V: V-french with OPI Skull and Glossbones

Hey there!

Quick post... we are on V for the ABC challenge and I did a simple V tipped french, some call this a chevron french as well.  This is OPI Skull and Glossbones as a main color with China Glaze Call of the Wild for the tips.

I love grey and brown together, it's what I wear when I get tired of black.

I did this free handed but you can easily use tape if you want.  I did a tutorial on v-tipped french manicures a while back with tape.  Click here to see the tutorial.

Don't forget to check out the other lovely ladies in the challenge!

T: Tape Mani with Re-fresh Mint by China Glaze

Hey there! For the letter "T", I did a tape mani inspired by mint chocolate candy canes. I used Re-fresh Mint and Call of the Wild, both by China Glaze.

Below is the striping tape I used.  It's foil tape, I ordered this from eBay a while back, they're super cheap.  I got 8 rolls for $2.

I still had paint seepage under the tape, but it is hard to find thin strips of tape to use for nail art so I don't know of any other kind of tape to buy. Cutting scotch tape into skinny little uniform strips is a pain in the butt!

In order to get thicker lines I just place two or three strips of tape side by side.  The pattern of thickness the I used here, is one stripe, then three, then one, then two, then one.  Much easier than cutting tape.

This mani requires a lot of time and patience... something I'm a bit short on these days, so it will be a while before I do another one of these.  Or I'll just do one accent nail next time.

I also found it a bit annoying, after pulling the tape off, the tape kept sticking to my other hand, arm, sleeve... and they had brown nail polish on them so I got brown specks of polish everywhere.... what am I saying?  Have a large area set aside (and time) to work in and designate a spot to place the used stripes.

Overall though, the effect is nice, my husband was excited to see the finished nails.  He said they looked like candy.

Well, that is it for today.  I hope everyone is having a nice weekend!

S: Skittle French

Hey guys!  For this week's ABC challenge for "S" I did a skittle French manicure.  Check out the various pastels with matching tips.

The polishes I used were:

Thumb: base: Revlon, Sunshine Sparkle
Tip: Revlon, Make Mine Mango

Index: base: China Glaze, Kinetic Candy
Tip: ChG, First Mate

Middle: base: ChG, Go Go Pink
Tip Kiko #362

Ring: base: ChG, Refresh Mint
Tip: Revlon, Posh

Pinky: base: Sinful Colors, Mauve
Tip: Cult Nails, Viscous

Of course you could replicate this with polishes of similar colors.  That 's it for today. Please check out other "S" manicures this week.

H: Hello Kitty Manicure

Hey ladies!

It's time for "H" of the ABC challenge. How do you wear Hello Kitty when you are over the age of 35 and not look like a total fool? Discretely. Tastefully. Somehow in a luxe material. I think?

Well, I got a bunch of gold Hello Kitty nail decorations free with a dotting tool kit from Amazon. I really love gold and grey together so I did a simple mani with Color Club's Muse-ing, a dark grey cream polish. I picked a dark grey for high contrast and the gold warms up the grey nicely. Don't ya think?

There's only one picture today, because my camera's battery is almost dead and I don't have time to wait for it to charge.

So who does construction labor with a full on manicure? Crazy moi, that's who.

Progression of the bedroom....

After we tore up the carpet we had a little set back. We found some water damage in the back of the room and on the side. We suspect there must have been a waterbed in this room back in the 80's that leaked.  If you look to the left of the top picture, you can see we repaired the damage. The water had made the floor sink and bow about an inch downwards. The nails were not going to be able to grab on to the plywood underneath so we used liquid floor leveler to make the floor flat again. Kind of like a base coat ridge filler here in the nail world. We stopped construction because we had to wait a full 24 hours for the leveler to dry. The red tank is a compressor used to power the hammer.

Above is a sneak peak at what the new floors will look like. The black stuff is tar paper, for protection against moisture.

So that's it for today. Don't forget to check out the other ladies in this challenge.

F: Fish Braid Manicure

It's Wednesday again.  Time for "F" of the ABC challenge; F: for Fish braid mani.  Today's post is picture heavy so I'm going to stick to just this topic.  This was my first attempt at fish braiding. It wasn't too hard to do and turned out well.  I'll be doing this again in the future, with better colors.

Left Hand.

Right Hand.

I only did three nails because I ran out of nail polish strips.  Just as well, because I started to get tired...

So, how did I do this?

First I painted two coats of nail polish onto a plastic page protector and waited three hours for them to dry.
I used Color Club Style Icon (red), Revlon's Jaded Night (green), and Sinful Colors, Black on Black.

Then scraped up the rectangles of dried paint.  See?  They are like vinyl sheets.

Cut them into strips.

