Zigzags

Can I hire someone to come up with titles for me? I seriously think that's the hardest part of blogging. Actually posting regularly being a close second, of course. Anyway this might be my favorite of the summer so far, though it's a bit on the darker side for the summer. What you're looking at today is a blue purple gradient beneath a stamped silver zigzag pattern from my MASH stamping plates.

The left hand! Which one of these is not like the other...?

Okay! For the gradient I used four different colors, two blues and two purples. The darker purple is Essie Sexy Divide, one of my absolute favorite polishes. The lighter shimmery purple is Sinful Colors Purple Diamond. The next is Sinful Colors Love Nails, a translucent turquoise. Finally, we have Sinful Colors Midnight Blue, an equally gorgeous marbled royal blue.

The infamous right hand! Which actually turned out just fine.

I stamped the zigzag pattern using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City, and I loved the way it made the manicure brighter. I was originally going to stamp in black, but I'm glad I chose otherwise. Thanks for reading!

Baa, baa, black sheep...

...have you any wool? (Long post and lots of pictures below!) By the way, like me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thepolishedbean :)

Pinky finger was my favorite but hard to see in this pic! But there's a better one below!

Okay, so I should've posted this last week but my roomies and I have been in this I DON'T WANNA [do work or anything really] mood for a while, so productivity has been very low recently. Hopefully this is a change towards more productivity! Haha...

Frozen Inspired Elsa and Anna Nail Art

For the first time in forever, I've had time to do my nails! And my roommate's nails! (Inspired by Disney's Frozen)

Frozen-inspired nail art! 

I was actually planning on putting snowflakes on my nails, but when it came down to it (I made some decals using the plastic bag/decal method but wasn't completely satisfied) I decided to go with a more whimsical approach. All in all, I think it came out great (so sparkly!) and then of course, proceeded to do something similar for my roommate.

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.

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:

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.

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!

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!

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!