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!

First Attempt on Galaxy Nail Art

Hello everyone! I finally decided to give it a go and tried a nail art design that looked like a galaxy in outer space. I used a tutorial by MissJenFABULOUS from PolishAndPearls and used this tutorial she posted on youtube.

It was actually very fun and easy to do! It consisted of sponging on colors over black and putting a couple types of glitter topcoat over it. Before I did the design on myself, I picked out some colors I liked from myself and tested it over the black to make sure it delivered the effect I was looking for. I noticed it's best to use opaque colors, either with a creme finish or with little to no shimmer.

Here's what I used:

Liquid Leather by China Glaze (black)
Splish Splash by China Glaze (shimmery blue)
Pelican Grey by China Glaze(light grey)
Pink Shock by Maybelline (pink with subtle blue shimmer)
Northern Lights (glitter topcoat)
Techno by China Glaze (chunky glitter)

Aaaaaaand this is what I ended up with!

I really loved how it turned out. It definitely looks best when the colors are applied in different parts of the nail. This would definitely look nice with some green and orange in it so I might be attempting that in the future. Also, after I get some practice, I think it would be awesome to throw some spiral galaxies on it as well. I tried that at first and it was an utter fail -___-

Have you tried doing galaxy nails before? I would love to see some of the designs you've tried or came up with :)

Happy Belated New Years Nails

Hello readers, it has been a very long time since I posted on here and I feel awful about it. I feel like I lost my mojo and inspiration a few months ago due to a lack of focus but I'm going to try and keep this up like I did in the past.

I know I'm about a week late but I really wanted to show off my New Years nails! I wanted to do something super blingy that standed out so I ended up doing a glittery metallic manicure.

I was originally just going to do silver (favorite metallic color) but I began to envy my sisters gold blingy nails that she did for new years and ended up with a mix of both manicures.

Before I get to the photos, I'm going to list what used and how I did it!

Cheers To You by China Glaze (metallic foil, 2 coats)
Techno by China Glaze (chunky silver holo glitter, 1 coat)
Northern Lights Hologram Topcoat (fine holo glitter topcoat, 1 coat)
Midnight Kiss by China Glaze (gold foil, sponged on tips)
Queen Of Drums by Dare To Wear (chunky gold glitter, sponged on halfway from tips)
Golden Enchantment by China Glaze (fine gold holo glitter topcoat, 1 coat)

I really love how Cheers to you and Midnight Kiss blended so perfectly together, These photos honestly don't do this mani justice and it is crazy how blingy they are in person. PS please ignore the fingernail imprint on my thumbnail... I have no idea how that got there =P

Indoors (With Flash)

Indoors (Indirect Sunlight)

Outdoors (Sun)

Outdoors (Shade)

Bloody Halloween Nails

Hello readers. I have another Halloween themed post for you! I love doing my nails for Halloween and I decided to do one of my favorite scary manicures.

This is a repeat manicure of last years glow-in-the-dark blood spatter nails. I used a very messy and fun technique involving dipping one end of a straw into nail polish and blowing it onto my nails. Here is a link to the tutorial I go the idea from.

I used:
White- Alpine Snow by OPI
then two coats of Ghoulish Glow by China Glaze
Red- Drastic by China Glaze (near perfect jelly blood red)

One of my favorite parts of this manicure is that the white glows in the dark!

For now, I only have a pic prior to cleanup but I like it more that way =P

Happy 4th of July! Independence Day Manicure :)

Hello readers. Today I'm going to show you my nails for 4th of July and show you last year's 4th of July nails.

I used:

Blue = Eyes Like Sapphires by China Glaze
Red = Ruby Pumps by China Glaze
Silver = Kiss Nail Art striper
White = Kiss Nail Art striper
Glitter topcoat = Northern Lights
Seche Vite topcoat

Here's how I did it:

I started off with two coats of Ruby Pumps. Then I did the white stripes by laying the brush pretty flat against the nail and dragging it. I then carefully drawed on the silver stripes where I wanted the blue to start. Then I freehanded two coats of Eyes Like Sapphires to the edge of the silver. I touched up the silver once more to even out the lines and finished it all with Northern Lights and Seche Vite :)

Like it? Post the links to your July 4th nails as well! I would love to see them! Click here to see others' July 4th designs.

Neon Plaid Nails

Hello readers. I'm going to show you my current manicure that I've been wearing since this past weekend. In honor of the Scottish Festival in Santa Cruz County, I wanted to do my nails plaid like I did last year (click here to see last year's mani).

Since it's summertime and I felt like doing something fun, I ended up doing bright neon colors that were inspired by Nailside's Neon Plaid manicure seen here. Rather than using tape like she did, I used a striping brush to do all the designs.