Applied one coat of base coat, then start placing the strips onto the nail in a braiding pattern, alternating the different colors.

Trim off the excess with a cuticle trimmer.
Clean up the cuticles with a brush and acetone.
Slap on a thick coat of top coat.
Viola! See below.

I used American Classics, Gelous base coat, and INM Out the Door top coat for this.

I'm so glad I finally got a chance to do this!  It was fun and the lines are nice and crisp.  I am pretty bad at nail art, so this technique is much easier for me to do.  I found out about this technique, I think from Sammasaurus at Nailasaurus....a long time ago... I'm too lazy to search for the link.

I love how this challenge is only once a week!  I've been enjoying just painting my nails and not taking photos every other day, for now. I'm going to go and see what the rest of the ladies in the challenge are up to!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Tape Mani with Revlon 705 Gray Suede

Hey guys!  I had to break away from green and wear a neutral to work, but I didn't want to totally bore you to death, so I did a stripe mani on an accent nail.  It came out okay, not the best but... acceptable I guess.

Revlon's Gray Suede is a nice beige leaning pink with silver shimmer.  I would imagine this would be great if you wanted to show off a flashy diamond on your hands and you don't want your nails competing with your jewelry. One day I'll show you my engagement ring... I hardly ever where it anymore because I wash my hands at least 10 times a day. I developed some irritation around the ring area probably because it keeps getting wet. Also, I totally hate my wedding band and I want a new one but haven't really shopped for a new one. I very seldom wear rings now that I paint my nails all the time. Anyhow.... excuse the bad photos, it has been so dark and foggy here the last four days... such bad lighting these are under florescent.

Revlon's Red Bikini is the color underneath, (one coat).  I really just love this color combo.

Below is the tape I used for this mani, called Frog tape.  I did not get super crisp lines but maybe I pulled the tape off too early.  Frog tape is for painting walls, but it says "multi surface" so hey why not nails?  The adhesive is gentle, not too sticky.  The tape is pretty wide, about 1.5 inches, I cut them horizontally into small strips.  See?

Frog tape is kind of expensive, $7-8 a roll at Lowe's or Home Depot. I bought it because I wanted to paint a block design in our spare bedroom, but hubby was against it, so now I have this roll. I might use it soon because we demolition-ed our master bedroom and we are going to paint that next. Does anyone want to see/read about that? It's not nail polish related so I don't know if anyone would be interested.

Let me know in the comments section below, should I post home improvement projects? And... do you match nail polish to your rings?

Ruffian Gone Wrong

Hey Guys!

I really love this color combo, but need to find another way to wear it.  Rose gold with Tiffany blue.... I tried to do a ruffian with Anise's Wildcat and China Glaze's For Audrey.  Maybe Wildcat wasn't thick enough?  I don't know....

Below is one coat of Wildcat.

I wasn't impressed with Wildcat's formula, it was actually kind of sticky and I kept pulling the paint off with my brush... goes on like a pastel.  One stroke and leave it alone, can't go back over painted areas or else it just pulls off and clumps.  Anyone tried anything from Anise?  They're available at DSW shoe warehouse for $6 a bottle, but they are always BOGO 1/2 off.  This is my first bottle from them. 



You MUST CLICK ON THE VIDEO, before you leave, it is only 3 seconds long!

Jim Gaffigan Nails

What? You ask?  I know, this is a lost reference, but I'll explain.

For those of you who don't know who Jim Gaffigan is, he is a comedian who recently released the long awaited "Mr. Universe".  Mr. Universe was filmed recently at the Warner theatre here in D.C. and the backdrop inspired this week's nails.   Gaffigan does a lot of jokes on eating junk food, being lazy and religion.  If your in the mood for comedy, any of Gaffigan's materials will have you LYAO!

Does this look like anything to you?  My husband had no idea what this mani was about.  His first reaction was, "What is that?"

I told him, "It's my Jim Gaffigan nails."

"How is that Jim Gaffigan?"

I reply, "It's the spotlights and the curtains.".....  Oh well, failed nail art I guess.

This took me three and half hours to do, with all the dry time.  I used tape to make the spotlights.  Sinful Colors, Black on Black is the background, and Diana Manicure 1715, 1716 for the blue and yellow, and Funky Fingers blue and purple glitter.  I do have to say Sinful colors, Black on Black is a really nice black to own.  It is a true black with a very nice precise formula.  Not too thick not too thin and was a breeze to apply.  Lots of bang for you buck.  I got it during their 99 cent sale at Walgreens.

Below is a clip from Jim's latest show.  There is a ton of his old material for free on youtube.  I paid the $5 to watch Mr. Universe and it was money well spent!  Very entertaining. 
See the lights in the background?




