Happy Independence Day!

Too late? LOL. It’s only the 5th 😉 My fiance and I bought some really awesome fireworks, almost professional style. They were AMAZING. When I get them up on my Facebook, I’m going to post a few firework pictures here too. I got some great shots!

Anyway naturally, I have a few July 4th themed manicures for you. They’re fairly simple (In my opinion) and I have a guest nail to show you. 🙂

First I freehanded vertical halves of my nails with a dark blue and red polish. I don’t remember the polish colors, will have to hunt up on that if you’re really interested. Honestly any red/blue will do. 😛

Then, when the red side was dry I put on white crackle. I used China Glaze’s Lightning Bolt, but I felt this did not work well this time. 😦 It was disappointing. The thumb crackled fine, but the rest was weird. Maybe it didn’t like crackling over red jelly polish.

I picked up some star shaped nail glitter, from my Bundle Monster nail art wheel set and placed them on the dark blue side atop wet polish, then sealed everything with topcoat. It was awesome, in my opinion! Although sadly the stars started popping off the next day. D:

Nick also volunteered his nails. He VOLUNTEERED. He told me I must make a flag theme. OK then 🙂

This picture makes me giggle. Cthulhu hands! It was really simple. I used this striping polish set from Sinful Colors, and horizontally painted nails blue/white then added white dots for stars on the blue half, and red stripes on the white half. Very simple and took me about 5 minutes to do. Promise!

Now, this is the manicure I ultimately went with for July 4th and still do actually have on. It’s too awesome to pass up 😉 I alternated from the pinky to index fingers, red white and blue polish. The white is Orly Winter Wonderland layered over a plain white polish for some sparkle. The red and blue are just your average polishes, the red was a Kleancolor and the blue was a Nabi polish I think.

THEN… I tried out the BLACKBERRY BLING style!

This term was coined quite a few years ago, when Blackberries were all the rage and people had addiction problems. It means to create accent nails on your thumbs, and leave all the other fingers plain, as the thumbs are much more noticeable while texting. I have to say, as a compulsive texter… I LOVE THIS LOOK. Way better than the standard “accent finger” on my ring or index fingers! Blackberry bling is the way to go 🙂

Happy Independence Day!

Too late? LOL. It’s only the 5th 😉 My fiance and I bought some really awesome fireworks, almost professional style. They were AMAZING. When I get them up on my Facebook, I’m going to post a few firework pictures here too. I got some great shots!

Anyway naturally, I have a few July 4th themed manicures for you. They’re fairly simple (In my opinion) and I have a guest nail to show you. 🙂

First I freehanded vertical halves of my nails with a dark blue and red polish. I don’t remember the polish colors, will have to hunt up on that if you’re really interested. Honestly any red/blue will do. 😛

Then, when the red side was dry I put on white crackle. I used China Glaze’s Lightning Bolt, but I felt this did not work well this time. 😦 It was disappointing. The thumb crackled fine, but the rest was weird. Maybe it didn’t like crackling over red jelly polish.

I picked up some star shaped nail glitter, from my Bundle Monster nail art wheel set and placed them on the dark blue side atop wet polish, then sealed everything with topcoat. It was awesome, in my opinion! Although sadly the stars started popping off the next day. D:

Nick also volunteered his nails. He VOLUNTEERED. He told me I must make a flag theme. OK then 🙂

This picture makes me giggle. Cthulhu hands! It was really simple. I used this striping polish set from Sinful Colors, and horizontally painted nails blue/white then added white dots for stars on the blue half, and red stripes on the white half. Very simple and took me about 5 minutes to do. Promise!

Now, this is the manicure I ultimately went with for July 4th and still do actually have on. It’s too awesome to pass up 😉 I alternated from the pinky to index fingers, red white and blue polish. The white is Orly Winter Wonderland layered over a plain white polish for some sparkle. The red and blue are just your average polishes, the red was a Kleancolor and the blue was a Nabi polish I think.

THEN… I tried out the BLACKBERRY BLING style!

This term was coined quite a few years ago, when Blackberries were all the rage and people had addiction problems. It means to create accent nails on your thumbs, and leave all the other fingers plain, as the thumbs are much more noticeable while texting. I have to say, as a compulsive texter… I LOVE THIS LOOK. Way better than the standard “accent finger” on my ring or index fingers! Blackberry bling is the way to go 🙂

Pink Wednesday, a bit late :P

Hi all, I’ve been on a brief hiatus 😛 First we had to clean house for a bunch of guests who only stayed for half a day, and then Nick and I decided to go mattress shopping and I’ve been preoccupied with that. The mattress is awesome! It’s sooo much better. I’ve been waking up with back pain for the past few weeks, because the mattress was really old (when we took it out we found it pretty much sagged and looks a bit squashed, lol who knows how old it is!)

Anyway I have a Pink Wednesday post for y’all! It’s only about two hours and a half past midnight into Thursday, so I figure that’s not too late is it? 🙂

I began with a base of a Kleancolor pink neon, name escapes me… Then I freehanded the arrows on with Sonia Kashuk’s Ooh La La, a polish easily found in Target with a little brush 🙂

I think it’s awesome, it reminds me of those power up strips in Mario Kart or any racing games.

Or an oddly pink turn warning sign on roads 🙂

I had every intention to tape the arrows/stripes but it turned out way harder than I anticipated… o.O So freehand it was! xD

What do you think?

