Bright Skittles

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! Most of the pictures you will see over the next week or so are old-ish. This particular manicure is from February. Poor thing is happy to see the light of day. Or at least the light of the blogosphere.

These bright skittles were fun and easy to do. From thumb to pinky: Cosmetic Arts Limelight, Zoya Pippa, Color Club Poptastic, Ulta Blue Streak, and Julep Anne. Each is two coats. The little design on my ring finger is an Essence French Glam Nail Stickers. Each sheet has several designs.

Crashing Waves

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! I gave my blog layout a bit of a revamping yesterday. Among the changes are a new banner (not sure if I like it yet or not), wider layout for bigger pictures, and a drop down menu for my tags. Please let me know what you think. :)

Do you ever attempt a nail design only to end up with a mess? Its a very sad and frustrating occurrence. But sometimes that mess has redeeming qualities. My manicure started off well last night. But it quickly went downhill. My thumb was a disaster and my index finger was just as bad. I was beginning to grow fond of the light blue I already had on, so I decided to keep it and add something extra.

Kind of abstract, but it reminds me of waves crashing against rocks. How the water remains deep blue while the upward spray is very light almost white. Maybe its just me.

I sponged on two different blues for this effect. Cosmetic Arts Sky High and Sinful Colors Midnight Blue. So, what do you think. Crashing waves, something else, or just completely abstract?

Cosmetic Arts retails for $2 at Ross. Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture.

Creatively Using Crackle

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! Today I have a manicure to show you that happened as a sort of accident.

I wanted to prolong my time between polish changes, so I decided to add a pretty crackle over my existing polish, Cosmetic Arts In Bloom. So I dug out Funky Fingers Teal Scales. However, it did not crack on the first finger. So I scratched at it. Odd thing to do, but it gave an interesting effect. Not exactly cracks, but more like odd shaped holes. Kind of reminds me of bleach splattered jeans.

Cosmetic Arts In Bloom

I hope you are enjoying your Monday!

Cosmetic Arts In Bloom is a very light lilac creme. The application is good and surprisingly opaque in two coats. It was about time I wore this on its own. I have worn it before with a glitter gradient on the tips.

Cosmetic Arts retails for $2 at Ross (I am unsure what other stores stock this brand).

Bright Gradient

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! Today, I have a bright fun combination to show you. I wanted some cheer me up nails, so I decided to do a bright color and holo glitter.

I started with Color Club Limelight, a bright green creme, as my base. The application is great. All the brightness of a neon without needing to layer it over white. It was opaque in two coats. Once it was mostly dry, I sponged Color Club Golden Coast on the tips. I love Golden Coast. Its a clear base with with small gold and holo glitter.

I purchased a small bottle of Seche Vite to see how it compares to my Poshe top coat. I wore this manicure for truck day at work. We are talking eight hours of unloading boxes, opening boxes, stocking shelves, and whatnot. It takes a toll on my nail polish. Yesterday I only had two tiny chips. Normally I would have major tip wear and chips. I'm going to test it with another polish later and see if it was a fluke.

Fingers retail for $2 or 3/$5 at Five Below. Cosmetic Arts retail for $2 at Ross (I'm unsure where else they are sold, if anywhere else).

Speckled Green & Pink

I hope you are enjoying your Monday! Its Monkey See, Monkey Do time again. Basically you take inspiration from or recreate a mani done by someone else.

I took inspiration from this post by Jen of The Exotic Lacquer. Mine are a bit different. I used Julep Cameron and Cosmetic Arts Limelight as my base colors. Both two coats each. Then I did one coat of Love & Beauty Black Knight. I love this look.

Cosmetic Arts retail for $2 at Ross (I'm unsure where else they are sold, if anywhere else). Julep retails for $14 at Julep and Sephora. Love & Beauty retails for $2.80 at Forever21, online and in store.

Please check out the other lovely bloggers participating in this challenge. :)

Amber Did It

Angelina's Nails & More

Beauty Bumbles

Dressed Up Digits

Fancy Phalanges

Fanning the Fumes

Geeky Owl

Gnarly Gnails

Jen's Painted Tips

Kawaiinize Your World

LeSamowen

Macabre Manicures

Maquiclub Girl

Nail Polish is my Crack

PishPosh and Polish

Polish Crazed

Polish Lover

Tales of Knit and Nails

The Clockwise Nail Polish

The Crumpet

The Manicured Monkey

The (mis)Adventures of a Wanna Be Martha

Toxic Vanity

Neon Rainbow Zebra Print

Its Stamping Sunday! This week's theme is Unnatural Animals. So I broke out the neon and bright polishes for rainbow zebra print.

