Sheswai Studs - #NailArtForNubs

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's Nail Art For Nubs was inspired by this nailart on Mari's Nail Polish blog. I really loved the off-set ruffian she did, and wanted to try my own version.

I started off with Sheswai Rootsy, a reddish brown creme, and accents of Cover Girl Silver Lining, a light greyish-white creme.

Then I did an off-set Ruffian with the opposite color.  Silver Lining became surprisingly opaque! I love how these looked together. If you wanted to go whimsical, you could paint eyeballs on the accent nails.

The gold glitter is the perfect detail.  This mani is bold, but still looks classy to me.  Of course, I have no taste, so it could be trashy, but I still love it.

What was that about trash? Trashy-chic, dahlings! A little hardware does a mani good.  I take some faceted gold studs and some round half-pearl gold studs for a corner accent.  I wish I had them in a slightly smaller size, as they didn't *quite* fit on my pinky.

I think I'd like a purse in these colors with gold hardware!

Bottle shot:  Cover Girl Silver Lining, Sheswai Rootsy, and a gold glitter nail art striper.

Would you rock a (sing it now, Bond fans..) Goldfinger?

An InLinkz Link-up

If you missed it, my review of my #FindItAtTarget Influenster Vox Box went live earlier today.  Click here to see my review of FudgeUrban Iced Raspberry and Vanilla mousse!

Fudge Urban Mousse - #FindItAtTarget

Hello, Fireflies!

There's this cool program called Influenster, where they judge you on how influential they think you are, and in what areas of interest.  If you pass their tests (e.g. "What is your favorite color," "What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?") then they might give you something to try out and talk about.

I was pretty excited to get a #FindItAtTarget box, because I love Target.  The husband and I even have date nights there. Yeah, I know how lame that sounds, but really, it's insanely romantic and sweet.  We are so not newlyweds anymore.

So, this was what came in my Target box:  Fudge Urban Iced Raspberry and Vanilla Styling Mousse.

Wow, I haven't used mousse in a looong time.  Like maybe the 80's.  Things have changed.  For one, look at this cool dispenser.  It looks like a crazy, spiky, toothy mouth. 

I thought that the mousse would smell, oh, I don't know, like raspberry and vanilla?  Nope.  It didn't smell much at all.  It had a little of that chemical smell from the aerator, but it was very faint.  Nothing like the stinky mousses of my youth.

Ooh, fluffy!

I have a lot of thick, curly hair, so there was no way that just mousse would handle it, but I went minimal.  Instead of my usual oils and curling cream, I went with a light spritz of hair oil and a couple of handfuls of the mousse.

Quiz Question - is this pix taken from my front or my back?

Peek-a-boo!  That's my Cousin It impression! 

I'm just not ready to give up my oils and creams, but this would work really well for someone with a little less hair.  I like that it didn't smell strongly (though I was hoping for some of the namesake scents).  And, best of all, it's stocked at my fave place - Target!

What's your favorite Target find?

Stay Tuned! At 9 am Eastern, my #NailArtForNubs post goes live!

Stamping Yellow Over Black? No way!

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's stamping challenge was to use a stamp in addition to some other technique.  I'm busting out with stamping using a new technique for color mixing!  Natalie Brookes Nail Art discovered that if she took any polish and mixed it with white, it would become a more opaque 'stamping' polish.  You can find her tutorial on Instagram HERE.

So, if the technique is about stamping over black, I guess I'll put on my fave black, Cult Nails Nevermore.  One-coat shiny black goodness.

Ever search for the just the right words, but only symbols will do?  They you need this image from the DRK-C plate!

In the tutorial, you put the white and the color on the image side-by-side, and then use the scraper to quickly blend the two colors before using the stamper.  I probably used a little too much white, but you can see how thin this neon yellow is.  I'm sure with a little practice, I'll get the mix to look right.  

Bottle shot:  Wet 'n Wild Pin 'Em Slater, Milani White On The Spot, and  Cult Nails Nevermore.

I'm excited about the stamping possibilities! Maybe I can make a red that stamps over black, too!  Have you tried this technique?  Is there a technique you've discovered that made you more excited to use a polish, or any beauty stuffs?

Blue Dotted Tips

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's look is about taking a bunch of sheer polishes, and making it work. I started with one of my favorite brands of polishes, Impala.  I admit it, I'm totally in love with the bottle.  It's soo cool.

What?  We beauty bloggers are drawn to aesthetics, right?  But, I'm not solely judging this polish by the bottle.  No, Impala Trem De Vida Alegria is a lovely blue/purple duochrome.

Lovely, but a little sheer.  It would probably look great layered over a darker color, but I wasn't going there.  In fact, I took it in the completely opposite direction, by layering another extremely sheer polish, Orly Etoile, over it.  Etoile adds the slightest purple tint, and a subtle sparkle.

I don't have a lot of free edge, but I wasn't happy with all the VNL, even after multiple layers, so I employed some camouflage - dots! China Glaze Scandalous Shenanigans is not only adorably named, but is also a pretty metallic cobalt blue.  

There.  No more obvious VNL.

Bottle shot:  Impala Trem De Vida Alegria, Orly Etoile, and China Glaze Scandalous Shenanigans.

Maybe I should have just started over.. but I like how it turned out in the end!  Have you ever just committed to a makeup or nail design, even though it wasn't going your way, and just made it work?

Bling-tastic Dotted Stripes

Hello, Fireflies!

