Grey Gradient

Told you I'd be back soon! You didn't believe me, did you? Shame on you for not believing in me when I've been so reliable in the past!! XD

 

I got a bunch of gorgeous greys in some nail mail from my amazing friend Roisin over at

Cuti-CLUE-les so I had to do something with them and I started off with a grey ombre on my nails but it wasn't quite enough so I decided to make it a gradient! I'll list the polishes as I had them in the ombre so the color I list will be the one you see closest to the cuticle. Starting with the thumb is NYC - Bowery Black, China Glaze - Concrete Catwalk, Catrice - ASHley and Sing: Hey, Dirty-Lilah! and finally Gosh Silver which is a beautiful smooth silver polish!

 

Then I just had to add a bit of silver tape to the tips and I like it! Sorry about the tips, my Seche Vite desperately needed to be restored and it shrunk on me - Boooooo!

 

I hope to soon start making some video tutorials on some of this stuff because I love making tutorials for some reason! Much love and see you soon!

Oh yeah, one more thing! Does anyone else go back and forth on how to spell gray/grey? I usually spell it gray, but I noticed that most people use the grey spelling and I hate when people thing I spelled something wrong! I wish that whoever makes these kinds of decisions would just decide that one of them is right and one of them is wrong because it drives me nuts that there are two acceptable spellings for it! How do you spell it?

KB Shimmer - Elle tape mani

Hey everybody! Sorry I have been so absent lately! With the kids being sick and then the holidays I have had a really hard time finding time to paint my nails and then photograph and then do the editing and then write the blog posts! I've gotten a few done up so hopefully if I can stay ahead of the game I will be posting on a much more regular basis!

 

Today I have a mani that I created by using KB Shimmer - Elle as a base. I have been wanting this polish forever after seeing all the gorgeous swatches on everyone else! Then my amazing friend Jasmine sent this to me along with lots of other amazing goodies!!! It's not an easy polish to do nail art over but I wanted to do something that highlighted it's awesomeness! So I decided on a simple tape mani! The black is a England - Camelot and the pink is Venique - Heel D'Orsay. What do you think? I kind like it! :)

 

 

 

I really should "do up" some haul posts because I did two swaps and a secret Santa and seriously scored big time! Besides, I like making you drool! See you soon, I promise!

Holo Watermarble!

 Hey lovely people!! Ugh, I'm sorry I've been such a lame blogger! With work being crazy and the baby still sick, life has been super insane around here! With that said, I have a super-delicious mani to share with you today! When I put on Color Club Harp On It, the holo goodness was so awesome, I knew that I wanted to do something amazing with it. So what's a girl to do? WATERMARBLE!!! From thumb to pinkie, the colors used are: Bettina Glamour Flame, Bettina Art Deco Yellow, NYC In A Minute High Line Green, Barry M Indigo and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Acceler-Grape!

It took me forever to get the polishes to play nicely with the clear coat (which was INM Out The Door) and spread properly but I'm pretty happy with the finished product. What do you guys think? I hope to see you soon!

 

 

 

 

Purple Birthday Mani!

Happy Friday!! Sorry, once again for being MIA! I have had sick kids all week and my poor little baby has the flu so I've spent 4 days holding and snuggling her! I'm holding her as I'm typing this so it's going to be short and sweet!

 

This was my bday mani and I wore it for 4 days with barely any tip wear! I've never had a mani last over 24 hours before so I'm amazed!

 

All of these polishes were gifts I received recently and they all worked so beautifully together! The base is MUA Frozen Yoghurt then a England (sooooooo excited about this one!) Avalon and finally Color Club Harp On It which is my first holo ever!!



 

 

I'm really loving how this turned out and all of the polishes were so gorgeous! :) I hope to be back to blogging more as soon as my kiddos feel better!

Barry M Ombre Watermarble

 Hello and Happy Monday! :) I got some freakin' awesome nail mail from Rachel at Phoenix Nails!! She is so stinkin' sweet and has been putting out some really cute Christmas nail art so go check her out! :)

 

Part of her amazing mail was three gorgeous Barry Ms that were on my wish list and once I had them all together, they just screamed, "MARBLE ME!" So who was I to ignore that? The three polishes were Mint Green, Berry Ice Cream and Indigo.

