Guest Post

Guest Post from Kat at Hooked on Polish!

11:00:00 AM

Today I have an awesome guest post from Kat over at Hooked on Polish!  Kat is such a sweet heart and I love her blog, but alas, I'm a horrible nail blogger and forget to post comments.  Hope she will forgive me :).  The other night when I was complaining how uninspired I was and needed guest post assistance, Kat was there, feeling the same way I was!  We both were uninspired and burnt out from a challenge.  Thankfully though, Kat found some inspiration and came up with this post!  Let's see what she came up with!!!!

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Hey all!

I'm Kat and I blabber a lot on my blog Hooked On Polish! Alaina and I started blogging pretty much at the same time and we met on twitter a little while after that. Since then, I've gotten to know her and can honestly say she's one of the sweetest people in the blogging world so I was very excited with the prospect of helping her out with this guest post!

I know Alaina's style is usually more freehand nail art but that can get really draining and exhausting (trust me, I've been pretty uninspired after the 31 Day Challenge myself) so I tried to do something still special but with a simpler execution.

I started with a base of OPI Dutch Ya' Just Love OPI and Milani Purple Gleam for my accent nails. On top of that, I layered Essie Stroke of Brilliance and Cover Band Sticks 'N Stones. Then, a layer of Milani Rad Purple and one of Nail Pattern Boldness Boop Oop a Dupe. Gelous, topcoat and I'm done with this beast of a jelly sandwich! :P 






My poor camera freaked out with this mani, she had no idea what to focus on and most of the pictures came out blurry, which is good since it made me cut down on the number of pics. I just couldn't capture how much this shimmered, it looks like my nails are lit from within. I also have to say how happy I am that I finally have a Clarins/Fantasy Fire dupe!

What do you all think? Is this something you would try if you're burned out on more complex nail art?

A big thank you to Alaina for having me and I hope you all enjoyed my post!

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This jelly sandwich is gorgeous!!!! I'm sure every single one of my readers can agree!!!  I have done one jelly sandwich which looked nothing like this!  I'm so happy Kat picked this for the guest post because it's something I rarely feature.  Plus, purple is my FAVORITE color!!!! I think that's why I love this so much...in conjunction with all the different sized glitters.  What does everyone else think?

Kat, thank you so much for the kind words.  I am beyond thrilled with this post, and happy you were able to help despite being burned out as well!  I swear, you read my mind though with the perfect manicure, especially since it's purple.  I always forget we started blogging at the same time, probably because your pictures are more professional looking then mine!  You may need to tell me your photographing secrets!  Thank you so much for this post....I am truly grateful and hopefully one day will get the pleasure to post on your blog!!!




Guest Post

Guest Post by Nails4Dummies! Water Marble Amazingness

11:00:00 AM

Hi everyone!  Today is the first of a few guest posts that I will be featuring on my blog.  As some of you may or may not know, I am a tad burned out when it comes to the whole blogging/nail arting thing.  I'm still painting, so I will be back, but for now I'm taking a much needed breather.  This breather was suggested by my first guest, Lindsey from Nails 4 Dummies.  Lindsey is a newer blogger, but she has made her self known in this lovely lil world.  Her blog is adorable, her nails are amazing, and she is the sweetest person ever.  I'm so happy to be featuring her on the blog today!!!!

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Hello Little Canvas peeps! I hope you don't mind if I take over Alaina's blog for a day! This is my first guest post so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't break anything. Normally you are all used to amazing freehand art since you're following this talented lady but there is no way that I could compete with her mad skillz so I decided to do something that I love and that's a water marble! I have yet to master this technique, the hardest part for me is getting a decent design in the polish. The YouTube videos that I watch on it all make it look so easy but I'm just happy if ther aren't any gaps in the color! I'm pretty happy wtih how this one turned out though and I'm happy to share it with you!

The polishes used here are China Glaze Gothic Lolita (if you don't have this color and you like purple, it is a MUST!) and Cha Cha Cha and Loreal Notting Hill Blues. For a base I used my go-to white of OPI Alpine Snow - if you don't have a decent white, get this one! If you were careful enough it's a one-coater but two coats will get you a gorgeous white canvas. For marbles though, you only need a single coat and it doesn't have to be pretty!




Thank you so much for letting me post here Alaina, I hope your readers enjoyed it as much as I did! :) Ta-ta for now!

