Neon Summer Flowers

Hey Y'all!  Ugh!  Do any of y'all have kids?  If you do, you know how much they love to share with Mommy...especially their germs!  Well, even though mine is a teenager, she still felt the need to share her cold with me.  Only, it seems to always make me sicker than it does her!  But I'm finally feeling well enough to get this post up :)

Since it is "officially" summer here (quotation marks because, really?  The temps have been in the high 90's for a month and heat index in the 100's, but no.  Now it's summer), I decided to do a summer neon version of my Spring Flowers:

I Used:
China Glaze- White on White, white crème
LA Colors- Black crème (name is missing)
Color Club- Sweet Getaway, ultra bright neon pink crème (scented)
China Glaze- DJ Blue My Mind, ultra bright blue neon crème
Studio M- Grape Escape, bright purple neon crème
Studio M- Lemon Drop, bright yellow neon with gold shimmer

For the tutorial, just check out the Spring Flowers post.  I loved how this turned out.  And as you may know, I'm more of a bright and bold colors than a pastel colors kind of gal.  This was fun to wear, and I did get a lot of compliments on it.

One mistake I made is above...don't put the purple on the black background.  You couldn't really even see it in person.  Oh well. 

I hope y'all enjoyed today's mani.  Happy Polishing!!

Neon Cheetah Print

Hey Y'all!  Happy Monday!  How are y'all doin' today?  Me?  I'm exhausted!  So sorry I was missing last week, but the teen had rehearsals all week then six shows over the weekend with her ballet company.  That meant many late nights, long days, and a lot of time sitting in the car for Mom.  But she, and all the dancers were wonderful.  So, I guess I'm actually a tired, but proud Mom.

But, it's a new week, and I have a new mani for you, a Neon Cheetah:

I Used:
Color Club:  Sweet Get Away, ultra bright neon pink crème
Barielle:  Sterling Silver, a smoky, silver metallic
LA Colors:  Black crème (the name is missing)
Dotting Tool
Fine Brush

I so loved this mani, and it's really easy to do!  I started by painting three fingers (thumb, ring and pinky) with Barielle Sterling Silver, a pretty, smoky looking silver metallic.  Then I painted the remaining nails with Color Club Sweet Get Away, an ultra bright pink neon crème.  This is from the scented neon line they did.  I think it was supposed to smell like roses, but I just got a slight floral scent from it.

Then, using a dotting tool, I made splotches that would be the base of the cheetah spot.  Then using a fine detail brush, I drew the black outline.  You don't need a brush for this, just use a fine toothpick or anything that is thin.

I hope you liked today's design!  And here's hoping it's the start to a fabulous week!

Happy Polishing!!

My "I Don't Care If It's Still Winter I Want Spring" Nail Art

Hey Y'all!!  Happy Monday!  Did you have a great weekend?  I had a pretty good one.  The weather yesterday was gorgeous! 72 degrees.  Ahhhh...a hint of Spring.   Sadly, just a hint.  Today's weather STINKS!!  Cold, windy, rain, temperature of 50.  This makes me so sad.  So I'm rebelling!!  I've had it with Winter!  I don't care what the calendar says, I'm starting Spring!  Today! 

So here's my "I Don't Care If It's Winter, I Want Spring" nail design:

Left Hand

Right Hand

I Used:
Zoya- Darcy (bright yellow crème)
Lakme- Aqua Blast (bright blue crème)
OPI- Flashbulb Fuschia (bright fuchsia shimmer)
LA Colors- Palm Tree (green crème)
China Glaze- Liquid Leather (black crème)
Orly- Monster Mash (green holographic medium glitters and small green holographic bar glitters in light green jelly base)
Large Dotting Tool
Very Fine Detail Brush

Now for the tutorial :)  To start, paint your nails yellow and blue.

I used Zoya Darcy in my index and pinky fingers, and Lakme Aqua Blast on the rest.  Then, using OPI Flashbulb Fuchsia and a large dotting tool (the biggest. a pen would work great), make large blobs and teardrop shapes:

These do not need to be perfect.  In fact, perfect would look odd.  For the rose buds, use a green polish, and make leaves covering the lower part of the bud.  Then a straight line for the stem.  On the bud, use black polish to outline the bud and add one curved line from the tip to the bottom to outline one of the petals.

For the roses, using black nail polish, start in the center of the blob and make a little c.  Then make varying sizes of shaky c's going all the way to the outside edge.  On the very edge, make sure you don't completely fill in the line....leave some of the blob showing.

Then on your yellow nails, use your glitter polish to make a gradient.  Start 3/4 of the way down your nail and paint towards your tip.  Then 1/2 way and then 3/4 of the way.  Don't forget the top coat to save your hard work!

