Thursday, October 30, 2014

Halloween Skittles - Part 2


This is the second half of my Skittles mani!

  • For my thumb, I used Essie "Fear or Desire" and topped it with Funky Fingers "Glitter Matters." 
  • I did a gradient on my pointer with the yellow and orange from The New Black Runway collection, plus some red from Wet N Wild (no name on the bottle!). The stamp is #BMH06. 
  • The middle finger is another gradient - this time with Zoya "Happi" and Essence "Breakthrough." The stamp is another from the Bundle Monster holiday collection, #BMH07. 
  • For the ring finger I used "Bewitched" from Two Gypsies, and stamped with #BMH07.
  • Finally, my little pinkie is painted with the yellow from TNB Runway collection, and stamped with #BMH08. 
And that's it! 

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Halloween Skittles! Part I


Halloween is always a fun time of year for nail art peeps. There are so many cute ideas! I couldn't pick just one, so I decided to mix it up with a Skittle mani. I used 6 different stamps and 18 polishes, so I'm going to be breaking this up into 2 posts.


  •     I painted my thumb with NOPI "Always a Silver Lining" and stamped the adorable "Scary" stamp from My Online Shop stamp MJ#XXII. I sponged on a light black glitter polish (WnW Fergie "Rock N' Roll") around the stamp.
  •     The pointer is painted with Kleancolor "Neon Purple" and stamped with Salon Express white using stamp #m13
  •    My middle finger is a base of Essie (sorry no name on it), topped with Funky Fingers "Varsity Blue." I really like this glitter topper; it was too pretty to put anything over it. 
  •    The ring finger is Fresh Paint "Winning" stamped with Fresh Paint "Spruce Street" using Pueen stamp #PUEEN33. I added the little fimo Jack O' Lantern. I wanted it to look like a pumpkin patch, but it's kind of hard to see the vine stamping. Oh well. I still love the little pumpkin!
  •     Finally, for my pinky I used Whet "Facetious" with a light coat of the WnW "Rock N' Roll." I placed the little sequins on and topcoated them in. 
I don't normally wear skittle manis - I think they are cute, but something about the lack of symmetry on my own hands irritates me. I guess we will see how long this stays on :)


Tuesday, October 28, 2014

No Tricks, Just Treats




I am still raving about the Indigo Bananas polishes that I won. They are amazing!!! For this mani I used "Great Scott!" and added a little bit of Funky Fingers "Mirror Mirror" with a sponge around the tops of the nails, for a subtle gradient. For the tip of each nail, I used Red Angel stamp #RA105 to add a grassy look. I ended up filling in some of the spaces with a liner brush and black polish. In retrospect, I could have easily just painted on the grass, but I like using my stamps :) You can see in the pic below that I only used half of the image for the grass.
I wanted the houses to appear to have lights on, so I used the decal method. The house on the ring finger is from BM224, and the middle finger is from BM305. For the moon behind the house on the ring finger, I made another decal. I used the Christmas bulb from BM225, using only the circular shape of the bulb. I used a yellow from The New Black's Runway collection, and then added Funky Fingers "Lil Miss Sunshine" to give the moon some depth. I really like how the moon turned out :)
The bats are from Bundle Monster stamps #BM13. I used a portion of a stamp from #BM224 on my pinky and thumb that looks like branches. I used #BM13 again to create the spider and web on my thumb.
Finally, I was pleasantly surprised when I went to bed last night - my nails were glowing!!! I am going to try to get a pic :)

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Walking Dead Nails

Out of all the nail art I have done (so far), I would have to say these are probably my favorite. First and foremost, I must state that I cannot take credit for this design. I had someone make a request for a set of Walking Dead nails, so I did a search. I am not personally a Walking Dead fan, so I wasn't really "feeling" the theme and desperately needed some inspiration. When I saw this from CopyCat Claws, I knew this was the design I wanted to do with.  You can read her article on how to achieve this look - I followed her script pretty closely, except that I stamped the hands on with a Bundle Monster plate (BM-H08). 

My client was thrilled. When I posted them on my Instagram account, I was estatic to get a comment from Rob Nguyen (from the Nailed It show) - ok maybe not exactly a comment but it was recognition!





Sunday, October 19, 2014

This Sh*t is Bananas!



I was blessed to win a giveaway in which I received 3 small Indigo Bananas polishes of my choice, along with a cuticle balm. One of my three pics was Perfect Night - a purple jelly with blue flakies. This is flippin' gorgeous!!!! I have gotten more complements on this polish than any other I have worn. I added some rhinestones, pearls and caviar beads, and stamped a couple nails with plate BM502 from the Sunkissed Bundle Monster collection. I just love the blue and purple together. I apologize that my picture sucks (I am working on that, I swear!) - you can't tell how amazing this color is.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month



I had a more detailed mani in mind, but every time I would sit down to work on it, something would go wrong -- one time a stink bug landed on my pinky and drug his nasty little legs through my wet polish. After 3 tries, I gave up and decided to go with something simple. I painted the base with Nicole by OPI in "Still into Pink." This is a matte polish, and I wanted to love it, but I needed something a little more, so  I added a thin coat of Wet N Wild "Break the Ice" to add just a little shimmer. I popped on some rhinestones for the bow, added a few hearts, and there you have it!

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Inspired by ... Tarte



Today's mani is inspired by the packaging for the Tarte Rainforest After Dark palette.
I started with Kleancolor in Neon Purple, and stamped the snakeskin pattern (BM224) with LA Colors in Reckless. The snake is from Winstonia plate W03, and it's stamped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Style Steel.  I am also sporting a new nail shape - I am working myself into an almond shape.

 I LOVE this mani. It turned out rockin'. :) The pics could be better, but I am working on that.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Purple is my Passion

I love purple. The majority of my wardrobe and my surrounding elements are purple. My hair has been purple on several occasions. If I had a quarter for every person I wanted to slap when they said "gee, do you like purple? (insert dorky smile)" - I would be set. This mani was done with The New Black's purple ombre set.  There were 5 small bottles, so each finger got it's own shade. I went back through, reversing the color pattern, and stamped each nail with MoYou's Pro Collection #12 plate.  The result: not bad for some nubs! Vive la Violet!