FingerPaints

The One With a Re-Creation of a Gradient Splatter Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose 


Welcome to yet another Sunday!  How was your week last week?  Are we all ready for yet another fun filled week?  I know I am....not.  One thing I am excited for is the weather.  It's been very cold and blustery here the last few days, and next week it's going to be in the 40s and 50s.  While to many this seems horribly cold, it's a lot better than the 20s and 30s.

Today's manicure is a re-creation of one I did a few years ago which so happens to be one of my all time favorite manicures.  It came up on my FaceBook memories and I just had to re-create it.  Now if I can only figure out how to re-create my nail photos to look just like they did back then, I'll be all set.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • FingerPaints - The Mural of the Story
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
Ahhhhhh isn't it gorgeous?!  I literally love everything about this manicure.  the gradient, the splatter, the colors.  I cannot find one thing wrong.  This is one of those manicures that I wore for more than my usual 3 day period because I love it so much.  Does anyone remember how to do these splatter manicures?  I feel it's been forever since I've seen anyone create them.  Wait....is the splatter out?

Regardless, to get the look you take one of those mini coffee stir straws and you dip it into the nail polish.  Then you hover it over your nail and just blow through the straw.  It's one of the messiest things ever, but the payoff is so worth it.


I forgot how much I love The Mural of the Story by FingerPaints, and well, how much I love my FingerPaints polishes all together.  Is this brand still around?  I haven't stepped foot into a Sally Beauty Supply in over a year and feel like I'm way out of the nail polish loop.  If the polish isn't coming in the mail to me, then I'm not going looking for it. 

What do you think?  Fan of this manicure?  Love the look as much as I do?


Until next time, <3.


Gradient Mani

The One With the Halloween Splatter Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing on this fine Saturday?  I am planning on laying in bed for 90% of the day ignoring the world.  Okay, maybe I won't.  It's my father's birthday this weekend so I need to get some stuff done for that.  Most importantly, I need to bake a cake.  I guess I could lay in bed while the cake bakes....right?

I'm so proud of myself that I'm still painting and posting Halloween manicures.  I think that I have more ideas than I do time to post them.  We will see what happens.  Today's design is a different take on the candy corn gradient I usually do.  Every year I do that same white, to orange, to yellow gradient.  I admire it but then about a few hours after completing it I kind of hate them.

After searching around, I came across a white, to yellow, to orange gradient which had that candy corn feel, but wasn't your typical candy corn manicure.  I painted that on my nail, and enjoyed it much more, but there was something that was missing.  I came to the conclusion, it was a splatter.

Let's take a look....


Colors Used:
  • OPI - Alpine Snow
  • OPI - Exotic Birds Do Not Tweet
  • OPI - No Tan Lines
Isn't it cool??  I really love this manicure!  I don't think I've ever hated a splatter manicure because each nail looks so different and unique.  Some people avoid them because of the mess, but I don't find them to be much messier than doing a gradient.

When doing a gradient, I always put painters tape around my nails.  I prefer tape over the liquid latex or peel off base coat because I feel like those require much more clean up.  Also, there's that dry time which I don't have time for when it's 10pm and I want to be asleep by 11pm.  So after the nail is taped off, I will add the gradient, then right after the gradient is done, while the tape is still around my nail, I'll add the splatter.  It baffles me when I watch tutorials that people remove the latex or the glue before finishing the full design. Eh, to each their own.

What do you think?  Like this look?  Think it's a Halloween-ish manicure?

Until next time, <3.


Gradient Mani

The One With the Serendipity Polish Splatter Gradient Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  Happy Friday to you all!!!!  I need to learn to pre-publish my posts because now that my photos are edited, I forget to actually publish the dang post.  Sigh.  I'm hoping I get better at this when work slows down.  We are going through some renovations and it's been kind of hectic.  So, so hectic.  I cannot wait to catch up on sleep this weekend.

Today I'm sharing with you a fun gradient splatter manicure.  I've done this design a few times with different colors, and it's always a favorite of mine.  Something about the different gradients and the different color splatters on each nail.  I don't know, it's super eye catching and looks like it took forever to do, but really it's quite simple and not as horrible of a clean up as you might think.

Let's take a look.


