Atlanta Falcons- Matt Ryan Freehand Nail Art - #RiseUp

Hey y'all!  Today I have my current mani to share with y'all.  I've been a fan of the Falcons for all of my life, even went to a ton of games as a kid.  However, with this season going so well and the divisional championship's being this weekend I had to do some nail art to help cheer my team on.  I was going to wait and post these tomorrow, but I'm impatient and wanted to share right away.

My inspiration was the Matt Ryan jersey that I have.  The kiddo has a Julio Jones, but I didn't think I'd be able to get the lettering the way I wanted....so I went the shorter route.  Plus, they'll match when I wear it while watching the game this weekend!

Index: Wet N Wild Black Creme with "ATL" in red acrylic paint.
Middle: OPI Coca-Cola Red with "RYAN" & his # in white and black acrylic paint. 

Ring: OPI Coca-Cola Red with #RiseUp in black acrylic paint.
Pinky: Essie Little Brown Dress with white acrylic paint to look like a football.

This took a while to do.  For the jersey nail I made decals with acrylic paint & a brush on my silicone mat and placed them over the base.  For the rest of the nails I actually just drew everything on using a toothpick.  Because I used acrylic paint I didn't have to wait long before applying Seche Vite as my top coat.

I love these nails so much, even though they didn't turn out 100% like I wanted them to. I took at least 50 pics and had to narrow it down BIG time.

I'm praying that we win this weekend because I totally want to see a Superbowl rivalry in my house this year (hubs is a Steelers fan).  I wish I was going to the game, but I'll be screaming on the comfort of my couch.

Win or Fail Nails - Stripes & Polka-dots

Hey y'all!  The thing I hate about finding inspiration on Pinterest is that sometimes you'll just NEVER find the original source.  So, if you search on there for stripes & polka dots, you'll figure out which one inspired this mani based on the colors.

Polishes I used: Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Essie Sand Tropez, and Wet N Wild Black Creme. 

When I took a picture it didn't look as bad as it did to me IRL.  I think it's because I freehanded EVERYTHING and kinda went a little overboard with the dots.  Other than that, not so bad. 

What do y'all think?  Win or Fail?

Essie - Skirting The Issue

I've slowly but surely been going through my untrieds and trying to use them so they're not so lonely on their own little display.  This just happens to be one of many.  I got this a while back as a Klout perk.

It's from the Fall 2012 Stylenomics collection.

Polish provided as a Klout perk.

This is 3 thin coats with a top coat.  Skirting The Issue is a vampy wine red crelly.  It does tend to want to flood and get splotchy in some places.  It will also bubble if you're not careful with application.

I accidentally dinged one of my nails while applying the topcoat, so I attempted to fix it.  I took a q-tip dipped in acetone and rather than gently move around the area I removed like a hole of polish.  Instead of removing everything, I just smoothed a blob of polish over the hole & let it sit for a bit.  Once it filled in the hole and settled, I went over the entire nail with another coat.

To me, it doesn't even look like I messed anything up.  And I bet you can't guess which one it was either.  Psssst.  It was my ring finger.


Disclosure: This product was provided as a perk from Klout.com

Irish Pride Watermarble

FINALLY!!!  I have finally successfully, well for the most part, pulled off a watermarble.  I say for the most part because I didn't wait long enough for it to dry before applying topcoat & it smudged just a tad. 

BUT I DID IT!!!  And that's what counts. 

For this, I used Sally Hansen Whirlwind White(also used this as my base), Absolute! Orange, and Essie Going Incognito.  Then topped it off with China Glaze Fast Forward.

A few tricks that helped me were pulling the nail straight out of the water, as in vertically, very slowly.  I also dragged the stick very lightly across the polish while it was on the water.  Also, Patricia from Southern Sister Polish has informed me to wait longer for the marble to dry before applying topcoat. 

Now that I've got it all down, I will definitely be trying it more often.  In fact, if my lower back weren't in such pain, I'd be doing another one. 

Also, please note that I know my skin & clean-up look horrible.  I ended up taking this off right after pictures as I wasn't happy with the smudging, BUT I always post my mani's.  Even when I mess up somehow so I can remind myself, and possibly you guys, how to improve.  :D

Smokey St. Patrick's mani

When trying to come up with ideas for St. Patty's mani's, I went looking through Pinterest.  Last year, I did THIS mani with some green holo, matte, & a beer accent nail.  This year I wanted to try a few different things.

All of a sudden I remembered a mani I did ages ago based off a tutorial that you can find HERE.  I pulled out like 95% of my green polishes and went to town.  This was the first one for this year.

I started out with 2 coats of Essie Da Bush and let that dry with a quick dry top coat.  Then I used one of my mani nail art brushes and applied strokes of China Glaze Def Defying  & Zoya Shawn.  I absolutely LOVED this but thought it needed something else. 

Usually, I tend to overthink nail art and add too much when it's enough as it is.  So I took pictures before messing it up.

I totally forgot to rotate these so you could see that they're gold shamrocks.  I used Pure Ice Bite Me! and a toothpick to draw them on & finished it off with a coat of China Glaze Fast Forward.

