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?

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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!