Monarch Butterfly Wing Nails

Hello everyone :) I finally got to doing a manicure that I've been wanting to try for ages and I finally got to it! I found an awesome tutorial on youtube that shows you how to do it and it's fairly easy if you have a steady hand and you're in a quiet area.

I browsed Google Images and Pinterest for ideas on wing color ideas and I figured I should just go with orange for my first time and maybe do something more funky next time I do this manicure.

For the wing color, I used Bare If You Dare by China Glaze which is an awesome shimmery peachy color. I reviewed it here in the past if you want to check it out. I wanted to make it more interesting so I topped it off with Twisted by Fingerpaints which is my favorite multicolored flaky topcoat. For the black, I used the Kiss Nail Art striper in black obviously and the white is Alpine Snow by OPI and I used a dotting tool to apply the dots.

Now... onto the photos! :)

Here's another pic so you can see the flakes!

And of course I have to include a photo of the inspiration for this look!

I hope you liked it! It took me quite a while to finish the entire thing... maybe 2 hours at the most? If you have the patience and free time for this look, you should go for it! It looks very nice and eyecatching in person!

Layla Flash Black Swatches (warning: pic heavy)

Hello readers! I'm going to show you the most amazing holographic nail polish I've ever seen! It's called Flash Black by a brand called Layla. I got it from Ulta. This color is just wow... it's a charcoal grey/blackish color with a very strong holographic effect. 

These photos honestly don't do it justice. It has a much stronger holographic effect in person. With the exception of the photo of my nails under the lamp, all of them were taken the next day. It had a little bit of tipwear... I didn't use any base or topcoat. Just 3 coats of Flash Black. Now, on to the photos!

Oooh also check out my video if you want to see the color in action! Click here or find it on the bottom of this post :)

Sunlight

Sunlight

Sunlight

Sunlight

Sunlight

Sunlight

Thumbnail closeup in the sun

Thumbnail closeup in the sun

Blurred to show how strong the holo effect is

Under a lamp in a dark room

In the shade

And now for the video!

Pink-orange-yellow gradient w/ zebra stripes

Hello readers! Today I'm  showing you my new favorite manicure! Of course I say that almost every week but this one truly is killer! For this look, I used the following:

OPI Natural Basecoat
Pink- Gilda by Zoya
Orange- Rica by Zoya
Yellow- Lighthouse by China Glaze
Seche Vite QD Topcoat
Konad M57
Liquid Leather by China Glaze

First I used the Natural Basecoat and topped it off with three layers of Lighthouse. Then I put a coat of Seche Vite to make it dry fast so I can sponge on the gradient without ruining the yellow. When that was ready to go, I sponged on Rica about 2/3 of the way down from the tip and let that dry. It dried quickly since it was such a thin coat. After that, I sponged on Gilda and blended it in about 1/3 of the way down from the tip. I put a little extra pink at the tips to make it pop a bit more.

When I was done with the gradient, I put on another coat of Seche Vite so it would be completely dry for the stamping. I obviously used the zebra print design on Konad M57 and stamped away with that. I topped it off with another coat of Seche Vita and...... Ta da!! :)

Now for some photos!

Outdoors, indirect sunlight

Outdoors, direct sunlight. So shimmery!

Louboutin-inspired halfmoon manicure :)

Hello readers! This manicure I am about to show you started off being a simple/classic idea and ended up being frustrating mess... but finally ended up looking awesome :)


At first, I just wanted to do a classic red polish so I puled out Isla by Zoya. I did three coats of that but I did it at the worst possible time... my friend invited me out for crawdads that evening and I didn't realize how messy it would be. When I was done with dinner, my thumb and pointer nails were completely ruined. It was late at night and I didn't want to re-do the whole thing so I put another coat of Isla on top.


The next day, I still hated my manicure. For some reason, it became all bubbly and the texture was bothering me. I then decided to put a coat of China Glaze Ruby Pumps (red glittery polish) on top to hide the texture, which helped a lot because of the glitter.


Then... it came to me. I thought about the "lubu manicure" and thought to myself... I've never done a halfmoon manicure... I'll try doing a lubu halfmoon manicure!


I used those hole punch protectors and shaped the halfmoon. I put one coat of China Glaze Lubu Heels which is a really nice black polish with red glitter. When I took off the hole punch protectors, some of the sticky residue was left behind so I had to touch it up with some more Ruby Pumps. I finished the look off with Seche Vite for a nice glossy finish and I love how it came out :)

It's soooo shiny :D

I love all the red glitter!

