Bug Mani

The One With the Butterfly Nail Art

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!   Happy Monday to you all!  Should happy and Monday go in the same sentence?  My weekend didn't last long enough.  I did absolutely nothing.  Seriously had a "me" weekend where I lounged around.  Honestly, wish I had more days like that, probably could use at least two more then I'll be ready to go back to work.  Alas, I will be at work by the time this post is published running around not knowing my name.

Today's manicure is the annual butterfly manicure.  Last year I switched it up and did purple butterfly nails to raise awareness for Epidermolysis Bullosa.  This is a disease which commonly occurs in children.  Their skin is super fragile and sensitive and they can develop blisters easily.  Those children with this disease are known as butterfly children, because they are fragile like butterflies.  Last year, my good friend Meagan's friend Taylor passed away from this disease, giving me the idea for the post.

This year I wanted to do that again, so I turned yesterday's purple base into butterfly wings.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • FingerPaints - Lavender Love
  • FingerPaints - 50 Shades of Ashley
  • Acrylics
Now I don't need to gush again over this base like I did yesterday.  But look at how wonderful it is for the base of this design!!  I cannot get over how it gave the butterfly wings such dimension!  They shimmered and sparkled, and I received so many compliments on them.

What do you think?  Like the butterfly wings?

Until next time, <3.


Bug Mani

#TheNailArtSquad Raises Awareness for Epidermolysis Bullosa

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world and Happy Friday to you all!!!  Yup, Friday is here and I couldn't be happier.  My work week has been hectic despite the fact I've only had a four day work week.  I'm sleeping all weekend.  Or at least I think I will and then I get plans and that just goes by the wayside.

Today I'm back collaborating with the Nail Art Squad.  This month, we are painting purple butterfly manicures to raise awareness for Epidermolysis Bullosa.  My friend Meagan had a close friend named Taylor who recently passed away from this disease.  When she told me about the disease, my heart was broken. Epidermolysis Bullosa is a rare skin disease which causes the skin to literally blister.  Those who are diagnosed with it have a very short life expectancy due to the fact that the skin is very fragile.  The children are known as butterfly children due to their fragile nature like a butterfly.

One night when I sat down to do my nails, Meagan asked if I had ever done butterfly nails.  Of course I started to show her all my previous manicures and she said she wanted her nails to be purple butterflies for Taylor.  I decided to draft up a design on my own nails and told Meagan that I would be posting it on my blog to raise awareness for the ideas and to remember Taylor.  Then it hit me, I could raise more awareness if I did a collaboration.  So I contacted Sarah and we gathered up the Nail Art Squad for today's manicure.

Let's take look!


Colors Used:
  • China Glaze - Lotus Begin
  • China Glaze - Let's Jam
  • China Glaze - I Got a Blue Attitude
Isn't it lovely?  The whole manicure turned out perfectly.  When I was painting it, I told Meagan that Taylor was cheering me on making sure I didn't mess up.  I truly believe it too because out of all the butterfly wing designs I've done, this one was the easiest to create.  Usually my lines are too thick, the gradient doesn't work....the list can go on and on.  Every single step went smoothly.

Let's take a look at the other girl's manicures!!



I hope that one day they find a cure for this horrible disease.  Learning about something like this really makes you count your blessings.

Until next time, <3.

Bug Mani

Monarch Nail Art :)

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing on this fine Saturday?  I meant to get a post up yesterday but it completely slipped my mind.  I'm kicking myself too because I have so many posts I need to share.  I have to get back into the blogging groove.  I feel like I've been saying that for 8 months now and keep failing at it.

Today I am sharing a manicure I did in mid-August.  See, I told you that I have a back log of manicures.  Anyways, in August we had a monarch butterfly release at work.  This year we got a new butterfly garden which attracts monarchs and is supposed to give them a safe place to reproduce since they are almost close to becoming endangered.  I love butterflies so when we got the garden I was rather excited.  It attracts so many neat looking butterflies, but the monarchs have to be my favorite.

Let's take a look at my manicure!




Colors Used:
  • FingerPaints - Paper Mache
  • FingerPaints - Tie Dye Tangerine
  • FingerPaints - Yellow Out Man
I love how these turned out!  I never wear orange or yellow polishes so I always forget how much I love how these colors look.  Tie Dye Tangerine and Yellow Out Man are a part of the FingerPaints Tie Dye Revolution collection that came out earlier in the summer.  It was a collection which consisted of five bright cream polishes and re-introduction of their awesome white polish.  I absolutely loved the colors in this collection because they were perfect colors which any nail artist could use.



