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

June Nail Art Challenge, Day 30: Zoo animals

Last day, woot woot! I have to say it's been totally fun and I'm glad I did it this month. July is going to be completely busy as in the just first few days alone my sister-in-law (who used to live in Ireland until her visa expired but is going back to the UK in the fall for school) and her Irish boyfriend (red hair and full beard, totally awesome!) are visiting for the 4th and then my birthday is on the 6th. On the 8th, I start a very part-time job as a personal assistant/mother's helper. The 3rd weekend of the month is a massive family reunion for my maternal grandfather's family and a Wisconsin polish meet up. Plus TONS of minor things in there. And August is just as busy! Whew! 

So for today's mani, I turned to my trusty friend Google and found an awesome tutorial for super cute elephants from Adventures In Acetone.

The base color is Rimmel Blue Eyed Girl. The elephant is Rimmel Grey Matter. His ears are Zoya Shelby. The rest of the colors are acrylic paint or polishes I custom mixed.

And here's a collage with all this month's designs!

Cherry Blossoms Redux

I decided to recreate my very first mani that I posted on this blog over two years ago. The concept was good (cherry blossoms), but I definitely could improve on the execution, clean up, etc.

I really wanted to do a lighter base with something like China Glaze For Audrey but stuck to the original spirit of things.

The new mani uses a base of Rimmel Blue My Mind.

For the original, I used only nail art pens in black, red and white. This time I used brushes and dotting tools. The vines are Essie Little Brown Dress. For the cherry blossoms, I dotted using Zoya Shelby. Then I mixed Shelby with a bit of Wet n Wild French White Cream and dotted on that. Finally I added dots of French White Cream and top coat.

Here's the mani all on it's own:

Grey with neon polka dots

Just a quickie post for today.

Rimmel Grey Matter

Lime Crime Peaches <3 Cream

Valentine's Day: Pink and Grey

Just a quick post today. I have company coming over today, tomorrow, and Monday plus we're going out tomorrow and Sunday! Hence the crappy cuticles because I've been cleaning, though my husband did do quite a bit last night while I was sleeping as a Valentine's Day gift.

Rimmel Grey Matter

Zoya Shelby

Wet n Wild French White Creme

Black ombré stripes

Colors used: Wet n Wild Black Creme, Rimmel Grey Matter, Zoya Dove, and Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner

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)

Spiderwebs and Raindrops

I used a base of 2 coats of Rimmel Grey Matter and followed it up with one thick coat of Illamasqua Raindrops. I like the sorta stormy/glistening effect this created.

Then I freehanded spiderwebs using Barry M Silver Foil. The spider was done with Wet n Wild Black Creme and Zoya Isla for the eyes.

Ghostly Storm

Today's Nail Art October theme for the Instagram challenge I'm doing (#nailartoct) is Trick or Treat. However, I'm going to an apple orchard on Sunday, and my idea for that theme fits much better for the orchard so I switched. Instead I'm doing Sunday's theme: Ghosts.

Base: Zoya Storm (2 coats)

Stamps: Bundle Monster BM223 (ghosts) & BM305 (house)

Stamped with Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner (a less opaque white to give a ghostly feel) and Barry M Gold Foil

Monday Mani: Purple Up! For Military Kids

This week's Monday Mani theme at PAA (Polish-aholics Anonymous) is Purple Up! for Military Kids.  This picture explains today's theme quite well.

I did a group order forever ago it seems when Illamasqua was doing a sale on their website so we could get free US shipping. It took a long time, but my polishes finally made it to me a week or two ago.

I got Illamasqua at part of my order and KNEW I had to use it for today's purple mani.

Look at that glow! Illamasqua describes Baptiste as "a deep royal purple" with a "shimmer finish."  I would say it's so much more than that. It has this beautiful inner glow to it that really makes it stand out.  I used two coats for what you see here. I used thin coats so you could probably get away with one thick coat.

On my accent fingers, I used Rimmel Black Satin and one coat of Milani Lavender. Lavender is a super dense glitter with lavender hexes and purple micro glitter. It applies great and really stands out over black.

What is your favorite glitter to layer over black?

