Cheery Chevrons

Hello, Fireflies!

My niece is obsessed with chevrons at the moment, and so I was thinking of her when I dipped into the vault and found three chevron-centric nail arts to share with you today. 

Glitterati with the Beauty Bloggers of Central Florida

Hello, Fireflies!

This month's BBCFL roundup is all about makin' it rain! Yes, glitter!  I've rounded up a bunch of different looks I've created with different kinds of glitter used in different ways.  Hopefully, you'll find a look that inspires you to wear glitter your own way.

Sunday Stamping - Frozen Snowflakes

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's Adventures in Stamping challenge was to stamp over blue.  One of my fave blue polishes, Lilypad Lacquer Sherbet, has been sitting on my desk waiting for me to use it again, so I decided to use it as a base for some stylized snowflakes and flakies!

Happy Feet #insoles

Product provided for review.  All opinions are my own.

Hello, Fireflies!

I've never been a big fan of feet, I don't know why.  I don't touch others' feet, I don't like pictures of feet.  When my friends ask me to paint their nails, they know I'm not doing any toenail art.

I do love getting a pedicure or a foot massage, so having healthy, pain-free feet is something that is important to me, and why I wanted to try Syono Gel Insoles.

Pirate Nail Art Challenge - Oceans

Avast, Fireflies!

Today's challenge be taking ye to the depths of Davey Jones' Locker! If yer lucky enough to be a pirate, ye be spending fair time with that crafty lady sea.

I did a gradient to represent the different layers of the ocean, and I fell in love with this gorgeous teal from the now-defunct Kelara Lacquers, Seaside.

The ocean gets deeper with the gorgeous cobalt blue with soft flakies that is A Rhyming Dictionary Crooked Magician.

The waves sparkle with sunlight.. and glitter.. from Girly Bits Wet Bikini. 

Yeah, I know that Sea Creatures was yesterday, but aren't these glitter dolphins cute?

Bottle shot: Kelara Lacquers Seaside, A Rhyming Dictionary Crooked Magician, and Girly Bits Wet Bikini.

If ye be lucky enough to walk the plank, ye might see such a lovely ocean as this!

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Indecisive Tea Party

Hello, Fireflies!

Have you ever gotten all dressed up for a fancy date, and then just felt it was all wrong and started over, or changed something major about your outfit?

Well, I'm going to take my nails to a tea party, but I'm not wearing the same thing when I get there.

It started with a gorgeous scattered holo, Aly's Dream Polish Cherry Coke.  It's one of my faves of hers.  The color really does remind me of a deep caramel with cherry.

Which is why I thought it would go with these plummy tea rose decals.  I can't paint roses for anything.  I keep trying, but in the meantime, why suffer when there are decals?

Except, when I applied the decals, the color totally didn't look like what I thought it did.  I mean, what happened?  I felt completely color blind.

So, I changed the color of the polish, trying to carefully paint around the decals.  I like it better with this purple holo from Girly Bits, Remember Aja.

Two outfits, one tea party! Easy-peasy.  What would you wear to a tea party? I've never been to one.  Do they still wear white gloves?

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GOT pink stripes

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's GOT challenge is all about stripes.  And pink.  And flakies.  And holo.  I started with a gorgeous rosy pink holo, Girly Bits Crantini.  Impeccable formula, as always.

I freehanded a diagonal French tip with Sheswai Totally, a rose cream. I remember when Sheswai burst on the scene with a polish that dropped the F-bomb.  I never was able to get a bottle of that...

Flakies and holo in ONE mani?  This may rip a hole in the time-space continuum.  Hope everyone has their towels.

Darling Diva Polish Rose Opal is a similar color pink as the other two, and just adds a subtle flash of flakie.

Black stripes provide contrast, and make it so that I complete the objective of the challenge.  Win-Win!

Holo, creme, and flakie pinks.  It's getting dainty up in here!

Bottle shot:  Girly Bits Crantini, Sheswai Totally, Darling Diva Polish Rose Opal, and a black nail art striper.

Do you like looks that are all in similar colors, but change up the texture like this one, or do you like more contrast with your stripes?

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Stress Management and a D!ck In A Box! #NailArtForNubs

Hello, Fireflies!

I really like creating posts that showcase a step-by-step process of how I achieved a nail art look.  It really bugs me when I get so involved in the creation of the look that I forget to photograph a step!

I hope it bothers me more than it bothers you.  Pretend there was a picture of Girly Bits D!ck In A Box by itself, first, because it is a gorgeous holo.  Grey with green and a multicolor rainbow, it's spectacular.

I paired it with Ginger + Liz Stress Management, a teal creme.  I didn't use tape, just the polish brush.  I'm going to cover my mistakes with glitter in a second.

Glitter covers lots of mistakes!

