Memorial Day Manicure... Nicole By OPI If The Blue Fits... Sinful Colors Sugar, Sugar... Stamping

Happy Memorial Day ladies! Hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend and got to participate in some fun since this weekend is the unofficial kick off to the Summer. Barbeque, picnic, pool parties...what did you do this weekend?

I also wanted to take a moment to thank those in the military who died serving our country. This is a day to honor all those that gave up their lives for our freedom. Thank you for your sacrifice for the rest of us!

So for todays manicure I did a Memorial Day theme. I wanted to incorporate a patriotic feel along with a summery, fun feel we all tend to have this weekend every year. So that explains the star stamping image, the BBQ stamping image and the red, white and blue colors. So, what is with the pink in the BBQ stamping? Good question because I stamped it using a white polish!

This mani was one of those that just fought me tooth and nail! I had to redo that ring finger three times! It was just meant to be imperfect from what I was trying to achieve. So this was the least screwed up this looked and I was not will to give it another go and risk another horrendous outcome. I suspect what happened is... because I didn't topcoat the base color before stamping this nail like I did always do. So I think the red bled through the white stamping after I top coated the finished stamping.

For this manicure I applied the following:

• Milani Smoothe Base Coat
• Nicole By OPI If The Blue Fits...2 coats
• Sinful Colors Sugar, Sugar...2 coats
• Out the Door Top Coat...1 coat
•  For All Stamping Sinful Colors Snow Me White was used
• Nail Plate W107 Winstonia
• Seche Vite Top Coat...1 coat

 Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

Today is Earth Day! Earth Day Mani... Sponging

Today is Earth Day! I certainly wanted to do a mani in honor of Earth Day. I have been wanting to do a sponging technique lately so to incorporate the two I came up with this mani.

I first applied the white base color and waited for that to dry completely. I then sponged the earth's layers starting with the blues. I applied the darkest blue first, then the medium blue followed by the light blue. Finally I sponged on the greens, again the dark one first and then the light green last. Topped it with two coats of Seche Vite and there you have it...

...the Earth in the palm of my hands! Lol. :D

For this manicure I applied the following:

• OPI Nail Envy...as a base coat
  
• Sinful Color Snow Me White (base color)...2 coats
•  Revlon Midnight Affair (dark blue)
•  China Glaze Ride The Waves (medium blue)
• Orly Skinny Dip (light blue)
• Sinful Colors Exotic Green (medium green)
• Sally Hansen Green With Envy (light green)
•  Seche Vite Top Coat... 2 coats

Remember to... 

Recycle, Reduce, Reuse!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Spring Is In The Air!...OPI My Vampire Is Buff... Konad Special Polish

Happy Friday Ladies! I had a very productive day off today. Part if that productivity was to do a  Spring theme manicure, post it, and I was able to sign up on Twitter and start figuring out how that all works. And over the last couple days I was able to set up a Pinterest account and get some boards and repins up on them. I still have to Pin up all my blog manis...yikes...sounds tedious!

So for my Spring themed mani I choose to do a full plate stamping in a pretty floral pattern from one of my Bundle Monster plates. Then when I couldn't decide which of my pastel Konad polishes to stamp over my neutral base I stopping arguing with myself and picked them all. :)

Although I am wishing I didn't pick the green because it does not show up very well at all! Yup you guessed it...the green is on my pinkie finger although it looks like I didn't stamp my pinkie at all! It's there! You can see it better in the close up shot below.

I am really loving how the pink stamping (middle finger) and the white stamping (thumb) turned out. I think those are my favorites....the blue (ring finger) is pretty too. I guess I like them all except that green. It just is not working with this base polish.

For this manicure I applied the following:

• Milani Smoothe Base Coat
• OPI My Vampire is Buff...2 coats
• Out the Door Top Coat...1 coat
•  For All Stamping Konad Special Polish was used... thumb in white, index finger in light purple, middle finger in light pink, ring finger in light blue, pinkie in light green
• Nail Plate BM306
• Seche Vite Top Coat...1 coat

Wahooo...I am now on Twitter, Pinterest and Bloglovin!
Follow me with the links below. :) 

• Twitter
• Pinterest
• Bloglovin

Have a lovely weekend!

