Splatter Me Valentine

Happy Friday! I've got this fun splatter manicure to share with you today!

I started with a white base (my favorite) O.P.I - My Boyfriend Scales Walls. And on top of that I used a straw dipped in polish to blow splatters all over my nails in pink and gold. The darker pink is O.P.I - Hey Baby and the lighter bubble gum pink is Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear... Bubblegum Pink, ha! Gold is China Glaze - Passion and my thumb is Zoya Tomoko.

These are so much fun to make because it's chaotic but somehow in the end looks nice no matter what. But make sure to cover your fingers and work space with tape because this polish can seriously go everywhere. And be sure to be in a well ventilated area. I felt like I was losing brain cells using this much polish.  

This was before my recent nail cut when I was feeling like doing some pink designs for Valentine's day! Hope you enjoyed!

Posh Flowers + Video

HALLELUJAH! I finally got my hands on some Zoya matte polishes! Zoya had them, discontinued them, brought them back.... and I still missed it! Luckily a friend sent me a link to a seller on eBay who had them BRAND spankin new and reasonably priced. I didn't hesitate and I have 0 regrets!

Anywho! I decided to use Zoya - Posh first, a gorgeous matte red that has a ruby color which seems to glow from within. I love it.

The flowers are non other than a MoYou stamp, Pro Plate 6. And I stamped with my trusty squishy stamper and Wet 'n Wild - Black Creme.  The glossy on matte combination is a winner in my book.

I've actually filmed a tutorial for this look as well! I know it's all pretty self explanatory but I was dying to use my tripod and test out the video mode. Be gentle, stamping on camera is way harder than I anticipated!

Neon Cornflowers

 Mmmmm TGIF! And payday for a lot of people (including me!) Hope everyone is kicking the weekend off right. This flower design isn't a cornflower, my titles are usually just mashing whatever manicure colors I have on together.

 I'm excited to share this look with you because I am pretty darn proud of how it came out. 1. I love the colors. 2. Uh, floral stamps. Hello! 3. I used to be terrible at pairing colors together (no I'm not color blind) but my color matches were never real winners in the past. I am definitely getting better with this.

Base: China Glaze - Electric Beat (stunning cornflower blue, perfect in two coats)

Stamping: China Glaze - Highlight of My Summer (gorgeous NEON mint color I picked up just for the name, but ended up loving. And it's marvelously opaque for stamping. Win.)

Flowers: MoYou XL stamping plate (Pro 06).

Also this is what I think of when I think about Friday being pay day. 

Tristam Roses

Okay I couldn't wait to share this! Pictures were a little hard because everything was so holographic!

I started with a base of A-England - Tristam and stamped over it with Color Club - Over the Moon. I can't get over how much I love the Color Club Halo Hues for nail stamping. So perfect because they are all surprisingly opaque! The plate was the large floral plate (04) from Winstonia. Their large plates are ideal because they cover my whole nail without a problem.

Had to get a matte shot in here as well so you could make out the roses more clearly. Which do you prefer? 

And the gorgeous Tristam by itself! A gorgeous blurple holographic color, which was amazing in two coats. A careful painter could get away with one though. This would also be a great stamping color too!

What do you think? I hope you love it as much as I do!

New Year's Eve Pinwheels

Happy New Year! Well, eve still. I was totally uninspired for nail art and I didn't have any firework stamps in my collection, but I still wanted to go with the idea I had in my head of black and holographic polish. It screams festive to me a little louder than black and gold does.

So I decided to go with some pinwheel nails! I started with a black base and then used Color Club Cloud Nine and Over the Moon. This whole thing is stunning in the sunlight.

A more direct shot under my lamp to see the holo :)

I used tape to cut out five triangles and placed them accordingly on my nails. It was surprisingly challenging to get them to equidistant but I think it came out nicely for a first try! The points were a little off centered but that was fixed quickly with a single clear rhinestone. I remembered seeing that idea here on the most perfect blog ever. *bows down* 

What are you wearing on your nails for the occasion? Hopefully it's nice and sparkly. Have a good first start to the year!

TRON Nails

So a while ago I was trying to think of something to do for my nails. And my friend said "TRON NAILS!" 

It's definitely not something that is 100% original but I actually haven't seen it out there that much so I thought I'd take a crack at it!

I love the way it came out! Using pictures of computer circuit boards, I kinda just went to town with some striping tape.

My base is three thin coats of Polish Me to Go - Oh Cool Blue and the black on top is Wet n Wild -Black Creme

I think what sets mine apart from other TRON nail art (and you may have already guessed it if you know the brand PMTG) is... THE GLOW FACTOR!

 I feel like it's a huge sin to put this crap picture on my blog but.. glow polishes are so so hard to capture! Please forgive me for this! But trust me when I say this polish is amazing! The glow is an AWESOME light but bright blue and stays "charged" for a long time! This is about 30 seconds under a lamp! It's what made me pick the color for this design because it matches the TRON logo pretty well.

I definitely need more of these polishes! Plain or in a design they can add so much spice to your manicure! Now if I just got invited to a party.. I'm sure I'd be the life of it with these nails.

Do you like Tron? Are you obsessed with these nails like I am?

Teeth On My Teeth

You may be wondering.. what up with the title? Haha. Once I sent my picture a friend of my nails, when they happened to be shaped more square at the time, and he said "Your nails look like perfect teeth." Ever since then I can't get it out of my head! So odd yet funny.

 Anywho, I did a simple (and slightly strange) little mani and painted some teeth..on my teeth!

