Halloween Nail Art: Leopard Print and Stripes

I love leopard print nail art! It's such an easy go to design for me and you can really have fun. I did some for 4th of July this year so decided to do a Halloween version! 

I used almost all OPI polishes for this mani: My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Chop-sticking to My Story, and Don't Mess With OPI. The black is my standard Wet n Wild Black Creme. I used nail vinyls from Nailvinyls.com for the striped nail. Everything is topped with Essie Matte About You

Monday Mani: Decals using Water Marble Decals

Today's Monday Mani theme is decals. It's such a great theme because they are SOOOO many things you can do.

I decided to go with water marble decals which seem to be popular lately. The idea is that you do your regular water marble.

Instead of dunking your finger in, you let it dry for a long time (I did about an hour I think) and gently lift it out, letting it dry on paper towel.

Then you can cut the decal and apply it to a semi sticky base on your nail.

I see tons of advantages to this: less waste (I used one go for 4 nails), less mess, time saver (I marbled more nap time and finished my nails during nap), and more accurate (you can redo the marble over and over again without redoing your whole nail plus you can cut the exact part you want to use instead of hoping you're dunking right!).

Onto the mani!

I used China Glaze Kalahari Kiss as the base for my thumb, ring, and pinkie. I also used it along with Zoya Pepper and O.P.I. Chop-sticking to My Story for the water marble decal.

The brown glitter is Hits Glitter Forte 389 Brown.

Fast and Easy Nail Art: Negative Space Flower Mani

And now I have an extra long title! I can't win at this blog title business!

BUT today's mani is as promised: fast and easy! I want my nails to look pretty, but as a mom that doesn't always happen.

Negative space manis are very on trend lately. What's great about them too is that you skip the step of laying down a color base or sometimes even a base color. That process itself lends to a fast mani, but how to make it faster? Use a matte polish! Matte polishes dry faster making this mani easily done in 15 minutes or less.

OPI Russian Navy Suede is unfortunately discontinued. But I still wanted to use it for this mani. You can do this look, just use another matte polish. Or even using a texture polish could make this fun too! So I used two coats of Russian Navy Suede on my middle finger with no base or top coat.

On the other fingers, I started with a base coat just to give a smoother appearance to my nails, but you could skip that. Then I dotted on flowers using Russian Navy Suede. I used OPI Push and Shove for the dots and flower centers just to keep this mani in the OPI family but also because Push and Shove dries so fast. You could easily use any fast dry silver or just a regular polish but wait longer to dry. And that's it! 

Lime Crime neon polka dot skittles

My titles feel boring to me. How does everyone else come up with titles for their blog posts?

The inspiration for tons mani comes from the photo below. The watermark says linda165, but upon searching Instagram I find the proper name is @linda165_yt

I didn't have the exact colors she used. I've got a couple untrieds, and I hate having polishes go used so I decided to combine my new Lime Crime Pastelchio along with old love Lime Crime Peaches <3 Cream.

For my index finger, I used two coats of OPI Push and Shove followed by OPI Crown Me Already. The white base is my go-to white, Wet n Wild French White Creme.

I topped it all off with Rica Glossy Glam. After it dried, I added a coat of Essie Matte About You.

I had less issues with Glossy Glam this time. No smearing nail art (I floated the top coat better). I did have a TON of shrinkage on my nails with French White Creme as the base. But the Lime Crime hands were fine. It just must not like Wet n Wild.

Anyone try Glossy Glam? What are your thoughts?

Happy Birthday to me!

Another year older here!

Just a quick post, and I'm going to go back to enjoying it :)

For the last two years, I've used OPI Guy Meets Gal-veston (since I was born in Galveston) and Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday for my birthday mani. And this year is no exception.

I was trying to figure out what exactly I wanted to do when I saw this gorgeous mani on Instagram by Wondrously Polished. Her polish was a jelly based glitter, but I figured I could sorta do the same effect with my two polishes.

So that's what I did! After my base coat, I did one coat of Guy Meets Gal-veston then Happy Birthday, then Guy, then Happy Birthday and finishing with Guy. I painted the flowers using white acrylic paint and topped the whole thing with top coat.

It's not quite as good as the original, but I still love it!

