"Snowbanks at Night" Manicure/Tutorial

Products Used:

Sally Hansen Double Duty Base/Top Coat

Julep - Lacey

Sally Hansen XTreme Wear - White On

Julep - Mia

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat

Dotting Tools

Video Tutorial:

"Preppy Peach" Manicure/Nail Art

I recently received an email from Julep with some "preppy" nail art photos in it.  I saw one similar to this and thought, " I've got some colors like that and this should be pretty simple".  And, it was!

Products Used:
Sinful Colors Base Coat
Sinful Colors - Hazard (coral/peach)
Sinful Colors - Unicorn (yellow stripe)
Zoya - Pandora (on ring finger)
Kiss Jet Dry Top Coat

"Star Spangled New Year" Manicure/Tutorial

This manicure is so sparkly and fun and sooooo easy to do.  You don't have to be great at painting your nails, there is no precision in this manicure, you can be rather sloppy and still get great results!!  Let's get started:

I started by painting one coat of Don't You Wish by Pure Ice over my entire bare nail:

Then I painted Dark Navy by ELF just on the tips of my nails.  It really doesn't have to be neat or a straight line becuase the edge gets covered.

Next I took a wet makeup sponge and painted a bit of Celeb City by Sally Hansen onto it and lightly dabbed it onto the center of my nail.

 

 

I stippled on a bit of Rockstar Pink by Sally Hansen.  It doesn't take much of this glitter polish.  It's very opaque so I just lightly dabbed it on.

Using Bundle Monster plate number BM21 I stamped a star design onto each nail with Black Out by Sally Hansen.

After applying Sally Hansen Dries Instantly Top Coat and clean up, we're all done!!  Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!!

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"Christmas Party" Manicure

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! This is the last installment in my Christmas themed manicures.  Its pretty simple but really stunning.  Everything Christmas nails should be, red and full of sparkle!  I wished the pictures captured how truly sparkly they are.  Thanks for reading and I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!!
Products Used:
Sally Hansen Miracle Cure as base coat
Sinful Colors - Sugar Sugar
Revlon - Stunning
Sally Hansen Dries Instantly Top Coat

"Braided Christmas Ribbon" Manicure

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Products Used:

Revlon Top Speed Nail Polish - Golden

Sinful Colors Nail Polish - San Francisco (Green)

Sinful Colors Nail Polish - Sugar Sugar (Red)

Sally Hansen Dries Instantly Top Coat

"Tiny Bubbles" Manicure/Tutorial

Teal has become a new modern holiday color.  I've been seeing it pop up more and more in holiday decorations, makeup and nail art.  It took me a while to figure out how to incorporate it in a manicure that it would be the feature color but still have a holiday feel to it.  I paired it with silver, because everything looks festive with silver, sparkle and shine!! LOL  I called this "tiny bubbles" because it made me think of a festive holiday cocktail.  Hope you enjoy!

I started with a base coat of Sally Hansen Miracle Cure and followed that with one coat of Celeb City also by Sally Hansen in the Xtreme Wear line.

Next I applied one coat of Stunning by Revlon for added sparkle.

With a medium sized dotting tool I applied random dots of Rise and Shine by Sinful Colors and White On by Sally Hansen to each nail.

On my thumb and ring finger I applied a smaller dot in the middle of each dot in the opposite color for a little added interest.  I finished with one coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly and cleaned excess polish from my cuticles.  Super easy and oh so cute!!

Holiday Gems Manicure

I got these nail stickers a couple of months ago specifically to use during the holidays.  I will have a review on them in a few days after I find out how long they wear.  Anyway!  This is the third manicure in my Holiday series.  I applied two coats of Golden by Revlon and the Sephora Nail Bling stickers in Red Chip over that followed by two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly Top Coat. 

 Revlon - Golden

 Sephora Nail Bling - Red Chip

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Shimmery Winter Night Manicure/Tutorial

This is the second manicure in my Holiday 2012 series.  I wanted to create a look that would reflect a dark starry winter sky sparkling with stars and snowflakes.  I like the way this manicure turned out but after it was done I felt like the snowflakes would have looked better in white instead of silver.  Oh well, there's always next year!  Here are the steps to acheive this manicure:

I started by painting my nails with two coats of Dark Navy by ELF

I used the Snowflake and the little stars on Bundle Monster Plate BM14

 I used Celeb City by Sally Hansen for the stamping.  I placed stars on my thumb and pinky finger and snowflakes on all fingers except my pinky.

