40 Great Nail Art Ideas-Black & White + Fluid Lines

Hi girls!  So I completely missed out on my last prompt.  I had the mani done and everything, but I worked that weekend and never got around to writing the post.   So I'm getting back on track this week!  This week's color prompt was Black and White and my pattern prompt was Fluid Lines.  Here's what I came up with:

I started with a base of Finger Paints Papier Mache and added some swirly lines with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blackout and a thin paintbrush.  I'm not crazy about plain black and white (I love color too much!), but I like the idea behind this mani.  I'll definitely try this style again with some color!

Here's what everyone else came up with!

An InLinkz Link-up

40 Great Nail Art Ideas-Teal + Fan Brush

Hi everyone!  I'm starting a new nail art challenge that will last a whole year!  I'm only "officially" committing to every other week, which uses a color plus a pattern/nail art technique, but I might also post on the alternating weeks, which uses themes for prompts (e.g. last week was "hobbies", but I didn't get a mani done).  Anyway...this first week's color is Teal and my pattern is Fan Brush.  I've never done a fan brush mani, so this was a fun new technique to try!

I started with ONE creamy coat of KBShimmer Teal It to My Heart, a perfect fall teal.

 Then I used my fan brush and KBShimmer Sarong Place, Sarong Time, KBShimmer Breaking Blues, and Finger Paints Papier Mache.

I liked the way this turned out for my first try with a fan brush!  I'll definitely be using it again!

Check out everyone else's manis below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Look who's back!

Hey! I'm back!! I'm not going to talk about my absence too much, but just quickly:

I was on my pharmacy school rotations last year which was why I never had time to blog. But now I've graduated, I've got my license and now I'm the pharmacy manager at a large retail chain pharmacy! I'm really going to try to get back into blogging, starting with this post!

Here is Darling Diva "Dream Walker"

Dream Walker is a beautiful blue holo, just what I wanted when it was starting to feel like fall!

I added some black studs to add a little something "extra".

I love this polish and can't believe I waited so long to try it!

I'm going to try to post at least once a week, so I'll see you back here next week!

NPC Day 8: Boutique

Hi everyone!  I'm behind on my Never-ending Pile Challenge!  I don't even have a good excuse, I've just been really tired this week.  So this post should have gone up Wednesday, and I'm hoping to get another post up tonight.  Two posts in one day for you!

Today's (or Wednesday's) Challenge called for a boutique polish brand.  The definition of a boutique brand changes a bit depending on who you talk to, but to me it means a brand that is not a large wholesaler (so not OPI, Essie, etc), but is larger than an in-house hand-poured indie brand.  So some examples are I Love Nail Polish, piCture pOlish, and Rescue Beauty Lounge, which is what I used!

Here is RBL "Abi":

 "Abi" is a chartreuse creme with a hint of silver shimmer, which did not come across in my pictures.  I was surprised by how much I liked this on me.  I could not get a color-accurate picture of this.  It's much lighter and more yellow-toned than it looks in my pictures.

I decided to add some stamping with MoYou Landscape Collection plate 06 since I haven't done any in awhile.  I used Butter London "Lillibet's Jubilee", a lilac foil.  "Abi" is a bit closer to real-life color in this next photo:

Thanks for reading!  I'll try to get my next post up later tonight!

An InLinkz Link-up

NPC Day 2: Pastel

Hi girls!  Happy Wednesday!  I hope you've been having a good week!

Today's NPC called for "Pastel".  I have plenty of untried pastels, but I knew exactly which one I wanted to use today!

Check out what polishes I used after the jump!

a england "Dancing with Nureyev"

Hi everyone!  I meant to get this post up last night, but I spent forever refreshing Llarowe.com trying to get a couple of her charity polishes.  I managed to get three of the four I wanted, so I did okay!  Anyway, after that I was so tired I didn't feel like typing up a post!  Sorry!