Colors Used:
  • ORLY - White Tips (I sadly don't own the Serendipity White....what am I thinking?)
  • Serendipity Polish -  Building My Empire
  • Serendipity Polish - Vacation Vibes
Isn't it awesome!?  To get the look, I first painted the base coats on all my nails.  For my index, middle, and ring finger, I painted a white base, and the pinkie and thumb I painted a base of Vacation Vibes.  Once dried, I then taped around my cuticles using painters tape.  That for me is the longest step.  I don't have any latex/glue barriers and I'm okay with that.  I think that they honestly take more time to put on and then let dry than using tape.  And, when I did use a glue barrier, I had 100% more clean up than when I used the tape.

Anyways, once my nails were taped, I created the gradients with make up sponges.  While my nails were still taped, I then did splatter.  I use one of those coffee stirrers that are like mini straws.  Drip some polish on a paper plate, dunk one end into the polish, then blow through the straw and bam, splatter.  Kind of messy, but mostly all goes on the tape.

Remove the tape, clean up any residual (which is VERY Minimal) and then add your top coat.  Done, and done!

What do you think?  Like this look?  Something you'd try??

Until next time, <3.


Dot Mani

The One With Round 35 of Bestie Twin Nails with Fashion Footing

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!!  I apologize for not posting more, but I have had quite the busy week.  I wanted to have this post up yesterday, but I went to a gala on Wednesday and never got around to editing the photos.  I really need to edit my photos ahead of time.  Maybe this weekend I can sit down and just do them.

Today is round 35, yes 35 of Bestie Twin Nails with Fashion Footing.  Amanda is taking a little break from her blog, but she is still posting on Instagram.  Then there's me, who hasn't even updated her Instagram in a week.  Where has my motivation gone?!  I"m still painting, still buying polish, but forgetting to post to social media.  Speaking of which, I really need to update the Facebook too.  Sigh, there aren't enough hours in the day!

Today, we are re-creating a splatter manicure originally done by Young Wild and Polished.

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • OPI - You're Such a Budapest
  • OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls
  • Sinful Colors - Taupe is Dope!
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
Love this manicure so much.  I never would have thought of this color combination on my own.  I really need to start looking at my Colors board on Pinterest for different color combinations.  I'm in love with the taupe nail, which is Taupe is Dope! by Sinful Colors.  I picked this up a few weeks ago and honestly didn't even pay attention to which display it came off of.  I think I also purchased a blurple color which I need to go locate.  Anyways, this taupe applies perfectly in two coats and dries very fast.  Works wonderfully for the splatter.



I wasn't sure if You're Such a Budapest was going to splatter because it's a bit sheer.  It's a light purple cream with a shimmer.  I think the shimmer is what makes it thinner than your typical cream.  Regardless, it takes three coats to get full coverage, so that's why I didn't think that the splatter would work.  Luckily it did and it's just gorgeous mixed with the taupe and black.

What do you think?  Fan of this look?  Something different!

Until next time, <3.

Gradient Mani

The One With the Blue Gradient and Splatter Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Happy Wednesday polished world!  How are you all doing today?  Middle of the week is officially here which means Friday is right around the corner.  I apologize to my followers because this year I really haven't been off to the greatest of starts.  My posting schedule is all over the place and I keep forgetting to update my social media networks.  I need to get back into a blogging groove.

Today's manicure I think one of my all time favorite manicures.  Gradient + splatter + blue = perfection.  I used one of my new ORLY polishes from the upcoming spring collection for a base and it's just lovely.

Let's take a look.




Colors Used:
  • ORLY - Forget Me Not
  • OPI - Can't Find My Czechbook
  • OPI - My Pal Joey
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • INM - Northern Lights
Seriously guys, this is one of my all time favorite manicures!  I started off with a base coat of ORLY Forget Me Not, a pale baby blue polish.  I used two coats because I was going to put a gradient over it.  Some of the nails were fine though with two coats, if I was going to leave it plain I probably would have used 3 coats.  It's a sheer pastel, so that's to be expected.

When it dried, I did the gradient using Forget Me Not, Can't Find My Czechbook, and My Pal Joey.  I added a top coat of INM Northern Lights before adding the messy splatter.



