China Glaze

The One With the Watermelon Gradient Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Monday is upon us once again.  Hello there my polished peeps!  How was your weekend?  The weather here was absolutely gorgeous.  Perfect sunny days, temperatures in the 70s.  Quite a change from the rainy summer we have had.  Although, the weather didn't feel too summery, it felt more like fall.  Weather like this makes me count my blessings when I look at what's happening in Texas. My heart goes out to all of those dealing with this horrific flooding.  Truly, I am praying for you all.

Today's manicure is one of my last summery manicures....a watermelon gradient!  I wore this mani last weekend at the annual family picnic where I work.  Of course I had a watermelon shirt to match. Dumb me did pink watermelons instead of red like what was on my shirt, but it still looked cute regardless.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • China Glaze - Lip Smackin' Good
  • China Glaze - Lime After Lime
  • ORLY - White Tips
Lovely, right?  Same colors I used for my other watermelon manicure earlier this summer.  How could I not use these though since they are the perfect color for a watermelon??  They work perfect for a gradient too.  I was a tad hesitant on using Lime After Lime because sometimes those neon greens don't show up well over the white or for photos, but I was pleasantly surprised.



Super duper easy look to re-create.  You first start out with a base of white polish.  When that's dried, it's time for the gradient.  I painted pink, white, and green on the make up sponge and dabbed until I got the desired look.  I added a quick top coat before I added the seeds.  I did those this year with a dotting tool instead of freehanding with a paint brush.  I found that the dotting tool was a lot easier.

What do you think?  Like these watermelons?  Something you've tried or want to??

Until next time, <3.

Foodie Mani

Strawberry Nail Art Inspired by SimplyRins

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  Can you believe it is already July?  Where did June go?  Where did Spring go?  Where is summer?  I think I've worn jeans and a jacket more days in the past week than I id all Spring.  Sigh.  What can you do?

 June/July is strawberry season where I live.  Due to all the rain, the fields have been really flooded, so I'm honestly not sure if they are doing the "You Pick Your Own" like they do every year.  Not like I would have the time to go, life has been super busy the past few weeks.

I typically do strawberry nails this time of year, but I didn't want to do what I've done in the past.  I started searching around Pinterest and found this adorable cartoon strawberry design by the talented Simply Rins.  I've recreated a couple of her designs in the past and never been disappointed.  She's a true artist and I love her work.

Let's take a look at my strawberries!




Colors Used:
  • OPI - My Vampire is Buff
  • Acrylic Paints
Yes, I cheated, I used all acrylics for this design, but it was utterly impossible in my mind to use polish.  I did try for one nail, but the dry time would have been ridiculous.  In order to get the red in the strawberry to be opaque, it had to be blobbed, which would have meant smearing from top coat and all that lovely jazz.

So, I started off with a base of My Vampire is Buff.  Three coats, but totally worth it for this gorgeous polish.  I am so happy it is part of the OPI core collection!  It's truly the perfect nude base for any nail art.




  Once my base was dried, I used a toothpick and I drew the black outline of the strawberry.  Rina has posted tutorials in the past where she starts off by creating the outline for the design, then going through and filling the design in like a coloring book.  I figured that was probably how she went about creating the adorable strawberries.  Once my outline was dry, I filled in the empty space with red and green acrylics.  I then went through and added the dot details, finished off with a top coat, and called it a night!

What do you think?  Fan of this look???

Don't forget to enter the giveaway!!!  7 more days to enter!

Until next time, <3.

FingerPaints

Twinsie Tuesday: Inspired by a Song: Watermelon Nail Art

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all today?  I'm doing just dandy!  It went from 80 degrees the other day to rain and 50s.  It's okay because I swear we totally missed Spring, but this huge drop and rise in temperatures are really killing my sinuses.

When it was warm last week, I took the opportunity to paint some watermelons on my nails!  I loved how they looked, but really hate how they look in the photos.  That's something I'll talk about later on in the post.  I decided to use the watermelon manicure for today's TwinsieTuesday because honestly I slacked and didn't create a new design for the post.

Yes, that's right, I forgot to create a manicure for Twinsie Tuesday.  This week we are sharing manicures inspired by songs.  I realized it late Sunday I had nothing for today, and it was too late to paint and photograph anything.  So while going through my stash of manicures with Amanda, we came across this watermelon manicure and she said that there is a song called Watermelon Crawl by Tracy Bryd which I could totally use for today's theme.

