Vegas Pizzaz Nails

My roommate's mom and and dad just celebrated their wedding anniversary, and as part of that celebration the whole family went to Las Vegas for the weekend. But before going, her mom and sister stopped by our place and let me spruce up their nails ;)
First up, her sister wanted pink and chevrons. I'd actually bought some chevron nail vinyls, but they didn't get here in time so I ended up hand-panting the chevrons! I used Folk Art black Acrylic paint to create the chevrons, then once I had the design I went over then with a thin layer of Black Shadow to try to smooth and seal. I used A Petal For Your Thoughts (one of my FAVE colors) then asked her if I could improvise a little, and I added a Pinch of Pepper accent nail and a couple of stud that I felt pulled the mani together nicely. I really love this one! (even though it's on the simple side for me ;)
Next up was her mom. When they told me she needed sassy Vegas nails I immediately thought purple and zebra stripes. I used You Glare, I Glow across her nails and used Black Shadow to hand-paint the Zebra stripes. I then used a mixture of craft store glitter and Am I Making You Geish? on her middle finger. I mean, it's Vegas, full of drunk assholes... better make that middle finger sparkle. ;)

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Gelish Mani Sunday | Summer Sunset

Well, here we are at the last couple weeks of Summer. Well, okay, technically Summer doesn't end on September 1st but that feeling has stuck with me since I was a kid going off to school.
I've been seeing sooo many cute sunset gradient nails with palm tree silhouettes, and I decided that would be the PERFECT mani to wrap up the summer. It also gave me the excuse to pick up a color I've had my eye on for a while: Sunrise and the City.
I have to say once more, applying and curing Top It Off before painting nail art with Gelsih makes alllllll the difference. The plam tree I painted was super quick and suuuuuper easy.

This is another manicure I'm sorta in love with. Petal For Your Thoughts looks like it was MADE to go with Sunrise And The City. LOVE!! AND I got to use my new 3.5mm seashell studs! One more seashell before fall can't hurt ;) Although now I think I need to start looking for fall leaf studs >;) I'd seen quite a few manicures using little gold BBs as "coconuts" on their plam trees. I LOVE THAT! But I couldn't find any small gold BBs anywhere around me.
For the above manicure I did the following:

Index and Pinky Nails:

1. 3 coats of Petal For Your Thoughts, cured all coats
2. Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cured

Middle Nail:

1. 3 coats of Sunrise And The City, cured all coats
2. Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cured

Ring Nail:

1. 2 coats of Petal For Your Thoughts, cured all coats
2. 1 coat TIO, cure
3. Layed down striping tape and painted 2 coats of Sunrise And The City along the top and bottom of the nail, leaving a strip of Petal across the center. Cured all coats
4. Dabbed Foundation across the center of the nail and pressed the studs in, cured
5. Finished with 2 coats of TIO, cured

Thumb Nail:

1. 2 coats of Starburst, cured all coats
2. 2 coats of Petal For Your Thoughts, sponging off the first gradient fade, cured all coats
3. 2 coats of Orange Cream Dream, sponging off the second gradient fade, cured all coats
4. 1 coat TIO, cure
5. Used a small nail art brush to paint a palm tree with Black Shadow, cured
6. Dabbed Foundation onto cured polish and pressed the stud in, cured
7. Finished with 2 coats of TIO, cured all coats

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Gelish Expirament | The Gelish Watermarble

This week I decided to try something I've been DYING to try: a watermarble with Gelish polish. Now, I've seen people extolling the joy of Gelish due to it's ability to easily dry marble, and while the dry gel marbles are really cute in their own right, they just aren't the same as a watermarbles. I just love those loops and swirls of color that swoop nonsensically across the nail.


By MuckingFusser, the watermarble Queen
I'd seen a couple YouTube videos showing one could watermarble with Gelish and, this week, I wanted to give it a try myself. I decided to combine my love of watermarbles with my love of Japanese style nail art and I'm officially proclaiming it a success! I had at least 4 fails that I had to take off and redo, but after some trial and error I finally figured it out!

For the above manicure I did the following:

Ring & Middle Watermable Nails:

1. • Started off with 2 coats of Sheek White and 1 coat of TIO
2. • Poured bottled water into a shot glass and wrapped medical tape around my nails to help with the clean-up
3. • Mixed up Coco Cabana Banana with a bit of Don't Be Such A Sourpuss to get a toned down, less neon yellow
4. • Alternately dripped the yellow mix, My Favorite Accessory, A Petal For Your Thoughts, and Seafoam into the water. The mixed yellow didn't "spread" in the water as well as the other ones, so less yellow ended up being visible in the final marble. I pulled the polish across the water to get the design I wanted
5. • I stuck my nail on the part of the design I wanted and kept my finger in the water
6. • I picked up the UV light and held it over the water for 10-15 seconds, just enough to slightly cure the left over gelish that wasn't on my nail
7. • I then took a toothpick and gathered up the remaining polish - just like they do in all the tutorial videos. I found this step was actually really, really important: if you just pull your finger back out of the water with the Gelish polish still floating on the surface, that polish will layer back over the nail as you pull your finger out. This'll essentially create two layers of polish on the nail and it'll bubble and wrinkle horribly once you cure it
8. • I removed the tape from my finger and cleaned up around the nail with an art brush and non-acetone remover
9. • Cure the nails, TIO, cure again, and you're done!

For the other three nails I was going for that gorgeous watercolor effect I see on so much Japanese nail art. While I like how the watermable and watercolor art turned out, I don't think I'll combine them again. The watercolor is so deleicte and the watermarble so bold that they don't mesh well enough for my tastes.


By hana4, I love her nail art SOMUCH.
Thumb, Index, & Pinky Watercolor Effect Nails:

1. • Started off with 1 coat of Simple Sheer, TIO
2. • Then followed with 2 coats of Sheek White, allowed for the half moon peek-a-boo, and TIO
3. • Dripped spots of my yellow mix, My Favorite Accessory, A Petal For Your Thoughts, and Seafoam onto the nail and, using a small nail art brush, swirled and blotted the colors around until they were blended and mottled-looking. Cured.
4. • Used craft glitter and small nail art brush to create a glitter line along the peek-a-boo half moons
Used the same small art bush to apply TIO JUST on the glitter. I found that applying TIO like you normally would across the whole nail when the glitter is still loose on the nail will spread some glitter across the nail, and I didn't want that
5. • Cure, then apply TIO across the whole nail. Cure, apply studs, more TIO over the studs, and done!

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