Simple and Shiny

Hello Lovely Readers!

Today's look is really simple, but that's okay. Everyone needs a simple manicure from time to time, right?
I started with a base coat and then on my right hand only applied a single coat of my favorite black polish, Black Heart from Sally Hansen Hard as Nails line. On the left hand, I didn't need a base color. I went right to 2 coats of Illuminaughty from Urban Lacquer. This polish is a new addition to my collection and it is already made its way to my favorites. I was fortunate to win a bottle in a giveaway and it is fabulous. It is a really dark navy blue, leaning towards black, with silver, green, red, blue and yellow micro-glitter. So pretty and such glimmer! This is easily opaque in 2 or 3 coats as well. Pictured here is 2 coats with top coat.

On the right hand I chose a glitter topper instead of a fully opaque glitter polish, which is why we started with the black base color. Then I used It Looks Like Rain, Dear from Sephora by OPI. I have to admit, the glitter was much more densely packed then I expected so the first two fingers got more more glitter than I had planned. But I got the hang of spreading it a bit more sparsely after that and got the look I was going for. Based on how dense the glitter was, you could probably get this opaque in 2-3 coats as well, actually! :-) This is a lovely gold micro-glitter and once again, I won this polish in a giveaway.

Also, the nail polish rack that I ordered from eBay came in the mail this week! So excited. I will be adding a video to my YouTube channel in the next day or two. So, if you are subscribed to my channel you can get notified when I get that video uploaded! For now, I have a picture of my lovely new rack with my entire nail polish collection lovingly displayed upon it :-)

You will notice from the picture that 97% of my collection is 'drugstore' brand and I don't have quite the large collection that other nail art bloggers do, LOL. But that's okay! I've only been collecting polish for about a year and I can honestly say I use every polish I own. And I really felt like it was important to start with the basics, so to speak and get a good range of colors before adding more expensive polishes. I have a 'nail art budget' each month and lately it has gone mostly to nail art supplies since I really had nothing more than polish and remover until about a month before I started my blog. However, now that I have gotten or at least ordered (and am impatiently awaiting the arrival of) all my nail art essentials, I can devote my monthly budget to new polishes! Yay! While I really do want some China Glaze, OPI, Zoya and Essence in my collection, some of my current favorites are indies that I have won in giveaways. So, I would really love it if y'all would leave some comments either here or on my Facebook page letting me know what indie brands you love and want to recommend!

Thanks for reading and 'see' you next time! Oh, and also let me know if you are enjoying the Monday, Wednesday, Friday blog updates! I think I will try to stick to that :-)

Playing with Color and Shapes

Hello Everyone,

First let me say that I really couldn't think of a name for this manicure, so if you have any suggestions after seeing them, leave them in the comments please, I could use the help!

Basically the inspiration for this look came from a specific polish color: Calypso from Sinful Colors. It is a gorgeous dark teal that almost looks black in certain lights or if applied as a solid color manicure with multiple coats. I wanted to do something that would show off the beauty of this color so I thought silver would go well. Then I thought, SILVER GLITTER! Even better!

I pulled out my 2 silver glitters and realized that one of them wasn't so much silver glitter as much as very fine, multi-colored, holographic glitter and that made me even more excited. The colors I used below going from left to right are Sinful Colors 'Calypso', Kleancolor 'Pearl Silver' and Sephora by OPI 'Meet Me At the Disco'. I was really excited to have won 2 Sephora by OPI polishes in a giveaway and this is one of them. The other is a beautiful gold glitter called 'It Looks Like Rain, Dear'.

After applying my topcoat, I painted all my nails with 2 thin coats of the 'Pearl Silver'. Then I applied 'Meet Me At the Disco' to all my nails in two thin coats before using top coat to smooth the appearance before doing my design.

On the right hand, I used the Chevron stencils I won from smART Nails (look for a link to their website in my last blog entry) to create the chevron pattern going in opposite directions on my nails. Apparently, I have an even bigger problem with the concept of straight then I even thought. When I put the stencils on the nails the first time, I would have sworn it was straight. Then I removed them and saw how off-center the design was on 2 out of three nails! So, I had to intentionally put the opposite chevron off-center to match up with the first one. Fortunately it wasn't too noticeable from a distance so I left it alone rather than start all over again, LOL. For my accent design on the pinkie and index finger I used tape to block off a triangular shape. When everything was dry, I used one more layer of topcoat.

