Native American Nails

 Hey guys! I know, I know, I keep falling behind. I don't have any excuses really, but we did adopt a new dog nearly three weeks ago. I also apologize beforehand, my nails look not so great, they have been super sad lately!
 These nails were inspired by a client. She wanted a Native American theme, she mentioned feathers, dream catchers, wolves and turquoise. After doing them for her I loved them so much I had to do them on myself.  The base is China Glaze For Audrey. The turquoise nails are a bit of blue acrylic paint and gold polish sponged on then I used the water marble technique with black polish sprayed with alcohol. The dream catcher, feathers, and wolf are all done with acrylic paint.

Roses with Chains

 Hey guys! I know is has been a super long time since I posted but after visiting family and moving from working in a salon for someone else to booth renting on my own has taken a lot of my time recently and I apologize that I haven't been blogging. I am hoping now that I am getting settled into my new area that things will go back to somewhat normal. 

 Today I have a design I did a while back inspired by Robin Moses, you can see her video here. The base is OPI Black Onyx with a bit of gold holo glitter near the cuticle. The roses and scrolling are done with acrylic paint.

 I did add chains and a small gold lion charm on the ring finger as well.

Rainbow Honey Fab Summer Set

 Hey guys! I know it's been a long time, lots going on at the moment but I am still around!
 Today I have the Fab Summer Set by Rainbow Honey made exclusively for Fab.com. I love these colors, perfect for summer!
 First up is Schrammi, a dark coral with gold shimmer. Picture is two coats with top coat.

 Tenda is a bright green with gold shimmer. I paired Costa Del Sol, a clear base with various sizes of gold holographic hex glitter and bar glitter, over Tenda. Picture is two coats of Tenda with two coats of Costa Del Sol over the ring finger with top coat.

The FAB Summer Set is now available through fab.com for a limited time only. Each set contains 3 full size 15ml nail lacquers designed exclusively for FAB by Rainbow Honey. $25. While supplies last. For more information visit http://fab.com/designer/rainbow-honey/

*Products in this post were provided for my honest opinion* 

St. Patrick's Day

 Hey guys! I usually don't do much for St. Patrick's Day but I had a customer come in and want a design for it. She told me go for it and do whatever I liked. As I started to do green and gold with shamrocks she showed me a tattoo on the back of her neck of a shamrock surrounded by small black dots and stars and had to make it match. It turned out so well that I couldn't help but recreate it on myself!
 The base is OPI Goldeneye with China Glaze Running In Circles faded on the tips and Orly Monster Mash lightly over it. The shamrock and dots are done with acrylic paint.

Christmas Marbled Tips

 Hey everyone! A super quick post today. My nails have not been fairing well and I had a mild allergic reaction to something the other day so I haven't been taking any pictures because my hands have been really red but I really wanted to try a Christmas color marble. I used OPI Alpine Snow for the base and swirled on the tips China Glaze Running In Circles, OPI Golden Eye and OPI The Spy Who Loved Me.

OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service vs. Sinful Colors Winter Wonder

 Hey guys! First off I have been experimenting with my photos. I made a new lightbox backdrop and changed my lighting set up so it might be a few days before I get everything tuned in and you will probably see a few pictures with my old set up as well.
 Anyways, I had to post this today because I was out yesterday and found Sinful Colors Winter Wonder and thought it looked similar to something I just bought. Turns out, it is. It's a very close dupe for OPI On Mer Majesty's Secret Service, though OPI might have slightly larger particles in it. They are both a blue base with blue, green, pink and gold shimmer. Pictures are three coats of Winter Wonder on my index and ring finger and three coats OPI On Mer Majesty's Secret Service on my middle and pinky finger, both with top coat. Even at one coat they look exactly the same and if I didn't know any better I wouldn't be able to tell them apart.

