Rainbow Sparkle Nails

Simple manicure for you lovelies today. I did a rainbow sparkle skittle with some of my favorite Zoyas: Apple, Ivanka, Charla, Mimi, and Reva

Then I stamped the rainbow image from the new Bundle Monster plates BM201 on each nail.  I LOVE Zoya's sparkle polishes!  They go on so smooth and easy, plus they compliment each other so well! 

Happy Memorial Day Nails!

Last night we had our weekly dinner at my grandmother's and I decided to bring my nail stuff to give my grammy some gorgeous patriotic nails :)  And of course I had to do mine as well! :)

Here are my Grandma's nails!  I painted them in my favorite hot red: Zoya Sookie!  Then I stamped a cute star USA design from a fauxnad plate (M37) I got from Born Pretty.  You can get the stamp in this set.  She loved the final outcome!  It felt very patriotic to me!

Here is my design:

 I used Zoya Tallulah on my thumb and pointer nails, and then stamped the stars from Konad M3 all over them with Konad special white polish.

Then I painted the rest of my nails with Zoya Purity, and stamped the stripes from BM20 using Konad's special red polish.  These stripes didn't cover my nails perfectly, so I had to strategically place my thumb to cover up a bad match up of the design.  I really don't know how ladies with really long nails align stamps so perfectly.  I usually fail at it miserably.  If you have any suggestions for how to do that better, please let me know. 

Exciting news!  I passed 200 followers this weekend!  So, I just wanted to send a BIG shout out to all of you for following my blog, and being so awesome!  I love every single comment I get and I have loved finding new blogs to follow.

Wink Wink Twinkle

Guess what I found at Ross this week?

Hello Beautiful! I have been wanting the Color Club Starry Temptress collection ever since it was announced.  It just screamed perfect summer color to me!  I snatched up the last pack from Ross on Tuesday for only $8!!  I definitely think all my summer pedicures will be from this collection.  Who doesn't love sparkly neon toes?  But this collection isn't just great for the toesies, I am not afraid of a little neon on my nails!  So, my first manicure with the Starry Temptress collection is using the purple in the middle.  I *think* it is called Wink Wink Twinkle, but Color Club doesn't label their bottles, so this is just going off the back of the bottle.

Here is a swatch of Wink Wink Twinkle with the Sparkle top coat and Seche Vite on top.

I stamped a design from BM206 using Sally Hansen Silver Sweep and added a rhinestone in the center.  I really love the final outcome of this.  This collection was totally worth all the swooning and hunting down!

A couple of tips with this collection that I've found:

• These are neons, so they dry matte, and you'll want a top coat to make it shine
• If you plan on stamping, do so BEFORE adding the sparkle top coat.  I did not do this, and I think my designs came out a little messy because they didn't go down on a smooth base. 

Hope you have a fantastic weekend!  Here in the states we have a holiday on Monday, so I'm REALLY looking forward to the three day weekend.

Weekly Blog Roundup!

Friday already?  I can't believe it!  I'm so excited about the long weekend this weekend.  I'm hoping to post a few memorial day themed manis for you to get you in the spirit.

Stacie was inspired by Prada S/S 2011
Lena is having a clear out – fancy grabbing a bargain?
The Nail Addict created this juicy water marble design
Sharon had fun with smashing her rainbow
Grace was inspired by Lagerfeld to create this design
Nic was absolutely besotted with Absolutely Alice
Jen let her sunny disposition show with her new Zoya
Theresa explains exactly what Shellac and Gelish semi-permanent polishes are
Ling Ling tried a cool tie-dye manicure
Avast me hearties! Claire tried out OPI pirates’ collection and the wicked silver shatter
Ari use pastels for a cute nail art manicure

Pippa = my new obsession

Confession time: I am a total victim to trends.  Back in the day, whenever I saw LC on The Hills wearing black nail polish I had to wear it ALL the time, even though I previously thought it was only for goth girls.  Now I think black is one of the most chic colors out there.  This time around I'm starting to feel the same about yellow.  One of my favorite fashion bloggers love Maegan has been wearing yellow nails a lot lately, and it is soooooooo HOT!  This previously would not be a color I would choose.  I don't even think I owned a yellow polish before a few months ago!  But, now I want to wear it ALL the time.  First I dabbled with the adorable lemonade nails, and now I've got a cute daisy manicure to share with you lovelies!

