Goodbye Google Reader, Hello BlogLovin!

8:38:00 PM

That's right, tomorrow Google Reader goes bye bye!  So, how are you going to keep updated on all my posts, you ask?  Well, you can subscribe to BlogLovin!!!!  I kind of love how I just signed up for an account and was able to hit one button and all the blogs I followed imported to that site!  So simple!

So, if you would, please head on over to BlogLovin and follow me by just clicking the handy dandy link below!

Follow on Bloglovin

You can also follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, and Twitter to stay updated as well!

Tomorrow I will be posting a day ahead of my every 3 day schedule and starting July off with my July nail artist of the month, so you do not want to miss that!  I'm very excited to share this artist with you!!!  Then of course, I'll be posting a Fourth of July manicure which you will not want to miss!  It is amazing in my mind, so I'm hoping it doesn't turn out to be a disasticure!

Until then, have a great night! <3

Foodie Mani

Strawberry Nail Art Take 2

9:00:00 AM

The world of nail art and nail blogging is hit or miss.  Some days you have great success with your manicures, amazing photos, which lead to happy happy posts.  Other days though, you have great success, but awful photos, which lead to mediocre posts which you are all blech about.  Now, okay, these photos aren't awful, but the sun I feel was too bright on them, and my computer has weird coloring on the monitor which looks different on my other computer and iPhone.  Seriously, even my mom's computer these photos look night and day.

Look at me babbling about the photos before I even talk about these nails!  Well, it's June (now the end of it) and that means it's strawberry season!  Strawberries are by far my favorite fruit.  Each year my family and neighbors all gather and head on off to the local strawberry field and go strawberry picking!  Just as I did last year, for the occasion I painted my nails with strawberries!  Sadly, they didn't make it to the field since my car was disgusting and I had to do a deep clean of the inside and outside, but at least they lasted long enough to get pictures!

Pictures....awful, awful pictures.  I tried, I really did.  Stupid red nails washing me out and looking all weird on my computer.  lol.



Colors Used:

  • Ulta - Red Carpet Red
  • Ulta - Sunsational
  • Orly - Coachella Dweller
  • Zoya - Josie
Okay, maybe I'm being overdramatic.  Now that I've scrolled down and am writing this part, it's becoming a mind over matter...right?  I loved the nails, and in fact think they look better than my strawberries last year.

I started off with a base coat of Ulta - Red Carpet Red, a bright red polish which has a jelly finish.  Love finding jellies in my stash.  I remember last year when I bought it for my mom and she put it on her toes I stated it was a jelly, but until it was on the fingers, I never realized how pretty of a jelly it was.  It was the perfect look for strawberries!

When the base was dried, with my nail art brush, I added the yellow seeds of the strawberries.  When that was dry, I took Orly Coachella Dweller and painted on the leaves of the strawberries.  This is kind of a time consuming process which you have to have a somewhat steady hand for.  I strongly suggest you have a nail art brush or a striper for this step because using a toothpick or dotting tool would be near to impossible.

I stepped back and took a look at my manicure, and I wasn't 100% happy with it.  Something was missing.  I decided to go back and detail the green with a little Zoya Josie.  I loved how the base of my pansy manicure looked with Coachella Dweller with Josie dabbed on top so much so that I decided to do the same thing to the strawberry leaves.  I'm very pleased with how they turned out!

What do you think?  Liking the strawberries?  Have you done a strawberry manicure yet this year?

Well, I'm babbling, yet again, so I am off.  Until next time, <3.

**Zoya Josie was provided by Zoya for Promotional Purposes.  Orly Coachella Dweller was a prize in a giveaway.  I purchased the Ulta polishes.  All views expressed are my own.  Please see my disclosure policy**

Fun and Random

Despicable Me Minion Nails + Tutorial!

