Tales from the Borderlands Nails: Rhys

I'm afraid you're all going to have to humor me here, because this is probably another one of those manicures that most people are just going to find totally strange. My apologies if that's the case!

One of my big obsessions right now is the video game Tales from the Borderlands. It's a short little narrative adventure game by Telltale Games (they do lots of great stuff if you like stories more than shooting—check them out!) that I played a couple of weeks ago and completely fell in love with. It's gorgeous, funny, and full of complex characters that you can't help but adore.

Right after I played the four (out of five) chapters that have been released so far, it was time for me to head to PAX Prime, a huge video game convention in Seattle. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to honor my current favorite game on my nails, so I decided to recreate the outfit of one of the main characters, Rhys, with nail polish.

She Said Yeah Striped & Stamped Nail Art

I feel like it's rare for me to run across a (US-based) nail polish brand out in the wild that I've never heard of... but it does happen! When I was at the salon recently, I stumbled upon a new-to-me brand called Smith & Cult, so of course I had to grab a bottle and give it a try. The eye-catching, rocker-inspired display and packaging definitely helped draw me in, too.

Black & Silver Spotty Stamping

I set out recently to find a blue polish that matched a specific shirt I have, and when I saw Butter London Giddy Kipper, I knew immediately that it was the perfect choice.

Tri-Holo Lined Gradient Nail Art

Surprise—another stamping manicure! I swear I'm going to push myself to branch out a bit more in the coming weeks, but I just couldn't resist this one.

Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl XLIX Nails

I wasn't sure whether I'd have a chance to do a proper Seahawks manicure this year, but yesterday afternoon I finally had some free time and inspiration, so I decided to go for it. After all, it's not every year that your team makes it to the Super Bowl, right? (Ahem.)

Blue and Brown Stamped Waterfall Nail Art

I didn't have a chance yesterday to share the nails I wore for Thanksgiving (I was rushing to get out the door for dinner), so I thought I'd go ahead and put them up today. Better late than never, right? They're really more of a general wintery look than Thanksgiving, anyway, so hopefully I can be forgiven.

The Lacquer Legion: After Dark - Too-Dark Halloween Nail Art

I was running very short on time for nail art this weekend (frantically working on my Halloween costume, of course!), but I couldn't let this month's Lacquer Legion day pass me by.

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright Nail Art

As I've let slip on this blog a few times, I'm actually pretty geeky in my everyday life. I love comic books, board games, video games, and... well, really just a whole lot of geeky things. These loves don't find their way into my nail art too terribly often for a variety of reasons, but today is an exception: this manicure honors something I anticipated for years and have been happily immersed in for the last few weeks.

Black and White and Blue All Over Splatter Nail Art

I definitely didn't intend to take such a long break from blogging, but between vacation and being sick afterward (isn't that always how it goes?), I've had almost no time or energy lately to even paint my nails, let alone blog about them. So, my apologies for my absence—but I'm finally back today with some new nails to share!

Garnished Galaxy

I really, desperately wanted to do some Guardians of the Galaxy nails before seeing the movie over the weekend. (It's amazing, by the way! Go see it!) I racked my brain for ages trying to come up with a concept that would be both a recognizable representation of the movie/characters AND doable for my skill level, but I couldn't come up with anything. I love the Guardians to bits, but they just don't have super iconic (and nail-art-friendly) logos or costumes like the Avengers & other superheroes. In the end, I went with some embellished galaxies and called it a day—I had a movie to go see, after all!

Boom Goes the Blue

This is yet another one of those manicures that turned out very differently from what I was picturing, but that I ended up liking a lot anyway. That feels like the story of my life on this blog sometimes! Must be the "amateur" part of Amateur Manicure...

Patriotic Chevron

I said I wasn't going to do Fourth of July nails, and then I promptly changed my mind after seeing all the amazingly creative designs people were doing on Instagram. I just had to join in on the fun!

The Lacquer Legion: On Holiday - A Familiar View

It's another Lacquer Legion day! I get so excited for the end of the month now—I just love participating in this group.

The LL mods chose "On Holiday" as this month's theme, and I have to say, this one was equal parts fun and challenging for me. I knew early on what I wanted to do and was excited to try, but I also knew that it would be difficult, so I spent most of the month psyching myself up for it.

