Gunta Stamping

Hey Peeps!

Once again I have no half moon nails for you.  I hope I can get some pictures in tonight and post tomorrow.  Galaxy is Saturday which I'm so excited about.

So instead I have a little more vault action. These were only done about 2 weeks ago.  I had a lot of fun with them but was a little to quick with the top coat.  I always get so frustrated after doing a nice stamping job and screwing it up because I'm impatience.

I started off what I imagine to be Essie's 'Yogaga' as a base.  Then I used Julep's 'Gunta' to stamp Bundle Monster plate BM322.  I have to say that 'Gunta' is an amazing polish to stamp with.  This is my fav polish of the moment. I love it in every which way.  I then taped off my nails in a chevron shape(this was quite awhile after letting the stamp and top coat dry).  Using 'Gunta' again I filled in the designated areas :o)

Top coated it and voila

31 Day Challenge: Delicate print

Is it possible to do a 31 Day Challenge switcheroo?  As  I'm getting ready to post this I'm thinking my flower nails would be better as delicate and these for flowers.  Oh well I like to keep things caarazy!!!


I really like these two colours together for fall. The full nail is in Essie's 'Gym Dandy' and the flowers are stamped with Bundle Monster BM313.  I used Gosh 'Berry M .....'(sticker covering the name. That's the best I could make out) . I'm loving the quality of Gosh for stamping. I highly suggest trying them out

 

 

 

 

Peace out!

Bex

 

Check out the other fine ladies work

 

Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa
-Mari at Nailista
-Greta at How Was Your Day?
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L
-Gini at Sassy Paints
-Chameleon Stampede
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish
-Robin Sparkles

Green Giraffe

When picking out this stamp and the colours I figured I wouldn't be a fan of the end result.  Wrong-o!!!

I was shocked by how cool it looked.  Not to mention who wouldn't want to be a green giraffe!!  I guess you never really know until you try something. I've picked colours that I thought would look great together and they ended up being blahhh.  These nails are something I could wear to work.  It's not too in your face but still very fun.

I used Essie's 'Gym Dandy' for the base.  This is one of the $1.99 clearance polishes I picked up from the Yogaga collection.  The stamp is Bundle Monster  BM313.  I've found that quite a few of Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure polishes work great for stamping.  This is 'Grass Slipper'

What do you guys think? Not for everyone but I think its fun

31 Day Challenge: Polka Dots

I'd like to start off my saying 10 DAYS LEFT FOR MY GIVEAWAY/CHALLENGE !!!

 Remember any type of food whether it be candy, 5 course meal, I'm even going to include drinks!  Just post your link in the comment section of my post.  Anytime now................... :oP

It's polka dot time!!!!!!!
I was considering doing basic polka dots because there my favourite.  I ended up doing this blah mani instead.  I didn't have much time last night and the sun had set.  I hate not having sunlight photos.  The days are getting shorter here. Soon it will be dark when I go into work and dark when I go home. Very depressing!

The full nail is two coats of Revlon's 'Chic'.  The polka dots are in Revlon's 'Vixen', Sally Hansen's Complete Salon in 'Guilty Pleasure' and Essie's 'Yogaga'.    I was so disappointed that Yogaga was a limited edition.  Someone was looking out for me though.  I went to Shopper's Drug Mart yesterday and they were on final clearance!  I picked up the last two. yayyyyyyy! Only $1.99 each.  The Revlon polishes I bought not to long ago. Currently they are $3.99 but Revlon Canada has coupons all over the web for a dollar off.  $2.99 baby!

Make sure you check out the other fine ladies polka dots. 
Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles  

Yogaga your a Burgandy Flirt(sorry I don't have a title)

Good Morning Everyone!  ;o)

Today I have something a little fun for you. I enjoyed doing this one because I got to use the dotter!!!

I'm really getting into fall colours now.  As far as nail polish I think you can wear any colour in any season. The nail polish companies seem to stick with seasonal colours though.