Orange Animal Guardian Ribbon... Prevention of Cruelty To Animals Month...Bull Terrier, Chihuahau, Cats, Lhamas

April is Prevention of Cruelty To Animals Month. This is the month the ASPCA goes all out with their fight against animal cruelty. To show your support against animal cruelty they encourage you to "Go Orange for Animals" for the month.

I was so happy to see Laurie's post at Dressed Up Digits today I new I had to do a mani to show my support against animal cruelty. I have been loving her blog for a while now because it is filled with awesomeness.  She is totally awesome too for posting the Orange Animal Guardian Ribbon post and showing her support. If you have not checked out her blog...check it out she does phenomenal nail art!... Dressed Up Digits.

So without further ado, I give you my "Go Orange" mani...

• Index Finger is a Chihuahua vinyl nail decal with a paw print and bones stamped background.
• Middle Finger is a Kitty vinyl nail decal with a orange ribbon stamped background.
• Ring Finger is a Bull Terrier vinyl nail decal with a paw print and bones stamped background.
• Pinky Finger is a Kitty vinyl nail decal with a heart stamped background.

Well, it is not exactly what I intended. I was going for a subtle stamping, but this stamping is too subtle. I had to put a third coat of WNW Sunny Side Up base color on, so the color ended up darker than I expected. I didn't realize it at the time. I had to take very close pictures for the stamping to show up, but you can barely see it in person! :(

• Thumb is a pair of vinyl Llama nail decals with a heart stamped background. 
  

For this manicure I applied the following:

• Milani Smoothe Base Coat
• Wet n Wild, Wild Shine Sunny Side Up...3 coats
• Out the Door Top Coat...1 coat
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed (For Stamping Color) 
• Nail Plates BM306, BM317 & BM321
• Sache Vite Top Coat...2 coats

Thanks for reading and don't forget to Go Orange! :)

Skinny Dipping For A Cause... In Orly and Revlon Stamping

Everything blue today in support of World Autism Awareness Day. Here is one of my farm animals that fits in with this theme. This is my lovely Peacock sporting the proper colors for the cause too! :)

I did a manicure in support of World Autism Awareness Day and Autism Speaks... Light It Up Blue. I used Orly Skinny Dip (hence the blog title...i could not resist) and Revlon Top Speed Royal for stamping. I am very happy with the color combo of this mani matching back nicely to the colors used on supporting Autism Awareness.

This manicure is nice and bright thanks to Orly Shinny Dip. Then the Shinny Dip toned down the Revlon Royal perfectly to achieve the darker blue color I was looking for. When wearing the Revlon Royal alone it is much darker...more similar to my Something Fishy In The Deep Blue Sea mani.

For this manicure I applied the following:

• Nailtiques 2 Plus
• Orly Skinny Dip...2 coats
• Nail Plate BM-319
• Revlon Top Speed Royal (stamping)
•  Nailtiques 2 Plus...2 coats

Are you doing an Autism Awareness mani?
What colors and design did you do?

Thanks for reading!

Lush Lacquer... Neon Lights...Easter Bunny Marshmallow Peeps...Water Slide Decals

I was torn between doing a mani in a polish I just received in the mail... one that I have been dieing to get... and doing an Easter design because Easter is this weekend. Logically the Easter mani won out because of the timing issue of it all. 

So I poured through my nail art items to pull all my Easter related options and lo and behold what do I see?... I see water slide decals that are in beautiful bright colors that will work fabulously with the new polish I just got in the mail! Wahooo... and there it is... I get to do both manis in the same sitting!

Lush Lacquer Neon Lights is as amazing as I thought it would be!  It is a milky white, opaque base filled with neon pink, neon yellow, neon green and neon orange glitter hexes of various sizes. Very easy to apply and no need to fish for glitters. It was evenly distributed throughout the polish. Amazing polish! Love it and I will be reaching for this one throughout the summer.

