Nintendo Love

Sosososo apparently it's year of the Luigi! Yeah, I don't know either. Click on the Luigi if you want to figure it out for me.

Anyway, what better way to celebrate Nintendo than some Luigi nails? Yes, yes? I love the Mario Bros. franchise. Love the games. Mario Kart? Yes. Old school Mario? Yes. Super Mario? Yes. Yoshi? Definitely. Daisy? Kicks @$$.

Anyway...above is the finished product, and below I'll share a few work in progress shots. 

Colorful Trees with Birds

This was such a fun manicure and probably my favorite of the summer! I got the idea for this manicure here. Check it out! Lots of pictures here so don't forget to click the read more button!

I made a few changes to the look as compared to the link above. Instead of a gradient across all ten nails, I did the gradient the same across each hand.

The polishes used in this manicure from pinky finger to thumb are: Sinful Colors: Purple Diamond (light purple), Essie: Sexy Divide (dark purple), NYC: Cashmere Creme (light blue), Sinful Colors: Love Nails (medium blue), Zoya: Holly (dark green), Sally Hansen: Ivy League (light green), Sally Hansen: Golden-I, Zoya: Penny (bronze-y orange), NYC: Burgundy Broadway Creme (red), and Sally Hansen: Posh Plum. For the birds and branches, I used Sinful Colors: Rich in Heart (dark brown).

Minions Galore!

Ba-na-na! 

Minions! Have you seen Despicable Me 2? This was my manicure when I went to see it! I thought the movie was pretty cute, though not as good as the first one. 

Below is a work in progress picture. I did a lot of layering work on this. (By layering I mean: paint a coat, let it dry, paint another coat, let it dry...kind of tedious.) I also did these nails outdoors, which caused some of my polishes to dry fast (which is nice for the base coats, but makes it difficult to do finer details). 

The polishes used are: Zoya: Darcy (yellow), Rocky (blue), Storm (sparkly black); Sally Hansen: White Out, Black Out, and a combination of the white and black to make grey. 

Minions-to-be

Not my cleanest manicure, but definitely one of the most fun to create. There are lots of different minion manicures online, so if you like what you see, search for more! 

Thanks for reading! Next time, colorful trees! 

Po-ta-to-nahhhh...

Apples and Earthworms

An apple a day keeps the doctor away! 

Not my hands again, this is a mani for my friend who likes books. (Are you a bookworm?) I did a light tip gradient with Sally Hansen: Golden-I and stamped the worms with Sally Hansen: Ivy League. The apples on the thumbs and ring fingers are free-handed. For the body of the apples I used NYC: Broadway Burgundy Frost. The stem, leaf, and shiny spot are Zoya: Holly, Sinful Colors: Rich in Heart, and Sally Hansen: White Out, respectively. 

The apple on this ring finger came out the best, in my opinion. 

This was such a fun manicure! I loved this design, and it lasted a long time. I usually don't wear my manicures longer than 5-7 days, but I think this one lasted for a good two weeks with normal tip wear. 

Thanks for reading! See you next time! 

ALL the nail polish!

Here's a conglomeration of the manicures I've done for others this summer! None of these hands are mine, but the nail art is! I'll try to be brief in the descriptions. Lotsa pictures, make sure you click the "read more" button! 

This first mani is made using a base color and adding several different colored dots using a bobby pin. You can also use dotting tools of different sizes, but I'm cheap and make do with bobby pins, haha. The second picture below is the same style with slightly different colors (and a different person's hand). I also added an accent nail of contrasting color on the second manicure. Have you seen my original design?

Experimenting with Matte Polish

Brown and blue gradient for today!

To create this look, I used a makeup sponge to apply Sinful Colors: Rich in Heart (brown) and Love Nails (blue) as a gradient. I then used NYC: Matte Me Crazy to matte-ify the nail polish. Lastly, I added dots of clear polish (Sally Hansen: Invisible) as decorations on the outer edges of the nails. 

The second picture was taken using flash, so it's a little funky looking, but I think the dots are a little more visible. Matte Me Crazy is the cheapest matte top coat I've seen (I think it was under $5) and though the matte isn't extreme, it still does a pretty good job of flattening the color. I've also heard/read than adding cornstarch to a clear polish (or any other polish of your choice) can mimic the matte effect! 

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for some birds and...mushrooms? in the next few posts.

Zoya: Anastasia

Hello! I'm back from my short trip. Actually I'm back from recovering from my trip, haha. Just a quick manicure today.

