Happy Birthday, Oregon!

Happy Valentine's Day to you all! For those of you who do not know, it is also Oregon's birthday! Today marks 156 years of Oregon's statehood. I love Oregon and I wanted to do my nails for her. Oregon's colors are navy blue and gold, and I took inspiration from our state motto "She Flies With Her Own Wings".

Zoya India Gold Leaves

I have beautiful Zoya India and some nail stamping to share with you! Zoya India is a darker red with shimmers and was released in their fall collection. I wasn't able to find many of the colors, but I found India, and she is lovely! I decided to add some gold stamping with Born Pretty Store BP-19 which has a beautiful leaf theme. I used Maybelline Bold Gold as my stamping polish.

Frankenstein Drips

Today, I have a new to me technique. I have seen drips all over the place, but have never tried them myself. I was trying to think of another Halloween design, and I thought of drips in Frankenstein colors! I started with a base of Maybelline Color Show  Flash of Purple and added drips on Color Club Sunrise Canyon.

Nail Art: #31DC2014 Day 13 Animal Print

As you can see from the title, this post is really late! I just missed this one a while ago and never made it up. I had high hopes of doing something atypical for animal print, but I just ran out of good ideas and just did something simple. I started with a base of Pure Ice Darkside, a deep maroon with gorgeous gold shimmer and stamped leopard print on a portion of my thumb, middle and ring fingers. I also added some stripes and called it good. 

Nail Art: #31DC2014 Day 27 Inspired by Artwork

I love Alphonse Mucha. I have been a fan of his work since the first moment I saw it, and have been lucky enough to visit the Mucha Museum in Prague, Czech Republic. I knew that his work was what was going to be my inspiration for today's "Inspired by Artwork", but I kept lamenting over the fact I can't paint like Mucha. Finally I realized that inspired by doesn't mean reproduce or copy. Therefore I based my design on the tones and shapes I saw in two pieces of which I have small prints: Poetry, from the Four Arts (1898) and Lorenzaccio (1896). I started with a base of Color Club Mod in Manhattan, a favorite off white. Then I stamped with Born Pretty Store plate QA90, which I have had problems with in the past, but served it's purpose here. I used Maybelline Bold Gold for that stamp. Then I stamped another image from Born Pretty Store plate QA88 in Revlon Trendy. I think the tones and shapes mimic what I am seeing in these two pieces.

Nail Art: #31DC2014 Day 15 Delicate Print

I am still behind in the #31DC2014 challenge, but not by much! Day 14 was delicate print. I went the easy route and stamped. I'm not sure if some might call this cheating, but I don't care, stamping is hard and I'm pressed for time! I started with a base of the beautiful Orly Flawless Flush. I think Flawless Flush really is flawless, it is such a gorgeous soft shade that I think everyone needs. I then stamped a fleur-de-lis pattern over that. The stamp I used was from the MoYou Tourist Collection 07 plate, man I love that plate! I then added some dots that kind of look like studs. I really wanted to use studs but the square gold ones I have a re just a bit too big for my nails. 

Nail Art: Chevrons with Street Art and Nail Studs

I have a fun and different (for me) combination to share today! I'm finding that I don't actually own that many glitter polishes, but when I saw the unique Maybelline Color Show Street Art collection, this blue and black glitter combo caught my eye. It is called Nighttime Noise. I wanted to showcase it in this mani. I started with a white base, I used Pure Ice Superstar here and on my pointer and pinky fingers added triangle shaped studs from the Born Pretty Store (use my code: HANDX31 for 10% off). I then used Nail Vinyls and painted Sinful Colors Black on Black on my thumb, middle, and ring fingers. 

Review of Maybelline Color Show Nail stickers

I apologize for these cell phone photos in advance, but today I have to share with you nail stickers. This is the first time I have ever tried nail stickers. I heard they were so easy to apply you could do it in the car, so that is what I did! I found some Maybelline Color Show nail stickers at the dollar store, so I figured why not give them a go?

Swatch and Review of Maybelline Color Show

Warning, this post has a ton of photos! I was going through my collection and realized that I have a ton of untried polish. Shameful, I know. Today I am featuring some Maybelline Color Show polishes I haven't used before. I have one limited edition: Flash of Purple, and two that are part of the permanent collection: Blue Freeze and Wined & Dined. I apologize in advance if you can't find Flash of Purple in stores, but maybe some of you have it and haven't tried it yet, like me :) 

Nail Art: French Decor

Hey Friends! I have a fun little design to share with you! I bought myself a MoYou stamping plate for my birthday and I was so excited to use it. I got one from the tourist collection and it has French themed images including the Mona Lisa. Here is where I bought my plate, but it is currently unavailable on Amazon. I have my eyes on many of these beautiful plates! The Artist Collection is so gorgeous! Anyway, I wanted to create a squishy white nail with some gold accent. I think it reminds me of French decor!

Nail art: Black and Red Chevron Tips

If you read my last post about the Maybelline Color Show Brocades Collection, you know that I wasn't a fan of Embellished Blue. I did, however, decide to try out another shade:Crushed Crimson. This time, I wasn't disappointed. The polish is still really thick because of the dense glitter, but it was easier to work with. I really like how there is a mixture of shapes of glitter in this polish, especially the random larger hex glitter.

I used two careful layers of Crushed Crimson and then free hand painted chevron tips in two layers of Rimmel Lasting Finish PRO in Black Satin. Really simple. I did this while cooking dinner, which is something I don't recommend, but was doable. I really liked that Crushed Crimson was less textured than Embellished Blue. It is a great Christmas color, and I will definitely be using this again closer to the holidays! Hope you like it!

