With and Without

Hey to everyone on this beautiful Friday! Next up in my journey to be up to date is this manicure from June 17, 2012. Despite this manicure being very old and my talents having grown since then, it is still one of my favorite manicures that I'm still very proud of.

I used Zoya Cho as a base, and Sally Hansen Cherry Red to freehand the French words for without (sans) and with (avec) in a medieval-type font and Sinful Colors All About Me for a splash of gold. I rather impressed myself with the dexterity I displayed on my right hand, having used my left hand of course.

There you have it, a mani that has stood the test of time for me (although I should have cleaned up my cuticles better!). 

Cheers!

xox

It has been literally forever...

...since I have posted anything! My life has just been chugging along. And now I should have a little more time to post somewhat regularly! Of course I say that but who really knows, maybe I'll fall off the face of the planet again.
In an effort to satisfy my need to have everything be in order and not miss things, I'm just going to pick up where I left off and post old manicures until I catch up to the present. As such, I'm sure I will be mortified at how less good I used to be at manicures! Oh well... posterity for posterity's sake.

This manicure is from over a year ago, June 13, 2012. I used two coats Cult Nails In a Trance with a loose black and gold glitter gradient. It reminded me of New Years when I did it... now it reminds me of a mani that looked good in my head and then I didn't like in the end. Cult Nails knows how to do a killer shimmer though!

So there you have it. The loose glitter all over the place renaissance of my blog. Cheers!

The 80's!

Okay, the mani in this post today I looooooved. I kept in on an entire week with minimal wear which, as far as I'm concerned that's like a miracle. The idea behind this came from OPI Pirouette My Whistle. The Walmart in the town where I go to school didn't have the NYC Ballet collection in for the entire time I was there, so when I came hom for the summer I finally grabbed it. I wanted to think of the perfect mani to use it for, and I wanted to do something different than what I'd seen. So, I did an edgy 80's thing instead of soft and delicate like the collection is. Here it is!

I used one coat Wet n Wild Black Crème, then did the triangles with French White Crème with Sally Hansen Frutti Petutie and WnW I Need a Refresh-Mint over, and covered it all with one coat Pirouette My Whistle. I did kind of have to place the white hex glitters, but other than that application was fine.
Can I just say one more time how much I loved this? :3

Thanks for reading!

Glass Pink and Simmer and Shimmer gradient

This post will be pretty simple. I thought that the shimmer in Sinful Colors Glass Pink would really pop under a super sparkly glitter so I paired OPI Simmer and Shimmer (from the Burlesque collection) with it. I did three coats Glass Pink and then went over the nail from the cuticle about three times with thin coats, covering less of the nail each time.

artificial light

artificial light

natural light

There wasn't as much VNL in real life... of course it showed up in the photos. :P I really loved how super shiny this combination was. So pretty!

What do you think? What's your favorite glitter gradient combo?

Polka dots and stripes

The same day as I did my last PRIDE manicure, I didn't want to go through all of the gradient stuff again, so I did something different on my right hand. Here it is!

I used one coat Wet n Wild French White Creme and then used tape to create stripes with Revlon Gold Coin. Then, I used Cult Nails Let Me Fly, Sinful Colors Hazard, Innocent, and Fun Times and a dotting tool for the dots. Pretty and simple, and it was pretty simple to do! 


Thanks for reading! :]

Pride nail art

Following the last post, I did another gradient nail but decided to go with a theme. Since this is Pride week here in Indy, it is fitting that this post lands in this week!
I did the same plastic-mix-sponge method that I used in my last post, except with five colors. I'll put the complete list down at the bottom.
Clean up was particularly nasty on this, so pardon the left over mess!

On a base of Wet n Wild French White Creme, Sinful Colors Be My Valentine, Orange Alert, Morning Breath and Revlon Emerald and Royal with Wet n Wild Black Creme for the letters

Thanks for reading!

Three color gradient

I've done sponge gradients before, but when I saw this tutorial by the Nailasaurus, I knew I had to try it out for myself. I started with a base of an older NYC no name pale yellow and then followed the tutorial using Zoya Bevin and Kendal. Kendal was a little too thin to cover as well with this method, but I just went over it a few times and it wasn't too bad. I had a lot of fun doing this mani using this tutorial! Super easy to follow. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!