Nail Artist of the Month

July Nail Artist of the Month: Morie's Nail Art

9:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world!  It has been a whirlwind week over here for me!!!  I'm so happy to be finally posting the Nail Artist of the Month for July!  Usually I schedule this post to be the first of the month, but July 1st fell on Twinsie Tuesday, then there was The Beauty Buffs post.

Finally though, I can introduce you to Adriana of Morie's Nail Art!  I have been following Adriana's blog for the longest time now, probably since I started blogging.  I fell in love with her page because she is a fellow blogger with short nails who can create such amazing designs on those shorties!  I am beyond jealous of her stamping skills and wish I could stamp like her!  She's seriously a pro!

Enough of my babbling, time to hand the blog over to Adriana!
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Hi guys,

 My name is Adriana I am the creator of Morie's Nail Art. Before nail art I was a nail bitter and I didn't care about my nails at all, as long as they were clean I was happy. My obsession started one day when I ran into a stamping tutorial on YouTube, I have no idea how I got there I just remember thinking "designs on your nails, that's the coolest thing I've seen" and after that it became my mission to have as many stamping plates and nail polishes as I could get my hands on, I am lucky to have a boyfriend that supports my addiction. The idea of the blog came from wanting to document all the designs I was making in case I wanted to go back and check them in the future I didn't think anyone would read it. And now here I am a few years later talking to you.


For this post I wanted to do something special, Alaina always comments on my stamped manis so it just made sense to do one for her blog. I've been into double stamping lately, basically stamping one design as a base pattern and then another design on top of it as the main focus. As base color I used China Glaze Bottoms Up, I stamped the stripes using a no name white and my CH10 plate. For the bunnies stamp I used black Konad polish and MoYou Princess 13 plate.



 I hope you like this design. Thank you so much Alaina for inviting me to your blog. ♥
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Ahhh double stamping!  Adriana, I love it!!!!!  Such a cute, fun, bright manicure!!  Don't you all think?

If you would like to see more of Adriana's work, please head on over to her blog, and make sure to follow her on Instagram and Twitter, and while you're at it, you should Like her Facebook page!

Thank you so much for the AWESOME post Adri!  I can't wait to see your future designs on your blog!!!!

Until next time, <3.

4th of July

The Beauty Buffs: Polka Dots

8:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world!  How are you all today?!  I'm doing swell!  If you read yesterdays post, you know that today's post was supposed to be a continuation of it.  Of course though, I destroyed that base with a lovely disasticure.  After another disasticure, I finally was able to come up with today's manicure for The Beauty Buffs.

Our theme today is polka dots!  Something which I love!  I can't tell you how much I love any form of dot manicures.  They're so versatile and can always create a statement, especially when part of a manicure.  I always think that they're a perfect accent to a kitchen sink manicure.

For today's design, I decided to do a festive Fourth of July kitchen sink manicure with a polka dot accent!  My polka dot's aren't your traditional dot design, but instead a zillion little dots mixed together on the nail.  It's still considered polka dots, right?

Let's take a look! 




Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Livingston
  • Zoya - Ling
  • FingerPaints - Paper Mache
  • OPI - This Crown Needs a Gown
  • FingerPaints - Red, White, and Hue
Only difference base wise between yesterday's manicure and today's is the middle finger!  Instead of using Zoya Ling on that finger, I went with OPI This Crown Needs a Gown with a top coat of the FingerPaints patriotic matte glitter Red, White, and Hue.  All kitchen sink manicures need a glitter accent of some sort, am I right?  I purchased Red, White, and Hue a few weeks ago at Sally Beauty during a BOGO along with Paper Mache.  I am so happy my neighbor noticed the display tucked away because I never would have seen it and would have missed out on such a great patriotic glitter.  It's a perfect polish also, not too much base, and not too much glitter.  It was just right and applied so evenly in one coat.  There was no need for manual placement of glitters, it all just fell perfectly!

Zoya Livingston and Ling are the perfect America Red and Blue shades.  Livingston is from the Cashmere collection last fall, and Ling is from the new Tickled Collection for the Summer.  Livingston is a close dupe of the Red My Lips by Sally Hansen I featured yesterday.  Both are crelly like and apply evenly in two coats.  If anything, the Sally is a microshade darker, but it's barely noticeable.  Regardless, I love how both shades match the matte glitter.



