Easter

Happy Easter!!!

9:00:00 AM

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16
___________________________________________________

Happy Easter to all my Easter celebrating followers!!!!  Are your nails Easter-y?  Mine of course are!!!!  I may have gone over the top, but I really feel like The Little Canvas again after this manicure!  When I sat down to do this manicure, I had a clear vision in my mind of what I wanted to do.  Lately though, the idea in my head never translates onto my nail.  It always seems like everything works against me, and my canvases become easily destroyed after a few swipes.

For an Easter manicure, I wanted to include some bunnies, Easter Eggs, and maybe some little flowers.  Most importantly though, I wanted to include something which would be a reminder in regards to the true meaning of the holiday.  If it weren't for Christ dying for our sins and rising with the promise to come again, there would be no reason to celebrate this holiday.  As a Christian, it is a holiday I am truly grateful for, and I really wanted to incorporate my faith onto my nails, while including the other ideas which were floating around in my mind.

Let's take a look:




Colors Used:
  • Base
    • Ulta - Snow White
    • Gradient
      • Sinful Colors - Sugar Rush
      • Funky Fingers - Mrs. Mint
      • Revlon - Sassy
  • Art Details
    • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
    • Sally Hansen - Fuchsia Flare
    • Sinful Colors - Candy Coated
    • Sinful Colors - Nirvana
    • Sinful Colors - HD Nails 
I started with a blue to green gradient to resemble the sky to the grass.  Since I painted on some HD Nails as a detail for grass on top of the design, the beautiful gradient I created was covered up.  I purchased these new "Collagen Infused" make up sponges from Wal-Mart and boy, these sponges created the best gradient ever!!!!  Literally, the polish transferred beautifully to the nail.  I'm going to thank the collagen for this.

On my middle and pinkie finger, I decided to draw on some Easter Eggs.  To do this, I drew on the eggs with a nail art brush, then added the details with my smallest dotting tool.  On my pointer finger, I painted on a bunny using my nail art brush.  Kind of not happy with how he turned out, but overall he looks kind of cute.

For my most important nails, the ring and thumb, I painted on the crucifix with the cloth draped over it.  With Sinful Colors Nirvana, I used my nail art brush to paint on the cross shape.  When it was dried, with the same brush, I painted on the cloth using the white polish.

When all designs were dry, with my nail art brush I used HD Nails and painted on some grass-y details.  Again, kind of sad that it covered up the Sassy green that the gradient blended to.  You can sort of see the gradient on the middle finger between the eggs.

I'm so proud of this manicure.  I feel that I have come a long way, seeing as if I tried this last year, it would have been a huge failure.

What do you think??  

Again, I hope everyone has a blessed Easter!!!!  See you all in a few days! <3

Animal Mani

Easter Chick Nail Art :)

9:00:00 AM

Easter Week is continuing with yet another nail art design.  As stated in my previous post, I was originally planning on doing only two Easter manicures, but due to a stamping failure, I started my manicures a tad early.  I cannot really say if this manicure was one that I originally was planning on doing, but regardless, it came out rather cute.

Last year I attempted some hatching chick nails.  The pictures were awful, and well someone put a lovely anon comment on my blog telling me so as well.  As a newbie in the game, I really had no clue that people could be so mean if someone posted something they were proud of, but sure enough, they could be.  Thankfully though, some of you amazing nail girls came to my rescue and attacked this anon person like no other.  Gushy moment here as I tell you guys how it warmed my heart and motivated me to continue on with this blog.  Looking at these nails in comparison to those, I have most certainly grown, and well doubt that anyone is going to post anything rude whatsoever on these.  Who knows, maybe someone will, we shall see lol.

Let's take a look.  The stupid ring accent nail drove me INSANE.  I had it perfect, then grabbed a fuzzy sticking out on the bottom of the nail, and sure enough it was under the top coat and it dragged away my design.  Booo.  So after 3 attempts, I got this lil bugger on my ring finger.




Colors Used:
  • Sinful Colors - Sweet Tooth
  • Ulta - Sun Sational
  • Zoya - Lianne
  • Funky Fingers - Mrs. Mint
  • Sinful Colors - Candy Coated
I started off with a base coat of my new favorite Sinful Colors nail polish, Sweet Tooth.  A gorgeous light lavender purple with the most subtle of shimmers that you cannot see in the bottle, but can see on the nail.  I wanted to wear it solo, and for me, that is a huge deal as I RARELY wear polishes with no nail art.  Since it was Easter week though, I had to continue on with the art.  I took my nail art brush and dipped it into some Sun-Sational and outlined the lil chickies heads.  When they were dried, I added the eyes, beaks, and shell with nail art brushes and dotting tools.  When the white shell was dry, I added the little Easter egg details with a brush and called it a night.

