The Little Canvas: Cloud Mani

The Beauty Buffs: Polka Dots

8:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world! How are you all today?! I'm doing swell! If you read yesterdays post, you know that today's post was supposed to be a continuation of it. Of course though, I destroyed that base with a lovely disasticure. After another disasticure, I finally was able to come up with today's manicure for The Beauty Buffs.

Our theme today is polka dots! Something which I love! I can't tell you how much I love any form of dot manicures. They're so versatile and can always create a statement, especially when part of a manicure. I always think that they're a perfect accent to a kitchen sink manicure.

For today's design, I decided to do a festive Fourth of July kitchen sink manicure with a polka dot accent! My polka dot's aren't your traditional dot design, but instead a zillion little dots mixed together on the nail. It's still considered polka dots, right?

Let's take a look!

Colors Used:

Zoya - Livingston
Zoya - Ling
FingerPaints - Paper Mache
OPI - This Crown Needs a Gown
FingerPaints - Red, White, and Hue

Only difference base wise between yesterday's manicure and today's is the middle finger! Instead of using Zoya Ling on that finger, I went with OPI This Crown Needs a Gown with a top coat of the FingerPaints patriotic matte glitter Red, White, and Hue. All kitchen sink manicures need a glitter accent of some sort, am I right? I purchased Red, White, and Hue a few weeks ago at Sally Beauty during a BOGO along with Paper Mache. I am so happy my neighbor noticed the display tucked away because I never would have seen it and would have missed out on such a great patriotic glitter. It's a perfect polish also, not too much base, and not too much glitter. It was just right and applied so evenly in one coat. There was no need for manual placement of glitters, it all just fell perfectly!

Zoya Livingston and Ling are the perfect America Red and Blue shades. Livingston is from the Cashmere collection last fall, and Ling is from the new Tickled Collection for the Summer. Livingston is a close dupe of the Red My Lips by Sally Hansen I featured yesterday. Both are crelly like and apply evenly in two coats. If anything, the Sally is a microshade darker, but it's barely noticeable. Regardless, I love how both shades match the matte glitter.

For the most important nail, the polka dotted one, I did a quick base coat of my new favorite white, Paper Mache. When the base was dried, I used different sized dotting tools and applied red and blue dots all over the nails. I create this look by starting off with the largest dots first, then going through and add the little dots after filling in any open areas. I tend to get a little crazy filling in, but it's okay because it all ends up looking amazing.

What do you think? Liking the patriotic kitchen sink manicure? Are you a fan of polka dot accent nails sch as this one??

Don't forget to check out the other lovely Beauty Buffs posts! Can't wait to see what everyone did!

An InLinkz Link-up

This is going to be my last post before the Fourth of July, so to all my American followers, I hope you have a safe and happy holiday! Please no drinking and driving or injuring your pretty polished hands in a fireworks accident. Leave the fireworks to the professionals, please.

Until next time, <3.

**Some polishes in this post were provided for review. Please see my disclosure policy**

Cloud Mani

New Years Eve Manicure! - Metallic Clouds - Take 2

9:00:00 AM

Happy New Years Eve!!!! How are you guys going to celebrate tonight?? Personally, I'm going to be an old lady and Dick Clark's Rockin New Years Eve. I will also most likely be in bed by 1am. I'm not a huge party person, and am very much a home body. I do go out with friends to the mall and stuff, but partying, clubbing...ehhh hate it.

Even though I'll be staying in, I still painted my nails just for the occasion! Thankfully it wasn't a disasticure either! I was very nervous it would be seeing as I broke a nail while jumping on a bounce house with my nephew, and had to chop all my nails down. If this break happened anywhere other than a bounce house, I'd probably be really angry.

For the manicure, I wanted to include silver, gold, and black, as these are the colors that stand out to me when I think New Years Eve. I remembered the metallic clouds/scalloped tip manicure I did a few months ago and loved how much the metallic looked with a cream polish in the middle. It was one of those manicures I could not stop looking at. I decided to try that look again with these colors.

Let's see how they turned out....

Colors Used:

Sinful Colors - Black on Black
Silver

Sally Hansen - Celeb City
Sinful Colors - Queen of Beauty

Gold

Sally Hansen - Golden I
China Glaze - I'm Not Lion

Sparkly, metallic-y....totally screaming New Years Eve if you ask me! Achieving this look is rather simple, and requires no nail art brushes what so ever. Begin by painting on a base color of your choice. When your base is dried, take your second polish and place the brush half way up the nail. I let the polish pool bit to make a rounded edge, then pull towards the tip of my nail. I then do the same thing a little lower to give the scalloped/cloud look. When this coat is dried, repeat this step with your third polish.

I'm happy I decided to layer glitter over the gold and silver polishes. You can't really see the silver glitter over the silver, but you can see the holo specks of I'm Not Lion over the gold! I just love how they turned out!

What do you think? What are you sporting on your canvas' for New Years Eve?

I truly hope that everyone has a SAFE and blessed New Year! Emphasis on the safe, please do not drink and drive, and be cautious of others on the road! See you all back here in a few days <3

Cloud Mani

31 Day Challenge - Day 9 - Metallic Nails! - Scalloped Tips

11:00:00 AM

Hello there!!! Today I bring you Metallic Day, or as it is known, Day 9 of the 31 Inspired Days of Nail Art Challenge! I own 10 different metallic polishes, including 2 crackles, so for me finding a polish was not going to be too difficult. As me to find a jelly though, it's nearly impossible in my collection.

When I sat down to do this manicure, I pulled out all 10 of those polishes and began staring. What did I want to do....how was I going to use more than one of these polishes and not make my nails look like an obnoxious shiny, metallic mess. I remember seeing in my Twitter feed that @MrsManPolish newest love for what The Daily Varnish calls Scalloped Tips. This technique is also known as the "cloud" manicure as seen on the blog nailside.

I originally tried the technique with three metallics, and boy was it a barfy, metallic disasticure. So, I started searching my stash for a perfect colored cream that would look good with any of my metallics. The winner, Sinful Colors Rain Storm, an amazing dusty, medium blue. Let's take a look...

Colors Used:

Funky Fingers - Zeppelin
Funky Fingers - Favorite Girl
Sinful Colors - Rain Storm

The next day I refreshed it with some matte top coat...check it (they kinda look the same but you can see it's flatter)

It is super easy to get this look!!!! Start with a base coat of whatever color you chose. Then with your second color, using the bottle's brush place it 3/4 of the way up the nail. When it starts to form a rounded drip, stroke the brush downwards. Then do the same 1/2 the way down, then the last 1/3rd of the way down. With your third color, do the same thing. If you want to have a more ruffled look, you could do this technique with as many polishes as you want. If my directions stink (which most likely they do) check out either The Daily Varnish's or Nailside's tutorials above!

Which look do you like better?? Shiny or flatter? I loved both equally, I seriously could not stop looking at these nails!!! I cannot wait to do this technique again! So simple and eye catching! Have you tried?

This is the 31 Inspired Days Challenge...don't forget to check out the other lovely ladies!!!!!