Cupcake Nails With A Cherry On Top

Cupcake nails have kinda been on my bucket list of "Nail Trends To Try".  It's such a cute and easy design idea I thought it'd work great with gel polish.
I used Go Girl, Gossip Girl, Arctic Freeze, and Lots of Dots on the cupcake. The index nail is Garden Teal Party and the middle finger is a mix of Are You Feeling It? and Too Tough To Be Sweet. I've really been enjoying the trend of almost-nude nails, where you can see a lot of the natural nail but there's a tiny bit of decoration, so I went with that on the cherry nail. I really enjoyed this mani and had no problems with the pinks fading!

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MoYou Punk Spring Nails

A simple one today! My coworker came in to get her nails done and told me, "I want spring-y nails!" However, with her style and attitude I could NOT shake myself of my tendancy to use black on her. So I went with a slightly punk-ish variation on a spring nail.
I used Black Shadow, Go Girl, and Garden Teal Party. I had been really wanting to try using MoYou stamping as a kind of... negative-space accent, which I tried out on her thumb with Pro plate 06 (also used this plate on her pinky). I really like that look!

I hand-painted the flower on her ring finger and loaded studs on to her middle finger.

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Gelish Mani Sunday | Fashion-Inspired Watercolor Nails

So, a couple weeks ago, my nail broke. And not the chip-on-the-corner or rip-that-you-can-mend broke. I'm talking full-on ripped-off-nearly-to-the-quick broke.
I couldn't get over how... different my finger looked with the short, stubby nail. My nails have been relatively long for maybe a good six months, so it was like looking at a stranger's hand. I honestly can't remember what my nails looked like or what condition they were in before I started doing Gelish.

It was also frustrating as HELL because my nails are so long! There was no way I was gonna cut them all off just because one nail broke! So, I decided it was time to visit Sallys and I picked up an IBD Hard Gel kit. *gasp!* Not Gelish, I know! But it was an emergency situation! I couldn't wait for Gelish hard gel to be shipped to me - I had to deal with this weird alien finger that was now attached to my hand! I also picked up nail forms - idek, building a nail seems so much more elegant than gluing on a tip. Plus the tips seem to require so much more prep! Fitting the tip, filing the tip down, gluing it on, blending it to the nail bed... nah.

I went with the white builder gel because I figured it'd make it easier to differentiate between nail pate, gel overlay, and gel polish when I go to file off my gel polish. I was actually surprised at how easy the white builder gel was to apply. It's much thicker than the structure... the consistency kinda reminded me of tacky craft glue. I don't think I built the apex well, but all and all I was happy with how the nail turned out!
Upon doing my research and deciding on this gel, I had decided it was okay that it wasn't a soak-off gel; my plan was to build the fake nail and let the hard gel grow out while doing my fills with Structure, that way I woudn't have to worry about filing off the hard gel and potentially damaging my nail plate like the noob I am. Well, I'm writing this after 2 weeks of wear and... I have lifting near the cuticle. I'm just gonna go in there nail files a-blazin' and see if I can salvage the gel overlay.

For my actual mani this week, I went with fashion inspiration! I tried on a dress (that I didn't end up buying, cuz money) that I really loved, and it kinda got in my head that it'd serve as great nailspiration.
I actually took a picture of the top in the store - the online image really washed out the colors. Here's what I came up with:
I went with a dark grey rather than black just because I thought it'd look nicer. Creating the "watercolor" flowers was super easy with gel polish. Since the polish isn't too opaque it was easy to get the look! I definitely need more practice painting, but I think I'm getting somewhere!

For the above manicure I did the following:

Thumb, Index, and Pinky Nails:

1. • 2 coats Jet Set, cure all coats
2. • 1 coat Matte TIO, cure
3. • Wipe tacky layer. Using a nail art brush, paint half moons using 1 coat of regular TIO, cure

Middle Nail:

1. • 3 coats Arctic Freeze, cure all coats
2. • Wipe tacky layer. Using a nail art brush, paint flowers using Go Girl and 'Lily' in ENP Gella, flash curing as needed. Add leaf and branch accents with Jet Set. Cure for full time when complete.
3. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

Ring Nail:

1. • 3 coats Arctic Freeze, allowing for negative space half moon. cure all coats
2. • Wipe tacky layer. Using a nail art brush, paint flowers using Go Girl and 'Lily' in ENP Gella, flash curing as needed. Add leaf, branch, and half moon border accents with Jet Set. Cure for full time when complete.
3. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

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Gelish Mani Sunday | Hello Kitty

My roommate loves Hello Kitty.

I think she has a Hello Kitty doll for every season of the year, we have a Hello Kitty shopping bag, I believe her wallet is Hello Kitty... about 11 years ago, back in our college days, she got me OBSESSED with a Hello Kitty game for Gameboy Color. So when she said she wanted black and red nails for her upcoming Vegas trip, I decided to give Hello Kitty a try.
Not too shabby, if I do say so myself! I hand-painted the Hello Kitty - first time I've ever hand-painted something quite like that before. I made some mistakes and learned some lessons - for example, that middle finger? With the cute bow and polka dots? I layed down 2 coats of Black Shadow first, then when it came time to add the red, I realized too late that Hot Rod Red is WAY too sheer and would've needed a gazillion coats to achieve opacity over the black. I ended up putting down 2 coats of Arctic Freeze THEN 3 coats of Hot Rod Red on top of that. Below, I'm going to write out the steps as they SHOULD have been, not as I actually did them. -_-

Seven. Coats. Of polish.
I have to say, painting that black outline around the Hello Kitty was the hardest part. I'm sure it gets easier with practice, but MAN that takes a steady hand. All in all the mani took 3 freaking hours, but it was worth it when my roommate told me one of her coworkers thought the painted Hello Kitty was a sticker! ;) It was reeeeally important for me to get the Hello Kitty right. I wanted to make sure she looked like Hello Kitty and not, like, Hellow Catty.
All in all I'm really enjoying hand-painting designs. Hopefully I'll get better with practice!

