New Year's Bling Bling... ;)

I had the pleasure of being invited to my friend's choir concert at the last Sunday of this year, and it was a great concert that ended with Beethoven's "Ode to Joy", which is one of my favorite classical songs. So, for that occasion and for New Year's (even though I have no real plans :P ), I decided to "bling out" my nails... ;)

I wanted to attempt a "clear nail" look but I wanted to use the Vinylux since they make my polish last really long. So, I bought a sheer color in "Lavishly Loved"and used that as the base. Then I used Nubar's "White Polka Dots" to put a snow-y background. For the thumb I used Deborah Lippmann's "Happy Birthday" to give it that 'confetti' look. (I also used it for my birthday nail art last year...) The ring finger I actually used two types of glitter polish from Sephora by OPI: "It's Bouquet with Me" and "Bibbidi Bobbidi Pink!". The gold/silver accent is a 'Glitter Brilliant' polish from The Face Shop. Then to finish it with more snow-y bling, I topped it off with OPI's "Snow Globetrotter".

This may be the most 'bling-y' nail art I've done, and probably the most variety of nail polish I've used... ;) I'm liking this one for the holiday, so here's to a bigger and better New Year! :)

Festive Holiday Nail Art (w/ a lil bling)

So, I skipped November, and decided to just head right into the holiday design. I bought a Clinique "Black Honey Beauty" set, and it came with the "Black Honey" nail enamel, so I really wanted to use that and put some gold accents.

I used Sephora by OPI's "Self-Maid Millionaire" to draw a bow on the ring finger. I used Sephora by OPI's "Rags to Rhinestones" for the base of the gold 'galaxies' and the drizzle/icicles on the thumb. For the big chunks of the gold 'galaxies', I used Sephora by OPI's "Only Gold for Me" top coat. Before I put the nail art on, I covered the "Black Honey" with a matte top coat to make the gold 'pop'. :)

For my toes, I've been wanting to use Sephora by OPI's "Absinthe Makes the Heart" because I love that name. ;) So I used that as a base, and I recently bought OPI's (Gwen Stefani's series) "Snow Globetrotter" so I used that as accents on all the nails. It's a big, chunky glitter polish, so maybe next month, I may use it as a base. :)

It's bit more "glam" than my usual nail arts, but I'm liking this "festive" nail art for this year... ;)

October nail art - Part 2: (Birthstone) Opal Nail Art

So, I really liked my "leather & lace" nail art, but I guess I forgot to clean my nails well again, because it started peeling after a couple of days... :P And since I didn't want to end my birth month with ugly nails, I decided to redo them. :)

I found a nail art on Pinterest for "opal nail art" and it was really pretty so I thought I'd honor my birthstone. ;)

 

I used the Vinylux "Cream Puff" as the main color instead of just the base. Then for the color effects, I used OPI's Tints: yellow, blue, purple, and pink, in that order. My sister-in-law gave me a Revlon Moon Candy Nail Art set in "Orbit", and it has a shimmery chunk glitter so I used it to mimic the opal appearance. I used the Vinylux top coat first, then put on Nails Inc.'s "Kensington Caviar Gel Effect" top coat to make it more like a gemstone. 

The pictures really don't do it justice (no matter how much I edit them), but with the chunky shimmer, it really looks like an opal. ;) Overall, I really like it, and hopefully this one stays on for a while... :)

Halloween/Leather & Lace

I was feeling kind of lazy, but I knew I had to do a new nail art for Halloween/my birthday month, so I mustered up some energy to bite the bullet... ;P

During my college days, we used to go to karaoke A LOT... ;) One of my classmates liked to sing Stevie Nicks & Don Henley's "Leather & Lace". I had bought a Nails Inc. "Bling It On REBEL" kit from Sephora, ages ago, and it came with a Leather Effect nail polish "noho"... Also, I've seen some pins on Pinterest for some black lace type nail art, so I thought I'd combine the two. :)

