Water Decals: Sailor Jupiter

How cool are these? My inner-child would be freaking out over these Sailor Jupiter water decals from KKCenterHK (see the end of this post for a coupon)! They're paired with a bunch of other random girls, which I don't really understand, but are still cool. These went on super easy and were fairly sturdy. They are pretty long, which was an issue when I put them on my short nails (you can see the lack of green skirt on my middle finger), but I just let it dry and filed it off like you would with a dry polish appliqué.

Check out the detail on these! I wish these came in a set with all of the Sailor Scouts! Base color: 2 coats of OPI's Just Tea-sing with one coat of Nail Inc.'s holographic top coat.

Coupon Code for 10% at KKCenterHK: TORNADOCALLI (expires Jan. 31, 2014)

Click here to see my other posts about KKCenterHK's water decals and other products!

**This product was sent to me by KKCenterHK. This is my honest, unbiased review.

Summer Heights High Mani

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a big ol' television nerd (especially comedy). So, when anyone asks me about my favorite comedy shows, my #1 answer is always the Australian show Summer Heights High. If you haven't seen it, you need to Netflix or HBOgo that stuff, because it's hilarious (and has a great soundtrack).

Here, I present to you Jonah, Ja'mie, and Mr. G on a background made to mimic Ja'mie's school uniform:

All images used belong to Chris Lilley, ABC (Australia), and HBO.

Check out my other "floating head" manicures for tutorials and tips:

Doctor Who

Veep

Celebrate Your July 4th With the Veep!

Independence Day is just around the corner for us Americans, so I thought I'd pay tribute to our fictional VP, the "Veep" herself, Selina Meyer, and her hilarious staff members, Dan Egan, Amy Brookheimer, Gary Walsh, and Mike McClintock, with another "floating head" manicure!

To recreate this look, paint your nails any color as long as you top it off with a clear coat (I used Nails Inc.'s Holographic top coat). Then cut out whatever images you want as long as they fit within the surface area of the nail (it's not wise to have the image sit on the edge of the nail where it may become exposed to water). Put a small bit of clear coat wherever you want the image to sit and press the cutout onto the nail (you're essentially using the clear coat as glue at this point). Make sure that the cutout is sitting flush with the nail. Cover the cutout in another layer of clear coat--make sure that no dry paper is exposed (you don't even have to cover the entire nail if you're going to add the stripes, just make sure the cutout is sealed in). To make the stripes you need to paint clear tape with blue and red polish and allow it to dry. Cut the tape into strips or whatever shapes you like and apply them to the nail. Seal the entire nail with a top coat or else the polish may separate from the tape and fall off.

That's it! "Wait!" you're thinking, "But where do I get those teeny-tiny Veep heads?" Right here! Save the image below and print it out and get to making your own Veep manicure... and then post it in the comments 'cause I want to see what you guys come up with! It should print out at about 3 inches wide and 2 inches tall. And check it out--you even get a bonus Jonah option for the fans of the wise-crackin' White House liaison that I didn't use in my mani!

Click here for another one of my "floating head" manis (Doctor Who themed)!

Veep and all Veep images belong to HBO.

Prometheus' David 8 Inspired Water Marble

By now, we've all seen the David 8 viral video promoting the movie Prometheus. The thing I love the most about this video, besides the gorgeous Michael Fassbender, is the color palette! It's so futuristic without being overbearing. I used a moss green, darker seafoam, and silver over a flesh-toned base.

Blog notes: I know I've been doing a lot of water marbles, so I'll try to tone it down! Also, I'll be switching to Monday/Thursday posts instead of Tuesday/Thursday posts. Everyone cool with that?

David 8 image source

"They Call Me Diamondback"

Luxury Comedy fans, here's one for you. This mani is based on Noel Fielding's character, Diamondback, who uses the large amount of googly eyes on his face as percussion in his music.

I didn't have a silver, so I used a baby blue Zoya with Essie's Shine of the Times over it. Then I pressed the googly eyes into the polish while it was still fairly wet so it would be embedded in it. Topped it off with a layer of Seche, which was difficult to get in between the eye spaces.

Done on a nailboard... with bonus stripey nail!

The Nerdist Pod-mani

Iiiiiiittttttt'sssss a mani! Iiittt'ss a tribute! It's a mani, it's a tribute, it's a manute? Okay, so that's not as catchy as the Quemment song but I tried, okay?

If you are not aware of The Nerdist, either as a person, industry, podcast, or "way", you've been left behind! Click the links and educate your sheltered self!

This is my tribute to the podcast cover art (Hi Chris, Jonah, and Matt!)... and as you can see, mimicking a font by hand (with a brush) is hard, you guys. I randomly picked 11 as the podcast number which happened to be Eugene Mirman's and God's Pottery's episode. As I recall, that episode was hilarious.

Enjoy your burrito!

The Ricky Gervais Show

If you have not seen The Ricky Gervais Show on HBO, you're seriously missing out. It stars the cartoon versions (but original voices) of Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and "the round-headed buffoon known as Karl Pilkington".

Karl is an interesting individual. He's an idiot, but sometimes he speaks with poignant clarity. He's almost the human embodiment of the saying "from the mouths of babes". You have to experience Karl to understand Karl.

They're out of their sitting order, I know, but my nails are very short so the real estate was allocated to those who needed it. Here's my golden tip for someone attempting nail art like this: Correct with your base color ex. If you screw up a black line, use the tan base color to cover up the black. Karl's face probably has about 2 more bad faces buried under tan polish underneath his current face.

All images belong to HBO, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, & Karl Pilkington

Noel Fielding Inspired Mani

I've been out of The Mighty Boosh's fandom-loop for a while now (but I didn't lose the love, y'all), so when I ran across Noel Fielding's new art book The Scribblings of a Madcap Shambleton, I first, tried to buy it (darn you, pre-order!), but then just decided to look up his more recent work. He's been doing book signings in the UK where he paints a giant canvass with his surreal and whimsy images in front of fans. It's brilliant.

Here are my less colorful interpretations of his latest collection:

You can learn more about Noel, his art, and The Mighty Boosh at The Velvet Onion. You can view and buy his work at Hooligan Art Dealer.

BTW, this isn't an advert, I'm just a fan.

Geronimo! Doctor Who Nails!

Hello, Whovians! The time of Doctor Who is upon us and I am loving every second of it! I wanted to create the feeling of the Tardis, The Doctor, Amy, Rory, and River floating in space so I put their teeny-tiny heads (each under one square centimeter) over one coat of OPI's Last Friday Night (in retrospect, I should have done another coat). It has the effect of some gel nails I've seen with objects floating in the gel, but LFN gives a flash of blue and glitter for that cosmic look.

To do this you:

1. Paint your base
2. Apply the image (printed from a computer or ripped from a magazine, etc.) while the paint is still wet
3. Hold the image down to get it to stick as best as you can (this may take a while)
4. Apply a thick top coat, and possibly another layer of top coat