I kind of wish that I glittered my other nails instead of putting chick heads, but this screams The Little Canvas with the extra nail art.

What do you think??  Yay or nay?  Too busy with the extra lil guys?

One more manicure in Easter week coming up on the big day.  Can you guess what it will be??  <3

A Semi Easter Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Here's the dealio, I'm mad with these nails.  It's not that I'm mad because I hate them, but it's because of what happened before doing them.  I originally had the most GORGEOUS pastel gradient on my nails using pink, purple, and teal with a top coat of Fairy Dust.  I was in love, and dumb butt old me decided "Hey let's put a stamp on these nails and completely ruin them."  Smart move Alaina, smart move.  Not only did I ruin the nails I tried to stamp, but I completely ruined my right hand while trying to stamp because stupid Fairy Dust takes about 10 years to dry, even when it is underneath top coat.  I could have cried, oh wait I sort of did.  I watched as I removed each ruined nail and said goodbye to my gorgeous gradient.


When I came back to little nail art table I thought, "Oh i'll just do that gradient again."  Problem, I ran out of make up sponges.  Second problem, my white is thicker than thick and it was a pain in my butt to to get a base coat of it on.  Sigh, whatever was a nail art girl to do.  I thought I could start some Easter Manicures.  I was completely unprepared for this, as I was only planning on doing two Easter manicures this year, but instead fate has thrown me three to do.  I guess next manicure I can do can not be an Easter one, but in most cases I'll probably do one.  Actually, I will do one, this shall be Easter Week on The Little Canvas.

Since I was unprepared, I ran to my Pinterest nail idea board and found this manicure by Pshiiit.  This girl is so talented, but her blog is 100% in French and even with Chromes handy dandy translate function, I still get frustrated and can't read it.  Instead, I drool over her nails and always wonder what colors she uses and her reasoning behind them.  I liked this manicure because with the black it wasn't 100% Easter feeling, but it still had that vibe in there.

Enough of my rambling (do you even read this?) let's take a look at the nails.




Colors Used:
  • Funky Fingers - Mrs. Mint
  • Sinful Colors - Sweet Tooth, Unicorn, and Candy Coated
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
  • Sally Hansen - Pink Blnk
  • Ulta - Snow White
Started off with a base coat of my blacks and pastels.  For the yellow nail, I used three coats because Unicorn is very streaky with one to two coats.  All other nails I used two coats.  With my dotting tool, I added on my awful black dots.  I think they're awful looking, so uneven and crappy.  I"m sure none of you noticed until you read this (again, do you even read this?), but I noticed.  I was already unhappy about losing my other nails, that really nothing was going to make these fantabulous in my mind.

For the bunny, I used a nail art brush and painted a circle for his lil head.  I then added on the ears with the same brush.  When the white was dried, I added the eyes and nose with a dotting tool, then the pink ears with another nail art brush.  This reminds me, I desperately need to clean my brushes.  Some of you girls would be appalled if you saw the polish dried on to them lol.  I'm aware they are probably not able to be saved and already have a new set waiting for me.

What do you think?  Cute? Ugly? Boring? Rambling too much?  Sad as much as I am that I fail at stamping and ruined the worlds best gradient?

If I had some ice cream right now, it would be the perfect moment to start eating away my feelings.  Until next post <3 

Triplet "Jazzy" Nail Art

9:00:00 AM

So it may or may not have happened again, but I am in a manicure funk.  I'm feeling unoriginal, bored, and just horrible at what I do.  I'm sure it is a mind over matter thing, but seriously what designs have yet to be done.  I feel bad when I cannot come up with something original  and I just copy other's manicures.  I want to bring you guys original content, but alas, I don't.  In the end though, I do sometimes put my own spin on things, and well my art doesn't look 100% identical, but still.

