Orchid Grid Stamping Decals

Hey all! Today I have a guest post over at Squeaky Nails! 

I drew inspiration from this photo on the shop NCLA Instagram. They are nail wraps you can get here and I was immediately in love with the color combo and pattern! I threw some pink in my design even though NCLA used purple tones. 

Squeaky Nails is a Dutch blog run by the sweet Q. Make sure to head on over to her website for more details of how I got this look and be sure to check her out! She's got an indie collection worth oggling over, and she's always posting new fresh swatches!

Vampire Blossoms

I can't help but make weird titles...

But here's an idea I had in my head and it came out pretty nice! The base is the ever so popular OPI - My Vampire is Buff and I stamped over it with Rimmel London - Posh Pink which is excellent for stamping. The design is, you guessed it, MoYou! Pro Plate 14. I can't help but do anything but stamping now that I bought some more plates. The combinations are endless.

My pinky smeared... currently out of my favorite HK Girl topcoat and I'm feeling lost without it obviously!

After I put down MVIB, I also painted one coat of China Glaze - Fairy Dust. I can't believe this amazing glitter topper is discontinued?!

Hope you liked this simple look. Thanks for reading :)

Gradient Archways & Berry Rose Triangles

   Hello! Here are two manicures I didn't get enough photos of, so I thought I would combine them into one post.

Both stamping images are from MoYou XL Pro Plate (02)

The base for the first is Square Hue - Westminster, a creme polish in a color I would describe as an off white/french vanilla color. I got it in my Square Hue monthly description box and it took three coats to reach opacity, but I have decided I love it! I don't have enough off whites in my collection. 

The stamping colors are A-England - St. George and Dragon. These two colors were made for each other! And they are perfect for stamping. They are holographic but of course the sun was not out for me to get another picture.

This second manicure I think is kind of a miss, because the metallic seemed to dry too fast and I didn't get to pick up some of the triangles. But oh well! I liked the color combo and thought it was decent enough to post. I'm all about the progress.

The base for this manicure was OPI - Ate Berries In the Canaries a gorgeous purple berry color. I love it! I stamped with Essie - Penny Talk a bold copper/rose gold shade that works amazing for stamping.

Quick post: Halloween Nails!

Hi! Wow. It's been a little too long for posting and I feel like I should have a big fabulous post to welcome myself and whoever reads this blog. But I promise I have some good things in store coming up! Lots more swatches and I play on doing more simple art in November. So for now take this!

Some simples monster of Frankenstein stitches, and chevron accents. I love love the way this came out! 

The green is Barry M Key Lime, which is a gorgeous color and an amazing formula as always! 

Here's a swatch of Key Lime before I started the manicure. So pretty and shiny on it's own! 

Also did my mom's nails. She wanted everything different actually so I went to town! It was nice because she works at a preschool so I'm sure that'll be fun for some kids to see. 

Guess this wasn't much of a quick post! Sorry if this post seems wonky, I am posting from my phone!

O.P.I - Alcatraz...Rocks

Below I have a swatch of one of the liquid sands from the new O.P.I San Francisco fall collection! I am so in love with this liquid sand. At first glance it looks like just a dark glitter but there are so many colors in it it's amazing. Even if you aren't into liquid sands you sure will need this!

indoors

 Alcatraz...Rocks is a gorgeous dark navy/purple (dare I say blurple?) color with tons of gold shimmer in it. At different lights I catch lighter purple, pink, dark blue, and even some green shimmer. It was too much for my camera!

These two out of focus photos show the other shimmer colors hidden in there a little better. 

Definitely one of the prettier liquid sands in this new collection! I got this at a discount store luckily, but I'm hearing people have to do some store hopping for this hot item! So go get yours. Like now. Yesterday even.

Pink Ombré

Hey! Today's challenge is ombre nails, and since I've done a purple one before I decided to look for another color in my collection that I have a lot of. Which is surprisingly pink! I forgot how much I love wearing pink on my nails. After purple and blue of course.

This starts the old ombre vs gradient nails argument. Honestly they mean the same thing. Ombre is fading from dark to light or vice versa. And with a gradient you can do the same thing. In the nail world I firmly stand by the belief that ombre nails are light to dark (or vice versa) with a different color on each nail. A gradient is using two or more colors fading into each other on one nail. Get it? Good!

Light to dark:

Thumb: O.P.I - I Theodora You

Index: China Glaze - Something Sweet

Middle: China Glaze- Pinkie Promise

Ring: Barry M: Dragonfruit

Pinky: China Glaze - Sugar High

It's almost a skittle mani with the colors I chose because I don't have ones that fade smoother into each other. But I love it anyways and I hope you do too ;)

Sparkling Garbage!

On my finger nails in this post is the most amazing polish to come into my collection. ORLY - Sparkling Garbage! From the ORLY Summer 2013 Mash Up collection. Funny name for something so pretty right? Seriously. Pictures do not do this justice. It is seriously a holo BOMB. Too bad I got this so close to summer ending! This polish begs to be worn on the sunniest days. 

Put your blinders on and scroll down!

A little out of focus for maximum holo appreciation.

It even looks amazing in low light and when the sun is going down. Ughh can I wear this forever?

