Winter-y Grey & Wine Nail Art

Hey y'all!  Today I have a recent mani that I did & wore for a few weeks.  I wanted something winter-y, but not completely dark and drab.  So this is what I came up with.

This was super easy to do, and of course I added a little sparkle as well.  Per the usual, I used Seche Vite as my top coat.

Index: China Glaze Change Your Altitude & Fairy Dust
Middle: Sinful Colors Snow Me White(base), China Glaze Change Your Altitude, China Glaze Wine Down For What?, & chevron tape from Born Pretty Store.

Ring: China Glaze Change Your Altitude(Base). China Glaze Wine Down For What? & black acrylic paint for spots.
Pinky: China Glaze Wine Down For What? & Fairy Dust

I absolutely LOVED this mani and hated taking it off. 

Holo Christmas Splatter & Stamping

Hey y'all!  Today I have my Christmas mani to share.  I had a dozen different ideas in my head, but once I saw this post from Copycat Claws, I knew what to do.  Of course, I HAD to do it holo style. 

I also had some new stuff I bought from BornPretty Store & wanted to try it out.

For the splatter nails I started out with Butter London Knees Up as my base then applied Darling Diva The Alchemist on top. 

Once that was dry I applied my liquid latex to protect the skin & used a small straw for the splatter.  The shades I used were ILNP A Fresh Evergreen and MakeUp Store Greta. 

The Alchemist is so darn pretty on its own that I almost didn't cover it up, but yanno...you can never have too much holo.

On my ring and pinky fingers I applied Nubar Reclaim as my base color & stamped over it with Butter London Knees Up.

With Flash

The stamper and plate were both from BPS & I'll have them linked below.  Of the 2 recent stampers I purchased from them, this one seems to work better for me. 

Stamper  |  Plate 

This was pretty quick and easy to do.  I absolutely LOVE it.  

Summery Zig Zag

Hey y'all!  So today I have a mani that I did over the summer, while my nails were long. I'd ordered a few things from Born Pretty Store, one of those being chevron nail tape, and decided to just do something random.  Lets get to it.

I wanted something really simple, and easy enough to do on both hands.

The polishes I used are Fresh Paint Guava, China Glaze, Mix And Mingle, and BMC (Bundle Monster) #10.

On the ring finger, I used both purples (Mix And Mingle & #10) to have darker tips before using the tape and a dotting tool to put Guava over the top. I almost didn't add the dots, but I thought the blank space needed something.

For the rest of the nails, Guava was the base color & I just used the purples for dots and gradients.  The 2 purples were sponged on separately, so it almost looks like there's more than one shade.

I liked how this turned out.  It was bright and dark at the same time & I think suited the stiletto shape well.

Color Club Not-So-Mellow Yellow & stamping

Hey y'all!  If you happened to catch my recent post from the Atlanta Nail Meetup, then you'll have seen this in the haul.  Not-So-Mellow Yellow was part of last years Poptastic collection.  In order to keep this short and simple I'm going to get right to it.  So, keep reading for more info, swatches, and some stamping.

I wore this mani recently and my kid LOVED it.  I think because this is his favorite color & he has some shirts that match.

 I only needed 2 coats for this opacity and no white base under.  

Not-So-Mellow Yellow is a bright yellow/green with a golden shimmer.  When held next to something green, it appears more green.  When next to something yellow, more yellow.  

 I only needed 2 coats for this opacity and no white base under.  

I felt like I needed sunglasses when I was editing these pictures because it was SO bright.

Then I wanted to do some stamping, using my new BPS plate I'd just picked up BP-L006.  I was having issues getting the images onto my nail so I made a decal using Bundle Monster Royal Blue stamping polish and the base color, NSMY.

 The decal made everything SO much easier, but because of the yellow and blue the design appeared more green than blue.  Which was totally fine & it still looked great.

I can't wait to play with the other shades I picked up from this collection.  Do you have any of them?

Born Pretty Store Nail Water Decals

*Products provided for review*

Hey y'all!  Welcome to my new followers.  Today I have some gorgeous water decals from Born Pretty Store to share.  :D

First off, let me apologize for my skin looking SO yellow in these pics.  This was basically the only way I could get the true color of the polish to show up without having to Photoshop the pics like crazy.

 These are various floral images from THIS(BOP/128-131) set of decals.  While these are printed on a nail shaped background, they are all individual.  Which means, you can mix and match.  You just have to cut around the image you want.  I wanted to keep this one simple, and didn't want to ruin the beauty of the decals by trying to add to it.  Though I can easily envision a wallpaper type mani with these particular decals.  

These are what I'm calling topographical style images from THIS(D192-195) set of decals.  These are "moon" shaped decals, which have that curve on one end.  I decided to use them differently.  They are slightly wider than my nails, so I did have a little bit of overhang once applied.  However, it was easy to remove with a brush dipped in acetone held over the sticker for just a bit.  It removed it right off, but make sure you don't use your normal clean-up brush as some of the residue will stick to the brush and is a pain to get off.  I cut them just halfway up to do a moon french & then for the ring finger I just applied a larger one to cover the entire nail.  It's subtle, yet so pretty.  I didn't want to take it off at all.  AND, these show up great over dark colors.  It's like stamping without the hassle.  