"The thing about art, Joe, is that it comes from somewhere." -Angelica, Joe vs. the Volcano.

Enjoy!

Chevron French with Beverly Hills Plum

Hello out there!

Here is this week's simple work mani.  Instead of traditional smile lines we have V shaped tips.  This was quite striking, a few people wanted to touch and inspect my nails.

Orly's Beverly Hills Plum adds a nice healthy rosy glow to my nail beds.  Natural but enhanced.  Orly is known to add "optical brighteners" to their polishes and I noticed as I was applying Beverly Hills Plum, it has a tiny sparkle to it. 

Well here are my naked nails to compare.

Eeeek!  The tips are yellow! I look like a chain smoker!  Let's cover those up shall we?

I've tried a bunch of different base coats, none of them really work to prevent staining.  I've been wearing Orly's Nail Defense a protein treatment then Orly's Bonder as a base for every manicure for the last month and a half.  I'm still evaluating if that is working or not.....

For a Chevron tutorial look under the How to tab.  Or click here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Chevron French with Revlon's Red Bikini

Here's my very first chevron french manicure.  I used Orly's Velvet Rope for the tips with plain ol' Scotch tape.  I really loved how this turned out.  Funky frenches are a great way to recycle an old mani by rescuing tip wear. 

How did I do this?  Easy.

Pull about 9-10 inches of Scotch tape and cut them into ten pieces, make sure you cut off the jagged edge from the tear line off so you have a smooth edge.  Place the corner of the tape in the center of the nail, tip facing the edge. 

I know there is very little tip wear here.  After two days, Revlon's quick dry top coat  holds up.

Make sure the edges of the tape are a smooth as possible.  Here you can see it is still not that smooth.  I used a cuticle pusher to smooth mine down.  Pull the tape taut if that doesn't work.  Tape stretches, so just pull. 

If still can't get the tape down smooth and paint seeps underneath, just dip a small brush in acetone, dab on a paper towel and lightly remove the seepage.

Paint the tips.

Pull the tape off right away.  Do not wait for the polish to dry or you might pull off more polish than intended.  Use tweezers to pull the tape if your other hand is wet.

Clean up with a brush and acetone.  Apply top coat.  I used Seche Vite here, because it is such a good leveler, China Glaze's Fastforward top coat is another superior leveler.  The final effect looked as if the purple and red are a seamless layer.  Very smooth and shiny finish. 

The thumb came out perfect, no seepage, and perfect tape placement  Probably because it is my biggest and flattest finger.

There you have it, V French.  I am going to do this again!

China Glaze Innocence - French

It has been a really long time since I last wore a classic French manicure.  I've tried a bunch of different ways to get the perfect smile lines and I'm never fully satisfied with the outcome.  Here it is freehand because I was too lazy to use tape or guides... 

I need more practice but what I find works well freehand, is to start at the corners of the nail and lay the brush flat and just swipe at a downward angle towards the center of the nail and then go to the other side do the same thing and meet in the middle. 

I used Orly's Pointe Blanche french tip white, the brush is thinner than regular nail polish, which makes it a little easier to handle.  I also added Wet N Wild's Snow Globe glitter to the tips which covered up the unevenness of the white. 

The base color is China Glaze's Innocence, a soft pink creme, opaque in two coats.  I need the opaqueness because my nails are badly stained at the tips, from all the teals and greens I was wearing in March.  I topped everything off with some Seche Vite.

Below, is a bad impromptu picture from a week prior.  A different French mani I did, also freehand.  The tips came out better, but I used three coats of Orly's Rose Colored Glasses, which was not opaque enough to cover up my yellow stained nails.  You can see the yellow starting half way down the nail, especially on the ring finger.  The glitter is Nubar's White Polka Dot.  I didn't plan on posting it, so I didn't bother to take better photos...  Sorry for the blue-greenness my florescent lamp is causing.

Three coats of Orly's Rose Colored Glasses, one coat of Nubar's White Polka Dot.

Do you have any favorite polishes that you do your French manicures with?

BTW, you will see more of Nubar White Polka Dot.... I love, love, love this soft pearly white glitter, especially for work. 

Zoya's America Belted Stripe

Need some color in your life?  More than one?  Yes, please.

Zoya - America

China Glaze - For Audrey

How did I do this?

1.  Start by painting just the area where you want your stripe.

2.  Allow the base color to completely dry, about 3 hours. 
3.  Cut scotch tape, or stationary tape into thin strips. 
4.  Place a tape strip on the nail and smooth out any bumps or bubbles.  I used a cuticle pusher to smooth down the tape and I also pulled the tape really taut.
5.  Paint two coats of Zoya's America.
6.  Remove tape immediately with tweezers.
7.  Wait for paint to dry. I waited 10 minutes, however, I probably needed to wait a good 30 minutes!
8.  Apply top coat.

