Animal Mani

Penguin Nail Art!

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  It's Tuesday, but no Twinsie Tuesday today.  I believe last week I posted that this month we will be taking a little break from our regularly scheduled posting.  I think we have one coming up though the week of Christmas....I should double check that.

I'm starting to get in the holiday spirit!  Are you?  It is taking me a little longer this year because our weather is unseasonably warm.  I really am hoping for a white Christmas.  I'll cross my fingers and say a prayer!

Today my manicure is a re-creation of this adorable penguin manicure by @kt_tk1 on Instagram.  After stumbling upon it on Instagram, it went immediately into my must re-create file.  It's honestly one of the cutest things I've ever seen!

Let's take a look!





Colors Used:
  • FingerPaints - Patent Black
  • FingerPaints - Paper Mache
  • FingerPaints - Sparkle With Me
  • Salon Perfect - He's With Me
  • Salon Perfect - Glam Glitter
  • Acrylic Paint
Aren't these the most adorable things you've ever seen!?  I love the little guys!!!  I didn't think that they would be so easy to re-create either.  For my middle finger, I started out with a base coat.  Using acrylic paint, I drew the heart shape face on my nail.  While that was drying, I painted on the scarf.  I then went back through and added the rest of the facial details.

My ring finger took a little more work.  I started off with a base coat of white polish.  Once that was dry, I put nail art tape across my nail and painted on a coat of Salon Perfect He's With Me.  This polish is a dupe of China Glaze's Red Ruby Pumps.  Love having it as part of my collection, but I'll talk about that in my next post.  Once dried, I took black acrylic paint and outlined my nail and painted on the little fins...or flippers?  What do you call them on a penguin??  Then I added the scarf and the feet, covered off with a top coat, and called it a night!



Since I really, really, really want snow, I added a top coat of Sparkle With Me by FingerPaints.  This polish is so so pretty.  It contains multi-hexed white glitters with holo silver flecks throughout.  It really reminds me of fresh snow.  Over the black it's like snowfall at night.

On my thumb I decided to do a coat of Paper Mache with a top coat of Glam Glitter.  This is a red, green, and gold top coat.  It is a dupe of a China Glaze which came out years ago before I got into polish.  I'm so happy it's part of my collection!  I think it really tied the manicure together!

What do you think? Fan of this adorable manicure?  Something you would try??

Until next time <3,

China Glaze

Snowflake Manicure with FingerPaints Be Merry & Sparkle

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all today?  It's Saturday which means it's lazy day for me!  My plan for today, maybe organize my polish, maybe crochet.  I haven't felt well the past few days so a day of rest after a crazy work week is sounding pretty nice.

Today I'm sharing with my version of this snowflake manicure by @reynasnailart on Instagram.  I saw it posted on the HBBeauty Bar page and I just had to re-create it.  Something about the blue, the silver, and the simplicity of the one nail with the snowflake.  It was all to die for.  Plus, we haven't had any snow here, so I'm hoping that if I continue to do snowflake manicures, the snow will come and I will get into the holiday spirit.

So I grabbed some polishes, and a perfect accenting glitter, and got to work!  Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • China Glaze - Capacity to See Beyond
  • FingerPaints - Paper Mache
  • FingerPaints - Glitz and Glam
  • FingerPaints - Be Merry & Sparkle

I'm in LOVE with FingerPaints Be Merry & Sparkle.  Like Sterling Sculpture, it is a part of the Tis the Season to Sparkle collection which is in stores now.  It applies perfectly in one coat with no need for dabbing or placing of glitters.  It's a blue, silver, and gold hex glitter in a clear base.  For this manicure, I layered it over Glitz and Glam, a silver metallic polish.  I was afraid at first that the silver glitter would get lost over the metallic base, but it ended up being just as sparkly as the other glitters.  It actually added a neat dimension to the nails.


The blue glitter I think is perfect for winter.  It is especially perfect for this manicure because of how it matches the blue polish.  I think it accented the manicure perfectly.

What do you think?  Fan of this polish?  Have you tried any of the FingerPaints glitters?

The Tis the Season to Sparkle collection is available now at Sally Beauty Supply, so head on over and pick up your bottles!  I highly recommend this glitter, and well you know my love already for Sterling Sculpture.  I swatched the last glitter of the collection on a nail wheel and I can tell you the coverage is just as amazing as these.  I just love glitters which involve no dabbing and placing...don't you?

I'm off to enjoy my Saturday!  Until next time, <3.

Dot Mani

Chevron and Dots with Orly Oh Cabana Boy!

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  It's Wednesday, smack dab middle of the week Wednesday.  I was going to hold off and post this tomorrow, but I have a surplus of manicures to post, plus I'm planning on having a Nail Artist of the Month post, so I figured let's get some out of the way.  I'll regret this come the weekend and I don't have any photos edited to write up another post.  Seriously I have 5 drafts, and I think one might have the photos all ready to go in it.  Gosh, I'm a slacker.

I better stop slacking though because I want to start sharing holiday manicures!  I have only painted one that I can consider holiday....maybe, so really I'm not too far behind.  Maybe this weekend I'll start painting some Christmas designs.  Oh and then there is Bestie Twin Nails coming up!  I think December is going to be quite busy over here on the blog.

I'm getting off topic.  Today I'm sharing with you a manicure which is a recreation of one I saw by Nicole over at Young Wild and Polished.  Some of her kitchen sink manicures are to die for and super eye catching.   This pink polka dot/chevron combo was just that and I had to re-create it.  Of course, using one of my brightest neons.