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Can we all agree that Lindsey did a FANTASTIC water marble?  Water marbling is something I have vowed never to do again since I stink at it.  If you want to see my views on this technique, please check out my water marble rant.  Love the colors, love the photos, just love everything!  Thank you so much Lindsey and hopefully you will guest post again for me in the near future...and maybe I guest post for you??  We shall see!!!

<3

Animal Mani

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Turkey Nail Art

10:30:00 AM

Gobble, Gobble!  Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!  How are you all going to spend your days??  I will be with my family eating stuffing, stuffing, and well more stuffing.  I'm not one for turkey, in fact, our family will be eating chicken.  For me, it's all about the sides....you know, the millions of carbs haha.  Oh, and of course, the pumpkin pie....how could I forget that??  Since it is the holiday, I had to give myself a festive manicure!

When I sat down, I knew what I wanted to do.  As I am a sucker for a cute animal manicure, I decided I was going to paint little turkeys on my nails!  I started searching Google for ideas and inspiration as to how to actually paint the little guys on my nails.  I first found this manicure from the tumblr Wah-Nails which is seriously amazing.  It was just so cute that I couldn't even handle it.  It was too much though for lil old me to do, and I know there would be NO WAY I could get my nails to look that cute.  I went back to searching and found another idea.  I originally copied a tutorial I saw on Adventures in Acetone, but it turned out awful on my nails.  I didn't angle the feathers enough  and I made my turkeys too big...it was just awful.  So, with one disasticure behind me, I wasn't going to give up....I went in a different direction.

Here's how they came out....






Colors Used:

  • Base
    • Sally Hansen - Golden-I
  • Glitter
    • China Glaze - Glitter Goblin
  • Turkeys
    • Sinful Colors - Nirvana 
    • Sinful Colors - Sugar, Sugar
    • Zoya - Lianne
    • Ulta - Sun Sational
    • Ulta - Chocolate Kiss
    • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White and Black on Black
Oh, how I love my little turkeys!!!  Best part, they were super easy!!!!  With my nail art brush, I painted on the little bodies using Nirvana.  When they were dried, with my brushes and the feather colors, I detailed on the feathers around each of their bodies.  Since the feathers bled a little onto the bodies, I outlined the turkeys in Chocolate Kiss.  Not only did it cover up the messiness, but it made the bodies pop away from the background.  With my dotting tool, I added some googly eyes, followed by a beak with my brush, and they were done!

Originally, I was going to put turkeys on all my nails, but I thought it would be too much.  Since I seem to be purchasing more and more glitters, I figured I need to start using them, despite my fact I hate removing them. I grabbed Sinful Colors Pumpkin Spice, a dupe of Electrify by China Glaze, and painted it no my pointer nail.  Oh boy, it was awful.  Totally did not give my nails a Fall feel like I wanted.  It looked more Christmas-y with the red and gold glitter on the gold backed nail.  I then remembered my bottle of Glitter Goblin.  This is seriously the perfect Fall glitter.  It has bronze/brown glitter flecks mixed with holo pieces.  It's really quite pretty, and in many cases not something I would typically go for.  I bought it from Sally's on impulse due to the holo and definitely didn't think I would like it as much as I have.  Seriously, look at the glitter-y goodness in the blurry pic below.


Pretty, pretty, and really the pictures above kind of darken the glitter more than what it is.  I'm very happy I used it for this manicure, and with I used it more during the Fall months.  I still have some time...right?

What do you think of my lil guys?  Love them, hate them??  What about Glitter Goblin...what are your feelings?? Did you do a Thanksgiving mani?? I'd love to see so you should head on over to my Twitter or Facebook and share them!!! I would love to see!

To everyone out there reading this, I hope you have a Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving with your family and friends   Be safe and have a splendid day.  For those of you not celebrating today, just have a fantabulous day! <3

Tribal Print

31 Day Challenge - Day 21 - Tribal Print - Ikat nails!

11:00:00 AM

Second to last day of pre-swatched posts before I gave up on the challenge.  Oh what a failure I am as a blogger lol.  Seriously, I feel like I left my followers and the other girls who I was participating in the challenge with down.  I'm sowwy =/.  Anywho, I have to say, I didn't hate this manicure, but I also wasn't head over heals about it.