In order from index to pinky, I used Color Club Poptastic, Zoya Pippa, Sinful Colors Dream On, and Cosmetic Arts Limelight. All two coats each. Then I stamped a zebra print pattern on each nail using Sally Hansen Night Flight and plate BM16.

Poptastic is part of the Color Club Poptastic Collection. It retails for $4-8 various places online. Zoya retails for $8 on their website. Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. Cosmetic Arts retail for $2 at Ross (I'm unsure where else they are sold, if anywhere else). BM stamping plates are part of a 21 piece set that retails for $18 on Bundle Monster or their Amazon store.

Sugar Plum Fairies

I hope you're enjoying your Monday! I have another manicure to show you for Monkey See, Monkey Do. The challenge just started last week. Its a nail challenge for Monday (though mine will be on Tuesday since I already do one for Mondays) where we take inspiration from or recreate a mani done by someone else. Anything you see on blogs, Facebook, Pinterest, or anywhere else online. 

I was inspired by a lovely design I saw on Pinterest by Milily. For my base, I did two coats of Cosmetic Arts In Bloom. Its a very light lilac creme with great application. For the tips, I sponged on Color Club Sugarplum Fairy. I love this glitter so much. It is a clear base packed with light lilac and holo glitter. I've found that for glitter, it is best to paint the polish on the sponge.

Cosmetic Arts retail for $2 at Ross (I'm unsure where else they are sold, if anywhere else). Sugarplum Fairy is part of the Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe Collection. It retails for $4-8. I purchased mine in a collection set of all six for $8 at Ross.  

Please check out the other lovely bloggers participating in this challenge. :)

Amber Did It

Angelina's Nails & More

Beauty Bumbles

Dressed Up Digits

Fancy Phalanges

Fanning the Fumes

Geeky Owl

Gnarly Gnails

Jen's Painted Tips

Kawaiinize Your World

LeSamowen

Macabre Manicures

Maquiclub Girl

Nail Polish is my Crack

PishPosh and Polish

Polish Crazed

Polish Lover

Tales of Knit and Nails

The Clockwise Nail Polish

The Crumpet

The Manicured Monkey

The (mis)Adventures of a Wanna Be Martha

Toxic Vanity

For the Love of Train

Its Stamping Sunday! Yes, it is that time of the week again. :) The theme is Inspired by Music. It could be our favorite artist, album, artist/band, et cetera. I chose to do a song by Train. Given I have a limited amount of stamp images, I listened to my favorite Train songs to see which one I could do.

Not perfect considering my limited collection, but it was fun to do. I was inspired by Save Me San Francisco by Train. I based each nail on a different piece of the lyrics as the story goes along. Index: "We took the highway to the One, up the coast to catch some sun." I did a base coat of Cosmetic Arts Sky High with Sinful Colors Snow Me White clouds. Then I stamped a sun with Konad Yellow and plate BM01. Middle: "I drove into Seattle rain, fell in love then missed the train." I did the same base as my index finger, then stamped on the Seattle Space Needle with Sally Hansen Night Flight and plate BM15. Ring: "If I could wish upon a star." I did a base coat of Sinful Colors Black on Black with Midnight Blue sponged on and a layer of China Glaze Fairy Dust. Next I stamped on stars with Wet n Wild Silvivor and plate BM21. At the time, I had misplaced the plate with a single star, so I used my full nail design and just stamped one of the stars. Finally, Pinky: "But there's a wide-eyed girl back there, and she means everything... everything." I used  Look by Bipa Metallic Matt as my base before I stamped on Love with Love My Nails New Love and plate BM09.

Wet n Wild retail for $1-2 at CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Ulta, and many other stores, all of which are listed on their website. Cosmetic Arts retail for $2 at Ross (I'm unsure where else they are sold, if anywhere else). Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. Konad Special Polish (for stamping) retails for $6.80 on their website. Sally Hansen Insta-Dri retails for $3-5 at Walgreens, Walmart, Riteaid, Target, and Ulta. China Glaze retails for $5-10 a bottle at Sally Beauty Supply, Ulta, and various other stores/sites. Love My Nails retail for $1 at Bari Cosmetics.


