pretty little funky french!

I had no idea what I was going to do when I started out with this mani, but it eventually turned into something.

3 coats of China Glaze "Good Witch?"

Then I used my nail guides for french tips but angled them accordingly.  I used 1 coat of L.A. Girl in "French White" for the tips and lined the edge with L.A. Colors Art Deco in White to keep a cleaner line.

L.A. Colors Art Deco in "Baby Pink" for the dots.
I also used my Kiss nail art pen in silver for more dots!

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perfected the french!

Good News/Bad News time. My dad finally fixed my good computer. But I am still using the bad one. Booooo.  My "good" computer has Photoshop CS on it so this post and the next few will be edited and cropped courtesy of MS Paint! Yay!!

I bought myself some of Nailene's PERFECT Tip Guides and oooh am I excited!  They work so nicely and finally, I am able to give myself the perfect french mani without wanting to rip my hair out. It's a good day!

Wheeee I love it!  The white was done on my bare nail with L.A. Girl's "French White".  After that I applied one coat of NailTekII and then sealed with a coat of my Beauty Secrets Topcoat (which I love btw, doesnt goop up!)

Side note: look at my index finger nail. It's a wonky freakin' mess.  My fakies that I glued on it last year ruined the shape and it is still growing out. Faster, Faster!!

ugly mani; cute kitty

U-g-l-y you don’t got no alibi, you ugly YEA YEA, you ugly! Atleast, this manicure is.  First off, in the lighting of my room, the basecoat is pink.  I went outside today and its freaking fluorescent orange.  Two things I don’t like; fluorescent and orange.  I wanted to rip the polish off my nails so bad haha.  Anyways, figured I would post it since I did it, ha.

Base coat is two coats of L.A. Colors Color Craze and I don’t remember the name as I threw out the packaging already.  I assumed the color name would be on the bottle somewhere but it isn't!  The color name was not relevant to the color itself; it was some kind of high wire or electrical current type of name.  Not “Fluorescent orange”, either way it had me fooled.

On top of the basecoat I used a Q-tip (Learn from my mistakes, DO NOT USE Q-TIPS FOR DOTTING) with ORLY “Liquid vinyl” to create the flower shape.  I used a paperclip to make the little dots, which works really well.  

For the inside of the flowers I used ORLY “Green apple”, Funky Fingers “Cheshire” and “South Hampton sea foam”.  They covered nicely and quite opaquely over the black so that was nice to see.  I used Sally Hansen “Confetti” and Insta-dry top coat to seal and cover the designs.  

Since this mani sucked so much I decided I needed to brighten the mood (=  My brother lives in California on his own but had acquired two kitties when he lived in Las Vegas.  Anyways,  he was having trouble finding places that accepted pets so he sent his kitties on an airplane a few months ago to the sweet land of New Jersey to live with us. 

The little bugger in this picture is Frank, aptly named after Frank Zappa.  We are convinced he is part ragdoll because he’s so floppy.  I guess you would have to know him to know what I mean but this cat is ridiculous. He literally looks around to see what kind of trouble he can get into.  Anyways! He has his ADORABLE moments, like today, when I heard some noise on my bed behind me.  I turned around and see Frankie burrowing under my comforter as usual.  Ten minutes later I turn around and he has literally tucked himself into bed and went to sleep!  Most cats I have seen HATE blankets, but no, not Frank- he prefers!

1.. 2.. 3.. AWWW. look at his dirty nose xD his sister has spots around her nose too.

Hope you enjoy & all images are clickable!

Christmas inspiration!

Hey everyone (=

With Christmas coming right around the corner I decided to make a few Christmas inspired samples of nail art!

I made a bunch but only three turned out nicely enough for me to share so im going to show you and discuss the lucky three.

First is a Christmas tree design I free handed (can’t you tell?!) on a base coat of a mini polish from five below from a set scented and colored after Laffy Taffy Candy!  It smells just like you would expect artificial banana nail polish would smell, haha.  It dries slightly metallic even though it’s a crème in the bottle.  All of the colors in that set dry metallic, which was quite a surprise because I bought them because I love crèmes!  I used  Funky Fingers “peacocky” and Sinful Colors “HD Nails” (a Christmas-y green) for the tree.  For the garland I used Art Club “Malmsy” and for the ornaments I used random colors from my collection. I used an unnamed brown (cherry cola scented!) for the trunk and sealed with a coat of Sally Hansen “Confetti” and Insta-dri top coat.