For tribal day, I wanted something different, I didn't want to go with the traditional line, dots, numerous colors, tons of effort tribal nails which everybody usually does.  Awhile back, my one friend had posted Ikat nails she did herself to her personal Facebook.  I loved the idea and it looked so tribal, in my opinion.  It reminded me of those Aztec patterns you see on old Southern throw rugs and such.  I bet no one knows what I'm talking about and I'm crunched for time so I can't insert a picture here.

I put Ikat on the back burner, and well this challenge day was the day to try them.  Let's take a look....






Colors Used:
  • Revlon - Dreamer
  • Julep - Sasha
  • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White and Black on Black
These are actually rather simple to accomplish!!  I started off with a base coat of Revlon Dreamer.  From there, I added the white polish  with the nail polish brush.  When that was dried, I added Sasha with the brush.  Finally, with a nail art brush, I messily outlined the patterns with black polish.  I forgot how pretty Sasha is as a polish, I need to start using it more.

Kristine from Pink and Polished tweeted me that she couldn't wait to see my Ikats.  After I asked if she had done them and she responded yes, I went and stalked her blog.  I found her first attempt at Ikats, and they were perfect!  Go take a look!!  I actually wish I used the colors she did!  For her base, she used Sinful Colors Mint Apple, which if you do not know, is my FAVORITE polish. Dreamer looks nice, but it's not Mint Apple!

What do you think?  Love or hate the ikat?  Do you also love Kristine's Mint Apple Ikats?

 I definitely will be trying these again when I'm out of my manicure funk.  I think my patterns were too large, so I think next time I'll scale them down.

In the next week (after Thanksgiving) I have some guest posts coming up from four lovely bloggers which I hope you will enjoy!!!!  I should be back to my personal regular postings in December.  I have so many Christmas/winter manicure ideas, it's insane.  I am very thankful that these girls offered because it gives me time to just calm down and not stress about the blog.  Love them for it.  Hope you enjoy and I will see you all on Thanksgiving! <3

Nicole by OPI

A Nicole by OPI Surprise!

6:57:00 PM

Two posts in one day, so unlike me, but I had to share my surprise.  Yes, a complete surprise!  Today, I came home from the store with my mom and we both noticed a package by the front door.  We both were confused because neither of us ordered anything and we figured that my dad did.  I got out of the car and looked to see that it was addressed to lil old me and the sender....OPI.  I was shocked.  I ran into the garage and ripped the box open as fast as possible...and to my surprise  there were 8 pretty bottles of polish inside for me!  I had ripped it open so fast that I missed the personalized little letter from Nicole by OPI.


Front of the letter, picture I snapped quick and threw up on Instagram.  How cute, Nicole I <3 you more than you probably <3 me! haha


On the other side of card was this personal message from the Nicole Team.  I entered a Halloween Manicure nail art contest on their Facebook page.  With 86 votes on my manicure, I made it into the top 5.  From the top 5, Nicole by OPI selected a Grand Prize winner, who received 18 bottles of Nicole by OPI of their choice.  I was featured as a runner up on their Facebook page, which to me was a prize in itself.  As runner's up, we were never told that we were going to receive any prizes, so this literally was a huge surprise.


The contents of the box, four individually packaged nail polishes.  After seeing "Krdshn Thrgh Snow" I realized that I had most likely received the Kardashian Kolor Holiday Collection :)  After opening up all the packages, sure enough all 6 polishes were mine, plus a top and a base coat!


Ahhh look at the pretties!  First up, we have Here We Come A-Karoling, a gorgeous deep purple shimmer polish.  Really excited about this shade, it is perfect for the Fall/Winter.  Next is Deck the Dolls, a pretty shimmery teal polish.  I am a sucker for blue, teal polishes, so this is something I am sure to quickly fall in love with.  Next is my mom's favorite, Keeping Up With Santa, a deep red shimmer polish.  This is perfect for this time of the year.  While I already own red polishes, this one is just perfect for some Christmas manicures I have planned :)


The glitters!  All is Glam, All is Bright is one I'm probably most excited to use.  As you can see it is a very small hexed glitter polish.  The colors remind me of candy canes, aka the perfect polish for a candy cane manicure...so stay tuned for that.  Kardashin Through the Snow is a pretty multi colored glitter.  Perfect really any time of the year.  Can't wait to see how it looks on the nail!  Then finally a glitter I never probably would purchase but am happy to have in my stash, A Gold Winter's Night.  I'm not one for gold polishes, or bar glitters, but there is just something about this polish which makes me like it.  It might be that there is a tinge of purple in it.  Whatever it is, I'm using it tonight.