I added a few festive rhinestones, in alternating green and white.

Funky and fun. This holo is super amazing, too.  So much color!

Bottle shot:  Girly Bits D!ck In A Box, Ginger + Liz Stress Management, and a Stripe Rite teal glitter striper.

Don't let nubbins cramp your nail art style! Horizontal stripes - especially offset ones - can create illusions of length.  I often choose smaller rhinestones so I can fit more on my nubbins, too - 2 mm is a great size for small nails.

An InLinkz Link-up

Two posts today! If you missed it, I posted my quick review of all the subscription boxes I received in May! Click HERE for my post.

Saturday Holo Spam - Indie Purple Edition!

Hello, Fireflies! 

Welcome to Saturday Spam! I have a few purple holos to show you today, all wonderful in their own way!

I Love Nail Polish Kings & Queens. Royal purple holo goodness.  Have you seen the new Summer holos? They're on presale now.  I couldn't resist getting a few.  Her polishes are buttery!

Aly's Dream Polish  Intense Blurple.  When Aly does a pre-sale, it's amazing! She puts everything up, and will make it to order.  She doesn't use Spectraflair, and most of her holos are scattered holo.  Look at this amazing pigmentation!

The Devil Wears Polish Lady Marmalade.  This picture doesn't do it justice - it's complex, with purple and pink holo flame. Her polishes tend to be a little on the thick side, but not gloopy.

Girly Bits Ho-Ho-Hope.  Forever a GB fan! This was part of her holiday collection, and it's a gorgeous purple.  In the next picture, I add to it!

Joss In A Violet Haze.  This is a white glitter holo with a purple shimmer.  Looks great over Ho-Ho-Hope!

And a bottle shot of Girly Bits Ho-Ho-Hope, and Joss In A Violet Haze.  Don't the purples match beautifully?

Do you love purple like I love purple? Have you tried any of these Indie brand polishes?

Girly Purple Sparkly and Studs #NailArtForNubs

Did you see I had another post today?  If you'd like to see my review of April's Birchbox, click HERE.

Hello (again!) Fireflies!

Wow, huh? Feast your eyes on the holo multichrome blurple goodness that is Girly Bits Go And Shake A Tower.  I don't know what the reference is, but it always makes me think of Tina Turner's Shake a Tail Feather.

So, I'll go shake a tail feather! Because this polish is gorgeous, and I'm taking it dancing.

Normally, if I'm doing a tape mani, I'll paint the base color, tape off the top, and then paint the tips.  But, after wearing the holo alone, I wanted to add a creme to the top.  Because I can't do anything the easy way, it seems.  I did pick an easy blurple creme, though.  The gorgeous China Glaze Queen B.

In addition to using clear tape, I've discovered Washi (scrapbooking) tape and a rubbery tape from Scotch that both work really well - even better than clear tape - for doing tape manis.  The Washi tape was in the $1 section at Target (on clearance for a quarter!) and the rubbery tape was also on clearance there for about $1.  I got it in purple (hubby's fave color) so I could give it to him in case it didn't work for me.  Multitasker!

Aren't these metallic blue diamond studs the coolest?  I've lost track of where I bought them, but I think they're from +Winstonia Store.

Bottle shot:  Girly Bits Go And Shake A Tower, and China Glaze Queen B.

I'm digging how the polish cuts the nail diagonally, and the stud cuts it vertically, but neither with a straight line.  Kinda gives the illusion of length, doesn't it?

And the shiny is a distraction!  Oooh, shiny....

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Holo Happy!

 Hello, Fireflies!

Continuing with this month's theme of Music/TV/Movies, I was inspired by Pharrell's 'Happy'

Holos make me happy! Multichromes make me happy! So, holo-multichromes make me *extra* happy!  This is Girly Bits Belly Jeans, a blue-purple holo multichrome. 

Clear, bright royal blue to purple shift, with rainbows and oil slicks.  Happy.

Excellent formula, which also makes me happy! 

Stamping sometimes makes me happy. These smiley faces sure did, though - I used this plate, Mash 31, with Revlon Spirit.

In addition to the stamping, I sliced some smiley face fimo, and picked out these gold smiley face studs.  Looking at my nails made me HAPPY!  Picking off all this stuff, and even picking off my polish makes me happy, too.  I never can keep these 3-D manis on for very long.

Bottle shot:   Girly Bits Belly Jeans, and Revlon Spirit.

I have listened to this trombone loop version of Happy, done by Christopher Bill, countless times over the past week.  I love it so hard.

I also really love this version done by a professional A Capella group, Straight No Chaser.

If that's not enough Happy, you can check out Pharrell's 24 hours of Happy, a 24-hour video loop of different people dancing to Pharrell's version of, "Happy". 

Are you happy now?

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?

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