Easter Marble

Since I already did my super Eastery design yesterday, I thought I'd just do something fun with some spring colors. I decided on a quick cling wrap marble.

I used Funky Fingers Cyclone Sky for the base color. I let that dry thoroughly and then added OPI Suzi and the Seven Dusseldorfs. I love these colors together. The pastel swirled with the jewel toned purple. It's light without being TOO airy. Also, I love cling wrap marbling because, if you take up too much or not enough of the second color, you can always dab more color on. 

By the way, don't mind my mishapen index finger nail. I had a nasty break and I just refuse to chop my nails down that short. So, I'll just deal with uneven nails.

Springy bunnies

I wanted to do something super sparkly and springy with my nails today. Other than that, all I knew was that I wanted bunnies. 

I started with NYC Skyline Blue, topped that with a couple coats of Wet n Wild Hannah Pinktana, and then Julep Camille. For the bunny, I used NYC French White Tip, Art Club Black, and Wet n Wild Candy-licious. My camera can't properly capture how sparkly this manicure really is. I love it!
 

Easter Eggs!

The only manicure I have to share tonight is the one I did for Heather. I suggested something along the lines of Easter eggs and she was completely on board. We brainstormed for a while on color choices and, after about an hour, finally made our decisions.

For the base, I did a gradient with Essie Bikini So Teeny and Wet n Wild Candy-licious. The accent colors are (from top to bottom) Art Club Malibu, Art Club White, Art Club Venice, and Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet. On her thumb there's some OPI Planks a Lot in between the Venice and Mint Sorbet.

I think this is the most intricate design Heather has let me use on her nails. Usually, she prefers simpler nails. Hopefully this means that there will be a lot more of these types of manicures in her future. :)

Springtime!

I got a yellow polish from Julep in their spring mystery box and I've been scared to use it. Strange, I know. Something about yellow. It's never played well against my skintone. But this polish, Blake, is such a soft, pale yellow that I figured it was worth a shot. I am so glad I decided to use it.

It's such a pretty buttery yellow. I love it. I couldn't leave it alone so I grabbed my stamping plates and Art Club Malibu. I used an all-over design from BM-203. I love this look. It's very springy and Eastery.

Orange party!

I was looking through my stash today and thought I should do something with orange. It's my favorite color and I haven't done an orange manicure in a little while. I instantly picked up Zoya Tanzy. It's gorgeous! I wanted to pair it with another color, though, so I also grabbed OPI A Roll in the Hague.

It's orange. It's bright. It's sparkly. What more could a girl ask for?

Back on schedule

So, I hurt my right wrist at work yesterday and, since I had to do everything left-handed (Not easy, by the way.), my nails took quite a beating. I had three breaks and had to cut them down again. So, back to nubs. On the bright side, cutting them down took off more of the damage that needed to go. So, my nails are almost completely healthy. Yay!

So, today's manicure. I let hubby chose the color today. He picked one of my new Julep polishes. Joan.

This is such a pretty and classic looking color. I was going to add onto this but, the more I looked at it, the more I liked it all on its own.

On another note, I should be (hopefully) posting on a more regular basis. Woo hoo!

Last bit of catch up

It has been nearly a week since my last post but, after today, I should be posting almost daily again.

I have several manicures to show you today.

For this manicure, I only used two nail polishes. Wet n Wild Candy-licious and Wet n Wild Black Creme. Other than those polishes some dotting tools and striping tape, the only thing I used was some loose black glitter on my ring finger.

This is Julep Marion as a base color and stamping from BM-212 in Art Club Venice. The design looks a little bit like peacock feathers which works well with the teal and pink/purple metallic.

This is Julep Stefani topped with Butter London Knackered. Knackered is a fantastic duochrome that shifts between purpleish and greenish/teal shades. It's also loaded with holographic shimmer. I tried to capture the color shift, but my camera didn't agree with me. I did get a lot of the holo, though. This color is amazing.