Here are the colors I used in order of application:
White- Alpine Snow by China Glaze
Pink shimmer topcoat- Femme Fatale by Color Club
Yellow- Glowstick by Orly
Lime green- In The Limelight by China Glaze
Pink- Oh Cabana Boy! by Orly
Orange- Melt Your Popsicle by Orly
Darker lime green- Turned Up Turquoise by China Glaze
Finally topped off with Seche Vite

Now for some photos :) I hope you like it! My eyes are literally burning from staring at these photos for the past 15min :P

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

Glow-in-the-dark Blood Spatter Nails for Halloween

Hello readers... long time no see! I finally have a chance to update this and just in time for Halloween this weekend! I went to a corn maze a couple of weeks ago and wanted to do some spooky nails so I did glow-in-the-dark bloodspatter :)

I used this tutorial to do the bloodspatter effect, which consisted of dipping a straw into a small puddle of nail polish and blowing directly onto my nails from the other end. It's probably a good idea to play around with the different angles and distances from where you blow the polish from so you get some interesting effects.This was soooo much fun to do! It was probably one of the messiest projects I've done but it was well worth it.

I used:
White- Alpine Snow by OPI
then two coats of Ghoulish Glow by China Glaze
Red- Drastic by China Glaze (near perfect jelly blood red)

And now for the nails... I still have this on almost 2 weeks later =P

And here's the glow effect! You have to "charge" it under the light for a bit but it looks amazing when it glows.

Happy Halloween :)

Plaid Nails :)

Hey everyone! This will be a short post showing the manis I did on my friends hands and my own hands! We went to the Scottish Highland Games in Pleasanton so we wore plaid and did our nails plaid!

I'm not going to post all the colors but if you want to know what something is, just let me know :) Also, if anyone is interested in a tutorial for this look, I will gladly post one!

Click on the pic for a full-size image!

My hand is on the left and my friends hand is on the right :)

Work-appropriate nude look

Hello readers :) I apologize for not posting as much. I've been going through a lot of changes with my normal routine and it's throwing me off from what I'm usually doing =P A couple weeks ago, I got a job interview for a position in parking patrol and ended up getting hired right on the spot and there was only one spot!

Anyways, so I wouldn't scare the guy off with my black and red nails, I did something out of my comfort zone and did something very neutral. The picture below is 3 coats of Knotty by China Glaze, which is a really nice nude with cream shimmer, with one coat of Northern Lights which is a holographic glitter topcoat. As much as I dislike nude manicures, I ended up wearing it for about a week. It shined really nicely in the sun :)

Sunlight

Shade

CG Flying Dragon Swatches + Glitter

Hello, all! Today I will be showing you China Glaze's Flying Dragon (Neon) with China Glaze's Techno! First I will start up with the mani I ended up with and then I will describe the wonders of Flying Dragon to you :)

Pretty sweet, yeah? Anyways, onto Flying Dragon! This color is absolutely amazing. It's a dark deep fuchsia with little blue and pinkish glitter. When you first apply it, it shows up as a bright neon fuchsia but it gets darker as it dries. The application of this polish is amazing! It dries very quickly so you can easily do 3 coats without having to wait. It's a very fun and interesting color and is a must-have in my opinion.

Enough talk... onto the swatches! It took me 3 painless coats for full opacity :) Also, it dries matte so I added SV as a topcoat to make it glossy! You can click on the images if you want to see them close up!

Sunlight

Shade

SF Gay Pride Parade + Rainbow Leopard Print Mani + Random Mani

Hey everyone! Again, I apologize for the lack of posts so here is an awesome post to make up for it! This past Sunday, I went to the Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco, CA. It was my first time going and my friends and I had a blast! There were so many interesting things to see! People's choice of clothing (or lack of) was entertaining as well :P Soooo anyways, of course I had to do some kind of colorful mani! I decided to rainbow leopard print nails on top of white. I got inspiration from this post on Natalie's blog. I don't have the energy to name off all the colors since I used like 10 polishes so if you want to know what a color is, just ask. The brands I used were OPI, Sally Hansen, Zoya, China Glaze, and Color Club.

And here is how I did my makeup :) I used my Beauty UK palette and L'oreal H.I.P. eyeshadows for this look. Again, if you want to know specific colors, just ask! Not really "in your face" but still colorful :)

And here is what I wore! I did a white wifebeater, rainbow suspenders, a blue denim skirt, hot pink zebra head band, and hot pink sunglasses!

Oh and here's a picture of me failing miserably at hula hooping lol. I was so frustrated >___<

Soooo that was my first Gay Pride experience! That was definitely an awesome day that I will never forget!

In the title of this post, I mentioned a random mani..... so I'm going to show you what I did for my sister! The blue I used is Sexy In The City by China Glaze and the silver is the Kiss Nail Artist Paint & Stencil Kit which came with black, silver, and white. This was my first attempt at free-handing at nail art designs. This was pretty simple but I love how it turned out on her!

