Day 25: Nails Inspired By FASHION

These nails were inspired by a skirt in the January 2012 issue of Cosmopolitan. The skirt is the Techno Stripe Knit Skirt from Cut25. For these nails, I started with two coats of Love & Beauty - light grey. Then, I taped off the bottom of my nail and painted Pure Ice - Flirt Alert on the tips. After removing the tape, I made the blue and yellow stripes with a fine-tip brush using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Pacific Blue and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Mellow Yellow. Next, I used the Salon Perfect Nail Liner in Black to create the black at the base of the nail and the black stripe down the middle. Finally, I finished with a coat of Seche Vite topcoat. 

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Pink Gradient Nails

Here's a set of Valentine's Day nails. I started with two coats of Pure Ice - Super Star. Then, I used a sponge to sponge on Sephora - Raisin for the gradient effect. 

Then, I decided to add a heart stamp to make them more festive. I used BM09 and Sally Hansen InstaDri - Rapid Red. 

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Day 24: Nails Inspired By A BOOK

Today's nails are inspired by The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and a little by The Girl Who Played With Fire. The thumb is a snowy, wintry scene inspired by the brutal cold on Hedestad. The pointer finger is a dragon. The middle finger is a framed flower...inspired by the flowers Henrik received every year. The ring finger is fire. The pinky finger is the Swedish flag, since the book takes place in Sweden.

To do the thumb, I started with two coats of Essie - Dive Bar. Then, I sponged on Pure Ice - Super Star. Finally, I used a q-tip to dot on some falling snow. 

For the dragon on the pointer finger, I followed this tutorial. I started with two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Mellow Yellow. I used a fine-tip brush and Pure Ice - Black Rage for the dragon and Sally Hansen InstaDri - Rapid Red for the dragon's eye. 

For this nail, I started with two coats of Essie - Jazz. Then, I stamped on the flower using BM06 and Sally Hansen InstaDri - Pronto Purple. I used a fine-tip brush and Pure Ice - Black Rage to draw the frame around the flower. 

For the flames, I started with two coats of Wet n Wild Wild Shine - Sunny Side Up. Then, I tried using flame stamps on BM07 and BM08 using Pure Ice - Black Rage. They didn't stamp very well, but I used the stamp as a guide for the rest of the design. I used a fine-tip brush with Sunny Side Up, Mellow Yellow, Rapid Red, and Super Star to paint on the flames.

For the Swedish flag, I started with two coats of Essie - Mezmerised. Then, I used a fine-tip brush and Mellow Yellow to paint on the stripes.

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Chinese New Year

Happy Belated Chinese New Year! I know these are a little late, but I had seen a handful of nail bloggers with this Chinese New Year manicure, and then I saw this set on sale at Walmart today for $5 so I had to buy it.

I started with two coats of the gold base. It's just called Pure Ice - 313CP. After the gold was dry, I applied one coat of the crackle, which is called Pure Ice Crackle - Show Stopper.

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Pink Confetti

It's a really gorgeous day here today, so I did some spring-y nails. I was inspired to do these nails by this post from Nails and Noms. I started with two coats of Wet n Wild Megalast - Cherry Blossom. Unlike the Wet n Wild Megalast I bought yesterday, the formula of Cherry Blossom is not great. I think it is too thin and watery and requires too many coats. (Although, that is exactly the reason I chose it for today's manicure! I wanted a polish not so opaque so that the glitter could be soon through it.) I bought Cherry Blossom in May 2011, so they must have updated the formula, since the Megalasts I got yesterday were brand new at Walgreens. 


Anyway, after the two coats of Cherry Blossom, I painted on two coats of Confetti - Tazmanian Devil. (Pictured Below)

Then, I applied one more thin coat of Cherry Blossom.  

Here's a close-up in the daylight: 

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Day 23: Nails Inspired By A MOVIE

These nails are inspired by the movie, Ocean's Eleven. 

Here they are in the sunlight:

And with the flash:

For the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign on my thumb, I started with two coats of Essie - Dive Bar. Then, I used a q-tip for the various dots... Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Mellow Yellow, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Rapid Red, and Essie - Mezmerised. I filled in the yellow polka dot diamond with Pure Ice - Super Star, and I wrote Las Vegas with Rapid Red and a fine-tip brush. 

The 11 is modeled after the 11 in the movie poster (above). I started with two coats of Pure Ice - Super Star, and painted the 11 with Rapid Red and a fine-tip brush. 

