Jelly Sandwich Nails

I have got a jelly sandwich mani to show you all today.  I am sure some of you are wondering what the heck a jelly sandwich is.  Jelly nail polishes are sheer or milky creme nail polishes, you know those kind that seem to take a ton of coats to become opaque.  OPI calls them "sorbets" last year they released some in their Texas collection (I used one of them for this manicure).  A few of the neon Milani's are neon (Techno Red and Rad Purple).  Really you can check by seeing how sheer the polish is around the rim of the bottle when you take the brush out.

Anyways for a jelly sammy you do one to two coats of your jelly nail polish, a coat of a chunky glitter and then another coat or two of you jelly.  It looks super pretty and gives the nail polish depth.  The end result look really cool and it's a great way to use a polish that you think is too sheer on its own.

I used OPI Y'all Come Back Ya Hear? and an silver hexagonal glitter from LA Colors (sorry I have no name for it).  I used two coats of the OPI, one coat of the glitter and two more coats of the OPI.

Thunder Up!

In honor of the OKC Thunder playing their first game against the Spurs tonight, I chose to do a Thunder mani. 

I used Orly Sweet Peacock and China Glaze Papaya Punch.  I used a dotting tool for the dots.  Enjoy and go Thunder!!!!! :D

Lisa Frank Inspired Nails

As a kid I loved anything Lisa Frank, I had a million folders, Trapper Keepers, stickers etc. I was obsessed!!  I love the bright colorful designs she did (and still does).  It is great inspiration for a fun colorful mani.

I started with a base of Orly Au Champagne, the did a gradient with Color Club Electro Candy, Pure Energy, Ultra Violet, and What A Shock!  I then stamped over it with the Express Manicure kit using the star image, I used Wet N Wild Black Creme.  Then topped it off with a glitter top coat, that is honestly a mixture of a bunch of glitters that looked better mixed together than on their own.  I am not the best stamper in the world and this is my first full manicure that I have attempted to stamp.

I like the end result, just wished I was better at stamping haha!!  Also neon's really do drive me nuts to try and photograph, this is way more vibrant in real life.

Blue Accent Mani

I tried something different with a few accent nails today.  I did my index and pinky instead of thumb and ring.  I kind of like it!  I used China Glaze Electric Beat and Milani One Coat Glitter Blue Flash.

Ugh sorry I struggled to get this as color accurate as possible!

Neon Mani With A Glitter Accent

I have been obsessed with neon colors lately!  I thought some skittles with a glitter accent would be cute.  I really like how this mani turned out.

 

Colors from thumb to pinky Color Club Chelsea Girl, Orly Glowstick, Sally's Girl no name purple neon, China Glaze Polarized, and Milani Techno Red.  Neon's are super hard to photograph so the purple and blue are a lot darker looking in person and the red has gone all glowy the way neon's do sometimes when you try to take a picture of them.

Nail Art

I figured I would post a few nail art designs that I like to do today. 

First up is a dotticure, this pretty simple to do and all you need is a bobby pin or a toothpick.  I used and dotting tool which you can get at Sally's Beauty Supply.  This is Zoya Maura and Purity.  I love this one!

Next up are a couple of aztec mani's, these are some what hard to do especially when you are trying to do the nail art with your non-dominant hand.  But if you go slow and try to keep your hand steady it is pretty easy and turn out looking really cool.  I used pastels for both of these but you could use any color and they would look really good with just one base color instead of skittles.  I used a stripper polish from LA Colors, the Art Deco ones, you can find them in a bunch of different colors at Dollar Tree.

Lastly is a marbled manicure, this probably the only way I will ever where marbles as a few accent nails.  I am not the best at them and they are a pain in the butt to do from my experience.  But they look really cool when they are done.

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.

Strawberry Nails

Sorry I haven't posted a tutorial yet!  I have been super busy with work and home life.  I do have some really cute nails to show you guys today though.  I had put one of Essie's new neon polishes Bazooka on, which is a neon orange red with coral tones to it???  Haha it is a hard color to describe it changes colors depending on the lighting sometime it looks really orange and then kind of red orange or a really red coral color.  Anyways I wanted something fun so I decided to do some strawberries on my nails.

This is really easy to do I used a dotting tool that has a little tiny brush on one end and a dotting tool on the other.  I painted the "leaves" first with Color Club Twiggie using the little brush, you can use the dotting tool to make the leaves but I find it easier to use the little brush.  Then I used Finger Paints Lemon Sour for the "seeds"  just randomly dotting it on.  I put a top coat on to seal everything and make the neon leaves shiny. 

Also if you don't have a dotting tool you can use the end of a bobby pin or toothpick.

Pink Lemonade Nails

Just thought I would post a pic of one of my favorite mani's!  I love this color combo.  I used Orly Cotton Candy, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Yellow Kitty, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Set the Stage.

I should have another tutorial up tomorrow!

Some Random Crackle Manicures

I thought I would post a few crackle manicures that I have done.  I know some people might be tired of seeing crackle nail polish but I like to use crackles to jazz up a mani that I am bored with and sometimes the result is something really cool, like the one from my first post where I used OPI Blue Shatter over a neon gradient. 

This first one is China Glaze Electric Pineapple with Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat Fractured Foil.  I love Electric Pineapple so frickin much!  I know for some it is not a typical nail polish color and a lot of people may not like it, but it is probably one of my favorites from China Glaze and it's a great color for summertime.

The next one is a turquoise nail polish with China Glaze Crackle in Cracked Medallion.  Sorry but the turquoise is a color I mixed up myself with a LA Colors teal colored nail polish and white nail polish but there are plenty of similar colors out there such as, China Glaze For Audrey or Finger Paints Tiffany Impostor.  Probably my favorite combo for a copper crackle is to pair it with a jade or turquoise colored base.  It reminds me of copper when it oxidizes. You could also pair a turquoise crackle with a copper base.

This last one is Sally Hansen Salon Perfect Manicure Gilty Pleasure with China Glaze Crackle Broken Hearted.  Not sure why I like this combo so much, although I think pink and gold look so pretty together.

Hope you enjoyed! I have a few more tutorials in the works coming soon.  Hopefully a glitter gradient one and a "shabby chic" inspired one!