Finally, I got Top Coat and Base Coat.  Probably never would have bought either of these since I just got a brand new huge bottle of OTD and I'm happy with my base, but I'm definitely going to try them!  Plus it is always great to have back ups!

I really am happy with this surprise, and completely impressed with Nicole by OPI.  I personally do not own any of their polishes since when they first were on the market they contained Formaldehyde which I'm allergic to.  I noticed that they changed the formula on these polishes and I will be able to use them.  What impressed me most was that hand written note from the OPI team.  It made the package personalized and, I don't know, it just was really nice to see a big company recognize a contestant.  I think it's also amazing how they set me up to be able to do a complete manicure from start to finish.  Obviously, I have base and top coats, but who knows if the other contestants do.

After receiving this, I will most likely be purchasing Nicole by OPI in the future.  Can't wait to test them all out and bring you some amazing nail art.  Thank you so much Nicole by OPI  and for those who voted for me in the contest :).  To be honest, this package kind of ignited my love for my polishes again. :)

Flowers

31 Day Challenge - Day 20 - Delicate Print

11:00:00 AM

Welcome to Day 20, Delicate Print day, and one of the pre-swatched posts from before I gave up on the challenge.  I'm pretty sure that this is my least favorite day of the whole challenge, as well we all could see all of them shortly became.  Why?  Well, because I had no stinking clue what a delicate print was.  Everything that I was finding online was either done by stamps, or used light pastel colors which are more appropriate for spring.  I was dying to have darker colors for this manicure.

After getting dozens of great ideas, I took to Pinterest and started searching.  I found a really pretty navy blue manicure with white outlined hearts.  I decided that was going to be my delicate print, until it quickly turned into a disasticure.  I re-did the one nail and began thinking again.  While searching the blogs, I came across another design by Nicole at Young, Wild, and Polished.  It was the design she used for her blue day during the 31 day challenge: a dark blue mani with pretty dotted flower french tips.  I thought it was pretty delicate, so I decided I was going to practice my dotting skills some more and copy another one of her manicures.

After dotting on one flower though, my mind started working, and I came up with something a little different. Let's take a look-see. Yay for me not flooding my cuticles! haha





Working through trying to take indoor shots since it really hasn't been sunny all the time.  Over the next few weeks I'm probably going to have less photos unless it's sunny out.  Including one in this post to see what you guys think or if you have any tips or pointers about taking inside pics.


Colors Used:
  • Sinful Colors - Precious Metal
  • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
  • Sinful Colors - Bali Mist
Pretty and delicate, right?  After putting on the one flower, realizing it was too big and it would be hard to do others on my lil nubbins, I started painting random designs.  Instead of doing it on all the nails, I french tipped the rest of the nails with a little swirlish henna design.  It kind of came together perfectly.

For the base, I used one of my new favorite polishes, Sinful Colors Precious Metal.  I purchased this polish during the last Walgreens Sinful Colors .99 cent sale.  I really wasn't sure when or if I'd use it, but for .99 cents I couldn't say no and I'm a sucker for blue polishes.  This polish is so pretty, and really one of the reasons I love Sinful Colors.  They're never the same, always unique, and a perfect bargain   This polish is a gorgeous dark blue polish, with numerous glittery flecks to give it a metallic sheen.  With three coats, I had full coverage as it's a tad sheer.  It's just so pretty, and I can't wait to use this polish again throughout the winter.  A total surprise for .99 cents.  Ahhh I can't stop looking at it!!

After looking at Nicole's post again, I think it might be safe to say it's a close dupe of the Maybelline polish she used in her post.  I may have to snag a bottle and do a comparison   It might be difficult for me to do though as everything I do needs to have nail art lol.

In the end, I love how this manicure turned out.  Love the white on the blue, the pink Bali Mist as the center of the flower, and the delicate henna design on the other nails.  What do you think?  Does it pass the delicate print challenge?

Don't forget to check out the other lovely ladies!




