Christmas Tree Nail Art - Caviar Beads and Striping Tape

A little late on this post but it'll be archived for posterity anyways.  Right before the holidays I was wearing China Glaze Fifth Avenue and decided it needed some spicing up!

Because this wasn't a planned out mani, the color scheme is a little bit off. I'm not a super fan of the mauve and metallic mint but I don't hate it either.

I used scotch tape, striping tape and caviar beads for this design.  The scotch tape was used to make a triangle and the striping tape was zigzagged back and forth and then painted over with Pop Beauty Jade Metal.  Then I peeled both tapes off and applied the caviar beads (which bled terribly by the way with the top coat - these were from the dollar store).  I then applied the stars at the top and sealed with top coat. SUPER simple, took only a few minutes!

Pop Beauty Jade Metal & China Glaze Fifth Avenue

Ulta Eye Popping Poppy with Silver Gradient Design

I whipped out the striping tape to make this little design, which I originally wanted to do on all my nails but realized it was too time consuming.  Whenever I do venture to do any sort of designs or nail art, I start on my ring finger so if I find it too time consuming, it becomes an "accent" nail instead. Clever, I know, haha.

Eye Popping Poppy is super hard to describe.  I could've sworn I reviewed this polish before but I wasn't able to find it on the blog so I wasn't able to reference my previous description, oops.  It's a creme like jelly, it's not 100% either creme or jelly - there's a decent amount of sheerness.  It also lean coral/pink/orange depending on the lighting.  It's BRIGHT too, definitely has neon attributes!  Shown is 3 coats.

I used L.A. Colors Wire for the silver and mapped it out with striping tape, and them used a makeup sponge to dab it on to create the gradient effect. Super easy, just a bit tedious to cut up the thin tape.  Sealed with on coat of OTD and over NailTek II Foundation basecoat.

Ridiculously late Halloween manicure! Frankenstein!

I've been slacking so bad, that I'm posting a Halloween manicure I did on the 7th of November.  Eek. Enjoy anyways, hehe.

I did Frankenstein! So cute, so simple.  I used Essie Mojito Madness for the green and WnW Black Creme for the black.  For the thumb, I painted my nail green and waited for it to dry.  I used unique shaped nail guides and painted over and then removed the guide.  I dotted on some eyes and pupils as well.  For the stitched nails I used more nail guides and then painted over the meeting point of the green and bare nail with a black striper. It took all of 10 minutes! So easy, so I loved it.

OPI Berlin There Done That with Layered Stamping

I decided to spice up a day-old mani with some stamping.  The base of this manicure is two coats of OPI Berlin There Done That, which is a taupey, slightly greyed out creme polish that I absolutely adore. Pardon the tip wear!

This is definitely one of those uh, "looks better from a distance" manicures.  A continual and absolute frustration I've had since I've been polishing is the streakiness of black polishes when doing any sort of nail art. I've waited hours before applying top coat before, I've floated the brush across - but I still get streaks. I usually will just photoshop them out but this was too busy to do that.

I used plates BM206 and BM221 for the stamping designs. I used Wet n Wild Black Creme for the black flowers and L.A. Colors Live for the silver accents. I did do the stamping super quickly because I wasn't planning on wearing it for long. It does look much nicer from a few foot distance, sort of like a tapestry.  The silver stamping was done first, then the black flowers and finally sealed with a coat of OTD.

Cartoon Inspired Nails

I keep seeing this pop up on the Reddit nail polish board and decided to finally get them a whirl.  I also keep mistakenly call them comic book nails, which I guess technically works; but they're supposed to look like cartoon nails, like the nails of a cartoon, drawn!

For this manicure I did one coat of Finger Paints Black Expressionism and then two coats of Essie Mojito Madness.  I wasn't able to do a straight line along the free edge wit the green so I went back and used a nail art brush with the same black polish to finish the edge.  This is over Orly Bonder, sealed with OTD, and then I mattified it afterwards.

What do you think? Better mattified or shiny? Goofy or clever?

Vintage Roses and China Glaze Fifth Avenue

I'm pretty sure we've all seen the vintage rose manicure which usually is done over a Tiffany blue.  I've always admired the look and decided to try it over an existing mani, which is China Glaze Fifth Avenue.  I have a soft spot for "old lady" colors such as this one, haha.

I used two coats of Fifth Avenue over Nailtek II and sealed with OTD.  The next day I added the designs using a bunch of striping polishes.

I used b.s.n. Twisted Ivy and White, Art Club Malmsy, Mint and Lite Pink and Art Deco Baby Pink for the roses, stripes and polka dots.

I just kind of made circular motions, the letter "C" shape, with three different pinks.  Leaves were just kind of sideways dots, made with the length of the striping brush.  It was easier than I thought but the flowers ended up being somewhat abstract in the end.

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.

-----------------------------

 

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!

Born Pretty Striping Tape Mani and Review

I recently obtained my first striping tapes!  I wasn't sure how easy or difficult they may have been to work with, so I was excited to finally get to play around with some.

