Ombre Dots

This is probably my most favorite nail art I have done, or at least one of my top 5. It is very simple, so anyone can do it! You just need a lot of polish...

Cool, huh?

I did something pretty similar before, but it was a rainbow. The Australian tuplets of instagram did it, so I played off that and did my own version.

Here are the colors from my index finger down to my pinky, a total of 12!

Zoya- Neely (Lovely Collection Spring 2013)
Jessica- Lime Cooler (Gelato Mio Collection Spring 2012)
China Glaze- Electric Pineapple (Island Escape Collection Summer 2011) 
China Glaze- Def Defying (Cirque du Soleil Collection Winter 2012)
China Glaze- Gaga For Green (Electropop Collection Spring 2012)
China Glaze- Starboard (Anchors Away Collection Spring 2011) 
OPI- Mermaid Tears (Pirates of the Caribbean Collection Spring 2011)
China Glaze- For Audrey
China Glaze- Electric Beat (Electropop Collection Spring 2012)
China Glaze- Flyin' High 
OPI- Fly (Nikki Minaj Collection 2012)
Color Club- Endless Summer (Fiesta Collection Summer 2013)

I topped it off with Seche Vite so I wouldn't ruin the design with smearing!

Enjoy!

Simple Swatch: W7

I am going to keep this short and sweet. Sorry these photos don't have the best lighting, it is raining in the middle of June!

This is W7- Salt n Pepper

I started off with one coat of Wet n Wild- White Creme, and applied two thin coats of Salt n Pepper. This polish applied wonderfully! Especially considering it is an international "drugstore" brand.

Then I used Wet n Wild- Black Creme and China Glaze- Man Hunt (On Safari Collection 2012) for the dot gradient. I think I went a little dot crazy, but I think it goes well with the W7 and can't wait to get more!

Texture Skittles

I finally got some of the Sally Hansen "Sugar Coat" polishes. I only wanted the ones that were different colors than my China Glaze and Milani's, and I used the rest of my untried ones all at once. Here is the first ones I used, making a Rainbow. And here is what I came up with to use the rest:

Sunlight

Shade

And just for fun, here it is with the bottle

Lets start with the colors starting from the thumb to the pinky: Milani- Yellow Mark, China Glaze- Itty, Bitty, & Gritty, China Glaze- Unrefined, Sally Hansen- Bubble Plum, Sally Hansen- Sour Apple, and the black used for the dots is Sally Hansen- Lick-O-Rich.

Each polish was two coats. I really do love the formula of these. They are nearly one coaters, and don't dry as slow as the OPI textured polishes. I have yet to wear my Zoya Pixiedusts, so I can't compare them to those.

As you can see, the texture doesn't make easy dotting. But at least I don't have to worry about the top coat ruining it. I haven't used any of these with a top coat yet, so I might do a quick post tomorrow showing them with a top coat!

Rainbow Dots

I finally had enough down time to do some more intricate nail art! I love these. I got inspiration from some ladies on instagram, one being the lovely mulanpoopy. Here it is:

Sunlight

Shade

It was so hard choosing colors that went together that I haven't used before! But I found a good cohesion of colors.

The red/pink is a really old Sephora color that has no name. Orange: Zoya- Thandie (Stunning Collection Summer 2013) I like saying that name out loud because it sounds like you're saying Sandy with a lisp. The Yellow: Jessica- Banana Peel (Gelato Mio Collection Spring 2012). Green: Illimasqua- Smash. Blue: Anise- Island Lover. Lastly, the purple: China Glaze- That's Shore Bright (Sunsational Collection Summer 2013). I cheated with the white base and used OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls which I have used a lot, but I only have two whites, and this is the best one!

The way I did this was started with the big dots, and just filled in the spaces with smaller dots. Very simple really. I just wish my freakin top coat didn't drag some of the dots -__-. Here is what I did with my thumb, I might do this as a full manicure someday:

Hope you enjoyed!

