Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Tiny Striped Nail Art


Hello everyone! I discovered a new technique for making stripes on your nails and I had to try it.  I'm not sure if any of you are familiar with this technique, but I had never seen it until recently.  Here's the YouTube video I used: http://youtu.be/o5CTNGcFbzg.

You basically put a couple drops of polish on a (disposable) surface and swirl it with your dotting tool or orangewood stick.  Keep swirling it and lifting up some polish until it gets thick and stringy.  Then, once it starts making thin threads (think spider webs) you pull them over your nail and wrap, so the thin threads stick to your base color.  You end up with these tiny little stripes of polish on your nails.  It's a pretty neat method, but I will say it took forever.

I started with two coats of Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, a bright yellow creme.  Then, for the stripes I used Sinful Colors Timbleberry, a pink creme, and Sinful Colors Big Daddy, an orange jelly.  I finished with a coat of quick dry top coat.

It's hard to see the pink and orange separately in these photos, but it makes for a pretty finished look.


Artificial light.

Artificial light.

Thanks for reading!! :)

Monday, July 30, 2012

Gradient Tape Manicure

Hello lovelies!!  Today I have two fun nail art trends to show you: a tape manicure combined with a gradient!  Tape manicures are super fun because they're so simple and you don't need any fancy nail art supplies to do them.

Artificial light.

I started with the gradient.  I applied one coat of LA Colors Live, a silver foil.  Then, I added LA Colors Electrified, a dusty pink foil.  (I didn't have a sponge available so I just dabbed the colors onto the nail using the brush.)  I finished the gradient with Sally Hansen Byte, a bright pink glass-flecked jelly.

Here's the gradient:

Artificial light.

Then I cut pieces of plain plastic tape into thin strips and just randomly placed them on my nails in different designs.  I didn't worry about them being the exact same width because I like it when each nail is different.  I painted over the tape with Sally Hansen Black Diamond, a black glass-flecked jelly.  I pulled the tape off as soon as I finished each nail and that's it!  I lastly applied a coat of quick dry top coat.

Here's the final look:

Artificial light.

Easy right?  Thanks for reading! :)

Saturday, July 28, 2012

L'Oreal Blue Marine vs. Sally Hansen HD Spectrum

As promised, I wanted to provide some comparison swatches of L'Oreal Blue Marine and Sally Hansen HD Spectrum.  When I first purchased Blue Marine I realized it was very similar to Spectrum and of course worried that I had a dupe.  Luckily I was wrong!  These two colors are very similar, but not enough to call them dupes.

As you can see, there are some subtle differences.  This is 3 coats of each, without base coat or top coat.

Artificial light.


Artificial light.


Artificial light.


Sunlight.


Flash.


Sunlight.


Sunlight.



Blue Marine leans more green, has smaller duochrome flecks (making it more opaque), and has a less obvious duochrome shift.

Spectrum leans more blue, has chunkier duochrome flecks (creating more bald patches on the nail), and has a very obvious color shift.

Both polishes seem to have the same color shifting flecks (green-blue/purple-pink), although they're in different sizes.

These are similar enough that you could probably have one without the other, but they're definitely not dupes.

As always, thanks for reading! :)

Friday, July 27, 2012

L'Oreal Blue Marine

I was digging through my stash the other day and realized I've never actually worn L'Oreal Blue Marine by itself or shown any photos of its awesome duochrome shift.  I've always paired it with something else and its awesomeness is obscured by the other polishes.  So, I decided to show it off today.

Blue Marine is a sheer turquoise/teal base with color shifting flecks.  The flecks shift from a deep emerald green to blue/violet to magenta.  It's very pretty, and like many duochromes, the shift seems more obvious in low light or under indirect light.

This is 3 coats without base coat or top coat.


Artificial light.


Artificial light.


Artificial light.


Artificial light.


Artificial light.

Direct sunlight.

I really love this color.  Check back tomorrow for my comparison swatches of L'Oreal Blue Marine vs. Sally Hansen Spectrum.

Thanks for reading!! :)

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Sinful Colors Big Daddy + Revlon Radiant Accent

Hey there!  If you've seen my past few posts, you'll notice that I've been on an accent nail kick lately.  I'm not sure why, but suddenly adding a pop of glitter to a creme manicure seems so appealing.  So, naturally, I have another glitter accented manicure for you today.  I should also mention that I've been on an orange and pink kick lately, presumably because I associate those colors with warm, summery days. :)

Alright, on to the manicure.  I started with Sally Hansen Hard as Wraps base coat (in the blue bottle) because it acts as a really good ridge filler on my nails.  Next, I used two coats of Sinful Colors Big Daddy, a juicy, reddish-orange jelly.  This one is extremely shiny and looks perfectly slick when dry.  Application was fantastic and, as I mentioned, it dries so shiny. Yum!

For the accent nail I used two coats of LA Colors Live, a silver metallic.  Then, I layered over it with two coats of Revlon Radiant, a glitter bomb loaded with several sizes of light blue hex glitter, and larger silver and green hex glitter.  I topped it all off with quick dry top coat.

Photo taken in sunlight.

Thanks for reading!! :)

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

4th of July Nails!

Hello everyone!  Today I have my Independence Day manicure to show you.  I'm so excited because I'm usually terrible at stamping.  My images almost always end up smeared or off-center.  However, I feel like I did a pretty good job with placement this time.  It looks like a lot is going on, but this manicure was actually really easy.

Photo taken in sunlight.


The main white base is LA Colors Energy Source, but any white creme will work.  I used Konad Special Polish in red and blue for the stamps.  I used Shany plates SH 12 and SH 13 for the blue and red stars.  The star image is duplicated on both plates, so I alternated using red and blue polish on the stars.




Alternating the colors gave me a nice design because it allowed me to have large stars in both colors. You can certainly use only one plate, but you will have to clean it more often so the colors don't blend.

For the accent nail I used LA Colors Live, a silver metallic.  Then, I used Konad Special White Polish and Konad plate m3 for the design.

And that's it!  Finish it off with some top coat and you have a cute 4th of July manicure.

Photo taken in natural light.

Thanks for reading!! :)