Pow! BAM! Whack!!

I did comic book inspired nails for the SLCC FanX back in April. I am proud of how well they turned out!

I used the following polishes.
White - Wet n Wild Shine Nail Polish, 449C
Black - Wet n Wild Shine Nail Polish, 424A
Blue - Pure Ice - Celestial 775CP
Yellow - Sally Hansen Hard as Nails, 610 Hard Lemonade
Green - Rimmel London 60 Seconds Nail Polish, 830 Camouflage
Red - Hard As Nails Extreme Wear Nail Color, 160 Cherry Red
Silver - Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear, 220 Celeb City

Plus of course, clear base and top coats.

I started with a couple coats of white, then using a dotting tool (in this case it was a large head pin stuck into the eraser of a pencil) I did the black dots. I did get help doing the dots on my right hand. Being right handed I'm not the best at painting with my left hand and all the dots looked more like smudges. :-S

Using a fine tipped brush I did the colorful parts. Then using a different color I added out lines to some of the jagged shapes. And then I used a super fine dotting tool I did my best to write the words. (The Pinky Picasso nail polish pens I got AT FanX would have made is SO much easier.) Some turned out really well, like POW and POP, others....looked better from farther away, haha. Over all though they turned out exactly how I pictured them in my head so I was happy.

Sorry for the poor quality, anyone who knows me knows I shake like a leaf in the wind, so my pictures are sometimes a little fuzzy.

I did a gel top coat on these ones so they would last longer, using a UV light made specifically for curing gel polish. It worked really well. Helpful tip though, make sure your nail polish is 100% dry before applying the gel top coat. Once the gel top coat is cured everything is sealed up and no air will get to the polish underneath. I made that mistake with these nail unfortunately so they only last a few days. Eventually the polish underneath started to crack and sort of bubble.

It didn't look bad, and I doubt anyone else looking at them would have noticed. But if anyone is like me, once there is one chip I have to pick off everything! I do NOT recommend this btw, haha, it's not good for your nails. Whenever I pick/peel my polish off I almost always damage the nail and have to trim them. So if you can resist the urge! Your nails will thank you.

Circuit boards!

I have been waiting forever to do these nails!! I finally got the nail stamping plates I ordered from Bundle Monster.

I ordered the nail stamping kit off amazon for under $5. I got the SHANY Stamping Nail Art Set. There are TONS of different brands and types of kits. I just picked a cheaper one that came with the stamper, the scraper, and the holder thingy (yes, that is the technical name). :)

And for this look I used Bundle Monster plate BM-145. The stamping plates are awesome. You can buy them in sets or individually from Bundle Monster. They are a little cheaper if you buy the whole set, but there were a few that I really wanted and I didn't want to buy several sets (the ones I really wanted weren't all in the same set). So I just bought the individual plates. Completely worth it though, I LOVE them!

There are some companies that sell the plates that insist you have to use their special nail polish in order for the stamping to work. And of course their "special" nail polish is more expensive. Admittedly my experience with these plates so far is extremely limited, but if you are patient and expect your first couple of tries to not be perfect, any nail polish works. I've used newer and older colors, and by that I mean freshly opened polish vs polish opened months ago. It all worked just fine.

Now on to my nails!

First I painted my clear base coat, and then I did a couple coats of Revlon Nail Enamel: Posh.

Seriously. They look awesome. I LOOOOOOOOVE them!!! :D

Then I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear, 220 Celeb City with the stamping plate. Finished it off with a clear top coat and I was done!

The stamper and the plates are super easy to use, pretty messy, but easy. I will hopefully in the future post a video on how to actually use it all.

Elegant as s***!

Ok, ok.  I know I've said this about all my nail, but I super loved these ones. And they happened completely accidentally, which just makes them even more awesome! I was actually trying to do the french tip dual color design I pulled off in my last post, but with silver and black instead of pink. but after failing miserably on two nails I decided to try something else and ended up with these beauties!

I put on my base coat. Then I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear, 220 Celeb City to paint the silver part on a diagonal.

Next I used Wet n Wild Shine Nail Polish, 424A Black Creme, to paint the black on the opposite diagonal.

 

Finish it off with a top coat and BAM! Super simple, elegant design!

Super fancy and girly

Black and pink french tips with pink flower accents. I loved these. My nails were super healthy and long so I wanted to show them off.

I put on the usual base coat, let it dry and then just used regular scotch tape to tape off the bottom part of my nail. If you look closely they aren't all even but it was close enough. Then I used Sally Hansen HARD as NAILS Xtreme Wear, 320 Fuchsia Power. I peeled the tape off, let the pink dry, then put new tape on, covering just the bottom part of the pink and then painted on the black layer; Wet n Wild Wild Shine Nail Polish, 424A Black Creme.

After the black dried I applied the flower decals, as much as I would love to claim I painted the flowers....I can't, they are decals. Then I finished it all off with a top coat and let it dry. Viola!

Patriotic Nails for the 4th of July

I of course had to have festive nails for the holiday, and decided to do something simple and fancy.

I started with the usual base coat and then painted the bottom 2/3 of my nail with Wet N Wild white nail polish. I would have done the whole nail, but my polish it getting old and gloopy. Then I painted the blue part on a diagonal. I used Pure Ice - Celestial 775CP, I really like it. Next I did the "stars" with an L.A. Looks

silver glitter polish. The red stripes are made from a red stripping tape. I cute them into manageable lengths, applied them to my nails, finished the nail off with a top coat and then once dry I used manicure scissors to snip off any extra overhang from the strips.

Cute Little Flowers

In my spare time I like painting my nails, and I like trying new techniques, colors, designs, etc. People seem to like them so I decided to showcase my skillz. And to be honest I do also like showing off my work. : D

Here is my latest work.

 

I really like how they turned out. For the flowers I used the Pinky Picasso nail art pens I bought at SLCC FanX in April. I LOVE them.

Pinky Picasso nail art pens <3

For the solid color I used Salon Perfect Professional Nail Lacquer, 109 Sweet Melon. I use always use the same base coat and top coat...until I run out at least. The base coat I use....I don't know actually, I got it from a coworker, but it's a gel base coat that helps strengthens the nail. I use OPI Top Coat NT T30.

On a more helpful note.. THE best top coat I have ever use is OPI RAPIDRY Quick Drying Top Coat NT T74. Seriously, it is amazing. I've used other quick drying polish, drying drops, dunking my nails is cold water, waiving my hands in the air like a teenage girl whose crush just glanced at her....I could go on, but you get the idea. I would still smudge my nails ALL the time, especially if I did my nails any time in the evening. I'd have imprints of my blankets or my face.  My coworker gave me a small bottle of the RAPIDRY to try and NO smudges. Put it on and 2 minutes later my nails were solid. I highly recommend it.