Leather Bondage

Way out of my normal comfort range! Lots of 3D charms and something like 50% naked nail! I don’t know what I was thinking. That said, this was a LOT of fun. I used a bunch of random images online to outline what I wanted each nail to look like, and just made up some of them. I wish I had some smaller studs, but I use what I have! The craziest part is that I freehanded the black lines.

Colors:
~ A England – Fotheringhay Castle
~ Orange shimmer: Ethereal Lacquer – Rainforest
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black

Whats nuts is that I think I only had maybe 15 total doughnut studs, so now I am almost out! That said, I think this is the first time I ever used them so it was still worth it 😀 I am still uncomfortable looking at this much naked nail (eep!) but it was still fun! Hope you guys enjoyed! 

Nutcracker

I actually wore these to Thanksgiving, but that is when the Christmas decorations go up! The story here is that my mother-in-law collects nutcrackers. She probably has around 100 total, it is pretty incredible. I wanted to do some nails that she would enjoy!

As such, these were inspired by the adorably painted and carved toys, not the ballet! Usually I would be doing the ballet, but not this year. I should mention that this was a little bit of striping tape and a LOT of freehand, and I am quite proud of his face!

This is only 5 colors, and a lot of different golden studs. You have no idea how many photos of nutcrackers I looked at when trying to decide what to make what color and which body part to paint.

Also, because I am a dork, there are three sizes of studs on here! Caviar beads on my pinky, normal sized studs on my middle finger, and some small ones on my thumb. I finally have enough different sizes to do stuff like this!

Colors:
~ Red: Pure Ice – Siren
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Nude: OPI – Be There in a Prosecco

If you liked this or want me to be happy (either works!) please go vote for this design at Nail Polish Canada so I can win some free polish! The link is here. Thank you guys!

Baubles

This mani is…fairly random. I figured it was about time to start posting some actual holiday nail art, so here we are!

I am going to pretend that these are ornaments on a tree. I did mean to make them gold and green for Christmas, so let’s go with it! I just didn’t figure they would end up quite so…gold.

The only colors here are the green-to-blue multichrome, which is Reminisce by ILNP and black which is Black on Black by Sinful Colors. The stamp is from BM plate XL209, because I’ve always enjoyed bubble-looking designs!

I then decided to try out some of the gold studs I was sent from the Born Pretty Store. Now, this particular set also has starfish and seashells…and was supposed to arrive back in June but it came with this batch in November instead! So instead I am using some less summer-y gold bits, but this summer I WILL be using those adorable seashells.

Anyway, I used the smallest circle studs and the empty circle studs here. I must say, I was impressed by how easily the hollow circles stayed on, despite their large size! The gold color did not run off with top coat, which has happened with some other 3D bits I’ve used. Overall, quite nice! If you want to pick up this stud set, head over to the Born Pretty Store, where you can find it for $2.29. Enjoy!

Shifting Silver Cracks

Another new polish! This one is super shifty and cool :-). I could hardly bear to cover it, so I did a truly minimal design!

What you see here is two thin coats of State of Mind by Emily de Molly. When I first saw this polish online I knew I had to have it…precisely because I had absolutely no idea what the actual color of the polish was! It looked very different in various photos, but all of them looked awesome. As it turns out, the polish is a multichrome that shifts from a dusty pink, through copper, and to olive green. It is a deeper color than most that I own. On top of that, it has a bright pink-fuschia shimmer, as well as copper multichrome shards (you can see them in indirect light). It ALSO has an intense linear holo finish that glows bright purple (I don’t know how Hayley made the holo a different color than the polish, but its magical). Basically, this polish is confusing and super pretty.

The design, such as it is, was inspired by MarnieLP but I might have to try this again with better tape placement now that I know how the spacing goes. I love the idea! Maybe the next crazy weird polish I get 😀

Colors:
~ Purple holo multichrome: Emily de Molly – State of Mind
~ Silver: Nails Inc – South Kensington

I wish my camera was better at capturing purples…the polish is a bit brighter and quite a bit more pink-toned than it looks under indirect light in my photos. I tried to color correct, but my fingers looked like zombies so I left it this way.

