Fishtail Braid Mani

Here's my last mani I took pictures of before my camera died. I had this on my nails for almost a week because I loved it so much! I used this tutorial to help me create this look.

First I did two coats of OPI Fiercely Fiona, a slightly greenish yellow, on each nail. Then to create the stripes I used butter LONDON Slapper and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City, a silver foil.

I'm also still really digging the oval nail shape on me! I haven't broken a nail since! I think I'll keep him :)

Neon Ruffians and New Nail Shape!

Notice anything different about me (other than my bangin' manicure)? I decided to try oval-shaped nails for a while and see how I like them. Before I started growing my nails out a couple years ago, my nails were oval-shaped because I just trimmed (or bit) them down to the nail bed and my nail bed is naturally oval-shaped. They weren't an intentional, graceful oval shape though, they were just ragged and ugly! Anyway, I was constantly breaking the corners of my rectangular-shaped nails and having to cut them down and file them to get them to be even again, so I thought I'd try a new shape and see how it works for me. I didn't really like the shape at first but now it's growing on me! And I haven't broken a nail so far!

Anyway, for my first mani with my new nail shape I thought I'd try something that would emphasize the oval-ness. I did a neon ruffian manicure using hot pink and orange! On my thumb and ring fingers, which were my accent nails, I did two coats of Revlon Tulip, a nice hot pink. On my other fingers, I did two coats of OPI A Roll in the Hague, a bright reddish orange. After my base color dried, I used the opposing color to create the "ruffian" style. It's pretty easy to do because you basically paint the second color like you would paint your nail normally, following the curve of your cuticle, just up a little higher! I did two coats of the second color too, just to make sure I didn't have any patchiness.

What shape do you prefer your nails in? What do you think of the ruffian manicure style?

Turquoise Gemstones

I am so unbelievably in love with this mani, you guys. I love turquoise - the color, yes, but also the gemstone. I saw this mani on the Tumblr Fuck Yeah Nail Art, and I fell in love. It looks just like turquoise! I had already been wearing two coats of L'Oreal Gorgeous Gold, an AMAZING (seriously amazing, guys, I should've taken a picture of it just by itself) gold metallic with medium gold hex glitters, for a day or two, and I thought it would be the perfect base to try this turquoise mani with.

I did a little variation on the technique used by Topcoat It. Here's what I did: I painted one coat of China Glaze For Audrey over Gorgeous Gold. Working one nail at a time, before For Audrey dried, I pressed a crumpled piece of plastic wrap over my nails to create some texture, like I thought a turquoise gemstone should have. Then I let all my nails dry. I then took some q-tips and filled my nail polish remover cap with some acetone-based remover. I dipped it very quickly so it didn't soak up too much remover, then I rubbed it gently over my nails. I rubbed harder on certain spots to get the gold to peek through just where I wanted it. After doing this on all my nails I finished with a glossy topcoat!

I absolutely love how this looks, although I think it would look even more like a real turquoise gemstone if I used a grayer base. Something like OPI Number One Nemesis (the Chanel Graphite dupe) would look awesome. I also think that using a glitter or metallic base makes it easier to rub away your top color without accidentally removing your base color because they are harder to remove. I think with any other color combination this might end up looking like crackle polish, so if you like that look but don't want to spend the money on a crackle polish or are frustrated that you can't get it to crack the way you want, you might try this. What do you think?

I'm back! With another gradient!

Hi folks! Sorry for the unexpectedly long hiatus - we moved at the beginning of the month, and when the cable guys came to install the internet, they discovered that the wires they needed were nowhere to be found in our building! So they have to come and physically install these wires in order provide their service to our building. That is going to take another few weeks!!! I've been going to Starbucks almost every day to do my homework, but the outlets there are a precious commodity and I'd feel bad hogging them to post pictures of my fingernails on the internet. Luckily, our upstairs neighbors were nice enough to give us their WiFi password over the weekend, so I'm back online!

I've amassed a bit of a collection of pictures to post while I was gone, but I'll start with the last ones I took at our old place. This is my favorite gradient I've done so far!

