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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April 2016 Julep It Girl Box

Hi everyone. Today, I have some polishes to show that I have had for a while, and had struggled to get swatched and shared on here. It's the Julep Maven It Girl box from April. I had just ordered my usual box, which should have come with 4 polishes, but for some reason, they messed up and sent me a different box. I received face wash and a sponge (which I didn't want), and 3 polishes: red, pink, and white. Really? If I wanted red, pink, and white, that is what I would have ordered. I have enough red, pink, and white to last me a lifetime. I was super upset. So, I took a picture of the box I received and a printscreen of my receipt for what I had actually ordered, and filed a complaint. Their customer service was slow, but once they responded, they were helpful. They sent out the correct box, which I received about a week later, and said I did not need to send the other one back. Um...okay? So, anyway, here is what I ended up with.

Now, I know that this is a pretty good deal to get all this for $19, so I can't complain. I just wish they had gotten it right the first time. I'm kind of afraid to get another month for fear that it will just be wrong and a big hassle again. I don't see collections I like much anymore, so it will be a while before you see another one. I jumped on this one because I don't have many other jelly/sheer polishes like this, and I had originally ordered all colors that I specifically didn't have to give myself more versatility with my nail art. I've skipped the two months since, but I check each month to see if it is something I want. Anyway, on to the polish. I swatched all of these over the white that came with the set. This one is names Brigitte. It is super opaque and I'm showing two coats here. I couldn't get away with one because I kept seeing streaks and unevenness.

Next, we have Ari. This is a sheer magenta pink. It painted on super smoothly, and this is two coats over Brigitte.

Then, we have Brynn. This is a sheer orange. There are also two coats here, and the formula was the same as Ari - super smooth.

Next up, we have Kimball. I had some issues with this one. It looked like it was supposed to be red, but when I painted it over white, it looked more pink than anything. Also, the formula was a little rough. It went on much less smooth and streaked a bit, which resulted in me having to use three coats here. There is still a frustrating amount of patchiness despite that.

Next, we have Delaney. This one was a simlar formula. It was streaky, and I had to do three coats here. There are still very visible streaks in the application that I just couldn't seem to get rid of.

The last polish I have to show is Shanna. This one was the worst of all in terms of formula. I would love to have a nice purple jelly, but this is not it. It was terrible streaky, and it was almost grainy in texture.

I want to try these out over a stamp to see if they work out any better that way. I am also thinking they will gradient well, so I'll probably try that at some point too. Did anyone have better luck with these? I am wondering if there is just something I'm doing wrong here with the application on the last three. Well, anyway, here is the box. Super late, and with added goodies. Let me know what you guys think about these. I can't wait to try them out over stamping, so hopefully I'll get the chance to do that soon. I will share it when I do! Thanks for stopping by!

Rainbow Honey April 2016 Mystery Bag

Hello! So it's about a month late, but here is a peek at what I received in the April Rainbow Honey mystery bag. :)

It came with two nailpolishes, La Marguerite Rose and Summer Peach Tea, a lip balm, Summer Peach Tea scented cooling gel, and Summer Peach Tea Scented Topcoat. I swatched both polishes, and the pink is a great pink, but boring in my book. It will make a great base for manis, though. Here is what La Marguerite Rose looks like. The formula is great. It went on super smooth, and this is two coats. It's a bright, barbie pink, with cool undertones.

Summer Peach Tea is a lovely orangey-peach jelly with holo gold and silver glitters all throughout. It's a lovely sparkly color - perfect for summer! This one went on nicely as well. I did three coats here to try to minimize the nail line, but if you paint it over another polish, you really just need one coat.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read and look at my blog today! I'll be back at the end of the week with the next prompt for 40 Great Nail Art Ideas!

40 Great Nailart Ideas - Neon

Good evening! This week, our theme is neon, so I have a bright neon mani for you today! I started off with a white base for this ones, to make the colors brighter, and used a few colors from the China Glaze neon collection from last year.

I did an axtec pattern over top of stripes of neon using my striping polish from Orly called Jet Black, and my Sally Hansen nailart pen in Black. The colors I used for the background are China Glaze Glow With The Flow, DJ Blue My Mind, Red-y To Rave, and Violet-Vibes. I used Pure Ice SuperStar! underneath to make the colors pop.

Please make sure you visit the other people who posted their neon manis for this week's prompt! There are bound to be tons of ideas in there for some great summer nailart. :) Thanks for stopping by!

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas - 3 Shades of Red/Orange

Hi everyone. I have a challenge post for you all today. This week's theme required three shades of red or orange, so I picked three polishes and just did a little bit of stamping, then made a decal for one nail, adding in a bit of glitter.

