Water Decals

I think it was last year, but I bought a set of 20 different water decal full nail strips, and here's one of them:

June/01/2013

This weekend was really busy so I needed to do something really fast, and these water decals are good for those days. It took me about 20 minutes to get these all done, they are a little tricky to work with though.

Have a good week!

Butterflies and Rosebuds: Swatch

Here's another Julie G. by Jesse's Girl polish swatch:

"Butterflies and Rosebuds"

Indoors.

 This is a beautiful metallic magenta. It's a great combination of pink and purple, and metallic shimmer.

Direct Sunlight.

This is with 2 coats, it went on nice and smooth with no streaking. It dried nice and quick too. This colour also maintains a nice gloss to it once dried.

I'll update on the wear once I've worn it longer.

Tokyo Nights: Swatch

Another of my Julie G. by Jesse's Girl polishes.

"Tokyo Nights" by Jesse's Girl

Indoors.

 "Tokyo Nigthts" is, in my opinion, the perfect shade of navy blue. It's dark, but not too dark, and it's a creme finish, no shimmer, metallic or glitter mixed into it.

Direct Sunlight.

This is 2 coats, it went on smooth and easily, no streaking to be found. It dried fairly quickly too, which was nice.

I'll update on the wear and tear once I've had a chance to break it in.

Matte Leopard

The base colour I used is a frankenpolish, I combined Orly's "Coffee Break" with "Fois Gras" by China Glaze and some white polish to get a grey-ish taupe colour. I topped it with some pale gold paint and added the leopard spots. I went with a matte top coat this time instead of a glossy one because I wanted to test it's staying power.

Cabana Boy: Swatch

Here's another shade from my swatching day.

"Cabana Boy" by Jesse's Girl

Indoors.

 This is a nice blue creme. Solid, with no shimmer. Although this tends to be less of a bright blue in person, it's still a really nice shade.

Direct Sunlight.

Now this is much closer to the actual colour, but it's still not exact.

I don't know how well this wears yet, I'll update on it once I've worn it for a while.

Sonic Bloom; Swatch

Another to add to my swatches, I present to you:

"Sonic Bloom" by Sally Hansen

Sonic Bloom is from Sally Hansen's Fast Dri collection, its a reddish coral shade that is really bright and cheerful for summer. It leans closer to red/pink than some coral shades which I find are more orange. Dry-time is great, they are also super opaque, and wear really well as you can see this is 4 days worth of wear. Be careful though, if this bleeds into your cuticle area like mine, it's going to stick around for a while.

Water Spotted

Have you seen that water spotted effect going around? I thought it was pretty cool looking so I figured I'd give it a shot for myself.

The base here is "Pastel Teal" by Kleancolor, I did the spotted effect in "Inky" by O.C.C. and used some acetone to get it to look more like I wanted. I like the end results, although the actual water spotting didn't quite come out like Simple Little Pleasure's on youtube. I guess I will have to try spraying the alcohol closer to get larger spots. All in all, I like the way this turned out.

Also, my index finger doesn't have any polish on it because I recently managed to slice it open on a dust jacket (book cover), and since it's pretty deep I'd like to avoid getting acetone in it.

Pink Galaxies

These looked much better in person, the "Fairy Dust" made them really come to life. For these I was inspired by Black Milk Clothing's  Pink Galaxy Leggings (you can see them here).

The colours I used for these nails are: "Black Creme" and "French White Creme" by Wet n' Wild; "Ahoy!", and "Evening Seduction" by China Glaze; and "Fuchsia Fever" Bye Revlon. I topped them off with some "Fairy Dust" (China Glaze) and "Disco Ball" (Covergirl).

Spring Flowers

It's officially spring!!! I'm so happy! Finally this snow shall melt and lead to beautiful flowers and double digits! To ring in the spring, here's a floral manicure!

March/31/2013

I apologize for the photo quality, I was in a rush and didn't manage to get a good photo of these with my proper camera before running out the door.

The base colour I used was "Don't Touch My Tutu" by OPI. With some purple and blue flowers done in acrylic paint. Very simple, and fast, although I plan to revisit this in the future, next time I will make the colours brighter looking.

Orly "Va Va Voom"; Swatch

I like neon pinks, seeing as I have a few in my stash.