For this manicure, I started off with a base coat of Paper Mache.  Once it was dried, I used Tie Dye Tangerine and Yellow Out Man and created a gradient.  These polishes are PERFECT for gradients!  They are so opaque that I literally only had to dab the sponge a few times.  Typically I have to paint the sponge twice and do two rounds of dabbing.  This time, only once!  Total plus!

What do you think?  Fan of this look?  Should I do more orange and yellow manicures??

I highly recommend getting over to your Sally Beauty and picking up these polishes if they still have them!  Two of the stores I went to last week still had a display!!

Until next time, <3.

Bestie Twin Nails

Bestie Twin Nails with Fashion Footing: Round 13 & Giveaway!!!

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  I'm excited to be back posting with Amanda from Fashion Footing for our 13th round of Bestie Twin Nails!  Can you believe we have been doing this feature for a year now?!  I don't know where the time went!  To mark our one year anniversary, we are holding a giveaway!!!  Let's talk nails, then we'll talk giveaway!

For our manicure this time, we were inspired by this butterfly manicure by SensationalNails4U on Instagram.  I had never seen a gradient monarch wing like that and I was just dying to attempt the design.  I'm sure Amanda wasn't thrilled that I picked such an intricate manicure, but she was a good sport and agreed to it.  Unlike me who refuses to do glitter placement....ever.

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • NYC New York Color - Jacaranda Flower
  • Zoya - Micky
  • FingerPaints - Frosty Lemonade
  • INM - Northern Lights
  • Black and white stripers
I started off with a base coat of white polish.  When it was dried, I sponged on my gradient using Jacaranda Flower, Micky, and Frosty Lemonade.  When the colors looked how I wanted them, I added a top coat of INM Northern Lights because all gradients demand this gorgeous glitter.



I then went through with a black striper and added the monarch wings.  I've done this design a few times before, but this is my all time favorite!  I swear the others never turned out this well.  I ended up keeping them on for about five days!  I never keep manicures on that long, but I literally loved these!

What do you think?  Fan of this manicure?  Something you would try?

Now for the Giveaway.  To celebrate our one year anniversary of Bestie Twin Nails, Amanda and I are both providing prizes for this giveaway.  

My prize is:


Three Sally Hansen Pearl Crush and Xtreame Wear Polishes!  The colors are: Shell & Tell, Babe Blue, Rainbow Fish, Big Teal, Lady Crab, and Mauve Over.

Amanda's prize is:


A Rollin' In Cashmere OPI kit, and KB Shimmer Men are From Marsala and Up and Cunning.

To enter, use the Rafflecopter widget below.  You must be 18 and older to enter, US only.  NO GIVEAWAY ACCOUNTS.  Giveaway will be open for two weeks.  Two winners will be selected.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!!!!

Until next time, <3.

Bug Mani

Zoya Bubbly Monarch Wings

9:00:00 AM

Press Sample
Happy Saturday polished world!  And boy is it a happy Saturday for me, I don't have to work today and it's supposed to be gorgeous out!  That means I'm going to wash and wash my car, and maybe vacuum it as well.  Sure, it really doesn't sound too fun, but anything sounds good after you're able to sleep in.  Oh how excited I am to sleep in.

I'm also excited to share today's pretty manicure - Zoya Bubbly Monarch Wings!  As soon as I received the Bubbly collection from Zoya, I knew that I wanted to re-create the monarch design on my nails!  Last year, you may remember that I did this exact design using the Irresistible polishes.  Looking back at that manicure, I'm remembering how gorgeous the Irresistible polishes are.  I need to dig through my stash and re-use some of them this summer.  Also, look how short my nails were!  Goodness gracious.

Instead of doing a gradient like I did with the Irresistible polishes, I decided to go simple and just swatch the colors.  I'm so happy I did this and didn't complicate the gorgeous polishes.  Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Binx, Muse, Alma, Harper, and Stassi
  • Orly - Instant Artist - Black and White

Aren't the colors gorgeous?  In the sunlight, each polish takes on a whole new dimension.  I'm actually quite upset that I couldn't get some outdoor photos of these nails.  It of course was cloudy and then the tips started to wear since it was black, so the lightbox it was.  Each polish is a colored jelly based with holo glitter pieces throughout.

