Abstract Floral

Yesterday when I was reading through all the blogs that I follow, I saw this post on Little Nails and fell in love. She was participating in Day 30 of the 31DC and was inspired by a tutorial. So of course I took a look at the tutorial that she was inspired by, and it was that of MrCandiipants on YouTube.

Anyway, I knew I had to try this look for myself and loved the color pallet that Little Nails used so I went with something similar. I don't normally look at YouTube for tutorials, but I may just have to start, however, once I watched this tutorial, I of course had to watch more and more and ended up showering like an hour and a half later than I had planned on. hahah.

Here's my mani:

Polished Used (I used a lot lol):
-OPI - Nail Envy
-OPI - My Vampire is Buff
-OPI - I Think in Pink
-OPI - Kiss Me on my Tulips
-Wet 'n Wild - Through the Grapevine
-Zoya - Pippa
-LA Colors - Gold Glitter
-Sinful Colors - Last Chance
-Sally Hansen - Parrot
-Out The Door

You should definitely take a chance to look at the tutorial for this but basically I just used my striper brush and added dots of all colors to represent flowers. I really love how these turned out; and since they are abstract, there is really no right or wrong. I actually did my right hand as well (which I don't always do with nail art) and it doesn't look too bad; yay for abstract art when you're not ambidextrous.

Do you watch YouTube tutorials? Have you done mani's inspired by MrCandiipants?

Falling For Nail Art Challenge: Crunchy Leaves

Today's theme in the Falling For Nail Art Challenge, is Crunchy Leaves.

I decided to go through my stamping plates and found one with leaves, so I knew it was a perfect combination. There is really no way that I can freehand leaves because I really suck at free-hand lol.

Polishes Used:
-Essie - Meet Me At Sunset
-Konad - White
-Konad - Yellow
-DIFFERENTdimension - Nessie's Revenge
-Bundle Monster Plate - BM-H11
-Pueen Plate - Pueen12
-Glisten & Glow - HK Girl Topcoat

I was excited that I had an opportunity to use this stamping plate. I had had issues with other BMH plates stamping but this one worked perfectly. I stamped the image using both white and yellow. Next, I topped it with Pueen 12 in Nessie's Revenge. It's a leaf image as well but the green is really sheer so it sort of just added a different dimension (no pun intended) to the look.

Make sure to check out what the other ladies did for their crunchy leaves manis!

Beauty Blog Coalition - Weekly Roundup

Mama Fashionista: Get some celebrity endorsed swag AND contribute to a worthy charity! Quinn tells you how to give back with Burt's Bees.

Lola's Secret Beauty Blog: Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blushes in Fresh Pink & Pink Plum and not only gorgeous, but they are also so much fun to use!

BeautyTidbits: Pamper your pout with Savannah Bee Beeswax lip glosses - all natural & deliciously glossy with a beautiful color payoff!

Painted Ladies: Sheila has found her newest favorite copper eyeshadow - it's Vegas Lights pigment by Makeup Geek.

My Highest Self: Tina reviews Shower Steamers from Fortune Cookie Soap!

D.G.S.Beauty: Curious about the Ageless Derma Anti Wrinkle Cream? Check out D.G.S.Beauty's review here.

Slashed Beauty: Miranda lets us peek into the 2013 Emmys Gift Bag that all the stars took home!

TheFabZilla: What exactly causes dark under eye circles? How do you conceal 'em? TheFabZilla shares how.

A Little Polish: Looking for the perfect vampy nail color for fall? Check out Stephanie's review of OPI's Muir Muir on the Wall

Pammy Blogs Beauty : Have you scoped out any new Fall beauty collections? Pammy Blogs Beauty shares her favorite Fall beauty items from Target!

Beauty by Miss L: Perfect fall manicure.

Peace Love and Glitter: A color bomb explosion for your lips!

Advice Sisters Beauty?Fashion/Lifestyle Website: It's pricey, and precious, feminine, and seductive --Juicy Jasmine by Krigler, that is!

Blue Babyshower Waterfall Mani

Today I went to the baby shower of my best friend from High School. We have been friends for 13 years now and even though she lives a couple states away, whenever she comes back to visit her family, we pick up as if she never left. Don't you love friends like that?

