Easter Skittles

I've been wanting to do pastel skittles for awhile. I just didn't have the right pink until April's Julep box. The Maven's must have read my mind!

I've been trying all sorts of different types of nail art. I think for Easter Sunday I'm going to stamp. But for the week leading up to it water decals and such.

Here's my rendition of Easter. AKA "It looks like Easter exploded on your nails."


I found these water decals on Ebay. They are really cute and easy to use.

The colors. L-R: China Glaze Refresh-min, Color Club Take me to your Chateau, Ulta Cream of the Crop, Essie Lilacism, China Glaze Sun Worshiper, Julep Penelope.

Hand painted baby chicks!

 Left Hand

Right hand (OMG non-dominant!) I had some small multicolored pearls (Ebay again) that I thought would make awesome eggs.

St. Patrick's Manis

I'm having a heck of a time with my nails lately. They keep breaking even though I'm quite good on keeping them moisturized. I'm going to try the olive oil trick that Jilltastic mentioned on my facebook.

Anyway here's another attempt at me doing nail art. I've been rushing all week so I have smudges galore, and it's best not to mention the state of my cuticles.

But I did wind up getting a light tent off of E-bay on the cheap. Here's hoping it improves my pictures!

This is the first St. Patrick's mani I did. I used a bunch of Sinful colors, plus China Glaze Cha Cha. It was a gradient, but right after I'd finished it (before photos) I had a finger nail issue. So you get to see the ruins, much to my sadness. I used decals to hide my terri-bad attempt at hand-painting a four-leaf clover. That's what the blob behind the leprechaun is.

 Left hand.

On a whole I like Sinful polish, but it chips terribly easy even with Seche Vite top coat on.



Here is the mani I wore yesterday on St. Patrick's day. This is my first attempt at using my light tent and tweaking my camera settings since I don't have any tungsten portable lights.

I used the clover image from the Hello Kitty plate I got for free from the Born Pretty store. I wasn't sure what to do color wise so I wound up stamping the clover on my base color in white, and then using a dotting tool to lightly color in the middle areas on the leaf. And just like that I had the colors of the Irish flag on my nails.

China Glaze Four Leaf Clover, Sinful Cloud 9, Konad White. (Not Shown: China Glaze Re-fresh mint)

Nfu Oh #63 : Black and Pink

Helllooo!

I'm beginning to grow accustomed to my little nubbin nails. They're sloooowwwwly growing out. I was in a pink mood today since next week is all green all the time, but I didn't want to do just straight pink. I was torn over what mani to do.

Then I remembered one I'd seen on the MUA board, and I whipped out my Art Deco black, a couple rhinestones, a dotting tool, and my gorgeous Nfu Oh 63 that I'd swatched but hadn't worn yet.

This is what I came up with. I had to rush these photos cause my battery was dying so I didn't get all the photos I wanted of the materials I used or the bottle, but with Nfu Oh I was already noticing some wear on it. So if I wanted photos of the mani I had to do it now. Oh well. I hope you still enjoy it!

The rhinestone size I used was either 1 or 1.5mm. I have larger ones, but I thought something cute and dainty would work better.

Once my camera battery recharges I have swatches of my new Julep's, including Melissa that is a very mysterious color. I can't quite decide if I love it or hate it.

Valentine's day mani #1

A few weeks ago I bought a bunch of Joby nail decals for the upcoming holidays -- Valentine's day, St. Patrick's day, and Easter. They looked really cute when they arrived, and I had a few ideas for Valentine's day manicures. Why just have one manicure for the holiday, right?

This is the decal set I used. Holiday Set Valentine #2:

I used China Glaze Winter Berry and some scotch tape for an angled quasi-French tip. And Art Deco gold glitter for the stripe. OMGOSH I can't even begin to tell you how much I love the Art Deco striping brush. It's made my attempts into nail art easier.

I also attempted a marble water on my ring finger as an accent, but I failed spectacularly at it!


Winter Berry is a lush color. It's richly pigmented and you really only need one coat to get maximum coverage. Two darkens it into this rich deep red. Clean up is a nightmare, though. Red is not forgiving when you make a mistake. It also dries super glossy even without a topcoat.

Here are some photos of my outcome. It didn't turn out quite how I had it in my head. As for the decals they work best on polished nails, instead of the half-natural I had. So I have some corner lift on them, but so far they're staying put with a coat of Seche Vite. I also put a few of the decals on upside down. But this was my very first attempt. I'm still learning so I'm okay with this outcome!

This one is my favorite even though I smudged the heck out of it.

My failed watermarble on my ring finger.

You can see some of the decal lift on my middle finger. I put it on horizontally instead of vertically.

Please forgive my horribly dry cuticles. Right after I took these photos I slathered on some oil and lotion.