loop-de-Loop (Misa)

Inktober Day 22: Chef

I had an idea to do riff on the "holy trinity" of Italian cooking (celery, carrot, and onion), so when I hopped online to find pictures of onions, I stumbled upon this ADORABLE design of vegetables from Zhe Vasylieva and knew they belonged on my nails.

There were a lot of colors needed for these little veggies:

Sultry Solstice, Mahogany Magic, and Emerald Bae (China Glaze)
Whitley (Cacee)
Loop-de-loop and Cherry Blossom Awesome (Misa)
My Boyfriend Scales Walls (OPI)
An NCLA purple that's missing its name

Inktober Day 21: Sleep

Today's prompt is "sleep", so I wanted to just do a bunch of Z's. I thought it'd be cool to do them in different font styles too.

I looked up what the "colors of sleep" were, and the first, unresearched result I found said cool, dark colors like green and blue, so I used two OPI colors to meet that requirement: Amazon...Amazoff and Road House Blues.

Inktober Day 19 and Day 20: Dizzy and Coral

Thanks for your patience about yesterday. I was so wiped out at the end of the day I just couldn't muster the willpower to stay awake and do a thoughtful design. But when I checked what day 20's prompt was, I thought I could combine the two into one! So here is day 19 (dizzy) and day 20 (coral).

My little seahorse carousel was done with another Zoya Pixiedust shade (Levi) and a hot pink I LOVED (Byrdie), plus a classic OPI I've always enjoyed (My Boyfriend Scales Walls).

Inktober Day 18: Trap

Trap was tough for me to figure out. I kept going back to a mouse trap, then I got really gory with the face trap used in the Saw movies, but then I thought of a Venus Fly Trap, and that parlayed into the Mario plant, aka the piranha plant!

I used a few essie colors (Strut Your Stuff, Cascade Cool, Ruffles & Feathers, and Snap Happy), Can't Read Without My Lipstick (OPI), and my favorite INM black (Black Hole) and white (White Porcelain) for the little piranha plant. I liked the subtle dots I did on my "Rodent" post, so I did a little bit of that again with alternating colors.

Inktober Day 14: Armor

I'm so happy with Inktober so far! It's really expanded my horizons and I've loved it so much! Today I got to do some fantastic nail art on a dear coworker and friend, so when I got home, I decided that the "armor" look for day 14 would be a little more simple, but it's still striking if you ask me!

Here's my little crab, nature's natural knight, all armored up for this debut.

This was a pretty quick nail art to make tonight, as it only required 3 colors:

My Boyfriend Scales Walls (OPI)
Demetria (Zoya)
Waverly (Zoya)

Inktober Day 13: Dune

The prompt for today is "dune." I had a post saved from nailsbymimi on Instagram that reminded me of dunes in the sunset, so I decided to emulate her look for mine today.

Today's little rainbow is made up of:

Be There in a Prosecco (OPI)
Abbacadazzle (Sation)
If In Doubt, Surf It Out (China Glaze)
Sun Worship-Her (Sation)
License & Registration Pls (China Glaze)
Lookin Gore-geous (China Glaze)

Inktober Day 12: Slippery

Here's to all the Mario Kart players out there, who are painfully aware of how terribly "slippery" bananas can be. And they always seem to appear when you're about to win.

For the background, I used Mezmerised from essie, and for the bananas I used a few OPI colors including A-Piers to be Tan, Towel Me About It, Get in the Expresso Lane, Never a Dulles Moment, and The "It" Color.

Inktober Day 11: Disgusting

Ready to be grossed out? By something truly disgusting for day 11 of Inktober? How about some raw meat with maggots on it?

To get good blending and highlights on the maggots, I needed a LOT of colors, including:

You're So Vain-illa (OPI)
Aubrey (Zoya)
Never a Dulles Moment (OPI)
Chartreuse (Charlotte Russe)
Hera (Zoya)
Emilia (Zoya)
And some unlabeled Color Club greyish-tan creme

Inktober Day 10: Hope

To quote Dr. Ian Malcom, "life finds a way". And in that, there is "hope", so here's my "life finds a way" tribute to Jurassic Park, with a little flower peaking through concrete.

