Nail Art: #Hepicksmypolish June Edition Dotticure

Third month in a row, I have decided to participate in #hepicksmypolish! You can read up on the challenge in my past posts, but you have a "he" in your life pick out polishes for a nail design for you to do and you have to use them. My husband has been kind to me in the past, but this time, he chose a more difficult combination. He chose Sinful Colors In the Spotlight, Color Club Sunrise Canyon and Essie Fiji. This is what I came up with:

Nail Art: Leopard and Stripes

Today I have a fun re-creation mani! @McPolish on Instagram is having a nail art contest, which entails re-creating a design of hers. This one struck my fancy! I really like the combination of colors, spots and stripes! McPolish is brilliant, she is actually one of my favorite accounts on IG, so if you have IG go follow her! I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Sally Hansen Coral Reef, Sally Hansen Wet Cement and Wet n Wild Black Creme.

Nail Art: Spring Inspired Water Marble

I'm so happy, I finally got water marbling to work again!! Water marbling is a struggle for me. It is probably because I refuse to buy bottled water just to water marble, so really it is my own fault. However, I got two OPIs to water marble nicely in Brita filtered tap water. Winning! I used Gargantuan Green Grape and Can't Find My Czechbook to create a sort of spring inspired look. I started with a white base on the fingers I was going to marble and the other nails have two coats of GGG and dots of CFMC. Sorry the names are long, so I am abbreviating.

Tutorial: Lace

Remember this lace look from earlier this month? I had a few readers request a tutorial, so I have a quick pictorial tutorial to share today!

Nail Art: Sideways Moons

Sideways moons? I'm sure you have heard of half moon manis, but sideways moons? I'n not sure is it an appropriate name, but that is what I am going with here. I just thought of these one night and decided to see what they would look like. I started with a base of China Glaze White On White and carefully freehand painted Pelican Gray on the side of the nail in a somewhat curved shape. Then I painted Wet n Wild Black Creme over the grey in a similar arc shape. I then added some acrylic nail studs from the Born Pretty Store (Use code: HANDX31 for 10% off). 

Nail Art: Floral Stamp Over Oil Slick Nails

Hello! I hope you all had a great weekend! I feel well rested and enjoyed the summer sun. Today I have nail stamping design for you! I have really been into stamping lately and I recently received a new stamping plate, so I had to play. I have a color from Essence, that I have not been able to try out called Power Girl (Oil Slick Effect). It is part of the Superheroes Collection that was released quite a while ago. If you can find any, you should pick them up! I was actually pretty impressed with the ones I bought. I stamped from image plate 217. I think the images are really crisp and beautiful. Some of the patterns do seem really detailed for such a small area, but come out beautifully on the nail. I stamped the black with Wet n Wild Black Creme.

Swatch and Review of Dermelect: Excentric

I have a new (to me) mainstream brand to share with you! Have any of you heard of Dermelect? I hadn't heard of it and I think it is a new product at Ulta. Ulta sent me a coupon for $4 off, so I thought I would give it a go. Normally these retail for $12 each, treatments are more expensive. Dermelect claims that this polish is good for your nails. It is apparently the only one infused with a keratin protein peptide, which is supposed to encourage stronger nail growth. I chose Excentric, which is a darker blue toned grey, which is unlike anything in my collection. Most greys I have are more purple leaning or pure grey.

Swatch and Review of Daily Hues Nail Lacquer: Blaze

I love buying from indie nail polish brands, and I have a new one to share with you today! I bought Blaze from Daily Hues Nail Lacquer recently. Jenn is based in Washington (one state over from me) and is really sweet and great to communicate with. She is in a few facebook groups I participate in, so I really liked buying from someone who actively participates in groups in the nail community. Yes, there is a nail community! Anyway, on to the swatches! Blaze is a really unique color, I can't even really describe it. It has a coppery base tone but shifts red/pink with holographic shimmer. It is a really interesting polish.

Swatch and Review of JulieG 2014 Summer Collection

I have to say, JulieG hasn't been a brand I've been really excited to try out. I see it at Rite Aid all the time, but I am usually scouring for other brands. I never thought to look at JulieG until Young Wild and Polished professed her undying love for the polish on her youtube channel. You should check her out, she is really funny and gives really honest (brutally honest) reviews of makeup, skin and nail products on her channel. I am constantly checking to see if she has uploaded a new video yet. Anyway, after she talked about JulieG non-stop, I figured I should try it out. It is really affordable at $3.99 a bottle and available at Rite Aid, like I said. I saw a deal on Groupon for the whole Summer Collection for $12, so I figured this was my chance to see if I like it. I received 6 polishes and I have swatches of all of them for you today!

Nail Art: Blue and White Ceramics Inspired

Today I have a fun, yet delicate design for you! I have been really inspired lately by many nail artist re-creating the look of blue and white ceramics. I really wanted to re-create those looks with stamping because I haven't had a lot of time to do freehand nail art lately. I used Sinful Colors Snow Me white as a base and stamped Rimmel London Blue Eyed Girl using MoYou Tourist Plate 07.