Nfu Oh #51

Hello everyone :) Sorry for not posting in a while! I have had a really off week and haven't been able to focus on my normal routine. Anyways I'm finally getting the motivation to update! Last week on Monday 6/6, I painted my nails using Nfu Oh #51. I'm sure many of you have heard of it but if not, you may want to pay close attention!

There are probably not enough words or pictures to show you how amazing this color is but I will do my best =P #51 is a deep, bright, violet that is jelly-based and has colorful flakies in it that shine orange, yellow, pink, and green in different lighting. It's a pretty sheer color so it's best to layer it over some opaque color such as purple, blue, or even black. It's a really fun color to experiment with but I like layering it over purple the best.

Also take a look at how beautiful the bottle itself is. It has a gorgeous bustier and corset design and the color of the polish through the bottle is the prettiest rainbow in a bottle :)

In the following pictures, I have it layered over 2 coats of Señorita Bonita by China Glaze, which i would describe as a medium-toned purple with a slight shimmer. It's a lot lighter than the purple in #51 so it doesn't override the purple I would rather show. Then, I put 2 coats of #51 and a layer of Seche Vite to seal it all in.

Here are the photos! I am still wearing this mani so some of these pictures are from today and some are from last week. I will make a note of which is which.

Taken 6/12 in indirect sunlight

Taken 6/12 in indirect sunlight

Taken 6/6 in direct sunlight

Taken 6/6 in direct sunlight. This one shows you the green coloring in the flakes

Taken 6/6 in direct sunlight. See how gorgeous the bottle is?

Even after 6 days of wear, the color hasn't even chipped. It only shows slight signs of wear at the tips and nail growth by the cuticle. This is definitely one of the more long lasting polishes I've tried.

So what do you guys think? Have you tried this polish before? If you have any photos of layering this over other colors, I would love to see! I hope you guys enjoy this post as much as I do.This is one of my favorite nail polishes and I totally recommend it. You can only order it at FabulouStreet, They have a bunch of other amazing colors for sale so definitely check them out!

OPI Red Shatter

Hey everyone :) I don't feel like writing too much on here tonight but I wanted to show you OPI's Red Shatter.

This is layered over 3 coats of Worth The Risque by Color Club, which is a holo silver, and one coat of Techno by China glaze, which is a chunky holo glitter.

I actually really like the Red Shatter, even more than the black. I love red nail polish on my fingers so it was interesting to have that with some silver peeking through. I totally recommend it-- you won't be disappointed!

Lime Green Mani :D

Hey everyone! I've finally had a chance to update. This week has been ridiculous since all my final papers are due this week, I have finals over the next 2 weeks, and I've been squeezing friends in between lol. Anyways, I've finally redone my nails since the other one chipped off and I also accidently broke a nail so I had to cut all of them =/

What I used:
Green- In the Limelight by China Glaze
Yellow shimmer- Lighthouse by China Glaze
Design- Konad M79
Black- Black Out by Sally Hansen XtremeWear

In The Limelight was really interesting to use. It dried very quickly and had a matte finish to it. It was a little streaky at first but after doing 3 coats, it turned out nice and opaque. I've seen a bunch of people try Lighthouse over random greens and blues so I thought I would give it a try. I really love how it turned out over the green! It reminds me of a lemon-lime margarita haha!

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

Rainbow with Leopard Spots!

I've been wanting to do this look for ages and I finally got the time and motivation to do so. I was surprised how quickly I finished this-- only an hour including time to dry. I am really pleased with how this turned out! It's soooo colorful and definitely an eye-catcher!

Here's what I used:

Pink- Gilda by Zoya
Orange- Annie by Zoya
Yellow- Lighthouse by China Glaze
Green- In The Limelight by China Glaze
Blue- Charla by Zoya
Purple- Senorita Bonita by China Glaze
Black- Black Out by Sally Hansen

CG Bare If You Dare swatch & mani

Hello, all! I was eyeing this polish by China Glaze called Bare If You Dare for a while and finally got my hands on it through Amazon! I don't have any peachy colors and when I saw it on someone else, I knew I had to have it.

It's such a nice color. It reminds me of peach sherbert or sorbet and has a subtle gold shimmer in the light. The application was a bit streaky but ended up going on nicely with 3 coats. I also have a layer of Seche Vite on top.

Indoors, indirect sunlight

 

Outdoors

This is such a nice color! It's perfect for spring and summer and I see myself wearing this out a lot. Definitely a must have if you don't own a color like this already!

I wanted to Konad it it up so I thought it would be fun to do a fishnet tip with some flowers :) For some reason I haven't used the fishnet design yet so I guess it's about time! The sun was setting so this is not the best picture! I'll probably take a new one tomorrow and repost!

I added Essie's Matte About You on top of it! I love how it came out!