Candy Apple Nails

Hey guys, I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

Today's nails are a treat I had in the vault from before my break. Here's some Fall appropriate nails that were unplanned and totally a spur of the moment design.

I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Cinna-Snap and then picked up one of my Fall favorites, Sally Hansen - Pumpkin Spice and painted on some drips.

I didn't realize it until I was done, but these nails remind me to another Fall favorite: candy apples. Pumpkin spice and candy apples sound real good right about now, don't you think?

#TBT - Fall Inspired Gradient

Here's a lil something new here: a #ThrowbackThursday post.

I did these nails on October 7, 2013. At least that's what the date says on the picture file.

I think at the time I was using Pink Armor as a base coat. Then I used Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - Sunny Side Up for the orange and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Pumpkin Spice over that.

Posting a right hand pic just so you can see Pumpkin Spice in the shade. It's gorgeous and I keep reaching for it every Fall.

I haven't done much nail art at all since I broke two nails last month. Hopefully by Thanksgiving they'll grow out enough that I can enjoy doing it again. Till next time.

#31DC2014 - Day 31: Honor Nails You Love

Is it really the last day of the challenge? Has this flown by for anyone else while simultaneously seeming like it would never end? Is this too many questions to start a post with?

For today, I was inspired by a picture I've seen around Instagram for a Cirque Colors contest.

I really loved these nails and they're similar to the shape of mine, so I decided to recreate them using colors that were as close as I could get.

I started by painting my nails with Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - Black Creme then taped off with striping tape and did the inside part in Sinful Colors - Happy Ending to create the black outline. I topped that off with Sally Hansen Lustre Shine - Plume to give it a more duochrome shiny look. I peeled off my tape and topped it off with topcoat.

I did these while watching Pawn Stars and I must've watched at least 3 episodes. By the time I finished it was after 3am, and I was pretty tired, so I decided to leave them as is.

I think these have an antique look to them, but that really might be the Pawn Stars talking. Maybe I should go call a buddy of mine to check them out. ;)

An InLinkz Link-up

#31DC2014 - Day 27: Inspired By Artwork

For today's nails, I knew what I was going to do the second that I saw a fan brush in a Fing'rs Heart 2 Art kit: Bob Ross inspired nails!

For those who don't know, Bob Ross' show "The Joy Of Painting" airs on PBS, and I've been watching it with some of my relatives for years. He always paints pine trees with a fan brush, so I decided that after years of watching, I'd try it out myself.

I think I pulled it off! Nails are quite a bit smaller than a canvas, so I couldn't do an entire scene. I started off with two coats of Kleancolor - Pastel Blue, then I sponged on Sinful Colors - Snow Me White to create some happy little clouds. I used a striper brush with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Espresso to create the tree trunks and then using the fan brush I applied Love & Beauty - Teal to create the trees. I used a Snowman Polish in green and Sinful Colors - Happy Ending to highlight the trees.

Here are my nails with a picture of Bob Ross painting his famous happy little trees. I love how he makes art easy to do for anyone.

I have to say doing these were pretty relaxing, and I'm happy with how they turned out. So if you're feeling a little stressed, don't worry, the challenge is almost over, and take this advice:

Image Source

An InLinkz Link-up

#31DC2014 - Day 25: Inspired By Fashion

It's been awhile since I've done any fashion and OOTD posts here, especially with the 31 Day Challenge, it's been all nail art. Today I've got the best of both worlds: nail art inspired by an OOTD!

These nails are inspired by an outfit, especially the pants I wore.

I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Cinna-Snap, Sinful Colors - Nirvana, Hot Topic - Matte Black, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Espresso and Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - Black Creme for some of the detail on my flowers. This was my first time trying out the dry brush technique on the flower nails and I think it makes a pretty cool base.

Here's a close-up of the pants.

And here's the OOTD.

Those pants that I adore I got as a gift. The top is from Target and the shoes are from Fashion Q.

I did rockabilly kitten ears in my hair for the first time, I think they look a bit like faux victory rolls.

I love this OOTD and I love the nails just as much. They're perfect for Fall and I can definitely see myself using mixing and matching the pieces and polishes to create new looks.

