Doctor Who Themed Nail Design

I am kind of a Whovian, and since the 50th Anniversary episode is only *glances at clock* 17 hours or so away, I thought I'd share my Doctor Who inspired nail design!!

(don't worry, I was parked in the parking lot when I took this... not driving the interstate!)

When deciding what to do on my nails, I did a Goggle search for Doctor Who themed nails and found a pretty good amount of pictures to give me ideas!

For the bowtie, I painted my nail with Sinful Colors in Snow Me White for the background. To do the bow itself, I used Nina in Love Struck and a dotting tool. 

1. I started by making two triangles with their corners touching, like this:: |><| 

2. and then I put a big dot in the middle, where the triangles meet, and that gives you the shape of the bowtie! 

3. I then went in with Finger Paints in Ch-Art-Coal Black, which is the bottle that comes with a striping brush. I used the striping brush to draw the outlines around the middle knot, and the outsides of the triangle, and put in some little lines as accents, radiating from the center out into the triangles.

For my Dalek nail, I painted my nail in Nina Shiny Penny. For the Dalek hemispheres, I used Orly in Glitz with a large dotting tool. I put the dots on very lightly, not wanting to flatten them. Of course, they still flatted over time, but not nearly as much. 

For the TARDIS, I was lucky to have a perfect TARDIS blue already on hand! I used Finger Paints in Cerulean Seascape, which is a deep but brilliant blue! I then used a dotting tool again with Snow Me White to do the three squares for the windows and the sign. Using Ch-Art-Coal Black, I outlined the windows, including stripes through the middles of the windows to make the squares. After outlining the sign, I wiped off as much polish from the brush as possible, and made little dash marks to give the impression that there's writing on the sign. 

The Bad Wolf was simple. I painted my nail Sinful Colors Black on Black. Then I used Snow Me White with a small brush to write the words. I dipped the tip of the brush very VERY lightly in the polish so that the lines wouldn't be too think. It was *super* tough to write using my left hand onto a nail on my right hand! Afterwards, I used a matte finish top coat which gave it a cool effect.

The galaxy design is similar to one that I've done before and written about here in the entry about sponges. The tutorial I used specifically for my inspiration this time around is from Polish and Pearls. She even has a video tutorial on YouTube that was very helpful. I wanted to recreate it exactly, but my local store had NONE of the colors that she used! Her post was over a year ago, so maybe they have been discontinued. ANYWAYS, I just ended up using what colors I already have. After a base coat of Ch-Art-Coal Black, the colors I used on my sponges were::

Finger Paints in Cerulean Seascape

China Glaze in Rich & Famous

Sinful Colors in Slate

Since Cerulean Seascape is so dark on top of the black, I also used just a tad of Nina Caribbean Blue to give a hint of a lighter blue, but only a tiny bit. In the future I might try and find a slightly lighter pink or a good bright blue, that's not too light or that has a slight green undertone (like the Caribbean Blue does).
Anyways, I followed the advice from Polish and Pearls to use just the edge of a wedge sponge to dab on the color. In the past, I've used a piece of the sponge and held it using tweezers, which I would then dip in the polish and dab onto the nail. Both techniques give you the same result. I started with the Cerulean Seascape, then overlapped it a bit with Slate, and then some Rich & Famous. It doesn't hafta be perfect or exact. Then I used two different glitter polishes:: China Glaze in Fairy Dust, which has real fine glitter, and Nina in Dime Piece which has the larger glitter pieces. 

I love the combination of these colors and the dimension the two different glitters give to the design! I might hafta do this design on all of my nails!

And that's my Doctor Who manicure!! Once I was done, I couldn't stop looking at them! I'm so happy with them and I'm looking forward to the 50th tomorrow!! Allons-y!!

Trying New Polishes - Matte Finishes and Glitter

I found a new line from Sinful Colors that have a matte finish. I picked up two, once of which is called Leather Loose. It's a real deep, shimmery brown. On it's own, it looks kinda interesting as a matte finish, I'm not quite sure how I feel about it.
I also found some fun glitter from Nicole by OPI called Pick Of The Glitter, which has flecks of copper and an aquamarine-like blue. I thought this would go perfectly with a dark, shimmery brown! The colors matched perfectly! I paired it with a matte finish top coat from Kiss to dull down the shine of the glitter a bit, and it came out real nice!!

