My first leopard print.

I've been wanting to try doing leopard print on my nails for awhile but I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. At first, I didn't like it at all. It was hard for my perfectionist personality to let go on this one. I didn't want the dots to be perfectly round and the black around the dots isn't supposed to be even. After I finished, though, I decided I really liked it. I will definitely be doing this again with different polishes.

Stripes on stripes

I've seen variations of this manicure several time and I always find it so cute so I had to try it out. It would really work with any color polishes and any striping pattern that you wanted. So fun!

Starry nights.

I received an order of nail art - stars, words, butterflies... everything you can think of! - and wanted to use some of it. I decided on a black French manicure with stars.

Since I like an accent nail, I used some striping tape to add stripes to my ring fingers. The tape was pink and it bled through onto my nail after I used the black polish. I still liked the manicure, though.

I ♥ dogs!

I have several posts to do but I just did this manicure and I wanted to go ahead and share it. I really wanted to do a tribute to Zeus and Apollo but I didn't have the right polish. Of course, I could have just stuck with paw prints and their initials, but I really wanted to see if I could work out something that at least looked like a dog!


I started with a French manicure and added the paw prints with a toothpick. I really need to spend the $5.00 and get some dotting tools from eBay. I think they would be a lot easier to work with!

On my ring finger, I made a half oval of white, two coats. Then, using the toothpick, I made the ears and eyes and followed that up with a top coat.


Let me first say that I branched out from my love, Seche Vite, and tried Orly Sec'n Dry. So not impressed. You can see the drag lines on my nails. Especially on that right ring finger. I used the SV on the rest once I realized how the Orly was completely messing up the designs. That will be used only for single color polishes from now on.

I finished up the dog with a glimmer in his eyes, a nose, mouth and little pink tongue. Rather than trying to recreate this on my right hand, I just doubled up on the paw prints, as you can see from the picture before this one.

I love this manicure! It's fun and it's something close to my heart. If it wasn't for the Orly mishap, I would consider this an A+. But at least now I know for next time.

Fun with a black French.

Somehow I missed taking pictures of this manicure while I did it. That's what happens when I do my nails in front of the TV. I get distracted. I do love the outcome, though.

I have been using the Konad and Monsters more lately. I have a few upcoming manicures to post. I'm starting to like the idea more. I have found an awesome gold that is perfect for stamping. I need to find a good silver one next. If I can find a good silver one before the ball, I may stamp my nails for that night. Keep your fingers crossed!

Nicole holiday polish

I did my next manicure with the Nicole Brrr Brrr Burgundy. This is such a pretty red polish. I took a picture with and without flash so you can really see the color.


I had been experimenting for a friend who wanted a manicure to do on her daughter and came up with something that reminded me of a gift.

The black stripes look to me like ribbon on a box. I will probably do another version of this with gold or silver when it's closer to Christmas.

Holiday polishes.

In Target the other week, I came upon this pair of holiday colors by Nicole. The red is Brrr Brrr Burgundry and the glittery one is Come in from the Coal'd. The Sally Hansen is Bronze Ablaze.

I wanted to use the glittery polish so I started with two coats of black and then topped it with the new polish. I really liked the outcome. The Nicole polish is very glittery. It was even a little tough to remove with all the glitter but the manicure was so cute I didn't mind the clean up.

I have a couple upcoming manicures with the two other polishes, plus, I just went crazy at Sally's this week and grabbed a few more to add to the collection.

Black and white dots

I do so much with tape and straight lines that I decided I needed to change it up a bit. I really enjoy the idea of the polish changing on each nail so I incorporated that idea as well.


This manicure was fun and I actually ended up wearing it for an entire weekend. Mainly because I was invited to a last minute trip to Scottsdale with a friend but I probably would have left it as is anyway.

I needed to update my pedicure as well so I went ahead and followed the same color scheme with a different pattern.

Teal/black

I absolutely love this color combo. And I find the half one color, half another color manicures easy and still cute.

After I taped the teal and painted the black, I decided I wanted a little more "oomph" so I went with the silver dots. I really liked this manicure when I was finished.

Halloween idea #2.

I started this manicure thinking it would be one I would immediately change but I liked it so much that I decided to keep it. Even though I broke my nail on my right index finger.


I used Orly Orange Punch to start and followed up with Orly Liquid Vinyl. I cut thin strips of tape and placed them randomly on my nails. I ended up with 10 different patterns.

Halloween idea #1.

Since Halloween is coming up, I've been experimenting with Halloween inspired manis. This one is simple and easy.


I started with a base coat and two coats of Orly Liquid Vinyl followed by Sech Vite. Once that dried, I topped it with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pumpkin Spice which is a fun polish with orange glitter.