 

If you look closely you may notice that, starting with my thumb, each finger gets progressively lighter. What is this sorcery?? Well, I usually use white undies under my marbles so I wanted to know what would happen if I used some other polishes and this is it! For my thumb I used Sally Hansen Hard As Nails - Black Heart. The index finger is the  Barry M - Indigo, the middle finger is Berry Ice Cream, the ring finger is the Mint Green and my pinky is OPI Alpine Snow! I thought it was pretty cool how it turned out, what do you think?  

 

 

I thought these Barry Ms were great for marbling and I had no issues with spreading. I'm still trying to perfect drawing the designs in the polish but that's just practice! sorry for the tip wear, I didn't get my tips wrapped all that well! :)

The Lazy 15 Mani #15!!!!!! Recreate Another Blogger's Mani

So the minute I looked at this prompt over a month ago, I knew EXACTLY which mani I would recreate from another blogger. I have a not-so-secret and pretty serious girl crush on Sarah from Chalkboard Nails and especially her Wizard of Oz mani! Just look at this!

At first I was going to use tape to get the lines straight but then I decided that, in the true spirit of recreation, I would attempt my first freehand stripes! The design got a little crooked on a couple of the nails but rather than stressing about it, I just decided to embrace them! I'm actually pretty proud of the lines, they're mostly straight and the whole thing turned out ok!

 

I was wishing that I had Sarah's awesome nail beds or something longer than my nubs but I had to rock what I had! The white is OPI Alpine Snow with acrylic paint to create the blue gingham. The red is one coat of Sally Hansen Red Velvet topped with two coats of Sephora by OPI Be-Claus I Said So! 

 

 

I can't wait to see what everyone else came up with - go check them out!

The Lazy 15 Mani #14 - Where I'm From!

Happy Monday everyone! Sorry I've been a little MIA this last week! Work has been crazy busy in addition to doing craft fairs and taking care of three small children! Something just had to give and since the kids insist on being fed and clothed, I decided it was my nails! I actually did this mani on Thursday night because I thought it was supposed to be the Friday prompt and shortly after I started I realized my mistake. I could have taken off the base coats but I was already excited about my USA mani and inspiration is hard to come by these days so I went with it!

 

I also want to apologize to all the other participants of The Lazy 15 challenge. I started this whole thing but I think I've missed 3 of the challenges at this point. The reason is simple. I don't like to be told what to do! It just isn't my style to plan and I totally prefer to fly by the seat of my pants! I don't think it would have been so bad if I would have gotten ahead of the challenges but I was doing them late the night before! It will probably be a long time before I do another challenge, if ever!

 I'm really loving this mani, it was a lot of fun and so random! I think my thumb is my favorite!

 

Here is what I used, finger by finger:
Pinkie: Finger Paints - Laugh My Art Off, Sally Hansen Diamond Strength - Red Velvet (one of my faves!) and some tape!
Ring finger: China Glaze - Adventure Red-y, Pure Ice - French Kiss and some silver glequins.
Middle finger: China Glaze - Glistening Snow ( I can NOT get this polish to stay on my fingers! It always peels completely off in one whole piece!), Pure Ice - French Kiss and a paper punch and some painter's tape.
Index finger: OPI - Alpine Snow, Pure Ice - French Kiss, China Glaze - Adventure Red-y, Gosh - Silver and a dotting tool!
Thumb: Pure Ice - French Kiss and striping tape. The tape that looks pinkish was actually a bright red but for some reason, when I added the top coat it changed color a little but I still love it!

I missed you all and I hope to not fall off the grid again any time soon! :)

The Lazy 15 Mani #11 - Fireworks/Bonfire Night

Helllloooooo Monday! I've got a good feeling about this week, how about you? My husbands birthday was yesterday and for a few weeks he is 9 years older than me - tee-hee! Then my oldest daughter's bday is on Wednesday and she is going to be 6! Then my bday is Dec 11th and then Christmas, whew! It's a crazy time for us with all of that and Thanksgiving as well. Neither my husband nor I get birthday or Christmas presents this year as we got ourselves iPhones and that was not cheap! :)

 

This was kind of a crazy mani and I used a ton of different polishes as well as my new nail art brushes I ordered from ebay - yay! It took a month to receive them from China but they finally got here safe and sound as well as some glequins, yay! Okay, without further ado, here is the mani! I'll list the polishes after the pics because there's so many! :)

Here's the list!! Lancome Noir, Revlon Royal, OPI Alpine Snow, Bettina Art Deco Yellow and Glamour Flame. LA Colors Sassy Sparkle and a teal glitter (no label). Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Pronto Purple, Pure Ice French Kiss, Sinful Colors Dream On, Nicole by OPI A Million Sparkles, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City. 8 of those were in my untrieds so yay for that! :)  See you all on Wednesday!

