LadyQueen Nail Charms Review

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Hi everyone! I received some nail art supplies from LadyQueen to review and did some sweet mermaid nails for you using two of the items!

I used a mermaid nail charm on my middle nail, and placed some starfish studs on the top of each nail, near the cuticle. I just used nail glue to attach them to the nail. The starfish studs lasted several days before I picked them all off (I couldn't help it!), but the mermaid didn't even make it 20 minutes past the picture taking because they did not fit my nail well. My nails curve, and the charms are very flat, so they were barely attached for the photos. I really like them though, and I wish they had fit better. Girls with flat nails, you are in luck with these cute charms!

So here are the polishes I used to create this. This is Potion Polish Cerulean Skies. It is a thin holo blue jelly. I used three coats here.

After that, I created a gradient using a england Spirit of the Moors. These two looked great together, and I'll show this polish off in a separate post.

After my gradient, I stamped using Konad Special white and Mo You Sailor Collection plate 05. Once that was done, I just glued on the charms and studs and this mani was complete! Make sure you check out the other things that you can purchase from LadyQueen, and if you go, use my discount code! It's WEBS15. Thanks so much for looking. Have a great day!

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Red

Happy Friday! Oh you guys, I am so happy the weekend is almost here. I am soooo tired. I have been so disinterested in blogging lately. I have to get myself reorganized over here. I'm pretty sure my problem is just that I have been flying by the seat of my pants, and have not been planning things out like I should. So this weekend, I fully intend to create a new schedule for myself, which includes exercise, sleep, and FUN, so that I am not driving myself crazy. Ha! Today's nail art features a reverse gradient with stamping. I have only done this once before, and it has been years, so I decided to do it again. It's really subtle, but I like it!

I started off with Revlon Fearless for my base, and then added a gradient with OPI Lost on Lombard. After that, I picked out some similar stamping polishes (because I knew these two would not stamp that well), and did a stamping gradient in the opposite direction. I used stamping plate05 from CICI&SISI for the repeating tribal image.

Here is what Fearless looks like on it's own. It's a bright red-leaning-orange, and went on it two coats. The first coat is extremely thin, but the second coat built it right up. It was much quicker than I expected because the polish looks so thin.

Thank you so much for looking. Make sure you take a peek at all the other lovely red manicures!

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Ocean Nailart - Lunchtime Nail Fun!

Last Friday, I had offered to do my coworker, Angela's, nails during our lunch break. She gave me her favorite colors (blues/greens), and the theme - ocean. I packed up a selection of about twenty of my most ocean-y blues and greens, some great glitters, white, and a sandy shade to be used for any stamping. I also packed up a bunch of plates that had ocean/beach-y images on them. At lunch, we sat down, I busted out my selection of polish (a embarrassing quantity of blues and greens for someone to own...and that wasn't even ALL of them), and the plates. Then, I had her pick her favorites. She got to see how I feel whenever I try to sit down for a manicure. So many choices! So much glitter! So much shiny distraction! It's a wonder I ever get anything done once I sit down in my nail nook lol.

Pardon the quality of these photos. I took them with my phone under some crazy office florescent light. :)

Once she settled on her favorite couple of colors, I helped her narrow it down by which ones looked best together, and we settled on Zoya Tallulah and Black Poppy Turquoise (it's nameless but pretty so it's forgiven). Since I didn't want to make too much of a mess, I used my Loki's Nailvinyls aprons on her (she was amazed by those), and then I did a gradient using the two colors we had picked. While that dried, I had her pick out her favorite couple of images (also hard because I brought so many plates!). She settled on a wave-like pattern from Mash-50 and the fish and starfish images off of MoYou Sailor plate 10. I also set aside Mash-39 because I decided she needed mermaid nails too, and painted the tips of each of her thumbs using Rainbow Honey Aqua Crystalline. I stamped the images on using Wet n Wild A Latte Love, then we let that dry and I did peeled off the aprons and did some cleanup. After that, I slapped on some Seche Vite and we were all done. I am so stoked on how these came out, and Angela totally deserves to be treated to this kind of thing more often, so maybe I will try to make that happen. ;)

Angela took these photos with her phone later that day. They are slightly blurry, but show off the sparkle on the thumbs really well!

      

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I appreciate all of you who come to look and read so much!

My Favorite Image from MoYou Suki XL Plate 06

Hi everyone! So, I have been doing a challenge where I pick a plate and then do a mani each week with the same plate for the entire month. I chose this Suki plate because I totally love it, but have hardly used any of the images on it. Today, I am showing off an image that I knew had great potential, but couldn't quite figure out how to help it shine. Oh my goodness, I figured it out!

I started off with 3 coats of Maybelline WC135 (this polish is ancient and has no name that I can find). I then created a gradient using this pale pink and Nicole by OPI Challenge Red-y. After my gradient was dry, I stamped my image over top using Konad Special Black. I really want to try this again and use the upper half of the image so that I just get the flowers!

Here is what Maybelline WC135 looks like on it's own. The polish is nearly two decades old and getting a bit strange consistency-wise, but it's still super pretty.

Thank you so much for reading my post today! I'll be back with that Rainbow Honey post I promised you in my last post soon!

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. :)

#HePicksMyPolish - Nails Brought To You By My Husband

So, when I heard about this challenge group on Facebook, I thought it would be super fun to bring my husband in on the blog. He is always giving me ideas, so I thought it would be fun to let him pick my polish.

