Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Quick vacation mani, and a bonus strawberry mani!

My beautiful Covered in Diamonds mani chipped a tiny bit after about 4 days. Naturally, I picked the rest of it off, because I have no regard for my nail health.

I was a little short on supplies, but I had to redo my mani! I had a few greens on hand due to a few random circumstances, so I decided to go with that! Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Going Green, and then one coat on top of that on the accent nail with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Ivy League. The dots were just my good old standby... China Glaze Liquid Leather.

Anyway, it'll do! :)

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Going Green
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Ivy League
China Glaze - Liquid Leather

Also, while we we're on vacation, my sister asked me if I would do a strawberry mani for her! Here it is! We were a little slow to get the picture, so the mani in the pic is a few days old, but I think it's still adorable. She took the pic too! I should probably give her a guest blogging credit or something.

Deborah Lippmann - Holiday
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Going Green
China Glaze - Liquid Leather
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Friday, July 22, 2011

Shattered Glass

This mani is a super simple one with a very bold, dramatic effect. I used Color Club's Covered in Diamonds on top of China Glaze's Liquid Leather. The black really makes the shards stand out in a beautiful way. I did this one kind of quickly, but thankfully the prettiness of the shards on top mostly distract from the quality of the job. ;)

I'm hoping that this will last for most of my vacation, as I am leaving to go to Indiana for a week later today! I think it is simple enough to be appropriate for most of the occasions I have coming up, and the mani itself is not too thick. Hopefully it won't peel off too easily!

China Glaze - Liquid Leather
Color Club - Covered in Diamonds
(indirect sunlight)


(indirect sunlight)

(direct sunlight)
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Color Club - Love 'Em Leave 'Em

Today I've got another single color for you - Color Club's Love 'Em Leave 'Em. It's a tan base with a slight holo effect. Not the strongest holo I've ever seen, but it looks gorgeous on the nail and has enough of a holo to give the nail some visual interest.

I don't have any photos of this without the slight holo effect, but it just looked like a very nice nude color with a slight shimmer. Very pretty.

Color Club - Love 'Em Leave 'Em (flash)

(flash)

(sunlight)
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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Holos EVERYWHERE!

I got a few FANTASTIC pieces of nail mail today! They are all beautiful and I just had to share a quick photo with you guys. I will be including these in manis at some point, but here they are in the bottle for now.

Click through the image to view larger!

L to R (sun and then inside)
Color Club - Covered in Diamonds
Color Club - Worth the Risque
Color Club - Fashion Addict
Color Club - Love Em Leave Em
gLORIous Spectraflair Top Coat (in a WnW bottle)
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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Zoya - Cheryl

Today's mani is just a single color! Can you believe it? I bought some Zoyas from my polish fairy Traci and this one was so gorgeous that it was practically calling out to me!

I couldn't bring myself to put anything else on top of it, the color was so rich and deep and luxurious. So here you have it! Two coats of Zoya Cheryl, with topcoat. Isn't it a delight?

P.S. I highly suggest you click through these photos to view the swatch larger! 

Zoya - Cheryl, indirect sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight
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Monday, July 18, 2011

Mermaid scales.

Hello there! Today I'm showing off the mani that I did for the Polish-aholics Anonymous Monday mani theme: Glitterbomb! I'm a little new to the actual term "glitterbomb," but I gave it my best shot and was very pleased with the results. Unfortunately, I forgot to use base coat, so this pretty much peeled off in less than a day... oh well!

Turned Up Turquoise (the base color) was so pretty on its own that I didn't want to cover it up with glitter! It is technically a neon, and it had a very nice matte-ish finish that I am looking forward to seeing again soon.

China Glaze - Turned Up Turquoise
Sinful Colors - Nail Junkie
Milani Jewel FX - Gold

Backlit by morning light

Indoors, indirect sunlight


Indoors, indirect sunlight

Me showing it off!
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Saturday, July 16, 2011

Pokeballs

Hi everyone! Today I'm showing off a Pokeball mani. I have seen some pictures of this look going around and decided that it was just too cute for me not to try!

I started with two thin coats of China Glaze - White On White. Once that had dried, I roughly hand painted on two thin coats of China Glaze - Red Pearl. It should cover half of the nail, and try to get as straight of a line across the middle as you can. Don't worry about taping it though, since you still have to add the black over the top.

Once that has dried, draw a medium-thickness line across the divider between red and white, and add a black circle in the middle. Once THAT has dried, put a white dot in the middle of the black circle. I used Sally Hansen nail art pens for these steps.