The OPI rainbow I used for this look includes the polishes:

Embrace the Gray
Dark Side of the Mood
Towel Me About It
SPF XXX
I'm Sooo Swamped!

Inktober Day 7: Fancy

I've made it a week into Inktober 2020! Which design has been your favorite?

Today's prompt is "fancy", and as someone who isn't willing to pay more for a brand name for the sake of fashion, I consider lots of name brands "fancy". So here's a popular name brand you will probably recognize for today's look.

The two colors used for this "fancy" hand painted design are Elaine (Zoya) and A-Taupe the Space Needle (OPI).

Inktober Day 4: Radio

I LOVE today's nail art. The colors and the contrast with the black lines is a favorite for sure! The prompt for today was "radio", so I found a pin from someone's Pinterest after Googling "retro radio drawing" and just copied it and its colors.

The shades of polish I used for this retro radio are:

Why Yellow There... (Sephora by OPI)
Black Hole (INM)
Never a Dulles Moment (OPI)
Live.Love.Carnival (OPI)
Where's My Chauffeur (essie)

Of course it's all hand painted, and I would definitely work with this color palette again!

Inktober Day 3: Bulky

I'm excited to share this one. As soon as I heard today's prompt, "bulky", I knew I wanted to do a sweater. And I've been dying to try out the fuzzy sweater technique I've been seeing other artists do all over Instagram for a while now. Couple that with the new OPI Muse of Milan collection and its pretty fall colors and you've got yourself the perfect chunky sweater look!

The colors I used from the Muse of Milan collection are all gel. You could probably get the look from regular polish too, but it would take MUCH longer and I'm not sure it would have the same sort of 3D look. The colors I used are called:

Have Your Panettone and Eat It Too (pinky)
My Italian is a Little Rusty (thumb)
Complimentary Wine (middle finger)
Suzi Talks with Her Hands (ring finger)
Drama at La Scala (index finger)

To get the look, you need to first lay down the base color on all your nails by curing two coats of color, then wiping off the sticky inhibition layer. I also did a buff with a soft grit buffer, just to make it even less shiny. Then, with gel top coat, paint the sweater design, sprinkle clear dip powder on the wet gel, then cure. I did this in several stages so that my design didn't run into itself. After it's done curing, use a soft brush to brush off excess dip powder. Because you cured the gel and wiped off the inhibition layer from your base, the powder should only stick to your design and make it look fuzzy. Voila!

I like the grey sweater nail on my ring finger the most. I'll probably do this look again because it's just so fun to play with. It's like a fidget spinner...so tactile!

Inktober Day 2: Wisp

Apparently a lot of folks were asking what "wisp" meant when the 2020 Inktober prompts were announced. From my video game experience, I knew it was something whispy, almost ghost-like. So for today's manicure, I was inspired by a post on Instagram from @nailssjunkie. She had some long stiletto nails that worked wonderfully for the look, but I just loved it so much and thought it was the perfect look for "wisp". The smoky effect epitomizes wisp.

It took a while to get this look. It was a lot of layering with wet polishes and acetone, but only required two colors. I used Act Your Beige (OPI) for the base and then painted wisps of Black Onyx (OPI) over it. Dotting acetone to blur out the defined lines created the smoky effect.

Tomorrow's prompt is "bulky"...any guesses what that will be?

Inktober Day 1: Fish

Welcome to my third year of Inktober! (To learn more about it, visit here.) I've loved doing this since I heard about it from someone I follow on Instagram. While it's actually meant for pen and ink artists, it is just such a creative outlet to try new things when I have nail artist's block. I'll be posting each day in October according to a list of prompts, and today's prompt is "fish".

As you know from my post in April, I started playing the video game "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" to pass the time during quarantine. One of the aspects of its gameplay is taking your character fishing. When you fish in the ocean, you often reel in a sea bass, much to the dismay of players as its a very common fish. So I paid it some homage with today's design.