Hope you enjoyed!

Sharp Drop

I wanted to do something simple with striping tape (I missed striping tape) so I went to my pinterest ideas and picked a striping based one that looked like it could be completed easily!

As such, this is inspired by a random unmarked pinterest pin, oops! I like that I added the stud at the bottom, but I think the original designer’s colors may have worked better. Especially her super glittery polish. I don’t really have anything like that!

Ah, pinterest, source of fantastic nail art ideas 🙂

Colors
~ Teal: Powder Perfect – There be Mermaids!
~ Black: Wet n’ Wild – Black Creme
~ Gold: ILNP – Fame

Hope you enjoyed! I’ll be back next week with some more stuff. Not sure what theme next week will have just yet, we’ll see!

Golden Overboard

So this post is some combination of wrong and weird. I was sent some golden mirror nail wraps to review from Lady Queen Beauty…and this is what happened!

My initial plan was to use the nail wraps on all but my accent nails (which were to be painted black and get some gold decorations). However, that didn’t quite work. I applied the wraps to three of my nails, and they kept bunching up! I didn’t even add base coat, in hopes that they would stick better. I have a photo below of what they looked like, and they ARE wonderfully mirror-y, but I couldn’t wear them. The material was just too stiff to bend around my nails!

I pulled them off every nail but my pinky (which looked passable), and went to town cutting them to pieces and putting them over a black base (Sinful Colors – Black on Black).

I really have no idea what I was thinking here. Black! Gold! Shiny things! My pinky does look awesome, but it is already peeling up as I type this (I’ve been wearing it for maybe 3 hours). Who knows if it will last through a shower! Even two coats of topcoat weren’t enough to adhere the cuticle edge to my nail.

I ended up painting black lines and dots on some of the gold pieces on my nails, and I actually liked it better without the additional designs. Oops!

If you have flatter nails and you want to pick up these shiny wraps (or just want to use them for weird nail art like I did) my code is BPLC15, and you can find these for $4.74 at Lady Queen Beauty! Hope you enjoyed 🙂

Mint and Diamonds

I was sent some really pretty aurora borealis rhinestones to review from Lady Queen Beauty, and had to figure out a mani pretty enough to pair them with! I wandered upon this awesome piece from Sveta Sanders and decided to modify it to be glittery.

I started with two nude polishes (an opaque but darker nude – Zoya Chantal – and then a coat of a lighter nude – Sephora X Marvelous) because I have decided that naked manis just look awful on me. Once my nude polish was dry, I added a swirly white stamp (BM – 201).

I tried two different stamps using my clear jelly stamper and neither picked up! But the one I am wearing now I have had good luck with in the past…and since centering the stamp wasn’t important I just grabbed my old hard stamper and used it instead. It’s such a different process with a hard stamper, but needless to say I am much better at picking up the image with a hard head.

I then taped off a section of my nail and added a pale mint polish (Maybelline Green with Envy) around the taped off chevron. After removing the tape, I hand-painted thin lines with silver glitter polish (Revlon Metallic) and then added the studs!

There are two sizes of studs on my nails, although the container has four sizes (the two sizes not shown are large and very large). I love the shimmery colors in these! I feel like I am looking at nail diamonds 🙂 You can find the studs at Lady Queen Beauty for $2.82. Don’t forget to use my 15% off code, BPLC15!

Fade to Blu

Studs, tape, and gradients, oh my! This was not the easiest mani, but the end result was pretty awesome!

The design was inspired by Mary Monkett, who always has the prettiest tape manis! The list of hers I want to replicate is long.

The new polish here is the pale blue base, Blu by Zoya (which I got as part of their New Years promotion). Blu is opaque in three coats, although it is patchy and likes to pull. Really, for a pastel this is pretty standard, but I was hoping for a bit more! The polish is thick but workable. Despite its issues, it is easily the best light blue I own (why are pale teals and greens easier to work with??), so you guys are likely to see more of it!

Once Blu was dry, I added some tape (and blocked off the lower part of my nail with liquid latex, which is soooo much easier than tape!), and then sponged on the blue gradient at the tips. Voila!