The night I painted these puppies I was feeling horribly unoriginal.  I was trying to attempt cartoon nails, you know those awesome boardered nails with the pink in the middle.  I'm too lazy to insert a link to them so you'll have to Google lol.  Well, the girl who originally did them has awesome square shaped nails.  I however do not, therefore they looked HORRIBLE on me.  Since my nails were stained black from the polish, I decided to attempt these nails by SupaNails.  Cool looking, right?  I put my own twist on them only accenting two of the nails with the bubbles.  I wasn't really feeling them, but I recieved many compliments from customers at work.  My manager told me they looked "jazzy," thus the name "Jazzy Nail Art." 

When I found these nails, I was talking with Kylie from SparKylie Nails who deiced to attempt them as well.  The talented Mimi from Mimi's Weekly Nails joined in on the fun also!  After my rambling, you can see their pictures as well as part of this Triplet Nail Post!!!!  I love sharing posts with other artists!!!  Let's take a look!!!




Colors Used:
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
  • Sinful Colors - Unicorn
  • Sally Hansen - Blue Away! and Fuchsia Flaire
To get the look, I started off with a base coat of the most perfect black polish in the world, Orly Liquid Vinyl.  When dried, I detailed on the swirly design and the lines.  I'm kind of mad that on my middle finger and ring finger I messed up and put the yellow line on the bottom.  It should have been the top color and the blue should have been on the bottom on the pinkie.  Grr, sigh, oh well.  This is probably one of those things only I noticed and no one else did until I just said something.

Here are Miss Kylie's nails! 

Love, love, love how hers came out!  Her design more closely resembles SupaNails and I'm kind of wishing I did what she did.  Loveeeeee.

Miss Mimi's Nails are below!


The fact that she used Zoya Storm and all purples is a win over mine any day.  I cannot begin to say how much I love these!!!!!  I wish I thought of using storm and being creative with the colors instead of trying to copy the scheme of SupaNails.  So talented.  Kylie was the one who told me Mimi wanted to participate and I'm so happy she did!  I found a new, amazing nail artist!!!  I may need to start doing more of these "twinsie" posts!  Thank you, Mimi!!!!

What do you think of all of our manicures???  Are you a fan of the twinsie/triplet posts??

Thanks to Kylie and Mimi for making this post not so boring, and keeping me continually inspired despite these random manicure funks!!!!  Until next time, <3.

BlogLovin

Follow Me on BlogLovin'

9:00:00 AM

Hello there! No nails today, just a quick update!

For those of you who may not know, Google Friend Connect will be disappearing soon.  This upsets me since I love my reading list, but have no fear, BlogLovin' is here!  Sign up, click follow, and you can still have your reading list on their site!!!

As to not miss any of my content, don't forget to follow me on BlogLovin'!!!

Follow on Bloglovin

See you all back here tomorrow for a new nail post! <3

Dot Mani

Color Club Halo Hues Tape and Dot Mani :)

9:00:00 AM

I may or may not have gotten the best deal known to a nail girl the other day at the beauty store.  For those of you who do not follow my Facebook or Twitter, then you are unaware that I was able to score about 36 dollars worth of nail polish for 15 dollars.  How may you ask?  Well, coupons...I had one for buy any item get a free Color Club or Orly polish.  So, I went in with my mind set on purchasing OPI - My Vampire is Buff and Color Club Hydrangea Kiss.  That was before I noticed the store got the new 2013 Color Club Halo Hues.

When I saw this, I completely forgot about Hydrangea Kiss's existence and grabbed my two lemmings from the display...Eternal Beauty and Over the Moon.  I noticed though the store had raised the price of them from $4.95 to $8.50 and I thought it would be a better deal if I purchased one of my $6.95 OPI's and then used the coupon for a free Halo Hue.  So, that's what I did.  I purchased two OPI's (one for me and one for my momma) and received the two beauties for free :)

Needless to say, I have been dying to use them since the moment I brought them home.  The only issue was, what was I going to do with them?  I decided to channel the lovely Nicole from Young, Wild, and Polished and got to painting with my new pretties.  I think the final results scream Nicole and in the end, I loved....

Enough babbling, picture time!!!




Colors Used:
  • Color Club - Over the Moon, Eternal Beauty, Cloud 9
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
As you can tell, I decided to do an accent nail with funky polka dots.  I really love this technique which I originally saw Nicole do, where you do a few bigger dots then surround them with smaller dots.  It makes the nail look so fun!  Of course, before doing the dots, I laid down two coats of Orly Liquid Vinyl, which I need to go purchase a back up bottle of.  Literally, best black polish yet.

