Pastel Galaxy

I don't know if any moms read my blog, but if you are a mom you just migth have heard of the Baby Center website. They have tons of information about babies and kids plus several chat boards. One of the boards I belong to has started a nail board that is going very strong! (Shout out to my BHB ladies!)

What's great about that is that we understand time restraints since we are all moms. We're all super supportive of each other which can be rare both in mom groups and the nail polish community. It's a neat little haven.

Anyway, we've decided to do weekly challenges. We get one theme for the week. Again as moms, getting a whole week to do a challenge works great! This week's theme is galaxies. I've done regular and Northern Lights ones. Today I decided to go with another "new" one and do pastel galaxy nails.

I followed a few different tutorials for this one and made it my own. It's not as pastel as other pastel galaxy manis, but I like some of the pops of dark colors.

I used a crap ton of polishes too:

Base is two coats of Sinful Colors Candy Coated.

I added the galaxy using Wet n Wild French White Creme, Barry M Blueberry, Zoya Pippa (yellow), Sinful Colors Fig, A-England Lake of the Lake (purple holographic), Zoya Pippa (pink), Revlon Minted (mint green that was mostly used to tone down purple base as Minted was pretty sheer), and Nubar Absolute (very lightly sponged to add the shimmery effect).

Black ombré stripes

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

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.

Zoya London Snowflakes

I saw this idea from Geeky Owl and loved it so I recreated it! My snowflakes are a wee bit different, but everything else is the same.

Base: two coats Zoya London

Stamped with Konad White and Bundle Monster plates

Merry Christmas!!

Hey all! Tomorrow is going to be super busy since the family is coming to our place. I'll be working on last minute cleaning plus cooking.

As much as I loved my last mani, it chipped super fast on me :(

So I had to redo it and I didn't have too much time. I also filed my nails down short since winter is taking quite a toll on them.

The base is 3 coats of Essie Marshmallow topped with China Glaze Twinkle Lights.

used the DIY Gel method on these to get longer wear. So I painted in this order: Gelous, Marshmallow, Gelous, Marshmallow, Gelous, Marshmallow, Twinkle Lights, Seche Vite.

I would not recommend the DIY Gel method with a polish that takes so many coats. It worked out fine; just took a while  to do.

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)

Whimsical Ideas by Pam Just Add Milk

3 coats Whimsical Ideas by Pam Just Add Milk

Base of Wet n Wild French White Creme

Art done using Migi nail art pens

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

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

CANDY CORMS!!!

PLol, today's title is just the shortened name of today's polish: Smitten Polish ERMAHGERD CANDY CORMS. I've worn this before, but it's such a great fall polish that I think I'll bring it out every year :)

I used two coats below and took the photo with some beautiful flowers that we saw when we visited a vineyard yesterday.

Disney Belle French Tip

Today's challenge theme in one of my FB groups is Disney Princesses. I thought about doing Ariel since she's my favorite princess, but I've seen a lot of Ariel manis.  Instead, I chose to recreate a mani from Polish Art Addiction.

I used Fresh Paint Alex's Lemonade (it smells vaguely like lemonade plus the funds go towards a children's cancer charity) for the tip. I added a gold accent using Barry M Gold Foil. Finally I stamped on a white rose (I thought it would look better than a red one) using Konad White Stamping Polish and Bundle Monster BM14.

Glam Polish Vegas Baby!

Rachel of Glam Polish makes beautiful polishes! I got my hands on some and will be featuring them here over the next few days.

Today's polish is Glam Polish Vegas Baby! I layered it over Wet n Wild French White Creme and did an accent using the splatter technique on the other nails.

Also don't forget to follow me on Instagram @rubytadpole. Feel free to leave your Instagram name below so

I can follow you as well.