I started with two coats of Wet n Wild Fast Dry - SaGreena the Teenage Witch. This is supposed to be like the green felt on a poker table. Then, I painted on three poker chips using a fine-tip brush. The colors are Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Rapid Red, Essie - Mezmerised, and Pure Ice - Black Rage. Then, I used the fine-tip brush with Pure Ice - Super Star to create the dots. 

I thought this one was pretty self-explanatory, but my parents couldn't tell what it was. They are just the card suits. I started with two coats of Pure Ice - Super Star. Then, I used BM19 with Rapid Red to stamp the pattern on the first time. I did this again with Pure Ice - Black Rage.

Here, I started with two coats of Rapid Red. Then, using Super Star and a fine-tip brush, I painted two squares. I create the dots with the fine-tip brush and Black Rage.

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New Wet n Wild Polish

I'm SOO excited about the new nail polish I got today. First of all, I finally got the much-hyped Seche Vite Top Coat! Secondly, I got these brand new wet n wild creme nail polishes. They were $1.99 and were buy 2 get 1 free at Walgreens, and they are SUCH good quality. I bought I Need a Refresh-Mint, On a Trip, and Through the Grapevine. Below, I used two coats of I Need a Refresh-Mint, but it could easily have been applied in one careful coat. I would definitely recommend these for a good quality creme polish from the drugstore. Finally, I wanted to try out my new Revlon - Radiant, so I applied it to my accent nail!!!

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Day 22: Nails Inspired by A SONG

These nails are inspired by Party in the USA!! It's one of my all-time favorite songs. :D The nails are inspired by both the lyrics of the song and the music video for the song.

The thumb is the Hollywood Sign..inspired by the lyrics, "Look to my right and I see the Hollywood Sign." I did the thumb by applying two coats of Wet n Wild Fast Dry - SaGreena the Teenage Witch. Then, using a fine-tip brush and Pure Ice - Super Star, I wrote out HOLLYWOOD. 

The pointer is a Converse sneaker..inspired by the lyrics, "Who's that chick that's rockin' kicks?" I did this by applying two coats of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails - Black Heart. Once that was dry, I put tape over the bottom 2/3s of my nail and painted the tip white using Pure Ice - Super Star. I used a fine-tip brush with Pure Ice - Super Star to draw the laces, and I used Salon Perfect Nail Art Liner in black to draw the black line, as well as create dots for the eyelets.

The middle finger is a taxi cab..inspired by the lyrics, "Get to the club in my taxi cab." I did this by applying two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Mellow Yellow. Then, I used Pure Ice - Black Rage with BM17 for the checkered pattern on the tip, and it obviously smudged a lot. Then, I smoothed the edge by tracing it with Stripe Rite in Silver. I painted on the words "Taxi Cab" with a fine-tip brush and Pure Ice - Black Rage.

The ring finger is an American flag...I think it is obvious where the inspiration for this came from. Also, in her music video, she has an American flag as a backdrop for the stage. To do this nail, I painted on two coats of Sally Hansen InstaDri - Rapid Red. Then, I used a fine-tip brush to paint the blue in the corner using Essie - Mezmerised. I used Milani Nail Art Lacquer with Precision Brush - White Canvas for the stars and stripes.

The pinky finger is a cowboy boot inspired by the boots Miley wears in the music video. They zoom in on these boots a lot in the video.

I did these by starting with two coats of Essie - Sand Tropez. Then, I drew the boot using Pure Ice - Black Rage and a fine-tip brush. I used Sally Hansen InstaDri - Rapid Red with a fine-tip brush for the wings, and Pure Ice - Jaguar with a fine-tip brush for the gold.

Here's a picture of all the polish I used. 

I wish I had done a butterfly for my last nail, rather than the cowboy boot..inspired by the lyrics, "The butterflies fly away."

Here's the music video for Party in the USA:

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White Crackle Polish

I decided today to just mess around with some white crackle polish I purchased a few weeks ago. I applied one coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - The Real Teal. Then, I just painted some random lines of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Pacific Blue. I painted over these with a thin coat of Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat - Snow Blast. I wish it had crackled more, but then again maybe it would have if I had let the polish underneath dry completely like you are supposed to. 

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Day 21: Nails Inspired By A COLOR

I was originally going to do shades of blue nails, inspired by the color blue. But then I saw on another nail blog that she interpreted "Inspired by a Color" as inspired by the name of a nail polish. So, my nails are inspired by the Sally Hansen shade, Black Heart. I'm a big fan of these nails.


I started with two coats of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails - Black Heart. Once that was dry, I used Pure Ice - Silver Mercedes with BM08 for the larger heart pattern and with BM03 for the 3 little hearts pattern.

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