I started off with Zoya Paz for my base. It is a bright orange, leaning neon, and my camera kind of couldn't capture the true color, so just imagine this shade with neon glow! :P I added stamping using Mundo de Unas Red and It Girl plate IG 103. After that, I made myself a quick decal using the same things, but painted in alternating bits using Bear Pawlish Light My Fire.

Here is what Paz looks like by herself. This polish actually dries to a matte finish, but I was in a hurry getting out the door, so I had to use fast dry topcoat on them.

Ok, that is all I have for you today! Thank you so much for visiting, and please make sure you check all the other red and/or orange manis below!

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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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Rainbow Honey January 2016 Mystery Bag

Hello and happy Thursday! It's Friday-Eve, so that means the weekend is almost here! Woooooo! Today, I have for you my mystery bag from Rainbow Honey! I got two full-size polishes this month, a lip balm, lip scrub, and whipped cream soap.  The lip stuff is cucumber melon scented and smells so good. I haven't used the soap yet, but I really like the concept. :D

This first polish is Called Planet M. It is a lovely deep magenta pink with tiny iridescent flakies, and blue shimmer. I did two coats here with one coat of topcoat.

The stamping was done using Mundo de Unas Sunflower and BM-XL29. Man I love my MdUs, they are my favorite!

The other polish I received is called Caramel Forest. It is a glitter topper with orange metallic hexes, large white squares, small black and gold hexes, and gold flakies and shimmer. It is shown here over Rainbow Honey Mr. Saturn. It's super sparkly in person. I did two coats and then added topcoat.

Thank you so much for looking today. I will be back on Friday or Saturday with this week's challenge post for the Nail Tarts!

Thanksgiving/Fall Nailart

Hi everyone! I have some Turkey Day nailart for you today. It is really just a fall manicure, but it feels festive to me! Since I have lots to do, this is going to be a short post - mostly pics!

I used Butter London Chuffed for my base, then stamped over top using Mundo de Unas Yellow and Reddish. The stamp I used for the leaves pattern is Bundle Monster's BM-H11. The acorn was a fail, but there is no time for  a redo. I made the mistake of not testing it out first, and the brown polish I tried to use was no good...so I just stamped over top with a different brown thinking I could line it up, but I was sorely mistaken! Haha! The acorn image is from BM-H12.

Here is what Chuffed looks like on it's own. So much lovely gold shimmer peaking through this orange jelly! This is three thin coats.

Thank you so much for looking. Have a happy Thanksgiving, and I will be back this weekend!

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Halloween

For this week's prompt the Crumpet's Nail Tarts are all do Halloween manis! I saw a mani a while back on instagram from @nailsbycambria that I really wanted to try to recreate, so I did. Her nail art had yellow and green eyes, but I wanted red because that seems scarier to me, so I went with an orange and red combination using Barielle Joytini and Revlon Fearless. The rest of the mani was done using Pure Ice Black Rage. Take a look at how it came out!




Here is what the mani looked like before I sponged on my gradient and drew in the eyes. :)

Thank you so much for looking. Make sure you check out what everyone else did for their Halloween manicures!

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Orange, Purple, & Green

Woo happy Friday! It's week 4 of The Crumpet's Nail Tart's latest challenge, and we are all sporting manis with orange, purple, and green polish. Since it is so close to Halloween, I decided to create a sponged base and stamp over top with Halloween images in black.

I used the "splodge" technique with Butter London Chuffed, Stroppy, and Dosh. I randomly sponged them all on, until my base looked like this.

I stamped over top using Konad Special Black and images from BM-XL29 and BM-H07.

Thank you so much for stopping by. Make sure you check out what everyone else did this week using these three colors!

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Rainbow Honey October 2015 Mystery Bag

I received yet another awesome mystery bag from Rainbow Honey this month and I'm loving everything in it. It came with three polishes, a lip balm, a tube of solid perfume balm, and a tube of aloe.

I haven't tried any other products in this bag aside from the polishes, so I don't have much to say about those, but I swatched all the polish, and they are so pretty! The first one I have to show off is My Midnight Garden. This is a dark blue jelly leaning slightly teal. It is packed with tiny silvery-iridescent  shard glitters. I did two coats here with no topcoat.

Next is Magic Brix. This is a dark orange polish with loads of gold shimmer. I did two coats here as well with no topcoat.

I did some quick nail art with Magic Brix and My Midnight Garden using my Loki's Nail Vinyls. :) These two colors look pretty good together!

Last we have La Isla Morada. This polish is a purple jelly with blue iridescent shimmer, white squares, bars, and  tiny circles, and black hexes and triangles. This is two coats with no topcoat.

Thank you so much for stopping by to read my blog today! I'll be back Friday with my first Halloween mani of the season!