NOTD March 17/13 - Happy St.Patrick's Day!

Happy St.Patrick's Day everyone! I worked today so I didn't get into any kinds of festivities, but I hope you're all having fun of some kind today!

I looove this mani.. I know I say that a lot, but it's OK to love a lot of things... and I really do love this. It's so simple but it has so much impact. I was an easy mani to do, even the clovers only used a dotting tool and took about 4 seconds each! I think too that this is a good format for other kinds of manis... ie: use red and pink glitter and do the white nail with a heart on it for Valentine's Day... you get the idea!

Anyways, here she is!

The white is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, the gold I layered under the glitter is Sally Hansen CSM in Gilty Pleasure, and the green I layered under the glitter is Sinful Colors in Envy. The gold glitter is Milani Jewel FX in Gold, and the green glitter is LA Girl Glitter Addict in Purge.

NOTD Mar 5/13 - round-studded ruffian with Cinderella

A while back I finally picked up the much hyped Sinful Colors Cinderella, but I hadn't found a chance to use it in a manicure yet! I finally sat down the other night and had no firm ideas for what to paint on my nails, but I knew I wanted to incorporate Cinderella finally!

I started with a coat of Nicole by OPI in "Baby" Blue as underwear, then painted on a coat of Sinful Colors in Cinderella. Then I looked all around my nail painting station (grandiose euphemism for the top of my Helmer drawers) for inspiration, and saw my flat round studs! Then the inspiration came easy - a ruffian made of the studs. A few minutes later I was in business and pretty darn pleased about how the spur of the moment mani turned out! I would definitely try this out again with other colours. I think it's a great way to showcase a nail polish that has a cool and unique colour or finish without covering it up with nail art, but still incorporating some "extra" details.

Unfortunately slightly cloudy photographing conditions didn't do an awesome job of showing the pink micro-flakies in this polish, but trust me, it looks even more awesome in real life!

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 Sep 20/12 - apples!

I wanted something really cute and simple this time - I had started another design but it just was not turning out so I started over and didn't want to do something else time-intensive! I hadn't checked out anything on the CutePolish channel on YouTube in a while, so I looked at it and she had posted this adorable apple manicure about a month ago! I thought it was so sweet so I decided to replicate it!

I followed all the steps in the video, using Wet n' Wild Wild Shine in Red Red, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Green With Envy, and Cherimoya Melon for the apples. I used Revlon Chocolate Truffle for the stems and Sinful Colors Envy for the leaves. She didn't include this in her tutorial, but I added some white reflection marks on the apples to make them look really shiny and juicy! I love these, they're so cute to look at! I haven't done a "fancy tips" style manicure probably since I did a Hello Kitty mani around a year ago!

NOTD Aug 13/12 - pink roses

I had my uncle's wedding to go to this Saturday so I wanted some nail art that would be appropriate for that kind of occasion, and this seemed perfect and went nicely with my outfit, without being matchy. I really like floral patterns on my nails and I think these turned out really nicely!

I started with a coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, then I painted the roses with LA Girl Color Addict in Sensation. I added leaves with Sinful Colors in Envy, and then painted Essence in Sweet As Candy over the middles of the roses to soften the color just slightly. :) Hope you like!

NOTD Jul 9/12 - matte blue glitter

I love matte nails, but I never seem to actually do matte manis! I was playing around on my nail wheels though and I came up with this great colour combo and I had to do it on my nails. In real life this is actually a lot darker, it showed up really bright in the photo, but that's fine because it shows of the glitter better when the photo is lighter.

First I painted on a thick coat of Essence in Walk on Air, then a coat of Sinful Colors in Hottie (LOVE this glitter, if you don't have it, get it - so gorgeous!). Then a coat of GOSH Matt Effect Top Coat and voila! Very fast and so pretty! I love that soft, velvety feeling of a matte topcoat, I'm always running my fingers over my nails!

NOTD May 17/12 - watermelons!

This is a classic design that I have been meaning to do for literally AGES and I finally tried it out the other day and I'm in love with it! It's been very sunny and warm out lately and this manicure just completes that "summer is here!" feeling that I love!

Colours:
Cherimoya in Melon
Sinful Colors in Envy
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Frutti Petutie
black striper polish for the seeds