March 8, 2013
This is a fun mani using three Gelish colors; Carnival Hangover, Sheek White, and Black Shadow. The zig zag pattern was created using these tape/stickers that I purchased on ebay. The studs on the pinky are from Born Pretty. I think the look is fairly simple, but also sleek and sexy!
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December 29, 2012
I had a little fun today with gel polish and stamping. I started with three coats of Gelish Night Reflection (swatches below) and a thin layer of the Gelish Top It Off. Then I stamped the zig zag pattern on a few fingers using Cheeky stamping plate CH8 and China Glaze Devotion. I used Jordana Silver Glitter to add a glitter gradient to the other nails. Once these polishes dried, I applied one more thin layer of the Gelish top coat and cured it in the UV light.
I talked about this before on my guest post for Wacky Lacki, but I love stamping on top of gel polishes. When I mess up I can just wipe off the stamp and try it again, and my base coat remains completely in tact. Sometimes it takes me several attempts before I get the stamp to apply properly, which was the case with this zig zag pattern. When stamping over regular nail lacquer you have to get it right the first time or take off every layer of polish and start over again. Just one more reason why I’m in love with Gelish. Plus this manicure will last for weeks if I leave it on that long… but you know I will get the itch to try something else before then!
And these are my swatches of Gelish Night Reflection before applying the nail art. I took these photos with my desk lamp instead of my light box so to show the shimmer. I’m still struggling with lighting a bit. My light box drowns out shimmer and glitter sometimes, but my desk lamp makes my hands look more red. I might have to invest in an OttLite to see if that works better.
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November 6, 2012
This is my manicure for the Polish Days “MAN-icure” theme for Movember. This is a tribute to the special man in my life who I reconnected with last winter after almost 20 years… my 7th grade crush and sports car driving super hero! He spent 7 years in the Marines and served in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. While serving our country, he traveled the world and had experiences and made sacrifices that I can’t even try to comprehend. He jokingly challenged me to do a camo manicure one night while we were talking on the phone, so this one is for him. XOXO
To achieve this look I started with two coats of a neutral tan color, and then with a dotting tool I randomly applied brown, green and black shapes on the nail. The colors that I used were OPI Did You ‘Ear About Van Gogh, China Glaze Ingrid, LA Colors Voodoo, and OPI Black Onyx. I then topped it off with Essie Matte About You for a nice matte finish.
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October 25, 2012
I wanted to try something colorful and fun tonight, so I went for a Rubik’s cube inspired look. I started with a white base, painted on black stripes with a striping brush, and then filled in the colored spaces with a dotting tool. I topped it off with two thick coats of Seche Vite to smooth it out. I think it turned out pretty cute. Now if only I could figure out how to actually solve a Rubik’s cube!
I cut my nails down today. I think I actually like this length, it’s very manageable. The nail on my middle finger has a really terrible rip in it and it ripped even worse while I was gardening today. It’s ripped more than half way across now and it’s really low and painful. So I patched it up again with a teabag, nail glue and gave it a nice strong gel base. Hopefully it holds for a while so I can grow it out.
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October 25, 2012
I took advantage of the sale going on at Walgreens right now – Sinful Colors polishes for $0.99 each. I purchased three shades of blue, which are all featured in this manicure. The light blue is Cinderella, which has a real pretty subtle pink shimmer to it. I wasn’t able to capture the pink shimmer in the photos unfortunately. The color on the accent finger is called Kissy and it’s a dark teal with a glittery finish. And then I stamped the floral pattern using Bundle Monster plate BM323 with Sinful Colors “Gorgeous”. I love the softness of this.
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October 23, 2012
I attempted a Burberry type pattern on my nails tonight, but the lines turned out a little chunkier than intended. In my opinion, only my thumb looks semi-decent. I also had a hard time photographing this to show the contrast between the white and tan colors. I might attempt this pattern again but with a darker tan as the base and perhaps using nail art tape for thinner lines.
This is a quick pic in my dark living room vs. the light box. It shows a little more contrast.
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October 12, 2012
I’ve seen lots of snakeskin manicures on Pinterest over time and always thought it would be extremely complicated to do. Today I ran across the video at the bottom of this post over on YouTube, and it looked really easy. I thought I would give it a try, but didn’t have very high expectations. My attempt doesn’t look as the video, but for a first try I think this mani turned out really cute. Thank you very much Raquel @ LOVE4NAILS for this tutorial!
This manicure requires some mesh or tulle fabric. I’ve heard of some people using bath loofahs. I actually cut up a bridesmaids dress that’s been hanging in my closet forever… I’ll never wear it again, why not! I used OPI Did You ‘Ear About Van Gogh as the base, and then sponged on Sally Hansen Golden, OPI Chocolate Moose, China Glaze Ingrid, and OPI Black Onyx. (Most of the same colors from my recent fall manicure).
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October 10, 2012
This mani started out with a base of Color Club Fashion Addict. It’s a light purple holographic polish and it applies very evenly with just two coats (or one thick coat). I used some nail guide stickers to achieve the triangular cut-out effect and painted over top with China Glaze Grape Juice.
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September 13, 2012
I can’t just leave my nails alone for 2 days…. nooooo. I got restless today and added some designs on top of my IBD Meteorite manicure. First I stamped a couple of nails with a zebra print pattern using Konad silver polish, and then I used the same polish and did the Saran Wrap trick to a couple other nails. And on the thumbs I added some lip stamps… don’t ask why. LOL
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September 9, 2012
As you probably know by now, I’m a Gelish freak… love, love, love it. But the gel polish habit does take a toll on the finances after a while, so I decided it’s time to try out some of the cheaper alternatives that are available. I purchased two Daisy gel polishes, and two of the IBD brand. Today I tried out Daisy for the first time. These bottles cost $6 at Amazon.com, plus $3 in shipping each… so a total of $9 per bottle, compared to the average $13 that I normally pay for Gelish.
A friend told me that she tried a dark red Daisy gel polish and was very disappointed with it. She said it had a strong nail polish smell and that it was very thin and took several coats to achieve the desired color. I did not have either of those issues with my Daisy gel polish. In fact I found it to be a little thicker than normal and was able to get full coverage with just two coats because they did go on so thick. The brush seemed a little wider which made it harder to get into the curve of the nail by the cuticle. I used my Gelish base and top coat which worked out well, and I cured each layer for 2 minutes as I normally do with Gelish. I didn’t have any issues with the polish curing.
All in all my Daisy experience was very positive. The two colors that I chose were Magenta Shimmer and Chocolate Truffles, and I think they are both gorgeous. Chocolate Truffles is not at all what I expected it would be, but I love it. It’s not silver, but not gold either… somewhere in the middle. What do you think?
Update 9/11: Just two days into this manicure and I already have a lot of wear showing on the tips of my nails that have the Magenta Shimmer color. It’s the type of wear that you would experience with a regular lacquer, not typically of gel polish. I’m very disappointed about this. The Chocolate Truffles seems to be holding up ok, but it’s on my ring fingers which aren’t used as much. I polished my mom’s nails with this color yesterday, so we’ll see how her manicure holds up.
And here is a shot in direct sunlight:
And of course as the day went on I couldn’t leave my nails alone, so I added some argyle patterns inspired by Kelsie’s Nail Files.
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