Friday, September 10, 2010

First attempts at the 'Ruffian Manicure'

Since I'm always swatching I feel like I never get to play around or experiment much. And then when I experiment or do things just for fun, I feel like I've wasted valuable swatching time! But, I decided I wanted to try this Ruffian thing cause I like the way it looks. Here's a couple combinations I ended up with:



My very first try. I was already wearing this gorgeous Chi Chi Moondust (thank you Kaz!) and decided to put a little China Glaze 2030 on. I like the blue and gold together! I'm going to have to do this combination again!

But I'm not really sure if you're supposed to let the polish on the sides show, or how far down you're supposed to go... Or how wide it's supposed to look?

Instead of taking the whole thing off, I wanted to see what it looked like with a third color, so I added some China Glaze GR8 (can you tell I had my Konad supplies nearby? lol)

Looks kinda cool with the holo!


Wanted to try it with some brighter colors so I picked out some Color Clubs. I can't get that green to photograph properly, it just turns this stupid pale color! Argh! But it's really darker than that, and neon, not pastel.

And before I took that off I wanted to see what it would look like with a third color again:

Can't capture these neons properly! So frustrating! But for once Pucci-licious looks like it's supposed to in a picture! Something about being next to a blue helped... Odd. And if the orange and pink look thick, it's cause they are. There's about four coats of those because the blue showed through too much, plus Seche Vite on top and to make it even worse it's still wet in these pictures. Would look a lot less thick and bubble nail like when it's dry. I like the multicolor look, but to me it looks like lines of gumdrops on my nails! Which reminds me, I had a box of Candy Corn flavored Dots around here somewhere...


Thought matte/glossy would be a good combination so I did ManGlaze Fuggen Ugly on top of Essie Limited Addiction. Looks cool, I like the contrast! But it also looks like my nails are being ripped off my fingers, doesn't it? Like the cuticle is all bloody and my nails have slid halfway off? Gory!! I might have to keep this in mind for Halloween!

And because I couldn't leave well enough alone, this abomination happened. It is really fuggen ugly.

Now I want to try every combination of colors and finishes I can think of. I like this look. It's like a moon manicure but different and easier! I'm going to go try another one right now, actually.

52 comments:

  1. You totally slay me! I love that first one! But you know I'm a foil nut. :)

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  2. I love the navy and gold together, and the last two are to die! I really like the matte and the glossy together, and topping it off with a holo? Genius. I don't know why, but the last manicure reminds me of a superhero, LOL. Is there a superhero with those colors or something? *Confused by self*

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    1. The last nail reminds me the wonder woman clothes, she wear red, gold, silver in her arms and a blue pant... search and observe this...

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  3. I love the bright colours together, it looks great. You should try adding as many colours as you can :) I'm obsessed with nails at the moment, this post is a great inspiration :)

    xo

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  4. OMG I love this!!! The first is my favorite, for sure... but I love the Manglaze/Essie one! Super gory, and like you said -- awesome for halloween!! I may start experimenting with this technique -- too fun!

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  5. The rainbow one really pops out at ya! Good colors for that one!

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  6. Your experemeting with layering polishes looks very interesting! Love all the ideas!

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  7. I love the bright colors together, it's super pretty and reminds me of candy. lol

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  8. Love the first one! Navy and gold is a great combo.

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  9. wow! I really love the two neon colors together after your first 3 layer one.... this looks like you had fun! I haven't tried the ruffian look yet but I was thinking about it... it could be the basis for some great nail art.

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  10. I actually love the ManGlaze one. But they all are cool to look at.

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  11. I think you should play around more often, these are great.

    Anita

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  12. I like them all! Especially the matte over the shiny.

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  13. I love them but the neon rainbow is awesomesauce!

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  14. I love the bright colored one I'm gonna have to try it

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  15. I love the first look! The blue and gold combination is amazing.

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  16. I love the first one most but the double rainbow one is super cute.

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  17. Wow they look amazing!! Love the Pucci inspired ones and like the mix of matte and glossy. Fabulous!

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  18. love all of these! great job! <3

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  19. All of the swatches are phenomenal!

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  20. I think it looks really neat! Did you use guides?

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  21. I love each and every manicure. You have such a wonderful eye for design and color.

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  22. I love the neon rainbow! It reminds me of candy. I wonder what it would look like if you kept doing more colors until you reached the end of your nail. It would probably be really thick, but it could be nifty.

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  23. These all look great, I love the brights.

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  24. hahahaha I love the bloody cuticles! It's my favourite! Am I wierd?

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  25. Haha I actually like the last one best!

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  26. Ah these are soo coooL! I like the bloody cuticles the best...that can't be healthy. But great idea for Halloween! :)

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  27. I find your Ruffian manicures fascinating.I especially love the red with grey matte,and love the way you added GR8 to the first one. Great job!

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  28. Ohhhh, your lines are so gorgeously even!! I love that... I have yet to develop that skill. One day, perhaps!

    I really like the blue and green ruffian, it's so colorful and fun! I'm not sure about adding a third color to it.. it seems to visually shorten the nails, I think? I don't know, it's not bad, it's just not necessarily something I would wear today. Maybe next week I'd feel totally different

    Still, your ruffians are gorgeous. Great job!

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  29. I love love love the first one! Now I shall have to buy China Glaze's 2030 lol
    I really love your blog, I always look at your wonderful swatches before purchasing polishes :)
    xx

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  30. I love the green and blue colour combo! Your post inspired me to try my own combo of Essie Bright Tights and China Glaze's Flying Dragon. I'm a biter (trying to stop I swear) so my nails are short and my application skills aren't that great, but I freaking love them!!!!

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  31. That looks so nice, I probably won't be able to do it as perfectly as you... But I'll keep trying :)

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  32. Wow.. I love all of those combinations :)
    Especially the green and blue :)

    hugs

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  33. These all look fantastic! The tri-coloured mani with the bright colours reminds me of the layers of a jawbreaker - so cool!

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  34. I am SO doing the red/manglaze look for Halloween, THANKS!

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  35. I have yet to try a Ruffian Mani, but your blue and gold is inspiring!

    ditchthemittens.blogspot.com

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  36. I really like the first combinaision, the gold and blue, it's really nice ^^
    Have a good day ;)

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  37. I did something like this recently, I had seen it on Samantha in Sex and The City 2, I'm sure she had Minx on in the film but I used Orly Luxe as the base and Chanel Black Satin on the top! I loved it!! So shiny and people noticed the gold!

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  38. you need to flip your moon, u have a concave moon (curved in) instead of a convex moon (curved out)

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  39. Love the Chi Chi Moondust/China Glaze 2030 and matte/glossy combos. Definately will keep this nail style on my list to try next. I'm currently obsessing over the half-moon manicure.

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  40. your so talented and you must have steady hands like a surgeon to be able this off lol. I could never do that

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  41. I REALLY want to do that red/matte grey one for Halloween (I'm going to be a zombie, with a twist ;-)), but I am wondering how it looks on square cuticles? Not all of mine are square, just my lopsided thumbs I guess I could leave the red part with a squared edge and do a round edge for the grey?

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  42. Trbobitch, well, my thumb cuticles are square and I did a somewhat round shape for both and it looked okay. I painted the base color the same shape as my cuticle as usual and then just did a naturally less rounded but still round shape for the second color. Does that make sense? I think I'm confusing myself haha

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  43. OMG!!! So beautiful nails.
    lOVE IT!

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