Playing Catch Up: Birthday Gifts

I have wonderful friends. For my birthday, they got me several nail polish things!

My friend Kristin gave me this neat 3-in-1 nail polish pen. You can paint, draw, and add rhinestones. She also got me a little L.A. Colors mini set. 

Nana got me Nutra Nail Gel Perfect in "Tangerine", Sally Hansen Salon Effects in "Misbehaved", Wet n Wild in "The Clock Strikes Orange". She also got me a little set of pastel gel pens. Turns out you can use them for nail art too! 

I tested out the Gel Perfect. It is very strange. You do not need an LED or UV lamp. You put on an activator,  then mix the color in with it, switch brushes, and repeat. It smelled like super glue exactly. I jokingly said how I super glued nail polish to my fingers. I probably did. It dried alright but it had a weird feeling and my nails felt freaky too. Not that 'freaky' is a very descriptive word, but it did feel weird. The color was pretty though!

And last but not least, Sarah got me this neat Caviar Bead set. It comes with pink and silver beads and nail polish and a mixing dish for the beads. I tested it out and I LOVE the pink polish. It is very, very pretty.

NOTD: Florida Flamingos

It's summer vacation time!!! To kick off my summer, I did a couple of designs. I call these my derpy flamingos. Haha! I have a huge collection of postcards so I went to them to figure out my inspiration. Speaking of postcards, I created a new blog about them! It is called Postcards, Many Postcards. Here is the link: postcardsmanypostcards.blogspot.com .

To make that light pinky green color, I layered the Sally Hansen HD with the Pure Ice. I am pleased with how it came out!
I used two of the loose glitters I got for Christmas!

Nail polish used:
Sally Hansen "Resolution"
Pure Ice "First Love"
Diamond Cosmetics in frosty pink
Sinful Colors "Snow Me White"
+ Americana "Ebony"

Florida Flamingos at Rare Bird Farms

NOTD: Blue with Mod Dots

This is a very modern and fun design. The dots are supposed to look like a kind of gradient. I thought these were some interesting colors to use, but all together they look cool! The look a bit like fish scales.
I have three blues that look like this Sally Hansen blue, one I bought and the other two were gifts from friends. I am thinking about doing a comparison post to show how similar they are and show which one is the better deal!

Nail Polish Used:
Sally Hansen "Blue Me Away!"
Nicole "A Lit-Teal Bit of Love"
Wet n Wild "Ebony Hates Chris"
E.L.F medium nude
Pure Ice "Twinkle"
Sinful Colors "Snow Me White"

my pinky got smudged so I just cut it out, haha

Inspired by: MissJenFabulous 

NOTD: Neon Splatter

This sure was messy! I put down a plastic bag on top of the desk I work at so nail polish wouldn't get everywhere! Good thinking. I also discovered something I knew but at the time I did this, I wasn't thinking. Don't EVER put nail polish thinner on a styrofoam plate. It bubbles and melts.......

All you have to do is mix a few drops of nail polish with thinner together till it is thin enough to splatter on nails. Take the nail polish brush and gently tap on it to get the drops. You should tape around your nails or use Vaseline to make cleanup easy. As I said, this gets messy!!

Nail Polish Used:
E.L.F "Neon Pink"
          "Neon Green"
          dark purple
Pure Ice "Hot Tamale"
Sinful Colors "Me First"
Sally Hansen "Blue Me Away!"

Day 10: Butterflies

This has been on my list of manicures to try for a while now! It is an abstract monarch inspired water marble butterfly wing. My water marble skills are still in the making but it still turned out nice!

Nail Polish Used:
For the water marble and detalis:

Wet n Wild "Ebony Hates Chris"

Pure Ice "Mint Dream"

Sinful Colors "Snow Me White"

For the Base Colors:

Pure Ice "Calypso"

Sally Hansen "Royal Romance"

NYC "Classic Coral Creme"

Sally Hansen "Resolution"

Wet n Wild "Sunny Side Up"

Inspired by: ProfessionalDQ

Day 4: April Showers

This April rain scene had some interesting things happen to it...... The yellow umbrella slid down my nail last night so it is all bunched up and weird. I didn't want to fix it because I will be taking it off after I write this post!! I figured you would get what I was trying to do!! The raindrops coming from nowhere are watering the grass which is trying to grow.Not my best design plan ever but I'll go with it!

Nail Polish Used:
Wet n Wild "Rain Check"
Sinful Colors "Why Not"
Diamond Cosmetics in green, bold yellow, black, and brown
Sally Hansen "Mint Sorbet"

APRIL NAIL CHALLENGE! Day 1: Spring Pastels

Guess what!? I am starting another nail art challenge!! Remember my 31 Day Challenge? Whew,  that was fun! I was looking for more challenges recently and I found this one. I am just in time before it is too late to do it for April! I am making it easier on myself this time around. I am painting out two days at a time, one day on each hand. I blog them both at the same time then I don't have to worry about making time everyday to post. Day one is Spring Pastels!

I only have three pastel colors so color blocking worked out great for this look! I thought it was going to be hard keeping everything straight but it really wasn't. Maybe I am getting better about using my left hand. Yay!
I decided to go to bed before taking pictures and in the morning they came out are creased up. I tried to save them with some thick top coat but you can still see the lines, oh well!

