City Skyline Nail Art

Hey guys! I went to New York City this past week for a visit to the Museum of Natural History, and I did my nails to match!

These are my city skyline nails...

Here's how I did it:

I started off by doing a sunset gradient. I used a makeup sponge and blue (Sinful Colors Blue By You), pink (Sinful Colors Cream Pink), and yellow (Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, the original). 

I then used black (Sinful Colors Black on Black) and created buildings by stroking down with the brush. Using the same yellow, I used a tiny dotting tool to make windows. I then finished off with topcoat.

Done!

I love the Museum of Natural History. The human origins exhibit is my favorite. Have you ever been there? What's your favorite exhibit?

XOXO

Is

Sinful Colors Midnight Blue

Hi guys! Today I have a quick swatch to show you. This beauty is Sinful Colors Midnight Blue.

Perfect in two coats, this dark blue had a gorgeous lit-from-within glow.

My camera couldn't capture the depth it has, but the next photo is closer to reality....

The flash really shows off its depth.

I'm thinking this'll look great mattified. Thoughts?

XOXO

Is

I've Got the Blues: Two-Tone Nail Art

Hi guys! How are you all on this lovely day? Today I have some simple nail art to show you.

Look, it's light blue!

No, it's dark blue!

No! It's...two-toned!

For this manicure I started off with the beautiful but streaky Essie Bikini So Teeny, the light blue. (Three coats.) I used a small paintbrush and Sally Hansen Pacific Blue (the original, bright, medium blue) to section off half of my nail and filled it in. Then, using a dotting tool and OPI Happy Anniversary! (a sheer white pearly shimmer) to make dots at the midpoint between the two blues. I finished off with Wet n Wild's matte topcoat and then added NYC Grand Central Station topcoat on the dots for some shiny contrast. 

The great thing about this nail art is that the sectioning doesn't have to be perfectly neat because you are covering the midpoint with dots. This look is very versatile. You can do it with any colors and maybe even use studs instead of dots down the center! What do you think?

XOXO

Is

Be There or Be Square!

In this case it's "be there or be round..."

Say hello!

The great debut of my Roundies. (Wearing OPI Bubble Bath with Wet n Wild's matte topcoat and two Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art studs.) I enjoy this; yes I do. Subtly chic and trendy.

I broke a corner the other day, and Marta of Chit Chat Nails rounded off her nails too, so it seemed like a good time.

A comparison:

OPI Yodel Me on my Cell on my viciously angular square nails. 

And now for some round spam!

Essie Style Cartel topped with OPI Comet in the Sky. Like a galaxy! Ooh... Ahh...

Sinful Colors Cream Pink. Most certainly not a cream... It's a hot pink with warm undertones and subtle gold shimmer in direct light. Girly!

OPI Do You Have This Color in Stock-holm with an accent of Funky Fingers Sand and Stilettos. I loved this mani!

So there you go! Be there or be square, guys... Except my Roundies are no longer here, lol. I kinda didn't like them after a few days and switched to squoval by squaring off the tips. Ah, there's nothing like the indecisiveness of a nail junkie...

Until next time! What is your favorite nail shape?

XOXO

Is

Essie Sparkle On Top Swatch and Review

Hola, chicas. Today I have a swatch of an Essie Luxeffects polish for you. It's fairly new; from the most recent sub-(?)collection of Luxeffects released in winter 2013. It's called Sparkle On Top.

This polish is a bit of a shard glitter/flakies hybrid, a little softer and denser than shard glitter, but sharper than flakies. This creates a sort of iced look, almost as if your nails were frosted with ice. Try layering it over brighter shades for a summer mani to keep your nails looking cool like an iced beverage; or layer it over darker shades for a look that puts winter frost on grass to shame. 

Formula wise, this polish is easily spreadable across the nail using a medium-thick coat, but the polish is indeed a bit thick. It covers perfectly in one coat. The base look of it is kind of like sharper flakies, but some larger shards may end up on the nail too. They have a cool-toned sheen, so this polish would probably look better over cooler-toned polishes.

Here it is over Essie Mod Square, an example of an awesome summer look. Mod Square has an even balance of warm and cool undertones, so it worked nicely.

And here it is over OPI Ogre the Top for a wintry mani. You can see that the blue-green reflections in Sparkle On Top go nicely with the cyan base.

That's all for today, chicas. Hope you enjoyed!

