Altered Izzy

I’m back! Sorry for the disappearance!

Izzy — Sat, 26 Apr 2014 14:11:53 +0000

Well I’m back! I didn’t go anywhere but I did start a new job that is all consuming and that has not left me a lot of time to blog. Nevertheless, we soldier on!
While I haven’t been writing the blog I have been keeping up with all the wonderful nail artists on Instagram. I also post on Instagram and you will note that I’ve put up some new nail art there.
Today I will be showing you some woodland inspired nails. I love vintage anything, especially vintage printed fabrics. Toile being my all time favorite with children’s patterns coming in a close second. I love the friendly cartoon illustrations of the various animals.

I love how the squirrel and the bunny came out. I also love the pairing of the wood grain with the animals. Next time I do these little guys, I want to stamp my background with the wood grain and paint my animals on top.

For this look I used:
Revlon copper penny
Rimmel rags to riches and black satin
Acrylic paint
Some rhinestones from cheeky beauty
Jumbo cheeky plate D

Hope you liked them! Next time I plan on showing you my line work! I’ve been practicing! Stay tuned and welcome back!

Halloween Mix Part 2

Izzy — Sat, 09 Nov 2013 22:40:27 +0000

As promised I am showing you my second set of Halloween nails. I really wanted to try doing some torn skin nails like these ones and many others on the interwebs! The eye was supposed to look like a mummy’s eye surrounded by bandages, it was a bit muddled but still looked cool. The other nails were a fail, purple and orange textures glitter fade, slime green glitter sandwich, and the worst ever attempt at vampire lips print.

Sometimes things don’t turn out as well as you think, oh well the next ones will be better!
For this look I used:
O.P.I. James Bond collection Honey Rider, Jinx

Hand Painted Mix Part 2

Izzy — Sun, 03 Nov 2013 19:04:54 +0000

Hello again! I know I played a sneaky Halloween blog post swap out last time but today I will really be showing you the rest of my hand painted mix. As usual I used polish for a base and then used acrylic paint to do the designs, everything then gets the Seche Vite Top Coat treatment once it is done.

I really like the way these turned out. I t took quite a while for me to complete these and I wanted to practice so I painted them on some false nails. Sometimes you just want your art to last!
Next up is my second set of Halloween nails so stay tuned!

Sneaky Halloween Post!

Izzy — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 18:19:59 +0000

Mouha-ha-ha!! Ha!ha! I’m sneaking in a Halloween post because I can! I know I promised to show you the rest of my hand painted nails but, I am totally digging Halloween nails right now and wanted to show you guys what I’ve been wearing for the last week or so.
I also wanted to point out that I had decided a few weeks ago to do a UV gel overlay on my nails seeing as how so many of them were cracked or broken and u did not want to gut them down. It has been a learning curve for sure but I think I’m staring to get the hang of these gel sculptured nails thingy! I have done them about three times now (once as a full set and two more times as a fill) and I have only applied a thin coat of gel over my natural nails, I have not used tips to lengthen my nails in any way. I also used the tea bag method to repair any broken or cracked nails. Works like a charm! The difficulty with the at home gel is building up the gel and getting it to stay where you need it to. I also have a small Seche Vite UV light and I don’t think the uv rays of the light actually reach parts of the nail leaving un-cured gel that gets wiped off when you clean up. Always make certain to get the whole surface of the nail is exposed to the light to avoid this problem.
Any how I also wanted to mention that my nail polish seems to last a great deal longer with the gel overlay! I just used a good thick coat of Seche Vite Top Coat on top to seal everything in. I have read that you can also add a layer of builder UV gel on top of your polish nice it is completely dry to really seal it in (I have not done this yet because I like to change my polish a few times a week!)
So here are my Halloween nails:

I used a bunch of stamping plates for the designs on my Cinderella hand and painted the other hand using acrylic paints. I had a really hard time with the brain and as a result it has a phallic look to it. Oh well I guess it will just have to do for the next few days, it is a long weekend this weekend here in Canada and I get to go to my turkey on at my best friend’s house woohoo!

For this look I used:
Essence do you speak love?, grey-t to be here, L.O.L, iced strawberry cream
Revlon spirit
Maybelline Color Show lustrous lime
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear disco ball
Karaja anti shock system N.10
Seche Vite Top Coat
I used acrylic paint for the Frankensteins, Count Dracula and the brain.

Stamping plates used for this look:
Mash 29, 48, 37
Shany SH217, 206
Bundle Monster BM13,
Winstonia W116

I would love to see your Halloween nail art, feel free to share them here!

Next up I will be posting the rest of my hand painted designs! Stay tuned!

Hand painted nails

Izzy — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 22:44:34 +0000

Wow! I totally did not realize how long it had been since I posted something to the blog. It has been a busy month but I have some pretty cool nails for you today: hand painted mix and match nails! I love Robin Moses and, as most of you know, she is the best nail artist when it comes to hand painted highly detailed nail art. I decided to come up with some cool designs that are on trend. So here they are:

I’m pretty proud of these, the anarchy symbol actually looks like it was painted on a textures wall and the detail in the mushroom is amazing! I used acrylic paints to do each design over a polish base, the design was then sealed using Seche Vite Top Coat but I would probably seal everything using some uv builder gel if I were to paint these onto a client’s nails.
What do you guys think? Have you used acrylic paint to do your nails? I would love to see what you came up with!
Next up you get to see the rest of these bad boys!

