Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Dragon Skin Manicure with MoYou Pro XL 05

Hi everyone! Today, I have for you another manicure using my MoYou London Pro XL 05 plate. I was having a rough time finding another image on here that I hadn't used before and actually wanted to try. I am not a fan of animal prints, but I am a fan of dragons, and other magical creatures, so I decided to call this reptile look "dragon skin". ;)


I started off with a base of Julep Kendra, then sponged on a shimmery green, Barielle Positive Zen-ergy. After that, I stamped the print over top using Julep Savoy, which is a metallic gold polish.


Here is what Julep Kendra looks like by itself. This is two coats. The formula is nice, and it painted on smooth and dried shiny.


Thank  you so much for looking, and I will be back in a couple days with another mani. :)

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Blobbicure + Stamping with MoYou Pro XL 05

Happy Saturday everyone! I have another mani for you today using this MoYou Pro plate for the Stamping Plate Challenge. I used some more of my new polishes from the Wet n Wild Silver Lake collection, too. This is Wear Skinny Jeans and A Latte Love in a fabulous beachy manicure! ;)


I decided to use the shell image from the plate this week, and knew instantly what colors to use. The light blue and sand make me wish I was in a beach house right now and not experiencing yet another bout of cold weather and snow. It can't be too much longer, right???!!


Here is what Wet n Wild Wear Skinny Jeans looks like by itself. It's a lovely soft blue, with a silvery shimmer that my camera refused to photograph for some reason. It's a very slight shimmer, but you can see it in real life. :)


Thank you so much for stopping by today to look at my mani. I hope you all have an awesome weekend!

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

I'm Thinking of a Baby Chick

Hi everyone! Today I am taking my Earth Day mani for the stamping group that I joined in a bit of a different direction. Earth Day is also my little sister's birthday, and I did a manicure in her honor because she is the sweetest, funniest, most amazing sister in the whole world. :) It's funny, when we were kids, I didn't always think so, but I was not mature enough to see . As we have grown older, and I see what a beautiful, smart, talented, compassionate, and thoughtful woman she has become, I realize I'm the luckiest sister on the planet. My sister is my best friend.


You may be wondering why the odd title. My sister will know the minute she sees it, but I'll explain it to the rest of you because it's totally cute (sorry, Kate). When we were little, and going on long car trips, we would play all sorts of games to keep entertained. My parents played this guessing game with us called "I'm Thinking of an Animal". It would start with one of us saying "I'm Thinking of an Animal", and then we each took turns asking yes or no questions (does it have fur?, is it cold-blooded?, etc.). It's similar to the game a lot of people call "Yes and No", but ours was specifically animals, so there was no animal, vegetable, mineral guesses. Anyway, My sister was very little (maybe 4 years old) and was really great at guessing, but when she decided she wanted to have us guess her animal, she said "I'm thinking of a baby chick". So, of course, my dad asked "Is it a baby chick?" and she was all surprised that he guessed it. It was really cute, and she was just a bit too little to grasp the concept of the game at first, but realized her mistake after the fact. She was super smart even then. AND she went on to give us a pretty good challenge a few times on that car trip after that! This manicure is to honor her baby chick. I used PUEEN47 for the chick image. The gradient was done using Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow and Lemon Zest, and the background stamp is from PUEEN46.


Kate, I wish you a very happy birthday, and I love you so much! Thank you everyone for looking. Have a beautiful day!
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Sunday, April 19, 2015

52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge - Negative Space + 3 Pastels

Ok, so here I am posting my mani at the last minute again haha. I was going to do a cute manicure with little cupcakes for my birthday, but I had too many challenges happening, so I am skipping that little plan. :P Today, I have for you instead, my negative space mani including 3 pastels to complete both prompts for the week. Some of you may have seen on instagram that I nabbed the entire Wet n Wild Silver Lake collection of polishes. I used three of them here so I could show them off right away.


This is Wet n Wild Warm Filter, Reject The Mainstream, and Tree Hugger. I used striping tape to create the negative spaces, and ended up having to do this twice on each nail because the polishes needed two coats.


I am not a fan of the negative space just because I am paranoid that my nails are stained. They actually really aren't stained too badly at the moment, so this doesn't look too bad. I actually got a lot of compliments on these. I think people were just interested because it's different and not something you see every day.