Tri Polish Challenge: Day 2

I totally didn't do Day 1 on Tuesday because my water marble failed. I was happy to see that Smashley Sparkles did an amazing one though, and we are using two of the same colors! So, I went a little simple with day 2, and did something you have already seen from me, but I love doing these!

A quick over view of the challenge: Each month there will be three colors chosen, and you have to stick to the three polishes you chose for those color categories for each day. This month is coral, purple, and green, which are like my favorite colors! The days of the challenges are Tuesday and Thursday of the last two weeks of the month.

Another dotticure gradient

I used all China Glaze, the coral is Mimosa's Before Mani's (Avant Garden Collection), the green is Def Defying (Cirque De Soleil) and the purple is Gothic Lolita (Electropop). I think these colors are all very spring appropraite, and I really like how they look together :)

I can't wait to do the next day! Check out all the others ladies amazing creations.

Sat-art-day: Dotting Tools

I decided to participate in this weeks Sat-art-day challenge, organized by The Crumpet. She has so many challenges going on, it's hard to keep up! But this morning I looked at the few submissions and just knew I had to submit a cute dotticure. My boyfriend helped pick out the colors :)

 

A nice simple dotticure gradient!

I started off with two coats of China Glaze- Gaga For Green, from their Electropop collection for Spring 2012, and two coats of China Glaze- Happy Go Lucky. I love this yellow actually. I have only used it for nail art, but it applies smoothly after the second coat!

Then of course I started off with larger dots at the end of the nail, then small dots, slowly making a grandient. The white I used is OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls. I love the look of layered dots for some reason. Like towards the end of my ring finger and pinky, I don't know why. I guess it just gives a better effect.

What'd you think? Check out some of the other dotticures this from this week!

Valentine's Day Nails

Since everyone is doing it, I figured what not? Although I probably won't be wearing these on Valentine's Day, oh well.

 

I have been kind of burnt out on nail art, so I thought a nice doticure would be fun, easy, and clean. I really like these! They are so girly, but not over powering.

I started out with 2 coats of Orly- Preamp which was from their Electronica collection for Fall 2012. This is my first time wearing this, and I love it! It is a really unique shade, almost a blue toned pink with gorgeous gold shimmer packed in there. The formula was really nice, too. Then I did a simple gradient using OPI- A Sparkle Yule Love. This was an ULTA exclusive shade during the holidays in 2011, but Excuse Moi from the Muppets collection is the exact same shade. It was hard to do the gradient since it isn't in a clear base.

Then I did some dots! I started with the big dots, then the small ones. The colors I used are Orly- Lollipop and Orly- Cotton Candy. Nice simple cremes that really compliment the base color, and they are both readily available at ULTA, Sallys, CVS, etc.

I decided to feature a lot of Orly because I feel like this brand is way underrated. I love Orly so much! I think they were actually the first salon brand I ever got. And when I was going through my Orly stash, I realized all the shades I have form them are incredibly unique to any other polish I have. I will try to use more Orly!

Inspire Me Monday + Special Guest

I am very excited for this post because I just joined "Inspire Me Monday", created by devilishdesigns. There is one other participant as well: Gorgeois, definitely check out her design this week! If you watch Project Runway you will love it! In order to get inspiration I was going through various art books I have, and I came across one of my favorite modern artists, James Rosenquist. I decided to google image his work because he has so many pieces to get inspiration from, plus a lot of color, I love me some color! I went for a very simple piece of work, so here is what I whipped up:

 

 Sunlight

  

Shade

This is my first "Doticure" I have used dots a lot recently, but I decided this was a good opportunity to use a lot! Here is the piece of art I got inspiration from:

 

After I was done I was really happy, but was like "This looks a lot like a clown outfit", but towards the end of the night, I knew exactly what it looked like instead:

 

Butters' Pajamas! If you haven't seen my  South park nails, you wouldn't know I love South park, but Butters is for sure one of my favorite characters. So I guess you can call these my Rosenquist Butters Nails!

