More New Photos - and Color Blocking!

Today's manicure follows a tutorial by Brit Nails - click here to view it.

I decided to try again with the new camera, but go with the more traditional poses that I tend to do. I don't have my lightbox this weekend, so enjoy the natural background, haha!

For this manicure, I used a base of Sinful Colors Sail La Vie, and taped off sections to paint the color block, as seen in the tutorial linked above. The colors for the tips are China Glaze Highlight of My Summer and Sinful Colors Black on Black.

I think I love this color! It looks flawless with two easy coats (no top coat in this photo), and it shows up as a beautiful bright baby blue cream.

Should I keep trying to do these type of photos? Or should I go back to my little camera? Let me know in the comments ;)

A Simple Gradient Skittle Manicure

I've been having so much fun pairing my polishes lately, and I've made a couple skittle ombre/gradient manicures to show it!

But man it's awkward to take photos of them! I have (from thumb to pinky): Essie Bottle Service, Essie Big Spender, Essie No More Film, Essie Butler Please, and Sinful Colors Sail La Vie.

I think these colors all look great together! What an easy but pretty manicure to make!

Do you like skittle manicures? What do you think of this one?

Pink Leopard and Bow Tie Nail Art!

I know I have been all over leopard print, pink polish, and bows lately so I had to tie it all together in today's nail art!

When Born Pretty Store sent me these adorable bows for review, I knew I had to make a cutesy matching manicure to go with them!

(For those of you who don't know, Born Pretty Store has the best nail accessories and polishes known to mankind, and with the coupon code RFL91, you can get 10% off your entire order and free shipping anywhere in the world!)

Anyway, to the nail art!

For this manicure, I used a base of Essie Blanc and then used Essie Bottle Service for the detail nail and dots, and then finished off the leopard print with Sinful Colors Black on Black.

HOW CUTE are these bows?

I am not entirely positive if the pattern on the bow is leopard print, but I just couldn't resist.

The pink on my ring finger is the same as in the bottle and on my leopard spots, but since it is three coats over white, it looks much more saturated and neon.

If you want to purchase these or anything else from the Born Pretty Store, you can use my code RFL91 at checkout for 10% off and free shipping!

More Striping Tape Fun with Spring Colors

I decided to keep up with the striping tape manicure and do this one -

I started with a base of OPI My Vampire Is Buff, then sponged on China Glaze For Audrey, OPI Sparrow Me the Drama, and OPI Don't Talk Bach To Me. Then I taped off some sections and painted on Sinful Colors Black on Black.

I like the way this looks but it was so frustrating that I just got lazy with cleanup - sorry!

Here is a picture of my thumb ;) I like it the best I think!

Let It Snow! Water Marble

Today I have some fun wintery water marble nail art for you all!

I know I have been slacking on the nail art (and basically the nails in general!) but I'm getting back into the groove of things now that finals are over and the holiday rush has calmed.

This wintery water marble was done using OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, China Glaze For Audrey, and Sinful Colors Heavy Metal. I topped it off with various snowflake stamps and Konad White Polish.



PS - guess what my lovely boyfriend got for me!! He got me the entire OPI Liquid Sand collection (swatches coming soon) and he MADE me an awesome rotating nail polish rack!

Flower Nails With OPI Skyfall Collection

What a misleading title ;) I used OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service as accents for my manicure, but the rest of the colors are from different brands.

Anyway! Today's nails were slightly inspired by One Nail To Rule Them All's flower and bead manicure, but I think mine have a different effect because I don't have the beads.

Wow, look at that bottle! What a stunner. I have yet to actually paint my nails with the new color, and it's my favorite from the Skyfall collection.

Well anyway, here is a clearer photo -

Base: Essie Bobbing For Baubles

White: Sinful Colors Snow Me White

Detail (Glitter): OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service

I love the way this looks. I feel like it almost looks like those fake nail stickers!

Skittles For Audrey (China Glaze)

Hey everyone! I know I am a horrible person for not blogging for so long, but work and classes have been SO overwhelming that I hadn't painted my nails in almost a week - but I finally decided I need to do it.

I decided to go for a skittles manicure using China Glaze For Audrey, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, and Sinful Colors Heavy Metal.

Gosh I miss doing this!

I know this is terrible but due to the huge hurricane that's going on in New Jersey/New York, I am going to be able to paint my nails for the next few days so I can schedule posts for you guys (don't hate me!!)

