31 Day Nail Art Challenge 2.0: Day 4 Primary or Secondary

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It's day 4 and I chose primary colors: red, orange, and blue. I was afraid this would look too patriotic, but I'm actually happy with how it turned out, even if it is stereotypical "nautical." It gave me a chance to use this awesome golden yellow from Amazing Chic Nails again! :D

31 Day Nail Art Challenge 2.0: Day 3 Blue or Violet

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Today is day 3 of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge 2.0: Blue or Violet. I chose blue <3

I ended up really liking this manicure... besides the pinky... I thought I may like more dots, but as it turns out, I didn't. For the base I used Colors by Llarowe Young Turks. I stamped using MdU White and MoYou Suki 06. (Please excuse my dry-looking cuticles. I thought I had removed all the white from the stamp, yet some remains!)

I used a dotting tool and Orly Luxe to create the "studs." Again, excuse the pinky, I got dot crazy. ;) 

That wraps up day 3. To see more day 3 challenge manicures check out the hashtag #31DC2 on Instagram and for more info on the challenge or to find out how to participate check out this post by Will Paint Nails for Food. She gives all the deets! 

You can also see the other manicures I created for this challenge by clicking here.

♥ Pooka

Light as a...

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Hello lovelies. Today I have some stamped nail art to share with you using my new Sugar Bubble plates that I am SO in love with, as well as to announce an awesome restock going on tomorrow. Keep reading to find out all the details!

To create this look I started with a subtle gradient base using Aurora Lacquers Sailor Eyes (swatch and review here) and I Love Nail Polish Admire Me. (Unfortunately, this beautiful polish is discontinued! However, Barbara has a TON of other beautiful colors on her site ilnp.com)

Next I picked up my new Sugar Bubble plates and used SB 22 for the middle and ring fingers and SB 15 for the feather on my pointer fingers. These stamp like a dream! I can't wait to get more of her plates! Finally, I added a complex glitter from Aurora Lacquers, Nixie. Ahh, I could probably write a novel about this glitter. It's complete perfection. One coat and it sparkle and shines like you wouldn't believe. I actually received two compliments on this manicure, both were about the glitter!

Here's one of just the gradient, don't those colors transition flawlessly? I love it! Did I mention that the Aurora polish is practically a one coater? Yep. Awesome. 

Finally, here's a sun shot to show off all that amazing sparkle that my lights don't pick up. Just, WOW! I really loved this entire mani and wore it for about four days!

Onto the restock news, Aurora Lacquers is restocking the Summer Mystic Mermaid collection tomorrow (08/05/14) at 4pm EDT so pick up a bottle of Sailor Eyes and Nixie while you can! She also has a purple holo to DIE for. Seriously, check out my swatch/review of the collection!

You can purchase Aurora Lacquers on their Etsy site: www.etsy.com/shop/AuroraNailLacquers

And follow them on Instagram @AuroraLacquers

and find them on Facebook here www.facebook.com/AuroraLacquers

The holographic polishes retail for $12 and the glitters for $10 each. 

Do you own any Aurora Lacquers? Will you be giving them a try during the restock tomorrow? Let me know!

 ♥ Pooka

OMD2 Day 8: Shimmer

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Shimmahhh! I love shimmer polishes so it was really hard to pick on for today's post. I ended up choosing one of my new polishes from Colors by Llarowe. Let's take a look!

OMD2 Day 4: Bright (and festive!)

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Hey ladies! Happy fourth of July and Happy Birthday U.S.A! I hope everyone has had a chance to chill with friends, watch fireworks, and have a ton of fun today! I've been working all morning. Ugh! Serving can be the worst sometimes. Though in more exciting news, my born pretty store order arrived yesterday and I finally got some nail art tools. (Brushes, striping tape, and dotting tools. YAY! Bring on the nail art!)

Roses for Audrey

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Hello lovely ladies! Where have I been for two weeks? Where have I been? I don't even know! As many of you may know, this is my final semester as an undergraduate in college, so I'm about to graduate! YAY! Unfortunately, that means less time for nails. : / I have around 5 weeks left and I'm drowning in homework and projects. So, I've been MIA. 

Today I have a "Welcome back Spring! We missed you!" manicure. Just a few delicate roses covering the cult classic, For Audrey. Doesn't every polish lover own this color? Funny note, it was my FIRST China Glaze ever! :) (/Pats own back - I've come so far!)  

Mermaid Ruffian Manicure

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Aloha! I'm here in the southern United States freezing my butt off, wishing I was far, far away in Hawaii. However, all the cold has given me time inside, which is perfect for manicuring my nails! (Wewt for finding the positive!)

 Today I have a Ruffian manicure to share with you all. If you are interested in the tutorial that inspired me, you can find it here. Which is actually the original tutorial by a Ruffian stylist!