Onto the colors I used: The white base is OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls, every ones favorite white of 2012. I don't understand the hype of this white. I try to use as few brush strokes as possible, and after the second coat I still have some streaks. I fixed the streaks with the dots so it wasn't that big of a deal...Next I used the largest dotting tool using China Glaze- Sweet Hook for the light pink dots. Then I used China Glaze- Happy Go Lucky for the yellow. For the red I used Zoya- Nidhi, the only sparkly color. I really need to invest in a creme red already. The last color I used was China Glaze- Electric Beat for the blue. After I did all the big dots, I used a smaller dotting tool to fill in the spaces.

You might have noticed the top coat totally messed the design up and made it drag like crazy. I used my CND- Air Dry Top coat for the first time because I am trying to experiment with different top coats, but that was not the right choice. I am going to stick with Seche Vite when I am doing designs from now on.

Now onto the special guest :). As I was taking my pictures, I got interrupted:

My Mr. Sleepy decided he needed to be in the pictures too! My very first post featured my cute little kitty. Expect to see more from him because he really is the best cat in the world!

I hope you enjoyed my first Inspire Me Monday post and I can't wait till next monday now!

OPI + Orly + Dots

I am taking a break from writing my English final, and instead writing something more worth my while! Continuing with the winter theme, I have a pretty popular polish to share today. This is the first time I have worn it, only because I didn't get it when it came out last year, so I picked it up like two months ago. Here it is:

 

Direct Sunlight

 

Shade

The base color is OPI- Designer...de Better! topped off with Orly- Halo. Designer de Better was one of the more popular shades from their Muppets/Christmas collection last year. And Halo is from Orly's Naughty or Nice winter collection this year. The formula on both were  pretty good! The OPI shade was a little runny, but I don't know if that is because it is a  foil or not. I am pretty sure this is the only foil polish in my collection, and now I want more! It was like putting liquid metal onto my nails. It is a very unique shade as well. It is a nice champagne color, but if you look close there are tiny orange/copper shimmers in it too. You can't see it on my nails really, but if you look at the picture in the shade, you can totally see the shimmers in the bottle.

After I applied Halo, which applied amazingly, I decided to get more use out of my dotting tools. I first put some scattered dots of OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls, waited for that to dry, then added China Glaze- Glittering Garland. You can tell I am still on a gradient kick too with the way I dispersed the dots. I like how it turned out, although I think it would have been better if I added the Glitter top coat over the dots. It would have looked more uniform. Hope you like these as much as I do!

Polka Dot Gradient

Today's Christmas nails are yet another glitter gradient, but a little more special. I finally got around to getting some dotting tools, so when they came in the mail I knew exactly what manicure I was going to do. Here it is:

 

Direct Sunlight

 Shade

The base color I used is China Glaze- Ultamate Holiday which was from their Ulta exclusive holiday collection from last year, hence the name. Then I used the largest dotting tool end and added the red dots first, I always start with the lightest color. The red is Stila- Firecracker. Yeah Stila has some nail polishes. I got them on Cyber Monday last year and checked their site before I wrote this, and it looks like they don't have them anymore. Then I added the large green dots with China Glaze- Winter Holly which is from their

Holiday Joy collection from this year. I used it in another manicure which you can see here. Then I repeated the same steps, but used a significantly smaller dotting tool.

Ultamate Holiday applies pretty well. I used two coats and it dries to a very gritty almost matte texture. Winter Holly is pretty much the same consistency. As far as the red goes, it gave me some trouble. It isn't a very dense polish, so I constantly had to go over the same dot a few times, and you can see the red dots still aren't perfect. Oh well, I am still happy with the results. Since they were such rough textured glitters I used my Gelous Advance Nail Gel Coat, then finished it off with Seche Vite, of course. Hope you enjoy this as much as i do! :)