Here's how I did it :)

Here's my inspiration :)

Black w/ Silver Glitter Tips & Stars

Hello readers! Here's another quick post showing you my current mani :) At first, I was going to sponge on the glitter to make it a gradient but i was in a rush so I just painted it on. Just ignore my cuticles, please... they look terrible lol. These photos were taken after a weeks wear.

Black- Liquid Leather by China Glaze
Silver glitter- Tinsel Town by China Glaze
Star Glitter- Silver Star by Kleancolor
Holo glitter topcoat- Northern Lights
Clear topcoat- Seche Vite

22nd Birthday :)

Hello everyone! Sorry again for another drought! The past couple of weeks have been very hectic and making a blog past has unfortunately been the last thing on my mind.

Last week was my 22nd birthday and it was seriously the best birthday I've ever had thanks to my amazing friends :) I'm going to start off by showing you my bday manicure and then I will show you the pics from my party and talk about that!

This is 2 coats of Midnight in NY by Sally Hansen with 1 coat of Dorothy by Nyx Girls

Anyways back to my party! My friends and I had dinner at a restaurant called Opa! in Los Gatos, CA, which is a Greek restaurant. I don't know how I lucked out so much but we ended up having our own private room, complete with our own TV and bathroom! Here's a pic of our group! I'm at the head of the table =P

And now for a pic of my outfit :-)

Then we met up at Mt Charley's down the street for dancing! This is the other group of people we met up with! The girl in the blue has the same birthday as me and we decided to celebrate together :)

Then we ended the night with some shots! Ignore my friend in the background.... he was 10 shots and 2 beers in when we took this pic haha!

Anyways.... best birthday ever!

Color Club Revvvolution Swatches (black holo)

Hola :-) The other day, I received Revvolution by Color Club as well as Wild At Heart which I still need to try. When I first recieved the bottle, it didn't seem to have much of a holo effect but the application is sooo much more interesting. It's a blackish dark grey with a nice holo shimmer. I've seen people compare it to My Private Jet by O.P.I but say it looks even better.

I also really liked the formula. It wasn't streaky at all and I didn't end up with any bubbles. It also dried really quickly. These photos have 3 coats of Revvvolution and 1 coat of Seche Vite.

The photos below are taken in direct sunlight. It is such an interesting color up close and I've never owned anything like it.

Have you tried this color before? I'm so in love with it. I can't help but stare at it when I'm out in the sun.

Gold with black fishnet mani!

Hey again! I unfortunately chipped the hell out of my rainbow leopard print nails so I decided to take it off and try a new look I've been wanting to try. I've seen a lot of people do the black fishnet design on top of gold, so I did that along with a slightly off black french tip.

I used:
Konad M73
Black- Black Out by Sally Hansen
Gold- Midnight Kiss by China Glaze

St. Patty's Day Look!

Whoooo today is St. Patty's day which means lots of green and drinking irish car bombs =P To celebrate, I did my nails and my makeup green!

I also did my makeup green! Sorry for the bad lighting. I did this at night =P

I used one of those single Cover Girl Eyeshadows in Lime green all over the lid (forgot the actual name, sorry!),

L'Oreal H.I.P. eyeshadow duo in Gunmetal. I used the dark green on the outer edge and in the crease. Then I used the brownish green color to extend the crease.

To blend the top part, I used Revlon ColorStay Mineral Finishing powder.

And for liner, I used Maybelline Line Stiletto Liquide Liner

To finish it off, I used my new Day 2 Night mascara!

OMG KONAD!!

So one of the best investments I have ever made was my Konad purchase!

If you don't know what Konad is, it's a nail polish stamping system! They have many designs to choose from and you can use any nail polish for your stamp design. They have special nail polish for stamping as well that gives nice, thick results.

Want to see how it works? Go to Wow Wow Nails' Post.

You can buy Konad at WowSoCool.com or any authorized retailer on Ebay.

Anyways, this look is the one I chose for Valentines Day! I didn't want to do anything to heartsy-fartsy so I chose zebra print!

Black with red glitter base coat- Lubu Heels- China Glaze

Red tips and zebra stripes- Chi- Its 5 O'Clock Somewhere

Zebra pattern- Konad #M57

I LOVE this look!!!!!

OPI Shatter!

So I decided that I'm going to post some of my old nail polish looks to I can catch up and have everything up.

Pink- Orly's Oh Cabana Boy (Two coats)

Black- O.P.I.'s Black Shatter (One coat)

I noticed it's best to do a thick coat rather than a thin coat. You get bigger black chunks and more interesting cracks. You also want to make sure not to layer the black. Make sure to only use one coat!

That was my first experimentation of Black Shatter. Nice look, right?