peanut butter love

Here's the result of my first manicure request! My friend Lauren asked me to do nail art based on the phrase "peanut butter love".  Don't worry about the phrase, because I took it literally and did (per her reuquest) a peanut butter base with hearts all over.

I used 2 coats of Essie Case Study as the base.  The hearts are a combination of colors.  The red hearts mix Essie Geranium and Revlon Glitz & Glam, and the pink hearts mix OPI Strawberry Margarita and a silver/gold nail art paint I have. The dots are the unaltered Essie and OPI polishes.  I finished the manicure with Essie Matte About You top coat.  I used both a bobby pin and a bamboo skewer to draw in the hearts, though I would recommend using the skewer for better accuracy.  Keep the requests coming, and look for some New Year's Eve nail art this weekend!

snowy night

 

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted a project! I wanted to do something simple today so I chose to layer a few glitter polishes over a dark base coat for a snow-like effect.  For the base I used a new polish from the Color Club + Refinery29 collection called Rolling In The Deep.  It is a very dark purple with just a hint of  small silver glitter.  I used Wet N' Wild's In The Spotlight (silver bar glitter) and Nubar 2010 (holo flakies) on top.  The pictures don't quite capture the awesome color change these polishes create.  The colors range from orange to green and I love how they look over the dark purple base.  Hope you enjoy!

O Christmas Tree

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone! I regrettably did not do a turkey day mani, but I do have another holiday project for you today.  

I thought I'd start with the basics, so here is my first ever Christmas tree manicure.  To achieve this look I first put down a base coat of white polish (Sally Hansen Whirlwind White).  I was planning to use tape to outline the trees, but ended up (due to impatience) using a small nail art brush to paint in the green triangles (Sinful Colors HD Nails).  I then went in with a bamboo skewer and put on gold (China Glaze Champagne Bubbles), red (Nicole by OPI Stolen Kisses), silver (China Glaze Icicle), and sparkle (OPI Rainbow Connection) dots for the ornaments.

Good luck getting back to work tomorrow, and keep checking in for more holiday projects!

China Glaze Holiday Polka-dots

First, an update on the Milani glitter from last time.  

This:

Became this:

IN ONE DAY!?!  The glitter was such a great color, but the day after I put it on it started to peel up in huge pieces.  It didn't help that I had cut my finger.  I was super bummed because I was really pleased with how the two colors worked together.  

Anyway, here's what I've been working on tonight:

I used a base of Sally Hansen's Whirlwind White and dotted on China Glaze in Icicle (silver) and Champagne Bubbles (gold).  I used the bottom end of a bamboo skewer to do the larger, gold dots, and the tip to do the silver dots.  This manicure has gotten me excited for many more holiday projects to come!  

Check back later in the week for some Thanksgiving themed posts!!!

Milani One Coat Glitter - Purple Gleam

I didn't have a ton of time for a manicure today, so I decided to just try out a new polish.  Milani's Purple Gleam is a gray/purple jelly with small purple and fuchsia glitter.  I was skeptical of the "one coat" name, but truth be told it covered pretty darn well the first time around.  I accented the glitter with Urban Outfitters' Binge (no joke - legit name). 

I ended up doing 2 coats of each color and 2 coats of Seche Vite on top.  The glitter dried surprisingly matte, so the extra top coat was necessary. 

Have a fantastic rest of your week everyone!

storm clouds

A gray day has led me to create a stormy manicure.  I got the inspiration from Nailside. The author, Jane, does a lot of fun and unique nail art, and I just loved how simple and cute her cloud idea was.  To create this look you put down a base coat and then apply two (or more) colors on top.  The clouds are formed by making three brush strokes with each accent color. For my interpretation I used Ebony Loves Chris by Wet n' Wild (black), Power Clutch by Essie (dark gray), Icicle by China Glaze (silver), and gave it a finishing coat of Matte About You by Essie.  

Enjoy!

Robin's Egg Blue

I found a perfect light blue today and thought I would try a manicure based loosely on a Robin's egg.

I started by gathering Seche Base and Top coats, Matte About You (matte top coat) by Essie, Ebony Hates Chris (black) by Wet n' Wild, Whirlwind White by Sally Hansen, Ballet Slippers (light pink) and Case Study (brown) by Essie, and Sky by Sally Hansen (light blue).  There's also a Revlon color in there that I didn't end up using.