Then we come to my newest pretties, the Halo Hues.  I really need to swatch these and feature them solo on my blog as I did with Cloud 9.  Eternal Beauty is gorgeous.  Purple is one of my favorite colors, and this is the perfect purple shade.  Blue is my second favorite color, and well Over the Moon is the perfect blue shade as well.  The holo in both is amazing.  I"m staring at my nails as I type this post watching the holo under the black peek out...I love it.  If you can get your hands on these polishes, I strongly suggest you purchase them.  From what I've seen of the China Glaze holo collection, the Color Clubs are far superior when it comes to the holo effect!

What do you think?? Do you love holo?  

I guess it is time for me to start planning  Easter manicures.  Any ideas?  

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! (a day early)

9:00:00 AM

Happy almost St. Patrick's Day!!!!  How are you going to spend your day?  Hopefully you all will be responsible and be safe!!!  This holiday makes me nervous since so many use the day as an all day drink fest.  I'm not, and never have been, one to drink.  For those of you who are going out, please, please, please, be responsible and be safe!!!!!

For the holiday though, I will to be as festive as possible.  This means a green filled manicure!  I thought of  these little guys from last year when I was a beginning nail artist, and I had to re-try them this year.  Let's take a look!!!

Please excuse the photos and the semi short post.  I'm completely exhausted today and well after taking about a two hours to get these cruddy pictures, I'm just not feeling my post.  Okay, okay, maybe the pictures aren't too awful.




Colors Used:
  • China Glaze - I'm With the Lifeguard
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
  • Zoya - Lianne
  • Sally Hansen - Golden I
  • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
These guys are super simple!  For the leprechaun suits, you paint on a base coat of green of your choice.  I wanted my nails to scream green so I used I'm With the Lifeguard.  I believe I did three coats with no undies, but could have gotten away with two coats.  When it was dried, with my nail art brush, but could have been done with the main polish brush itself, I painted on the black belt using Liquid Vinyl.  I then added the buckle with Golden-I using a nail art brush.

For the leprechauns  I started with a clear base coat.  With my nail art brush, I painted on the little hats.  When dried, with a dotting tool, I added the orange beard and hair using Lianne.  When everything was dried, I added the details using a dotting tool and nail art brush.

What do you think?  Festive?  Love, hate?

Please show me your St. Patrick's Day manicures!!!! Tag #thelittlecanvas or #nails4yummies (as I now help Nails4Dummies with this account) for a chance to be featured on the Nails4Dummies Instagram!  Hit the hashtags to be connected to either mine or the Nails4Yummies IG accounts!  Also send me a Tweet or post them on my Facebook!!!!  

Please, everyone be safe and see you back here in a few days!!!

A St. Patrick's Day Kitchen Sink Manicure

9:00:00 AM

St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner!!  Sunday, to be exact!  I'm rather surprised by the lack of green, festive manicures on Instagram and Blogger.  I sign on daily looking for them, but alas, the green is missing in action from my feed.  Maybe I'm still a bit early and they will start appearing later this week.  *crosses my pretty painted fingers*

For this manicure, I had so many ideas.  I of course wanted to use my green polish, incorporate a rainbow, some shamrocks, and add some gold with glitter.  The question: how could I do this all at once.  Answer: the kitchen sink mani!  If you still do not know what a kitchen sink manicure is, well it is everything but the kitchen sink!!!  Basically, you throw a bunch of different techniques or designs into one manicure.  That way, you can get all your ideas out creating an awesome manicure.

So, I sat down, grabbed my polishes, and started brainstorming.  I'm not sure I am in love with the final product, but you can be the judge.  Let's take a look!!!




Colors Used:

  • Thumb
    • Sinful Colors - Sugar, Sugar, Country Orange, Let's Meet, HD Nails, Midnight Blue
    • Orly - Black Vinyl
    • Sally Hansen - Golden-I
    • China Glaze - I'm Not Lion
  • Pointer/Pinkie
    • Revlon - Sassy
    • Sally Hansen - Disco Ball
    • Sinful Colors - HD Nails
  • Middle Finger
    • Sally Hansen - Golden-I
    • China Glaze - I'm Not Lion
  • Ring Finger
    • Ulta - Snow White
    • Sally Hansen - Moonstone
    • Revlon - Sassy
    • Sinful Colors - HD Nails
I started with my thumb nail first.  I painted on one coat of Ulta Snow White, then grabbed a make up sponge.  I have never done a rainbow gradient using five colors in a straight line.  Just last post, I did the amazing zebra gradient using 6 polishes, but that sponging technique was different.  For that, I painted the colors in a separate corners of the sponge so it formed a circle of color.  For this, I painted each color in a straight line.  After I painted the colors on, I looked at the sponge and I became nervous that all the colors wouldn't fit on my nail.  I took a deep breath and dabbed the sponge on and to my surprise, all the colors fit!!!! Sure, a little of the red and blue got on the edges and I had to touch it up a tad, but it fit!!!  Since the Sinfuls all were shimmer polishes, I decided to just use a plain top coat to blend the colors.  With my nail art brush, I painted on the little pot, then with the dotting tool used Golden-I to add the gold coins.  To make the coins sparkle, I then added some I'm Not Lion.

