Hidden Rainbow Mani

Can you believe it? I'm posting again, yayyyy! I had so much fun with this mani. I finally got my striping tape and had to try it out. I also used a cool rainbow effect I found that gives you 6 of the 7 colors of the rainbow (poor, poor indigo!) by only using 3 polishes! WHAT? That's right, if you want to know the secret, check out Simple Little Pleasure's YouTube video. I could seriously lose hours watching this girl do nail art! One of the reasons I love her so much is that she actually talks during her video. I can't stand videos with no talking and awful muzak playing *shudders*!

The polishes I used are Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Frutti Petutie, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightening, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Freeze! and Wet 'n Wild Black Creme. after sponging on the rainbow with a tiny piece of makeup sponge (I used a tiny corner for each color), I put down a top coat and let everything dry COMPLETELY! Then I put on some striping tape and put down one thick coat of Black Creme and once I removed the tape I had a gorgeous rainbow! A couple of must-know tips for working with striping tape are to remove the tape immediately after you're done polishing that finger!! Also, it really helped me to have all of my little strips of tape cut and hanging off of the edge of the table ready to go.

I was so ticked off that I fudged up my index finger by bumping it on the table and then my topcoat issues ruined the whole dang thing. I tried to use my gloopy one first and it left big dents and wouldn't spread so I tried my el cheapo Wet 'n Wild topcoat that I got for free to smooth it out, big mistake. That topcoat sucks. It never dries and it isn't very shiny so I was left with a bubbly dull mess, *SIGH*. Oh well, you live and you learn, now I only use that topcoat for applying rhinestones and fimo cane!

Citrus Punch Mani

Hello everyone! I am so sorry for not posting for 3 days, life has been cray cray! Between work, the baby and everything else, there just wasn't enough time in the day to get everything done but I missed you guys so much!!

I'm very excited about this mani, it's my favorite that I've done so far. I ordered a whole bunch of nail bling off of ebay and part of it was some adorable fimo cane. This stuff intrigued me to no end so I had to get some. Then when I found this sweet shade of yellow from Sally Hansen Hard As Nails called Hard Lemonade, it wasn't too much of a jump to come up with this mani. I added on some tips with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Frutti Petutie which is a very bright, beautiful pink. What do you guys think?

Please forgive the awful bubbles, I'm having topcoat woes! I really love Sally Hansen InstaDry but it gets all gloopy before the bottle is half gone and for $5.99 a bottle I don't want to be buying a new bottle each week so I need to do some research. I've heard excellent things about Seche Vite and a blogger friend just uses some restore-stuff (technical term there...aherm) when it gets thick so I may give that a go!

I think I love fimo cane! I also gave my 5 yr old daughter a fimo mani with little animals and it looked so sweet on her tiny little fingers!

Wet 'n Wild Fergie Dutchess Swatches and Review

It's been so long since I've seen you all, how have you been! Okay, so I only took one day off but it felt weird! The truth is that I don't have any posts in my back pocket so I'm posting as I paint and the baby didn't let me paint my nails on Thursday night but I managed to squeeze one in for you today, aren't you lucky?

When I saw Dutchess from the Wet 'n Wild Fergie collection, I just had to have it! Who doesn't love a bright blue and purple glitter? As I was putting on the first coat I got worried. It was uneven, thin and very sheer. Imagine my surprise when upon the second coat it was like a totally different polish! But there was still something weird about it...just take a look!
  

See what I mean? The glitters are a mix between matte and shimmery! It was almost like a suede glitter! There was a main base of matte navy glitter with some sparkly purple and blue glitters mixed in. It looked pretty cool but how do you top coat something like that? Do you mattify it...

Or do you use a shiny top coat...

What do you think? I was really looking forward to the matte topcoat but it ended up just looking really dull. The shiny, on the other hand, was AH-mazing! I swear, this glitter seemed to "dance" in the sunlight - I just kept checkin' myself out!

The weird part is that when I finally got a chip in it, I picked at it, as I am wont to do and the whole shebang just came right off! Then of course I had to finish what I started and the polish peeled completely off each finger with no tearing or crumbling. I didn't even have to work at it! That was fine with me because I wasn't really looking forward to removing such a heavy glitter polish anyway. I'm not sure if it would be like that with all base coats or if it was just my combo of the polish with the Sally Hansen Miracle Cure base coat.

I really did like this polish, it's fun and different than anything I've seen! Plus, for $3.49 it was a good buy!

Dots and Waves Mani

Hey pretties! This mani was a lot of fun to do! I used craft scissors and tape for the waves and my trusty dotting tools for the dots - imagine that! I'm not feeling very witty so let's get right to it!