So here is my watermelon manicure which in turn could be inspired by the song Watermelon Crawl.  Goodness I fail.




Colors Used:
  • FingerPaints - Paper Mache, Peace Love and Green, Far Out Fuchsia 
I recently received the Tie Dye Collection from FingerPaints.  This is their new collection which contains 5 brightly colored creams and one white polish.  Of course since it came with a white for bases, I needed to use these polishes for some sort of gradient.  Watermelons seemed like a great option, and they were beautiful.....they just did NOT photograph well.

I first started off with a base coat of Paper Mache.  This is one of my favorite white polishes which almost could be a one coater.  Almost.  It did require two because some nails had naked spots on them.  When my base was dry, I painted Far out Fuchsia, Paper Mache, and Peace Love and Green on a make up sponge and dabbed it on my nail. 



Far Out Fuchsia was great for gradients because it was a rich, vibrant cream.  However, Peace Love and Green was more like a jelly and required a lot of re-application.  I actually took a make up sponge with just green and white to make it darker.  Trust me, it was darker than what was photographed.  It was just so neon bright that it freaked out my camera.

What do you think?  Fan of the manicure?

Don't forget to check out the other Twinsies!


Tiffany at Polished To Precision
Savannah at Addicted to Polish
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Marisa at Polish Obsession
​Lisa at The Polish Playground
Lakeisha at Refined and Polished
Kristine at Pink and Polished Nails
Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer
ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Amanda at Fashion Footing
Amanda at Amandalandish

I can't wait to try the other Tie Dye Polishes for gradients.  The other colors are creamy unlike the green.  Which is odd, but a welcomed edition to my polish stash.  The Tie Dye Collection is currently available at Sally Beauty Supply stores now!  The creams are great primary colors for nail art so I suggest grabbing them!

Until next time, <3.

Bestie Twin Nails

Bestie Twin Nails with Fashion Footing!

9:00:00 AM


Happy Friday!  Hope you all will have a great day!  This week has dragged and I am so happy Friday is finally here!  I'm also happy to be posting today's awesome Bestie Twin Nails with Amanda from Fashion Footing!  I love this new monthly feature that we're doing!

For today's Bestie Twin Nails, we decided to do pineapple manicures.  Amanda and I are huge fans of the show Psych, which I found out shortly after doing today's manicure was cancelled.  I really failed at watching the last season.  Anywho, one night during her binge watching and our discussion of all things Psych, the idea to do pineapple manicures came to mind!

We took to Pinterest and started searching for ideas.  Amanda originally did a pineapple on her full nail, and I did white nails with little teenie tiny pineapples.  I wasn't pleased with mine so I took it off almost immediately, and went back to the drawing board.  I found this manicure by The Nail Trail and decided to give it a go accenting it with the perfect Psych green!  After seeing my manicure, Amanda re-did hers because she wasn't fully pleased with hers.  Both her manicures are awesome, I hope she posts both!

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




Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Tilda
  • OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls
  • NYC New York Color - Copabanana
  • Black Acrylic
So I'm not a huge fan of these colors and normally would never pick them to go together for everyday nail art, but holy crow after using them, I'm in love.  Zoya Tilda is an awesome green polish which applied perfectly in two coats.  Such a bright vibrant color that I have used a lot for nail art and am happy to finally have a little swatch of it.  I most certainly will be using it more for accents, especially since it does not stain!

Copabanana is an awesome yellow polish.  You can't tell from the picture, but it has a slight shimmer to it in the bottle and it does slightly show up on the nail.  I have had bad luck finding yellow polishes I actually like.  Some are too sheer, some are too mustardy, and others just stain or make me look jaundice.  This yellow though is perfect.  It's bright and a true yellow.  I can see myself using it a lot.



I tried doing a bottle shot with something other than my INM top coat and kind of failed.  Oh well.  The look was easy to get.  I started off with a base coat of white polish then using the yellow polish I created the yellow pineapples.  While the yellow was drying, I used a nail art brush and Tilda to create the leaves.  I then went through with my nail art brush and black and added all the details.  The dots were done with a toothpick.

What do you think?  Loving the pineapples?  Are you a fan of the show??

