Swirl Design with Nail Craze

Why yes!  That is nail art you see.  I haven't been big into nail art lately (or blogging at all actually) and especially with stamping.  It's not my forte, but I finally got my hands on a couple of Nail Craze plates and they make stamping so fun.

The design above is from the Nail Craze plate NC02.  It's the one with the unicorn and pegasus in case you don't know which one I'm talking about.  I have lots of other plates from different makers and this is by far the best one I've used.  The etches are just right so that the design lifts perfectly off the plate and onto the stamper with ease.  It transfers perfectly without any "bald spots" or lifting like I've gotten with many other plates.  The colors I used underneath are Color Club Blue-ming (mint), China Glaze Pool Party (pink), and Color Club Hydrangea Kiss (purple).  I just sponged them on individually if you wondered.  When I was dry I added one coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust and then the swirly stamp over that.  I absolutely love how it turned out and feel like it was the best way for me to ease back into nail art without too much effort.

I'm gonna try to keep this up so keep coming back.  Have a wonderful Sunday!  (:

Red Dog Designs Down With Love w/ Accent

Hi Everyone!  *waves*

I've really been loving this mani with a textured accent nail so much lately so I had to share it with you all.  I've been doing it in all kinds of different colors since I have, not all, but almost every mainstream textured polish out there.

First I used three coats of each Zoya Carter on my ring finger and China Glaze Creative Fantasy on the rest.  Carter is still my favorite textured polish out of all of them.  I just can't help it.

Once all three coats were dry I applied one coat of Red Dog Designs Down With Love.

*side note:  Does anyone else remember that movie Down With Love starring Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellweger?  I absolutely love that movie and used to own it but can't seem to find it after all of those moves.  Also Renee Zellweger is a fellow Texan and only grew up about 30 minutes from where I live now.*

I didn't need to fish out any of the glitters from DWL which is great.  They seem to just gravitate toward the brush so really I had to put some back.  My nails are too small to hold that many shaped glitters.  I hope you all enjoyed this mani as much as I did.  This is so fun in all color combinations so expect to see it again.  lol  Have a great night!

China Glaze Teal the Tide Turns

Tonight's post will be quick because I have a massive migraine.  Sorry.  It's the second polish I bought from the China Glaze Sea Goddess collection.

China Glaze Teal the Tide Turns is a textured teal-y turquoise-y color.  Yeah I said that.  The lines between the two are blurred for me when I see this one, but it's beautiful nonetheless.  It does dry pretty matte which makes the teal glitters show and shine even more.

Like it?  Love it?  Let me know in the comments below.

China Glaze Sand Dolla Make You Holla

So if you are familiar with my blog then you know how much I love textures.  You should also know how much I love white glitter polish.  Well lucky for me this polish is all of those things!

Here I used three coats of China Glaze Sand Dolla Make You Holla and OMG I love it.  It's right up my alley.  It's one of the two I picked up from the new Sea Goddess collection.  It reminds me a lot of Sally Hansen Sugar Fix except with teal, red/pink, and silver glitter.  They both dry semi-matte but there is definite texture in there.  I think it would have been better to layer one coat over a white creme polish but the three coats here aren't thick or goopy and they dried pretty quickly.

Sorry today's post wasn't Super Bowl related like most other blogger's but I absolutely HATE football.  I mean really hate it.  I was on my high school dance team and we had to attend and perform at every football game and I could only hope that every year we failed miserably so we didn't have to go to the playoffs.  Competition season was what I loved, but to get there I had to stick it out through football season.  ugh.  

What about you?  Do you all love or hate football?  Also do you own any of the new China Glaze Sea Goddess polishes?  Let me know in the comments below.  (:

NOEL

Another Christmas mani is here and I think it came out really pretty.  I know traditional Christmas colors are red and green but I would hate to do every single one of my holiday manis in the same colors.  I think I would get tired of looking at it so I'm sure you all would too.

I used two coats of China Glaze Frostbite as the base.  The name seemed really appropriate since a lot of people I know are getting lots of snowfall and it's been a surprisingly cold month so far here in Houston.  I used Zoya Purity, a nail art brush, and a sort of steady hand to create the letters.  I wanted them to be like cursive-y looking.  lol  Then for the final touch I added some glitter in a sweeping motion from my cuticle down the side of the nail.