4th of July Part 2: Flag skittles

This is my second 4th of July mani and the one I'm currently wearing. I wanted to get both ideas so you'd have time to do your own nails before the holiday. My sister-in-law and her boyfriend are visiting today through Sat and Sunday is my birthday so I'm gonna take a little break :) I'll be back with a post on Sunday or Monday.

I just went simple again, though I wouldn't consider this my best work. My star is a bit wonky and I think that's because I used polish instead of acrylic paint. I just don't have luck using white polish for art.

Here are the colors used:

Wet n Wild French White Creme (star design)

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (white polish base)

Zoya Sooki (red flag stripes)

Rimmel Blue Eyed Girl

Savvy Ruby Slippers

Mixed Finish Half Moon

Happy Tuesday everyone! Just a quick post today. This momma is pooped! My baby has turned into a spider monkey and is climbing all over the place. I'm worn out.

I will have another post for you on Wednesday and Thursday though with some 4th of July designs.

I'm not a huge fan of half moon manis, but I saw some mixed finish ones and really liked the concept.

I started with a base of OPI Push And Shove and let it dry. Next I use paper reinforcement stickers to mark off the moon and painted on ManGlaze Fatty's Have More Blood. It's a beautiful red shimmery matte polish, though the shimmer is hiding a bit here.

June Nail Art Challenge, Day 18: Picnic Day

Super tired tonight so a quickie post.

Base is OPI Guy Meets Gal-veston. It's a jelly so it gives it a nice squishy look which is perfect for watermelon.

If you want to know the other colors, just ask ;)

Purple Plaid

I've been meaning to post this since Monday, but time has really gotten away from me.

I joined a group a few weeks ago where the focus is on becoming a minimalist. The general idea is to simplify your life so that you can better enjoy it. That can mean getting rid of belongings so you can find what you need more easily or so you don't spend so much time cleaning. It can mean cutting back on social media or television or whatever so you have more quality time with your family. It can mean cutting out those toxic people in your life so your thoughts aren't cluttered and wasted on them. It's about living life. I've been mostly focused on getting rid of  items in our home as well as decluttering those time wasters. A lot of this for me has been cutting back TV to those shows that I really like (which is still a lot to be honest).

Another project of mine/hobby is meal planning. I love cooking, but it's hard to when you've got a cranky toddler at your feet (bless those of you who do it with multiples!). It's a bit easier though as T had gotten older so I'm trying to find simple healthy recipes for me to cook.

So onto today's mani!!! Lol

It's simple and classy, yet fun. My colors are OPI Parlez-vous OPI? and L'Oreal Tea and Crumpets (which has a crappy stiff brush but I love the color). I used black and white acrylic paint as well.

Spring-y Cloud Mani

Look! Another blog post from me, lol!

The little man took a super long morning nap today and then was playing so nicely by himself that I snuck a mani in.

This is only my second cloud mani, and I really need to do more. They look great and let you incorporate a few untrieds (in this case, 2).

For this mani, I used OPI My Boyfriend  Scales Walls (my friend and I randomly found OPIs in the dollar section at Target for $4 each! I only got this one though), SpaRitual Eye of the Beholder, and Barry M Blueberry.

Holographic Christmas Dotticure

I wanted to do a water marble Christmas mani, but time is tight these days and I'm not very good with water marbles so it will take forever!

So I did a simple Christmas dotticure.

The base is Gosh Holographic Hero. I believe it's the new version. I used two colors here. The top photo shows the holographic effect nicely.

For the dots I used Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby (red), OPI Don't Mess With OPI (green), Wet N a Wild Black Creme, and Wet n Wild French White Creme.

Snowflake Gradient

Base: Zoya Seraphina (two coats)

Sponged on OPI Russian Navy Suede

Stamped using Konad White and Bundle Monster 300 series plates

Nail Polish Canada 2013 Holiday Nail Art Challenge Week 2: Decorations

This week's theme is decorations. I LOVE Christmas lights. I love them on trees and houses. They have to be one of my favorite things about Christmas too.

Soooo, I put lights on my nails!

I did a free hand French manicure and then added the lights.

Please vote for me here!

Base: Zoya Loretta to smooth out nails and add hint of peachy nude color

Tips: Rimmel French White Nail Tip

Bulbs: black acrylic paint, Zoya Breezi (blue), Zoya Sooki (red), Zoya Pippa (yellow), OPI Don't Mess With OPI (green)

Christmas Leopard Print

I've had this idea in my head for ages so I knew I had to do it as soon as the holiday season came around. It turned out pretty great, if I do say so myself :)

I used two coats each of Zoya Sooki (red) and OPI Don't Mess With OPI (green) for my base. I alternated the polish across all 10 fingers.

