Tie-Dyed Freehand Mani

My most favorite music era is the 60's & 70's, with my most favorite band of all time being Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (and don't forget Taylor & Reeves). 

All of that hippie, tie-dyed stuff is my fave so I have to share with you today my tie-dyed nail art.  My inspiration comes from a Nail Art youtube video by Dollface22772 which can be found here:  http://www.youtube.com/user/Dollface22772#p/search/3/NN08dNoUuGg
And here are my results:

This was a lot easier than I expected it to be. 
I just picked out polishes with a creme finish: 
     Red - unknown
     Orange - Wet n Wild in Sunny Side UP
     Yellow - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mellow Yellow
     Green - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Green with Envy
     Blue - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Blue Me Away
     Purple - Finger Paints Amethyst Atelier

I painted each nail one-by-one & did the colors in rows like they would be in a rainbow.  While they were wet, I ran a toothpick through it starting with the red going out through to the purple.  I topped it off with Seche Vite and there you have it!

Skin, Cuticles & Zoya Kelly

I have horrible cuticles & dry skin.  I also don't drink enough water & that's probably the problem but I just can't drink it - ugh!  I bleed Dr. Pepper.  I've recently discovered 2 new things that are working on my skin and cuticle.
First, this wonderful lotion here:

I love Carmex lip balm so you know that I freaked out when I found out about this!  It says that it's non-greasy & it's actually true!  A little goes a long way & that lotion-y feeling is gone as soon as you rub in the lotion.  I now swear by this stuff!

Next is a tip I found on the laquerista's blog where you take an emery board and file the skin on the sides of your nails.  I tried it & found that it made a difference instantaneously!

Just so that this post isn't without nails, here is Zoya Kelly which is an awesome dark grey creme with a purple tone to it.  I absolutely love this color!  It is opaque in 1 coat & I've seen on Zoya's facebook that fans have used it to stamp with.  I can't wait to try that - maybe this weekend!  I only did an accent nail, using the leopard print from Konad plate m57 with Rimmel 60 Seconds in Grey Matter, which is awesome for stamping!

Until next time, have a grey(t) day!  :)

Matte-fied Monday with Avon Mirror Shine

Hello all & Happy Monday to you!  I know everyone hates Mondays & I do too so I try to think of Monday as a person, you know the underdog that is very nice but no one likes & it's for a reason that is out of the underdog's control?  So I try to give Mondays a break.  Sorry for going so off-topic - back to the nails!

Today for you I have Avon Mirror Shine in dark purple (cannot remember the name but will update w/it later) & I stamped using Avon Mirror Shine in silver (will also update this later w/the name) & I used Konad image plate m78.  There's two awesome things about these Avon chrome polishes:  they are 1-coaters & they stamp.  I've learned that usually if it's a 1-coater then it will stamp, I haven't found one yet that won't!

So here it is in it's shiny chromaticness (and I think I just made up a word!):

And here it is mattefied:

It's kind of hard to tell but both of these pictures were taken in the same amount of sunlight - indirect through my kitchen windows.

Which way do you like better?

Funky French Friday

I apologize - I know a lot of nail bloggers out there do a Funky French Friday but I just can't help myself!  So I was thinking I could do something different though - I thought about doing a theme called "Matte Monday".  What do you think?

Anyways, today I have for you the Petites Raspberry Ice for the french tips using Konad plate M19.  For the base coat I used Artificial Nails that I purchased at Sally Beauty Supply.  Enjoy, have a great weekend & see you soon!

A few different mani's...

This post is going to be a little pic heavy with a few mani's I've done for my mom. 

For the 1st one here, I can't recall what the base color was but it is a gorgeous vampy red.  I used Konad plate m64 and the white special stamping polish for the design.

For this mani, she wanted to try tone-on-tone so we decided to go with a sheer white nail polish by Wet 'n Wild that I borrowed from my husband's niece - it didn't have a name & for the design I used a fauxnad plate made by Bundlemonster, bm19.

And the final one for now, I used an old nail polish I have in my stash, Almay 'One Coat' & the color name is Cashmere.  This polish smells awful but on the plus side, it is a 1-coater (& it also works great for stamping!).  For the design I used Konad plate m78 & special stamping polish in black.

Enjoy & have a great day!

OPI What's with the Cattitude?

Some of you may not know this but my favorite color is blue, pretty much in any shade, but my most favorite blue is so hard to describe.  It's like a neon baby blue.  So when I saw this color, I just knew it was "my color".  Well, let me tell you how disappointed I was in this polish.  It took 6-8 layers to become opaque which angered me for 3 reasons (but are kind of the same?):  (1) the less coats it takes, the less time it takes, the happier I am; (2) I hate seeing VNL (visible nail line) & (3) OPI polish is too expensive to have to use that much polish; I mean, for $9/bottle I expect more than I do from the cheapo drugstore polishes.  It seems to me that creme polishes are the worst for this.  Anyways, this is OPI's What's with the Cattitude? from the Shrek collection.  The design is from Konad plate m73 & Konad black stamping polish.

After doing this mani, I found that using a white under these problem polishes not only makes it easier for these to become opaque but it also makes the color "pop".  If I ever again have 8 hrs to spend on a mani, I might try it.  We'll see...

Heart French Mani

Hello all!  Since we're now in February, I thought I would share a heart french mani with you as Valentine's Day is right around the corner.  For the base coat I used Artificial Nails that I purchased at Sally's, which gives your nails that "artificial nail look".  I also used Konad plate m80 and the special stamping polish in white.

Do you have any special plans for Valentine's Day?  I'd love to hear them!