31DC2013 Day 7: Black and White

Hey everyone

Today's nails are from yesterday. I really didn't care for how this turned out because my top coat smeared my OPI Spotted. 

I started off with OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls and then added the Black Spotted. I used the corner of the brush and softly dragged it down. It turned out great with little spots like on the thumb. But sadly they all smeared. It was so much cuter. 

31DC2013 Day 2: Orange

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I have enough Saran Wrap mani for you today. I've never tried it with bright colors. I've gotta say, I love the result. This is using Zoya's Paz and OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls. 

Totally crazy right?! I love it. Hope you guys enjoy it!

OPI Rock Goddess Minis

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Today I have the fall mini set from OPI. This year's set is called Rock Goddess. 

It came with Yellopalooza, Stand In Lime For Days, Rolling Bones, and The Drummer is Hot. As well as a skull bracelet. I got this from my local Cost Cutters for $12.95. 

First up we have Yellopalooza. 

I used 3 coats in the photo but you can get away with 2 if you use thicker coats. The formula was better than most yellow polishes I run into. I think a lot if it had to do with the shade. It's a lovely sunshine yellow and I have the most trouble with pastel yellows.

I did have an issue with it staining my cuticle area and the surrounding skin, but not my nails. Thank goodness for base coats. 

Next up we have Stand in Lime for Days. 

I did not like this polish. It's not bad once you put enough coats on. However this picture is 3 coats and there's still VNL (visible nail line). The first coat was basically green tinted water and the second made it a streaky mess. The last coat was in the thicker side. 

I wish this would have been more opaque because it is a lovely green in the bottle. 

Next is Rolling Bones. 

I'll be honest this polish infuriates me. In case you can't tell this is Number One Nemesis with a new name. If I didn't have NON I would enjoy this polish a lot more but the Spiderman collection was such a huge hit. There was even a mini set which included NON. So it makes me wonder if the minis didn't sell so they just threw it in here. 

This polish doesn't really fit the others anyway. It seems very out of place. This was two coats and applied easily. 

Here are both bottles. Rolling Bones looks like it would be blue right?

Nope they are they exact same. NON is on my middle and pinkie nail. RB is on my index and ring finger. 

But enough of polishes that make me angry. Last is The Drummer is Hot. 

If you are undecided on this mini set you need to buy it just for this polish. Two coats here and I really only needed one. Such a bright yet not neon red orange. I honest don't have anything like it in my collection. 

I wish this came full sized. By the time Fall arrives I think my mini will be completely empty. 

All in all this collection was ok. I enjoyed half of the polishes. Technically three, but Rolling Bones is a repeat. Have you guys purchased this mini set? What did you think?

**EDIT** Turns out the entire collection is repeats. Yellowpalooza is Nicole by OPI's Hit the Lights. Stand in Lime For Days is Did It On Em. Rolling Bones is Number One Nemesis. And The Drummer is Hot is Roll In The Hague. Kind of disappointing that they are all repeats but at least I can get a full size of The Drummer is Hot!

 

Youtube Tutorial Tuesday: Distressed American Flag Nail Art Tutorial

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Today I have a YTT from PackAPunchPolish. Her video takes Saran Wrap Manis to a whole new level. Check our her video below.

How awesome are these? Here is my attempt.

As you can see I did not add the stars in. I think it looks much better without the flags, and you can still see what it is. I used OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Pure Ice's Celestial, and Zoya's Quinn. I hope you guys like this edition of YTT!

Julep Comparisons

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Today I have the comparison shots from my Julep Secret Store purchases. First up we have Sally.

We have Julep's Sally, OPI's My Vampire Is Buff, and Julep's Kennedy. I honestly grabbed Kennedy by mistake thinking it was Sally. As you can see via the bottle these all look quite different.

The swatches aren't similar at all either. Thumb, index, and pinky are all Sally. Ring is MVIB, and the middle is Kennedy. Sally  has a more peach tone to it where as MVIB has a very white base to it. Kennedy is also khaki as described compared to Sally. Now if I was going to pick a favorite out of all of these, it would certainly be Sally. MVIB is so streaky and thin. It took 3 coats to get it smooth. Kennedy and Sally are both 2 coats. Kennedy is just a strange yellow khaki that I wouldn't use for a flesh tone at all. While Sally doesn't match my skin tone at all, I still think it's the best option for a flesh color if you're doing nail art. 

Next we have Korin's comparisons. 

They all look fairly similar. We have Zoya's Mitzi, Julep's Korin, Sinful Colors' Innocent, Wet N Wild's Toss Me A Lifesavers, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri's Lickety-Split Lime. 

