Pretty Pink Wednesday

Simple little konadicure for you this lovely pink Wednesday!

Base color is Zoya Flora, the tips are stamped from my Big Fat Plate, but you can find the same design on M71.

Margarita Inspired NOTD

 All that crazy weather this week was driving me to drink, so I thought it was about time I did a cocktail inspired mani!  Little known fact: I love me some margaritas, so that is the cocktail that inspired this manicure. 

I started with a base coat of Sally Hansen Lickety Split Lime, and layered Zoya Tangy over top.  Then I did the tips with a Citrus Sparkle Top Coat from Love and Polish, this reminded me of the salt rimmed glasses.  Then, I sliced up some lime fimo for the little lime wedges, which I think is so stinkin cute.

I'm getting thirsty just looking at these nails!  Do you like them?  What's your favorite cocktail?  Any other cocktail inspired manicures you'd like to see?

Natural Disaster Nails

WHAT A WEEK!!!!!  In case you haven't heard, over here on the east coast, it has been one hell of a week of weather!  On Tuesday we had an earthquake, Thursday night we had a really bad thunderstorm that generated a tornado in the area, and then Saturday hurricane Irene hit!!!!!  CRAZY!!!!  I think the locusts are coming this week! :P  So, I have decided to dedicate a manicure to all this crazy weather!

If you are looking for a manicure for the different weather, here are the ideas I had:

 

For earthquakes: Crackle: DUH!

For tornadoes: how about a water marble or drag marbling to make a swirly!

For Cloudy Skies: Start with a dark color and then sponge a lighter color in cloud shapes.

For rain drops: I used a dotting tool and just put a little drag in it to create the drop.

And the last nail is just weird, and I apologize for that, it was supposed to symbolize the eye of the hurricane, but it was kind of a big fail!  OOPs!

Oh well, hope you liked these nails!  And I hope the weather where you live has been much calmer then here!

Playing with Color Club Neon Stripers = Awesome Rainbow Crackle Manicure

WARNING PIC HEAVY POST!
Happy Tuesday, lovelies!  Today I have a really fun manicure for you.  On a recent trip to Ross I found a set of Color Club Neon Stripers.  They must be an old set because the ones listed on the website don't match my set.  So, I decided to play with the stripers by using each of the colors to draw diagonal lines. 

Nail blogger tip:  If a nail gets smeared, cover it with your thumb :P

My middle nail got smeared because I applied my clear coat before letting a touchup dry enough.  OOPS!

My thumb was my favorite nail.  The stripes came out perfect.  These colors worked well and were pretty opaque, but I did start with a white base nail before striping. 

After working so hard on my striped masterpiece of a manicure I didn't want to remove it right away to do another manicure, but I was ready for a change, so out came my black mesh crackle from china glaze!

How wicked is that?  I love the rainbow peaking out from the crackle.  Are you wondering if I was able to do the gorgeous lines on my right hand?  Well, shocker:  I didn't!  LOL!  I used my right hand with a white base to try out other looks using my nail stripers. 

And as you can see those styles were kind of all over the place!  But that's okay because crackle makes everything look cool!

So, that is my tip for the day for all you beginners out there who what to try stuff out:  GO TO TOWN!!!!  If worse comes to worse, throw some crackle over your messed up design and it will look SO COOL!!!! 

Hope you enjoyed my adventures with the Color Club nail stripers!  I must say my crackle polishes have really made for some really cool manicures in the past:  Here it is over some glitter, here it is saving a hideous peach color, here is is on a pink Wednesday, and here it is in a heart shape.  I think it's time to invest in some other crackle polishes beside black and gray.  Any recommendations for me?

Weekly Blog Roundup!

