ICEE Tutorial

Here are the step by step pics of my ICEE nails. Maybe it can help someone out. :)

Sinful Colors Savage & Sally Hansen Insta Dri Rapid Red

All of the other details are done using acrylic paint.

Oh and the best way to enjoy an ICEE? Add some Crown Royal;) Trust me it takes a "crown and coke" to an epic level. Try a "crown and coke icee" and let me know what you think! It'll blow your mind!Pin It

Who's up for an ICEE?

I know I could use one right about now. It's still soooo ridiculously hot here in Louisiana. It doesn't usually start to feel like fall until around October. A slushy, frozen, Coca Cola flavored treat is required to help cope. They of course have various flavors, but I always go for Coke.

Funny factoid about Louisiana people: We call every soft drink a "Coke."

Say you are at a party and someone asks you, "What would you like to drink?"

If you're a Louisiana redneck you might say, "I'll just have a Coke. That's fine."

"What kind do you want? We have Diet Coke, Dr. Pepper, Sprite, and Coke."

"Dr. Pepper's good. Thanks."

Weird right? We also for the most part have a strong dislike of Pepsi products. Oh, and don't call it "pop" or "soda pop" that's just not right. Lol

Base colors are polish and details are acrylic paint.

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Fall Floral Frenzy

I can't quite decide if this is a hot look or a hot mess. I was inspired by the fabric pattern in this skirt I got recently. Lots of brown, army green, and a pop of coral.

Here is the manicure. I think I would like it better if I had chosen a lighter color for the background shade.

I took step by step pictures if you're interested.

Orly Nite Owl

Sinful Colors Thimbleberry

Revlon Haute for Chocolate

 Some Essence Metallic Copper Rulez, Essie Sand Tropez, and an army green franken of mine.

 Some outlines with black acrylic paint

Topcoat to even it all out and make it super shiny!

In the end, I think it's too much and I didn't leave it on for long. I do really like the fall color scheme though!

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How do you blog?

This is just something that's been on my mind lately and I'd like to ask you guys what your method is.

Personally, I change my nails on a daily basis. I like them to somewhat match/coordinate with my clothing. (Remember I'm a single woman with no kids, so I have all the free time in the world to do this.) When I've taken off my polish and am planning what to wear for the next day, I'll do some swatches of new polishes, or I'll experiment with crazier nail art. That's when I will try out different things that might be too bold for me to wear out to work. I have been known to sit there for several hours and paint up to five different crazy freehand designs as full manicures on only my left hand. Remove it, and do another. I don't think twice about it because it's not a waste time to me if I've gotten pictures of it to "save" my work.

So by the time I get around to sitting at the computer and uploading my pics, I've usually got several blog posts worth. I like to sit and type up those posts all at once and spread them out and schedule them to publish over the next few days. I prefer to get them out of the way so that I don't have to think about it each day. I don't have to worry about it because I know I have from now until tuesday already scheduled. Do you get what I mean?

Throughout the course of the day I check my blog very frequently on my iPhone. Mainly because I'm looking at my Blogroll to see what is new that you guys have posted. I think regular posting is part of what makes a blog good. If you don't post for 2 weeks and then all of the sudden sit down and write & post 7 or 8 posts all at once, it's like WAAAH. Absent and then overwhelming! Even if you just get that one chance to sit down and write posts, just schedule them out over the next few days. (A plus side to this is that it keeps you showing up on top when you're on someone else's blogroll. You'll likely get more traffic and be noticed more.) I guess that is a blogging pet peeve of mine.

I realize that I'm no good at replying to comments. :( I really tried in the beginning, but I can't hardly keep up. Now I focus on making myself respond to specific questions or things that can be addressed. I love the comments and you're encouraging words and positive reinforcement are what keep me blogging. Don't ever think that I don't respond because I don't care or don't read them! That's not true. If you ever have something specific you want/need a response to, please just email me. I promise to get back to you then.

So my question to you is, what is your blogging routine? Do you sit and do several posts at once? Or do you take pics and post immediately after the manicure is complete? Since I do a cluster at once, my real time manicure is usually a few days ahead of my blog post manicure. These nails now will be posted later in the week.

Do you have any blogging pet peeves? I could probably do an entire posts on that too! I can gripe and complain with the best of them. ;)

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Inspired by Robin Moses' Shoes

I saw this look by Robin Moses recently and decided it was too cute for me not to try it out. Her's are WAAAAYYYYY cuter than mine, so check them out here. She is the master of freehand. I would study under her as an apprentice if that were possible. I bow down to her talent and skill. Here is my best attempt.