9:00:00 AM

This time next week, I will be preparing for the premier of Despicable Me 2.  You know, the sequel to one of the greatest animated movies ever.  Now, when Despicable Me first came out, I was bitter, I was a Pixar fan and thought "eh, it's going to stink, I don't want to ever see it."  One night, maybe 3 years ago now, I was hanging out with a group of friends.  We were bored of random games and such and decided it was time to watch a movie.  As soon as everyone found out that I had never seen Despicable Me, they turned that movie on.  There we were, a group of 20 somethings watching Despicable Me on a Friday night.  Regrets?  None what so ever, probably the best Friday ever.

This movie became one of my favorites.  It has such a cute story line, and well who doesn't love Gru, the girls, and most importantly, the minions!  The cute, adorable, little yellow guys that run around helping Gru perform his "evil" deeds.  They're just the cutest characters ever.  Well, last year, before I started blogging, I painted minions on my nails.  Now, I warn you, before you click the link, you should know, this was one of my very first attempts at nail art, I owned about two polishes, and used only toothpicks.  Now that you've been warned, here are my very first minions.  Not so bad especially since I really had no idea what I was doing.

Well, ever since I heard that there was going to be a sequel, I have been dying to re-do these nails.  Now that my stash has grown, I have nail art supplies, and my hand is a bit steadier, I was really anxious.  Miss Susan from Subtle Shimmer told me that I should do them and maybe make a little tutorial so some of you other ladies could paint your nails for the premier!!!  I listened to her advice, and well, let's take a look!!!




Colors Used:
  • Ulta - Sun Sational
  • Sinful Colors - Endless Blue
  • Sinful Colors - Cool Grey 
  • Orly - Black on Black
  • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
  • Ulta - Flamingo

How I got the Look (I broke it up into Two Eyed Minions and One Eyed Minions):


  1. Paint your nails in your best banana, minion colored yellow.
  2. You can do step two a few different ways.  I placed  piece of nail art tape towards the tip of my nail, and with a dotting tool filled in my "french tip" with a blue polish.  I wanted my lines to be very straight for the lil guys overalls.  If you have a steady hand, you can use the paint brush and slowly paint the tip onto your nail.  You could also use a striper or a nail art brush.
  3. With a nail art brush, paint two black rectangles on the sides of the minions heads for their goggles.
  4. With a dotting tool, either create two grey dots, or one large dot depending on if you want a two eyed minion or a one eyed minion.
  5. While the grey polish dries, with a nail art brush, create the little minions mouth.  On the two eyed minions, I decided to create a simple smirk.  On the one eyed minion, I made the mouths a little more crazy.
  6. When the grey is dried, with a smaller dotting tool, add white polish.
  7. When the white is dry, with an even smaller dotting tool, add the black pupils.
Make sure each of the layers are dried before adding a top coat.  I was a little thick with my top coat because I didn't want my black pupils to smear and drag down on the white.  Sadly, it still happened.  No matter what I do, or how long I wait, black polish always drags.  My right hand looks awful, but hey there is a reason why I do not photograph that hand!!! 

Compared to last years, I decided to make the overalls smaller because I wanted their faces to be the center of attention.  I feel like my first attempt was too overall-ed and their faces weren't apparent enough.

What do you think?  Are you excited for the film?  Will you be painting your nails special for the movie?

If you use my tutorial, please tag #thelittlecanvas and share your design!!!  I love seeing your work when you have been inspired by something I have posted!!

Ahhhhh, this makes me so excited for next week!!!!!  Loving my lil minions.

I want to also quickly say, I know that CutePolish did a similar tutorial on her YouTube channel.  I love CutePolish and have copied many of her manicures and give her credit when I copy her manicures.  It ended up being bad timing that she did the same thing around the same time I did.  I had this planned for awhile, and was planning on changing up the overalls and such.  When doing the manicure, I actually stared at a personal friends Facebook page because she did them last year like this and I loved how hers turned out.  CutePolish, I love ya, but I didn't copy you on this one :).

Until next time, <3.

**I purchased all the polishes used in this post**

Guest Post on Peace, Love, and Polish!