On the thumb we have Mitzi, index has Korin, middle has Innocent, ring has TMAL, and pinky has LSL. Mitzi and Innocent are completely dupes of each other. Mitzi just happens to have a matte finish. They are both very close to Korin, it's just a bit darker. A person who's not obsessed with nail polish would tell you they are the exact same polish. TMAL is a dark shimmery green and LSL is lighter than TMAL without the shimmer. Korin is $14.99, Mitzi is $8 and Innocent is $1.99. If you're looking to save money then Innocent is what you need to pick up. But formula wise you need Korin. Mitzi is very streaky and you can even see the bumps in this picture. Innocent isn't that bad with 2 coats, but Korin you can totally get away with one. It all depends on a personal preference. My pick is Korin hands down. 

Those were my comparisons. If you'd like to see more leave me a comment and I'll start working on more of these. I hope you enjoyed today's post!

4th of July 2013

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I have some nail art for you today! This is one of two designs that I did for 4th of July. The 2nd design I'm going to feature on Tuesday for YTT. This design is a drip mani. 

I started off with a base coat and 2 thin coats of OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls. I then tapped off my nails using striping tape. I added 1 coat of Zoya's Sooki and added a coat of Seche Vite. Once it was dry I then used Pure Ice's Celestial to make the drips. Using a toothpick I finally added the smaller dots and added a final top coat of Seche Vite. 

What do you guys think of my first 4th of July mani of 2013? Stay tuned for more manis!

MSMD Monday: Checker Print like Rebecca

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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! :)

Youtube Tutorial Tuesday: Beach Balls

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Today I have another YTT design inspired by CutePolish. Below is her video.

Super cute right? Well I tried something a little different. I used my whole nail and used matte vs shiny dots as the rest of my nail design.

The final product turned out great. Polish used: 

1. OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls
2. Zoya's Sookie
3. Sally Hansen Insta-Dri's Lightning
4. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's Blue Me Away

They do totally remind me of Legos though. May have to try those in the very near future. Hope you guys like these!

Youtube Tutorial Tuesday: Floral Doodle

Hey everyone

Today I have another design from CutePolish. This design was perfect for 3 different reasons. 

1. I love CutePolish
2. I needed flowers for my Instagram challenge
3. I needed a Youtube video

Perfect right? This was a super cute design that I'm very excited to show you guys. Here's the video:

My colors are a little darker than what CutePolish picked, but I think it's cute nonetheless. My flowers are totally crazy looking too. 

I probably should have used a toothpick or a dotting tool, I think they would have looked better than. But they are still cute. 

Polish Used:

1. OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls
2. NYC's Midtown Mimosa
3. Orly's Snowcone (which seriously smells bad)
4. Sally Hansen Insta-Dri's Mango Motion
5. Salon Perfect (Long Brush)'s Black

I made sure to have the color picking out past the flower. I gives it a little something extra I think. What do you guys think? I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

MSMD Monday: Palm Tree Gradient

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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

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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!

Youtube Tutorial Tuesday: Strawberries

Hey everyone

I know where in the world have I been?! I was going to update via the app last night, but I'm such a weirdo when it comes to everything looking the same that I just couldn't do it. Plus my nails worked better with a Tuesday theme.

Yesterday was the 20th and the #nailartmay challenge on Instagram for the day was Strawberries. I went on Youtube and found this tutorial.

And I totally didn't stick with just this plan. I wanted to challenge myself. I added to the design and brought back and oldie but a goodie. 

Chocolate covered strawberries! And because the video was Strawberries and Cream themed I did pink strawberries with cream drips. I'll admit I like the red strawberries so much more, but I still think the overall nail design is adorable. What do you guys think?

Polishes Used:

1. Revlon's Firefox
2. Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen's Green
3. Nail Art Long Brush's Cocoa
4. Kiss Long Brush's Yellow
5. Wet N Wild's Tickled Pink
6. Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen's Chartreuse
7. OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls

And just because I'm awesome, here's the first time I attempted this design.

Did I mention you guys aren't allowed to judge my old nails? :D I'm thinking of adding in a Throwback Thursday where I redo old designs, what do you think?

MSMD Monday: Mosaic

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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!

Youtube Tutorial Tuesday: Stitch & Hibiscus

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This week's YTT is special. I'm actually going to be showing you 2 different videos that I followed for my most recent mani. Both videos are from TotallyCoolNails. On Instagam I'm doing a challenge where certain days through the month we have a specific design. This one was for flowers. I actually found this Stitch video first.

