Monday, January 30, 2012

Nicki Minaj Inspired Nails #1

Hi everyone! So I mentioned before I use this iPhone app called Instagram and I like to enter these little nail contests. I like how when I'm sometimes lacking inspiration these contests will give me a direction to go in. Anyways, the current one is to do nails inspired by outfits worn by Nicki Minaj or Lady Gaga. I did 4 so you'll be seeing them this week. I wanted to do more actually because I got a lot of inspiration, but I started nursing school again today so no more daily manis ='[

For this mani I painted all my nails with OPI Fly. Then I used a dotting tool to add medium sized random blobs of OPI. Did It On 'Em, OPI DS Glow, China Glaze Gaga for Green, Color Club Chelsea Girl, and L.A. Girl Disco Brites Vinyl Record. Lastly I stamped using Bundle Monster 224 in Konad Black. Pretty awesome, right?! One of Nicki's outfits in her "Super Bass" music video was the inspiration for this mani.




My 300 Follower Giveaway (Winner Announcement)

Hi lovelies! I want to say thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway and to my buddy Marco who shipped the prize for free. If I could I would host giveaways all the time to show my appreciation to all of you awesome followers. My 300 follower giveaway ended last week and the winner was Leslie from PolishArtAddiction! Congratulations Leslie! She won the Essie Luxeffects Collection. I'm happy to say when I started the giveaway I had just over 300 followers and when the giveaway ended I had 582! It really makes me happy to be part of this nail blogging community and to see people are sharing it with me =] On a side note, I have some Nicki Minaj inspired manis coming up for you all this week so stay tuned!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

China Glaze First Mate and Bundle Monster 208

Hi lovelies! Quick post today. I wanted to do a mani with nice contrasting colors so I used China Glaze First Mate as a base and stamped using Bundle Monster 208 with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Silver Sweep. I love how this plate has images that are similar to each other, but embossed differently because it makes it so easy to create accent nails!




Monday, January 23, 2012

China Glaze Electropop Cupcake Nails

Hi everyone! I go back to school in a week ='[ I won't be able to post as often as I have been able to this past month and a half, but I will still post probably once a week. Anyways, I picked up China Glaze's Electropop collection the same day that I purchased the Magnetix Collection and I decided to use it to make cupcake nails! I was going to do cupcake nails earlier, but I was waiting on these colors, they're so bright and colorful! From China Glaze's Electropop Collection I used Sweet Hook, Dance Baby, Fuchsia Fanatic, Aquadelic, Gaga For Green, Sunshine Pop, Make Some Noise, and Gothic Lolita. The white is Wet N Wild French White Creme and the red is China Glaze Hey Sailor. Happy cupcaking!



Saturday, January 21, 2012

Red and Gold 49ers Nails!

Hi everyone! Today I have a manicure for my favorite football team, the S.F. Forty Niners! They're playing tomorrow and I thought these would be very fitting for the occasion =] I used a base of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Cherry Red. Then I used some scotch tape to make a V shape and used OPI Gold Shatter for the tip design. Then I used some gold hex glitter. I stamped using Konad M42, M17, and M18 in Konad White. I love how these turned out! Go Niners!



Here they are with no stamp for those of you who don't care for football or who have a different team preference. These can double as Chinese New Years nails! Chuc mung nam moi!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

China Glaze Magnetix Collection Swatches

Hi everyone! Very exciting post today--China Glaze's Magnetix Collection! It consists of 6 magnetic polishes and a magnet which is sold separately. It was my first time using magnetic polish so please excuse the first few pictures as I was still trying to get the hang of it. Anyways, onto the pictures! (All swatches are shown with topcoat)

L to R: Instant Chemistry, Drawn to You, Pull Me Close, Cling On, You Move Me,  Attraction

Here's the little box that the magnet comes in

Front of the magnet

Back of the magnet

Attraction.

Attraction

Attraction

You Move Me

You Move Me

You Move Me

Cling On

Cling On

Cling On

Pull Me Close

Pull Me Close

Pull Me Close

Drawn to You

Drawn to You. Fail!! This combination would not cooperate with me!

Drawn to You

Instant Chemistry

Instant Chemistry

Instant Chemistry


  • The two that gave me some difficulty were Attraction (the charcoal color) and Drawn to You (the light purple). They both have a very thick formula that for some reason did not work as well with the magnet as the other colors. 
  • The directions say to apply one coat of the polish and use the magnet right away. I tried this and it was not working out so great for me. I felt in a rush to do application and the magnet effects were just okay for me. What I did that worked well for me was apply one coat of polish, let it dry, and then use a second coat of polish with the magnet. 
  • The chevron and star designs were a bit tricky to use. Even if you get a crisp star design, the design would kind of fade and look blurry after a few seconds.
  • The names are all so similar I can't remember them for the life of me, but that may just be me =P
Besides those things, I have to say I'm now a fan magnetic polish. It's actually a lot faster for me to use magnets to create a fun nail design than to use other methods I usually use like stamping. It literally only takes 5-10 seconds for the magnet to work! These may be some new "go to" nail polishes for those who don't have enough time to do nail art. In case anyone was wondering, I purchased these polishes for $5 each and the magnet was also sold for $5. The nail store I go to sells polish for almost half the retail value so I would expect them to retail around $10, but don't quote me on that! 