For the base I used Essie's 'Yogaga'.  I love this colour but unfortunately it looks like it was a limited edition. I can't find it anywhere now.  The burgundy colour is Rimmel's 'Burgandy Flirt'. 

You will notice for awhile that I'm not showing my thumb.  It's in pretty rough shape right now.  I caught it on something so had to cut it very very extremely short!

Sugar Spun Nails: Attempt 1

So that's not entirely true. I did make a semi attempt once but I was using the wrong polish and I only did one nail.

This time I made sure to pick out proper polish and took my time.   I made a point of using polish that was a little thicker.  I had some Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear that was getting pretty clumpy so this is a perfect manicure to use up those polishes.

The base colour is Essie's 'Bahama Mama'.  The Xtreme Wear is in 'Blue me Away', 'White On' and 'Fuscia Power'.  I didn't use a top coat as that would take away from the effect of the whole sugar spun concept. I had housework to do so I couldn't keep this polish on. I imagine it would take forever to dry and even then it would probably chip off.  It was fun though! ;o)

Chevron Tipped!

I love Saturday's sooo much but I'm always a little late on posting.  I think I'm actually busier on my days off then I am a work.  Scary thought!  I've cleaned pretty much the whole entire house and my nails are suffering for it.  Although they love taking a swim in the toilet I think they prefer to be pampered and prettied up

I did these nails(and took the pictures last night).  Are you wondering what they look like now?  Let's just say they look like the toilet bowl did before I cleaned it :oP

For these nails I used Sally Hansen's 'Red-y to Go' over the entire nail.  I would say it's more of a deep coral with a hint of red.  I then used Essie's 'Yogaga' to paint on the chevron type tip.  Then of course using my striping tape I cleaned up those edges. What do you guys think?! I like :o)

As I was mid posting this I noticed another blogger that used the same type of colour combination.  I was super stoked because it was The Daily Nail.  I'm no where near her talent of course but it was cool to see we shared the same colour combos.  I don't think there is one nail blogger that does not follow this girl.  If you don't then ya better ;o) One word three syllables to describe the girl A-MAZ-ING!

Peace out!

First flower mani post. eeks!

Here it is!  My very first post of a flower mani. I find them so intimidating because they never turn out as planned. I’m in awe with other bloggers flower art. Especially the queen of flowers Maria at Maria's Nail Art.   I find it hard enough doing them with the dotter let alone free hand.

 For this look I used two coats of Essie’s ‘YOGAGA’.  I wouldn’t usually pick up a colour like this but often find that I want one when I’m actually doing my nails.  For the flowers I used Revlon’s ‘Dreamer’ and a polish from Urban Outfitters’(sorry the name  peeled off).

Any suggestions for some good free hand flower tutorials?  I often see people using acrylic paint for nail art.  I’m considering trying it out but not 100% sure yet.  Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed uses them and her designs always look amazing. Does anyone else use paint?

Bubble Gum Bubbles Nails

Hello kids! ;)

Today I have an 'off the top of my head' manicure for you.  After I was done it kind of reminded me of bubble gum.  Who doesn't love bubble gum, right?!

I used five different nail polishes for this look.  The base is in Orly's 'Decades of Dysfunction'.  I started off making the largest dots in Quo 'Tease'.  This helped to make the path I created from the first nail to the last. I tried to make it as though the dots were flowing through to each nail.  After the large dots I used smaller dots to follow the trail and fill in spaces. I find going from largest to smallest gives it the best look.   For the smaller dots I used Nicole's 'Stolen Kisses', Essence 'Ultimate Pink' and Essie's 'Watermelon'. 

I'm impressed with it I think.  I love using the dotter.  Not just because it's easy but I love the look.

Green Baby!

Well hello fellow bloggers!
It's been an insane week and I have barely had a chance to do anything. Long story short I hurt my neck so badly I couldn't swallow with out it going into spasm, had to move to a new house(while it was like this) and to top it all off with a cherry my dad had a heart attack.  The emotional and physical exhaustion I had was insane.  Everything and everyone is good now thank goodness

So on to the nails. I did this fun little look this morning before continuing to unpack.  I had the idea in my head but was not quite sure how it would turn out.  I love how the dots can create such cool designs.


