Martini Summer- A Simple But Striking Nail Art Design

I'm not quite sure how I came up with this one. I wanted something with varying sizes of dots, and then I remembered the hole reinforcements I used to use in grade school. They weren't that great for their purpose, but they might be just what I needed for this look.

I dug through my polish boxes trying to decide what colors to use, and somehow picked out these four colors. I wasn't sure they'd work together, but I was willing to give it a try. I think it turned out nicely...

And since I didn't film a video of this experimentation, I put together an animated gif showing how I did this. The background is a bit backwards, because instead of painting a white nail and adding yellow dots, I did the opposite- I painted the nail yellow, then added my reinforcements and painted around the outside of them. Everything else was pretty straightforward.

Hope you enjoy it!

I so love lime green!

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Zoya Suri topped with Zoya Daul

Have you ever had one of those days where you just felt the need for some glam? That was me a couple of days ago. I was feeling blah and I wanted a bit of sparkle to cheer me up. I wanted something purple and glitzy, and boy did I get it!

I started out with a base of Zoya Suri from the Diva collection. I didn't get a photo of this, unfortunately, but I know the photos are out there. Suri is a gorgeous shimmery purple that is absolutely fascinating. The depth of Suri is absolutely delicious on its own, but it wasn't quite enough for me. I wanted more!

Since my Diva collection was still out, I saw Daul and decided to do an accent nail with it. The accent nail quickly turned into a full manicure, and I couldn't have been happier. Zoya calls Daul "a medium red-toned purple base with heavy purple and gold iridescent metallic sparkle," and they're not kidding at all.

From some angles Daul is a bright sparkling gold that completely overwhelms the purple base of Suri. From others, Suri's deep purple is visible with bits of sparkle from Daul. It's a shimmering, sparkling smorgasbord of color that seems almost ever-changing.

Application of both of these polishes was easy, as I've come to expect with Zoya polishes. Cleanup was easy enough, and these polishes are wearing nicely.

If you look at my middle finger in the photo to the left, you can see a bit of bare nail at the tip of the nail. This isn't tip wear. Instead, this is shrinkage from my quick-dry topcoat.



For whatever reasons, some quick-dry topcoats shrink as they dry. This can pull your nail polish back from the edges a bit, and in extreme cases it can even lift your polishes off your nail, causing it to peel off in a solid chunk. I've found using thinner coats of topcoat can help with this, as can wrapping the tips of your nails. Apparently I didn't wrap the tips of my nails as thoroughly as I thought.

I'm including this out-of-focus shot to show the amount of sparkle this polish has. It's a real show-stopper!

Overall, I think this combination is an absolute winner. What do you think? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Zoya polishes were provided by the brand for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Nail Art Doodling Summer 2012- Glitter Madness

It's been a while, but I've finally got some new nail art to share with you! I've gotten several new collections recently that seemed like they would play very nicely together. So one day I pulled them all out, grabbed some full coverage nail tips and started playing.

The image to the right gives you a hint of what's coming up. I had so much fun making these, and I've got some designs I'm absolutely in love with! So, first we've got a design I called Glitter Madness!

I started out with Zoya's Diva collection. This set has some absolutely gorgeous metallic jewel tones that I really needed to see together. I chose a very long nail tip for this one so I'd have lots of room to play. From top to bottom I used: Elisa (red), Suri (purple), Song (blue), and Ray (green). I then added dots of a greyed-out blue, but realized I wanted more oomph for the nail

Enter the Jordana Glitter Specialty Nail Polishes. I'm a bit late to the party with these, but holy WOW are these polishes amazing. The day I got the collection I ended up painting all my nails with a different glitter and just watching them sparkle. This collection was basically made for me, and I am so in love with it!

Getting back to the Glitter Madness, I went over each section with a corresponding glitter. I added Red Flash over Elisa, Magenta Magic over Suri, Blue Bash over Song, and Green Glitz over Ray. This took the nail from gorgeous to magically glam. I still wanted some definition between the colors, though.

Thankfully, Jessica Custom Nail Colour had just the color I wanted. I didn't want white, because that seemed like it would be too stark against the deep rich colors I had going. Instead, I went with Barely Blueberry from the Gelato Mio Collection. This color is a very pale, very cool blue, just barely blue but still with enough color to not seem shockingly out of place with the rest of what was happening on the nail.

