Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Sunday, July 29, 2012

My first glitter sandwich!

Happy Sunday everyone! I finally decided to try doing a glitter sandwich. I probably only own 10 jelly polishes and I hate removing glitter which is probably why it has taken me so long to finally try this out, but I really have no excuse and I want to get out of my nail art comfort zone by trying new things. I used 2 coats of OPI Samoan Sand, then one coat of OPI Rainbow Connection, and lastly one more coat of OPI Samoan Sand. How'd I do? I liked it more than I thought I would, but I have to get used to it. It's really weird to see something on my nails that's not a creme, my favorite finish if you haven't noticed =P.




Friday, July 27, 2012

Zoya Purity and BM 322

Happy Friday lacquerheads! I just used this same stamping plate in my last post, but I love all the big patterns on it that I wanted to use it again. I decided to do a pink and white houndstooth design. I used Zoya Purity and stamped using BM 322 in Konad Psyche Pink. Can you see the pretty shimmer in Psyche Pink? The contrast of the pink and the white is much more noticeable in person and it looks so cute if I do say so myself! Mr. Heartnat even told me my nails look cool on his way out this morning. That must mean they're pretty awesome lol.



Wednesday, July 25, 2012

OPI Your Royal Shine-ness and BM 322

Hey loves! Do any of you ladies ever have a day where your nails are just not photographing right?! I'm having one of those days. I give up! Here's OPI Your Royal Shine-ness stamped using BM 322 in Konad Black. This polish was literally so shiny it was a pain to take pics of haha. I hope you all believe me when I say it looks much better in person! Enjoy!





Sunday, July 22, 2012

Purple, Silver, and Turquoise Double Lightning Bolt Nails

Happy Sunday! Short post today. I did this for a tape mani contest on Instagram. There are so many contests on there now that I only enter a few. I used China Glaze Grape Pop, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep, China Glaze Flyin' High and tape to make this double lightning bolt design. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!



Friday, July 20, 2012

Batman Nails

Happy Friday! Today I have a mani I have been planning for a long time! Mr. heartNAT is a huge Batman fan and when I told him about an image plate that has Batman he told me to get it and he'll buy it for me so of course I took him up on that offer. I wore it to watch The Dark Knight Rises today and I have to say, it was amazing. It's high up on my all time favorite movies list. For my base colors, the yellow is China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, the black is OPI Black Onyx. The Batman image is D25 from Chez Delaney and I stamped it in Konad Yellow and Konad Black. The blue chevron is OPI Swimsuit Nailed it, and the building image is from FUN2 and it's stamped in Konad White. I knew right away I wanted to do the bat signal with the buildings, but I got the idea to do a chevron from Not Another Nail Blog. If anyone else catches the movie this weekend have fun!



Wednesday, July 18, 2012

China Glaze For Audrey and Konad M59 and M79

Good morning beauties! Today I have a very girly mani. I have owned China Glaze For Audrey for probably over a year now, but have finally decided to use it. I tried it once in the winter and thought it looked weird on me, but I gave it another go and it's so pretty. I stamped dots using Konad M79 and the bow with Konad M59 in Konad White. I added rhinestones to the bows and I think it finished everything off nicely. On a side note, I have been wanting to get M79 for the dots for the longest time and I finally gave in. I kept telling myself I should just practice using a dotting tool, but the perfectionist inside me would not have it lol.



Monday, July 16, 2012

Exotic Encounters and Gold Glitter Frames

Good morning! I'm having a lovely 3 day weekend with my hubby celebrating our anniversary weekend. Yesterday we had a marathon of Breaking Bad Season 4 and then watched the premiere of season 5. Who else did that yesterday? Today I have my first frame mani. I was not a huge fan of the frame mani, but I saw toned down with just dots or glitter and wanted to try that out. I actually like it toned down instead of a full solid frame or maybe it's because the solid frames I see are really messy or too thick. The Nailasaurus rocks at frame manis, I love all of hers! I used China Glaze Exotic Encounters and added some gold hex glitter. I quite like this and it doesn't take much time to do!



Saturday, July 14, 2012

Color Club Modern Pink and Konad M65

Happy Saturday! Today is my first wedding anniversary with my husband! Last night we went to a flashlight tour at the Winchester Mystery House. It was really fun, not very scary though. I was half hoping I would see something paranormal, but I guess I'm glad I didn't because I wouldn't have been able to sleep. I was going to do some stamping with red and hearts, but it would look too much like a Valentine's Day mani so I used roses instead. I used Color Club Modern Pink and stamped using Konad M65 in China Glaze Passion.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!









Thursday, July 12, 2012

OPI Did It On 'Em and Bundle Monster 319

Good morning beauties! Short post today because I'm in a rush to head to my parents house and pick up my nail mail lol. I used OPI Did It On 'Em and stamped using BM 319 in Konad Sky Pearl. I never realized the shimmer in the stamping polish before because I have only used it to stamp thin images, but the shimmer stands out and looks so pretty using this image with a thicker pattern!



Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Cinderella Inspired Nails

Good afternoon lacquerheads! I didn't want to take my rasta stripe mani off yet, but I don't have anything in the vault to post. When I took it off, I had no inspiration LOL. I decided to do something from my "to try list". One of them was a Cinderella inspired mani by The Nail Network. At least I got to use one of my manyyy untrieds for today. I used Sinful Colors Cinderella and stamped using BM 213 and RA 119 in Konad White.