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Orly - Oh Cabana Boy
  • Orly - White
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
I just only now realize that I used all Orly polishes for this manicure.  I love when I'm able to do a full manicure using one brand.  My collection isn't nearly as large enough to do this for every single manicure, so when that one rare occasion pops up, it makes me happy.  My goal though is to own every single Orly polish known to man because I have yet to find one that I hate.  They're worth the extra money because I swear they never get goopy or dry up.  I think that I've said this twenty times over on the blog, but I had to say it again.



Oh Cabana Boy! is my favorite neon pink polish.  Back when I first started blogging, my first neon pink polish was China Glaze Hang Ten Toes.  It was my favorite polish because it wasn't just a neon pink, but it had this weird blue shimmer undertone.  I used that polish right down to the bottom, got super happy when I found some bottles at a supply store.  Sadly, I found that the polish was unworkable as China Glaze changed the formula and you could barely get two coats because it was so streaky and chalky.

So I my sad little self returned my defected bottles of China Glaze and went on to Sally Hansen where I stumbled upon Oh Cabana Boy, an identical dupe in my opinion.  It is the same bright pink with that blue weird shimmeryness to it.  Formula is pure perfection.  Two coats, solid coverage.  It dries matte like most neons, but when you add a top coat it becomes so shiny and it really makes the neon pop.  As I said, by far my favorite neon pink polish.  I actually love all my Orly neons.  I should do an Orly neon week soon.

What do you think?  Fan of this manicure?  Something you would try?  Do you love Orly neons as well?

 This turned into a love post for Orly, which wasn't my direction when I started writing this post.  I do want to say before I sign off, the Twinkled T Chevron Nail Vinyls deserve a lot of love here.  They're beyond awesome!  I love how Nicole did the chevrons up and down.  I'm not that creative to think of putting the vinyl on my nail in a different direction.  I just love everything about this manicure.  All products, the look, everything.

Okay, I'm going to stop talking now.  This post is becoming the longest in the history of this blog!  Have a good day!

Until next time, <3.

FingerPaints

Snowflakes with Madam Glam and FingerPaints

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world and Happy Monday.  Now you might be surprised to see that I'm posting on a Monday when usually I have Twinsie Tuesday on Tuesday.  Well for the month of December, the Twinsie's are taking a little break.  So that means I'll be back to posting every 2 to 3 days.

I honestly cannot believe that tomorrow is December, and we have yet to see any real accumulation of snowfall.  It was in the 60s here on Friday and the meteorologists said that it has been one of the warmest Novembers in a long time.  I never thought I would say this, but I'm kind of missing the snow.  I really love when the Christmas lights are on the bushes and they're shining through the snow.  It just makes the season feel complete.

I've been seeing some snowflake manicures appear on Instagram.  Most recently I saw this one by 25 Sweet Pea.  I loved the black snowflakes over the fun pink base.  While I didn't have that speckled polish, I do own an awesome one from Madam Glam which was PERFECT for this manicure.

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:

  • Madam Glam - BFF
  • FingerPaints- Patent Black
  • FingerPaints - Glitz and Glam
  • FingerPaints - Sterling Sculpture

Okay, so be patient with me.  Below are two bottle shot photos,  Each kind of looks a little different color wise and I think it's because of the bottle that is being held.  Which makes absolutely no sense in my mind but maybe because one bottle is silver and one is blue??  I have no idea, I need to get my OttLite out so this doesn't happen again.  I'm may have a Masters degree, but it's not in photography for sure.


First up is Madam Glam BFF.  This is such a pretty pale blue polish with multi-hexed black glitters mixed throughout.  First coat was super sheer, so I wasn't having much hope that it was going to be full coverage in two coats.  On my pinkie it was, but on my pointer it wasn't, so I went for three on each nail just to even it all out.  I love the dimensions this polish has because of the sheer base and the black glitters.  It's a jelly sandwich in a bottle.  Putting the black snowflakes over the top of it too really brought out the dimensions in my opinion.  It was gorgeous on it's own though and I almost didn't want to put the snowflakes on top.


I feel like this picture shows Madam Glam's BFF more true to color.  It's so mind boggling to me that the actual bottle shot of that polish doesn't seem true.  I mean both kind of are true because when I wasn't in my lightbox the Madam Glam did look like the photo above.  Meh whatever.

This bottle that I'm holding is one of my favorite FingerPaints glitters, Sterling Sculpture.  It was first released last year, and now it has been re-released as part of the holiday collection.  I absolutely love the multi hexed silver glitter in a clear base.  I used one coat over Glitz and Glam, a metallic silver polish.  It has such perfect distribution of glitter with just one coat and you do not need to place or dab at all.  If you're a fan of silver, this is a must have for your polish arsenal.

What do you think?  Fan of these polishes?  Do you have issues with photography like I do?

 Photo issues or not, I love this manicure and I love the polishes used to create it.  It only lasted two days because I was busy at work putting Christmas decorations and lights up so I ended up breaking some nails and chipping ones that survived the breaks.  That's what happens when you're climbing a ladder, over the top of bushes, to hang icicle lights off a brick building.  I cannot wait to use BFF again, and you know for sure you're going to be seeing a lot of Sterling Sculpture here on this blog.  Especially now that I have two bottles. :)

Hopefully these nails bring some snow!

Until next time, <3.