Mattified Flakies! Finger Paints-Asylum

Again, long time, no see!  I've been crazy busy with work and school :(  Anyway, here is Finger Paints Asylum over W'n'W Black Creme.  It's a gorgeous flakie with orangey/green and blue flakies!  I layered it over black and then added the matte topcoat to show the flakies in all their glory.  I kind of wish that I had used a second coat of the flakies, but I like how it came out, anyway:

The orange flakes turn to green at certain angles/lights, but it was super hard to capture in photos.  You have to look really hard!  And the blue flakies are just breathtaking.
Next time I'll use more than one coat!

Thanks for reading!
<3

Gel Manicure! Red Carpet Manicure-The Night is Young

So a few months ago, I discovered a brand called Red Carpet Manicure at my local Ulta.  I thought it was such a great idea!  Who wouldn't love to have a gel manicure that you can do yourself at home?  Well, I ended up getting the starter kit for Christmas, which came with a nice red.  I went and picked up a couple of other colors, including this one! The Night is Young is a gorgeous gunmetal grey with tons of beautiful shimmer.

I think it's just beautiful.

The thing that I love about gel manicures is that they last for weeks without having to touch them up.  Because of their flexible nature, they don't chip, flake or scratch like regular nail polish.  Gel nails are extremely resilient.  I can also swatch over these if I wanted.  They don't come off with non-acetone nail polish remover, so if you swatch over them, just use non-acetone remover and they'll be good as new underneath!  The only downside to gel nails is that they take time to apply.  This mani took me about an hour and a half in total.  I guess it's worth it if you think about how long they'll last me :)

If you guys would like a tutorial on how to do these gel nails, let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading!
<3

Sally Hansen-Glass Slipper

Glass Slipper is a polish that I grabbed up the fist time I layed eyes on it.  It's a beautiful white/silver flakie polish that looks super pretty.  I put it over black to really show the flakies.  This is two coats over W'n'W Black Creme.

For some reason, I had the hardest time getting an in-focus shot of this polish.  The flakies confused my camera, I think.  Anyway, I'm super happy that SH released a couple of flakies for us to work with.  I know how all you ladies out there love them :)

Thanks for stopping by!
<3

Corset Nails!!

This is my first attempt at doing corset nails, and I love them!  I started with a base of Color Club Antiquated and then freehanded the corset with black and white acrylic paints and a teeny paint brush.  For my first attempt, I think it came out pretty good.  Next time, I think I'll try to make the lines a bit more thin and crisp by using an even smaller brush.  After it was all done, I topped it with a coat of SV:

I love it!  I've grown really fond of using acrylic paints for nail art.  The only problem is that the art doesn't hold up quite as well as it would with polish.  I like it better than polish, though, because it's much easier to work with and doesn't gloop up as you try to work with it.

What do you all think of corset nails?  I think they're quite cute :)
Thanks for reading!
<3

Birthday Nails!

Hi everyone!  My birthday was on the 27th, and I wanted to do something festive and sparkly!  I did a base of W'n'W Black Creme and two coats of Party of Five Glitters and a topcoat of Hard Candy's Mattely in Love.  I really liked how it came out :)

What do you guys think?  Festive enough??

Thanks for reading!
<3

Nina Ultra Pro-Glamrock

Ladies, if you love glitter, than I have the polish for you.  It's Glamrock by Nina Ultra Pro.  When I first saw this polish in the bottle, I was skeptical because glitters typically are not very opaque.  This polish is the opposite!  Two coats was all I needed for complete opacity.  The rich black base helps with this without eating up all the pretty chunky silver glitter.  I can see this polish being a go-to for me when I'm in the mood for glitter :)

This polish dried with quite a gritty texture, so I topped it with a coat of Gelous before adding SV.  This made for a super shiny finish that I loved :)  Removal was a pain in my butt, but I was expecting that.  I used the foil method, and still had quite a bit of work to do...oh well!  I'll put up with the annoying removal if it means wearing pure bling on my nails.  Speaking of wear, it wore amazingly!!  These pics were taken after three days of wear.  During those three days I worked three full shifts using my hands a lot, and I only had one tiny chip on my right hand.  I was really impressed!

Thanks for stopping by!
<3

Video Game Nails: Minecraft

Minecraft is my new guilty pleasure obsession.  I can't stop playing!!  This mani is inspired by one of the bad guys in the game: the creeper.  Creepers are basically big green things that like to find you and blow up next to you and take you down.  They always have sad faces D:  Here's the mani!

