Beachy?

This one reminded me of the beach, not sure why.  It's green and shimmery and it reminds me of the photos of the crystal clear water and the how the sand looks so warm and inviting.  I could use some of that about now, lol.

This is 3 coats of Maybelline Gentile Blossom.  I love this shade of minty green, it's so pretty.  And then it has the added bonus of shimmer!  It went on fairly well and had good coverage.  I felt like it needed something, so I added stripes with Stripe Rite White.

I think it turned out cute!  I like it.  And to me, it looks nice and summery.

I got the blues...

Lol.  I loved the bright yet dark quality of the blue in the China Glaze Anchors Away collection.  It's just such an amazing blue!  It's dark and navy-like, but still bright and royal.  It's a very amazing color.

This is 2 coats of China Glaze First Mate with a black and silver glitter stripe, both from Stripe Rite.  I added a butterfly decal on the thumb and ring fingers which are from Viva la Nails.  I thought it would show up a little bit better than it actually did.  The China Glaze applied like a dream, it gives great coverage and it's just SO pretty, you could lose yourself in it!!

Excuse the mess, lol.  I hadn't cleaned up my fingers yet.  But how pretty is this?!  I love it.  It's so creamy and beautiful.  LOVE!  What do you guys think?

Funky Frenchy

For this mani I wanted something simple, but still pretty.  For some reason I just love the french mani look.  But it's kinda boring unless it's a "funky french" which is just using a color instead of white.  Anyway, I liked how it turned out and I got lots of compliments!  This is actually a bit of an oldie... but I love it!

I started with 2 coats CND Putty which is pretty sheer beige.  It basically just evens out your nails so they look perfect.  Application on that was amazing, as usual.  I love CND polish.  Then I added 2 coats of OPI Yodel Me on My Cell for the tips.  I put a stripe with Stripe Rite White on the bottom edge of the teal to cover up my not-so-great edge, lol.  I also put some Stripe Rite Silver Glitter on that edge.  Then I added some stickers from Viva la Nails and topped it all with 1 coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust, a very small holo glitter.

Pretty!  Now to me, this looks like straight up teal.  However, I had a few people ask if I had on "Eagles green."  I guess they're close, but not really the same to me.  Not to mention I could really care less about sporting football colors on my nails.  I happened to wear this mani on the weekend, so I guess that's why people assumed.  Oh well, lol.

Essie: Haute as Hello

I love this color!  This is one of the summer colors from Essie called Haute as Hello.  It's an awesome bright coral/peach. It's definitely got a pink tint to it, but it's too orange to be pink... and delightfully bright!  I added stripes with Stripe Rite Pink Glitter.  Application on this wasn't bad, but wasn't awesome.  It started out a bit streaky, but evened out after more coats.  This is 3 coats Essie Haute as Hello with 2 coats Seche Vite over the whole thing.  It lasted a good few days too, which is great.  I love this and all bright colors for summer, yay!  There's just something about bright nails that makes me feel good.  Which is good!  :)

Patriotic

I wanted to do something fun for the July 4th weekend.  It's America's birthday!  I didn't want to get too involved and do like a flag or anything crazy.  But I definitely wanted all the colors, which are red, white and blue.  I started with one coat of Wet 'n Wild Cherry Pop on everything by my ring finger topped with 2 coats of China Glaze Ruby Pumps.  Then I used Stripe Rite White for the white stripes and Milani Bolting Blue for the blue stripe.  On the ring finger I did 3 coats of Essie Blanc on the whole nail.  Then did a slanted tip with the red combo.  Then I added 3 blue rhinestones.  Topped everything off with 2 coats Seche Vite.  There are some bubbles around the rhinestones, but oh well.  I think it came out cute.

Full sun, makes the Ruby Pumps look weird, lol.

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot...

I was feeling hot from some recent near 90 degree weather, so I busted out this hot magenta... oooo!  It's a score from a recent win.

Hotness.  This is 2 coats China Glaze Make an Entrance.  Then I added little swoops with Stripe Rite Black and Silver Glitter.  Topped with 2 coats of Seche Vite of course.  Application on the CG was awesome.  This has great coverage, but I can still see a tiny bit of VNL.  Not enough to irk me tho.  Very smooth and no cuticle drag or bald spots.  Love this color too!  Such an awesome hot magenta color.

This was a definite perk up from my recent Debbie Downer attitude.  I am trying my best to get through this.  I'm very grateful to have this nail polish distraction on myself and this wonderful little community!

