Category: nail art

Dazzling Retro Chandeliers

Today my manicure is a retro chandelier look with lots of glitter. I love chandeliers, I spent most of my childhood living in Europe visiting churches and castles, the nobles and the clergy always have the best chandeliers!
So here it is:

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I really like the black and chartreuse glitter combo. This colour pallet reminds me of those old school hard cover books they had in the seventies.
I also tried a new base coat product on this one the Quo by Orly strong bond rubberized base coat.

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It goes on clear with a dull finish, dries quickly, that is always a plus in my book, and my first coat of polish went on really well. This last point is really important, some base coats tend to leave bald spots when applying the first coat of polish, the strong bond did not. Bam! This may just become my new favourite base coat. *update: I wore these for three days and they withstood two evenings in the hot tub before they started chipping. This is a great product in my book! I will definitely be using it again.

For this look I used:
Quo by Orly strong bond rubberized base coat
Essence LOL, off to Miami!
Nicole by OPI brilliant idea
Rimmel black satin
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear celeb city
Miracote top coat

I used Pueen stamping plate 26 for the accent nails.

Stay tuned for my next look.

Ahoy Mates! Nautical Manicure

The 30 Day Nail Challenge has finally come to an end. While I enjoyed being guided by the challenge I now have to take the training wheels off and come up with my own manicure ideas. I bought a great looking red from Revlon called velvet rope, it’s a nice deep red with no sparkles or shimmer, a true blood red. I also scored a whole bunch of striping tape from Cheeky Beauty for an incredibly low price! I love the Cheeky Fairies, I’ve bought nail plates, rhinestones and, striping tape from them, they truly have amazing deals.
So enough talk here is my nautical look tape manicure.

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The little red pearls I used were also from my giant order from Cheeky Beauty. They have a flat back and you apply them using a little bit of clear polish, I love the way they look but they bled a little when I applied my layer of Miracote Top Coat. I don’t think it would have been as noticeable on a darker base. I did the same thing with the star accents, I dabbed a little bit of clear polish on and pressed the star into place. Add a layer or two of topcoat and Bob is your uncle!

Have any of you tried adding rhinestones or gleequins to your manicures?

For this look I used:
Seche Vite Base Coat
Revlon velvet rope
Revlon spirit
Essence date in the moonlight
Miracote tip coat
Striping tape, stars and, pearl accents are available from Cheeky Beauty

Stay tuned

30 Day Nail Challenge Day 30: Inspired By A Tutorial

Last day if the 30 Day Nail Challenge! This last manicure is inspired by a tutorial I watched on YouTube explaining the use of those cute little Fimo/polymer clay nail art canes. I recently snagged a ton of nail art supplies from Amazon and received three wheels of precut polymer clay rod pieces, well I figured you just glue them on and Bob is your uncle but I still wanted the experts to chime in. Turns out you basically glue them on, top coat the shizzle out of them then Bob is your uncle. So I totally tackyfied my nails for this last manicure, I have no idea how these things will come off but I’m sure I can find a tutorial for that too!

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Sorry for the crappy cleanup! Thankfully I had the presence of mind to photograph my nails before spending the evening in a hot tub because this happened:
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I guess that answers the removal question! Oddly enough my Cinderella hand is still looking good.

For this look I used:
Seche Vite Base Coat
Revlon cloud, optimistic, sunshine sparkle
Rimmel ethereal
Maybelline Color Show lustrous lime
Hard Candy little hottie

The flowers are from Cheeky Beauty .

30 Day Nail Challenge Day 29: Inspired By The Supernatural

This is the second to last day of the 30 Day Nail Challenge! And it is a good one inspired by the supernatural. I had wanted to do a vampire mani but the look I started wasn’t coming together so I switched it up to unicorns!

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I also tried out this water speckled technique I’ve been hearing about on the various blogs I follow. The technique is the same as with water marbling but you spritz the surface of the “bullseye” with an alcohol based hand sanitizer before dipping your nail into the water. It worked like a charm but I use a plastic shot glass to do my waters marbling and I had to change the water for every nail because the product prevents the polish from spreading out. I love how this manicure turned out! I keep looking at my nails! Have any of you tried this technique? Any tips?

For this look I used:
Seche Vite Base Coat
Revlon sunshine sparkle, Provence
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear mint sorbet, coral reef
Orly bubble bath
Essie no more film
Miracote top coat

Plates used for this look:
Mash 39
Pueen 04, 08, 18, 19, 20

Next up is a manicure inspired by a tutorial, stay tuned for the last manicure in this challenge.

30 Day Nail Challenge Day 28: Inspired By A Flag

Only a few more days left to this challenge, day 28 is a manicure inspired by a flag. I love Egyptian art and it just so happens I had some Egyptian nail stamping plates that fit the bill.

