Holographic Nail Art

I don't use holographic polishes for nail art very much. So I am trying to continue mastering stripes, and used holographic polishes this time!

 

Drooooool

The green is China Glaze- L8R G8R (OMG Collection 2009). The pink is Color Club- Halo-Graphic (Halo Hues 2013). The teal is Emily De Molly- Amazonia. Lastly, the Purple is Emily De Molly- Devotion.

I really enjoy the pattern I came up with as well. I started out by mapping out the pattern with a gel pen, and then painted two coats of each color as close to the line as possible. After those were dry, I used a really skinny nail art brush and painted two coats of Color Club- Beyond (Halo Hues 2013).

Hope you liked these!

Simple Swatch: Lush Lacquer

I am going to keep this short and sweet:

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This beauty is Lush Lacquer- Dream On.

I was looking at my stash for a really long time and couldn't come up with a fun nail art design! So i was like screw it, lets wear an awesome indie glitter!

This was two easy coats. You didn't have to manipulate the glitter or anything, both coats went on like butter! It is a creme base with blue, purple, and green glitters of every shape and size- including squares, my favorite! I have said it once, and I will say it again, Lush Lacquer polishes are seriously amazing, and by far my favorite indie brand! They have the perfect balance of glitters. Just enough glitter so it is eye catching, but doesn't look like a unicorn took a poop on you hands! You really have to give them a try. Their shipping does take at least 2 weeks, but it is sooooo worth the wait. You know you should be wearing some other unworn polishes anyways :P

You can buy from their Etsy, full sizes are $9.00. Or you can skip the long shipping and pay $11.00 at Llarowe

Textured Gradient

I have been wanting to do these for a while since I go two of these three polishes in a swap, but I had little nubbins when I got them, and I am not a fan of gradients on me when my nails are short. They are finally at my favorite length, so here is how it came out:

Sooo pretty!

I started off with two coats of OPI- Pussy Galore (James Bond Girls Collection Spring 2013). I honestly wanted the polish for the name, but I really enjoy the color and formula! It didn't dry nearly as slow as OPI- Jinx which I was really happy about. I don't have a pink quite like it, which is what I go for since I am a hoarder.

Then using the brush from the bottle, I added the first color of the gradient, which was Zoya- Stevie (PIxiedust Collection Summer 2013). It was really hard to do a gradient with this! I almost went for a sponge, but didn't feel like dealing with clean up. I usually use my right hand as my practice hand, and I got the hang of it and finally figured out a good technique to get a smooth gradient. I got as much polish off the brush as possible, painted the very tip, and pushed toward my cuticle. It is kind of hard to explain...

Lastly, I used Julie G- Crushed Candy (Frosted Gum Drops Collection 2013) for the darkest color on the tips. I used the same technique as Stevie, but with much less polish. I really like these Frosted Gum Drop polishes, but I don't feel like they are really a unique "textured" polish. They are more like the gritty China Glaze glitters, kind of like these.

Hope you enjoyed!

Rainbow Stripes

I am still trying to master stripes! They are so freakin hard. Maybe I should just try tape... Here is what I came up with:

As I have mentioned before, I will never get tired of rainbow nails!

I just used the brush from the bottle, and simply painted half of each nail.

The colors I used are: Index finger: Sally Hansen- Fuchsia Power, and Jessica- Tangerine Dreamz (Gilato Mio Collection Spring 2012).
Middle finger: Jessica- Banana Peel (Gilato Mio Collection Spring 2012), and Finger Paints- Sexy Sundress.
Ring finger: Essie- First Timer (Resort Collection 2013), and OPI- Fly (Nicki Minaj Spring 2012).
Pinky finger: Color Club- Endless Summer (Fiesta Collection Summer 2013), and Essie- Play Date (Go Overboard Collection 2012).

After the polish dried I just used Orly Instant Artist- Crisp White to do the stripes! I definitely need to work on them more... But either way I love how they turned out.

Bow Nail Art

I don't really do free hand nail art. I am going to try to do more to master the skills. I think the most awesome free hand nail art I have ever done is my South Park Nails. They are still my favorite, but I really want to recreate them again so I can get better photos. Practicing more free hand nail art will also make them turn out even more amazing! Here is what I came up with:

 

Super girly and cute. I have been seeing these bows floating around and couldn't resist trying them out! I must say, I did pretty darn good!

I didn't do all my fingers because I knew it would take too long, and I didn't even know if they would turn out the way I wanted.

The pink glitter is Nails Inc- Topping Lane, and the blue is Nails Inc- Pudding Lane. Both are from their Special Effects "Sprinkles" line. I love these. I didn't get them for a while after they came out, and hadn't even tried them until now! Both were two coats. The first coat you had to work a little to get the glitter to spread out evenly, but the second coat went on just fine since it had the base to work with.

On to the bows. I started off with two coats of the base colors. The pink is Orly- Lollipop, and the awesome periwinkle blue shade is Jessica- Sophia/True Blue. I don't know why there are two names for it... I used a dotting tool to outline the shape of the bow. First starting off with a big dot in the center, and working my way out to make the bow shape. Then I just filled it in! After that dried, I used my trustworthy striper polish, Orly Instant Artist- Jet Black, to outline the bow, and to do the stripes. I love this striper! It is the only striper I have used, and I hope to get all the colors one day. I don't know if Orly still makes them, but luckily my nail supply store carries all the shades, and for just $2.50.

I hope you enjoyed these! And hopefully I will do some more REAL nail art soon!

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:

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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!

Illimasqua Speckled Half Moons

I have had these polishes for a really long time, but of course hadn't tried them yet. Nail polish hoarder problems... Here are more half moons! I hope you aren't getting too tired of these.

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I made sure not to cut out any part of the beautiful Illimasqua bottle!

I started out with two coats of the base colors, and applied my Poshe fast drying top coat before applying the stickers for the half moon shape.

The green is Essie- Navigate Her (Navigate Her Collection 2012, now permanent). And the purple is China Glaze- Light As Air (Up & Away Collection Spring 2010/ Electropop Collection Spring 2012). I made sure not to choose base colors that were identical so you could actually see the shape, unlike my Easter Nails.

Then I just applied one coat of the Speckled polishes. The green is Illimasqua- Mottle and the purple is Illimasqua- Speckle. Both applied amazingly. No problem with getting glitter on the nail, and it is such a perfect balance of big chunky glitter and tiny glitters in a creme base.

I can't wait till the next time I go to my nail supply shop and get Nubar- Black Polka Dot so I can make endless amounts of looks like these Speckled polishes. Lucy's Stash has a great tutorial on how to do it!