Take a look below to see how it was done...

I started by painting my nails two different greens.  The lighter of the two is Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear in 'Green with Envy'.  The second is Essie's 'Mojito madness'  You don't need a perfectly straight line for this because you will be adding the dots.

Next I used the dotter to create the dots on the opposite side of the line.

I used the exact same method up a little further on my nails using Revlon's 'Posh'. To top it all off I added Essie's 'Good to Go' top coat. 

I will definitely play with this method again. It was a lot of fun. What do you guys think?(if you don't like it lie to me, I had a VERY ROUGH WEEK ;o))

Essie's Mojito Madness

Mojito anyone?

I picked this colour up and knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.  The name inspired me of course.  This is another first attempt for me.  I decided to make half limes at the tips of my nails. I’ve seen a lot of fruit nails and really wanted to try it myself.  I used two coats of Essie’s ‘Mojito Madness’ for the base of my nails. I found the nail polish to be a bit thick.  I don’t think it was a manufacturing problem.  The cap had some polish on it when I bought it and a bit of dried polish around where the lid screwed it on.  It was the last bottle so I took it anyways. 

For the limes I made a semi circle with Sally Hansen’s Xtreme Wear ‘White On’.  This is by far my favourite white.  It’s the perfect consistency for me. I don’t have to add a million coats for it to become opaque.  I made the outside skin of the lime with Revlon’s ‘Posh’.  This was extremely difficult for me.  I used the dotter to make the line. I really need to invest in a good set of nail art brushes.  For the inside wedges of the lime I used Mojito Madness again and for the little seeds I used Sally Hansen’s Mellow Yellow.  I added a top coat to smooth out the finished product.  I’m new to the nail art aspect so I find my designs get a little clumpy. 

Other than the problem with the consistency of my polish was that it stained my nails.  Were talking big time stain. I realize that it is because I didn't use a base coat but even so I don't think a polish should stain as severely as it did :(

Dotticure!

I really love this manicure.  The pictures don’t do it justice.  It was rainy and clouded over yesterday so these were the best pictures I could get. (I really need to make that light box)

 I was so excited to play with my new dotters I got in from Nail Polish Canada.  Now I have ten different sizes of dotters!!! It was like Christmas morning! 

I started off with two coats of Orly’s ‘Decades of Dysfunction’.  I’m really liking this polish as a blank canvas when doing nail art.  It’s very subtle and work appropriate.  For the dots I worked my way down from largest to smallest making sure not pass the middle of my finger nails both at tip and cuticle.  As I applied I tried to keep it in a half moon shape. 

What do you guys think? I know I’m pretty proud of myself :o)

Nail Polish used for dots.

Revlon provence

Nicole 'Fanatical Fuchsia'

Essie 'Bahama Mama'

Urban Outfitter's 'Bandeau'

Just playing around......manicure :P

Today’s post is something I did on the weekend. I was just playing around and came up with it.  Although not my favourite I really liked the look and will definitely try something like it again.

It was very simple. For the full nail I applied three coats of Revlon nail polish in ‘Provence’.  I find it very sheer so that’s what I required three coats.  With my dotting tool I created the lines alternating between Essie’s ‘Bahama Mama’ and Nicole’s ‘Baby Blue’.   I made sure to overlap each new line just a little over the previous to give it that cloud effect.  I’m saying cloud because that’s the only word I could come up with. There must be a name for this look. Anybody know? Maybe ruffles???

Grape Jelly Sandwich manicure

I couldn't help it......I love jelly! 

Yesterday during my lunch hour I happened to run into some nail polish. No surprise there right?!  Considering I got it at Urban Outfitters and that's the only reason I go there I guess its not quite a coincidence.  I saw this beautiful purple that made me think of grape jelly right away.  The consistency looked perfect for a sandwich.  It turned out it wasn't but I made do.  The pictures don't do the colour justice.  Its beau-ti-ful!

