Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Eff You!

I got the idea for this mani from The Nailasaurus. I've mentioned her before, but in case you haven't seen my previous posts, you must go see her nails! They are all amazing! She's at thenailasaurus.com. 

Also, the charms I used are from hexnailjewelry.com - they've got lots of fun and unique charms!

On to the mani deets! On the thumb and pinky, I started with a base of Zoya's Purity. When dry, I applied a strip of striping tape horizontally. On the bottom portion, I used Zoya's Dove, and on the top portion I used Zoya's Mira. **Be sure to remove striping tape before the nails are dry!! Otherwise they will stretch and get yucky!!** 

On the ring fingers, I did a base coat of Zoya's Dove. When dry I applied striping tape in an off-centered cross shape, then painted over that with Zoya's Jancyn.

On the pointer fingers, I used three coats of Essie's On A Silver Platter. 

On the middle fingers, I used Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics polish in Pool Boy. When the polish was dry, I applied a dot of nail glue and applied the F*ck You charm and the Middle Finger charm to the centers of the nails. 


Lacquer Legion May--Garden

This month's lacquer legion prompt was Garden, so for mine, I decided to do peas, radishes, carrots, tomatoes, and a bunny with the munchies! All polishes used are from Zoya.

For a base, I used Purity. For the peas, I used Josie and traced with Raven. The radishes are Tamsen, Josie, and Raven. Carrots are Jancyn, Josie, and Raven. Tomatoes are Tamsen, Josie, and Raven. The bunny is Dove, Tamsen, Raven, and Purity. I used dotting tools and a small nail art brush to create the designs. 

Want to participate in the monthly lacquer legion prompts? You can follow The Lacquer Legion on Facebook or @thelacquerlegion on Instagram to see the prompts each month!  


Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Pineapple Nails!

I saw these super cute nails on Instagram by @wondrouslypolished - go check her page out! 

I started with a base of Zoya's Purity. I then painted ovals on the nails with Zoya's Pippa, taking some of them off the edges. Using Zoya's Dea and a small nail art brush, I traced the outside edges and made a criss-cross pattern in the ovals.  Then, with Zoya's Josie, I made the tops of the pineapples with a small nail art brush. I of course finished with a top coat.

I just love these cute little pineapples!!


Friday, May 16, 2014

Flowers with Pastel Gradient

I saw this flower pattern on Pinterest--it's by Nail Art In Life. I saw the pastel gradient I did on the ring finger on @just1nail's Instagram.

So for the base coat on all but the ring fingers I used the mint color I got in my Nailtini April Lacquer Cabinet -- it's called Legitimint. Then, using a dotting tool and Nailtini Parfait-Amour, I made a flower shape and also 3 dots extending from each side. With a smaller dotting tool and Legitimint, I made dots at the center portion of the previous purple dots--this gives the flowers more of a petal shape rather than a round shape. I then placed a rhinestone at the center or each flower. 

For the ring fingers I started with a base of Zoya's Purity. When that fully dried, I applied Legitimint, Parfait-Amour, and Zoya's Blu & Dot on a makeup sponge in an irregular pattern. I sponged this over the white to create a pastel gradient effect. To top that one off, I used another color from my Lacquer Cabinet called Babydoll--it is a beautiful, glittery, holographic-like polish. It just really made that nail beautiful!

I topped everything off with a coat of Seche Vite.

Are you as excited for spring and warmer weather as I am??

Here's a close-up of the awesome ring finger...I don't think the pic does it justice!

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Triple Triangle

I saw this mani on Instagram from @thesammersaurus--she also has a tutorial on YouTube if you'd like a visual! (http://youtu.be/-ZrQ4ART-JM

I started with a base coat of Zoya's Blu. I waited for that to dry, then applied some nail striping tape in an X at the base of my nail. Then, I painted within that bottom portion using Zoya's Channing. While this polish was still wet, I removed the tape. I then finished with a top coat of Seche Vite. :)


Sunday, May 11, 2014

Colorful Zebra Stripes

So I started off today's mani with a darker color, and I realized I just wasn't feeling it, thus, the bubblegum-like tirade that is my nails now! 

I used Zoya's Dillon (green), Hudson (purple), and Shelby (pink) as base coats. For the stripes I used Essie's Licorice and Mash stamp plate 38. 


Thursday, May 8, 2014

Gradient with Glitter

I was looking through Instagram the other day and @chalkboardnails posted a photo of her nails. She matched her gradient to the colors in her glitter. I thought it was so beautiful so I had to try it out! 

I used Zoya's Robyn, Essie's Licorice, and the glitter is Formula X for Sephora in Turbulence. 

What do you think of this mani??


Sunday, May 4, 2014

Bubbles!

So my right hand doesn't look too bad but my left hand is kind of crap! Let me tell you what happened...

I've read on a couple of blogs that if you are doing a gradient nail, it's easier to coat your cuticles and the sides of your fingers with Vaseline so as not to get polish freakin everywhere. So I decided tonight was the night to try it out. It worked really well for the cuticles but the sides didn't so much. I still had to use a q-tip to clean the edges. Well...then I went to stamp and it wouldn't hardly work because apparently the Vaseline got on the sponge which then sponged all over my nails. I tried washing it off and it worked better on the right hand than the left. Anyway, needless to say, my bubbles didn't turn out as well as I would have liked but I still took a pic of the better hand! Ha!

So for colors, I used all Zoya polishes. White is Purity, light blue is Blu, and darker blue is Yummy. So I just did a gradient with Blu and Yummy using a makeup sponge. Then using Winstonia stamp plate #W112 and Purity, I stamped bubbles (or polka dots--guess it depends how you look at them!) on each nail. I finished with a top coat of Seche Vite!


Thursday, May 1, 2014

Green Lace

This is one of my favorite manis to do and it is super easy (even though it looks super elaborate!). I saw this over at polishandpearls.com.

I started with a base of Zoya's Josie (light green) on the thumb, pointer, and pinky. Also did a base of Shawn (dark green) on the middle and ring fingers. 

Now, to make things a little less complicated, I'm going to tell you how to do the thumb, pointer and pinky--for the other two fingers you'll do just the opposite! Ok, so you have your light base. Then using your dark, you'll paint a little over half the nail. Using a large dotting tool, add light dots at the edge of the border in the dark. Use a small dotting tool to add light dots in the dark space. Then, using the same large dotting tool, add dark dots along the light large dots--these should overlap not only the large light dots but also should overlap into the light half of the nail. Then using the same small dotting tool, add light dots to the edge of the dark dots. Ok so I know I promised it would be easy, and even though it SOUNDS complicated, I promise it isn't! If you are a visual learner like I am and you'd like to see a video of how to do it, check out the second mani in Jenny Fox's tutorial here--http://youtu.be/T8v77UZTrh4

You can do this with any colors you want, just make sure one color is lighter and one is darker! I've done this with a few different ones and I'm always impressed with how it comes out! 

What colors will you try??