This is Anastasia by Zoya. I used two coats in this manicure, three coats would be best for a fully opaque look. This is a really interesting color because it looks so pretty but once I put in on my nails I start doubting myself...and I end up taking it off because it doesn't quite look right on my nails. Maybe I have the wrong skin tone for this color? But the holographic sparkles in this polish are delightful. Perhaps someday I'll figure out how to wear this particular color...

The second photo is my attempt at color correcting; the actual color of this polish is closer to mauve and purple, though in the bright sunlight it looks more reddish brown. This second picture should look a bit more purple-y than the previous, but on my computer screen for some reason it looks really really similar....(need a level up in skill on photoshop!)

That's all for now! Back to regularly scheduled posting (hopefully). See you next time!

Seeing Stars

Where I'll be for the next weekish, I'll be able to see the night sky pretty clearly! In the meantime, enjoy this starry manicure.

Tada! Made with my new image plates from Mash! I used plate numbers 29 (yellow stars) and 49 (purple stars). The purple polish is Sexy Divide by Essie and the yellow polish is Darcy by Zoya. Have I mentioned how much I love this purple?

Below is my other hand.

I usually don't show my right hand, because it's usually not as nicely done as my left (solution: become ambidextrous). This time, I think the stamping showed up more opaque on my right hand than my left. I also did a better job with the clear coat, so there's less streaking. 

This last picture is a work in progress shot.

I really like stars! I've been itching to try out a star mani for a long time, and I'm really happy with how this one turned out. Thanks for reading! I'll be without my computer for a while, but you can expect a new post by Sunday. See you next time!

Bus Adventure #2 ...and other things

I'm taking a break from nails and nail polish and nail art...so if you aren't interested in anything but those, this post is not for you. However, if you want to hear about some of the random things that have been going on in my life, read on!

Bus Adventure #2
Over the summer I regularly use the bus for transportation because I am crazy lazy and don't want to get my license don't have a car. My previous bus adventure was about crazy people arguing...this one is more about crazy coincidences.

I left home around 1pm, settled in on the bus for my hour long bus ride. Looking around, I noticed three people, a mom and her two daughters (probably) sitting together. I mostly noticed them because one of the girls had the same shoes I use for Pep Band (black Vans) and the other had a hair tie the same color as mine. I didn't notice when they got off, but they were gone by the time I got off at my stop.

On my way back, a few hours later, I noticed these familiar people got on the bus a few stops after I got on...and after staring at them a while, I realized they were the same people from earlier! They of course got off with me at the same stop we all originally got on the bus around 1pm, but I was so surprised to see them walking in the same direction as me! Turns out they live in the same apartment complex.

What are the chances? That we both leave and return at the same time? And after all this time of riding the same route, I can't say I've ever recognized anybody riding the bus regularly.

Food Adventure #1
Sososososoooo the other day I did NOT start the morning off right...woke up to the sound of hammering upstairs at 6:45am, which is waaaaay too early for me in the summer. And I decided (after managing to drag myself out of bed because more sleep was not happening any time soon) that this called for something good to eat.

Normally I'm really lazy in the morning. Which means I eat poptarts. The smores kind, if possible. But recently I've come across a bunch of microwave-mug concoctions that sound soooo scrumptious! This was the day...to try banana bread in a mug!

See the original recipe here!

I won't bore you with too many details, and I'm no kitchen expert, but this recipe was super easy and super fast! Less than three minutes in the microwave and mashing banana with a fork is actually kinda fun and stress relieving...here's a picture of mine:

It's the cup I bought for Father's Day a few years ago. 

Thanks for reading! Next time: nail art. I promise. :D And maybe an adventure story or two.

Stripes and a Turtle

Happy Wednesday!

Today I have some tape manicure pictures! Much to my surprise, I loved this manicure (even though there's no blue or glitter). The design on my ring finger is a turtle stamped using a makeup sponge. Much like how you might apply polish to the makeup sponge to make a gradient, I applied green on the sponge in the shape of a turtle. It didn't come out quite as bright as I would've liked, but I loved the design. 

The polishes I used were Sinful Colors: Rich in Heart (brown), Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear: Golden-I, and Zoya: Holly (such a pretty green, great for the holidays). I used the brown as a base. Leaving one tape per nail, I painted over with gold. On the third coat, I placed three tapes, two for the gold stripes, and one more to protect the brown stripe. 

Below is a work in progress picture. 

