Patriotic Nails

 Since I probably will not have time to do anything with my nails until next week I decided I should do my 4Th of July nails if I wanted them. We have a few things planned this weekend, even though we are in Japan we still celebrate the American holidays. It is somewhat weird to get used to.

 Robin Moses was a big inspiration for this design. The eagles are acrylic paint stickers that were made a few days ago with this in mind. I forgot to mirror them, so they are both facing the same way. I used two coats of Black Onyx and one coat of Blue My Mind with two coats of Alpine Snow on the ring fingers and the rest is acrylic paint and rhinestones. 

 Do you have any plans for the weekend? 

Hello Kitty

 I used the Hello Kitty stickers I made a few weeks ago. The background color is Skull And Glossbones which you can see bubbled a little since I didn't let it fully dry before doing the second coat. 

 Acrylic paint was used for the apples and bows with hexagon glitter for some sparkle. Pretty simple design and I love it and it took no time since I only had to paint the apples and bows on.  

Make Your Own Nail Art Stickers

 Making your own stickers is easy. If you have trouble doing designs with your non-dominate hand you can make stickers to simply be placed on. 

 All you need are a few simple things that you probably already have: a piece of plastic, nail polish and/or acrylic paint, paint brush, cuticle stick or toothpick and optional are tweezers and scissors. 

 I like to use Ziplock freezer bags because they are thick and I do not have to have anything to hold it down while I work, plus it will be easy to get your sticker off thicker plastic when done. A plastic bag or saran wrap will also work but I find it harder to work with. 

 If you use a freezer bag I suggest cutting it so you have several smaller pieces, for me it is easier to use that way. I don't use the part of the plastic that has writing on it because most of the time it will make my design hard to see so I just toss it.

 Now I have a bunch of plastic to make my designs on.

 I wanted a Hello Kitty mani so I made her face. Everything I used for her was acrylic paint. I started with just her basic shape, if you do not have a steady hand you can do this with black first and then fill in with white leaving a small black outline. 

 Keep adding details until you are satisfied with it. 

 When you have your design finished let the paint fully dry, add top coat. Make sure you have enough top coat on your brush to cover the design and do not brush back over it. It can drag and pull which is what mine did a bit but it isn't that noticeable. You want to cover the design fully and even cover a little past it. This way when you lift it you are picking at just clear topcoat and will not damage the design. 

 My best tip for this part is cover the design but do not make it thick, then make a thick edge on one side of the design so you can lift it with the cuticle stick, then trim it away before placing on the nail.  

 I like to use tweezers to pick it up once I have lifted an edge. 

 You can see I made these about two weeks ago but haven't gotten to use them yet. 

 Anyways, after they are off the plastic I trim the excess with small scissors. Doing that will make it blend in better when you put it on the nail. 

 You can make any design a sticker. I tried out a quick lace design to see how it would work.

 To use the stickers, paint your nails like you usually would. Once the final coat is dry I place my sticker on where I want it and use the flat edge of a cuticle stick to press it down. I do not use topcoat to stick it to my nail. I find that it causes me to get tons of bubbles and I don't need it as long as I put the sticker on just before covering with top coat. 

 After you have your sticker where you want it and pressed down flat, cover with a topcoat and enjoy.

 Have you tried making your own stickers? How did it go for you?  

Elephantastic Pink

 Sara asked for a swatch of Elephantastic Pink and here it is, this color was released as part of the India collection in 2008. Elephantastic pink is bright and is one of my favorite pinks but the formula isn't so great. It is a little watery and sheer but is opaque in three coats. 

Award

 The lovely Karine, she has a wonderful blog you can check out here, gave me this award several days ago and I had to think about it a bit. I don't wear much makeup, none really, so this was a tough list for me. Anyways, thank you Karine!

The Top 10 award rules:
1. Thank the person who tagged you and link to their blog.
2. Put the Top 10 Award logo on your blog.
3. List your top 10 cosmetics.
4. Choose 10 bloggers to tag, link to their blogs, and let them know.

 Here are my top 10 cosmetics in no order!

1. Vanilla Lace perfume by Victoria's Secret. I have super sensitive skin and this is one the the perfumes I can wear everyday with out my skin being irritated by it. 
2. OPI nail polish

3. OPI Avoplex Cuticle Oil
4. Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream

5. St. Ives Creamy Vanilla body wash again because of my sensitive skin.

6. Pa Matte Top Coat

7. Clinique All About Eyes Rich cream

8. China Glaze nail polish

9. Canmake Mascara 

10. Nivea Kiss Of Milk & Honey

I am not sure who all has done this tag so if you haven't then I tag you!

Leopard With A Twist

 It's no secret that I love animal print nail art and when I saw this design from Robin Moses I had to try it. A very simple looking leopard mani but with lip prints. This is cute and really does look like leopard until you get close, if you would like to watch her video you can see it here. 

Hot Pink Candy

 Since the last candy mani was a more Barbie pink I wanted to try a darker pink today. I love that it is toned down a little but still super sparkly and shiny.

 I used one coat of Elephantastic Pink with two coats of Bring On The Bling followed by Too Hot Pink To Hold 'Em.

OPI Miss Universe Collection Press Release

 OPI will be releasing the Miss Universe Collection the beginning of August. I am not sure if I am excited about any of these really. What do you girls think?   

