Spring has Sprung!

Well hello again!

As promised in my last post here is my next post that is Spring nail oriented!

A while back before my two weeks of hell started I did some freehand nail art which I don't always get to do because I suck at it! I'm practicing when I can but nothing turns out the way I would like it to. I think that's why I stick to stamping so much.

Anyway enough pity party for one up there in that last paragraph lets get to it. Since Spring is FINALLY here, I cannot wait to start wearing bright clothes and spring dresses and not heavy sweaters and boots! Even though the temperatures are not Spring worthy yet, were still in the upper 30s to 40 degrees here in NY. A funny fact is that the weather guy the other day said that one year ago at this time we were actually having a heat wave, it was almost 80 degrees here last year! I wish we could have it back! We still have 3 inches of snow to get rid of!

Anyway one part of spring that I love is when all the pretty little butterflies come out, so that's what I decided to recreate was butterfly wings. I have seen so many nail artist recreate these I wanted to give it a shot. My favorite butterfly is the Monarch Butterfly as seen over on the left.



So to create my version I started off with three coats of China Glaze Orange You hot from the Summer Neon (2012) collection.

Here is a swatch photo of it on its own.

My photo makes it look more golden but its not it is very much orange! I couldn't get my editing program to color correct it :(.

Then I did a gradient of Love's a Beach on my tips, and then with a fine nail art brush from my Cheeky kit I got for Christmas I did the black out lines and then the white dots with a fine dotting tool also from the same kit.

All photos were taken with top coat and in natural light with the exception of the swatch of Orange You Hot that has no top coat.

 

 

For a first time take on butterfly wings I have to say I like them a lot and actually wore them for almost a whole week before changing the polish due to chips and pealing.

Since spring is here I hope I get inspired to do more spring nail art post and to work on my free hand more!

So until then I will talk to you all soon! <3 Nicole.


*Any and all nail polish mention in the above post was purchased by myself with my own money*

Neon Flowers!

Hello! How are all of you lovely readers doing today?

Can't really complain to much on my end, just the same old stuff that's worth complaining, work and the weather. Customers at work lately have been down right mean. If you follow me on Twitter you may have heard me rant about it. The weather has been so hot! It has been in the 90s for the last week and the humidity just makes it all the more worse.

So today I decided to do some happy nails, well at least ones that will make me happy! I had in mind to do a tutorial for baby shower nails since my BFF/sister is having her shower in less than a month. I just haven't decided what exactly I want to actually do. The first thing I KNOW I needed to do was to practice my nail art. I haven't done any real nail art since Easter. I was inspired by Alaina from The Little Canvas and her Under The Sea Nail art, which you can see if you click her blog name. Alaina is AMAZING at nail art, and I can only hope to get as good as she is! While your at her blog you should see these awesome Gnome Nails she did too!

I wanted to do something simple and easy, so I began with two coats of Pure Ice's Superstar. Superstar is a fantastic creme white polish, I actually bought a back up of it yesterday at Walmart. It is super smooth and two coats creates the perfect starting point. I highly recommend it if you have access to the Pure Ice brand.

This is two coats and no top coat, also taken with the flash on my camera.

So hunting around for my box of toothpicks, which have mysteriously disappeared. I finally found a bobby pin that wasn't useful anymore and bent it to make a duel ended dotting tool. First I took China Glaze's Hang Ten Toes, and created the flower petals on all five nails, in random areas. Then I took Foie Gras from the Hunger Games Collection and dotted that in the center. Finally I took Orange You Hot and made a second set of flowers in the space left over and then again creating the center with Foie Gras.

All of the photos below were taken in natural sunlight.

Hopefully this manicure will jump start my brain into doing more nail art! If my lovely readers have any idea what I should do for my baby shower manicure please leave a comment below! Hope you enjoyed this!

By the way My Nails. My Polish has a Facebook Page now! It would mean so much to me if you would click the "Become a Fan" Button up at the top right hand corner of my blog! And if your not following me on twitter there is a button for that too!

Until next time!
Nicole.