Monrogue | DIY Projects, Nail Art, and Love!

Silver Nail Foils on White Polish

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Hannah

Once upon a time, as I’ve said in many posts before, I took an adventure on a magic nail file and found myself in Downtown LA at a nail shop. I know, I know – it’s hard to believe. I have picture proof, though!

There were little containers of nail foil at that shop, and you can betchyerself a brown llama that I bought some!

I’ve been dying to use this but didn’t really know how. All of the tutorials and examples I could find had the foil in a tube, with what seems to be a plastic backing. Sorry for being such a noob but I have never used that.. this was the first foil I’ve used.

It basically came in a gently crumpled form in a round yet short container – much shorter than the tubes I see elsewhere on the interwebZ.

When it’s taken out of the container, it’s so light and weightless that it’s a little bit hard to un-crumple as it just flows around in the air with any movement. It also really likes sticking to your fingers!!

Anyways, I was able to dab some elmers glue on top of my white polish that it would stick to after I let it get tacky enough. I was going for a rough luxe look, which I think I nailed!

Don’t mind the varying photo styles and different logo this time around.. I’m experimenting with some styling and branding to see what I like best.

Here’s a gallery since I loved so many of the pictures… I really couldn’t decide which ones I should limit the post to! I just love this design so much!

Let me know what you think! Have you ever used nail foils? Did you use the kind I have? Do you like it?

XOXO Hannah

Dripping Black on Yellow Nails with a Caviar Accent!

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Hannah

Although I have been absolutely obsessed with the drippy nail trend for a while (I wore red & white drippy nails to the Tim Burton exhibit at LACMA… whenever that was!), I haven’t done it often enough, especially now that it seems to be blowing up.

black and yellow drip and caviar nails via Monrogue

I bought this lovely yellow color from Revlon and couldn’t wait to use it but wanted to come up with something that was more edgy than springtime. So, black drips it was… with, of course, a black caviar accent nail! I bought a tiny bit of caviar beads from DTLA on my last trip and have been waiting to use them.

Honestly, they don’t last long. I tried it three separate ways (since the first batch scraped off) – first was painting my nail black then dipping it in the beads, second was with a topcoat over the beads (big no no – it just looks like an accidentally lumpy and ridiculous coat of black!) and third was a topcoat of Seche Vite over black and then quickly dipped into the caviar. That was the best route but still didn’t last long with me. Then again, I’m really not very kind to my nails!

What do you think? I’d like to make the drippies more concise and drippy-ish next time, but was pretty stoked on this while I had it.

Blue & Black Rhinestone Nails

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Hannah

I did this manicure a couple weeks ago while laughing at some terrible awards show on TV. Thankfully I wasn’t so distracted that it actually came out pretty cool!

black and blue nails with rhinestones in the center

It was easy enough doing a base of blue, then covering half of each nail in black, adding rhinestones and a topcoat (Seche vite, of course!)

I think next time I will do the topcoat first, THEN the rhinestones, as the thickness of the topcoat takes away the detailing in the facets of the rhinestones. Lesson learned!

Purple Heart Nails

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Hannah

Hello, hello! Here are some purple nails I went a bit crazy with after a session in the Fashion District picking up some AWESOME new supplies. All things I could have gotten at the Born Pretty Store or Amazon but… I needed stuff NOW. (Now being.. yaknow… then!)

purple nail design with studs and hearts

Colors used:

NYX Girls’ “Purple Ink” (dark purple)
Wet n Wild’s “On a Trip” (medium purple)
NYX Girls’ “Moonwalk” (purple-y silver – and apparently NYX has another color named Moonwalk that is black and sparkly?! But this one is by “NYX Girls” … OK, NYX! haha)

Then of course, some studs, bunnies, and hearts added on!

XOXO

Acid Greenish Yellow Leopard Print Nail Art – With Sparkles!

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Hannah

Comin’ atchya with some crazy acid green (in real life, anyways) leopard print nails! Don’t mind the horrid cuticles. These were done back in Winter at my old apartment – I’ve recently moved into a shared house with friends, so have been extra busy!! I never got around to posting this one, though, so here you go!!

I really wish I could have gotten a picture that was more true to color, but I still think this nail design looks pretty cool even when it’s more yellow tinted. I used a sheer acid green color on top of a white base, then an even more acid green for dots, with black markings around them to make the leopard spots.

And of course… a sparkle top coat.
acid yellow green leopard print nails

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!!

XOXO

DIY Furniture: Half Table & Striped Bench from Desk & Coffee Table

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Hannah

Hello DIY and nail addicts!!