I started with two coats of China Glaze Electric Beat, a bright periwinkle blue. Then using a makeup sponge, I dabbed China Glaze Flying Dragon on the tips to create a gradient. (Check out this gradient tutorial for a good explanation of the process.) Flying Dragon is one of the most amazing polishes I've ever seen and I can't believe I never noticed it on the display before, as I think it's permanent. It's a bright, almost neon, reddish purple with chunky purple and blue shimmer in it! I can't wait to wear it on its own because I think the neon-ness will come out more.

I love the way Electric Beat brings out the blue shimmer of Flying Dragon. Unfortunately I took these photos after a couple days so the tips are a little worn, but I still think this mani is absolutely gorgeous. I've got to do another gradient mani soon!

NOTD - Glitter Gradient

I learned my lesson the last time I did a gradient, so I went to Walgreens and bought some of those soft makeup sponges! I used those when I did this fun glitter gradient!

I started with two coats of Ulta Peach Parfait, a coral jelly. Then, I used the makeup sponge to dab some of Milani Gems onto the tips of my nails. I found that I couldn't get the opacity of the glitter that I wanted near the very tips, so when I was done sponging I just used the Milani brush to fill in the gaps.

After the glitter dried, I did one more thin coat of Peach Parfait to do a jelly sandwich effect! I finished it up with a coat of Seche Vite fast drying top coat to smooth out the bumps.

I think this mani is totally adorable and reminds me of cupcake sprinkles!

Nanny Nail-Art

The 9 year old girl I nanny for, K, is totally awesome and reminds me a lot of myself when I was her age. She's very creative and always has her nose in a book. She always enjoys seeing what I come up with on my nails, and occasionally I'll do hers for her.

The other day I jumped on the magnetic nail polish bandwagon when I picked up Sally Hansen Magnetic Nail Color in Silver Elements from Walgreens. The magnetic trend hadn't really peaked my interest, but it was less than ten bucks so I decided to see what all the fuss was about.

I tried it out later back at home and IT WAS THE COOLEST THING EVER!!! The design ended up being pretty cool but the best part by far was peeking under the magnet to see it doing its thing to the polish. It was like magic. I knew this would be something that K would be totally fascinated by, so the next day I told her I'd do her nails for her. Her reaction after seeing the first magnetized nail was pure shock and awe. It was hilarious. After every single nail she just kept saying "How does it DO that!?!"

I didn't get a proper photo of my nails with this one, but here's a photo of K's and my hands with our matching nails!

Skittle Gradient!

I have been in such a nail rut the past couple weeks! I have been wanting to attempt a gradient mani for a while now but always assumed it would be time-consuming and difficult. Then, I checked out this tutorial by The Nailasaurus and realized how easy it was! I also saw this mani while browsing through the Tumblr blog Fuck Yeah Nail Art and I loved the color scheme, so I decided to translate it into a skittle gradient mani!

First, I did two coats of OPI Did You Ear About Van Gogh?, a light putty color, as my base color. I did it, yes, at midnight, and let it fully dry overnight before starting the gradient. Following Nailasaurus' tutorial, I started on my thumb with Essie Tart Deco, a neon coral-pink. On my index finger I used Essie Mint Candy Apple, a bright minty aqua, and on my middle finger I used Essie Smooth Sailing, a shimmery cornflower blue. Looking at my finished mani, I wish I had a brighter, more pastel cornflower blue because I don't think Smooth Sailing really goes with the other two colors as well. I repeated the pattern for all the rest of my nails.

Sammy's tutorial is SUPER easy and FAST! I think it only took me about 15 minutes to do all of my nails. The gradient came out a lot smoother than I thought it would too. The only thing I will do different next time is use a different sponge. I decided to do this gradient on a whim so I didn't have the nice soft makeup sponges that she recommends. All I had was a really rough exfoliating sponge that, as I'm sure you can see, left me with a bunch of little fibers all stuck to my nails! I will definitely pick up some makeup sponges at Walgreens in the next couple days and you can expect to see a bunch more gradient manis in the future!