The lace design, I kind of got the idea from my other nail tech friend who was doing some practice on my nails, a long time ago. ;) The skull piece is also from the Nails Inc. kit, and I glued it on with some crazy glue, so let's hope they stay on for a while... ;P  On the lace art nails, I used Sephora by OPI's "Nonfat Soy Half Caff" as the base, and used a black striper for the lace art. To give it that "overlay" look, I actually used Sally Hansen's "Big Smoky Top Coat". You're only supposed to put one coat, or else it'll get too dark, but it was really hard trying to get the right amount of "smokiness" without any streaks. I guess I'll need to practice more with that top coat... ;P  Then I sealed it with a matte top coat. Overall, I'm kind of happy of how it turned out, but I'm crossing my fingers that the skulls will last at least a week... ;)

For my toes, I just kept it simple... (Also, I got kind of lazy, from doing my mani...) ;P  It's simply Essie's "Chinchilly", and to give it that "chinchilla" feel I sealed it with the matte top coat.

Well, so far, this is the most "glam" nail art I've done (only because of the crystal-encrusted skulls), but hopefully I can try to do more in the future... :)

Starbucks "La Boulange" -inspired Nail Art

The new "La Boulange" Bakery at Starbucks has a really cute design (and really good food ;) ), so I thought I'd do my new nail art in that theme. So, these are some of the packaging Starbucks has designed for "La Boulange". It kind of has a "lacy/doily" look:

They also had a new cup sleeve design, which I also incorporated. I tried to look for a pink polish that would come close to the La Boulange pink. Who knew that I would find it at the local drugstore for $2.99? ;)

 

I found Sinful Colors polish in "Starfish" which was pretty darn close... :) Then I used OPI's "Alpine Snow" for its stark whiteness. I bought a white dotting pen from The Face Shop (a Korean skincare store) and I used it to make the "frilly" edges. I used a dotting tool to do the pink version. The top pic is without any top coat. The bottom pic is with a matte top coat, which is the final look. Again, I used the Vinylux as a base coat, so hopefully this will last long too. ;)

As for my pedi, I just kept it simple this time, and wanted to do something with coral.

 

I used Nail Inc.'s "Kensington Palace Gardens" again, as the base. It's hard to see it, but I used The Face Shop's Face it #OR203 along the free edge, for a kind of french/gradation look.

I go to Starbucks often, so I wonder what they'll think of my mani... ;)

Happy "Tanabata"! (Milky Way/Galaxy nails...)

July 7th is the Tanabata Festival in Japan. There is an ancient legend about Orihime (the star Vega) and Hikoboshi (the star Altair), and the lovers meet once a year on July 7th. Well, tomorrow is July 7, and I was cutting it pretty close, but I thought I would do something inspired by Vega and Altair, instead of the usual "Independence Day" kind of nail art, and also I wanted to try out the "galaxy" type nails again... :) 

 

My last nail art, I used the Vinylux in "Cake Pop" and I LOVE how long Vinylux lasts, but unfortunately I was a bit careless, and I think I forgot to clean my nails REALLY well... Needless to say, they started peeling after a day or two, so this time I did NOT make the same mistake. :) I THOROUGHLY cleaned my nails with rubbing alcohol, and then I used Vinylux's "Cream Puff" as a base. It is a white polish so I thought it would help make the colors pop. :) Then I created the night sky with Zoya's "Dream", which I think is like the blue version of Zoya's "Storm" which I used in my earlier galaxy nails. They are both so pretty in person, and the pictures do not do it justice... I would definitely recommend to try them out in person...

I made the Milky Way using OPI's "Alpine Snow" but this polish is such a stark, hard white, that it was hard to make the subtle nuance for the Milky Way... I think next time I will use Essie's "Waltz" which is a more sheer-type white so I might be able to build it up where needed... So to "diffuse" the stark white a bit, I decided to use Nails Inc's Galaxy "trafalgar crescent" and some diamond shimmer polish by Milani, and then used Nubar's "White Polka Dot" again to recreate some other stars in the sky. 