Turtlesssss....I wish the new image plates I got recently had turtles. And a bigger dolphin image. Anyway, thanks for reading! See you next time!

Geometric French Tips

Hello, everyone! A nice, simple design today.

I believe I've said before that I'm not too fond of french manicures, so here's thinking outside the box a little. This manicure uses Sinful Colors: Love Nails (blue) and Zoya: Penny (orange). I was originally hoping to use Sinful Colors: Rich in Heart (brown) instead of Penny, but it was a bit too dark. I was trying to achieve a third color in the overlapped area, and though I didn't quite get the look I envisioned, I was satisfied with how this manicure turned out.

I used nail striping tape (though for this, any tape would probably work fine) to block off the two colors and sealed with a top coat for a shiny finish. What do you think? Should I try different colors next time? I'm itching to try a manicure using those white hole protectors for papers that you out in binders...feel free to leave suggestions in the comments below or on my Facebook page!

Thanks for reading. See you next time!

Totoro Inspired Nail Art

Have you heard of Totoro? Or Hayao Miyazaki? If you haven't, go look them up, because you're missing out! Just some quick pictures today.

Totoro and the little soot gremlins! The base color for this manicure is Zoya: Rocky. (Such a nice summery blue!) The black and white are both from YH Beja Nail Design. I got a set last Christmas with twelve different colored polishes with fine striping brushes as well as a fine tube that you can use to squeeze polish out of the bottle. It's really cool! I haven't worked with it much yet, but I've been practicing. 

So I finished this manicure at the beginning of summer and then i went to Macy's and saw this bag...

...and couldn't help snapping a picture because the colors were so similar! Too bad it's way out of my price range...

Thanks for reading, and see you next time! 

Iron Man Inspired Water Marble and Art

I'm back with a water marble today! 

Okay, so I admit it, the water marble is the same one from here. But I also improved on execution! Look at my pointer and middle fingers! So pretty :) (If you can't tell, I really liked how this turned out.) The polishes I used for the water marble on my pointer, middle, and pinky fingers are all the same as the ones used in my Hunger Games water marble, so check that out if you haven't already! I'll just go over the Iron Man designs on my ring and thumb.

I made this manicure in early May for the Iron Man 3 Premier. I based the thumb design on the 2nd core that Tony Stark makes (as opposed to the original circle shape) and the ring finger design on the iron man helmet. I don't have brushes (sadface!) but I do have nail striping tape which I used to block off thin lines on the face and the triangle outline. For the triangle, I started with the inner triangle and then added a white border afterwards.

Polishes used for the triangle: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear: White On, NYC: Cashmere Creme, and Zoya: Maisie. Polishes used for Iron Man face: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear: White On and Black Out.

Below I'm holding this adorable Iron Man mini clay figure that my good friend made. Isn't it cute? If you look closely you can also see I have a bit of tip wear on the edges of my nail because this photo was taken several days after the first. The whole manicure held up for a long time. I usually take off my polish before it has a chance to chip (so I can try out a new manicure) but from what I remember, this one stayed near perfect for at least 8 days. 

Thanks for reading! Has anyone else seen any good movies recently? I've seen a whole bunch this summer so far...I'm actually going to a movie tonight, too! Next time:

Mind Your Own Beeswax!

Busy bees...(oh look I came up with a decent title!)

This picture was taken with flash, and I'm sad to say it's the only picture I have of this manicure. But I've been taking better pictures recently! I promise.

This manicure was made using striping tape. I started with a base of NYC: Taxi Yellow Creme, added tape, painted over with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear: Black Out, then removed the tape. Finished with a top coat of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear: Invisible.

On different screens, the yellow may appear closer to white. On my phone it's a very bright yellow, whereas on my computer it's more pale in comparison. In person, this manicure also appeared as black and white stripes from far away...I have a brighter yellow now, so the next time I try this manicure, it'll hopefully be a little bit more obvious. I also have a cool bee design on my new stamping plates which would also go well with this manicure! Looking forward to trying it sometime in the future.

Thanks for reading! See you next time!

Special: Happy 4th of July!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled posting to bring you...4th of July themed nail art! Pop Quiz: does Great Britain have a 4th of July? (Don't forget to click Read More to see more pictures!)

Yay for stars and stripes! This manicure is mostly stripes, though I do have part of a star on my thumbs. Time permitting, I was planning on some little stars on my pinky finger, but I took too long doing everything else.

Hearts...and Dots

 Happy Valentine's Day! (Don't forget to hit the read more button!)