I recently separated out all of my untried (or at least unswatched) polishes and put them in their own drawer, so I handed that drawer to my husband and asked him to pick the colors for my next manicure. After quite some time, he announced he was done and handed me FIVE bottles of polish.

Left to right: essie meet me at sunset, Zoya Zuza, Julep Ciara, Julep Leah, and Julep Missy

I was a bit worried because all of these colors work well together except for essie meet me at sunset. It is the only cream out of them all and the only warm-toned color, so I was at a loss for quite a while. But, I finally figured something out, and I'm quite pleased with how this came out.

I started off with Julep Missy, then added a gradient to three of my nails using Julep Ciara, Zoya Zuza, and Julep Leah. I stamped the peacock feathers onto my nails with Julep Leah using a new plate my mom gifted to me from MoYou London. This image is from The Pro XL plate 05. After that, I added the detail to the feathers using essie meet me at sunset, Zoya Zuza, and Julep Ciara.

Here is Julep Missy by herself. This is a chrome silver and went on in two easy coats. Please pardon the "dents" on my pinkie nail. I was multitasking today and thought they were dry enough for folding laundry. I was wrong. :P

Thank you so much for looking - I'm looking forward to letting my hubby pick colors for next month!

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52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge - 3 Color Gradient + Pink

Goodness I love gradients! They are just always so pretty! Today I have a purple, pink, and yellow gradient to show off to fulfill both prompts in one manicure. I used COS BAR's no-name purple polish from their Target exclusive two years ago, L.A. Colors Magnetic Force, and Barielle Soul-er Powered. They look even more beautiful together than I imagined. :) After that, I added some stamping using MoYou London's The Pro plate 13 for the hummingbird and flower images with Konad Special Black polish.

Here is the gradient all on it's own. At first, I didn't want to stamp over it, it was so pretty, but I'm happy to say that the stamping only improved upon it. ;)

Here is L.A. Colors Magnetic Force all by itself. It is a coral-leaning, shimmery pink that went on in just two coats.

That's all I have for you today! Later this week I will have some freehand nail art for you if I don't muck it up. Wish me luck!

Here is what everyone else did!

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Tri Polish Tuesday - Lilac, Teal, & Grey + 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge

Alright, so this is the last manicure you will ever see again featuring these colors. I'll tell you what, 5 Tuesdays in a month is way too many! BUT, I will say that this mani turned out pretty good, too. I am actually completing both my requirement for Tri Polish Tuesday and the very first prompt for the newest challenge I joined with The Crumpet's Nail Tarts: The 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge. Fifty. Two. Weeks. The prompt is a two-color gradient and teal. So, I opted to do it all in one. I'll explain what this challenge is at the end of the post. Anyway, I had asked for ideas for this one in my last post, and my mom suggested leopard or tiger. So, this is what I came up with.

After I created my gradient, I stamped over it using 2 plates: Konad m57 and Mash-41. Here is what my two-color gradient looked like before I added the stamping.

So there you have it, the last Tri Polish post for this month. I don't think I'm going to participate in it for October, because I want to spend more time on the 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge, and maybe bring some of the ideas I've been hoarding into reality. Here is some info about the challenge, so you can understand what on earth I'm doing over the next year.

THE RULES:
Each week, there are 2 prompts.  It is our choice whether to do 1, both, or combine them. They have been set up as an extension of our Golden Oldie Thursdays, so the idea is to use an old polish, or an untried. Also, once a month, one of the color prompts will coincide with a Tri Polish Tuesday, in case I decide I want to do that again. For now, I just want to stick with one challenge and get all of my ideas out before I join another. Here is an example of what the challenge is set up like:

For this week (starting September 29th), the prompts are a 2 colour gradient and teal.
My options were:
1 - post a mani of any 2 colours in a gradient and later in the week post an oldie / untried teal
2 - only do one of the prompts
3 - post a mani of a 2 colour gradient where one of the colours is a teal (combining the prompts)

So there you have it. I've gotten myself into a fun one this time! If you are interested in joining us in the 52 Week Challenge, head over to Crumpet' Nail Tarts to join in.

Thanks so much for looking, and be sure to check out what the others did for this last day of September's Tri Polish Tuesdays!

An InLinkz Link-up

And look here to see what everyone did for the first day of the 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge.

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The Neverending Pile Challenge - Brown

Good evening. The three brown polishes that I have for you today are all from Julep. I started out with a base of Julep Amber. It has a matte suede finish, and is really very pretty. I added a  simple glitter gradient to it using Julep Hilary (gold glitter) and an unnamed polish that came in the New Year's box last year. I added essie matte about you to keep the entire thing matte.

Here is Julep Amber all by itself. It's a nice suede finish. I don't have many of these, so it is nice to have in my collection.

Thanks for looking. Please make sure that you look at what everyone else did for today!

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Golden Oldie Thurs...I mean Monday - Orange

Hey everyone. I know I am insanely late on this one, but I was so busy all week, it just didn't happen. I actually painted these on Friday night, but with everything going on all weekend, and then a lengthy power-outage, I just couldn't post until today. I painted these floral nails in honor of the annual trip I make to an orchid show at Cleveland's Botanical Gardens with my mom. I used two oranges here,but you almost can't tell.

This is a gradient with Salon Perfect Tangy Tangerine and Revlon Fearless. I stamped over it using several different floral images from plates from Mash, Bundle Monster, and Red Angel. The first image below is Tangy Tangerine all by itself. The second is once I had completed the gradient with Fearless. It is very, very subtle.

Thanks for looking, and make sure you look at the other orange manicures!

An InLinkz Link-up