Leopard Print

Guess what colors... :)

 

 

If you know realize anything about me by reading my blog, you'll soon figure out that I have a soft spot for animal prints. I just started doing nail art a little over 5 months ago, and before that, I was quite the amateur nail artist, and having 'fancy' nails meant I put glitter over my color of choice. But being a typical high school girl (I'm in my second semester of my freshman year of college right now!), I was very into 'getting my nails done' with typical white tip acrylics. Then, I found Pinterest.

 

Pinterest opened a whole new door. And THEN, for my 19th birthday, my dad came home with a present that literally CHANGED MY LIFE. It was a set of the Migi Nail Art pens (which are fabulous for a beginner OR a pro! Plus, they'll refill your polishes when they're empty FOR FREE) From there, I crafted my first cheetah print nail art (the first nail art I ever did) from a tutorial on Pinterest. I posted a picture on Instagram, and knew that I was hooked.

 

So the leopard/cheetah print mani holds a special place in my heart, and is my go-to manicure because it's so fast and simple. I will make a tutorial one of these days, when I can con someone into being my photographer. But until then, you'll just have to drool over this mani like I have been.

 

Polishes used:

Migi Nail Art Pen - Black

Migi Nail Art Pen - Bronzey/Brown

Sally Hansen Complete Salon - Choco-latte

Seche Vite Top Coat

Nail Envy by OPI

 

We had some snow in Indy, so I was posing with it (;

 





Teal & Black

I must say that this is the first manicure I've done in a long time, that I actually want to keep on for more than one day. Even with a million screenshots of inspiration cluttering my phone and a special pin board on Pinterest simply for me to meander through, searching for the theme of my next manicure, this one has stuck.

 

 

Polishes used:

• Wet N Wild Megalast - I Need A Refresh-mint
• Wet N Wild Wild Shine - Black Creme
• Confetti - Ice Ice Baby
• Seche Vite Fast Drying Top Coat
• 
  
  OPI Nail Envy basecoat
 
 

 

Today I was in CVS picking up some polishes for my nail mail buddy, and I spotted a new rack of polishes I've never seen before. You might be able to tell, but I'm not ok with spending more than $10 than a bottle of polish, and even then it has to be a polish that I absolutely MUST HAVE (cough China Glaze It's A Trapeze). So as I was marvelling at all the different glitters and neons that Confetti polish offered, Ice Ice Baby caught my eye. I was planning on purchasing it anyway, but when I saw the $1.99 price tag, it was love at first sight. I made my way home with Ice Ice Baby and immediately started this manicure.

 

I've never had much luck with glitter manicures before. I'm not typically fond of large amounts of glitter polish unless it's a holo simply because in my experience with glitter polish: it's normally goopy, takes a long time to dry, and is impossible to get off. But I figured I'd give this one a try simply because it's so amazingly beautiful. The result changed my mind about glitter gradients.

 

Before I keep gushing about how in love with this manicure I am, I'll give you some pictures and let you fall in love with it yourself.

ANOTHER water marble

I'm sorry, I just can't help it. I'm water marble obsessed currently. I love the combinations of colors and how many ways they can be swirled.

I've had so many girls in my classes ask if they're nail stickers, if I did the plastic bag water marble, etc. But these babies were done with good ol' fashioned water and a ton of toothpicks!

The colors are 420 Pacific Blue by Sally Hansen and Studio M Neon Pink. Before I applied my base coat of White on White by China Glaze, I slathered on two coats of OPI Nail Envy that my mom was nice enough to give to me when I started my nail art endeavor. To seal everything up, I put two coats of Seche Vite topcoat on top. Enjoy this mani as much as I do!

Wet N Wild Megalast Nail Polish Review

The two polishes used for my review were Club Havana and Through the Grapevine. Granted, I have almost all the available colors of this type of nail polish, and I must say.. I adore it.

The brush is probably the most awesome part, aside from the creamy, fast-drying formula. The wide brush is perfect for painting a quick manicure, and is even shaped so I don't have to do much clean up after using them. But the polish itself... Oh my goodness. Incredible for a drugstore polish. Completely opaque and gorgeous with two coats, AND my personal favorite color comes from this brand.

Normally I try to avoid nail tape if I'm striping my nails simply because I'm an impatient person and don't want to wait an hour for the bottom coat to dry thoroughly so it won't be pulled up by the tape itself. Not a problem with these polishes at all. I painted Club Havana over a couple coats of Poshè base coat and then let it dry for about 15 minutes just to be sure. I HATE having to start a whole mani over because my polish gets messed up. I laid the tape down and promptly painted Through the Grapevine in one even coat. After Through the Grapevine had dried, I peeled the tape off . I added some cheat unnamed matte topcoat over the mani, but it didn't make much difference.
Enjoy this mani AND go out and buy some Megalast!

& that little furbaby is my child, Pugsley.

Skittle-ish manicure

After feeling uninspired about my nails for the past couple weeks, I hit a creative streak last night. I've been fantasizing over gorgeous, perfectly swirled water marbles lately, and this double accent on my ring and middle fingers happened to be my first successful one.

Water marbling is so tricky. You can try it six times a day for a week straight, and suddenly one miraculous time, it works and you're left with nails that are bathed in beautiful swirls of polish. It's an incredible moment when you realize that you've got
it down.

Back to this mani... I used Wet N Wild polishes in On A Trip (purple) and I Need A Refresh-mint (mint/teal) for the purple and mint/teal color, and China Glaze White on White for the white, obviously. A unnamed glitter striper was also used on the pinky and index fingers. I used a long, thin nail art brush for the thumb swishes and the white on the index and pinky, with a couple dotting tools thrown in here and there. Slathered in a coat of Seche Vite, of course (:

Sponge & Nail Tape Mani

This mani is probably one of my favorites so far. I love the contrast of the white against the bright colors. Inspiration came from not being able to choose one single color and wanting to get away from my normal sponge manicure (gradient). I'm very happy with how this turned out and I might actually keep this one on for more than one day! The pictures are in different types of lighting to show the colors, and the macro photos are courtesy of my macro iPhone lens from Photojojo.com


Base coat: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails
Polishes: China Glaze White on White, Fingerpaints Inkblot Blue, Fingerpaints Art Nouv-Yellow, Pink polish is Fingerpaints (the name label wore off), and Studio M in Frenzy
Top coat: Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat
Other: makeup sponge, nail tape

Nail art up to this point

Most of these pictures have been taken on my iPhone, aren't the best quality, and don't have the greatest lighting. I wanted to share these pictures with you as a starting point for my nail art, so I have somewhere to look back when I (hopefully :) ) get really good! Feel free to leave constructive criticism, tips, etc.