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Monday, October 31, 2011

Flower Nail Tutorial

Happy Halloween readers!! Unfortunately, it's a gloomy day here and I can't continue with the Ozotic Mishmash-athon until we get sun. Crossing fingers that will be tomorrow!

So, instead, I have a tutorial for you. Ashley at Ashley Is PolishAddicted requested this design, so here you go!

Here is the full mani picture:

Now, onto the tutorial! I decided to show the design for my index finger, but you will get the idea of how to do the other nails as well. 

The polishes I used:
China Glaze Thataway, China Glaze Passion, and OPI Proz & Bronze.

The only tool used:
A striper brush.


Step 1) Paint your nails with you base color. I used China Glaze Thataway. 


Step 2) Using your gold polish(China Glaze Passion) and your striper brush, draw simple flower petals coming from off of the nail. 


Step 3) Using the same gold polish and striper, fill in the petals. 


Step 4) Using your glitter(OPI Proz & Bronze) and striper brush, paint over a smaller petal shape in the center of the gold petals. I had to do 2 coats because the glitter wasn't dense enough. 


Step 5) Using your striper and same glitter polish, do curving lines from between the petals. 

Don't forget top coat! 

What do you think? You could do this with any color combinations and they are simple, easy flower nails! Please request more tutorials! Thanks for reading!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

New Ozotic Mishmash 532!

Good morning, readers! I hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday today!

Are you ready for day 2 of our Mishmash-athon? I got such a huge amount of comments on my post of Ozotic 531 yesterday, so thank you for that! These Ozotic Mishmash holographic multichrome polishes are so gorgeous, I just know you will love today's post as well!

Say hello to Ozotic 532! The most dominant color in this polish is teal, but it changes to royal blue and purple as well! The purple is also very easily noticeable, but the blue is like the hidden secret you get to see at just the right angle of light! I really love this polish and it was just as amazing to apply as 531. These pictures are of 2 coats over black, and one layer of top coat. Again, the top coat does not seem to dull the holo effect at all in these polishes!

The photo above shows off the teal. 

The gorgeous purple!

The hidden royal blue

Such a pretty bottle!

And here is the shade picture to show off the multichrome. 

A special thanks to Leah Ann at Llarowe for providing these polishes for me to review for you all! Don't forget to check out her online store at http://shop.llarowe.com. She is the US Stockist for Glitter Gal and A-England polishes, as well as part of the piCture pOlish network. Also, she has recently added HITS polishes to her store!

What are your thoughts? Are you drooling over these polishes yet? Stay tuned for days 3 and 4 of the Mishmash-athon to help decide which colors you want to order from Llarowe! Thanks for reading!


http://shop.llarowe.com

Saturday, October 29, 2011

New Ozotic Mishmash 531!

Hello readers, I have some amazing polishes to show you for the next 4 days! The super sweet Leah Ann from Llarowe sent me all 4 of the new Ozotic Mishmash holographic multichrome polishes to review and share with you!! I was so excited for these to come out and they did not disappoint! They are a mishmash of the best Ozotics: multichromatic and holographic! Can it get any better than that?! I doubt it.

Now, let me introduce you to the gorgeous 531! This seems to change color between gold, bronze, a reddish purple, and even green sometimes. Ozotic may just be my favorite nail polish brand. They are a little sheer but are meant to be worn over a black base(or another dark color). This was just 2 coats over black, and you could get away with one but I wanted to show the true color of the polish. They apply flawlessly, the cap is almost rubbery so it's easy to keep hold of it, and the brushes are great. A+ from me!

Of course I took a zillion pictures, but here are my favorites:

At this angle, you can really see the bronze color among the rainbow!

This is the reddish purple I was talking about! So pretty!

Check out the linear holographic particles! Gorgeous!!

Even the bottle looks amazing in the sunlight!!

And if you were interested, this is a picture when the sun went behind the clouds. You can see the many colors here. Green on the top, gold, bronze, reddish purple, etc. It seems that the green and gold are at the most extreme angles when the sun is out so I couldn't get it on the camera very well unless it was shady like this.

Topcoat did not weaken the holographic effect at all, which I love because I can't stand going around without top coat! I love this color and can't wait to try out the other 3 and share them with you here!

A special thanks to Leah Ann at Llarowe for providing these to me for review! Leah Ann is the official US Stockist for Glitter Gal and A-England polishes, as well as part of the piCture pOlish network. She has also recently added HITS polishes to her site! Her shipping is fast and extremely affordable! Please visit her site: http://shop.llarowe.com and check out these amazing polishes that are usually hard to get if you live in the US! She also has a Facebook Page with lots of swatch links!




http://shop.llarowe.com

Friday, October 28, 2011

Partial Flower Water Marble Tutorial

It's time for another tutorial! Hope you are enjoying them! Have any requests? Please ask! This one was requested by my BFF, Heidi, because it wasn't one of my designs she was at my house watching me do.

