Conversation Hearts Nails

Happy Valentine's Day! I'm a sappy romantic so I love the holiday. I love celebrating love; not just romantic love. I bought a gift for my bestie, too, because I love her to bits. 

For my Valentine's Day nails, I thought I'd recreate the most iconic V-Day candy. Conversation hearts! I can't be the only person who thinks that they're disgusting, though, right?

Textured Nails with Spiderweb Accent

I can't do Halloween manicures without using some of my Halloween themed nail polishes, right? One of those polishes is China Glaze But of Corpse (don't we all just love those pun nail polish names?). I really love this one and decided to do a very very simple design with it.

Matte Gradient with Flakies!

I was organizing my polishes a bit today (I have them sorted by brand, usually, but they always get disorganized over time.) and I came across Sally Hansen Slick Slate. I haven't used it in ages but I don't know why because I love it so much! It was just sitting there next to Sally Hansen Pat on the Black and I thought, "Wouldn't those just make a lovely gradient?"

Litte Miss Von Schweetz

The other day, I re-watched Wreck it Ralph. Today, I was looking for something to watch and there it was. Instead of looking harder and deciding on something else, I just watched it again. I tell you, every time I watch that movie, I love it more and more. And my favorite character has to be Vanellope Von Schweetz. She's so fun and spunky and SHE'S COVERED IN CANDY!!! So, when the movie started I decided to do some nail art inspired by Vanellope. While I watched the movie, I kept an eye out for Vanellope inspirations. By the time the movie ended, I knew exactly what I was going to do.

There's Baloney in Our Slacks!

It's been quite some time since my last post but it's with good reason. I've been preparing for a visit from my family from Tennessee. It's been about a year and a half since I've seen them and I was SOOO excited. Also maybe a little anxious because with hubby and myself plus them and their guest, there are six of us in our little three bedroom house. Luckily, my awesome mother-in-law offered up two beds in her house (she lives right down the street) so everyone has a comfortable place to sleep. During the day, though, everyone hangs out and eats here. So, needless to say, things have been a little hectic. 

But, thanks to the Germany/Algeria game today, everyone's attention was occupied and I had time to do a little nail art! Today's design is based on one of my favorite cartoons from the 90s! Can you recognize it?

A Little Dry Marble

I don't know why, but I love marbled nails. That includes all nail marbling techniques. Maybe it has something to do with the finishes. Each technique has such a unique look to it. Or maybe it's the fact that you can use everyday, household objects to achieve them.
One of the simplest to do is dry marbling. Other than nail polish, all you need is a needle or pin of some sort!

              

Just a Quickie: Matte Splatter

Base: Sinful Colors Boogie Nights
Splatters: Sally Hansen White On/Sally Hansen Black Out
Glitter: China Glaze Fairy Dust
Top Coat: China Glaze Matte Magic

Matte Splatter

I was looking through some of my old nail art photos the other day. I realized that I love the way splatter nails look but I rarely do them anymore. So, I thought I'd do one in some nice bright colors.

Christmas Post #9 - Matte & Glitter

 I've been loving the combination of glitter and matte top coats these days so I wanted to do a Christmas design based on that. I picked my favorite Christmas-y polishes and went to town!


Also, I'm playing around with hand posing and photography a bit. So, for the next week or so, my photos might be all over the place. Sorry!

Christmas Post #8 - Water Marble

It's been a long time since I've done a water marbled manicure. I don't know why because I love doing them. I always get frustrated and angry but, when it's done, I always love it. 

I've also recently rediscovered my love for a matte finish manicure. It's amazing how much a matte top coat can change a nail color. But throw a matte top coat over some glitter and you can make amazing things happen.

Christmas Post #5 - Presents

I am very fifty-fifty on this manicure. I was really happy with it at first. I had a very specific idea in mind and it did not go where I wanted. Still...

Christmas Post #4 - Santa!

When planning my Christmas designs, I knew right from the start that I had to do a design inspired by the big man himself; Santa Claus! You can't forget about the jolly old fat man and his fabulous red suit. He brings joy to millions and he's instantly recognizable. Best of all, his suit is SO SIMPLE to recreate as nail art!

Backed Up Halloween

I have been such a bad blogger this month! Ugh! I have been so busy. I have been doing my nails, though, and today I have three Halloween manicures to show you!

Sugar Spun

One nail art technique that I've always been interested in is sugar spun nails. Every time I came across a picture of them, I would want to do them but, when it came time, I never followed through. I'm guessing it had something to do with the cleanup afterwards. Regardless, today I decided to give it a shot.

Are Blue Serious?

Thursdays are blue shirt days at work and, as is the theme this week, my manicure matched! 

