Neon Hearts

I really love the neon trend this season (and have always loved neons!) so when I saw this design I knew I had to try it. Mine is a bit more neon than the original.

 I used OPI Alpine Snow for the base, then China Glaze Celtic Sun on top. The pink is love & beauty Fuschia. I painted a little white heart with acrylic paint and then added chartreuse glitter. The colors are a lot brighter in person, almost glowing. This is one of my favorite looks so far!

And a mini haul:

MAC lipsticks in Quick Sizzle and Naughty Saute, Dior palette in Garden Pastels (441). 

Yay for spring colors!

Hello Kitty French

I did my friend Sara's nails recently. The design was her idea, she wanted pink polish with a Hello Kitty French tip accent (with a pink bow). I wish I had been able to make it a bit neater but I think it's pretty cute overall!

I used Hello Kitty for MAC Something About Pink and Vestral White.

Who doesn't love some Hello Kitty? ^^

Navy/Pink with Hearts

Blah, been so busy with school lately! I'm a full-time student x2 so I don't have as much time to do my nails. I'm trying to make some time, though. It's a hobby of mine and I do it to relax. I did find out that my esthetician class allows pretty much anything on your nails as long as the polish isn't chipped and your nails are short, yay! 

Anyway, here's what I've had on my nails recently, first pic is from a magazine. Please ignore the tip wear, these were taken a couple days after I did my nails (oh, and a couple pieces of glitter are missing!).

I tried using the little gold bullion beads but it was too difficult, the beads and glue were getting everywhere. It would have been a lot easier to use a tiny pop ball chain but I don't have one (yet). So, I thought some hex glitter would be a pretty good substitute. Also, in the magazine it looks like they used both pink and a peachy color, but I thought it would be a little too random-looking. It ends up looking pretty random anyway but I actually got lots of compliments (I think people like hearts!). The navy blue jelly is Nfu-oh 119, the pink is Essie Neo Whimsical. I do really like the contrast of the navy and pink, I'll have to keep that in mind.

Glitter Bindhi Mani

I saw this design in a magazine and it really caught my eye:

I love the way it looks like a beautiful, intricate bindhi design, so sparkly, feminine, and elegant. It also didn't look too hard (no time-consuming florals!) so I thought I'd try it out.

Here are the polishes I used:

Top row L to R: Milani Blue Flash, Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau, OPI Last Friday Night
Bottom row: no-name fuchsia glitter polish from Transdesign, Essie Splash of Grenadine, OPI Teenage Dream

First step was to paint little crescents with the glitter polishes, then shape them while the polish is still wet. I used a popsicle stick but an orange stick would be ideal.

Next, I painted French tips with the cream colors. I did this freehand but you can always use sticker guides of course.

Then, I added the sheer glitter toppers. As you can see the tips got a bit smeared so I would advise that you kind of pat the glitter on the tips rather than paint them on. This will minimize the smearing.

Last step was to add the pearls and rhinestones and a thick layer of topcoat:

After I had finished I realized I should have used a slightly darker blue but I still love the results! Rhinestone designs are a fairly easy way to make seemingly ornate designs without much effort. If you're not sure what you want I recommend buying one of the multi-sets on ebay for cheap. Born Pretty Store also has a whole kit you can buy with various rhinestones, orange sticks, dotting tools, and nail glue (link is my referral link).

If you're looking for nail art that is fairly easy but impressive, try this one!

Pink Nails with Jewels and Floral Accent

I was looking for a simple nail art design to try and found this one:

I thought it was really cute, I love the contrast of the navy nail against the pink nails, and that the flowers on the accent nail match the pink of the other nails. I didn't quite execute it as nicely, though; I need to work on my florals! Here's how it turned out:

I used Hello Kitty nail polish in Bubble Gum for the pink, Diamond Cosmetics Midnight Blue for the navy. The flowers were painted on with acrylic paint using a small brush and a toothpick. I attached a mix of rhinestones, bullion beads and hex glitter on the sparkly nails.

Looking at the design now, it kinda looks random, not as cohesive as I thought. I still like it though! Nail art is always fun!

Milani Gems over MAC Something About Pink

I did this one a while ago, because I was feeling festive:

Milani Gems over MAC Something About Pink. This is the new version of Gems, with pink glitter. I don't have Lippmann Happy Birthday to compare, but I think they are pretty much the same except for the fact that the small glitter in Gems is hexagonal and the small glitter in HB is square. This didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped; I am wearing three coats of each polish but I think it would have looked better with just one or two coats of Gems. I love the new Gems though! The pink glitter makes it more like party glitter rather than a holiday polish.

Happy Friday!

MAC Quite Cute Bottle Comparisons

I picked these up on Friday and decided to do some quick bottle comparison pics.

Here's Ice Cream Cake (middle) next to Something About Pink (left) and Diamond Cosmetics Cotton Candy. ICC is a beautiful, blue-toned Barbie pink, and I really don't have anything like it. Definitely a keeper.

Here is Little Girl Type next to Essie Lilacism. This picture isn't the greatest but LGT is paler and a bit more gray-toned than Lilacism. I love pastels so I think it's worth owning both, but if you're not a huge lavender fan you can skip this one.

Mischievous Mint (middle) next to Revlon Minted and Essie Mint Candy Apple. Compared to Minted, MM is a bit darker and more blue-toned. Compared to MCA, MM is more green and just a shade darker. I think I will be returning this one since I have so many mint greens already.

Hope this helps!