Pink Wednesday, a bit late :P

Hi all, I’ve been on a brief hiatus 😛 First we had to clean house for a bunch of guests who only stayed for half a day, and then Nick and I decided to go mattress shopping and I’ve been preoccupied with that. The mattress is awesome! It’s sooo much better. I’ve been waking up with back pain for the past few weeks, because the mattress was really old (when we took it out we found it pretty much sagged and looks a bit squashed, lol who knows how old it is!)

Anyway I have a Pink Wednesday post for y’all! It’s only about two hours and a half past midnight into Thursday, so I figure that’s not too late is it? 🙂

I began with a base of a Kleancolor pink neon, name escapes me… Then I freehanded the arrows on with Sonia Kashuk’s Ooh La La, a polish easily found in Target with a little brush 🙂

I think it’s awesome, it reminds me of those power up strips in Mario Kart or any racing games.

Or an oddly pink turn warning sign on roads 🙂

I had every intention to tape the arrows/stripes but it turned out way harder than I anticipated… o.O So freehand it was! xD

What do you think?

Zoya French Twist

Last month or something, Zoya had both a promo and a new “French twist” style. It was to use both Caitlin and Marley, from their Intimate Spring 2011 collection, as a french tip. Some people alternated with the colors, but I went traditional (ha) and used Caitlin as a base, and Marley for the tips.

Please don’t laugh! I really suck at freehand french tips 😦 I tried following my smile line and it came out wonky so I went over it again but they turned into more like chevron tips.

I did love this, but the tips were just too thick for me lol!

Kinda looks okay here. My index finger is just funny. xD

Did any of you guys try the French twist?

Zoya French Twist

Last month or something, Zoya had both a promo and a new “French twist” style. It was to use both Caitlin and Marley, from their Intimate Spring 2011 collection, as a french tip. Some people alternated with the colors, but I went traditional (ha) and used Caitlin as a base, and Marley for the tips.

Please don’t laugh! I really suck at freehand french tips 😦 I tried following my smile line and it came out wonky so I went over it again but they turned into more like chevron tips.

I did love this, but the tips were just too thick for me lol!

Kinda looks okay here. My index finger is just funny. xD

Did any of you guys try the French twist?

Guest Nails– Cherry Blossom

My dear friend, Meredith, graduated from our University with a BA with Honors today! I originally promised to do her nails, as I thought I would be here for graduation. Alas, I discovered the flight I bought sent me home last Sunday! (And about my lack of posts, let’s just say finals and real life overwhelmed me. I do have plenty, and I mean plenty, of photos and swatches for y’all!)
So I told her to fit a set of fake nails and give them to me, and I would paint them 🙂 She said to surprise her, so I chose cherry blossoms as she lived in Japan last summer, and since has been in love with that country. A bonus, she can also keep these nails forever with careful removal =)

If you wanted to know how to say “I love you” in American Sign Language, this would be it. 🙂

This featured three Orly polishes, and two American Apparel polishes whose names I have forgotten, and they’re currently stashed far away from me. I’ll just edit this part later, lol. I used a tip of a pencil and the rounded part of a hair pin because at that moment everything had been packed away and I didn’t have my nail art stuff out. It was also my very first attempt at freehand art… yikes! It turned out okay, I hope?

Such long fake nails! I’m going to be surprised if she tells me she never poked herself in the eye with it. 😛

Guest Nails– Cherry Blossom

My dear friend, Meredith, graduated from our University with a BA with Honors today! I originally promised to do her nails, as I thought I would be here for graduation. Alas, I discovered the flight I bought sent me home last Sunday! (And about my lack of posts, let’s just say finals and real life overwhelmed me. I do have plenty, and I mean plenty, of photos and swatches for y’all!)
So I told her to fit a set of fake nails and give them to me, and I would paint them 🙂 She said to surprise her, so I chose cherry blossoms as she lived in Japan last summer, and since has been in love with that country. A bonus, she can also keep these nails forever with careful removal =)

If you wanted to know how to say “I love you” in American Sign Language, this would be it. 🙂

This featured three Orly polishes, and two American Apparel polishes whose names I have forgotten, and they’re currently stashed far away from me. I’ll just edit this part later, lol. I used a tip of a pencil and the rounded part of a hair pin because at that moment everything had been packed away and I didn’t have my nail art stuff out. It was also my very first attempt at freehand art… yikes! It turned out okay, I hope?

Such long fake nails! I’m going to be surprised if she tells me she never poked herself in the eye with it. 😛

On Wednesdays We Wear Pink: Bubblegum!

I’ve had this idea just rolling around and idling in my brain for MONTHS. Months, I say. Torture? Yes. Very much.

Base: OPI Alpine Snow in Matte
Dots: Various pinks, I used about 7 different pinks, all cremes. However I can’t remember the name of them all. 😛

The dots were freehanded using dotting tools from Born Pretty. Here’s some spam, because I really like this manicure and I know you will too.

An interesting thing I noticed, the dots were very defined until I applied Seche Vite, which at that point they blurred and adopted this dreamy feel. Cool huh? 🙂

Pastel Hearts :)

I was inspired by Emerald Sparkled’s look, and created something similar.

Sorry for the crap photo quality, but this is the most color accurate photo I could get of Essie Turquoise & Caicos, a color that my camera insists is blue. But my Flip camera sees otherwise!

 

This is okay, but not spot on.

I painted on Essie Lapis of Luxury and Essie Turquoise & Caicos, skittle style first. Then I painted the other color on the base using a little paint brush. 🙂