Join me in fighting Winter!!  If we all decide that we've had enough, I just know it will go away.  It has to!  Join the fight!!!!

And Happy Polishing!!

Valentine's Day Mani

Hey Y'all!!  Happy Valentine's Day!!  Do y'all do anything special for Valentine's Day?  The hubby and I never really have.  Mainly because our anniversary, my birthday, our now-a-teen's birthday and his birthday all hit late January through February.  Then if you include parents, his siblings, aunts and uncles...it's insane!  So, truth be told, we are usually too broke for Valentine's, along with being way over sweets by then!

Also, I'm not much of a heart and flower kind of person, which is why you only see one Valentine's mani each year, but I did come up with one this year.  And I really like it.  Simple:

I Used:
LA Colors- red crème (no name)
Finger Paints- Oh My Gauche (small gold glitter in clear base)
Fine Detail Brush

I started with three coats of LA Colors in a red crème.  I'm kind of sad about this...it didn't give me a completely opaque look, even after three coats.  But it's one of those things I didn't notice until I was editing the pictures.  Oh well.

Anyway, once that dried, I used a very fine detail brush and hand drew the hearts.  Then filled them in using the same brush.

Don't forget the top coat!

Be sure to share your Valentine's Day plans with me, especially since I don't have any :(

And, if you haven't already, be sure to enter my GIVEAWAY!!!  Today's the last day!

Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Polishing!!

Mish Mash Challenge: Gray

Hi Y'all!!  So happy to be back!!  I know I've been missing for a few days, but I have a really good reason.  As you may know I have 2 fur babies, Chinese Chins that weigh 9 and 12 pounds.  My now-a-teen has a rescue fur baby that weighs 55 pounds.  All three dogs.  Well when the hubby and I went to get their food they were having an adoption and one little girl caught my eye.  I just knew she needed me!  So meet our newest fur baby, she's just a tiny thing (please forgive the blurry pic):

Ok, maybe little is an exaggeration!  My daughter is 5' tall if you're curious.  LOL  Meet Tilly, my 70 pound new fur baby!  Anyway, keeping all my jealous babies being nice to each other has been a full time job!  But things are getting better.

And even though I'm WAY later than normal for my challenge post, it's still Wednesday somewhere in the USA!  This week's prompt is gray, and I did a dotty gradient:

I Used:
LA Colors- Lost Soul (light gray crème)
China Glaze- Hook and Line (light gray with silver shimmer)
China Glaze- Concrete Catwalk (dark gray crème)
China Glaze- Liquid Leather (black crème)
Dotting Tools

I started with two coats of LA Colors Lost Soul (depressing name, huh?).  Then using a dotting tool I created the gradient with a small and medium dotting tool.

For originally doing the wrong prompt and having no idea what to do for gray, I like how these turned out.  It's fun.  .

Be sure to check out what the other lovely ladies have done for gray, or grey depending on how they've spelled it, lol (grammar lesson: they are both right, Americans spell it gray and Europeans spell it grey).  I'm going to bed so I can get back to refereeing the little fur monsters tomorrow!  Happy Polishing!!

MABB Bi-Weekly Question $20 FOTD

Every other Wednesday, the Metro Atlanta Beauty Bloggers will answer a beauty-related question just for fun! This week's question is...  Can you create a FOTD for $20 or less? Show us what products you would use!

NOTE: For this, we are not figuring sales tax, brushes, tools, or implements, just the regular cost of the actual make-up products.

Whew! I made it!  Usually here I say how much I love this week's question, but this week was really, really hard!!  One, I've had problems with my thyroid for 1 1/2 years and it's played havoc with me, so I'm not fond of pictures of me. And two, I love make-up!!  But limiting an entire face to only $20??  But, I kind of did it, ha ha.  The make up I bought for this challenge came to $18.85!  Yay me!  But I used an old blush and have no idea how much it cost.  I know it was pretty cheap (NYC), but the label is even worn off so I can't look it up.  So I'm going with the $18.85 :D Here are the items I bought:

NYC Individual Eyes Created for Blue Eyes $1.25 (on clearance for 75% off) *Although I don't have blue eyes, mine are gray)
NYC Smooch Proof Lip Stain 498 Berry Long Time $1.25 (on clearance for 75% off)
Maybelline Fit Me 132 Brute Beige $5.94
Maybelline Master Precise Eyeliner, black $6.44
Maybelline The Colossal Volume Express, black $2.97 (Buy 1 get one 50% off)
LA Colors Lip Gloss & Lip Stick (no name) $1.00
And the much worn NYC Cheek Glow in front

And the finished look:

So what do y'all think?  Did I make the $20 FOTD or did I cheat?  LOL  P.S. Sorry for the garbage can in the background.  Thank my bestie for that!  Don't forget to check out the other lovely MABB ladies and see what they chose!