Muse and Stassi are the most color concentrated of the bunch.  For me, it took two coats to get full coverage.  Binx, Alma, and Harper all took three coats to get the colors to really pop.  If you used one thin coat followed by one thicker, you would have been perfectly okay.  Since I was doing art though on top, I really wanted my base to be as concentrated as possible.  The formulas though are pretty great and the polishes themselves are unlike anything else in my collection.  I highly recommend them!


To get the look, I used my Instant Artist stripier and created the swooped line by my cuticle.  From that line, I created the four lines down the nail.  Then I connected the lines with more little swoops, then filled in the tip of the nail with black polish.  When that was dried, I added the polka dots.  Well that is the most confusing explanation of how I got the look ever.  Maybe I'll create a tutorial....

What do you think?  Like the monarch wings?  Loving the Zoya Bubbly polishes?  Would you like to see a tutorial?

 The Zoya Bubbly polishes can be purchased from Zoya's website for $9.00 each.  I don't believe that they currently have any promotions, so you'll have to splurge if you want them.  I think they're worth it!

Now if we could just get Zoya to create some linear holo polishes similar to the Color Club Halo Hues, my life would be complete.....

Until next time, <3.

**Polishes in this post were provided by Zoya for PR purposes.  Please see my disclosure policy**

Bug Mani

Zoya Irresistible Gradient Butterfly Wings

9:00:00 AM

Hey everyone!!  How are you today?  Are you enjoying the Spring weather??  I think I would be more if my allergies weren't totally kicking my behind.

A few weeks ago I received the Zoya Irresistible collection.  I really like foiled polishes, but not in the summer.  To me, foiled polishes are a Fall/Winter look.  I was beyond stumped with what I should do with these polishes.  I was almost at the point of just swatching them and bringing you all a swatch post.  My Little Canvas mind though could NOT bring myself to do that though.  I was DETERMINED to make these beauties into a Spring/Summer manicure.

After much consideration, I remembered my monarch wings I did last year using Zoya Lianne.  I thought to myself "how gorgeous would monarch wings look with these polishes??"  I grabbed my nail art supplies, and got to painting.  Here's what I came up with.




Colors Used:
  • Thumb Gradient
    • Zoya - Bobbi to Hazel
  • Pointer Gradient
    • Zoya - Hazel to Rikki
  • Middle Gradient
    • Zoya - Rikki to Kerry
  • Ring Gradient
    • Zoya - Kerry to Amy
  • Pinkie Gradient
    • Zoya - Amy to Tinsley
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
  • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
Since I wanted to use all six polishes, I decided to do a gradient on each nail.  I wouldn't suggest using these polishes for a gradient unless you have some patience with the clean up.  These polishes, especially Hazel, Rikki, and Kerry, are heavily flecked with gold foil pieces. They are gorgeous, but if it gets on your cuticle or skin, it takes a while to clean up, and gets everywhere.  It's like when you open a card with glitter and you find the glitter months later.  I still am finding the flecks on my clean up table.

My Thoughts about the Irresistible Collection:

LOVED these polishes, especially in the sunlight.  As soon as I was done painting and took a look at my nails, I quickly realized why these were released as summer polishes.  The colors are so bright that they are perfect for the summer!!!!

Tinsley is the rose gold foil finished polish.  It's a unique color which my collection is lacking.  It is a perfect, work appropriate color.  I'll be saving this polish for fancy occasions.  Bobbi is the most fun, in my opinion with it's bright magenta color. It's perfect for summer!!!  I thought Kerry was going to be more yellow, but it turned out to be a lot more gold then the little swatch on Zoya's site.  If you are a lover of gold polish, this one should go in your must have list.  As a lover of blue, Hazel  is an automatic win.  Not only will this polish be good for summer, but also for some winter snow nail art.  Rikki is a neat green with gold flecks in it.  I wish I had this polish at St. Patrick's Day!  I know, summer polish, but with the gold and green, my mind automatically is creating St. Patrick's Day nail art with it.  Finally, we have Amy, the orange foil polish, which is pretty, but not my favorite.  I'm not a huge orange person, I have them for nail art, but rarely wear them alone.  If you wanted to do plain foil monarch nails, this would be the perfect polish to use for it.

