Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day and I have a love/hate relationship. I cannot completely hate a day that gives me an excuse to cover my nails in cute colors and hearts. Who can?

This particular manicure is a Barielle polish explosion. Seriously. All Barielle shades. Six, in fact.

Barielle Enduring (white), Smarty Pants Pink (light pink), Eli's Magic (hot pink), Vivacious (red), Grape Escape (purple), and Black Rose (blackened burgundy).

There is quite a bit going on. Hearts, dots, gradient, and stamping (using plate BM-317).

Colorful Leopard Print

I'm back! If you want to know why I was gone, see this post. Its too much to summarize again. Oh my goodness, I missed you guys so much! To all of those who stuck with me during my absence, thank you! To those who left, I hope you come back soon. And to those who are new, welcome!

So many of the upcoming posts are old-ish manicures. However, this one is brand new. I hit the blogs for inspiration and ended up wanting to recreate this gorgeous leopard print by Chalkboard Nails. For mine, I used Zoya Pippa, Essence Let's Get Lost, and Sally Hansen Black Out. Leopard print is an easy design, even for the nail art challenged. I love it!

I'm trying out a new watermark technique. Let me know what you think.

Born Pretty Mixed Metal Nail Art Roll Foils Review

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! Today I some fun and easy nail art to share with you. Nail Art Roll Foils Glitter Transfer. Gorgeous colors splashed along your nails without the work and cleanup of regular splatters.

Applying these could not be easier. Simply paint your nails with two coats of color. I chose Finger Paints Where Art Renoir?. Dark colors are best. When its almost dry, press a piece of the foil onto the nail shiny side up, rubbing it onto your nail. When you pick it up, some of the foil design should be left on your nails. You can use several different foils on each nail to cover as little or as much as you want. Make sure to topcoat once you are done.

I used two different foils on my nails, both from Born Pretty Store. Numbers 3 and 7 to be specific. A sapphire metallic blue and pink holographic. The colors just pop! And you definitely get your money's worth. This isn't something you use for a couple of manicures, and then its all used up. No, these nail foils can be used for multiple manicures. Each foil comes in a roll that is one inch wide and nearly four feet long. I could not believe how long they were!

These are definitely a must own. Just make sure your polish is nearly dry when you apply the foils. If its too wet, the polish will be pulled up when you remove the foil. Not a good thing to experience, trust me.


The foils come in twenty-seven different colors. The bows (Item ID: 5361) retail for $2.38 on Born Pretty Store. They have a ton of other fun nail art related items as well. Shipping is always free worldwide. You can also use my coupon code AHL91 to save 10% on your order.

Disclosure: The product (bows) in this post were provided to me for consideration. All opinions are mine and honest.

Sunshine and Bows

I hope you are enjoying what is left of your Tuesday, most likely Wednesday by now. I know I've absent recently, but I'm back and ready to blog.

Today, I have a cute design to share with you featuring some 3D nail bows.

Very 3D nail art. I started with China Glaze Lighthouse then added a full nail design with Essence Stamp Me! Black and stamping plate BM-310. Finally with a little nail glue, I added these cute black bows from the  Born Pretty Store. How cute are these?!

The bows come in twelve different colors with a rhinestone in the middle of each. Each set comes with ten bows. The bows stay on well when applied with nail glue. The bows (Item ID: 1675) retail for $2.38 on Born Pretty Store. They have a ton of other fun nail art related items as well. Shipping is always free worldwide. You can also use my coupon code AHL91 to save 10% on your order.

Disclosure: The product (bows) in this post were provided to me for consideration. All opinions are mine and honest.

Cats Galore! Born Pretty Stamping Plate Review

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! If you love cats, I've got the stamping plate for you. I got my first kitten when I was barely three years old, so needless to say, I love cats.

I used all twelve designs to show you what each image looks like. The designs transfer easily, with nice crisp lines. I love the addition of feathers! They definitely go along nicely with cats. I got a little colorful with the cats, but kept them within natural fur colors. I used Love My Nails Angel (base), NYC Times Square Tangerine (orange), China Glaze Mahogany Magic (brown), Essence Stamp Me! Black, Konad Yellow, Ulta The Jungle Look (green), Blue Streak, Sally Hansen Raspberry Race, and Julep Alyson.