This indie polish can be purchased at their shop on Etsy.

See more Indie Polish I have used. I love Indie Polishes! :) 

The Marshmallow Peeps water slide decals were very easy to apply. After applying the base coat, I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, and letting it dry thoroughly... all you do is soak the decal in water for 15 seconds, slid it off the paper backing and placed on to the nail using tweezers. Two coats of top coat and your done. Easy!

The only con I have about these is that you can *very slightly* see the edging around the decal. You have to press the edges down very well, but to too hard or it could mark up your polish, and make sure the water is all pressed out to minimize the visible line as much as possible. This by no means would discourage me from using these in the future. They are quick and easy to use.

These water slide decals are from RLR Creations Nail Art and can be purchased at their Etsy shop.

For this manicure I applied the following:

• Milani Smoothe Base Coat
• Lush Lacquer Neon Lights...2 coats
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On (Ring and Middle Fingers)...2 coats
• Sache Vite...1 coat
• Marshmallow Peeps Water Slide Decals (Ring and Middle Fingers)
• Sache Vite...2 coats

Have a great weekend and a Happy Easter! 

OPI... Russian Navy With MASH Stamping... Indy Polish Shop Links

You may have noticed that I updated the look of my banner and background to my blog. If anything looks out of whack please let me know...making changes to existing sites can be tricky sometimes. Thanks.

I also added a page to my blog menu titled "Indy Polish Shop Links". In my research I ran across a blog with a list and I ran with it on my blog too...I need the quick reference for when I feel like shopping! :D

If you have an Indie shop that is not listed please let me know and I will be happy to add it to the page. So on with today's mani...

I have been wanting to do a navy mani lately and since spring is here I figured I need to do it now before I get bit by all the new spring colors coming out.  So for today I used OPI Russian Navy and then added a couple accent nail by stamping with Sinful Color Snow Me White.

When I was researching for the best Navy color I can across several reviews that said this color was one of the best and I do love this color, but it absolutely shows some purple to it. I wanted a true navy and this...at least the bottle I purchased...is not it! I will continue to look for a true navy. 

Do you guys have a favorite Navy Polish?

For this manicure I applied the following:

• Milani Smoothe Base Coat
• OPI Russian Navy...2 coats
• Sache Vite Top Coat...1 coat
• Sinful Colors Snow Me White (For Stamping Color) 
• Nail Plates Mash 41 & Mash 42
• Sache Vite Top Coat...2 coats

Have a great weekend! : )

Irish You Well - DIFFERENT dimension... Mojito Madness, Marshmallow - Essie... Emerald - Revlon

I have a St. Patrick's Day Manicure for you today. I wanted something glittery and fun, but not too over the top. I recently ordered a bunch of Indie polishes and what better to select for this mani than DIFFERENTdimension's Irish You Well. I paired it with some four-leaf clover stamping in colors to coordinate with the glitter in this fabulous polish and there you have it.

Sorry for the rough shape of my cuticles...Yikes. They have been neglected lately. I am working on them!

Different Dimension Irish You Well is a fabulous polish. As they describe it on their Etsy Shop... it is a white crelly (cream/jelly) base with green and gold glitters in different sizes and gold circle glitter. I must say... the "gold" glitters look more like "yellow" glitter to me and I love it. Not sure I would like this as much if the yellow glitters would have been gold. It applied very nicely and covered in 2 coats. I love it and I look forward to trying the other polishes I purchased from them.

UPDATE: When I was removing this polish the glitter that appears to be yellow in the mani was actually gold once the base color was removed. It is gold glitter, but sure does come off as a yellow glitter in my mani. 

This indie polish can be purchased at their Etsy shop.

See more Indie Polish I have used. I love Indie Polishes! :) 

 

One the index finger I used Essie's Marshmallow, which was a perfect base color match to Irish You Well. I also used Essie Mojito Madness and Revlon Emerald for the stamping, which matched perfectly to the glitters in the Irish You Well. 
_

It has been soooo long since I have been able to get to do my nails and actually get to blog about it! Not being able to to my nail blogging has given me major withdrawal symptoms! I hate when life gets in the way of things!! Health issues for me and my dogs, doctor appointments, vet appointments, new job training all at once equals lack of extra time. Thankfully now that we are all doing well and that things have somewhat leveled out I am going to get back to the things that I love so much...nails and blogging about it. 

