NOTD Dec 25/12 - Snowman!

The last Christmas manicure of the year! Always sad, there are so many cute Christmas manis to do but such a limited time to do them! This was inspired by a mani I saw at Polish Etc. I added glitter on top of the white to make it look like glittering snow!

Merry Christmas everyone!

NOTD Dec 24/12 - icy winter blues gradient

Just a simple winter blues gradient! It has a tiny blue flakies topcoat over it to make it look extra icy cold! I love how it turned out. :)

 Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, with Nicole by OPI "Baby" Blue sponged on and Revlon Scented Polish in Colada Fizz on top!

NOTD Dec 22/12 - Christmas lights!

It's getting close to Christmas and I feel like I didn't even come close to doing all the Christmas manis I wanted to do! I guess some will just have to wait until next year. :)

These ones turned out great and were worth the bit of extra work they took! I think adding sparkles to the lights was a nice touch, it really made them stand out more.

The background colour is Barielle Date Night, if you're curious about any of the other colours just ask in the comments! :)

NOTD Dec 13/12 - Christmas presents

This is one of my favourite Christmas manis so far! Presents had been in my mind for a while but I wasn't sure how I wanted to execute them so I kept putting them off. I finally figured out how I was going to do it, and alternated several holiday appropriate colours and glitters. They are so cute!

The colours I used were Sinful Colors Envy, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, Sally Hansen CSM in Gilty Pleasure, Nicole by OPI Positive Energy, Essence Glamorous Life, and various striper polishes and glitters. Honestly, too many to list!

NOTD Dec 12/12 - Viridian snowflakes

I love snowflakes for a holiday nail design (if you hadn't already noticed) but I wanted something with a slightly less traditional colour this time.

I chose Illamasqua's Viridian, a gorgeous shimmery deep blue-green shade! See a swatch of it alone here. Then I added white snowflakes with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, and topped it with a holographic silver shimmer (NYX Advanced Salon Formula in Disco Inferno). Simple but pretty!

NOTD Dec 6/12 - snowflakes and dots

Another cute snowflake design! I know everybody does them but there are so many options for snowflake nail art and I think they're so adorable. This one features some cute contrasting dots in Christmassy colours. I did my right hand with just dots since drawing snowflakes with my left hand felt a little too daunting this time around. Usually my right hand is identical to my left hand, but I give myself a break now and then!

The background is good old Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, the blue is an Art Club striper I got in a set, the red is Wet n' Wild Wild Shine in Red Red and the green is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Green With Envy.

Guest post at Ruby's Nails!

Hey guys! Go check out my guest post over at Ruby's Nails, featuring this mani! :)

NOTD Nov 26/12 - abstract minimalist trees

These nails are kind of inspired by nailside's style! I checked out her tutorial from last year for Christmas tree and it gave me the idea to add rhinestones to this, but I did mine a little different from hers and added even more rhinestones, and less tape lines. :) I like how this turned out! I think it would also look cute with different coloured rhinestones on the tree like different coloured ornaments, but the only rhinestones I had that were small enough were clear ones!

The background is Revlon in Cloud, the trees are Barielle in Date Night, and then the rhinestones and the striping tape I used (which is obviously unseen) are both from Born Pretty Store!

Current Basics & BeautySets!

Hey guys! This post was my first creation using an awesome new site I heard about called BeautySets! It's kind of like Polyvore for beauty products, and it has tons of premade templates that let you put in your own words and pictures in a magazine style layout! I really love how it looks and I think I will definitely be using it again!

This is a breakdown of all the basic products I'm currently using! Hope you enjoy! :)

NOTD Nov 25/12 - festive glitter

This one was pretty simple guys! I just layered three different glitters to get one festive glitterbomb mani!

The colours I used were all by LA Girl - the gold is Live on Stage (from the Rock Star line), the red is Animate, and the green is Purge (the last two both from the Glitter Addict line).

These looked like sparkly little Christmas ornaments on my hands and people kept commenting on them at work! They looked like they were one glitter polish, so this has me of a mind to try layering more glitters to see what combos I get!

Black Friday Sale!

Doing a Black Friday Sale at my Etsy this weekend, til Sunday night only! 30% off everything if you use the coupon code BLACKFRIDAY2012 at checkout!