As I mentioned, today was her babyshower for her first baby, a boy whom they will be naming Levi; I can't wait for him to arrive. Unfortunately I had the time wrong in my phone for the shower so I arrived a little late. Thankfully, I only missed the "mingling" at the beginning and a few little games but made it for everything else.

Anyway, I wanted to do something cute with my nails so I went to my favorite easy mani, waterfall mani, in a combination of blues for baby Levi.

 

Polishes Used:
-OPI - Alpine Snow
-China Glaze - Man Hunt
-China Glaze - Electric Beat
-Kiss - Soft Blue
-Revlon - Radiant
-Hard Candy - Matte-ly In Love

I started with my white base, added the blue stripes, and topped those off with random stripes of the glitters in Radiant. I love how glitters look mattified and I think that this look is great. I got a couple compliments on these nails at the shower too so that's always nice.

Here is a picture of the pretty mom to be, Colleen and myself from the shower. (IDK why I'm cheesin' so bad lol)

Congrats Colleen!!

The Nail Challenge Collaborative Presents - Technique Month - Week 4

Happy Thursday!! I am getting my final September mani in a day early; whoohoo! It is sort of like a Friday for me at work because tomorrow we are going to be participating in the United Way's Day of Caring. (You can read a little more about my site from last year here; tomorrow I will be going to the same site).

For this last Technique mani I tried to do a design that I have never done before, IKAT!

What do you think? I am pretty pleased with it for my first attempt. I will definitely be trying it again. I started with a base of OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips and used acrylic paints for the black, white and green. I topped everything off with a coat of Glisten & Glow HK Girl. I really love the color combination that I chose for this look as well.

Have you tried this print / technique before? Any tips for newbies like me?

P.S. Don't forget to look at the other ladies 4th Technique Manis!!

Falling For Nail Art Challenge: Early Sunsets

Today I am back with my second mani in the Falling For Nail Art Challenge; Early Sunsets.

As you know, in the fall it starts to get darker a lot earlier. I hate it. Over the summer I had started exercising by going on walks/jogs in the evening and that time will be coming to a close with the new weather. Hopefully I will be motivated enough to go to the gym.

Anyway, here is my Early Sunset mani:

Polishes Used:
-OPI - Alpine Snow
-Sinful Colors - Rain Storm
-China Glaze - Electric Beat
-Sinful Colors - Unicorn
-Black Acrylic Paint
-Glisten & Glow - HK Girl Topcoat

I went for the look of trees with their leaves starting to fall off silhouetted against the darkening skys. I hope you can see what I was going for here. I felt like Bob Ross while I was painting this one, hehe. (I used to watch his show all the time, lol, he made painting look so easy).

I hope you like this look and make sure to check out what everyone else participating in the challenge created as well.

P.S. This challenge is open to everyone, if you don't have a blog, you can post wherever you want using the hashtag, #fallingfornailart.

OPI - Muir Muir On The Wall

Over the weekend I decided to use my Ultra coupon and pick up a couple of polishes. One that I grabbed was Muir Muir On The Wall. I absolutely love this shade!!!

Vampy colors are perfect for fall and now that it is officially fall, I can start wearing them all the time!!

 

Polishes Used:
-OPI - Nail Envy
-OPI - Muir Muir On The Wall
-Glisten & Glow - HK Girl Topcoat

I am wearing two coats of MMOTW here. I love all the different shimmers in this shade, it looks black, brown, burgundy, purple, gold. lol. Just gorgeous for the season. I plan on wearing this to work a lot this season!

Did you pick up any of the shades from the San Francisco Collection? I only have this one so far but may be heading back to the store to grab a couple more.

Press Release - China Glaze Monsters Ball

COME ONE, COME ALL: YOU’RE INVITED TO THE MONSTERS BALL

China Glaze® Introduces Six Limited Edition Shades for Halloween 2013

This October, you’re invited to celebrate with the ghosts and ghouls at the darkly decadent Monsters Ball, hosted by China Glaze®.  Attended by spooky sparkles and tantalizing textures, you’re sure to have a hauntingly good time with this limited edition six-piece collection shrouded in mystery and dripping with lavish color.   