To apply, all you do is cut them however you wish.  Then you remove the plastic layer off the top & use tweezers to dip into water for about 10-20 seconds.  Once you pull it out, the image/decal will slide right off the paper backing.  Then, you can place it however you wish.  Once any water is gone, you can brush on a layer of top coat to lock it in.  

Both of these sets retail for $3.99ea(or less if you buy in bulk).  AND, if you wish, you can use my coupon code MKL91 for 10% off. 

I used the same polishes for both mani's.  Funky Fingers Cyclone Sky, which is a minty blue, and Fresh Paint Guava, which is a neon-ish peachy coral...both were from Five Below.

Note: Nail decals were provided for my honest review/opinion.  Polishes were purchased by me.

Flocking velvet powder from Born Pretty Store

Remember how I said at the beginning of the year that I wanted to try new things?  Especially new types of nail art?  Well, this is my first attempt at flocking powder, so be gentle.

Born Pretty Store has a variety of colors to choose from and of course I just HAD to go for red.

 This flocking powder (HERE) retails for $7.99 and comes in a decent sized plastic container with a lid.  They also supply a brush for removing excess powder and a set of tweezers to help apply it. 

I started out with Essie Skirting The Issue as my base color.  I think I might have messed up several ways with this.  One being that rather than applying another coat of polish, I put a clear topcoat over my dried mani and then placed the flocking powder on top.  Another problem I think I came across was that my hands and cuticles may still have had lotion on them causing the powder to stick in those areas.  I was afraid to wash my hands as I didn't want it to come off my nails.  
 
While this doesn't look like everyone elses flocking mani's, I am digging it.  Its difference makes it stand out to me.  I can't quite describe what it looks to me without possibly grossing people out, which I definitely don't want to do.

Will I try this again?  Yes.  And I would definitely suggest to you to try this as it is different but be sure to watch tutorials on how to properly apply it and make sure you don't moisturize too soon before using it.

If you want to try this or anything else from Born Pretty Store, be sure to use my code below.

http://www.bornprettystore.com/

World Of Warcraft - Dread Wastes inspired nails

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know I've recently closed my WoW account.  I've been playing for years and have taken breaks before, but never just closed it.  I've just been so stinking bored with it lately for several reasons that I'm not going to babble about.

While I was playing a few weeks ago & picking herbs for Inscription, I tilted the camera angle up by accident when moving my mouse and noticed the beautiful sky in Dread Wastes.

Isn't that just amazing?

I didn't go for perfection when attempting this as I was just simply inspired by this. 

macro shot

I started out with a base coat + 2 coats of Sally Hansen Lavender Cloud + Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat.  Then I grabbed my acrylic paints that I reviewed HERE from Born Pretty Store.  Don't forget if you want to try these, click the link on the blog post or my right sidebar and use my discount code. :D

For the purple, I mixed a bunch of colors together....Phthalo Blue, Crimson Red, Black, Titanium White, and Ultramarine.  For the charcoal, I just mixed Titanium White and Black. 

I then had a happy accident, which I was unable to recreate, when applying the purple.  I did have a damp brush when I dipped into the purple to brush it on and it kinda did the OPI Spotted effect.  Then I brushed on some black strips/branches & applied a little bit of purple over some spots. 

Once that all dried, which wasn't long, I finished it off with my Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat. 

I think it looks smokey and almost snakeskin like.  What do y'all think? 

Acrylic Color Paints from Born Pretty Store

When Born Pretty Store contacted me to do a review, I thought "YAY, I can work on my resolutions for this year by doing more nail art!"  Today I wake up with Tornado warnings/watches & figured it was a good time to try and keep my mind busy on something.

This Acrylic Color Paints set retails for $9.99 and comes with 12 different colors.  Those colors are: Titanium White, Lemon Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Vermillion, Crimson Red, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Sap Green, Viridian, Ultramarine, Phthalo Blue, and Black.  The tubes are sealed & require the lid to puncture the top.  Each tube is 0.4fl. oz.

With these colors, you can pretty much make any color that you want by mixing a few together & that's exactly what I did.  I took Crimson Red alone and then took a little bit to mix with Titanium White to make a pink shade.

I used a CD case, it was the first thing I could find.

 I honestly wasn't sure what I wanted to do, so I kinda winged it.  I started out with a brush, then ended up just using toothpicks.  This is what I came up with. 

I started out with one coat of WnW Black Creme & topcoated it.  Once that was dry I went in with the red, then the pink to make some hearts.  After that dried, which wasn't long at all, I covered it all with a topcoat again.

These paints were easy to mix and didn't dry out at all on the palette.  Once they were put on my nail, they dried within a few minutes and didn't smear one bit when topcoat was applied.  That's WAY more than I can say for my experience with using polish for nail art.    I really can't wait to try playing with these again, but I think I'll wait until after the storms are gone. :D

If you'd like to try these or anything else from Born Pretty Store, please be sure to use code MLK91 to get 10% off. 

~Note: These items were sent for my 100% honest review/opinion.