Don't forget to check out Amanda's manicure!


Time to plan Bestie Twin Nails Round Five?  You know that's right.

Until next time, <3.

Birthday

Birthday Cupcake Nail Art!

9:00:00 AM

Hello polished world!  How are you today?  I'm happy for two reasons.  One, it's Friday, and two, it's my birthday weekend!!!  Now, I'm not a huge birthday person.  As I've gotten older, they just seem like another day.  I'm perfectly content to go out, get some ice cream, and be home by 10pm and in bed by 11pm.  I swear, I'm still in my 20s and not my 80s.

Even though I'm not a very boring when it comes to my birthday, I don't pass up the opportunity to paint my nails for the occasion.  For the last two years,  I did cute little cupcake nails, and since I'm a creature of habit this year is no different.  I did switch it up though, and instead of doing a cupcake accent, I decided to paint all ten of my nails with the same design!

Since I couldn't pick a single color to be the wrapper, I decided to skittle my nails and do a bunch of different colored ones!  Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Blue
    • Sinful Colors - Blue Lucite, OPI - Can't Find My Czechbook
  • Orange
    • Sinful Colors - Orange Cream, Sally Hansen - Peachy Breezy
  • Purple
    • OPI - You're Such a Budapest, NYC New York Color - Jacaranda Flower
  • Green
    • Orly - Gumdrop, NYC New York Color - Amazon Green
  • Pink
    • Zoya - Kitridge, Zoya - Rooney
  • Cupcake Details
    • Orly - French Tip White and Instant Artist White
    • Sinful Colors - Pride
    • Sally Hansen - Red My Lips
Whew, lots of polishes!  Although when I was doing the look, it honestly didn't feel like it!  To get the look, I started off doing a normal clear base coat on all my nails.  Then I took the lighter of the two colors and painted the lower half of my nail.  For each color I did this twice to make sure the color was really opaque.  Once they were dried, I took a nail art brush and the darker color and painted 5 lines down each of the nail.

Then comes the fun part, the frosting top!  I used a dotting tool and some white polish and along the colored edge I added dots across the nail.  Then with my nail art striper, I created the rounded tops then filled in each one.  I then dabbed on the Sinful Colors glitter for the sprinkles, then added a dot for the cherries!  Added a top coat and admired my work!



Amazon Green sadly bled a little through the white on the ring finger, but what can you do.  It's not too visible in the photos which is a good thing.  I'm sure if I never mentioned it no one would know.  I'm super happy that I used the glitter for the sprinkles.  I love how they look.

What do you think?  Liking these cupcake nails?!

 Have a great weekend everyone!  Until next time, <3.

Bestie Twin Nails

Bestie Twin Nails with Fashion Footing! Take Two!

9:00:00 AM

It's Saturday!!!!  Can we all take a minute and cheer that that the work week is over and we can all relax for the next two days?  For me, I'm literally relaxing, especially since I came home from work yesterday and cleaned my car inside and out.  It really needed it and I'm so happy it's out of the way so I can enjoy the sunshine!

Before enjoying the sun though, I am here sharing another Bestie Twin Nail design with the lovely Amanda from Fashion Footing.  After we had so much fun creating last month's floral design, we decided to attempt to do a Bestie Twin post each month! 

For today's post, we have done watermelon nails.  Now, I've created a few of these on the blog but I've never truly been happy with the outcome.  This time though, I'm really loving how they turned out and cannot get over how good they are!  Okay, the seeds could have been a little smaller, but regardless, I'm happy!

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Finger Paints - Paper Mache
  • Zoya - Wendy
  • Zoya - Tilda
  • Orly - Instant Artist - Black
Isn't the gradient neat?!  I started off with a base of white polish, and once it was dried I grabbed my make up sponges.  I painted a good portion of the sponge with Zoya Wendy, a gorgeous melon colored polish from the new Tickled collection.  I then left a tiny blank space on the sponge and painted on some Tilda, the bright green polish from the same collection.  After I had the spacing just right between the green and melon polish, I did a quick swipe of white polish in the empty space, then dabbed it on the nail.  The end result, a perfect looking piece of watermelon!

I applied a quick top coat, then started working on my little seeds.  Or should I say, large seeds.  Don't get me wrong, they're cute, I just think they would be cuter if the seed wasn't taking over the whole watermelon.