Rant Post

Bad Blogger Girl

1:11:00 AM

As you all know, I am in the middle of the 31 Day Challenge with some other lovely bloggers.  I've been an overachiever throughout the challenge and have had many manicures pre-swatched.  I think as of right now I'm up to the galaxy nails.  Anyways, tonight when I sat down to do "Inspired by Nature" I hit a huge road block.  My first manicure was probably not a disasticure, but I thought it was.  Okay, well it might not have been, I messed up one nail and instead of continuing on, I changed up the idea, and really had a disaster on my nails.  My mom liked it but it just wasn't me.  I really hated looking at it.  I then thought "okay, I'll move on, I will do "Nautical Inspiration.""  Yeah, okay, that came out even worse than the nature one.  I ran to the remover and took it off.  


I now have my third manicure on for the night, and equally hate it as much as the other two.  Really, at this point, I'm hating nail polish and painting my nails.  I look at my stash and I want to throw it in the trash.  I don't ever want to feel this way about my polish or about my nail art.  I found myself tonight looking at my last few manicures (okay the flower one and the animal one were awesome) and really hating them.  I didn't have something on my nails that I'm super proud of.

The reason being...well I'm not 100% positive, but it might be this challenge.  I've felt like I'm thrown into a box...given a list of ideas (some which we switched out from the original challenge) that I must stick to, and I kind of hate it.  I feel like it's taken my creativity away.  There are some coming up I'm excited for which I can be creative (video game, movie, pattern).  As of right now though, I'm sitting looking at all of them and I'm hating the idea of being stuck to one thing.  

In conjunction with this, school has become hectic.  I'm in my last few semesters ever, and it's all getting real.  Graduate projects, essays, review boards, graduation timelines...ahhh!!!  I'm stressing over little things which I should not be stressing about, such as this blog.  The Little Canvas is my creative outlet, my fun, my hobby.  Slowly, it's becoming a pain in my ass, and well I do not want that.  I've decided, to ensure that doesn't happen, I will be bowing out from the challenge and posting some other nail art until then.  Also possibly getting my post up for the VoxBox I got also.

So, as of tonight, I am deciding to stop with the 31 Day Challenge.  I will finish it...eventually, just not along with the other girls, and my pre-swatched posts still will be going up.  I'm apologize to the lovely ladies, I hope they understand.  And I hope my followers understand.  

I will still be painting my nails once I get out of this funk and posting every 3 days as I typically do.  Reason I post this way is because I paint my nails every 3 days.  I feel if I'm loving what I'm doing, my followers will too...so here we go.  The Little Canvas is a bad blogger girl backing out of her challenge, and going back to just blogging for the hell of it.  

For those of you in the tl:dr crowd...here's the cliff notes:
  • I am out of the challenge because I am all around stressed and this blog is becoming something I hate. As to not hate, I will be out of the challenge for now.  I still will be painting my nails, just not challenge based.

Well, that was my rant for the night.  Love you all and thank you for the continuous support on all the social networks.  <3 <3 <3

Flowers

31 Day Challenge - Day 19 - Floral Nails

11:00:00 AM

Day 19, Floral nails...hmmmm.  I'm a fan of rose nail art.  I love it.  My first day of this challenge I did red rose nails, which coming up soon I will have a tutorial for :).  To me, they're easy and so pretty on the nail.  Something I can never do though are dot flowers.  You know, the simple five dots and a center.  Something so simple eludes me, and I have no idea as to why.  For this day, I wanted to do that.  I needed to master the dot flower and be victorious over something so simple.  If I could do monarch wings, converse, and owl half moons, a dot flower should not be so bad for me.

Nicole from Young, Wild, and Polished, to me, is the dotting tool, dotting flower, and water marble expert.  Seriously, this girl is a pro.  All her dots are flawless, perfectly round and circular.  I swear she has a stencil or something.  Her dot flowers, perfect as well.  Each time they are amazingly perfect, cute, and ugh jealousy is now rising in me as I type this.  If you haven't checked her out, please do.  Love her blog.

I came across a few dot flower manicures I really liked.  Since I had just had black on my nails, I decided to not try to re-create her black and grey ones.  Okay, the real reason was that it was too many flowers and I was scared I'd mess it up.  My eye kept getting caught though on a pretty manicure she posted using the Essie Winter Collection polishes.  I had to do it.  Since I didn't own the Essie's, I ran to my stash and found some dupes.

Let's take a look.  I'm experimenting with shooting pictures inside now that the weather is nasty, so please bear with me as I figure everything out.  If you have any pointers, please share! :)  It's going to be a long winter.





