Viva la Nails Order Unboxing!

I love getting nail mail! I recently placed an order with Viva la Nails using the gift certificate I won recently. I spent ages trying to pick out what I wanted to order! I finally narrowed down my choices, though, and I'm so excited to see what I got!

Since I was so excited to open my package, I decided to share the fun with you guys. Watch the vid, and get a sneak peek at some of the goodies I'll be using in upcoming nail art!



Some of the items I bought were on clearance, so I can only link you to the category. The rest, though, I'll link directly to the items so you can get your own if you like!

Neon Green Glitter Dust (clearance)
Water Decal Nail Wraps #29
Green Dazzling Sticker Paper
Blue Striping Tape
Silver (holographic) Super Flitter
Crimson Nail Art Feathers
Purple Dazzling Paper

Thanks, Viva la Nails, for hosting such a fun giveaway!

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Viva la Nails Giveaway!

How would you like to win a box full of nail art supplies? If you're anything like me, you'd love to! (And since you're reading this, odds are you're probably at least a little bit like me.)

Enter Viva la Nails! They're having a sweet little contest to celebrate Mother's Day, and one lucky person will win a gift pack worth £29.95! (That's almost $50 in US money!) The gift pack includes water decals, nail wraps, rhinestones, glitter and more! Pretty exciting... I know I'd love to find that in my mailbox!

I know what you're thinking. Yea, but what's the catch? There isn't one. It's open internationally, and all you have to do is leave a comment telling how your mother has inspired you, then make a tweet. It's seriously easy...

But you've got to act fast if you want to win. This contest is only open til March 12, 2012, so you'd better get right on it. Hop on over to the Viva la Nails blog for full details and get started! You can't win if you don't enter, right?

Information was provided by the manufacturer.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Viva la Nails Water Decals Make Getting a Gorgeous Manicure Easy!

I've been meaning to post this for ages, but I keep getting distracted. I'm bad about that... I'm totally scatterbrained! Seriously, y'all have no idea. Let me describe a typical experience for me...

Let's say I need to go to the bathroom. I get up, fully intending to go to the bathroom. But as I'm getting up, I think I may as refill my water bottle while I'm at it, so I grab my bottle and head for the kitchen. Once I get there, I think, "Hey, I'm kind of hungry, I should get a snack." I set my bottle down and go to the fridge, looking for something to nibble on. Then I remember I needed to throw a load of laundry on to wash, so I meander to the washing machine and start loading it, only to have to stop because my back is spasming too badly for me to continue. I hobble back to bed, only to realize as soon as I get prone that I still haven't gone to the bathroom, I now have nothing to drink, no snack, and the laundry still isn't washing!

.... and this is typical for me. :D

So...let's get back to the subject- ages ago, I sent off for the Viva la Nails sample pack, and I am so glad I did! It contained an absolutely lovely collection of goodies, including glitter, crushed shell, stickers and decals and stones... it was seriously awesome! I recently decided to try a set of water decals, since I'd never used them before. I was a little nervous about it, since it was new to me, but I figured hey, it's just nail polish, right?

The first thing I did was to gather everything I would need to do my nails. Since I was starting with already-painted nails, that involved getting a small dish of warm water (because I didn't want to dip my fingers into cold!), my tweezers (totally optional), the decals, and my scissors. Then I got comfortable. I had no idea how long this would take, and I wanted to be sure I wouldn't have to move halfway through because I wasn't comfortable.

I started out by cutting the sheet of decals into individual pieces. This makes it possible to soak each decal off individually, so that you don't end up making a huge mess. Trust me on this one. :D

Now, let me take a moment to discuss my setup. You may or may not know that I'm clumsy, but I am. I am incredibly clumsy, and I'm good at making a total mess without intending to. I don't do well with open containers of liquid- I drink from bottles with caps I can replace, instead of glasses, because I will almost always knock it over without meaning to. But how to handle this, since I need the open water?

I used a magnet. I have a nice supply of the small plastic medicine dosing cups that I use for mixing colors, holding beads or whatever I'm working with, or whatever small project I'm doing at the time. I placed this cup into a small metal coffee can and dropped the magnet into the cup, which held it firmly on the bottom of the can. After I put the water into the cup, the magnet ensured I didn't accidentally knock the cup over, and even if I did it would stay inside the can. It worked really well for me, even if it's slightly odd.