Neon Fantasies manicure

Izzy — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 21:46:19 +0000

Hello ladies! Wow it’s been a while since I posted something, but this time it is a good one! One of my favorite nail artists is a young lady named Britney Tokyo, she is amazing and does some great Japanese nail art, if you haven’t found her yet definitely check her out and show her some love, she also participates in the Vanity Projects, lucky duck, she travels all over the US doing nails for those lucky enough to book an appointment! Well I have gone on long enough about my nail crush here are my nails inspired by Britney Tokyo:

The oval “gems” with a silver frame were made by me! I used some oval jump rings for jewelry making and filled them with polish, easy peasey! Same goes for the black round “gems” on the thumbs. I have to say, they turned out really well, once they are dry all you have to do is apply them using clear polish followed by a good thick layer of top coat. The stamps all come from my jumbo cheeky plates.

For this look I used:
Seche Vite Base Coat
O.P.I. Neon colors in ridiculously yellow, formidable orange, riotously pink, white base
Essence party princess
Seche Vite Top Coat
Cheeky beauty rhinestones
LA Splash loose glitter

Nail plates used:
Cheeky Beauty jumbo plates

Up next I have a YOLO Miami manicure to show you so stay tuned!

Sunken Treasure!

Izzy — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 16:53:47 +0000

Hi all! Well it had been a busy time! I’ve been trying to build my nail skills, I tried and failed miserably at the acrylic nail stuff but I’ve had some great success with gel nails! Or more specifically gel overlays. But that is for another post! Today I have my sunken treasure nails on display! I used the seashells I purchased from the nail room a great little site by a young lady in Vancouver B.C. Don’t forget to check it out, she also does nails that are absolutely beautiful!
Ok! Enough talk here is the manicure:

What do you think? Have you guys used the uber trendy shells in your manicures?

For this look I used:
O.P.I. My boyfriend scales walls, blue my mind
Essence tropical heat
Essence caviar beads
Cheeky store rhinestones and pearls
Shop The Nail Room sea shells
Seche Vite Top Coat

Up next are my neon fantasy nails inspired by Britney Tokyo a wonderful edgy nail artist from L.A. I love her work, it is always vibrant and fresh, I just wish I could get my nails done by her, maybe some day…

Love Letter Nails

Izzy — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 17:23:23 +0000

Hello all! It’s been a little while since I posted on the blog but I’ve been trying to get a bunch of nail art done… Check out my IG for a sneak peek!
For today I give you some carrier pigeon love letter nails! I used some nail tattoos from the nail art display at Walmart, check it out they have a whole line of Fing’rs heart 2 art nail art products. I painted a striped air mail ruffian around a few nails with some acrylic paint. Add some heart shaped “stamps” to finish it all off!

I have used these nail tattoos in the past and they are easy to use, just make sure to cut the tattoos down to size before applying them. These were a little more difficult to apply because all the images are separate and you really need to avoid slippage during the application process.
Anyone else use these? Let me know what you think of them!

For this look I used:
Fing’rs nail tattoos
Seche Vite Base Coat
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear red carpet
Maybelline Color Show porcelain party, shocking seas
Acrylic paint for the stripes
Seche Vite Top Coat
I also used some cute heart shaped rhinestones from cheeky beauty.

Next up I will be showing you some sunken treasure using seashells I ordered from Shop The Nail Room!

Robin Moses Tiki Gods

Izzy — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 15:42:24 +0000

Hello! So today I am super duper excited to show you my version of Robin Moses’ nail art featuring Tiki Gods. For those of you who have yet to discover Robin Moses she is a definitely a master of the nail art world. Everything she does is hand painted and she has a ton of video tutorials on YouTube. You must check her out! Anyhow since I love this woman’s art I subscribe to her channel on YouTube and I was so floored when I saw her Tiki Totem nails that I vowed to reproduce them! I pulled out all my polish and all my brushes, started the video and followed along step by step ( anyone else hear NKOTB?) and this is what I came up with:

What do you think? I think they turned out pretty well, they are not as clean as Robin’s but I’m pretty proud of them. Needless to say I used the seche UV top coat on those puppies and babies them quite a bit, all in all I wore them for about 10 days! That UV top coat really protects you polish.

For this look I used:
Too many polishes to name!
Seche Vite Base Coat
Seche Vite UV Top Coat

Next up I have some Love Letter nails using nail tattoos the new nail art display I discovered in an unusual place, stay tuned to find out where…

Glittery Mermaid Manicure

Izzy — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 18:57:02 +0000

Hi all!! My summer vacation on the East Coast has come to an end and I’m back at home, hopefully my blogging will be more regular. So as I alluded to in my last post I will be showing you my mermaid inspired manicure.
I started with a glitter gradient that reminded me of mermaid tails and I used a textured polish that reminded me of aquarium sand. I then added some rhinestones and some pearls from my cheeky beauty stash. Big mistake! I really need to learn restraint when applying these things! I wanted them to look like bubbles but it just ended up looking like a dildo again! Oh well! They were pretty anyways.

I added some gold stamping to mimic seaweed from my jumbo cheeky plate but it was very faint. I would go for something darker next time. The gold stamping of the scales came from the same set of plates. It turned out really well.
For this look I used:
Seche Vite Base Coat
Maybelline Color Show sea-quins
Hard Candy pee-wee purple, crush on raisin
Pure Ice twisted, shell pink
Revlon girly, whimsical
Julie rock candy
Seche Vite Top Coat
Pearls and rhinestones from Cheeky Beauty

The stamping was done using a Cheeky Beauty jumbo stamping plate.

What do you guys think? Have you tried doing a mermaid mani lately?

Next up I plan on showing you my hand painted version of Robin Moses‘ Tiki God nail art. This woman is an amazing artist and everyone should have a look at her creations and tutorials on YouTube.