To create the splatter, I took those coffee stirrers that are like a straw and first dipped one into a black polish and splattered the polish on my nail.  I then did the same using the white polish.  I love how the splatter looks different on each nail!  Truly makes the manicure look unique.

What do you think?  Fan of this manicure?  Think that this manicure is worth all the clean up??

Until next time, <3.


Bestie Twin Nails

Two Year Anniversary of Bestie Twin Nails with Fashion Footing!!! Two Manicure Celebration!

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  I'm super excited because it is the two year anniversary of Bestie Twin Nails with Fashion Footing!  Can you believe we have been doing this feature now for two years?!  Where has the time gone?  It really doesn't feel like it has been that long.


Since it is our two year anniversary, we decided to do two manicures today!  So get ready for this super long post.

The first manicure we did is a re-creation of our favorite manicure from the past two years.  Of course our favorite was our pineapple nail art, which was done in September of 2014.  Both of us love all things pineapple, thus our lovely logo.  We also are huge fans of the show Psych, which at the time almost two years ago we were binge watching and got the idea to create a pineapple manicure.  Now, again, here we are binge watching the show painting pineapples on our nails.

Let's take a look at our pineapple manicure.



Colors Used:
  • OPI - Love Angel Music Baby
  • OPI - My Twin Mimmy
  • OPI - I'm Soooo Swamped
  • OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls
  • INM - Northern Lights
Still my favorite manicure of all time.  When we re-created it, we switched it up a little bit.  Instead of having a double pineapple accent, we went with a gold accent nail.  I kind of like how it turned out with the gold accent!



My Twin Mimmy = perfect pineapple yellow polish!  To get the pineapple look, I did a semi ruffian design with my yellow brush.  Since OPI has an awesome brush, it was easy to do without using too much polish.  One swipe and I had full coverage for my little pineapple.  I then went through and added the green leaves with a dotting tool.  When they all were dried, I added the details using black acrylic paint.
_________________________________

Our second manicure took some time to come up with.  At first I suggested doing a plain swatch because let's face it, I never do a swatch and that's Amanda's dream that one day I will do a week's worth of swatches.  Amanda wanted to do something bright, and well we couldn't settle on a color which we both liked or had.

So we went down the bright path and started to think of different things we could do.  What's more bright than a neon gradient?!

Let's take a look at the second manicure!



Colors Used:
  • FingerPaints - Neon Base Coat
  • China Glaze - I'll Pink to That
  • China Glaze - That's Shore Bright
  • China Glaze - Too Yacht to Handle
  • China Glaze - Splish Splash
  • Orly - Glowstick
  • INM - Northern Lights
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
Originally we were going to do a neon gradient with black and white glitter over the top, but idiot Alaina here forgot that and threw a black splatter on before she remembered.  I still can't believe I did that.  Regardless, I LOVE how the black splatter looks over the gradient!!



 Talk about bright manicure, this for sure is one.  I love my neon polishes, especially for gradients and water marbles.  Earlier this year I received a neon base coat from FingerPaints which I have used once or twice of an accent nail.  I decided to give it a go on all ten nails with this manicure.  It's such an awesome white.  Almost a one coater, a few nails needed to have two because of naked spots.  It dried fast so I was able to do the gradient quickly instead of waiting forever for dry time.

What do you think?  Fan of both manicures?  Which is your favorite of the two designs!?

Don't forget to check out Amanda's two year post!!!

Until next time, <3.

Color Club

The One With the Easter Collaboration With The Nail Art Squad

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world, and Happy Easter!  I can't believe Easter is already here.  Where is the year going!?  Although, Easter is usually in April so I guess in my mind we are further a long in the year than we really are.  Oh well.

Today I am part of an Easter collaboration with The Nail Art Squad!  We all decided to do white nails decorated like Easter Eggs.  I'm not a fan of Easter egg nail art on my own nails because I think my nails are too squatty for it, so I tried to think of something a little outside of the box for today.

I've been dying to use my Color Club Poptastic Pastel Neons since I purchased them a few weeks ago, and I figured today would be a great day for this...especially for Easter Egg art.  I decided to go with a splatter design, which looked awesome but WOULD NOT PHOTOGRAPH.  Sigh.  I seriously only got one workable photo of this manicure.  Someone needs to give me lessons on photographing pastels because I stink at it.

