Nina Ultra Pro Swatches

Here's some colors I got from my last trip to Sally's. I haven't had a chance to use them yet in a manicure, but I wanted to test out the formula before I decided if I buy more this weekend (don't judge! I have coupons!)

This brand is called Nina Ultra Pro. The price is really good at $3.79 a bottle with your Sally Beauty Card. As far as I know, it's only available at Sally's (either in person or online), but I'm sure you can find it other places as well.

Ink-ling and Mossy Britches, picture taken with flash

The color went on in two wonderful coats. The formula on these was super nice. They went on kind of thin for their first coats but were completely opaque in two coats.

Artificial light, this is more true to the colors.

Ink-ling is purplish-smoky gray. I love grays and think they go super well with my skin tone. 

Mossy Britches is a sort of olive green with lots of gold shimmer in it. You could probably compare it to Chanel Peridot, but I'm not sure since I don't have the Chanel. 

I've heard other bloggers say that the brush is on the thin side, but it's also nice and flexible (not floppy though). I like the thinner brush because I have small nails so I was able to get a much neater manicure with these.

Overall, I really loved the application of these, the true-to-the-bottle color, and the price. I will be getting more for sure. Has any one else tried this brand?

Trying out some new things

So I actually got bored with my manicure from yesterday already. I think I may have a problem, LOL. So I decided to play with things before I took off the color.

From L to R: with Pure Ice White Crackle, Jordana stripper in Star Designer just on the tips, and Essie Matte About You on the pinky

And here's my thumb on that hand. A half moon manicure with Rimmel London Wild Orchid

And here's my left hand with: Pure Ice Black Crackle, Rimmel London French White Tip Pro,  and 1 coat of Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy

I really like the silver tip on the navy blue, and kinda even dig the Gray's Anatomy. I think I would like the white tip better if I did it a bit neater. I didn't feel like doing things super clean because I was just taking it off anyway. I'm not a fan of the half moon, but it's just those colors because I did a different one that I really like (I'll show you all tomorrow!)


What do you think? Which look is your favorite and which is your least favorite?

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.

Día de los Muertos

This is my final Halloween-ish manicure. Actually, I did Día de los Muertos which starts today and ends on November 2nd.  I also thought it was fitting because I am a Spanish teacher.

With flash. The tombstone says DEP which stands for Descanse en Paz (or Rest in Peace) in Spanish.

My clean-up is getting better, but I still need to get better at it.

Natural Sunlight, but it's pretty cloudy. I love this glitter top coat I used on my index & ring fingers. It's by Sally Girl and called Way 2 Disco. It's almost got a halo effect to it. In some lights, it looks blue and in others green and every where in between the two colors.

 Here's a close up of my thumb. I messed up on the yellow a bit so you can see a smudge by his nose. The white is a bit streaky. I know whites can be like this, but I think I have a pretty crappy white. 

And here's the one that I need on my right hand hand. I don't think I did too bad even though I'm a righty.

Here's a list of all the colors I used.
Base coat for all: CND Stickey
La catrina (skeleton): white is Migi nail art pen color (I just used the brush part, but I really need to get white), Migi nail art pen for the black. Flower dots are Maybelline Express Finish Sunshine, Wet N Wild Sunny Side Up, Sally Hansen Green with Envy, and a no-name pink
Tomb: Sinful Colors Black on Black; Nina Ultra Pro Ink-ling for tomb; and grass is a combo of O.P.I. Cuckoo for this Color, Revlon Minted, and Sally Hansen Green with Envy
Tree: 2 coats of ELF Light Pink for the background and Migi nail art pen for the trees
Ring/Index finger: 2 coats of Sinful Colors Black on Black and Sally Girl Way 2 Disco
Topped everything off with 1 thick coat of Seche Vite.

Maid Marian nails

 So I originally had a Halloween themed manicure on and totally realized that it would not match my Halloween costume (I went as Maid Marion and my husband was Robin Hood). So I decided to redo my nails right away. I apologize for the crappy pictures but it's been dark and rainy today so my lighting wasn't so good.

 I did a base of Sinful Colors Black on Black and then put a coat of an unlabeled slightly maroon red over the top to make a darker color. The swirls are done with Revlon Gold Coin (I love this color).

Here's a picture with flash, ugh.

My favorite nail that I did was my pinky.

 I tried to do a swirly design with the gold to mimic Medieval/Renaissance tapestry. I tried to do a heart swirly design on my index finger, but that was a total fail.


All in all, I'm still working on getting the hang of nail art. My clean-up isn't the best yet either. Part of the problem with both of these is that I need nail art brushes (I have 1, but I could use better ones), dotting tools, and a better cleanup brush (mine aren't stiff enough).

Giveaway over at I'm Feeling Nail-venturous

I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous is having a 1000 Follower giveaway over at her blog.  She's giving away some great franken glitters made by My Nail Graffiti.

Good luck to everyone!

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

Halloween

Here's two Halloween nail designs that I have done. They are inspired by the many of designs floating around on other nail blogs.

Frankenstein's monster nails

The base is Sally Hansen Green with Envy, and black is Sinful colors nail art polish in Time Out. The green glitter is real glitter! I put down a base of O.P.I. Cuckoo for This Color just to make sure no nail bed showed. Then I put down a clear coat and dumped on the glitter. I followed it up with 2 coats of Seche Vite, but it still was super bumpy.

Various Halloween creatures

Not my favorite manicure, but I really like the vampire and mummy. Used lots of colors on this one.

Mummy: Migi nail art pen for white, Pure Ice Siren (red), Sinful Colors Nirvana (sponged on brown), Sinful Colors Black on Black.

Cat: Sinful Colors Black on Black, Sally Hansen Green with Envy, Pure Ice Peony (pink nose), Wet n Wild Metallica (silver)

Vampire: Migi nail art pen for white, Pure Ice Siren, Sinful Colors Black on Black

Witch: Sinful Colors Mint Apple (skin), Sinful Colors Amethyst (hat), Sinful Colors Black on Black, Revlon Gold Coin

Ghost: Migi nail art pen for white & Sinful Colors Black on Black

Whew! I think that's it.

Older Nail Art

Here's some pictures of older nail art that I have done.

This is the first one that I did. It's not the best, but I am proud of my first try. Base coat is Sinful Colors Why Not? and the flowers were done with Migi Nail Art pens.

Rubber ducky nails! I really loved these. Base is Revlon Blue Lagoon, white bubbles are Rimmel London French White Tip Pro, and the rest is Migi Nail Art Pens again along with glitter of Sally Hansen Ice Queen. 

Welcome!

I've always loved painting my nails since I can remember. Recently though, my interest has grown along with my nail polish collection! Lol. I've been reading so many of the wonderful blogs out there and have been inspired to start my own.  I do have to be honest though: I've never been very good at keeping up with blogs so this project may be doomed from the start.

Most of the stuff pictured here will probably be nail designs and nail art. I've been toying with the idea of swatching polish as well, but I'm not sure yet if that is a road I want to take.