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

Wicked Witch of the East

Just a quickie post inspired by the Wicked Witch of the East

Glam Polish Evanora (two very nice easy coats)

Savvy Ruby Slippers (two coats)

31 Day Challenge, Part 2!: Day 1, Red Nails

So I must be all sorts of crazy, but when two awesome ladies at Polish-aholics Anonymous were looking for people to join them in the Relaxed 31 Day Challenge, I decided to do it! Despite having a newborn (he'll be two months old in just a few days), despite having done this already in August.

But here's my reasoning: I love to challenge myself. Since I'm a SAHM mom now, my days revolve around nursing and diaper changes. While I love my little guy, I've been neglecting my creative side. This should get that motor running!
I also feel like I didn't do the best I could during the challenge in August. Granted, I'm waaay busier now, but I really want to try harder and challenge myself.

Plus this challenge is relaxed (no weekends!) so it should give me some extra time to get the manis done. *crosses fingers*

Enough jabbering! Onto today's mani: red. Last time I did a simple red polish with glitter as accents. This time I decided to rock a super girly look (the french mani) but make it sort of rock star-ish.  I started with a base of Zoya Loretta as a sheer pink base to smooth out my nails and hide any yellowing.

For my red tips, I used Savvy Ruby Pumps and just freehanded them with the polish brush. The black was doing with Wet N Wild Black Creme and a nail art brush.  I wish I could have done a neater job on the black, but the little man was pretty crabby while I trying to do this mani :/

Overall, I do really love this. I kept staring at my nails today, lol!

Check out other red manis.

Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe

I got this polish a while back when Deborah Lippmann polish was on sale through a offer with Good Morning America. I have finally had a chance to use it, and I'm so sad I didn't try it earlier. This polish is AMAZING and looks wonderful with my skin tone.  I used Savvy Deja Blue on the base on this to conserve this beauty. Onto the photos!

Monday Mani: Love me, love me not

At Polish-aholics Anonymous this week's Monday Mani theme is Love me, love me not.

I used 2 coats of Savvy Ruby Slippers for the base coat.  The Xs and Os were Rimmel White Nail Tip Liner and the hearts were Pure Ice Peony.

Layering Sally Hansen Glass Slipper

I was inspired by this post at Chalkboard Nails.  I really love what she created through layering. I have everything except Revlon Royal so I thought I would pick it up. However, it's $6.50 at my Walgreens, and I know Revlons go on sale plenty of time.

When I got home and I was digging through my stash trying to figure out what to put on my naked nails, I was inspired and this was born!!

While my photography isn't as good as Chalkboard nails and I didn't have Revlon Royal, this looks pretty darn similar!

I followed most of the same steps: 1 coat Wet N Wild Black Creme, 2 very heavy coats Sally Hansen Glass Slipper, and 1 very thin coat of the secret polish: Savvy Deja Blue! You can find this brand at Sally's and in fact, the whole Savvy brand is on clearance now.

I think this looks really great. The look was flashy yet subtle at the same time. My students loved it too, lol.

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 19: Santa Hats

I got the inspiration for this mani from Posh for Polish.

After my base coat, I added a thick-ish layer of Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat.

Next, I mixed together some Savvy Ruby Pumps and Pure Ice Siren to get the red I wanted.  I painted on a rough triangle.  Finally, I dotted on Finger Paints Paper Mache.

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 13: Christmas trees

So my poor middle finger smudged very badly after I added Seche Vite. Sigh. I didn't have time to fix it, so here yea go!

Look at my poor nails. :(  They've been breaking left and right. I've been using Essie Rock Solid as my base coat and doing everything else right (filing in 1 direction, fine grit file, sealing the nail plate, pushing back cuticles, moisturizing). So I blame stress. My face is breaking out all over the place, too.

This didn't quite turn out like I hoped it would. The base coat is Savvy Ruby Pumps. Clearly, they took their name from China Glaze. It's a pretty nice color, but a bit thin. It's not as glittery as Ruby Pumps. Next, I added in the tree base using Essie Sew Psyched (green) and Sinful Colors Nirvana (brown). 

I added in the details using Revlon Gold Coin. I decided to just make dots instead of trying to draw a star, but they don't quite look right. The sparkles on the tree is Milani Gems, which I believe is a dupe for Happy Birthday.

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 8: Candy Canes

Today's them is Candy Canes. I really like how this turned out.

Candy canes

For the base, I used 3 coats of Sally Hansen Whirlwind White.
For the stripes, I used Pure Ice Siren and a small brush to make the thicker stripes. Then I mixed some of Siren with Whirlwind White and Savvy Ruby Slippers to make the thinner, lighter lines.

Here's some others who are also participating in this challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

I love nail art, but I wanted to do something a little less time intensive today and play with some new polishes that I've gotten recently but haven't had a chance to use.

I started off with a base coat then used 3 coats of Savvy Deja Blue. The polish seemed a bit thin and definitely need the full three coats. Perhaps you could get away with 2 thick coats.

Ugh, I apologize for the clean up. It looked better last night. Also, blue is so hard to clean-up, any tips?

I love the look of this bottle.

To have a little fun, I put on two thick coats of Sally Girl Chunky Silver Glitter.  I followed everything up with 1 coat of Seche Vite.

Taken with flash. It's so cloudy outside that it's hard to get a photo of anything without a flash. This photo also shows the true color and the tiny bit of shimmer the color has.

Has anyone else tried the Savvy brand of polish? I found it at Sally's and also got a glittery red (Ruby Pumps) for my mom, but I'm thinking about getting one for myself too.

Haul plus all my nail supplies

This is my last post of the day. I went to Sally Beauty Supply and was able to get quite a bit of stuff (with permission of the husband of course, lol!) Here's what I got:

Sally Girl Minis (L - R): Chunky Pink Glitter, Way 2 Disco, Chunky Silver Glitter, Chunky Gold Glitter

 Nina Ultra Pro (L - R) : Ink-ling, Mossy Britches, Purple-xing

Misc : Rimmel London Wild Orchid (which I actually got at Walmart), Savvy Deja Blue (love the bottle), Seche Vite, and So Easy Stripe Rite in Midnight Blue (which I got for free with the Seche Vite).

And finally, pictures of all my nail supplies.

All of my polish

All of my other supplies including clear coats, Migi nail art pens, striping/nail art brushes, glitter, and stickers/french tips