blues

I do love ombre nails.  I decided to try a new color for this ombre look.  I have a few blues but it was hard to figure out five good ones for an ombre look.  I think these five polishes work together. The ring finger is a bit off but it was the best paint for that level.  The only hard thing about ombre nails is not hitting your wet nails when switching polishes.

MAC - Ming Blue
Wet & Wild - Saved By The Blue
LA Girl - Flash Freeze
Sinful Colors - Why Not
Sally Hansen - Air
*the polishes are in order from darkest to lightest

valentine's day

Valentine's Day is one of the easier holidays to figure out a paint job for.  Five different pink polishes and a glitter heart sticker - done.  Super easy and really fun.  Bonus - I finally got the heart sticker on straight and center.  I went with a matte top coat to give the already busy paint job a bit more of a mellow feeling.  Plus, the polish on the ring finger has a bit of a glitter undertone to it.  With a gloss top coat it really stands out.  With the matte - nothing.

OPI - Kola Beary, Short's Story
Sinful Colors - Dream On, Easy Going
Sally Hansen - Fuchsia Power

grays

Super easy paint job!  It still fits with this time of year since it is getting dark so early now.  Just five different polishes, then top with a large silver stud.

The pointer finger polish is a bit on the blue side but does still work overall.  It also would have been too big of a hue jump between the middle finger gray and the black.

I always forget how much I like these studs.  They are large but they are very thin.  Somehow they don't stick out too much even on the curved nails.  They are also large enough to make a statement.

Sinful Colors - Cool Gray, Black on Black, Jungle Trail, Smokin
Sally Hansen - White On

ombre stripes

I saw this type of paint job done on another blog.  Honestly - they did a much better job than I did.  Check out the inspiration - http://www.thenailasaurus.com/2013/07/nonoo-resort-2014-inspired-nail-art.html.  They had striping tape and used different polished for the lines.  I did a gradient in purple, let it dry and then stamped the white lines.  I think the white lines are a bit thick and the gradient isn't that obvious.

Maybe a gradient between two different colors, not just light to dark purple would be better with this stamping.  It still looks okay enough that I won't remove it right away.  I did an accent nail of a silver halo.  Then, while removing the white glue (which I use around my nail for quick and easy clean up) I nicked my thumb.  I was not about to start over (base coat, dry, gradient, dry, stamping, top coat).

So I improvised and put a quick coat of the halo on top.  It looks really cool.  And by some source of magic it actually makes the purple gradient stand out more.  I will try this look again, but maybe wait until I get striping tape.  I also have enough purples to do each line a different polish.

OPI - Vant to Bite My Neck?, Do You Lilac It?
Sinful Colors - Amethyst
Sally Hansen - White On
Nails Inc - Electric Lane
plate - Cheeky CH10

ombre & dots

I've been wanting to do a purple ombre paint job for a while.  I pulled the colors and it just looked so dull.  I love a purple ombre paint job but it just didn't have enough pop for me right now.

Bring in the teal accent nail.  But even just a teal accent nail(s) was looking a little dull.  I had my dotting tool out and what quicker way to spice up a nail then with some dots.  The end result is fabulous (at least in my opinion).  And even with my nails being on the longer side (long for me), this paint job doesn't make them look scary.

OPI - A Grape Fit!, Do You Lilac It?, Vant To Bite My Neck?
Wet & Wild - I Need a Refresh-Mint

purple ombre

This purple ombre look was one of my first posts on this blog.  After getting my new dark purple polish recently, I knew I wanted to re-do this paint job.  Speaking about polishes.  I have swatches of all my polishes on fake nails.  Each fake nail is hot glue to it's own popsicle stick with the name and make of polish on the stick.  They are then divided into boxes (originally designed to hold photos).  I have five boxes in total.  The polishes are broken up into red/orange/yellow, blue/green, glitter, black/white/metallic, and purples.  Yes, I have that many purples that they get their own box.

There is nothing too complicated about this paint job.  Simply five different purple polishes that are in the same purple family.  Just figure out the ombre order and paint two coats.  Simple, easy and pretty.

OPI - Care to Danse?, Do You Lilac It?, A Grape Fit!, Vant to Bite My Neck?
Sinful Colors - Amethyst

sunset nails

Gradient and stamping on one nail, oh my.

My left hand has been lazy recently (aka when I try and do detailed things, it goes wonky) so I didn't want to try gradient and stamping on my right hand, so I used all the same polishes and did a gradient dot look.  Surprisingly the two hands actually work together.

