L.A. Colors Sassy Sparkle Glitter Tips

I hope you are enjoying your Friday! I meant to post this manicure earlier, right after Color Club Nouveau Vintage.

I was not ready to remove the lovely Nouveau Vintage, so I added glitter to the tips. Usually glitter covers up tip wear, but not this time. L.A. Colors Sassy Sparkle is a clear jelly base filled with small holo glitter.

Happy Independence Day!

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! And your Fourth of July, if you're in the US. Today, I have a final design to share with you for the holiday.

I had a man compliment me on my patriotic nails today. That rarely happens. Almost never. On my pinky, index, and thumb, I did two coats of Wet n Wild Red Red then stripes with L.A. Colors Art Deco White. For my middle and ring fingers, I used one coat of Pure Ice Super Star! then stamped on stars with Color Club Cold Metal and plate BM20. To add a little extra something, I placed silver star glitter in the middle of each large stamped star.

Wet n Wild retail for $1-2 at CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Ulta, and many other stores, all of which are listed on their website. Cold Metal is part of the Color Club Foiled Collection. It retails for $4-8. I purchased mine in a collection set of all six for $8 at Ross. BM stamping plates are part of a 21 piece set that retails for $18 on Bundle Monster or their Amazon store. Pure Ice retails for $2 at Walmart and Bari Cosmetics. L.A. Colors Art Deco stripers retail for around $1 and can be found at most Dollar stores. 

Funky French Glitter Bomb

I hope you're enjoying your Monday! The Monday Nail Art Challenge is here again. The theme this week is Glitter Bomb. I have done many glitter filled manicures so I wanted something a little bit different. A funky french glitter bomb.

I absolutely love this glitter combination. It reminds me of my high school colors. Though I think it will remind most people of LSU. I used L.A. Colors Nuclear Energy and Pure Ice Cheatin as my purple base. I did one coat of the former and two coats of the latter. Cheatin has blue glitter, along with the purple. I free-handed the gold tips using Color Club Gingerbread Man and Funky Fingers Golden Coast. Along with the gold glitter, there is also holo glitter. The applications on all of these polishes is great.

L.A. Colors retail for around $1 and can be found at most Dollar stores. Pure Ice retails for $2 at Walmart and Bari Cosmetics. Funky Fingers retail for $2 or 3/$5 at Five Below. Gingerbread Man is part of the Color Club Scent-suous Collection and retails for $4.

Colorful Gradient

Its Stamping Sunday! Two themes were neck and neck for winner. So, we could do either. Stamping over a gradient or using two stamps. I went with the former. I have been wanting to try a sponge gradient for awhile.

I was inspired by this blog post on Laynie Fingers. I did one thick coat of Pure Ice Super Star! as my white base. For my sponging, I used L.A. Colors Phenomena, Kleancolor Neon Green, and L.A. Colors Shock.  I love this technique! Automatic gradient. Now for the stamping. Using plate BM10 and Color Club Blue Topia, I stamped on little flowers. Since Blue Topia is a jelly, the petals are slightly faded. But I like that. Using a dotting tool and Super Star!, I dotted middles for each flower.

Cheshire Cat

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! I have what I hope is a cute design to show you today. It did not turn out exactly as I wanted.

The Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. I did all of my fingers except for my middle with a water/dry marble technique. I followed this tutorial on More Nail Polish. Except instead of using a thick piece of plastic, I placed wax paper in the water. When my marble was ready, I cut a hole in the paper and pulled it out. The water drained and the marble landed on the wax paper. The marble itself came out very well, but the transferring to my fingers was a little difficult. Practice makes perfect though.

For the marble, I used L.A. Colors Nuclear Energy and Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac. I painted on a base coat of Nuclear Energy then added the marble. The Cheshire Cat smile is a base coat of Sinful Colors Black on Black then Snow Me White and Ulta Sun-sational.

L.A. Colors retail for around $1 and can be found at most Dollar stores.  Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear retails for $2-3 at Walgreens, Walmart, Riteaid, Target, and Ulta. Ulta Nail Lacquer retails for $6 at Ulta. Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. 

L.A. Colors Sea Siren

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! I have a bright shimmering color to show you today!

L.A. Colors Sea Siren is a bright turquoise with slight shimmer. The application is great and opaque in two coats. I know some overlook L.A. Colors because of the price tag, given its only a dollar, but trust me, it does just as well as polish I've paid eight dollars for. Give it a chance. 

L.A. Colors retail for around $1 and can be found at most Dollar stores.

