A quick Hunger Games Mani!!

The Hunger Games released on DVD today! I have had this marked on my calendar for probably a month. I really enjoyed the books, as well as the movie. So, I don't have to explain my inspiration for my mani that i did this morning. I apologize in advance that there is a little wear on the tips. I painted them at 7am, and it is not 12 hours later, on a Saturday, doing all kinds things causing quick nail polish wear. I still loved how it came out and decided to share anyway! No special method this time around. I just used the polish brush for the glitter and carefully layered it on the tips.

I used:

Base Color: China Glaze - Stone Cold

Glitter: China Glaze - Electrify

Top Coat: Seche Vite

So yes, at this point this mani is nothing new. But I still love it and wanted to share it!! 

Have you tried have of the Hunger Game inspired manis yet?

News on Pedal Faster Suzi!

This was my first newsprint mani attempt. I have seen so many photos of this mani on white or grey bases - well white looks very strange on my nails to me, and I really need to get some other greys that I can use more frequently. Any suggestions? Please? Haha!  I deiceded to give this a shot on a pastel shade. I thought this pink was perfect - its light enough to not overpower the print and has that great shimmer I love so much about this color! So lets get to the photos shall we?


Base Color: OPI Pedal Faster Suzi - 3 coats
Newspaper - Arizona Republic ;)
Top Coat - Seche Vite

I cut small squares of the newspaper. Then I would dip my nail into 70% Isopropyl Alcohol for a couple seconds. I would place a square on my nail and press it onto my nail, using a alcohol-dipped Q-Tip to press in the sides and moisten any sections that are dry - but careful not to let the paper slide around. There is enough alcohol on the nail from soaking it to absorb into the paper and create the transfer. Last I slowly lifted the paper off my nail, let it dry and added topcoat.

Effie Trinket Mani!

Just recently I went to a bridal show with my mom. The day before I decided I needed something girly and sparkly. So I went after the Effie Trinket gradient from The Hunger Games movie, and glitzed it up a little. Even though the gold has a nice sheen I wanted a little extra sparkle when the light hit it. I took these photos Sunday night so there is some wear on the tips.

We had a great time at the bridal show - I got to have some mom time AND I won a couple of raffles. $100 gift card to a local salon, and possibly teeth whitening for my entire wedding party (I have yet to call them back, they're closed now. So I'm not sure if there's a catch. haha!). 

On with the photos!

I used:

Base Color: Zoya - Regan

Gold Sponging: Color Club - Disco Nap

Glitter - Color Club - Gold/holo glitter (unnamed)

My Mockingjay Earrings!!!

I got these Saturday afternoon and couldn't resist taking the photo with them!

Portal2 Nails Art

This was a triumph. I'm making a note here; HUGE SUCCESS. As some of you may have notice me mention on FB, we went to the Phoenix Comic Con over the weekend. This is an event that we NEVER miss. I went every year, and then got to take RJ for his first con experience when we first started dating. The only thing different about this year was that we only went for one day, which was a little strange, but we still had a blast nonetheless. This year was just awesome, a lot of great vendors, chatting with some of our favorite artists, a ton of amazing costumes, and good friends and laughs.

So it was Friday night, and I decided a geeky mani was necessary regardless if anyone sees them. Did some looking around online and then just went crazy. I did a test run of a few on a nail wheel to make sure I was capable to do some of these left handed and then dove in.

Enjoy the photos!

Everything I used. Aside from the stripers, you see OPI Skull & Glossbones, China Glaze Liquid Leather, Essie Chinchilly, and Color Club He Loves Me. This was also my first time using rhinestones. 

Aliens!!

The last of my challenge Manis that I have to share! Feel free to rejoice! This day was Inspired by the supernatural. So why not make it fun and make some silly little aliens!

I used:
Base Color: China Glaze - Smoke & Ashes
Aliens: Zoya - Mitzi
Top Coat - Seche Vite

Inspired by a Flag Mani!

This one required a little thought - Inspired by a Flag. I had figured that there would be a lot for the American Flag, I wanted something a little different. So here we go - The Arizona Flag! I have been in AZ since I was very little. I love it here! So why not a better choice - and also to celebrate its' centennial this year.

Heres what I used!

China Glaze - Harvest Moon (Copper Star)

Butter London - Knees Up

Zoya - Tallulah

Wet n Wild - The Wonder Yellows

Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen - Black (base under the star)

I started with yellow, and tape mani'd the blue tips. Once this was done I drew on star with the pen, and topped it off in copper. Last, I hand painted red stripes. 

Polka Dots! Feat. Zoya Kate!

Yep!

Another challenge mani! This one - Inspired by a Pattern. Why not my favorite...Polka Dots!

I used:

Base: Zoya - Avril - 2 coats

Color: Zoya Kate from the Bloggers Trio. This is such an amazing squishy, neon, citrus-y pink!

Dots: China Glaze - Liquid Leather

I loved the final result of this one - especially this the black not being completely opaque. It keeps the squishy look to it!

Nails on Fire!

