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

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!

Acid grunge wash- inspired by tutorial

My ruffian mani, while I liked it, quickly bored me and I really wanted to try out the acid grunge wash look I'd seen on Just Tis Ems blog here, so I did, I used some pretty bright colors (China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, Sinful Colors Innocent, Sinful Colors Hazard over Revlon Royal and Sinful Colors Dream On). Innocent (the green) didn't really show up as much and that kind of bummed me out, but I still was super pleased with the results.

What do you think? Have you tried this look?

Neon Ruffian

I'm home from school! So I should have more time to post. Good news is, I'm only four manis away from being up to date with my blog.

I've seen the Ruffian mani around the internet and wanted to try it out. It's been bright and sunny, so I wanted to do something bright too. Who am I joking, I always want to use bright colors all the time. Hahaha.

Here's my Ruffian mani using Sinful Colors Dream On and Revlon Royal. Layering Royal over Dream On did darken it up a bit, but it ended up alright.

What on earth are all those little specks!? They only showed up on camera. Hmm....

There is a part two to this mani (I get bored easily, lol) that should be up later tonight.

Thanks for reading!

Wet n Wild Silvivor with dots!

I got some new dotting tools in the mail a while ago and decided to do a dot-only design. Here's what I came up with!

Two coats Wet n Wild Silvivor with Sinful Colors Dream On and China Glaze Aquadelic

I don't think it's half bad, for my first try. I'm sure I'll get better as I use them more. It was more difficult to get uniform dots than I thought!

Thanks for reading :]

Mermaidesque nail art

I'm at work with all my tasks completed... what to do, what to do? Blog about nails of course :P

Today's post is mermaid themed, loosely. Picture first, then I'll ramble on about it for a while...

Index/pinky: Two coats Wet n Wild Caribbean Frost, two coats Sinful Colors Nail Junkie
Thumb/middle/ring: Two coats Zoya Cho base
Rings/sponging thumb/middle/ring: Revlon Plum Night, Zoya Faye, China Glaze Aquadelic
China Glaze Flyin' High, Wet n Wild Caribbean Frost, Revlon Gold Coin, Zoya Bevin

I USED SO MANY POLISHES! Geez, I didn't realize I had until I had to type them all up... :O

I really like the way Faye sponged onto the nail. It turned out just a really faded purple with that green-y gold sheen. Super pretty. The circle pattern is just something I usually end up doodling on the margins of all my notes in class, so I did it in colors on my nails. It was pretty time consuming. I thought it would end up looking kind of mermaid-y so I used Nail Junkie for glittery fun. Merp.

Tell me what you think! Thanks for reading :3

Layering experiment with Nubar 2010 and Pure Ice Oh! Baby

So alright. I have a bit of a problem with having things in chronological order, and as such, I have been posting in the order in which I wore these manis, with the exception of the Neverland Nail Blog nail art contest and just a couple others. This isn't necessarily something that is important, I just wanted to throw it out there I guess, since today it's rainy and grey and sad outside but the pictures I'm posting today are from the end of March when it was nice outside! Hahaha.

Today's post is a layering experiment! I always love doing these kinds of things because I never really know how they're going to turn out. For this, I used one coat Sinful Colors Black on Black, two coats Pure Ice Oh! Baby, one coat Nubar 2010, one coat Oh! Baby, one coat Nubar 2010. In that order. :P 


All pictures were taken outside in the shade. I recommend clicking on them to make them bigger. :3

Straight on

At a slight angle, Nubar 2010 shift more obvious

Extreme angled back, Oh! Baby shift blue, purple, pink more obvious

Side shot! This way, you kind of get the whole effect.

I took these pictures over a span of about two days, so there is some pretty terrible chip wear... This mani didn't last to incredibly long since it was so thick. :/ It was fun while I had it on though.

What do you think? What's been your favorite layering combo you've tried?

Nail art with Zoya Rica!

I still consider myself fairly new to the polish world. I've been doing nail artsy type things for about a year and a half now, but I've only been collecting (hoarding? lol) polish for a few months. As such, I didn't own any Zoya polishes until their last buy three get three free. I would definitely own more, as they are such excellent quality and big 3 free, but I just don't have the money most of the time. One of the ones I picked up was Rica, and I am SO GLAD I did. I'm not a fan of orange-y polishes, but this tangerine-toned coral is to die for. Here it is on it's own, three coats, under artificial lighting.

GORGEOUS.

 I wanted to do something kind of funky and geometric, so I looked at this photo of some Keith Haring work for loose inspiration.

Here's how it turned out! I used Sinful Colors Black on Black and Snow Me White. I personally really like the thumb, index, and middle finger best. What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

"Do You Believe In Magic?" Neverland Nail Blog nail art contest!

When I saw this nail art contest, I knew I had to enter and do a unicorn inspired mani! I have a unicorn pillow pet and might even get a unicorn tattoo someday... We'll see though. :P Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. This is the first nail art contest I've entered, so I hope I did okay! Here are the pictures:

I used a load of colors, so I'll just list them all by finger.
Base on all: Cult Nails Let Me Fly
Ring and pinky: Cult Nails Clairvoyant (what unicorn mani would be complete without a good dose of Unicorn Puke?!)
Middle and thumb: Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet, Essie Pansy, OPI Planks a Lot, Makeup Store Greta (for some silver lining, hahaha)
Ring: Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet, Essie Pansy, OPI Planks a Lot, Sinful Colors Pull Over, Wet n Wild Teal of Fortune, Sally Hansen Black Out, Makeup Store Greta


I had a lot of fun doing this contest, and I hoped you all enjoyed it too! :3

Nail art with Spoiled Jewelry Heist

Hello everyone! Here's a mani with another Spoiled by Wet n Wild polish I picked up when it was two for $3, Jewelry Heist. I'm a sucker for glitter, and this one was DIVINE. I paired it with two colors that I thought went with the rosy pink hex glitters and the iridescent minty green square glitters, Sinful Colors Easy Going (two coats) and Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet (applied with a striping brush). I thought bringing a geometric pattern, pastel colors, and glitter all together was kind of funky. :3

Jewelry Heist applied like a dream. This is two coats over two coats of Sally Hansen Grey Area. See how glossy and shiny!? Not at alllll a hungry glitter. 

The only thing about it is I somehow managed to get a smush on my ring finger in between finishing top coating everything and taking pictures... Geeeeeez, Kalen. :P

Hope you enjoyed this mani as much as I did!

Blue Wants to Be a Millionaire

There are a lot of holo polishes out there, and I want to get my hands on all of them. Needless to say, this is quite impossible on a college student's budget. :P However, Wet n Wild never breaks the bank so I picked up Blue Wants to Be a Millionaire. It was a little sheer, so I layered it over Sinful Colors Savage to brighten it up. I wanted to see what some added holo would look like too, so I added some to my ring finger and thumb.

Sinful Colors Savage, Wet n Wild Blue Wants to Be a Millionaire, Warpaint Beauty White Noise

OPI Nail Envy, two coats Savage, two coats WWTBAM, one coat White noise ring/thumb

And of course, blurry holo is excellent. :3

Thanks for reading!