Game Day Nails!

The skins are in the playoffs so... party like it's the Superbowl!  I did some game day nails for the game this afternoon.  This was really fun!

Products Used:

China Glaze Merry Berry

Spoiled Designated Driver

Wet n Wild 449C

China Glaze Electrify

Essie As Gold As It Gets

Milani Jewel FX in Gold

LA Colors Art Deco in White

Green and Gold Winter Holiday Mani

Simple, subtle, lovely!  Like gold decorations on a Christmas tree.  I needed something quick that I could wear to work, and this was it!  I'm loving this deep green- I used a brand I've never used before- something cheap from Target because I was in a hurry.  And I was pleasantly surprised!  The perfect green for what I wanted.

Products Used:

Sonia Kashuk Emerald City

Essie As Gold As It Gets

Long Time, No Blog- Winter Gradient

Wow ok so the last time I posted was in August.  I've been awful.  Terrible.  Working two jobs plus my etsy shop has really been kicking my butt, so much so that I hardly even have time to paint my nails at all, let alone do anything worth blogging about!  So I'm hoping to start managing my time a little better and to step my nail game up.  The holiday has really inspired me to get crackin- not to mention I am getting MARRIED in 5 months and really need to knock this nail biting habit by then.  So here's hoping I kick off and keep this thing going!  Starting off with yet another gradient--

Awww yea.  It's no secret that I love a good gradient.  They're super fast, super easy (minus the cleanup) and they look like you spent a ton of time on them.  I got a bunch of compliments today at job #1, so I would consider that a success.  Although they chipped after a day and a half- I blame that on super short stubby nails.  I really love these colors for winter- I wanted to do silver snowflakes or polka dots on top but I just loved them the way they were.  Maybe next time!

Products Used:

Revlon Top Speed Royal

China Glaze Electric Beat
Essie Borrowed and Blue

Another Gradient- Creamsicle

I loved the last one so much that I did another one!  I asked the fiance "brights or pastels?" and he said pastels, so I chose some lighter-but still summery- colors.  My dad said it looks like a creamsicle, and the waitress when we had dinner said she loved my nails and asked to see them- so I think I would call this a success!  Officially in love with the idea of gradient manicures now.

Products Used:

China Glaze Peachy Keen

Essie Borrowed & Blue

Quick and Easy Purple Spring Mani- 2 weeks of China Glaze

My nails are crap.  I'm so bad at nails.  I love nail polish, I love stamping, I love trying to freehand designs.  But I cannot break my nail biting habit.  I KNOW.  It's completely terrible.  Recently I was doing a great job.  They had grown to a very lovely length and I was happy with them!  Then I broke two of them on the toilet seat (of all things) and then another one when I was moving boxes (have I mentioned the part where we are moving/driving 3000+ miles across the country in a month?).  So I thought, what is the use of me trying to grow out my nails if every time I do, they are just so weak and fragile that they break?

Enter the idea of doing 2+ weeks of manicures using China Glaze.  I love CG, it's one of my top two favorite brands of nail polish.  A good friend heard my lament and said "don't you have China Glaze?  When I use that it makes my nails hard as rocks."  And a little lightbulb went off and I thought to myself, let's try this.

So here's the first!  A simple, quick paint job using what I had sitting on my desk (I'm lazy).

Products Used:

China Glaze Sweet Hook

Essie Pure Pearlfection

Also can I just say how fed up I am with Seche Vite?  Our love affair was pretty short lived.  I used it on a few really great manis last week that I was so excited to come home and photograph (I paint my nails at night, when I can't photo them, and then they have to last through my day at work until I get home) and by the time I got home from work, they had shrunk down and peeled or popped completely off.  Have you ever had one just pop off???  It has happened to me several times, I just look down and where the heck did my pointer finger go?  Then I look like I forgot to paint that finger.  Anybody have any solutions for that?  I've heard the Sally Hansen in the black bottle is a good replacement and doesn't do the crappy things that SV does.

Goldfish Scales

Man I went a little buck wild this past week.  I used an amazon giftcard to buy the entire China Glaze Electropop collection, and if that weren't enough, I went to Ulta and bought like 10 more polishes (most on clearance).  It was great!

One of my Ulta purchases was Sally Hansen's Shiny Penny.  I figured I might be able to use it for stamping.  But then I had a better idea... Layer Shine of the Times on top and see what happened.  Can I just say.... it was GLORIOUS.  Subtle, but dazzling under the right conditions.  It reminded me of a goldfish, and I couldn't stop staring at them.  One of my students told me I looked like I had flecks of gold on my fingernails.  I take that as a mark of approval!

What do you think?  Goldfish scales?  Does this look meet your stamp of approval?

Products Used:

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Shiny Penny

Essie Shine of the Times

Another Freehand Floral Mani!

I really loved a few of the floral manis I did previously (here and here) and I'm not opposed to tooting my own horn, so I did another!  I tried out a lovely pink color I got from a friend for Christmas.  It's really bright and gorgeous, so I went with darker grey and black for the roses.  And sprinkled in some little white accent dots and glitter for fun and variety!

Also notice my poor little nubbins? :(  I had a super turbulent flight on the way home, combined with returning to internship, wedding planning, and the Praxis II that I'm taking on Saturday.... and yowza, my nails have had it!

Here you can sort of see the glitter I slapped on there.

Products Used:

Orly Fabulous Flamingo

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Wet Cement

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Black Out

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On

Essie Pure Pearlfection

Hope everyone is having a fabulous beginning to their 2012!  And may you never have to take the Praxis II!

Swatch: Essie Pure Pearlfection

The last one from LuxEffects (I didn't buy the gold one- As Good as it Gets) is Pure Pearlfection.  This is beautiful!  It's this wonderful shimmery color with these itsy bitsy microscopic glitters.  It looks so good on this black base- it reminds me of gunmetal, it makes my plain black polish look metallic.  I can't wait to use this all the time, I rarely layer plain colors with topcoats like this.  I wish I could've captured all of the colors in this polish- it looks primarily silver, but in the bottle and close up, there were little flecks of pink and green and blue!

Gorgeous!

Swatch: Essie Set in Stones

Another one from Essie's LuxEffects!  Here's Set in Stones, a silver sister to A Cut Above.  Here is is over a black base.

This is just perfect for New Years!!

Swatch: Essie A Cut Above

I hooked myself up with Essie's LuxEffects the other day.  Here's A Cute Above.  It's a pretty glitter with big chunky hex glitter, and little micro glitter as well.  Here is is over a white base:

Pointer/Middle: one coat.  Ring/Pinky: two coats

Thoughts???  Where would you wear this?