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I love the way these turned out. It also gave me a chance to use the liquid sand again. Unfortunately I was at my besty’s house and chopped off most of my thumbnail and now I’m stubby. Oh well, at least the food was delicious and it was totally worth sacrificing my finger nail.

For this look I used:
Seche Vite Base Coat
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear golden-I
Pure Ice can’t stop
Maybelline Color Show tenacious teal
Revlon foxy
O.P.I. What wizardry is this?
Miracote top coat

Nail plates used:
Mash 36, 41
Gals GA37
Shany SH206
Pueen 04

Next up in the challenge is a manicure inspired by the supernatural!

30 Day Nail Challenge Day 27: Inspired By Art

Day 27!!!! This challenge is almost over, this manicure is inspired by art. There were a lot of exotic animal silhouettes in amongst my different nail stamping sets and I kept wanting to do a jungle inspired mani, this seemed like the perfect time.

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I really like the way this turned out, those of you who are perceptive might notice that I used various reptile patterns as a base then I stamped on my various prey animals!

For this look I used:
Seche Vite Base Coat
L’OrĂ©al safari chic
O.P.I. Tickle my France-y
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear black out, golden-I
Miracote top coat

Plates used:
Pueen 10, 14
Gals GA27, GA32, GA45, GA46

Next up in the challenge is a mani inspired by a flag.

30 Day Nail Challenge Day 26: Inspired By A Pattern

Day 26 of the 30 Day Nail Challenge is a pattern inspired nail, I wanted to do a hippie pattern and chose to use a tie dye as my inspiration.

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I like the way the tie dye turned out a lot, I’m finally starting to get a hang of it.

For this look I used:
Seche Vite Base Coat
Essie bikini so teeny
Hard Candy little hottie
Revlon gold coin, optimistic
O.P.I. Rapid dry top coat

Plate used:
Pueen 039

Next up in the challenge is a mani inspired by art.

30 Day Nail Challenge Day 25: Inspired By Fashion

The 30 Day Nail Challenge is starting to wind down, today is the 25th day of the challenge! Wow! Today’s look is inspired by fashion and I love Dolce & Gabbana! I had a look at their web site and stumbled upon this:
Dolce & Gabbana Winter 2014
and this:
Dolce & Gabbana Winter 2014
I love ornate embroidery and the look of old paintings so these two dresses totally fit the bill. I decided to try using some of my craft water transfers on my nails to see if they would work like the Nailene nail tattoos I’ve used in the past. Well they didn’t, they were thicker and tore/cracked easily but once you put a top coat over the transfer it stuck to the nail with no problems. Air bubbles however became holes once the top coat dried.

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I love the way this turned out and I definitely will be using the water transfers again. The water transfers I used for this manicure are by Lisa Pavelka, I purchased them at Micheal’s art stores in the polymer clay area or online.
Next up in the 30 Day Nail Challenge is inspired by a pattern, I just received three sets of nail plates I’m just itching to use!

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For this look I used:
Seche Vite Base Coat
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear golden-I, black out, mint sorbet, celeb city
Maybelline Color Show boho gold, porcelain party, tenacious teal
Revlon foxy, vixen, fashionista, copper penny, gold coin
Rimmel black satin
Nicole by OPI disco doll
NYC matte me crazy top coat
Miracote top coat

Nail plates used for this look:
Gals GA23
Pueen 02, 04, 05
Bundle Monster BM08

30 Day Nail Challenge Day 24: Inspired By A Book

The 30 Day Nail Challenge is in the home stretch! Day 24 is a manicure inspired by a book, since I am a huge fan of science fiction and my all time favourite book is The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams I had to choose it as my inspiration.

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Click here to discover the best sci-fi writer ever!
For those of you who have not read the book or seen the movie you should check it out and also have a look at books 2-5 in the trilogy!
I was perusing my favourite blogs when I stumbled upon a gorgeous pastel coloured galaxy nail on Hey, Nice Nails!. I was enchanted and tried to recreate the look on my own nails.

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I really
Like how these turned out!
For this look I used:
Seche Vite Base Coat
Maybelline Color Show porcelain party
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear bubblegum pink, golden-I, strobe light
Revlon Provence
Pure Ice home run
Nail plates used:
Gals
Winstonia

30 Day Nail Challenge Day 23: Inspired By A Movie

Day 23 of the 30 Day Nail Challenge is inspired by a movie. I love Art Deco and vintage advertising so when I first heard about a remake of The Great Gatsby I was thrilled! I mean who doesn’t like flapper girls, pearls and, champagne?!? So here you have them my Great Gatsby nails:

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I think they turned out really well, I love the black and gold!
For this look I used:
Seche Vite Base Coat
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear golden-I
Rimmel black satin
Pure Ice heart breaker

Next up in the 30 Day Nail Challenge: inspired by a book!