I love these designs! Particular the ones on my left middle, right ring, and thumb. Very cute kitties. And clearly defined.

This particular plate (Item ID: 4856) retails for $2.99 on Born Pretty Store, as well as all other single plates this size. They have a lot of fun designs to add some fun to your nails. Shipping is always free worldwide. You can also use my coupon code AHL91 to save 10% on your order.

Disclosure: The product in this post were provided to me for consideration. All opinions are mine and honest.

Spongebob! Born Pretty Stamping Plate Review

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! Or what is left of it. I have a very fun stamping plate to share with you today. A Spongebob Squarepants themed plate. I will admit; I am twenty-three years old and I love Spongebob. Its a part of my childhood. I was ten years old when it first aired.

I used each of the designs, except for one in the middle. Eleven designs and only ten fingers. As you can see, the designs are adorable and transfer well. The smudging you see on a couple of fingers is from the polish I used to stamp with, not the plate itself. I used Zoya Pippa as my yellow base and Sally Hansen Black Out as my black stamping polish.

If you like Spongebob, this is a definite must have. It makes a fun manicure!

This particular plate (Item ID: 4936) retails for $2.99 on Born Pretty Store, as well as all other single plates this size. They have a lot of fun designs to add some fun to your nails. Shipping is always free worldwide. You can also use my coupon code AHL91 to save 10% on your order.

Disclosure: The product in this post were provided to me for consideration. All opinions are mine and honest.

Flocking Powder Nails

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! I've been wanting to try this particular nail art trend for awhile. The idea of fuzzy nails sounded odd in the beginning, but curiosity took over. So I went in search of flocking powder. The only kind I could find in my city was the Martha Stewart set. Twelve glitter filled for $20. Not exactly what I wanted. So I did a little searching online and found a great deal. Nine colors for about $10, including shipping.

This is a mixture of gray flocking powder with little holographic glitters. The glitter is hard to capture; you can see some of them on my thumb. It was easy to apply. I painted each nail with a gray creme then did another coat one nail at a time. I dipped my nail into the flocking powder, pressed it down gently, then cleaned off the excess with a fan brush.

The texture is not nearly as distracting as I expected. The velvety feel was interesting to wear for a day. It stayed on relatively well through hand washing and whatnot. The flocking powder dries quickly. Definitely pick a base polish that is close to the flocking powder. If any comes off, it makes the bald spots much less noticeable and blend in really well.

I ordered all of my flocking powder from Kandies Faux Candy Charms on Etsy. Her shop is on vacation right now, but should be up shortly. The powder costs $1 for a 2x3 inch bag and comes in a variety of colors. Some with glitter, some without.

I might try a few other flocking powder manicures in different colors before the leftovers become part of my craft supplies. What do you think of the fuzzy trend?

DIY Sand

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! Today I have a little DIY nail art experiment to share with you. All these liquid sand polishes coming out had me thinking about what an actual sand manicure would look like. My pack of sand for crafts was calling to me.

It looks a little more like rock candy or pop rocks than sand. But I like it! I started off with a coat of Ulta Blue Streak. Then one finger at a time, I painted on another coat and dipped my nail in blue sand. I dusted off the extra sand with a fan brush. Finally, I topped it with a matte topcoat. I wanted the sand to stay on but keep the matte finish.

I imagine finer sand or glitter would with a matte topcoat would give a more definite sand like appearance.

Christmas Stamping

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! Christmas is getting closer and closer. And the stress is getting worse and worse. But at least my nails are cute. :)

I used only three polishes for my base and stamping. Ulta The Jungle Look (green), Color Club Gingerbread Man (gold), and Love My Nails New Love (red). For my stamped images, I used BM-316 (gift with bow), BM-320 (ornament), BM-321 (tree), and BM14 (bells).

Christmas Tree

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! Its been a little over a week since I last posted, and I apologize for that. The holiday season has me stressed out. Getting ready for the holiday itself, plus work. I work in retail and I am sure you have seen how the stores are this time of year. I have never little time left. So I am cramming a post in before I go to bed tonight.

You have probably seen this type of design floating around the web lately. It has been very popular this season. I used one coat of Milani Signature Gold as my base. I love this gold, and keep picking it up as the gold in my holiday designs. For the tree, I taped off my nail leaving a triangle. Then I placed striping tape, making sure to lap it over the tape. I painted on a layer of Color Club Holiday Splendor before carefully peeling the tape off. Finally, I topped my tree with a silver star glitter.