Started with Sinful Colors Snow Me White

Silver dots using a dotting tool and Pure Ice Silver Mercedes

Curvy french tips using a light blue franken.

Outline with black acrylic paint, or a black nail polish striper.

Cross straps in black polish or acrylic paint.

Add light blue half-pearls.

Topcoat



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Simple French Stickers

I used these decals the other day to see if they would look like a french tip. They come in a pack with varying sizes. They are already lines up and joined into the semi circle you see. It's simple but nice. It could easily be recreated using the bundle monster falling stars image and some loose rhinestones.

Swatch of Essie Sand Tropez. Two coats. Not a perfect shade of nude for my skintone, but I still wear it.

You can see that the stickers didn't fit the shape of my nail exactly. My thumb nails are large and they weren't big enough. I wore it for a day before changing it.

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Ombre Skittles

This was the product of experimenting. I wanted to test out how these colors worked together. Trying to find a good blend with different shades of the same color. Then I took it to another level, and another, and should have stopped. Lol. Which one do you like best?

Base polishes from thumb to pinky:

China Glaze Something Sweet

Orly Lollipop

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Blue-Away

China Glaze For Audrey

China Glaze Refresh Mint

Diagonal french of darker polish shade. From thumb to pinky:

China Glaze Secondhand Silk

Essence The One and Only

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Blue Blast

Sinful Colors Savage

Light green franken of mine

Even smaller diagonal french with the darkest shade. From thumb to pinky:

Cult Nails Devious Nature

Zoya Mira

Zoya Breezi

OPI Ski Teal We Drop

Essence In the Jungle

You could totally stop here and it would look great. Do an entire manicure skittled like this, or pick one of the color families to stick with for the whole manicure.

I took it one step further and added thin black outlines with my Kiss Nail Art Striper in black. I really like how this looked. I should have stopped here, that's my favorite.



I then took coordinating rhinestones to line the middle shade. I think it was just one step too far. It might have looked better if I had used smaller rhinestones?

So what do you think?

Which step would you have stopped at?

Which color gradient is your favorite?

I personally like the purple and the teal the best. :)

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Catrice - I Sea You!

Another polish from my swap with Mihaela from Elchy's Blog. This had been on my wishlist, and basically I have an over abundance of this type color. Greens and blues are the polishes I have the most of. It's "almost" getting out of hand.

This is gorgeous. Easy 2 coats.

Left to Right:

China Glaze For Audrey

Orly Ancient Jade

Catrice I Sea You!

Megan Miller Caribbean

It's similar but not exact to these other shades.

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"The Office" Themed Frankens

Do you remember my Franken Contest Reject that was themed after Jim & Pam from "The Office?" This is by far my most favorite show ever. So here are the polishes I was inspired to create.

First up is Angela!

She is a true ice queen, so I wanted something frosty and blue, a touch of pearly.

I used some crappy polishes, so it ended with a crappy formula.... I layered it over a light blue polish to save myself from doing a million coats. This is two thin coats of franken over one thin coat of light blue creme.

Next up is Dwight!

I didn't have a choice, it had to be a golden mustard color to match his typical dress shirt.

Kelly Kapoor is a pink/purple glitter bomb.

A little bit of everything for this Indian beauty who loves sparkles.

Phyllis. Sweet, sweet, Phyllis. I did a typical mauve-pink. It's even got some shimmer. I think of this as Phyllis' perfect lipstick color choice. :)

That's all I have for now. I did a color for Michael Scott because the show will not be the same without him. I forgot to do a swatch though.... It's a medium blue with some shimmer. Trust me :)

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Simple French Tutorial

This is a different way to do a french manicure. You can do two thin tips. :)

Base is 2 coats of Sinful Colors Savage. It dries to a semi-matte finish, almost like neons. Sorry but these pictures are not color accurate at all. It's a true medium teal, but my pics make it look far too blue. Sorry!

Using a striper brush, paint thin french tips using Essence The One and Only.

I then added a second thin french line using Pure Ice Silver Mercedes. (I recently discovered this polish is another dupe for China Glaze Milennium/Sally Hansen Silver Sweep! For $2, you can't beat that!)

It's fun to mix matte and shiny finishes. I just hate that they never seem to hold up that well. :(

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