#NailArtFeb Californails Challenge Recap Post

Happy Sunday!! 

 Today I want to to a really quick post to recap all the looks I did for the Californails "Totally Doable- I have a life Challenge". This challenge was only 11 prompts, but it was so much fun to take on! 

 To see all the looks just keep on reading after the jump. 

#NailArtFeb Californails Challenge Day 17: Studs

(**Press Sample**)

Happy Pink Humpday! 

 Today I am sharing my look for day 17 of the Californails "Totally Doable- I have a Life Challenge". The prompt for today was "Studs". I was really looking forward to this prompt. I love playing with studs, but I rarely get to do so. I'm a huge fan of studded nails. My nails are pretty short right now, which made this a little extra challenging. I wanted to do something a little more elaborate, but studs tend to be too big for my tiny nails. However, I really have been loving the chunkier stud/gem looks so I figured I'd give one a go anyways. 

 For my look I started with a base of Salon Perfect's In Love. I used three easy coats. This shade of Pink is just lovely, and playful. I used studs from a wheel I got from Born Pretty Store to create a girly look. I used petal shaped studs to create my metallic Daisies :D. I topped everything off with some Seche Vite to seal my studs and smooth the surface. 

 The next prompt is "Floral". I am both excited and nervous for this prompt. I really want to do some freehand floral nails. In all the time I've been blogging, I've never done a freehand floral. As you guys know I've really been trying to push myself when it comes to trying more freehand nail art. 

 Thanks for coming by today!! 

O.P.I Gwen Stefani Edgy Half Moon Nail Art Look

(**Press Sample**)

Good afternoon beautiful people! 

 Today I have an edgy half-moon nail art look featuring some of the new shades from O.P.I's Gwen Stefani collection. Half- moon nails are some of my favorite looks to combine finishes and edgy shades together. For this look I went with a Satin matte on gloss theme, mixing vampy and flashy, for an eye catching manicure. 

 I started with Two easy coats of O.P.I I Sing in Color. Once my base color and top coat were dry I proceeded to tape off my moons using hole reinforcers. The beautiful satin matte shade of Gold is Love.Angel.Music.Baby. Since the color is so opaque it was perfect for this technique. I cleaned up the seam of my moons using a bit of Gold glitter striping polish. I did not top coat over the moons to avoid altering the matte against shiny look.

 The little Black stones and Gold stud bar are from the O.P.I Over and Over A-Gwen set. I used a toothpick to dab a bit of nail glue where I wanted the stud and also placed a teeny drop on the back of the studs and stones. The toothpick method made it easy to get the glue on precise spots and avoid making a mess. I wore this look for about Four days and didn't lose any stones or experience any chips. 

 I will be posting my swatches of the O.P.I Gwen Stefani collection very soon :D. I was definitely a "child of No Doubt". I grew up with Gwen's music so I immediately knew I'd have some kind of connection to these colors. I always remember loving Gwen's iconic Pink hair, long vampy nails and kick ass Red lippie. I'm was beyond excited to see Gwen collabing with such a fashion and music icon.

Who doesn't love a little  No Doubt!? 

#31DC2013 Day 3: Yellow Nails in Lime Crime Crema de Limon

(**Press Samples**)

Happy Tuesday! 

  Today is my nemesis.... Day Three of the #31DC2013, freaking Yellow nails. You know, it's not that I dislike Yellow. I just don't find the color inspiring. Yellow is a hard color for me to wear, if it is not *just* the right shade of Yellow... It can make me look too Red, or too pale and Green. Basically, Yellow is just not my color. I really wanted to try hard and do something cute though.. So, I did some more stamping for today's look, and accented the look with some studs.  

 I started off with Two effortless coats of Lime Crime nail color in Crema de Limon. Once my base color was dry I stamped using Pueen plate Pueen25 and Milani Fast Dry nail color in Quick Teal. I then top coated my nails with Seche Vite and a light coat of INM Northern Lights and then set my Cult Nails studs into the glittery top coat. After giving my nails a second to set I did a final coat of KBShimmer Clearly on top to seal in my studs.
 I really like the finished look, but it took me forever to land on this. The original plan was to try and freehand something. But long story short, I suck at freehand... I keep trying out stuff on nail wheels... Just not having any success on my actual nails. 

