Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Christmas in July - Last Look - Jewel Tones

Red and green is nice and all, but the colors I really like to see for holiday are the jewel tones. For this one I first laid down a really quick gradient, I mean really quick. Thanks to the pigmentation of the metallics, I just striped the colors across a makeup sponge and that was enough to do one hand


This is obviously a beauty on its own, and could be lovely any time of year. However, I decided to pull out my silver Color Club chrome, a great stamping polish, and lay down some snow flakes.


I decided to add a little star accent as well. This proved to be a really quick manicure thanks to the great metallic coverage.

Polishes used: Gelous base coat, Venique Retail Therapy (purple), Venique Rhinestone Stiletto (pink), the blue and green are unnamed Color Club's from a holiday scented gift set from Sally's in 2012, the silver chrome is also an unnamed Color Club.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Stained Glass Nail Art

I love jelly polishes. Love, love, love them. When I got to playing with my polishes one night I wanted to do something with them that wasn't my standby of either a glitter jelly sandwich or a stamping sandwich and that's where the stained glass idea came in.

It was surprisingly easy.



I do wish I had thought ahead a bit more with my 'random blobs', however it still worked out okay.


A few blobs here and there, let those dry and then take a liner brush and edge them with a pretty metallic, I used my fave Orly Luxe, or any polish of your choosing.

The Zoya jellies are my favorites and mostly what I used here. Paloma, Katherine, and Frida are all in play here. The orange is OPI's Y'all Come Back Ya Hear?

I did a terrible quick video tutorial on my instagram account, which can be found here.



Monday, July 28, 2014

Mint & Gold ::: Anchors & Bows

I love mint, white, and gold together. It is one of my all time favorite color combinations. Of course, that carried over to my nails. 

I decided to do a quick stamped look with Orly Luxe, my all time favorite gold polish, mixed with a mint/white ombre.


My pointer finger is two quick coats of Orly Luxe with no top coat. I used a makeup sponge to do a quick gradient with Milani White and Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet before I stamped them with Orly Luxe and a plate from Born Pretty Store, which can be found here. My pinky is two coats of Milani White and I used a dotting tool to add some dots of Orly Luxe. The stripes surrounding the bow on my ring finger were added by hand with a striping brush.

I originally had not planned on adding the stripes, but I slipped with my stamper my bow was a little off center and adding the stripes helps disguise that. Adding dots or stripes around a crooked stamp is a great trick to hide a flaw without having to completely start over.

Avengers Nail Art ::: The Lacquer Legion's July Themed Mani

If you're not familiar with The Lacquer Legion, then head on over to their Facebook page and check them out. The have an open monthly nail art challenge with a new theme each month, all tied neatly together with one universal hashtag so that it's easy to check out everyone's art.

This months theme was fandom, which is super fun as it is, but I had a hard time narrowing it down. With all of the fun Marvel stuff (my favorite) coming up and SDCC going on this weekend I figured I would go ahead and go with an Avengers themed manicure. 

While I had intended to go far more in depth with this, I just wasn't quite feeling up to it, but I still gave it my best shot.



I didn't want to do the 'usual' designs for many of these, so I tried to mix it up a bit, especially as I have done Avengers nails before.


I regret not slapping a matte top coat on my Coulson nail, as the shine hid much of the detail of the suit. I also regret the darkness of the purple on the Hawkeye nail. Ah, hindsight.


Sunday, July 27, 2014

Christmas in July - Feeling Blue

Here's another holiday look, very much like the one featured on Friday, but this one featuring blues and silvers. 


This manicure is also featuring a 3D Born Pretty Store charm, found here (#16), which was applied with a few dots of nail glue.

The 3D charm can go on any nail you choose, they just happen to fit my pointer nail perfectly so that is where I always place them.

Nail polishes used: Gelous base coat, Revlon Urban, OPI I Don't Give A Rotterdam, an unnamed Color Club silver, and INM Out The Door top coat.

A note on my top coat... As you can see the snowflake smeared a bit. This was one of my first times using this top coat for nail art and it smears like crazy. It's lovely for over solid colors and dries quickly, but over designs? It's a mess, so it won't be a repurchase for me.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Winged Eyeliner with Rimmel Scandaleyes Micro Eyeliner

Disclaimer: I received this product free as a reward for participation in reviewing other Rimmel items with Influenster. All opinions are my own.

I'm a sucker for a good liquid eyeliner. However, it can be easy to find some really bad liquid eyeliners, but this one right here definitely falls into the good category. 

It's in a marker form, which means it's easy to control, no pot to constantly dip into, or if you're unlucky, knock over. The tiny tip makes it super easy to make your line as thick or think as you would like. Want to draw on funky designs? No problem. It's so precise that doing extra fun flicks and tricks is a breeze.


In this one you can see how easy it is to get super close to the lash line and draw a nice, smooth line.


As far as something more dramatic goes you can see how easily you can do something a bit more, like this feathered look. 

Learn more about it on Rimmel's site here. 

Friday, July 25, 2014

Christmas in July - Featuring Gold and Rhinestones

Whether it's Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas it is never too early to start thinking about holiday themed nail art in my world. Nail It! Magazine announced that they'd be accepting holiday nail art on their instagram, see here, so I started getting in that mode. 

Here is a very simple look featuring a mix of solid nails with some 3D accents. 


The rhinestones are simply attached and then covered with topcoat.


The large 3D charm is from Born Pretty Store, found here. That particular charm is style #6. I attached the charm with a few dots of nail glue.

Polishes used were: Gelous base coat, Nicole Challenge Red-y, Milani 510 3D, Avon Nailwear Pro Noir Emerald, INM Out The Door Top Coat

Thursday, July 17, 2014

New address, new title, new, new, new

While I have done a TERRIBLE job at keeping up with this blog I have renamed it, changed the title, and updated everything. If you bookmark this baby please update your bookmarks. I am going to get bloglovin' switched over shortly.

I have quite a few posts worked up so that this sad, neglected blog can finally roll a little bit.

Stay tuned!