"Easter" mani

So today's challenge is supposed to be an Easter mani... However, I didn't really feel like putting bunnies and eggs on my nails so instead, I decided to go a little less literal for this one.
Easter manis are all about pastels and fun so I used my new Q1 Konad plate to create a cute spring look!

Ice cream and cupcakes and candies! I love this stamping plate!!

Sally Hansen in Yellow Kitty

Joe Fresh in Iris

China Glaze in Aqua Baby

China Glaze in Make Some Noise

I realize that the stamping polishes I used aren't really pastels normally, but over Yellow Kitty, they were perfect! 

You can get your own Q1 stamping plate from Konad.co.uk for £9 plus shipping

As far as I know, that is the only place where it is available

I hope everyone had a great Easter! with family and food and chocolates :D

You can check out other Year of Polish challenges on the Year of Polish page located on the right side bar

Also, don't forget to enter my 200 followers giveaway!

Until next time ^_^

Vintage Mani

There are a couple of variations on how people interpreted this weeks Year of Polish theme: "Vintage" mani

It thought it was referring to the kind of manicures that were done in the olden days, where the tip and the half moon were left polish free. Which you can see in this vintage Cutex ad from the late '30s.

Even though this was my original intention, such a manicure was not going to work with my stubby nails. I barely have a free edge to leave polish free! Since that was not going to work, I decided to a vintage pattern mani! My poor little nails could handle that one!

I looked around the internet for some neat vintage patterns and came across this gorgeous wallpaper from the early 1800's

from http://www.historicnewengland.org

and "recreated" it using tape and stamping

Essie in Turquoise and Caicos

Sally Hansen in Wet Cement

Konad Special polish in White

Konad stamping plate M71

I really fudged the index finger but otherwise, I think my stamping has improved a lot. I remember the first time I tried stamping >_< it was a disaster! haha!

Don't forget to check out my Year of Polish page to see past nail art and future themes as well as to discover some great nail artists who are also doing this challenge.

Anyhow, maybe one day I will try the vintage manicure that is in the Cutex ad above. I just have to keep my nails from breaking! with that, I am off to moisturize :)

Has your nail length ever kept you from doing a manicure you had in mind?

Until next time ^_^

It's Green and Gold and Swirly

Hi everyone, I hope the new year has started off well for all :)

During the holidays I wore Orly in Oui and when that started flaking off, I went and got a mani-pedi with my best friend, something we do twice a year. The American manicure I got was very pretty but like all polish does, the corners started peeling and so it was time for a new color

Here is a stamping mani using the only Chez-Delaney  plate I own (and I love it very much!)

OPI in Jade is the New Black

Sally Hansen Quick Color in Gold Chrome

Simple, yes?

The XL plate I have is a little hard to work with, mostly because the designs are so intricate, the stamping color doesn't always make it in every crevice every time. That makes it a little hard to get each nail to look the same, but I think it is so pretty that it doesn't really matter if they are all the same :)

Also! I just received my Finger Paints Special effects polishes as well as Essie's shine of the times which means flakies galore! I am very excited to try them out so you know what I'll be wearing next.

Until next time ^_^

Sinful Colors Holiday Edition- Swatches and Nail Art

I have for you today the Sinful Colors Holiday 2011- WISH collection. 

As far as I am aware, all of these are part of the core collection and so are readily available to almost everyone!

SinfulColors Holiday Nail Wheel

Here are the polishes Ill be showing:

Picture from SinfulColors news release

3 coats

Out of this World- A cool silver loaded with shimmer. This one is a little bit on the sheer side... It's great layered over almost anything. Keep reading and Ill show some examples :)

2 Coats

Midnight Blue- A nice bright navy with metallic finish

2 Coats

Sugar Sugar- Shimmery bright red. A  little streaky on the first coat but beautiful on the second

3 Coats

Daddy's Girl- A violet jelly with a lot of shimmers and micro glitter. It takes a little work to get it opaque but this color is amazing and totally worth it!

2 Coats

Last Chance- A very opaque dark green creme. Perfect for nail art but, compared to all the other holiday colors, a little lacking in oomph.

2 Coats each

Fashionista- A simple silver glitter liner. Reminds me a lot of the quality of ArtDeco stripers: Not the greatest but does the job. It's great for half-moon or french manis!

Flower Girl- a warm metallic gold liner. This shade is much better, it's opaque after one stroke, something I favor strongly in stripers.

*********************************

Since these are from the holiday collection, I thought I could show a holiday/winter nail art you can achieve using only these polishes and a basic white creme.

1- (present/gift) Last Chance striped with Flower Girl

2- (snowy french) Midnight blue tipped with Out of this World and Fashionista and outlined with Sugar Sugar

3- (purple stripes) Daddy's Girl striped with Out of this World and Fashionista

4- (Christmas tree) Sugar Sugar with Last Chance tree and Flower Girl star

1- (mistletoe) Out of this World layered over white, stamped with Last Chance and dotted with Sugar Sugar

2- (holiday half moon) Last Chance with Sugar Sugar half moon outlined in Flower Girl

3- (Christmas lights) Midnight blue with Last Chance cord and Flower Girl, Sugar Sugar, and Out of this World lights

4- (wreath)- Sugar Sugar with Last Chance wreath accented with Flower girl and Sugar Sugar

1- (snow drift) Midnight Blue with Out of this World sponged and dotted snow and Fashionista accent

2- (tree ornaments) Last Chance with Flower Girl, Sugar Sugar, and Midnight Blue ornaments

3- (snowflakes) Daddy's Girl stamped with white (purple pigments bled into it...)