Started with a base of China Glaze - Something Sweet, perhaps to represent gums? And free handed the tooth shape with white acrylic paint using a picture online as a reference! I painted my pinkie with a wee little toothbrush using China Glaze - Ruby Pumps and white acrylic paint for the bristles and blue for the toothpaste.  

I only painted three teeth (actually four because of my thumb.. I should remove that one) because as it turns out I am getting my wisdom teeth removed Friday :( boo! And oddly enough I only have three coming in. Four has disappeared. 

Sorry if that's TMI for yall haha. I'm just hoping I do something funny coming off the anesthesia! Maybe I'll post the video here later.

Here's a swatch of Something Sweet. Formula was okay. Three thin coats and it was still patchy in some places. But I love the color. It reminds me of some really yummy strawberry yogurt!

Happy INAD!

A day late. Haha. Yesterday was the first International Nail Art Day! A thanks to Mimi for putting this all together!

Here's a short post on the simple mani I wore yesterday.

I started with a white base on all my nails, and on my middle, ring and pinkie I did a gradient using Essie - Van D' Go and China Glaze - Peachy Keen and I lovvve how it turned out! Subtle, but there. Who can ever get enough of gradients? 

And on my index finger are some "disco squares" from this tutorial by Sam using the same colors as above, and China Glaze - Mimosas Before Manis.

Thanks for reading :)

Sunday Funday

Today I have a swatch and a little art for you :) below is two coats of China Glaze Sunday Funday from the 2013 Avant Garden collection! 

 The swatches are two easy coats, although you could have done one thick coat, and no top coat.

My artsy fartsy shot.

 And I did some glitter placement nails in a polka dot formation thanks to a tutorial by Candice (MrCandiiPants) on YouTube! Can't believe I never thought of this cute idea!

Hope y'all are havin a good Sunday.. funday! Haha! Thanks for reading :)

Independence Day!

Quick post cause it's grillin time over here at our family's house!

I started with a base of Milani White On the Spot. then I placed vertical line of striping tape on my ring and pinky finger. I sponged a gradient of China Glaze Hey Sailor and O.P.I I Saw...You Saw...We Saw...Warsaw (that'll always be hard to say...lol)

I also used a tutorial by Chalkboard Nails for these stenciled star nails! I used the same red and blue colors on a make up sponge and then carefully peeled it back while it was still wet :) All topped off with NYC topcoat.

I'm obviously ready to grill taking pictures right next to it.. lol.

 Hope yall enjoy! Have a happy and safe Fourth of July! :D

Bright Triangles

Today I did some really simple nail art based off this cute and bright tank top (racerback) I got at Target!

I was pretty pleased I had polishes in my collection that were 90% spot on with the colors on the tank top! The blue is Splish Splash by China Glaze, and the bright/neon mint color is Highlight of My Summer also by China Glaze.

I switched up how I usually do accent fingers and I did two, my index and middle finger. I started with two coats of  Milani White On the Spot and after that dried completely I placed striping tape down in an X pattern and sponged on 1-2 layers of the colors in the triangle sections formed from the tape.

I loved the result! I can't think of anyone who isn't obsessed with striping tape. They create such cool designs that can look like it took a lot of effort, when in reality it didn't! I also loved using the sponge in this design because that's what the triangles look like in the tank also. Like they have a sponged effect.

My thumb also made it's way into these photos. Two coats of Splish Splash!

 And Mr. Sunshine graced our little town with his presence today so I could capture some decent photos of these nubs. Thanks for reading!

Galaxy Nails!

A few weeks ago for a challenge in nail art April, I attempted Galaxy nails for the first time!

I was a little nervous trying them at first because whenever I watched people doing it, it looked like so much work and despite that there's came out well! Whenever I do nail art I'm usually not that fortunate haha.

This is definitely one of those techniques that it's a mess, but you have to learn how to make it a pretty mess. It's not perfect but I think I did pretty well for my first try! 

Oh and it requires a ton of colors (at least for me). I used:

Wet n Wild Black creme (base)

OPI I Saw..U Saw...We Saw..Warsaw

OPI Tomorrow Never Dies

Unnamed white color by LA Colors

Unnamed pink color by LA Colors

 Sally Hansen Sun Kissed

China Glaze Fairy Dust on top

I personally like my index fingers and pinky the most (despite the smudged star :p) I might try this again with a warmer colored galaxy! And in my opinion those little twinkles people add just don't work for me. So I just did the little dots! Might leave that out next time. Thanks for reading :)

Big Sur + Gradient

A few weeks ago I volunteered for the Big Sur International Marathon! Volunteers always get a super cool t-shirt with a graphic of the race course on the front. And they say nail inspiration is everywhere so of course I had to make a little somethin!

I went off the gradient in the background because you can never go wrong with a blue and purple gradient! Plus they're my favorite colours :)

Colours I used L-R: 

• China Glaze Dandy Lyin' Around,
• China Glaze Sunday Funday, 
• China Glaze Seaspray,
• unnamed purple from L.A Colors, 
• China Glaze Tart-y for the Party!

I started with the white shimmery base for a little extra umph. And the reason I have both a dark and light blue, and dark and light purple is because I didn't have any exact colour to match the ones on the shirt. 

I used about equal parts of the lighter and the darker colour and it came out pretty darn close, if not spot on to the shirt! I was pleased!

The expo was really fun also, seeing so many from literally all over the world to come to a race! Lord knows I can't run but it was still fun to be in that type of environment. I was surprised to see a lot of Bostonians there! Especially after what happened there. A lot of them were doing the Big Sur marathon also. Two marathons in less than two weeks?! My goodness.