Today I have for you a england's "Dancing with Nureyev" from the new-ish Ballerina collection.  I had to google to see who Nureyev was.  He was a Soviet-born ballet dancer, and one of the most celebrated ballerinos of the 20th century.  He defected to France in the early 1960s, and sadly died due to complications of AIDS in 1993.

"Dancing with Nureyev" is a pale lavender holo.

I had a problem with my editing software, so I couldn't get my watermark to show up on the rest of these :/  Oh, well!

 I decided to add some little flower stickers to my accent nail.  I thought this went together really well!

The formula of "Nureyev", like all a england's formulas, was nice and creamy.  I used two coats here. 

a england can be found at llarowe.com.  What do you ladies think of this color?  I am definitely ready for springy pastels!

Thanks for reading!

Nail Pattern Boldness "Covetous"

Hi ladies!  How was your week?  I managed to have a relaxing and super-productive Spring Break.  I'm not sure that's ever happened before!  Unfortunately, none of my productivity had to do with school, so I need to get back in the swing of studying!

Tonight I have another chevron manicure.  This is a "negative space" mani with Nail Pattern Boldness "Covetous".

I can't quite decide how I feel about this.  I LOOOOVE the glitter (more on that in a second!) and I like pictures of negative space manicures on other people, but this just isn't doing it for me.  I think it might have been better if I had used skinnier chevrons, so there was more polish on my nails.

Anyway, "Covetous" is a dark navy glitter with some yellow-gold and pink glitters thrown in. This is such a fun, unique glitter!  And it can definitely be built to opacity on its own.  I did two coats here, and if they had been full-nail coats, it would have covered perfectly!  I'm definitely going to have to use this one again on its own!

Nail Pattern Boldness can be found at Llarowe.com.  They have a bunch of fun glitters.  I add one or two more to my wishlist each time I look at their collection.

Hope you guys have a good weekend!  Don't forget to check out my new Etsy shop!
Thanks for reading!

Nail Art: Chevrons

Hey guys!  Sorry I didn't get my St. Patrick's nails up yesterday :(  I've been taking this medicine the past few days that completely wipes me out.  I went to bed at 11:00 Sunday night and slept til 9:00 yesterday morning.  Then I ate breakfast and laid back down on the couch for an hour!  And after that I was still dragging all day at work, and when I came home after!  I was just didn't have the energy to take and edit pictures last night.  Luckily, this medicine is just an as-needed thing, so I'm going to stop taking it for now and go see my doctor again if I need something else.

Anyway, I went to bed early last night and got a good, restful night of sleep, and then I got so much done today!  I did my taxes finally this morning (got a nice big federal and state refund, whoohoo!) and then I cleaned and organized my office here at home.  I still had boxes to unpack from when we moved in last May!  I got everything sorted, and now you can see the floor!

Okay, sorry for all the talking, those were just two things on my Spring Break To-Do list, and I'm glad I got them done!

For today's manicure, I used some nail vinyls I got from Nail Vinyls on Storenvy.  I've used striping tape before, and I figured this would be pretty similar, but it turns out they're a little different!

 Nail vinyls are more substantial and way stickier than striping tape.  At first they would pull up the polish underneath when I tried to reposition them.  So I stuck the vinyl to my hand a few times to try to make it less sticky, but then it wouldn't still to my nail at all!  After some finagling I got it to work though!

This is one coat of RBL "Pause" over two coats of Butter London "Fishwife".   It was really hard to get accurate pictures of "Pause".  My camera kept wanting to make it blue.  For some reason, darker lighting (like the two above photos) worked better.  "Pause" is a grape purple shimmer, and "Fishwife" is a weak minty holo.

I'm glad I bought these vinyls; I'm already thinking of my next mani with them!  Have you guys tried vinyls?  Do you have any tips?

Thanks for reading!

Rescue Beauty Lounge "Jack" and "Locavore"

Hi ladies!

How is your week going?  It's almost over, and then I have Spring Break next week!  Woot!