With the separating dots, I didn't want a precise line of equally-spaced, evenly sized dots. Instead, I wanted a slightly meandering, wobbly line. You know, if a leprechaun with a peg leg got drunk, stepped in paint, then staggered all over my nail!

Wait. That just sounds wrong. Forget I said that. :D

I then added a coat of ProFX Quick Dry Top Coat to protect everything and smooth things out. I have to say, I am in LOVE with this look. I just wish my nails were long enough to wear it! The various glitter polishes have multiple sizes of glitter in them so there's a ton of sparkle, and the deeper toned base colors show through underneath.

It's just a crazy sparkly, intensely colorful look that makes me giggle when I think about it! This satisfies my inner magpie, and makes me want more more more. It's definitely my style of nail art...

But my question is this- what do you think of it? Is this something you'd wear? Would you tweak this to fit your own style, or does this design call to your inner diva? Let me know in the comments!

Polishes were provided by the brands for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Easter Means Crawfish!

Boiled crawfish and a sliced bulb of garlic, yummy!

Ahhh, Easter. I'm not religious, but most of my husband's family is Catholic, so every year they throw a huge crawfish boil. It's the perfect occasion for catching up with family, eating til you think you're going to explode, and just letting the good times roll.

Oddly enough, I'm really not a big fan of crawfish. I'll eat them in things like crawfish etouffee or crawfish pie, but I'm just not fond of peeling boiled crawfish. So, I end up sitting and eating a hot dog or something while everyone around me slurps and cracks and does all those other icky things. :D

Anyway, on to the fun stuff- nails! I'm kind of frustrated, because while this was an adorable design in my head it just didn't work so well in reality. I did a base coat of China Glaze Dance Baby, followed by two sponged coats of a gradient from Fuchsia Fanatic to Gothic Lolita (both China Glaze as well). Then I stamped on some flowers in Scherer Chameleon's Blue Sky. I topped it off with my Best Nail Treatments topcoat, which I've found works beautifully for stamping.

I think I would have liked this better with a lighter stamp, or a lighter background. The Chameleon polish stamps really nicely, but it just didn't show well enough on this background. The pink-to-purple gradient was nice enough, but... I don't know. Something about this just didn't work for me.

Ah well. It wasn't awful, it just wasn't what I had hoped it would be. I did get compliments on it today, though, so all's well that ends well. And now, picspam.

Mmmm, nothing like small boiled crustceans.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Finally- a successful water marble!

Holy COW I am so excited! I've been wanting to water marble for ... well, ever since before I started this blog. I've tried and tried, and failed and failed... until NOW!

Granted, this is a crappy photo of a not-so-inspiring water marble, but the exciting part is that it worked for me!! I used (gee, wait for it...) the China Glaze Electropop polishes and they spread like a dream!

So, once I remove the manicure I'm wearing (probably tomorrow or the day after) I'm going to try and do a water marble. Maybe a RAINBOW water marble!! I'm so excited I could just pop.

Also, once I saw how cute this was, I wanted to embellish it a bit. So, I added to it just a bit. You know I can't leave anything alone...

I added some dots and a tiny little heart in the corner because apparently valentine's day affected me more than I realized. Either that, or I'm still love-struck by my husband. :D

Ok, it's 5am and I still haven't slept. I've been working on a surprise that I might get to show you tomorrow... so cross your fingers for me!

EEEE! Water marble EEEEEE!

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Nail Art Using the Heavy Petal Collection from Jessica

You know, life is strange sometimes. There have been times where I was almost obsessed with a polish collection, eagerly waiting for it to be released only to find that once they were in my hands, I wasn't all that inspired by them. Then there's the opposite, which is what happened to me with the Heavy Petal collection from Jessica Cosmetics.

Honestly, when I looked at the collection images I wasn't all that impressed. Woo, pink. Woo, lavender. I'm usually not all that into the "safe" colors. But then something interesting happened...

I was sent this collection to review, to experiment with and to write about, and once I had the polishes in my hand, I realized that hey... these polishes are pretty darned exciting! I decided to skip the usual review type of thing and do what I like best- I was going to play with these!

