the sun isn't shining but my gradient is!

Here in Newfoundland, we don't get a whole bunch of sunny days. Maybe in July and August... A week or two... But it's not too hot usually.
I've gotta keep my nails sunny, even if the sky isn't!

Woohoo! Summery gradient!
Me and some friends all decided to do gradients on this lovely Friday, and here's what I came up with.

My color combo was inspired by one of my "nail crushes" - Ivana Thinks Pink. There's nothing she does that I don't like! Seriously. Ivana, quit being so awesome!
She did this mani using China Glaze Peachy Keen and Orly Fancy Fuchsia. Hot damn, I need Fancy Fuchsia. Why don't I have it?! Jeez. I NEED IT! Her nails were glowing. Amazing.

I used the same peach - China Glaze Peachy Keen.
I tried to substitute Zoya Lo for the pink but it just doesn't look quite so hot.
It's still pretty though!
But one day I will redo the mani... Whenever I find myself Fancy Freakin' Fuchsia.

To do this gradient, I tried the new gradient tutorial that is sweeping the blog world, from The Nailasaurus.
But, I couldn't get that to work... At all. It just was not showing up with these colors.
So I went in and did it the way I'm used to, which you can see in my older tutorial here.
But I still wanted the flawless blended look you can get from the newer way, so I ended up doing that on TOP of the gradient that I did my way. And that turned out magical! It blended the colors seamlessly.

After that, I stamped the floral pattern from Konad plate m65. It's almost like a Hawaiian shirt! Haha, I love it.

I'm was going to submit this in Kayla Shevonne's Nail Art Contest but then I realized you can't stamp for her contest. Damn!
If you haven't checked out her contest already, hurry! There's just less than 12 hours left to enter.

I hope you guys enjoy this mani! I'm going to be doing lots of gradients again because I just love them and it's been too long since I've done them! I think I might even do another one later today. Woohoo!

More about → the sun isn't shining but my gradient is!

Nail-Venturous - Evil Barbie

I teased you guys yesterday with a closeup of this polish... And now it's time to reveal it!
This polish is very special to me because I'm one of a few lucky people who own it!

Nail-Venturous - Evil Barbie
I've said this two or three times before, but I'll say it again! Amy from I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous is one of the sweetest people ever. Who makes some of the most awesome polishes ever. And she sent me this one.
Just look at that amazing creation! Hot pink with black glitter! Ooooh, Evil Barbie, how I love you.

You could wear this on its own but I wanted to conserve polish so I layered it over China Glaze Dance Baby which was such a good choice, because it let the base color of Evil Barbie really pop!

Here's a super awful messy picture, but I wanted to quickly show you just how bright the base of Barbie is! That's one very thin coat over Dance Baby, versus Dance Baby alone.
I layered it over a few pinks on a nail wheel to decide what to use, and this one is just perfect.

Beyond the great pink color and the awesome black glitters, there is also a beautiful shimmer!

I just looooooooooove love love it. Thank you SO much Amy! You are a doll!

I decided that this polish needed some matching stamping... which finally gave me a reason to use the Barbie stamp!

I thought this mani was pretty clever!

The Barbie image is from Konad m71.
The skull image is from an unnamed plate from eBay.
The chains image is from Bundle Monster BM12.

I love that little skull!

What do you guys think of this great polish and the matching mani?
I hope you love it as much as I do!

More about → Nail-Venturous - Evil Barbie

my 500th post, featuring Sonoma Sunset!

Hello and welcome to the 500th post here at Rebecca Likes Nails!
500 is a lot of posts, and I've put so much time and energy into them, but the love I get back from you guys makes it worth it!

I wanted to do some simple nail art to commemorate the occasion, so I laid down some rhinestones and stamped on a cute 500! (However I didn't have an exclamation point stamp so I freehanded that one on and it doesn't look so great.)

The numbered plate I got on eBay but it's available from Konad as well. I stamped using China Glaze - Millennium. 
But what is this beautiful polish underneath?

That would be the amazing Sonoma Nail Art - Sonoma Sunset by my friend Michelle.
It's a stunning purple glitter that I'm so glad to own!

I had a really hard time getting a macro picture of the glitter (because it's so darn reflective and besides that, my camera hates purple) but I think you can see pretty well. There's a whole bunch of different colors and shapes of glitter. It's awesome! And this is just one thin coat over the base color, which is:

China Glaze - Grape Juice.
A great shimmery purple that needs just 2 coats.