Colors
~ Light blue: Zoya – Blu
~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy
~ Dark blue: Zoya – Ling

Hope you enjoyed! Tomorrow we get some stamps and flowers, just to mix it up a bit 🙂

Bedazzled Black

How I wish my naked nails looked just a little better! This mani was a lot of fun to put together, and would look STUNNING on someone with longish healthy nails. Mine are long…but a bit funny looking!

This design was inspired by Baroquen Nails only this time (unlike the last time I tried to duplicate one of her nail art designs) this one totally worked! I modified the original design slightly, and I love it! Extra beads = awesome.

I don’t have a list of colors today, because the only color used is Black on Black by Sinful Colors. All the caviar beads and studs are from either the Born Pretty Store or Lady Queen Beauty. Everything else is just differently sized striping tape!

I really love how naked manis look on others, and it makes me sad that I can’t do them on myself without revealing how bad my nails look. This is why I paint them…so no one has to see them! Oy.

Hope you enjoyed! More gradients AND tape tomorrow!

Technologic

Nerdy time! We have binary AND motherboards. Both of these stamps are from the same stamping plate…the only one I bought from the 2013 Create-Your-Own set because it is wonderfully dorky!

I meant to use all of the same stamp, but I got distracted and ended up doing this instead. I am going to have to do each of these stamps on their own at some point…all circuit boards and matrix-like!

I am also a bit annoyed that my stamps are STILL not straight. I was convinced for a while that I needed a rectangular stamper to make sure things lined up right…but now there are these new see-through jelly stampers and I just went and ordered one! I don’t know when it will get here (its coming from Europe) but I am incredibly excited to see exactly where my stamp is going!!

Colors
~ Green: Zoya – Verechuka
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Stamp: BM – 415

So, odd stamping aside, enjoy the nerdiness!

Silver/Grey/Black

Welcome to 2016. Aaaand I start the year of without color! I don’t know why. But there is holo and glitter and 3D pieces so that totally makes up for it, right?

The art is inspired by @badgirlnails, as many things are :-). I improvised for the thumb, since I didn’t know what she did initially!

The only colors used were Storm by Zoya and #333 by WOW. Everything else is big studs, little studs, and silver-grey hexagon glitter. Oddly, the glitter and studs lasted three days before falling off! Go top coat.

Next week, I should have more color for you guys. Hope you enjoyed!

Green, Gold, Black, and White

The title is a list of colors, because somehow combining glitter gradient, stripes, studs, and just plain old glitter into a title was too challenging. Ah well, at least you know what you’ll be seeing! Also, sorry this is going up a bit late, I was out shopping and my sister demanded we go early to beat the rush.

This art was inspired by @amkuch15 although my green is much darker than hers. I really need to stop using Last Chance when I am also using black.

Unfortunately, my tape was less cooperative than I was hoping (I was also watching a movie at the time, which was probably a mistake. I don’t work well when distracted!) so this mani is a bit messier than my usual. Sorry!

Colors
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Gold: OPI – All Sparkly and Gold
~ Green: Sinful Colors – Last Chance

2/3 of the way though my rather limited Christmas manis. This mani is also an example of the accent-stud-nail, this time an adorable triangle stud from Lady Queen Beauty that you can find here for $2.98. Enjoy!

Golden Starbursts

This mani was incredibly simple but looked awesome! Its only two colors, one stamp, and a few 3D pieces. Surprisingly, it lasted for 5 days before any of the studs fell off.

Both the stamp and one of the various studs are new! For the half-stamped nails, I used tape to mark off where the stamp should end, and then added the studs and beads with top coat. The end look was really fun and surprisingly easy (just stamps and then studs!)

Colors
~ Brown: Spa Ritual – Starry Night
~ Gold: Maybelline – Bold Gold
~ Stamp: Hehe – 024

The stamping plate (which I have now used almost every design from…I really like this one!) can be found at Lady Queen Beauty for $2.99. The tiny isosceles triangle studs (pointer finger, thumb) are also from Lady Queen Beauty, and are $4.25 for 20 of them. Although I really like them (I’ve been using them on accent nails, you’ll see some during Christmas week!), I don’t know that $4.25 for just 20 of them is fair. I bet they’ll go on sale soon though!