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XOXO

Is

Mermaid Scales Nail Art (Christabell Nails Recreation)

Hi guys! So today I was browsing around YouTube while sporting bare nails, a dangerous combination, and I happened to stumble upon a glorious video by Christabell Nails. She is a fantastic nail artist with a flair for freehand, and she's talented too. So when I found her video on Mermaid/Fish Scale nails, of course I had to try it out! She used a Rica polish that I would love to have, but unfortunately do not have, so I subbed another polish from my stash: Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe, a gorgeous dark blue jelly with emerald green and sky blue glitters (though I wish it had the bubbly effervescent circle glitters in Rica's polish). I simply followed Christabell's tutorial and it turned out great! This is three coats of Across the Universe with one coat of topcoat, followed by the design painted with my Hot Designs Nail Art Pen in white, sealed in with one more coat of topcoat.

My pinkie did get a little wonky... Oh well :P

These nails were pretty easy, and they look absolutely beautiful! 

Here's a link to Christabell's video, if you'd like to recreate it http://youtu.be/ALKPzA3BuBQ

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XOXO

Is

 

NOTD: Diagonal Nail Art

Hi guys! Today I have a NOTD to share with you.

This is the mani! I'll give a little how-to on it now. First, I applied my base coats (I use two for my needs, Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Hardener and Essie Grow Stronger) and let them dry COMPLETELY. Like, for two to three hours. However, if you don't have a lot of time or are impatient, skip the base coat. Next, I taped off the section of my nails that appears bare in the picture above with Scotch tape. I then painted the open section of my nail with Sally Hansen Sun Kissed (the orange polish) and removed the tape immediately. I let that dry COMPLETELY (like one hour) before moving on to the next step. I then taped off the bare section of my nails again, but this time I INCLUDED a small stripe of orange under the tape. Then, I used Essie In the Cab-ana and painted the open section and removed the tape immediately. I let that dry for a little while and then used my dotting tool to add small white polka dots to the orange stripe, to add some pizazz. I finished with Essie's Good To Go topcoat, and voila!

This is a nice mani to sport if you want to use two contrasting colors. Some cool color combos would be green and pink, yellow and purple, coral and mint, etc., which are all opposites on the color wheel. 

But experiment and be creative!

Like I said before, part of the reason why I was so excited to do this mani for the first time in months was because it was one of my first nail arts! So now I'll show you the picture of that first mani, the humble beginning. Brace yourself, because admittedly my nails are cuticles weren't in great shape. I was a nail-biter for years, and the cutes weren't in great shape either. So here it is!

Yup. That was months ago, way back when I had no base or top coat, no cuticle oil, and hadn't completely beat the habit yet. But I have a soft spot for this mani, and I did an awesome job for this first attempt, I must say.

This is in of the reasons why I like taking pictures of my manicures. I see all of the colors and designs I liked and executed, but I also see how I have improved.

So that's it for this post! I hope it has inspired you to recreate one of these manis.

What was your first attempt at a nail design, and how'd it go over?

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XOXO

Is

NOTD: Faux Stud Manicure and Essie Lots of Lux Swatch and Review

Hi guys! So I came up with an awesome new mani yesterday! Here it is:

This picture was taken in the sunlight.

Ok, in the picture it doesn't look that spectacular, but I assure you, it's glorious.

I used two polishes: The blue is Essie Lots of Lux (part of their winter 2013 Encrusted Treasures collection) and the silver dots are Essie No Place Like Chrome (from their Mirror Metallics collection).

So first, let's start off with the review! Essie Lots of Lux is actually a textured polish! The finish is similar to that of OPI's Liquid Sands, meaning that the finish looks like liquid sand! (You don't say!) It's a medium-dark blue polish and the "sand" is a medium blue. It dries to a matte finish, but there are flecks of different colors in it as well that sparkle and glint beautiously! (I know, that's not a word, but...) The most prominent sparkles are light blue. The next most visible sparkles are yellowish-green. I know, it sounds kind of weird to have that color in a blue polish, but it actually adds some really nice, subtle contrast. There are also very few green sparkles in there, but I'm not sure if those are just the yellow ones in a different light.

Here's a picture of the bottle. I made it blurry on purpose so you can easily see the different colored sparkles.

Here's an in-focus bottle shot.

If you see any other colors in there that I missed, great! Let me know in the comments.

Ok, let's talk application now. This polish is very thick (because it's textured) which made it a little tricky to apply. It spread out on the nail ok, but the strokes were a little hard because the thickness of the polish "grabbed" a little. It dried pretty fast, though!

This polish is not intended to be used with a topcoat, so I didn't apply one. However, the next time I use this polish I might! Check out the Polishaholic's swatch of Lots of Lux with a topcoat here, along with the other polishes in the Encrusted Treasures collection!

Now, let us explore nail art possibilities. 

I call this mani the Faux Stud manicure, and you will see why.

Check out this picture again. The dots are not just dots! In actuality, they are the "faux studs!" You have probably seen a LOT of studded manis floating around online lately, because nail studs are a HUGE trend right now! However, if you're like me and want to take part in this trend but don't have the studs, read on!