The water marble is done in OPI Blue My Mind and Sally Hansen White On. Over that, I have a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust. Because I want to put it on EVERYTHING! Lastly, I used China Glaze Matte Magic and, let me tell you, this is definitely the best manicure of the week. The water marbling turned out near perfect and Fairy Dust masked any imperfections pretty well. 
 

What Do You Pink?

"On Wednesdays, we wear pink." I love that movie! So, naturally, when deciding what color shirts to wear on which days of the week, we decided on pink for Wednesdays. Going along with my shirt-nails matching theme this week, my nails were also pink.

The pink is Sally Hansen Twisted Pink. I used that as my base color and taped half of my nail off, diagonally, with Scotch tape. I stamped a chevron design in Art Club White from BM-201 and removed the tape. Then, on the unstamped half, I used China Glaze Matte Magic. Down the edge of the stamped design, I made a glittery border using Art Club Fine Silver. 

This is my favorite manicure of the week, so far. 

Just a quickie - Matte

I was in the mood to play with my matte top coat today so that's exactly what I did.

 

I used Sally Hansen Snappy Sorbet and Slick Slate. I topped them both with China Glaze Matte Magic. Then I used two different sized dotting tools to make random dots. The end. I've always loved this type of manicure. Quick, simple, and pretty!

Matte/Glossy Pastel

It's late and I'm super sleepy so this will be another short post. Sorry.

This is Julep Robin topped with Sally Hansen Snow Globe. I used China Glaze Matte Magic on half and top coat on the other. The glitters in Snow Globe look really great with a matte finish.

Catching up

I know, I know, it's been way too long since my last post. I'm making up for it today, though. I have eight manicures to share with you. So this is going to be a long and picture heavy post. Let's do this.

For this, I used Sally Hansen Blue Me Away on every nail except my ring finger. For those, I used Kiss Nail Dress strips in Gown. I love these. They are super easy to apply. Just cut them to fit your nail, stick them on, and file off the excess. I was surprised at how well these stayed on. When I wanted to remove them, they peeled right off with no residue. 

 

This is Wet n Wild Pink-finity. With different sized dotting tools, I used Wet n Wild Black Creme, OPI Alpine Snow, and Sally Hansen Celeb City.

For this, I started with OPI Planks a Lot. I taped off stripes with striping tape and then used Cult Nails Time Traveler.

I wanted to try the "glue trick" for glitter nail polish. I painted a coat of glue on my ring finger and, while that dried, I did the rest of my nails. My pinky is OPI A Roll in the Hague. Middle finger is a gradient of ARitH and OPI That's Berry Daring. I used TBD on my index finger. On my thumb, I started with Sally Hansen Celeb City. I taped off different sized stripes using scotch tape and striping tape. For the stripes, I used both ARitH and TBD. Lastly, I used three coats of OPI Rainbow Connection. I love the way this turned out. Also, the "glue trick" works like a charm. When I was done wearing this manicure, the glitter peeled off without leaving a trace. Amazing.

This is OPI It's My Year with stamping done in Sally Hansen Silver Sweep. Sorry, I don't remember which Bundle Monster plate I used. I topped it all off with NYC Matte Me Crazy.

These are Heather's nails. She wanted a Union Jack accent nail. We started with a base of Cult Nails Time Traveler. On her ring fingers, I used Art Deco nail art polish in white and OPI Danke-shiny Red.

This is a cling wrap manicure I did using two Love & Beauty polishes. I borrowed them from Heather and she's had them so long that the names have worn off of the labels. I started with the blue color. It's a pretty blue with a gold shimmer. I let that dry and used the purple, I think It's called Dark Purple. I used cling wrap to get the marbled effect. I posted the picture of the polishes I used since I don't know the names.

I've finally gotten my water spotting technique down! I started with a gradient using OPI A Roll in the Hague and Funky Fingers Power Play. For the water Spotting, I used NYC French White Tip. 

Well, that's it! Phew! I hope you enjoyed this epic post. See you soon!

 

Some more matte

I'm still in the midst of my dark colors phase, I grabbed OPI Live and Let Die and knew I HAD to use it. I painted my nails with it and that's as far as I got for a few hours. I had no idea what I wanted to do next. So, I cooked dinner and cleaned the kitchen. Then, I still didn't know what to do so I took the easy way out. Stamping. Ha ha. I mixed it up a bit, though, and stamped using matte polish.

I picked a very pretty floral pattern from BM-225. This mani turned out very pretty. I like it. It's a little too subtle from a distance so I don't know if I'll do this again. Hopefully, I will be more inspired tomorrow.