For the above manicure I did the following:

Thumb Nail:

1. • 2 coats Black Shadow, cure all coats
2. • 1 coat Matte TIO, cure
3. • Wipe tacky layer. Using a nail art brush, paint bow using 1 coat of regular TIO, cure

Index Nail:

1. • 2 coats Hot Rod Red, cure all coats
2. • Wipe tacky layer. Using a nail art brush, paint stripes using 2 coats of Black Shadow, cure all coats
3. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

Middle Nail:

1. • 3 coats Hot Rod Red, cure all coats
2. • Wipe tacky layer. Using a nail art brush, paint black half moon with Black Shadow and flash cure. Continue painting the bow and polka dots with Black Shadow, flash curing as needed. Cure for full time when complete.
3. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

Ring Nail:

1. • 3 coats Hot Rod Red, cure all coats
2. • Wipe tacky layer. Using a nail art brush, paint Hello Kitty using Sheek White and Go Girl, flash curing as needed. Cure for full time when complete. Then using black Folk Art acrylic paint, paint the outline and black details. Let fully dry.
3. • Finished with 2 coats of TIO, cure all coats

Pinky Nail:

1. • 2 coats Hot Rod Red, cure all coats
2. • 2 coats Life of the Party, cure all coats
3. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

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Fade Alert | Go Girl Color Fade

Well, I'm calling this a "fade alert" to keep consistent with my other fade test posts, but honestly, there's really nothing much to "alert" anyone to! I'd read over and over how Go Girl is a notoriously bad color fader, so I was expecting the color to fade in line with what I experienced with My Nightly Craving. But honestly, I barely even noticed the fade!
On the left is day 1, and on the right is day 14. The camera auto-compensated for light, so I think the picture on the left has cooler tones than the one on the right, but you can still see that after 14 days Go Girl was still a nice pink. It wasn't AS bright and vibrant as it was on day one, but I'd feel confident using this color again.

Maybe they've fixed the formula, or maybe I got lucky. I received this particular bottle in Mini form as part of the Gelish Glitter kit, so it was probably packaged within the last 6 or 7 months. Whether they fixed the color or I got lucky, I'm so happy that I have a reliable light pink I can use!!

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Poindexter Valentine's Nails

Last weekend we hit up the 50% off clearance sale going on at Sallys and I found they were clearancing their Christmas Cina nail stud wheels. I picked up quite a few (I'm ready for next year!) and they included these super cute bowtie studs. When my fiancée saw them she knew she HAD to use them in her manicure.
I'm happy to say she designed virtually all these nails! I came home form work and she had drawn up a whole bunch of Valentine's Day nail designs on paper and I thought they were brilliant!!! I picked 5 and went to town. The poindexter nail was the one she really wanted, and the new bowtie studs were perfect! I also used this opportunity to practice making stripes by hand. I REALLY need to practice that. I don't want to rely on nail tape for stripes. I didn't do too bad on the ring finger!

I used Go Girl for the pink, Arctic Freeze for the white, and Queen of Hearts for the red. I think Queen of Hearts is my new favorite red. Perfect coverage in 2 coats and it's just a beautiful, rich frost polish. LOVE it. On the thumb we stamped from the MoYou Pro 07 plate using Konad white polish. The only one I'm unhappy with is the heart on the index finger. I did the white outline as an afterthought and it looks a bit messy. If I had thought about it I would've made the white heart first, then filled it in with the pink heart to get cleaner lines.

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Heart-Tipped Valentine's Day Nails

I actually could care less about Valentine's Day itself, really. My fiancée and I go on dates and buy little treats and surprises for each other all year, so I don't buy into the manufactured hype. But for the sake of nail art? Yes, I will buy into that. ;)

I'm kicking off a week of Valentine's Day nails with some really simple heart-tipped nails. I'm actually doing these in order to test the fade levels of the pinks I used, so you'll probably see these nails pop up again in Fade Alert posts (or, if we're lucky, you won't!)
The heart tips are super easy to make with the normal polish brush. I put on 2 coats of The Perfect Silhouette then wiped the tacky layer. This turned out to be a mistake, as wiping really thinned the color and made it sheer in some areas. You should be able to see that pretty clearly on the middle finger. I didn't realize how sheer it was until after the mani was said and done, so I just left it alone. On my other hand I didn't wipe the tacky layer before painting the hearts and everything was fine.

From thumb to pinky I used, respectively, You're So Sweet You're Giving Me A Toothache, Go Girl, Make A Difference, Gossip Girl, and Less Talk. I topped the whole nail off with Gelish Matte TIO and then added some regular TIO to the tips, to make the hearts shiny.

I also bought my very first bottle of Essie for this mani!! Srsly, if I collected RNP it'd be Essie. Their colors are like a siren song every time I enter a CVS. I picked up Forever Yummy and, before beginning my Gelish mani I painted the undersides of my nails. I've been dyyying to try Louboutin nails so I figured they're long enough… why not?

They're kinda cool. Maybe I'll do them again sometime, but they don't pop as much as I hoped they would. It might just be the color I picked, though.

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