Here's a Pippa swatch all on her own.  She's just so stinkin cute and sunny! 

 

Then I had this idea to stamp some daisies in black on the yellow.  The images for my thumb and the rest of my nails are from Konad M51.

 

This is really cute on its own, but decided to top it off by filling in the black outlines with a small nail art brush and some white polish.

I think the effect is super cute.  When I did it perfectly they look like stickers!  But, it was soooooo hard to get it perfectly in the lines. 

So, how do you feel about yellow?  Are there any colors that you totally avoid?  If so, I think it's time to break out of that box and give them a try!  You never know what you might like, or what might look good on you! 

Stylish Blogger Award

Awwww, Haute Lacquer awarded me the Stylish Blogger Award!  Thanks, lovely!

Here are the rules:

Thank and link back to the person who sent you the award.

Share seven things about yourself.

Spread the love. Award seven recently discovered bloggers.

Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award.

Seven Things About Me:

1. I have an iPad, and its a total obsession!  I'm on it ALL THE TIME.
2. I consider myself a computer power user.  Since I build websites for a living, I work on my computer all day long and am always on the look out for ways to use my computer efficiently.  It makes me a total program snob.  In my eyes Internet Explorer is the vain of all evil and firefox and chrome are the way to go!
3. I love to crochet! I learned from my grandmother and my favorite thing to make is animal hats for little kids.  So far I've made a monkey, frog, owl, and duck.
4. I love white ceramics.  I stalk yard sales on the hunt for them.  My most favorite piece was dessert plate with a lattice pattern on the outside found at a yardsale for only $2!
5. Sometimes I joke that Britney Spears helps me around the house just as much as my husband :P  This is because when I have to clean by myself, I just blast her on my iPod and she helps motivate me to get the job done!  
6. I love to dance!  My mom put me in dance classes when I was 3 years old!  I never competed with it, it was just for fun, and even now I often break out in a booty shakin session, and often take Zumba classes at the gym.  It's one of my favorite workouts.
7. Favorite store to shop ever: Ross!  I love the treasure hunt and the major bargains!  I have literally gone there and tried on 100 pieces in one trip!  I don't go back to the dressing room without a mountain of clothes to try on, and I know most of them won't be winners, but every once in awhile an item sparkles on you!  PLUS!  I just discovered that they have full color club collections for only $8!  Last night I got the new Starry Temptress that I have been OBSESSING over since it was released!  I can't wait to show you the manicures with this beauty!

Now to tag some of my favorite new blogs I've discovered and loved:

• Rebecca Likes Nails
• Spooky Nails
• Enamel Girl
• Gotham Nails

Strawberry Manicure for your Pink Wednesday

I'm gonna let you in on a little secret to this whole nail blogging thing:  Sometimes I am so filled with inspiration and ideas that I can't make up my mind on what manicure to do.  I literally just sit there for like half an hour staring at my image plates and watching Youtube videos thinking about what I want to do. One such night happened last week.  I really wanted to play with my new image plates, so I just decided to paint my nails white and play around. 

I wish I would've taken a picture of my typical white base all by itself because I think a lot of times whites come in two types: opaque and super chalky, or super sheer and pretty, but takes 4-5 coats to get the color you want.  UGH!  So, what I've been doing lately is one or two coats of the chalky opaque dollar store white, and then add one coat of pretty shimmery Zoya Christinna, and it feels much softer than the average white base.

So after I had my pretty white base, I decided to do two different manicures.  One on each hand. On one hand I really wanted to do a cute fruit-inspired manicure, so I did french tips in my konad hot pink, then stamped some strawberries to each nail from my big fat plate, painted the stems green, and added some white dots to the tips with my dotting tool to just finish it all off!

I'm sorry for the super crappy picture.  I was over at my mom's about to take this off when I realized I forgot to capture it, so I took a quick pic using her iPad.

Strawberries aren't the only design that can be stamped on white!  I also did a cute hounds tooth design in black on my other hand because I just CANNOT make up my mind sometimes! 

I love this classic design!  I think my big fat image plate full nail designs are a bit bigger than my Konad plates, so I think I'm going to have to try more of these out.

What do you guys think?  Anyone else suffer from indecisiveness when selecting their manicure?  Please forgive me for the bad picture quality, I just wanted to make sure I captured these for you guys.