Monday Mani: Easter

This week's Monday Mani theme at PAA (Polish-aholics Anonymous) is Easter. I decided to go super cutesy for today's mani, and I love how it turned out. It was super fast to do too!

On my ring finger I used a base of 2 coats of Sinful Colors Candy Coated. The formula is really nice on this, and the dry time is decent considering it's a pastel.

On my index finger, I used a base of 3 coats of Sinful Colors Unicorn. Since it's a yellow and a pastel, dry time was pretty slow though the formula was decent.

I used 2 coats of Candeo Colors Jellybean on my other fingers. I knew I had to use Jellybean for this mani, because well the name is jellybean! Plus the yellow base matched Unicorn and the purple glitter matched Candy Coated.

I painted on the bunny and the chick shell using Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner and just the brush from the bottle. The black details on both are done with Wet n Wild Black Creme and a nail art brush.

The chick's beak is Zoya Arizona, and I just used the brush that came with Arizona. The pink details on the bunny are Ulta Encore Pink, and I again just used the bottle brush to add in those.

I topped everything off with top coat after I let it dry for a while (to prevent dragging of the colors), and tada!

I love how this turned out!

Orange Cream Easter Skittles

I recently picked up a few new Sinful Colors and thought they would be perfect for Easter themed manis! Today, I used just Sinful Colors Orange Cream.

I used one thin coat and one thick coat for this mani. Orange Cream isn't very orange, in my opinion! It's a peachy orange that leans heavily toward pink. I don't have any colors like this. While I don't usually wear pink, I decided to step out of my comfort zone, and I'm glad I did! I think Orange Cream looks great on me!

You may also notice my super short nails. Well, I had a deep side break on my middle finger that I patched. A few hours later, I got one on my index finger! So I decided to chop off all my nails! I also chopped off all my hair yesterday (went from almost mid-back to chin length). It's spring (or almost here in Wisconsin) so it's time for fresh starts all around.

Orange Cream also had a beautiful micro shimmer that is hard to see from far away, but you can see it in this macro shot.

I added some random designs on my nails using Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner. The pinkie is sort of like a flower or sun design. Make sure you wait long enough to add top coat! I didn't on my pinkie, and the color dragged a bit.

On my other two fingers I added two coats of Lynnderella Connect the Dots. I love Connect the Dots over brighter colors. It really pops!

I hope you all enjoyed today's mani! I'll have another Easter themed one later this week that features a bit more nail art.

Monday Mani: Creative Layering

This week's Monday Mani theme at PAA (Polish-aholics Anonymous) is creative layering. I used 3 layers for this mani, not including base coat or top coat.

I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do going into this, but I ended up with this color blocked mani loosely based on this design by Nails 4 Dummies!

I started with a base coat of Rimmel Grey Matter. I only did one coat because I knew I was going to layer something on top of it.

On top, I layered two coats of KBShimmer Elle. The polish description says: "The circus, full of fun, color, and a wonder for people of all ages. Lions, tigers, and elephants! Elle is our nail polish elephant. A pale grey jelly color, we added several pink glitters, white and grey glitters for a polish that soft and beautiful."

Because it's a jelly, I chose to layer it. You can see some issues on my middle finger. Elle took a bit to dry so I ended up smudging it. But....I just covered it up later on! This mani is great for covering up imperfections!

To do the blocking, I just taped off random sections and painted using Sinful Colors Black on Black and NYC MoMa. Finally I added topcoat to smooth everything out.

Read Between the Lines French

I decided to take yesterday's mani and play with it a bit. I freehanded a French tip using Rimmel Black Satin. 

I kinda like the combo, but I'm not super in love with it.

I didn't wait long enough for the black to dry so I have some dragging on my middle finger. Sorry for that!

Superbowl nails

I'm back!! Well, sorta. I ended up with a super bad cold, and it's sooo much harder to recover from illness when you have a little one! Before I could just take some Benadryl or Nyquil and sleep it off. Not anymore! Plus I have to be extra careful since I'm nursing.

Anyway, I found this mani I did for the Superbowl that I somehow never posted! I'll be back this weekend with regularly scheduled blogging.