:)

Nail Art by Kayleigh

Improved tags!

Last night I finally updated some of my tags, which all my different manicures were badly needing! There are now several categories including floral, animal, food and gradient. Check them out in the tag cloud in the right hand column. Now it should be much easier to check out past manicures I've done! :)

NOTD Nov 20/12 - peppermint swirl

Do you ever kind of look up, look around, and go, "Holy Crap! It's late November? Wasn't it just summer like, last week?" I don't just mean weather wise... I mean it was pretty mild through most of September and even October... but I feel like this fall so far has gone by extremely quickly and all of a sudden, BAM, it's almost the end of the year! Crazy!

Anyways, continuing with the spirit of the approaching Christmas (and assorted other holidays) season I have another festive manicure! This one is inspired by peppermint candies!

This may look upon first glance like a water marble, but in fact since I totally refuse to subject myself to the what seems to be torturous process of water marbling, I took a different route with this. I painted my nails first with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, and then took a miscellaneous red striper polish and painted on curved diagonal lines that tapered at one end.

I did each nail one at a time so the polish wouldn't dry before I got back to it, and took a needle and dragged in through the lines, going first one direction and then the next time in the other. Then I topped each nail with NYX Advanced Salon Formula in Disco Inferno for a bit of glittery fun! I loved these and they seemed to be real eye catchers, I got lots of compliments on them!

NOTD Nov 10/12 - Lest We Forget

I wanted to do something appropriate for that important day that comes before Christmas season truly begins - Remembrance Day. Poppies are the symbol of that day, and so I thought it would be perfect to do a poppy design on my nails. I actually see them more than I would see the poppy pinned to my chest, so the reminder of what to be so thankful for seems more ever-present.

 I did a design of poppies and buds as well, I really love how this design turned out overall and I'm pretty proud of it!

The background is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, the black is SH Xtreme Wear in Black Out, and the red is Wet n' Wild Wild Shine in Red Red.

NOTD Nov 8/12 - rhinestone halfmoon skittles!

Got a few different elements going on with these ones! They're bright, fun and sparkly!! Good combo!

The colours I used were (from thumb to pinkie) Revlon Electric, Barielle Swizzle Stix, Barielle Sailor's Delight, Barielle Do Unto Others, Essence Break Through.

Then I added a little silver glitter - LA Girl Glitter Addict in Explosion, and added some rhinestones from Born Pretty Store on top!

NOTD Nov 6/12 - nude sparkly

This is the time of year where getting good pictures of my nails becomes very hard! It's almost always grey and/or rainy here now, so the lighting is never great! These look about a million times cooler in person but oh well, not much you can do!

I started out with a couple coats of Essence in Sweet as Candy which is a really sheer baby pink. Then I added a couple coats of the LA Girl Rock Star Lacquer in Double Platinum. It's hard to tell in this pic but in real life Double Platinum's base is lightly tinted kind of grey/beige-ish, so my nails look like they're a warm grey/beige shade with tiny silver and iridescent sparkles. They have a lot more dimension in person - the lack of light made it hard to capture that aspect of them. I really like these even though they're so simple! Life has been a little busy lately so I haven't had as much time for more complicated nail art. I do want to do something a little more elaborate very soon though!

NOTD Oct 30/12 - black and red glitter gradient

Just a quick one today! I wore these nails to pair with my Halloween costume this past weekend, which was a black devil costume - just a simple horns headband and a tail and I wore all black. Cute and simple and these nails gave it a little bit of colour! Not the best picture but it was cloudy and early and I was in a rush!

I used a few colours in this - basic black obviously, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Black Out. Then for the reds I used Illamasqua Scarab, Revlon Cherry Crush, and LA Girl Glitter Addict in Animate.

NOTD Oct 23/12 - vampire fangs and blood!

Got another really Halloween themed one here! I looove how this turned out! The fangs were actually a lot easier than I thought they would be, but I still didn't want to attempt it with my left hand as I was feeling lazy, so my right hand is stripes in the same colours! I like how it all looks together!