Farrah and Paulie: Yes, I named my nail art, so what?

I painted some adorable birds on my nails and named them. The pink one is Farrah and the blue one is Paulie. They're two lovebirds celebrating spring by flying around in a field of cute flowers. I heart them.

I used a heck of a lot of polish for this. Here they all are:
(Bottom Row)
OPI Did You Ear About Van Gogh?
Sally Hansen Clearly Buff Naturel White
butter london Bossy Boots
butter london Lady Muck
butter london Trout Pout
American Apparel Dynasty
Deborah Lippman Across the Universe
(Top Row)
Sinful Colors Easy Going

China Glaze Starboard

China Glaze Life Preserver
And on the bottom there is my trusty Orly detailer brush.

Anyway, this post is pretty picture-heavy. Enjoy the photos :) I know my nail art's not perfect, but I think it's a pretty cute spring/Easter mani. Happy Easter to those who celebrate/enjoy eating jelly beans and chocolate bunnies!

Review of Sally Hansen Salon Effects in Spring Fever

Vacation, all I ever wanted...vacation, have to get away!

I just got home from being in South Florida for the week and I already want to go back! My mom lives in Hollywood, FL and it's always really nice to go down there and see her (and sit on the beach, of course!)

I learned one valuable nail lesson on my way down there last week. I packed a couple bottles of nail polish (color-coordinated with my bikinis, of course) in my carry-on wheeler bag. I thought nothing of it, being that each bottle is way below the 3oz. rule. Of course, they stopped me at security and had me unload my nail polish bottles. They wouldn't let me bring them through because nail polish is flammable. Which I knew, but my brain wasn't screwed in right that day I guess. So I ended up having to pay $25 to check my bag. (It was either that or throw out about $30 worth of nail polish!! THE HORROR!)

Thats where these Sally Hansen Salon Effects kits come in. Let this be a lesson to you (and me) - if you're going on a short trip where you only need a carry-on, pack one or two of these kits instead of nail polish bottles. You won't have to pay to check a bag, and you'll still be able to enjoy the versatility of changing your mani while you're on vacation!

I adore the Sally Hanson Salon Effects nail polish strips. This flowery design, called Spring Fever (pink, yellow, orange, and purple flowers, new for spring 2012), is the third design I've tried from them. They are on the expensive side ($10 per kit for a one-time use), but they are worth it for those times that you need to change your mani but don't have time to wait for it to dry. 

I wore this mani the entire time I was in Florida (8 days!) and it held up pretty well. I have some solid tip wear and a tiny chip or two. The reason I love the Salon Effects over other nail stickers I've tried is that they are not actually stickers - they are made with real nail polish, so once they are stuck to your nails, they're really on there! They do not peel off or bubble up. Then just use regular nail polish remover to take them off!

Applying them is pretty easy, and takes about the same amount of time it would for me to paint my nails. You don't use a base or top coat with them. Just make sure your nails are totally clean and dry. Each kit comes with 16 (I think) stickers of various sizes and shapes, so you can pick the ones that fit your nails the best. I included a thumb shot because I have pretty wide thumbnails, and the widest sticker actually covered my whole nail! Just peel the backing off and carefully line it up on your nail, then press it down. Use the enclosed nail file to file off the excess sticker. Then you're done! Easy peasy.

So, fat lot of good it did me to pay that $25 to check my bag. Shoulda just packed this Sally Hansen Salon Effects kit and I would have been good to go! Humph. Lesson learned, folks!

NOTD - Fun with Matte!

Okay, you guys, I seriously think this is one of my favorite manicures I've ever done. I've been dying to experiment with matte/glossy texture combinations, but I always forget until I'm already done painting my nails. Then I saw this mani, and I loved the design of the three colors. I decided to take the idea of the tri-color mani and translate into a matte/glossy texture design.

I started with two coats of Essie Bobbing for Baubles, a true navy creme. Then, I applied a coat of Essie Matte About You, a matte topcoat. I love matte topcoat because it allows you to turn any polish into a matte, however I have problems with it applying unevenly sometimes, leaving still-shiny patches on my nails. Solution? Create a design with glossy topcoat (I used Seche Vite) over the matte, covering the uneven spots! 