I have been meaning to post this/these project(s) for ages. Once upon a time, I found a GINORMOUS desk outside of a job interview. I’m crazy and awesome, so we picked it up! Luckily my boyfriend had driven me in his giant creeper van, so in classic style, we threw it in the back and it sat in my living room for a while. Here’s how I found it:

desk before half table diy

After a while, we chopped it in half, spray painted it, added some aluminum strips that we have laying around (?!) and mounted it to the wall along with a coffee table that we turned into a bench. What does that make? LOVE!

finished half table bench

Just incase you’d rather click next than scroll through the page, here is a gallery of everything in one easy spot:

In this picture you can see the guts of the coffee table, with the warped particle board head behind the detached and spraypainted legs. I got all revved up when I started this little project so forgot to take a true before, with the top still attached and unpainted legs. It wasn’t pretty, though!

coffee table pre-bench

No, I didn’t sand the legs. But that’s ok because spraypaint is awesome like that. If you need a good spray painting guide, check out Centsational Girl’s Spray Painting FAQ!

Here is the wood for the bench that we cut out to size, mid-quick-upholstering:

upholstering diy striped bench

I had picked this pink striped fabric specifically with a bench in mind somewhere in Downtown LA. Maybe even Michael Levine. I can’t remember right now though.

Look how pretty it is all finished!

diy half table and striped bench via monrogue

corner view, diy half table & bench via monrogue mounted half table diy via monrogue half table and striped bench diy with antlers via monrogue

Don’t ask about the antler plaque. Ok, ask about it. It was in my Christmas decorating post, as well… we’d really like to have made a head for it by now, but are just too busy. So for now it remains just a funny antler plaque!

half table and striped bench diy via monrogue

Don’t mind the strange coloring on these pictures. I took some liberties playing around with new actions and filters for these shots.

Sadly we are moving in a couple of weeks, so we’ll have to un-mount it and might not have a great spot for it in our new place. It has made a perfect dining table in our tiny apartment while we’ve had it though, and the thought of taking it down at least motivated me to make this post finally before the tear-down.

If you liked this project, please feel free to like, share, and pin-away! Also, if you’ve done a half table or bench makeover from a coffee table, I’d love to see them! Let me know what you think o’ this one

XOXO
Hannah

Nail Designs: Electric Blue Nails with Mega Glitter

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Hannah

Once upon a time, I tried to make a post for blue glitter-tipped nails. Well, those nails didn’t look so great. (You can see them here…)

Thankfully, I have new blue glitter nails! I think blue & glitter are definitely some recurring themes with my nail art. I don’t have a problem with that though.

This is the same blue used in the other blue/glitter nail design post, by Pure Ice, I believe. The chunky glitter is a few different types of glitter topcoats laid on top.

If you love glitter, make sure to check out my other favorite glitter manicure thus far, too!

Enjoy!!

XO
Hannah

Glitter Dot Gel Nails with a Heart

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Hannah

This is definitely the most painstaking manicure I’ve done in a while, as each piece of glitter required purposeful placement, and the process demanded more patience than most nail art addicts have.

I used a dark blue color from Revlon that I can’t remember the name of right now, as well as white from Pure Ice. The pieces of glitter were in a multicolor glitter tube from Michael’s. I went nuts with glitter there over the holidays, so expect enough glitter to gouge your eyes out in the next few posts! Mwahah

The most important thing that made this manicure possible was my gel nail topcoat. I used a topcoat by Gellish to stick the glitter pieces to (since it doesn’t dry until you cure it with a UV or LED light) and then finished off the manicure as a whole with another coat.

I hope you like this design – it’s definitely one of my favorite nail art projects I’ve tackled so far!

Xoxo
Hannah

Black & White Winter Snowflake Nails

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Hannah

Posting this from my phone so it’ll be short n sweet…

This was my first attempt in a long time at completing a nail design that required lots of brush work. I wish it would have been neater but I think it still turned out really cute.

I did this before Christmas so I’ve taken my time in posting it. Wah Wahh.

The white nail polish was from Pure Ice, I used a pearlescent white from Sinful Colors, and the black was from NYC. Then I did a sparkle topcoat, also from NYC.

If you have any snowflake nails, I’d love to see them! Snowflakes are hard!!

Xoxo

Christmas on the Cheap: Dollar Store Decorating

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Hannah

Christmas is almost here – I’m sure you’re already being visually assaulted from all direction with Christmas decor and style. Well, I’m here to throw a bit more at you.

dollar store christmas trinkets

You see, this is the first apartment I’ve had where I live with a boyfriend (a boyfriend who has great taste, nonetheless), rather than a group of roommates, who are either all heading somewhere else during the holiday or have already hijacked the common areas with their decorations.

The mister hanging some baubles.

We are going out of town and we did want to save money, but we still wanted to decorate the place for Christmas. The perfect solution, being in LA, is the Dollar Store! (AKA “99 Cents Only Store.”)

Just kidding – this happened before we bought our decorations.

There happens to be a surprising selection of cute holiday decor to choose from at the Dollar Store.

So many cute things!

We decorated our branch antler plaque that we made last month (which we have yet to make a head for…) as well as our diy chandelier and our fake fireplace which was found on the side of the road. There’ll be a post about that one someday.

Check out the gallery below to see what all we were able to do with about $20 for a cheap Dollar Store Christmas!