Sunshine and Gold - Flower Stamping

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Hello ladies! Here is a stamped mani I did the other day that i just adore! I got so many compliments on it! Also, this post has quite a few pictures as I was ecstatic about how the light box was lighting up my nails. What do you think?

Invisible Manicure and "Free" Zoya

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Hello! I hope everyone had an awesome holiday season. I for sure enjoyed my break, but I'm still not ready to go back to work tomorrow, then school starts back the week after. Ugh. But in some exciting news, I made myself a lightbox! I'm still in the trail phase of using it, but overall i'm pleased with the picture quality. In all honesty, I'd prefer to use outdoor lighting, but often that's not an option, so I'm hoping this will help when I'm to busy to get pictures during the day!

Here is a simple stamped manicure that I did over winter break. I chose to coordinating colors, Zoya Bevin and Zoya Zuza. These colors were in part inspired by one of my stamping idols Wacky Laki, she always has the best stamping colors! Here is a link to her stamped manicures, take a look!

Lightbox

Winter is Coming.

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Ha, I can't even lie. I'm such a poser. I don't watch Game of Thrones yet. YET! Key word. I was too involved with breaking bad to veer into another show and then school and work got in the way. (I'm full of excuses) but I did read the first book, does that count? ;)

For sure, winter is coming, can you see my dry old lady hands?! Yikes! But the mani was too cute not to share. So here she is, dry hands and all.

*New* Sally Hansen Triple Shine Swatches and Review

I have a special post today! Mostly because I wanted to put a rush on it so you all could get a good polish deal if you so desired! I went to Walgreen's today.... Emmm, on very important business... And I happened to stumble into the nail polish aisle and saw the new "SallyHansen Triple Shine" polish display and I almost passed it by, until I saw it was on sale buy one and get one 1/2 off! (This sale ends today! So hurry to Walgreen's and grab some fun colors!) So I caved and grabbed two lovely shades, "Vanity Flair" and "Wavy Blue."

Here's what Sally Hansen says about their new line...'

 "Water to workout, day in and day out, nothing will dull these nails. The gloss is protected with the Ultimate Shield Complex, exclusive to Sally Hansen, designed to help polish withstand the wear and tear of everyday living for non-stop shine."

Now, what I say about their new line...

Sinful Colors "Savage" Swatch and Review

Sinful Colors "Savage"

A creamy blue that dries with a matte/satin finish

 

Sinful Colors SinfulShine "Break Away" Swatch and Review

Sinful Colors SinfulShine "Break Away"

Royal blue with a super shiny finish

Check out this beautiful royal blue! This is my first SinfulShine purchase from the Sinful Colors brand and I really like it.  I am not sure about the "gel tech" or what it is or if it's just words on a bottle.... (which I assume it is, I don't think there is anything "gel" or "tech" about this polish, but I haven't done any research.)

80's Geometric

These nails came out of nowhere. I sat down with an entirely different vision and this is what came out. Conjures images of 80's caboodles, too tight spandex, and crazy patterned shirts. I should have done a disco ball on one finger.

The blue is photographing a little green, but know it's blue. ^^

Mosaic Nail Art

Here is my two tone dotticure or as some grossly call it "fish scales" Here, I chose to call it Mosaic! Doesn't it look like a tiled mosaic wall? Just a little? No? Okay....

Here it is!

My right hand is pink and my left hand is blue.

Fourth of July Manicure!

 Happy Birthday America! 

I'm here to celebrate. Corny - yes. Festive - yes.

So, anyways, here it is! It's completely free handed, as I have yet to invest in striping tape. : / It looks a mix between Uncle Sam's hat and the American Gladiator logo. (The latter my boyfriend pointed out, and it totally does!)

This was created using a base coat of Sinful Colors to prevent staining and every finger except my rings were painted with Sinful Colors "Snow Me White", the ring fingers were painted with a blue, Sinful Colors Sinful Shine with GelTech "Break Away" The free handed stripes were created with my asp nail brushes and my favorite red Pure Ice "Siren" I bought the little stars from Sally Beauty for about $3.50 and I think the brand was called a super generic "nail art"? I'm not positive. I threw the packaging away.

Ring Finger

The nails are topped off with a few coats of Seche Vite and the stars are almost flat.

I hope everyone will be celebrating this Thursday! Happy Fourth of July!

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Blue and White Flowers

Another stamped mani this Saturday! I went to Walgreens and stocked up on Sinful Colors this week. They were two for three dollars. I bought eight in total and I've been playing around with different combinations.