Index: for the 49ers and I used Zoya Sooki and Revlon Gold Coin

Middle: football, and I used OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys and Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner

Ring: for the Ravens, and I used Sinful Colors Amethyst and Revlon Gold Coin

Pinkie: for the turf, and I used OPI Don't Mess with OPI and leaf green flocking powder from TKB Trading

31 Day Challenge, Part 2!: Day 29, Inspired by the Supernatural

For today's mani, I was originally just going to go with an alien and a spaceship. But since I did a few manis this week with a Valentine's Day theme, I decided to go with alien love for today's mani

I love how super cute this turned out!

I used two coats of Sinful Colors Neptune for the base. The shimmery blue was a perfect not-too-dark space background. The spaceship was done with Barry M Emerald Green. The first alien was created using Sinful Colors Dream On, and I used Sinful Colors Rise and Shine for the other alien. The hearts are Pure Ice Peony. I added in the black and and white details using Rimmel Black Satin and Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner.

Check out some other far out manis inspired by the supernatural below.

31 Day Challenge, Part 2!: Day 26, Inspired by a Pattern

For today's challenge, I really wanted to do something with heart since Valentine's Day is coming up soon. So off to Google Images I went!  I found this pattern with pink hearts on a grey back ground and loved it!

Source: Dreamstime

I started with a base coat of Rimmel Grey Matter. I really like this polish because I love the color, the Rimmel brush, and its fast dry time.  I added the hearts using acrylic paint.

Check out other manis inspired by patterns below.

31 Day Challenge, Part 2!: Day 22, Inspired by a Song

In one of my small nail groups, we've been reminiscing lately and sharing old photos. So I starting thinking about old songs that I could use for today's mani when I finally figured out what I should do!

Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down was one of my favorite songs in high school. I still love it actually! What makes the song even better is that the first time I heard it, I was wearing my Superman t-shirt.

To save myself some time, I decided to paint the Superman logo ahead of time as a decal. It sorta worked. I made the decal a bit too big and when I put it over the blue base, the colors didn't stand out as much as I wanted.  The face and suit were inspired by these Superman nails.

The base coat on the face is Essie Brooch the Subject. The base coat on the other nails is Rimmel Chill.  I used acrylic paint for the rest of the design (other than the logo which was done using Migi nail art pens).

I like how these turned out, but I feel like I could have done a neater job.

Check out some other manis inspired by songs below.

31 Day Challenge, Part 2!: Day 19, Galaxies

I love the way galaxy nails look. I've only done them one time on myself during the 31 Day Challenge in August, but I already knew I wanted to do something different for today.  I saw this pin which lead me to this mani on Tumblr and knew I wanted to do something like it.

I especially knew I wanted to do a Northern Lights/Aurora Borealis mani because I've been lucky enough to see them once several years ago while in college. Because I was farther south, the only color visible was green, and it was pretty dim at that.  I decided to Google some images and was inspired by the ones with green.

Source: Aurora Borealis Photo Gallery

Source: The Guardian

This mani took several different steps. First I painted on two coats of Revlon Royal.  Next I sponged on Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner to give a base and to ensure the brightness of the other colors.  To create the lights, I sponged on China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard (green), Sally Hansen Green with Envy, O.P.I. Don't Mess with OPI (green), Sinful Colors Dream On (neon purple), Sinful Colors Amethyst (purple) and Revlon Royal. Whew!

I topped with INM Northern Lights Hologram Top Coat "Silver" (very suiting for this mani!). I created the trees with a small brush and Rimmel Black Satin. Finally, I finished the design with stars in Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner.

The result turned out pretty awesome, if I do say so myself! The husband even gave it his seal of approval!

Check out other far-out galaxy manis below.

31 Day Challenge, Part 2!: Day 18, Half Moon

I really don't like half moon manis. They are just not my thing. But when I saw these, I kinda liked them! They are definitely not the traditional half moon, but I'm not a traditional kinda girl.

For my base, I used Essie Sew Psyched, a army green. Then I dotted on black in the half moon shape using Rimmel Black Satin. Finally, I dotted Revlon Gold Coin on top of that.

I like this non-traditional half moon! It could be done in a bunch of different colors to make it funky or classy.

Check out some of half-moon manis below!