9:00:00 AM

Hello everyone!  How are you on this fine day!  Today, I am guest posting over at Peace, Love, and Polish for the talented Heather.  As some of you may or may not know, Heather has had a baby boy and is taking a little time off from the blog.  I am a huge fan of Heather's art work, and was honored earlier this month when she asked if I could be her featured blogger of the month. Again, when she asked me to guest post, the same honored feeling took over!  I really hope she enjoys what I came up with!



For the colors used and how I got the look, head on over to Peace, Love, and Polish!

Until next time, <3

kitchen sink mani

Hot Pink Kitchen Sink Mani

9:00:00 AM

You know that moment when you want to go to bed but remember you have a post scheduled but with no writing in it?  Yeah, that happened to me.  I literally have five posts set to go of edited photos but no writing. It always happens that way.  Usually I edit photos at night, so by the time I'm done going through the dozens of photos, cropping them down, and adding watermarks, I'm exhausted.  What I end up with is posts of pictures and "Colors Used" so I don't forget what exact colors were done in the manicure.

For this manicure, I took inspiration from my "sister" Ryan.  Some of you may remember Ryan from when she blogged under the name Dream a Little Dream of Polish and did a butterfly wing guest post for me back when I started blogging.  Ryan no longer blogs, but shares her manicures with her followers on Instagram.  According to Instagram, 21 weeks ago she posted this hot pink kitchen sink manicure which I instantly fell in love with!  For those of you who do not know, a kitchen sink manicure is one which contains a bunch of different looks....you know, everything but the kitchen sink!!!  I love how Ryan's brain worked with this manicure, it all came together amazingly and I only wished one day to create my own manicure based off of hers!

Let's take a look at my hot pink manicure, which Ryan already gave her seal of approval!




Colors Used:

  • China Glaze - Hang Ten Toes
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
  • Hard Candy - Black Tie Optional
Fun, right?  I copied Ryan's middle and pinkie nail exactly.  To get the leopard print on my middle finger, I used Liquid Vinyl and a nail art brush.  I LOVED doing leopard print like this.  I always am used to doing it by filling in the center then outlining, but this look was just so different and unique.  I loved it.  For my pinkie finger, I painted on my base of Hang Ten Toes, then put down a piece of nail art tape and painted the black on.

I didn't have the amazing Indie polish Ryan used on her ring finger, so I used the next best thing....Hard Candy - Black Tie Optional.  I love this black and white matte glitter polish.  As I stated when I first used this polish, I thought I was going to hate the bar glitter in it, but since it is mixed with all different sized glitters, you can barely notice the bars.  To be honest, they make the polish what it is.

For my pointer and thumb, I totally strayed from what Ryan did with her manicure.  I'm not going to lie, I did attempt to do the same thing on my thumb, but after some consideration, I thought it would be easier to just put a bunch of pieces of nail art tape and just paint two thin coats of Liquid Vinyl on top.  The pointer finger was probably the most difficult to do.  I put on two pieces of nail art tape and filled in the upper and lower part of my nail with a dotting tool and black polish.  Then, I took two pieces of tape, put them super close, and filled the center in with black polish to create the thin black line.

China Glaze Hang Ten Toes is from last years Summer Neon collection, and probably one of my favorites.  China Glaze needs to re-release this polish, especially since I have less than half a bottle!!!  It's the most gorgeous pink polish with an awesome shimmer.  It sometimes has a weird blue shimmer in it.  Maybe I'm imagining, but it's just so great.  It also has a great formula.  Two coats, and bam, neon perfection.  Love it and need more!!!

What do you think?  Liking the neon pink kitchen sink manicure?  Loving Ryan's also??

This post is exactly the reason why I love the nail art community.  If I never started blogging, I never would have met Ryan, who has become such a great friend, and never would have created this awesome looking manicure!!!  I think I may need to go copy some of her other ones soon :)

Whew, for being so tired, this post became long!!!!  Until next time! <3

Flowers

Pansy Nail Art + Tutorial

9:00:00 AM

Hello there polished world!  How are you today?  I'm doing very well!  Reason being, my nails are growing out and I have had very minimal disasticures over the past few paintings.  Then combined with the whole being graduated and actually not being stressed out over school work, I'm finding more time for things that I enjoy.  Which, of course, is mainly nail painting.

