Duck Nails for the Rose Bowl

Yesterday was the Rose Bowl! The University of Oregon Ducks football team was playing against Florida State, and my husband loves the Ducks. I remain neutral on the Ducks v. Beavers civil war within the state, but when the Ducks play in a bowl game I'll do my nails for that! Don't worry Beavers, I'll do my nails for you too when you make it to a bowl game. 

Nail Art: #31DC2014 Day 3 Yellow

Today I have #31DC2014 Day 3 Yellow! I really like the combination of yellow and grey, so I thought I would add yellow flowers over a grey base. I used Sally Hansen Wet Cement and acrylic paints for the flowers. I just kind of brushed around until it looked like a flower. I really want to work on my acrylic painting skills in this challenge. 

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.

Nail Art: Bridal Inspired Foil Stamping

Have you all heard of the Sally Hansen Color Foil Collection? It has been out for a while, but for one reason or another, I haven't gotten my hands on them until now. I have a nail art look today using Leaden Lilac as a base color. This polish is different from the usual polish where you use a base and top coat. This one specifically states to not use a base or top coat. The polish dries to a very metallic foil looking finish which has a really cool effect. The color is an interesting mix of blue and purple, I would call it more blue than purple. It reminded me of the blue/purple Pure Ice Laven-Dare because I couldn't really tell if it is was more blue leaning or purple leaning. I decided to pair the two for this look. Turns out Laven-Dare stamps really well, so I used my MoYou Tourist Collection Plate 07 for this design.   

Born Pretty Store Review: Pressed Flowers

Press Sample 

I have another Born Pretty Store review for you today! I received some dried flowers from the Born Pretty Store to try out. They come in 12 different colors and in their own protective containers. They come as whole pressed flowers, so you could really use the whole thing, but I decided to break them up and combine two colors to make a more detailed design. I created something similar to my Sideways Moons, but with flowers. I started with a base color of Nails Inc. Sheraton Street, added top coat, and placed the flowers in the still wet top coat. Then I top coated over the flowers and voila! 

Nail Art: Patriotic Roses

I have an exciting mani to share today! Patriotic Roses! I recently went to a meet up with other nail polish lovers in my area and we talked about doing "Portland/Fourth of July" themed nails. Since Portland is the Rose City I combined that with the fourth of July colors and created this. I used my nail vinyls for the first time, which was really exciting! I used so many polishes here:

1. Essie- Aruba Blue

2. Sinful Colors- Snow Me White

3. Essie- First Timer

4. Color Club- Wild Cactus

5. OPI-Quarter of a Cent-Cherry

6. Ruffian- Ruffian Red

7. Nika K- Red

8. Essie- Head Mistress

Phew, seriously that was a ton of polish! I also used a red acrylic, because I realized part way through that all of my reds are very similar in tone. Oh well, here is the final look:

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.

Nail Art: Memorial Day Poppies

It is Memorial Day. Today is a day when we take the time to honor our fallen soldiers and remember the cost of our freedom. 

I was given a challenge to create a nail art design for Memorial Day without using red, white and blue. I decided to try poppies, since they are supposed to symbolize remembrance. I decided to do a sunset gradient with grey and black poppies (since I couldn't use red). I'm not sure the poppies really look like poppies, but that is what I was going for here. I used Julie G Miami Beach and Old San Juan.

Nail Art: Pastel Stripes and Flowers

For today's look I was completely inspired by my fellow Salemite (is that a word?) I Dream of Lacquer! I don't know if she ever posted her nails that I was inspired by on her blog, but they are her profile picture on her blog's facebook page.Check out her work, she is amazing! I pretty much copied her work completely, but with different colors. I haven't gotten my hands on any Lime Crime polish yet. Being pastel and floral, I thought these were perfect for Easter. I will list all the colors at the bottom of the post.

Nail Art: Cherry Blossoms

Right now the cherry blossoms are blooming and I've been seeing a lot of cherry blossom nail art lately. I decided I wanted to try out this technique. I started with a base of China Glaze Keep Calm, Paint On and painted black branches and dotted on a dark and light pink polish to create cherry blossoms.

