Pastel Leopard Print Nails

I did this mani for the 52 week Challenge. You can find the link to that in the sidebar ---> The themes this week are "negative space" and "three pastels." I already completed the negative space mani, and since I just got a a mini set that contains a pastel blue, I decided to use that as a base.

I actually made my very first nail art video tutorial for this manicure, but I am trying to figure out how to splice two videos together to finish it so it can be published on YouTube. I am clueless! I have some research to do...

I think one turned out pretty good. It could have been more perfect, but it's hard to do your nails while recording! Such a weird angle to work at.

Leopard print is always fun to do. With this one I used two pastels colors to make the spots, Pure Ice "Love" and "Lacquered Lilacs." I combined the two colors for the middle spots. It was just a weird experiment, but it turned out pretty neat.

I topped it off with my Seche Vite fast drying top coat, and that was it. 

Today I will be working on the "He Picks My Polish" challenge! You can find a link to that in the sidebar as well!

Ta-ta for now...

An InLinkz Link-up

Shimmery Needle Drag Manicure with Revlon Colors

This was a new technique to me, and it turned out to be really fun! The first two attempts, I used lacquer that dried too quickly and got sticky and stringy. I was using Pure Ice "Dollface" and "Love." Not good options for this technique.

I was determined and started over with two Revlon colors, "Ocean" and Extravagant." Two new additions to my collection. Lovely colors and great formulas.

I started with a clear base coat, then a coat of "Extravagant."

Once my base color was dry, I used a thick coat of Extravagant" on one half of my nail, and a thick coat of "Ocean" on the other half. I then dragged a needle across the two colors, alternating side to side. I repeated this on every finger.

 

 

 

I then topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite.

 

 



 





There's so many designs you can do with needle pulling, and I plan on trying a few more.

 

I hope you enjoy this fun mani!

An InLinkz Link-up

Bubblegum Pink With Rainbow Glitter

I love this. It's just cute and girly. It's like candy for my fingertips. I think it's worth being part of my Valentine's Day manicure collection. It says, "I love my fingers so much that they deserve this cuteness."

Not much else to say, since I'm really just talking to myself on this blog, but if you see it...I hope you enjoy it.

Pink and Aqua Manicure

I must admit that I love how this turned out. It's so very feminine. I am calling it my "Barbie Manicure." It took me all day to do this, due to the fact that I have a five month old who loves to be snuggled.

I started out with one coat of pink, but quickly realized it would take many coats to get full coverage. So I quickly slapped on one really thick coat of the pink, and topped it off with another thick coat. It was a difficult polish to work with.

The colors I used are: Wet n Wild Wildshine "Tickled Pink" and Sally Hansen Hard as Nails "Celeb City."

I was trying to come up with something creative to do with the "pink and aqua" prompt, even trying swatches of several aqua polishes on paper. I wanted to do aqua roses with delicate green foliage in a pretty floral pattern on one nail, the rest accented with my new silver glitter polish. Or perhaps, aqua candy cane stripes with silver glitter accents.

Nope. "Ain't nobody got time for that." At least not me, anyway.

At 9pm this Mama was tired, and sick of trying to make the decision. So I grabbed my favorite silver polish and the dotting tools. I made one silver dot close to the base of each nail (with the intention to make more dots), but quickly realized that it was a crappy choice to do dotting with! The dots came out uneven. No biggy, I'm a sucker for rhinestones and I happened to have some little aqua rhinestones on hand. I plopped them in the dots before they dried and covered everything with a thick layer of fast drying top coat.

I've found that sometimes the most simple manicures give the biggest impact. When you focus more on the color, or a simple accent, that's what makes it really stand out.

Oh, and of course I have to mention my new, totally amazing engagement ring. Squeeeeee! How could I forget!

31 Day Challenge, Day 5 "Dotting Tools" Salmon with Black Dots

Just a very simple design with the dotting tools. My six year old daughter picked the base color. It's a weird color! It's a polish I picked up at Forever 21, and their polish doesn't seem to have names.

Honestly, I wanted to do something way more awesome, but I was in such a hurry again. I was lucky to get this done before the baby woke up. I wanted to add black decals, but I don't have any.

*le sigh*

The good thing is I am on schedule for the 31 day challenge.

