Inspired by....

I saw this awesome mani over at Dizzy Nails the other day and just had to try it... and then take it one step further. You should definitely head over to her page to check it out as her pictures are a million times better than mine.

I started with two coats of O.P.I's new Road House Blues (which is amazing BTW) from the Touring America collection. I need to learn to be more patient and take a picture of my base colors before I start adding to them, so no I do not have a picture of it by itself.  I then added a coat of O.P.I. I Lily Love You from this summers Nice Stems collection. So BEA-U-TIFUL!! You can see the amazing pictures on Dizzy Nails.

I then took it one step further and added Essies Matte About you.. Matte flakies? Yes, please!!!

The glossy nails look sooo dark, I really need to figure out a good way to photograph my manis. I am gonna bust out my DSLR and take that for a spin.. I just have to find the memory cards and readers.. I've just been using my iPhone camera, and while its convenient the quality is just not there. 

This picture was a day or two into the mani so there is some definite tip wear. 

This was my first time using the matte top coat and I loved it! I have heard stories of them chipping really bad or not lasting long, but I feel it lasted about as long as my regular manis. However, I usually only wear mine for a day or two at max. 

Thanks for stopping by!!! Until next time. 

My Water Marbling Attempt

After seeing all of these amazing water marble manis all over the interwebs I decided to give it a whirl. Instead of trying to be too ambitious I was only going to do an accent nail on each hand. I gathered all of my supplies and started at it. My first attempt was a success! Could it be that easy?! Famous last words... In the end I have 1 accent nail, my first attempt at water marbling ever.

When I tried to do my right hand accent nail it was a complete fail. I think I redid it about 5 or 6 times and then just gave up. But I guess for a first try one decent nail isn't too bad. I really like the color combo. At first I was using more colors but they wouldn't spread. I also think that the heat may have been a factor in my fail as it has been sooooo hot!!!!! It seemed as if the polish dried instantly and I couldn't spread it around. Oh well, there is always next time. Does anyone else have a similar experience? Or any tips if you have been successful at it?

I used Essie- Trophy Wife for the full mani and then China Glaze- Liquid Leather and Senorita Bonita for the marble.

I found it really hard to capture the marble. Here are the best pictures I could get. 

Essie Smooth Sailing

I figured I would break this up into two posts since my storage post was a little long. So here is today's mani. I used two coats of China Glaze Pelican Gray as my base. I used Essie Smooth Sailing (oh how I love that color) for the design and tips. The design was from the new Bundle Monster plates #201.

These pictures are still from my iPhone. I checked out my camera settings as Thalie at Glazed Talons suggested, but I didn't have a macro setting or the other option she referred to. Oh well. Thanks for the advice anyways.  Guess I just need to get a new camera (I am a serious shopaholic so it's not that bad of a thing.. lol)

This color combo reminded me of the mani I did the other day with Zoya Dove and Caitlin. But didn't realize until after I had finished. Oh well I still like it.

Hard Candy- Sky

I am still working on my stamping skills so they are definitely a work in progress. Here is my most recent mani.

Two coats of Hard Candy Sky with Essie Coat Azure for the tips and image.

My sister Raina came over last night and let me practice on her nails. This is OPI Ogre-The-Top Blue with China Glaze White on White. Both images are from BM16.

Cuticle Cures?

First off I want to apologize for A) the bad picture quality B) the poor polish job and C) my HORRENDOUS cuticles! I don't really know how to fix them. I use Burt's Bees Lemon cuticle wax and I recently bought a Sally Hansen cuticle oil and a supposed cuticle remover... They haven't been working.. Or maybe I am not using them correctly. However, at this moment in time my cuticles are horrible.

Enough about my cuticles and on to today's mani. So today my Bundle Monster plates came in... FINALLY!!! I have been waiting like a week (I know, very impatient). But I was sooo excited to try out my stamping skills. Final verdict... I love the designs, but I still need A LOT more practice. So without further delay here are todays attempts.

Base color is Essie Midnight Cami and the stamp is Nicole by OPI Rich in Spirt. 

Plate BM20

Again please ignore the horrible quality of everything.
But oh how I love polka dots! Plate BM19