Nail Polish Used:
Sinful Colors "Snow Me White" and "Unicorn"
Sally Hansen "Lacey Lilac" and "Mint Sorbet"

NOTD: Reciprocal Gradient

The look today is a new style I found out about called the Reciprocal Gradient. You first make a normal gradient, put striping tape on it, then do the same color gradients going the opposite way. It looks simple, and it is, but this took me forever to do. The dang striping tape had a mind of its own and the nail polish took a very long time to dry before the tapes could go on. You will see on my little finger that some of the bottom gradient came up. :( There was really no way for me to fix it so I had to leave it be. Some also came up on my thumb but I hid that in the picture.

This is worth trying again not only to make it look better but also there are so many color combos that would be amazing like this.

Nail Polish Used:

Wet n Wild "Poison Apple"
Sally Hansen "Lacey Lilac"
Sinful Colors "Snow Me White"

+ Striping tape 

Please excuse the messy cuticles. When I was trying to clean up I kept messing up the look so I also left that be. 

Striping tape, this one is in silver. I also have a red one.

Inspired by: My Simple Little Pleasures 

Nail Care + How to Make Cuticle Oil

I stumbled across a video today that was all about how to make your own cuticle oil. When it got to the ingredients I was very happy that I had everything. The only thing I did not have was a bottle. I looked every where to find something that may work, then it hit me... I have a nearly empty bottle of base coat that I can clean and use!!
I emptied out what was left into the new bottle my new bottle of Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails base coat and started the cleaning. I put 100% pure acetone into it, shook it up, dumped it out, and rinsed it. I then took cotton balls and q-tips to clean the cap and the rim. I dipped the brush in acetone and rubbed it till there was no polish left. I rinsed it with soapy water, went back and got anything that still smelled like nail polish again, rinsed and soaked again, till I knew it was clean.
Now onto the oil inspired by YummyNails!

Ingredients:
EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
Essential Scented Oil of your choice (I have lavender oil)
Lemon Juice

Step 1. Fill most of your container with the EVOO. (I didn't have olive oil much left, that's why my finished product isn't all the way full)
Step 2. Add your essential oil, about 10 drops, till you reach your desired scent.
Step 3. Add about 10 drops of lemon juice. This helps stimulate nail growth!
Step 4. Shake it all up.

That's all! Simple, quick, and it works great!
I added butterflies to the bottle as decoration. I have this book of sample wallpaper so I cut out some tiny butterflies. I have also made a little vase using this idea. This technique is inspired by KlairedeLysdotcom.
If you would like other recipes that target different things, I found this great website called Natural Nail Care Recipes.

Next up, what I use for nail and hand care.

Cuticle oils. From the left: Sally Hansen Vitamin E Nail & Cuticle Oil, my homemade oil, and Sally Hansen Dry Kwik. The Dry Kwik is put on after you paint your nails, it helps the dry time and is made with mineral oil that you can rub into your cuticles after the polish dries.

My go to base coat, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails. I also use the Palladio Green Tea Nail Fortifier to fill in ridges and strengthen my nails. I put it on under my base coat.

I haven't used this in a while, it smells kinda weird. When I do use it for a week, it works!

These are my two favorite hand/body lotions right now. They absorb quickly and smell so good! The tall one is In Bloom by Reese Witherspoon. I have the body wash and perfume that go with it. I got them in a silent auction basket! The second one is Bath and Body Works White Tea and Ginger. I also have the matching body wash and fragrance. 

Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial

I love Bollywood movies. I just can't get enough! (My favorite Indian actor is Shahrukh Khan, just in case you were wondering). I was on ye ol' YouTube and found this Bollywood inspired look! I decided to use it for today's challenge.
My nails couldn't handle the full design so I simplified it just a tad. Here is the original video:

By: Dollface22772

I was taking a Culture of India class at my local public library and I learned how to write some things in Sanskrit. I decided to include a little extra something at the bottom of this post. If you like Henna, I have a post about some that my friend did on my hands.

Polish Used:
Sally Hansen "Blue Me Away!" (Thank you so much Kristen for letting me have this)
Sinful Colors "Flower Girl"

Glitters:
Pink Glitter
Large gold hexagonal glitter
5mm yellow rhinestones
Mini rhinestones in pink and clear

5mm

mini stones

Karen written in none other than, nail polish!

NOTD: Birthday Nails!

Yesterday was my birthday! For it, I decided I needed some festive nail art. I was thinking about candles or maybe balloons, but I was looking pictures up and found cupcake nails! I just cannot get over how cute they came out!!!! I used some new polish I have not used before and had lots of fun creating these cupcakes!!

To make them I first painted on Sally Hansen "Royal Romance" then made a deep french manicure in Revlon "Always Flaunting". Next, I took my new pink striper "Frosty Pink" and made lines to make the cupcake liner. After that I took my dotting tool and made the frosting. I then added sprinkles and a cherry! To top it off I put on some sparkle glitter polish.

Nail Polish used:
Sally Hansen "Royal Romance"
Revlon "Always Flaunting"
Nail Art by Diamond Cosmetics "Frosty Pink"
NYC "White French Tip" and "Big Red Apple"
Pure Ice "Hot Tamale", "Bite Me!". and "Don't You Wish"

Inspired by: luxuriousnails