Animal Mani

Happy Thanksgiving! Turkey Nails!

9:00:00 AM

Happy Wednesday all!!!  Hope you all are having a great day!  It's snowing here, which kind of makes me happy.

As many of you know, tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so I of course had to have a festive manicure to help celebrate!!  I decided to re-create last year's Turkey Nail Art since it's the most Thanksgiving-y thing I could think to do.  Last year, I tried to follow Adventures in Acetone's tutorial, but failed.  This year I decided to try again, and guess what, I failed again!  After trying three different turkey looks, I found this tutorial by Heather from Peace, Love, and Polish and liked that turkey the best.

I'm not 100% happy with my re-creation, but it's better than having no holiday nails.  I'm also not 100% happy with my photos.  My light box would NOT participate with me, so I opted for the white background which turned into a dingy gray with the lighting.  Maybe on Black Friday I'll go out and purchase another desk lamp.




Colors Used:
  • Gold Nails
    • Sally Hansen - Golden-I
    • China Glaze - Glitter Goblin
  • Turkeys
    • Sinful Colors - Nirvana, Snow Me White
    • Zoya - Arizona, Thandie, Darcy
    • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
Okay, they're kind of cute.  You would think that painting a turkey would be rather easy, but honestly it is one of the hardest designs I've done.  I just couldn't get the little guy to look just right or fit perfectly with all the dang feathers.  Maybe if my nails were longer?  I would say I'll try again next year, but honestly, I think I'm forever crossing turkeys off my list of nail art I must do!



To get my turkeys, I followed Heather's tutorial.  I first drew my turkey's body and filled it in with my nail art brush.  When it was dried I took my yellow polish and drew the random feathers around the little guy.  I did the same with the orange, then lastly the red.  I then added the details of the turkey's little face.

What do you think?  Liking these turkeys?  Having just as much difficulty with turkey nail art as I have?

 I hope all my followers who are celebrating Thanksgiving have a very blessed holiday with their families and friends.  I am so thankful for all of you who have supported me and my blogging adventures.  I know that sometimes I stink at responding to blog or Instagram comments, but I read every last one of them and they put the biggest smile on my face.  I never in a million years thought that this little hobby would turn into what The Little Canvas has become, and for that I am thankful.  Despite the frustrations and disasticures, this blog has truly been a blessing!  So again, thank you all for your support and kind words!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!  Until next time, <3.

Holiday

PolishPals Thanksgiving Pumpkin Nail Art

9:00:00 AM

Happy Sunday Polished World!!!  How are you all today?  As long as I'm sitting in front of a heater today, I'll be great!  It got really chilly here this weekend and we just got our first little accumulation of snow.  I love the snow, just hate the cold.  If only there was a way to have snow in 75 degree weather.....

Today's nails were not planned at all.  I originally sat down to do a manicure for Catching Fire, but the odds were not in my favor and I had three disasticures.  I decided to abandon the Catching Fire theme and move into a Thanksgiving theme!

I remembered this adorable manicure by PolishPals that I wanted to create back in October, but got delayed with all my Halloween manicures.  I'm happy I delayed in re-creating Jenna's manicure because she created this little tutorial!

I am happy my Catching Fire manicure failed....let's take a look at my cute little pumpkins!




Colors Used:
  • Base
    • Zoya - Avery
  • Pumpkins
    • Maybelline - Sweet Clementine
    • Sinful Colors - Nirvana
    • Zoya - Josie
    • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
Cute, right?  I can't tell you how much I love these little pumpkins!!!  To me, they look like little cartoons.

To get the look, I followed the tutorial I linked above.  First, I started with my base coat of Avery.  Then I took my orange polish and created the pumpkins on my nails.  With my nail art brush, I added the brown stem, then started outlining my pumpkins with my black polish.  When the black was dried, I went through and added the green leaf and outlined that with more black.



After one day, my base shrunk and my little pumpkins were pulling back from the tips of my nails.  I tried to touch them up it didn't go so well.  Since I loved the pumpkins so much though, I decide to re-do them without a base color, and that's currently what I'm wearing.  I'll probably snap a shot of that version with my iPhone sometime this week and share it on Instagram as a comparison.  Personally, I'm liking both versions the same.

What do you think?  Liking the little pumpkins?

Until next time, <3.

kitchen sink mani

Pink and Gold Princess-y Star Manicure

9:00:00 AM

**Press Sample**

Good morning!!  Today's manicure is a pink and gold princess-y star manicure, aka something waaaay outside of my comfort one.  Once you see the photos, you'll see why since by now you know what colors I tend to gravitate towards.  I got my inspiration from this pin on Pinterest which sadly leads to a link where no credit was given to the original artist.  I'm not a huge fan of gold polish, but for some reason this manicure stuck out to me.  

