Space-y Blue Skittles with MoYou London

What's that? Skittles in the title again! Well, at least I tried to get creative with the first half ;)

This mani is sort of a combination of a few different things: wanting to use and feature Dollish Polish Expecto Patronum again as well as wanting to use some more of my new MoYou London images.

 

I started with a base of Dollish Polish Expecto Pantronum first. I used 2-3 coats.

To jazz it up a bit, I freehanded some tips using Barry M Silver Foil and added on some square blue rhinestones.

The images are stamped with Barry M Silver Foil as well and are from MoYou Sci-Fi 03. It's such a cute plate!!!! See????

(Image courtesy of MoYou London)

I love all of the images on there and need to find some time to play around with them. Advanced stamping, on top of galaxy nails, oh the possibilities!!!!

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?

Negative Space Skittles

Negative space manis are everywhere lately, aren't they? I'll admit, I wasn't a big fan at first. I still don't like some of them (I'm not a fan of visable nail line so that needs to be mostly covered for my personal taste), but they have really grown on me!

Plus if you skip a base coat, they're super fast to do especially for tape manis. And that's part of what I did for today's mani!

I laid down a base coat on all but the index and pinkie fingers so I wouldn't have to worry with dry time and tape.

I painted the thumb and middle with one coat of Barry M Pomegrante. I used nail vinyl straights to block off a section and painted on Milani Fresh Teal. For the ring finger, I combined the two colors to make flowers and added Barry M Silver Foil dots in the centers.

I topped the whole mani with Rica Glossy Glam. I just bought the top coat to try. It's thinner than Seche Vite (which I normally use) so I did have a tiny bit of dragging from not floating enough. It did dry quickly. I didn't keep this mani on long enough to see if shrinkage would occur, but I will with the next one.

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.

OPI Push and Shove

A bit late, I know but whatever. I wasn't sure I wanted this polish, but I saw it for $4.50 at Sally Beauty so I was good with that :)

OPI Push and Shove is pretty great. I used one coat of OPI Lay Down the Bass plus two coats of Push and Shove. It went on pretty easy for me. You can see some ridges from my nails, but I don't mind too much. I wore it for two days though I did have some wear on it.

I want to play around with it some more by trying top coats or Gelous or a gel sandwich to see how that works for this.

Illamasqua Grab Negative Space Mani

I've been seeing negative space manis all over Instagram lately. I wanted to try out my own design and went with something simpler.

First I painted a base coat. Then I taped off the space I wanted naked or negative. I painted the remaining space with Illamasqua Grab. I'd recommend using a one coater for this part.

After I peeled up the tape, I used a small brush and Barry M Silver Foil to freehand the lines. Other than messing up my pinkie a bit, it turned about really well! It was surprisingly easy to do too! 

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

Double Challenge Day featuring Snow Man Nail Art

Today's challenge for the Polish-Aholics Anonymous Winter 2013 Challenge is Inspired by a Holiday Movie. I'm also participating in the Nail Polish Canada 2013 Holiday Nail Art Challenge. The first week's theme is Snow. I decided to combine the two ideas and did Frosty the Snowman nails.

I was inspired by a post I saw on Pinterest and created this.

Base: Wet N Wild French White Creme and Sally Hansen Glass Slipper
Details: black acrylic paint, Zoya Arizona (orange), Barry M Pomegrante

Berry & Silver Skittle

Sinful Colors Berry Charm

Wet n Wild Sprinkled with Love

Nail Craze NC02 stamped with Barry M Silver Foil

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.

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.

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!

Essence Date in the Moonlight

I went to a wedding at the beginning of the month and wanted to do a simple but elegant mani for the occasion.  I decided to wear a blue striped summer dress and chose to use Essence Date in the Moonlight which I picked up a bit ago.

Date in the Moonlight is a super dark navy blue with brighter blue shimmer.  It's part of the Color and Go collection so the fast dry aspect appealed to me.  It went on wonderfully in two coats. 

It chipped really easily though :( I did this mani two days before the wedding, and it completely peeled off the day before so I had to redo it. It didn't peel off that time, but I had a few chips before the ceremony was even over.

I added some silver glitter on the tips using Barry M Silver Glitter and rhinestones on the moon.

This last picture is taken in direct sunlight and really shows off the brighter blue shimmer.