I don't have a leopard print stamping image so I freehanded this using Wet n Wild Black Creme and the pointy end of an orange stick. Then I added a thick layer of Seche Vite over the top.

Barry M Blueberry

My mother-in-law went to visit my sister-in-law (her daughter) in Ireland in September. She picked up 3 Barry M polishes for me, one being a back up Gold Foil. Another was Barry M Blueberry, part of the Gelly line (I also have Pomegrante that I got in swap).

Blueberry is a sorta cornflower blue with hints of purple in it. To me, it reads more purple in the bottle than it does ok the nail. I needed two coats for this mani.

I finished it off with some rhinestones, and layered O.P.I. Crown Me Already with Barry M Silver Glitter.

OPI Peru-B-Ruby

Today's mani is OPI Peru-B-Ruby. I'm not normally a big red fan, but this color has a ton of meaning to me which is why I wanted it.

Ruby is my birth stone since I was born in July. I use rubytadpole as my name for a lot of places (including Instagram, follow me!). That's where the Ruby in Ruby's Nails comes from.

Peru also has meaning for me and I spent 6 wonderful weeks studying there in 2010. I ate tons of new foods: ceviche, cuy (guinea pig), fresh rainbow trout, anticucho (marinated, skewered, and grilled beef heart), real sugar Coke, choclo (a corn with giant kernels), quinoa, sooo many potatoes, different teas, Cusqueña beer, picarones (sweet potato donuts), alpaca, llama, and granadilla (a fruit with hard seeds in gelatinous pulp, tastes much better than it sounds and looks!).

I lived in Cusco for the six weeks but traveled to the Sacred Valley and fed alpacas and llamas, hiked in Machu Picchu, sailed to the Uros Islands (islands made of reeds in Lake Titicaca), spent the night with a traditional family on Amantaní who dressed us up in traditional clothing and took us to a village dance, and saw countless other Inca ruins.

So that was long....but I wanted to really express to WHY this color is sooo important to me.

Fall flowers

I've seen tons of fall manis with leaves on them, but I love flowers so I decided to do some fall colored flowers.

I used a base of Zoya Pepper. I added flowers using O.P.I. Chop-sticking to My Story (orange) and O.P.I. The "It" Color (yellow). I dotted the center of the flowers using Barry M Gold Foil.

Tropical Sunset

Gradient created using O.P.I. Chop-Sticking to My Story, O.P.I. The "It" Color, Zoya Pippa, and Zoya Arizona.

Details added with small brush and Wet n Wild Black Creme.

Glittering Garland Mosaic

I've seen quite a few mosaic designs on Pinterest (my favorite place for inspiration!) and put it on my nail art to do list.

I love love love the way this turned out. Unfortunately, it started chipping right away. I'm not sure if it was the base coat (I just changed that so we'll see) or the Seche Vite I used as the top coat (I normally use Sally Hansen or NYC).

I started with 2 coats of China Glaze Glittering Garland.  It's a silver holographic glitter.  I would say it's a bit dense to use as a layering polish, but with 2 coats it works nicely as a base. You can see a teeny bit of my nail peeking through, but that didn't bother me.

Next I used some striping tape to block off some sections.

I used a small brush and filled in the shapes with Wet n Wild Black Creme, Wet n Wild French White Creme, Barry M Pomegranate, and O.P.I. Fly. Then I removed the tape carefully and top coated.

The colors went together very nicely, and I love the little bits of holo glitter peeking out from the mosaic design.  This design was super easy to do too, so I foresee myself doing more in the future!

OPI DS Temptation

I bought O.P.I. DS Temptation a while ago from a friend. I've seen several manis on Pinterest creating chevron/zig zag design over glitter so I decided to do one!

I used 2 coats of DS Temptation on my middle and ring fingers and my thumb. On my index and pinkie, I used two coats of Wet n Wild Black Creme.

To add the chevron design, I just used nail stickers! Super easy! I love the ease of this design plus it's super pretty. Normally, I do my accent nails as my thumb and ring finger, but I enjoyed playing around a bit with this design and switching things up!