these are a few of my favorite things

Teal. Gradients. Glitter. Sponging. Stamping. Stars.
Yes, these are a few of my favorite things. And here they all are in one mani!

Looooove this! Nothing better than a bunch of favorites!

This mani started out with 2 coats of Orly Bailamos.
Gorgeous 2-coat teal with shimmer!

I love this polish. I should wear it more often.

Then I began sponging on a shimmery deep teal from Forever 21, Love & Beauty - Green.
The names of the Love & Beauty polishes are hilarious. "Green" is not an accurate description of this polish, it is a dark shimmery, sheer teal with a slight duochrome effect.

Not blingy enough yet... Needs glitter and stamping.

Tada! I sponged on some glitter, Nails Inc. - Fitzroy Square from the Special Effects 3D Glitter line. Amazing teal glitter! My mom picked up that one for me in Vegas at Sephora!

I just love this. I'm going to stop saying that now.
The stamp is Bundle Monster BM14 with Wet N Wild Black Creme.

That picture is a bit out of focus but it is pretty!

I've had this on for 4 days now with no chips at all! I might have to leave it on for a few more :)
What do you guys think?

More about → these are a few of my favorite things

31 Day Challenge: Day 25

Hi everyone! Did you think I failed the challenge today by not posting at my usual time?
Well have no fear, I have just been extremely lazy all day - watching Supernatural on DVD and napping.

I wasn't going anywhere today, so I didn't want to change my nails, but I knew I had to! I can't fail the challenge with so few days left.
I found the energy to do my nails an hour ago and let me tell you - it's a good thing I did because these babies are fierce.

The theme for today is Inspired by Fashion. I'm not big on fashion, really, but there is one designer who always interests me.
Betsey Johnson.

Picking the designer, easy. Finding the right idea for the nails? Hard, because there are so many possibilities!
I settled on the design from one of her perfumes for my nails. (Yes, perfume isn't exactly fashion, but she does carry these patterns across all of her items so I'm sure this works, somehow!)

I am just so pleased with how these came out.
I think that one nail is my best floral nail ever! It look so realistic, doesn't it?

Here is the box I was inspired by. I couldn't find a larger picture that showcased the 2 sides of the box I did so this small one will have to do. The box has a different pattern on each side, but those two were my favorites!

The base color is Color Club - Almost Famous.
The leopard print is Color Club - Yum Gum (light pink) and Raspberry Rush (dark pink.)
The leaves are OPI - Jade Is The New Black.
The flowers are made of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Presto Pink, Wet N Wild - Tickled Pink, and OPI - Dim Sum Plum.

I'm going to work on a tutorial for this kind of floral nail because I get a lot of questions about how to do them! Expect that sometime soon.

I chose to do the accent nail on my index finger to be a little kooky - because Betsey is kooky!

Here are my nails with the only Betsey Johnson item I own - the cutest earrings ever!
The earrings are a bit heavy and hurt my poor little ears, but I wear them anyway.

I'm so pleased with how these turned out, and I hope you guys like them too!

More about → 31 Day Challenge: Day 25

my friends like nails... again

Hi guys! I'm running a bit short on things to post so today I'm going to have a swatch marathon!

But before I get to that, I'm going to show you some nails I have recently done on friends!



First up is my friend Steph.

Steph's favorite color is yellow so I used my favorite yellow polish, Color Club Almost Famous.

I stamped the star image from BM21 with Wet N Wild Black Creme, and then added a coat of Color Club Starry Temptress to make it all pretty and glittery!

These nails were awesome and summery - I should do them on myself before the summer is over!



Now for my friend Emma's nails. I've shown you some nails I did for her before, here.

This time, she wanted pink and blue flowers on a gray background, so I started to freehand them... but then I hated them and covered them with big purple dots.

They turned out sorta psychedelic and they actually looked rad! Happy accident.

(The background is China Glaze Recycle and the dots are Orly Frolic, the pink and blue are mixed shades.)



On her other hand, I decided to stamp some roses and they turned out awesome!

Again, sorta psychedlic! They remind me of pop art and Warhol! So I love them!

The color combo is awesome, it's two Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes, Brisk Blue and Presto Pink and the rose image from BM14.



Now, time for me to start swatching! Hopefully I can get a lot of polishes swatched and do some nail art! Have a lovely day, and I'll see you tomorrow with something new! :)

More about → my friends like nails... again

i have conquered the floral nail!

I have tried doing floral nails multiple times. I tried freehand ones, and I tried the ones where you blob on the colors and swirl them, but I just never liked the outcome.
And a few days ago I saw an image somewhere where they used a rose stamp to make floral nails. The image was unwatermarked though so I don't know who to credit!
Anyway, I was inspired and went right to it yesterday!
And they're amazing, if I do say so myself.

(click to enlarge)

And now I'm going to post multiple pictures because I like them so much.

Perfect for spring!

They make my short nails look cute.

Even did my right hand really well!

For this design I started with 2 coats of Joe Fresh - Faded Violet.
I then added some light pink blobs with a small brush, with Wet N Wild Wild Shine - Tickled Pink. I made them roughly the same size as the rose image.
Using OPI - Dim Sum Plum I stamped the rose from Bundle Monster BM14.
And then using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Green With Envy, I added some leaves with a small brush.
Add Seche Vite, and it's done!

Love love love.

I'm off to do some spring cleaning. Yuck.

More about → i have conquered the floral nail!

let it snow

These are sort of Christmas-y nails, but it's still winter, so these are still in season!

I didn't do many nails for the holiday season, but these were really pretty and I got a lot of compliments on them, both times I wore them.

(click to enlarge)

The first time I did them, I used Color Club - Pucci-licious from the Poptastic collection, however this picture is not color accurate. I took it without flash because the flash drowned out the rhinestone and stamping.
I stamped with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - White Out!
The rhinestones I added were from a wheel of 1500 that I got on ebay for $1.50.
If you want rhinestones - ebaaaaay.

(click to enlarge)

And here is the second version!

This is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Pacific Blue with one coat of Sally Hansen HD in DVD.
This picture is at a weird angle to show the duochromey goodness of DVD.
When I did these, I had just gotten China Glaze - Millennium for Christmas from the BF so I used that for the stamping, and again the rhinestones are from ebay.

The snowflake image is from Bundle Monster, plate BM14.

Which version is your favorite? :)

More about → let it snow