4th of July Mani

What a weekend, with my husbands 20th high school reunion and whatnot, it's been pretty hectic.  I did manage to do a 4th of July mani that I am hoping will last through the actual 4th of July.

sunlight

flash inside

I did this design with China Glaze Ruby Pumps for the french tip, Sinful Colors Nail Art striper in Lagoon, and Sally Hansen Xtreme in White On for the dots.  I love how sparkly Ruby Pumps is, a feature of this polish that did not translate in the pictures very well.  I put a coat of China Glaze Love Letters and a coat of Seche Vite over the red tips before adding the blue smile line and white dots, and then another coat of Seche Vite over them after the striping and dotting.  I like this manicure, it wasn't what I had originally planned, and sometimes when I glance down at it I have flashbacks to playing Super Mario Brothers in the 80's. 

I had originally planned a white tip over a blue tip, and red sparkly lines on the white part of the tip, but I screwed up the blue tip and had to start over I managed to smurf myself removing Sally Hansen Xtreme Blue It, and spent two and a half hours de-smurfing and whitening my nails, after that I had zero desire to put any blue in any significant amount back onto my nails, so red it was.

Hope everyone had a good holiday weekend, 4th of July for the American's and Canada Day for the Candians, I hope everyone stayed safe and happy.  Until next time.

throwing in the towel

I attempted to take pictures of my current mani today, but could not get the camera to actually take a picture that wasn't so blurry it looked like it was taken underwater, I blame the glitter.  Blurry pictures are good for showing the glittery goodness of a polish that usually doesn't show up well in focused pictures, so I am saving some of those to post when I actually get a good picture of the mani. 

So instead I took pictures of three nail art swatches I did for GLBT Pride month, I plan on wearing one of them to Pridefest next weekend, I just can't decide on the accent nail, maybe putting them up will help me decide.

sorry so blurry, you get the idea

 This is going to be the main design on all my nails, at least the rainbow french is, I'm trying to decide on what will go on my ring fingers, the choices are the pink triangle you see above, with or with out the pink glitter on it, the other two options are:

rainbow stripes under black crackle

This is horizontal rainbow stripes with black crackle over it, may or may not add the glitter.

rainbow dots over white

This is just rainbow dots, I would probably use more traditional red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple in the correct order.

So those are the three options for my accent finger, same french as the rest but with a pink triangle on ring finger, rainbow stripes under black crackle, or rainbow dots, decisions, decisions.

Some old manicures

I did a new mani tonight, tonight being the operative word which means there isn't any good light to take pictures of it, so I will have that tomorrow.  In the mean time I thought I would post some pictures of old manicures I did.  There are only 4, so this shouldn't take too long.

Black=Nicole by O.P.I-Razzle Dazzler, Red Glitter=Stripe Rite-698568 (red glitter), SV

This was one of the first manicures I tried, and I loved it, the pictures, taken after almost a week of wearing, don't do justice to how shiny and sparkly this mani was, I was sad to take it off.

background=China Glaze-For Audrey, stems and petals=black and white stripers, pink dots=Essie-French Affair, SV

 This is the first design I did by painting on a Ziploc bag, and I can say I wouldn't recommend doing something with thin little branches with the baggie method.  This was my celebration of Spring (my favorite season) design.

Next up are two Memorial Day designs I did, my husband is ex-Army, and my best friend is getting ready to retire as a Gunnersmate from the Navy.

Black=Nicole by O.P.I.-Razzle Dazzler, yellow=L.A. Colors Art Deco in yellow, Army logo=same black and yellow and white is Savvy-French White White (yes white occurs twice in the name), a layer of China Glaze-Love Letters on french nails, SV

Another Ziploc creation, didn't turn out as nice as I wanted it to, but people got the picture, I painted a white line under the yellow smile lines so that the yellow would actually stand out.

And finally

Blue=China Glaze-First Mate, yellow=Icing-Butta, white=Savvy-French White White, a layer of China Glaze-Love Letters on french nails, SV

This is a cell phone picture I took to send to him so he didn't feel left out, sorry about the lobster hands and the quality.  The little emblem on the ring finger is the crossed cannons and is the rate insignia for a Gunnersmate, GMG stands for Gunnersmate-guns, which just means he dealt with, well guns, as opposed to missiles or torpedoes.

You will notice that I am quite obsessed with french manicures right now, and probably will be for awhile.  Like I said in my first post, looking up videos on how to do a french that didn't look all wonky was what got me into nail art and has fed my polish addiction.  So now that I know how to make them look at least half way decent, I love doing them, and I think they look good on my nails.  I know, I know french mani's are considered passe now, but as you can obviously see I'm not doing traditional french's, so long as I keep them colorful and interesting, I don't think they are all that dated.

Tomorrow I should have pics of my current mani, and possibly some haul pictures.

Until Then.

summer pink and turquoise french

This is what my swatch of Revlon's Just Tinted in Victorian turned into.

base coat, 3 coats Victorian, 1 thick coat Blue Me Away, Seche Vite topcoat on all but ring finger, which has the sun added and an additional coat of SV.

Please excuse my funky cuticles, this mani has been on for 6 days , which is also why you can see tip wear.

Polishes used:
Pink: Revlon Just Tinted - Victorian
Turquoise: Sally Hansen Xtreme wear - Blue Me Away
Yellow: Icing - Butta

The sun was actually painted on to a ziploc bag allowed to dry and then transferred to my nail.  I painted it over a white so it would actually be vibrant when put over the darker pink and turquoise.

My husband actually picked out the tip color and I wasn't so sure until I put it on, and loved the way it looked, really summery, which is what I was going for.  The sun wasn't added until the next day when my son asked "so what? no design?".  Then I had to add one lol.

Hauled some stuff today but didn't get home until after dark so I couldn't take decent pictures, looks like it's going to be yucky and cloudy for the next day or two, just as long as the heat is gone for awhile I'm OK with that.

I stopped by a Dollar General that I hadn't been to yet, and bought:
Sally Hansen Xtreme wear in Gunmetal and Purple Potion
Sally Hansen fastdry in How I Met Your Magenta
L.A. Colors Art Deco in purple/blue glitter
a bottle of Poshe nail strengthening treatment base coat on the clearance shelf for $1, I know who even knew that Dollar General had a clearance shelf.

Then I hit up Sally's Beauty supply and picked up:
China Glaze Lubu Heels
China Glaze Shower Together
Orly Here Comes Trouble
inm Northern Lights silver
Finger Paints Scenery Greenery which was on clearance for $1.99, guess they won't be carrying this color anymore
I also picked up 2 cute little bottles of Sally Girl polish, which I use mostly for nail art in 812097 which is a light holo blue and 812112 which is a medium pink with pink and holo glitter.

Hopefully I can get pictures of them tomorrow, the bottles at least not necessarily swatches lol.

Until next time.