I really love the gradient for the watermelon.  I've seen a few girls do this same sort of look on Instagram and I knew I had to try it.  Don't ask me who, because honestly I can't remember, I just know I've seen it bunches.  Truly though, the nail looks like a real piece of watermelon, especially near the tip of the nail because the gradient makes it look like the rind!

What do you think?  Liking this design?  Loving the gradient?  Think my seeds should be smaller?

Do not forget to check out Fashion Footing's post.  I already know hers are amazing.  She sent me a photo the other night and I really wish I had her design on my nails.  Go over and check!

Until next time, <3.

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

Foodie Mani

Twinsie Tuesday: Nails Inspired by Food/Beverage

9:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world!  How are you all today?  It's Tuesday so that means it is time for another Twinsie Tuesday!  Wasn't it Tuesday like two days ago?  I feel like the weeks are flying by!  Seriously though, June is almost over....where did this month go?!

This week we are posting manicures inspired by Food or Beverages.  Where I live, mid June is strawberry season!  I absolutely love strawberries!  Currently there is a bowl in my refrigerator calling my name, but sadly they are being reserved for some yummy baked goods that I'm going to be making later tonight.

Since strawberries are clearly on my mind, I decided it was appropriate to do a strawberry themed manicure today.  After seeing The Polish Squirrel's strawberry manicure, I decided to do a few big strawberries accented with little strawberries on my other nails.  I was going to use a light base similar to hers, but after seeing my mint polish sitting next to my darker green that I was using for the stems, I thought that would look pretty awesome as a base.

I'm not too happy with the end result, but they're still kinda cute.  Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Livingston
  • Zoya - Josie
  • Orly - Jealous Much
  • Orly Instant Artist - White and Black
I think that Zoya Livingston is the perfect strawberry red.  Since this polish is a crelly, it looks just like a ripe, juicy strawberry.  When my base coat of Livingston was dry, I used a nail art brush and added the detail of the green leaves.  This always is my least favorite thing to do because I never can cover the red just right.  It ends up being thicker towards the cuticle, which makes it look a tad messy.  After my green leaves were on, I went through with my striper and added the black seeds.


For my mint nails, I used a nail art brush and dotting tool to create the little strawberries.  Honestly, I wish I created this design on all my nails instead of doing the big ones on the others.  It was kind of a pain in the butt doing the little details, but after I got the hang of what I was doing it went by fast.

What do you think?  Enjoying the strawberry manicure?

Don't forget to check out the other Twinsie's posts!  I cannot wait to see what food or beverage inspired them!



Amanda at Amandalandish
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Kelly at Tuxarina
​Marisa at Polish Obsession
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Stephanie at A Little Polish
Tiffany at Polished To Precision​

Until next time, <3.

Birthday

Belated Birthday Nails!

9:00:00 AM

Good morning!!!  How are you all today?  I'm bringing you a post which I meant to bring you back in the beginning of August for my birthday!  I truly meant to share the manicure, but I got kind of lazy and didn't feel like editing the photos.  Finally though, I got around to it, and ignored my zillions of other posts share today!

Last year for my birthday, I did a simple manicure with cupcake accents.  Looking back at the pictures from last year, goodness gracious I had some messy cuticles!  Kind of happy I learned to not flood them!  This year, I decided to do the same manicure, but with a different color scheme.  I recently purchase OPI Polka.com and was dying to use it, so this was the perfect opportunity!

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:

  • Base
    • Sinful Colors - Sail La Vie
    • INM Northern Lights
    • OPI - Polka.com
  • Cupcake
    • Sinful Colors - Amythyst
    • Ulta - Snow White
    • OPI - You're Such a Budapest, Can't Find my Czechbook, Suzi's Hungary Again
    • Some red polish that is escaping me
Isn't Sinful Colors Sail La Vie gorgeous?  It's seriously one of my favorite polishes.  After I painted on a base (which was a flawless two coats), I added INM Northern Lights and kind of wanted to leave it at that.  I know, shocking since I NEVER keep my nails one color.

After debating that indeed I needed to do something special for my birthday, I added OPI Polka.com to my non accent nails.  I fell in love with that as well, and started debating on whether I should actually do cupcakes. Really, would anyone be offended if I skipped nail art for my day?