Let dry and cover with topcoat! It's a pretty simple mani and definitely a crowd pleaser (well, if your crowd is a big bunch of awesome nerds, like mine is)!

China Glaze - White On White
China Glaze - Red Pearl
Sally Hansen Nail Art Pens - White, Black


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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

OPI Serena Williams Glam Slam France Duo

Hi guys! Yesterday I had some time to kill so I went nail polish shopping, obviously! There were quite a few polishes that I wanted to pick up, but I had to limit myself to just one (one duo, that is... ;]). I saw Rally Pretty Pink in the bottle and immediately started lusting after it! I have been meaning to pick up a shatter as well. I really wanted a black shatter, but RPP came with a red shatter, so I decided that would be okay too.

As I am so madly in love with this color, I didn't want to cover it up with so much shatter! I decided to do a French with it. However, as you might be able to see, shatter doesn't look great in a French-type application - the boy even said it just looked sort of messy. Oh well!

Rally Pretty Pink really is fantastically gorgeous. It applied nicely (this is only two coats!) and looks beautiful in any lighting. It's generally a rosy copper color, but can look more rosy or more copper depending on where you look at it.

How do you guys apply your shatter? Just all over the whole nail, or do you also do partial nail but cover more surface area than I did?

OPI Rally Pretty Pink
OPI Red Shatter

Sunlight
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Monday, July 11, 2011

Purple-y pink and flakies.

I recently cut down all my nails. They were different lengths and shapes and sizes and I just wanted to start clean. Yeah, I probably should have just filed them. Oh well!

I wanted to do a simple mani that wouldn't take too long and would still look nice. The design also couldn't be too complicated, because I didn't have as much nail space to work with! This mani is almost identical to the black and flakies mani that I did recently, but definitely has a different feel to it.

I did put down one layer of China Glaze - Heaven to try to make the thin "Dream On" by Sinful Colors pop a little more easily. I still applied two coats of it. I also did two coats of Nubar - 2010, and then topped it with the Matte Magic.

The first two are in nighttime, indoor lighting! It looks so much more purple when it's not in direct lighting. The third and fourth photos are in indirect sunlight, and the color seems a little more accurate, but still not quite there!

Sinful Colors - Dream On
Nubar - 2010
China Glaze - Matte Magic Topcoat



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Tape mani - Chevrons

This was inspired by Nailside. I'm not gonna lie to you guys, I had a really tough time with this mani! I was so so impatient and the polish was taking forever to dry, but I'd put the tape on anyway, and then it would ding up my previous layers as I went to pull it off! Thank god for Seche Vite, which smoothed everything out in the end to a respectable finish.

Not going to lie to you guys though, my left hand is pretty much disastrous. :]

China Glaze - White on White
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Wet Cement
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Gunmetal
China Glaze - Liquid Leather

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My firsts - matte and flakies.

Nubar 2010 and China Glaze's Matte Magic topcoat are the first two polishes that I've ever specially ordered. I mean, they weren't hard to find or anything (I ended up getting them on Amazon), but I wanted them oh so badly and just had to get my hot little hands on them.

I am absolutely in love with the matte look and can't wait to apply it to more manicures in the future. Nubar 2010 is also gorgeous, as I'm sure you already knew (and if you didn't, just look at it! YUM).

China Glaze - Liquid Leather
Nubar - 2010
China Glaze - Matte Magic Topcoat
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Minnie Mouse

China Glaze - Heaven
China Glaze - Red Pearl
Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen - Black
Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen - White
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Pink glitter and gunmetal French.

Wet 'N' Wild - Sparked
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Gunmetal
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My first tape mani - zigzags!

Sinful Colors - Let’s Meet
China Glaze - For Audrey
China Glaze - Rose Among Thorns
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Dark leopard.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Gunmetal
Sinful Colors - Dream On
Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen - Black
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Breakfast at Tiffany's

China Glaze in For Audrey
Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in White
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Fourth of July

Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in White
Sally Hansen Hi Definition in Laser
China Glaze in Red Pearl
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Constellations at dusk.

Sally Hansen HD Hi Definition in Laser
Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in White
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Monster teeth!

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Twisted Pink
Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Black
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Blogspot beginnings!

Hello! I know right now I'm basically talking into a vacuum, but hopefully I'll get some people around here soon. :) My name is Sarah and I'm totally new to the nail art scene! I love the creativity that people can achieve on such a small canvas. I hope to keep developing my skill and being inspired by others.

My next couple of posts will be me playing catch up on this blog -- posting a few older manis that I've done. I also have an accompanying Tumblr, over at http://chalkboardnails.tumblr.com.

Do say hello, if you are so inclined! :)
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