Here's how it came out.  I had a few issues/trouble spots and I will explain.

Problems:

I needed a bright red for this mani, and Zoya's America, although beautiful, and excellent cream formula was not opaque enough.  In person, and you can see it in the photos if you look carefully, For Audrey was effecting the red and making it a darker, blue based red.  Not good, America is such a clean, crisp red, I wanted this to come through more.  This would have been much better, and easier with a one coater nail polish, which is hard to find.  I used two coats of America and I didn't have a nice smooth mani, plus the color started bleeding and took forever to dry.    Cutting tape, tape placement and removing tape requires patience and some skill.  This is a mani that requires a lot of time.  I would say this is a medium level manicure. 

What I will do in the future:

I will apply the stripe color in a smaller area.  When applying the final top coat I may paint in two directions, to prevent bleeding/ or paint dragging.  If you notice the top coat was dragging the red in the direction of the brush.  So next time I think I'll start placing top coat on the striped area, downwards then go back to the striped area and apply top coat towards the cuticle.  I'm I making any sense?  If I'm short on time I may just do a stripe on the ring finger. 

Overall, I loved this mani and was worth the effort. 

Anyone know of any good one coaters?

Half Moon Mani with China Glaze Hook and Line

Hi Guys!
Today I'm excited to show you my first half moon mani!  I used Nina Ultra Pro's Burnished Bronze and China Glaze's Hook and Line from the Hunger Games collection. 

I know this picture is blurry but don't you just love how blurry pictures can convey an impression? 
Like what this mani might look like from afar?

How did I do this?  It was pretty easy.

Two coats of Burnished bronze.  Make sure this is completely dry and cured. 
About three hours for me.
Then apply stickers, and make sure they are flat so that paint does not seep under them.
I used a cuticle pusher to flatten the stickers.

Paint two coats of Hook and Line.  With one coat the orange was still coming through.

What I used. L to R, reinforcements, CG top coat, CG Hook and Line, NUP Burnished Bronze.

I peeled the stickers off right away, after painting with Hook and Line, and then cleaned up the edges with a brush and pure acetone.  Gooped on some CG fastforward topcoat and that was it!

My nails were really thick.  There are a total of seven coats of polish that I'm wearing.  I used Orly's bonder as a base (nice and thin), two coats of Burnished Bronze, one coat of CG FF top coat, two coats of Hook and Line and one thick coat of CG FF top coat.  I also have to add, after I peeled off the stickers, Hook and Line started to dry, and left kind of a wall of pooled paint that was laying against the edge of the stickers.  CG's top coat did a nice job of smoothing out the line/wall while still maintaining a clean crisp demarcation.  I think this is why CG FF top coat is my go to top coat for glitters.  It is such a great leveler, smudge fixer and delivers a high gloss finish. 

Well what d'ya think?

I think you are going to see more of these half moon manis from me because they are so easy to do and fun.

If you missed yesterday's post on CG's Liquid Crystal click here.

Lemon Fizz with Orly's Velvet Rope

Today I did something a bit more creative than just a bunch of swatches.  Fimo art with glitter.  Tad dah.

What I used.

I used Orly's Velvet Rope as a base, then Wet N Wild's Show Me the Money (SMM) just on the tips of the middle, ring and pinky fingers, and one lemon fimo art piece for the ring finger.  I dabbed SMM starting at the tips and then dragging the glitter towards the cuticle, for a gradient effect.  Its like painting on regular nail polish, but with less polish, a little cuticle drag and instead in the opposite direction. You probably could use a sponge and sponge the tips, but this worked well for me.  Plus I didn't have to clean up any sponges afterwards. 

To add the lemon fimo: I just dabbed a small dot of top coat on the nail where I wanted to place the lemon. Then I dabbed some top coat on one side of the tweezers to pick up the one lemon slice, placed the slice on top of the dab.  I then used the tweezers to press down on the sides of the lemon slice to make sure the slice was resting as flat as possible. Finally, I painted on thick coat of top coat over the whole nail.

I bought my lemon fimo art at Sally's and they are pre-cut, they look about 1/2 mm thick.  Which is still a bit thick, I can still feel it on my nail.  I would imagine the fimo would break too easily if they were thinner.  Anyhow, they were $3.99 for the small vial.  I think it's a little pricey for what they are, but oh well they're really cute and I didn't have to cut them.  Plus, the small amount will last me a long time because I'm not the type of person who wants to pile 4-5 pieces of fimo fruit on each and every nail.  Have you see those manicures?

If not, just type in "fimo fruit" in youtube's search box and you'll see the monstrosities I'm referring to.