Have a good one!

Argyle Sweater Nails

I have been seeing some really pretty argyle patterns on both nails and people lately, and I just had to recreate them for my own nails today.

I am thrilled with how these turned out. I feel like ever since I bought those detail brushes, I have been spot on with my designs.

I used a base of Essie's Don't Sweater It, a gorgeous brown creme. Then I taped off sections of the nail and painted using China Glaze For Audrey, and Sinful Colors Heavy Metal. I topped it off with some small lines using OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.

I think I am also improving my photo technique, because I'm starting to realize that it's not enough to have a lightbox - you have to be in total darkness with only that light on for it to look good.

And here's just a picture of the manicure with For Audrey because it's a new bottle and it looks so pretty ;)

31DC2012 Day 8: Metallic

For today's manicure, I took a bit of inspiration from Kayla Shevonne's metallic fishtail manicure.

It came out being a tight fishtail, but I like the way it looks! With a base of a England's King Arthur and Essie Good as Gold and Sinful Colors Black on Black.

It did come out a bit wider on the bottom than on the top.

Oh well! See you tomorrow for rainbow nails.

31DC2012 Day 7: Black and White

Today's manicure is black and white, and I decided to go with stamping - something I don't have too much experience with. I wanted to go with a newspaper theme, but I didn't think that was "white" enough, so I went with just plain white with random black stamps!

I love how opaque Sinful Colors Black On Black is for stamping! It shows up great and dries so quickly.

I don't have much to say about this manicure, sorry guys! 

31DC2012 Day 6: Purple

Well, technically the challenge says violet. But I really don't know what shade of purple is violet, so here is my purple nail:

The base is a England Avalon, and the stamping is with Sinful Colors Heavy Metal, an awesome silver for stamping. I realized after I was done that the hearts were upside down, but it still looks cute!

PS the color is not totally accurate for Avalon - it is definitely more purple hued in natural light. But for some reason in my fluorescent light it looks kind of purple.

31DC2012 Day 5: Blue

Since blue is my favorite color and my most frequent choice for nail color, I decided to go with something a bit different for today to keep it fresh and new.

This is using my newest blue polish by Julep, Claire. You can get Julep for just a penny here by taking the quiz and using the code PENNY at checkout.

Anyway, these are my little penguins! Inspired by my friend Caroline because she wanted me to do something exciting, haha.

I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Courtney Orange, and Black on Black for the details.

Fishtail Braid with Julep!

I finally got my Julep Maven box in the mail and I am so excited! For those of you who do not know, Julep is a brand that offers an awesome subscription deal - for $20 dollars a month, you can get at least $40 worth of awesome nail polish and related products. Best of all, the products are chosen for you based on your style preferences!

AND, you can get your first box for just a penny here, by typing PENNY in the discount code box after you take your personality quiz!

I actually decided to go with a different discount code for my first box. I typed 2FREE in the discount code and ended up getting five bottles of polish for just ten dollars. You can do it too.

ANYWAY!
This color is called Sasha, and it is one of the colors I got in my box. This brand is also available in Sephora, but it is $14 dollars a bottle so I am not sure if it is worth it unless you are getting it in a Julep Maven box ;)

Sasha is a beautiful salmon pink. It is very sheer and it required three coats for full opacity.

I liked the formula a lot! At first, it seemed a bit patchy, but after the third coat it evened out nicely.

I also decided to try out a fishtail manicure for the first time using Sinful Colors Heavy Metal and Essie Bobbing for Baubles.

I think it turned out great! Maybe I should have picked a more opaque color to use, but after a couple of coats, the braid turned out to be fine.

I know it isn't perfect, but I think I did a nice job for my first try ;)

What do you think? Anyone else a Julep maven?

OPI Mod About You Swatch

Hey guys, sorry I haven't been posted in a while (save for my giveaway) but I just moved to school and it has been so hectic! I am a student counselor so I have to go to all of these training sessions and stuff and I barely have had time to do my nails.

So today is just a simple swatch from OPI, a color called Mod About You which is surprisingly hard to find! It is a beautiful opaque light pink.

 Shown above is two coats but honestly, one was pretty opaque! The second coat just smoothed everything out. I am so in love with this color.

I feel like this color would be a perfect base color for designs or for a water marble.