For Trisha, we were inspired by a shirt she was wearing (which I should have taken a picture of). We started with Butter London Trustafarian and painted on a small floral design in OPI Live and Let Die.

Heather, who has been into bright and neon colors lately, wanted Funky Fingers Power Play with Sinful Colors Star Dust as an accent.

For this water spotting, I started with Julep Niecy and topped it with Julep Camille. Camille was the mystery color in Julep's spring mystery box. The spotting is done in Sally Hansen Blue Me Away.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I had a vision in my head for this manicure. I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like. I had the colors picked out and was so excited to make it a reality.

 

 Meh. I wasn't thrilled. It's pretty, don't get me wrong. Oddly enough, I think I like it better in photographs than in real life. The dark green is OPI Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow. The shamrocks I just pained on in Color Club Ho Ho Holly. The accent nail is Butter London The Full Monty. I will say this, though; I am not usually a fan of gold. At all. I've never thought it looked flattering against my skin. When I saw The Full Monty, it looked like a soft gold foil with a lot of silver shimmer. I figured I'd give it a shot. I love it. It's such a soft shade of gold and I think it looks fantastic. That's about all I like about this manicure. So, I did a new one. :)

This, I love! I started with Butter London Trustafarian. This is a gorgeous sage green holographic. The tips and the shamrock are Ho Ho Holly again. This looks way way way better, at least in my mind. :) Happy St. Paddy's Day, everyone!

 

Manicures and Movies

Once again, it's been a while since my last post. So, let's get this under way.

 

I started this manicure knowing that I wanted to play with striping tape and I wanted to do some neon work. I used a couple coats of NYC French White. I dug through my polishes and could only find four colors that I thought would work together. I used Sally Hansen Blue Me Away (thumb), Art Club Neon Green (index finger), Art Club Daytona (middle finger), and Funky Fingers Power Play (pinky). On my ring finger, I used all four colors. I sponged the colors on all of my nails to soften the colors a bit. I love the way this looks. Hubby loved it, too. <3

Friday night was Disney Movie night with the ladies so, of course, I have their manicures to share.

Heather had an exact manicure in mind. I wish I had the link so that I could show you the inspiration photo. We didn't change a thing except for the color choice. She wanted neons. 

The base is NYC French White Tip. The colors are almost identical to my manicure. Art Club Neon Green and Daytona, Sally Hansen Blue Me Away and Fuchsia Power. She was really happy with the results and so am I. It has a little bit of a tribal feel to it.

For Trisha, we had originally started in a whole different direction. We were going to so something reminiscent of sunshine and we got about halfway through when things went awry. We scrapped the idea and, by that point, it was getting late so we had to do something quick and simple. This is NYC Manhattan with Sally Hansen Silver Sweep stamped from BM-213 for the accent. I'm so glad we ended up doing this. Manhattan really works for Trisha's skin tone and it looks so classy on her. It's a color she usually wouldn't have chosen but it looks great!

 

Making up for lost time...

I've got four manicures to show you today. Sorry, again, for the gaps between posts. Hopefully, these designs will make up for it a little.

Essie Bikini So Teeny. I love this shade of blue. It's lovely for spring/summer. The glitter gradient is Art Club Fine Silver.

 

Something simple for this manicure. OPI Berlin There Done That with NYC Manhattan for the tips. I thought this design with this color combination was very chic.

Splatter! I love doing splatter nails. They're so easy and fun (although messy) and the look is so unique. The base color is Funky Fingers Cyclone Sky. The splatter colors are Sally Hansen Snappy Sorbet and OPI Planks a Lot.

 

This is my favorite of the four. OPI Berlin There Done That for the base. I used three sizes of dotting tools and Sally Hansen Snappy Sorbet, NYC Skyline Blue, and NYC French White Tip for the dots.

 

Julep Maven

Yesterday, I got my first Julep Maven box and I am so impressed. I received my box quickly, it was beautifully packaged, and the polishes I got are just lovely. If you aren't familiar with Julep Maven, here's the deal. You pay $20 a month and receive a customized (based on your "style profile") box containing three full sized products. Depending on your "style profile" you get either two polishes and another product or, as in my case, three polishes.

