Nails4Dummies GIVEAWAY!!!!

I am sooooo excited to share today's post with you because it's a GIVEAWAY!!!!

 

I really debated whether or not to do one of these. I initially thought that I didn't feel right asking people to follow me just to be entered in a giveaway but when it comes down to it, if you don't like what you see, you can always unfollow but I love the idea of getting more people to see my work. I started a blog so that I could share, so I should share with as many people as I can, right?? And who doesn't love free stuff? Crazy people - that's who!

 

So who wants to see the prizes?? I know I do!

 

Prize pack #1 includes the Zoya Fall 2013 Cashmere collection, 2 Jordanna Glitters - LA City Nights and Gemstones. Revlon - Heavenly, Whimsical and Girly and OPI You Only Live Twice. A 16 pack of diamond-shaped glequins, some hole reinforcements (I know, weird!) for helping with French tips and ruffians! Some Nutra Nail Speed Dry Top Coat, some adorable animal fimo cane slices, 3 pots of shaped glitter thingies (don't quite know what you'd call them!), an adorable set of mini stamps, and and owl notebook and some pointy orange sticks that are great for watermarbling! Then I also put in some of my handmade goodies which includes a Coptic stitch notebook (that pink & black swirly thing!), 8 paper-pieced gift tags (the pics don't do the detail on these justice!), a set of 4 SUPER strong magnets that you will wonder how you lived without! Finally, you will also receive 3 pairs of handmade earrings - phew! That's quite a lot of stuff...can I enter my own giveaway! ;)

Then for lovely prize pack #2, you will receive a Color Club - Poptastic Collection (yes, those are full size!), Sally Hansen Diamond Strength - Moonlit Dance and Honeymoon Red, Sinful Colors Sinful Shine - Pragmatic and All The Rage, Sinful Colors - Irish Green and Green Ocean, Pure Ice - Come Closer and Freedom and Wet 'n Wild Megalast - Telescope Vision (sorry there's a glare on that one, it's a mega-glittery polish with a bluish jelly base!). You will also receive some pointy orange sticks which are great for watermarbling, a cute little clipboard notepad, some colorful shape-thingies and some hole-reinforcements perfect for French tips and ruffians! Then you will also receive some handmade (by ME!) goodies that include a Coptic stitch notebook (that cute thing with deer and owls on it!), a set of SUPER strong magnets (seriously - they are AWESOME!) and two pairs of bead earrings!



 

 

Wow - pretty prizealicious isn't it? I thought so! I will be making this open INTERNATIONALLY!!! I'm only leaving it open for 2 weeks though because I'm really impatient! The winner will be drawn randomly from the entries. If you are not 18, I will require a parent's permission to receive a prize but other than that - go! Enter at your own risk, muahahahahahahaha!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Stamped Gradient Nails

TGIW... know what I mean?? Right? Oy - it's been a long one so far! I don't even have anything to say, sorry, lol!

 

The base I used for this mani is OPI - If You Moust You Moust and then I sponged on green and purple acrylic paint. I then stamped on that using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - White On and Bundle Monster Plate 317. Whaddya think, eh?

 

 

Yeah, that's it...sorry so lame - love you guys! :)

Whimsical Undies!!

I know what you're thinking and get your mind out of the gutter! A couple of weeks ago I finally decided to try out my bottle of Revlon Whimsical. So I slapped a coat on my naked nails...and then another...and another! By the third coat it still wasn't opaque and I wasn't a happy camper! I had seen some really pretty swatches of this polish and I wanted mine to look like that too! So I asked my Instagram ladies what was going on - did I get a bad batch? I was quickly informed that I needed to put something under this polish. I know that some of you are thinking, "duh Lindsey!" Well, I really don't ever use undies unless I'm doing nail art like a watermarble or something. Usually when I use a glitter polish, I prefer to use enough coats to make it mostly opaque.