Lime Crime Crema de Limon

 Crema de Limon is a really nice shade of pastel Yellow creme. What you see here is Two effortless coats of color and top coat. The formula on this shade is really great! 

 I was trying really hard to get something done with these!!! These awesome nail art brushes from Winstonia are great for detailing and small freehand creations. I so want to improve my freehand skills and I know the only way to do so is by practicing more. I tend to get frustrated, like I used to with stamping... SO! I am practicing a lot and wasting a lot of polish hahah... Some day I will produce something blog-worthy with these awesome brushes. They are the perfect sizes for nail art! 

 Tomorrow should go better because I love GREEN!!!! I'm off to see about stalking the #31DC2013 hashtag. There are SOOO many awesome looks coming out every day! I could spend hours looking at all the nail art!! 

 To see an inlinkz gathering of many of the bloggers participating in the challenge just keep on reading after the jump! 

31 Day Challenge 2012! Day Eighteen: Half-Moons

Happy Caturday!! 

  And we are back on track! Today is day 18 of the challenge and that means Half Moons. These are the nails I wore to The Makeup Show last weekend and I got SO many compliments on 'em. This looks features all Cult Nails polishes and studs. 

  This look stared with Two coats of the amazing Annalicious. My camera really freaked out at this amazing shimmering shade of Tomato Red. I went for an edgy look with pointed half moons. For the pointy moons I used some scotch tape and Cult Nails Nevermore. I topped it all off with some Seche Vite then followed by Cult Nails Wicked Fast. 

 And here is the official look I wore for The Makeup Show. On my pinky is a Nail Veil by Chronicle Stones. These are a "love 'em or hate 'em" type of nail accessory. I absolutely LOVE them. They are so eye-catching and a nice touch for special occasions. I attached mine with a drop of nail glue and it held on all day long with no issues what so ever. Mine is the Pinky veil with a little dangly at the tip. I will have a post with more details about Nail Veils soon. 

  I really liked this look a whole lot and even more so that I actually got to wear it and my pinky Nail Veil. And I seriously cannot get enough of Annalicious. It is trully a spectacular color! Now don't forget to stop by my challenge partners Rie and Sam's to see their Half-moon looks for day 18!

(**Products provided for consideration**)

Cult Nails Spontaneous Studded, Dried and Gradient

Good Morning!! 

  Today I have my Third look in the Cult Nails Untamed Collection series. This manicure features Spontaneous. This color really inspired me to do something sophisticated and just pretty. I really wanted to do a grown up, but girly manicure. Spontaneous is a beautiful, grown up shade with just a little something to make it interesting and unique. 

  For this look I started with a base of Enticing on all my finger nails, except my ring finger. My ring finger was done in Spontaneous. I wanted to do a manicure showcasing a contrast between the soft dried flowers and the edgy studs. On my accent nail I used some of my Cult Nails Studs. For my gradients I used Spontaneous and Enticing. Spontaneous was a little tricky to gradient with, waiting between "dabs" is best to allow the color to build up.
 To apply the dry flowers I did a coat of Seche Vite and then I set the flowers into the wet top coat very carefully with tweezers. I took photos before I top coated the flowers because I didn't know what adding a top coat would do to them.

(**EDIT**) I got the little flowers at a local beauty shop. I think they can also be found at Sally's and/ or Born Pretty Store.

  Spontaneous is a beautiful deep, smokey Amethyst Purple creamy base packed full of glowing Purple micro glitter. It is a beautiful polish, sophisticated and right on trend for Fall.

 Here is a shot of the mani after I top coated over the flowers. It didn't do damage. Just make sure to have A LOT of top coat on the brush to easily cover the flower. I love the finished look of this mani a whole lot. The contrast of soft and edgy is just right and the dried flowers added a lovely touch to the gradients.

 I only have Two more looks to go in this series! One featuring Annalicious and one featuring I got Distracted. They are both colors that are out of this world and I really want to come up with something special for them. While Deal With It and Untamed brought out a younger side of me, Spontaneous brought out the "lady" in me ♥. I can't wait to play with my last Two colors!

