Malibu Pearls

The folks at The Painted Nail and The Nail Files were kind enough to send me three bottles of polish to use and review. The polish is made by Nubar, and I have to say, "Malibu Dreams" is probably my favorite hot pink polish ever (and I don't normally care much for hot pink). It has a blueish base, and tons of tiny sparkly glitter that makes it look wet even when dry. Great formula too (as expected from Nubar). So this week I started with two coats of Malibu Dreams (over a coat of Seche Vite base coat):

And then got out my large rhinestones (provided by Born Pretty Store) and pearls for a little "nail-lace" on each (one thick coat of top coat to set them in). The turquoise and pink combo reminded me of someplace warm and sunny and bright like Malibu. I set the big rhinestone first in the center of the nail. Then I placed the little pearls on each side. Super, super easy. If the top coat is wet enough, you can slide the stones around a bit until they're where you want them, so working fast is helpful (but not necessary).

I only did one more thickish coat of top coat (Seche Vite) to seal, because the stones were set pretty well in the first coat. These don't stick up too far, so it shouldn't be an issue. They feel very solid.

Sorry - no video this week. I shot some, but didn't have time to edit it. Next week a Fourth of July design, and I'll have time for video since I have a three-day weekend. :-)

Until then, happy polishing!

Tanzy Citrus & Nail Files

This week's manicure is a bright summer design - I'm hoping if we celebrate the first day of summer properly, the nice weather will stick around awhile. I even have a video for you, although it's a bit blurry right where it counts (good grief - third time is a charm?).  But first, lemme show you the polishes that I received yesterday for review from The Painted Nail via the publicist for Nail Files, a new TV series that starts tonight. They were kind enough to send me a video of the show, and I watched it last night. I thought it was great - it's about a salon owner in Hollywood. Super dramatic, of course, but most reality TV is. In any case, I'll be watching online since it's on the TV Guide channel and I don't have cable. Anyone going to watch with me?

These are the polishes they sent - and the photo does not do these justice. Nubar is the maker, and the colors are just fabulous and sparkly. I'll have a manicure with these for next week.

So...back to the citrus. I started with one coat of Seche Vite base coat, and one coat of Finger Paints "Well-cultured Pearl" to provide an opaque base. Then I layered two coats of Zoya's "Tanzy", which I am completely in love with. It's so sparkly and shimmery - even when it's dry, it looks wet due to all the sparkle. Nail bling!

I set the clay canes in a thickish-coat of Seche Vite top coat, making sure to press the edges down as well as I could. Clay can be kind of rebellious, and tends to curl at the edges sometimes. The nice thing is that even if it sticks up a bit off the nail, the edges are blunt enough on a round cane that they don't get stuck on things often.

Here's the video - apologies for the blur!

And the finished look once more, all cleaned up.

Next week, I've got my sights on that "Malibu Dreams" - the hot pink polish above from The Painted Nail.

Until then, Happy Polishing!

Blue & Pink Swirl – Water Marble

It’s been awhile since I’ve done water marble art, and unfortunately, you can tell by how it turned out. Not my best work, but we all have flops sometimes, eh? Still, the nice thing about a marble is that people won’t necessarily realize it went wrong. ;-)

There’s a video at the end of the post...I’m afraid I’m still not all that great with the actual recording video part, and it shows, but it’s not too bad for my first try. The only way to get better is to practice, right? Maybe next time I’ll even keep my fingers in the center of the frame...

I used four polishes for this manicure – shown & labeled above. My “Megawatt?!” is really thick, which is why you won’t see it expand as much as the other colors in the video. Other than that, these colors worked really well, and I think they look pretty nice together too.

Before I started, I coated my fingers under the nail to the first knuckle and around the cuticles with petroleum jelly (next time I’ll probably use a thick homemade salve I normally use on my face). This prevents the polish from sticking to the skin – but as you’ll see, I should have gone farther down on my fingers with it...

I started with one coat of Seche Vite base coat, then added two coats of Finger Paints “Well-Cultured Pearl” as the base color.

Then I started dropping polish in my bowl of warm water. I cycled through Misa “Like It Like That”, OPI “A Rose Before Dawn...Broke by Noon”, and OPI “Megawatt?!”. One drop inside the other, as shown.

I didn’t get any good dipping pics, so you’ll have to watch the video for a slightly blurry demonstration of my amateur technique. This is the after-shot for one hand done.

I cleaned off the excess polish by simply wiping away the petroleum jelly with a paper towel (also show in the video), and then used a nail corrector pen (I generally use Avon) to clean up the rest.

And there you have it – a swirly water marble manicure (don’t mind my poor broken nails – ugh). Here's the video:

So what’s on your nails this week? And what kind of tips on water marbling do you have for me? I think I need to watch more of Colette’s videos...

Current Mani & Latest Haul

It's 11:59pm, so I won't get this up before Weds, but hey, I tried. When I started to get pictures off my camera, I noticed that I had a few tutorial sets that I haven't posted here yet. So I'll set those up to post for the next couple of weeks. For tonight - this week's manicure and my super-awesome haul from Nubar, plus a smaller one from Head 2 Toe Beauty. Because I am *constantly* running out of top coat...