So, once I had my individual decals and my water, it was time to apply the decals. Since the decals are small, I decided to use my tweezers to hold each one as I wet it. I grasped the decal firmly by the edge with my tweezer, then sort of waved it around to make sure I had a good grasp on it. I was afraid I would drop it, or lose my grip or ... I don't know what I was worried about, really, I was just terrified I would destroy the decal somehow. Surely this couldn't be easy, right?

However... oddly enough, it was. Once I was content with my grip, I dunked the decal into the water and watched it. I could see the water soak into the paper, so I pulled it out again after a few second. I watched it a bit longer, and used my thumb and forefinger to see if I could slide the decal along the paper.

Once it slid freely, I scooted it off the edge of the paper. I didn't want to slip it completely off, in case it would fold up or collapse or something. I wasn't sure how well it would work, since the whole thing was new to me. But it slid easily on the backing paper and slipped to the edge of the paper nicely. I left it about half on and half off, just to be safe.

Once again using my tweezers, I grasped the edge of the decal to hopefully control it easier than with my pudgy fingertips. The tweezers worked wonderfully, giving me good control. Then it was just a matter of placing the decal...

Oddly enough I didn't get any photos of that. I can't imagine why... how hard can it be to photograph yourself applying a decal to one hand while holding it with the other? Oh wait... I only have the two hands... ok. That would be why. But moving on...

When the decal is first placed, the water underneath lets you slide it around the nail and place it. However, once it's smoothed down with your fingertip, it becomes stuck solidly. Once it's placed and dried, it's on. Then it's simply a matter of dunking and applying to the rest of the fingernails. Believe it or not, it took a whole five minutes or less to apply the decals and then top with a coat of China Glaze Fast Forward. Then it was simply a matter of taking a photo to show the final result!

So... my final opinion? I absolutely adore these, and want more. They're so delicate, so beautiful. I'm sold on these, and love the way their thin delicate lines accent the nail in ways I could never duplicate with a brush.

They also work beautifully as a base for decoration. You could easily add stones or polish over them. For example, you could add small strokes of color inside the petals, beside the leaves, and add a rhinestone at the flower center, or perhaps at the end of the vines. Instead of the end of the decoration, they can be a great start, and I can't wait to experiment more with these!

Unfortunately, that has to wait for a while. But that's ok... I have so many fun things to show you. I just need to find the time to get everything shown... I don't have enough hands!

So what do you think? Have you used water decals? Would you try them? Do you think they'd work better as the decoration, or as a start to paint over and embellish?

Til next time...

The water decals used in this post were provided by Viva la Nails for evaluation.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

The Viva la Nails sample pack is back!

Just a quick heads-up for those of you who may be interested. Viva la Nails has a sample pack for beauty bloggers and YouTubers, and usually it's out of stock. However, for the moment it's back and you can get yours for free! (Well, if you live in the UK. Shipping out of the country isn't free, but it is cheap!)

Now, be aware. This isn't the uber-package of the past. However, it is three sets of nail decals and three sets of water decals, and you can't beat that with a stick! It's a £12 value (that's almost $20!), so it's really not a bad deal. Plus, their decals are absolutely adorable.

If you're not a blogger, don't feel bad. They still have some really pretty things to play with, and their prices aren't too shabby. For example, look at this selection of water decals for £1.95 a pack, or their glitter and flitter (£1.45-£1.95), dazzling sticker paper (£1.95), or a huge selection of rhinestones, crystals and pearls for your nails. Honestly, there's a huge selection for a decent price.

As for the quality? I love the stuff that came in my sample pack. I've used them a couple of times, and have more looks to show you (look back through my blog, or look at the viva la nails tag). If they were local, I'd be ordering from them all the time!

So check out Viva la Nails. You might just be surprised at how cool their stuff is!

The Viva la Nails sample pack was provided by the manufacturer for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

More experimental nails...