Oh well, let's take a look at my manicure....my one photo of my manicure.


Colors Used:
  • Color Club Neon Pastel Poptastic
You can see how awesome the splatter looked, just not clearly.  Ugh.  So upsetting when something doesn't photograph right.  I think the reason for this was because of the white background.  I probably should have used My Boyfriend Scales Walls which is a not-so-bright white and maybe it would have shown up better.  Oh well....too late now.  Regardless, I love these pastel neons and can't wait to use them more!

Here's the photo of all the lovely ladies who collaborated this time around!



Now all of The Nail Art Squad didn't post this time around, but if you are interested to see who is in our little group, take a look at the list below!  We will be doing monthly, or maybe even bi-monthly depending on what's going on, collaborations!

I hope everyone has an AMAZING Easter with their family and friends.  Let's not forget the real reason for today.  I am beyond thankful and blessed that Christ died for my sins and I am able to celebrate this day.

Until next time, <3.

FingerPaints

The One With FingerPaints The Mural of the Story

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  Happy Saturday!  It's been a crazy busy week for me.  Work, life, snow storms....just crazy!  I'm so happy the weekend is here so I can finally rest, and hopefully not get sick with something from being so run down.

Today I have a super fun manicure to share with you all!  It's been forever since I've done a gradient or splatter manicure, so I thought it would be kind of neat to mix the two together.  I searched to see if there were any manicures like this on Pinterest, and sure enough other bloggers beat me to it and there were dozens of neat manicures!  I knew I had to try it.

So I started to look through some of my new polishes and I found The Mural of the Story by FingerPaints.  I thought this color would look awesome using this technique, and I was right!

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • FingerPaints - Paper Mache
  • FingerPaints - Patent Black
  • FingerPaints - The Mural of the Story
Amazing, right!?  I think this is one of my all time favorite manicures.  So much so that I'm really not wanting to take it off.  I started off with a base coat of white polish on all my nails.  Then came the fun part.  I taped off all my nails because I don't own any liquid latex, and I'm really not planning on buying any.  Tape works just as well and I think takes as much time to apply as it does for Liquid Latex to be applied and dry and peel off.  Plus, I found when I use tape, I have zero clean up, and I've noticed that some bloggers are left with a mess after using the liquid latex.

Anywho, I'm getting off topic.  Once my nails were all taped up, with a make up sponge I did the gradient with The Mural of the Story or Patent Black.  Before removing the tape, I added the splatter design.  To do this, I use the small, brown coffee stirrer straws.  I then removed the tape, added top coat, and admired my manicure.



The Mural of the Story is a gorgeous mint polish.  It is one of FingerPaints new colors for 2016 and it does not disappoint.  It was described as a neon polish, but I don't think it's neon what so ever, even when you put it over white like I did here with the gradient.  Regardless, it's a gorgeous polish with a rich saturated color.  I was nervous that the splatter wouldn't show up over the black, but as you can see it did!

What do you think?  Fan of this manicure?  Think I should do it in every color?!

I just love it so much!

FingerPaints new polishes are available now at Sally Beauty!  Head on over to pick up your bottles today!

Until next time, <3.

Dot Mani

Orly Skinny Dip Kitchen Sink Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing on this fine Monday?  The weekend went by way too fast, yet again.  Oh well, what is one to do?  Back to the work grind.

Today I am sharing with you a bright blue manicure I did last week with one of my all time favorite polishes, Orly Skinny Dip.  For years I searched for the perfect neon blue, and finally last year stumbled upon Orly Skinny Dip.  It's such a pretty neon blue with a subtle shimmer.  I just love it.  Currently I have it on my toes and I can't stop looking at my feet!

After seeing this manicure done by Young Wild and Polished on Instagram, I had to re-create it with this gorgeous blue.  Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
  • Orly - Mirrorball
  • Orly - Skinny Dip
  • Orly - French White

Skinny Dip applies perfectly in two coats.  Like most neons, it dries matte.  With a top coat though it becomes so shiny.  Looking at the colors I used in this manicure, I have to say all four of these are my all time favorite polishes.  The black I have written post after post about.  Mirrorball is pure perfection.  And the white is the sister of Liquid Vinyl.