Another challenge mani - this one - Inspired By a Book. Well, since I am still working on the Hunger Games series, I have been wanting to try this out. While I wasn't 100% pleased with this one - the photos make it look much better. So I am alright with it! haha! I was in need of a better nail art brush for painting the finer detailed things (which I have now! woo!) so the Mockingjay was a bit scratchy to me. I am VERY over critical of my work though haha!

Enjoy!

I used:
Base Color: Zoya Raven
Flames: So Easy Stripe Rite in Yellow & Red, ORLY Striper in Tangerine, and Sinful Colors - Bad Chick.
Mocking Jay: Sinful Colors - Pot o' Gold

I after the black had dried I used the white striper to paint the flame shape first so the colors wouldn't need multiple coats to stand out. And on with the photos...

Inspired by a movie - Lord of the Rings!

So now I am finally playing catch up on here! I apologize for my lack of posting lately. Work was a bit crazy, and I was a little under the weather for a few days, the time I had to actually sit at the desk was to get a head a few days for the challenge. But its ended, I'm feeling better and work has mellowed out a bit. So enjoy the multiple posts coming up! At least I can promise some eye candy!

So here was my Inspired by a Movie!

I chose Lord of the Rings! And in a sense I used a "precious" for my base coat!

So here I used Chanel - Peridot 2 coats (the precious!)
I topped this off with NYC Matte Me Crazy - I used this as the art pen seems to draw nicer than on a gloss.
Drew on with Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Black
And topped it off with Seche Vite for the necessary shine!

Enjoy!

Challenge mani - Inspired by a Song

I am a bit behind updating with photos from the 31 Day challenge - and I am working on catching you all up!

This was day 22 of the challenge - Inspired By: A Song. As a big Beatles fan -I choose HELP!

I used:
Essie - Chinchilly
Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Black
NYC Matte Me Crazy

I learned that with using the nail art pens - that they draw much easier on a matte vs anything glossy. So I topped the grey with the matte coat, drew on my little dudes, and then topped it again to protect the art and give it an even matte coat.

Day 20 - Water Marbled! ANOTHER first!

This challenge has been a lot of fun! I have been trying a lot of new things that I was a little weary about, like this one!

Water Marbling!

I used OPI Alpine Snow as a base color. Then I used three of the four colors from the Essie Poppy-razzi collection; Lights, Camera, and Action. Now on to the photos! I included both hands in this one too!

Left Hand 

Right Hand

Left Hand

Right Hand

Left Hand 

Right Hand

Day 19 - Galaxy Nails! A first attempt!

Day 19 for the 31 day challenge was Galaxy Nails. I was stumped a little bit when i first say this on the list. "What the heck are galaxy nails!?" Thanks to good old Google Image my question was answered. I ran into this tutorial (her tutorials are all very simple and easy to follow btw!) by cutepolish HERE and went to town!

My final results!

My middle nail is a bit of a nub status - it broke off Thursday morning at work. I decided to just deal with one shorter - with the challenge I didn't want to shorten the others and loose the extra space to work with. Once the challenge is over I will shorten the others to even it out a little - and by then the nub hopefully wont be quite as "nubby"! :)

Here is what I used!

• Base - Zoya Raven - one coat followed by one coat of Seche Vite so I didn't have to wait forever to start the sponging.  (the little plate pictured - I picked a couple of these up the last time we were at the Asian Market. They are inexpensive, work well for pools for dotting, painting, and sponging, and they clean up suuuuper easy with a little acetone!)
• Nebulas - (in order of use) OPI Skull & Crossbones, The NailJunkie Daffodil, Zoya Mia, and China Glaze First Mate. These were all sponged on by dipping the torn pieces of the makeup sponge into a small pool of polish, holding it with the tweezers. 
• Stars - OPI Alpine Snow - I used the small pointed tip of one of my dotting tools for the small stars (couldn't find our toothpicks at the time - next time I'll use those for sure) and then the smallest ball tip for the larger stars.
• Top - I used China Glaze Fairy Dust to add a starry sparkle to finished product. 
• Top Coat - a layer of Seche Vite for shine and protection. 

Day 12 - Animal Print!

This day was a lot of fun!! I was about to stamp it but decided to try and learn something new and paint it myself. I wanted something detailed and unique so I Google Imaged the subject and ran across this tutorial on Emily's Nail Files. Next time I do this one I am trying the tiger face for sure!

I used:
Base - China Glaze Riveting
Yellow - China Glaze Lighthouse (sponged on)
Stripes - White - Sinful Colors Bad Chick
               Black - China Glaze - Liquid Leather (painted with a art brush)
Top Coat - Seche Vita

And my final results!

OMG! I have a right hand!! This one isnt cleaned up as I originally wasnt planning on taking a photo of it - but I felt it was necessary. As most of you know its crazy hard to paint with your non dominant hand. I was happy how well this hand turned out too - even with how crazy my left hand was shaking!

Polka Dots!

Yes....another challenge mani! This one was very spontaneous and fun!

I had just received  Color Club Revvvolution in the mail and I was dying to see it. So I threw on a couple of coats and grabbed the first raspberry-like pink I saw and dotted away! I really liked how this turned out and plan on doing this one again!


Color Club Revvvolution - 2 coats
Zoya - Dita
No top coat