Monday, January 16, 2012

Zoya Shay and Konad M77

Hi everyone! I have something rare today--me wearing a nude! I have been pretty against wearing nudes because I love how bright colors look on nails, but at the hospital I had clinicals at last semester, I was actually allowed to wear nude polish so I purchased this one. I actually am starting to like how it looks, I think I just needed to break out of my comfort zone =] Here's Zoya Shay stamped with Konad M77 in Konad Black. Looks classy, eh?




Sunday, January 15, 2012

OPI Black Onyx and Nfu-Oh #49

Hi everyone! Short post today. I've been seeing so many flakies lately and I have yet to get my hands on some of the newer ones, so I decided to wear one I have already to satisfy my flakie craving! I used O.P.I. Black Onyx as a base and used one coat of Nfu-Oh #49. I also added one coat of Essie Matte About You to see what it looks like matte. Enjoy!






Friday, January 13, 2012

OPI Mod About You and RA 119

Happy Friday the 13th everyone! I did these nails today and honestly, so many things went wrong! I'm not very superstitious, but I kinda feel like it was bad luck =[ I smudged my nails countless times and I totally spilled a bottle of polish all over the floor--first time that's ever happened! I almost gave up on these, but decided to power through it and finish. I used O.P.I. Mod About You for the base color. I stamped using RA 119 in Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Presto Pink and Konad Princess Apple Green. I added some yellow to the flowers with China Glaze Lemon Fizz. Lastly, I added orange dots using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Sun Kissed. Hope it turned out okay despite the mishaps!




Thanks for all the awards!

 I have been receiving a lot of awards lately and I just wanted to say thank you and show my appreciation to my lovely followers. Sometimes it's hard to keep up with awards, but I'm on winter break so I have some free time =] I won't fill out every single award, but I'll answer some questions to count for all of them! I won't be tagging bloggers either, it's time consuming haha.

First one is the cute blog award. Thanks to Bunny Nails for giving me this award!




 For this award you:

1. Link back to the person who awarded you
2. Answer the award questions
3. Tell something about yourself that you haven't told anyone on your blog yet
4. Award as many blogs as you think are worthy of this award
5. Make sure to let those you gave this award to know that you awarded them.

The Award Questions:

1. What is your go to makeup product?
Loreal H.I.P. Cream Eyeliner in black.

2. What was your favorite fashion trend of 2011?
Hmm.. I don't follow fashion much except nail polish so I guess crackle nails? IDK! Lol what else was in?


3. What is your favorite dessert?
Not much of a dessert person, I will usually just have a second helping of whatever I ate as my meal, hopefully something with meat haha. I'm a carnivore.


4. Favourite color?
I love bright colors! Yellow I guess.

5. What is your middle name?
Grace


6. What was the last song that you listened to?
'Your Song' from the Moulin Rouge Soundtrack. LOVE that movie.

7. Cats or dogs?
DOGS!! I'm extreeeemely allergic to cats.


Something about myself that you don't know:
My favorite food is pizza!! I can eat pizza everyday for the rest of my life and never get sick of it =]




Next award is the Versatile Blogger Award. I have been awarded by I Bleed Polish and A Girl and Her Polish. Thank you ladies!



Now I'm supposed to list 7 things about myself, which I kind of did above, and tag 15 bloggers, which I won't be doing. Sorry if I suck lol.



The third and last award I got is the Kreativ Blogger Award from Claws Up. Thank you!



Again, I'm supposed to tell a little about myself, which I did, and tag others, which I won't be doing. Lol. Thanks again ladies!


Thursday, January 12, 2012

Matte Black Leopard Print

Hi lovelies! Today I have a pretty cool leopard design to show you. I don't know if anyone else uses Instagram (if anyone wants to follow me on there my username is heartnat24), but sometimes there are little nail contests and if I have time I like to enter them. I entered these nails for a copycat contest so hopefully I make it to the finalists. Anyways I used O.P.I. Black Onyx as a base and then used Essie's Matte About You topcoat. Lastly I used a small dotting tool dipped in topcoat to draw the leopard print. Pretty cool huh?



Wednesday, January 11, 2012

China Glaze Eye Candy Collection

Hi everyone! Today I have China Glaze Eye Candy swatches to show you. I know I'm a tad late, but it's my blog and I still feel like doing it =] These were released as Holiday 2011 polishes and there are 6 in the collection. They're inspired by Marilyn Monroe and described as 3-D glitters because there are different sizes and shapes of glitter in each polish to give a 3-D effect.

Love Marilyn. Indoors.

Outdoors.

Blonde Bombshell. Indoors.

Outdoors.

Material Girl. Indoors.

Outdoors.

Lorelei's Tiara. Indoors.

Outdoors.

Some Like It Haute. Indoors.

Outdoors.

Marry A Millionaire. Indoors.

Here's an enlarged photo since it looks a little blurry in the above photo.

Outdoors.

I used three coats for each. Some were actually fine in two, but I did a third for good measure. All photos are shown with one coat of topcoat. These are all beautiful. Personally I would wear all of them alone except Lorelei's Tiara and Marry A Millionaire. They're pretty, but not my favorite colors. Blonde Bombshell and Marry A Millionaire have bar glitter, which I thought was pretty cool. Some Like It Haute has holo glitter which I think looks gorgeous against it's dark base. Formula was good. I read that Material Girl is pretty thick and added polish thinner before use, so if it does have an issue, I wouldn't know. Hope you enjoyed these lovely glitters! Until next time.