MSMD Monday: Kite Tails

Hey everyone

Today I have a design from Paulina's Passion. She did these amazing kite tail nails that I knew would be perfect for Bow Day. What is Bow Day you ask? I started a new challenge on Instagram. The Alphabet Challenge. Today is B for Bows. Yesterday was A for Aztec but it'll be featured tomorrow for YTT. You can view Paulina's design here! 

Polishes used:

1. Zoya's Kristen
2. Zoya's Wednesday
3. Zoya's Katy
4. Zoya's Mira
5. Zoya's Paz
6. Julep's Something Blue
7. China Glaze's Fairy Dust

So what do you think? I love them.They were easier than I was expecting which is certainly a plus after working on a Monday. :) Hope you guys enjoyed today's Monkey See Monkey Do Monday.

MSMD Monday: Leopard Gradient

Hey everyone

Today I have a fantastic new spin on traditional animal prints. The design was originally done by Very Emily. She was nice enough to also include a tutorial as well. 

The polishes I used today were Zoya's Sookie, Zoya's Paz, Zoya's Katy, and Julep's Alaina. I just adore how this turned out. You can read Emily's post here. I hope you enjoyed today's MSMD Monday. 

MSMD Monday: Checker Print like Rebecca

Hey everyone

For this edition of Monkey See Monday Do Monday we have Rebecca from Rebecca Likes Nails! She's my favorite blogger and anytime I can replicate her nails, it's a win in my book. Today's pattern is a stamp design. Now I haven't done an actual stamp in forever. Stamp Sunday quickly ended. This is my warning that they are not perfect, but stamping isn't always perfect. 

I started off with OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls on all of my nails except for my ring finger which has Zoya's Katy. I then added Maybelline's Clearly Spotted on my ring finger. (Look out for the full review of 3 of the new Maybelline's Polka Dot collection soon!). Using Wet N Wild's Black Cream and Salon Express Plate SE22 I created the checker pattern on the other nails. 

Here's Rebecca's nails here. I hope you guys like them and that I did Rebecca justice! :)

MSMD Monday: Matte Nude Cheetah Print

Hey everyone

I'm cutting it awful close today! I have a very special MSMD Monday. I have been lusting after these nails for forever. Today's feature is by PackAPunchPolish. I love her name, it's so much fun to say. Anyway, she did this amazing matte cheetah print that I knew I would have to do some day. Well that day is today!

I started off with 2 coats of Love & Beauty's Camel. It's so pretty. I love it. Even if it gives me a slight case of lobster hands. 

I used Pure Ice's Beware to set up the glitter dots and then used my black striper to outline the print.

As you can see I used silver glitter for mine instead of goal. I think the gold would have looked better, but I can't seem to find the right gold. 

I then used my new favorite matte top coat, NYC's Matte Me Crazy. 

Seriously this matte finish is amazing. I love it more than Essie's. 

Here's the final product. I love it! I ended up not doing it on all of the nails and I really like the accent nails. I almost wish I would have used brown instead of black for the outlines though. What do you think?

MSMD Monday: Ikat

Hey everyone

Today I have a special mani for you. Today we are featuring an Ikat design. Funny enough I discovered I'd been mispronouncing it. I've been saying it eye-cat. It's apparently ee-kaht. Go figure. I was going to look for a Youtube video to feature an Ikat design on Youtube Tutorial Tuesday, however I couldn't find one as good as Kayla's tutorial on her blog. Who am I talking about you ask? Kayla at KaylaShevonne. She did a picture step by step tutorial that's fantastic.

Polishes Used: 

1. Salon Perfect's Bellini
2. Art Deco Long Brush's White
3. Salon Perfect's Black
4. An unnamed blue polish by Sweet T Lacquer (Tara's Nail Polish aka Me!)

I love it! I've seen this design before and never really was that interested in it, but it's a design I haven't tried so I had to at least attempt it. Like I said Kayla's tutorial is fantastic, so I really didn't have a problem attempting this design. Here tutorial is HERE I recommend trying it out if you are at all interested in Ikat. I hope you enjoyed today's mani!