Thanks for stopping by!!!!

(**Cult Nails Spontaneous provided for consideration**)

Zoya Week! Zoya Elisa Stamped and Studded

Good morning lovelies! 

  Today's Zoya look features Elisa from the Diva Collection, Fall 2012. I wanted to do something very... Extravagant in a sense? I think I got what I was going for lol. When I look at this manicure, many things come to mind. Moulin Rouge costumes, a circus ring leader, a German gymnasts leotard or something else along those lines... IDK, but the diva in me is loving this look. It's not something I would normally do but Zoya Elisa brought "it" out in me.

 For this ornate look I started with Two easy coats of Zoya Elisa. Once my base was dry I did a fish-egg accent nail by mixing my Gold and Black micro beads together and sprinkling them over my wet top coat. For the fishnet design I used Bundle Monster plate BM209, Konad Black SP on my Index and Pinky nails and China Glaze Passion on my middle nail. I accented my fishnets with Golden and Black micro beads.

 Sometimes I really like venturing out of my comfort zone and doing manis that are out of character. Sometimes it goes great and sometimes not so much. I think this is one of those times where I am glad I went for it. I could see this manicure somehow being altered in color scheme to work for the Holidays...

Thanks for stopping by!

(**Zoya Elisa Provided   for consideration**)

Zoya Week! Wednesday Two-Fer with Daul and FeiFei

Happy Humpday! 

  Zoya week carries on with Two looks today! I'm keeping it very short and sweet today as I do not feel very well. I spend the day in the hospital yesterday and today I'm going through the aftermath. Which, in a sense, is just as bad if not worse than the time spent in the hospital. But! I did manage to do these pretty gem looks with FeiFei and Daul.

  To see these Two gemmed looks just continue reading.

Pink Wednesday! Cult Nails Untamed Nail Art and Swatch

Happy humpday!!! 

  Today I have a fun and simple mani done using another of Coco's Collection fierce colors. These shades are bringing out my inner tween and I am LOVING it. For this look I was only intending to swatch and stamp. To my,very happy, surprise Untamed has a perfect jelly consistency so that's when the manicure took a turn for the edgy. 

 I started with Two effortless and adorable coats of Cult Nails Untamed. The glitter used for the sammich is Sation's Video Game Vixen. Once my coat of glitter was pretty dry I did one more thin coat of Untamed over the glitter to create an awesome sprinkled look. For the stamping I used Bundle Monster plate BM321 and Konad Black special polish. For the accents on the big flowers I used Silver studs. I topped the whole thing off with some Seche Vite. I ended up loving this to bits!

 Here is a picture of the sammich before I went ahead with the stamps. Doesn't this look yummy?

 And here is a swatch of my base color, Cult Nails Untamed. This is an adorable shade of vivid Bubblegum Pink jelly packed full of Twinkling Violet sparkles. The sparkle is just barely there, very whimsical, dainty almost- I am a fan! This is just Two coats. I only did Two since I was planning on doing nail art. Had I been just wearing the color itself I'd say Three coats will be a much more opaque look. I do like that this polish has huge versatility due to the fact that it is an awesome jelly texture.

 And there you have the Second in a Series of Five looks I will be doing featuring each of Coco's colors. I really love how this turned out. There is a little bit of a girly edge to this manicure. It seems these colors are having that effect on me :D! Happy Pink Wednesday!!

What do you guys think?

(**CN and Sation products provided for review**)

Muffin Monday!! Zoya Apple gets Studded

Good morning and happy Muffin Monday!

  Today I have one of, what seems to be, Muffin's favorite colors. I'm pretty sure she has picked this one once before. Today's pick is also one of Mr. LTHP's favorite colors. Whenever he visits me when I'm hard at work in the polish room he always picks up either Apple, Adina or Ivanka. What can I say? The man has good taste :D. So, basically I had Mr. LTHP pick some of his favorite colors and lay them out for Muffin for her to make her final pick... There were A LOT of Greens.

To see this awesome nail art and swatches continue reading.