Pink Glitter

Ooooo... glitter.  I was in Sephora the other day and couldn't resist this pink glitter, Sephora by OPI It's Bouquet with Me.  I knew just by looking at it that it would take too many coats to be opaque and I'd NEVER get it off, haha.  So I started with a single coat of OPI Meet Me on the Star Ferry.  I think they match up pretty well.  I was considering using a bright pink or a neon purple, but I like this look.  It's kinda in between pink and purple.  And then I tried to do a flower with a Sally Hansen nail art pen, but I failed.  It started out looking fine and the polish was flowing normally, but then it stopped flowing, so I dabbed it once on a napkin and it came back, but as soon as I touched my nail again, all this water pink liquid flew out... OMG!  So I quick grabbed a cotton ball and wiped it off, but some of it had started to dry.  So I tried to brush some acetone over the nail to get it off... I knew it wouldn't take the glitter right off.  You can see a tiny bit on my thumb nail still, oh well.  It blends in under most light.  So I added the white swoopy things with Stripe Rite White.  Problem solved!

Orly: Cotton Candy

So after my mani fail, I wanted something that would definitely look cute.  I looked at my recent haul and pulled out the super cute Orly Cotton Candy.  One of my fav colors is pink, so I just had to.

This is 4 coats of Cotton Candy with Seche Vite.  It looks more peachy in the pic than it does IRL.  It truly is a nice pink creme.  It's fairly bright, but still pastel.  The formula gave me some trouble tho.  I had some intense cuticle drag and it was pretty streaky.  I can still see some vague streakiness after 4 coats, but it's not that apparent, especially since most people look from a little further away, hehe.  I started off doing thinner coats, but had to move to thicker coats for better coverage.  Overall, I'm pretty pleased.  I think the color is worth the hassle.

After all that, I figured I wanted to do an accent nail, so I added a little art to the ring finger.

I drew a horizontal line at the "tip" line with Stripe Rite Pink Glitter.  Then I made some tiny polka dots with Borghese Plumaggio Purple on just the tip.  (I will say I may as well have used black for this because you can't tell it's purple).  I added a large pink rhinestone to top it off.  I nearly forgot to take photos of this.  I thought I had when I first did the art.  I was getting ready to take it off and ripped off the rhinestone on my left hand when I had this pang... did I take pics?  I checked and... nope!  Ooops!  So I quick snapped a few of my right hand, lol.  Please excuse the dry cuticles and tip wear.

Pink and Gold Goodness

Ahhh, pink and gold.  Two very good colors, hehe.  I love pink and I have tons of pink polish.  And although it looks great with silver, I figured gold was like sunshine and I was loving the sun being out this weekend.  I actually needed sunglasses yesterday even with all the snow that was still falling.  Thankfully it didn't stick very well and there was no shoveling involved.

I didn't feel like doing much today, so I just did a simple side swipe.  I used 2 coats of OPI Cozu-melted in the Sun for the base.  Then I did the lower diagonal half with 2 coats of Ulta Strawberry Smoothie.  I did the stripe with Stripe Rite Gold Glitter.  Then I thought the pink looked too boring, so I put a coat of China Glaze Golden Enchantment over the whole thing.  Topped with 2 coats Seche Vite.

Purple Dots

This was actually my first venture into nail art.  I only took this one photo.  I took it with my cell phone in my bathroom, so the lighting sucks, haha.

Start with a base of Sally Hansen Pat on the Black.  I used Stripe Rite White and Silver Glitter to make the flower in the bottom corner.  I made a few dots coming out of the flower with OPI A grape fit!  Then I used some clear top coat to stick a purple rhinestone in the center of the flower.

Blue Flower

I actually expected the base coat to be a little lighter and more opaque.  It looks more like I have nothing on the nail, but there is a slight rainbow hue.

I started with a base of Essie Gladioli.  Then I used a dotting tool to make a large flower in OPI Yoga-ta get this blue!  I did a few flicks and some tiny center dots on the flower with Stripe Rite White.

Hot Pink

I LOVE the new brush Sally Hansen has in the "Complete Salon Manicure" line.  The brush is shorter and rounded, completely flat and tapered so it's thicker towards the handle.  It makes it so easy to apply without streaking.

I did a base of Sally Hansen Shrimply Devine.  I did some stripes in black and gold glitter using Stripe Rite.  Then I made a dot flower in the corner using Avon Golden Twilight.