 

I tried a bunch of different designs to get a feel for using them, it was actually super easy and they stick really well without pulling up the polish underneath.  The base color for this manicure was the BK #11 polish I reviewed earlier. I did the designs the next day so the base polish was already set; sometimes I get nail strips/guides that still pick up the polish, ruining the mani - wasn't the case with the striping tape!

I used Finger Paints Black Expressionism and pulled the tape off before the polish dried, which worked for most of the designs, some nails I applied too much black polish on, and it smudged a little.  This was my first attempt though, so some errors were definitely anticipated.

You can use the striping tape to do a negative space type effect, like I did here or you can leave the tape on to use it as an actual design element, which I'm going to show eventually.  The striping tape, which was sent for review, is a set of 12 different colors available HERE. 

Image Source: Born Pretty

The set of 12 striping tapes is available for 8.99 USD; Also, you can use code CA10L91 for 10% off your order; if enough people use my code I'll be able to host a Born Pretty sponsored giveaway (=

Wintry Nails with Snowflake Stickers

It hasn't even been cold lately, not sure where the inspiration was for this.  This is one of those manicures that look much much better at a distance, not super macro friendly.  I had one with it, though!

"Natural" Light

I'm patiently waiting for my thumbnail to grow more, too. I've never broke a thumb nail before, was so bummed when it happened. And I don't even know HOW it happened!

"Natural" Light

For this mani I sponged on China Glaze Dance Baby and Seaspray with which made this purple-y base you're seeing.  Then I sponged on some China Glaze Frosty (one of my all time faves!), added dots with my dotting tool using Frosty again and Sally Hansen Whirlwind White. I had ordered these stickers from Born Pretty over the summer, was fun to get to use them! So many shapes and styles of snow flakes.

"Natural" Light

"Natural" Light

LOL, I tried some nail art. Promptly removed and replaced.

Dior Ultra Violet, Rhinestones & Flowers!

I have a fun mani to show you today!  I started to put Ultra Violet on as a full mani but saw how opaque it was and decided to have a little fun instead.

"Natural" Light

I started with one coat of my Barielle base coat and let it dry.  Then I used Chevron nail guides and painted on Ultra Violet and let that dry. Once the purple was set, I did another coat of the Barielle nail treatment and quickly applied the flower.  Then I applied the rhinestones with a dotting tool and sealed it all with Out the Door. Voila!

"Natural" Light

"Natural" Light

"Natural" Light

Both the flowers and rhinestones are from the BornPretty store, which I just love.  They've contacted me to review products for them and they have me a personalize discount code to share with you all!  If 10 people buy from them and use the 10% off code, listed on my side bar, they'll sponsor a giveaway!  They also have FREE SHIPPING which is wonderful in itself. These particular items were not sent for review, they were purchased by me a few months back.

The Oopsie Daisies Halloween Harvest Duo has been restocked and is now available!
Oopsie Daisies Nail Polish Shop

Sephora by OPI Why Yellow There... The Perfect Yellow!!

I finally found the perfect yellow (for me)! I've been searching for quite some time and I am absolutely blown away by this one.  It's my first Sephora by OPI polish but this is easily in my Top Five polishes now, easily! I did a summery citrus manicure with it!

"Natural" Light

Here are swatches without the designs.  What makes a perfect yellow for me? Well no lobster hands are an important factor but this.. this polish only needed TWO COATS! Finding my perfect yellow is like finding your HG base coat. I'm so incredibly happy with this.

"Natural" Light

"Natural" Light

"Natural" Light

For the stamping I used plate BM308. I used Konad Special White for the white stamping and Klean Color Mango for the orange stamping.  I glued on some fimo fruits and added polka dots for a finishing touch!

"Natural" Light

Thanks for reading!  I still have some polishes in stock at my Etsy store. The store will be closing for a week on August 24th, this Friday.  It will reopen on Saturday, August 31st.  Get your orders in now (=

Oopsie Daisies Nail Polish Shop 

Essie Tart Deco & Hello Kitty Stamping

I'm dealing with a bit of an anomaly here.  In the bottle, Tart Deco looks quite pink and did it on my nails until I put on my topcoat.  Then it leaned very orange.  The sides of my nails where I missed with some topcoat, looks more peach, too.  I used NYC Grand Central Station and I'm not sure if its that topcoat in particular or what, but it really changed the hue of this polish.

"Natural" Light

This is two coats of Tart Deco over Orly Bonder, sealed with NYC GCS.  If you google swatches, only a few appear as orange as mine.  It's supposed to be more peach.  I also took a ton of pictures of this color and I'm not sure why but lucky you gets to look at them all. Whooo!!

"Natural" Light

"Natural" Light

"Natural" Light

Even in these pics, some nails appear more orange and others a little more peachy. WTF. Whose fault is this?  It's a pretty shade regardless, but it's trying to be too many things at once!  The formula was really nice on this one and it wore nicely on me, too.  I don't usually have any issues with Essie.

"Natural" Light

I used plate KD1 which I ordered off of Ebay for $5.  I used Zoya Demi and Konad Special White for dots and stamping. And I'm incredible peeved I didn't see that piece of hair over my nail. Urgh.

Flash