Copper Patina Water Spot

Hello Lovlies!

Today's nails are my first attempt at a technique I've been starting to see around the blogosphere. It's called a water spot manicure, and is a variation on water marbling. The trick to this one is you spray an alcohol based solution like hand sanitizer or perfume on the polish after putting it in water. There is a great tutorial here.  I chose to double dip my nails to get this really marbled, patina look, and I love the outcome... See here:

I started with one coat of Wet N Wild French White Cream. I then spotted on Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Green Tea, a fantastic dusty mint creme, followed by Essie Penny Talk, a super shiny rose gold/copper.

I did my manicure using pure rubbing alcohol instead of hand sanitizer, and noticed that with Penny Talk it broke it up more into chunks than into spots, which worked great for this manicure, but it is something to keep in mind. I love this technique though... it's going to be perfect for making nails that look like natural stones like turquoise or jasper.

What do you think about water spotting?

Until next time,
HeatherS

King Tut- Inspired Fishtail Nails

Hello Lovelies!

Back again today with a new favorite kind of nail art... fishtail braid nails! I have been seeing tutorials for these these pop up  lot lately and have been loving coming up with new and exciting color combos. Today's colors were inspired by my ipod shuffling and coming up with this:

Which of course, led me to this gorgeous color combo:

Which quickly became this:

This super shiny look was made using 2 coats of OPI Goldeneye on all nails, with Orly Sweet Peacock and Wet N Wild Black Creme free-handed to make the fishtail braid pattern on the ring finger and thumb. As you can see in the above pictures, Goldeneye is an incredibly reflective gold fleck that gives a great foil appearance. Sweet Peacock is an equally bright cerulean blue foil which shines so beautifully against the gold and black.

Until next time,

HeatherS

That 70's Mani.

Hello Lovelies!

Today I have my last manicure from 2012. It's another gradient mani using China Glaze Westside Warrior, a very 1970's drab avocado green creme, China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway, a deep navy creme, and Zoya Kelly, a stormy dark grey with bluish undertones. I then stamped it using Color Club Lumin-Icent and Cheeky XL Plate A.

It was a fun look, but under low light the gradient is almost impossible to see. I may try this again sometime in the future with lighter colors and see how it turns out.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year. Please feel free to leave feedback about what you'd like to see more of... I love suggestions!

Until next time,

HeatherS

Sunset Hounds-tooth Gradient

Hello Lovlies.

Today I have another bright nail design that would probably be more appropriate for summer. I decided on a color scheme that reminded me of the sky at sunset, and I think the results turned out really pretty. I'm still sort of getting used to gradient manicures, so until I'm really comfortable I think I prefer to stamp over them.

This is a combination of Wet & Wild Megalast in Club Havana, a bright sorbet orange, China Glaze Surreal Appeal a pretty coral leaning pink, and Wet & Wild Megalast On A Trip, a super saturated lilac purple stamped using Konad plate m63 and Wet & Wild Root of All Evil, an ultra-saturated royal blue with beautiful shimmer. The second photo is the most color accurate, the first makes Club Havana look too dark orange. 

Until next time,

HeatherS

Gothic Lolita + DV8

Hello Lovelies!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday season, whatever you may celebrate.

Now that the obligatory Holiday nails are done with I wanted to bring you some out of season brightness. For some odd reason I always tend to gravitate towards nail colors that are the opposite of the season, i.e. vampy colors in summer, neons and brights in winter. It's an odd quirk, but it leads to some pretty combinations like today's.

This is China Glaze Gothic Lolita stamped using China Glaze DV8 on Cheeky XL plate C. In low light the design is really subtle, but I love the combo in the sun. Gothic Lolita is a pretty hyacinth purple with a lovely blue shimmer, and DV8 is a super linear holographic teal that works so wonderfully for stamping.

Until next time!

HeatherS

March of the Penguins

Hello Lovelies!

Today I have a cute little design for winter. If I'm being honest, I really don't like Christmas that much. I have some strange aversion to red and green together, I never know what to get people, and I hate Christmas music. That being said, this year I have been trying to be more festive, so I came up with this cute design for winter.

This mani consisted of Essie One Day Without Blues (aka Coat Azure), Wet 'N' Wild White French Creme for the snowflake stamping (using a Shany plate if I recall correctly), with Color Club Lumin-Icent dotted in the center of each snowflake. For my little penguin accent nails I used Wet 'N' Wild French White Creme and Wet 'N' Wild Black Creme for the body, Essie's Vermillionaire for the beak and feet, and Essie One Day Without Shoes for the scarf.

Overall I was really pleased with this design. Free-handing the penguins was not as difficult as I expected it to be when I thought up these.  I am also finding I really like the wear time of Essie polishes (the above was after 4 days with only a little tip wear).

Until next time,

HeatherS

I'm Back!

Hello All,

It has been a crazy year for me. Between opening and subsequently having to close a business, family issues, and a vast array health issues it's not surprising that I haven't been able to keep up with my blogging. I am very happy to return to it though, and I have lots of lovely new manicures planned to show everyone!

Today I have a pretty combination of two of my favorite OPI's... What's With The Cattitude from the Shrek Collection and  You Don't Know Jacques.  WWTC is a beautiful bright sky blue that covers in 3 coats, and YDKJ is a rich chocolate-y taupe that's perfect in two. To get the design I used the Cheeky XL Jumbo Plate C which I got in a 3 pack available on Amazon. I have had the XL plates for less than a week and I'm already so in love with them... I've become very addicted to full nail images, and these have so many different patterns, and I never have to double stamp because the images are considerably bigger than Konad or Bundle Monster.

Are you a fan of nail stamping? If so, do you prefer subtler combinations or in-you-face contrast?

Let me know!

Until next time,

Heather.

I'm Cracking Up!

Hello All!

How is everyone? I've been crazy busy, but ridiculously happy.

Today I have a quick photo of a super pretty crackle polish combo... it reminds me of a venetian glass necklace my mom had when I was growing up and I'm super smitten with the different finishes contrasting.

This is OPI's Rising Star (a super rich, almost copper leaning gold) topped with China Glaze's Crushed Candy (a bright turquoise crackle polish).

  
I'm not a huge fan of gold or turquoise, but somehow the combination is very appealing to me. As I said, the real beauty of this manicure is the differences in the finishes, with that rich gold metallic shimmer that glows underneath the creamy turquoise when light catches it.

Until next time!

Chaotic & Colorful

Hey All,

Sorry I've been gone for so long, work had our manager fired and another girl quit on the same day, so I've been covering both of their hours. All the chaos at work though inspired today's manicure, a super bright and crazy colorful water marble.

This is my 4th water marble, I'm finally getting the hang of it. This was OPI What's With The Cattitude, Who The Shrek Are You, Zoya Mira and Areej, and China Glaze Happy Go Lucky.

The thumbs are my favorite.

Are you a fan of nail art? If so, simple, crazy or both?

I Need A Hero

Hey there!

Ok so a quick one pic post of my 2nd attempt at nail art (my first was some horribly deformed Stormtroopers). I was actually pretty happy with this one, but alas, it is gone now after a rough night of work.

So without much ado... JUSTICE LEAGUE NAILS!!!!

I was really shocked at how well Superman came out... Batman disappointed me though.

My other hand just had little random dots in corresponding colors to each of the above nails. Am now thinking I should do an Avengers manicure (for Thor or Captain America movie... whichever comes first).

Until next time... Be good humans.