Girly Girl Nail Art Challenge Day 5 - Gotta Love Chick Flicks!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Tuesday! I have another design for the Girly Girl Nail Challenge for you today. This challenge lasts a month and includes eight different days of nail art. Instead of trying to keep up with a new nail design each day, we have two each week. Day Five is Gotta Love Chick Flicks: We just can't resist! Wear a mani inspired by your favorite chick flick.

My favorite chick flick is without a doubt The Notebook. Its an amazing love story. If you have not seen the movie, I will not spoil it for you by telling you about my mani, I promise. Noah writes Allie a letter everyday for a year. 365 letters.

I painted all of my nails with three thin coats of Essie Bone Chilling. For my ring finger, I used a L.A. Color Art Deco Black Striper then painted a heart with a dotting tool and Julep Cameron. For the rest of my fingers, I wrote out words with the tip of a calligraphy pen. I could not get the letters small enough with polish. And calligraphy pens will not bleed or run. 

Please check out the other lovely bloggers participating in this challenge. :)

Amanda of Nox Nails
Amanda of Berry Polished
Ashley of Smashley Sparkles

Bethany of  A Plethora of Nails
ChiChi of I'm just me...ChiChi
CR of Color Me Silly

Danielle of Polish. Glitter. Rock & Roll
Elly of Polishable

Emily of TheLacquerologist

Eugenia of Talon-ted

Jess of LuvMyLacquer

Jodi of CaptivatingClaws

Johanna of Neues vom Kellerkind

Kate of This Charming Kate

Kelly of Devilish Polish

Lindsey of Neverland Nail Blog
Lizzy of The Do It Yourself Lady

Olivia of Unprofessional Nails
Robin, Erin, and Anna of Polished Cousins

Sarah of See Sarah Swatch

Stephanie of A Little Polish
Tressa of O' Natur Nail

Finger Paints Twisted

The Finger Paints Special Effects Collection had many of us watching the Sally's Beauty Supply nail aisle waiting for them to hit the shelves the first of January. My first visit I was only able to find Flecked and Asylum. Eventually, Motley joined my collection as well. But Twisted seemed to have disappeared from the display with no hope of restocking. It wasn't until this month that a very lovely woman from PAA named Karine offered to pick up bottles since a store near her was well stocked. Twisted was finally mine!

I'm sure most everyone has heard of or owns this collection by now, but if you haven't... The Special Effects Collection contains five flakie polishes. Twisted, Asylum, Flecked, Motley, and Flashy. All of them are just gorgeous! You may have noticed I only talked about owning four of the five. Flashy is a dupe for Essie Shine of the Times, so since I owned the latter, I saw no point in tracking down the other.

On to the pictures!

I did a bit of layering to give this the depth I wanted. I did a layer of L.A. Colors Nuclear Energy, Finger Paints Twisted, Nuclear Energy again, and Twisted again. Nuclear Energy is a sheer purple jelly, so it allows you to see the flakies that are suspended between polish layers. Both polishes apply very well. Twisted has a nice amount of flakies in one coat and they spread out evenly. It is my favorite out of the Special Effects Collection. There is literally every color of the rainbow packed into this polish.

L.A. Colors retail for around $1 and can be found at most Dollar stores. The polishes from Finger Paints Special Effects Collection, if found in store, will be at Sally's Beauty Supply and retail for $5.49 (less if you have a Sally's card). There are some for sale online from different sites if you look around.

Galaxy Nails

I love the idea of galaxy nails! Capturing the beauty of space on your nails. I've been wanting to try it for the longest time, but was always nervous I would fail at it. But I got a little nudge. This week's theme on PAA is Galaxy Nails. This urged me into attempting it.

They did not come out exactly as I expected, but I still love them.

Artificial Light, Flash

Artificial Light, No Flash

It is basically a lot of layering, mostly with a tiny piece of a makeup sponge. The torn edge gives it a nice fading effect. I used several polishes, mostly glitter to give the stars some depth. I started off with two coats of Love My Nails Black Rage. Then with the makeup sponge, I added Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, a light pink Bon Bons polish, and a dark blue that no longer has a label (which I've decided to call Brand X No-Name Midnight Blue for the sake of wanting a name). I added some dots with Snow Me White to act as stars. For more stars, I added on the glitter. I sponged on L.A. Colors Sparkling Diamonds and Sassy Sparkle. I also brushed on Nicole by OPI Let's Get Star-ted and contoured my galaxies with e.l.f. Light Pink. Its a very sheer pink with so much shimmer. 

It is a lot of polish, I know. But it does not feel like a lot. Its not thick at all. Which I love. Usually layering polishes has a thick look or feel.

I am definitely going to do this design again in the future. With some tweaks that I think will make it better and give more depth.

I hope you like it! And are inspired to give galaxy nails a try yourself :)