I think the gradient was a lot more successful this time.  The orange and yellow actually flow together and are smooth. *follow the jump for some more photos*

january polished days challenge - something new

'Something New' is this months Polish Days challenge theme.  Something New here means a paint job that you have seen before that you have been wanting to try.  I am that dork that bookmarks different paint jobs that I eventually want to try so this was a great theme to help me try something new.  I wanted to try a water marble paint job, or maybe a real feather paint job.  The bookmarked ideas quickly add up, faster than I can paint my nails.
**update 1/9 - this paint job is awful, it lasted 12 hours on my nails until I picked it off.  Don't worry, I won't be posting feathers and/or ombre again until it actually looks semi decent.  If it is this bad, why did I post it?  Because I feel honesty is important in the nail/nail art community.  If you have any tips/tricks for these styles, please please please leave them in the comments.  If you think I failed miserably, please let me know (it's okay because I already know I did).  I will be using the 'something new' theme this entire month, so there will be better 'something new' paint jobs coming.**

Yes, it is a totally crazy paint job.  Studs, feathers, fade/ombre, and stamping.  All on one hand.

What is the 'something new'?  Two things actually...

gold gradient

 This was a bit of a throw-together paint job.  I wasn't sure where I was going but I like where I ended up.  The base color is not red but a fuchsia glitter (OPI - You Only Live Twice).  The gold glitter is not loose glitter but polish.  This was an easy job.  Glitter polish is pretty forgiving.

I did give a little change up on a couple of nails.  My middle finger on my right hand (above) is just solid gold glitter.  From previous experience with the gold glitter polish, I slapped a quick base solid metallic gold paint job down first.

Going to a Wedding

This weekend I am going to a wedding on the east coast.  The colors of the wedding are silver and lavender.  Since I am a total dork, I decided to paint my nails to match.  I went a little crazy and had my accent finger different on each hand.  The ombre purple rhinestones are the same on both, just the polish color is changed.  It might look a little crazy but it works.  And since I don't wear rings, the bright silver accent nail works as jewelry.

The silver polish is great.  The formula is perfect.  It feels like it is going to be too thin when it goes on, but with two coats it is perfect.  It doesn't feel heavy because the coats are so thin.  It is also a real white silver color, not quite holographic silver or glitter silver, but it looks like real metal silver.  (UPDATE - the silver nail was the only nail that did not chip during the whole east coast adventure.)

OPI - Do You Lilac It
Sinful Colors - Let's Talk
Sally Hansen - Celeb City

Has anyone color matched for an event?  Are two different accent nails on each hand too much or just right?

Purple & Teal

Accent nail! A new thing.  Besides just a single nail with some rhinestones, what about a different color on that nail?  Well, going with my love of teal & purple again but making it more obvious I went with this color scheme.  The five rhinestones in the last polish didn't really work.  That one rhinestone on the edge was catching on everything and it generally bugged me.  I thought about fewer rhinestones.  I layout all the rhinestones on the nail before painting and sticking just to see if I like it.  Well, three solid purple ones just looked a little dull to me.  What about purple ombre nails (wow, ombre is trending right now)?  And with just three rhinestones, there is more room between and doesn't feel as heavy.

As much as I love this teal color, it is really calming yet cool (as in cold) at the same time, the formula is just off.  It requires many many coat to get a solid nail.  I think I had to do 5 coats to get the teal above.  I know there are ways to thicken polish but I don't want to alter the color.  So I just have to set more time aside when I want to use this color in the future.

OPI - Do You Lilac It
Essie - Turquoise & Caicos

What are your favorite color combos?  Which finger do you like to use as your accent nail?

Purple Ombre

Thinking back, I realize I have always been a little crazy with my nails, I just went on a break for a while.  In high school I constantly had each nail a different color.  It was a way to have a little fun with such strict uniform rules.  Now that I can dye my hair any color under the rainbow (it currently has hot pink streaks, they started purple) and no real uniform except when I am in the kitchen, I am going a little crazy with my nails.  And to top it off, I don't wear nail polish when I am in the kitchen, so that means I have lots of opportunities to paint my nails.

These purple ombre nails were inspired simply from three different OPI colors.  The light lilac shade I have always loved when getting a pedi and I finally found a store that sold it.  But it gets better, OPI made three great shades of purple in the lilac/violet family.  I picked up all three.  With a little creative layering, it got the in between colors (pointer and ring finger).  I still love how simple and easy this look is.

OPI - A Grape Fit, Do You Lilac It, Care to Danse

Has anyone tried doing an ombre effect just by layering polishes?