Great Nail Art Ideas - Nude + Colour

Good afternoon everyone. I hope you all are having a great weekend! I know I have been MIA for a while, and wanted to let you all know I'm here, but I just wanted a bit of a break from blogging. I have decided to take a step or two back and try to make blogging fun again for myself, because it started to feel an awful lot like work, and it made it very hard to be interested in it. So, my plan is to finish out this current challenge, and then I probably will not do them anymore because the obligation of it kind of sucked the fun out of it for me.

Today, I have some stamping decals that I made, placed over a nude base. The base is Julep Lizzy, which is a pretty good nude for me in the winter, but not so much in the summer. :) I made the decal using MoYou London Pro Collection plate XL-13 and Konad Special Black, then colored in the flowers using Sephora by OPI What a Broad, Barielle Joytini, and OPI Cajun Shrimp.

That's all I've got for you today. I have an insane backlog of manis, because I didn't stop painting my nails and photographing them during my blog break. When I feel like it, I'll share another. :P Also, make sure you check out what everyone else did for this week's prompt. I saw a lot of creativity with this prompt!

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Spring

Hello! So I feel like every idea ever in the history of time when it comes to Sprig manicures has been done. So, of course, I was over here struggling to think up something new. Well, I don't have anything new. Everyone knows what Spring entails. Every Spring-like mani has been done. So, I'm just doing what I like, and what reminds me most of Spring. And guess what? It's baby ducks. I literally just got a little shiver of excitement typing that. You guys, I love baby ducks so much I can hardly stand it!!! They are so cute, in their cute little line behind their mama. So, I decided to paint that on my nails.

I started off with OPI My Pal Joey from the Hello Kitty Collection. After that, I hand painted the mama duck and the little babies using Pure Ice SuperStar! and Black Rage, Essie Meet Me at Sunset, and Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow.

Here is what My Pal Joey looks like on its own. It is a thin polish, but surprisingly this is only two coats. I was skeptical after the first thin and streaky coat, but it looked fine on the second. I love how bright it is, too. It's a perfect nail color for Spring!

There you have it. Baby ducks = Spring. And I loooooove baby ducks! My husband will take me out to the park where there is a big pond to take pictures of baby ducks. That is the tradition. I will take like a hundred pictures. It will be great. So, I guess that is all I have for you today. Please make sure you check out what everyone else did for their spring manicures!

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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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40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Things That Fly

Good morning! This week's theme for the Nail Tarts' challenge is Things That Fly. I thought for a while on this one, but it didn't take long for me to decide that I needed spaceships!

I used my new Nerd Lacquer, I Think You Call Me...Sexy for my base. It looks like space with stars and has tons of sparkle. I wanted a variety and had several stamping plates featuring spaceships, so I just used them all! I made these decals using mostly images from BM-XL134 and the image on my thumb is from JR-31. I got this Nerd Lacquer and the JR plate (My Online Shop) from my secret agent in a Christmas exchange, and I thought I was going to DIE. I cried opening everything, but there will be a separate post for that!

  

The decals were done using Mundo de Unas Light Gray and Blue.  I used Sally Hansen Graphite Gravity, a silver OPI that has no name, a silver polish from The New Black that is also nameless, and some of the Mundo de Unas blue to color in the decals.

Here is what Nerd Lacquer I Think You Call Me...Sexy looks like on it's own. It's a fantastic blue jelly packed with holographic shimmer, tiny blue and silver metallic hexes, medium sized blue and silver metallic hexes, and larger pale blue metallic hexes. It's gorgeous. And also, it's a Dr. Who polish, so I love it even more just for that.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! Make sure you check out what everyone else did for this week's prompt. I know there is at least one other TARDIS out there. ;)

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas - New Year

Hello everyone. When I think of a New Year's mani, I pretty much think of anything with glitter haha. So, I busted out some of my new polishes (yay for Christmas!), and played around until I got this.

To be honest, I just had the idea in my head and went for it, so it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. BUT, there is glitter (lots) and holo, so I am happy. :) I used Bear Pawlish Curiosity for my base. Oh my goodness I am so in love with this polish. It has everything I love - purple, glitter, holo...um well that's it really. :P And that is all it needs! It has so much more depth in person, but my camera just couldn't handle it. It always struggles with purples. The striping is done using Julep Harley mixed with Bear Pawlish The Gift 2015. I wanted my silver to be holo, but don't actually own a silver holo. You can bet that went on my wishlist!!! The circular glitter "balls" are OPI's I Snow You Love Me. This is such a weird polish to me...but it has it's uses. ;)

Here is what Curiosity looks like on it's own. I feel like my photograph doesn't do it justice. It looks more blue in some lights and almost red in other lights because of the shifty glitters packed inside. My camera went with more blue haha.It's a purple jelly jam-packed with so many purple, fuchsia, and holo glitters. It is crazy sparkly - perfect for New Year's Eve!

Thank you so much for stopping by to read my blog today! Make sure you take a look at what everyone else did for this prompt!

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Grey + Colour

This week's prompt is grey + colour, so I am keeping it simple and elegant with a grey base and some pretty purple stamping. I used China Glaze Elephant Walk for my base, and OPI DS Extravagance for the floral lace stamping. The stamping plate I used is from an indie maker, It Girl. This image is from plate 103. The images are HUGE, and I just love how you can take different pieces of the same image for each nail. So much variety!

Here is China Glaze Elephant Walk on it's own. This is a cream grey that almost leans to green. It has a subtle silvery shimmer to it as well. It's very pretty. I did two coats here, and one coat of Out The Door topcoat.

Thank you so much for looking! Make sure you take a peek at what everyone else paired with their grey!