OPI Live And Let Die with Simple Scrolling

 Live And Let Die, from the OPI Skyfall 007 collection, is a dark green base with gold shimmer, so pretty! Since I've always had trouble with scroll designs but have been practicing lately I thought it would go great with this shade and added some simple scrolling with gold acrylic paint. Picture is two coats of Live And Let Die, gold acrylic paint for the scrolling and top coat.

OPI Skyfall 007 Red and Gold Mani

 I hadn't planned on really getting anything from the OPI Skyfall 007 collection but when I saw them in person there were a few I just couldn't resist. Since I haven't had much time lately I paired three together to show you today: The Spy Who Loved Me, a gorgeous red with gold shimmer; Goldeneye, a beautiful gold glitter/flake and the gold leaf top coat The Man With The Golden Gun. Picture is two coats of the The Spy Who Loved Me followed by a touch of Goldeneye on the tips and one coat of The Man With The Golden Gun on the ring finger with top coat.

 What do you think of the Skyfall collection? Are you a Bond fan?

China Glaze Glitter All The Way

 I'm a little sad that Halloween is already over but all the holiday collections are popping up around here and I couldn't resist picking up a few colors while I was out yesterday. The first one I had to try was China Glaze Glitter All The Way from the Holiday Joy collection, this is the mini bottle from Holiday Charms set. It's a clear base with medium green hex glitter and small purple, red and gold hex glitter, very Mardi Gras looking. Picture is one coat of Glitter All The Way over OPI Alpine Snow with top coat.

China Glaze Cast A Spell and Comparison to It's Alive

 Hey guys! I have another polish from the China Glaze Wicked collection today. Cast A Spell is a dark blackened green base with green and gold shimmer. Picture is two coats with top coat. The formula was fabulous on this one, it barely needed a second coat. 

 And because at first I thought Cast A Spell might be close to It's Alive, the green from last years Halloween collection, I had to compare them. As you can see, they are quite different.

OPI Just Spotted The Lizard, A Little Argyle Art And Our Puppy

 Hey guys! It has been a busy past few days for us training our new dog. She really didn't know how to play or what toys were for other than bones to chew on. We've taught her how to play fetch so far but she gets bored easily and just wants to be loved on.
 Just Spotted The Lizard is back from the Spider-man collection for summer. It's a gold with a touch of green and a green/blue duochrome. This is said be be an exact match for Chanel Peridot along with several other brands of polish like this. While I don't have Peridot to compare, they do look alike from the picture I have seen. Picture is two coats with top coat, formula was great but it does show some brushstrokes.

 I was trying out some argyle with glitter but in the process of taking pictures I hit both my index and middle finger, severely denting the polish, so I left those two out.

 And, as a bonus, here is our Malamute, Sasha. 

Fall No Water Marble

 Hey guys, I hope you had a great weekend! We added a new member to our family, a female Alaskan Malamute, and have been getting her adjusted to her new home the past few days. Surprisingly, she is doing really well even though I think she has separation anxiety.
 Today I have a no water marble design, were you drop polish on a wet base and swirl them on the nail before it dries. This is the first time I have gotten the no water method to work for me. I wanted it to resemble fall colors, sort of like fallen leaves. Barre My Soul is the base and Suzi Loves Cowboys, San Tan-tonio, Warm & Fozzie and German-icure By OPI were used for the marble on the tips.

 Have you tried any marble designs, do you prefer the water or no water method? 

China Glaze Swanky Silk

 Hey everyone, hope your week has been going great, it has been a long stressful past few days for us! We finally closed on our house yesterday and are getting things moved in so I will not have internet for a few days until it gets hooked up. Hopefully, everything will be quick. All of our belongings that have been in shipment will be coming in this week as well and I am excited to have everything and get settled in here.
 Continuing today with the second polish I picked up from the China Glaze Bohemian collection is Swanky Silk. It is a gold with a peachy duochrome. This one looked interesting at the store in the bottle, that's the only reason I bought it, on the nail though I was disappointed with it because the duochrome isn't that visible. Picture is two coats. Like Unpredictable it was sheer on the first coat and does leave brushstrokes.

