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.

Behind the Nails

I'm Tori.

19 years old, typical college student. 

I don't spend $23 a bottle on nail polish,

and my cuticles aren't completely cleaned up.

But this is what I love, and that's what matters to me.