Nail Art Dotticure Blues

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I received Sinful Colors Ocean Side from Influenster Voxbox along with some other exciting goodies. I decided to do a little nail art with this one. Ocean Side is a middle tone blue creme and I thought it would go really well with Orly Color Blast Crazy Old Maurice from the Beauty and the Beast collection. I love Beauty and the Beast!

I've been a little rusty on nail art because I just haven't had time, so I thought this could be a good ease back into it. I just did an asymmetrical dot pattern with alternating colors using Crazy Old Maurice as my accent color.

Wet N Wild A Latte Love

I have a simple swatch to share with you today. I went to my local Rite Aid recently and picked up Wet n Wild A Latte Love from the most recent display. I kind of wish I had picked up all of the colors because they all seemed very light and springy. I am not really sure how I would describe A Latte Love. It seems like it should be a tan, but it kind of edges on purple or pink. I'll let you decide.

Nail Art Inspired by a Tumbler

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I have a fun spring look for you today! I recently picked up a new tumbler for water from Target for a great deal. I haven't seen it there since, but I found some others online that I also love here, here and here. I love it, it instantly reminded me of nail art, so of course I had to create a design for this.

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy late Valentine's Day! I decided to post my nail design for Oregon's Birthday rather than Valentine's Day yesterday. For Valentine's Day, I wanted to try another water marble. I always feel like I have a difficult time, but this time, it worked pretty well!

Orly Holiday 2014 Sparkle Collection (Partial)

I have two polishes from the Orly Holiday 2014 Sparkle collection to share with you today! I know that the were 'so last year', but I haven't shared them yet and I still like them! I have Steal the Spotlight and Mirrorball! Mirrorball has been the talk of the nail community for a long while now. It seems really difficult to get, but oh so beautiful and while I was picking it up I came across Steal the Spotlight as well. 

My Picks from the Orly Baked Collection

Hello! I am sorry for my absence the last few days, my husband and I just moved, and that has been challenging to say the least. I am glad that most of our stuff is moved in now and we just have to clean up our old place. I am actually sitting on the floor in our (mostly) empty apartment writing this. My nails have suffered from  the move, but luckily I have some photos stored up to share for just such an occasion! I don't know why I haven't shared these yet, but these are my four favorite picks from the Orly Baked Collection that released this summer. I loved this collection and used these in nail art several times (Neon Week, Richter Scale, Violet Stones). Today I have swatches and reviews of these colors for you!

Halloween Haze

Halloween is less than a week away! It seems like it came really fast. I am already thinking about the holidays. So, I decided to do some Halloween nail art! I wanted to stamp, but I realized I didn't have any Halloween stamping sets, so I worked with what I had here. I used Orly Goth, Pure Ice Superstar! and Silver Star, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Heat Flash. I also used Born Pretty Store plate D14. I love that plate! If you want to purchase anything from the Born Pretty Store you can use my code: HANDX31 for 10% off!

Nail Art: #31DC2014 Day 29 Supernatural

So, today is the day that everyone is finishing up the daily nail art challenge, as today is day 31. I, however and still finishing up a few, so stick with me here, I'll be finished soon! It will feel so great to complete this! Today, I have day 29, which was to be inspired by the supernatural. I've been watching Witches of East End, so that kind of influenced my decision here. I created a purple sky and hand painted one witch, but after doing so, I realized I had decals...lol. So, guess which one I painted! :) 

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: #31DC2014 Day 6 Violet

I almost posted this one the same day as the challenge for #31DC2014! At least now I can say I am caught up with this daily challenge. I can't believe how difficult it is to keep up with this, but I think I am creating some really interesting new looks! Today the challenge is violet, I'm not sure what shade of purple violet is, so I just went with a purple I love and haven't used recently. I started with a base color of Orly Saturated from their recent Baked collection. Love this deep purple crelly. It is so luscious! I have been seeing a fabulous take on the turquoise nail look by Oh My Gosh Polish and The Nailasaurus, and I thought, why should that effect be restricted to a turquoise look? I decided to recreate it for today's challenge! Instead of using black and gold I used a shimmery somewhat sheer red and a gold. I used Revlon Blackberry, which I got ages ago, you can't even read the front of the bottle anymore! I did this separated water marble with that color first then again with OPI Love.Angel.Music.Baby. which has fast become one of my favorite gold colors. This was from the Gwen Stefani collection. It was an amazing collection!

Nail Art: Watercolor Flowers Tri Polish Tuesday

Today is Tri Polish Tuesday again! I am actually kind of proud of myself for keeping up with this challenge this month. To see my last two Tri Polish Tuesday designs click here: Aztec and Primary Colors Unite!. For those who don't know the three polishes to use for this month are red, yellow and blue. There is another facebook group I try to participate in which explains nail art techniques called Simples: Nail Art from Muggles to Mastery. I love the name! This week is a watercolor technique that I first saw from The Nailasaurus: Watercolor! I knew that this week I wanted to combine the challenge prompt with the new technique so, I decided to try to create a floral look. I am not terribly good at this technique yet, but I really like how it turned out! I started with a base of white, gave it a good top coat, then one nail at a time dropped blue polish in a corner and spread it around with a brush that had acetone on it. I then did the opposite corner with yellow and then finally smaller bits of red on top of the blue and yellow.

Neon Week Nail Art: Fashion Inspired Neon Statement Piece

This may be the most simple, yet complicated design I have for Neon Week. If you missed past Neon Week Posts you can read them here: Neon Mist (Day 1), Neon Monochrome Arrows (Day 2), Neon Rainbow Flowers (Day 3), Neon Galaxy (Day 4). Today's look is another one for Oh Mon Dieu Part Deux, Day 30 Fashion Inspired. I saw a very striking necklace on Etsy from the shop JustynaG and very soon couldn't get it off my mind! I posted a variant of it in one of my treasuries and have been wanting to recreate the look. This design is loosely based off of it, as you will be able to see in the photo from from the listing. I only used Orly Glowstick (a staple for neon week) and Sinful Colors Black on Black.    