Thanks so much for looking. Make sure you check out what everyone else did for this week's prompts!

Friday, April 17, 2015

Abstract Sun Nailart

This week's prompt was "abstract" and I found myself digging through all of my plates and finding absolutely nothing that I wanted to use. Not about to buy new plates just for this one prompt, I went back through each plate objectively to pick out the ones that actually had an image that could be deemed "abstract" and that I had not already used in some previous nail art post. That is how I came across this image that looks like a sun with rays. I'm not really sure why I went with a white background...I am wishing I went with a yellow/orange gradient. That would have looked way cooler. Oh well.



I used essie marshmallow for my base and then stamped the sun image using Nicole by OPI Challenge Red-y. I contemplated making it matte after that, but honestly I hated this mani so much, I didn't bother. The image is from Bundle Monster plate BM-402. I'm definitely going to try out this mani again with a different background. This image is cool, and I totally ruined it haha! Here is what essie marshmallow looks like by itself. It's a nice white, but it is a sheer crelly type polish, so it took a good 3 coats to be completely opaque. I like how shiny it is.


Thank you so much for looking. Make sure you take a look at everyone else's abstract manicures!

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Butterfly Manicure with MoYou Pro XL 05

Hi everyone! Today I have a recreation of a mani by Kitt at The Cat's Claws. For this week's stamping plate challenge, I had to recreate someone else's mani using the plate I selected at the beginning of the month. After looking around online, I decided I liked her nailart the best. :)


I did not have the same nail polish colors that she had, but I had a bunch that were similar enough to make it work. I used Julep Melanie and Mahima, Butter London Knees Up, and COS BAR Orange.


I sponged on the colors in the same pattern, then stamped the butterfly wing pattern over top using Konad Special Black polish. After that, I added my dots with Konad Special White and a dotting tool.


Thank you so much for looking. I'll be back in a couple of days with my negative space mani for the 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge. :)

Sunday, April 12, 2015

February 2015 Julep It Girl Box

Well, here I am reviewing my February Julep box in April *sigh*. I suppose if I had an actual deadline, I would have had it done in February, but I didn't, so I just did it when I felt like it. I started swatching these right after I finished the swatches from January's Chrysalis collection, but didn't get a chance to go through my photos and write this post until now. The February collection has one polish in it that is definitely a "Valentines-y" color, but the rest won't be that out of place in April! And anyway, it's always a good month for some love, right???


So, as you can see from the photo above, Julep not only threw in one extra Valentine's polish, but 5 of them. I have given away two of them so far to friends, and am still contemplating doing a quick instagram giveaway for the others. I mean, I really only need to keep one for myself, right? ;) Anyway, the first polish I have to show off is named Carla. She is a soft lavender-leaning pink. At first, I thought this was just another pale pink from Julep, but once I had it on and realized it had a little purple in it, I decided I liked it. This one is very opaque too. I painted on two thin coats here, but I could have gotten away with one thick coat.


Next, is Colton. Colton is a dark, vampy purple, which I am happy to add to my collection since I have no other colors like it. It was a little less opaque than the last polish and needed two coats. The formula on this one is nice. It was very smooth.


Next up, is Becky. This one is the one that I am the least thrilled with. There is nothing wrong with the polish, it's just a very typical duochrome. I have a Sally Hansen polish from nearly 15 years ago that looks identical to this one, only this one dries to a satiny finish. It's not quite matte, but it's not shiny either. It flashes green to purple depending on the lighting, and went on in two smooth coats.


Last, we have my favorite of the bunch (for it's originality). Her name is Hartleigh. This has tiny holographic glitters, small white circles, medium white hexes, and large metallic red hearts in a clear base. She looks really pretty over top of Carla. I did two coats here. I had to fish and place the hearts, but in my experience, this is typical with large glitters. There were plenty of hearts in there, so it was not difficult to get them out of the bottle.


Thank you so much for stopping to read my post today! What do you all think about these? Do you have a favorite?

Friday, April 10, 2015

52 Week Pick n Mix - Needle Drag + Burgundy

Hi all! This is the first time I have ever tried the needle drag technique, and let me tell you, it is not all it's cracked up to be! I practiced this on paper first and thought I had this down, but was unable to translate it onto my nails. Ugh! But I do have some pretty sparkles for you, so that will make up for it.