When I sat down to do this manicure, I wasn't sure what I was going to do.  I really wanted to do a floral design since I felt that I had not done one in awhile.  A long time ago when I started the blog, I pinned a pansy manicure by Nailed It.  Katy's site is awesome because she has some really cute, easy to understand tutorials.  To be honest, her tutorials are the reason I started to do my little photoshop ones.  I realized you didn't have to do actual nail photo step by step tutorials to get the "how to" across.

So, I sat down and decided to do Katy's pansies with a little twist.  Let's take a look!!




Colors Used:
  • Base
    • Orly - Coachella Dweller
    • Zoya - Josie
  • Pansies
    • Sinful Colors - Amethyst
    • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
    • INM - El Sol

How to Get the Look:

  1. Start off with a base coat of a light green polish.  For this manicure, I used Coachella Dweller.
  2. This step can be done a few different ways.  I personally took a darker green polish and with a wider nail art brush, I dabbed on Zoya Josie.  If you do not have a nail art brush, you can lightly sponge on a darker green polish with a make up sponge, or use saran wrap and do the saran technique.
  3. With a dark purple polish, make two dots using a medium sized dotting tool to represent the two upper petals of the pansies.
  4. When the purple polish is dry, with a white polish and slightly smaller dotting tool, dot on four white dots in a cross pattern starting in the middle of the purple dot.  See the little picture to see where.
  5. With the dark purple polish and a nail art brush, lightly add purple details on the white.
  6. With the medium or smaller dotting tool, take a yellow polish and add a dot in the middle of the white.
Orly Coachella Dweller and Zoya Josie combined perfectly to make a perfect grass look.  I love how dabbing in step two created an interesting swirly dimension to the nail.  I think this would have looked great with just Orly Coachella Dweller as a base, or even just Zoya Josie.

What do you think?  Liking the pansies?  Would you attempt them?  

Thank you, Katy for the amazing idea!  I hope you don't mind me taking a little spin on it!!!  I love being inspired by other bloggers!  Have you been inspired by me??  Please tag #thelittlecanvas and your nails could be featured on my blog's Facebook page!!

Until next time, <3!

**Zoya Josie was provided to me by Zoya for Promotional Purposes.  Orly Coachella Dweller was a prize from Nailed It Magazine.  INM El Sol was provided to me by INM as a replacement product.  I purchased the Sinful Colors.  All opinions stated in this post are my own.  Please see my disclosure policy for more details**

Tape Mani

Holo Tape Manicure

9:00:00 AM

My nubby nails are growing back!!!  I love my nails and how fast they grow.  Now of course, I still have been a tad bummed that they are shorter than what I've had, so I decided against "hard core" nail art.  So what was a bummed nail artist to do?  Oh, I don't know, maybe work with some holo polishes!!!!

Seriously, how can anyone be upset when they have the gorgeousness that is holo on their nails.  I purchased my first holo last year when Color Club came out with their first Halo Hues collection.  The polish I purchased was Cloud 9, a light lavender polish with the most brilliant holo.  When Color Club came out with their new holo polishes with brighter colors, I knew I needed to snag a couple.  Those polishes, Eternal Beauty and Over the Moon.

I have used them together in other manicures, but never in the way that I did for this manicure.  I put both polishes on alone, but was feeling a tad bored by it, so I decided to do a tape manicure.  I asked my friend Amanda from The Nail Polish Enthusiast if she thought that putting Zoya Storm over the top would look good.  Instead of saying yes, she suggested I layer the holos.  I love her for this, because seriously, this manicure is AMAZING!!!!

Let's take a look!!!




Colors Used:
  • Color Club - Eternal Beauty and Over the Moon
Stunning, right?  How can anyone be angry that they have shorter than normal nails when they look like this?!?!  Love it!