I was loving how I'm Not Lion was looking over Golden-I so I wanted to have a single nail with that amazing glitter.  I picked the middle finger, but now that I look at it, I wish I kind of did it on the ring finger so it matched the gold coin accents on the thumb.  Either way, the nail looked fabulous!

I wanted to have my green nails frame the manicure, so I painted two coats of Revlon Sassy on my pointer and pinkie.  I could have gotten away with one coat, but I really wanted the green to pop.  I added a thin coat of Disco Ball so it wouldn't be a flat creme...you have to have glitter.  Since it was a St. Patrick's Day manicure, I needed to put some shamrocks on, so I took HD nails and my dotting tool and painted two big ones on.  Shamrocks are shockingly easy!!! All you have to do is make three hearts and then add a little stem!

Finally, for the ring finger, I put some Moonstone over Snow White so the white wasn't flat since the other nails were glittery and popped.  I was in love with the dots I did on my previous kitchen sink mani, so I copied that with Sassy and HD Nails.  Gorgeous, right?

Now that I'm done rambling....what do you think??  Good kitchen sink mani?  Appropriate for St. Patrick's Day?

Until next time, <3

Animal Print

Neon Gradient Zebra!!!!

9:00:00 AM

Okay, I'm unoriginal, again, but it was for an amazing manicure.  A little bit ago, I was reading my Blogger List and came across this AMAZING manicure by Heather at Peace, Love, and Polish.  I could not get the mani out of my mind, and I had to copy it ASAP.  I cannot begin to explain how happy I am that I did.  It gave me a prime opportunity to play around with my neon polishes, which I haven't done since summer.  Oh, how I've missed them!

I really can't even try to continue to babble about this manicure, I just need to show you....so let's go straight to the pictures.  You know, the pictures that I am beyond proud of.  Thank you camera and lightbox for cooperating!!!!  Pardon though the stained cuticles.  I couldn't get them to clean up perfectly because my gradient stained them a bit.





Colors Used:
  • Base
    • Ulta - Snow White
  • Gradient
    • China Glaze - Hang Ten Toes, Flip Flop Fantasy, Sun Kissed, Splish, Splash, and I'm With the Lifeguard
    • Funky Fingers - Riot!
  • Stripes
    • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
I never knew doing a gradient with six colors in the way I did them was even possible.  I am still in awe over it!!  I first laid out the bottles of polish in a "gradient" order.  I wanted them to all blend into one another color wise before putting them on the make up sponge.  Once the bottles were laid out, I painted the six colors in a circle on the sponge.  I started with I'm With the Lifeguard, then Sun Kissed, then Flip Flip Fantasy  then Hang Ten Toes, then Riot, then ending with Splish, Splash next to I'm With the Lifeguard.  I dabbed it fast on the plate, then directly onto the nail.  Painted another quick coat on the sponge then dabbed again back on the nail.  Lining the colors up exactly for a second sponge dab was kind of difficult, but totally worth it in the end.  The gradient wouldn't have been so vibrant if it weren't for the second gradient coating.

In Heather's manicure, she used a coat of glitter polish to even out her gradient, but I instead used some Out the Door.  I was going to do some Fairy Dust, but it was late and my FD takes forever to dry.

When the OTD was dry, I used my nail art brush and painted on the zebra stripes.  Last year when I started this blog, I only did zebra stripes using tooth picks, and boy how much easier is it to do them using a brush!!!  I cannot wait to do more zebra-y designs...and maybe even re-create my tigers!

What do you think?  Loving the neon amazingness?  Heather is such a genius!!!

I may try doing a more than 3 color gradient in the near future.  It was so much fun and was a great challenge.  I'm still in awe over the fact you can do something so awesome on your nail!!!!  