I'll probably have time to fit in one more manicure before Halloween, and I'm going as a devil (but in black instead of red) for a Halloween party this weekend so it has to work with that costume. I'm thinking something like a really vampy black and shimmery red gradient mani. Can't wait!

Anyone else trying to work their nail art in to their costume this year?

NOTD Oct 18/12 - pumpkin tips

More Halloween manicure goodness! I really loved CutePolish's apple manicure which I recreated last month, and it got a great response. Not surprising because it's such an adorable design!

I was brainstorming for Halloween mani ideas, and it occured to me how perfect that manicure was for adapting to Halloween! Instead of apples, I drew pumpkins! The ones on my ring fingers have made it to the jack o' lantern phase, but the rest are just plain and simple gourds. :)

I love how these look, they're so cute and perfect for the season! Hope you enjoy them too!

For the pumpkins I used Cherimoya Mango and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Sunkissed, and for the highlights I mixed a bit of white in with Mango. Then I drew the stems with Revlon Chocolate Truffle and the vines with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Green With Envy, and black for the jack o' lantern details!

NOTD Oct 13/12 - blue sparkle and square studs!

Wheee!! My long awaited package from Born Pretty Store is finally here! I ordered this quite a while back but it apparently got lost in the mail, but BPS were awesome and resent it to me as soon as I reported it! Now it's here in my grubby little hands... I got a few things but the first one I decided to use was my square studs!

I chose the 2mm gold ones, and here's a quick and simple design I did using them.

This polish is one I don't use enough, it really is nice. It looks semi-sheer with one coat so it's good for layering, but two coats (like here) makes it opaque. And it's just sooo pretty to look at!

NOTD Oct 10/12 - halloween dottyness

Abstract designs can be a lot of fun, but they're kind of a pain to come up with a name for! I wanted to start getting into some Halloween-y type designs, and when I did this I only had time for something quick so I went with something abstract in Halloween colours of orange, black and white! When in doubt, pull out your dotting tools!

Manicure of the Week - Vol. 1

Hey everyone! I had an idea for something new I wanted to do with the blog tonight. I know many other blogs probably do this in some form or another but I hadn't really tried it myself. The internet is an indispensable tool for those who love nail art. I think I could safely say there isn't one person who is really into nail art who doesn't owe tons of their inspiration to the internet nail art community and all the lovely people that make it up.

Ideas and inspiration are very fluid - sometimes you directly and purposely take inspiration from a manicure you see and recreate it, sometimes it gives you an idea that branches off into another one, and sometimes you don't even realize how heavily influenced you were by another manicure you saw until you see the original one again later. I've definitely had times (often!) where I thought of an idea for a mani, and then later noticed that it looked a lot like a mani I'd seen online before, but when I was creating it I was totally unaware of that. That's just how inspiration works, and I don't know about you but I love that!

So in the spirit of giving credit where credit is due, I want to start a weekly tradition on my blog of recognizing manicures I have seen and LOVED! The number of nail blogs and Tumblrs I follow is approaching embarrassing proportions, so I have lots of source material.

So without any further ado, let's dive right into this weeks manicure!

The Happy Little Clouds manicure by Nailed It really caught my attention this week. It's a perfect example of how a simple manicure can really have a ton of impact. I love the colours she chose, and how each nail has different coloured clouds and sky. It just really stood out to me and I think if I wore this on my own nails, it would be one of the manicures I wouldn't be able to stop staring at. I adore it!

NOTD Sep 29/12 - intricate floral on periwinkle

This one was kind of hard to think of a name for! Intricate floral on periwinkle? Sure, I guess that works!

This is another design based on a vintage fabric pattern. I painted it on a set of falsies this time, and I really love how they turned out! I think this pattern is so beautiful! It's roses, leaves and vines and also some little blue flowers interspersed!

 There are many colours involved here, so if you are curious about any particular one feel free to ask in the comments! I will say that the background colour is Revlon Dreamer!

FOTD Sep 28/12 - no eyeshadow and darker hair!

This is a look I pretty much NEVER go with, but it was born of necessity this time! I have no idea why but recently my eyelids have been really dry and irritated, which is something that has never happened to me. I don't know why it's happening but I'm trying to keep from irritating them further, so when I did this look (actually yesterday) I tried to do a look that didn't have any eyeshadow. Well, that's not entirely true - I did a tiny bit of shadow just along the lashline on the outer corners for a bit of definition. But nothing on the lids themselves!