Chameleon Calypso

I was at Rite Aid the other day and came across this brand, Chameleon. Most of the colors are duochromes (if not all), but I was afraid it might be too brushstroke-y so I just picked up this one. Well, I think it's amazing! I promptly went back the next day to pick up a few more colors. Here is Calypso:





Isn't it amazing? The primary base color is kind of a metallic pinkish lavender that changes to a pale bluish silver, but in between there's dark blue, gold, and maybe purple? The duochrome effect is very strong. The finish actually wasn't frosty, it kind of reminds me of the Sally Hansen Chrome polishes; metallic, but no brushstrokes. The only thing is that it really shows every imperfection on your nails, so it might be good to use a ridge-filling base coat. Also, I added Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat but it didn't seem to have any effect at all, almost as if it had been absorbed into the polish. Weird. Other than that, the formula was pretty good. It was pretty easy to work with, but it dries very quickly, almost as quickly as a matte. You have to work fast with a fair amount of polish to prevent bald spots. I am wearing three coats in the pictures and you can actually still see through my nail a bit when I hold my hands up to the light, but the metallic finish really hides the sheerness.

Chameleon polish is made by Scherer, same company that makes CQ and petites (they were all in the same display when I found this one). According to the company's website, you can only find these at Rite Aid and they were $2.99 for .4 oz. There are some on ebay, but they're pricey.

I really love this color, can't wait to try the others!

Recent Nail Polish Hauls

Bought these in the past ten days or so:

MAC Wonder Woman Spirit of Truth and Obey Me


Hello Kitty Bubble Gum and Purple Sprinkles


pa A113, OPI Black Shatter, Last Friday Night, Teenage Dream, and Castledew Purple Miracle. Here is one coat of each over Hard Candy Sky:

Thumb to pinky: Black Shatter, Purple Miracle, Teenage Dream, Last Friday Night, A113. I will definitely need some practice applying Shatter. Last Friday Night kind of reminds me of Purple Sprinkles, I wonder how they compare?

I love playing with all of these, can't wait to really test them out!

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Purple Diamond LE and Pink Rose Diamond

So I heard about SH Nail Prisms on Scrangie's site, and I was really curious so I did a Google image search. They looked amazing! Of course, when I looked for them on ebay most colors cost an arm and a leg, especially popular ones like Garnet Lapis and Diamond (not LE). The following two colors you can usually find for a reasonable price ($5-7) so I decided to buy them.

First, Purple Diamond Limited Edition:


It's kind of a dusty purple holo. From what I understand, this bottle shape means it's limited edition, but I would recommend looking for the regular bottle (as follows). I believe the polish that comes in the regular bottles have a much stronger holo effect, you can't even tell this is a holo from the bottle alone. That said, under the right lighting it is very pretty. Formula kind of sucked, it was thin, sheer (this is four coats), and never dries. I wonder if all older polishes are like this? Again, I would look for the regular bottle.

Pink Rose Diamond:


This one comes in the regular bottle and the holo effect is pretty strong. It's more of a linear holo whereas the LE is a diffused one. It's a beautiful magenta holo, and even in low lighting it's sparkly. In the right lighting the holo effect is very strong. Same formula problems, but it's such a gorgeous color! I waited about an hour for it to dry before I got frustrated and added a coat of Seche Vite, but it never fully dried (I can still make dents if I press my nail into the polish).

Overall, it's probably better to invest in some Nfu-oh but I thought these were pretty different from their offerings. Why don't they make colors like this anymore??

Heart Glitter Mani

Yay, another heart/V-Day-themed mani! I did a very simple one this time, mostly because my nails are shorter.




Here are the colors I used:

L to R: Essie Pop Art Pink, Revlon Minted, HK for MAC Vestral White, Essie Lilacism

Here are the tools:

Just some heart-shaped glitter I bought on ebay. You can find this at some nail supply stores or craft stores, or you can try using confetti from a party supply store, or even nail polish with heart glitter in it already.

I used colors that reminded me of conversation hearts and basically just alternated them on my nails. You can use five different colors of course, but I think three or four looks a little less random. I used similarly colored heart glitter to put on top of the polish while it was still wet. I just moistened my fingertip to pick up the individual glitters and place them on the nail. You can use whatever tools you want to pick them up, of course.This is a cute and super easy mani to do, and it looks great on any length!

Eleven more days until Valentine's Day, hope you've made reservations!

Valentine's Mani with Hearts and Pearls

I am starting off my V-Day manis (hopefully one of at least a few) with something very girly and cute! Here's the inspiration:

I think this is from Nail Up, though I can't remember which issue. I like the balance between whimsical and pretty; the hand-painted hearts are fun and unpretentious but the pearls add a bit of elegance.

Here are the tools I used:

Just a small brush (to paint the hearts) and some plastic flat-back pearls. You can find both of these things for very cheap on ebay.

The colors:

L to R: Essie Petal Pink, Essie Neo Whimsical, Catrice Lucky in Lilac

I started off with two coats of Petal Pink (sheer pink) just to correct the color of my nails (there is some staining) and to blur out the lunula a bit (the little white half-moon part at the cuticle). For the thumb and middle finger you can just paint the very bottom and skip the pinkies altogether. The sheer nail polish base will also make it easier to stick on the pearls. I then added three coats of Neo Whimsical, painting only the tips of the index and ring fingers, not painting the bottom part of the middle fingers and thumbs, and completely covering the pinkies. Next, I painted the hearts with Lucky in Lilac, which was the hardest part. It might be easier to use acrylic paint for this step instead of a polish, I'll have to try it next time. Finally, I used topcoat to stick on the pearls and then covered it all with more top coat.

Here is the finished product:



In hindsight, I should have painted on the hearts after adding the pearls instead doing the hearts before. I also planned on having smaller hearts (more like the original inspiration), but they were much harder to paint than I anticipated. Still, I am very happy with the result!