Yay! It's everything fantastic? From top to bottom the polishes are called Rebel, Joan, and Marion. I used Rebel; it's a silver holographic. The holo effect isn't very strong, but it's still so pretty.

Aaahhh!! It's so pretty! The stamping is Art Club black from BM-223. :) <3

In other news, here's the other manicure I wore yesterday.

This is Wet n Wild I Red a Good Book, topped with Sally Hansen Supernova, Sally Hansen Snow Globe, and another layer of Supernova. Supernova is a clear base with blue and purple micro glitters. Snow Globe is a clear base with iridescent micro and large hex glitters. My flash totally made the Snow Globe glitters disappear. Luckily, the sun actually came out for an hour or so yesterday!

Pretty pretty glittery goodness! Yay!

Dots, Bees, and Sparkle

Last night was movies and manicures night, again. Then, this morning, I did my mother-in-law's nails.

This is Heather's manicure. She picked Butter London Trout Pout as her base. The polka dots are Zoya Wednesday. This color combination is fabulous and Trout Pout looks lovely against her skin.

 

These are Trisha's nails. I love these! Trisha got her mother this adorable bumble bee iPod case for her birthday. She wanted a bumble bee manicure, as well. I started with NYC Skyline Blue and made clouds using a dotting tool and Art Club white. The bee is in Sally Hansen Lightning, Art Club black and Art Club fine silver. This looks adorable on her.

Finally, mom-in-law. If it's Karen, it has to be purple. We used Sally Hansen Gem Crush Be-Jeweled. The stamping is done in Art Club white with a design from BM-224. Pretty, sparkly, purple nails!

On the brighter side...

First I had my dark polish kick. Well, last weekend I went on a nail polish buying binge and I forced myself to buy lots of lighter and brighter polishes. YAY! New polish (in any color) is exciting! These are a few manicures using some of my newer colors.

This is Zoya Tanzy. I love love love love love love love love love this color!!! I am a huge fan of the color orange so this color was made for me. Anyway, the stamping was done in Art Club white with a design from BM-223. <3

I think water marble is one of my favorite nail art techniques. If I have a lot of time on my hands and want something intricate, this is what I go for. For this I started with a base coat of NYC French White Tip. The marbling is done with Zoya Kelly, Essie Wicked and OPI Suzi and the Seven Dusseldorfs. Afterwards,I accented with Art Club Fine Silver. Yay, pretty!

After doing something as intricate and time consuming as a water marble, I'm usually in the mood for something simple. I used Funky Fingers Power Play for the base, taped half off, and used Sinful Colors Star Dust on the other half. Star Dust is so sparkly and amazing. A purple jelly base loaded with fine purple glitter and fuschia medium glitter. It's perfect. I love it!
 

More catching up

I've been really bad about posting daily. So, here are the manicures I've been wearing for the past few days.

This is my first attempt at a watercolor manicure. I'm not too thrilled with the way this one turned out. It looked a little better on my nails but I think the color selection was just wrong. I started with OPI Alpine Snow. For the watercolors I used Zoya Wednesday, Funky Fingers Venom and Funky Fingers Power Play. I think, instead of colors in the same family, I should use colors that pop against each other.

This one, I love! This is OPI Berlin There Done That with NYC Skyline Blue for the polka dots. The colors look fantastic against each other. I love love love this one!

This was my birthday manicure. I used my first Butter London color, Trout Pout, for this one. I love it! It's such a pretty salmon/cantaloupe shade. For the polka dots, I used OPI Alpine Snow. The stripes and other white details are Color Club Art Club nail art in white. The cupcake bottom is OPI Berlin There Done That and the "cherry" is OPI Danke-shiny Red. For the "sprinkles," I dabbed on a little OPI Rainbow Connection. Yay! Happy Birthday to me!