Color Block Mani

Stained Glass Heart Manicure

9:00:00 AM

I had another tragedy.  Yes, I broke the same nail that I broke before doing my last manicure.  This time though, there was no saving the length, all nails needed to be nubbed.  It was okay in the end since my nails were kind of in bad shape and peeling and could have used a drastic trim down.  So, I grabbed my clippers and chopped everything down.

I was kind of bummed about the length, especially since before the last break my nails were perfect.  I debated about not painting them and just leaving them naked until they grew out, but I couldn't bring myself to do so.  I started looking for short nail art ideas, and I remembered Magnifique Nails who has shorter nails which ALWAYS look amazing.  She is so talented.  After scrolling around her blog, I found this manicure.  Now, I knew I couldn't copy it exactly how she did since I'm not that talented, so I took my own little spin on it.  I'm happy with how they turned out.

Let's take a look.




Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Josie, Micky, Darcy, Thandie, and Rocky
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
  • OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls
Nubby, nubs which were colorful and cute.  I love working with the Zoya Stunning collection since they are such full colored creams.  They are also super easy to work with when using dotting tools or toothpicks to fill in small areas like on these nails.  I wasn't sure that I would get a lot of use out of Josie, but it is quickly become one of my favorite green polishes.  It's the perfect leaf/grass color, and well as a nail artist who enjoys flower manicures, this is a must have.  I have so many ideas for the other polishes too, but I'm waiting for summer to tick on a little more before I do so.

To get the look, I basically what I did for my color block nails.  I started off with a base coat of white polish.  Since my pure white is goopy, I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls since it is a pretty decent one coat polish.  I didn't worry if it was streaky in some areas since I was planning on totally covering the base with the colors.

With my nail art brush and black polish, I painted on the "stained glass" outlines.  Then, with my dotting tool, I filled in the white spaces like a coloring book.  When the colors were completely dried, I went back over the black lines with a nail art brush to make them stand out and clean up any overflow from the color dotting.

What do you think?  Love, hate?  Have you tried the stained glass/color block look? 

I still see my color block nails to be a tad messy.  I'm hoping with more practice the lines become neater.  It definitely takes a steady hand and some patience.  Seriously, I think to do both hands, this manicure took at least an hour and a half.  After the 45 minutes of doing my left hand, I really didn't want to do my right hand. I should probably start painting both hands at the same time instead of doing one hand completely then moving on. hmmm.

Until next post, <3.

**The Zoya Polishes in this post were provided by Zoya for promotional purposes.  I purchased Orly Liquid Vinyl and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  The opinions expressed in this post are my own.  Please see my disclosure policy**


Gradient Mani

Gradient Laser Tape Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Okay, I love this manicure.  Words cannot describe how happy this manicure made me, especially since it began after a tragedy.  Yes, tragedy.  Right before I sat down to do this manicure, my nails were the perfect shape and length.  I was so happy since they had taken me awhile to grow.  I had trimmed them, filed them down a little, and was ready to go.  Well, I decided before painting my nails to clean up a tad, and of course, I broke my ring finger right down.  It was awful.

I trimmed again, chopped my nails down, and with a sigh sat down and painted on a base coat.  I was too bummed about the broken nail that I didn't want to attempt some hard core nail art because I figured I was going to hate it since I hated the length of my nails.  The one thing I have learned you can never go wrong with when you are unhappy with your nails is a gradient.  They're fun, different, eye catching, and look amazing.

Of course, I can't leave a simple gradient alone.  I had to make it pop more.  So I grabbed my nail art tape and started creating.  Let's take a look at the final, amazing product.




Colors Used:
  • OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls
  • China Glaze - Hang Ten Toes
  • Funky Fingers - Riot!
  • China Glaze - Splish, Splash
Oh how I love, love, love, love this look and how the pictures turned out.  I started off with two coats of OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  Gosh, I love this polish.  I held off on buying it for the longest time because from looking at the bottle, all I saw was an off white polish.  I thought to myself "I have no use for this, it's ugly, I'll hate it, and for the money it is not worth it."  After much peer pressure on Twitter, I caved and purchased a bottle, and am so mad at myself that I never did prior.  When on the nail, it is a perfect white polish that isn't as "in your face" as a pure white polish.  As a nail artist, sometimes having stark white polishes can really ruin a design, and sometimes you need something more muted.  This, is that polish.  Since purchasing it, I have used half the bottle, and am going to head to the beauty supply store in a few days and grab a back up bottle.  OPI needs to make this part of their permanent collection.

When the base was dry, I added on my nail art tape in random burst patterns on the nail.  After the tape was on, it was time for the gradient.

For the gradient, I picked one of my favorite color schemes which is blues and purples.  The China Glaze polishes were both from last years Summer Neon collection, and Riot! by Funky Fingers was just a random bottle I purchased awhile ago.  The purple isn't a true "neon" but it serves the purpose when I use it among gradients with other neons.  Pink to purple to blue, how can anyone go wrong.  I painted the colors on a make up sponge, and dabbed over the nails.  After getting the gradient as dark as I wanted, I removed the nail art tape, revealing the white below.  I added a top coat to blend the gradient and called it a night.

Looking back now, adding some Northern Lights over the gradient before removing the tape may have looked amazing.  I may have to try that in the future.

What do you think? Love it, hate it?  How can you hate it??  