 (Natural light)

(with flash)

Trying New Polishes - Fuzzy Coat by Sally Hansen

I was in Target and spotted some polishes that looked like they were mimicking yarn and sweaters, called Fuzzy Coat by Sally Hansen. And since it's been getting cold, and plus I've been on a crocheting kick to make presents for the holidays, I felt like it'd be cute for my nails to look like they're enjoying sweater season too!! I picked up All Yarned Up

Then I found a super pretty blue by Sinful Colors called Aquamarine that matched the flecks of blue in the All Yarned Up pretty well. I needed about 3 coats of All Yarned Up to cover up my whole nail but I thought it looked really cool!

(I forgot to get a pic after I got them cleaned up... oh well!)

I finished them off with a shimmer top coat from Kiss. I considered trying a coat or two of All Yarned Up over the top of the Aquamarine, but that'll be for next time I guess. :) It did have some texture to it, but not so much that it was distracting. I'll have fun experimenting with it more in the future!

Fall Gradient Nail Art

I decided to do a simple gradient for fall.

(with the flash)

I used Orly Glitz for the gold, then Nina Shiny Penny as the middle/transition color. For the tips I couldn't decide between Nina Candi Apple or Nina Burnished Bronze. So... I did a few of each! I used the sponge technique I've blogged about in the past. Seriously, this is one of my favorite, easiest tricks! 

After my nails dried, I used some black polish with a striping brush to draw a couple leaves on my ring finger nails. Then some glossy top coat, and done! 

(without the flash)

Purple Fall Nail Art

I think the beginning of fall has put me in a purple mood! I just can't seem to get enough of purple! This is the design I did last week:

I found this design idea from Kimiko's Nail Art. I don't have acrylic paints, so I just used regular polish and it seemed to work pretty well. I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Pat On The Black which is this beautiful, rick, deep purple that I just picked up and I love! To do the dots, I mixed the Pat On The Back with Sinful Colors in Snow Me White, slowly adding more and more of the white to make the dots gradually lighter. This worked really well and was super simple! The only downside is that I ended up using A LOT of white polish, especially toward the end, in order to lighten it up so much!

But I love this simple "dotticure" and it got me a lot of compliments at work!

This weekend, I still had purple on the brain, but wanted to do something different for each nail.

 (Please don't mind my ugly thumb nail... I had to break up a fight btwn our dogs and my nail got cracked in the process :( )

So, after my Beauty Secrets base coat, I painted each nail a different color. The thumb's color is the same Sally Hansen Pat On The Black. Then my fingers pointer to pinky are: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Trouble Maker; China Glaze in Exceptionally Gifted; Sinful Colors in Out Of This World; and Finger Paints in Be A Pal-ette.

For the nails with Pat On The Black as the base, I used this picture as an inspiration. For the dots, I used Finger Paints in Be A Pal-ette, Sally Hansen in Trouble Maker, China Glaze in Spontaneous, Nina in Lilac-ing Discipline, and China Glaze in Exceptionally Gifted. I did larger dots for the darker purples, and tried to go smaller the lighter the color. I also put in some dots of China Glaze in Fairy Dust to put in a little sparkle. Here's the result::

 For my fingers with Sally Hansen in Trouble Maker as the base, I used striping tape to tape some designs and then put the Pat On The Black over it to make a slight contrast.

 For my fingers with the China Glaze in Exceptionally Gifted as the base, I used the Tie-Dye technique that I've already written about. I used Be A Pal-ette, Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in Save The Date, Sinful Colors in Dancing Nails, and a drop or two of each China Glaze in Rich & Famous and in VIII. I then later went in with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme wear in Golden-I to draw in gold swirls over the marble design. I used this picture for inspiration, although I do not have that cool foil that they used (but I wish I did!).

(I forgot to tape up around the nail, so I made a mess!! Oops!)

For the nails with the Sinful Colors in Out Of This World as a base, I did a gradient inspired by the third nail of this picture. On the sponge, I painted Out Of This World at the top, then a strip of Sinful Colors in Dancing Nails, and then Sally Hansen in Save The Date. I love the combination of these colors!! I'll need to do this again!!

And then for the last fingers, with Be A Pal-ette for the base, I used Orly in Too Fab to put some gold glitter toward the base.

And that rounds out all my nails! I love the variety in this manicure! It sure took a lot of different colors, but it was totally worth it! 

Fall Aspen Trees Nail Design

I *LOVE* fall! The slight chill in the air. The pumpkin patches and corn mazes. The lovely colors! So, while surrounding areas are flooding and shut down, for this rainy day inside the house I decided to do a tribute to fall.

I did a search for aspen-themed nail designs, but couldn't find any! And so, I did my best.

After my Beauty Secrets base coat, I applied two thin coats of SinfulShine Rendezvous (from SinfulColors). Once again, I love this polish! Beautiful color and shine!

