Happy New Year!

Hey guys,

Hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year.  I have my very first mani of 2013 to show today.  I had done a different mani for New Years Eve and it got destroyed before I could get any pictures of it, so I did this one yesterday.  I love feather mani's they always looks so delicate and pretty!

I used OPI Skull and Glossbones, China Glaze Polarized, Wet N Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint and an Amuse white nail art pen.

 

 

 

 

Christmas Candy Gradient

Hey guys,
I love this combo!  It looks like candy on my nails and I think the pink looks so pretty with the festive glitter.  FYI the brush on this Salon Perfect glitter is awful, I need to empty it into a different bottle.

I used China Glaze Dance Baby and Salon Perfect Glam Glitter

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sparklicious Gradient

I did this reverse gradient with L'Oreal Sparklicious, a gorgeous glitter from their holiday collection.  This glitter is serious perfection, it is such a light gold it is almost silver but is still appears gold. Haha sorry that is a weird description of it, really this polish is a cooler toned version of China Glaze Blonde Bombshell, which is probably one of my favorite glitters ever, except for there are no tiny bar glitters in this one.  I wanted to try it with a gradient first but it would look really good over a bunch of different polishes and is a perfect accent nail color.

I used Color Club High Society and L'Oreal Sparklicious

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also on a side note I am working on the way I take my pictures and the lighting, so I will appoligize in advance if my pictures are cropped differently or the lighting is different than usual.  I am just working on improving my photo quality!

 

 

 

 

Christmas Glitter Gradient

Can I go ahead and start doing Christmas nail art now?  I having been itching to do some holiday themed nails and I think since Thanksgiving has passed it is appropriate.  My base is China Glaze Make Some Noise and the glitter is a franken.  I used an Wet N Wild mini from a few holidays ago it is a red glitter with large hexagon and small round glitter pieces, then I used the silver hexagon glitter from Sally's Girl and Sinful Colors Call You Later which is a green and gold glitter mixture.  I was going for a China Glaze Party Hearty esque franken (man I regret never getting this one!), it is not an exact dupe but it will do!

Tiffany Imposter

I think I have an addiction to Tiffany blue colored polishes.  I grabbed this one by Finger Paints the other day and I got it home and realized I had at least two others that were almost exactly the same!  In my defense this one is more blue toned than the other two but still...

I used Finger Paints Tiffany Imposter, Nina Ultra Pro Holographic Top Coat, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Set The Stage and Cover Girl Gold Rush

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ugh I hate how glitter photographs w/ flash it makes it look really sparse which is not how it appears in real life at all!

 

 

31 Day Challenge, Day 23 Inspired by a Movie

My inspiration for this challenge was The Hunger Games, more specifically Effie Trinket's nails.  If you google or get on youtube and search Effie Trinket nails I am sure quite a few tutorials will pop up for this one.  I have actually done a mani very similar to this way before the movie came out but I used a different gold for the gradient.   For this one I used China Glaze Strawberry Fields (probably the most gorgeous pink nail polish in the world) and China Glaze Blonde Bombshell. 

31 Day Challenge, Day 4 Green

This mani has gotten so many compliments!  It is so pretty in real life I wish it translated better in the pictures.

I used Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris and then did a glitter gradient with Orly Mermaid Tale.

 

 

 

 

 

Fall of Surprises!

I picked up one of the new Finger Paints fall nail polishes , Fall of Surprises!, the other day.  I had seen some promo shots of them and I knew that I needed this one.  It is a copper glitter that has small round and larger hexagonal glitter in it.  It is packed with glitter and would probably be opaque on its own with two coats.

I decided to do a glitter gradient with this one and my base is Revlon Top Speed Royal.

Happy Fourth of July!

Ok I promise this is my last Fourth of July mani.  This is the one I have had in mind to do for a while now for the actual Fourth.  I did a glitter gradient w/ Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue, China Glaze Ring In the Red and L.A. Girls Glitter Addict Animate . Hopefully the pictures are okay I changed my image hosting site because I was having serious issue with the one I have been using.

Ocean Blue Nails

I am in love with this mani!  I think the colors are so pretty together and it is very summery to me.  The pictures of this do not do it justice, it so pretty in real life.

I used Zoya Charla and then did a glitter gradient with Orly Here Comes Trouble.

Coral Bombshell Gradient

I finally got my hands on China Glaze Blonde Bombshell!  I passed this up several times and then when I couldn't find it anymore I wanted it.  I ended up scoring it at Sally's while they were having their 50% off clearance sale so I ended up paying $1.50 for it I think.

I did a glitter gradient with it using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Coral Reef for the base and then used Blonde Bombshell for the gradient.  I love this mani so much!

OKC Thunder NBA Finals Nails

I did another Thunder mani, this in honor of them making it to the NBA Finals!  I am so excited for the first game tomorrow.

It took me forever to figure out what to do for this one, I really liked the last one I did but I definitely didn't want to do the same thing as last time.  I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue (fyi one of my all time favorite blues if not my favorite), Color Club Tangerine Scream, and China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara.  For the glitter I just did a reverse gradient by starting at the base of my nail instead of the tip.

Glitter Gradient Nails Tutorial

Here is my glitter gradient tutorial.  This is pretty easy and you don't need any special tools or anything to achieve the look.

Step 1:  Paint your nails with a base color of your choice.  I used Wet N Wild I Need A Refresh-Mint.

Step 2:  Choose a glitter nail polish, you can use one that has really fine glitter or one that has larger pieces in it as well.  I used Milani Jewel Fx Teal glitter for this one.  Wipe almost all of the glitter off of the brush by swipping it on the bottle opening and apply it in downward strokes starting at the tip of you nail and working towards the middle to 3/4 of the way down the nail.  Leave some of the base color at the base of the nail free of glitter.

Step 3:  Apply another light coat of glitter from the middle of the nail to the tip.  This will start to give you the gradient effect we are looking for.

Step 4: Apply the glitter to just the tips of the nails making the tips as opaque with glitter as you can.  Apply a top coat and you are done!

Sorry for the very flashy pics, it's nighttime and I had to use flash indoors.  The gradient looks much more opaque at the tips in real life.  I suggest if you are going to try this for the first time use a finer glitter with no big hexagonal pieces in it because they are a bish to try and get to look right in a glitter gradient!

Here are a couple of examples of glitter gradients I have done before.  I really like to use a more neutral color with these they look really nice.  The first one is OPI Skull and Glossbones with OPI Glow Up Already.  The second is Wet N Wilds Grey Anatomy (fyi I added about 30 drops of black to my Gray Anatomy because it was really sheer before) with Cover Girl City Lights.