Just kidding. In case you needed ideas for a holiday half a year from now, here's some <3 inspired nail art. (Or if you have a time machine, 'cuz that'd be really cool.)

Tiger Stripes

Tiger stripes, version three! See more tiger-inspired designs here and here.

So this is definitely my favorite tiger stripes design so far. I used nail striping tape with a base of Zoya: Penny and painted over with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear: Black Out. Finished with a top coat for extra shiny. 

Though I am fond of the hand painted stripes, this look is so clean and sleek. Which look do you prefer?

Also, if you haven't noticed, check out the follow and subscribe buttons on the sidebar! 

Work in progress

Thanks for reading! Next time, Valentine's Day art (from 5 months ago, hahahahahaha).

Classic Red

Today's manicure is simple and classy!

Hi, readers, friends, and family! These aren't my nails, but they are my work! I used two light coats of NYC: Broadway Burgundy Frost to create a nice even base coat. I then added three gold dots in the corner of each nail using Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Extreme Wear: Golden-I. (Using a bobby pin! No need for fancy tools, just use the round end to dip into the polish.)

On an unrelated note, I had the weirdest bus adventure yesterday. I got on the bus around lunchtime, my usual route...about 3 stops before my stop, some lady and guy in the front start yelling. The lady is half sitting in the aisle...the guy is yelling that the lady bit him, and for a few minutes, they're both screaming at each other accusing I don't know what. Unrelated guy in the back of the bus starts making strange comments...I won't repeat them all, but one of them was "It's okay, you can bite me, mama." Needless to say, unnecessary and...strange comments. 

Anyway, by the next stop, bus driver is going around trying to figure out if anyone saw anything. Apparently, strange dude saw everything and moved to the front of the bus to talk to the bus driver. Meanwhile, the lady and allegedly bitten man had moved their conversation to outside the bus. So far, the bus hasn't moved from the stop for a good five minutes or so (a lifetime in bus time) and everyone is wondering what's going on...when suddenly, bus driver says, "Everybody off!" At which point, I'm thinking: Okay, do I wait for the next bus? Do I catch a different route taking me the same direction? Or do I walk, 'cuz it's not too far. 

Luckily, I deliberated long enough that a police officer and what looked like a bus manager or supervisor both came around, probably took some statements, then cleared the bus to take passengers again. The cool part about this? Half of the bus's previous occupants were gone, so I get two seats to myself (for a couple streets until I got off.) A few hours later, I did my friend's nails...apples and earthworms! If I remember to take a picture, it'll be up on the blog soon! 

That's all! Just a nice simple mani that anyone can do at home! Try it out yourself and let me know how it turns out. Thanks for reading! 

Dots and More Dots!

Back to nail art! (And regularly scheduled posting.) 

Pictured: Essie, Sexy Divide 

Did I mention how much I love this purple polish? I used lots of different polishes in this manicure, but I'll try to name them all. The purple is Sexy Divide by Essie and the light blue is Cashmere Creme by NYC, both used for my base colors. For the dots, I used both of the above polishes as well as those below.

Sinful Colors: Love Nails (marbled turquoise)

                     Purple Diamond (sheer glittery lavender)

                     Frenzy (purple and blue glitter)

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Extreme Wear: Blizzard Blue

Forever 21: Royal Blue

The dots were applied using a bobby pin. Below is my other hand.

Pictured: Sinful Colors, Frenzy

How do you like this manicure? I really liked this look! I've tried it in different colors since, but I think this is my favorite. Thanks for reading! See you next time!

Special! Pictures from the 808 state!

Thought it would be nail art today, huh?! Well, I just wanted to show you where I've been the past week! Make sure to click read more after the first picture to see more pictures! 

Butter London: Pink Glitter Manicure

Hi! A quick post today (as an apology for missing one last week...and posting late...and...yeah.)

This manicure was made using nail striping tape, Sinful Colors: Snow Me White, and Butter London: Rosie Lee. I used a base coat of white, applied tape on the pointer, middle, and pinky fingers (where you now see white), painted over with the pink glitter polish, and removed the tape. For the thumb (hard to see) and the ring fingers, I used a bobby pin as a dotting tool to add large drops of Rosie Lee.

This was for my roommate's birthday! Unfortunately, it chipped rather fast...the Butter London polish isn't one of my favorites, but I liked it surprisingly more than I thought I would. (It's pink, but it's also glitter...glitterrrrrr!)

That's all for now! Check back tomorrow and I might have another special post! ;) Thanks for reading!