Hope you all enjoyed, and see you next time <3



Dot Mani

A Nub Gradient with Some Dots. Le Sigh

9:00:00 AM

Sigh, I broke a nail.  Sigh, I have nubs.  Sigh, my nails were a perfect length and I had to go and break one!  Ugh!  Nothing is more upsetting when you're nails are finally at a great length, you have a gazillion nail art ideas floating around in your head, and you break one of your nails.  The break happened when I was opening a drawer at work and my finger slipped and got caught on the edge.  It hurt, and could have been a lot worse, so I'm just going to count my blessings and stop sighing.  

Originally, after breaking my nail, I was not going to paint my nails at all until they grew out.  I kind of am happy I decided against that since these nails did turn out moderately okay.  Plus, they gave me some much needed gradient practice.  Looking at these nails and some of my original gradients, I can see how much I have grown.  I actually just realized you cannot see any of the white polish underneath for once!

Let's take a look.  If you don't like them, you can head on over to Hooked on Polish and yell at Kat.  She is the one who after seeing a sneak peek on Twitter told me that these nails are blog worthy.  I guess she is kind of right lol.





Colors Used:

  • Base
    • Ulta - Snow White
  • Gradient
    • Funky Fingers - Mrs. Mint
    • Ulta - Tutu Cute
    • Essence - Ultimate Pink
  • Glitter
    • China Glaze - Fairy Dust
  • Dots
    • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
These nails were super easy.  First, you paint on one coat of your favorite nail polish.  Once dried, I painted the three colors for my gradient onto a make up sponge.  After dabbing the sponge on a paper plate, I dabbed it onto the nail.  After the gradient seemed a tad dry, I went over it one more time with the make up sponge.  I then added a coat of Fairy Dust to blend the gradient together.  When that was dry, I added the black dots, then finished with some Out the Door.

After I posted my sneak peak, I had some questions regarding how I do my gradients.  The most common question: Do you wet the make up sponge?  My answer: Nope!  I have seen on Pinterest and other tutorials that other bloggers soak their sponges in a cup of water, but I have never tried this.  I use regular make up wedges from Wal-Mart, as seen below in a crappy webcam shot.


As you may or may not see (depending on if you're staring at my next nail design), the sponge is not very porous at all.  I do not think I would receive the same results if it were.  I think the polish would get trapped within the sponge more and less would make it onto my nail.  I typically paint two coats of polish onto the sponge before placing it on the nail.  This way, after you dab the sponge on the paper plate, you still have a decent amount on the sponge to dab onto the nail.  I start with my lightest color on top, then the darker, and then darkest.  I try to overlap the coats a bit too so they blend better on to the nail.  If you start with the darkest then move onto the lightest, you may mess your brushes up and ruin your bottles of polishes.  This might be easier if I do a video tutorial...maybe I'll attempt to figure that out??  hmmm.

What do you think?  Loving the nubs or hating them like me?  Fan of gradients or are they not your friend??

If you have any questions, feel free to send me a Tweet or leave a comment!!!  I'll try to answer to the best of my ability!!!  Until next post, <3.

kitchen sink mani

Kitchen Sink Mani - Another Young, Wild and Polished copy cat :)

9:00:00 AM

Well, it is clear that I have an obsession with Young, Wild, and Polished and her amazing manicures.  I stalk her Instagram waiting for new kitchen sink, dot, and gradient manicures.  She's literally a genius, and every time I have copied her nails, I have fallen in love with them and hate when I have to take the design off.

A few weeks ago, I came across this manicure on Nicole's Instagram and I immediately fell in love.  I went to my stash because I really, really, really wanted to copy it, and realized I did not own a single dark blue cream polish.  I'm not saying that she enabled me to buy polish, but she kind of did, and it was so worth it.  I purchased the same blue polish she used which was OPI Eurso, Euro.  Once I had the polish, it was time to use other similar colors in my stash and get to copying.

This is my first kitchen sink manicure and cannot wait to do more of these.  For those of you who do not know what a kitchen sink mani is, it is a manicure which includes many different designs/techniques...you know everything but the kitchen sink.  I believe Nicole made this up, shows how much of a genius she is.  

Let's take a look!  Notice my new watermark?  Having lots of lil thief's on IG lately, so let's see if this deters them.