Note: This polish is really sheer. It's buildable in about three/four coats, but since the base is greenish blue glitters, these photos above are two generous coats of Sparkling Garbage over OPI - Thanks A Windmillion. I love it. Can you tell?! Yeah. You need this in your life. And I fortunately got it on sale at San Jose Beauty Supply for $5. SCORE.

Slanted Leopard

So I am participating in nail art August! Monthly challenges put together by Instagram user Jasmine at Californails. I love that she calls them the "I Have A Life Challenge" because they're spaced out every few days so it's easier to keep up with as opposed to other daily nail challenges. 

 Today's challenge was animal print. And since I have never posted a leopard manicure on my Instagram or on my blog I thought, "Why not!" I wanted to switch it up and do it slanted down my nail instead of an all over print. And I of course had to use a purple scheme.

For the spots I used China Glaze - Tart-y For the Party and O.P.I - Talk About An Upgrade and a black polish for the outlines.

 How beautiful is My Vampire Is Buff?! I'm not quite sure how well it goes with my skin tone.. but I am in love with it regardless. And it is so so perfect to put nail art on top of.

First OPI Liquid Sand!

Today I have a swatch of Jinx, a lovely texture polish from the OPI Bond Girls Liquid Sand collection! This is also my first texture polish!

Jinx is a gorgeous warm red/orangey-coral polish with golden shimmer throughout the polish.

The sun was not in my favor for swatches today :(

 But it came out today! So I took a couple more photos in more intense sunlight.

The golden shimmer really comes alive in bright sunlight. This color makes me want a juicy tangerine or an orange Popsicle mmmm!

Gold gold gold!

The formula on this was amazing also. Opaque in two coats. No top coat of course or else that would defeat the purpose of the texture :} 

I'm not a person who likes bows, big rhinestones, ribbons etc... on my nails, so these liquid sand polishes everyone has been coming out with are a happy medium for me!

I would definitely recommend this unique shade to anyone! I wasn't sure if it flattered me, but I fell in love with it over time. Wore it for two days even! I couldn't stop feeling my nails either ha! It's not super gritty or anything. And removal is also a breeze! Nothing like removing a glitter like I thought.

Tomorrow Never Dies + Gold Finger

Today I have on Tomorrow Never Dies from the OPI James Bond Collection.

It is a gorgeous blurple (purple and blue) color and if you look closely it has some red and lighter blue shimmer inside also! I regret leaving this in my untrieds for so long. I'm drooling!

Of course I had to pair this OPI themed polish with a .... GOLLLLDD FINGAAA!! I couldn't help myself..   that song has been stuck in my head for ever! I think I am a little too funny sometimes. Ha! Shirley Bassey is amazing. I need to have a James Bond marathon soon. What is your favorite Bond movie?

For the gold accent finger I started with one coat of Milani Gold Glitz, and then two coats of Wet n' Wild The Gold and the Beautiful (that name lol)

The reason I started with Gold Glitz is because the WW polish is a really sheer gold glitter that isn't really buildable. So I put a more dense glitter underneath for a start.

Above is a close up, and you can see more of the red/lighter blue elements in this polish on my middle finger. Another reason to go out and buy it! I couldn't stop staring at this when I was wearing it.

Happy Memorial Day!

So it's Memorial Day in the U.S.A to commemorate fallen soldiers who served in the U.S Armed Forces! 'MERICA!

And of course the holidays means an excuse for some nail art!

On my index and middle fingers I started with China Glaze Hey Sailor, a perfect true red color. And I just free handed the stripes with a white striper polish. 

On my ring and pinky I painted two coats of OPI I Saw... You Saw... We Saw...Warsaw and then stamped over it using an image from the Winstonia plates, I used 107! (they're fabulous by the way)

I used an old bottle of Sally Hansen White On because I heard/read before somewhere once that old thick nail polishes could work well for stamping (since I don't own any special Konad polishes.) It didn't turn out AS sharp as I wanted to though and that's probably because it was so gloopy! 

But I'm still happy with the results:)

Next time I'll try with a different white I have! Anybody have any suggestions for an opaque stamping white?

It's been raining on and off also today.. it stopped for a few minutes so I could take these photos and now the sun is full blown out! Oh well.

Thanks for reading! Time to fire up the grill now. Hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day :)

Lion in the Sage

Quick post! Just a simple mani today. Two easy coats of O.P.I Thanks A Windmillion, a very pretty dusty sage colour with an amazing formula.

Accent finger is China Glaze I'm Not Lion. My favorite glitter. It goes great with any polish.. I LOVE it.

Happy Sunday! :)

Flirty Bogotá Blackberry

One of the manis I sported this week was all O.P.I colours.

For the index accent I used O.P.I In A Flirtationship, which I read somewhere that this was an ULTA exclusive shade and a dupe for Excuse a Moi by O.P.I. ULTA throws me off sometimes like that!

And for the rest of my finger nails I used two easy coats of Bogotá Blackberry a super gorgeous wine color. I originally just purchased this for the name, because my paternal grandpa is from Bogota. I ended up loving the color too! Bonus!

Above is an amazing (not) macro shot so you can see the glitters up close! There are multi-colored glitters in like green, red, silver, blue, and orange, and they're in a light pink base! Dried a little matte and gritty but two coats of top coat smoothed that right out!

Thanks for reading :)