Today I have a polish that I picked by randomly sticking my hand into my bag of Gosia's borrowed polishes and grabbing something.  I ended up with Rescue Beauty Lounge "Jack", a beautiful hunter green creme with blue shimmer.  Then I decided it would go great with one of my untried RBL's, "Locavore", and here is the result:

Okay, these pictures are nice, but they don't do justice to either polish.  The glitter in "Locavore" kind of covered up the blue shimmer in "Jack", and my camera just couldn't capture the sparkliness of "Locavore".

"Locavore" is a mix of gold, magenta, and aqua microglitters.  I tried to get a good macro shot, but again my camera was freaking out.

This is ONE COAT people!  You could totally build this to opacity on its own, but removing it would be a bitch!

I didn't mean to do a St. Patty's day manicure, but this would totally be appropriate for St. Pats!  And the mix of glitters in "Locavore" would have been perfect for Mardi Gras!

Do you girls have plans for St. Pat's?

Thanks for reading!

Jade Holografico "Deja Vu"

Hi girls!

How was your weekend?  I'm going out after work tonight to get sushi with some friends!  I'm so excited; it's been a long time since I've had good sushi!

Today I have another practice kitty manicure:

This is Jade Holographico "Deja Vu".  When I pulled out all my red holos, I noticed this one and KBShimmer "Whole Lava Lovin'" are very similar, so look for a comparison on that soon!  This top photo is the most color accurate, "Deja Vu" is not quite as maraschino-red as the next two pictures.
 

I added a couple little paw prints on my accent nail with some new dotting tools I got off Amazon.  I'm loving these paw prints!  I think they're super cute :)

Jade is a Brazilian brand that can be found, like almost everything, at Llarowe.com.  These are a bit cheaper than most holos tend to be, and the formula is great!  Could have been a one-coater, but I did a second coat just to deepen the color.  If you're looking to try your first holo, and don't want to spend too much, I definitely recommend Jade!

Thanks for reading!

Colors By Llarowe "Dirty Diana"

Hey girls!  I meant to get this up last night, but then I got caught up in the excitement of having the Purina people over (more on that in a second!), and then Ben and I went to Office Depot later and we ended up being there longer than we planned on.  Some shit went down guys, lol.  Basically the manager wouldn't let us use a coupon from the website even though we were making a LARGE purchase (Ben's re-doing his office).  Whatever, we went home and ordered everything online and the manager missed out on a big sale that probably would have helped him make his plan for the night.

Anyway, the people from Purina came over yesterday to see how Tumnus was around strangers (he's a little shy, but he comes around), to discuss what the video will be about, and to see what the lighting is like in our house.  It turns out the video is for an ad that will be on their website and on their banner ads on other websites!  We'll be celebrities! 

I've been trying to think of ideas for manicures that will be a little eye catching, but not distracting on camera.  I don't even know if my hands will make it on camera, but I want to be prepared!  Here is my first test-mani:

This is Colors By Llarowe "Dirty Diana" with a little kitty tail on my pinkie!  I don't think you can tell it's supposed to be a cat tail though; it just looks like a squiggle :-P

More beautiful pictures after the jump!

Alter Ego "Beach Comber"

Hi girlies!

I'm so glad this week is halfway over!  My test today wasn't too bad, and we have a quiz tomorrow, but I think it'll be okay too.  I got some exciting news today!  I'm participating in a market research study about cat food, where the company gives me a bag of food to feed to my cat for a month and record any changes in his behavior, health etc.  It's been a week so far, and Mr. Tumnus really like this brand!  It's one that I haven't bought before cause it's a little too expensive.  Anyway, there are different "levels" of the study, and we got a call today that someone from the company is going to come out to our house to see how Tumnus does around strangers, and if all goes well, we'll be video taped next week!  I haven't asked what exactly they're taping for, but Ben is convinced it's for a commercial.  That would be awesome!!  My kitty could be a star!

Anyway, on to the polish!

Alter Ego Nail Enamel is a new brand to me.  I had never heard of it before picking it off of Gosia's polish wall, but I love aquas like this, so I had to give it a try!
Here is "Beach Comber":

"Beach Comber" is a beautiful aqua with a scattered holographic shimmer.  It dried to a satin-matte finish, but I really wanted the shimmer to come out, so I added a coat of Seche Vite.