The answer was yes, that I myself would be offended.  Since I did pink cupcakes last year, I decided to opt for purple cupcakes which matched the glitter.  To get the cupcake, I took my dark purple polish and painted half my nail.  When it was dry, I added the lighter purple lines like a cupcake wrapper.  With a dotting tool, I added the white cupcake frosting.  With a nail art brush, I added the colorful sprinkles, then at the very end dotted on the red cherry!

What do you think?  Love, hate?  Think it's a good birthday design?

Until next time, <3!

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

Foodie Mani

Watermelons - Take 2

9:00:00 AM

Good morning, polished peeps!  How are you today?  Hopefully you have an amazing Sunday planned! Maybe even a summer picnic?  It is the end of July, which usually means the perfect weather and time for one!  And what is a picnic without a little yummy watermelon?

Last year I did watermelon nails which were pink and so adorable.  While writing that sentence, I went back to last years post to link it and ended up getting distracted reading it.  It was published almost a year ago on August 4th, and I wrote a little tidbit about how happy I was that I reached 10,000 page views.  Now, as I sit here writing this post, I'm about 800 away from 100,000 page views.  The other day alone I hit 1,000 in one day.  It's just amazing to me, and I am truly thankful for all of my followers support!  You guys keep me painting and posting!

Look at me getting distracted, anywho, I wanted to re-attempt the cute little watermelons as soon as I received my bottles of Zoya Yana and Josie.  The two side by side literally are the perfect color of a fresh watermelon, and on the nail, they looked even better together!

Let's take a look - not quite sure what happened with these photos, my INM made them super shiny, and even though it was sunny, they got some weird looking light. 




Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Yana
  • Sally Hansen - Pink Blink
  • Zoya - Josie
  • Revlon - Sassy
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
Perfect colors, right?  When I first received the Zoya Stunning Collection, I had used all the other polishes in a tape manicure, but not Yana as I felt it was a tad darker.  I'm kind of kicking myself for waiting so long to use Yana since it is such a gorgeous dark pink color.  It has a perfect formula which applies like a dream.  Sometimes, for me, when I apply darker polishes, I notice a lot of bald spots or uneven streaky areas.  Yana had none of these issues, two coats and I had perfect coverage.  I had no need or want to add glitter to mask any weird areas, it was perfect alone.  After my base was on, I was debating on just doing a glitter or dot accent and ignoring the watermelons.

But alas, my nail art self decided to continue on with the watermelons.  With a nail art brush, I painted a french tip of Pink Blink to resemble the watermelon's rind.  When that was completed, I added another french tip of Zoya Josie, which to me, worked perfectly for the watermelon shell.  As that was drying, with a toothpick, I drew on the little seeds.  Before adding the top coat, I created a little of uneven detail on the rind using Revlon Sassy.

Overall, I'm happy with how they turned out.  The colors worked perfectly (which I've said about a million times now)!  The only thing I wasn't too crazy about were the seeds.  A tad uneven on my part.  Maybe I should start doing my nail art earlier in the night so I can spend more time on them and make everything absolutely perfect.

What do you think?  Love, hate?  Yana the perfect watermelon color?

Again, thank you all for viewing my blog and following over this past year and a half!  You guys are so amazing!

Until next time, <3.

**Zoya Yana and Josie were provided by Zoya for Promotional Purposes.  Sally Hansen Pink Blink was provided by Sally Hansen for promotional purposes.  I purchased Revlon Sassy and Orly Liquid Vinyl.  All views expressed in this post are my own.  Please see my disclosure policy**

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**

Foodie Mani

31 Day Challenge - Day 6 - Violet Nails - Grape Nail Art

6:00:00 PM

Well hello there!  Today is Day 6 of the 31 Inspired Days of Nail Art Challenge.  Day 6's theme is centered around the color "violet" which for me was great since purple is by far my favorite color.  You wouldn't know this by looking at my polish stash since purple seems to be heavily lacking.  How many lavenders and dark purples could someone really own though?  Wait, what am I saying...you can own millions. lol


My stash isn't horrible though, I do have about 7 purple polishes.  I was debating on using all of them and doing some form of gradient or tape manicure, but I was bored by the idea.  I wanted nail art...something fancy, something hardcore, which I haven't really sat down and done in a while.  So I got to thinking...what is purple?  Answer....GRAPES!