 I dabbed a bit of Stunning by Revlon onto my stamping plate and with a dotting tool I picked up bits of the chunkier glitter and placed it randomly around my nails

I cleaned up and applied my favorite top coat, Dries Instantly by Sally Hansen and Voila!!  Shimmery Winter Nights!

Holiday Glitz Manicure

It's holiday time again!!  Has everyone done their shopping yet.  I am delighted to say that I am nearly done and almost everything is wrapped.  All of the holiday decorations and cheer put me in the mood to start my series of Holiday Manicures.  I just recently purchased a new glitter polish and couldn't wait to incorporate it in this series.  It's The Family Jewels by Pure Ice.  Very affordable polish I picked up at Wal Mart.  It is a clear polish LOADED with finely milled gold glitter and diamond shaped gold holographic glitter.  Stunning!!  It would only take two coats of this to have a very opaque coverage of glitter.  One coat of it over a colored polish would create a gorgeous effect.  My only complaint would be that the polish is thick, but this is fairly normal with heavily glittered polish.  For this manicure I paired it with Rich in Heart by Sinful Colors.  I applied it heavily at the tips and more thinly going toward the cuticles.  The final look was more than I had hoped for, so pretty.  Hope you enjoy!  I apologize that the pictures are not a better quality.  I snapped them with my phone and just couldn't get them clear and non blurry.  But overall you still get a good look at how well the colors worked together.

Nail Art of the Week - Gunmetal and Purple

Once again I have drawn inspiration from ChalkboardNails blog.  I swear that blog is like crack for nail addicts!!! LOL.  Truly a great place to get inspiration from and get great reviews and swatches of the latest nail polish on the market.  Here is my take on one of her recent designs.  She used a true silver polish with a holographic bar glitter in it.  Here is the link for her Original Post.  When I looked thru my nail polish collection I was struck by how nice this Gunmetal grey looked next to the purple so I decided to go with that color combo.  I painted my nails first with a coat of Sally Hansen Miracle Cure as a base coat and followed with one coat of Sally Hansen XTreme Wear in Gunmetal.

Next I applied a stripe down the middle of each nail with Wet n Wild -Wild Shine polish in Eggplant Frost.

I then painted a glitter polish - NYX Nail Polish in Dynamic Glitter over the Eggplant Frost. 

Finally I followed with my favorite top Coat - Sally Hansen Dries Instantly Top Coat.

Simple yet stunning results and I love the way the colors look together!  Thanks so much for reading!

Fishtail Manicure/Tutorial

 

I saw this manicure on ChalkboardNails blog and thought it looked fantastic but simple to do and thought I'd give it a try using colors I had on hand.  She used a different pink on each finger but I chose to go with the same pink on all fingers.  I thought it turned out pretty good!  Here is the link to her blog post - Pink Fishtail Ombre.  Keep reading for my version of it.

 

Paint nails with one to two coats of a neutral polish.  I used Zoya in Pandora .

 

Next, paint a curved diagonal across your nail from about 2/3 of the way up your nail toward the tip in a dark pink color.  I used Elf in Hot Pink.

 

Do the same thing on the other side of the nail to create the fishtail shape.

 

Repeat the process with your darkest color.  I used Sinful Colors in Rich in Heart.

 

Finish with your favorite topcoat, I used Sally Hansen Dries Instantly Top Coat , and you're all done!!

 

 

 

 

Easy Halloween Manicure

Products Used:
Sally Hansen Miracle Cure
Sally Hansen Hard As Nail Extreme Wear: Sun Kissed
Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear, Crushed
Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear, Black Out
Nail Art Dotting Tools
Sally Hansen Dries Instantly Top Coat

How to do it:
One coat of Miracle Cure as base coat.  One coat of Sun Kissed with one coat of Crushed over that.  Using a medium sized dotting tool and Black Out, make polka dots on thumb and pinky. I used the same dotting tool to spell out BOO on my middle three fingers.  Follow with one coat of top coat.  I used the two oranges to acheive the shade of orange I wanted.  You could mix up your polka dots with different colors like white or green.  There are so many ways you could adapt this many to suit your personal taste and the polishes you have on hand.  Have fun!