Tiger Stripes Inspired

Hi, I'm back! Sorry for the lack of punctuality and posts for the past week. 

Here's another water marble! If you haven't looked at the title, it's inspired by tiger stripes. I used a base of Sinful Colors: Cloud 9 over Sinful Colors: Snow Me White. For the marbling, I used Cloud 9 with Sinful Colors Black on Black. Yay for school spirit! I'm not quite sure why the marble on my thumb looks more mixed...but I like both the clearer look and the mixed look. Which do you think is better? Comment below!

Thanks for reading! Check back often, I may do a special post to make up for last week! Next time: more glitter.

Stained Glass Inspired

Whoops, think I was supposed to post this yesterday! Bean is back with more nail striping designs!

This is another manicure using nail striping tape. If you want to read a little more about the tape, see my previous post here. I started with a base of Sinful Colors: Black on Black. I then placed some nail striping tape over my nails (where the black lines are now) and painted over them with Sinful Colors: Love Nails (blue), Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear: Ivy League, and Sinful Colors: Frenzy (purple and blue glitter). The thumb reminds me of a beetle. Adding a coat of clear smudged the lines a little, but I really like the design! (And there is glitter! Who doesn't love glitter?)

(Pictured is me holding Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear: Disco Ball, if you were wondering.)

Thanks for reading! See you next time!

Sparkly Stripes

Because everyone likes sparkly, right?

This manicure was my first time using nail striping tape. Nail striping tape is typically very thin, foil tape that may have a pattern or design on the non-sticky side. My tape is around 2-3 mm wide. I ordered it online from some Chinese wholesaler with free shipping (yay but it took two months to ship...) and I got about thirty rolls of tape in over ten different colors. The tape is wound on a plastic wheel and each wheel of tape came in a protective plastic sleeve. The nail striping tape is so much fun and so easy to use. I only wish that I could somehow reuse/recycle used pieces of tape...

To make this manicure, I started with a base of Essie: Sexy Divide (this gorgeous purple that totally deserves that name). I then placed strips of tape in a ray shaped design over my nails. (Make sure the strips are long enough to cover the nail with a little extra to grab when removing!) Without removing the tape, I painted over with a layer of NYC: Cashmere Creme. Immediately after painting I removed the tape carefully, exposing the purple polish. After that dried, I added Sinful Colors: Frenzy (purple and blue glitter suspended in a clear matrix). I tried to add the glitter in thicker amounts near the starting point of the ray.

I made this especially to go with my Halloween costume (crayola crayon outfit!) and Cashmere Creme happened to be the exact same color as my shirt! I had also just purchased the purple, so I wanted to try it out.

What do you think? Next time, stained glass inspired nails. Thanks for reading!

Ocean Nails

Tada! Another of my favorite water marble designs! This is a (realllllyyyyy) long post, so make sure to click the read more button to read the rest! 

The picture above was taken by my roommate because she has nice camera...pretty. I'll take a little bit more time to describe this, since it's one of my favorites. This manicure is a combination of two techniques: gradients and water marbling. 

Something Blue

I need someone to come up with titles for me. Seriously. I'm not very punny, haha.

Something borrowed, something blue? Nothing borrowed about this though.

This is a water marble technique that uses Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Extreme Wear polishes. I used Celeb City (silver) as a base and Gunmetal (cool toned grey), Ivy League (green), and Blizzard Blue. The blue polish is quite sheer and didn't appear as bright as I would've wanted it to in this marble, but I liked how the flower design on the thumb came out. Interestingly, the green and blue seemed to mix together on some nails.  An interesting marble...I'm not sure if I like this 100% but it was fun to experiment!

Thanks for reading! Next time, one of my favorite water marbles!

P.S. I just got my stamper for my Mash image plates! I've been playing with them all weekend...more on that in another post!

Party On My Nails

Bean is back with a glitter gradient! If you haven't noticed, or this is your first time reading my blog, I'm aiming to update once every three days. Check back every third day for a new manicure!

For this manicure I used polishes from Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Extreme Wear line. I used a cotton swab to dab Red Carpet (a marbled red with some very tiny glitter) on half of my nail, making the tips darker for the gradient effect. I added a white heart on the thumb (using White On) and then brushed on Disco Ball (a multi-colored glitter polish). For the glitter layer, I did one quick thin coat over the whole nail, waited for that to dry, then added extra glitter at the tips to finish the gradient look.