	Claire created some Shellac Rockstar Nails with Gold Foil Shatter Effect
	Put your sunglasses on! Sarah made a super bright mani with Big SdP C plate.
	Ladyluck showed off her friend's super sparkly nails
	Jen combined some classic colors in a french twist manicure

Since we didn't have a lot of blogs to feature this week, I've added a linky for you to share your favorite nail blog entry of the week:

Zoya Dove and Portia French Twist

The manicure I have for you today is just precious.  It is so cute and sophisticated.  I really love the color combination of a light pink and light gray, and I find that Zoya Dove and Zoya Portia fit the bill perfectly.

I was inspired for this manicure by this beauty on Pinterest.  I'm slowly working my way through my Nail Ideas board over there.  It is such a great place to store inspiration.  If you have a board where you collect nail inspiration, please link it up over here because I'm always looking for new ideas! 

The little heart stickers on this mani came from a bottle of Seche Vite I bought a while back.  Previously seen in this post. 

So, tell me what you think!  And feel free to share your Pinterest links!  I've already done two other Pinterest inspired manicures that I can't wait to show you!

Zoya Purple Ombre Nails

I don't think it is a secret around here that purple is my favorite nail color. In my polish collection it is definitely the most purchased color. So when I was looking for a simple manicure when work was stressful I knew I wanted to do an ombre in my favorite color: PURPLE!!!!

Here is the lineup of the colors I used, all from Zoya of course: Perrie, Marley, Malia, Lael, and Pinta

And here is the final manicure!  I kept it really simple with no additional stamping or decoration.  Zoya makes such gorgeous purples.  Each and every one is unique. 

Are you a fan of the ombre manicures?  Doesn't Zoya just have the most perfect purples? 

Traveling Manicurist

When I really got into stamping and nail art everyone I know wanted me to show them how and I started becoming a bit of a traveling manicurist. I know most bloggers have this awesome nail storage and nail station, but over here, I'm always taking my polish with me, so I've been on the hunt for the perfect travel bag/box/whatever for all my nail tools and a handful of polishes for when I'm going out. And I've finally found it! This little kit I've created works great for Saturday night nail nights with my mom and Bev, and it traveled well when I went to the beach last week, so here it is:

I got both of these bags through a company called Thirty One.  My friend had a party and I was really impressed with the Mini Organizer.  The inside is big enough for all my nail tools, and the pockets on the sides let me bring along just enough polishes for wherever I am going.

Inside, I have the Zoya big flipper, cotton rounds, cuticle remover, cuticle cream, a small dish for remover because I like to dip a brush in it to remove the mess on my fingers after painting my nails.  Then I put a cup in there to hold all the little tools like brushes, files, cuticle pushers, stampers, rhinestones, etc...

Then, in the other little bag, which I got for like $2 at the party I put all my stamping plates, cards to scrape with and special stamping polishes.

Most of the time it sits right on top like this and then I just grab it and go!

When they aren't traveling, my polishes sit out in a cutlery organizer on my desk like this, but I'm not really happy about that, and am very much considering wall mounted storage, just so I can gain more square footage on my desk.  This picture is a bit old, my collection has expanded a lot since taking this.

I've tried a lot of different systems for taking my nail stuff out and about, and by far this is my favorite!  Do you ever feel like a traveling manicurist? or do you usually just do your nails at home?  Have you found a system that works for you yet?  Do you wish you had a bag like this one?  If you are interested I might get another one and offer it up filled with goodies as a big giveaway when I hit 500 followers!

Blast from the Past Accent Nail

Hi lovelies!!!! Sorry I haven't been posting much. Work has just been CRAZY!!!! I have so much I want to post, I just haven't had the time to schedule the posts. I'm hoping to make some time this weekend to get this blog back in gear!

So, new manicure for you today featuring the gorgeous Zoya Tama as my base color:

And then when I was at my mom's recently, I found an old bottle of nail polish from Afterthoughts! Do you remember this store? I think it was like a Claire's. So the bottle must be at least 8 years old, but it is such a pretty chunky glitter! It went great with Tama, so I put it on as an accent nail because I feel like I never do those!

