Mmm, watermelon!

Here's a tasty manicure perfect for summer! I was inspired to try these after seeing a lot of different versions on Pinterest. My version came out a little messier than I would've liked, but it gave me a few ideas on how to clean it up for next time! This is going to be kind of a tutorial version since I remembered to take pictures at each step!

Step one: base coat! This would make a nice Christmas manicure, too. I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Red Carpet and Zoya Holly, one coat each. 

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. 

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! 

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!

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!

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!

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!