Short post today - I was going to take the day off, and then I decided to look through the vault to see if I could find a mani that could satisfy this month's NCC challenge - wallpaper.
I think that this scrolling pattern on blue flakie and gold works!
Today's post is a combination of two challenges - Celebrating Memorial Day, and skittle nails for the NCC. So, I give you my Memorial Day Skittle:
I wanted to do a traditional Red, White, and Blue theme (Sinful Colors Embers Only, LynBDesigns Old St. Nick, and Pupa 701) but I also wanted to recognize the somberness of the occasion; hence, the Wet 'n Wild Black Creme.
And stars, because I gotta stick something on my nails, right?
Bottle shot: Sinful Colors Embers Only, LynBDesigns Old St. Nick, and Pupa 701, Wet 'n Wild Black Creme, and my little dollar store bottle of stars.
If you're celebrating this Monday, please take a moment to remember those who gave all in service to their country.
I foundered a bit here and there this month with this challenge. Getting in all three colors caused me a bit of a mental block at times! So, here, at the last, what can I do?
First, start with an absolutely gorgeous bluish-periwinkle holo. This is Cult Nails Intriguing.
Next, pull out some nail art pens. I found these Hot Designs pens at Target. They're kinda cool because they have both a brush, and a squeeze fine tip. Because of this, they're refillable, too! My only complaint is that I had to squeeze a little hard for some of these, which got uncomfortable after a while.
Not sure what to do with your nail art pens? Squiggles and scrolls.
Sure, I might have been trying to make something, but you'll never know that it wasn't just squiggles and scrolls. It's a foolproof plan.
I think this is one of those tools that will give me better results with a little practice! What was the last thing you tried to do that you wondered if you'd ever get it, and then, it just came together?
It's warming up here in Florida, time to start thinking about summer cocktails, days on the beach, and tropical manis!
I started with some golden sand - Mentality Euphoria. My camera couldn't even pick up on all the holo glitter, it's very sparkly.
I love Above the Curve polishes, and Prototype Blue felt like the water on a summer's day.
I added a little white and gold glitter with a couple of nail art stripers, because I felt it should be breezy, and there would be small waves in my imaginary tropical paradise.
You don't see a tropical drink only because I already drank it. The little umbrella is stuck in my hair behind my ear.
Bottle shot: Mentality Euphoria, Above the Curve Prototype Blue, and nail art stripers in white and gold glitter.
If you could have anything tropical painted on your nails, what would you get?
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".
Today's nail art combines my Sunday Stamping Easter challenge with my Spring Renewal Freestyle challenge. I decided to take you on an Easter Egg Hunt!
I started with Liquid Sky Lacquer Autumn Thyme, a gorgeous light sage green holo. I love her holos, but they do take a little longer to dry, and I always ding my nails up, because I am a major clutz.
I used Shany18 and Finger Paints Go Van Gogh! to create a foliage pattern in which to "hide" my eggs.
I kinda like it just like this! But, it's not very Easter-y.
I used Revlon Spirit with Shany08 and Winstonia W105 to stamp a cute little (and apparently, transparent) chick, and some eggs.
I found these pretty cool nail art pens on clearance at Target - I think they're one of those 'As Seen On TV' products. They're Hot Designs double-sided nail art pens. They have both a brush applicator, and a thin tip that you can squeeze the polish through. Technically, you can refill them, too, though I haven't tried. I used the thin tip side to color my Easter Eggs. Some of the pens were harder to squeeze than others, but they were fairly easy to use.
This is one of those, "I wish my nails were bigger" moments. The eggs aren't really so much hiding, are they? More like, I could barely fit these on my nails, and in some cases, I didn't.
Bottle shot: Liquid Sky Lacquer Autumn Thyme, Finger Paints Go Van Gogh!, Revlon Spirit, and the hot designs nail art pens.
I wish you a happy Spring renewal, however you celebrate it!
April showers bring ...Spring Flowers! I'm not waiting until May to show you these awesome nails! I started with one of my new favorite multichromes, Dance Legend Roz.
Have you ever seen such vibrant shifts? And that violet. Green, gold, copper, purple. Amazing.
I'm using these Lily water decals from Born Pretty Store in two different manis this week, I like them that much. I like them so much that, even though I got these from Born Pretty Store for review purposes, I bought another set of them during their water decal sale! Some were only 88 or 99 cents.
I love how the polish plays off the pink in the lily decals. If these were stickers, you might see lifting of all those pointy flower petals, but that doesn't happen with water decals.
I wish I could paint like this, but I don't need to with these decals. This is nail art anyone can do if they have some water and a pair of tweezers.
Do you ever wonder how a trend gets started? I mean, who decided it was cool to paint one or two nails a different color than the rest? Did they just run out of polish and think, hey, I don't want to take this off, I'll just put on another color?
I like having accent nails, but it is a rather strange concept, if you think about it. This is Aly's Dream Polish Salmon with accents of China Glaze Sand Dolla Make You Holla.
Sand Dolla is a textured polish. I'm still loving the texture trend, but even if you don't, a nice thick topcoat like Seche Vite will make it smooth, and tends to make the glitters pop, too. Pretty sparkleeez.
Speaking of weird trends, let's stick random things on our nails. Now, you may have noticed that I do tend to stick a lot of random things on my nails. This is because I am a follower. I don't actually look at the world and wonder, 'will it stick to my nails?'
So, here's some microbeads from Finger Paints that I stuck on my nail. Kinda looks like candy.. Easter jellybeans, maybe? Hmm. I wonder if I can get jellybeans to stick to my nails...
Bottle shot: China Glaze Sand Dolla Make You Holla, Aly's Dream Polish Salmon, and Finger Paints microbeads in Sugar-Coated.
In addition to the Spring Renewal linkup, please check out this link to The Nail Files linkup. Lots of fun manis today!
Today's Golden Oldie Thursday is Hawt Pink. Hawt. Because I'm hip like that. This is Orly Oh, Cabana Boy, a hot pink with a purple shimmer.
I saw these awesome stamped Tropical Mermaid nails by IG alygaterr, and, while I don't have that stamp, it inspired me to draw these things on my nails. I did say "inspired" not "copied'. There is a reason for that...
I thought a nice contrast to the black and pink would be Maybelline Bold Gold.
I love how topcoat smooths out all the rough brushlines and makes it look like pink and gold, big, fluffy clouds.
Bottle shot: Orly Oh Cabana Boy, black nail art striper, and Maybelline Bold Gold.
What's your favorite way to wear hot pink? On your tips? On your lips? In your hair? Or secretly, like sexy hot pink underwear?
