Wedding Idea #1

In case you haven't heard, I'm getting married in less than four months!  Yay!  Naturally, I have been thinking about how I will paint my nails for the wedding. 

Here is my first idea - a subtle white on gold manicure.

I started out with two coats of Ciate Sand Dune 085, and stamped that with Red Angel plate RA-102.  I love Sand Dune because it is a beautifully subtle gold that won't grab too much attention on a day that is all about the dress.

I had envisioned something a little more fancy for my wedding but I think this is a good start.  What do you think, Ladies?

 

I can already hear the wedding bells ringing in my ears.  Squee!  Toodles!

Purple Feather

I’m running out of not-so-brilliant names for my blog posts.  I’ve never been one with words, so pardon me if my titles are less than entertaining.

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Who doesn’t need an injection of purple at the beginning of each week?  Certainly not me!  It’s funny – I used to HATE purple, like wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole hate.  Now, I can’t get enough of it.  Light, dark, pinkish, blueish, I love purple in all of its purple-y forms!

I started this look with two coats of Zoya Storm on my pinky, two coats of Zoya Perrie on my ring finger, middle finger, and thumb, and finally, two coats of Zoya Kendal on my index finger.  My nails polished with Perrie are stamped with a design from Cheeky Jumbo Plate A, using Konad Black special polish.  Also using Konad Black, I stamped my index with a feather from Red Angel plate RA-116. 

For a little extra flare I adorned my index finger with a purple rhinestone, and topped that with two coats of Essie Matte About You.  The rest of my nails were finished with a coat of Essie Good To Go.

I hope everyone's week is off to a splendid start.  Toodles for now!

Aztec

I'm not sure what to say about this manicure other than I wanted it to be colorful and fun.  I think I accomplished my goal.

From pinky to thumb I used two coats of the folowing: OPI Are We There Yet?, Zoya Wednesday, Zoya Robyn, OPI Don't Mess With OPI, and Zoya Lana.  I then stamped each finger with Pueen11, and placed a few dots on each nail in the colors I had used for base colors.

TGIF!  Toodles!

Inspiration Thursday: Rothko

A few weeks back when I started Inspiration Thursday and dear friend of mine suggested I try a manicure inspired by Mark Rothko.  I've long been a fan of his work, but I was trying to wrap my mind around how I could execute the perfect imperfection of a Rothko painting, on my nails.  Then I remembered that I just needed to be inspired by a Rothko painting not replicate it to the most minute detail - again, the perfectionist me was trying to take over, but I beat it back with all of the strength I could muster.

If you know me at all you know that I love green, and I LOVE pink, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that my favorite Rothko is Green Red on Orange.  While the title of the painting indicates it is red, not pink, I see pink when I look at it, so pink it is!

To achieve this Rothko-esque manicure I started out by painting my nails with two coats of Zoya Farah.  Once that had completely dried I cut a wedge makeup sponge into five small rectangular pieces.  I then placed a generous drop of Zoya Midori, and Zoya Katy about 1/16" apart on the sponge and dabbed it onto each nail.  I repeated the dabbing step twice to achieve the opacity you see here.

Any suggestions for next week's Inspiration Thursday?  Toodles!

18K Jem

When I saw Zoya was offering a top coat with flakes of REAL gold leaf in it I knew I had to have it!  I was mildly dismayed to learn that it could only be purchased in a three polish gift box for $35 - the other two polishes being Purity (white) and Raven (black).  I already owned a black that I loved and a white that I was moderately pleased with, but I decided to bite the bullet anyway.  I am so glad I did!  Not only is the 18K top coat, Gilty, every bit as amazing as I hoped it would be, but the other two polishes are amazing as well.  Both Raven and Purity go on like a dream and only require one coat for full opacity - yes, one coat!

For this particular look I used two coats of Gilty over two coats of Zoya Jem.  The combination of the gold leaf over the rich burgundy of Jem creates a wonderfully opulent manicure.  Fit for an exciting night on the town.

What color polish would you use under the gold leaf top coat?

Happy Hump Day, Ladies!  Toodles!

Glitterati

I've seen many a beautiful and well done glitter gradient kicking around on the internet and while I've tried it several times I've never quite gotten it.  This time however I was determined to not fail and went straight to work with high hopes.

...and I must say I was thrilled with the results.  For this look I used China Glaze Glitz N' Pieces, which is easily in my top three favorite glitter polishes.  I love the array of shapes and sizes.  The downside to using this glitter polish is that cleaning up around the cuticle area is rather challenging and leaves the perfectionist in me wanting, but perfection is boring and a little extra glitter in one's cuticles never killed anyone!

I'm also head over heels for Essie Maximillian Strasse-Her.  It's such a dreamy blueish-green it might surpass my love for OPI Thanks a Windmillion - THAT's how much I j'adore this color!  For an accent finger I painted my ring finger with Zoya Marley.

For those who are curious as to how I achieved the glitter gradient, I just dropped a bit of the glitter polish near my cuticle and used a small piece of makeup sponge to distribute it over the area of the nail I wanted covered.  Easy, peasy - simple as that!

Happy Tuesday, Lovelies!  Toodles!

Dots Dots Dots!

...dots, dots, dots, dots, dots, dots, dots, dots, dots, dots, dots, dots, dots!

One of the first things I learned in design school was that one's initial concept is rarely their best.  In line with said theory this was one of those manicures that I went into with a completely different vision, but things changed, so I went with the flow.  I am quite pleased and a bit tickled with the results.

On my thumb, index finger, and ring finger I painted two coats of Zoya Rekha.  My middle finger got two coats of Essie Licorice, and my pinky OPI Stay The Night, which is one of the Liquid Sand polishes from the Mariah Carey collection.  I've had Stay The Night for several weeks and keep meaning to show it to you in all of its textured, matte glory, but it didn't work out that way - it will have to wait for a later date.

I used a dotting tool to dot Essie Licorice onto my thumb and ring finger, and Zoya Rekha was dotted onto my pinky.  Metal studs from this set were used on my index and middle finger.  Despite how it appears I did not place studs on my middle finger and paint them over with black polish, I just went for a black on black look with black studs.

Happy Monday, Ladies!  Have a wonderful week.  Toodles!