Rose Glitter Nails

These nails were a happy accident born of my inability to stop layering on glitter!

I painted my base coated nails in one coat of Wild Rose.  I then painted my nails with one coat of Magical, one coat of Holo Pink, and one coat of All Purpled Out.  The top coat added extra shine and preserved the nails.

Fun with Curves Nails

I just bought Big Daddy and wanted to use its orange goodness on my nails so I came up with this design and some complimentary colors.  I think these nails came together perfectly.

I started with base coated nails that I painted with one coat of Big Daddy.  Once dry, I then painted white lines in Snow Me White to make the curves and also filled them in with Snow Me White so that the top colors would show true.  I then filled in the top curves with Unicorn and the bottom curves with Savage.   Here's where the trial and error comes in.  I then lined the curves with more Snow Me White but then my nails looked a lot like my dog's tennis ball :(  So I pulled out my old stand by Gold Coin and used it over the top of the white.  MUCH better!  I covered these nails with a protective top coat and there you go!

Week 14 of the Year of Polish Challenge: Glitter Stripe Nails

I did these nails last week and had to schedule them in advance to post today because OMG-I-have-3-papers-due-in-April!  Sorry if April's post appear to be sparse but I'll try to get in at least one post a week:)  Such is the life of a grad student!

Anyway, this week is Stripes and there is nothing I like better that seeing stripes on my nails.  The only way you can make stripes better is to add glitter. Lo and behold...

These nails started with a clear basecoat.  I then added one coat of Secret Admirer.  Next I applied a line of Blue Bash diagonally down my nail and filled in the rest of the nail with a thick coat of more Blue Bash.  I then filled in the next section with Traffic Stopper Copper.   Last I filled in the remaining section of my nails with Magenta Magic and used a topcoat to seal all that sparkle in!

 I know I've said it before but it bears repeating...Jordana Glitters are SO awesome.  Ok, ok...the Sephora glitters are cool too.  I am an equal opportunity glitter buyer but I "might" have a tiny addiction to sparkly polishes.  Tiny?!

Love how simple these nails were yet they have major wow factor.  I will say that the only reason I used copper glitter was because I somehow have not bought some chunky orange glitter polish.  Its on my list now but the copper is just as eye-catching.   Wear nails like these when you want them to be noticed!

Nail Mail and another Polish Haul

On my way home again from work, I decided to hit the discount beauty supply store again for some more $1-$2 polishes.  I was not disappointed! $26 dollars later, I had 16 new bottles of polish. 

When I got home, I had my Julep Maven box for this month waiting for me as well!

This month I went with It Girl because Niecy speaks to me and Penelope and Annette are perfect pastels for Spring!  On top of the polishes, Julep sent toe separators and chocolate eggs!  So glad I joined Julep!


I did get my polish fix for now but as most of you know from experience, it doesn't last long.  Can't wait to use some of these awesome holos, chromes, pastels, shimmers, glitters, and cremes!

Metallic Gradient Nails

I do love a bit of shiny polish plus I've be enamored with Orly's Space Cadet since I bought it a few months ago so these nails just sort of happened from playing around with metallic polishes and a small nail art brush!

 After painting two coats of Space Cadet, I painted thick Metallic Aqua lines at different points across each nail.  I used a small nail art brush to smear the Aqua lines and make them whispy.  I then added Ivanka on both sides of the Aqua lines with a nail art brush and blended them in. 

Week 13 of the Year of Polish Challenge: Purple Holo Ruffian

I am so glad that I chose to do the Year of Polish Challenge because its really encouraging me to try new designs and techniques.  This week's challenge is Ruffian manicures.  Of course, I went with my two favorite polish colors...purple and grey!

Love the Holo polish on top:) 

How do I love thee...

I just wanted to take a little time out to say hello and, more importantly, thank you to my small group of followers!  I love knowing that someone out there is reading these little, zen moments of polish expression. 

I will be doing a giveaway again soon to celebrate 100 followers so tell me what YOU would like a chance to win.  Polish collections? Specialty polishes?  Indie Polishes? Nail art? Nail Art Supplies?  Image plates?  I'm open to anything nail related!