 

For the thumbs, I added a star rhinestone to "represent" Altair (left) and Vega (right)... They were originally white rhinestones but I used the new OPI Sheer Tints in "I Can Teal You Like Me" and "Be Magentale With Me" to color them in. ;)

I'm kind of liking this one, even though I don't really like how the Milky Way turned out, but I gave it a go, and now I know better for next time... (Just like in real life...) ;P  When I put my thumbs together, Vega and Altair will finally meet... Hopefully, I'll meet my "Altair" soon... :)

Summery nails

Well...... It's been a while since my last post, because.... well, I've been preoccupied with something, and it turns out that it was just a "dream"... :P

So, anyway, I have finally found a bit of inspiration for my new designs, and I can thank my dear sister-in-law... :)

Last month, my sister-in-law gave me an Essie nail polish called "cute as a button". This name was appropriate in so many ways, so I decided to use it in two different designs:

 

First one is similar to one I've done before on a coral pedicure with a turquoise accent.  I used Essie's "cute as a button" with some white dots and heart accent. 

This time, I decided to get a little bit more creative and do a "button" motif... 

I used the "cute as a button" again, with Sephora by OPI's "Bare to be Different" in between. I used a white and black striper to make the accents to my "button toes"... ;) 

For my manicure, since I was pressed for time, and I really wanted to try out the new CND Vinylux color "Cake Pop" that I got a while ago, I decided to do a kind of cherries/cherry blossom motif...

I love Vinylux, in that it REALLY lasts for at least a week, and you don't need a UV/LED lamp, you don't need a base coat, and the special top coat supposedly gets stronger in UV light! :) I'm not sure if it actually helps, but being in Hawaii, it might have its advantages. ;) The glittery polish is Nail Inc's "Westbourne Gardens" and I thought it would kind of mimic the image of cherry blossom petals blowing in the wind... I really like this polish from their Garden Party series... The cherry nail stickers were from Claire's, I think, that I got a long long time ago... I also used them with my yummy cupcakes design. :)

I mentioned that I might do a "Throwback Thursday" type of post, so maybe if I don't do a new one, I may just post an old one... ;)

Spring Time!

It's been a while since I decided to do my nails again... For a while, I wasn't feeling inspired, and I just didn't feel like doing anything... (Maybe it was the weather, or the change of the season...) :P 

Anyway, through some nail art pins I saw on Pinterest, I decided to use a combination of them for my new nail art...

The base is Nail Inc's "Elizabeth Street". (I really love their colors, and names!) :) I bought a Gelish starter kit, and it had "Gossip Girl", which I used for the roses, and "June Bride", which I used for the ring finger. I used China Glaze's "Aquadelic" for the leaves, which I previously used for my Tiffany-inspired nails. (I think I'd like to do another Tiffany-style again...) ;) The hearts are from a nail polish I got at The Face Shop (a Korean skin care store), and I really wanted to use it, so I just put a couple accents... I'm really liking it, and I'm happy with how it turned out. :)

For my toes, I just kept it simple, and kind of did a copy of my last Easter nail art:

I think I used the same colors except the pinkies are Essie's "Go Ginza", and the big toes are The Face Shop's "Strawberry Yogurt" polish. I think I need to do something new with "Go Ginza"... ;)

Hopefully, I'll be more inspired next time... ;P

Valentine's / "Vivienne Westwood" Inspired...

So, it's that time of the year again: Valentine's... Although there is nothing exciting planned, I thought I would do a last minute Valentine's nail art.

The base is CND's new Vinylux line in "Steel Gaze." It's supposed to last about a week without any chipping, but we'll see how it goes... ;) I added some heart design accents with Sephora + Pantone Universe's "Fuchsia Rose" (which I used in my previous Valentine's nail art). Vivienne Westwood made some cool new items for Valentine's, so I used that as inspiration for the thumb nail art. I love her accessories, and until I can afford one again, I will be content with my nail art, for now. ;)

I've been thinking about doing a post for "Throwback Thursdays", and showcasing my past projects that I've done, before I got my nail technician license. :P  It'll probably be more embarrassing than anything, but maybe you'll be able to see the progress...?? ;P