What do y'all think? 

I have plenty of ideas in mind and will be trying them out over the next few days so be on the lookout for them.

Wrapping Paper inspired nails

The randomness that pops into my head when thinking about mani's to do rarely translates.  This was one of those exceptions.  I had some wrapping paper last year that had "HO HO HO" all over it & wanted to incorporate it somehow into my Christmas nails this year. 

So, at 2am, this is what happened.....

Index & Pinky:

• Zoya Ziv - 2 coats
• KleanColor Metallic Red
• Color Club Perfect Mol-ten

Middle & Ring:

• China Glaze Angel Wings - 2 coats
• Essie Going Incognito
• Zoya Rekha

I used a striping brush for the stripes and a small pointed dotting tool for the letters.  I finished it off with a top coat of Sally Hansen Insta Dri.

I think it's cute and oh so Christmas-y.

The Reindeer That NEVER Sleep

Because I rarely sleep, apparently my reindeer look that way too.  When I was taking pictures of this mani, I noticed a few flaws....but really noticed them after opening them in Photoshop. 

Mistakes and fails happen & I've always shown my fail mani's.  Well, the ones I didn't take off immediately.  So, here's my insomniac version of the beautiful reindeer that The Nailasaurus did.  Hers look 1000000000000% better than mine. 

They look so cracked out.  I thought the brown I used was going to be too dark so I used a lighter shade with the black to outline their faces. 

I started out with 2 coats of Deborah Lippmann Naked.  I freehanded the faces with a dotting tool using China Glaze Mahogany Magic.  Then I used a small brush to draw outlines with Essie Sand Tropez and Wet N Wild Black Creme, which were also used for the eyes.  The nose and antlers were done with Black Creme and China Glaze Ruby Pumps for the red nose. 

If you click to enlarge them, you can see LOTS of bubbling and somehow some black strands of something ended up on my middle finger.  I still think they're somewhat cute, but a total fail. 

Essie Stroke of Brilliance

I pull my blue jeans on....I pull my old blue jeans on.  Random, but this polish put THIS Keith Urban song in my head. 

This is 3 coats(with top coat) of Stroke of Brilliance over a glue base.  SoB(/giggle) is a clear base with denim blue hex and small glitters.  Of course this would look great over any color but is amazing even on its own.

I got this as a Klout Perk!  I was actually hoping I'd get something else, but really like this now that I've had it on.  I passed it up when I purchased Shine of The Times.

Purple Grungy Wood

I apologize in advance as this may be a long post.  Also, I took the pictures with my phone since it's difficult for me to photograph my right hand with my DSLR. Here's a sneak peek of my end result.

Top = left, Bottom = right

The inspiration from this mani came from Pinterest.

Source: design-seeds.com via Harri on Pinterest

I saw this picture and instantly thought of THIS mani from Nails Adored (hint: click that link to see her tutorial). 

Now what I used:

Left to right: Zoya Monica, Zoya Mira, OPI Done Out In Deco, China Glaze Mahogany Magic, & Essie Sand Tropez.  I followed her tutorial exactly & for my left hand used these polishes as pictured above, starting with a base of Zoya Monica....and so on.

bottle is Monica

Outside with flash.

Then, I attempted just the opposite with my right hand.  It was slightly difficult as I'm right handed & always horrible at painting that hand, so please excuse the mess.  By opposite, I mean I used the colors above in reverse order.  I started with a base of Essie Sand Tropez & worked backwards.

I actually like it both ways & will definitely be trying this mani again.  What do y'all think?

Pretty & Polished Black Swan.....and some UGA dots(pic spam)

This is going to be a long post with lots of pics.  I would have had it up sooner, but between having a sick kiddo & accidentally deleting the pictures off my card...it took a little longer than expected.

So, to the mani.  I started off with 1 coat of Wet N Wild Black Creme and 1 semi-thick coat of Pretty & Polished Black Swan topped off with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat.  Black swan is a black holo that is a bit thin in consistency, which is the reason for using underwear. :D 

When I went to take these, the sun was behind the clouds....so I have indoor flash pictures....

flash

flash

shade with flash

Then I wanted to play around with my dotting tools so I grabbed Wet N Wild Black Creme, KleanColor Metallic Red, and Essie No Place Like Chrome(which I got as a Klout perk) along with my dotting tools & went to town.  I used the 3 biggest ones and did a few dots of each size/color, but did not apply a top coat.  I chose these colors as the UGA colors are red & black with silver pants.  Long time radio announcer, Larry Munson, would always say "Go you silver britches!"

I rather like this & I think I might have to try this color combo in a different dotticure later on. 

You can purchase Pretty & Polished on Etsy(currently out of stock) or Llarowe(currently in stock).  I picked up KC Metallic Red at a beauty supply store, but you may also be able to find it online or on Ebay.  Essie No Place Like Chrome was sent to me as a Klout Perk, but I believe you can find this at most retailers or e-tailers.

I think that's about enough babbling for now.  Though I'm sure I forgot something.  What do you think of this mani?