Also, tell me what you would like to see in the nail art!  Sound off in comments.

Remember...

Keep Calm
    and
Polish On!

XOXO,
Char

Couldn't Resist: Hunger Games Flame Nails

A friend and I are heading to see the Hunger Games tomorrow night so my nails MUST match the theme of the night!   I've been seeing all kinds of flame nails but I wanted to try the waterless marbling technique to make the flames.

 

So for these nails I prepped my nails with Pro FX Complete 3 base coat.  I then painted the outline of my nail except for the edge in a thick coat of Secret Admirer, followed by a thick arch of Ruby Slippers, and followed by a thick half moon and free edge painted with Metallic Yellow.  I can't stress how fast you need to do the thick layers to make these nails work.  Next, I used a tooth pic to drag the yellow and red polish into flame shapes, wiping off the end of toothpick between each pass.  Once the nails dried a bit, I used Cha-ching to accent the red p

art of the flames and filled the middle of the gold part of the flame with Hue to simulate the light almost white inner part of a real flame.   These nails are really worth the work and drying time so be sure to cover them with topcoat!  My other set of nails will be painted with one coat of Secret Admirer and sport the words "May the-Odds Be- Ever in-Your Favor!" and "12"on my thumb!

Happy movie watching this weekend, lovelies!

First Day of Spring means Bluebonnet Nails!

One of my fondest memories of my grandmother that recently died was when I was very young.  My grandmother would take my sister and I on walks in the fields in front of their home in Texas during the spring.  My sister and I would pick handfuls of wildflowers including Indian paintbrushes and bluebonnets.  Yes, yes, I know that bluebonnets are the state flower however, try to reason with a five year old!  We'd bring them back to the house and put all the flowers in mason jars and drinking glasses.  My grandmother was an avid gardener and always had rose bushes and ivy growing.  She loved teaching my sister and I about growing things. Anyway...I have been seeing friends and family post bluebonnet pictures on Facebook and got a little nostalgic so I decided to paint some Bluebonnet nails.  Major plus is that Spring is upon us! 

The first thing I did was to search online for some bluebonnet paintings and found Niki Gulley.  Her Texas wildflower paintings are sooo gorgeous that I modeled my wildflowers after hers!

Next, I had to test out my techniques.  When you do elaborate nails with layered backgrounds you do not want to experiment on your nails.  I practice my designs on dollar store note cards.

You get the idea.  Luckily, most of my nails art tends to turn out better than the test but these look pretty good.  One thing I knew to avoid was the "grape clusters" look when doing this on my nails.  The learning is all in the test!

Then I tried the design out on my nails. The first is with a lamp light and no flash and the second is with flash.

So how did I do these nails? Very carefully!  I started with base coated nails and did one thin coat of Metallic Yellow.  I then sponged on random spots of Snow Me White.  Next I filled in some of the white background with sponging in Unicorn and Venus.  Once the background dried, I sponged on a thin green haze at the tip of each nail in San Francisco.  Using a nail art brush I made bluebonnets with dots of Metallic Sapphire.  I then filled in the middle of each bluebonnet with small dots of Rain Check.  Using a smaller nail art brush, I made the bluebonnet tops with dashes of Snow Me White and added dots to each bonnet.  For the Indian Paintbrush, I made ovals in Thimbleberry and accented the petals with more dashes of Snow Me White.  I used more San Francisco to add stems and leaves to the paintbrushes and highlighted the leaves with the lighter green Olympia.  To protect my art, I painted over each nail with a top coat.  I have to say that these are some of my favorite nails to date.  For my Texas peeps, keep on posting the glorious spring wildflowers.  With all the rain Texas just got, there should be tons of bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes to take in!

What do you think?

Week 12 of the Year of Polish Challenge: Pastel Skittle Manicure

I am excited that the Year of Polish Challenge forces me to sit down and do all of the manicure I have on my extensive list to try!  This week's challenge is a Skittle Manicure.  I love all the pastel skittle manicures out there so I did one of my own.