Funky Feather French

Today I have for you a funky french and feather mani!

I had just purchased a little bag of colored craft feathers and really wanted to try it out. Since it was my first time working with the material (feathers!) I decided to only use 1 per hand so that if it looked horrible, I would only have to worry about fixing 2 fingers :)

To my surprise, these things were super easy to work with. The hardest part is trimming the feather to fit your nail. Once that's done, the rest is easy peasy!

Franken (made by myself) in Lady Finger

Blue glitter that I seriously cannot remember the name of...

Craft feathers from Hobby Lobby

 I used a green and a blue feather, just to test out different shades. I liked how the green feather matched my funky french but preferred the coverage with the blue feather.

Here's how I did my feather mani:

1. select a feather large enough to cover your who nail

2. trim the bottom into a rounded shape to match and fit your nail shape

3. paint your nail a nude color (if you have a very dense feather, you can probably skip this)

4. wait for the nude polish to dry and then apply a thick layer of topcoat

5. quickly place your feather and apply LIGHT pressure. Too much and you risk your nude polish seeping through the feather

6. trim the tip so that you don't have extra feathery bits hanging from your nail

7. apply another thick later of topcoat!

there may be an easier way to do this, but this method worked well for me. The feathers stayed on as long as the rest of my polish. After a couple of days, I did find myself peeling little feather strips but by then, my tips were starting to show signs of wear...

What do you think of feather accent nails?

Until next time ^_^

Post Valentine Detox Nails- Studs Baby!

After about a month of pink and red cutesy nails, I thought you might all be in need of a more edgy design!
Today I have for you my first mani using studs :D
I was really excited to try this out because I have seen these everywhere on the internet. However, none of my local nail shops carried them >_< which is why it has taken me so long to jump on this awesome train...
But now, I have studs, so many studs! and here is what I did with them

Flash picture to show the subtle shimmer stripe :)

Wet n Wild in Black Creme

 L'Oreal in Owl's Night (stripe)

Studs from The Born Pretty Store 
All sealed up with a thick coat of Seche Vite

So after 3 days of stud-y nails, I've noticed that these don't hold up all that well. I had 1 mini-round stud fall off the morning after I did them, a square one fell off 24 hours later, and the remaining studs are starting to fade to silver... Maybe I didn't use the right kind of topcoat, or maybe this is the kind of mani that requires nightly TC application. I don't know, I suppose I will have to try again.

However, even though they don't stay on too well, I think they are completely worth it! The shine off these bad boys was incredible! People had no choice but the notice my nails haha! Consequently, I received quite a few compliments on these. Next time I will stick to the silver studs to avoid the color rubbing off part, but then again, maybe a thicker top coat could have avoided that entirely?

If you are looking for your own studs, and who isn't really ;) I received mine from The Born Pretty Store.
The little wheel box had tons of little shapes, in both silver and gold, making it the perfect starter kit to studs!

At less than $5, it is a pretty darn good bargain. You can click the picture to be taken directly to the product page and as always, feel free to use my coupon code to get 10% off your order.

Have you ever used nail art studs before? What did you use to "glue" them down?

Until next time ^_^

*The product in this post was provided to me for honest review. Please see my disclosure policy for more information*

Valentine's day gift from the Born Pretty Store!

Quick post to let you all know about the neat promotion going on at  the Born Pretty Store starting today!

all orders place between the 20th and the 24th will receive a FREE crystal infinity ring and if you spend over $15 dollars, you will also get an extra free jewelry item (that they will pick for you).

You can stock up on your favorite nail art goodies, pick up a few specialty polishes, and even score some cute accessories! everything ships for free! and to make your money go even further, feel free to use my coupon code when you check out :D

Here are a few items I've got my eyes on!

(you can click the picture to be taken to the product page)

3D bow stickers

Tiny metal decals

Mohair loop scarf

Hello Kitty key necklace

Until next time ^_^

Velvety Party Mani

Hello everyone
Today I am going to show you my New Years Eve nails :D
I received a flocking powder kit from the Born Pretty Store to review and thought a nice night out like New Years Eve would be the perfect time to rock such a neat textured nail!

The item I received is the fun flocking powder manicure kit in blue (you can click the link to get your own!) and it retails for $7.99
With the kit you get this massive jar of manicure grade flocking powder, a large pair of tweezers to pick up the stuff, and a little brush for clean up so it's a very good deal!

Unlike the flocking powder you can get at Micheal's or other craft stores, this one is really fine and creates velvety nails. No furry nails here!