Sunday, July 8, 2012

Rasta Stripes

Hey loves! Today I'll be going to Island Reggae Festival at Great America so of course I had to do some Rasta nails! I was so tempted to do a gradient, but I did a red/yellow/green gradient just a few weeks ago so I wanted to do something new. I was inspired by NailStories and CoewlessPolish for this design. I used China Glaze Hey Sailor, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, and China Glaze Gaga for Green to make 3 stripes for my base. After it was completely dry, I placed striping tape in random patterns on my nails and then used OPI Black Onyx. I did each nail one by one so I could remove the tape right away. I really like this look. Even though cutting and placing the tape was kind of tedious for me, I will be giving this another try!



Saturday, July 7, 2012

MASH Nails Matte Top Coat Review

Happy Saturday! Today I have a matte top coat from MASH Nails to show you. I haven't often used matte polish because it doesn't last as long as a shiny manicure for me, but this one faired very well! I tried it over my Hello Kitty mani and then also tried stamping over it in black for a subtle look. I wore each one for a whole day, was pretty rough on them, and had no chipping, only minimal tip wear. This matte topcoat makes any polish, even with a shiny topcoat, flat and gives it a slight sheen. Having a matte topcoat is way cheaper than buying a bunch of different matte polishes on their own, plus it's nice for anyone who wants a change from the common shiny topcoat or create an edgy monochrome look with stamping.

Here is my Hello Kitty mani with a regular shiny topcoat...

...and here it is with MASH nails matte topcoat. 

Regular black polish with MASH matte topcoat.

Matte stamped in MASH Black stamping polish using MASH 41. 

I didn't use any topcoat on this after stamping because it will make everything shiny and the image will fade away.

This polish was really easy to use and it works right away. If you decide to use it over a stamped image like what I did over Hello Kitty, make sure you use a regular topcoat first. I tried doing a new stamping mani with the MASH matte topcoat and the image smeared like crazy. 

MASH Matte Top Coat is available at www.mashnails.com for $7.99 and right now there's free shipping (for a limited time).


***This product was sent for review***

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Hello Kitty Nails

Good afternoon beauties! After my nail fail yesterday, I just wanted to do some simple stamping because it never gives me any trouble. I used China Glaze Sugar High and stamped using FUN2 in Konad Black. I purchased my FUN2 plate hereI was  kind of torn whether to stamp in black or white, but I think the image is so cute it would've turned out nicely either way. 



Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! I had a huge nail fail today =[ My "nail time" was kind of cut short today so I don't know if it was because my polish wasn't completely dry, but I experienced topcoat shrinkage for the first time ever. I was pretty bummed out and I decided not to take pics with my DSLR. I'll post my iPhone pic I took because it's more forgiving than an SLR pic. The blue is China Glaze Man Hunt, the white is Zoya Purity, and the red is China Glaze Adventure Red-y. If I didn't have shrinkage, I think it actually would've turned out pretty cool.


Tuesday, July 3, 2012

OPI The Amazing Spider-Man Collection Swatches

Hi loves! Today I have OPI The Amazing Spider-Man Collection to show you. I did these swatches back in May, but decided I would save them until the day the movie is released. I'm going to be watching it in IMAX 3D today. Yay! After editing my photos, I kind of wanted to re-do my swatches, but I just don't have that kind of time so I'll be posting them anyways. There's 6 colors and 1 shatter. I wish I could get my hands on OPI Spotted, but it's only available in France. Oh well, I'm pretty sure I'll get over it.

My Boyfriend Scales Walls

My Boyfriend Scales Walls with Shatter the Scales 

Your Web or Mine. This is the first frost I like, EVER. I never thought that would happen =]

Your Web or Mine with Shatter the Scales

Call Me Gwen-Ever

Call Me Gwen-Ever with Shatter the Scales

Just Spotted the Lizard. LOVE this color. 

Just Spotted the Lizard with Shatter the Scales

Number One Nemesis

Number One Nemesis with Shatter the Scales

Into the Night

Into the Night with Shatter the Scales
I really enjoyed all of the colors in this collection except for Number One Nemesis. It is very pretty and there's a lot of depth to it, but it's just not my style. Like most people, I expected a red in this collection. I really wish there was one in it because it doesn't seem very Spider-Man without it. I didn't really care much for Shatter the Scales. I know the crackle trend is pretty much over, but sometimes a new one will come out that I really enjoy. This one just didn't seem to go well with any of the colors except for Just Spotted the Lizard, the gold-green duochrome. The colors aren't unique, but of course I'm happy to have added them to my collection!

Sunday, July 1, 2012

31 Day Nail Challenge--Day 31: Re-create Your Favorite Challenge

The day has finally came--the last day of the challenge! I loved being able to try out so many different styles throughout the past 31 days that I would normally avoid or be to scared to try. Today's theme is pretty open ended: re-create your favorite challenge. I wanted to do a watermarble or do another one inspired by a tutorial, but being the super honest person I am, I wanted to actually do my personal favorite. I always love to stamp flowers and I enjoy how stamps look over gradients, so I just did both (gradient and flowers). I did a gradient using Essie Orange It's Obvious, Essie Ole Caliente, and China Glaze Fuchsia Fanatic. I stamped using BM 318 in Konad Yellow. I hope everyone enjoyed my nail art for this challenge and thanks for all of the lovely comments!