The gorgeous purple is a new color from the Wet 'n Wild Megalast line. This one is called Disturbia. I couldn't quite capture the shimmer in the photos but this is a gorgeous polish! The green is Avon Speed Dry+ in Don't Be Jaded. I love this green, it's minty-colored and awesome!

Here are some pics of just the purple:

 

Here's the whole mani, what do you think?

My First Indie - Different Dimension

Hello my sweets! How are you this fine Wed morning/afternoon/evening or whatever time it is in your part of the world?? I am doing fantastic! Today is another first for me - imagine that! I think it's fun that you guys get to be here when I experience each of these firsts...I swear I didn't mean that to sound weird!

One day I was minding my own business, tweeting away when Sara over at Chalkboard Nails just had to mention that Different Dimensions on Etsy was having a polish sale for just $5 a bottle! So of course I had to look and of course I had to buy one...or 5. She has some seriously cool polishes in there! I was a little worried because a lot of indies seem to be glitter toppers with not a whole lot of substance. Then I met Warm Fuzzies and it was love at first sight! I know it's weird but brown is my second favorite nail polish color and this one was a stunner! It's got such shimmer and color and it's such a smooth texture and goes on like a dream and just settles herself right down! This mani only took two coats for perfection. On the accent nail I added one coat of Honesty Feels A Lot Like Mean which is an awesome copper and pink glitter that goes on perfectly! Here's what you came to see...

Bonus macros for you because I love you! Do you SEE all that lovely shimmer? This polish looks like velvet, I love it!!

I would have to say that the only negative I have is that this polish dries slower than what I'm used to. Now that's not necessarily taking away from the polish - I'm just insanely impatient! I put on the second coat before the first was completely dry and then proceeded to put on a thick top coat before those were dry as well because that's how I roll! All in all, I certainly will be ordering from Different Dimensions again, the polish is fantastical!

My First Watermarble!

So, I've been wanting to do a water marble for a long time but to be honest, it's managed to intimidate me up until now! It was this big pink elephant in the room that nobody talked about but it still loomed! Okay, so I'm being dramatic! Just so I didn't disappoint myself, I started this project expecting this to be a learning experience but a complete fail as well. Imagine my surprise when it tuned out!! I did still make mistakes and had a few redos but if I can do this then you shouldn't be afraid to give it a try!

I used all China Glaze polishes and I highly recommend them for water marbling!! I painted a base coat of Traffic Jam which is quickly becoming one of my favorite polishes - its great for stamping too! Then for the marble I also used Man Hunt and Custom Kicks which has a gorgeous shimmer to it! One of the coolest things was that where Man Hunt and Traffic Jam met I ended up with purple!! Here are the pics!

What do you think? My thumb is my favorite! I also have a couple of tips for you that I learned the hard way:

* Marble your dominant hand first because once you marble your non-dominant hand you won't want to chance screwing it up marbling the other!

* Be patient and let the first hand dry COMPLETELY before starting on the second hand. It may take a little longer but it's still faster than redoing the nails you messed up by being impatient!

*Use very light strokes when drawing the designs in the polish! Just barely touch the surface of the polish or you will drag it all over and make a mess!

*Don't be afraid to redo a finger if it didn't turn out the way you want it!

Okay, I'm done for now! Have you done a water marble? What was your experience? Do you have any tips to share? If you haven't done one what's stopping you?

Polish Us Pink #2 Ombre Dotticure!

Good morning lovelies! We are back for another Breast Cancer Awareness manicure! I finally got to play with my dotting tools and it turned out pretty good if you ask me! After I looked at the photos of this I realized that the colors on the index and middle finger should have been switched so that's what I'll apologize for today because I have no sense of color!

Before I show you the mani, I want to say a HUGE thank you to Missy over at Gnarly Gnails for the sweet new blog layout! Not only is she an incredibly talented nail artist and sweet person but she is also a graphic designer! Did you see the little social media icons in the sidebar? They're little polish bottles! She freakin' made those :o ! So go follow her blog if you don't already because she's a bowl of awesome with a double scoop of awesome sauce on top!

The base polish is one coat of Julep Olivia. I. Love. Julep. It was beautiful and easy to apply! On the thumb is China Glaze Traffic Jam, index finger is Lancome Rose Boudoir (another amazing formula!), middle finger is China Glaze 108 Degrees, ring finger is Wet 'n Wild Lavender Pearlescent and pinky is Wet 'n Wild Tickled Pink.

 

I will certainly be breaking out my dotting tools again soon. They were easy to use and I love the polka dots!