Actually, I guess the haul pics first, because I used the new polishes for this week's manicure. So here it is:

Those two tall bottles in the back are Seche Vite base and top coat - 4oz each. You can order the professional kits that include the big bottle, a regular .5oz bottle and a handy pouring lid from Head 2 Toe Beauty, and if you go through top coat like I do, it's a much better deal than buying a normal bottle every few weeks.

I also got the two Misa polishes from there (the two square bottles), unfortunately you can't see the color well here. One is a dark bronze and the other a deep teal green - "Like it Like That" and "When U Say My Name", respectively. I forgot to set them out, but I got two of the China Glaze crack polishes as well - "Crushed Candy" (teal) and "Cracked Concrete" (gray). Finally I also got a couple bottles of China Glaze Matte Magic top coat - my go-to solution for making matte polish last (and matting other polish as well).

The two tiny bottles are a blue and blue glitter I picked up at Sally Beauty Supply the other day. And then there's my Nubar haul...

I went a little nuts with the duochromes, but I don't regret it one bit. The odd polishes out were Midnight Matte Finish, a dark charcoal matte you'll see below; and Nubar 2010, which I've been dying to get for ages. Duochromes above are: Purple Beach, Iris Dust, Reclaim, and Wildlife.  

Whew! I have an order with Zoya that should be here any day now...

So for this week's manicure, I did one coat of base coat (Seche), then two coats of Nubar Midnight Matte to start. I brushed on one coat of Nubar 2010, which is clear with foil flecks (should have taken a pic before I matted it down again).

Then I used the China Glaze Matte Magic to seal and matte down the whole thing again. My pictures don't do it justice at all - it looks like granite with little flecks of green/pink/gold running through it. I really love the way it turned out...a very distinctive look.

Obviously I need to brush up on my photography skills...and you'll note that I have a broken-off nail on each hand. *sigh*

So now that I have new polish, I was thinking maybe I should clean out my polish drawer...or at least organize it a little:

What, you don't keep your polish in the fridge? Weird. ;-)

Regardless, it's a mess. And a daunting one at that. Maybe another day...

Wearing O'The Green

It's still Tuesday here. ;-) I'm afraid I don't have a tutorial for you (because I've been a total slacker), but I have three green manicures to share for St. Patrick's Day this week...

All of these designs were done with 1 coat Seche Vite base coat, 2 coats base polish, and the stones set in two coats of Seche Vite top coat. I should buy stock in Seche Vite...

First off, we have my favorite green polish, China Glaze "Emerald Sparkle", tipped with OPI's "Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow" (which looks black, but is really very dark green). I added light green rhinestones to the center for interest. I love this manicure - super simple to do, yet casual/elegant. 

 

Next up, I used a base polish of Rimmel's 60 Second polish in "Camouflage" - a lovely color, but as you can see I had some trouble with tip pull. Gotta remember to wrap the polish at the nail edge, peeps! Then I put a swoop of white diagonally across the nail, and a glittery gold Sinful color as a base for some large and small light green stones. It was really much more subdued than the picture shows - apologies for the flash. 

 And of course this week, it's back to my favorite Emerald Sparkle, with more of the light green rhinestones arranged into shamrocks on three nails each hand. Aside from my thumb (which I tried to make 4-leaf), they turned out nicely, I think.

Larger rhinestones compliments of the Born Pretty Store, and I purchased the smaller stones from Nail Delights. 

Finally, I saw Nail Art Tuesday mentioned in a blog round-up recently, but I can't find the post again. :-( Whoever you are, thanks so much for the mention! I appreciate it. :-) 

Next week, back to tutorials. Until then, Happy Polishing - and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Nail Love

Hello there, neglected little nail art blog. Did you miss me? I've been doing my nails, but most of January was spent getting my latest book, Desert Heat up for sale, and writing up a storm on new books. And I'll admit that this month, I've been incredibly lazy about photo editing. But no more!

To get back into things, a simple Valentine's Day manicure...

 I started with a base of Avon's "Pink Radiance", just 2 coats over Seche Vite base coat.

 

Then I used my handy-dandy dotting tool from Born Pretty Store to dot a big heart on each nail in white. 

And that's it - two coats of Seche Vite top coat, and clean up. Unfortunately I've got a little tip-pull going on, but it's my own fault for not doing the undersides of my nails. Voila! Simple, casual Valentine's Day nails. 

Until next week (no, really!), happy polishing...

Catchin' Up

Apologies for disappearing in December - the holidays sort of got away from me. So today I have a couple finished manicures from Christmas and the first week in January to show you, and then next week I'll have a new tutorial to post.

For Christmas this year, I used these cute decals from Born Pretty. Speaking of which, Born Pretty has offered Nail Art Tuesday shoppers 10% off your order when you use code: SQUOVAL15 at checkout.

The fun part about the Christmas mani (aside from those lovely water decals) was that my silver polish was way too thick. It was hard to work with, but it also made a 3-D, almost "fuzzy" line at the tips.