But I wasn't a fan of the flowers, I think they are actually leaves. But I wanted to do these nails so I had to find a different flower video. So I found this one.

I thought it was perfect because it matches the color scheme that was I was using. Here is the final product!

They turned out so great! I love them. And they were super popular on Instagram which completely made my day. I was so happy with how they turned out. 

Colors Used:

1. Zoya's Sooki
2. OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls
3. Kiss Long Brush's Soft Blue
4. Sally Hansen Insta-Dri's Blue Away
5. Pure Ice's Celestial
6. Art Deco Long Brush's White
7. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's Black Out

I hope you guys enjoyed my nails and YTT this week!

MSMD Monday: May Flowers

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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!

May the Fourth Be With You & Revenge of the Fifth

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Can you tell what today's theme is? Star Wars!!! Yesterday was Star Wars Day and today is a little special too. I could not think of anything to do for these nails. I almost went with a Lego Star Wars theme. Until I thought of my nephew. He's obsessed with Angry Birds. He's played since it first came out and he's so much better at it then me. If I can't beat a level I had my phone to him and he beats it with 3 stars. He's a true genius. He became obsessed with Star Wars once they released Angry Birds Star Wars so why not!

I love how they turned out! I used a lot of polish for this one. 

1. OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls
2. Zoya's Ibiza
3. Love & Beauty's Midnight
4. Zoya's Sooki
5. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's Blue Me Away
6. Pure Ice's Kiss Me Here
7. Art Deco Long Brush's Black
8. Art Deco Long Brush's White
9. Sinful Colors' Star Fish
10. Nail Art Long Brush's Cocoa
11. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's Sun Kissed
12. China Glaze's Trendsetter
13. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's Black Out
14. Zoya's Trixie

So many polishes. I ended up having to go onto Youtube to see how to draw out the birds. Took me quite a bit to finish, but I'm so happy with the results. My sister showed my nephew and he said, "Oh my god. I can't believe she can do that. She needs to make Minoauk Pig and Boba Fett." Totally felt like a rockstar. Hope you enjoyed the nails! 

Cheetah, Leopard, whatever...

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I recently did 3 different cheetah manicures in the span of 2 days. I had to go on a business trip to Ohio recently. Before I left I watched the Devil Wears Prada and I was inspired by Andie's coat. That's where this first mani comes in.

This is a half moon mani using Revlon's Jaded Night, Sinful Color's Nude and Orly's Prince Charming. I love how this turned out so much. It made my nails look so long and I have little nubbins! I also took my son to his very first zoo as an early birthday present, so that's also why there's an animal print theme. 

Next my friend Courtney came with us and wanted me to do her nails. So I packed a bunch of neon colors and did a different cheetah design. 

This is using OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Wet N Wild's Limelight, Zoya's Paz, Essense's Wanna Be Your Sunshine, and Pure Ice's Celestial. These turned out super cute and she loved them. So it was perfect.

This last one is one of my favorite manicures I did for the month of April. This features Sinful Color's Nude and Zoya's Phoebe. I just love the color combo and I'll have to use it again. 

Youtube Tutorial Tuesday: The Lorax

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I have a real treat for you today. This mani is actually a live update. There's 40 minutes left of Tuesday, I just did this mani and am currently still wearing it. I also really don't like the way these turned out. Typically I'm pleased with everything. Not so much this time around. And it's of no fault of the artist. I suck today. :P Today's video comes from TotallyCoolNails.

The video is wonderful. I love the way her nails turned out. I think my biggest problem is she is using paint and I'm using polish. And my striper is getting old, I need a new one. 

So much smearing. I'm really disappointed by these. And I though the trunk of the tree looked so great. It's the top of the trees. Look at my middle finger! That's like some Chucky Finster hair. 

Polished Used:

1. NYC's Tudor City Teal
2. NYC's Midtown Mimosa
3. Zoya's Jancyn
4. Kiss' Pink
5. Kiss' Lilac
6. Art Deco Long Brush's Black
7. Orly's Snowcone
8. OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Wales
9. Orly's Prince Charming

I'm also going to include some full swatches of Jancyn. 

These are some old swatches. Look at that old watermark. I also got this color on sale. I thought it was Arizona when I first grabbed it. Then I saw it wasn't, but was still on sale. Close enough for me.

I will say it can stain a bit, so always make sure you were a basecoat.

What do you guys think? All right comparison or epic fail?

MSMD Monday: Hungry Hungry Hippos

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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

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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!