For the most important nail, the polka dotted one, I did a quick base coat of my new favorite white, Paper Mache.  When the base was dried, I used different sized dotting tools and applied red and blue dots all over the nails.  I create this look by starting off with the largest dots first, then going through and add the little dots after filling in any open areas.  I tend to get a little crazy filling in, but it's okay because it all ends up looking amazing.

What do you think?  Liking the patriotic kitchen sink manicure?  Are you a fan of polka dot accent nails sch as this one??

 Don't forget to check out the other lovely Beauty Buffs posts!  Can't wait to see what everyone did!





This is going to be my last post before the Fourth of July, so to all my American followers, I hope you have a safe and happy holiday!  Please no drinking and driving or injuring your pretty polished hands in a fireworks accident.  Leave the fireworks to the professionals, please.

Until next time, <3.

**Some polishes in this post were provided for review.  Please see my disclosure policy**

Swatches

Twinsie Tuesday: Skittles

9:00:00 AM

Happy Twinsie Tuesday my polished friends!  How are you all today?  We're supposed to get some nasty storms later today, so I'm not looking forward to the afternoon.  I absolutely hate storms....just hate them.  Here's hoping that I get out of work before they start and can hide in my bed while they're going on!  I have a lot posts to work on!

Today for Twinsie Tuesday we are sharing skittle manicures!  Now, I had the greatest of great plans for this week.  I was going to share a skittle base today, and tomorrow share the nail art I added to the top of the skittles.  So I went ahead and painted my festive skittle base, photographed it, then went and attempted to add the art.  Oh boy was the art awful.  So tomorrow I'll have a totally different manicure for you with some of the same colors, so it kind of works, but it really did not go as planned.

Since the 4th of July is Friday, I wanted to do a red, white, and blue skittle design for today!!!  Now that I'm looking at my non-disasticured design, I'm kind of happy the art failed on these skittles.  

These skittles are kinda awesome and are the perfect way to get your nails looking festive without any art!  Let's take a look! I tried some new set up with the photos, so forgive them for looking a little wonky.  I didn't include my signature whole hand photo because, well the thumb is white and that's boring.



Colors Used:
  • Finger Paints - Paper Mache
  • Zoya - Ling
  • Sally Hansen - Red My Lips
  • INM - Northern Lights Silver
 I love every polish that I used in this post.  Paper Mache by FingerPaints is my new favorite white.  I jump around from Sinful Color to Ulta white polishes, but I have to say, after using this a few, it's going to be my new go-to!  It applies perfectly in two coats and is so shiny without a top coat!  I really love it!

Sally Hansen Red My Lips is from the Complete Salon Manicure line.  Now, this polish isn't mine...I snatched it from my mother who bought it for her toes since it contains a Base and Top coat in one.  She was tired of using my different concoctions of bases and toppers when giving herself pedicures and figured this would be a great alternative.  After using it one my nails, I can say it's going to be an awesome pedicure polish for her.  It applied evenly in two coats, and without a top coat it was beyond shiny and gorgeous.  It seems to be more like a crelly, which I like in my reds.

Then we have Zoya Ling....the gorgeous, beautiful blueberry blue Ling.  I love the color of this polish!  It's so saturated and gorgeous and applies evenly in two coats.  I think I left the cap open on it too long when I tried to do blueberry nails so mine is kind of thick.  It wasn't this thick when I first got the Tickled collection and used it earlier this year.  Nothing a little thinner can't fix though.  I really love it and I think I need to get another bottle!

All polishes with INM Northern Lights on top are pure perfection.  It truly adds a new dimension to these plain cream polishes.  It was my first time using this over white and I really liked the outcome!



I can honestly say that I could have worn this manicure plain for days if it weren't for the disasticure.  Even though there was no nail art, the colors together with the added glitter made the manicure not just a simple cream based manicure.  It was different and refreshing for me!  I bet you'll be seeing more skittles like this from me in the future!

What do you think?  Liking the simple skittles?  Think I should share more manicures like this and lay off the nail art from time to time?

