Candy Cane Striping

For fun and simple nail art, you can't beat dots or stripes.  For a festive look, I used a tutorial from Sassy Paints to make candy cane nails! 

Milani White On The Spot is the best white polish I've found for doing a whole nail.  It dries opaque and glossy.

I found this set of holiday mini scented polishes at Claire's and decided to use some of them for candy canes. What better way then to start out with a sweet mint polish?  I love a sparkle over white.

The red glitter from Claire's was cranberry scented, and it actually went well with the sweet mint.  Who knew.

The green glitter in the Claire's set wasn't thick enough to use with a striper, so I substituted Kleancolor metallic green instead.   If you're one who is sensitive to the smell of Kleancolors, try pairing it with a scented polish! mmm.

I used the Milani silver art striper to add a little glitter.  

They almost smelled good enough to eat!

Do you like using scented polish?  I wasn't interested in buying a polish just for the scent, but I have to admit, it's a nice addition.

Butter London (Monday) Blues

Butter London has had some great sales lately, with BOGO at Ulta, and then a Buy-Two-Get-One at both Macy's and Ulta.  I'm waiting for them to go on sale at the Butter London website, so I can get the online exclusives!

In the meantime, I thought I'd show you some of the pretties I've picked up lately, and some nail art I did with them.

This is Artful Dodger, a beautiful aqua creme.  This was one of THE colors this summer, and I must own a baker's dozen blues like this.  I can't get enough!  

I like how it almost looks like a jelly, Caribbean blue in some lights, and like a creme in others.

And, here's the sad (blue) Monday part.  I tried to do a saran wrap mani with BL Royal Navy.. I had seen someone mention using the blue cover from a stamping plate for the saran wrap, so I tried it.

Kids, don't try this at home!  It was too stiff, and it pulled off too much color in some places, and not enough in others.  If this were done in red, it would look like a Dexter mani! lol.

 
Here's a happier blue mani - Victoriana.  This is one of my fave BL polishes.  It's got a great texture - almost a glitter, almost a scattered holo.. I don't know what it is, but it applies great and looks fabulous.

I decided to try and fake a laser tape mani by striping over it with BL Bluey and Artful Dodger.  

 

Even though it's not a perfect laser, I like how this turned out - and Bluey has a foil-like effect that looks great in nail art.

A laser mani is awesome, but this was a lot quicker - and I only needed a striping brush.  What do you think of a faux laser mani?

Starry, Blackened Bleu Night

When I look at this mani, I hear Josh Groban in my head, singing, Starry Starry Night.

I started with Barielle Blackened Bleu.  I wanted to show you what one coat looked like - weird, streaky, grey with a little bit of sparkle.

But, then look at what one more coat does.  Amazing!  Beautiful.

I added Sally Hansen Rock Candy for a little extra sparkle, but it didn't do much.  One of those polishes that looks better in the bottle than on the nail.

 Sally Hansen White Tip and a silver Nail Art Striper were used to make the stars.

Maybe I'll graduate to galaxy nails one day....

Beautiful, but temperamental!

I saw this Nails, inc matte red at Sephora for $5 and I could not resist!

This is Gatwick, a pin-up red. Like all mattes, it dried fast, so you have to work fast.  Two coats still left me with a little VNL, but I knew I'd do some artwork to cover it up, so I wasn't worried, otherwise, three coats should do the trick.

This had somewhat of an Oriental flair, I thought.  Kinda reminded me of the wall art in Chinese restaurants! I used a gold glitter striper first, then silver, and black.

As you can see, the red STAINED a lot.  Easy to take off my nails, but quite a mess to get off my fingers.  One of those polishes that is temperamental, but beautiful.. like me.  LOL.

Would you use a temperamental polish if you thought it was too pretty not to use?

Catch a Shooting Star

This gorgeous shimmery purple goodness is SpaRitual Shooting Star.  It's almost duochrome-y in that you can see blue and pink in the shimmer, but it's mostly berry and purple.  It has a great formula and that rubber grip cap that is so nice. 

 I think you need another picture of that shimmer.

I thought I'd add some random stripey things in different colors.  I started with a Nail Art striper in Frosty Pink.  It went on really sheer and didn't really look darker until much later.  I wish I'd gone a little thinner and lighter with the stripes.  I'll know next time that it changes over time.

Next, I took another Nail Art striper in White and did a similar pattern next to the pink

This Nail Art striper is called Urban Legend.  It's a magenta-purple color.  I put it mostly over the white to help it pop.

And then, I low-lighted the pattern with some black for contrast.

 
Finished with Seche Vite topcoat, and there you go.

Right hand:

The sales clerk at Ulta gave me a nice compliment, and said I should charge to do nails!  I don't think I'm there yet.  If I screw up my own nails, I keep acetone at the ready, and no one gets hurt or angry!  If you like it, I hope you'll try this and tell me how it went.

orange ombre - butterfly kisses

I wanted to do a sunny, summery nail, so I picked Zoya Arizona for my manicure today.  I am just starting to use Zoya polishes - they are a little thinner than what I've been used to, but they do have a nice formula.  I wasn't in love with Arizona, but I do set myself up for failure with these oranges.  I love the color, but it doesn't always love me back.  To temper the color, I decided to do an ombre nail with OPI Take the stage.

The interwebs say that this ombre nail is very ON TREND.  I hear that a lot.  On Trend.  I've never been on trend before.  With, uh, anything.  I'm not sure how I feel about it.

The ombre nail is simply another color sponged onto the nail using a makeup sponge.

Put a little polish on the sponge, and dab it gently (you can always add more polish, it's harder to take it away) about 1/2 to 3/4 up the nail.  I like to dab another layer at the tip to make it opaque at the bottom.

I really liked this look, and it made the Arizona more wearable for me.

A few hours later, though, I started playing around again....

...and used a sponge to add some yellow (Sally Hansen Xtreme in Mellow Yellow) to the nail, so I could try a new-to-me nail art, the monarch butterfly.

After sponging on the yellow and orange, take a nail striper and black polish (I used Pure Ice Black Rage) and make a curved line from the cuticle to the side of the nail bed.  Then make diagonal lines out from the curved lines.  Cap off each segment with a curved line, and fill in the tip.

Add white hi-light dots along the edge.  I also added some near the cuticle, but I didn't like it there as much.  You'll want to use a top coat to make the art pop and to protect it.

I was happy that my husband recognized these as butterfly wings when I showed him the mani.  I'm proud of my first try!  It's a little busy of a look for me, but I'd probably do it again for a theme mani, or as an accent nail.