I remember thinking something along the lines of "party on my nails" after finishing this one...a very glittery party.

On a different note...guess what I got in the mail!!!

I'm so excited! My first image plates! I got the second set of Mash plates, the 2012 ones, I believe. I'm waiting for the stamper to be delivered, but once I get that, imma go crazy trying these out! I mean, just look at those smiley faces. They're just begging to be put on your nails.

Thanks for reading! Comments encouraged, feel free to leave me a message! Next time...more water marbling.

School Pride

I've got two manicures to show you today!

So my school's mascot is the tiger (which means I have an extremely bright set of orange clothes now). What better way to show off some school spirit than with nail art?

This manicure was my first attempt at a french manicure. I have to admit, french manicures had never really interested me, but I decided to give it a try. I freehanded the orange using Sinful Colors: Cloud 9 and used a paint brush to freehand the wave designs with black acrylic paint. Pretty nice, for a first attempt!

I used Cloud 9 again as a base color for this manicure. Again with black acrylic, I freehanded the tiger stripes and Chinese character on my thumb. I used a bobby pin to do the paw prints. And if I remember correctly, the character is for harmony (someone correct me if I'm wrong!). I'm not really sure since I was just looking for something to fill up my thumbnail. ;)

Tiger stripes are kind of a staple for me. After a year of experimenting, I have four or five different ways to do them now...let me know if you have any ideas for tiger-related manicures! 

Thanks for reading! Next time, glitter!

Red, White?...and Blue

As I was going through my pictures, I looked at this one and was wondering if I had intended to do this for the 4th of July...turns out I got too excited and read the date wrong :( 4th of July is not in June...anyways...

Another water marble from 2012, this one really surprised me! Because the polishes I used were on the thicker side, the overall marbling effect was darker than I expected, but it turned out better than I thought it would, too! My favorite parts on this mani are the loops on the ring finger and arrow shape on the pointer finger.

As a base, I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Extreme Wear: Celeb City (silver) and for the marble another Sally Hansen: Red Carpet and Love and Beauty: Royal Blue (from Forever 21). The interesting thing about the blue polish is that it looks more turquoise in the bottle, but in the marble, it mixed nicely with the red, producing a few areas of fuchsia.

Thanks for reading!

Freehand Flower

Hi, again! Bean is back with another manicure from 2012:

It's a little bit hard to see but I freehanded a flower on my thumb and ring finger. I used NYC: Cashmere Creme as a base (one of my favorites!) and both Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Extreme Wear: Ivy League and Sinful Colors: Purple Diamond for the flower. I don't own any nail brushes (yet!) so I used a tooth pick and a bobby pin to draw these designs. The bobby pin is actually a pretty useful tool if you don't want to spend money on a dotting tool, but after a while the paint on the bobby pin head begins to wear away...good thing they come in packs of sixty or so.

If you're interested, more about the individual polishes:
Ivy League is marble, translucent green that needs at least two coats for a nice finish. It's a nice shade, but I usually don't wear it by itself. Purple Diamond is a very shimmery, almost transparent lavender. I wouldn't use it by itself, but I've used it to top another polish to make it extra shimmery. Cashmere Creme (what a nice, alliterative name) is a lot more than I expected! It's a smooth, creamy light blue that needs one good coat for full coverage or two thin coats. Now that I'm close to finishing that bottle, I'm thinking of buying another; that particular line of NYC is only $0.99 at Target.

Thanks for reading! Next time: more water marbling!

Hunger Games Inspired Water Marble

Hey, it's my first *real* post!

I did this water marbling technique for the premier of the Hunger Games movie in March, 2012. If you want to know more about marbling, try searching "water marble nail art" on youtube for ideas and tutorials (my favorites are by simplelittlepleasues). 

For this manicure, I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Extreme Wear: Celeb City (silver) as a base and both Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Extreme Wear: Red Carpet (an opaque, marbled red) with Sinful Colors: Cloud 9 (a sheer, shimmery orange) for the marbling. This is one of my favorites, because the polishes I used for this were so reliable, I've done this water marble several times since! I've also used gold polish as a base (also Sally Hansen) and found it works just as well as the silver. 

Here's just a single nail from a later manicure (not painted at the same time as the first picture). I really loved how I got more of the flower pattern on this one. Trial and error! 

I'll probably be going through the pictures I have from last year in chronological order, so stay tuned for more! In the mean time, feel free to comment below with anything you'd like to see! Next time: floral. Thanks for reading! 

Hawaii: Home Sweet Home