 Pictures and more info after the jump.

Are You Sick Yet?

 Sick from all of these sugary sweet candy manicures? I got a question on a color combonation for a pink candy mani. So, I tried out Sparrow Me The Drama followed by two coats of Teenage Dream and Guy Meets Gal-Veston. 

 It is very pink and girly, very cute. 

 I made a page for my blog over on Facebook if you would like to check it out here. 

Franken

 My very first franken and it turned out great! I didn't think the polish that I used would work with the black but it did. I saw something like this on The PolishAholic, you can check out her post here.

  I picked up a cheap bottle of Wet n Wild Wild Shine Black Cream, dumped about half out and used the pink holo polish I found here in Japan, then used thinning drops to smooth it out.

 In the shade you can see it doesn't look like much.

 Once it get in the sun it sparkles like mad. These pictures truly do not do this polish justice, it is ten times better than the pictures.  

 It shows more in this picture but it is a bit blurry and washed out.

 I don't own the original My Private Jet and I can't bring myself to pay for it on Ebay and risk getting a fake so this will be my substitute for it. This isn't a linear holo but I still love it. 

Don't Mess With OPI vs Jade Is The New Black

 I finally got around to comparing Don't Mess With OPI and Jade Is The New Black. In the bottle they seem almost identical and it's about the same on the nail. DMWO is on the index and ring with JITNB on the middle and pinky finger. DMWO is just a bit lighter.
 If you aren't a collector of greens you would be perfectly content with one or the other. I prefer DMWO just because the formula seems a bit better, it is thicker but easier to control.

 Since I took my candy mani off earlier, you get to see this, because I was bored and cannot wait any longer to try it out.

 My first franken! I made this a few weeks back but haven't gotten around to wearing it yet. The sun came out for a while earlier and I snapped this picture before it went away, you can see my candy mani there as well. 

 I have it on now but I was not quick enough to catch the sun so hopefully pictures of that tomorrow!

More Candy

 I played around with a few of the sorbet colors and this was my favorite. I started with two coats of Austin-Tatious-Turquoise with a thick coat of Simmer And Shimmer followed by Houston We Have A Purple. This reminds me of what I though China Glaze Flying Dragon would be like on the nail.  

 Simmer and Shimmer looks great over Austin-Tatious-Turquoise on its own.

 After a layer of Houston We Have A Purple though it changes it completely.

 It is even better with top coat. 

Candy Mani

 Ever since I got the Texas Sorbet polishes I have wanting to try a candy mani. It is basically sandwiching glitter polish and a jelly polish so that the glitter still shows through the top color. 

 I used OPI's Osaka To Me Orange as a base with Extra-Va-Vaganza and one coat of Y'all Come Back Ya Hear? on top. This has insane sparkle, you have to try this for yourself to appreciate it. 

 What do you think, have you tried the candy mani yet?

Black with Silver Shatter

 Everyone is probably sick of seeing Shatter but I wanted to show what I think is the best combo with the silver. I had this on as a pedicure since I got silver the beginning of May but wanted swatches of it as a manicure after I took it off last night. I really love this combination. Picture is two coats Black Onyx with Silver Shatter and top coat.

 Since I took my Harajuku mani off yesterday, it was still holding up but I was bored with it, I am thinking of a candy mani now. Orange maybe?
 Are you guys sick of the shatters, crackles, fractures, whatever yet? I really want to try the Turquoise Shatter and a few of the China Glaze Crackle Metals.

Leopard Tutorial (Pic Heavy)

 I get a lot of questions on my leopard prints ever time I wear one and they are quick and simple to do so I figured I would make a tutorial showing you how. The pictures of this print is a bit more spaced out than I like but I wanted to make sure it was easy to see and understand.

 Start off with you base coat, it can be any color you like, I used white. After your base coat is dry you can place random dots of color for the base of the spots, I went with pink for this one, or you can skip the spots and just do outlines. I personally like the colored spots with black outlining.

 Now with black start outlining the spots. I use circles, c's, dots and threes for my pattern. They look best if they aren't so perfect, be a little messy! For one I will outline the entire spot another almost all the way around to form a c shape then three lines around a spot and maybe one or two dots on a spot until all the spots have black on them. 

 After all the spots are outlined I like to fill in empty space with random black spot shapes and dots.

 When everything looks good apply a top coat and enjoy your leopard print! 

 Remember you can use any colors you like, the different color combos are always fun. Do you like animal prints, have you tried any?

Louboutin Mani: Painting Under The Nail Tutorial

 You can see Robin Moses video on this type of mani here or I have a picture tutorial with a leopard print. Sorry these are on fake nails, I thought with a longer free edge it would be easier to explain. 

 This design is super easy, I like to polish the top of my nails first. You can do it either way but polishing under last is just easier for me. After that is completely dry I prep the underside and apply a base coat followed by two coats of color.

 I like to use a small flat brush to apply the polish under the nail that way I can get very close to the hyponicium.

 When your base color is dry you can stop there, use a top coat to seal everything but I went a step further and did a simple leopard print. 

 Once everything is dry apply top coat to the top of the nail, underneath and all free edges to make your manicure last as long as possible.

 Will any of you be trying this out?