Then, using a striping brush with Finger Paints Hip Hip Hue-Ray, I did a vertical stripe, flicking it slightly at the end/top. I then used a very fine brush with SinfulColors Winter Wonder to add in some small lines/dots up the trunks of the trees.

I then used a small dotting tool and Orly Hook Up to put some leaves on the trees. I also did a mix of the Hook Up with China Glaze Starboard to give some leaves a hint of green. In the pic below, the two fingers on the left have the leaves with a slight green, the ones on the right have not had those leaves added yet. You can kinda tell in the pic how much it gives the tree more dimension.

Then, with some of the trees, I decided to add a bit of orange. I used Nina Burnished Bronze and mixed it in with some Hook Up and added a few hints to the occasional tree. Add in a shiny top coat, and voila! Beautiful fall aspens!!

Sunflower Nail Design

So I apologize it's been FOREVER since I've written a post! Mostly because it's been forever since I've really done anything creative with my nails. It's been a busy summer! Vacations, family visiting, moves, new jobs, and so forth! But this past weekend I finally sat down and did my nails to share with you!

Sunflower nails!!!

So, after my Beauty Secrets base coat, I painted my nails a couple coats of SinfulShine Rendezvous. I love this color! I was out of my China Glaze For Audrey, but this Rendezvous is so similar! Then I used a large dotting tool with Finger Paints Bronze Sculpture for the center of the flowers. 

Then, using a small brush, I painted on the petals with Orly Hook Up. I was planning on using a fine brush and outline all the petals with black, but they overlapped so much I was worried about them looking too crowded. So instead I went over the petals of some flowers with Orly Glitz.

To finish, I went back over the centers with the dotting tool and Bronze Sculpture to clean them up. End with Beauty Secrets top coat, and done! Sunflowers for September!!

Street Style, Bricks and Graffiti Nail Art Design

So I shared my April entry for the Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art contest which was the color blocking. Now to share my May entry!! The theme for May was "Street Art"... And I really wasn't sure what to do for it. I've lived in small towns all my life, what do I know about city and street art?? My boyfriend had the idea:: do  a brick wall with graffiti on it. Brilliant!!

So, after my Beauty Secrets base coat, I did a couple coats of Sinful Colors Slate, which is a nice gray that would be the mortar or cement or whatever between my bricks. I then used striping tape and did pretty much a checkered pattern with the striping tape. Then I painted over the tape with Sinful Colors Under 18, which was my brick color. After peeling off the tape, I used a small brush to fill in one vertical line in each row with Under 18 in order to make the brick pattern. After my bricks were dry, I used two Sally Hansen Nail Art Pens (Green and Bright Blue) to do my graffiti on every other nail. I did my initials (LR) and Nail Diaries, and a heart. It was certainly tough to do on my right hand while writing with my left, but I love how it turned out!! I then used my Matte finish top coat (since brick walls usually aren't sparkly and shiny) and done!! 

I LOVE how it turned out!! I'm hoping I get enough votes for the contest to move forward, but even if not, it was super fun!! :)

Mother's Day Bouquet of Tulips Nail Design

Since my mother was up visiting for my graduation this past weekend, I was lucky enough to see her on Mother's Day this year! So to pay tribute to my wonderful mother that has always been a huge source of support, I painted some Mother's Day Tulips on my nails!!

After my Beauty Secrets base coat, I did two coats of China Glaze For Audrey. I had no clue how to paint tulips, so I just kinda winged it. They didn't come out perfectly, but they still worked! The colors I used for the flowers were:: Nina Lilac-ing Discipline, China Glaze Exceptionally Gifted, and Orly Hook Up. To paint them, I used a dotting tool and put one big dot of color on my nail. Then, after dipping my dotting tool in the paint again, I kinda dragged it up one side of the dot, then on the other side of the dot, kinda making a half-moon shape. I then dragged up one more time in the center to that it made three petals. Again, not perfect, but I could at least still tell they were tulips!

I then finished it off with Sinful Colors Happy Ending for the stems and leaves and my Beauty Secrets top coat. I also threw on some Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat for my ring fingers to add a celebratory touch! :)

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!!

Newspaper Transferred to Your Nails: Garfield Is On My Thumb!!

Ok, I've wanted to try transferring images/words/etc onto my nail for several months now. What I see most often in tutorials is using newspaper to transfer the print to your nail. I found this video tutorial from cutepolish to be the most direct and helpful.

However, I didn't want to just do boring ol' words, I wanted to transfer the funny pages!! So, after a base coat of white polish, I attempted to transfer the faces of some beloved characters, as well as some of the funny words they say.