Eternal Beauty is such a gorgeous purple color on it's own.  I really wish I had a plain cream purple in this color.  Same goes for Over the Moon which is a gorgeous blue polish.  I did both colors separately on my toes for pedicures in the last few weeks, and so many people were complimenting the colors.  They're so rich and bright, despite being darker toned colors.

Then there is the holo effect these polishes have.  As I stated previously, these are my first polishes like this.  I was amazed when I saw the bottles and what they do when in the right light or sun.  I have found Color Club to be the richest in this effect.  Especially when compared to the new China Glaze holo polishes.  I much prefer these.

To get the look, I started with a base coat Eternal Beauty on the ring finger and thumb, and Over the Moon on all my other nails.  I then applied tape diagonally and put Over the Moon over the Eternal Beauty nail and vice versa.  I removed the tape, and drooled over the look.

What do you think?  Fan of the holo?  Loving the tape manicure look?

Well lovelies, I will see you next post!! <3

**I purchased all the polishes used in this manicure.  The opinions stated are my own.  Please see my disclosure policy**

Color Block Mani

Stained Glass Heart Manicure

9:00:00 AM

I had another tragedy.  Yes, I broke the same nail that I broke before doing my last manicure.  This time though, there was no saving the length, all nails needed to be nubbed.  It was okay in the end since my nails were kind of in bad shape and peeling and could have used a drastic trim down.  So, I grabbed my clippers and chopped everything down.

I was kind of bummed about the length, especially since before the last break my nails were perfect.  I debated about not painting them and just leaving them naked until they grew out, but I couldn't bring myself to do so.  I started looking for short nail art ideas, and I remembered Magnifique Nails who has shorter nails which ALWAYS look amazing.  She is so talented.  After scrolling around her blog, I found this manicure.  Now, I knew I couldn't copy it exactly how she did since I'm not that talented, so I took my own little spin on it.  I'm happy with how they turned out.

Let's take a look.




Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Josie, Micky, Darcy, Thandie, and Rocky
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
  • OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls
Nubby, nubs which were colorful and cute.  I love working with the Zoya Stunning collection since they are such full colored creams.  They are also super easy to work with when using dotting tools or toothpicks to fill in small areas like on these nails.  I wasn't sure that I would get a lot of use out of Josie, but it is quickly become one of my favorite green polishes.  It's the perfect leaf/grass color, and well as a nail artist who enjoys flower manicures, this is a must have.  I have so many ideas for the other polishes too, but I'm waiting for summer to tick on a little more before I do so.

To get the look, I basically what I did for my color block nails.  I started off with a base coat of white polish.  Since my pure white is goopy, I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls since it is a pretty decent one coat polish.  I didn't worry if it was streaky in some areas since I was planning on totally covering the base with the colors.

With my nail art brush and black polish, I painted on the "stained glass" outlines.  Then, with my dotting tool, I filled in the white spaces like a coloring book.  When the colors were completely dried, I went back over the black lines with a nail art brush to make them stand out and clean up any overflow from the color dotting.

What do you think?  Love, hate?  Have you tried the stained glass/color block look? 

I still see my color block nails to be a tad messy.  I'm hoping with more practice the lines become neater.  It definitely takes a steady hand and some patience.  Seriously, I think to do both hands, this manicure took at least an hour and a half.  After the 45 minutes of doing my left hand, I really didn't want to do my right hand. I should probably start painting both hands at the same time instead of doing one hand completely then moving on. hmmm.

Until next post, <3.

**The Zoya Polishes in this post were provided by Zoya for promotional purposes.  I purchased Orly Liquid Vinyl and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  The opinions expressed in this post are my own.  Please see my disclosure policy**


Gradient Mani

Gradient Laser Tape Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Okay, I love this manicure.  Words cannot describe how happy this manicure made me, especially since it began after a tragedy.  Yes, tragedy.  Right before I sat down to do this manicure, my nails were the perfect shape and length.  I was so happy since they had taken me awhile to grow.  I had trimmed them, filed them down a little, and was ready to go.  Well, I decided before painting my nails to clean up a tad, and of course, I broke my ring finger right down.  It was awful.