What do you all think about this mani?  Is there a nail art design you are looking forward to seeing from me?  Let me know in the comments below.

Neon Grunge

Sorry this post is kinda late but I just got back from my fitness class.  Luckily this mani was already done so I just have to whip of the post.  (:

I was inspired by Sarah of Chalkboard Nails' distressed nail art tutorial, specifically her neon version.  Instead of using a black creme polish over the neons, I used OPI Spotted which has failed me once again.

If you all happened to see a guest post I did for Nail Polish Addiction awhile ago, I briefly explain the technique I used for the "radioactive" mani and how my OPI Spotted was a bust.  I used that same process this time except with neon shades in China Glaze Kiwi Cool-ada (green), China Glaze Creative Fantasy (purple), Color Club Lava Lamp (orange), Sinful Colors Pink (pink), Ulta Blue Streak (blue), and of course a white base - Zoya Purity.  I applied OPI Spotted and I can't say it was a complete fail.  I mean, it did separate but the colors were not as visible as I would have liked so I dipped a cotton swab in acetone and gently removed or smeared some of the black to create that grungy look.

Thanks to Sarah for making a great tutorial eventhough I didn't follow it to a tee.  lol I really enjoy both versions of this mani and I hope you all do too.  Let me know what you think in the comments below!

China Glaze Cast a Spell

Since it's October and we are getting so close to Halloween I thought it was the perfect time to start breaking out all of my Halloween inspired polishes starting with this one.  I bought this on clearance at Sally's and haven't worn it until now...because I forgot I had it.  lol  I was looking at my stash list to see what I hadn't swatched and this was on there.  

I don't know how I forgot about this polish and managed to tuck it away for so long because I love it.  First of all this is one coat...yep!  I'm sure some people had to use two coats but if you load up your brush perfectly and are super careful, it can totally be a one-coater.  The base is a deep olive green with brighter green shimmer.  That's about all I have to say on it except that I love it one more time.  It didn't have any formula issues and it's good that I can wear it year-round if I want.  It's not too season specific.  Stay tuned for more Halloween/Fall polishes because I have enough, trust me.  lol

Butterfly Nail Art

Hey!  Remember yesterday when I said I was gonna do some nail art with China Glaze When Stars Collide?  Well here it is.  I really wanted to wait to post this but I got home later than I thought and don't have time to bust out a new mani.  I couldn't bear to NOT post something so here goes...

So there's not much to say about the color since I talked about it yesterday but it is called When Stars Collide by China Glaze.  The butterfly design I just free-handed.  I really thought it would be more difficult.  Like all the times I've seen this mani on Pinterest and other blogs I was like, "there is no way I could ever do that", but I did.  And it was easy.  And I can't wait to do it again.  All I used was a black striper polish and then a dotting tool with white creme.  I did add a gel topcoat and a coat of Seche Vite and it didn't effect the holo particles at all so that was cool too.  Now it's getting late and I have to get prepped for bedtime.  Have a good night!

China Glaze When Stars Collide

Maybe you can all tell I've been into holos quite a bit lately.  I just can't get enough of them right now.  That and chunky glitters...ugh!  Amazing!  So today I have a really great holo for Fall.

This is When Stars Collide from China Glaze's newer collection of holographics.  I wasn't too crazy into nail polish when the older collection came out so I was completely unaware of them, but looking back I really enjoy these newer ones better.  I never wanted the others but I'm slowly acquiring the newer collection one by one.  And on clearance at that.  Yep.  I found this one at Sally's with a 4.29 (or something like that) sticker on it.  Score!

I only needed two coats for full opacity and it dries super quick.  The linear holo effect is not the strongest one I own but it's the least grainy if that makes sense.  I just really love the shade of purple as well. The deeper red-violet color is perfect for the Fall season.  I just really wanted to bust this out since we have a cold front happening right now.  It's actually in the 60s here in Houston...well at night anyway.  The high is 84 though so that's amazing. 

