The Simple and Diseased Manicure

11:47:00 PM

I'm not sure if you know this or not, but I stink at simple manicures!  Whenever I attempt them, something goes wrong.  Of course, this simplest of simple mani's had a problem.

When I sat down to paint my nails, I was not in the mood to do any form of nail art.  I was having a lazy night and didn't want to touch a tooth pick or a dotting tool.  I could not though just do a plain swatch of color, so I decided to grab some glitter and do an accent nail and be done with it.

Here's what I came up with: (first two pictures are in the sun, rest are in the shade)









Colors Used:

  • Sinful Colors - Sweet Dreams
  • Sinful Colors - Frenzy (Glitter)
I have been wanting to use Sweet Dreams ever since I purchased the polish.  I am a sucker for blue polishes, and this was no exception.  I painted two coats onto all my nails and let it dry.  It was this beautiful, fun blue shimmer that I couldn't stop looking at.

After it dried, I painted on lord knows how many coats of frenzy on my ring finger to make it almost opaque.  After a few minutes, I added a top coat and I was done.  It was simple, and I was beyond happy with it.  So shiny, shimmery, glittery, bright, and fabulous.

That was until I noticed what I have nicknamed to be the "disease."  The disease which ruined my simple manicure.  I'm sure that no one noticed it but I did.  If you look closely at all the blue nails, there is a bubbling effect.  I'm not sure what exactly happened, but the only thing I can think is that I applied all the coats on too fast and didn't allow enough time for drying.  At first I thought maybe it was the formula, but I swatched a bit on a paper plate and couldn't duplicate the issue.  Who knows, it was diseased, and I wasn't happy.

I'm sure I'll attempt another simple manicure, and yet again I will not be 100% enthralled with it, or something similar to this will happen.  Maybe I should just stick to nail art lol.  

Have you ever had a bubbly, diseased manicure??


Flowers

Cherry Blossoms

8:00:00 AM

I know, I know, it's late in the season for Cherry Blossoms, but it is never too late for Arizona Ice Tea style Cherry Blossoms....am I right?! lol

I love flowers and flower manicures, so I needed to jump on this and paint them even if it was delayed.  Please ignore my cuticles, I have an abnormal fear of pushing them back and refuse to.




Colors Used:
  • Funky Fingers - Mrs. Mint
  • Sinful Colors - Nirvana
  • Sinful Colors - Cream Pink
  • Funky Fingers - Queen Cupcake
  • Sinful Colors - Black on Black
Difficulty Scale of 1 to 10, this manicure was a 4.  The most difficult and annoying part was drawing on the branches, then adding the little black dots when it was all done.  Both of those were done with a toothpick.  The hardest part about the branches, I had to make sure there was enough room for the cherry blossoms so they did not form one huge blob.  The cherry blossoms were simple, just added with a dotting tool.  When the cream pink dried, I added Queen Cupcake.  Finished with a topcoat, and viola!

What do you think?  Do you have a favorite flower?? Want me to attempt to put it on my nail?? Come on people!  I love a challenge!!!!

Fun and Random

C is for Cookie

8:00:00 AM

Cookie, cookie, cookie starts with C!!!!!  Ahhh Sesame Street, who didn't love that show as a child?!  Who wouldn't give anything to go back to the good old days where you would lay around watching Elmo, Cookie Monster, Oscar, Burt & Ernie, Big Bird, and the rest of the gang wander around that awesome place singing or doing whatever.  That show, along with Lamb Chop and Mr. Rogers were the shows I constantly watched.  I'm not sure how my parents put up with it, but they did.

Sadly though, Lamb Chop and Mr. Rogers Neighborhood have gone by the wayside, and kids are watching new shows like Dora the Explorer and the Backyardigans.  Both I find equally annoying.  I love though that despite all these new shows, one stands strong...Sesame Street is still loved.

I attended a first birthday party which was Sesame Street themed.  Of course I jumped on the opportunity to paint my nails to match the party theme.  I have seen on other blogs and YouTube cookie monster nails, so I figured, it was my turn to take part.





Colors Used:

  • Cookies
    • Zoya - Avery
    • Sinful Colors - Nirvana
  • Cookie Monster!
    • Sally Hansen XTreme Wear - Blue Me Away! (Broke my no buy for this)
    • Sinful Colors - Black on Black
    • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
To create the cookies, I painted on the base of Avery.  Once that was dry, I took my dotting tool and dotted on uneven spots to resemble chocolate chips.

To create Cookie Monster, I painted on a base coat of Blue Me Away, which is by far the most amazing blue polish ever!  So bright and fun.  With one coat I had full coverage, but decided to put on two since I really wanted the blue to stand out.  Then, with a toothpick, I outlined Cookie Monster's mouth.  I made the top of his mouth a little uneven since he's a hairy lil monster.  Then with the dotting tool, I added some googly eyes.

Easy, simple, cute, and brought me back to my childhood, what is there to hate about these nails!?  Maybe I'll attempt Elmo in the near future :)

Happy Memorial Day!!

7:00:00 AM

Happy Memorial Day everyone!!!!  I hope all of you (in the states) have enjoyed your weekend and have an awesome Memorial Day planned.  In honor of this holiday, I have a patriotic manicure for you all today!

I had a great manicure in mind, but when I sat down to paint, I realized that if I did what I was planning, the flag would have been backwards.  This meant I was back to square one.  I was talking the other night with @Arlyn531 on Twitter, she tweeted me a picture of her amazing Fourth of July manicure (seriously, click that link), which I fell in love with and in turn had to copy.  I love how she used rhinestones for the stars!  Thank you so much for sharing your picture/design with me!  This means that now I'm going to have to come up with something completely original for the Fourth since I hijacked Memorial Day :).

Without further ado, here are my Memorial Day Nails.  Instead of doing one flag, I did one on my thumb as well.  First two pictures are sun, last three are in the shade :)






Colors Used:

  • Blue Nails
    • Sinful Colors - Midnight Blue
    • Sinful Colors - Hottie
  • Red Nail 
    • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Red Carpet
  • Flag 
    • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
    • Sinful Colors - Sugar, Sugar (Red)
    • Sinful Colors - Midnight Blue
I think Miss Arlyn's nails came out better.  My stripes aren't 100% straight and I don't have the rhinestones which I'm extremely jealous of.

For my blue nails, I wanted them to pop, I did not want them to just be a plain base color, so I added a glitter polish which I didn't really want to purchase in the first place.  Boy, am I glad I did, Hottie has quickly become one of my favorite glitters.  While this manicure doesn't show it, Hottie a blue glitter polish set in a very sheer jelly blue base.  The glitter just shines a whole lot of colors, I really can't explain it.  My next manicure I hope will capture it better.  

Since I was using Hottie on my blue nails, I needed to make sure my red nails stood out.  Red Carpet by Sally Hansen is a gorgeous red polish with very fine silver flecks in it.  When it is on the nail, it resembles ruby slippers, which I think would have been a much more appropriate name for the polish.

The flags were simple and were done with my usual tool, the tooth pick.  The lines were done with a striper, and with my shaky hand, they were a bit crooked, but oh well, the flag blowing in the wind isn't perfect.

Let us not forget our troops, past and present, who have fought and are continuing to fight for our freedom.  It is because of them we are able to freely live our lives.  God Bless our Troops and America :)

Have a great day everyone!