Metallic Leopard Ruffian Nails

 My first ruffian mani and I couldn't resist combining Space Cadet and Austin-tatious Turquoise.  On top of the ruffian I added asymmetrical patterns of free-handed leopard prints on each nail. 

Jordana Glitter Half Moon Manicure

 I had a nails chalk full of Blue Bash polish and thought I could add something to it. 

 For these nails I started with two coats of Space Cadet and three coats of Blue Bash on each nail.  Next, I applied a page hole reinforcer to each nail and applied two coats of Sequins.  Last, I used Metallic Yellow to carefully trace the half-moon shape. 

Loving the dueling glitters in these nails!

Jordana Blue Bash Nails

Finally got around to using Jordana's Blue Bash glitter on my nails.  I did two coats of Space Cadet and then add three layers of Blue Bash glitter polish.

50 Follower Giveaway!!!

So Nails, Actually has been up and running for about two and a half months and I am so glad that this blogging thing is working out so well.  I have over 100 comments in over 100 posts all about nail art!  Additionally, I've had 3500+ page views.  My husband makes fun of this obsession and some of my friends think I'm nutty but nail art has really become a passion for me.  I am so glad I'm able to share, learn, inspire/receive inspiration, and grow as a nail artist.  In addition, with grad school, I need something besides school and work to consume me.

In honor of hitting 50 (+3) Followers, I'm giving away this nifty, Ulta Lust in Lace set.  I actually bought it for myself because I'm a sucker for dark polish with sparkle but as I buy polish ALL the time now, I am rapidly running out of room and thus, you get the spoils of my polish shopping addiction.

The polish names for the set are:
 Let Your Garter Down--dark base with deep blue shimmer
Underneath It All--dark base with golden shimmer
Let It Slip--dark base with green shimmer
Of Corset Is!--dark base with reddish shimmer
Topcoat

Rules:

• You must be 18 years old or older
• You must live in the United States or Canada.  I will also accept entries from those currently living U.S Military bases outside of the U.S.
• You must respond to the winning notification email within 48 hours or your forfeit your prize to the next follower.
• You must be a Nails, Actually GFC follower

Good luck Lovelies!  This giveaway runs from today, Monday, February 6th to Monday, February 20th at 12:01am. 

Rainbow Drip Nails

I get a lot of my inspiration from art and graphics on the web.  Not long ago I came across the following free image from flashcoo.com:

I thought nails like these would be interesting and tried them out last night.

To get these nails, I started with base coated nails and applied two coats of Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl on each nail.  Next, using the standard ROY G BIV color sequence, I drew drip patterns and drips of red and orange on my thumb nail, orange and yellow on my index finger nail, yellow and green on my middle finger nail, green and blue on my ring finger nail, and blue and dark purple on pinkie finger nail.  I made sure to overlap the lines and drips.

Overall, I am very pleased with these nails and I think they would be perfect for Pride week or just some girly color.  Pastels in a non-ROYGBIV sequence would also be great!

Week 6 of the Year of Polish Challenge: Girly Half Moon Manicure with Zoya Polishes

I love how crazy feminine and sparkly these nails are!

 

To do these, paint on two coats of Golden-I and make sure you let them dry.  Next, using page hole reinforcers, create the half moon effect by placing the circle sticker over the top part of the nail.  Next, I painted the rest of the exposed nail with Mimi and on my ring finger, Allegra.  Last, I used Twisted to add some fleck sparkle to the nail.  

A Rare Swatch Fest

With the latest arrival of my Deborah Lippman glitters and my Julep Maven Box I thought I'd do a quick swatch of each polish!

I'm not a huge fan of swatches because  there are plenty of polish blogs out there that only do swatches of polishes.  I prefer to focus on how I use polish in my nail art but never the less, Deborah Lippman glitter polishes and Julep polishes deserve a good swatch now and then.

My camera does not do these polishes justice but oh well!

Hope you like them!

Pop Tribal Nails

I've been wanting to try tribal and I finally have a small enough nail art brush to do some!

I did these just playing around so there really is no rhyme or reason to them, just random designs that repeat on each nails.  I did include some of my current favorite colors: metallic blue, the glittery fuchsia color of Flying Dragon, and the pop of green in Leah.  Last, I had to try out my new Happy Birthday Glitter from Deborah Lippman so that is on the ring finger nail. 

Today is Awesome! Nail Mail!!

The nail gods smiled upon me today as my Deborah Lippmann and Julep Maven orders arrived at the same time.

If you are a glitter fiend like me, you would have jumped at the chance to get two of Deborah Lippman's awesome glitters, Across the Universe and Happy Birthday for 50% off.  Deborah put these two glitters and one other on sale for one day only for a segment on GMA!  I happened to catch her tweet about it and voila! magic happened!

I can tell you that w/o the sale I would never have ponied up the $18 per bottle that the DL polishes, especially these two glittters, sell for so I feel pretty fortunate to have caught the one day sale!

Next, as always, I enjoy the delight that is my Julep Maven box.

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you--that is a nicely sized piece of chocolate in my Julep Box!  I tried some and it was sooo good!  The two polishes I received were Glenn, a sparkly red polish, and Oscar, gold glitter.  I also got some great smelling roll-on cuticle oil.  Last, Jane's tip on my Julep postcard is one EVERY glitter fiend must practice.  She says to get glitter off nails, "saturate a cotton pad with polish remover and then press the pad on the nail for a few seconds before wiping the polish off."  This is exactly what I do.  My tip to add to this is...if your regular polish remover still doesn't work well, you probably should use 100% acetone instead.  This is especially true if you do glitter layers.  Be sure to moisturize your hands prior to glitter removal because leaving remover on your skin for long can and will dry out those cuticles.   Better yet, use your new Julep Roll-on Cuticle Oil to protect cuticles from harsh removers!

Love days like this where I increase my polish stash with polishes on my wish list and polishes that I love and can't wait to use! 

Betsey Johnson Inspired Roses Nails

I love Betsey Johnson, as seen by Betsey Johnson Leopard and Roses Nails and Betsey Johnson State Fair Print Nails!  Her prints are so bright and cool.  Betsey frequently does rose prints with a velvet burnout feel and that is what these nails are inspired by.

First, I painted my nails with two coats of Cream Pink over a base coat. 

Next, I did random uneven splotches of Planks A Lot with a nail art brush leaving room for the other color of roses.

I, then did more random, uneven splotches of Why Not with a nail art brush in the leftover room on each nail.

I used Metallic Purple and Metallic Aqua polishes to accent the blue and purple roses.  I then used Limestone and Metallic Green to make leaves. 

I topped my nails off with the very important, protective top coat from Pro FX Complete 3. 

I love pattern nails but I'm going to start changing them up so that every nail, while contributing to the pattern theme, is different from the other.  These nails are super cute and bright and have my favorite colors in them.   I'm loving how they turned out!