This is "Va Va Voom" by Orly. It's blindingly bright in person, and it was tough getting a decent photo of these. As you can see it dries to a rubbery matter finish. It wears well, no major chips or sudden chunks missing. It is a bit sheer though, so I used about 3 thickish coats. The formula was quite nice and it dried fairly quickly too. Overall a wonderful neon pink, for when you feel like having loud nails.

China Glaze "Naked"; Swatch

Today's swatch is China Glaze's "Naked". A nice barbie pink with very subtle shimmer.

Naked by China Glaze

Firstly, pardon my index finger, I managed to dent it. Now then, this is a very nice sort of Barbie Pink shade with a subtle silver shimmer to it. This was with 3 coats as it's a bit sheer, but 2 thick coats and it would go on opaque. It dries quickly which is usual for China Glaze lacquers. It wears well, as you can see this photo was taken 2 days after regular work wear, and only a little tip wear is seen. This one dries to a satiny finish.  All in all, Naked is a very pretty pink. 

Also, Happy Valentine's Day!

Border Love

I have my final Valentine's Day nail art of this year for you.

From the side.

Frontal View.

The base colour for these is "Ahoy!" by China Glaze, with a champagne coloured paint used for the little hearts everywhere. I had the idea to do a vertical border on one side and I think it turned out nicely.

I hope you enjoy and have a good week!

OCC Inky; Swatch

I've got another swatch for you today, this time it's
Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics' "Inky".

"Inky" by OCC

Inky, is a very dark shade of blue, it's almost black it's so dark. It wears wear, but will stain if you go without a basecoat. I used 2 coats here, but with 1 thick coat it would be just as opaque, one of the reason's I'm loving OCC's Nail lacquers lately.

Have a Good Weekend!

Swatch: China Glaze Lemon Fizz

So today right when we were leaving work, we got hit with a blizzard. White-outs and black outs in some places in my city. Pretty scary driving home today.

But, I have a cheery yellow swatch for you:

January/30/2013

This is China Glaze's "Lemon Fizz" a nice pale, pastel, yellow creme. Took 3 coats, and I found some minimal streaking. This is a great colour for Easter nails. It's wearing pretty well, I've had very little wear on the tips, and the colour is very nice and soft. You might be wondering about the pinky finger. I got anxious and picked it off, also I apologize for the state of my cuticles, winter is being tough.

Purple Clouds

These next few weeks are going to be hell, but here are some quick and easy clouds for you!

These were done with "Flying Dragon(Neon)" by China Glaze, "Silver Sweep" (Sally Hansen), and "Black Creme" by Wet n' Wild. Really simple, really quick, and super cool.

There won't be much posting for these upcoming weeks, but hopefully once my hours drop down again, I'll have some more time to spend on my nails.

Have a good week!

One Stroke Roses

Happy Monday! Here's a simple one for you!

Nov/25/2012

Base colour is Butter London's "Come to Bed Red" with only 2 coats so you can still see the free edge. These are just some one-stroke roses I did, you can find tutorials for them all over youtube. I'm not overly fond of them as they look bulky, and I don't really like my nails to look bulky. 

Peacock Inspired by Robin Moses

Peacock nails, these are Inspired by Robin Moses.

Nov/18/2012

The colours for these are "Silver Sweep" by Sally Hansen, and "Evening Seduction" by China Glaze.
The feathers are hand painted.

Happy Monday!

Nude Bling

Happy Monday!

Nov/10/2012

Nothing fancy this Monday, just a simple solid of "Touch of Mauve" by Revlon. With some added bling on the ring and thumb finger nails.

Flashback Friday: Christmas Marble

These colours together make me feel very festive. Even though this was done in September I think it goes well with the holidays.

Sept/20/2012

The colours I used were my own made frankenpolish: White Gold, and the red is "Hey Sailor!" by China Glaze. It turned out beautifully, despite how horrible some of my water marbles turn out, I especially love the middle and index fingers.

Unicorn Barf

Somewhat low-key today. It was a toss up between this and some red-gold filigree. But C was excited when I mentioned Unicorn Barf, so that seemed like the better choice.

So I tried that PVA-glue basecoat idea for the glitter accent nail. We'll see how easy it is to remove after a few days. And I'm sorry for the blurred pinky, this was the best photo out of the bunch.


"Pastel Teal" Kleancolor
"Aurora" Kleancolor
"Pastel Yellow" Kleancolor
"Tickled Pink" Wet n' Wild
"Syngergy" L.A. Girl Glitters
"French White Creme" Wet n' Wild

Enjoy! And have a Happy Monday!