I knew immediately what I wanted to do.  I quickly Googled the world "Grape Vines," found a picture for inspiration, and got to work.  Here's the finished product....







Colors Used:
  • Base
    • Revlon - Charming
  • Grapes
    • Sinful Colors - Fig
    • Sinful Colors - Amethyst 
  • Vines
    • Revlon - Sassy
    • Sinful Colors - HD Nails
    • Sinful Colors - Nirvana
The image that I found on Google was (which had no author and was a dead website when I clicked to source it)

I liked how this picture showed the vines and how it truly "wraps" around the main branch of the plant.  When I started painting, I outlined with my brush the brown branch.  This extended on all the nails in a curvy way since this, and other pictures of grapes I found were not perfectly straight.  From there, with my thinnest paint brush and Revlon Sassy, I painted on the vine circling the branch with a few leaves off of each one.  I then painted some lil curly vines or random lines to fill in the blank spaces.  With the same brush, I added some detail with HD Nails.

For the grapes, I attempted to do my marbling dotting technique.  This is where you drip more than one color onto a paper plate, then with the dotting tool you dab it into both polishes.  The colors stick to the tool and make a marble effect on the nail.  I did this with Amethyst and Fig in attempt to get that uneven grape color.  Didn't work out exactly how I wanted it, but they came out pretty dang cool looking regardless.

What do you think?  Have you done grape nail art before?

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






  • Nicole from Polish Me, Please!
  • Ave from Polish Pixelle,
  • Jessica from Once Upon a Polish, 
  • Cynthia from Of Life and Lacquer



    • See you all on Day 7 - RAINBOW DAY! <3

    Birthday

    Birthday Cupcake Nail Art!

    11:00:00 AM

    Hi everyone!!! How are you today?!  I'm great, mainly because it is my birthday week!  Yes, that's right, when it's my birthday, I dedicate the whole week to it!  Since it is my birthday, what better way to celebrate than with some cute nail art!?

    I had a few ideas in mind when I sat down to do this manicure.  I was in between doing balloons, birthday hats, confetti, or cupcakes.  I was 100% certain though that this manicure needed to have some form of glitter, because come on, it's a birthday.

    After some thought, I decided to attempt some cupcakes....here's what I came up with!







    Colors Used:

    • Base
      • Sinful Colors - Sweet Dreams
    • Cupcakes 
      • Ulta - Flamingo
      • Maybelline - Sugar Plum
      • Sinful Colors - White on White
    • Sprinkles/Cherry
      • China Glaze - I'm With the Lifeguard, Splish Splash, Hang Ten Toes
      • Funky Fingers - Riot!
      • Sinful Colors - Sugar, Sugar
    • Glitter
      • China Glaze - Fairy Dust
      • Ulta - Pinata Yada Yada

    For the cupcakes, I started with a base coat of the Sweet Dreams.  Once that was dried, I added the base of the cupcake with Flamingo.  When that was dried, with a striper, I striped on the lines with Sugar Plum.  Then with my dotting tool, I dotted on the cupcakes frosting using Snow Me White.  With a toothpick, I used my neons to add some sprinkles, which were the perfect option since they matched the glitter so well!

    Pinata Yada Yada, oh how amazing you are!  So happy I purchased this polish at the last Ulta $2.00 sale!  I highly recommend it to everyone!  Since it is a rainbow glitter, it would look really amazing over pretty much every color polish!  For a pedicure a few weeks ago, I layered it over Sweet Dreams so I knew it would look perfect for this manicure.  I also added a coat of Fairy Dust to ensure extra sparkle. :)

    I love, love, love Sweet Dreams by Sinful Colors.  It is the prettiest blue shimmer polish.  I had written about this polish before where it dried bumpy and I absolutely hated the formula.  After using it a few more times, I'm in love with it, and didn't have the air bubble issue.  I clearly added too many coats way too fast last time which caused that issue.

    I'm in love with this manicure, and cannot stop looking at my nails.  The glitter is so sparkly and the cupcakes are so cute!!!  The glitter reminds me of confetti as well, which is perfect for a birthday manicure!

    What do you think?  Have you done special birthday manicures?  Do you own Pinata Yada Yada and think it's amazing as well?