An InLinkz Link-up

#31DC2014 - Day 9: Rainbow Nails

I've had this day in the back of my mind for awhile now because today is the day Apple is having their special event. AKA we all know it's the day they're going to announce the iPhone 6.

I was inspired by this logo that I found here.

So I just had to do nails to celebrate the occasion especially since the rainbow theme fit so perfectly.

I kept my China Glaze - Millenium on from yesterday's nails, including the Pretty Woman Holographic Nail Art foil that I had on my ring finger. I used some of the rainbow foil from the kit for the rest of my fingers.

As you can see, I got better at applying the foil as I did more nails. Here's a little trick I learned from a youtube video: wait 2 minutes for the glue to dry.

For me at least, the longer I waited, the better the foil applied. Treat it like lash glue: the more clear and tacky it is, the better.

Here you can see the red on my thumb better. I'm so pleased with the gradient look of it.

For my apple, I started with a base of Sinful Colors - Snow Me White. The green is Sinful Colors - Irish Green, the yellow is L.A. Girl Disco Brites - Psychedelic, the orange is Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - Sunny Side Up, the red is Wet N' Wild MegaLast - I Red A Good Book, the purple is a mix of the red and Revlon - Royal, and the blue is a mix of Royal and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Brisk Blue.

Once again I found a necklace that matched my nails perfectly.

Are you excited for the iPhone 6?

An InLinkz Link-up

#31DC2014 - Day 5: Blue Nails

This challenge is turning out to be a parade of my favorite polishes and since yesterday I've decided to explore more of my glitter collection.

As a result here are today's simple and sweet nails. Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Brisk Blue with Pure Ice - Strapless over it.

I've done this combo before and I never get tired of it. Strapless is such a pretty glitter.

What else can be more blue than a Smurf?

Like my green lipstick, this is another thing that I own and don't use that often. It's actually a hat with ear flaps and blue braids on each side. Maybe when the weather gets colder I might actually use it. The question is, what goes good with a Smurf?

An InLinkz Link-up

#31DC2014 - Day 1: Red Nails

It has begun.

So for this first day of the challenge, I decided to paint a red apple on my accent nail. Since September is back to school month, an apple seemed like the perfect match.

I used Salon Perfect - He's With Me, which is one of my favorite polishes. For my apple I used Wet N' Wild - I Red A Good Book, along with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Espresso for the stem and Sinful Colors - Irish Green for the leaf.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away, and I better stock up if I'm gonna keep this going for another 30 days. ;)

Check out other Day 1 nails below.

An InLinkz Link-up

Kimono? More Like Kimo-YES!

First off let me say that my friend came up with that title, and I am not responsible for any groaning and/or falling out of chairs that may result. :)

If there's one trend that's really been hot this summer, it's definitely the kimono. From celebs to fashion bloggers, everyone's enamored with the easy breezy boho look and throwing on a kimono is the cherry on top.

I recently went to Fashion Q and picked up my first kimono. If you follow me on Instagram you know I couldn't wait to style it and put something together.

I got the Love crop top from Fashion Q too and I love how the floral pattern almost matches exactly. I paired it with fringe shorts from Bloom and a fringe purse from Target to complete the look.

When I actually wore this out, I decided to wear sheer black tights and black heeled oxfords to add a different kind of edge to it.

I get my pose ideas from Lily Munster. And I love it.

Of course I needed to match the pattern on my nails too, so I did floral accent nails. I mentioned in my last post how much I loved my black half moon stiletto nails so I did them again, although my nails still haven't grown out as much.

The black is (of course!) Wet N' Wild - Black Creme. The roses are a mix of Wet N' Wild - Tickled Pink, Sinful Colors - Bianca, Sinful Colors - Snow Me White, Sinful Colors - Happy Ending, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Espresso.

I can't end this post without a picture of my cousin and I. This was the last time seeing her for the summer so we took a lot of pics.

I hope you're all having a summer filled with making good memories and rockin cute nails.