Colors Used:
  • Julep - Robin
  • China Glaze - I'm Not Lion
  • Sinful Colors - Midnight Blue
  • China Glaze - Fairy Dust
Let's take a walk through of how I did this manicure.  First, I obviously found my dupes of the Essie bottles Nicole used.  I recieved Julep - Robin a long time ago in a giveaway I won over at Polish Pixelle.  I threw it in my stash, because at the time, I really had no use for it.  There it has sat, unloved and unused.  For this manicure, I used three coats of it, and probably could have gotten away with two.  It applied really nice, I'm kind of upset Julep bottles are so dang small.  It probably will be used for this mani, and then savored and rarely touched.  I then grabbed China Glaze I'm Not Lion and painted my accents with two coats.  Gosh, love this polish.

I then went out to the store because the whole dot flower thing was freaking me out.  I was so happy with the bases that I really did NOT want to ruin them by attempting flowers.  While at the store, I stumbled upon the Essie Winter Collection and picked up the bottles that Nicole used.  I was so thrilled to see that they were pretty much identical dupes.  I took a crappy cell phone pic in my happiness.  Check it out.


So happy.  I then came home, sat down, and decided it was time to finish the manicure.  I grabbed a paper plate, and started practicing the flowers.


Yay!  Not a failure after all!  After the six successful attempts, I decided it was time to try on the nail.  Wouldn't you know that on my first nail, I messed up?  My flowers were too big  and close to each other.  I wasn't going to give up though.  I grabbed my dotting tool and tried again, and wouldn't you know, I was successfully able to do them.  And on both hands!!! See?! (Pro of using a tripod, I can take pictures of both my hands!!)


I added some Fairy Dust to my Julep nails because the plain color was kinda freaking me out.  I'm not one for simple, my creams need to have some form of glitter for me to love them.  In the end, I was in love with this manicure.  It was so simple and pretty, I just could find nothing to hate about it.  Made me see that I don't have to do extensive nail art to be in love with my nails.  Thank you Nicole for allowing me to steal your design!  

What do you think?! Are you a master of the dot flower?  Do you like the simple mani?

Don't forget to check out the other lovely ladies!






Animal Print

31 Day Challenge - Day 18 - Animal Print - More Leopard Spots

11:00:00 AM

Welcome to Day 18!  Today's theme is Animal Print, something I am very accustomed to doing.  I really love leopard print nails.  Whenever I've done them, they've been crazy and neon.  My first leopard mani was way back when on Ryan's blog as a guest post.  They were so short and nubbed, and had literally no clean up.  Look how far I have come.  After my nail injury, on my lil nubs I did a neon yellow base with leopard print.  Shortly after, I did leopard french tips on more neon polish.  Then finally, as my last neon hurrah of the summer, I did neon leopard skittles.  All were great, all were funky, but none were classic.

For this challenge day, I originally was going to do giraffe nails, but when I sat down to paint, it was late and I didn't want to attempt something new.  I fell back on my classic leopard since it is something simple for me.  Since my stash has grown since I started blogging, I realized I had the colors to do an actual leopard colored leopard print.  This manicure turned out to be one of my favorites of all time.

Let's take a look.






Colors Used:

  • Leopard Nails
    • Zoya - Avery
    • Sinful Colors - Nirvana and Black on Black
  • Accent Nail
    • China Glaze - I'm Not Lion
Pretty, right?   I really, really, really loved this manicure, but took it off super fast to do my candy manicure for the OPI contest (yeah that's right, this manicure was pre-swatched way before Halloween, I'm a challenge cheater).  Kind of sad that I did that because this manicure was just amazing.  I'm going to have to do it again once this contest is over.

I think I liked it so much because of how I accented this nail with I'm Not Lion.  I originally purchased this polish back in August, and did a very simple manicure with it because the glitter is so pretty.  For those of you who do not know what this polish is, it's a very light gold, small flecked glitter polish with some holographic flecks as well.  In the sun, it's just gorgeous.  Literally, you need to find this polish if you don't have it!

To do the leopard nails, I took Sinful Colors Nirvana and with my dotting tool placed uneven dots randomly on the nail.  When that was dried, with a tooth pick, I outlined the dots unevenly with Sinful Colors Black on Black.  I always make sure that the lines of the outline do not meet, meaning that it is not a full black polish circle.  I typically do one full side, then the other full side leaving a tiny section open.  On the open tan spots on the nail, I added some black dots with my toothpick.  Painted on a top coat, and called it a day.

