gold dot

Such an easy look.  Just toss some gold studs on there and you are good to go.

Wow, this picture is really bad and shows how drying soap can be. The cap on a bottle of car oil came off on the backseat floor of my car. So I spent the afternoon shampooing the carpets.  I now 100% understand why cars have floor mats.

Sinful Colors - Secret Admirer, Super Nova

stud-ly

Studs in a line.  That sentence has so many different interpretations, yikes.

I love these micro studs.  They are very tiny yet easy to work with.  They are also relatively flat so they don't stick up to much on the nail.  They work with everything.  I went with a grey & silver theme for this paint job.  Just a silver accent nail & darker grey base color on the rest.  Dot on some silver studs, a clear top coat, done.  Very easy as long as you have a steady hand to apply the studs.

Sinful Colors - Smokin
Sally Hansen - Celeb City

nautical

I went a bit crazy on Etsy a couple of weeks ago.  Not only did I get those water decals (the owls) but I got a bunch of vinyl nail decals from another seller (www.makeitstickdesign.com).  THEY ARE AWESOME!  Yes, all caps because I am so happy with them.

I got a bunch of different designs and there are so many decals in all different sizes per sheet.  They are true stickers.  And since they are vinyl they hold up after you remove them from the paper (ie the anchor goes on straight, you don't have to adjust it because it is starting to look like it melted).  And each design comes in different sizes (it looks like 5).  This is great because it makes them able to fit all size nails.

I also got the variety pack.  It is totally worth it because there are so many different ones in there.  They aren't complete sheets, but plenty to play around with.  And get to see more of the create colors.  The chevron stripes (paint job coming soon) are single stripes which I find much easier to apply than a full nail sticker.

Back to this paint job.  I used the anchor decal on one finger.  I went with a full stud polka dot nail, stripes and checkered for the others.  The pinky is a solid polish that has some glitter in it.  

Sinful Colors - Rain Storm
MAC - Ming Blue
Sally Hansen - White On, Celeb City

military coat

I was just pulling colors and found these five that all are in the same hue/family.  They are a little dark but with the addition of the gold studs, the overall paint job has some life to it.

Then top it all off with a matte top coat, and it makes it look like different wool military coat with gold buttons.  I wish I had done the arrow stripes on the index finger instead of the studs.  But that might have been too coat/military.

Sinful Colors - Smokin, Mesmerize, Jungle Trail, Rain Storm, In The Mist

april polish days - 7 deadly sins

7 deadly sins!!  Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride.  I don't know why this theme is so great, but it is.  I knew I wanted to go with greed (a sin of excess, hoarding of objects) and use a bunch of studs, rhinestones and pearls.

My pinky is so greedy for treasures it is spilling over to my ring finger.
*more after the jump*

24 K gold

I finally got inspired to use the polish "The Man With the Golden Gun", the 24K gold flake polish in the Bond collection by OPI.  There is something about deep red and gold that just works together.  I didn't just want a solid red polish with the 24K polish on top so I added some studs to my middle finger.

*more after the jump*

spring

I know it isn't technically spring yet but the cherry trees are in full blossom at the park across the street from my house.  I can see them from my living room and they just look like spring.  All the rest of the trees are still in winter mode so these blossoms are a refreshing site.  But the more I look at this paint job the more it reminds me of Valentine's candy hearts.

I went with pastels with a matte top coat.  Why a matte finish?  Because the fog has been coming in and even though the day was glorious and sunny, the fog calms everything down.  It is still bright out but there is a muted quality to everything.  Plus, when the paint job gets a little stale in a day or two, I can spruce it up with a normal top coat.

Sinful Colors - Unicorn (yellow), Easy Going (pink)
Sally Hansen - Air (blue), Mint Sorbet (green/teal)
OPI - Do You Lilac It? (purple)

Is it too soon to do a spring themed paint job?  What inspires you to use matte top coat?

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...

'skittlette' contest

chitchatnails.com posted a new contest a couple of days ago.  This contest was simple yet so much fun and it fit perfectly between holiday challenge days.  This contest is a 'skittlette' paint job.  What is 'skittlette' you ask?  It is a paint job consisting of two or three accent nails on each hand.

 This is something I usually do when I do non theme paint jobs so I thought it would be fun to come up with a 'skittlette' paint job that was a little more elegant.

december challenge: bling

So, I signed up for a monthly challenge and this is my first month with this challenge.  I was super excited when I found out the theme - BLING!!

When I think of bling I think of stones.  Not stone like you find in a field, but gem stones (diamonds, rubies, sapphires, etc).  And when I think of that sort of bling I think of Tiffany's.  I am lucky enough to live close to a city with a Tiffany's store.  It is rare that I walk past without going in and looking.  I do own some Tiffany's jewlery but it is all from the upstairs department (aka where there are few stones and the ones that are there are about the size of a grain of salt). 

I wanted to do a ring paint job.  To many rhinestones on all the nails I think would loose the look for me.  So I came up with two different 'rings'.

crimson & gold

Before I even start, I need to say that this polish job was not photographed until after a round of golf.  It is not pretty but I am not really careful with my nails when playing golf.  That being said, on to the paint job...

 

It is basically the same paint job as before but with different base color and the gold studs.  I was also limited by what I packed for Thanksgiving out of town.  Overall, it wasn't that bad considering it was done the night before Thanksgiving in a hotel room, using the in-room-info binder as a table.  It was a bit nurve racking because I was freaked out about spilling the polish or polish remover.  Mind you, I haven't spilled at home, but it would be 100 times worse at a swanky hotel.  I can't even imagin that room charge.  How would you even remove nail polish from carpet?

silver studs

In the Born Pretty order I got a month or so ago, I got some larger silver studs.  They have scared me because they always seemed so big.  I tested a couple out to see how they work on my nails.  Well, they are pretty flat and thin, so they even work on my tiny pinky.

everything that glitters

This was a whimsical polish job.  I wanted to use a new polish and play off of the glitter in the polish.  My left and right hand are the same since it was such an easy application.  I haven't used shaped rhinestones before, even though I have two wheels of them. **I promise that there are no bald spots on my nails or with this polish, it is the outside light reflecting off the nails**

nautical nails

I finally got my nautical stamps!!!  Even though I picked up some great new polishes, I knew I had to do something with the nautical theme.  Plus, I wanted to use the new metal studs.  Nautical theme it would be.  Overall, I think this paint job could be better but I was just having fun.  I loved how the middle finger (the stamped ones) turned out.  I also love the look of the studs.  I need to work more on them being straight in line.  I do love the white, silver and blue.  This blue is a bit more mellow than the blue I was going to use (it was closer to m&m blue).

package

My order from Born Pretty (http://www.bornprettystore.com/) finally arrived!!  It is exciting since it was sitting in the USPS processing center in LA for almost two weeks.  And I am guessing it was not scanned at any other post office because I didn't get any other updates.

Here's what I got -
* rhinestone/stud containters/spindle wheels (2)
* pink metal rhinestones, 2mm
* round gold studs, 2mm
* square gold studs, 2mm
* round silver studs, 1mm & 4mm
* square silver studs, 2mm
* GLOW-N-THE-DARK polish!!! - 2 different colors