June Polish Days: To Boldly Go

The theme for this month's Polish Days is To Boldly Go. Anything sci-fi goes for this theme.

I'm fairly new to the cult of Doctor Who (just started the 11th Doctor), but I've been wanting to do Doctor Who nails since I got hooked.  Doctor Who nails work perfectly for the sci-fi theme!

On my nails I painted (from index to pinkie), the 9th Doctor's outfit (he's my favorite!), the (new) Doctor Who logo, a Dalek, and the T.A.R.D.I.S.

I started my painting the base I needed for each image. Here's what I used:

Index: Essie Brooch the Subject

Middle: Zoya Storm

Ring: Revlon Gold Coin

Pinkie: Revlon Royal

Then I added on the details using some small nail art brushes and several different polishes. Here are the rest of the polishes I used:

Index: Revlon Royal (blue), Wet N Wild Black Creme (black)

Middle: Barry M Silver Foil (silver)

Pinkie: Wet n Wild Black Creme, Wet n Wild French White Creme

I adore how this came out. The Dalek and the 9th Doctor's outfit are my favorite :)

Check out other mani from June's Polish Days through the links below

When Stars Collide Dragonfly

I decided to add some simple nail art to When Stars Collide. I used Gosh Holographic Hero for the dots and the dragonfly wings. The dragonfly's body was done with Wet n Wild Black Creme.

Enjoy the photos!

Moon Boot Zig Zag

What's this?! I added nail art to my mani?! Never!! Hehe. I told you I can't leave anything alone! At least I am learning to do some simpler things.

For this, I free handed a sort of zigzag design using Barry M Foil Nail Effect Silver. It's great for nail art since it's so opaque.  I really need more of this color (and the silver too). Luckily my sister-in-law lives in Ireland and will be visiting hopefully this summer so she can bring me more :)

My zig zag design is a bit off center, but I still like it. Sorta reminds me of mountains, don't ya think?

Monday Mani: Copy Cat Mani

This week's Monday Mani theme at PAA (Polish-aholics Anonymous) is Copy Cat Manis. For today's theme, we were to copy another blogger's mani and show both of them side by side.

I really really really wanted to use Gosh Holographic Hero which I got in a swap not too long ago. So I searched Google for some nail art using it. I thought about just picking a mani from my Pinterest board, but there's too many! This narrowed it down for me. I ended up recreating this mani from ChitChatNails. And here they are!!!

I'm suffering from breakage issues, so my nails aren't as pretty as hers. This is also my first time doing this form of dotted nail art. Not too bad if I don't say so myself.

As I mentioned earlier, the base coat is Gosh Holographic Hero. I used 2-3 coats for this mani. I didn't use a base coat. Then I put on 1 thin coat of Holographic Hero to lay a foundation. I added 1-2 thick coats on top making sure to sort of float the polish on top of the thin layer to prevent dragging. It worked pretty well that way!

I got some beautiful shots of Holographic Hero in the sun so enjoy the picture spam below!

Monday Mani: Fishtail/Braided

This week's Monday Mani theme at PAA (Polish-aholics Anonymous) is Fishtail/Braided. (I'll show you the last Pixie Dust later this week as I wanted to show you the Monday Mani on time).

I started with a base of Zoya Storm. I use thinner coats so I needed two here. What you see is the mani without clean-up. That's right! No cleanup! No wonder the Zoya brush was voted the best :)

Many bloggers have reviewed Storm before so I'll be brief. It's a wonderful base scattered holo polish. Simple, chic, and beautiful.

I've seen several different tutorials for the fishtail/braided mani so I didn't need one for this. I chose to do just my ring finger as an accent so Storm could still stand out on the other nails.

I used Barry M Silver Foil (which I normally only use for stamping, but I wanted a super opaque silver to go over Storm) and Zoya Isla. I was able to do just one swipe of Silver Foil since it's nicely opaque. For Isla, I used 2 swipes for the first braid but only did 1 for the second. You can tell that it's not quite dark enough there, but it still looks really nice.

This was my first time doing a fishtail/braided mani, and it was SO easy! I can't believe I haven't done one before. I'll definitely be doing more in the future.

Have you done a fishtail/braided mani before? What color combinations would you like to see me do?