For my third "color", I used Essie Pure Pearlfection, a layering polish with fine purple and blue shimmer. Instead of making them super sharp lines like in the tri-color mani, I free handed the designs with an Orly detailer brush (partly because I'm too impatient to wait for my polish to dry and do the scotch-tape method of creating sharp lines!). I LOVE the final result. The contrast between the matte, glossy, and shimmery finish on the navy blue background is gorgeous, especially in the light. I am definitely going to try this again with other colors and effects.

What do you guys think of this mani? Are you as in love with it as I am?? :-D

NOTD - Vintage Flowers For Audrey

Hi everyone! Sorry I've been MIA the past few days...I've been super sick. *cough* cough* I've almost kicked it though, and with that I have a wonderful treasure to show you (!), and some nail art (?).

I was browsing at Ulta a few weeks ago, and this lone light turquoise blue popped out at me from the China Glaze section. Internal monologue: "No, it can't be...I think it might be...no way, that's impossible...HOLY CRAP IT IS!!" *snatches up polish, shifty eyes, runs to checkout*

China Glaze For Audrey is a highly sought-after polish that is the perfect Tiffany blue. I've been looking for it for ages but could never find it. But now I have it, yay! It's such a gorgeous turquoise, so springy. It covered beautifully in two coats. It dried very shiny but I think there may be some hairspray residue on my nails (lol) because it looks kind of dull in my photo.

I decided to try to play around with some nail art, and I knew I wanted to combine For Audrey with a pop of bright orange because I think turquoise and orange is such a beautiful color combination. I was experimenting with a zig zag pattern on the side of my thumb, and thought it kind of looked like bric-a-brac - remember that stuff we would use in arts and crafts as kids? So anyway, it looked very vintage-y to me, so I decided to do some old school flowers alongside the bric-a-brac. I topped it off with some light grey dots to fill in the empty spaces. It almost ended up looking like a vintage Hawaiian shirt to me!

Colors used for the design:
Essie Braziliant - a BRIGHT orange with hot pink shimmer
Sally Hansen Clearly Buff White (from a french mani 2 pack)
China Glaze Pelican Gray - a light grey with subtle shimmer

Do you have any nail polish victories - that moment when you finally spotted a HTF polish you'd been looking for? What do you think of my vintage Hawaiian shirt nail design?

NOTD - Unintentional Chicago Bears mani?

These nails started out honoring my brother's request for a "blurple" nail polish. My mind immediately jumped to OPI Russian Navy. I love this color, and I don't wear it enough. It's a lovely dark navy blue base, but what makes it special is the pinky-purple shimmer running through it. It's unnoticeable indoors, but when the sun hits it, it glows.

Then, I was browsing through nail blogs, and I saw this amazing manicure. Chevron or V-gap manis are my favorite type of nail art because they are so easy and they allow you to experiment with different color combinations. Plus, they make my nails look longer and narrower, which is always a plus :)

I loved the olive green and glitter combination that Nailside used, but I had literally just finished my blurple mani! I didn't want to immediately remove the Russian Navy loveliness from my nails just yet. I dug through my stash to see what color would look good with it. I decided to go with OPI DS Classic, a beige-tan holographic glitter, for the V. To add a splash of contrasting color, I decided to outline the V with American Apparel Lopez Canyon, a pumpkin-orange creme one-coater.

V-gap mani using OPI Russian Navy, OPI DS Classic, and American Apparel Lopez Canyon

I used the Orly detail brush to outline the V with DS Classic, then used the OPI brush to fill it in. I layered two coats of DS Classic to build up opacity. I wasn't too concerned with keeping this part very neat, because I then used the Orly striping brush to line the edges of the V with Lopez Canyon, covering up any messiness. I really like the way this mani turned out! I can't wait to go out in the sun tomorrow to let it really come to life!

Do you ever try nail art, or do you just keep it simple with one color?