If you've been following me on Twitter, you know I've been fighting with insomnia. I still am, and so I'm going to make today's post short and sweet. Yay for experimental nails!

This is a very strong graphic print. I used black, white, and silver to keep the tone monochromatic. I like the look, it's sort of edgy with a 3d pop thanks to the studs and stars.


This one includes basic white polish from Fantasy Makers (woohoo for $0.49 clearance sales!), a black Art Deco striper ($1 at the Dollar Tree!), silver Sally Hansen Salon Pedal to the Metal, various silver glitter stripers (Art Deco Silver Glitter, KISS Rock Star), and a silver Art Deco striper. It also has iridescent white/pink cutout stars and black studs from Viva la Nail to add a bit of dimensional pop. It's all sealed and topped off with a couple of coats of China Glaze Fast Forward topcoat.

KISS Rock Star, white stars and black studs were provided by the manufacturers for evaluation.

This nail was an experiment using various stripers over a metallic base. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it, but it is fun. I did the animated gif so that you could see the entire nail. I think it has a grafitti feel to it, rather funky and fun.

I used one coat of Sally Hansen Color Quick Chrome Pen in Metallic Turquoise as a base, then topped that with one coat China Glaze Fast Forward just to protect it. Then I added stripes and dots using various stripers. Stripers were Art Deco in white, bright green, yellow, and pink and KISS Nail Art Nail Paint in pearl blue and red.

The Sally Hansen Color Quick Chrome Pen and the KISS Nail Art Nail Paints were provided by the companies for evaluation.

Finally, I did a nail I called the Golden Princess look. I wanted to play with the idea of using glitter pieces as a tile to cover sections of the nail for a glamorous, truly blingy look. I used a s

Unfortunately, once I got them to this point, I felt as if they weren't quite finished. I spoke with a friend who gave me an idea on how to finish it.

I simply added a spaced line of the glitter sequins down either side of the glitter stripe down the center of the nail and it emed to finish the nail. Unfortunately my camera didn't quite capture the color truly on the second photo, but you still get the idea.

Supplies used: Zoya Tiffany, Sally Hansen Salon Gilty Pleasure, KISS Gold Glitter, Viva La Nail gold sequins.

Zoya Tiffany, KISS Gold Glitter, & Viva La Nail gold sequins were provided for consideration.

So, the question now becomes do I create any of these as full sets... what do you think? :D

Dressing Up GOSH Black Passion: Decals

Whew! It's been a while since I wrote about my nails! Sorry about that, I've just been so excited by all the Halloween goodies out there! But I haven't forgotten about my nails...

Last time I wrote about my nails, I'd polished them with GOSH's Black Passion, a simply gorgeous charcoal shimmer. However, if you know me, you know I couldn't leave that alone for long. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it, though, so I spent a few minutes digging through my nail art box. Sure enough, I came up with the perfect accent- a set of nail decals that were sent to me by Viva la Nails!

I wanted something simple, something with a bit of color, and something that would show up well against the dark polish. These decals definitely did the rick. They're a set of white hearts and stars that are accented by a rainbow of tiny rhinestones. They also have a variety of sizes so that you're not stuck trying to put a giant sticker on your pinkie nail or a teeny tiny sticker on your thumb. I love that!

Are these adorable or what? Seriously, I absolutely love these! The only problem I ran into is that I'm not terribly good at placing them, so they sort of... well... let's just say I had to work at getting them where I wanted them. I'm pretty sure I'll get better at that with practice, though, so don't let that stop you from getting these.

I also love that these don't all swoop in the same direction, so that you can have both hands look right. I know I'm strange, but that sort of thing can drive me BATTY!

There's one thing I'm unsure of, though. I always feel as if my decals don't look quite right. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, but when I see decals on other people's nails I love them. Do you guys think there's anything I could do differently to improve this look?

Ah well... I shouldn't complain. I still think this is cute as can be, and you should know by now that I'm a total sucker for cute! This mani is fun and simple, and I wore the heck out of it!

Now, the question becomes this: what else could I do to change up Black Passion? Stay tuned, and tomorrow I'll show you a look that even surprised me!

Decals were provided by Viva la Nails for evaluation.