Well darlings, until next post, have a great one! <3

**I purchased all polishes mentioned in this post.  Please see my disclosure policy**


Flowers

Blue-Ming (get it) Floral Nail Art Inspired by Pinterest

9:00:00 AM

I can't believe that I am just today getting around to posting this manicure.  I am almost positive I painted these a month ago and created the tutorial right around the same time I started going tutorial crazy.  Regardless, I'm happy that I am finally getting around to posting them because this is one of my all time favorite manicures.

When I sat down to do this manicure, I was feeling VERY unoriginal.  I took to my Pinterest nail ideas board and started looking through.  Right away, I was drawn to this pin of a manicure by Polish Art Addiction.  She was inspired by this manicure after seeing a manicure by Beautopia Nails.  Now, mine didn't come out looking as good as theirs, but I was so enthralled with the manicure in the end.  I received a lot of compliments on them.  And then, my manager told me they looked like a pair of 80s stretch pants that someone would wear a white lace shirt with, and I forever saw them as that.  Haha, I still loved them.

I couldn't name them "80s pants nails" so I asked my lovely friend and ex blogger Ryan what I should name them.  She came up with teh creative idea of Blue-Ming nails, since they are on a blue base and the flowers are blooming....get it?  Love her for that.  

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




Colors Used:

  • Revlon Dreamer
  • Sally Hansen - Pink Blink, Fuschia Flare
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl, Coachella Dweller
  • Zoya - Josie
How I Got the Look:

  1. Start off with a base coat of sky or baby blue polish.  For this manicure, I used two coats of Revlon Dreamer.
  2. With a dotting tool, dot on uneven semi circles on the edges of your nails.  This is the base of the flower.
  3. With a smaller dotting tool, take a lighter polish and unevenly dot in the center of the flower.
  4. With a nail art brush or a tooth pick, take a light green polish and draw on the leaves in between the flowers.
  5. With a darker green polish, add some detail to the flowers.
  6. With a tooth pick, or a nail art brush, outline the flowers.  This does not have to be perfect, and in fact looks better when it isn't perfectly neat.  
  7. Do the same thing you did on the flowers to the leaves using a black polish.
  8. In the blank areas, with the nail art brush or tooth pick, draw in a few black squiggly lines.
I loved using Revlon Dreamer as the base for this manicure.  Dreamer is such a perfect dusty sky blue that it didn't take away from the pink and green of the flowers and leaves.  All other polishes I used in the post are just amazing nail art polishes.  I love using the Sally Hansen Insta Dri's for dotting because I feel like I have a lot of control over the size of the dot without having the polish pool on the nail making a huge 3D dot.  I'm not sure if others have this issue, but I find I do a lot with thinner/not fast dry polishes.

The greens, Orly Coachella Dweller, and Zoya Josie are the perfect leaf colors!  I am planning on using both again for a grassy, lady bug manicure as soon as my nails grow out again.

I'm also a huge fan of Orly Liquid Vinyl.   It is my favorite black polish and literally for detailing like this, it's so easy to work with.  It doesn't get goopy like some of the cheaper blacks I have used.  If you use a lot of black polish for details, I suggest you put the money towards this bottle!

What do you think?  Fan of this manicure?  Going to try it for yourself??

Well, lovelies, I am off to paint my nails.  I broke the same nail twice in a row so expect to see some nubbies in the near future.  Don't you hate that, right when your nails are at the perfect length, bam something horrible happens.  And then when it's on the swatching hand, it's even worse.  Oh well.  Nothing you can do!

See you next post! <3

Nail Artist of the Month

June Nail Artist of the Month

9:00:00 AM

Can you believe it is June already???  I feel like May just started, scratch that, the year just started.  Where has all the time gone?  I do swear that as you get older, the years go by a lot faster.  I think it's because all I do is go to work.  I don't ever remember the years going this fast when I was in high school.

Regardless, it is June, and you know what that means, right??  It's time for another Nail Artist of the Month!!!  This month, I selected Kelly from Tuxarina!  I discovered Kelly a few months ago on Twitter after last months nail artist, Casey, included me in a conversation with her!  I instantly fell in love with her blog and her work, and had to feature her!  For those of you who do not follow Kelly, check out her blog, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Enough of my jabbering, let's take a look at her post!!

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Hey guys! I'm Kelly from Tuxarina and I'm so happy Alaina asked me to be the Nail Artist of the Month! I have recently discovered her blog and I love her things! Everything she does is original and has great quality. Plus, she's an awesome person! A little bit about myself: I'm 23 working at a small local coffee place with an awesome family and a crazy (but sophisticated cat). I started my blog a little over a year ago and the nail community has been very welcoming. I feel like recently, I've found out a nice pattern for myself in my blogging.

I've expanded a little in my nail art skills and went outside of my box more. I did a traditional drippy nail with a twist. I decided to add a sponged base, kind of like a tie dye feel. I used Illamasqua Scorch as a base then sponged with Zoya Yummy, Zoya Arizona, Zoya Ali and Essie Mojito Madness. I then went over and sponged the entire nail with white again, to wash out the bright colors. Then, with a nail art brush and black acrylic paint, I did my drips design. I highlighted some of the drips with white acrylic paint to make them stand out a little more. I really love the end result. Drippys are one of my favorite nail art designs to do. They can either be simple, or complex. You can really twist them any way!
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Loving this manicure Kelly created for this post!!!!  I have to recreate this in some way shape or form in the near future!!!!  I tried paint drips last year, but they did not look as awesome as this!!!  Thanks for the new inspiration, Kelly!

Again, everyone should head on over to Tuxarina to check out Kelly's blog.  You can also find her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook!!

See you all again soon! <3