I'm Guest Posting for The Little Canvas!!

Hey all! If you don't know my friend Alaina over at The Little Canvas then you're missing out! She is not only an awesome person but also a fantastic nail artist! She does some seriously fierce freehand that makes me jealous of her mad skills! Here are a few of my favorites from her recent manis! I could go on and on but more importantly, please go check out my guest post on her blog! :)

 

GO HERE NOW!!!

 



The Lazy 15 Mani #10 - Mythical Creatures

 Happy Friday lovelies! I hope all of my American friends had a lovely Thanksgiving! I ate too much as usual so it was good!

I was pretty excited about this challenge and knew exactly what I was going to do for this one and I even had a sweet prop to pose with! I got this dagger years ago because I have a fascination with Asian decor and dragons. I really hope you guys love this as much as I do because this is one of my favorites!

 

 

The polishes I used was OPI Alpine Snow for the base and then I sponged on a gradient of 3 different Revlons - Golden, Bonsai and Rain Forest. I then stamped over that with Wet 'n Wild Black Creme and Mash plate 48. I don't usually go with these types of colors but I thought they were much more "dragon-like" than my usual pinks and purples!

 

Please be sure to check out the other challengers! :)

The Lazy 15 Mani #9 - Disney

  I have to admit that I totally lived up to The Lazy 15 on this one! When I saw Disney coming up on the list I shuddered a little. Not because I don't like Disney but because this just isn't an area where my skills lie. You're going to see some sweet freehand from some of the other challengers but from me you get dotting tool Mickey Mouse heads!

 

The cool snowglobe is from my honeymoon. My husband and I spent our honeymoon in Disneyland and I couldn't live without this adorable snowglobe! I don't recommend using a snow globe as a photo prop because I had to get into some really funky hand and wrist positions so that the water bubble wasn't right in front of Mickey and Minnie's faces!

The polishes were OPI Alpine Snow and Bettina Flame. This was my first time using Bettina and it has an amazing fomula! It's totally different than any other polishes I've used. It's not the most opaque but it is incredibly pigmented and very smooth! 

The Lazy 15 Mani #8 - Dessert

I heart desert so much, especially if it involves chocolate! My first instinct on this mani was Oooh cupcakes! Then I decided that would be a little bit too quiet for me, especially since I've done them recently. So I decided to go with a treat "skittle" and this is what happened!



 


I think it turned out pretty cute! The popsicle on my thumb needs a little dimension but I'm loving the rest! The only polish I used was a base of 2 coats of OPI Alpine Snow and the rest is acrylic craft paints!

Don't forget to check out the other challengers!!

The Lazy 15 Mani #6 - Favorite Color

Oy - I really have to stop leaving these challenge manis for the night before they need to be posted! I really wish I would have had more time to play with this one because I love the colors but I'm not 100% jazzed about how the patterns all turned out - oh well, life and challenges go on!

 

Today's challenge was favorite color. My two favorite colors are really kind of at odds with each other. Most people either prefer pinks and purples or browns and greens. I like pink and brown! Not only are they fabulous together but I happen to really love them separately. I have far more pink polish than any other but I truly love a good brown - I'm just a lot pickier about them!

 

The base coat for this water marble is OPI Alpine Snow. I'm really torn about using white as a base. For a lot of marbles it's a must but I think I could and should have use a pink as the base on this one. The reason I have issue with white is because whenever it comes time to clean up, there is always the tiniest line of white around the edges that is nearly impossible to get rid of and it drives me nuts!