Sheesh, let me just say that it is a lot easier to water marble on your nails than a nail wheel!! I just didn't want to take off my needle marble nails from yesterday to do it on my finger.

Here is a refresher of the water marble I did for the 31 Day Challenge:


Onto the tutorial:

The polishes I used:
OPI Alpine Snow, Wet n Wild Ink Well, Buy Me A Drink, and Ready to Pounce.


 The tools you will need:
Something to collect the excess polish, something skinny to make the design on the water, and a cup or small bowl to do the marbling in.

Step 1) Paint your nails white. 

Step 2) Fill your bowl with room temperature water. Then as quickly as you can, drop 3 alternating drops of each of your colors to make the concentric circles. 

Step 3) Using your pin or small dotting tool, drag through from the outside to the inner circle from all directions to make it look like a flower. 

Step 4) Dip your nail on one side of the center of the flower. You can place your nail in the very center if you want, but I was trying to get it close to my original design.  


 Step 5) While your nail is still under the water, use your other tool and "gather" up the rest of the polish on the surface of the water. Once it's all clear again, remove your nail. It should look something like this. I didn't go far enough to the side of the center(its hard to aim the nail wheel) so you can see the center of the flower on the nail. You get the idea though I hope!

Once it's dried, add your topcoat. Don't forget to tape around your nail or use vaseline to make clean up easier. You can see that in my original water marble tutorial.

What are your thoughts? I love seeing what designs I can come up with while water marbling and I hope you will try this one. Thanks for reading!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Needle Marble Design

Hello readers!! I tried a new design technique today. After seeing this post from Liquid Jelly a little while ago, I knew I had to try it. She put this video tutorial up if you want to see how it's done.

Also, my friend Sarah from Chalkboard Nails just did this other variation of needle marbling yesterday!!

I made mine more "gloomy" colors so maybe they fit in with Halloween coming up. Or, they just reflect the gloomy day we have outside today. Either way, it wasn't too hard to do and I plan to keep trying at this for new designs and colors in the future.


I used: Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid
Color Clubs Artsy Crafty and Blue-Topia to do the swirling
Sponged some Nubar Star Sparkle around the design
2 Coats of Out The Door.

What are your thoughts? I got this gorgeous Cult Nails in a swap with my friend Heather and just HAD to try it out. The sun wasn't out so you can't see the shimmer on my nails, but in this picture you can see it in the bottle!

Have you tried needle marbling? Thanks for reading!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Galaxy Nail Tutorial

Good morning, everyone! I have another tutorial for you today! This one is super easy and anyone can do it, even if you think you don't have any nail art skills(I'm looking at you, Traci!). My friend Traci, from The Trace Face Philes, requested this Galaxy nails tutorial for you today!

Some things to note:
I'm just showing you what I used to do my design. You can use any colors, similar to mine or not, and make it how you want it. I just started pulling colors out of my drawers that I wanted to use.

I didn't have any nails that looked the same because I sponged randomly all over the place.

I think it's too hard to mess this up because there is no real technique here.


Here is a refresher photo to show you what I did for my full mani of Galaxy nails:



Onto the tutorial. Warning, there are a TON of pictures. 


Here are the polishes I used:
 Pure Ice Electric!, OPI I Juggle...Men, OPI Alpine Snow, piCture pOlish denim, Ulta Material Girl, a-england Lady of the Lake, Wet n Wild Jungle Fever, Ozotic 528, China Glaze White Cap, and Nubar 2010.

This is the only tool you will need:
Make up sponges. (sorry this is out of focus. Couldn't tell until I cropped it. At least you can tell what I am showing you)


Step 1) Paint your nail with the dark shimmer color. This is Pure Ice Electric! and was only $2 a walmart. A plain black would work, I was just going for more shimmer since I didn't do stars in my design.
 



Step 2) Add one layer of OPI I Juggle...Men. This added a blue and purple shimmer to the black. 
 


 I wanted to show this picture of my workspace. I use an old placemat(i've also used those bendy cutting boards you can get at the dollar store) to mix colors. 


Once you have the dark  base ready and dry, you will want to rip some pieces of the makeup sponge to use. 


 Make drops of color and then dip the sponge in it. Make sure to sponge a few times on the placemat before you put it on your nail so you get all of the excess polish off.


Step 3) Sponge on a bit of your white. I did this randomly on all of the nails in different shapes and locations. Don't try to be too perfect with it because a lot of it gets covered by other colors.


 Step 4) Dab on your next color. This was Ulta Material Girl. I loved this color because it has holo sparkles in it. Again, we are just doing it in random spots on the nail.


 Step 5) Add your next color. This time was piCture pOlish denim. This one was kind of sheer but it has some great flakies in it that transfer onto the nail.