 You can see the duochrome better in this picture.

 But this is what it looked like most of the time.

China Glaze Unpredictable

 Hey guys! Since we have been moving, visiting family and buying a house I have been a bit out of the nail polish loop lately. When I saw the promo pictures for the new China Glaze Bohemian Luster Chrome collection last week I was excited to get to see them in person. I've been stalking my Sally Beauty Supply the last few days waiting and they finally put them out yesterday. It took awhile to narrow my choices down and I ended up with only two from the collection.
 Unpredictable is a metallic golden green with blue duochrome. You can't see the duochrome in the pictures on the nail, it looks much better in real life, but you can see it in the bottle. In real life it reminds me of this beetle. Picture is two coats. It does cover well despite being very sheer on the first coat. The only issue I had was, like most metallic polishes, it does show brushstrokes.

 Do you like duochrome polishes? Have you seen the Bohemian collection yet, which are your favorites?

Sally Hansen White Veil

 Hey guys! Do you have any exciting plans this weekend? Not really exciting for us but we are spending most of it preparing to move. Even though all of our stuff will be gone by the end of the week, for some reason, that doesn't stop me from buying new polish but it probably should. 

 White Veil is such an odd polish to me I just couldn't help myself. It is a clear base with small white hex glitter and medium gold hex glitter. I'm not a huge fan of gold but I really like this one, probably because there isn't much gold in it. Picture is one coat over Wet N Wild Black Creme with top coat. My index finger does have a bit of a thicker coat. You could wear this alone with probably three coats but I think it looks amazing layered like this rather than being opaque and having all the glitter mesh together. 

 Here is White Veil with NYC Matte Me Crazy top coat.

 Do you have any odd polishes?

St. Patrick's Day Gradient

 Gradients and glitter go perfect together, so when I was thinking about ideas for St. Patrick's day I wanted to do something pretty simple and those two came up first. I started off with OPI Designer...De Better! then sponged OPI Rising Star over the tips about half way up. 

 After that I used three thin coats NYX Enchanted Forest, a clear base with small, medium, and large green and holographic glitter, going about three quarters of the way up.

 Add top coat and that's it.

 This is so simple but I really like it. I think the gold, green and holo rainbow glitter are perfect for St. Patrick's Day.

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OPI Shim-Merry Chic

  I passed on this one last year and I am glad I did. The first time I saw Shim-Merry Chic it didn't seem special, that was before I started blogging and realized I kind of like brown polishes now, really any color polish now. One perk of passing on it the first time was when I found it in Guam it was on sale so that was a plus and I think I appreciate it for what it is now more than I would have a year or two ago. 

 Shim-Merry Chic, from the 2009 Holiday Wishes collection, is a golden bronze of a brown shade but what makes is so special is the flakies and just the touch of green and blue/purple glitter it has. It isn't too sheer, I used two coats for the pictures below but it could have used a third.

 What do you think of polishes with flakies? Do you have any polishes that you appreciate more now than you did when you first saw them?

Gradient Leopard

 I love animal print nails, I don't know why. I had planned to do nail art for spring and easter coming up but for some reason I could not get this design out of my head so I had to do it. I finally have more acrylic paint now so I should be doing more nail art soon.

 I used OPI Take The Stage and Rising Star then used Black Onyx for the spots. 

Rising Star

 Rising Star is a rich gold shade. It does have a sparkle glass flake shimmer to it also that I like. Applied very smooth, two coats gives you complete coverage and it dried fairly quick.

 I only wish it went better with my skin tone. Maybe this summer when I am more out and about in the sun.

OPI Bring on the Bling

 Such a gorgeous gold glitter I wish I liked it better with my skin tone. Basically the same as the other glitters in the Burlesque collection. Bring on the Bling was easy to work with, great coverage with three thin coats and dried fast.
 I am still in love with the Burlesque collection. If you haven't picked up any of these colors I highly recommend them!