I applied two coats for the base followed by one coat of the sparkle.  For the top I had to use a very thin coat.  It's not very jelly at all so I applied one coat of Essie's 'Good to Go' top coat.

Both of course are Urban outfitters nail polish. (2 for $8) The sparkle polish is called 'Dust' and the bright purple is 'Bandeau'

Jelly Sandwich Manicure

Mine and Nicole Gets Nailed( http://nearlynailed.blogspot.ca/) homework assignment this weekend was to attempt our first Jelly Sandwich Manicure.  I came across the manicure on tons of other blogs and just loved the look.  So again I decided to post my first attempt at one. 

I started out with two coats of Essie's 'Lapiz of Luxury'

For my glitter I added a coat of American Apparel's 'Galaxy'. 

Then I topped it off with one more coat of Essie's 'Lapiz of Luxury'. Ta-Daaaa. I was pretty happy with it.  I'd like to try something in purple next time.

I tried one more out with Revlon's 'Royal'.  I really like the way this one turned out

Mint Chocolate Chip Mani

I wasn't going to post this because I feel it's kind of sloppy and the picture is not that great. I figured what they hey though. I'm bored at work so why not. The reason for the name is because it reminds me of those mints you get a restaurants with the chocolate in the middle and always a green wrapper.

For this look I used I used Essie's 'Show me the ring for the base'.  I used two coats as it was kind of streaky. For the green dots I used Revlon's 'Posh'.  As far as the brown I can't really remember.  I had to mix some colours because I don't have a real brown.  I'll have to put it on my shopping list!

Black with Pink and Sparkle Polka Dots

So I had a little more fun with polka dots.  This is basically the only real free hand nail art I can do.  I’m slowly learning but I think even if I could do more my fav would still be polka dots. We have a long running history ;o)

I used Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro in ‘Satin Black’.  I only needed two coats in this.  This is the best black polish I’ve ever used(so far). I’m having troubles using it with stamping though.




(Casey & Finnegan in the background)

Next I added larger dots in Essie’s ‘ Bachelorette Bash’

Lastly I made smaller dots in  a sparkle polish I picked up at Urban Outfitters.   Not sure if it has name :oP

(outdoors)

I took a picture indoors as well as it showed off the sparkle a little more.  The pictures don't really do it justice though

Sunday Morning Inspiration

I woke up this morning knowing I'd have a long day ahead of me.  Chances were I wouldn't be able to play around with my nails in the evening. So at 7:30a.m.  I sat down at the table and decided to try something a little fun.  I took three objects that were already on the table and tried to recreate them on my nails.  The key word here is 'tryyyyy'.  Keep in mind I am still an amateur at nail art.  Although I may not be proud of them all I thought I should at least share. 
My objects were.....an earring, a yellow note pad and a can of A&W Diet Rootbeer.

The pop can was probably the most successful.  I started with two coats of Quo by Orly in 'Steel Heart'.  I then used Essie's Luxeffects in 'Set in Stones' to get the bubble effect.

For the note pad I used 3 coats of Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear in 'Mellow Yellow'. For the blue lines I used a small tester bottle. Only info I have on it is that it's by Quo :oP

The last attempt kind of disappointed me.  It had a lot of possibility but I think by that time I was more concentrated on getting ready for the day.  I promise to make up for this one....eventually



If anyone ever has any advice please don't hesitate to lay it on me. I'm up for constructive criticism

Anniversary Nails

Today is my 1st Anniversary to my sometimes wonderful husband Scott :oP

I was just planning on doing something subtle.  I decided on using my Sally Hansen Salon effects in Raise a Glass. It went well with my dress and was not too much.  I got a little bored during the evening so decided to play just a little bit.  I added some dots in Essie's go overboard and decided to stop there. 



My dress is in the background so I thought it matched ok



For my anniversary present my husband allowed me to have a little fun. I made a cute pink flower and told him he at least has to wear it the whole day. To my surprise he accepted!



This was taken by my phone so it's not very clear.  You get the idea though :oP