True Blood - One Last Bite - #TrueToTheEnd

Hey y'all!  I'm super excited about this mani today, but I'm super sad that this Sunday starts the last season of True Blood.  I honestly didn't watch TB until, I think, season 3.  I didn't get the hype, but after seeing so many friends go on and on about it I decided to give it a go.  First, I read the books and was instantly addicted.  Then, I did a Netflix marathon to catch up before the next season and that was all she wrote.  I've been a Truebie ever since. 

If you remember last year, I did THIS mani inspired by the promo Blood Will Spill.  I had a blast doing them & since this is the final season I had to do something.  I went peeking around their Facebook page and settled on THIS picture.  I was going thinking of doing another one, but that one just jumped out at me and I HAD to do it.

I started out with a base color of Wet N Wild French White Creme on all 4 nails.  For the two outside nails, I was going to do the water spotted method, but I couldn't get the results I wanted....so I water marbled. For that, I used KleanColor Blood, Wet N Wild Fantasy Makers in Vamp Red, and Wet N Wild Black Creme.

The bite mark was a little tricky.  I thought about using a straw to make the circle, but went another way instead.  What I did was take some red acrylic paint and blob a dot on using the end of a liner brush.  Then, I took a damp q-tip and removed the excess paint from the middle.  It showed up sort of pink, so I repeated the process using KleanColor Blood.  After that, I put a dot of Vamp Red in the middle of that and using a shortened straw sort of "blew" the polish towards the tip of the nail to create the drip.  I accidentally applied a little too much, so I took the q-tip and removed most of the polish before applying top coat.

Once the top coat dried, I took a liner brush and drew on the letters using black acrylic paint so that if I made a mistake (and I made a few), I could easily wipe it off and start over again.  That took just a few seconds to dry allowing me to almost immediately top it with Seche Vite.

I was honestly nervous about how this would turn out and it went WAY better than I thought it would.  What do you think?

Are you a Trubie?  Who is your favorite?  I honestly can't choose just one.

True Blood - Blood Will Spill

I'm so excited for season 6 of True Blood to start this weekend.  When this show first started, I wasn't the least bit interested.  About halfway through season 3 or 4, I thought I'd give it a look to see what all the fuss was about & I'm so glad I did.  I watched every episode from the beginning and then read the books, backwards I know.  Since then, I've rewatched the entire series at least 3 times.  It's that good, at least in my opinion.

The idea for this mani came from the promo picture, Blood Will Spill.

Let me start off by fully disclosing that my cuticles are in horrible condition, this I know.  I also did this mani at 4am during a bout with insomnia, so my clean-up skills were totally lacking.  I attempted to smooth some of the issues out in photoshop, but totally failed at it and decided to post anyway.  I've never claimed to be perfect, and never will be....but I do try.  Also, I'm totally jealous of those of you who can get your thumbs in pictures.  It hurt my hand and wrist to do this.

For this I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White, as a base....2 coats.  I applied a topcoat to help it dry faster.  Then I used the Fantasy Makers(WetNWild) Vamp Red...which was a gift from Destany at Confessions Of A Sarcastic Mom along with KleanColor Blood with a straw as the blood splatter.  My first successful splatter art also. :D  To help with the cleanup of the blood splatter, I used chapstick around my nails first.  It really does help.  Then once I had the blood on, I let it dry in front of a fan because for this art it really doesn't matter if there are bubbles.  Once that was close to dry I applied topcoat again so it would make sure that the white acrylic paint for my letters wouldn't bleed into the red.  I used a tiny tiny brush and freehanded the words "Blood Will Spill" with the white acrylic paint.  Let that dry in front of a fan then finished off with a final topcoat. 

That was a LOT of steps, but so worth it.  I really like the splatter and will probably do that color combo again on its own.  I think the Blood over top of the Vamp Red really works nicely together. 

Are you a Trubie?  Who is your favorite?  I have to admit, I love them all. 

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.

KleanColor Kiss Goodbye

Short and simple post today, this is another pre-drafted post.  I'm working on some for the rest of this week. 

Kiss Goodbye is a clear base packed with pink, gold, and blue microglitter.  While there appears to be a ton of glitter, you do have to build up layers for opacity on this one.

This is 4 coats with a top coat.

KleanColor Holo Blue

I've had this for a while & I'm finally getting around to wearing it.  I really don't have much to say about it other than it's probably better as a layering polish, unless you want to wear more than 4 coats.

blurred to show the sparkle

This is a light blue with scattered holo sparkle.  Above is 4 coats with topcoat.

Bloody Nails are Bloody

What is this?  More Halloween nail art????  /faints.

I started with 2 coats of OPI Moon Over Mumbai.  Then used a dotting tool and globbed on KleanColor Blood.  As you can see I went in different directions with the polish.  I didn't use any top coat. 

When trying to clean up my cuticles, I kinda goofed on one of my nails and removed a big chunk of polish.  So, I just went and pulled some polish off of each nail with my brush & acetone.  Then I lightly brushed down/up each nail depending on how the dripping blood went to smear it out a little.

I like how it looks kinda sickly & twisted all at the same time.

P.S. My Birthday is a month away!!!

Pink Gradient for Breast Cancer Awareness Pt. 2

So if you checked out my post earlier, you'll see I've done a mani for Breast Cancer Awareness month.  When I said I've added to it, I bed y'all thought I was stamping over it, huh?  Nope, I didn't want to ruin the beauty and I most certainly would jack it up somehow. 

So what did I do?  I used my Butter London Matte Finish top coat that I recently got from Coterie when they opened. 

Just in case you didn't see my earlier post, the colors are (base to tip) KleanColor Sheer Pastel Pink, Wet N Wild Candy-licious, and Dr's Remedy Hopeful.

This matte top coat is different from any other matte I've ever used.  It's slightly thicker and takes a tad longer to turn matte.  However, the result is WAY BETTER, in my opinion, than any other matte top coat I've used also.  It's amazeballz.  I'm sure I'll be using it like CRAZY too. 

Pink Gradient for Breast Cancer Awareness

I haven't done any awareness mani's in a while & finally sat down to do one.  I let my kiddo pick the colors out for this one and I think he did a great job.

KleanColor Sheer Pastel Pink(which I showed by itself yesterday), Wet N Wild Candy-licious(I think he just liked the name of this), and Dr's Remedy Hopeful.


I started off with 2 coats of Sheer Pastel Pink, sponged on a little bit of Candy-licious on about 2/3 of the nail, then sponged Hopeful on the top 1/3 of my nail.  Cleaned it up and topped it off with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri.

The subtle transition between these shades is perfect.  I think my son did an amazing job with his shade choices.  I think I've mentioned this before, but when doing a sponging mani, I always take a lip balm & rub it around the nail bed on the skin to make clean-up easier.  Otherwise I end up staining my skin like crazy.

Make sure to check in later as I took this one step further.

KleanColor Sheer Pastel Pink

Today I'm showing off a beautiful pink polish.  Since it's Breast Cancer Awareness month, I had to do something.  I picked this up a while back & just had to use it.

Above is 2 coats of SPP with a top coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri.

This is a very sheer jelly pastel pink.  I did have a few streaky spots, but that's due to applying this at 3am.  Now I need ALL the sheer pastels from KleanColor.  You can find them HERE, and the number for this one is 148. 

This is just sheer enough on its own that it's perfect for a neutral mani, but make sure to check back tomorrow to see how I make it better. 

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?