Friday, May 24, 2013

Summer Gradient Nails!

Hello everyone!  I know its not "technically" summer yet, but it sure feels like it.  Its definitely not spring here in north Florida, nor do these colors I used today look springy.  So, I am calling them summer nails!  While freehand nail art is not my forte, I am rather decent with gradients and water marbling.  Today I have a gradient.  For this gradient I used Sinful Colors Dream On, China Glaze Pool Party, and Sinful Colors Endless Blue.  I was looking for something to do with my nails the other day, and then just started picking up these colors and thought they would be great together, and boy they are!  I would like to say that I am a teeny bit disappointed with how the China Glaze Pool Party turned out in the photos though...it comes up much more pink than it actually is.  My bottle I am looking at right now as I am typing is clearly more orange influenced.  On the nail it is terrifically orange as well.  I wish you could see it!  As many bloggers say; the photos do the polish no justice.  I tried to change every setting I possibly could on my camera, but could not get it to pick up on the orange.  I was planning on putting up a web link to a photo of how it is supposed to look, but to my surprise it turns out this is just how this color looks in photos!  Either way, I still love the results!
I do have an small admission to make with these photos though.  For the first time ever, I have enhanced them a bit.  In an attempt to get the orange to come out more, I used the "Enhance" button on my husband's Ipad.  While it obviously did not make the orange come out, it did make the colors pop.  I liked the "turned up" look to the colors, so I kept it!  I do not plan on continuing this in the future, I prefer to publish photos that represent the true color of the polish.  That being said, please enjoy my photos!







Monday, May 13, 2013

Flowers For Mom Nail Art Challenge: Perfect Gift For Mom

Hello, first I would like to say that I did in fact miss the second day in this challenge...I had a tough time with it, I orginally tried to use my Bundle Monster stamping plates, but it was beyond frustrating trying to use those things!  I dont know if I got bad plates, or if its the polish.  I think I am going to try to buy actual "stamping polish" and see if thats any better.   Since the stamping failed and frustrated me, I just made a simple design that was kind of cool, but just didnt remind me of mom.  So, I am saving that for another day!  For todays challenge I chose to paint Daises on my nails.  They are my moms favorite!  I did the petals free hand and then used a dotting tool for the yellow centers.  I have a set of nail art brushes, but cant seem to master the art of using them...guess I need to watch some more tutorials!  The main color I used for the base color was Essie Bikini So Teeny.  It has tiny sparkles in it, but they are barley visible.  I even bought the one that had the most sparkle to it, yet it is not that visible.  Either way it is still a great color.  I know everyone loves Essie, and I do too.  However, I have always noticed that Essie is not the easiest polish to apply.  The first coat for me is always horribly streaky, but the second one is better.  With two coats its nice.  Since I am on the knit picky train, I would like to talk about top coats.  I have to have a fast drying top coat, and originally tried Seche Vite, and loved the finish and the quick drying time, but didn't like how goopy it got about half way through.  So, upon recommendation I tried Out The Door top coat.  After using Out The Door for many manis now, I find that I do not like it.  I find that it doesn't actually dry the polish as well as Seche does.  My biggest problem with Out The Door is these tiny annoying bubbles it creates in the polish!  You can actually see what I am talking about in the two photos below on my pinky nail.  I am totally going back to Seche Vite, and I have learned a few tips on how to handle the goopy-ness.  This is the first year I didn't get my mom flowers, I got here clothes instead!  So, I put the flowers on my nails!  Below is a list of others participating in the challenge.  :)








Carmina from Cubbiful

Nicole from Dipped in Lacquer



Paulina from Paulina’s Passions

Kristina from Polish and Repeat

Rachael from Rachos Nail Love

Tes from Tes Did It Nails

Monday, May 6, 2013

Flowers For Mom Nail Art Challenge: Roses

Hello everyone!  I decided to join in on a nail art challenge being held by the blog Paulina's Passions!  I found out about this one through a group called Nail Art Challengez and is a great group if you would like to join!  The first challenge is Roses.  I have never done roses before, but figure this is a great reason to try!  Instead of the traditional pink or red roses, I decided to do circus roses!  I love these ones, they are yellow with orange tips.  I don't much care for red roses, but these ones are beautiful to me!  Since I have never done roses before I sought out a good tutorial, the one I stumbled upon was from the blog Polished Art.  The tutorial is called "Rose Nail Art Tutorial."  It was a great simple step by step tutorial, nothing difficult about it.   I love my result, I may have gone a bit crazy with the leaves, but I really think for the first time doing this they came out pretty good.  On my other hand I did simple stripes in each color I used for this.  The colors I used were; Julep Eileen, Zoya Jacqueline, Julep Cody, Julep Blake, Julep Adrianna, and China Glaze Gaga for Green.  Enjoy, and see you again on Thursday for the next challenge!  At the bottom is a list of other bloggers participating, check them out!












BLOG LIST - Flowers for Mom - Nail Art Challenge

Dipped in Lacquer www.dippedinlacquer.com
Paulina’s Passions http://paulinaspassions.com/