Colors Used:

  • OPI - OPI Eurso, Euro
  • Julep - Robin
  • Ulta - Snow White
  • China Glaze - Fairy Dust
So pretty.  Each nail was rather simple to do.  I first started out with a base of OPI Eurso Euro on my pointer and pinkie, Robin on my ring finger and thumb, and Snow White on my middle finger.  

OPI Eurso Euro is a gorgeous polish, with two coats, I had complete coverage.  Mine applied smoothly and I didn't find myself having to smooth it out that much.  The formula was a tad thin, but easily to work with.  My polish kind of smelled a tad skunky, has anyone else had that problem?

Julep Robin and Ulta Snow White are perfect polishes as well.  Robin is just pure gorgeousness, and I'm kind of sad that my bottle is getting a tad clumpy.  I just went and purchased thinner in hopes to save it.  When you add Fairy Dust to it, the polish becomes something amazing and brand new....love it.  And well, I've already ranted about how much I love Snow White....if you don't have a bottle, head on out and purchase some!!

When all my nails were dried, I started doing my array of techniques.  On the pointer and pinkie, I did the "scalloped tip" or "cloud design.  For my thumb, I added multiple pieces of nail art tape and painted on two thin coats of Eurso Euro.  I did the dreaded dot flowers on my ring finger, and was rather pleased with how they turned out.  My middle polka dotted finger ended up being my favorite.  I was shocked how perfect my dotting looked when it was completed.  Thank you new dotting tools!!!

What do you think?  Love, hate?  Going to attempt in the same or different colors?  Love or hate the kitchen sink manicures??

Here's to hoping my next post is not so unoriginal and a non-copy-cat mani!!! I was going to post these three days ago, but wanted to move up my Pac-Mans!  Any ideas for me??  Send me a Tweet or message on Facebook!!! <3

Fun and Random

Pac-Man Nail Art!

9:00:00 AM

It feels like it has been awhile, but I finally have done some "hard core" nail art again!  For the past few weeks, I have been feeling very unoriginal and have found myself copying other nail bloggers manicures.  Now that I have finally finished my last college course ever and only have two edits left on my thesis project, I'm hoping to return to the crazy, wonderful world of nail art.  I am also hopeful that I will be able to bring you some original designs!

Today's nail art design: Pac-Man!!!  You know, the amazing old-school video game where the lil yellow guy goes around eating the white ball things while trying to avoid the ghosts??  If you don't know what Pac-Man is after that awesome description, I'm not quite sure what to say.....

This design was one I wanted to do last year, but never gathered the courage to do so.  I'm kind of happy I didn't since I had no where near the appropriate colors.  They just would have looked awful.  

Without further delay, let's take  look!!!!  Miss Susan of The Subtle Shimmer has been patiently waiting for me to post these since I said I did them a week ago on Twitter!  Susan is a sweetheart who has supported my blog and I since day one.  You should all go check out her blog after looking at my nails!!  I hope the wait was worth it for her, and for you all as well!!!




Colors Used:
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
  • China Glaze - Splish, Splash
  • Ulta - Snow White
  • Ulta - Sun-Sational
  • Zoya - Lianne
  • Sally Hansen - Blue Away!
  • Revlon - Charming
  • Revlon - Frankly Scarlet
Fun, cute, super awesome, right?  They were soooo simple also!!!!  To get the look, you first start off with a black nail.  I used two coats of my new favorite black polish, Orly Liquid Vinyl.  This black polish is so glossy and perfect, and technically you can get away with one coat.  I'm so happy I decided to grab a bottle of this, I'm in LOVE!

Once the black base is dry, it is time to paint on the blue boarder lines.  For my design, I used China Glaze Splish, Splash from the Summer Neons 2012 collection.  It popped off the black so well.  When you have your boarders, with a toothpick, outline and fill in the little Pac-Man and different colored ghosts.  While the ghosts are drying, fill in the blank spots with the white dots.  I tried to make one white dot bigger than the rest, but I kind of failed at that and ended up with an array of multi-sized dots.  Despite having amazing dotting tools, I still have yet to 100% master the skill.  Before adding a top coat, with a small dotter, add the eyes on the Pac-Man and ghosts, and you are all complete!

What do you think?  Fun?  Something you've tried?  Here's the biggie...would you like to see a picture tutorial for these?  It would be a photoshop tutorial like my other two as I don't have a camera set up yet for a photo tutorial.

Until next time, stop by my Mani Ideas page and leave your ideas.  You can also send me messages on Twitter or Facebook.  <3