 

I used three polishes to marble with and they are China Glaze Strawberry Fields, Sally Hansen Fuschia Bling Bling and Julep Olivia. I know some of you are thinking, "she water marbled with Julep? What a waste!!!" Not to worry! Someone shared with me the awesome tip of using a shot glass to marble in and it was a fantastic idea! Each finger only took two drops of each polish as opposed to the usual 3 or even 4! Some people dip multiple fingers at once but I really like to try for a different design on each finger.

I really love the way the thumb and pinkie (pinky? I never know how to spell that!) turned out. I think the middle finger would have been my fave if I had more time to play with the swirl design.

 

Make sure to check out everyone else's favorite color mani! :)

The Lazy 15 Mani #5 - Galaxy Nails

Okay, so I have to admit that this challenge had me worried! I have never done a galaxy mani before and it looks so complicated! But with a good video tutorial and some patience, I don't mind how it turned out at all! I will admit, however that this was my second try. The first time I tried to be too "perfect" with my design and you just can't do that with this one. You have to let go and trust that it will turn out right in the end because as I was doing this I didn't think it looked very good. I pushed through anyway and when I was done and stepped back from the process, I was actually surprised that it really looked like a galaxy!

 

Have you tried out this mani yet? You really should, it's fun and you'll be surprised at the cool results you'll end up with!

 

The polishes used were as follows:

 

Maybelline Color Show - Blue Freeze

NYC Long Wearing - French White Tip ( I actually preferred this to my OPI Alpine Snow for this mani because it wasn't as opaque and you don't want big, obvious globs of white on this mani!)

Sally Hansen Hard As Nails - Hard Lemonade

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength - Fuschia Bling Bling

Wet 'n Wild Wild Shine - Tickled Pink (I mixed this and Fuschia Bling Bling together to get the perfect pink!)

NYC In A New York Minute - Water Street Blue

L.A. Colors - Sassy Sparkle

 

Now go forth, check out the other challenge entries and try out this mani for yourself!

The Lazy 15 Mani #4 - Water Marble

This was easily one of my favorite challenges on the list, I really love water marbles! I'm not an expert by any means, I think this is only the third one I've done but I think they are so fun! For this one I wanted to try to do something that I've never done before and I started by painting each nail a different color of glitter and then I marbled over the top with black and clear polish.

 

I do NOT recommend this if you're just starting out marbling as it was quite frustrating! I had to try out about 6 different top coats before I found one that worked well in the water and didn't dry too fast but I managed it! I actually had to dip my index finger twice because the first time there was only a tiny bit of the black on the nail.

 

I think it turned out pretty sweet, don't you?

 

The polishes I used were:

Sally Hansen Hard As Nails - Black Heart

Wet 'n Wild Wild Shine - Clear Nail Protector

Finger Paints - Purple Palette

Finger Paints - Laugh My Art Off

China Glaze - Glistening Snow

Sephora by OPI - G-listen To Your Heart

Orly - Royal Navy

 

I was pretty proud that I used 4 untrieds on this mani, woo-hoo! Please be sure to check out the other wonderful artist in the Lazy 15 and have a fabulous weekend!!!

 



The Lazy 15 Mani #3 - DOTS!!

 I can almost hear Nicole (aka Dot) cheering in the background on this one! I really wish I would have had a little more time to work on this one but work has been crazy so I didn't have too much time to think about it. I started with a base of OPI Alpine Snow and then did the dots in China Glaze Concrete Catwalk and an accent finger and a cute little heart in Finger Paints Pink Perspective Neon. I just had to add the little silver heart, I think he's cute, don't you?

 

Please be sure to check out all the other challenge participants, they're all pretty freakin' fabulous!

 



The Lazy 15 Mani #2 - Gradient

Goooooood Monday beautiful readers! I originally had a subtle purple gradient in the works but it was NOT working and looked like I had just globbed one really ugly color of polish on my nails. So for attempt #2 I decided to throw subtlety out the window and taste the rainbow! I started off with a base coat of OPI Alpine snow so that my colors would really pop! Then I applied three colors directly to a small piece of makeup sponge. I used China Glaze Adventure Red-y and Man Hunt and then Sally Hansen Lightening.

 

I love how bright and cheery it turned out, what do you think? 

 

 

Then, of course, I had to see what it would look like with some sparkle on it! This is just one coat of LA Colors Sassy Sparkle - talk about a glitter bomb, I love it!

Please be sure to check out the other challengers!!