Month: June 2013

by Izzy • June 30, 2013 • 0 Comments

Today we have a neon watercolor manicure using a new (to me) technique. I’ve done watercolor manicures before but I used nail polish and acetone to achieve the look, this technique uses watered down acrylic paint.
1) Start with a base coat of neon pink and white polish as per usual.
2) Take some plain old acrylic paint and water it down (the amount of water will determine the sheerness of your bubbles).
3) This is where the patience comes into play: apply drops of the thinned paint onto your nail, let it dry around the edges (it becomes matte as it dries) and soak up the remaining liquid in the center using a pointy cotton swab. Repeat the process until all the nails are done, this takes a really long time but it looks amazing!
4) Top coat as usual.
I used acrylic neon paints and the bubbles literally glow in the daylight!

I want to give credit to the wonderful nail artist who inspired the technique but I can’t for the life of me find her again. If anyone knows who demonstrated this technique please let me know so I can give the credit. *Update! Thanks to my instagram friends I have figured out where I saw this technique! The wonderfully talented @nail28tsenwei showcased the technique but it was @madamluck that was the inspiration for my look
For this look I used:
Seche Vite Base Coat
O.P.I riotously pink
Revlon spirit
Delta acrylic craft paint neon pink and neon yellow
Miracote top coat

No nail plates this time!
Next up I will be channelling my inner 6 year old and doing a pastel unicorn mani, stay tuned!

nail art

80s Prom Dress

by Izzy • June 25, 2013 • 0 Comments

Today’s look is inspired by the sea foam lace commonly incorporated into the typical 80s prom dress. Just kidding! I actually wanted to use a sea foam green polish, a nude polish and, a rich yellow gold polish I recently purchased at my local pharmacy. I used my Pueen Love Elements stamping plates to stamp on some romantic lace roses and some cute vines.

I really like how the gold nails with the white lace turned out! The gold happens to be from the Sun Kissed collection by Essence and it is really nice in person!

For this look I used:
Seche Vite Base Coat
Essence Nude ice strawberry cream
Essence Sun Kissed my sunny side
Revlon jaded, cloud
Miracote top coat

Nail plates used:
Pueen Love Elements 27, 33

Next up I’m going to try some water spotted nails so stay tuned!

nail art

English Rose Garden Using Butter London Nail Skins

by Izzy • June 19, 2013 • 0 Comments

For this look I decided to incorporate some Butter London Nail Skins I scored for the low price of $6.99 at Winners.

The nail skins are made out of vinyl-y style material, I think you are supposed to stick them on top of your natural nail and wear as is. I couldn’t help doing a bit of izzyfication to these.

I used one of the Pueen plates to
Stamp a cute vine design on the green nails and a rose image from the same plate.

For this look I used:
Quo strong bond base coat
Quo wild child
Maybelline Color Show lustrous lime
Rimmel black satin
Tweets H2O nail color TBL
Miracote top coat

Nail plates used:
Pueen 33

nail art

Dazzling Retro Chandeliers

by Izzy • June 16, 2013 • 0 Comments

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:

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.

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.

nail art

Ahoy Mates! Nautical Manicure

by Izzy • June 13, 2013 • 0 Comments

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.

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, all, nail art

30 Day Nail Challenge Day 30: Inspired By A Tutorial

by Izzy • June 9, 2013 • 0 Comments

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!

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:

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, all, nail art

30 Day Nail Challenge Day 29: Inspired By The Supernatural

by Izzy • June 5, 2013 • 0 Comments

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!

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, all, nail art

30 Day Nail Challenge Day 28: Inspired By A Flag

by Izzy • June 2, 2013 • 0 Comments

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.

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!