If you want to listen to the song that inspired my nails, click the song title you see above. Or click here if you would rather see lyrics. :)

Happy Easter

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! And your Easter if you celebrate it! I have a cute Easter manicure to show you today.

I was inspired by several different manicures that I found on Pinterest. All of them can be found on my Polish Likes and Inspiration board on Pinterest. I used Sinful Colors Unicorn, Snow Me White, Black on Black, San Francisco, Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac, Wet n Wild Tickled Pink, Lavender Creme, Pure Ice Wild Thing, Cosmetic Arts Sky High, and Dahlia Orange.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear retails for $2-3 at Walgreens, Walmart, Riteaid, Target, and Ulta. Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. Wet n Wild retail for $1-2 at CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Ulta, and many other stores, all of which are listed on their website. Pure Ice retails for $2 at Walmart and Bari Cosmetics. Cosmetic Arts retail for $2 at Ross (I'm unsure where else they are sold, if anywhere else). Dahlia retails for $4 at various sites online.

Spring Flowers

Its Stamping Sunday! This week's theme is Large Flowers. I tried for something very Spring like.

I used two coats of Cosmetic Arts Sky High, a light blue creme, as my base. Then I used stamping plates BM06 (one flower) and BM09 (two flowers). Both designs have similar flowers. I filled in the green first before the purple then stamped the two colored design on. For the green, I used Ulta The Jungle Look and for the purple, I used Sally Hansen Raspberry Race. Both cremes stamped very well.

Cosmetic Arts retail for $2 at Ross (I'm unsure where else they are sold, if anywhere else). Sally Hansen Insta-Dri retails for $3-5 at Walgreens, Walmart, Riteaid, Target, and Ulta. Ulta Nail Lacquer retails for $6 at Ulta.

Cupcake Nails

I hope everyone is enjoying their Monday! This week's Monday Nail Art Challenge on Polish-aholics Anonymous is Water Marble/Happy Birthday. As a joke, Krissi (admin on PAA) threw in the option to vote for her birthday as a theme. She's awesome and we love her, so water marble and her birthday pretty much tied. The one time I attempted a water marble, it was a brown mess, so I decided birthday was a better choice.

I followed a tutorial from CutePolish with a little tweaking. For most of my nails and the base of my cupcake, I used Wet n Wild Tickled Pink as a base and Lavender Creme for the stripes as well as for the candy heart. The icing is Sinful Colors Snow Me White. The sprinkles are Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac, Cosmetic Arts Sky High, Sinful Colors Unicorn, and Wet n Wild Tickled Pink. 

I definitely need more practice. Doesn't help that my hands shake a little due to a hereditary trait. Its not noticeable unless I'm doing certain things. Like painting tiny details or taking camera pictures without a flash.

Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. Wet n Wild retail for $1-2 at CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Ulta, and many other stores, all of which are listed on their website. Sally Hansen retail for $2-3 (the Xtreme Wear) at Walgreens, Walmart, Riteaid, Ulta, etc. Last but not least, Cosmetic Arts retail for $2 at Ross (I'm unsure where else they are sold, if anywhere else).

Blue Butterflies

Spring has arrived! And its on my nails! 

This week's Stamping Sunday on Adventures In Stamping is Blue. All the polish has to be blue.

I used Cosmetic Arts Sky High as a base and stamped Color Club Cold Metal using plate BM09. Sky High applied well, opaque in two coats. I'm not sure if it was the brush or polish, but it was impossible to paint within the lines. Clean up fixes that though. I love this polish despite the flaw. I have been looking for a pretty sky blue creme. I was so thrilled to find this polish. Cold Metal stamped very well. I have heard all of the Color  Club Foiled Collection stamps well.

Cosmetic Arts can be found at Ross for $2. I'm not sure where else they can be found. Color Club polish can be found on the Color Club website. They retail individually for $8 and $48 for the sets. I bought my set at Ross for $8. Most polishes at Ross do not have name labels on them, but you can easily find the names on the Color Club website.