I found using an unfolded paper clip is the perfect size to make the intricate little dots for the ornaments.  Since the end isn’t rounded, it doesn’t hold too much polish and leaves just the perfect amount!  This design was super easy to do because trees are naturally irregular and you can’t really mess up that (=

The next design I did was a simple, very understated fauxnad design of a white bell (I am out of the Konad special polish so youll have to forgive it not showing up 100% opaque!) on top of a base coat of Funky Fingers “peacocky”.  I used some gold glitter nail art brush to add an extra sparkle on the bell and sealed with a coat of Sally Hansen “Confetti” and Insta-dri top coat.  Very simple, not too showy but I hadn’t seen any Christmas bell nails lately so I figured it was worth creating!

My last and favorite was actually supposed to be a candy cane but I messed up and ended up making it into a red French tipped design instead.  I used the V design in Dark Red Art Club nail art over a base coat of L. A. Girl “white French” and finished up with a green star rhinestone for that added Christmas sparkle.  I didn’t use any tape on this one but if I was doing a full set I certainly would need guides. 

Hope you enjoy them & happy approaching holidays!!
(All images are clickable!)

valentines inspired mani

LOVE valentines day themes and colors. hearts and pinks are so pretty, so i decided to do a valentines day-esque mani. im not sure if it hits the mark but it reminds me a bit of lingerie haha.



i didnt put a topcoat over the konad because it almost always smudges it. instead, i put a topcoat over the 3 coats of good witch? and konaded over it. im happy with the outcome, its not too dramatic but still feminine.



the materials, in the order they were used;
sally hansen diamond strength in clear
china glaze "good witch?"
sally hansen insta-dri topcoat
l.a. girl "french white" (works really well with konad!)

i also used konad plate m57 as well as my dotting/stippling tool.






after i finished, i couldnt decide if 1 row of dots was enough. i added a second row of dots and im still on the fence about which i prefer! i was rushing and did the 2nd row a little sloppy. at least i didnt completely destroy my mani like i typically do with overkill!

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on a side note, i had made a post last night about the haiti relief. i think i accidentally deleted it, or didnt save it properly or something because its gone. anyways it was just providing a link & encouraging people to make a small donation towards the haitian relief. the salvation army is a reputable charity, and my typical charity of choice. no pressure. i think the telethon style fundraiser will make a world of difference.

french mani; notd

love love love the look of a french manicure. my toenails are 90% of the time done in french manicure style, since its so much easier for me to paint a straight line on my toes compared to my right hand. i have konad plates that are tips and of the french style but i havent been able to get them down.

anyways i was jonesing for one and decided to try taping off my nail to get a straight line. it worked mostly. i had to re-do a couple of them but i dont consider that too bad since this was my first time trying it. i used regular scotch tape. but i think that blue painters tape i used to use to tape off my canvas would work even better. here are the little soldiers i used:



left to right; (and conveniently in the order i used them)
sally hansen insta-grip basecoat
orly french manicure "pink nude" (sounds dirty)
L.A. girl nail lacquer "french white"
art club fine silver glitter
orly french manicure "bare rose"
sally hansen insta-dri topcoat

if i could redo this, i would have put "bare rose" BEFORE "french white" because it actually tinted the french tip part of a my nail a little which i hadnt thought of until i was almost finished. my bad.



i love how it came out. i was happy with the results.. i think next time ill put the tape a bit lower and paint the silver with the help of the tape instead of free hand.

stomach solution

i either struck gold or completely missed with this pink hybrid. it seems nearly identical to pepto-bismol. and therefore it will be aptly titled, "stomach solution".


i used almost half of the "white on" bottle, about a 1/4 of the topcoat and 1/4 of hotpink. the strange thing about the hotpink i used is that when on the nail, its not really pink at all. its an deep orange-y red jelly (hey, i used the term jelly!) extreme sunset color. its almost too bright to even look at, and i was never too crazy about it.



its a bit lighter than a typical barbie pink, but i really do like the way it came out. i think its fun but could use some assistance.



assistance came in the form of;
-sally hansen "nail prisms ruby diamond"
-konad plate m57 [the cheetah print]
-sally hansen "diamond strength no chip nail color" [although i use it as a topcoat for swatches]
-china glaze "matte magic flat finish top coat"

i ended up liking how it looked without the matte finish better, but i think that might be a bit biased since for some reason the matte magic smudged the holo design. i thought i allowed enough time for it to dry but maybe not. well my heart was in the right place atleast!