MSMD Monday: Palm Tree Gradient

Hey everyone

Today I have a gradient for you. I love doing these. Granted I don't do them like other people apparently. I start by putting on the top color, this is typically the lightest color. Then I start sponging them on starting at the bottom and going up until it's smoothed in with the lightest polish. Then if I mess up I can get the top color and go back over with a sponge. Does that even remotely make sense? I might need to do a video to show you what I mean. 

Anyway, one of my favorite bloggers, Alice from OneNailToRuleThemAll, did this gradient palm tree design. I immediately fell in love with it. There's also a June Nail Art tag on Instagram and day 1 was Summer. (Go follow me there!) I knew this design would be perfect, it just screams summer to me.

I love it! These turned out so great. I haven't done palm trees in almost 2 years, it's like riding a bike. Seriously love these. 

Polish Used:

1. OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls (the base)
2. NYC's Midtown Mimosa 
3. Salon Perfect's Bellini
4. Sinful Colors' Summer Peach
5. Salon Perfect (Long Brush)'s Black

Check out Alice's design HERE. She finished hers with a matte top coat, but I just couldn't leave them matte. I work at a computer all day and matte polish doesn't last long with me. I want these bad boys to last. Love them!

I do want to take a second to talk about Salon Perfect's long brush collection. The bottle is a nightmare. I was shaking it and the balls are obviously way to big and the bottle shattered in my hand. The brush is fantastic though, so I took an hour or so out of my life to try to salvage the black base and move it into an Art Deco bottle. Luckily the brush can screw on to those bottles. This polish is also strange. It dries matte and if you have put on a top coat before you dry, you can literally just wipe it off and start over. This can be both good and bad. Another bad thing about them is that it's a completely pain to get off if it gets on your skin. The brush is completely worth all of the trouble though. It's very firm and shorter than most long brush's. I very much enjoy drawing with it. Keep in mind this is only the long brush collection. The regular bottles are fantastic and they have great colors to chose from. 

I really hope you have enjoyed today's edition of MSMD Monday!

MSMD Monday: Dotted Gradient

Hey everyone

Today I have a fantastic little mani for you that I honestly didn't expect to love as much as I do. Today's design comes from Laura at PolishAllTheNails. I love Laura. I honestly have not seen anyone do all of the fantastic stuff she does with glitter. Loose glitter at that. She has a tremendous amount of patience and I know I could never do what she does. Thankfully her design that I'm featuring today features glitter polish and not loose glitter. She calls these Stepping Stones. 

I love it! Super cute and simple. I'm really enjoying the glitter peaking out from behind the dots. 

Polish Used: 

1. Pure Ice's Bewear
2. Pure Ice's Kiss Me Here
3. Art Deco Long Brush's Black
4. OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls

Here's a link to Laura's blog post. I hope you guys enjoy our designs as much as I have!

MSMD Monday: Mosaic

Hey everyone

Today's MSMD Monday comes from a French Blogger named Pshiit. Art really is universal. I didn't realize her entire blog was in French until I actually opened it and read her blog (instead of just searching her on Google). I do not speak nor to I read French so I went to Google Translate. It can really be a hit or a miss. For example, here is a direct quote from her page after Google butchers it, "I propose today a nail art rather easy to achieve if you are a little careful, but first I present the precious which I used to carry you!" It was okay at first, but the last part had me scratching my head. Seriously Google, get it together! I ended up just skimmed through the actual writing and looked at the pictures. The best thing about Pshiiit? She has little GIFs at the end of her posts that show tutorials for her designs. I love it so much, I could not resist remaking her mosaic nails. Pshiiit did a bright spring design, I did a pastel design for Mother's Day. This design uses striping tape! I recently bought a ton of striping tape on Ebay and I'm completely in love. Every nail artist should get striping tape, there's so much you can do with it!

I love how it turned out. It's so pretty and girly. It's very Mother's Day appropriate if you ask me. 

