Category: Aco by Ardene

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“You’re the boss, applesauce.” Andy Warhol inspired nails.

I’ve been all about the floral lately. I found these Andy Warhol inspired nails on Pinterest, and knew I had to recreate them. A few years ago, I was completely obsessed with everything Warhol related–I even had a pair of Levi’s from their Warhol collection. So I knew I had to create my own version of those flower nails.

Surprisingly, they were really easy to create.

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First, I painted my nails with a base color of green. I used Sinful Colors Strapped. It’s a dark Forrest green, which dries to a Matte finish.

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Next, I created my “grass” using the dry brush technique with a collection of other green colors: ACO by Ardene in Sour Apple, ACO by Ardene in Green Peace and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Kiwi Bikini.

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After my grass was complete, I created my floral using a medium sized dotting tool and my four colors: Essence Love Letter’s collection in Rosy in Love (light pink flowers), China Glaze in Metro Pollen-tin (yellow flowers), ACO by Ardene in Lollipop Queen (purple flowers), and Revlon in Siren (orange flowers).

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Finally, I finished off with a layer of Sally Hansen Diamond Flash (yey! I finally have a new bottle and am so happy) and tada! Andy Warhol inspired floral nail art.

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And in the sunshine. =)

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So what do you think of these Andy Warhol nails? Did I do justice to my original inspiration?

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Simple Nails: purple & gold.

Sometimes I just don’t have time to get complicated with my manicures, for whatever reason. After rocking my Spiderman nails for two days, I needed to paint something new, but I was feeling under the weather so I had to come up with something quick, but still pretty.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • ACO by Ardene in Sea of Beauty — my gorgeous base color.
  • Layla in Golden Touch (from the soft touch collection) — golden shimmer.
  • Essence Gel-look Top Coat.

Oh man, I love the combination of these two together! Sea of Beauty is just the most perfect blue ever. And Golden Touch is one of my favorite polishes to layer over other polishes. It just jazzes up a manicure, and adds a nice shimmer. Love!

Also, you can see from my ring finger, I’m still having trouble with my Essence top coat–even though I applied the quick dry drops over the top coat, it obviously didn’t dry soon enough for me not to nick my nails. It makes me sad, because the top coat has excellent lasting potential–a good two days with no chipping, which for me is awesome since I work in retail and use my hands for 8 hours a day. =(

 

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April Showers bring May Floral Nails.

First off I just want to thank everyone that has been liking and commenting on my posts. It’s so exciting to know people like what I’ve been sharing! Nail art makes me happy, and it’s awesome being able to meet others who feel the same way. =)

Being as it’s now officially May, I was feeling a Spring floral for my nails. Floral print is one of my favorite prints to wear–whether it’s on my nails, or a dress. I was going for a kind of carnation look, which is a floral print I’ve never tried before. I don’t think they look exactly like carnations, but they do look like flowers so that’s all that matters!

floral

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • ACO by Ardene in Bridezilla — my base color.
  • ACO by Ardene in Ardene’s Secret –flower pedals.
  • ACO by Ardene in Secret Rendezvous –flower pedals.
  • Essie in We’re in this Together –flower pedals & polka dots between the flowers (though they are really light so didn’t show up as well.)
  • Sinful Colors in Strapped — outer color of the leaves.
  • ACO by Ardene in Green Peace –inner color of the leaves.
  • LA Girl Quick Dry Top Coat.

I absolutely love how these turned out. So pretty, and spring like. Unfortunately, I ran out of my trusty Sally Hansen Diamond flash, and I think my bottle of LA Girl Top Coat is old, because I made it not even an hour into work before these started to chip. And not just chip, but the whole nail polish just peeled off.

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Definitely not as pretty. =( And considering how much work I put into these, I was considerably unimpressed.

But! I got a new top coat, and quick drying drops to try out, so my next manicure will be featuring those. I’ve never used quick dry drops before, so I’m excited to see if they work. I almost always paint my nails the night before–usually before I head to bed–so I need something that will keep my nails from smudging or getting sheet marks. So hopefully these will work out for me. I don’t know if anything can top my Diamond Flash though–I’m going to have to start hoarding bottles of it, so I never run out!

So what’s your favorite floral print to recreate on your nails?

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 20: Water Marble.

Okay, so I can’t water marble.