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Be sure to check out the other Metro Atlanta Beauty Bloggers' answers! Ashley Elizabeth from Ashley Elizabeth's Beauty Blog
Dionne from Glittery Fingers & Sparkling Toes
Emma from Manicurity
Harri from TrailerHood Chic
Mandy from MandysSecrets
Pam from Pammy Blogs Beauty
Quinn from Mama Fashionista If you would like to see previous questions and answers, you can do so by viewing the Question Archive here. If you're a beauty blogger in the Metro Atlanta area and would like to join us, please visit our website! We would love to connect with you!

Elves- 12 Days of Christmas Challenge

Oh my goodness!  It's day 10 of my my very first challenge, only two days left.  That makes me sad :(  I've loved doing this challenge and love all the fabulous women I've met!  And I'm so thankful to have been a part if it.  I can't wait for the next challenge.

Now on to today's prompt: elves!  This was hard!  All I could think of were all the wonderful "elf" movie manicures everyone did.  I loved those!  Then I started thinking about all the cute Santa hats I've seen and thought, elf hats.

I Used:
Orly- White Tips
China Glaze- Liquid Leather
China Glaze- Adventure Red-y
LA Colors- Palm Tree
Pure Ice- Jaguar
Brushes
Dotting Tool

I started  with two coats of Orly White Tips (I'm out of my normal white polish and my family has banned me from buying any more polish until after Christmas!).  Then everything but the red was drawn freehand.  The red was made using my largest dotting tool.

These turned out cuter than I thought they would.  Now I'm off to shake my presents...um, I mean bake.  Yeah.  That's it.  Bake.  Be sure to check out every one's designs!  Happy Polishing!!

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (Halloween Design)

Happy Halloween Everybody!!  I hope you are having a spook-tacular day!  I wanted to get one last Halloween nail art design in before it's all over, I was just having a hard time deciding what to do.  Then my daughter wanted to watch a marathon of "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" movies.  She had never seen them before and since she loves horribly bad movies, and it is Halloween, I said ok.  Hence the idea for my newest design...Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!!!

I Used:
Wet-n-Wild Fantasy Makers- Nail in the Coffin (glittery black)
China Glaze- White on White
LA Colors- BCC 660 (dark red)
LA Colors- Palm Tree (green)
China Glaze- Liquid Leather (black)
2- smallest dotting tools (click here for tips on alternative dotting tools and brushes)
Liner Brush

So here is the finished design:

I love how they turned out.  And here's how I did it:

Start with two coats of Nail in the Coffin.  I did put a thin coat of top coat to give me a smooth surface to work on.  Even though the glitter is extremely subtle, it is there and made a bumpy work surface.

Then, so the color would show, I painted white tomato shapes.  I used a small brush to do this, but the brush that came with the polish would have worked much better and given a more even finish.  Remember, tomatoes are far from round, so don't worry about them having to be perfect.  In fact, they shouldn't be perfect.

Next, cover the white with red polish.  I had to use two coats to make the tomatoes look even since the white wasn't.  Using a dotting tool, make the eyes by placing the dot and moving it just slightly, like you're drawing a very short line.  Then using a smaller dotting tool, make the pupils.  I used a liner brush (just a very thin, long brush) to make the mouths.  I just drew a line.  Using the same brush make very short lines for the fangs.  For the stems, I put a couple of drops of the green polish and the white polish on my plate (or sheet of paper works perfectly too) and dipped my brush into both colors to paint the stems.  They didn't show up using just the green.  The last step was the top coat.

I hope y'all enjoy my spooky, killer design and I hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween!!  Happy Polishing!!

Rainbow Water Marble

Hi everyone! This is a water marble I did for one of my daughter's friends (I tried it on myself first). I loved this!! So colorful! The tutorial is here Happy Polishing!

I used:
LA Colors- White
Ulta- Red Carpet Red
NYC- Times Square Tangerine Creme
LA Colors- Palm Tree
Wet-n-Wild- On A Trip
Wet-n-Wild- Saved by the Blue
Spoiled- Designated Driver

"Natural Light"

4th of July Water Marble

I love water marbles!! Though a bit time consuming, they give you such unique and beautiful nails. I will do a water marble tutorial soon (it's done...click here) , but for now, here is my 4th of July water marble.

I used:
Ulta- Red Carpet Red
LA Colors- White
Essie- Mesmerised