What do you think of the Irresistible collection?  Loving or hating the nail art I created using them?  Have you thought of any fun ways to use them yet?

Whew, that was a long post.  Until next time, <3.


**The 2013 Zoya Irresistible Collection was provided by Zoya for Promotional Purposes.  I purchased Sinful Colors Snow Me White and Orly Liquid VInyl.  The opinions expressed are my own, please view my disclosure policy**

Bug Mani

31 Day Challenge - Day 2 - Orange Nails

6:00:00 PM

Hello there!  Today I bring you Day 2 of the 31 Days of Inspired Nail Art Challenge!  Day 2 is centered around the color Orange.  This one was difficult for me.  I really couldn't think of anything that was orange other than, well, oranges.  I found a super cute idea, but I didn't have the right colors and was too lazy to actually attempt them.  I really did not want to have a disasticure.

Then I remembered a guest post that the amazing Ryan from Naild in the South (formally Dream a Little Dream of Polish).  She did cute butterfly wing nails, which she was inspired to do after seeing a manicure on pinterest.  Ever since I saw her post, I wanted to attempt them but the right opportunity never arose.  This challenge day was my moment....I was finally going to do monarch wings!!!!!

Let's take a look....






Colors Used:

  • Base
    • Zoya - Lianne
  • Details
    • Sinful Colors - Black on Black
    • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
To begin, I put on three coats of Zoya Lianne, a really pretty orange shimmer polish which I got for FREE at the beginning of the year through a Zoya promotion along with Zoya Avery.  Oh how I love a deal.  When that was dry, with my super long striper brush, I painted the individual arches and lines coming down from the arches.  With a tooth pick, I drew on the lower arches connecting the lower lines, and then filled in the tip with the polish brush itself.  Finally, with my dotting tool, I added the white dots.

I have to agree with Ryan on this, these nails were a pain in the booty!!!!  I thought she was joking when she posted that if you were a neurosurgeon to go for it.  Boy, oh boy, did they take a steady hand!  I'm thinking it was partially due to my striper which is sooooooo long.  It was a brush I had from a nail art polish which dried up a long time ago.  I threw out the polish but kept the brush and have been using it for awhile.  It has always bugged me how long it was, and I never thought of cutting it down.  Megan (@PaintinRainbows) gave me the brilliant idea of going to Michaels and purchasing regular paint brushes and cutting them down to size.  I took her advice and purchased 7 different brushes and I cannot wait to use them!  Hopefully it will make designs like this one easier!

What do you think?  Have you done the monarch/butterfly wing manicure?  Did you think it was difficult?  Tweet Me your designs! I want to see!   


As a reminder this is the challenge!  Do not forget to check out the other lovely ladies posts for today!!!



Until Day 3, have a good one! <3

Bug Mani

Ladybugs!

10:47:00 PM

I'm feeling like poop tonight.  My throat is sore and my head is all wonky.  I'm blaming the weather.  As I stated in my other posts, it was 80 degrees here last week.  Tonight we're expecting a frost and currently it is 33 degrees.

When the temperatures were warm, it brought back my favorite lucky little bugs.  Ladybugs!  Ladybugs are pretty much the only bug that I can stand, all others gross me out.  Do not get me started on spiders.  So since the little ladybugs were landing on my car and on my house, I thought it was only appropriate I paint them on my nails.


Colors Used:
  • Base
    • Sinful Colors - Sugar, Sugar
  • Bug Details
    • Sinful Colors - Black on Black
    • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
  • Top Coat
    • New York Color - White Lights Glitter
The technique was very simple.  I used almost the same technique as CutePolish in her video.  I started with a base of the red coat.  CutePolish in her video just swiped the nail polish across the tip, I always have issue doing this and getting it straight, so I taped half my nail and painted on the black tips.  Then I used my regular polish brush and created the center line.  Then, I dotted on the spots and little antennas with a dotting tool.  Next, I took the dotting tool and placed on the eyes.  I decided that the plain white eyes were kind of creepy looking, so I decided to give them little googly eyes.

I really wish that my red polish was brighter.  I love them, but they're just so dark.  When I added the glitter and then my Sally Hansen top coat, they lightened up a bit.  I may have to invest in a brighter one.

Literally, every time I look down at my nails, I think of Butters from South Park singing this song.



Easter is right around the corner so I will be starting my Easter designs shortly!  Can't wait to show them to you!!!