Corset Nails

Welcome to week 8 of the Year of Polish challenge!

Corset Mani

I had seen a few of these on other people's blogs before. They are usually composed of 2 swipes of color on either side of the nail and are connected by a lace that crisscrosses between the 2 (just like my ring finger). So that's what I was going to do!

However, as I was browsing some other blogger's pages, I came across Nail Stories: Hearty Half Moons and they reminded me of the top of a corset! I thought they were so pretty that I had to try it out for this week's challenge!

As you can see, I did the traditional corset nail on my ring finger, but I used Nail Stories "curtain nails" on the rest of my fingers. To make them look corset-ier I added some frillies and bows :)

This mani was super easy to do! For the corset tops, you just need to do 2 quick swipes from side to middle. They don't have to be super straight since you can fix it with the frillies. Then using a migi pen, make little bouncy half circles along the edge and do a quick bow in the center.
The corset back is made up of 2 semi circle swipes of each side of the nail. Make a few dots, those will be the eyelets. Then using your migi pen (or even a striping brush) crisscross the lines.

Easy peasy!

What I used

Base- Franken Lady Fingers

Corset- Essie in Sassy Satchel

Eyelets- GOSH in Silver

Lace and frillies- Migi Nail Art pen in Shimmering White

I've never been able to find the right shade of nude for me so I ended up making my own... It's the closest I have ever come to true mannequin hands!
All you need to make your own nude polish is a lot of white, a dash of brown, some yellow, and a hint of red. If you have darker skin tone, add more brown. If you have cool undertones, more red.
I'm very pale with warm undertones so I needed a lot of yellow and only a little brown :)

Don't forget to check out my Year of Polish page to see other bloggers who are undertaking this challenge as well as to check out past manis and future challenges!

Until next time ^_^

Half Moon Lace and Swap Haul

On to week 6 of the challenge! this time we're doing a half moon manicure. 

This is a very simple idea, especially if you have binder reinforcement stickers. Then all you have to do is paint your base color, wait for it to dry, stick on half a reinforcement sticker, paint your accent color, peel of sticker and tadah! instant clean lines!

Since so many of you have been posting up valentine's manis, I thought I would try and make this half moon a little valentine's friendly.

I chose very girly colors, pink and purple to start with. Then I added some lacey looking accents. Some of them ended up looking more like tiaras but oh well right?
You will have to excuse my sorry looking middle finger nub. I broke it on my car door a week or so ago (which is why I you only saw my right hand for the newspaper mani) and it is only now starting to look like a nail again. I would have shown you my right hand instead but my freehand was not quite up to par on that one... Hence nubbin!

Essie in Cute as a Button

L'oreal in Violet Vixen

White acrylic paint

I have also been swapping like crazy for the past month so I thought I would share the polish related exchanges with you :)

 I managed to get nearly all of the Kleancolor metallic polishes, which are amazzzzing!

Group shot!

Clicky to see them in their full glory!

I also got my paws on a few other goodies

Revvolution, Holo Glitter, Spectraflair Topcoat, Glitz and Glamour

I now have fulfilled all of my black holo desires :) plus the spectraflair topcoat turns any polish into a linear holo! how freaking neat is that! I got my from Panduhh on MUA. She makes some neat frankens!

Sweet Peacock, Clarins 230 dupe, Zoya Valerie

I also got a Clarins 230 dupe from Panduhh. It's not quite as flashy with green as what I have seen from the real 230 but it truly is gorgeous and I love it!

Ocean, Pedal to the Metal, Cute as a Button

My first GOSH polish! I am so excited! I have been eyeing this beauty for a long time now. I just have to come up with the perfect design for it now >_<

I also got a new stamping plate and the wonderful Rainbow's End nic stick. Since I really hate the brushes on these type of applicators, I followed some instructions on MUA on how to decant these bad boys and ended up with this:

The bottle is only about 1/3 full since the nic stick really doesn't contain that much polish but it is gorgeous! If you want to try this yourself, let me know and I can direct you to the instructions I found. It was actually super easy to do...

Techno, City never sleeps, Sparkle Blue

lastly I have some neat-o glitters. The Sparkle blue is actually much more purple than blue but it has great flakies in it which is always awesome!

Well that's all folks, I hope you enjoyed my pic spam! I have some international swaps in the work right now so I may post up those whenever I receive everything :)

 Do you ever get into a swap frenzy? 

Until next time ^_^

Newspaper Mani

Hello fellow nail polish lovers!

It appears that my computer has given up being a computer. While it is being repaired, I will be using my boyfriend's old iMac. Being a PC girl, I have no idea how to do anything on here other than open a web page and turn the thing off. What does this mean? I won't really be able to fix my photos and all that jazz... Thoroughly unfortunate, I know...

Anywho, on to some nail stuff right!

Here is week 5 of the Nail Polish Challenge

The Newspaper Mani

China Glaze in Agent Lavender

China Glaze in Secret Peri-wink-le

Art Club in Fine Silver

Local newspaper classifieds!

This was my very first newspaper mani and Im really happy with how it turned out! I simply dabbed some rubbing alcohol (using a cotton ball) on the newspaper and pressed it down on my nail. Easy peasy!

Don't forget to check out my Year of Polish page to see some other bloggers' newspaper manis. There you will also find links to prior week's challenges!

Have you ever tried a newspaper mani? What did you think of it?

Until next time ^_^

Plaid Nails

On to week 4 of the Year of Polish challenge!

this time we are attempting plaid nails.
There are lots of different kinds of plaid out there, so there were a lot of different interpretation of this mani. I tried my hand at 2 different styles

Neon Plaid!