I trimmed again, chopped my nails down, and with a sigh sat down and painted on a base coat.  I was too bummed about the broken nail that I didn't want to attempt some hard core nail art because I figured I was going to hate it since I hated the length of my nails.  The one thing I have learned you can never go wrong with when you are unhappy with your nails is a gradient.  They're fun, different, eye catching, and look amazing.

Of course, I can't leave a simple gradient alone.  I had to make it pop more.  So I grabbed my nail art tape and started creating.  Let's take a look at the final, amazing product.




Colors Used:
  • OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls
  • China Glaze - Hang Ten Toes
  • Funky Fingers - Riot!
  • China Glaze - Splish, Splash
Oh how I love, love, love, love this look and how the pictures turned out.  I started off with two coats of OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  Gosh, I love this polish.  I held off on buying it for the longest time because from looking at the bottle, all I saw was an off white polish.  I thought to myself "I have no use for this, it's ugly, I'll hate it, and for the money it is not worth it."  After much peer pressure on Twitter, I caved and purchased a bottle, and am so mad at myself that I never did prior.  When on the nail, it is a perfect white polish that isn't as "in your face" as a pure white polish.  As a nail artist, sometimes having stark white polishes can really ruin a design, and sometimes you need something more muted.  This, is that polish.  Since purchasing it, I have used half the bottle, and am going to head to the beauty supply store in a few days and grab a back up bottle.  OPI needs to make this part of their permanent collection.

When the base was dry, I added on my nail art tape in random burst patterns on the nail.  After the tape was on, it was time for the gradient.

For the gradient, I picked one of my favorite color schemes which is blues and purples.  The China Glaze polishes were both from last years Summer Neon collection, and Riot! by Funky Fingers was just a random bottle I purchased awhile ago.  The purple isn't a true "neon" but it serves the purpose when I use it among gradients with other neons.  Pink to purple to blue, how can anyone go wrong.  I painted the colors on a make up sponge, and dabbed over the nails.  After getting the gradient as dark as I wanted, I removed the nail art tape, revealing the white below.  I added a top coat to blend the gradient and called it a night.

Looking back now, adding some Northern Lights over the gradient before removing the tape may have looked amazing.  I may have to try that in the future.

What do you think? Love it, hate it?  How can you hate it??  

Well darlings, until next post, have a great one! <3

**I purchased all polishes mentioned in this post.  Please see my disclosure policy**


Flowers

Blue-Ming (get it) Floral Nail Art Inspired by Pinterest

9:00:00 AM

I can't believe that I am just today getting around to posting this manicure.  I am almost positive I painted these a month ago and created the tutorial right around the same time I started going tutorial crazy.  Regardless, I'm happy that I am finally getting around to posting them because this is one of my all time favorite manicures.

When I sat down to do this manicure, I was feeling VERY unoriginal.  I took to my Pinterest nail ideas board and started looking through.  Right away, I was drawn to this pin of a manicure by Polish Art Addiction.  She was inspired by this manicure after seeing a manicure by Beautopia Nails.  Now, mine didn't come out looking as good as theirs, but I was so enthralled with the manicure in the end.  I received a lot of compliments on them.  And then, my manager told me they looked like a pair of 80s stretch pants that someone would wear a white lace shirt with, and I forever saw them as that.  Haha, I still loved them.

I couldn't name them "80s pants nails" so I asked my lovely friend and ex blogger Ryan what I should name them.  She came up with teh creative idea of Blue-Ming nails, since they are on a blue base and the flowers are blooming....get it?  Love her for that.  

Enough of my babbling, let's take a look!