Swatch and Review of Northern Star Summer Collection and Cuticle Oil

Press Sample

Introducing (part of) the Summer Collection from Northern Star polish! Kristin sent me four of her very soon to be released Summer Collection along with one of her scented cuticle oils. I received Appletini! I have to say the first thing I noticed was that she packaged all of these products really well, each polish came in its own box, was well wrapped in bubble wrap and tissue paper, if you order, you will see. 

Born Pretty Store 3 of 3: Water Decals

Press Sample

Today I have the last item in my three part series of reviews covering items sent to me by the Born Pretty Store. I was especially excited to try water decals because I had never used them before. I chose a design that looked like the mountains in China and some birds. The instructions had some typos on it, but it is pretty easy to figure out what it should say. Essentially all you do is paint your nails how you want and wait for them to dry completely. Then cut out the design you want to use and peel off the plastic cover. Then dip it in water and let it soak through. Then you place the decal image side down on the nail. I gently wiped up the excess water and then applied a top coat. I did run into a problem with these, but I will get to that later. I applied these over a gradient using China Glaze White on White, Pelican Gray, and Black Diamond.

Born Pretty Store 2 of 3: Glitter Chevrons

Press Sample

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.

Born Pretty Store 1 of 3: Rose Tuxedo Nails!

Press Sample

So excited to share with you some nail art products! I have been seeing these sweet little nail studs all over the internet and I've been wanting them all! Turns out, a lot of them come from the Born Pretty Store. This is the first of a three part series on Born Pretty Store products. They sent me three items for review and I have broken them up into individual posts. The first item I have to share is black acrylic studs. I decided to use the bows, but it comes with 12 different shapes. They are pretty small but fit in perfect proportion to my nails. I created a tuxedo like nail design but instead of making it solid, I stamped a rose design with my MoYou stamping plate! Applying the studs was really simple, I just applied top coat over the design, placed the stud where I like it and added another layer of top coat over that.

Nail Art: Simple Lace French Tip

I have easy lace nails to share with you today! I started with a base color of Essie Chinchilly and added Island Girl (teal from this post, still don't know the name) and created a nice bright/neutral mani. The only tool I used was a dotting tool. 

Swatch and Review of OPI Moon over Mumbai

Today I have an older polish, not old to me, but it was released quite a while ago. Today I have OPI Moon Over Mumbai, which is from the 2008 Spring India Collection. I have another from that collection (Black Cherry Chutney) and had seen swatches of this on other blogs, so when I saw it on sale at Ulta, I had to grab it. It is a greyed out white with an iridescent finish. I thought it would be a prefect neutral for work events. I decided to sport these for a business meeting, and I think they worked nicely for that.

It's Contest Time!!

I can't believe it! On June 15th, I will have reached one year of blogging! It still seems like I am a brand new blogger, but a year has gone by. I want to say a thanks to all of those who encouraged me to start a blog and to work at it! I know I wouldn't have ever started if I didn't have you all in my life. Now, this momentous occasion calls for a nail art contest!

Handtastic Intentions One Year Blogiversary Nail Art Contest Rules: 

1. Only open to U.S. residents, sorry international followers!
2. Must be 18 years of age or older.
3. Please follow my blog on Bloglovin’, Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest, but this isn't a requirement for the contest!
4. Must create a nail art design inspired by a look I have created. Anything about my look can inspire you, color, design, location, but you have to mention which nail art design inspired you in your post.
5. Nail art must be painted on your own nails, no acrylics.
6. You must be holding a piece of paper with #HandtasticIntentionsBlogiversary on it. An inset image is fine. 7. You may post your photo on Instagram or in the comments on THIS blog post, if posting on Instagram you must tag your photo with #HandtasticIntentionsBlogiversary and your profile must be public. If your profile isn't public I can’t see it!
8. Do not post your photo on both Instagram and the blog, pick one.
9. As entries come in I will assign each one a number.
10. Only one entry per person.
11. Prizes are shown below. I will pick one winner by random drawing and one of my choosing.
12. Prizes will be shipped to the winners, I will not replace prizes that may be lost, stolen or break in transit, though I will be sure to pack everything securely.
13. Winners will have 48 hours to respond, if I don’t hear from them I will move on to the next winners chosen in the same manner as above.
14. Contest will begin at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time on June 2, 2014 and end at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time on June 15, 2014.
15. All skill levels are encouraged to enter!

Prizes:

For the winner of my favorite pick:

• Sephora by OPI Spice Market Mini Set (No longer available in stores) Includes: 
• I Think I Cayenne
• Have You Met Rose, Mary?
• Just a Pinch of Glitter
• S-age is Just a Number
•  Sinful Colors: Green Ocean
• California Mango Cuticle Oil

For the winner of the random drawing:

• Orly Baked Collection Summer 2014 Includes (Left to Right):
• Hot Tropics
• Abalaze
• Saturated
• Neon Heat
• Lush
• Tropical Pop
• Sinful Colors: Green Ocean
• California Mango Cuticle Oil

If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments below! Thank you!

Swatch and Review of Zoya Magical Pixie Dust Summer 2014 Collection

Press Sample

Summer 2014 is shaping up to be beautiful! Zoya sent me three new polishes from the Magical Pixie Summer 2014 Collection and I have them to share with you today!  Zoya provided these for my honest review. The Magical Pixie polishes are very textured polishes, but even if you don't like textured polish you should definitely check them out. I have photos of all with and without top coat, and I think you'll be surprised!