Don’t forget to use my 15% off code if you buy anything, BPLC15! And please go vote for me 😀 Hope you enjoyed!

Sea Foam

Double stamps! And still blue, so it somewhat counts for this weeks theme. I really just wanted to play around with some new stamping plates I was sent to review from Lady Queen Beauty 🙂

I started off with a blue metallic base (you guys are going to see a LOT of metallics in the next few weeks…I’ve been back on a shimmery kick!). Once that was dry, I applied three colors of blue to the stamp and swiped my scraper to make them form a gradient, which was applied to my nails. I ended up adding an orange starfish too, just for fun!

Colors
~ Blue metallic: Zoya – Estelle
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow Me White
~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy
~ Dark blue: Zoya – Sia
~ Stamps: hehe – 012, 024

The second plate (with the starfish, 012) has a whole bunch of sea-themed stamping patterns…I can’t wait to make an underwater jelly aquarium mani! Only…I don’t actually have a blue jelly. So I might have to make one. *crosses fingers*

Plate 024 also has a really cool pattern that looks like a mix between a space warp and fireworks that I just know I’ll be using for New Years! Anyway, if you want to pick up either of these plates, head over to Lady Queen Beauty. They are both $2.99, but you get 15% off with my discount code BPLC15. Enjoy!

Purple X

You guys. This took SO MUCH STRIPING TAPE. Oh my god. 18 pieces per nail. I almost died. It took me 15 minutes per nail just to place them all! I thought this was going to be a medium fast mani (as many tape manis are) and it was NOT. Then again, it looks awesome!

The art (aka lots of X-shapped stripes) was inspired by @nailsbysophiaa. I kinda like her pink-to-blue gradient better than mine shades-of-purple one (you can honestly barely see the gradient) but I needed it to be purple, so hey! Still works.

Colors
~ Purple: Sephora X – Ignition
~ Purple metallic: Zoya – Giada
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Gold holo: ILNP – Fame

I guess I’m really liking striping tape right now…Monday, yesterday, and tomorrow’s manicures are all tape-based! It looks like next week is going to be mostly shades of blue and teal (I do go in phases…).

Ah well, hope you enjoyed! And Happy Thanksgiving if you are in the US. I didn’t do any themed manis this year, I kept doing turkeys in past years and they never came out right so I just didn’t try!

Stunned and Stunning

Another quasi-negative space mani! I’m on a negative space kick right now, but I’m ok with it. Sadly, the boyfriend doesn’t like “nudeish nails”, but he spends a lot less time staring at my nail than I do!

I also have a not-a-swatch of a pinkish red polish. It is another of the Mentality mattes that I was sent months ago now (I don’t even think they are trying to make these anymore? Who knows). The color is called Stunning and it is indeed quite pretty. I would prefer a slightly deeper red…luckily my version of Allure predates the polish issues so I can still wear it!

The art itself was loosely inspired by yagala, that is to say my ring finger was her design and I just messed around with the rest!

Colors
~ Nude: NYC – Prospect Park Bloom
~ Red: Mentality – Stunning

I also have been using studs of one type or another in almost every manicure I’ve done for the last few weeks. Or striping tape. Occasionally both. Anyway, hope you enjoyed!

Purple and Gold

I bought new ILNP polishes! Every time they release a collection I write a note about which polishes I want, so when I get a 25% off code every few months I can go and buy the ones I’ve had my eyes on. This time around I got a pretty purple-nude, a subtle blue shimmer, and a ridiculously bling-y gold. This is the gold!

I cannot get over this polish. In direct light is a pale gold linear holographic polish. In indirect/indoor light it is a very light pale gold with both gold and silver flakies. And it is stunning. It also has perfect coverage in 2 coats, and is surprisingly easy to clean for a glitter…and the FLAKES and the HOLO and its just…wow. I am so glad I bought this. I’ve been trying to figure out which of ILNP’s “ultra holo” polishes I want, but I just couldn’t pass on a pale gold. Ugh. I drool.