Hmmmm, well that's it for now. I have a "half and half" mani to get done for today's challenge.

Bye for now!

31 Day Challenge, Day 1 "Follow a Tutorial"...Salt Manicure!

I LOVE watching this lady's YouTube videos. She makes things so simple. When I saw this I was like "Nuh-uh!!!" It's seriously cool. When I saw the "follow a tutorial" prompt I thought about this technique, but ended up looking for something more elaborate...just to go running back to this one. I HEART RealAsianBeauty! I'm totally a subscriber.

It was so easy!

Materials I used:

Base coat
Top coat
Nail polish
Table salt
Plate
Spoon
Paint brush
Acetone
Cup
Stiff make-up brush

1. Apply a base coat.
2. Once dry, apply a coat of polish.
3. While the polish is still wet, sprinkle salt all over your nail, making sure to cover every spot.
4. Press salt gently onto nail .
5. Let dry for a couple minutes.
6. Use paint brush to brush off any extra salt around nails
5. Apply fast drying top coat.
6. Use stiff make-up brush and acetone to remove any extra top coat that might have spilled over your cuticles.

...aaaaand DONE!

I plan on trying a lot of colors with this technique, but from what I've heard, light colors look best.

I hope you enjoy this post, and hey...why not give it a shot yourself?

31 Day Challenge, Day 3 "Water Spotting" Hot Pink = Summertime in Winter! (with instructions)

Here's my experience...

At first water spotting was pure hell! It took me about three hours to figure it out (with breaks because the baby was awake for part of the time...so more like six hours!) I tried using using two kinds of body spray and one hair shine spray to see what kind of product made the best "spots" in the top color. Your best bet? Rubbing alcohol. I just emptied out a small spray bottle and filled it with rubbing alcohol.

I practiced on my non-dominant hand with a pearly magenta base color. I tried five different top colors on five different fingers. I actually tried about 15-20 polishes, but some didn't spread on the water or the colors were not bold enough. I learned that the more contrast the better.

So I decided to try a white base. Yes, I cleaned up the edges with a make-up brush and acetone.

Then I got lucky and tried a really fun color, which is Pink Cream by Sinful Colors. It has a little bit of a pearl effect which looked pretty on top of he water.

I finally found the perfect materials and colors, and once that was done I thoroughly enjoyed the water spotting technique! I added a rhinestone to my ring finger (which I've come to realize is sort of my signature), slapped on a fast drying top coat and was very pleased with this vibrant manicure!

Here's the colors and some additional products I used to make things go a little smoother:

Base color - Sinful colors - Snow Me White
Top color - Sinful colors - Pink Cream
Base coat - Sally Hansen double duty base and top coat
Top coat - Sally Hansen Insta-Dri
Filtered water
Small bowl
Orange manicure stick
Isopropyl alcohol
Small spray bottle
Petroleum jelly
Wide paint brush
Baby wipes
Acetone
Elf make-up brush
Clear rhinestone
Nail glue

The Process

1. Use a small bowl, not too wide, and fill it with room temperature filtered water
2. Choose your colors and make sure your top color spreads on the water
3. Paint the petroleum jelly around your nail, up your front and back of finger and under your nail if you have long nails
3. Drop your top color into the water and watch it spread. I used about 6-8 drops per finger.
4. Hold the spray bottle back a bit, spray on top of the polish, watch the little bubbles form
5. Choose the spot that you like best, and dip your finger in at a 45 degree angle, nail facing down, keep finger in the water.
6. Blow on the nail polish floating in the bowl to dry it, then clean it out of the bowl with the orange manicure stick.
7. Once all the nail polish is removed from the water, pull your finger out.
8. Use baby wipe to clean up the nail polish and petroleum jelly that is on your finger.
9. Repeat these steps on all fingers.
10. Use a stiff (eye liner/shadow) make-up brush dipped in acetone to clean up and remaining polish on your cuticles or fingers.
11. Apply any appliques you may want to use.
12. Apply top coat.


That's how I did it and it worked great.

There it is, and now I kinda wish I was at the beach sipping on a fruity drink...and the kids were with a babysitter. A girl can dream, right?

I hope you enjoy, and if you have any questions about this manicure shoot me a comment down below. I'd love to hear from you!