Monday, November 25, 2013

Thanksgiving 2013 Waterfall and Turkey

Good Morning everyone!  Sorry it's been so long since my last post.  I only usually change my manicure once a week and the last few have been plain.  I still should've posted them because the colors still looked great, but I never got the chance to take a good picture. 

This week I have done a Thanksgiving manicure which includes a turkey and a waterfall mani using some autumn colors.  I want to thank Breezy the nail polish lover for the waterfall manicure idea.  She may not be the first one to do this, but her recent postings of beautiful waterfall manicures caught my eye and I thought it would be a good pairing with my turkey.

 
 
The base coat of my manicure is a SensatioNail gel, Amber Lights.  It's a very pale beige with some shimmer.  I like using the gel polishes as my base to add strength to my nails, especially in the winter when they can become dry and brittle.  The turkey was painted with acrylic paints because I actually don't have any brown polish.  And since I needed the paints for the body, I just used the paints for the rest of the turkey too.  The remaining nails were done with stripers.  I love the way the gold stripes glisten and shine.  I love how this mani looks and it didn't take all that long to do. 
 
 
Since I found a picture of last year's Thanksgiving manicure still on my memory care, I thought I'd post that too.  The turkey is similar, but the other nails were done as autumn color French tips.
 
 
 
I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!  Christmas is just around the corner.  I'll be back with some Christmas manicures soon!


Sunday, October 27, 2013

BOO... it's Halloween 2013

It's almost that time for witches and goblins, tricks and treats, and as promised here is my Halloween manicure.
 

My Left Hand
 
 
My Right Hand


My Thumbs
(my thumbs aren't really 2 different sizes, it's just the angle my son took the picture at)



 
I decided to go with 10 different designs just to have some fun.  Some of the designs were ones I had done in the past, others were variations of designs I saw online.  Although I don't know whose designs exactly I used for reference, I want to give thanks to everyone who posts their nail art in blogs, on Facebook, and on Pinterest.
 
I did polish and paint everything over the SensatioNail gel polish, Chiffon Pink, that I still had on my nails from last week's October BCA manicure.  Once I took off the designs with some non acetone polish remover, the gel polish was still in very good shape (it had only been on a week and I usually get 2 to 3 out of it), so I polished my new base colors right over that.  I did write down my designs and color choices on paper first.  I wanted to make sure I varied my base color choices and I wanted to make sure I planned the easier designs for my right hand as I am right handed and of course, have to paint the right hand with my left.  I used dotting tools, striping polish, and a small paint brush to paint my designs.  I'm happy with how they came out.  Everyone at work loved them.  A coworker wanted me to give her a Halloween manicure for her trip to Vegas.  Here is how hers turned out:
 


She loved them and couldn't wait to show her friends and family.  She's already thinking of future designs I can do for her for the upcoming holidays.  I look forward to sharing those and my own with you.




Saturday, October 19, 2013

My October BCA Manicure

It's already October and almost time to think of a cool Halloween manicure. However, October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I usually try to do some kind of pink themed manicure to honor the women I know who have been through the ordeal of dealing with breast cancer.  This is what I came up with for 2013:

Left Hand
 
 
 Right Hand

The pale pink base coat is SensatioNail gel Pink Chiffon. I like using the gel polishes as base coats because I find they give my nail a little more strength, especially since I am on a bowling league and I wouldn't want to break any nails!

I also decided to paint a different design on each nail just to have some fun. The color blocks on both thumbs was done with some striping tape that I removed after I had painted in the blocks. The other designs were done with either a dotting tool or striping polish. I used a variety of pinks for the designs, I just went through my polish stash and looked for bright pinks that would stand out on my nails.

I've had this on my nails for the week but with the end of October coming up, it's just about time for a Halloween manicure.  Please check back soon!


Saturday, October 12, 2013

Sensationail is Sensational!

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post. I've been testing my Sensationail
Gel manicure so I could take some pictures that demonstrate it's durability. Because it has lasted so long, I've had the same manicure for 3 weeks and didn't really have anything new to post.

I've been using Sensationail Gel polish for almost 2 years now. I don't use it exclusively because I have plenty of regular nail polish that I still like to wear (and buy). However, when I do wear it, I enjoy the shine, the quick dry time, the length of time it lasts, and the comments I get on how great it looks.

The Sensationail system is very easy to use. The starter kit contains everything you need to do ten complete gel manicures. I had purchased the raspberry wine starter kit and what a beautiful color that is. I have since expanded my collection as you can see here.