Anyway I will definitely be doing some nail art with this polish so look out for that sometime soon.  I also wanted to let you all know to look out for some great guest posts on the blog starting next week.  I will be on vacation so I've enlisted the help of some great bloggers so get excited!  I know I am.  Have a great evening.  (:

Water Marble Wednesday

Afternoon!  Welcome back to another Water Marble Wednesday.  Today was probably one of the most successful marbling days I've had in awhile.  Let's take a look.  (:

I love the idea of doing different types of nail art over gradients, especially water marbles.  It can be a bit difficult though to find a clear polish that wants to cooperate with the colored polish.  Today I decided to make it a bit easier on myself and use a sheer glass-flecked top coat instead of just plain clear polish and it worked!

First I did my gradient using China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy - coral, Jesse's Girl JulieG Fashion Friday - purple, and China Glaze Four Leaf Clover - teal.  On a side note, I just noticed that I used all polish names that begin with the letter "F".  That was not intentional.

Anyway, back to the mani.  After my gradient dried, I taped off my nails and started my bulls-eye in the water using a plain white creme polish from NYC and Zoya LA Pop, the sheer glass-flecked top coat.  I made a chevron kinda design in the water and tried to dip my nail to where the "points" were completely vertical.  I think I pulled it off though.  The design is still not as perfect as I would like, but it's just nail art for fun anyway.  (:

Now I have to get ready for work so I won't get to talk to you all for a whole 8 hours.  With that being said, please let me know what you think of this amazing water marble.  You can leave all your comments below and/or comment on my Facebook page.  Have a great day!  (:

Tribal Stamped Mani

Happy Saturday Everyone!  Today I have a pretty fun mani for you all.  It's a little different from my usual mani.  Jacki from Adventures in Acetone mentioned in a conversation that she wanted to use some of Target's swimwear as inspiration.  With that being said, I had to try it myself.  This is the one I found and HERE is the link.

*7.21 UPDATE: THIS is the link to Jacki's Target swimsuit post.  I got to see it before she posted to her blog today.  Enjoy!*

Not only do I love this as a mani, but I want to own this swimsuit as well.  I love the design and the simple color choice.  Yeah.  I need it.

So there you have it.  I know on the swimsuit the tribal goes across and not the green but I stamped this so I couldn't figure out how to make that happen.  lol Even still I loved this mani so much I wore it for a good 3 days or so.  I started with the white base coat and then I did the stamping first using a sparkly black polish.  The stamp is curved on my middle and ring fingers because it's a design that is meant for a "funky french" mani.  For the other two, I just taped off my nail in a diagonal and used the same design.  Then I applied my neon green over the remaining white and done.

It was a lot simpler than I thought it would be.  Of course if I had freehanded the tribal design, it would have been more difficult and it also would have turned out sloppy.  I know that from past designs I've attempted.  lol

WHAT I USED:
Sally Hansen White Tip - white base
BBCouture Dark Knight - black
China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard - green
Bundle Monster plate bm-219

Water Marble Wednesday - Blue

This week's Water Marble Wednesday is brought to you by the color BLUE!  I really thought it would be fun to do one the color of water since it happen's in water.  I used four different types of blue but all the polishes are cremes.  I honestly don't think I've ever done one with all cremes before.  It was different.

I started with one coat of the lightest blue which is the periwinkle color and then I started my design.  I just made the bulls eye in the water and then made "stripes" in by pulling the toothpick in opposite directions.  I guess it's more of a chevron type design...I don't really know what to call it.

I did screw up my pinky a bit because I thought I had cleaned up all of the excess polish from the water.  However I didn't see the tiny bit on the other side of my finger so when I took my finger out, there was a huge glob stuck there.  Gross.  lol  I would have redone it, but honestly it was 10pm and I was super sleepy.  Besides, I'm only human so I'm bound to screw up.  I like to think that's why you all keep coming back.  Because of my quirk and honesty about my imperfections.  (:

So don't mind the dirty looking cuticles either.  It's actually just the navy polish I used.  It stained my cuticles just a bit and I could not for the life of me get it cleaned up properly.  Sorry!

WHAT I USED:

Julep Eloise - navy

China Glaze Four Leaf Clover - teal

Color Club Blue-ming - light blue

Color Club Hydrangea Kiss - periwinkle

Now I have to get ready for work so I will talk to you all later.  Have a great Wednesday!