Last week I got some fun new Finger Paints polishes that I can't recall the names of just now (don't worry, you'll see them again). I decided to do a gradient with China Glaze "Tinsel" between the white and purple. I love how it turned out, very "winter whimsical", I think.

So that's what I've been up to polish-wise - next week, China Glaze "Dorthy Who?" and full nail stickers.

Until then - happy polishing!

Peppermint Swirls

I apologize for the too-bright pictures...my room lighting is just too low tonight. I think you get the idea though - fun red & white peppermint-y swirls! I had a ton of fun doing these, but I was up until 3am because, well, things have to dry, and clean-up, while much easier this time still takes...time. But I ramble.

I started things off with a base of China Glaze base coat topped with two coats of CG "White Out".

 

 You'll notice that my fingers are a little shiny. I was going to use cuticle oil to block the excess polish this time, but in light of our fruit fly problem (which has since been controlled, thank goodness), I decided to use petroleum jelly instead (no scent). For the record, it worked great. 

Then I had the brilliant idea to use glitter polish for swirling. I'll save you the whole sordid story, but just FYI - CG Ruby Pumps and Tinsel do *not* work for water marbling. I started over with Pure Ice "Platinum" and Sinful Colors "Ruby Ruby". Much nicer. 

I should have taken photos of the swirls - I used an orange stick and started in the center, just swirling the colors together. The first one came out a bit too wide:

The rest of my right hand went pretty well though - these fingers were done using red as the first color dropped (first photo above). Are you ready? I told you this was a messy job (ie, really fun!)...

Then I switched it up for my left hand, and dropped the white color first (2nd photo above). I also did the middle three fingers at the same time - worked great!

I look like a sick zebra. LOL After I got done dipping, I put on two coats of Zoya topcoat, and used Qtica half-time drops to dry everything quickly. After it was dry, I used a paper towel to just wipe away the excess polish along with the pet. jelly. The cuticles still needed a little clean-up in the shower this morning, but not much at all.

And voila! Peppermint swirls, all cleaned up.

I've got some Christmas decals for next week, appropriately enough. Until then, happy polishing!

Sparkly Ornaments

This week, I needed something to help me get in the mood for Christmas, and I needed a quick design. So I got out these huge rhinestones that the Born Pretty store sent for review. I think they look very much like shiny glass ornaments, don't you?

I started with one of my favorite Christmas glitters, China Glaze "Emerald Sparkle". Two coats over CG base coat makes a nice "tree" layer.

Then I added a thick diagonal stripe in China Glaze "Tinsel", another of my favorite CG polishes. Just one, somewhat thick coat worked fine for setting the stones.

I added three stones to each nail, using red and yellow...

And switched the colors on my index fingers for just a little variety.

Two coats China Glaze quick dry top coat, some clean up, and voila! Sparkly ornaments telling me it's time to get moving on the holiday stuff.

**Edited to add - Born Pretty Store is offering a 10% discount until December 31st, 2010 - use coupon code OPENTENOFF. I may just do that myself, actually. :-)

I'm kind of itching to try a peppermint swirl water marble thing - perhaps I'll do that next week. Until then, happy polishing!

Crackle & Dupe

This week it's all about the crackle polish, and I stumbled over a fun dupe as well! Many thanks to Born Pretty for providing me with the black "Crack Polish" used this week. They sent me some other goodies for review that I'll be using over the next few weeks too.

Apologies for the yellow tone on this photo - it gets better. ;-) When I decided to play with the crackle polish, I decided something really bright underneath would work best. I went digging in the fridge for a nice bright pink, and came up with these two - Urban Decay's "Big Bang", and Avon's new "Pink Radiance".

They looked so close in the bottle, I just had to see them side-by-side on my nails. So I used Big Bang on my index finger below, and Pink Radiance on my middle finger. Can you see the difference? Me either - they really are an exact match, in my opinion. Fun, yes?

After my little dupe discovery, it was time to get down to business. I used the Avon polish for the rest, because the bottle is easier to deal with than the tiny (and cute) Urban Decay bottle. Undersides first...

And then two coats each to lay down a nice base for the crackle polish.

Then it was time to crackle! I used one very thin coat, then watched it crack as it dried. Super fun to watch the cracks form like magic.

On my right index finger, I did just the tip, but I got the polish on very thick, so it didn't crack as nicely as I'd have liked. As you can see though, it cracked nicely on the other nails.

On my left hand, I did a thinner coat on the tip of my ring finger, which worked a bit better.

I coated the whole thing with two coats of Seche Vite top coat - be careful with this, it will smear if you slide the brush on the crackle polish. Use a lot of top coat, and just float it on top the polish for the first coat to avoid smearing. Then cleaned up my cuticles, and voila - a very cool, leathery look.

I *need* some green crackle polish now, so I can do a reptile look over yellow polish. :-) Next time I will make sure the crackle polish is closer to the edges of my nails - it looks a bit messy even after cleanup just because it tends to break/chip a the crack lines if you aren't careful. It's really fun though - I love it...very hip, in my opinion.

Next week, I'll start the Christmas manicures...better dig out my red, white and greens! Until then, happy polishing...