Sally Hansen Lustre Shine - Lava Swatch

Good morning lovelies! I'm postponing the last day of Halloween Week until I get better pictures of the costume I wanted to post. Instead I've got swatches of the new Sally Hansen Lustre Shine - Lava. You might remember I used Lava as the base for my Day 7 manicure for the Let's Do The Time Warp challenge.

Lava is just beautiful. It's so shiny and it has that "glow from within" quality to it. At first glance it's orange but it shifts to pink and brown depending on the light. I'm happy that this looks as good on the nails as it does in the bottle.

This first pic was taken indoors with flash, you can see the brown real good here:

This next one was outdoors, it came out a lil dark but check out the duochrome shine on my middle finger:

Then this was out in the sunlight, it looks different again:

Here's a quick lil review: I liked it. It's sheer but not too sheer, two coats covered pretty well. I could've used a 3rd but I'm already getting that feelin like I gotta hoard this lol. I like that it's sheer cause it makes for a good layering polish.

Hopefully this collection isn't limited edition, it doesn't say so on the display. I grabbed Lava cause it was the last bottle and I didn't wanna regret not getting it. I think this is the perfect Fall polish. I hope these stick around cause I wanna try out some of the other colors!

This was a good polish week for me. Along with this I got a Kiss Nail Striper kit AND I also got my very first dotting tool cause Rite Aid had the L.A. Girl Polka Dot Nail Art Collection kits. I'm so excited to use it, I plan on using it for my LDTTWC Day 8 manicure. I hope to do that this weekend, I just haven't been feeling up to it. I'm using a bunch of lovely manis as inspiration and I really wanna do them justice!

Have any of you bought any of the Lustre Shines?

Halloween Week Day 3 - Nails, Nails, Nails

Welcome to Day 3 of Halloween Week!

Today I'm rounding up some of the Halloween nails I've posted.
First up, I found these in my old pics folder. I did these on October 1st 2009 and wanted something that reminded me to Fall. Here's some vintage Miss DeVious DiVa for y'all.

I used Sally Hansen - Mink & Diamonds
Konad plate m63
Konad black special polish
I had discovered Konad that year and kinda went nuts getting plates lol.

These actually aren't as bad as I thought they'd be when I found them. The only thing that kinda makes me laugh is that all the nails I took pics of back then had a foil background haha.

These were done last year, and the full post for them is HERE.

And here's my more recent Slaughterhouse nails, which are perfect for Halloween. Better yet, don't clean them up after you do the splatter. You can find the original post (with pics after clean up) HERE.
I feel like I gotta say again Slaughterhouse is my favorite hip hop group. I actually hate actual slaughterhouses, but slaughtering lyrically is ok with me!

I'm not posting a lot of nail art this week, but I LOVE Halloween so I'm sure throughout October I'm gonna post more. If I did a Halloween-appropriate mani in August, you can bet I'ma do some in October!

LDTTWC - Day 7: You're Timeless To Me!

Hey guys! Can you believe this is the last week of the Let's Do The Time Warp Challenge? 4 weeks have flown by fast! Today is Day 7: You're Timeless To Me!

This manicure was influenced by 3 things:
1.) Barbershop quartets.
2.) The fact my allergies that I mentioned in my last post ended up being a cold that I still have.
3.) Me finding Sally Hansen Lustre Shine - Lava at Walmart.

I picked barbershop quartets as my inspiration since today's theme is something that was popular both then and now, and many guys in barbershop quartets had mustaches. Mustaches are SO in right now.

To be honest with you tho, I am so over white and red after my recent nails, ha! So instead of the usual barbershop quartet colors, I used something different. I picked Sally Hansen Lustre Shine - Lava as my base. Truth be told I was so excited about finding it that I reallllllly wanted to try it right away.

DUDE. It is so gorgeous. I will post swatches of it on it's own.

Here are today's nails:

I've got a bow on my thumb, then a bowtie, stripes, the infamous stache, and zig zags. I was thinking of the stitching on a vintage looking floral dress I had when I was a kid when I did that.

Here's a close up of my thumb:

It's super simple cause I just didn't feel up to doing some real hardcore nail art, but with a base color with so much dimension, simple is better.

If it makes it up, tomorrow's Halloween Week post will have some fancy pants makeup and nail art, so stayed tuned for that.