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52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge - Zig Zag + Dark and Grungy

Oh my goodness, it's the last mani of the 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge! I can't believe it has been a whole year since it started, and I really can't believe that I managed to finish! I have another challenge coming up with the wonderful Nail Tarts, so things won't be changing much around here. This one is going to be totally awesome, and I am just so excited for it, so stay tuned. For this week's challenge, the prompts are zig zag and dark and grungy. I grew up in the 90s, so grungy is not hard for me lol. Although, I was determined to use and unswatched polish in the manicure, so that added a little bit of a challenge. I'm still trying to get rid of my neverending pile of untried polish!

I wound up using The New Black Elephant Hide for my base. It is from their Safari collection and is a black base filled with gold glitters. After that, I used my Loki's Nail Vinyls to create the zigs (not so much zag here lol), and painted over them using another untried polish, OPI Just Spotted The Lizard. I have had this polish forever and have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it. This seemed lime the perfect chance.

It's a little dark, grunge, AND glam haha. Here is what The New Black Elephant Hide looks like on it's own. I used two coats here with one coat of Out The Door topcoat.

Thank you so much for checking out my very last 52 Week Pick n Mix post. This challenge has been an absolute blast and I really enjoy seeing what my fellow Nail Tarts come up with each week for the prompts! Make sure you check out what everyone did for this week!

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52 Week Pick n Mix - Waterspotting/Marbling + Purple, Red, & Aqua

Saturday, and by now, I'm a little sad because it is the last day of vacation. We leave to go back home Sunday (tomorrow). For this mani, I made another attempt at water marbling. It did not come out so great. I can't seem to do a water marble manicure without any bubbles. It kind of drives me bonkers. If any of you know how to avoid the bubbles, please tell me the secret! :D

So, for this marble, I held myself to the prompt so that I could get away with just one manicure this week. Since I had to schedule all of these posts this week, it means that last week, I crammed 5 or 6 manicures into just 2 days. I'll admit I didn't regret having to remove this one immediately. :P I used Essie Apertif and Where's My Chauffeur?, and OPI Do You Have This Color In Stock-holm?.

Thank you so much for looking today! I'll be home late tomorrow and back to normal posting-wise in no time (I hope)! Make sure you take a look at what everyone else for this week's prompt!

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Purple Smoosh Mani + Stamping

Hi everyone and happy Saturday! I have just arrived at the beautiful east coast! You won't be hearing anything from me on social media for a week (except MAYBE on ig, maybe), but I have lots of posts scheduled, so make sure you check back here once in a while to see what's new! Today, I am fulfilling the prompt for the second half of August from my stamping group on facebook. I was super excited about this one because it involves purple (YAY!), and a new to me process called "smoosh". Ooh I'm so excited. Check it out!

For this mani, I used OPI Do You Have This Color In Stock-holm?, Butter London Stroppy, Zoya Dannii, and Sally Hansen Purple Craze and then smooshed them all together using this method.


The stamping plate I used for this was CICI&SISI 24. I am actually wearing this one as my vacation mani so I have it on BOTH hands! Chances are it won't make it all the way through vacation, so I'm bringing some polishes with me in case of a nail emergency (or you know...just because I like change!).

Thank you so much for checking out today's post. Have a great day!

An InLinkz Link-up

Dr. Who Galaxy Nails

A while back, I ordered some nail vinyls from Loki's Nail Vinyls, and when Tara saw that I had ordered Tardis decals, she threw in a small strip of gold daleks. Eeeep! So, this mani has been on my mind for a while, and I finally had the chance to execute it. Yay!

My idea was to do a galaxy manicure and have the Tardis "chasing" a couple of daleks. So, I went to work creating my galaxy nails. The galaxies had to be purple-based of course - duh!! :P I used OPI Lincoln Park in the Dark and then sponged on my "galaxies" using Julep Margaret, Butter London Petrol, Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac, Sinful Colors Cinderella, and Pure Ice SuperStar!. I added one coat of Maybelline Precious for stars. Here is how they turned out. Pretty sweet, right? I totally love them. I loved them so much, I was terrified I would somehow manage to screw up my vinyls and ruin the mani, so I photographed them first. haha

Luckily, the application of my vinyls was just fine. Look at how cute the little daleks are! Ahhhh! I painted over top of the vinyls to add some extra detail using my smallest brush, along with my black nail art pen from Sally Hansen.

Oh, here is what OPI Lincoln Park in the Dark looks like on it's own. It is super rich and opaque. It only needed one coat.

Thank you so much for coming by today! You guys, I wish I was rich so I could buy all of the things I want. Tara came out with another cool set of vinyls that I really want. And the whole ramen plan isn't going to work. It turns out you can't have ramen when you are trying to follow the South Beach diet. :P Have a great day everyone!

Ornate Coral Nail Art

Hi everyone. My stamping group on facebook had a complex challenge for this half of the month, and I tried my best to achieve a result that fulfilled the challenge. We were to incorporate coral, stamping, ornate, and use some different nail art technique. That sure was a lot of prompts! But, I persevered, and came up with this.

I started off with Wet n Wild Warm Filter for my base, and them stamped the design using OPI Cha-Ching Cherry and PUEEN44. After that I used my Loki's Nail Vinyls to create the half moon shape and filled it in with Cha-Ching Cherry. The next part was the part I hated the most: placing those tiny caviar beads on my nails. It was painstakingly fine work. My hand kept cramping up! But I fought through the pain (lol) because this was important to me.

Oh my, you can tell I'm tired. Anyway, here is what Wet n Wild Warm Filter looks like on it's own. This was two coats. It was pretty opaque, but needed two coats to avoid any thin spots.

I'm off to bed, but I'll be back in a few days with my mani for this week's 52 Week Pick n Mix. Have a great evening!