On the right hand I wanted something different, which is becoming a trend for me I notice. I left the accent nails as they were with just the silver base and holo glitter because I wanted to really show off that holographic quality. On the other three fingers I covered the sides with the teal, left a stripe in the center of the holo glitter and placed teal dots going up the middle. I really like the way it turned out!

I did decide to give another of the topcoats I bought during my trip to Sally's a try. I used Out the Door, by INM. I have to admit that I should and probably will give it another chance, but first impression is that I didn't like it as much as the Seche Vite. While it wasn't really different in appearance or application, it didn't dry as quickly as the Seche, which (if I'm honest) is why I use quick dry topcoat in the first place -- I am MEGA impatient when it comes to letting my polish dry.

All in all, it was a super easy look that I really love. The holo glitter and teal go as perfectly together in reality as they did in my mind, which doesn't always work out that way, LOL. What do you think of this manicure? As always, thanks for reading and feel free to leave comments!

P.S.
I know I'm overdue for a knitting project update. I have finished both halves of the poncho I shared with you in a previous post. I've washed it already so all that's left is blocking it and delivering it to the person I made it for! Since then I have completed another project as well that I couldn't tell y'all about because it is that time of year when I am knitting Christmas presents. The person I made this particular top secret project for happens to be my mother who follows my blog and I don't want to ruin the surprise :-) For the next month it is safe to assume that if I am knitting it, it is a gift. If I happen to knit something for myself in the next month I will share it. Otherwise, I will take lots of pictures and tell you about them after the holidays!

Brown and Gold 2 Ways

Hello Hello!

So, if you have checked out my new YouTube channel, you will have seen the video I recently uploaded about my KLEANCOLOR haul! I couldn't wait to try out some of these new colors! For this mani I used 2 of the new shades as well as a favorite from my stash.

I used Dark Brown and Gold Bright, from KLEANCOLOR and Fifth Avenue from NYC's New York Color Minute collection. Aren't these colors gorgeous together and just perfect for fall :-)

Of course, I started with a basecoat and then used 2 coats of the Dark Brown on all my nails. The opacity is really good on this particular polish, so if your application is perfect, you may only need 1 coat. I waited for that to dry completely and then I added Madly Matte, a matte topcoat from KLEANCOLOR. 

I wanted to not only play with these colors in 2 ways, but also the 2 contrasting finishes of matte and glossy. So, after the nails had 'mattified' and were all dry, I used scotch tape to mark off triangles going down the center of the nails on my left hand and I alternated their direction. I stared on my middle finger and made the triangle point on the tip of the nail and on the ring and index finger, the tip of the triangle was at the top of the nail near my cuticle. It was back to triangle point at the tip of the nail of on the thumb and pinkie. I used a detail brush to paint in the triangles in the Gold Bright. I also used the detail brush to topcoat just the gold triangles with glossy topcoat. 

I know this isn't my usual photo angle, but I had a really hard time with the lighting on these pics doing my usual poses. So, in order to get good lightening, I switched it up a bit for you today :-) And I know my triangles aren't perfect, but I was still proud of myself. I think I'm getting a little better!

On my right hand, I used the scotch tape to mark off the tips of my nails on the diagonal. Then I filled in the tip with the Gold Bright. The I used the Fifth Avenue and a toothpick to make little dots along the edge where the Dark Brown and Gold Bright meet, kind of like a little copper colored 'ruffle'. Once again I waited for everything to dry and then used the detail brush to add glossy topcoat to just the gold and copper. 

It was kind of mixed consensus in my household. My brother, sister and I all prefer the left hand with the golden triangles, but my husband prefers the right hand because of the copper, which he thinks really brings the color combination together. Which hand is your favorite? Let me know in the comments please! And don't forget to check out my YouTube channel and see what other colors I got from KLEANCOLOR! I just ordered a bunch of supplies from amazon.com, lightinthebox.com, banggood.com, tmart.com, konad, the Born Pretty Store so subscribe to my channel if you want to see those haul videos as stuff arrives in the mail! I'm so excited!

As always, thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this look. Talk to you soon!