For this manicure I applied the following:

• Milani Smoothe Base Coat
• DIFFERENT dimension Irish You Well...2 coats
• Essie Marshmallow (Ring Finger)...3 coats
• Sache Vite Top Coat...1 coat
• Essie Mojito Madness (For Stamping Color...Shamrocks) 
• Revlon Top Speed Emerald (For Stamping Color...Shamrocks)
• Nail Plate W105
• Sache Vite Top Coat...2 coats

Hello Kitty... Break the Ice... Wet n Wild Megalast

Seeing all the fabulous Hello Kitty nail designs out there has me totally wanting to do a Hello Kitty manicure forever now. I got a couple Hello Kitty image plate a few weeks ago and I am braking them in! I used the basic Hello Kitty head design with an accent nail of Hello Kitty Bunny. I couldn't resist the Bunny...she is so cute!

For this manicure I applied the following:

• Milani Smoothe Base Coat
• Wet n Wild Megalast in Break the Ice...2 coats
• Out the Door...1 coat
• Sinful Colors in Snow Me White For Image Color (Background)
• Nail Plate CH11 
•  Pure Ice in Electric! For Image Color (Hello Kitty)
• Nail Plate KD1
• Sache Vite...1 coat

I grew up loving Hello Kitty. I remember going to the mall where there was a shop that had tons of Hello Kitty stuff. They had items from pens, pencils and erasers, to coin holders and posters, to clothes and bags...anything and everything imaginable! Oh... how I loved that Hello Kitty store!

^..^

 

See all Wet n Wild Megalast Polishes posts...
The entire line of colors are amazing!

Cupcakes... Party On My Yacht... Pretty and Polished

OMG...I finally got Pretty & Polished Jaw Breaker and a couple other colors and I am loving them! I am dieing to try Jaw Breaker because I have wanting it forever, but it did not go with my theme for this manicure. So I tried Party On My Yacht first because it looks perfect as sprinkles on the cupcakes. My theme is a Birthday theme. It is not my birthday, it is my dog's birthday. She turned six and she was spoiled with a ton of gifts...toys, treats, beds, jewelery...you name it she got it! : )

This is my first crack at any kind of freehand artwork on my nails. As I am looking at these pics I think my cupcakes look a bit like ice cream with sprinkles, topped with a cherry in a cup! Not sure what went wrong there, but I am going with this being cupcakes topped with *tons* of icing!  I guess I was a little over zealous when making the domes of the cupcakes...oops. That's OK this is how I like my cupcakes anyway...loaded down with icing. : )

I just figured it out... my cupcake bottoms are too wide! Cupcake bottoms are not as wide as their tops. As they bake the tops bake up and over the bottoms and then you slather it with all that delicious icing!

Yeah...these are ice cream cups....crap! Cupcake mani fail! : ( Booo Hisss!!! Oh well, ice cream still falls within the Birthday theme. I love ice cream too! : )

See more Indie Polish I have used. I love Indie Polishes! :)  
 

For this manicure I applied the following:

• Milani Smoothe Base Coat
•  Pretty & Polished in Party At My Yacht (pinky & ring fingers)... 2 coats
• Sinful Colors in Flutter (over all nail base color)...1 coat
•  Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Twisted Pink (cupcake bottom)... 1 coat
• Sinful Colors in Snow Me White (icing and stripes on cupcake bottoms)... 1 coat (not in pic above)
  
• Out the Door...1 coat
• Pretty & Polished in Party At My Yacht (sprinkles)... 1 coat
  
• Revlon Colorstay in Velvet Rope (cherry)...1 coat
•  Sache Vite...1 coat

 Here is a picture of the Birthday girl! This is Bunny and she turned six years old. I just love her to death!! She is the best dog on planet Earth!