What do you think?  Do you like the classic leopard manicure?  Love the accent nail?  Think I should have done it or did a full leopard mani?

Don't forget to check out the other lovely ladies manicures! 





31 Day Challenge - Day 17 - Stripes

11:00:00 AM

Day 17 of the never ending challenge.  Welcome Polished People!  Today's theme is stripes!  Kind of boring if you ask me.  Not really anything too interesting that you can do with striped nails.  I mean, I guess you could get some really neat manicures, but for me, the person who can't draw a straight line with a pen on paper, drawing one on a nail is even worse.

For this manicure, I originally was going to follow Nicole of Polish Me, Please! pink and grey plaid nail tutorial.  I've yet to do a successful plaid manicure, and well Nicole's tutorial was easy to follow, so I figured I wouldn't mess it up.  Leave it to me though, I did mess it up.  Why?  Well because it was so simple.  Remember, I make disasticures out of every simple manicure I attempt.  I actually think it was my color choice that made it so awful, but whatever.  I'll try again soon.

I went to Pinterest and found these nails posted from the blog Polish Amor.  I fell in love with them way back when and decided that now would be a good time to attempt them.  Polish Amor's turned out way better, so beware.






Colors Used

  • Base
    • Zoya - Avery
  • Stripes
    • Sinful Colors - Sweet Dreams, Fig, Midnight Blue, Daddy's Girl
  • Glitter
    • China Glaze - Fairy Dust
Okay, maybe they didn't turn out that bad.  I first started by painting on a base of Avery.  From there, I added my lines with my nail art brushes.  I tried to unevenly add them, but I don't know they all blended and blurred together.  When the stripes were dried, I added some Fairy Dust over the top.

Does anyone else's Fairy Dust take like 30 years to dry?  Of course, I added some Out the Door on top of these, but the Fairy Dust was still wet and i smudged and pulled my nails.  It was lame.

What do you think?? You like? You hate?

Don't forget to check out the other girls manicures!





Dot Mani

31 Day Challenge - Day 16 - Polka Dots

11:00:00 AM

Welcome back to the 31 Day Challenge!  I enjoyed my week off to do some holiday themed manicures.  Did you enjoy my Halloween week?  I can't wait until Christmas time!  I have a lot of manicures planned.  I wonder how many of them will make it to the blog or on my nails.  Well, that's a lil bit away, so I have some time to think, plan, and pre-swatch :)

Today is Day 16, which means we have hit the half way mark!!!  Day 16 is Polka Dot day!  I'm not sure why, but I always hate how my nails turn out when I use my dotting tool.  It might be a bit of OCD on my part, but if the dots aren't perfectly circle, same shape, or spaced equally, I think it looks awful.  I'm definitely practicing, because someday I want to be able to do some kick ass dotting tool manicures that look like they were done with a stamp!

When I sat down to paint this manicure, I had to go work appropriate, as in corporate work world appropriate.  Now, I work at two very professional jobs, and I'm blessed that both typically do not care what I put on my nails.  It really makes my life.  Since I hadn't worked this one job in awhile, I wanted my nails to match my business casual clothes.  What better than using a neutral black and grey.  How could you go wrong?  Oh wait, you can add loads of glitter, like I did.  I couldn't resist, but hey it was still work appropriate.  

Let's take a look....







Colors Used:
  • Pure Ice - Kiss Me Here
  • China Glaze - Make a Spectacle
  • Sinful Colors - Black on Black
These nails were very simple!  First, I painted on 2 coats of my dark grey polish.  When that was dried, I added one, yes one, coat of Make a Spectacle.  This is going to be one of my favorite glitter top coats.  It's so pretty and adds the perfect shimmer to any manicure.  I own Essie Shine of the Times, a flakie, which is kind of similar, but the colors that bounce off the glitter are different enough that it doesn't matter.  To me, it's not a waste of money in the least.  Now  I want to use Shine of the Times...hmmm....

When the glitter was dried, I added the black polka dots with my dotting tool.  I did not want a typical polka dot, so I decided to do the tilted tips.  I think it ended up looking neat!

What do you think?  Like the color combination?  Work appropriate nail art?

Remember to check out the other lovely ladies!!!