Polish Used:

1. OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls
2. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's Lacey Lilac
3. China Glaze's Lemon Fizz
4. Sinful Colors' Star Fish
5. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's Mint Sorbet
6. Pure Ice's Beware

Here's a link to Pshiiit's blog post. I hope you guys enjoy my design and Pshiiit's as much as I have!

MSMD Monday: May Flowers

Hey everyone

Today I have nails that I did inspired by Sammy at the Nailasaurus. I seriously love her work. She's in my top 5 nail bloggers. This mani features striping tape, accent glitter nails, and roses. It is one girly mani that's for sure. But I got a ton of compliments on it. I even got a complement from the nail salon by my work. That basically means I have arrived in case you didn't know. :)

I seriously loved these, they turned out so cute. The polishes I used were Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's Mint Sorbet, OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Sinful Colors' Starfish, Zoya's Katy, Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Green (leaves), and Pure Ice's Beware. 

I posted these on Instagram first (like always, check me out on Instagram!!!) and Sammy even commented. She said, "Amazing. And that was so fast!" I totally had a fangirl moment. Here's a link to Sammy's nails HERE. I hope you guys love these nails as much as I did!

MSMD Monday: Basketball

Hey everyone

How are you this wonderful Monday morning? Hating the world? Not me! I'm on vacation for the next week! Yes! So I'm super excited. Today's nails are from the vault. I did these originally for Selection Sunday, but history was made today so I had to bring them out. 

Today NBA star Jason Collins came out as gay. He is the first active NBA star to come out. This is such a huge deal to me. Usually a gay sports star doesn't come out for fear of losing his fan base or even locker room issues. To see Jason Collins come out gives me hope that others will stand up for themselves and come out, regardless of their professional statuses. 

Now on to the nails. Leslie over at Polish Art Addiction did these nails first and I totally copied. I couldn't resist, they are so cute. 

I'm going to be honest, I'm not for certain which polishes I used. I know the brown is Pure Ice's Magic and I think the stamp was from a Bundle Monster plate, but that's pretty much all I remember. Leslie's wonderful post is HERE. I hope you guys enjoyed her design as much as I did. 

MSMD Monday: Hungry Hungry Hippos

Hey everyone

Today I bring to you a design done by Jacki at Adventures in Acetone. She did these Hungry Hungry Hippos nails that I just adore. I loved playing that game as a kid, but I didn't get to play it very often. I was always a little over eager and so I slammed on the little lever causing a lot of noise. I had to recreate these nails for the little girl that never got to play for very long. 

I did do something a little different. To represent the little marbles that they were after I had to attach some pearls for that 3D look. I love how they turned out. The little blue guy is my favorite just because his smile is so cute. 

Polish:

1. Blue Hippo Skin: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Blue Away
2. Blue Hippo Details: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Blue Me Away
3. Yellow Hippo Skin: Essence in Be My Sunshine
4. Yellow Hippo Detail: Zoya in Pippa
5. Green Hippo Skin: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mint Sorbet
6. Green Hippo Detail: Zoya in Veruschka
7. Coral Hippo Skin: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Carribean Coral
8. Coral Hippo Detail: FingerPaints in MichelTangelo
9. Base and Eyes: OPI in My Boyfriend Scales Walls
10. Details: Art Deco Long Brush in Black
11. Red: Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen

Yeah that's a lot of polish, but the end result is totally worth it. Here's the link to Jacki's design: LINKAGE I hope you guys like this weeks edition of MSMD Mondays. 

MSMD Monday: Life's A Beach

Hey everyone

Today I tackle the great Nailasaurus. Last September she posted a mani for the Beauty and Beach competition. I'd just gotten acrylics done and I had to replicate this design she did on her perfectly square nails.

I started off with painting my nails 2 coats of Love and Beauty's Camel. Then I sponged on OPI's My Boyfriend scales walls. 