I can’t do it. I don’t know how people can create such beautiful water marble manicures, but I am not one of them. However, I didn’t want to not have anything to show for day 20–except a whole bunch of failure–so I looked up “water marble without water” in google, and what did it lead me to? A dry “water marble” technique. Score! So it’s not your typical water marbled nails, but it was something I could actually accomplish so I figured that was better than nothing!

(If you’re interested, I used this youtube tutorial by cutepolish.)

drywatermarble

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Revlon polish in Minted–mint green polish.
  • China Glaze in What a Pansy!–purple polish.
  • OPI in My Boyfriend Scales Walls–white polish.
  • ACO by Ardene in Sea of Beauty–baby blue polish.
  • ACO by Ardene in Kiss from a Rose–pink polish.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Top Coat.

Even though I couldn’t do a proper water marble, I LOVE these. They spring color combination pops on the nail, and I just love the swirls. Even though I only did it on two accent nails for this manicure, I think it would love amazing all on my nails, and I will definitely be trying it again so I can play with it more (and with more color combinations).

 

 

 

Also, I’ve been thinking about this challenge, and I have to admit I’ve started to feel a little confined by it. I started it so I would have inspiration, but lately I feel like it’s restricting the manicures I want to do. There is SO much inspiration out there, and so many manicures I really want to try! I still want to finish the challenge, and not be a quitter, but I think I will be spreading it out with some other manicure ideas. Especially as my brand new dotting tool set just arrived, and I’ve yet to be able to really play with it, and it’s begging me to do some awesome floral nail art!

 

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The 31 Day Challenge –Day 12: Stripes.

I have to say I’m actually pretty impressed with myself, and the fact I’ve been able to keep this challenge going without giving up. It’s actually been so easy for nail art because I know what I have to do, it just means figuring out the details of how.

For Day 12, my prompt was stripes. I was inspired by this manicure I found on pinterest, a combination of stripes and flowers. Mine are a little different, obviously–and I’m still working on perfecting my roses. I can’t wait until the new nail art brushes arrive so I can do much smaller details. These are a little messy, but I still think they’re very pretty. And perfect for spring weather. The days are finally getting warmer, and so I will be wearing my darker manicure less often, and concentrating on spring colors.

stripes

As you can see, I went with purple stripes instead of the black ones in the picture, and only concentrated on the flowers on a few accent nails (my thumb, middle, and ring finger). My flowers are definitely not perfect, but I think I just didn’t choose the right combination of colors–I started these pretty late the night previous, when I was already tired.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were (from left to right):

  • ACO by Ardene in Sour Apple — light green polish in the middle of the leaves.
  • OPI’s Pinking of You — the light pink base of the roses (although they kind of got hidden by my other polishes).
  • Essie Watermelon — Accent dots of pink on the roses.
  • ACO by Ardene in Bridezilla — light ivory base of my nails.
  • Color Club Art Club striping polish in Paisley Paradise — stripes on my nails.
  • Garage Nail polish (No Name) — pink outline of my roses.
  • ACO by Ardene in Techno Green — darker green of my leaves.

All topped off with my favorite Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat (which you can see peeking out from the back row, behind my the Art Club striper.)

These are not my most impressive roses, but I think my stripes turned out awesome. I’m not very good at tape manicures, even with a lot of practice, so I rely on striping polishes to get them done! I’ve been working pretty hard on practicing my line work, and trying to get a steadier hand, and I really think it’s paying off. A year ago I would not have been able to draw such even lines on my nails!

Also I have to say how much I LOVE Bridezilla by ACO. I’ve been looking for a new off-white polish for wearing as a base, as I’m scared if I use my beloved My Boyfriend Scales Walls too much, it’s going to run out way quicker than I want. Bridezilla is somewhere between an off-white or cream, and a very very light nude, and I just adore it. The application was awesome (2 coats on most nails for opacity, with only one or two nails needing another coat thin coat for hiding some bald spots.) And it was the perfect base color for my stripes.

Also my best friend is getting married in August, and I’m not sure what nail art I’m going to be able to do, but Bridezilla could be a lovely color to wear just as is. (Our brides maid dresses are blue and cream stripes, and I’m pretty sure that is almost exactly the same color as the stripes on our dresses.)

 

So what do you think of this stripe and rose combination?