Nail Art: Glitter, Stripes and Flowers

Have you noticed how having different polish on each nail is becoming more and more popular? I wasn't sure I liked the trend until I saw a design inspired by Amkuch15 on instagram. Her nails are really popular on instagram, and I've enjoyed seeing her designs. The design I have for you today is inspired by her with a little twist. I think these colors really go well together! I used China Glaze Fancy Pants (blurple) and I'm not Lion (gold/silver) and Sally Hansen White On.

I'm not Lion is a polish I just got, and I have to say, I love it! This design is pretty easy. For my ring finger I painted it with I'm not Lion, let it dry then applied striping tape and pained White On over it. I removed the tape right away and then with a dotting tool created the flower. This isn't really fall/winter, but I needed a brighter color on my nails. So fun! I hope you like it! Thanks for reading!

Nail Art: White Roses

Today I have my creation for #nailartnov challenge: black and white. I was actually really excited about this challenge! I really like black and white looks, because it is really about the design rather than the color. I had a hard time deciding on what to do, but I settled on something I had seen and wanted to recreate for a while. I was inspired by Centralparkkitty and Nail_Art_N3rd on instagram for their rose designs in color, so I wanted to try it in just pure white. Here is what I came up with:

I used Rimmel Lasting Finish PRO in Black Satin for the background. Rimmel Lasting Finish PRO is my favorite drugstore polish and am so sad it is being discontinued! I need to stock up before they are all gone. Anyway, for the white roses, I used a dotting tool to add my layers and I used Sally Hansen White On. I don't know if you can see it well, but I also painted some leaves in a grey/green, OPI Nein!Nein!Nein! OK Fine! but it kind of blends in with the background. This design really didn't take me too long at all. I want to recreate this in color soon, but for now I really like the simple black and white. What do you think?

Nail Art: Daisies

Summer isn't my favorite season of the year, but I do love it and wasn't quite ready to let it go. This is my last hurrah for summer! The look was inspired by another instagram user: @AMKUCH15, her looks are amazing and she always has perfect nails. She did this design with a sky blue background, which I loved, but I decided to do it over a melon color instead, since that is what I had on. I like to call these, upgraded manicures.

 

I had planned on doing three flowers on each finger, but I made them too big! I just used a small nail art brush and a dotting tool to create the flowers over butter LONDON Trout Pout. Really simple and cute design. I don't think I made it quite as perfectly as @AMKUCH15, but I think it looks nice. Now, that I got my last summer design out of the way, I think I can fully welcome the fall season!

Nail Art: Flower Chevron Tips

Chevron tips!! I can't get enough! Chevrons are so easy and fun. It is pretty much instant gratification. Since the design is so simple, I decided to complicate it a little. I created a multilayer chevron tip manicure. As a base, I started with OPI Bubble Bath which is a pretty sheer nude. It just smooths and creates a nice layer to start with. On top of that I have OPI Can't Find My Czechbook. It is a nice aqua infused sky blue. I added a layer of black as a base for a floral design. I used Wet 'n Wild Black Creme. The flower design didn't turn out as awesome as I envisioned, so I added another layer of black to bring it all together. Photos are outdoors in the shade:

In direct sunlight:

I wanted to do these nails for a contest on Instagram (@HandtasticIntentions). I saw the contest and wanted to enter, but mostly just wanted to try out this design. I think it is pretty fun and I enjoyed doing it. Hope you like it! Thanks for reading!!

Nail Art: Flower Nails

Lately I have been seeing a TON of floral nail designs all over the internet. It seemed like a really difficult looking design, but as it turns out, it is actually really simple! I looked up a tutorial on YouTube and this one is the one that inspired me the most: Spring Floral Nail Art by Totally Cool Nails. I did end up mixing a couple of colors for the flowers. I love how this turned out, but I think next time I want to try to make it more detailed. The base here is Sinful Colors Orange Cream, for the pinks I used a mixture of OPI's Kiss Me On My Tulips, a Forever 21 pink polish with no name and OPI's Alpine Snow, and for the green I used Essie's First Timer. I really love this color combo, but this makes me want to try a lot more color combinations!

Indoors

Indoors

Indoors

Really thought this was a great and easy design! I hope you all get a chance to try this feminine look! I have seen it with a lot of different vintage styles with mixtures of stripes and polka dots, which I think is so adorable! Let me know if you like this design and if you re-create it. I would love to see your designs. Thanks for reading!