You will need two (or three) polishes to achieve this look. The first one must be a matte polish. You may use a regular polish with a matte topcoat if that is what you have, though (this is where the third polish would come in: the matte topcoat). The next polish must be a chrome polish. Chrome polishes are usually very opaque and leave a smooth, metal-like finish. I used Essie's No Place Like Chrome. 

This manicure is really simple. Just paint your nails with your matte polish and let it dry. Then, take a dotting tool and make three dots with your chrome polish on either side of your nail, on all of your nails. If you don't have a dotting tool, I have two alternatives for you. First, you could use a toothpick, just make sure you pick up a sufficient amount of polish so the dot isn't too small. Second, you could take a regular pencil and stick a straight pin into the eraser! This is actually what I use, I just took a number two pencil with the eraser intact and stuck a pin in it. Quite easy, really.

Don't finish off with a topcoat on this design, as you want to keep the matte matte and the chrome shiny.

I can think of some really cool color combos for this mani! A cool one would be matte navy blue (such as Essie Bobbing for Baubles with a matte topcoat) with copper dots (maybe with Essie Penny Talk) to imitate jeans! That would look pretty slick. Or for a punk biker look, opt for a matte black (like OPI Black Onyx with a matte topcoat) with silver dots (using Essie No Place Like Chrome). Or, get creative and use whatever polishes you have! You really can't go wrong with this simple but chic mani. 

Well, that's it for this post! See you soon!

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XOXO

Is

Jelly Sandwich Manicure Tutorial

HELLO EVERYBODY!! I'm feeling pretty peppy right now! Anyone else? Today was just a good day. And it's Friday! It's a bonus!

So! Onto the manicure!

You're probably scratching your heads and wondering what a jelly sandwich is. First, let's start out with the basics: What is a jelly nail polish? This type of polish is sheer, with a gooey, shiny finish. Here are two of the best descriptions I've seen so far: "Imagine applying a thin layer of red jello to your nail. That's what a red jelly polish sort of looks like! Some describe this as 'squishy,' meaning that it looks like you could squish a jelly polish (like jello)." -Nouveaucheap.blogspot.com. "...jellies are like lip gloss for nails while cremes are like lipstick." -blog.birchbox.com. So there you have it! Now, a jelly sandwich is a manicure technique in which you sandwich a layer of glitter polish between a jelly polish. This makes the glitter look suspended in the polish, similar to the look of fruit trapped in a gelatin mold.

So here we have a diagram of a jelly sandwich. As you can see, the bottom layer is jelly polish, the middle is glitter, and the top is jelly.

And now, onto the tutorial.

STEP ONE: GATHER YOUR SUPPLIES

The first thing you will need to do is gather your supplies. If you are giving yourself a full-on manicure, get whatever materials you need for that. (I might do a post on my mani routine at some other point in time.) For this nail design, here's what you'll need: A base coat of choice (I use Essie Grow Stronger), your jelly polish (I will be using Essie Bouncer It's Me), your glitter polish (I will be using Essie Set In Stones), and your top coat of choice (I use Milani Quick Dry Topcoat). Note: For your manicure to come out looking right, choose a glitter polish with fairly large glitters and a clear base. It's okay if there are tiny glitters mixed in as well, just make sure that there are some big ones in there. A cool alternative to the regular square or hex glitter is to choose a polish will shapes in it, like stars, hearts, or other shapes.

STEP TWO: PREPARE THE NAILS

If you are giving yourself a full-on, luxurious mani, go ahead do so. You might want to cut and/or file your nails, push back your cuticles, etc. Once you do this, apply your base coat.

STEP THREE: ADD TWO COATS OF JELLY POLISH

 Paint your nails with two coats of your jelly nail polish. This will be the first layer of your jelly sandwich.

STEP FOUR: ADD GLITTER POLISH

This glitter will be the middle layer of your jelly sandwich. Depending on the density or "glitter payoff" of your chosen glitter polish, you may want to do one or two coats. The polish I used is the right amount of glitter for me, so I just did one coat.

STEP FIVE: ADD ONE COAT OF JELLY POLISH

This will create the "sandwiched" effect. Pretty cool, huh?

STEP SIX: ADD A TOPCOAT

A glossy shine is just what this mani needs to give it even more depth.

That's it! You're done!

I absolutely LOVE this manicure, and I will definitely be trying it out again soon. Just for fun, I added a satin (semi-matte) topcoat on it later.

 Ehh. It kinda took away the depth. I wouldn't recommend it. 

One more quick tip: If you haven't heard of jelly polishes before, take a look through your collection and see if you have any sheer polishes. They may be jellies, and you never even knew! I had about three jellies in my collection already that I wasn't even aware of! 

That's it for this post. I hope this tutorial was helpful. Good luck with your jelly sandwich manicures!

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XOXO

Is