Needless to say, my nails didn't come out nearly as clean and orderly as those in the tutorial, and I'm missing some of the details of the characters. I don't know if this is because I started out with white instead of a thinner coat of a light gray, or if it's just generally tougher to transfer over detailed designs/drawings. But some of them came out great!! I have one little guy from Dilbert (I don't know his name) looking all pissy on my pinky nail, and Blondie looks great on my thumb! I'm thinking I will try this again in the future, but maybe with the sudoku or crossword puzzle :)

Nail Dress by Kiss Trial

**NOTE** When I wrote this post, I named the Nail Dress as being by Sally Hansen. It is actually by Kiss. Oops!! Sorry!! **

So, as I was skimming through the new issue of Cosmo for some pages full of colorful patterns to use when I try out the transferring technique, I stumbled across a coupon to try out the Nail Dress stick-on design polish from Kiss. I figured... why not?? So I decided to get them a try!
Here's the coupon I found in the magazine:

So, you can see there were only four different singles to try. Not really enough for a full manicure. So I painted all my nails except for my ring finger nails and left those ones with just a base coat in preparation for these fun sparkly options. 

 What I did for the colors on my other nails was used a nice dark, sparkly purple from Finger Paints (the name of which escapes me at the moment... I'll hafta check back on it later) and then mixed in a drop or two of my Sally Hansen Black Out to make it even darker. In the following pics, my flash on my phone camera makes the color out to be a on the bluish side, but it's purple, I promise! I also used the Shimmer Top Coat that I have to add a little extra bit of rosy sparkle to it.

For the Nail Dresses, You just peel and place on your nail, and then you need to trim the edges. I used a small pair of hygiene scissors you usually find in a little travel kit or whatever. This was the toughest part, not just getting it trimmed right at the tip of your nail, but also along the sides. The jewels on these designs made the task harder than it probably usually is. (**NOTE** On the actual packages you can get in the store, they supply a small emory board and you file the edge to get rid of the excess and can file it close to the edge of your nail... this actually caused me some more problems with the edges peeling back than when I used the small hygiene scissors, even tho those weren't as precise.**)

But here are my results!!

I really liked these fun designs and they certainly added a bit of glam and sparkle to my nails! The down side that I found was, although they don't "chip" exactly, the edges along the tip of the nail did start peeling up a little and I had a couple small tears, especially where there was a jewel that happened to be sitting on the edge. You can kinda see this in the following pics (which were taken a couple days later) where you can start to see the white tips of my nail at the edges in some spots.

All-in-all I don't know if I would use them for a full manicure, but I really liked them as an accent nail! Nice and sparkly!

Hand Sanitizer Nail Art: Not Just For Killing Germs!!

Ok, I found this technique from cutepolish when I was randomly Googling/searching for new ideas, and just had to try it!! There is also another tutorial from SimpleLittlePleasures which is really helpful, and I have used several of her tutorials in the past also. She had helpful hints for if you can't find a spray hand sanitizer (which I couldn't).

Anyways, it comes out looking really cool!!

So, here's the run down of what you do::

I chose 4 fun, bright colors: Nina Caribbean Blue, Sinful Colors Happy Ending, Sally Hansen Hard to Get, and China Glaze Rich & Famous. I painted my nails white first so the colors would show up extra bright, and then painted in blocks of these fun colors, and ended up with this:

Then, you need a cup filled with room-temperature water, some black nail polish (I used Sally Hansen Black Out) and a bottle of spray hand sanitizer. I didn't find spray hand sanitizer, so I followed the tips from SimpleLittlePleasures and cut some regular hand sanitizer with some rubbing alcohol in one of those small, travel spritzers. 

The tutorials state to use 3 or 4 drops of black on the surface of the water, but that didn't come out dark enough for me, so I used closer to 8 or 9 drops. Then, once the color has spread out on the surface of the water, you spritz it with your sanitizer, and that will form spots where the black color has parted. I wrapped my fingers with tape and dipped my fingers in the water. The black polish will transfer to your nail, leaving open the spots the hand sanitizer opened up, letting the bright neon colors show through. It's super messy and I needed to redo my first few nails, not really getting the hang of it till my fourth try or so, but it turned out super fun!

Braids Design for Nails

While I was looking over the other entries for the Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art competition, I noticed a lot of people had done what looks like a braid design, where the colors weave down the nail. So I definitely had to Google it!!
Here is the tutorial I found::
Braided Nail Art

Here are the three colors I used:
Nina Shiny Penny
Finger Paints Bronze Sculpture
China Glaze Exceptionally Gifted

And here are my results!! It was tough to get a picture because the flash kept reflecting back at me, so that's why I took so many!