The preparation of your nails is pretty easy and the instructions are clear. It only takes about a half hour to complete the manicure once you are familiar with the procedures. The results are great.  This is how my manicure looked the first day. The color shown is Ride the Wave.

 

This is day 14.  My Sensationail manicure still looks great. No chips, no breaking, and fortunately not too much growth.  I've only shown my left hand but the right hand looked just as good.



And this is after Day 20. Still no chips on my left hand although the nail growth is more noticeable.  I used some Maybelline Color Show Clearly Spotted on my ring finger because I wanted to see how it looked. I love how it looks and will definitely use it again. I have to admit that the pointer finger on my right hand did chip pretty badly so I removed the gel polish and just repolished it with a Polish Addict color - Blurred Lines to tide me over until I took off the rest of the gel which I did on Day 21.
 


 
I use the foil wrap method to remove my gel polish, I find it works the best. I soak a small piece of a cotton pad with acetone, place it on the nail, and then wrap the nail in aluminum foil. I keep it wrapped for about 15 minutes and then I'm able to scrape the polish off pretty easily with a removal tool made by Sensationail.

If you are looking for a gel polish system, I highly recommend Sensationail by Nailene. The system is easy to use, the polish looks great and lasts a long time, and they have been expanding their color line.

Feel free to ask me any questions and I will answer to the best of my knowledge.  Thanks!

 
 
 







 



 

 

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Rainbow Sponge Art

The previous manicure of the water marbling was my left hand.  After spending the time creating the designs and the cleanup afterwards, I wanted to do something a little easier on my right hand. Here is the result!

I used the same polish and colors as in the water marbling, however, I painted the polish in stripes on a makeup wedge sponge and sponged it onto my nails.  I didn't intentionally plan to do the colors in the order of the rainbow but I guess ROY G BIV (from school) stuck in my subconscious as I was painting the stripes. I like the way it came out and with the same colors on my left hand, they seem to compliment each other.

Tonight I will probably redo my nails so I should have a new manicure to post shortly.

On another note, I'm looking forward to receiving my nail polish orders from Zoya (the great BOGO sale) and my $20 Mystery Box from My Overnight Addiction to Nail Polish. I can't wait to use these new polishes in my manicures!

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

First Time Ever (for me) - Water Marbling

I've seen this technique on many other blogs and on YouTube and decided it was time for me to give it a try. For my first time, I think it came out pretty good!


I used all Sinful Colors for this design starting with a base coat of Snow Me White. The colors used were High Strung (a neon yellow green), Pink Forever, Why Not (a bright blue), and Tempest (a beautiful lavender). I'm sorry the picture doesn't represent the colors as accurately as I'd like it to. I'll have to work on that.

I have to admit, the process was a little messy and at times frustrating. For those of you who have tried water marbling, you probably know what I mean. For those who haven't, the process involves dripping nail polish into a cup of water and allowing each drop to spread on the surface and alternating colors with each drop. However, sometimes the polish on the water surface dries too quickly and subsequent drops don't get the chance to spread. Then you wind up with a blob of multicolored polish and have to start over again. I didn't tape my fingers around my nail and did have quite a bit of polish to clean from them but I was able to get it clean without too much trouble.

I like how each finger has a different design and how bright the colors are.  I only did my left hand because I ran out of time (had to go to Sunday dinner at mom's) and when I got back home, I wanted to finish the right had with a quicker method (I'll show that had in the near future). I did find it time consuming to get it done but over all, I think the results were worth it. Please let me know what you think!

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Summer Fruit Fun

Hello everyone and welcome to my page. I love polishing my nails and trying new designs, either my own or others I've seen. My latest manicure is just something I wanted to do that was colorful. It also gave me the opportunity to try some fruity fimo slices that I've had for a while.


The dark pink I used for the base color was from a set of polishes I bought at Kohl's as was the green for the strawberry leaves and the watermelon rind. I used a white striper for the white of the watermelon rind and just used a dotting tool to dot on the black watermelon seeds and the yellow strawberry seeds. My pointer has a fimo watermelon slice and a kiwi slice that I glued on with a small touch of nail glue and my middle finger has a starfruit and pineapple slice. Then I sealed everything in with a coat of Seche Vite.

This manicure is a week old but I think it still looks pretty good. However, it's time to change it and decide on a new design. This will give me the opportunity to post something new.

Please come back and visit.