Here is one of my favorite blues. Will you just look at how blue it is? Can a color be any more blue than that? I don't believe so. Anyway, I started with Sinful Colors Base Coat and painted every finger except my ring with Sinful Colors "Savage" it is actually a matte color (swatches coming soon!) but transforms into this beautiful gloss with a quick top coat of Seche Vite ^^ The ring finger is painted with Sinful Colors "Snow Me White" 

The silver stamped color is Sally Hansen Instadri "Silver Sweep" This color definitely lives up to it's reviews as far as stamping goes. It shows so well! It's the best silver I've tried. The ring finger is stamped with Sinful Colors "Savage" and actually turned out better than expected, considering these plates are not brand name. 

Ok, now for the plates, I hate to do this but I have no idea the brand name of these! I bought them at Wal-Mart over  two years ago. I am fairly certain they are a knock off of a Konad design plate and you can find these flowers on one of their plates. I'll look into it. Maybe the brand name of these is Kiss? I'm not sure...

Is anyone else loving that blue? I can't think of a color that is more... completely blue than this. I think I'm in love :)

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Sunflower Nails

Happy Solstice!....Yesterday. >< I'm late on posting my fresh Summer nails.

Here is my super fun and surprisingly easy mani. I created these using the ASP nail brushes from Sally Beauty (Review here!) and the flowers were created in less than 8 minutes, drying time included! 

The look was created with a base coat of Sinful Colors and two coats of a sky blue color from L'Oreal "Now You Sea Me" I created the two tone sunflower from Cover Girl Glosstini in "Pina Colada" and the darker center shade of Sally Hansen Instadri in "Lightning" The two tone leaves were created with the L'Oreal "New Money" and Sally Hansen Instadri "In record Lime" The brown for the center of the sunflower and the outline on the leaves is Cover Girl 220 "Toasted Almond" and I glossed it off with a top coat of Seche Vite.

I really love this simple summer look, I also loved that I had an excuse to buy a cute brown polish that will be great for Fall. ^^

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Royal Blue and Mod Squares

Whipped out my stamping plates and tried some of my new polishes the other day. I am LOVING how the plates are coming with that half moon on the bottom edge of the full nail plates. This was the first time I've used the half moons to create a faux french tips on my nails.

The blue is Sinful Colors Sinful Shine with Gel Tech "Break Away" (Exclusive to Walgreen's)

The stamped color is Sinful Colors "Tokyo Pearl" and it definitely isn't a thick polish, or extremely opaque. So using it was an experiment, but I think it turned out pretty nice. Shown here, it shows pretty nicely, but only because it is over a pretty dark color. Any lighter, and it probably wouldn't work. I added Seche Vite top coat and sealed the tips.

I do want to say, even though I'm not reviewing the polishes, this mani did chip rather quickly. I painted them at night and by the next night, I had tip fading and a few chips near the edges! I originally painted the blue to do a swatch and review, so I actually didn't have a base coat under it. I'm sure that didn't help the staying power of the polish. I'll try to figure out if it was the Sinful Shine polish or the lack of a base coat.  

The stamp is Cheeky's "B" plate. (I should do a review on the plates soon, too... some of them work.) But I'm just adoring the half moons!

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Nautical Nails

So, I have this bad habit of not changing my nail polish until I absolutely HAVE TO. Meaning, chips, cracks, or out growth (Too much visible natural nail) etc. So needless to say, I'm thankful that I have some girls in my life with pretty nails so I can practice my designs. 

These nautical nails were done on my awesome sister-in-law April. Bless her for sitting through a couple of hours worth of painting and drying (and fixing! My niece is only one, so changing, bathing, feeding, ... all of these are not "wet nail polish friendly" activities)

Enjoy the pictures! I'm still trying out different styles to capture the nails in the best lighting.

I started with Sinful Colors Base Coat

The blue is Sinful Colors Sinful Shine with Gel Tech "Break Away" (Exclusive to Walgreens)

The red on the accent finger is Pure Ice Siren (I adore this red, it applies smoothly and it the perfect bright red)

The gold is L.A. Colors Art Deco in "24k Glitter" I applied this using a small art brush to make the anchor and the "buttons" but I used the actual striping brush that comes with the nail polish to create the faux french tip on the red nail. The art brush is not a nail specific one, just one that can be picked up at a local craft store.

The white is L.A. Colors Art Deco in "White". To make the strips on the pointer finger I used the actual brush that comes in the nail polish because it is a striping brush.

Tip: Instead of trying to draw straight lines to make stripes, try placing the finger being painted on a flat surface and steadying the hand holding the brush next to it. Instead of moving the brush along the fingernail, place the tip of the brush at one end of the nail and rotate or "roll" your finger under the brush. So the nail being painted it moving, and the brush stays still. 

To make the heart, I used the art brush and added a small bit of the white polish to create a glossy effect and the black polish is Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in "Black Out."

These nails are topped off with a coat of Sally Hansen "Clear'd for Takeoff."

Hope you enjoyed these, maybe I'll try to coordinate with a patriotic holiday next time I do a Red, White and Blue theme. :)

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