Sally Hansen in Whirlwind White

China Glaze in Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

China Glaze in Japanese Koi (Neon)

SinfulColors in Pink

LA Colors in Purple (from the Brights mini set)

I also wanted to try a more traditional plaid:

Sally Hansen in Ru-by or not to be

Naturistics in Quartz

Sally Hansen color quick in Gold Chrome

SinfulColors in Flower Girl

Don't forget to check our my Year of Polish challenge page to check out past manis as well as other bloggers who are undertaking this challenge!

What kind of plaid do you prefer? Traditional or modern?

Until next time ^_^

Color Block Mani

This is the week 3 mani of the Year of Polish Challenge

I didn't really have many ideas as to what I wanted to do with this one so I looked around the internet for inspiration and came across Everbella's nail art blog. She has a very cute color block mani that she posted in November and I thought I would try my hand at it. You can see her original design here. 

Since I wasn't going to wear this mani for very long (have to start on the next one!) I omitted the rhinestones. I also decided to go for some brighter colors because I am a fan of bright colored nails :)

Zoya in Ibiza

Joe in Iris

Joe in Crush

Sally Hansen in Lite

Sally Hansen in So Poppy

Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Black

This is probably not my best work. I've been stressed all week about school and I think it shows with this one but oh well. The week is over now so hopefully things will get better!

Also, you can see a lot of tip wear but this is because of Seche Vite. The thicker the nail polish the more it likes to shrink! Even though this happens all the time, I don't think I will ever stop loving Seche Vite, it is just too amazing!

Don't forget to check my Year of Polish Page and visit other wonderful bloggers who are taking this challenge!

Until next time ^_^

Sinful Colors Holiday Edition- Swatches and Nail Art

I have for you today the Sinful Colors Holiday 2011- WISH collection. 

As far as I am aware, all of these are part of the core collection and so are readily available to almost everyone!

SinfulColors Holiday Nail Wheel

Here are the polishes Ill be showing:

Picture from SinfulColors news release

3 coats

Out of this World- A cool silver loaded with shimmer. This one is a little bit on the sheer side... It's great layered over almost anything. Keep reading and Ill show some examples :)

2 Coats

Midnight Blue- A nice bright navy with metallic finish

2 Coats

Sugar Sugar- Shimmery bright red. A  little streaky on the first coat but beautiful on the second

3 Coats

Daddy's Girl- A violet jelly with a lot of shimmers and micro glitter. It takes a little work to get it opaque but this color is amazing and totally worth it!

2 Coats

Last Chance- A very opaque dark green creme. Perfect for nail art but, compared to all the other holiday colors, a little lacking in oomph.

2 Coats each

Fashionista- A simple silver glitter liner. Reminds me a lot of the quality of ArtDeco stripers: Not the greatest but does the job. It's great for half-moon or french manis!

Flower Girl- a warm metallic gold liner. This shade is much better, it's opaque after one stroke, something I favor strongly in stripers.

*********************************

Since these are from the holiday collection, I thought I could show a holiday/winter nail art you can achieve using only these polishes and a basic white creme.

1- (present/gift) Last Chance striped with Flower Girl

2- (snowy french) Midnight blue tipped with Out of this World and Fashionista and outlined with Sugar Sugar

3- (purple stripes) Daddy's Girl striped with Out of this World and Fashionista

4- (Christmas tree) Sugar Sugar with Last Chance tree and Flower Girl star

1- (mistletoe) Out of this World layered over white, stamped with Last Chance and dotted with Sugar Sugar

2- (holiday half moon) Last Chance with Sugar Sugar half moon outlined in Flower Girl

3- (Christmas lights) Midnight blue with Last Chance cord and Flower Girl, Sugar Sugar, and Out of this World lights

4- (wreath)- Sugar Sugar with Last Chance wreath accented with Flower girl and Sugar Sugar

1- (snow drift) Midnight Blue with Out of this World sponged and dotted snow and Fashionista accent

2- (tree ornaments) Last Chance with Flower Girl, Sugar Sugar, and Midnight Blue ornaments

3- (snowflakes) Daddy's Girl stamped with white (purple pigments bled into it...)

4- (candy cane) Sugar Sugar striped with white (red bled too!) and Fashionista

There you have it! You dont need expensive polish to make pretty nail art. SinfulColors retail for about $1.99 and are available at Walgreens (online and in store) and  Cherry Culture as well as many other retailers.

Until next time ^_^

*these were sent to me for review*

Fall Festivities

A quick half moon using China Glaze's Halloween collection from last year. Overall, I find this to be more fall-y than Halloween-y. However for a true fall feel, I would probably change the purple for a red or gold glitter.... 

China Glaze in Ick-A-Bod-Y

China Glaze in Mummy May I

China Glaze in Zombie Zest

Milani in Black magic

You all might remember the unfortunate peeling incident with the swirls and glitter mani. I thought it might be due to the base coat (orly's Top2Bottom) not adhering well with glitter polish, so I tried it with this mani. Not peeling occurred. In fact this mani lasted almost a week with very little tip wear.

The peeling event was very bizarre. I'll keep on it and let you guys know if it happens again. Maybe certain brands just don't mesh well with Orly?

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate the Holiday. I know I am looking forward to tasty turkey and mac and cheese!!

Until next time ^_^

Graduation!

I am done with school! woooo

well until august...

I decided that graduating meant that I could bling up my nails more than I usually would. I also thought it would be nice to use my school colors, purple and gold.

Really, it's just a half-moon mani, but with some glittery details

Sally Hansen color quick in Gold Chrome

China Glaze in Medallion

China Glaze in Grape Pop

Pearls from Ebay

Rhinestones from Bundle Monster

So there are my schmancy nails!

Until next time ^_^