Dior Ultra Violet and Striping

I wanted to play with my stripers again after my last manicure except this time I added some fun dots to mix it up a bit.

I used Dior Ultra Violet for the base coat, over Orly Bonder and the manicure is sealed with OTD.  Dior bottles are really hard for me to hold right. I'm so used to round bottles!  Two coats of Ultra Violet was all it took to reach opacity; nice formula and application, too!

For the stripes I used Art Deco Baby Pink, b.s.n Golden Closter (??? WTF is a closter?), b.s.n. White and Art Club Lite Pink.  I also used them for the dots with my dotting tools, all except Golden Closter. I can't get over the name. The b.s.n. polishes are some horrific smelling polishes from my local dollar store and they're always misspelled and mislabeled but this one has to be my new favorite.

I drew the lines with the stripers and then staggered dots at the end points, making sure the lines didn't go too far down to the base of my nail.  I'm not sure what I was trying to accomplish but it's difficult to come up with something new, haha.

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Just a quick reminder, the Valentine's Day Duo Giveaway is still active, click HERE to enter.  There is also a giveaway on the Oopsie Daisies Facebook page HERE. Good luck to the entrants!  Both of these giveaways end this coming weekend!

im convinced its springtime

This mani reminds me of some kind of really trippy retro wallpaper.  Therefore, I love it.

BM 12

This polish, Essence "What Do You Think?" is one of those mind%#$ colors that doesn't look anything like it photographs.  Its a salmon-y PINK in the bottle, and on the nails.  Yet comes out PUMPKIN FRICKIN' ORANGE.  I don't like orange.

3 coats, a pink but unfortunately orange creme.

Cleaned up my edges last night so nails don't look so rough!

Color Club Art Club in White for the stamping.

My mani is the third bottle in from the left.  You know, the PINK one.  I swear on all that is good and glittery that it is the same color on my nails.  Wanted pink, got orange. Sadface but it looks cute with the flowers at least (=

guest nails x3

Well I haven't posted at all this weekend, so to make up for that and to ease my guilty conscience, I am posting 3 guest nails that I've accumulated over the past few weeks.  I took the pictures right when I was finished but not showing them til now. I hope you enjoy these pretties!

These are the roomie's nails.  A base color of Funky Fingers "Mad Hatter", three coats I believe.

Pretty blues (=  We topped it off with two coats of a sparkly topcoat of China Glaze "Blue Hawaiian".

As cute as this was, it chipped the next day when she was washing dishes.  Not just a little chip, but basically sheeted right off her nails.  Sad sad!

These are my sister's nubbins.  She expressed interest in growing them out and asked me how to.  I explained to her she needed a constant manicure and before she knew it, they'd be longer than she expected!

This is 3 coats of Funky Fingers "Cheshire" and I used some Art Club polishes to the little designy lines on her ring finger.

Last but not least is my BFF from grade school.

This is two (or three?) coats of China Glaze "Ruby Pumps" with Orly "Liquid Vinyl" for the tips.

Incredibly, I am only 3 followers away from my milestone making 50!  As promised, there will be a giveaway once 50 is reached.  However, it will have to be scheduled around my pay period, lol.  So if 50 is reached before I get paid again, then I will make a notice about the giveaway being stalled a little bit until that day comes.  I have most of the stuff for the giveaway already, but I've never sent nail polish before and I haven't a clue how much shipping will be.  It was also be a USA only since it is my first and I don't want to overwhelm myself quite so soon!

Also a TOTAL DOLLFACE from MUA sent me a polish I've been FIENDING for!  Much more then a lemming, much much more.  I'll keep you on the edge of your seats until it arrives.

Thanks for reading & as always, images are clickable for enlarged detail!

kissy kissy valentine's day mani

Everybody's favorite day is coming up soon!  Well, Hallmark's favorite day, at least.  I'll take any excuse to wear pink cutesy manicures though.

Ah, I love it! Screams Valentine's Day to me!

Started with a base of four coats of Orly "Basket case".  It's official by the way, this is my favorite pink polish, ever.  I can't imagine anything more perfect for me; bright, pink & creme.  It's also my favorite shade of pink in general, so it's all around perfect.