Beautiful shimmer!!  The formula on this was a little sheer-it took 3 coats for full opacity- but it flowed wonderfully.  Hardy any clean-up needed!

I know I've said on here before that my favorite color combination is aqua and purple, so I decided to add some stamping with Julep "Morgan" and MoYou London Suki plate 06.

Alter Ego Nail Enamel can be found on Etsy and Storenvy.  She has some really awesome colors AND a "Three Spree" where you can pick any three full-size colors for $19.99!  I'll definitely have to take advantage of that once my no-buy is over!

And now, so you can say you knew him before he became famous, is the star-to-be!

This is his "Treats?" face :)

Thanks for reading!

Contrary Polish "18th and Vine"

Hi ladies!

I have another test this week, so sorry for the lack of posts the past few days!  My test is Wednesday, so after that I'll be back to posting a bit more.

Today I have the first polish I've tried from Contrary Polish, "18th and Vine".  Carrie, the maker of Contrary Polish, is from Kansas City!  I didn't realize this until she put out the No Place Like Home collection, which this polish is from.  Each polish in the collection is based on an area around Kansas City.  18th and Vine is the Jazz District, which is home of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the American Jazz Museum, and it's working jazz club, The Blue Room. 
I have family in friends in KC, so I've been there many times, but I've never been to the Jazz Museum.  I'll have to visit next time!

Here is "18th and Vine":

 Beautiful!  This post is a little picture-heavy because I love this color so much, so I've put the rest under a jump!

Orchids on "Orchids" for the Orchid Show

Yesterday Gosia and I went to the Orchid Show at the botanical garden in town.  The Missouri Botanical Garden is pretty much my favorite place in St. Louis.  I'm sure I'll do more flower-themed manis as everything starts blooming!

Since we were going to the orchid show, I decided to wear one of my new Colors By Llarowe pretties, "Orchids Are Better Than Roses Any Day" AKA "OABTRAD".

"OABTRAD" is the perfect representation of the Pantone Color of the Year for 2014, Radiant Orchid.  It's a warm orchid with almost golden undertones.  The holographic finish absolutely makes it radiant!

This is two coats of CBL's usual perfect formula.

I decided to try some stamping too!  I didn't have anything with orchids on it, but I thought these flowers from MoYou Pro Plate 06 were close:

I stamped using Julep "Harley", which left me pleasantly surprised!  I wasn't sure if silver would stamp very well, but "Harley" was nice and opaque and my images transferred perfectly!

Colors By Llarowe can be found at Llarowe.com and Julep can be found at Julep.com

Here are some pictures of the orchids from the show:

Thanks for reading!

Valentine's Mani part 5: WTF Camera!?!

Just a real quick post today because I wanted to post the last of the KBShimmer Valentine's trio, but I could NOT get my camera to capture this color-accurately at all!

Just two, horribly inaccurate photos:

This is Julep "Carrie" with RBL "Mismas" and KBShimmer "U Rock My <3 accent="" nail.="" nbsp="" on="" p="" the="">
Carrie is not the weird putty color it looks here; it's actually a bright bubblegum pink.  I was surprised at how much I liked it, since I'm not usually into "classic" pinks.

Mismas is a darkened purple--it is fairly accurate in these photos.

And lastly, U Rock My <3 a="" and="" black="" different="" glitters="" hearts.="" hex="" hot="" is="" matte="" mix="" of="" p="" pink="" sizes="" star="">
Julep can be found at Julep.com
Rescue Beauty Lounge can be found at RescueBeauty.com
And KBShimmer can be found at KBShimmer.com.  Christy Rose also makes great bath and body products.  I buy one of her bath bombs every time I place a polish order!

Thanks for reading!

Valentine's Mani part 4: Glitter Overload

Hi Ladies,

Today I have another polish from KBShimmer's Valentine's Trio, "Falling for Hue"

 Check out more pictures and a bonus kittykat pic after the jump!