At least my ring and little fingers turned out the way I wanted them to! I used Zoya Blaze as my base - holo burgundy! :) I love this polish so much! I then did vertical stripes of it alternating with China Glaze I'm Not Lion, then quickly used my needle to drag back and forth. The way it turned out on my ring finger is how I intended it to look on every nail...but you can't win 'em all!


Here is the gorgeous Zoya Blaze all by herself. Glittery holographic goodness. This went on it two smooth coats.


Thank you so much for reading today. Please make sure you look at what everyone else did for this week's prompt!

Monday, April 6, 2015

Pastel Green Stamping with MoYou Pro Collection XL 05

Hi everyone! I am totally getting away with combining prompts for this week's challenges in my two nail stamping groups! Muahahahahaha! ;) I am such a fan of this mani because it is so simple, but looks really cool. I've already had several random people stop me to ask if they were Jamberry's (puh-lease!), but I take it as a compliment. It's funny how stuff like this always gets noticed so much more than my 4-hour + manis that I put so much more effort into. The most effort I put into this was choosing the colors haha (which actually did take me like an hour because I just have too many choices!).


This is Color Club London Calling for the base. I love this pretty pastel green. It's a pastel, but still bright, and leans more yellow than blue, which is unusual for a pastel green. I stamped over top using this cool pebble-y image from MoYou Pro XL 05 and Fresh Paint Dragon Lady. These colors look so good together!



Here is what Color Club London Calling looks like by itself. It's a nice smooth polish and went on in two coats. I got this mini from my aunt, and when I wear it, I always think of her. :)


Thank you so much for looking. Please make sure you check out what everyone else did for this week's "pastel" prompt. Have a great day!

Sunday, April 5, 2015

52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge - Music + Not Worn Enough

Good morning. Well, I had wanted to post this manicure last night, but unfortunately, I fell asleep. So, you are getting it a day late, but I am rested, so that is good. With this mani, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do at first. I was trying to think of a band's cover art to do, or something like that, but every time I started thinking about it, I wouldn't be able to come up with anything. Music makes me think of my sister, so I kept circling back to her. The girl literally lives for music. She loves it. It is her passion. So, I decided to go another direction and just let her inspire my musical nails. Now, when I think of my sister, I think of natural beauty. She gravitates toward neutral and earthy colors, and seriously is just effortlessly beautiful. So, I was digging through my messy drawer of untrieds and came across China Glaze Lug Your Designer Baggage. It is an neutral brown base with gold flakies, and instantly made me think of my sister (color-wise I mean, the name is basically the exact opposite of my sister haha). I came up with the rest pretty quickly.


So after painting my nails with CGLYDB, I found a few stamping plates from the sets I received at Christmas, and added some musical stamps using PUEEN47 and Bundle Monster plate BM-411 with Wet n Wild Wet Cement.


Here is CGLYDB by itself. It's a brown crelly with loads of little gold flakies that builds up to opacity quickly in just two coats. This is a color that I bought just because it looks interesting and different, and I really don't wear brown  much unless it fits my nail art, so I figured this color would fit well with the "not worn enough" prompt.



Thank you so much for stopping by on this lovely Easter Sunday. Have a great day everyone!

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Funky French with Flowers

Hello! I have been playing with my collection of Loki's Nail Vinyls again, and did a cute floral, Spring-inspired mani using her vinyls to create a nice crisp funky french. I'm not sure where my inspiration came for this one. I was just sketching out ideas and then all of the sudden this idea was born. These three colors go so well together, too!


I started of with three coats of NYC Hamptons Peach, then used Loki's Nail Vinyls to mask the tip of each nail and painted over top of it using Julep Donna. Here is what it looked like at that point. Pardon the poor lighting, I wasn't in the mood to pull out my light box for this part. I really need to buy another Ott light. :) Oh and also, the dryness from the acetone - gross. Whatever though, you guys get the idea!


After I did that, I used a dotting tool to create the flowers using Color Club London Calling, then added a dot of Julep Donna in the center of each one. I really love this manicure. It came out so much better than I had even hoped. I have been sketching out my ideas on paper lately, and boy is it helping lol.


Here is NYC Hamptons Peach all by itself. This polish was a bit on the thin side, but it built up to opacity in 3 coats.


Thank you for stopping by to look today! I will be back in a couple days with a new mani for the 52 Week Pick n Mix. Have a great day!