It's already half way empty.  Very few of my polishes get that much use.  The formula kinda bites the big one though.  I'm not sure if it's because it's old or not, but even with thinner it was streaky and runny AND goopy.  I don't know how all three of those occurred at once.

As mentioned before, base of "Basket case", then I used Art Club nail art polish for the stamping and the white dots.

  I used a silver nail art pen from Kiss which I surprisingly like!  I got two of them for around 6$.  It came with a hot pink which I haven't used yet.  There was also a set of black and white which I am considering, too.  I used BM02 for the lips (=

disney on ice; snow white inspired mani

Today I took my sister, old roommate and her 3 year old daughter to Disney on Ice.  We had such a good time and her little girl, Amaya, absolutely looooooooved the Snow White part and went NUTS when the 7 Dwarves came out.  I actually did a mani the night before inspired, somewhat abstractly, by Snow White's iconic dress!

Three coats of China Glaze "Lemon fizz" for four nails and a base color of Funky Fingers "Alice" on the accent nail.  I freehanded the red diamond with Art Club's red nail art polish and that's it!  It was somewhat recognizable, but not an entirely gaudy and obvious reference to the dress itself.  I loved it :D

(These are not my photos, love the Photoshop job on the first one LOL.)

Sadly we were running a bit late so we got there as the first scene was going and we were so enthralled and distracted I took maybe only two pictures of my own!

lets do it, LETS FALL IN LOVE!

Birds do it, bees do it
Even educated fleas do it
Let's do it, let's fall in love!

Valentine's Day is just a few weeks away so perfect timing to get some v-day manis in order!  I have on here I did and hated at first, but as I added each element I started to embrace it.

Started with a base color of Essie's "Knockout pout".  Ok, not joking on this one, FIVE COATS and still some bald spots!  I will not be using this polish again, most likely.  What are we paying 8$ for?  If I wanted full coverage it would've required SIX coats! LUDICROUS!

So yea, five coats.  Bright baby pink creme.  Super cute though.

 This was the final product after about an hour of decisions lol.

left to right;

-nailtekII as basecoat
-art club in white and shimmery purple (tips)
-essie's "knockout pout" (base color)
-opi by nicole "step to the beat of my <3" (heart glitter on middle nail)
-pure ice "dont you wish?" (glitter over the tips and middle finger)
-sally hansen insta-dri topcoat as topcoat
-used BM02 plate for the lips
-used BM11 for the tips
-used art club for the stamping

 What do you think?! Even lazy jellyfish do it!

cuppycake nail art

I've been seeing cuppycake nails all over lately and makes sense with cupcakes on the rise and possibly peak of their popularity.  This design is not my own, but as mentioned, they're everywhere and I haven't the slightest clue of who did this first.  I had lots of fun with these and once the first one was done, I was able to get the hang of it and finish my other nails in an assembly line fashion.

background:  Funky Fingers "Cheshire"
wrappers: Funky Fingers "Daiquiri on deck" and China Glaze "Lemon Fizz"
icing/sprinkles/cherry: assorted Art Club Nail Art polishes
I used a paperclip for the sprinkles and shine on the cherry and and the end of a paintbrush for the cherry itself.

For the following picture, I did a little more abstract cupcake design doing only one accent nail as a cupcake and the rest as icing and sprinkles (=

I used L.A. Girl "French White" for the bigger white parts.  I made a tutorial which I will be sure to post later!

fauxnad of the day!

Your girl here had a moment of genius and remembered where Amaya (my friend’s 3 year old who lost/hid my stamper last week) hides all the toys when she’s over.  When the light bulb finally went off, I ran to her secret hiding spot (a basket of cat toys next to the TV stand in the living room) and sure enough found my konad stamper!  Seeing as I received my bundle monster plates earlier this week, I was super excited to play around with them.

 I ironically used my Art Club nail art brush in “Mochalatta” (I had just made a post mentioning I’d never use it!) for the stamps over a base of Almay One Coat “Sheer Angelic”.  First of all, I needed two coats, and second of all, why would they make a one coat sheer?  It wasn’t sheer like a sheer is supposed to be with the one coat, it was spotty and NEEDED a second coat.  Then again, my mother gave me this bottle like 4 years ago and I am pretty sure she had it for about 45 years before that.  It also smelled like burning rubber kind of, really strange.