I put on three coats of Sky and then used bamboo skewers and a dotting tool to apply dots of varying sizes using the other colors.  Two coats of Seche top coat and one of Matte About You and here you go:

A little nest of eggs on my fingers!

Green with Envy

Hello friends! Here's a fun Monday manicure for your enjoyment:

I started out with 2 coats of Sinful Colors' HD Nails (iridescent green) and then used a bobby pin to dot on Sinful Colors' Call You Later (olive green and gold glitter).

I put a few drops of the glitter polish onto a piece of wax paper and used the head of the bobby pin like a dotting tool.

I really like how evenly the dots came out. I'm thinking that this technique would be a cool way to apply a matte top coat over a dark base color too.  

That's all for now, but keep checking back and let me know what you think. Feel free to comment with any ideas you'd like to see me try!

día de los muertos

I know I've been slacking on posts, but below are a few pics (rather out of focus ones) of today's manicure.

I wanted to do some sugar skull nail art in honor of the Day of the Dead.  Thanks to Pixie Polish and the following video for help executing my idea!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwszO2N6M3M

Preppy Halloween

Today's manicure: preppy Halloween polka dots!

I started by grabbing a handful of Halloween colors from my polish drawer.

I ended up settling on a black base with orange and white dots.

First I applied 2 coats of Wet n' Wild's Ebony Hates Chris:

After it dried I went in with Milani's White Canvas and an orange color by Q-Rapha Beauty (both have skinny art brushes) and applied dots all over:

I was a bit quick to put on the top coat (as you can see my thumb got a little messed up) but I like how the polka dots came out!  Stay tuned for more Halloween nails to come!!

Candy Corn

So for today's manicure I thought I'd try another Halloween project: candy corn nails!

The polishes I used for the project:

Seche Vite (top coat), Seche Base (base coat), Sally Hansen Whirlwind White, and Milani's Juicy Glo (orange) and Lemongello (yellow).  I also ended up using Confetti's Ice Ice Baby.

Step 1. Apply base coat and 2 coats of Orange all over your nails

Step 2. Take small strips of scotch tape and place them horizontally across each nail to create stripes.  IMPORTANT: allow the orange polish to dry COMPLETELY.  I did not, and I ended up having to do a lot more work than I wanted.

Step 3. Apply white polish to tips of nails (2 coats), and yellow polish to base of nails (2 coats).  I actually ended up applying white polish to my entire nail because my yellow polish was sheer and would not have shown up over the orange base.

Step 4. Again, let nail polish dry completely and remove the tape strips.  If you have allowed all coats of polish to dry fully you should end up with nice stripes. Apply glitter (if desired) and top coat.

Here's my final result (after many, many touch ups)!

Enjoy! I got the idea and steps from thebeautydepartment.com (http://thebeautydepartment.com/2011/10/sweet-mani/)

Happy? Friday

So, in a few words, today was the worst.  What better way to try to cope than by trying out a new nail color!?

Here's my latest purchase:

 Revlon's Facets of Fuscia, a black jelly base with purple/pink hex glitter.

I decided to do four coats, which I realize is a lot, but the color is very sheer.

 Kind of perfect for halloween, don't you think? I'm pretty sure this will be making it into my "sexy crazy old bat" costume.

Here's a close-up (albeit a blurry one) of the color:

Hope you all have had a fantastic week! Check back for more updates soon!!

Ghost

Today I picked up a few new polishes, including China Glaze's Icicle and a fun glitter called Ice Ice Baby by Confetti.  I thought the two together might make for a fun ghostly look.

I ended up doing 2 coats of CG Icicle, and 2 coats of Ice Ice Baby.

The CG color was pretty sparkly on its own, and I think it kind of overpowered the glitter coat.  I'm still decently happy with how it came out.  I'm really excited to try the glitter with a more matte color soon!

Here are a few of my projects:

 1. Malibu Barbie: featuring NYC nail color and Sally Hansen Salon Effects

 2. Plain Jane: featuring Essie's Ballet Slippers and Power Clutch

 3. Rainbow French: featuring Urban Outfitters nail polish in Jerk and Binge, Essie's Geranium and Coat Azure, and Nicole by OPI's Stolen Kisses

 4. Geometry Lesson: featuring Essie's Case Study and Milani's Black Sketch

5. Sparkle Attack!: featuring OPI's Rainbow Connection, Essie's Turquoise & Caicos, and Milani's Drawn In Pink

Hellooooo blogoshpere! I've been experimenting with new nail art and am eager to start sharing my tries and triumphs with the world. Hope you all enjoy!