I decided to experiment with two similar nail designs, only switching up the colors. I started out with Witchy Wisteria on my left hand and Geranium Gypsy on my right. Now, I'd like for you to ignore the bit of drag towards my cuticles because I'm kinda not the best at polishing my nails. But the crazy thing is that both of these polishes are one-coaters (if you're more skilled than I am)! That's always a good thing, right? But there's more...

Look closely at this photo of Witchy Wistera, and you'll see that it's a deep, rich red-based purple with copper sparkle in it! Go ahead, enlarge the photo to the right because it is so worth it!!

I absolutely LOVE this polish. There's a warmth to it that just draws me in. I'm sold... this polish is flat-out amazing. It applies beautifully... I honestly have nothing bad to say about this one!

Then there's Geranium Gypsy. I'm not quite as fond of this one on its own, simply because it's a foil and it tends to accentuate every little flaw in your nails. Believe me, with all the health issues I have, my nails have some pretty annoying flaws!

Still, if you're into metallic foil polishes, this one is a stunner. The lilac color is beautiful, and it applies well. I didn't notice tons of brush marks either, which is always a plus.

For the record? Brush marks make Laynie a very cranky blogger.

Once I had my base colors on, I decided to experiment with stamping with this collection. Again, these polishes performed beautifully!

On my left hand, I chose to stamp with Geranium Gypsy and Hotter Than Hibiscus, the pink counterpart to Geranium Gypsy's lilac. I then added dots of Born to Pansy, a sheer milky lilac with intense blue shimmer. I used the image plates from my new Salon Express stamping kit.

Once all that was done, I felt the need to add some colorful dots in the flower centers. I went back to the China Glaze Electropop collection and mixed some custom colors for the centers.

As you can see, the foils stamp amazingly well. I love how metallic they look...  They were a joy to stamp with. Born to Pansy is fascinating on the deep polish, because in some lights it's almost invisible. Then, as I move my hands, the light catches on the blue shimmer and it's as if I suddenly have ghost dots appearing on my nails! Super fun.

I'm not quite as happy with my right hand, but it's still cute. I went for the opposite effect on this one- dark polish stamped onto a light base. I used Witchy Wisteria and Dased Dahlia to stamp flowers, and then did dots with the Dased Dahlia to fill in the empty space. I added the mixed-Electropop floral centers on this hand too, to tie the two hands together.

Honestly, I much prefer the darker base, but I tend to be a bit of a drama queen that way. Still, I'm happy with how this manicure turned out. Now, if only I could get my poor cuticles in better shape... *grin*

Now, all I need to do is to figure out what design I'm going to do on my nails next! Ahhh, first world problems, how I love you! :D

Til next time!

Polishes were provided by the manufacturer for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Even MOAR dots!

Ahhh, raise your hand if you knew I was going to add to the dots. I didn't even wait 10 minutes before hitting post before getting my polishes out. Yea, I have no self-control.

Still, I think it turned out pretty cute. I showed my husband the before and after pics, and he likes the dots-in-dots best. He thinks there's more energy to them. Personally, I think they're just more fun this way!

Adding the smaller dots was really easy. I pulled out the three colors I'd used in the gradient along with the mid-sized dotting tool and my palette. I added a drop of lavender, put a few dots here and there, then repeated with the pink and the blue. Once I'd done all three colors, I went back and filled in any leftover dots with whatever color I thought would work best.

It was pretty random, and went really quickly. I'm enjoying the look a lot... every time I see my nails, I grin. The only thing that would make this even better would be some glitter, but even I think that would be a bit much. At least... for now. ;)

I have to admit, though... now that I've figured out an easy way to do gradients I may be doing LOTS of them! I have so many ideas bouncing around in my mind!

So what do you think? Is this a design you'd wear? Leave me a comment and tell me how you'd style this, or how you'd change it!

Why yes, I think I AM losing my mind... how kind of you to notice!

See my disclosure statement for more information.

I'm seeing spots! I call this one ElectroDots!

After wearing the pastel gradient for a day, I needed something else with a bit of graphic pop. I thought about zebra stripes, or a leopard print. I thought about plain stripes. But I decided to go with plain old polka dots.

Speaking of, have you ever wondered where the term polka dots originated? I'm a bit of a word geek, and decided to track it down the other day. Turns out, the dotted pattern was named for a dance called the polka in the 1850s. The dance was such a craze that there were lots of things named after it! It was that crazy pop music of the time, apparently. Call that your weird fact of the day.