 Step 6) Add your next color. This was Wet n Wild Jungle Fever(green). 


 Step 7) Add another color. This was a-england Lady of the Lake. (purple with holo sparkles). This one wasn't as sheer as some of the colors so I did it in between the white sections on the black so it broke up the black stripe that was showing.


 Step 8) Add your shimmer. This was China Glaze White Cap. It's a sheer shimmery white with gold in it. I only did this up the right side of the nail. When it comes to these last 3 glitter/flakie toppers, I like to do them in separate spots on the nail so you catch the different glitters when you turn your nails in the light.


 Step 9 and 10) I apparently forgot or accidentally deleted step 9. So this shows the last 2 toppers I added. on the bottom left we had the Ozotic 528 glitter(teal) and at the top left you can see the Nubar 2010 flakies that are a copper color.
Don't forget to add a top coat. :)

 This shows my color drops and dab marks with my used sponge pieces. Thought it may be helpful.


So there you have it! I hope it wasn't too difficult to follow all of my picture steps. Are you going to try it? I'd love a link or picture posted on my fb page if you try any of my tutorials!! Please give me more tutorial requests to post on here for you. 

Also, did you notice my new layout and 2 new tabs at the top of the screen? 31 Day Challenge and Tutorials tabs for easier navigation through my nail art.

What are your thoughts? Thanks for reading!!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

I am in Flakie Heaven!

Hello readers!!! It came, it came, it came!!!!! My Cult Nails Unicorn Puke just came in the mail! I had just finished taking off my old polish when I heard the mail truck driving around our culdesac--perfect timing, I say. So of course, less than 20 minutes later, my polish was on and ready for pics! Are you ready?!

 This was 3 coats on it's own. I wanted to see it's true potential first, before trying it on some base colors. This is such an awesome purple jelly color, and then to add in all of these amazing flakies...just epic. I love it!

Look at all of those multicolored flakies!!!!!!!!!


I got #136 out of 275 bottles.

There were only 275 bottles made under the name "Unicorn Puke" so I had to pre-order to make sure I got one and am so happy I did! This color will be released under the name "Clairvoyant" with the rest of the Cult Nails Winter Collection in the next month or two. So don't fret if you missed your chance at Unicorn Puke and love the color. :)

I can't wait to add more Cult Nails to my collection! Cult Nails is actually based out of my hometown area so it's pretty exciting for me! You can check out the rest of the Cult Nails polishes and order them online here.

What are your thoughts? I plan to try this over other colors in the future, but I love it on it's own! Did you get Unicorn Puke? Thanks for reading!

EDIT: If you want to see this over some different colors, come check out what Allison did with her Unicorn Puke today! I am surprised that I love it over red!

Monday, October 24, 2011

NOPI Nicole...Spotted! VS. Sinful Colors Nail Junkie

Hello lovely readers! I am sad to report that I did not get my Cult Nails Unicorn Puke today even though usps.com said today was the expected delivery date. :( I was so set to do that post for you today that I had to figure out what else I could post on. I am feeling pouty so I decided to just do a comparison post for you instead of doing something on my nails that I wouldn't want to take off tomorrow when I should finally get my Unicorn Puke.

I've had Sinful Colors Nail Junkie for around 6 months but always forget to use it. I recently recieved NOPI Nicole...Spotted from Ashley's giveaway and when I was putting it away in my melmer, I realized it looked like a dupe for Nail Junkie! So here are some comparison pictures with 1-3 coats, labeled below each picture.

Bottle shot. Nicole by OPI Nicole...Spotted! and Sinful Colors Nail Junkie



Index and Ring: 1 coat of NOPI, Middle and Pinky: 1 coat of SC.


Index and Ring: 2 Coats of NOPI, Middle and Pinky: 2 coats of SC.


Index and Ring: 3 coats of NOPI, Middle and Pinky: 2 coats of SC.

So surprisingly, Sinful Colors was much more pigmented and didn't need more than 2 coats for full coverage. I don't even think that 3 coats of the NOPI is as dark as 2 coats of the SC(shown in the last picture) but who wants more than 2-3 glitter coats, anyway? 

My thoughts: I actually liked the application better on the NOPI(thankfully it was their old brush and not the dumb new rounded one that I hate) and it was shinier when dried. Sinful was thicker and a little harder to apply, but I bet some thinner could solve that problem since it's been sitting for 6 months in my drawer.

I'd love to use the NOPI over a color instead of trying to use it on it's own. 

At $2 each for Sinful Colors and NOPI around $7, you can choose which one you'd like to spend your money on. I think they are both gorgeous but I probably don't need both. I think I'll add some thinner to my Sinful Colors and give to my sister, Chloe, and Mom to add to their growing nail polish collection!

What do you think? Do you have either of these? Which would you choose? Thanks for reading and hopefully my Unicorn Puke will be posted tomorrow!