Shades of Purple for Alzheimer's Awareness Month

Hello Lovely Readers!

Today's look is designed in recognition of National Alzheimer's Awareness Month. I am going to try and focus on at least one special cause per month, but this one specifically is another cause dear to me since I lost an aunt to this illness. In 1983, when President Reagan designated November as National Alzheimer's Awareness Month, fewer than 2 million Americans suffered from the disease. Today that number is up to nearly 5.4 million. Did you know that Alzheimer's is the sixth-leading cause of death in the US and the only cause of death in the top 10 in the US that has no prevention or cure? You can visit the Alzheimer's Association website to find out more about this disease and ways to help raise awareness.

So, lets get into this look. I don't have a picture of all the colors used lined up for you because I couldn't get good lighting for the picture, I'm sorry! All my purples kept looking blue in the bottle pictures. But I will tell you each color I used and where I used them. Also, I was really happy because I had just started my manicure when my husband checked the mail, and my stencils had arrived! Last month I won a giveaway for smART Nails stencils by the fabulous Wendy of  Wendy's Delights and I received 5 stencil designs of my choice. You can find these stencils on smART Nails website. One of the designs I chose was an awareness ribbon stencil, so I got to use that in my design! YAY!

I did the right and left hand differently, but used the stencil on both hands to tie the looks together. Let's look at the left hand first.

I started with a basecoat and a base color of 'Tempest' by Sinful Colors. I used 2 coats of the base color on the middle finger, since it was my accent nail, but for the rest of the fingers I only used 1 coat. For the water marble I used three shades of purple, all by Sinful Colors. I used 'Tempest', 'Amethyst', and 'Enchanted'. I drew my design differently on each nail because I didn't want them to all look the same this time. The awareness ribbon on the accent nail was done with the stencil I mentioned from smART Nails and the color is 'Amethyst' again.

Ready for the right hand? This is always interesting since I'm painting with my non-dominant hand, LOL.

The good news is that the stencil was equally easy to use on either hand! The base color on this hand is by Kleancolor and it is 'Pastel Purple' and it is 2 coats on each nail. My kind of 'scruffy-looking' hearts (LOL) were done in the 'Enchanted' purple from Sinful Colors. I've seen a lot of nail art tutorials that say drawing a heart with a toothpick or dotting tool is a great way for beginners to learn, but that didn't really work for me. I could manage it well enough with my right hand, but not with my left. So, what I ended up doing is just painting them with a detail brush. They aren't perfect, obviously, but I was encouraged that they at least looked like hearts and not blobs :-) The ribbon color on the accent nail was done with Kleancolor 'Purple'. When I swatched this color it was a nice shimmery purple, but against the pastel purple base it came out looking kind of pink on camera, but it was still a light purple-ish in person.

Finally, once my nails were dry, I used my new topcoat! I stopped by Sally's Beauty this weekend to pick up a few things and I got my Beauty Club card, yay! I picked up 5 new topcoats, if you can believe it! I've mentioned before that I was on the hunt for a new and better one. I may just do a whole post comparing the different topcoats. For now, I used Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat, which I've been hearing a lot about from other bloggers and YouTubers. I've only used it this one time, but it was such a difference from my old drugstore brand topcoat that I instantly fell in love. The application and finish were as smooth as silk, it didn't smear my colors at all, and it dried completely in less than 2 minutes!

I hope you enjoyed this manicure. Don't forget to stop by the Alzheimer's Association website and if you have any thoughts on Seche Vite or other topcoats you would like to recommend, leave them in the comments, please! Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Fun with Black and White

Hello Lovely Readers!

Today's nail design is all about different looks with black and white! I only showed 2 in my mani but the possibilities are practically endless.

I absolutely love black and white together, seriously. Anyone who knows me knows it is in my top five color combos. In fact, my bedsheets are varied patterns of black and white and my room is painted with 1 black accent wall and 3 very very light grey walls. The black wall has some turquoise diamonds for a pop of color. I LOVE BLACK AND WHITE! So, it was only natural that it should end up on my nails.

Left hand

I started off with a basecoat, as always to protect my natural nails and then two coats of Sinful Colors 'Snow Me White' as my base color. Now I did the white as a base color on all my nails because I thought originally that I would paint them all in the jigsaw design.