The other night when I was looking through my nail art idea board, I decided to re-create it with my own Little Canvas twist.  Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Precision Lacquer - 18 Carat Cake
  • OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls
  • Funky Fingers - Queen Cupcake

 Princess-y, but gorgeous.

This was my first time using Precision Lacquer 18 Carat Cake, which is part of their Sprinkles Collection (Remember this manicure with Hazel and Gretal?).  I'm not going to lie, when I first received this collection, it was my least favorite of the six because of the color.  Yes, it was sparkly and gorgeous in the bottle, but it was gold and I just can't stand gold!  I'm kicking myself now for the delay in using it for so long because that sparkly gorgeousness from the bottle transferred directly onto the nail.  You know how some glitters are super sparkly in the bottle, then when you put them on the nail they just look unimpressive; well, 18 Carat Cake is most certainly not that type of glitter polish.  It reminded me of Zoya Solange, the gorgeous textured Pixe Dust polish.  People were even asking me if it was a textured polish because the sparkle gave it that look.  And boy, was it sparkly, I couldn't stop looking at my nails!  The fact that it was gold no longer was an issue!

18 Carat Cake worked great for nail art too.  To get the stars on my nails, I took my star hole punch and punched my painters tape.  I then taped my nail and painted some of the glitter polish onto a make up sponge and then dabbed it onto my nail.  It applied like a dream with the sponge and didn't leak under the tape or leave any bald spots in my stars.  It also worked great when I outlined my pink polish.

I decided to use Funky Fingers in Queen Cupcake for my pink over Sally Hansen Pink Blink because this polish is a much softer baby pink.  It also has a light gold shimmer in it which is impossible to photograph and hardly noticeable on the nail unless there is gold accenting it.  The pinkie finger was truly gorgeous in person.


What do you think?  Liking the subtle princess manicure on me?  Are there colors that you have but just don't use?

 I really ended up enjoying this manicure more than I thought I would.  I ended up touching up the tips a couple of times to extend the life of it.  I also received numerous compliments on it also, which always is a good sign.  I might have to go out of my comfort zone more often!

18 Carat Cake and the rest of the Sprinkles Collection can be purchased from Precision Lacquer's website for $5.95 individually or $30 for the whole set.

Until next time, <3.

**Precision Lacquer 18 Carat Cake was provided for Promotional Purposes.  I purchased the OPI and Funky Fingers.  All opinions expressed are my own.  Please see my disclosure policy**

Galaxy Mani

Galaxy Nail Art

9:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world!  I hope you all are having a great Monday.  Are great Monday's possible  Today I am bringing you a galaxy manicure straight from The Little Canvas vault.  I have so many new manicures to show you, but I have decided to hold off on editing them until I get through some of these old manicures that I was so proud of at the time.

I can't begin to explain how much I loved these galaxies!  I attempted galaxy nails last year but never posted them because I really wasn't pleased with the end result.  I might have to look for a photo of those to post on Instagram as part of throwback Thursday, plus it would be neat to compare.  One thing I do know is that this years attempt was much more sparkly and had more "depth" than the others.

Let's take a look.




Colors Used:

  • Base
    • Zoya - Storm
  • Galaxies
    • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
    • Ulta - Sun-Sational
    • Sinful Colors - Cream Pink
    • Color Club - Over the Moon
  • Stars
    • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
    • INM - Northern Lights
Neat, right???

To get the look, I started off with a base coat of Zoya Storm, the worlds greatest sparkly black polish.  If you're going to do galaxy nails, this polish is a must have.  When my base was dry, with the corner of a make up sponge, I dabbed white where I wanted the galaxy to be.  With another corner of the sponge, I took yellow polish and dabbed it along the white polish.  Then, with Cream Pink and another corner of the make up sponge, I dabbed the pink randomly around the galaxy.  Finally, I took Over the Moon and sponged around the edge of the galaxy to blend the white into the black.  I then took INM Northern Lights and added a quick top coat to add sparkly and blend the galaxy together.

When Northern Lights was dried, with my small and large dotting tool, I added a bunch of random stars.  Once those were completely dried, I went through and added a plain shiny top coat.

What do you think?  Liking the galaxies?  Ever tried them yourself?

I'm so happy I decided to add the holo polish around the edges to blend the black into the galaxy.  It really completed the look.  Ahhh I should have taken a video of how sparkly they were.  Maybe I'll do them again eventually.

Until next time, <3.