Are you as excited as I am that Sally's is now carrying OPI? They regularly put polishes on clearance, and I picked up some of the Gwen Stefani collex half off!

Including this vampy brick red, OPI I Sing In Color.  It's a crelly, which is in essence a creme, but with a slight lean towards a jelly to give it that depth and shine.

I could not resist the large circle holo glitters in OPI I Snow You Love Me.  They are spectacular.  I painted the polish on a cosmetic sponge, and then picked up the glitters with a dotting tool and placed them on my nails.  I was inspired by this dotted nail art from Rin's Nail Files.

I have matched pink and burgundy before - it's becoming a fave combination.  With these blingy circle glitters, though? Taken to a new level! Loving this!

I actually did both hands and forgot to take a pix.  So bummed about that.  It looked amazing. Felt like I had diamonds flashing all night.  Say what? I couldn't hear you over my nails.

OPI I Sing In Color, Hey Baby, and I Snow You Love Me.

Have you done a mani lately that you just fell in love with?  What was it?

GOT - Don't Eat The Yellow... Sand?

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's Golden Oldie Thursday challenge is Yellow/Peach. I had several missteps along the way, but I think it came together in the end.

Problem 1.  Peach in the bottle is not always peach on the nail.  China Glaze Love Letters is a gorgeous, jelly peach color in the bottle.  And that's where it stays.  After 3 or 4 layers on the nail, it still looked clear, so I stopped.  You can see it in the half-moon part of the pix below.

Problem 2.  Yellow polishes are almost all universally Teh Suck.  Several more layers of Revlon Sunshine Sparkles, and it's still fairly streaky.  It probably isn't helping that now I have on many layers of polish.

Problem 3.  A sheer orange polish will be changed by the color put on before it.  Revlon Tangerine has a little more yellow to it because of the Sunshine Sparkle behind it. 

Solution 1:  Distraction.  Stripes lead your eye in the direction they go, so instead of focusing so much on the vertical streaking, you're not looking horizontally at the blocks of color.  Also, the stripes break up the color into smaller blocks.  Adding a little bling also helps with distraction.  Look up here! oooh, shiny!

Solution 2:  Topcoat.  Oh, topcoat, how I love thee.  You make everything smoother and shiny.

Bottle shot:  China Glaze Love Letters, Revlon Sunshine Sparkle, Revlon Tangerine, and a white striper.

Oh, and the title?  When I showed my husband this mani, he said, "it looks like sand."  Um, okay, honey.  So, yellow and orange sand it is.  It doesn't look like sand to me.. does it look like sand to you?

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Challenge Collaborative - Holo Oxfords

Hello, Fireflies!

Today, I have a nail art that just sorta evolved, which doesn't usually happen for me.  Usually, I look at a picture or get some inspiration.  Today, I just kept picking up colors and deciding how to use them.  In the end, the design reminded me a little of the old-style Oxford shoes.  See what you think!

I started with a gorgeous grey holo, Girly Bits Dash Away All.

I painted about 2/3 of the nail with SpaRitual Peace & Harmony.  At the time, I didn't know it would dry as a satin white.  I also didn't know that it was fairly sheer.  It took me a few coats to get it opaque over the holo.  Remember, I was totally experimenting.  Like in the 60s. Ask your parents.

I did a wide French tip with Milani Rapid Orchid.  WTH kind of name is that, really?  This is the season of Radiant Orchid, and this color is faaaarrrrr from that.  It's past eggplant purple into almost black territory.  And, who ever heard of a fast orchid?  Is this like that movie, Turbo, with the racing snail? Nail polish namers are weird, yo.

Afterwards, I thought it would look cool with another thin stripe of Rapid Orchid (!?!) between the white and the grey holo.   Yes, you could technically just do 2/3 of the nail with the dark color and then apply a thin stripe of white.  I might have done that if I actually knew where I was going with this, but you always run the risk of the white not covering the darker color.

So maybe I did do it right. Maybe. Just sayin.

So, why not add another dot of Rapid Orchid?  I clearly have no self-control.  I like living on the edge, baby.

Doesn't it look a little like those Oxford shoes?  Is my 80's childhood showing?

Bottle shot:  Girly Bits Dash Away All, SpaRitual Peace & Harmony, and Milani Rapid Orchid

Have you ever done a mani that reminded you of shoes?  Is that weird?

An InLinkz Link-up

TRI-holo watercolor

Hello, Fireflies!

Last Tri-polish Tuesday for March, and I'm celebrating with a watercolor holo design.  I started off with Different Dimensions Good Evening Clarice, a sheer mint-green with a subtle holo.  If you like holos, you should check out this Indie.  She makes some of my faves.

I placed random blobs of Nabi Sky Blue over that.  Nabi holos aren't very strong, but I think they are so pretty.  Sky Blue has a gorgeous color to it.

Nabi Deep Purple went on over that.  What a gorgeous royal purple.  I've never seen Nabi in stores around me, but there are a couple of sellers on Ebay that sell pick-your-own-color collections, which is how I got mine.

I dabbed on a little more of the green, and then added topcoat to blend everything together. 

It's a Monet!  If you stand far enough away, you can see water lilies, or a landscape.  Can you see the Eiffel Tower in the ring finger? no?  Are you squinting?

Bottle Shot:  Different Dimensions Good Evening Clarice, and Nabi Sky Blue and Dark Purple.

I like to switch up between really defined nail art patterns, and something more random, like this.  What's your favorite type of nail art?

An InLinkz Link-up