Do you like?  Do you have any dusty polishes that you are holding on to?  Are you a fan of the accent nail? 

Weekly Blog Roundup

Sorry this is late my internet access is slim until Monday.
Sarah stamped a pretty red and white design with her Fauxnad plates and using Beauty UK coral for the base http://spellbindingnails.blogspot.com/2011/08/sdp-d12-red-and-white-floral-design.html

Stacie was inspired by a Tatty Devine bunny brooch http://kawaiinailart.blogspot.com/2011/08/bunny-nails.html

Claire created a paint splatter manicure with her Konad plates using OPI red as the base http://toptwentynails.blogspot.com/2011/08/opi-red-and-konad-splatter-step-by-step.html

Theresa dipped her clients toes in crystals with this extravagant pedicure http://theresabloor.blogspot.com/2011/07/swarovskidiamonte-crystal-toes-pedicure.html

Grace created a cool tuxedo manicure http://ooooohpretty.blogspot.com/2011/08/tuxedo-nails.html

Trisha showed us what she got when she broke her 3 month no buy http://www.trishadotj.com/2011/07/i-broke-down.html

Emily brought back the 80s with her pacman manicure http://emilysnailfiles.blogspot.com/2011/08/pacman-french-manicure.html

Jen shared her Brittany Femme Fatale manicure http://moondancerjen.blogspot.com/2011/08/femme-fatale-tour-nails.html

Lena showed her Nails Inc polish free with 2 dove deodorants http://thestudentsguidetonailpolish.blogspot.com/2011/08/nails-inc-copacabana.html

If you would like to be involved in future round ups email Stacie.fields@gmail.com

Chevron French Tape Tutorial Pink Wednesday Edition

I hope you lovelies liked my tape tutorial last week because that same night I tried another look using the same colors!  I started this manicure with a base coat in Zoya Purity.  Then I pulled off a small piece of tape making sure to de-stickify it a bit before placing it on my nail.  You can see in this picture where to place it for a chevron french:

Then I went over the tape with Zoya Lolly and removed the tape before it dried:

As you can see I didn't cut my tape, I just pulled it off the dispenser because I knew I was going to cover my line with a striper.  If you want a cleaner line, then make sure to cute the tape using scissors. 

Here is the final look!  I really like these colors together.  It feels very preppy, like something you'd wear to play tennis or something!  I hope you've liked these two tape tutorials! 

Green striper and Lolly were provided for my consideration by Nail De Royale.

Getting ready for fall with Zoya Envy and Edyta

Zoya Envy is such a gorgeous dark green! Perfect for fall and comes off as black with a green tint in some lights. Here is a swatch:

I decided its perfect match is Zoya Edyta, which is pretty much Envy with a ton of gold sparkles. SO I took my Envy and sponged the tips with Edyta to create a cute gradient effect.

These two are just a match made in heaven!  I love them both.  This manicure is definitely getting me in the fall spirit! As much as I love the summer brights, there is something soooo fun about the dark vampy hues for fall! :)

Femme Fatale Tour Nails

Last night was one of the best nights ever!!!!  I got to see two of the fiercest bitches around perform in the most epic concert of all time!!!!!  (aka Britney Spears and Nicki Minaj in the Femme Fatale tour)  We had awesome seats, and of course I had to do my nails up right for the night!  Here's some pics from the show:

To match my nails to the fierceness of these two lovelies, I turned to Pinterest for some inspiration, and found this:

Fierce right?  Here is my interpretation:

I started my nails with a base of Zoya Charisma and then sponged the tips with a sparkly black from Forever 21's Love and Polish brand.  Seen previously here.  I loved this look, but for some reason my tips have chipped badly!  I'm in need of a new manicure STAT!

Been to any great concerts lately?  If you get a chance to catch Brit Brit on the Femme Fatale tour, DO IT!!!!!  It was amazing!