Zoya Kieko and Hit Polish Mr Bubbles

Base color: Zoya Kieko

2 coats of Hit Polish Mr. Bubbles

Black Poppy Skittles

I belong to an awesome nail polish group where we swap polish but also post polish for free (just pay postage!).  Today's feature polish is one that I just paid postage for :)

This is a dark teal polish courtesy of Black Poppy. Black Poppy polish is sold at PacSun. Unfortunately, that's all I found out about this company. This is also no name or number on the polish.  But it's gorgeous!

I used two coats of the dark teal as my base coat. It was wonderfully opaque in one coat though. I needed the second to help cover up brush lines though and even things out.

The dark teal is soooo opaque that it stains though :( It's also watery so it flooded a bit and was hard to control. (Maybe that's why I got it for free).

But I still like it. The color is just too pretty not to! I left the dark teal polish by itself on my middle finger.

On my ring and thumb, I layered a coat of Lynnderella Connect the Dots.  I added a simple stripe on my index using China Glaze Stone Cold and left the matte finish there. On my pinkie, I used Wet n Wild Black Creme to create a gradient effect which looks so great with the dark teal.

I loved how this mani turned out so much that I couldn't stop myself from staring at it! That's especially dangerous while driving ;)

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!

It's My Birthday!!!!

Today I'm turning 28 so I needed to do some nail art to celebrate!

I've been really wanting to do this jelly flower sandwich by Olive View Fashion that exploded in popularity all over Reddit and Pinterest. I only have a handful of jelly polishes though. Luckily one of them is OPI Guy Meets Gal-veston. As I mentioned in last year's birthday post, this polish is very fitting to use in my birthday mani because I was born in Galveston, Texas! It read very orange-y in last year's posts, but it's much more pink like it shows in these photos.

After putting on my base coat, I added three coats of Guy Meets Gal-veston. Next, I added two flowers using my dotting tool and Wet N Wild French White Creme. Then another layer of Guy Meets Gal-veston, then two more flowers, then another layer of Guy Meets Gal-veston, then one more flower, then top coat. Phew!

On my index and pinkie fingers, I added on 1.5 coats of Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday followed by top coat.

Overall the look is super girly and festive and a great non-traditional birthday mani. Perfect for a summer birthday too!!!

Cookie Monster

As several of you know, I have a little guy at home! Some days he can be quite the handful. He's teething finally(!), but that's making him super crabby. He normally fights his naps big time, but it's been even worse with the teething.

We were headed out of town for 2 days, and I had a ton of stuff to do around the house (as you usually do before leaving on trips). The husband was off to work, and of course little man was a big crank that day! Well, I called in for back up!

My husband's coworker is a good friend of ours and lives just down the street. Her niece was visiting so I had her come on over to play with the little man while I got stuff done. She was great and wore him out!

He ended up eventually taking a nap so I did her nails as a big thank you.  She asked me to do Cookie Monster nails so of course I obliged!

I started with a base of Wet N Wild French White Creme on all the nails. I used two coats.

Next I added Cookie Monster using L'Oreal Notting Hill Blues and Wet N Wild Black Creme for the details.

The cookies were done with Essie Brooch the Subject and Essie Little Brown Dress.

You can't see it very well in this picture, but her pinkies have exclamation marks while her thumbs say, "Yum yum."

Raindrops Frogs

I decided to add some nail art to Illamasqua Raindrops. I went with this frog design, but I didn't follow the video and just freehanded base upon the picture.

My nails aren't quite long enough to do both the frog and the lily pads on the same nail so I split them up.  This could be a super cute design to add cover up tip wear by simply making sure the lily pads are on the tips only instead of by the cuticles like I did.

I used a ton of different colors for this design:

Light green: Sally Hansen Green with Envy
Green: Essie Mojito Madness
Light pink: Ulta Encore Pink
Pink: Pure Ice Peony
Wet N Wild Black Creme
Wet N Wild French White Creme

I used a small nail art brush for the whole design and it was super easy. I was a bit worried about the lily pads, but I just sorta did light pink blobs, outlined them in dark pink, and added some dark pink accents. They turned out great, but I love the one on my middle finger best. I do sorta like that the one on my pinkie kinda looks like a heart though <3