Saved by the '80s

After falling in love with one polish from the Deborah Lippmann '80s line, I just had to go back and pick up a couple more of the colors from it. And since these polishes really put me in an '80s state of mind, it only made sense to reach for my MoYou London Back to the '80s stamping plate when the time came to try them out.

Dotted Birthday Daisies

I went out of town recently for a little birthday getaway, and before I left, I decided to try my hand at some quick floral nail art. I should probably know better than to try a new technique when I'm already in a rush, but... what can I say. I'm just stubborn like that! (Fitting for a Taurus, huh?)

Happy to Be Blue

Nail Vinyls are the latest thing in nail art right now—I think everyone is using them! And I can understand why: I tried cutting scotch tape with craft scissors a few times to do chevron or zigzag nail art, but it was a huge pain and I never much felt like dealing with all the hassle going forward. Thankfully, however, I have an envelope of these precut tapes in my supply kit now, so I never have to resort to the craft scissors again! I'm still pretty slow and unpracticed when it comes to executing lots of nail art techniques, so anything that makes the experience easier is definitely a must-have in my book.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier Nail Art

I really enjoy doing nail art that reflects my other (non-nail-related) interests. During the last year I've done manicures to celebrate my favorite hockey teams and events, my local football team, fashion I admire, and movies I like. It's just so much fun for me to wear my various loves on my nails that I jump at the chance to do so whenever one arises.

With that in mind, I think the nail art event I've personally been looking forward to the most all year has finally arrived: the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier! I'm a HUGE Marvel comics/movie geek, so I've literally been counting down to this one for something like two years now. And as soon as I started seeing official movie stills and magazine covers being released a few months ago, I started getting nail art ideas.

OPI Sheer Tinted Stamping

As soon as I saw the press release for the OPI Sheer Tints line, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with these unique polishes. I've seen people execute all kinds of creative looks with them, but what I really wanted to try was painting them over some white-on-black stamping—i.e., the same technique I used for my Painting the Roses Red Valentine's Day manicure.

Much to my delight, it worked fabulously!

Stars and Stripes for Sochi

I try not to post two days in a row—I only have time for a few posts per week and I like to spread them out a bit more—but this week is special! So I'm making an exception.

Anyone who's followed me for a while might know that I'm a big hockey fan. I generally follow NHL hockey, but right now there's Olympic hockey happening, too. The US women's team is playing Canada for the gold medal today (as I'm writing this, in fact), and the men's team plays Canada tomorrow morning for a chance to go to the final. So, needless to say, it's a big day for USA hockey, and I couldn't let the opportunity to do some USA hockey–themed nail art pass me by!

When I first started kicking around the idea of doing some USA hockey nail art, I knew from the beginning that more than just doing a red, white, and blue design, I really wanted to capture the three main elements of the jerseys Team USA is wearing in Sochi this year: the crest on the front, the thick red and white armbands, and the shiny stars across the shoulders.

Team USA hockey jersey

Conveniently, all these elements lend themselves really well to nail art!

I'm going to write out all the steps I used in a numbered list to help keep things organized. It may still be somewhat long-winded, though, so if you're not interested in the process, just hit the jump (link below the sharing buttons)/scroll down for more pictures!

One More Seahawks Manicure

I'm running out the door to a Super Bowl party, but I couldn't leave without posting my final Seahawks manicure of the season. I told myself I wasn't going to do another one this year, because there's already been so much blue/green/grey on this blog and I don't want to turn off any non-football (or Seattle) fans, but I was just too excited about the game to resist. I hope you'll all indulge me one last time!

It's nothing too exciting, but I think it does capture the iconic Seahawks look. I used my usual OPI I Saw...You Saw...We Saw...Warsaw as the blue base, and then added a stripe of Nars Galathee down the middle, with a coat of Zoya Seraphina on top of it to give it some sparkle. Then I used a striping brush and Sephora by OPI It's Totally Karma to add the green accents. Finally, I added some studs from the Born Pretty Store using nail glue and sealed everything with topcoat.

However the game turns out, we're so proud of our team and we can't wait to cheer them on. GO HAWKS!