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!

 

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!