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 :)