Sparkle Raindrops

On a recent trip to Sally's I saw For Audrey right beside Shower Together in the China Glaze display, and knew they not only HAD to be mine, but that they would look perfect together!  So, here are the polishes I chose for today's manicure:

 From left to right: NYC 105A Starry Silver Glitter, China Glaze For Audrey, China Glaze Shower Together.

 Base coat is CG For Audrey, which is SUCH a gorgeous light blue.

Then I did something a little kooky!  Instead of the typical half-moon, I used CG Shower Together to make it into a cloud shape instead.

Then, I added this Starry Silver Glitter because I knew it had big chunks that will look like rain drops.  I really love this glitter.  It's really cute.

I wish all rain showers were this sparkly! :)  What do you guys think?

Gradient Zebra Print

Does anyone remember the gorgeous gradient zebra design from the Bundle Monster Contest awhile back?  I LOVED it.  It was definitely one of my favorites in the competition.  And recently, I found out who made it (the lovely Rebecca), and that she posted a tutorial on how she did it!  I couldn't wait to try this out!  I decided to do mine using some STUNNING pastels from Zoya:

From left to right we have Flora, Malia and Yummy.
Now, I didn't have a chance to take a picture of just the gradient, which was probably a good thing, because trust me, it didn't look that good on its own.  I have to practice this technique more.  I think I'm just a little too heavy handed to get a subtle gradient.  I used Flora as a base coat and then sponged on Malia on the top two-thirds of the nail, and then Yummy on the top one-third.  Then I stamped the full zebra image from BM 223 on top with Konad black polish.  Here is the final result:

I really love this look!  I definitely encourage you to try it out!  Sad thing about this manicure: the very next day I did some gardening without gloves, and ruined it!  So, please forgive the little chip on my middle finger.  The other hand looked even worse!  Lesson learned: ALWAYS wear gloves when gardening!

Thanks to Rebecca Likes Nails for posting the tutorial!  I think there are so many different designs you can do with a gradient base and then a full stamp over top.

Cracked Concrete - First Crackle EVER!

So, today I have one last birthday present to share with you guys! My future sister in law Bev knows how much I love me some gray polish, so she got me my very first crackle polish for my birthday: China Glaze Cracked Concrete!

So, here's the deal. For the longest time I've kind of been anti-crackle polish. Maybe I just haven't seen enough color combinations that I've liked. Or maybe its just that crackle polishes remind me of chipped nails, which I really hate! But, my first crackle color combination has made me a believer.

Here is our starting line-up:

I used Zoya Dove as my base coat, and here is CG Cracked Concrete with it.

Here's my base coat.  Two coats of Zoya Dove.  Ok, omg, can we talk about how stunning Dove is?  I just love Zoya.  They just make the most beautiful polishes, and they always just look so good on. 

Here's Cracked Concrete over Dove.  The polish was pretty easy to work with.  In case you are a crackle n00b like me here's how it works:  you paint a single coat over your nail, and at first it looks like a regular thick layer of polish, but after a few seconds the magic happens!  You aren't limited to just using crackle over your whole nail.  I've seen people play with swirls, french tips, and even hearts!  I decided to play with it a bit and make hearts on a few nails because a lot of the manicures I've liked best with crackle polishes do hearts. 

Conclusion: I heart this crackle.  I got CG Black Crackle on its way to my house right now, and I can't wait to play more with these polishes.  I think the key to success is just pretty color combinations, and breaking out of the box and trying out different shapes and designs.

How do you feel about crackle polishes?  Any pretty color combinations I should try?  I know recently I LOVED Let Them Have Polish's blue crackle swatches, and Gotham Polish did OPI's silver shatter over Zoya Jules! 

P.S. I've been testing out taking pictures with a lamp at night.  Do you like how these turned out?  Any tips for nail pix when sunlight isn't always an option?

Weekly Nail Blog Roundup

TGIF!  Here are a few blog highlights from this week:

• Claire’s tutorial shows the simple way to do a half moon manicure 
• Nic celebrated finishing the school year with some swatches  
• Sharon showed us her adventures in drag marbling  
• Grace had some fun with glitter to great effect 
• Ladylucktook a break from her nails this week and created an eye look   
• Theresa created a gelish fade with 3d flowers

And finally introducing Erin to the blog world http://sugarstar.host-ed.net/blog/

Have a great weekend, lovelies!