But I was feeling lazy so I just made another french manicure using Heavy Metal by Sinful Colors! I was also too lazy to make my usual watermark today, haha.

a-England King Arthur French Tip Manicure

Today I have some very simple nail art for you. I decided to try King Arthur out on its own and it was so beautiful that I couldn't bear to put anything over it!

King Arthur is an A England polish. It is described a "tungsten, steel gray with subtle diamond shimmer." And it really does have a lovely shimmer, but it is hard to see unless you are in direct light.

Here I have a simple black line (Sinful Colors Black on Black) to make it an elegant French manicure.

With the black tip, it looks like I have a matte top coat on the King Arthur, but that is just the formula of the shimmer! I think it looks pretty elegant.

And since I am incapable of making straight lines, I achieved this style using regular Scotch tape.

Houndstooth Stamping With Essie As Good As Gold (Fail)

Today's manicure was easily the most frustrating experience I have had in weeks!

I started with a black base (Sinful Colors Black on Black) and wanted to stamp using my new Essie Metallics Good as Gold - and I had to redo it four times and it STILL doesn't look perfect!

But here's the thing - Good as Gold happens to be PERFECT for stamping. It is completely opaque in one coat. But it dries so incredible quickly that by the time my stamper reached my nail, it was partially dry!

So I just decided to rush as much as possible and made a decent amount of mistakes. As you can see below, I stamped my pointer finger the wrong way!

Still, I couldn't bear to keep this incredible color from you guys, so I decided to photograph it anyway.

CMYK Striped Nails.. (Aka Primary Color Manicure?)

I'm really not sure what to call this manicure - but my mom has been complaining about needing new printer ink for some time and I just love the colors that printer cartridges have. CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black for those of you who are not computer savvy. And I know that color isn't cyan, but I do love it especially paired with these two.

I made this manicure using striping tape and painting very thin strokes with the polish. Colors used are OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls as a base, China Glaze Designer Satin, China Glaze Electric Pineapple, and Sinful Colors Savage.

I think I did a particularly flawless job on my thumb so I had to include it!

What do you think of my printer ink nails? Love it or hate it?

Half Moon Dotted Manicure!

Well, originally it was going to be half moons. But I decided to just dot up the whole nail. Here is OPI Skull and Glossbones as a base, and Essie Bobbing for Baubles and an orange Sinful Colors that I totally forgot the name of and am too lazy to go check!

I think it looks rather festive! Even though my dots aren't exactly even. And technically, that essie color is a navy blue but it always seems to look black to me.

Here is a lovely macro of my thumb - I know I need to practice more even dots!

Bohemian Luster Chrome Rare and Radiant Swatch and Stamping!

This weekend, my mother and I went nail polish shopping and found the new Bohemian Luster Chrome collection by China Glaze and picked up a couple. Today I will be showing you "Rare and Radiant", which is certainly radiant but anything but rare! I don't own Chanel Peridot or OPI Just Spotted the Lizard but CG has definitely made a dupe of them.

It is a beautiful multi-chrome gold with a blueish green tint. Here is two layers with no top coat.

As you can see, the multichrome is much stronger in the bottle than on the nail, which unfortunately is true for almost every bottle in this collection, from what I could tell. It would be stronger over black but I decided to skip that.

Now, since this is a dupe, I would definitely say to save your money if you already own one of the two polishes I mentioned above (Chanel or OPI.) But, if you do not own any of those colors, this is the one you want to buy because it is definitely the cheapest brand out of all three (for me, CG is usually around 5 dollars.)

I topped my manicure off with a stamp from BM 301 with Sinful Colors Black on Black, and I love how it turned out.

Also, do you guys like my manicures over white instead of black? I decided to switch out the paper in my light box to see if it would come out any better. ;) Let me know what you think!

Holographic Laser Mani - Try #2

Today's laser manicure is my second attempt - the first time I used real tape and the results were quite disastrous.

This time I actually used striping tape and the results were MUCH better. The base is a holographic silver and I am still new to using holos - so I decided to be safe and avoid top coat on this manicure.

Here is my awesome close up on that holographic goodness!

Of course there were some mistakes - my tape pulled up some of the holographic polish. I think I should wait a bit longer next time before I place the tape, but holo polishes dry so fast that I did it almost immediately after applying.

What do you think, guys?