Swatch and Review of Maybelline Color Show: Embellished Blue (Brocades)

First of all, Happy Veteran's Day! I greatly value our veterans and hope that they all feel how very much appreciated and honored they are today and everyday. Our country would not be the great country it is without our service men and women!

I have something very rare for you today: a nail polish I don't like. I know, you're thinking, how is this possible? Well, it happened. Not only did I dislike this polish, but I disliked it so much, I returned it. Yeah, that bad. It looked so beautiful in the bottle, but I soon found out it was not what I expected. The polish I am talking about is Maybelline Color Show Embellished Blue from the Brocades collection. I was on the hunt for Silver Swank because I saw a friend wearing it and it is gorgeous! I ran to my local Rite Aid looking for it, but sadly they ran out. Lucky for me, I found this gorgeous blue color! I loved it and was so excited about it. That is, until I got home and put it on.

 

Stock photo from Maybelline

As you can see from these horrible pictures this polish was really textured. It looks kind of smooth though, right? Yeah, that is under THREE coats of Seche Vite AND a coat of matte top coat. This is pathetic! I used only one coat of the actual color and most of my nail here is top coat. It wasn't advertised as a textured polish and some of the others in the collection are not textured, so that was a definite surprise. Another surprise was that the color didn't look as gorgeous on the nail. I should have taken a photo with just the regular top coat, but I wanted this color off my nail as soon as possible. I had hoped the polish would be really sparkly and have a great dimension of glitter since there was a good mix of glitter, but I was again, disappointed. The color wasn't truly all blue either. I felt like there were some green flecks, which wouldn't be bad, but was definitely more pronounced on the nail than in the bottle. The worst part was that it was difficult to apply! You would think with everything that put me off the polish it would at least be easy to apply. Nope, not the case. I only did one coat, but that one coat was terrible. The small glitter clumped together so badly I thought I got a bad batch. It was so clumpy going on, I wasn't even going to try to apply it on the rest of my nails. So, if you were thinking about getting this color, save yourself a headache and $3.99. It wouldn't be worth it if it was free. Highly recommend that you do not buy this polish. Now if I could just find Swanky Silk... Thanks for reading my little rant today.

Nail Art: Halloween Monster Nails

Happy Halloween Readers!! I never was a huge fan of Halloween ever since my mom made me dress up as a fat clown to keep me warm (practical mothers...gotta love them). I of course loved the candy as a kid, but nowadays I really like just relaxing with my husband and picking out scary movies to watch. Maybe watching a scary movie isn't actually relaxing, but it is entertaining! We've been watching American Horror Story on Netflix, which actually seems Halloween themed and scary anyway. I like scary movies, but I don't think I like scary nails.

Today, I have some monster cartoon nails to share with you. Before I saw this next design, I said I was never a fan of characters or cartoon type designs on nails. I am now proven wrong! I saw this Halloween nail tutorial originally on Ipsy, but linked to YouTube. The tutorial is done by I Have A Cupcake and I think it is adorable! I really don't like the look of zombie or bloody nails, but I think this is a cute way to celebrate Halloween without getting too literal on your nails. I just followed the tutorial with some adjustments based on what colors I had in my collection, but I think it turned out pretty similar.

 

So there is a mummy with blood red crazy eyes, a witch, Dracula, Frankenstein and a ghost. What do you think? Scary? No? Didn't think so, but I like the simplicity of the design and the cute factor of the cartoons. I used mostly regular nail polish, but my black nail striper came in handy here. This is a really fun intro to character nail art. If you check out the video be sure to check out I Have A Cupcake's other designs, she has similar little characters for different occasions. Have a fun and safe Halloween!

Nail Art: Red and Gold Half Moon Nails

Nail art challenges can be tough. That's probably why they call them challenges. It is funny how once you are told to create something with a specific theme, you suddenly can't think of anything to create. This is what what happened to me with day 7-"school" nails. All along, I had planned to do my school colors from college: cardinal and gold. When I sat down to paint my nails, I simply couldn't think of what to do! I ended up trying a different style on each nail, which resulted in completely starting over. In the end, I must shamefully admit that I couldn't think of anything and just copied another blogger I love. The Nailasaurus, interestingly enough, did her nails for a challenge as well.

I thought these to be a bit too Christmas themed, but they would be great for the holiday season. I really love the red, such a classic shade. The red I used was OPI: I'm Not Really a Waitress, the gold was Maybelline Color Show: Bold Gold and as a base, I just used Nail Envy. I did a regular half moon mani but added a gold stripe with a small brush. I'm not that great with my nail art brushes, but I'm trying! Hope you like it, and definitely check out the original design by The Nailasaurus!

Nail Art: Golden French Tip

I have a little nail art for you today! I liked my last manicure so much I decided to recycle it and add a little extra. The base was OPI: Yodel Me on My Cell, which is a teal leaning blue with some beautiful, subtle blue specks of glitter. For the nail art challenge I am participating in on Instagram (#nailartsep, Host: @Californails, Me: @HandtasticIntentions),day 4 is teal and gold. She chose to include these colors because apparently September is both Childhood and Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and each of those colors corresponds with their cause. I decided to incorporate both into my mani for the nail art challenge. 

All I did was stamp one of the tip designs from Konad plate M57 in Maybelline Color Show: Bold Gold and then add a freehand french tip over that. So simple, but it has a strong effect! Someone told me today my nails look like Cleopatra nails, I definitely took that as a compliment! Do you all want me to do an entry on nail stamping tips? I feel like I haven't done a ton of stamping lately. Let me know what you think! Thanks!