It's been a really long time since I've worn rhinestones and I forgot how funny they feel! Especially all in a line like this. I keep running my thumb over it.

It pretty much doesn't get better than glitters like this.
You can find this polish on Michelle's Etsy store, which is tentatively going to reopen on June 1st, but at this time I don't know if this one will be available. All her creations are amazing though, so definitely check her out!

That picture really shows the colors of the glitter nicely. Gah, I adore this!

Thanks again to everyone who reads my blog, whether this is the first post you've read, or the five-hundredth. I love all of you!

And now I'll get started on the next 500... ♥♥♥

More about → my 500th post, featuring Sonoma Sunset!

Yet Another Bundle Monster Contest!

Good afternoon, loves!
Twice before I have participated in Bundle Monster's nail art contests. I was a winner in their first one (I got their second set of plates!) and in the second one, I was a finalist (and I got a $10 gift card!)

This time around, I'm looking for another win! I can't wait to get my hands on their upcoming set of plates, and winning them would make them even better!

Here's the mani that I came up with for this year's contest.

This mani kept evolving as I was doing it! It turned out very different from what I had planned but I think it definitely went in the right direction.

The white stamping you see was done with BM-201.
The black stamping is from BM06.

Originally the white was going to be black, and I was gonna stop there, but I'm so happy I decided to go for white stamping and the accent stamps!

You're probably wondering what all the technicolor goodness is behind the stamping!
Well, it's magic. So I can't reveal my tricks.

Just kidding! I'll let you in on the magic.
I did the watercolor technique using all six colors from the Color Club Take Wing Collection.

I've done a tutorial on the watercolor effect, click here to see it!
Quick refresher - the watercolor technique is done with a semi-fluffy soft brush and acetone.
You start with a white (or light) base that you've topcoated and let dry completely. You add on small dots of color, and immediately blob them around with your soft brush that's been dipped in acetone.
Like I said, check the tutorial for a more in-depth tutorial and pictures!

I was so happy with how the colors looked in the watercolor, but I think adding that stamp really set it off.

At first I was gonna submit it like this, without the accent stamps, but I decided to go for it and make my mani that much more interesting!

I love my mani. And I hope you do too!

The voting process is very simple, you just go to the specific entry and click the big VOTE button!
If you've got Facebook, click HERE to go to my entry!
If you don't have Facebook, click HERE to go to my entry!

You can vote once per day all throughout the week. If you voted for me, thank you!
And be sure to check out all the contest manis because there are some beauties in there!

More about → Yet Another Bundle Monster Contest!

as seen on... Nailed It.

Today's mani is a great one. It is so "me," it's a shock I didn't come up with it myself.

This mani comes to you by way of Katy from Nailed It.
I don't know Katy personally but what I do know, is that she does some ballin' nail art.

As soon as I saw these nails on her blog, I knew I would have to do them myself!
I mean seriously. I should have come up with this.

I didn't use the same colors as Katy but I think our manis are equally satisfying.

The pink is NOX Twilight - Crush which is a freaking amazing hot pink, borderline neon. I'll be showing swatches of this color soon (I've already done it but haven't posted it yet.) I got this from my friend Anissa and it is just fantastic. The formula is dreamy, 2 coats that apply like butter.

The purple is Color Club - Pucci-licious which has always been and probably always will be one of my favorite polishes. I painted first with Crush and then freehanded Pucci-licious onto the top half of my nails.

The stamp is from Bundle Monster BM-11 and I used Wet N Wild - Black Creme.

Sadly I only wore this for about 10 minutes (I did most of this series in one night!) and I need to wear it sometime for several days. I adore it.

Katy, thank you for doing super cute manis. I look forward to the next time you read my polish-mind and come up with another very "Rebeca" mani!

More about → as seen on... Nailed It.

as seen on... Dressed Up Digits

Hello and welcome to my first post in this year's "as seen on" series - AKA I'm on vacation and I want to schedule some fun posts!
I've got 7 days of re-created manis for you this week as well as one day of original art.
I hope you guys enjoy this series, while I am enjoying my vacation!

My first feature for this series is Laurie at Dressed Up Digits.
Back in the day, all the way back to the first Bundle Monster contest (just over year ago), I met a lady named Laurie on Facebook. She was a fan of my blog. We started talking. And I've been stuck with her ever since!
Just kidding, I love Laurie and I even refer to her as my "internet mom!" Hardly a day goes by where she and I aren't chatting and I feel lucky to know her (even though she busts my balls sometimes. Just like my real mom.)

Laurie loves mermaid manis. Loves them. So I did one just for her!