Starting at my thumbs, I used off-brand invisible scotch tape cut into small squares with smooth edges to block off opposite sides on the top and bottom of my nail. Then I painted over the open areas with Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails 'Black Heart'. While the polish was still wet, I carefully removed the tape to 'hopefully' get clean lines. Most of my lines did come out clean.

Right hand

For the few smudged lines I used a very small (size 2, I think) square brush to touch it up a bit. Then I used my little homemade dotting tool to put one dot of black in the white boxes where they met, and vice versa for the white dots. Voila! Easy jigsaw puzzle pieces!

Right hand

I moved on and started the design on my index fingers, but even though I'm not sure how much you can tell by the pictures, I have VERY small nail beds. Every manicurist I have ever had has commented on my tiny nails, LOL. Anyway, because my nails are so small, the puzzle piece came out looking very smushed. I didn't like it at all. So, I took it off and decided to only do the jigsaws as accent nails on my larger nails, specifically the thumbs and middle fingers.

Left Hand

For the remaining nails, I went over the white with a single coat of black and then added my dots! I liked the idea of the dots because it kind of stayed with the geometric theme of the puzzle pieces. I added a topcoat for some shine and to seal in the design. I will be shopping for a new top coat this weekend because my drugstore brand topcoat is still smudging my designs ten minutes after applying the polish. Any recommendations? Leave them in the comments! Thanks for reading and 'see' you next time!

Black, Purple, and Blue: Watermarbling and Freehand Designs

Hello From Texas!

It has been uncharacteristically cold here for the last week or so with temperatures dropping below freezing! What makes it even seem colder, is that the week before it was in the 60's and 70's! As I was trying to decide what to do for my nail design, I overheard my brother joking about getting frostbite while walking the dog. So, I used that as inspiration for my colors: black, purple and blue.

I started with a basecoat, of course and then applied a single coat of my favorite black creme polish which is Sally Hansen Hard as Nails 'Black Heart'. I did my watermarbling with the purple and blue as well as a clear polish. The purple is 'Enchanted' by Sinful Colors, blue is 'Midnight Blue' by Sinful Colors, and then Sinful Colors 'Clear Coat.' I added the clear coat because I didn't want the purple and blue to cover up the black entirely. I only did the watermarbling on three fingers of each hand. My thumbs and ring fingers I left black so I could use as accent nails.

The accent nails is where I spent the majority of my time since as we all know by now, I am not very practiced or very good at freehand design, but I am trying to get better. It took me about an hour to do the freehand design on my left hand, which meant I was painting with my right (dominant) hand. When it came time to do the accents on the other hand, I threw in the towel and left the nails plain black, LOL.

On my thumb, I tried my hand at color blocking. I started off using tape, but found it was just getting in my way so I took it off and finished the design without it. It's not perfect, but overall I'm happy with it. On the ring finger, I did a wide striping look, also without tape. My results are below and I hope you enjoy! Thank you for reading and feel free to leave comments. 

Left hand

Right hand

Fall Inspired French Tip Skittle Nails

Hello Lovely Readers!

I'm sure you've noticed by now that I am on a fall colors 'kick'. I think its because fall is my favorite season and we don't have much of one here is Texas, so I miss it. (Don't me wrong, Texas is home and I have plenty of state pride!) For today's look, I went with an imaginative take on trees and their changing colors. The brown nails represent the tree trunk and the different colored french tips represent the changing leaves. This was my first time painting french tips and I will think I will give myself a respectable 7 out of 10!

I started out with a basecoat, as always, followed by a 2 coats of my base color which was Sally Hansen Insta-Dry in 'Slick Slate'. This is a very pigmented polish, so you could probably get away with one coat, but my application was a little patchy so I used two.

Once that was completely dry, I blocked off my tips using those little hole punch reinforcement labels. Then I applied 2 coats of my tip color and removed the label with tweezers while the polish was still wet. The colors I used were Sinful Colors 'Anchors Away' (yellow), Sinful Colors 'Happy Ending' (green), and Sally Hansen Hard as Nails 'Die-Hard Fan' (orange). I let that dry for a few minutes and then added my top coat for some extra shine and to seal in the design. Here are my finished results. What do you think of these french tip skittle nails? Let me know in the comments! As always, thank you for reading and take care til next time!

Left hand

Right hand