Once Fame was dry, I added chevrons with different sizes of striping tape (thin, medium, and thick, all from the Born Pretty Store) to make fun patterns. This is honestly one of the first bits of nail art I’ve done that I think would look better if my nails were shorter!

Colors
~ Gold: ILNP – Fame
~ Purple: Sephora X – Ignition

Glitter, so much glitter. And flakie. And rainbow. I went wedding dress shopping last weekend while wearing this, and all the bridal attendants wanted to know where I got my nails done! It was fun. (Also, why are wedding dresses so expensive? And why do so many of them have SO MUCH LACE AND GLITTER. I never though I would say this, but there is defiantly a such a thing as too much glitter!!).

Hope you enjoyed!

Green Through Silver

This fun glitzy of nail art was adapted from (aka I modified it quite a bit) lacquer&spice. It was actually a lot of fun! Even if my nails look a bit oddly yellow with two thin coats of Marvelous…anyway.

The base for my two plainer nails here is Veruschka (which is impossible to spell! Oy, Russian…), a BEAUTIFUL deep green matte polish by Zoya. It covers nicely in two thin coats. It dries to the touch very fast (it is a matte) but takes a bit longer to fully dry (and you can’t top coat it without losing the matte finish!). I bought Veruschka to replace my green matte from Mentality that I had to stop using. Veruschka is a brighter green, and honestly a prettier color (it has more depth, if mattes can have depth!). It also becomes possibly my prettiest green polish when top coat is added. Wow.

So, this polish is 100% a win. I like the quasi-sparkly-metallic finish of these older zoya mattes better than the new crushed-pearl finish. The old ones look better with top coat, and even without top coat to me. Hence, I would choose (and did, clearly) Veruschka over Honor (the new green) but each to their own!

Colors
~ Green: Zoya – Veruschka
~ Sheer nude: Sephora X – Marvelous
~ Silver: Revlon – Metallic

The studs were a bit of a problem, as I only had very large and very small ones…all of my mostly-flat studs are neon-colored! So, I took some neon orange studs and painted them with Sterling Silver by Sally Hansen. Ta-da, silver studs! Pain in the butt though.

In other news…it is very very hard to find a wedding photographer who is good in low light. I know planetariums are hard to take pictures in, but this is driving me nuts!! Anyway. Enough venting, hope you enjoyed the art!

Minimalist Black and Gold

Since my nails are still relatively short, I decided to do an incredibly simple but striking mani! I think that vertical designs look really good on smaller nails (whereas they just tend to look silly or stretched out on long nails).

The inspiration for this came from Paulina’s Passions. I used a coarser gold glitter and a matte black, while she made the whole design glossy. I can’t turn down a glossy/matte contrast mani!

Colors
~ Gold: Zoya – Ziv
~ Black: Mentality – Rascal

I’m really glad Zoya is releasing a matte jewel-tone collection for the holidays, but I do wish they would include a black! I already have a black matte (clearly!) but I find it to be my most useful matte by far, and it is unfortunate that the more well-respected polish brands haven’t made one to compensate for Mentality’s disaster!

Hope you enjoyed! This mani took 20 minutes, and 15 of those were waiting for the top coat over the gold to dry before I applied the tape. So, easy!

Serene

Another mani inspired by Bad Girl Nails! Her geometric-style manis just kill me, but are somewhat emulatable (which is not a word. shhhhh). The theme today was “peace” and this looked rather flower-power to me.

The base here (the purple) is the third of the polishes I picked up from the sale at Sephora. It is called Ignition, and is a beautiful true purple creme. It went on in two coats, and the control was flawless. I still don’t plan to shell out tons of money for Sephora X polishes, but they do deliver nice products!!

Everything else was either free-hand or tape. These roses (are they roses? I don’t know) look rather different from yesterdays. Polish is magic!

Colors
~ Purple: Sephora X – Ignition
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ White: Salon Perfect – Sugar Cube
~ Studs: Born Pretty Store

Hope you enjoyed! Only a few days left in the OMD Challenge, and I have to say I am NOT looking forward to any of the future prompts (other than princess. I like what I already did for princess). But really….drink? bag? PERFUME??? No. None of those things.