And it turned out pretty "ding dang" nice! (That's a Laurie saying.)

I did this mani using three colors from the Color Club Take Wing collection that I showed you yesterday.
I started with a base of Metamorphosis and then using a sponge, I added random areas of Fly With Me and Sky High.
I also added some glittery sections with Color Club Object Of Envy.

The stamping was done with Bundle Monster BM-209 using Sally Hansen Silver Sweep.

Originally I had plans to do a mermaids tail shape on the thumb but I ruined it by trying to add too much detail (of course) so I did a nice and simple drag marble on that nail with the Take Wing colors.
To drag marble, you blob on colors and swirl them together with a toothpick, or small dotting tool, etc. I find it easier to do this with shimmery polishes because they blend together easier than cremes.

Don't these colors look nice together?

Here's a closeup of my marbled nail. I made it mostly green because I wanted it to be a little different from the other nails. Accent thumb!

I really enjoyed doing this manicure. Laurie is right, mermaid manis are awesome!
Check out Laurie's mermaids here and here and here. Tell her I sent you!

I wonder what Toronto has in store for me this week. I'm sure I'll tell you all about it when I get back on May 1st!
Stay tuned all week to see what other manis I've recreated!

More about → as seen on... Dressed Up Digits

Nail-Venturous Lacquers - Floam! (+ stamping!)

I've got a great polish to show you today. I'm sure most of you are familiar with this awesome "indie polish" already but now it's my turn to show it to you!

I remember quite some time ago, a girl by the name of I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous was commenting on my blog posts. She followed me, so I followed her. Then somewhere along the way, we became friends via Facebook, and then suddenly, Amy started making frankens, and she quickly became one of the most popular "indie polish" makers around! And she deserves it, too.
I'm glad to be friends with Amy and I'm so happy for her success!
I'm also very happy that she swapped me this polish for my own franken, Rebecca Likes Cupcakes. (Amy loves frankens. All of them.)

Nail-Venturous - Floam
Check out this neon glitter! This polish is just so cool and original, I love the color combo.
Here I layered one generous coat of Floam over Color Club Twiggie but you can use it without a base color, too. I was just too lazy to do 2-3 coats of glitter. Haha!

Adding Twiggie underneath makes it a little bit brighter but I like the effect! From afar the polish looks mostly like a nice shade of neon green but then when you look close, you can see the two different colors that merge together to create the polish!
It is of course a little bit textured but 2 coats of topcoat solves it.

I haven't done stamping in a long time, so I decided to try some stamping over my Floam! And I'm glad I did because it turned out great.

I stamped this cool abstract image from Konad m65 using Wet N Wild Black Creme.

I love this mani and I am definitely going to keep it on for a few more days!

If you haven't been able to get your hands on this yet, keep an eye on Amy's Etsy store as well as on Ninja Polish. But beware of Floam-impersonaters! Hahaha. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery I guess!

More about → Nail-Venturous Lacquers - Floam! (+ stamping!)

Konad M85 + Essence A Lovely Secret & Space Queen

Good evening everyone! Today I'm going to show you yet another stamping mani with my Konad M85 plate from Nail Polish Canada.

This mani ended up a little crazy but I really liked it at the end!

It started with 2 coats of Essence - A Lovely Secret.
I love these little Essence Colour & Go polishes, they are very inexpensive and the formula is fantastic on all the ones I have. (I wish I had them all. All 99! I'm really trying to find Glisten Up and Pool Party!)

This polish is really cool because not only is the color really nice, there is this cool speckled look to it! And on top of that, pink shimmer. I believe this color is available everywhere Essence is sold right now.

I added a coat of Essence - Space Queen for some iridescent sparkle!

I love the way this sparkles.

Now for the stamping - lots of it!

Tada!
I first stamped using Kleancolor Metallic Pink and Metallic Purple.
But they didn't show up as much as I wanted so I restamped using black.
So, most nails have the same image in purple and then in black, while my accent nail has the full nail image in pink, and then the star in purple and black.
It created a really cool effect I think!

I experienced a but of shrinkage on my middle finger (I believe Space Queen would be the culprit) so I filled it in with the base color, so please excuse that little eyesore, haha.

This full nail image reminds me of a kaleidoscope or something. I bet it would be cool to stamp the same thing several times with different colors over white! I'll add that to my idea list.

See you guys tomorrow with a cool surprise! ;)

Plate sent for review.

More about → Konad M85 + Essence A Lovely Secret & Space Queen