Defrosted

I have so been looking forward to Spring.  The snow melting, the buds of flowers peeking up in my garden, the ability to get on my scooter and ride open air.  And, now, hopefully my internet has  been fully restored so I can update as I need to!  So with spring bloom in mind, I give you this manicure!

Without Flash:

With Flash:

I painted the base coat with a gray/blue sparkle from Orly, Pixie Dust.  The flowers are painted with China Glaze, Something Sweet (light pink) and Orly, Passion Fruit (bright pink) by using Konad plate m57.  Seche Vite coated twice.

Green Machine

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I did this lovely green marble.  The photos make it look like it is more turquoise than green, but I assure you it isn't.  I was even able to get a clover-esque marble on my left thumb, which I love.

Right Hand:

Left Hand:

Clover close up (best color representation):

I used these four colors from China Glaze: Entourage, Emerald Sparkle, Re-Fresh Mint, and Four Leaf Clover.  I coated the manicure in two coats of Seche Vite.

A Splash of Pink

Pink was the suggestion.  Pink was the result.  And for a relatively easy manicure and pretty on the nails, it was so fussy to capture.  Extreme close ups are all I got to get you the gist.

Natural Sunlight:

Indoor Flourescent:

I painted a base coat with Oh Cabana Boy from Orly and then striped the splashes of various pink hues from Orly (Passion Fruit and Razzle) and China Glaze (High Hopes, Something Sweet, Sexy Silhouette and Shocking Pink.

So Nice I Striped Them Twice

So I have been MIA from the computer.  My kitten-cat spilled my water all over our laptop last week and it has been drying out since then.  (We were both in the dog house)  But thank God, it's okay now.  I tried to post from the desktop computer but it is slooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww....  I got so frustrated, I gave up after 45 minutes of trying to upload photos and not being able to multi-task on the Internet.  But I'm back!!!!!

Anyway!  I am now ready to show you what I've been up to.  Water marbling!  Except without the marbling.  I have listened to your requests to make a tutorial for water marbling, and I hope to do that some day.  I do have a budding film-maker in the home, so maybe he'll come in handy someday....but not today.  For now you just have to enjoy the pictures.

Royal Stripes:

Left Hand:


Right Hand:

Close Up:


Silver and Gold:

The "Royal Stripes" manicure was done over the weekend and I really love the results.  I call it water marbling without the marbling, because I didn't swirl the colors together.  I just put my finger in the color circles and it took on the appearance of stripes.  The colors I mixed were China Glaze Emerald Sparkle and Let's Groove and Orly's Rage.  Coated twice in Seche Vite.

The "Silver and Gold" (my current manicure) was done with China Glaze Twenty-Four K and Tinsel (thanks Jes for the gift), and OPI's Brand New Skates.  Topped with two coats Seche Vite.

Karaoke Magic!

Tonight I am going out with friends to dinner and karaoke. So it was, of course the inspiration for this manicure. I thought it was kind of fortuitous that the pictures turned out a bit blurred, since I imagine our nights at various karaoke bars with a little haze...

Left Hand:

Right Hand:

Thumbs:

I painted a base coat of color with China Glaze Liquid Leather. Then I freehanded a microphone and some music notes on my left hand using It's So Easy Stripe Rite colors in Silver Metallic, White and Hot Blue. I polished the musical notes and bars white first with Stripe Rite and then colored that white base for the pink music notes with Orly Passion Fruit and the music bars with a light, iridescent blue from OPI that I no longer have the name to. The disco ball and it's twirling lights was all a combo of Silver Metallic, Gold Metallic, Black, White, Aqua Metallic and Hot Green Stripe Rite polishes. I then made the "karaoke monitor" by writing out "Baby you just got to release me" in white Stripe Rite first and Essie's Perky Purple and Hello Yellow on top. Each nail was coated twice with Seche Vite.

So now that this is done, I will now spend the rest of my day practicing Wilson Phillips for tonight and I'm ready to go!

Spring Bloom

The sun and my warm car have been making me think of spring and wishing here very soon.  So I polished to my mood.

I used a pale yellow base coat from China Glaze Lemon Fizz.  Then I used Konad plate m65 for the flowers and layered Orly Rage first (it's a rose-colored foil color from their new spring line), followed by Orly Passion Fruit (a pink neon) on top.  Then I used Seche Vite on top.

Weekend Exploits

So I went out of town this past weekend (thus the lateness of the post) and I gave manicures to three of my friends as well as myself.  So I wanted to show them off.

Four Hands:

Jes: Tequila Teaser

Me: Through the Fog

Jen: Bubbles Up

Heather: All Spice

For the specs:

Tequila Teaser: Water marbled with China Glaze: Solar Power, Four Leaf Clover and Purple Panic. 

Through the Fog:  Marbled with Light As Air, High Hopes From China Glaze with OPI's Brand New Skates.

Bubbles Up: Base coated with Sexy In The City and topped with holographic blue by CG named DV8.  Konad Plate used for dots in color Metallic Muse (China Glaze).

All Spice: Base coat China Glaze VII with stripes by It's So Easy Stripe Rite in Gold and Orange Glitter.

All manicures topped with Seche Vite top coat.