The design is very easy to create. I need to work with striping tape more.

Color Club Gingerbread Man & Holly

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! I recently got a new camera. I have been playing around with it and trying to see if it is what I want. Obviously, macro shots (close up photography) is a large part of my camera use. I have not perfected taking manicure shots with this camera yet, but decided I needed to start posting them. If anything, seeing them on my blog will hopefully help me figure out tricks to make the pictures better. I purchased a Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR. The camera is amazing. I am just having trouble getting macro shots in my light box without casting a shadow with the long lens. Also, getting my skin to turn out the right color. If you have any advice, please let me know, whether by comment or email.

Enough of my camera rambling, onto the pictures!

Color Club Gingerbread Man is a light gold foil. The application is perfection and opaque in one coat. It may appear like your basic gold foil, but it does have something special about it. Its scented! It smells like a frosted gingerbread cookie. The scent is very light. Nothing overpowering.

I wanted to make this manicure into something even more Christmas like than gingerbread, so added hollies. Three berries and three leaves. I used stamping plate BM14 and Ulta The Jungle Look. I attempted to stamp red and green on my thumb, but the delicate design dried too much before I could stamp it. So I decided to do green and add the red afterward. I went back with a small dotting tool and Love My Nails New Love to make the holly berries red. I personally love this. Its simple and very easy.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

I hope you are enjoying your Monday! Today I have my first Christmas design of the season to share with you.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, along with all of the other reindeer! I wish I had done better on getting the shapes even. It was part my hand shaking and part the fan going making the polish too tacky. For my little reindeer I used, China Glaze Mahogany Magic (brown base), Pure Ice Super Star! (white), Sinful Colors Black on Black, Essence Once Upon a Time (red), and Julep Olivia (tan antlers). I took inspiration from Top Coat It.

Autumn Leopard

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! Thanksgiving is almost here! For those who celebrate, I hope you have a wonderful day. Hopefully it will involve the people that you love and yummy food.

Today I have a fun nail art design to share with you. Leopard print!

I have honestly never been a big fan of leopard print. But I kept seeing so many pretty nail designs involving the print, so I finally decided to give it a try. This design could not have been easier to create. So simple! I'm still on the fence as to whether I love it yet or not, but it is growing on me.

Since we are well into Autumn, I decided to use colors fitting the season. Essie Head Mistress, Finger Paints Figure of Art, and Love My Nails Black Rage. I'm rather found of the colors; I just wish red didn't turn my skin pink during cleanup.

Head Mistress is part of the Essie Stylenomics Collection and retails for $8. Finger Paints retail for $5.29 at Sally Beauty Supply. Love My Nails retails for $1 at Bari Cosmetics.

"This Is Halloween" Challenge: Recreation

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! And your Halloween holiday if you celebrate. I have the last of my posts for the This Is Halloween Nail Art Challenge and what will most likely be my last Halloween design of the year. Today is recreation.

Thick oozing blood. Not exactly as I imagined, but I still like it. Looking at them in person, they look like I've been scratching at something containing blood. Blood drips are all over the internet, so I do not have one particular person to credit. For my dripping blood, I used Essie Blood Curdling, a little Blood Curdling plus black mixed together, and black. 

"This Is Halloween" Challenge: Trick or Treat

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! One day closer to Halloween! I have another post for the This Is Halloween Nail Art Challenge. Today is treat or treat.

When I think of trick or treating, candy comes to mind first. And the first Halloween candy I think of is always candy corn. So I decided on a candy corn gradient. Fun, easy, and just screams candy corn.

I started with a coat of Pure Ice Super Star! as my white base. Then I painted wide stripes of Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, NYC Times Square Tangerine, and Super Star! onto a makeup sponge. Gradients are one of the easiest nail art techniques. The only hard part is the cleanup if you end up with too much polish on your skin.

I looked yesterday at some of my nail art and realized that an Asian site had stolen one of my images. They very badly tried to erase my watermark and then added their own. I've been considering adding a watermark  closer to the nail, something that cannot be cropped out and is hard to photoshop out. Let me know what you think of the new watermark.