Blue Fish

I had no idea what to name this post.  This was a manicure that just evolved before my eyes and various glitters.  I really like the sparkle contrast and red/pink sparkle highlights.  You can tell, however, I painted these nails in pretty low light because I am WAY off of my cuticles on some nails.  Oh well!  Hopefully there is enough bling to distract the eyes.

I painted three coats of China Glaze Frostbite then added a layer of loose glitter from Yofi in Blue Angel and used clear polish and a thin brush to apply Cina Glitter Metallic Jewels .  I sealed with a clear coat of polish Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Flawless and a top coat of Seche Vite.

Let's Talk Turkey

It's Thanksgiving day here in the U.S. and a turkey theme is in order for this yearly celebration.  I only got one decent picture of this manicure, but I'm okay with that.  Not in love with the final look, but I like it and I do like the idea of turkey feathers.  Today I am thankful for many things, but posting this, I'm thankful to you who look kindly at my little blog and for the leisure time to paint my nails on a regular basis!!!

I coated three times with China Glaze Ingrid.  I then painted the arches of the feathers with Free Love and Ulta Angel Baby.  I added the feather lines with China Glaze Evening Seduction and coated with two coats of Seche Vite.  

Double The Marble, Double The Pleasure!

I'm going out to a birthday party tonight and have had this manicure planned for weeks.  The party got postponed last Saturday due to tons and tons of snow here in Minnesota--which is now half melted, but now it finally gets to see the light.  I am so excited about this manicure and it's result!  It's a double water marble and it's super awesome, true?  I'll admit that water marbling is a lot of work, but the payoff can be very satisfying.  I really do hope to do more tutorials, but the reality is that although I have a live-in filmmaker, he is very busy.  This means I'll have to learn all the lighting, camera usage and video editing info myself and I'm not sure how much energy I have to do that.  But I really should figure it out!  If you haven't checked out my basic water marbling tutorial, you can watch it here.  I am also more than willing to answer any questions via email you might have about tips and techniques.

Right Hand:

Left Hand with holo effect:

Uber Flash:

For the manicure, I first painted two coats of Zoya Sarah on my nail.  I then marbled Sarah and Ulta Black Diamond.  After that marble dried and the water was dry off the nail bed, I marbled with China Glaze OMG (silver holo) and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in Flawless (clear) over the previous marble.  I used one coat of Seche Vite to seal the manicure and add lots of shine!

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows

Of course, I have my tickets to the midnight show of this movie.  It really is an awesome series and I am proud to say I have converted (or at least have coerced) my last two friends who haven't read the series to read it.  I needed something simple for this manicure, so I went with Gryffindor colors--gold and maroon and the symbol of the Deathly Hallows.


 

First I painted two coats of China Glaze Lemon Fizz.  I then marbled (again, without swirling, just letting the concentric circles create lines) with Twenty-Four K and Foxy.  The Deathly Hallow symbol was painted on with Ulta Black Diamond.  I coated once with Seche Vite.

Undecided

Titled as such because of several reasons:  

1) I started this manicure with a different idea in mind (it snowed here and I was thinking about doing a manicure regarding that, but my idea didn't quite pan out).  I even started the painting and designing of that manicure, but it was a fail I didn't want to live with so I started over.

2) Once the idea was put into motion (a striped-type water marble over black polish), I didn't really like the look, so I had to change it by double marbling over the initial spaced stripes for the look you see now.

3) I'm not sure I even really like the result.

I really do like the double marbling look/idea and I have had awesome results before as evidence here (the first pic). These polishes are also really pretty and the dark black that peeks through and gives these two bright chrome polishes a greater dimension is also nice. But since I'm still undecided, I guess you can cast your vote and I'll see if this is a winner or not....

The look was made by first painting each nail with three coats of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Midnight In NY.  I then made a striped marble (by not swirling the colors in the water) with China Glaze Cheers To You, Zoya Cyrstal and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Flawless alternating between color and clear to make thin stripes--or so I hoped.  I then just used Crystal and Cheers To You in a traditional marble and dunked my nails again.  After I was all cleaned up from all the excess polish, I sealed the manicure with one coat of Seche Vite.

Autobots and Decepticon?

I finished this manicure and put my hands in front of me and the first thought that was in my mind was Transformers.  I had to google Autobots and Decepticons just to see if my hunch was right, and lo and behold, the images were pretty similar--even down to the colors.   It was just one of those things when you imagine things like color combinations or simple design techniques and the way your nail art will turn out in you mind and then the final result is something quite familiar in a totally unexpected way.  

Sparkle Highlight Shot:

I first used three coats of Zoya Sarah and used Mimi for the purple detail.  I lined the design with China Glaze Cheers To You and sealed the manicure with one coat of Seche Vite.

Easy Does It

Short nails call for simple design.  I haven't fully highlighted this color I bought a while back from the China Glaze Vintage Vixen Collection and thought it was a good color for short nails.  I think the pictures capture the microfine golden hue in the brown.  It's very pretty.  

I coated three coats of Ingrid.  I then used a dotting tool and colors in Zoya Sarah and Crystal with Seche Vite as the top coat.

Hip To Be Square

I needed a quick manicure for my newly chopped, short nails.  Konad is always the answer!

Natural Light: 

Sunlight (see the holo!):

Base coat color is Ulta Soho Bleu and Konad Plate s6 was used with China Glaze DV8.  I used one coat of Seche Vite for shine!

Just A Spoonful Of Glitter

I am behind on posting and owe you some manicures!  I had fun doing Halloween themed nails, but I have been patiently waiting to try my new Zoya polishes from their Fire and Ice collection.  So both of these manicures focus on two of those colors.  I love them so much and they really are awesome and complex sparkle/foil/glitter polishes.  So the best way to enhance the sparkle is with more GLITTER!  

Blue sparkle is painted with three coats of Crystal with added glitter from LA Splash in Onyx

Red Sparkle is painted with three coats of Lisa with Ruffian sparkle in Yofi Cosmetics sparkle dust in Skinny Dippin'