Work Wear Wednesday Tutorial Subtle Ruffian

Today I have a subtle look that I actually wore for a meeting, so this has been beta tested! It is a super easy, three step, no tool look that anyone can pull off! I have a simple, subtle ruffian manicure to share with you today!

Nail Art: #31DC2014 Day 8 Metallic

Today's challenge is metallic nails for the daily nail art challenge! I have been wanting to use OPI's Push and Shove for a while, and I don't know why I hadn't pulled it out of my stash yet. It is perfect for a metallic challenge. It is the closest to a mirror polish I own! For today's look, I was inspired by the lovely The Dalai Lama's Nails. She did a black and white ruffian, and I thought that would look nice with a metallic. The other color I used was OPI Every Month is Oktoberfest. This was one I have been wanting for ages and this summer received it as a gift! I wanted to create something simple here, so I pulled out the striping tape again, but only put down one or two stripes on each nail. Push and Shove is super finicky so I had to be sure to put the special base coat down before layering it over the other polish. 

Nail Art: Fourth of July Designs

Patriotic nails galore! I have been seeing a ton of patriotic nails for the Fourth of July and I am going to add mine in as well. I did one yesterday that I loved, but wasn't overtly patriotic. These today are meant for Independence Day. I used the same red, white and blue for all of these designs. I used Ruffian: Ruffian Red for the red which is exclusively sold at Birchbox. I actually have the classic colors set (along with some others), but it doesn't appear to be available at the moment. For the blue, I used Sinful Colors Into the Blue, which is amazing! It really is a perfect navy blue. It has a weird scent, but the coverage and gorgeous color help me get over the scent. For the white, I have actually been liking my China Glaze White On White. I know in the past I have said I don't like it, but something about it has changed my mind. It is a little thinner than other whites I have, maybe in the warm weather, it has thickened slightly and now I love it. I love how I have a range of drugstore to high end brands here! 

Nail Art: Patriotic Roses

I have an exciting mani to share today! Patriotic Roses! I recently went to a meet up with other nail polish lovers in my area and we talked about doing "Portland/Fourth of July" themed nails. Since Portland is the Rose City I combined that with the fourth of July colors and created this. I used my nail vinyls for the first time, which was really exciting! I used so many polishes here:

1. Essie- Aruba Blue

2. Sinful Colors- Snow Me White

3. Essie- First Timer

4. Color Club- Wild Cactus

5. OPI-Quarter of a Cent-Cherry

6. Ruffian- Ruffian Red

7. Nika K- Red

8. Essie- Head Mistress

Phew, seriously that was a ton of polish! I also used a red acrylic, because I realized part way through that all of my reds are very similar in tone. Oh well, here is the final look:

Nail Art: Teal and Gold Ruffian

Hello! I had a work conference all weekend and I wasn't able to post! Today I have to share the manicure I wore for the conference this weekend. It is a little grown out, but I hope you can forgive me. I have a gold base with a teal layer over. I used Lancome (my first-swatches later) Ginger Swing and Essie Go Overboard.

Nail Art: A Random Sampling

 Hello all! I have a somewhat unusual post for you today. I have a few nail art designs I never shared with you on my blog, but I didn't think these deserved a post on their own, so I decided to lump three nail art designs into one post! If you haven't figured it out yet, I like to play with nail designs a lot. Often I feel like the design doesn't live up to my expectations so I'll leave it on for maybe a day an take if off. The next few designs were of that variety of nail art. The first was for #nailartsep on Instagram (@HandtasticIntentions) and the theme was football. My husband is a Niners fan and I automatically thought I could represent his team on my nails for a little while at least. I'm not a huge fan of football, but why not make my husband happy and do a little nail art in the process?

The next design was one of which I wished I had taken more pictures! I wanted to try a natural colored leopard print nail and I actually think it turned out pretty well. I used some simple dotting tools to achieve this look. Nude: Ruffian, Naked, Brown: OPI, Wooden Shoe Like to Know, Black: Ruffian, Ciré Noir, Top Coat: NYC, Matte Top Coat. Ruffian nail lacquer can be found at Birchbox which is exclusive to the site. I bought the classics set which came with a nude, black and red. Once I finished my design, I felt like I had to have a matte finish, and I really enjoyed the final look. Makes me wish I had a better matte top coat!

This last design is one I had originally planned on writing it's own post about, but I didn't really like this one as much as I thought I would. It was inspired by one of Miss Jen Fabulous' designs seen on her YouTube channel. Pretty easy to do if you have dotting tools and an interesting look. I might try this again with different and more contrasting colors. I used A England Tristam for the dark blue and OPI Thanks a Windmillion for the lighter blue.

This was a pretty random assortment of designs, but I hope you like them! Let me know if you want a tutorial on any of these!

Swatch and Review of Zoya: Giovanna and Ruffian: Delirium

We have had quite a bit of blustery, stormy weather here in Oregon lately and that makes me want to embrace fall finally. I've been wanting to hold on to summer, but I think now I am ready for the season change. Today I have two lovely fall colors to share with you! I picked up Zoya Giovanna on a whim, because it looked like a nice color that I didn't already own- which is saying something. I'll get to the Ruffian polish further in this post.

Isn't Giovanna stunning? I love how this polish glows. It was a little more teal leaning than it looks in the bottle, but gorgeous nonetheless. I applied three coats to get full opacity. Zoya is a brand that actually is free of 5 harmful chemicals rather than the usual 3, commonly called 3 free. I'm somewhat concerned about harsh chemicals in my nail polish, so when I can, I try to at least get 3 free polishes which most brands are doing now. Let's move on, shall we?

Introducing Ruffian Nail Lacquer:

Ruffian is actually a high fashion brand and this is their first dabble into the polish market. I received this product in my monthly Birchbox, but probably wouldn't have heard of it since it is exclusive to Birchbox right now. Apparently a few years back at one of their runway shows their models sported a new style of manicure which I have mimicked below. and have posted about previously.

The color is called Delirium and I would say it is more of a royal purple and less blue in real life. I love this polish! I only used one coat for the layer over Giovanna. It is so smooth and lovely and with the bottle design, the application is a breeze. Delirium is from their Crowd Sourced collection, which is the more vibrant and daring of the two collections. I have already ordered their Classics collection. I just have to have more! I am really impressed with this new line of polish. It is pricey at $10 for only 0.17 fl oz. That is usually a sample size or mini container size. I really enjoy the ergonomic and interesting design of the brush handle, it makes a difference in ways I never knew I needed a change! What do you think of these two colors? I enjoyed these colors together. It reminds me of peacock colors, which is always rich and fun. Hope you like them too. Happy Sunday!

Nail Art: Ruffian Nails

Ruffian manicures are becoming more and more popular these days. Ruffian manicures are an interesting trend. You paint a base color and add an accent color over top in the same shape as the nail, but farther down, which creates a crescent moon shape at the base of the nail. I tried this out with Essie: No More Film and butter LONDON: Brown Sugar. I love these two colors together!

I'm not sure if I like this style yet, but I'd love to know what you think! It is an interesting new look and I love how the solid colors and metallic colors look great together. This look requires no tools and only two colors, so it is great for the starter nail artists! I think this may be my September tutorial, so stay tuned. Thanks!