So once I had accepted the fact that I needed some undies, I asked for suggestions and there were quite a few readily given! So I decided to try them all and share them with you! Each of these swatches is shown on it's own and then with 2 coats of Revlon Whimsical on top.

The first five polishes I tried are as follows from thumb to pinky: a England - Camelot, Wet 'n Wild -Megalast On A Trip, China Glaze - Lemon Fizz, Essie - Butler Please, OPI - If You Moust You Moust.

Next up in thumb to pinkie order is Catrice - Am I Blue Or Green?, MUA - Frozen Yoghurt, Essie - Go Overboard, China Glaze - For Audrey and GOSH - Silver.

And the third set is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - White On, Sinful Colors - Cinderella, Wet 'n Wild - Tickled Pink, Wet 'n Wild - Lexington Yellow and China Glaze - First Mate.

What do you think? Any you love, hate? I kinda like them all!

Cherry Blossom Nails

Hello my beauties! I'm so proud of the nailart that I'm going to show you today! It is inspired by a Robin Moses nail art design that I found on her YouTube channel. I used a base of OPI Alpine Snow and the rest is acrylic paint. This post is a little pic-heavy because I took somewhere around a million pictures and had quite a bit of trouble paring them down!

 

 

Abstract Stripes and Dots Nails

Good morning everyone, how are you all doing this fine Tuesday? I'm COLD!! When I went to take the kids to school this morning it was 12 degrees - brrrrrr! I had a pretty quiet weekend but I kind of like it that way. I haven't painted my nails in about 4 days so I'm really hoping to have time to do that very soon because I'm starting to jones for a nail polish fix!

 

I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do when I started this mani. I just grabbed some polish, a striper and a dotting tool and this is what came out of that! The base is two coats of Wet 'n Wild Megalast - Wet Cement. I really love this color!! It's mostly a brown but it has a touch of gray in it and it's a truly lovely neutral. Then for the stripes and dots I used Wet 'n Wild Megalast - On A Trip, NYC In A New York Color Minute - Lexington Yellow, China Glaze - For Audrey and OPI - If You Moust You Moust.

 

I really love how this turned out - what do you think? My husband even commented that he liked that and he usually couldn't care less - score!

 

Neon Stripe Nails

Hello Tuesday peeps! Sorry I didn't get around to blogging yesterday, Mondays always seem to be here and gone before I can even think about it. It was a great day though and I even managed to squeeze in a nap!

 

I really love today's nail art and I'm pretty proud of how it turned out! Not only that, but it was easy and that's always a plus in my book. I think I'm finally getting the hang of this whole striping tape thing. Although I do have one role that has a crinkle in it and as I unroll it, it splits and really cheeses me off! The colors I used for undies, starting with the thumb are two coats of each of the following, Illmasqua - Prosperity, China Glaze - I'm With The Lifeguard, Catrice - Twist of Lemon, China Glaze - Papaya Punch and OPI - Kiss Me On My Tulips. The black was, of course, a England Camelot. I can see I'm gonna need a backup of that beautiful baby!

 

That's right...I have pink bubble wrap - who's jelly now? XD

 

Sorry for the tip wear, I decided to wait until the next morning to take pics and that was not the right decision!

 

I miss you guys, what's been going on with all of you - you've been so quiet! Hopefully you're just busy being fabulous!

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!

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 #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 Challenge Mani #1 - Tape Mani

So I've seen a lot of argyle manis around and I'd had success with a tape mani once before so an argyle should be a piece of cake right? Wrong! It was much harder than I anticipated and I had to redo 4 out of 5 fingers on this hand - ugh! But it's done now and I really like it!! I used OPI Alpine Snow for the white and If You Moust You Moust for the pink. The other two were China Glaze For Audrey and Gothic Lolita (LOVE this!)

 I'm so excited for the rest of the manis on this challenge and to see what my friends have come up with!! We're only one mani in so feel free to join us!!!!

 

*****EDIT!! For the others taking part in this challenge, here is the code to put in your post to display the other blogs taking part! Just copy it and paste it at the very end of your HTML code!!

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