Colors Used:

  • Revlon Dreamer
  • Sally Hansen - Pink Blink, Fuschia Flare
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl, Coachella Dweller
  • Zoya - Josie
How I Got the Look:

  1. Start off with a base coat of sky or baby blue polish.  For this manicure, I used two coats of Revlon Dreamer.
  2. With a dotting tool, dot on uneven semi circles on the edges of your nails.  This is the base of the flower.
  3. With a smaller dotting tool, take a lighter polish and unevenly dot in the center of the flower.
  4. With a nail art brush or a tooth pick, take a light green polish and draw on the leaves in between the flowers.
  5. With a darker green polish, add some detail to the flowers.
  6. With a tooth pick, or a nail art brush, outline the flowers.  This does not have to be perfect, and in fact looks better when it isn't perfectly neat.  
  7. Do the same thing you did on the flowers to the leaves using a black polish.
  8. In the blank areas, with the nail art brush or tooth pick, draw in a few black squiggly lines.
I loved using Revlon Dreamer as the base for this manicure.  Dreamer is such a perfect dusty sky blue that it didn't take away from the pink and green of the flowers and leaves.  All other polishes I used in the post are just amazing nail art polishes.  I love using the Sally Hansen Insta Dri's for dotting because I feel like I have a lot of control over the size of the dot without having the polish pool on the nail making a huge 3D dot.  I'm not sure if others have this issue, but I find I do a lot with thinner/not fast dry polishes.

The greens, Orly Coachella Dweller, and Zoya Josie are the perfect leaf colors!  I am planning on using both again for a grassy, lady bug manicure as soon as my nails grow out again.

I'm also a huge fan of Orly Liquid Vinyl.   It is my favorite black polish and literally for detailing like this, it's so easy to work with.  It doesn't get goopy like some of the cheaper blacks I have used.  If you use a lot of black polish for details, I suggest you put the money towards this bottle!

What do you think?  Fan of this manicure?  Going to try it for yourself??

Well, lovelies, I am off to paint my nails.  I broke the same nail twice in a row so expect to see some nubbies in the near future.  Don't you hate that, right when your nails are at the perfect length, bam something horrible happens.  And then when it's on the swatching hand, it's even worse.  Oh well.  Nothing you can do!

See you next post! <3

Nail Artist of the Month

June Nail Artist of the Month

9:00:00 AM

Can you believe it is June already???  I feel like May just started, scratch that, the year just started.  Where has all the time gone?  I do swear that as you get older, the years go by a lot faster.  I think it's because all I do is go to work.  I don't ever remember the years going this fast when I was in high school.

Regardless, it is June, and you know what that means, right??  It's time for another Nail Artist of the Month!!!  This month, I selected Kelly from Tuxarina!  I discovered Kelly a few months ago on Twitter after last months nail artist, Casey, included me in a conversation with her!  I instantly fell in love with her blog and her work, and had to feature her!  For those of you who do not follow Kelly, check out her blog, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Enough of my jabbering, let's take a look at her post!!

________________________________________

Hey guys! I'm Kelly from Tuxarina and I'm so happy Alaina asked me to be the Nail Artist of the Month! I have recently discovered her blog and I love her things! Everything she does is original and has great quality. Plus, she's an awesome person! A little bit about myself: I'm 23 working at a small local coffee place with an awesome family and a crazy (but sophisticated cat). I started my blog a little over a year ago and the nail community has been very welcoming. I feel like recently, I've found out a nice pattern for myself in my blogging.

I've expanded a little in my nail art skills and went outside of my box more. I did a traditional drippy nail with a twist. I decided to add a sponged base, kind of like a tie dye feel. I used Illamasqua Scorch as a base then sponged with Zoya Yummy, Zoya Arizona, Zoya Ali and Essie Mojito Madness. I then went over and sponged the entire nail with white again, to wash out the bright colors. Then, with a nail art brush and black acrylic paint, I did my drips design. I highlighted some of the drips with white acrylic paint to make them stand out a little more. I really love the end result. Drippys are one of my favorite nail art designs to do. They can either be simple, or complex. You can really twist them any way!
______________________________________

Loving this manicure Kelly created for this post!!!!  I have to recreate this in some way shape or form in the near future!!!!  I tried paint drips last year, but they did not look as awesome as this!!!  Thanks for the new inspiration, Kelly!

Again, everyone should head on over to Tuxarina to check out Kelly's blog.  You can also find her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook!!

See you all again soon! <3