4- (candy cane) Sugar Sugar striped with white (red bled too!) and Fashionista

There you have it! You dont need expensive polish to make pretty nail art. SinfulColors retail for about $1.99 and are available at Walgreens (online and in store) and  Cherry Culture as well as many other retailers.

Until next time ^_^

*these were sent to me for review*

Tribal nails

Hello!

I went by Sally's earlier this week and picked up a few of the new Orly colors from the Soiree collection. I'm not much of a fan of the formula for Orly, but these were just too pretty to pass up!

I then added a pretty tribal-ish stamp on top. It took me forever to decide what color to do the stamping in. It seemed though, that gold was pretty much the only way to go...

Orly in Oui

Sally Hansen Color Quick in Gold Chrome

Stamp is XL-C from chez-delaney.com

Well I hope you like it!

Until next time ^_^

More stars! yay!

Wow... Definitely welcome to all of my new followers. I must say I was quite surprised when I logged on today to see so many people! So hello to all old friends and new ^_^

Life has been busy here at the Nail Spot. Between interviews for grad school, working on senior projects, and getting together my presentation for my summer research I have been sporting bare nails... Also, maybe it's stress, maybe it's the new basecoat Ive been using, but my nails have become quite weak. I dont mind if I break a nail.... In fact I expect it since I use them as tools (I know I know...) quite often, but right now, my nails are looking quite raunchy. Theyre short, theyre uneven, they just keep breaking... Hopefully the OPI strengthener will fix that up!

Since youre probably not interested in seeing my pathetic excuse for nails at the moment, here is something I dug up from the not labeled folder, or as I like to call it "the archives"

BB Couture in Sea of Cortez

LuciDarling in Silver Spangle

Sally Hansen in Celeb City

So celeb city was probably not the best stamping polish choice, as you can see it's kind of grainy looking... But it does have a cool effect if thats what youre looking for. 

Sea of Cortez is quite amazing. Beautiful shade with fantastic microglitter. It's really a unique polish.

Of course I cant get enough of the LuciDarling collection by Etude House. If you dont have them yet, buy them! they are truly amazing!

So its the last week to enter the giveaway, so if you haven't done that, go and submit the form now.

Little reminder, comment entries dont count.... you have to fill the form. 

other than that, I am quite amazed at the number of people who have entered. That google Doc is getting intense looking!

So good luck to everyone!

Until next time ^_^

Snowflake Junkie

I'm actually not a big fan of snow... Yes, it is pretty and I did have lots of fun in it when I was a kid, but now it's just a pain. South Carolina is not equipped for snow so when it does, everything closes and people go in mass panic to stock up on milk and bread. Then the school has make up classes on Saturday and all the while you are stuck in the house because the roads are still icy. *ends rant*

but yes, snow is pretty :)

Index nail broke again :( after I put on polish too... and forgive the smudge on the ring finger. I dont even know what happened there....

Here is a little swatch of LuciDarling in Mint

it was a nice, fast drying, foil green color. 

Etude House in Mint

Sinful Colors in Nail Junkie

Sally Hansen in White Out

I love how Nail Junkie made the whole thing shimmer! flecks flecks everywhere :D

Also, dont forget to enter my giveaway. Just click here

*** little update about that, I forgot to write in there that any suggestions made count as 1 entry. If you have already submitted the form without a suggestion and want to add one, just leave it as a comment and I will count it! if you made a suggestion, the extra entry has already been given to you :)

Until next time ^_^

Circles and Cells

This mani was created out of boredom during my holiday break. I had been wearing BB Couture's Michael which held up like a beast! this color hardly chips, it's ridiculous! Michael is a very pretty purple with blue shimmer, but after 2 days of him, I needed a change. It's not him, it's me... >_>

So out came the Konad!

BB couture in Michael

Chameleon in Calypso

Etude House in Fantastic Heart Topcoat

Turns out Calypso makes a neat stamping color. Subtle but pretty :D 

And the BM stamp kind of reminds me of the cells we had to draw in Bio class

Until next time ^_^

Black Holo Goodness!

Hello all

Today I have a simple little mani to show off my new black holo from Etude House

The color was so shiny and shimmery that I didnt really want to cover it up so I just added some silver swirly stamps

Etude House Black Glam

Sally Hansen Celeb City

The only downside to this color is how weirdly it dried... It was very matte and bumpy...

Took about 3 coats of Seche Vite to get this result

in the end however, I do like Black Glam. It's a lot more holoey than my Petites Color Fever which is what I was hoping for! Maybe one day I can get my hands on My Private Jet *_*

Until next time ^_^

Purple Mani

I have a lot of purple nail polish. Mostly because I like purple so much :)
So I got out all of my purple shades and glitters and made a purple mani!