Dance the night away in six colors and finishes perfect for All Hallows Eve:

• Howl You Doin’: Shadowy purple glitter
  
  
  
• Bat My Eyes: Ominous gold glitter
  
  
  
• Boo-Gie Down: Multi-sized orange, black and white glitter
  
  
  
• Fang-Tastic: Mysteriously mixed up green, blue and magenta glitter
  
  
  
• Bump In The Night: Hair-raising black texture
  
  
  
• Ghoulish Glow: Glow-in-the-Dark top coat
  
  
  

Ideal for creating holiday manicures that are a true work of art, the China Glaze® Monsters Ball display features artwork by renowned artist Abigail Larson, best known for her illustrations inspired by the various things that go bump in the night.

China Glaze® Monsters Ball will be available in October 2013 at fine salons and beauty supply stores.

China Glaze® is free of DBP, toluene, and added formaldehyde.

China Glaze® nail lacquers are available through salons and professional beauty supply stores nationwide. For more information, please visit www.chinaglaze.com or follow China Glaze on Facebook (@ChinaGlaze), Twitter (@ChinaGlazeOfficial), Instagram (@ChinaGlazeOfficial), Pinterest (pinterest.com/chinaglaze) and YouTube (youtube.com/chinaglazeofficial).

Tawdry Terrier - Press Release

To see an online version of this press release, please click here.

To celebrate a Tawdry Terrier family birthday, on September 24 we will be giving away a free bottle of Tawdry Terrier "Ally-Gator's Swamp Dawg" to all customers who purchase two or more polishes at our Etsy shop.  Any remaining stock after September 24 will be listed for sale.

Tawdry Terrier "Ally-Gator's Swamp Dawg" is a lime green metallic glass fleck polish with a mix of purple, orange, and green glitter.

Tawdry Terrier offers custom blended polish, using a 5-free formula containing cosmetic-grade mica and glitters.  All polishes are limited edition.

Follow our blog, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, Google Plus, and BellaShoot.

Happy polishing!

The Tawdry Terrier Team

Incoco Real Nail Polish Appliques Review

When I was contacted  by Incoco to do a product review for them I thought to myself, "HECK YES", but I calmed replied and let them know which shades I wanted to try. I had seen so many positive reviews of Incoco Appliques and couldn't wait to try them out for myself.

I received two shades, Ballerina Princess and Into The Deep. I couldn't wait to get the appliqués onto my nails that I accidentally forgot to take pictures of the process, lol, but don't worry, when I wear my second pack I will try to take pictures of the process. PS. There are a TON of designs to pick from, including plain, glittery, French, etc.

I decided to start with Ballerina Princess, which is a "delicate silver etching pattern winds across an ombré of pink and lavender like a ballet shoe ribbon!"

The instructions are very easy, before you get started, clean, shape, and buff your nails before application. Note that you can stretch the strips gently for the perfect fit.

Step 1: Remove Cover
Step 2: Peel Polish
Step 3: Remove Silver Tabs
Step 4: Apply Polish
Step 5: Remove Excess

Here are the strips right after I applied:

I wore these for 6 days. I could have kept on wearing them because there was very minimal tip wear and they weren't peeling at all. In fact, the only reason that I took these off was because I needed to do some nail art for a couple of my nail art challenges. Here are the pictures from Day 6:

As you can see, these were wearing like iron. When I put the second set of appliques on I will make sure to have a couple blog posts lined up so I can wear them even longer.

A couple additional tips from Incoco:
-For best results, clean & buff nails before application. Push back cuticles.
-Use immediately after opening. Air will cause the nail polish to dry.
-Don't worry about making mistakes, as the strips can be repositioned.
-Stretch strips gently for a perfect fit.
-Apply thumbs last as you'll use them often during application.
-Remove with nail polish remover.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend these strips and once I am done with my second set, I will be purchasing more for myself, although I change my nails almost daily, these will be perfect for busy weeks, vacations, business trips, etc.

You can find Incoco here:
-Website
-Facebook
-Twitter
-Pinterest
-Instagram
-You Tube

Make sure to stay tuned for my second set :)