Coming Up Roses!

I love Pinterest!  I have a board where I pin all of the fantastic mani's I admire called "Must-Do Mani's", and I hoard tons of ideas there...sometimes I even do a mani based on one.  Like last night!

I really have a hard time doing my nails for work.  I have to be professional, but I can't stand just plain nails.  Thus my dilemma.  So, THIS MANI by Pshiiit! seemed to be just the answer.  Plain pink, but with a cute and artsy rose accent nail.  Loved it!

Here's my version:

I used Zoya "Lara" for the main pink, and "Sweet" and "Purity" for accents on the rose over a background of "Raven".  The leaves were NOPI "Lime Light" and Sinful Colors "Innocent".  All topped with Seche Vite.

I need to invest in some nail art brushes.  I currently use some cheapo ones I got at Walmart, and it's really hard to control where the polish goes.  Plus, the bristles get hard and don't brush the polish on nicely.  But I think this came out pretty cute anyway!!! :-)

More Magic from Ruby Wing

So the warm weekends scream "outside" to me.  And I had so much fun with my Ruby Wing mani from last week, that I just had to do another.  And I wanted some nail art too!

Here's "Moon Stone" with a little daisy action:

No Sun:

 A lovely pale sky blue.  Perfect for daisies!

In the Sun:

Don't know why my skin color is so different, but check out that polish change!  What a perfect dark lavender!  I can't decide which I like better!

I LOVE MAGIC!! :-)

Sakura Matsuri

I don't know why it is so hard for me to remember "Sakura Matsuri".  As in the gorgeous polish collection recently re-released by the awesome Rainbow Honey.  I have recently bought a bunch of Rainbow Honeys, and you should too!

So one of my recent acquisitions is the "Sakura Matsuri" namesake.  It's so super-cute and full of girly sparkles and flowers!!  

First, I polished on my untried Zoya "Skylar", and used Zoya "Lotus" for an accent.

Sooo gorgeous!!  This is 2 smooth coats of each.  The shimmer in these is amazing in real life!  Zoya is my fave polish ever!!

Then I smothered it in 1 1/2 coats of "Sakura Matsuri".  1/2 just because I wanted 2 flowers on each nail, and 3 on the thumbs.  The flowers came out very easily, though, so minimal fishing was required:

You don't need me to tell you how beauteous this is!  I mean, you DO have eyeballs! ;-)

Rainbow Honey sells their fantastical polishes for $10 full size and $5 minis.  They are absolutely worth every single penny!!  They arrive in professional super-cute packaging, and the 2 I've used so far have literally been 1-coaters (click HERE for Koi Pond).  Visit the SHOP now!!! 

BTW, I used the Elmer's glue basecoat for this.  2 days later, I popped the nail polish right off with no damage to my nail.  I'm ecstatic with this painless glitter removal technique!! :-)

Roses & Dots Inspired by Robin Moses

I got some cool new nail art brushes yesterday, and I've been itching to try them.  And I realzed that my nails have become so long that they are getting in the way and annoying me, and I'm having to be extra-careful to make sure I don't rip/snag/break them.  So  I took off the super-blingy colorful multi-Zoya mani, and decided on finding a nail art design.  

I browsed through my "Must-Do-Mani's" Board on Pinterest, and THIS ONE by Robin Moses caught my eye.  It's black & red & very cute!  My manicure is not just "inspired" by this video, it is a dead-on copy ;-)

I used Essie "Sold Out Show" for the base, which has a nice hint of iridescence.  The black is China Glaze "Liquid Leather", and the reds are Zoya "Diana" and "America".  I used a striper brush, a small art brush & a dotting tool to make the design.

My french tip lines need more practice, but I AM getting better! ;-)  I might need to just stick to my usual straight-line french tip, though.  But I really like my accent nail, and next time I'll make it my main design, with the french tip as the accent.

Robin Moses has like a gazillion designs and videos on YouTube, so grab a nice beverage and carve out some time to go through them and get inspired! :-)

Fimo Flowers!

So after the glittery goodness that was Koi Pond, I was wanting a non-glitter mani next (i.e. I didn't want to go through the ordeal of removing glitter polish).  So I rummaged around my nail art box to see what I had not yet tried.

A while ago, I had found an awesome deal on fimo canes, so I had those sitting in there, and I had picked up a razor blade at the Dollar Tree around the same time, so I was set to go.  So I picked out some flower canes, and got some polish to match.

I did a water marble, sliced the canes, and stuck them on my nails with nail glue.

I think they came out pretty cute!  

They even matched the golf shirt I wore that day.  

Note to self:  fimo cane flower petals chip off whilst playing golf :-(

Deborah Lippmann "Dancing in the Sheets" Stamped!

When I started following polish pages, I kept hearing about this Deborah Lippmann who made polishes for celebs.  Sounded interesting, but when I saw the $18 price tag, my interest waned pretty quickly.

Until I found out that HSN (yes, Home Shopping Network) carries Deborah Lippmann polishes.  And sometimes, they go on clearance for $10 for a 2-pack of full-sized polishes!!  $5 for a well-touted polish??  Oh, yeah!!