Don't forget to check out the other Twinsie's posts!  I can't wait to see everyone's skittles!  I wonder if anyone else did a patriotic one!


Amanda at Amandalandish
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Cordia at Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer
Kelly at Tuxarina
Lakeisha at Refined and Polished
​Marisa at Polish Obsession
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Stephanie at A Little Polish
Tiffany at Polished To Precision​

Until next time! <3

**Some products used in this post were provided for review.  Please see my disclosure policy**

Gradient Mani

Tribal Nail Art with Sally Hansen Splash

9:00:00 AM

Press Sample
Good morning polished world!  Hope you are all doing well today!  I'm doing okay for the most part.  I'm excited to finally have a day off tomorrow so I can sleep in.  I should have taken a long nap yesterday afternoon when it was cruddy and rainy out, but instead I watched re-runs of House on Netflix, took photos of my nails, and surfed Buzzfeed.  Priorities, am I right?

Today I'm bringing you a manicure I loved using a polish which I have mixed feelings on.  A week or so ago, I received the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Rio Collection.  This collection contains 8 matte glitter polishes which are inspired by Brazil since they are hosting the World Cup.  Side note, am I the only one who doesn't care about the World Cup?  Everyone is talking about soccer and I'm over here concerned about my nail polish.

Anywho, when I opened the boxes, I fell in love with these matte glitters.  They come in a range of color combos which, for me, can be used to create fun and quick accent nail to any nail art.  Since I'm a huge fan of blue, Beach Ball, which contains matte blue and white glitters, became the first polish to try.  I grabbed a few cream polishes which matched the glitter and got to work on a fun, quick design.

Since I've become obsessed with gradients, especially after the success of my coral gradient, I decided to do something similar with the blues.  Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Gradient 
    • Revlon - Dreamer
    • Ulta - Blue Streak
    • INM - Northern Lights Silver
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
  • Finger Paints - Paper Mache
  • Sally Hansen - Beach Ball

 Awesome manicure, right?  But do you see what I see?  Look closely at my middle finger.  Notice all the dots in between the glitters....that's not Northern Lights you're seeing, those are bubbles.  Zillions of little bubbles which were sadly thanks to the Sally Hansen matte glitter.  Unfortunately, the polish had way too much base and not enough glitter.  I tried to do a thin coat and ended up with just one or two glitter pieces on the nail.  I let that dry completely before I added a thicker coat, which did give me more even coverage, but I believe led to the bubbles.  The ratio is just so off, and I think if there was less base (and maybe it was a tad thinner) the bubbles wouldn't be occurring.

Now, don't give up on the polishes from the Rio Collection just yet, because I'm not.  The glitters are so bold and bright in fun combos.  This blue combo, as well as Tidal Rave which contains black glitter instead of the white, really are something different I haven't seen yet from main brands yet.  I will be using the rest of the polishes in the collection, but instead of painting them on, I'm going to sponge them on.  This means I will paint the polish onto the make up sponge and then dab it on my nail as if I were doing a gradient.  I think this will eliminate the bubbles and give me the exact glitter look that I'm looking for.  Stay tuned because I have a great idea using Fiesta which is the Red, White, and Black glitter.


Regardless, the manicure is awesome, and to people looking at my nails from a distance, they do not notice the bubbles.  Honestly, from a distance I barely notice them and really am able to admire the whole manicure and enjoy the glitter.  Again, that's from a distance, I get that middle finger to eye level and I want to pop the bubbles!

I love my gradient and my random tribal design.  Can we call that tribal?  I'm not sure if we can, but that's what I'm dubbing it.  Kind of looks like a volleyball now that I look at it more.

What do you think of the manicure?  Loving the look?  Disappointed about the bubbly glitters like I am?  If you own them, have you gotten them to work?  What are your tips and tricks?  Sponging work?

 As I said, I'm not giving up quiet yet on these glitters.  As a paintable polish, yes I am, but not as a sponged one.  Here's hoping that it works for the few ideas that I have!

The Sally Hansen Rio Collection is a special edition collection which can be found currently at drug stores near you!

Until next time, <3

**Some polishes in this post were provided for review.  Expressed opinions are my own.  Please see my disclosure policy**