That's about it, there's one more day left in this challenge!

Chalkboard Nails Nail Art Contest: Cool Or Warm

Hey guys! Here's some nails I did for the Cool Or Warm nail art contest over at Chalkboard Nails.

The rules are to either choose warm colors or cool colors to do nail art with, black and white are freebies.

I chose warm colors. I found my striper polishes that I got when I first started getting into nail art and they're still useable. Dude a striper brush sure makes things easier to do. I wanted to try out tribal nails again, and just did random patterns. Call these tribal, call them geometric, whatever they are, they were a lot of fun to do!

My right ring finger is a nod to Mr.Candiipants. I did that nail with a toothpick. Pssh, I still picked up my trusty toothpick, even though I had the stripers! 

I used:
Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - French White Creme
Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - Tickled Pink
Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - Sunny Side Up
Sinful Colors - Ruby Ruby
Sinful Colors - Bianca
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Mango Motion
L.A. Girl Disco Brites - Psychedelic
L.A. Colors Art Deco Stripers - Black
L.A. Colors Art Deco Stripers - Hot Pink
L.A. Colors Art Deco Stripers - Red

Yeaaaa I used a lot of polishes for this one. Who knew I owned that many colors in the same color family? I wonder if anyone else doing this contest realizes they own way too many similar shades. Also, I didn't really get a good pic of my right thumb and I really liked that one.

I'm resisting the urge to make this Miss DeVious DiVa's Blog Of Tribal Geometric Nails. I'm for sure gonna do this again, and add in pops of blue and green. It's been HOT in Cali these last few days, SOMETHING'S gotta be cool, even if it's just my nails.

Let's Do The Time Warp Challenge - Day 1

Hey guys! I'm excited to announce that I'm doing the Let's Do The Time Warp Challenge over at Neverland Nail blog. I'm SO excited about this challenge because I love vintage.

Today is Day 1: I should have been born in... and I've got some groovy 70's nail art to show.

Now I should include some sort of explanation for why I chose the 70's, right? Three reasons:
1.) I love the 20's, 30's, and 40's and I didn't want everyday of the challenge to be about them so I chose something different!
2.) Most of my favorite rappers were born in the 70's.
3.) The patterns man, the patterns!

These nails were inspired by tie dye, flower power, lava lamps, and leather fringe vests, and I wanted each to look like some crazy pattern that would fit in as the backdrop on That 70's Show (remember the lil transitions with the characters dancing or swinging or whatever?)

I used:
Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - French White Creme (base on every nail)
Sinful Colors - Ruby Ruby
Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - Sunny Side Up
L.A. Girl  Disco Brites - Psychedelic
Sinful Colors - Irish Green
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Brisk Blue
Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - Tickled Pink
Kleancolor - Pastel Blue
Wet N' Wild Spoiled - Show Me Some Skin
Revlon - Espresso

That's all! I'll be back later this week with Day 2!

Far Out Galaxy Nails

Ready for some really cool nails? I dunno what made me do galaxy nails, I've never done them and decided to try. For some reason I always thought these were really complicated and took a lot of time to do. Dude, totally the opposite.

I followed THIS post by Rebecca. I think anytime I link to a tutorial on here, it's been by Rebecca, but I love her blog and her tutorials are easy to follow. Funny thing is, it's not even a tutorial, but she did post step-by-step pictures.

I only had a few of the polishes she used, so I used substitutions and made a few changes to them too. I shoulda watched the video she linked to, but guess what? Yea, it was late and I was going somewhere the next day. Story of my blog right?

These are easy to do but use a lottttt of polishes. I used:
Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - Black Creme
Wet N' Wild Wild Shine - French White Creme
Wet N' Wild Chrome - Precious Petals
Hard Candy - Beetle
Klean Color - Pastel Blue
Santee - Opal Speckle
Klean Color - Chunky Holo Fuschia
Sally Hansen - Hidden Treasure

Bonus outfit pic time:

If my dear cousin Becca is reading this, I only have two words for you: SPICY LIME! :p
Good pizza spot + family time + actin a fool at Walmart with the cousin = a good day indeed.