Here is my first attempt with the flocking powder kit:

It was actually really simple to do, surprisingly. 

1. You have to find a polish that is close to the shade of powder you have (I used Barry M in Indigo)
2. Apply a thin coat of polish on each nail, let it dry                                                                                                                                                       !Do the rest of these steps on 1 finger at a time!                                                                                                                                    
3. Apply a thicker coat of polish, don't worry if it isn't perfect, just make sure your whole nail is covered in wet polish
4. Immediately dip your nail into the jar of flocking powder, or use the tweezer to pick up the powder and drop it on to your nail
5. Make sure the entire nail is covered in flocking powder and using your other hand apply a light pressure all over the nail
6. Wait a minute or 2 and brush off the excess powder back into the jar
7. When both of your hands are done, use a moistened towel to remove any powder that is still on your skin

here is what my little set up looked like

The powder does get everywhere so make sure to do this over a paper towel or a sheet of paper...

This manicure was seriously easy peasy!

Since I would be wearing these on New Years, I decided to add a couple of rhinestones... That, my dear friends, was much harder. 

I applied a drop of clear polish to the back of my rhinestone, but as soon as I placed it on my nail, the flocking powder absorbed it all away!

I did eventually manage to get them on there but it required a little bit more clear polish than usual and I also had to apply pressure on each stone until it was dry... 

It was more time consuming than I had anticipated but I really liked the contrast of matte velvety nails and shiny rhinestones!

I took this picture the day after I did them...

This highlights one of the flaws of the velvet mani... fuzzies fuzzies everywhere!

I tried to pick them out but they just kept coming back! Short of using a lint roller on my nails, I'm not really sure how one would get rid of these... 

So the velvet mani is a great and easy way to make your hands stand out, but they're more a of one night deal. After the fuzzy stage, you get to the matted stage. Basically after you get them wet a couple of times, the velvet stuff starts to wear off. It starts to resemble suede more than velvet. 

So if you are looking for a really fun short term mani, I would totally give flocking powder a try :D

Also, because the Born Pretty Store is super awesome, they have given my readers a special code that you can use to get 10% off your purchase of anything on their website. It is HYL91 and if you ever need to find it again, the code is also located on my sidebar!

Have you ever tried flocking powder? what did you think of it?

Until next time ^_^

*The product in this post was provided to me for honest review. Please see my disclosure policy for more information*

Color Wave Fiesta!

Hi everyone!

I miss blogging. I really do. Time has become such a precious commodity since school started. It's been hard to find the time to paint my nails, much less post about it. I am sorry I haven't been around as much, but I am sure that you can all understand :) Im not going to promise to post once a week because I have no idea if I will be able to do that but I will try to pop in once in a while. Quality over quantity!

I know it's Halloween time and most posts right now have something to do with Halloween manis so if you are looking for that, feel free to take a gander at my previous posts : Monsters Inc, Halloween on Purpose, and Halloween Ruffian.

Today, I wanted to show you all this pretty stripey mani I made using only the China Glaze electropop collection.

Zig-zag stripes are not as easy to do as I thought they would be! This really reminds me of the Fiestas we used to have in High School Spanish class. Pinata, anyone?

Have you ever made a mani using polishes from only 1 collection?

Until next time ^_^

So mod by Sally Hansen

More nail stickers! This time they are polish bases which males application and removal a bit easier than nail shields. However wear time is not nearly as good. My Jamberry shields held up nicely for 2 whole weeks but these Sally Hansen nail strips don't usually make it more than a week for me. By the end there is just too much tip-wear...
However I really enjoy all of  these nail sticker things. They're convenient and come in a multitude of colors and patterns. This is the mod design by Sally Hansen. Perfect for my mini trip to South Carolina!

Jamberry nail shields- Blue Damask

So we ended up leaving for our vacation a day early... Which is why I never uploaded my holiday mani! I actually ended up finishing it up in the hotel room that night.

Well here it is, better late than never:

Since we were going to be gone for 2 weeks, I decided against traditional polish that would just chip and need constant attention. I leave that for my regular routine. On this trip, I didn't want to worry about how my nails would look.
Lucky for me, I recently won a sheet of Jamberry Nails. These are not something I would usually buy for myself. They are $15 and since I like to change my polish so often, it just isn't worth it. Usually anyhow... For this trip, they were perfect!

They are a little trickier to apply than regular nail polish strips. You have to heat them up with a hair dryer in order for the adhesive to work. I don't know if you have ever held your hand in front of a hot hairdryer, but it really isn't the most pleasant thing. Filing the edge down the my tips was not super easy either since the nail shields are a little thicker than nail polish.