So I've been collecting them, but I haven't tried them out yet!!  So I busted out a lovely dark purple with blu-ish shimmer called "Dancing In the Sheets".  It was lovely enough, but I also wanted to try out my new Bundle Monster 2012 plates.  So I grabbed Pure Ice "Love", BM Plate #318, and here's what I got:

 No flash:

At the beach in the sun:

So the DL was nice after 2 coats, but some nails needed 3 for full opacity.  The shimmer was present, but not as pronounced on the nail as in the bottle.  

I loved my BM stamp, but I need more practice to get the placing the same for every nail.  Whatever, I still love me some hibiscus!  :-)

Overall, I don't think this was the best combo.  The light pink really didn't go with the dark polish.  And the all-over design covered up the pretty shimmer of the DL.  But you live & learn, right?  

Strawberry Toes & Flower Nails

This Saturday (yesterday), I actually had time to do my nails.  So I spent almost an hour soaking/scrubbing glitter off my toes & fingers, and then, coincidentally, decided to do a glitter-less mani & pedi.   ;-)

Here are my strawberry toes, and I think they came out soooo cute!  I made the leaves with a striper, and dotted the yellow seeds on with a pointy dotting tool.

I also had a really cool vision of a pastel flower mani in my head.

I was less than impressed with this, so I didn't even bother taking a proper "mani" pic...this is the only documentation of that total fail.

But, I do have a new mani on, and it also didn't come out the way I wanted it to.  So, I'll be re-doing that one too!  If at first you don't succeed...plus, it gives me a chance to try out a bunch of stuff! ;-)

Playing Catch-Up!

I feel so badly for neglecting my poor little blog!  But I have been very busy painting my nails, and spending waaay too much money on new nail polish that I can't fit into my current storage situation...guess it's time for a new storage situation ;-).

Anyways, here's a quick look at what I've been up to since my last post...

I entered this mani into the "Wedding Belles" contest hosted by Dazzle Dry Quick Dry Polish.  I used China Glaze "Dress Me Up", then stamped and painted pointed french tips with CG "White on White", then hand-painted roses with CG "Fifth Avenue" & Pure Ice "Love".  This is the first time I actually did a mani with a particular contest in mind.  I think they came out mah-velous, but the other entries are pretty awesome, so we'll see how I do...

Anyway, those didn't last long, cuz I wanted to use some of my newest Darling Diva Polish "Sugar and Spice".

This is the Pure Ice "Love" with a Pure Ice purple shatter (sorry, I'm too lazy to look it up right now), and of course the others are covered with Sugar & Spice.  I LOVE the butterflies in this polish!! And they were actually pretty easy to get on to my nail...I only had to go fishing for 2 nails.  2 nails even had multiple butterflies.  Anyway, this was a SUPER-girly mani, which, I guess, is appropriate for this polish :-)  BTW, I love her little saying on the bottle: "The Happiest Girls are the Prettiest Girls. Be Happy!"  AMEN, Sista!! 

My current mani is going to be removed as soon as I finish this post.  I painted Cult Nails "Iconic", and then topped it with Essie "Shine of the Times" flakies top coat.  Then, I took off to the Colorado River for a weekend of fun.

It was pretty in the sun, and reminded me of red dragon scales.  But, the River is not the place for a nice manicure, and this is how my nails look now:

Yup, I ripped my thumbnail off, and my ring finger is chipped.  And this is my "photo" hand!  And I was planning on entering a "Star Spangled" contest.  Grrrr.  Anyway, I've cut them all down, although not as short as that thumbnail.  Short nails make me want to do dark mani's >:-)

I've also hit Sally's, some blog sales, and Zoya's website lately, so now I have Orly's "Dark Shadows" collection, some more China Glaze "Hunger Games", 9 more Zoya's, another Lacquistry (woot-woot), and some other Indie's.  I also discovered Utopia's Polish on etsy, and she is my newest favorite indie!  Her glitters remind me of Lacquistry, so there you go! ;-)

OK, that catches you all up.  I'm not sure what I'm doing for my next mani, yet....

Zoya Girly Girl Mani!!

These are the next two mani's in Plasma Speedo's Plasma Plays in 21 Ways:  "#16 Wear a Pink" & "#17. Add Flowers to That Pink". 

Well, since I'm obviously in love with my new Zoya's, you should not be at all surprised about what I've got on my nails:

This is "Reagan" (dark pink) and "Shelby" (light pink) topped with Seche Vite.  This mani is actually 1 1/2 days old, and had gone through 10 hours of typing at work, and then a couple sinkfuls of dishes and kitchen duty, and the various other daily stuff we working moms do.  I didn't even paint the edges like I'm supposed to, and it's still gorgeous!  YAY for Zoya!

Ok, so then I had to add flowers.  But what kind?  Well, this whole challenge for me is about trying new things, so I figured no dotting tool flowers.  I've got cute rhinestones I've been wanting to use, but none of them seemed to do it for me, so I turned to my stamping plates.  I've got a Red Angel set, and a Shany set, and haven't really used them because I suck at stamping.  But I've seen such cute mani's all you other bloggers create, so I had to try!

This is an image from Red Angel plate 121 stamped with "Reagan" and China Glaze "White on White".  Even though there are some wonky spots, I love how this came out!  Very Hawaiian-y.  I had to double-stamp each nail since this wasn't a full-nail design.  I learned that I have to totally chillax when stamping, that I need to SLOW down, and NOT press so hard.  Taking my time prevents the horrible smearing and helps with placing the images where I want them.  After I figured that out, stamping was actually FUN!  Imagine that....

So, that's that!