I actually left my nails with this French Gradient for a whole day. I really liked it and couldn't part with it right away. The next day took the white further up my nail and sponged on some of Zoya's Skylar (which I got on sale for $5.99 at Ulta!). And to make it look like foam I lightly went back over Skylar with MBSW. 

I love the final product. It was such a cute manicure. Here's a link to Sam's original nails: LINKAGE

I've gotta say I love posting my nails that are inspired by someone else and having them like it on Instagram. I feel like bowing down screaming, "I am not worthy." Geeky I know, but I can't help it. I really hope you guys liked this week's MSMD Monday, I know I did!

MSMD: Cloud Mani

Hey everyone

I have a new Monkey See Monkey Do Monday for you. This week I'm attempting to tackle Nailside! It's a lot of pressure believe you me. But the cloud mani is one of my favorites. It looks like it would be difficult until you see her tutorial and then you all but smack yourself in the face because it's so easy. 

One of my favorite cloud designs of hers is called Fancy Clouds. So I had to replicate it. I'm going to be in a wedding in October and the bride had just decided on her colors, yellow and gray. 

The silver I used is my go to, Silver Mercedes from Pure Ice. The white is My Boyfriend Scales Walls from OPI and the yellow is Splendid from Hard Candy. 

It's certainly brighter than her Fancy Clouds, but a similar effect. I really enjoy doing cloud manis, you should expect to see more from me. I hope I did Nailside justice, let me know what you think!

MSMD Monday: Owl Edition

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I have a Monkey See Monkey Do Monday design!!! Yay! Slowly but surely I am getting back into the swing of things. This design was submitted in a contest on Instagram. Darcy at SparrowNails made a contest where you submitted art inspired by fellow nail art bloggers. I chose Alice from OneNailToRuleThemAll. Her design is featured <<here>>. Owls have become really popular lately and her design is perfect for Valentine's Day coming up. Here's my take on her design.

I even included the hoots. I was beyond pleased with these. The only real issue I have is my owl eyes were a little tiny. But other than that, I'm very happy. The winner hasn't been announced yet, so go on Instagram and like my picture! There's a link over there ---> somewhere. :)

Monkey See Monkey Do: Pinterest

Hey everyone,

I'm terrible about keeping a set schedule for my blog. I have so many swatches left to still post. Bag blogger bad! Anyway, today is Monkey See, Monkey Do Monday! I found my favorite pin on Pinterest and recreated it. And it took forever to search for the original creator. It made me happy to read that the person who actually did these nails was an professional nail technician and I was able to recreate them without their training. Here's the link to the pin: <Click Me>

China Glaze's Flip Flop Fantasy has taken off on Pinterest. Everyone and their brother who likes summer neons has repinned a swatch. So when I bought it at my local Sally's Beauty Supply on sale for $4.99 I knew I'd have to use it in my design. And I'm not a fan of yellowish looking gold so I used silver gliter. Sinful Color's Queen of Beauty to be exact. The chevron nail I did freehand with an Art Deco striper and Claire's Snowball as the base. I love these nails so much!

Flip Flop Fantasy can be a little streaky. I found myself having to go over it with 3 coats and the spot checking with a very thin 4th coat. Queen of Beauty has full coverage with 2 thick coats. I was very pleased with the ease of this glitter polish. It is also smooth and not rough like Milani's One Coat Glitters. I topped all each nail off with a coat of Seche Vete to seal it in. So shiny!

All in all this is my most successful MSMD Monday yet! Can't wait to do something for next week!

Let's Bowl, Let's Bowl, Let's Rock n' Roll!

Hey Everyone!


First, 5 points to whoever gets the movie that this title came from!


Second, It's Monday, which normally sucks, but not in the nail world! Mondays are Monkey See Monkey Do Monday! I have had this one planned out the minute I saw Katy from Nailed It! post this. My hubby is from Michigan and his whole family grew up in bowling alleys. Not to mention his sister's name is Katy. It was fate people!

Monkey See Monkey Do!

Hey everyone!


Today I have a Monkey See Monkey Do Monday Mani for you! I'm super excited to copy SincerelyStephanieNails.