These pics are from the day after I did it so some colors (Chameleon for example) started to chip. Also after I broke my index nail changing the trash in the Rat-Cave
 :(

from left to right

China Glaze in Agent Lavender with Jesse's Girl in Confetti

Color Club in Pucci-Licious with Stripe Rite in White

Hard Candy in Beetle layered over black

OPI suede in Lincoln Park After Dark with BM10

Sally Hansen in Lively Lilac with BM19

...

China Glaze in Agent lavender with LA Colors in neon purple

LA Splash in Sparkling Fushia

Color Club Pucci-Licious with BM20

Chameleon in Calypso

LA Colors in neon purple

I ended up covering my right hand thumb in OPI Sparkle-Icious....

Until next time ^_^

Fall Leaves and an Award ^_^

I love fall colors :) Mostly because they look good on my skin tone

After my package came in the mail from cherryculture I had all the colors I needed to make a pretty fall mani

so here goes!

China Glaze in Solar Power

Arissa in Creamy Mocha

NYC colors in 112A (orange)

LA Colors in Berry Red

I also dabbled some LA Girl in Gold Plated and Sinful Colors in All About you over the top 

Stamped with BM19 and Milani in Black Magic

Also! I received this beauty in the mail from a swap

China Glaze in Medallion

I cant wait to try out this glittery goodness!

And last but not least, the wonderful Katrina has given me an award ^_^ you should check out her blog here because it is awesomeness!

1. Why did you create the blog?
- because I spent so much time looking at other people's blogs... I also wanted a way to share what I was learning :)

2. What kind of blogs do you follow?
- mostly nail blogs but a few fashion and makeup ones as well. I also look at some tumblr about randomness (like my friend's: http://awkwarddrunkcactuslover.tumblr.com/) 

3. Do you have a favourite make-up brand?
- hmm not particularly. I have a lot of Rimmel eye stuff  and Sonia Kashuk make up brushes, but the majority of my makeup is of different brands 

4. And a favourite clothing brand?
- Not really. I like affordable. I shop at Ross and Target and sometimes even Sears (you'd be surprised at how awesome some of their stuff is)

5. What make-up products is essential for you?
- Benefit's Boi-oing concealer and Victoria's secret purple Mascara. yeah... unless Im going out, thats all I wear

6. What’s your favourite colour?
- I love all shades of purple! Im a fan of the... the... well I can't remember what they are called right now... but amethyst purple and turquoise and citrine. Like these! 

7. What’s your favourite perfume?
-Lolita Lampicka! I picked it out because the bottle was so pretty. And then I ended up loving how it smelled too

8. What’s the film you liked the most?
- My favorite of the moment is Fargo, but that is likely to change as I watch more and more movies :)

9. What countries would you like to go?
- Anywhere. I want to travel to everywhere! South America, North Africa, Asia, Europe. I want to go there. whatever place you are thinking of right now, I want to go there. hehe

Now I have to give it to 10 bloggers;

1. Winnie

2. Cel

3. ABOP

4. My Leetle Nails

5. Varnish Vixen

6. Cyan

7. Arie

8. Polish Pauper

9. Kelly

10. The Princess

Well, thats all for now! 

Halloween on Purpose

After the accidental Halloween mani, I decided to do something on purpose this time. I love Halloween. It's probably my favorite holiday :D

This is everything I used polish-wise

And now to the good stuff!

Close up of each

Spider and web

Color Club in Pucci-licious

Sally Hansen in Black Out

China Glaze in Solar Power

Sally Hansen Nail art pen in Black

Pumkins

Nubar in Caramelo

Sally Hansen in Black out

Sally Hansen in White Out

China glaze in Solar Power

I had the hardest time with this little ghost fella...

Sally Hansen in Black Out

Sally Hansen in White Out

Frankenstein's Monster

Sally Hansen in Lickety Split Lime

Sally Hansen in White out

Art deco in Black

bluuuuhd!

Sally Hansen in White Out

Sinful Colors in Go Go Girl mixed with Sally Hansen Crushed Berries

So there it is. I combined a few things I had seen all over the place into one scary mani. I hope oyu like it and that it inspires you to make your own Halloween nails

Rainy day

Hello all,

Sorry about the lack of posts. I was so busy studying for the GRE, I didnt even have time (or energy) to change my nail polish... It was unfortunate :(
But now! things are better so back to the polish!

It's been raining a lot here for the past couple of weeks. The weather is cooling down (as much as it can in South Carolina...) and I've actually had to start wearing socks D:  I am not a fan of socks...
Anyhow, I decided the weather called for a cool and rainy color so here is China Glaze in Secret Peri-Wink-Le

sorry about the lack of clean up. >_>

Then! the weather started getting better again. More sun and heat, so I added some sponging and stamping  and nail stickers to happy it up a bit.

Bundle monster plate 10

China glaze in Agent Peri-Wink-Le

Sally Hansen in Celeb City

Sally Hansen in Mint Sprint

Nail stickers for 8ty8 beauty