Oh Orly, you make perfect polishes.  I have yet to find one that I hate.


Seriously, they are beyond perfect and worth the extra price.  They are amazingly bright, bold, and have perfect application.  They work amazing for nail art.  And they don't dry up until you get to the very end of the bottle!

What do you think?  Fan of the design?  Something you would try?  Do you love Orly also?

Until next time, <3.


China Glaze

Twinsie Tuesday: Revisit a Theme

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!!  How are you all doing on this fine Tuesday?  That is right, it is Tuesday again which means it is time for another Twinsie Tuesday!!  Today, we are revisiting themes which we skipped or were not able to participate in because we were not a part of the group yet.

In our group, we have a list of all the themes going back to June 2012.  I became a Twinsie in January of 2014, so I had a lot of themes to choose from!  I went back to June 2013 and selected Inspired by Another Blogger.  I stumbled across this manicure by Young, Wild and Polished a few weeks ago, and I have been thinking about it ever since.  This was the perfect opportunity to re-create her manicure!

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • China Glaze - Lilac Begin
  • China Glaze - UV Meant to Be
  • Orly - French White
  • INM - Northern Lights

Now, I don't have the gorgeous Picture Polish's which Nicole used, but I made due with my pretty China Glazes.  I think I've already talked about my love for Lilac Begin and how happy I am that it is part of the core collection at Sally.  I already need to go buy a back up.  It's my favorite shade of purple that I own.

UV Meant to Be is gorgeous too.  Kind of getting a little goopy and I've only used it twice.  I think that sadly I'm going to have to convert this baby into a gradient only polish instead of a base one.  Sigh.  Maybe I got a dud bottle...hopefully they re-release it soon.


Adding Northern Lights over to the top of both of them was a brilliant idea, if I do say so myself.  I have a photo on my phone that I will share on Instagram which really shows the holo sparkle goodness.  I need to buy a back up bottle of this as well.

What do you think?  Fan of the splatter?  Loving the color combo??

Make sure to check out the other Twinsie's posts!!!


Amanda at Amandalandish
Amanda at Fashion Footing
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer
Lakeisha at Refined and Polished
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Savannah at Addicted to Polish
Tiffany at Polished To Precision


Until next time, <3.

4th of July

Twinsie Tuesday: Splatter

9:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today??  Can you believe that tomorrow it is going to be July 1st?  Where has the time gone??  I feel like summer really hasn't started because it's been so cool and rainy.  I think our Spring and Summer seasons reversed or something.

Today is Tuesday which means it is time for Twinsie Tuesday.  Our theme this week is splatter!  I have never done a splatter manicure before so I was rather excited to attempt it.  I've done a hand splatter design where I draw out the splats using a dotting tool, but it was no where near as cool as the real thing!

Since the 4th of July is right around the corner, I decided to use the Look Nail Color 4th of July collection!  Let's see what I came up with!




Colors Used:
  • Look Nail Color - Oh Say Can You See, Rocket's Red Glare, and Broad Stripes Bright Stars
I started off with a base coat of Broad Stripes Bright Stars.  I'm always in the market for a new white polish since I go through so much of it.  This one is rather nice.  Applied perfectly in two coats.  I hate hate HATE when white polish takes three coats.  I feel it gets thick and goopy looking, so when I find a two coater such as this one, it is automatically a keeper.

When the base was dry, I took a coffee stirrer and dipped it into Rocket's Red Glare.  I then blew the red polish onto my nail creating the splatter look.  I did the same thing with Oh Say Can You See until I was happy with how they looked.


Since this is my first splatter manicure, I can't really tell you if these polishes worked better than another brand for the technique.  I think they worked perfectly.  Trust me, if they didn't this post would have been all about how much I hate splatter and how I will never do it again.  I'm actually excited to try it again in the near future!

I'm also excited to do another 4th of July manicure with these polishes!

What do you think?  Fan of the splatter manicure?  Something you've done before?

Don't forget to check out the other Twinsies posts!


Amanda at Amandalandish
Amanda at Fashion Footing
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer
Lakeisha at Refined and Polished
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Savannah at Addicted to Polish
Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Until next time, <3.