Neon Week Nail Art: Neon Rainbow Flowers

Neon Week is going by very quickly! If you missed day one or two you can see them here: Neon Mist (Day 1) and Monochrome Arrows (Day 2). Day 2 also had a tutorial, so be sure to check that out. For today's look I was inspired by the way that Oh My Gosh Polish did her Rainbow Abstract Dab and I wanted to re-create the underlying color. She is amazing and she posts YouTube videos daily and sometimes more than once daily! She seems like such a sweet lady too. Definitely go check her out. She used a dry brush technique which is one that I love! I ended up with a dry brushed rainbow as a base and then I stamped over it! I used China Glaze White On White to make the neons pop. Then I started with Color Club Warhol at the base of my nail and feathered it out far enough to create an orange blend between it and Orly Glowstick. Then I feathered Glowstick out enough to create a green with it and Color Club Chelsea Girl, and finally feathered that out and blended it with Color Club Mrs. Robinson. All of the Color Clubs are from the old Poptastic Collection. I then stamped with plate D14 from the Born Pretty Store and used Wet N Wild Black Creme.

Neon Week Nail Art (and TUTORIAL): Monochrome Arrows

Day 2 of Neon Week! If you missed day one, you can see my Neon Mist post here. So, today I have one of those designs that started as one thing in my head, but evolved into something else when I actually sat down to do it. I think it was a good thing in this case. I started with a base color of Orly Ablaze which is a bright sparkly orange and part of their summer Baked Collection. After that I painted a thick stripe down the middle of Color Club Warhol from their old Poptastic Collection. I think they re-launched the Poptastic Collection recently. Lastly, I used a striping brush to paint a boarder line on either side of the pink stripe and then I decided to add some chevrons (arrows). I used China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy for the stripes and chevrons and topped it all off with Glisten & Glow's topcoat HK Girl. I am really excited, because I actually did a little pictorial tutorial for you! I added it at the end of my post.

Neon Week Nail Art: Neon Mist

I am happy to start day one of NEON WEEK! I wanted to create something kind of like Shark Week on Discovery Channel for my blog and I decided on neon nail designs for summer! Who knows, maybe it will one day be as popular as Shark Week. Today is the first day, so be sure to bookmark my blog, follow on social media, and come back every day for a new design! For today's nail art design, I am calling it Neon Mist. I wasn't sure what else to call it. It reminds me of neon clouds or the Indian color festival Holi. I used several polishes: Blue- Color Club Chelsea Girl, Green- China Glaze Grass is Lime Greener, Yellow- Orly Glowstick, Purple/Pink- Color Club Mrs. Robinson, Orange/Yellow- China Glaze Sun Worshiper, and China Glaze Fairy Dust. I also used a white base color (China Glaze White On White. After the white base dries, I blobed on all of the colors on each nail and lightly placed a plastic bag over the nail while all the colors are still wet. I use my finger to lightly spread the colors under the plastic if needed. Remove the plastic and you are left with a bright design on your nails! I finished it with Fairy Dust and top coat. 

Born Pretty Store 2 of 3: Glitter Chevrons

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Today I have part two of this Born Pretty Store three part series. I have loose glitter to share today! I have been seeing a lot of stunning glitter placement manis lately and am so impressed by how stunning they look. I tried my hand at these a while ago here, but I was using really tiny gliltters and it took ages. The Born Pretty Store sent me some larger loose glitter and I attempted to make a chevron design with the different colors. I used a toothpick dipped in top coat to place the glitter onto a wet layer of top coat. The base color I used was Orly Naked Canvas.

Nail Art: Richter Scale Nails with Orly Baked Collection

Today I have three of the six colors from the latest Orly Summer 2014 Baked Collection. I have Ablaze, Hot Tropics and Saturated. I wanted to share swatches first, but since I got these lovelies I have had this design in my head and had to do it first! I have created what I like to call Richter Scale nails. I think it looks like the zig zag line that measures earthquakes, maybe I have my terminology wrong, but Richter scale is what came to mind. I painted half of my nail with Ablaze and half with Hot Tropics. I didn't use tape or anything because the center line is covered with Saturated. I used a striping brush to just lightly brush the color with tons of little lines. 

Swatch and Review of Orly: Faint of Heart, Monroe's Red and Space Cadet

Today I have three Orly polishes to share with you! Faint of Heart, Monroe's Red and Space Cadet are three great colors that have been sitting in my untried pile for far too long. I have been working hard to get through my untrieds, and every time I am ashamed at how long it took me to try some of these lovely polishes! 

Nail Art: Purple Waterfall

Today's look was completely inspired by The Nailasaurus. Her tutorial for waterfall nails has been a huge hit, and I have been wanting to try it out for ages! I decided to recycle the swatch from my last post and see if I could pull off this waterfall look. I highly recommend you checkout The Nailasaurus, I love her designs, and he nail shape is so adorable! She has shorter nails, and they are so perfect! This look is done with a nail art brush and regular polishes. My base color is Orly Flawless Flush and for the stripes I also used OPI You're Such A Budapest, Color Club Antiquated and OPI Dutch Ya Just Love OPI?. 

Swatch and Review of Orly: Blush Spring Collection

Today I have two polishes from Orly's Blush Collection. This is a neutral color collection, which is one I usually hate. I have such a difficult time with nude colors, and neutral color collections usually include several nudes. This collection, however, has several colors. I picked up an off white with pink shimmer called Naked Canvas and a lavender with gold shimmer called Flawless Flush. First up is Naked Canvas.