This was a basic manicure that didn't require much work. I have a couple other manis that I've done that I'll post between now and Halloween.

Floral half moon.

I had so much fun with my last half moon than I decided to go ahead and do another one. I opted for more contrasting colors this time with an accent nail.

For the base, I used two coats of Sinful Color Easy Going. I loved this polish! Even on it's own, it's a pretty great mani. I had no top show through and that's surprising when you realize how light pink this polish is.


After the base coat and a coat of Seche Vite, I taped off all but my ring finger with the round reinforcers so I could make the half moons. I painted a coat of Orly Liquid Vinyl on top. I waited a few minutes and then pulled off the stickers and using the Kiss silver glitter, I highlighted the half moon.

I really liked this manicure as is. I could have painted my ring finger the same and still liked it but I was feeling the accent nail that day so I went with a simple black flower. To make it, I used the flat end of a toothpick to make the dots and then used the pointy end to kind of drag a line from the center of the dot to the middle of the flower.

Since I was on the flower kick, I decided it should extend to my toes. It's hard to tell, but there are darker pink flowers along with the light ones. I really should have chosen a better pink that would have shown up more on the black but I liked the concept. There are three flowers on my big toe and then a partial flower on each of the rest.

I'm pretty proud of this manicure/pedicure. It turned out better than I had hoped and I will be using this Sinful Colors again in some more designs.

Red and black French

Sorry for the lack of posts. I was out of town, having a girls' weekend in Houston with some friends I met while we were in Okinawa. Crazy weekend. Too much fun, definitely.

Before I left, I did a fun French. My friend, Courtney, said it reminded her of a ladybug. I like that comparison.


I used a clear base coat and did the tips with Revlon Valentino topped with Seche Vite. I'm not sure what kind of Revlon it is. That bottle is old but I still love the shade.

I highlighted the tip with Kiss black and I really like the end result. It's a fun French that I will definitely do again with some other color combos.

Also wanted to give a shout out to my second follower! Hi Doni!

Sometimes things truly are black and white.

I decided to do a manicure with contrasting colors and black and white seemed perfect. I grabbed my Orly Liquid Vinyl along with Sally Hansen White On and jumped in.

I knew I wanted to do both hands differently so I went black with white tips on the left and white with black tips on the right. It was good but I needed more oomph.

I grabbed a toothpick and decided to do polka dots once my top coat dried.

I really like the idea of this but, as it was my first polka dot attempt, my dots weren't very cohesive. Super cute mani if I can get that down for next time.

Seeing stars.

I bought this bottle of Sinful Color Let's Talk at Target because it looked to be a lovely shade of purple. When I painted my nails, it still appeared purple but when I took a picture, it kept looking blue. I even had Chris look at my nails and then the pictures to be sure I hadn't been inhaling too much acetone fumes lately.

I Googled it to see if anyone else had had the same problem and it seemed fairly common. One blogger suggested photographing the polish under bathroom light and it did seem to help. The first nail picture is in the kitchen and the second was in the bathroom.


I still liked the polish, regardless, but the blue looks very similar to the OPI blue I used in my last manicure and I don't need dupes in my inventory just yet.

After a base coat, two coats of the Sinful Color and a coat of Seche Vite, I added some sparkle with a coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Rock Star. After another coat of Seche Vite, I wanted to add something extra to my nails. So I grabbed some gold stars (just like the ones you got in kindergarten for taking a nap - I would SO ace that now!) and put them near the sides or bottom of my nails. Then I followed with a coat of Orly Liquid Vinyl and a top coat.

I liked this manicure but I didn't LIKE like it. We didn't stay together long but are definitely going to still be friends. The stars didn't stick as well as I had hoped and the end product wasn't as clean as I prefer but it was still fun to do and I will probably attempt something else with the stars in the future. Just because we broke up doesn't mean we can't still hang out!

Patchwork

I wanted to experiment a little more with taping so I attempted a patchwork manicure. I wanted neutral nails so I went with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, OPI French Quarter for Your Thoughts and Orly Liquid Vinyl.

I started with a base coat, two coats of white and a coat of Seche Vite.

Then I taped off individual angles and painted one section with the French Quarter for Your Thoughts followed by Seche Vite.

Once that was dry, I taped again and used the Liquid Vinyl and a final coat of Seche Vite.

I must say, I loved this manicure. I got a lot of comments and "likes" for it on Facebook. I will definitely do this one again in lots of different colors. Next time, I'll try and remember to take a picture while taping.

And let me give a shout out to my first follower! Welcome Dom!