Sorry for the quality of this photo.  The brown looks totally washed out.  And the Almay isn't quite that white, but it is a little more true-to-life than the nail art.  I find the nail art polishes to work pretty well with Konading, but when they're a bit aged.  Ya, like wine.  Better with age, they thicken up.  It's obviously better if there not goopy when youre hand-painting designs.  The second coat of "Sheer Angelic" finished up pretty nicely except my right index finger.  I didn't fret though seeing as I had plans to stamp!

Looks nicer in person, for sure.  The flash makes the red pigment show too much.  It's more muted in person.

Also, I'm getting really excited.  I've gotten 17 new followers since I started posting again on Dec. 19th.  I will have a giveaway when I reach 50 (=  What a great way to celebrate!

guest nails & another haul

Went shopping today! Got a bit of a haul along with a beautiful scarf from New York & Company and some new shoes for the future professional me (=

I went to Essentials at the mall and found a couple Essie polishes on sale for 4$.  I picked two I liked most, “Mistique Pink” and “Knockout Pout”.  I also went to Five Below again, of course, and picked up three new polishes, they are: “Elephunk, Tribal & Daiquri on Deck” so cute!  I also found a Color Club Art Club nail art polish in BROWN. Mochalatta to be exact.  I don’t know if I will ever need it, never thought to myself, “damn, I need brown nail art!” but if that day ever happens, I am soooooo beyond prepared.

 

Also have some guest nails for you :D  My BFF came over to get her Christmas presents finally and I promised her a mani.  She originally wanted China Glaze’s “Ruby Pumps” but after showing all my new polishes she went nutso over “For Audrey” (as most first time witnesses do) and quickly changed her mind!  I gladly obliged because that’s what BFF’s do. (So I hear)  Anyways this picture is pre-cleanup so they’re a little messy.

 

She has such cute little hands and perfect natural nails.  I get jealous because I have naturally larger build than most (Hell, I am six feet tall!) so everything else tends to run big on me, too.  I was super excited about finding cute shoes today, you can only imagine how much I frickin’ despise shoe shopping!

I am going to wear Elephunk tomorrow because I am going to visit my grandparents in Pennsylvania and don't suppose something obnoxious would be my best bet haha.  I will take pics of my nails for a NOTD later this week (=

As always, click to enlarge & please comment!

springtime safari

Out with the Christmas colors already! I have had enough!! I like the cold but I don’t like snow, so I kind of like winter when it isn’t snowing. Early spring is a favorite too because it is still cool out. I do NOT fair well in heat! My normal body temperature is around 96.9 and I don’t know if that has anything to do with it, but when everyone else is freezing, I am usually just fine! Anyways enough about me, I decided to do a spring time colored mani. (=

I used a make up sponge to sponge on China Glaze’s “For Audrey” and “Lemon Fizz” I sealed with a topcoat of Beauty Secrets and used my Art Club in Black for the konad since I am out!  Then I used another coat of topcoat and I was done!

I have to gripe about this; the oh-so-obvious smudges. Black is the only color that does that more and regardless of drying time.  If you look at my ring finger you can see smudges are less apparent and that’s because I tried a new technique.  Instead of “painting” the topcoat on, dripped on it by waiting for it to naturally drip.  Once it was on I waited for it to spread out a little and sort of helped it around.  I tried this on another nail too but it didn’t work to well and the topcoat ended up pooling on the side.  Since it did work once, I am going to try this in the future. Practice can only help!

I would love this mani so much more if there were no smudgies!!

Anyways, in some of my pictures you can see a brown ground with polish all over it.  Instead of having people think I just slop polish onto everything I own I decided to show you my surprisingly simple yet insanely convenient nail board.  It’s the backing from some kind of frame poster that was won at a carnival years ago.  Its not wood, its compressed cardboard or something but its really hard and stiff.  I use it for EVERYTHING. My room is kinda cramped so I use it as a tray, kind of like a table top.  I use it for my laptop on one side and nails on the other.  Everyone who comes over and does their nails always adds to it, its kinda quirky but cute, anyways here it is in all its glory.

Also, I just purchased 25 more fauxnad plates from amazon.com for 18$ with shipping! HERE is the link in case anyone is interested. Cannot wait to get those!

Images are clickable (=