Since I'm not used to going without shadow, it was a bit of an experiment for me! I decided to balance out the lack of eyeshadow with extra mascara, bright blush and pinky nude lips.

And as you can also see, my hair is back to darker! I was overdue for a re-dye!

I styled my hair by twisting the hair back and pulling more hair into the twist as I went back, and then pinning it on the back of my head. And then lots of hairspray and pins to keep the shorter bits from falling out!

There were a couple new elements in my makeup too, besides the lack of eyeshadow on the lids! I finally decided to try out another mascara, after only using Cover Girl Lashblast waterproof for the past few years! I picked up Essence Get Big! Lashes in Waterproof... and I'm glad I did! Although it's not replacing my CG Lashblast (I still love it the best!) I like it for layering. I've found to get a ton of volume on lashes you want to layer two different kinds, one coat after another. I did that with the CG and the Essence mascaras and was able to get a lot more volume.

Also new was a kind of lipstick hack I did. Last year I bought Wet n' Wild Mega Last Lip Color in Just Peachy (903C) and I loooved the colour but found that the matte finish just didn't work on me. My lips are very dry and tend to get really flaky, very quickly. So matte is not an option for me. But I didn't want to lose that awesome colour! So I bought some little plastic pop-top containers from the dollar store, and created a gloss out of it instead! I mixed the lipstick, some Vaseline, and a bit of two kinds of lip gloss (one more pink and one more nude-peach) together and created what I'm wearing on my lips! It's got a glossy finish but a really opaque colour because the lipstick was such an opaque shade. I love it!!

I also wore two bright pinky blushes here, a cream with a powder layered on top.

Have you ever had to change up your usual makeup routine or try something totally different unexpectedly? How did you adapt, and what did you have to do?

NOTD Sep 26/12 - owls

Sort of a fall inspired design, some cute little owls! I created these using those paper sticker hole reinforcements and I have to say, not a technique I'm eager to try again. Everyone raves about those but they just do not work well for me... I think my nail bed is a little too curved or something, because they stick fine to the middle of my nail but lift away from the sides and then the polish just bleeds under. I tried so many ways and it's literally impossible to make them lay flat on my nail bed. I had to go back and correct most of them with a brush! Too bad too, in theory I like the idea but on my nails it just doesn't wanna happen!

The brown shade is Revlon Stormy, the pale dove grey is Revlon Cloud, and the beaks and feet are OPI The "It" Color. And of course there's black and white which don't really need mentions.

 Regardless of issues with the hole reinforcements, I love how these little cuties turned out! I was inspired by some cute owl artwork I'd seen in a craft pin in Pinterest. Which, by the way, is my new obsession. I know I'm a little late on that train but whatever, I let all the good stuff build up on there before I got into it! I've been pinning tons of recipes, a few of which I've made. And also lots of decorating and DIY stuff... I started decorating my place for Halloween much earlier than usual and so far I'm loving it!

This is my mantle... mini and peewee pumpkins painted with black and white acrylic paint, some pinecones, candles (cinnamon scented!) and little cutout ghosts and "Boo!" signs! And of course and awesome DIY bat garland. Love it! I want to do a bit more with this but it's a good start!

Bat, owl and skull cutouts over the couch! I also want to add something else here, maybe some ghosts in between.

NOTD Sep 22/12 - hearts and roses

This design is from an upcoming nail wheel I'm working on, which is all more complex patterns to challenge myself a bit. A lot of them, including this one, are based on vintage patterned fabrics I found online! I loved this pattern with roses and rosebuds and cute little hearts interspersed among them!

I made these using the DIY nail decal tutorial I made, which is a pretty fun technique if you've never tried it! Perfect for designs like this that are difficult to paint on your own hand, especially with your non-dominant hand.

There were many colours used in this design (the white, two greens, four to five pinks or something like that) so if you really are dying of curiousity about what any of them are, feel free to leave a comment and let me know! Otherwise I'm going to go the lazy, tired route and just leave that part out for today! LOL! Hope you like this design, thanks for reading!