However, the mild hassle of putting these on was worth it in my opinion. They lasted my entire vacation. Not one of them came off and no chips!

I think they were actually good for my nails too. When I got home and took them off, my nails looked healthy, strong, and were longer than I ever managed to get them before!

Removal is also a little tricky but, well worth it. The yellow from my nails is completely gone :D I guess they just needed a little polish break...

So after 2 weeks, this is what most of my nails looked like. They were a bit grown out but nothing too troubling

However my index, on both hands, took quite a beating as you can see above. It was a little annoying having a few pieces of plastic hanging off my nail but I just used some manicure scissors and my file to smooth them down.

So Jamberry nail shields? Love them! they last longer than polish strips and you get more in each pack. I have enough left over to do another mani or maybe even my toes. If you're headed on a long vacation, I totally recommend reaching for these.

What do you prefer, nail shields, polish strips, or good ole' nail polish when you head out of town?

Until next time ^_^

Ombre Stripes

Week 23 of the Year of Polish challenge- Ombre Mani

I saw a mani very similar to this on Tumblr not too long ago and thought it would make a nice alternative to the normal Ombre manis

Plus, as you have probably noticed, I have been in a very colorful mood for a while now so the thought of sticking to different shades of the same color was not very exciting.

This striped ombre was very easy to do and it is a nice alternative for nail-fanatics who just do not happen to have 5 complementing shades of polish!

Sally Hansen in White On

YELLOW

Sally Hansen in Yellow Kitty

Orly in Spark

China Glaze in Solar Power

PURPLE

China Glaze in Agent Lavender

Fresh Paint in Blackberry Smoothie

China Glaze in Grape Pop

GREEN

China Glaze in Refresh-mint

China Glaze in Gaga for Green

Zoya in Envy

BLUE

China Glaze in Kinetic Candy

Sally Hansen in Brisk Blue

Barry M in Indigo

PINK

SinfulColors in Pink Forever

NYC in Pink Promenade Creme (old version)

China Glaze in Fuchsia Fanatic

A nice white base and paint on a stripe of each color. Add a topcoat to blend everything nicely and bam! A stripey rainbow!

Alrighty then! I'll be leaving for a summer vacation on Sunday so I will be taking a little break from posting. I'll try and log on to show you what my vacation mani looks like first though :) I'm planning on using some Jamberry Nail shields since they last for so long!

Until next time ^_^

Paint Splatters!

Last week's theme for the Year of Polish challenge was a splatter mani. Since I just made a true splatter mani for the earth day theme, I thought I would take a different spin on this one by making "controlled" splatters.

Instead of splattering by putting polish on by blowing with a straw, I created some paint splatters using a dotting tool.
The polishes I uses were inspired by Jenna Froggy. When I saw her splatter mani using metallic polishes I knew I had to try it as well :D

Wet N Wild in Black Creme

KleanColor in Metallic Green

KleanColor in Metallic Yellow

KleanColor in Metallic Fuschia

KleanColor in Metallic Pink

Orly in Sweet Peacock 

My splatters did not end up looking especially splattery. Some of them look  more like flowers no? but I loved the colors!

Until next time ^_^

Fruit Salad Smoothie Nails

Today I'll be showing you the summeriest of manicures ever created! Just kidding! but it is really bright and happy

Week 21 of the Year of Polish challenge had the theme: Fruit Mani
I received some fimo fruit slices from a super neat friend of mine and had yet to use them so I decided to take this opportunity to try them out

First of all, I love these little slices. They are so tiny and cute! You can buy fimo-fruit by the stick and cut each slice yourself, or for a little more money, you can purchase them pre-sliced! You can find these on ebay as well as at Sally's

I started with a brightly colored drip mani, added some glitter, and found some contrasting fruits to stick on

Orly in Spark

China Glaze in Aqua Baby

Sally Hansen in Coral Reef

Orly in Green Apple

Color Club in Pucci-licious

Art Deco in Silver Glitter

Fimo fruit from Sally's

I opted against adding a topcoat over the fruit. First of all, I knew I would not be wearing it very long since I am behind on the challenge, but also because I think they look prettier when they are not completely flat against the nail. 

However, their lack of flatness did become a problem. They kept getting stuck in my hair and while watching a movie, I did peel a few of them off... but I saved those and now I can reuse them! silver  lining eh?

I still really like the way this looked. I would re-do this mani for a nice summer pool party or barbecue! 

Does it bother you when things hang off of your nails?

Until next time ^_^