Unfortunately, my dots aren't nearly as neat as I'd hoped they would be. I'm still getting the hang of using my dotting tools again! Still, I'm really happy with these, and they look much better at normal viewing distance. (You know, when the camera isn't making my nails as big as my head!)

I chose Gothic Lolita from the Electropop collection because it went to perfectly with these colors. I promise I'm going to use some other colors eventually, but I love these so much! This was one giveaway prize I was thrilled to win, because these colors have my name all over them!

The process couldn't be more simple. I pulled out my palette (which is actually a packet of nail decals) and put a drop of Gothic Lolita onto it. Then I used my largest dotting tool to make dots on my nails. It's really super easy.

Now, you may find it hard to do a consistent pattern. I've struggled with that as well, so this is how I worked around it. I start with a dot in the center of my nail, then put one above it and below it (in a line). Then I go in between the dots to one side, and then to the other. I also try and put partial dots where they would be if they're going off the nail. That always makes things look nicer to me. I quick clean up with my brush and acetone and I'm ready to go! It ends up looking something like this.

Unfortunately, now that they're on, I'm strongly tempted to put small dots inside the big ones. I can never leave well enough alone, but how cute would little dots in the pastel colors look, with the purple framing them?

Sometimes my brain just won't stop tormenting me with ideas. It gets tiring!

Aah well, check back tomorrow to see what I've done with them. Who knows!

I only wish I got paid for every post I made using the China Glaze Electropop collection...

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Another way to do a sponged gradient!

Ever have a day when you see something that totally changes how you look at something? Yea, that was me last night. I was browsing nail stuff online (as I so often do) and came across people doing a sponged gradient in a totally different way. (See here and here for examples.) It looked much easier than the tutorial I just wrote, and it looked just as good (if not better)! I had to try it out!

This is so much easier than the method I've been using. The tutorial can be summed up like this:

• base coat
• 2 coats of white
• 2 coats of gradient stamping
• top coat

And that's it! You cut a piece of sponge the size of your nail (or just paint an area the size of your nail), paint stripes of the colors you're using onto your sponge, then pat-pat-pat the sponge over your nail all at once. The gradient basically forms itself, and you're left with a very messy gradient that goes all over your fingers!



I sent a link to my friend, needing to share my excitement over this find. She didn't believe that it could look so smooth and pretty. Then she did it- she challenged me to prove to her it could look that smooth and soft. What could I do?

I pulled out my China Glaze Electropop collection and started painting. I only did one nail, as a proof of concept, and WOW was it messy. There's really no way to avoid getting the polish everywhere unless you tape off your fingers like you would do for a water marble. I'll have to try that next time...

Still, the one nail I did turned out beautiful. This wasn't enough for her... she didn't think it looked smooth enough, so I added a layer of topcoat over everything to meld it together.

Even though I know how much topcoat can pull a manicure together, I was still blown away at just how smooth this gradient was! It was so easy, and so pretty. That's one stamped coat of rainbow goodness on my index finger there, and it's absolutely gorgeous.

She was pretty gobsmacked too. She couldn't believe how fast and easy it was to get a gradient look like this. She's definitely looking at her ombre nails kit differently now.

So of course, I needed to do a full manicure like this, but I was too lazy to deal with 5 colors like I had in my test run. I ended up sticking with three pastel shades- I'm fairly sure I used Dance Baby, Sweet Hook, and Kinetic Candy.

As you can see, it worked beautifully. The stripes on the sponge really didn't look all that soft and gradienty, but on the nail? Gorgeous pastel softness. I'm just blown away at how smooth the transition is!

Cleanup was an utter nightmare, much like trying to clean up a water marble is. I used cotton swabs, brushes and acetone, and still had a horrible mess to clean up. Still... it's SO worth it!

I can just see doing all my nails in rainbows. You could also do angled gradients or vertical gradients, based on how you apply the colors on the sponge. I really am in love with this look!

Although now I'm thinking it would be fun with a pattern over it- I'm thinking zebra stripes, or maybe leopard print. My husband laughed when he saw it and said my nails look like easter eggs.

So, what do you think of this look? Would you wear it? Would you change it? Would you put a print over the top of it? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of it...

So many awesome ways to create pretty results!

See my disclosure statement for more information.