I know I'm not the best at freehanding yet, but I liked how it came out :)  Do any of you play Minecraft?  What are your favorite video games if you don't?

Thanks for reading :)
<3

NYX Girls-Dark Gray

This color is soooooo pretty for fall.  A dark smokey gray with a creme finish.  I l.o.v.e. it.  Application is really nice, almost a one coater, but not quite.  These photos are sans topcoat:

Definitely has a blue undertone to it, which I like.  I think this is gonna be a really trendy fall/winter color...what do you think??

Thanks for reading!
<3

Blingy Gradient!

This is my very first attempt at a gradient mani...I think it came out decent!!  Of course, there's room for improvement, but I think it's pretty ok for my first try :)  I used a base of OPI Passion then sponged WnW Silvivor, NYX Perfect Gray, and NYC Black Creme.  I added some silver glitter by SC afterward :)

I think I should have used a different sponge...I just used a cosmetic sponge that came in a compact.
Overall, I really love this mani!!  I think it looks mysterious and edgy, but has some class at the same time.  What do you guys think??  Are you fans of gradient manis?

<3!

MANicure!!!

So I've been seeing these "MANicures" floating around the internet nail world for about a week now and I wanted to share my own :)  Mr. NailsbyCourteney was pretty excited to get to do my nails however he wanted.  This was the result!  He picked out everything himself with (almost) no guidance from me.
Base color: WnW Black Creme
Glitter: Ulta Afterparty (on pinky, middle, and thumb) and SC Queen of Beauty (ring and pointer)
Topcoat: Out the Door

I got a huge kick out of watching him try really hard to make it neat and look nice.  He was super into it :)
As you can see, I didn't clean up my nails at all, this is all Mr.NbC's work and he was pretty proud of it!

I think this "tag" should be done by everyone!  I want to see how your brothers, husbands, boyfriends, dads, uncles, etc. do your nails!!

Thanks for stopping by and checking out by blog <3

Sally Hansen-Gray Area

Today it is gloomy and rainy where I live, so I thought I'd post this for you guys!  Gray Area is a GORGEOUS dark grayed out smokey purple creme.  The purple almost gets lost in the darkness, but it's still there, especially in sunlight.  I can't wait for fall to come so I can wear this one more regularly :)  Formula is great.  You could almost get away with one coat, but I needed the second just to even everything out.

Pretty, right?  I think so :)

Sorry about my cuticle injury :/ I've been washing my hands a lot more than usual in the last three weeks since I started working again.  Also, when I went to change my polish yesterday, I noticed that I had a big split right down the middle of my right middle finger!  I had to take my nails all the way down to the quick :(  You may think my nails look short in these photos, but you should see them now!  They literally look like nubs. Ugh.  The tips of my fingers are kind of sensitive as well because my nails aren't there to protect them.  They'll grow back, but I miss them :(

How's the weather where you are? Bright and sunny?

Thanks for reading <3

Revlon-Apple-tini Fizz

This is one of those colors that you see in the store and all the hype around it makes you want it.  The Revlon Fizz collection was so hyped up that I needed to get at least one.  I was really out to get Grapefruit Fizz, but they were all sold out at my Walgreen's.  Instead, I settled on Apple-tini Fizz.  In the bottle, it looks like a light lime-ish green jelly with lots of glitter and shimmers.  On the nail, it kind of looks gross.  Like the color of grody yellowed nails to the extreme.  I decided to put it over black to see what would happen and BAM!  I loved it.  I used two coats over a base of Wet'n'Wild Black Creme and three coats over my bare nails.  No topcoat.

 

I included the close up pic so you could all see how stunning this was over black.  To die for!  As you can see, though, it kind of looks gross over bare nail.  As for the scent, it is very strong at first.  Smells just like an apple Jolly Rancher!  Topcoat doesn't really affect the scent too much, which is a good thing I suppose.  I can't wait to get the other ones and try them out over black!!

Thanks for reading!  Love <3

Wet'n'Wild-Night Prowl

Night Prowl is a black jelly base with some magenta/purple glitter in it.  I've seen swatches of this around and really liked it, so I thought I'd pick it up.  In the bottle, this looks uh-mazing.  On the nail, meh.  I like it, but it's not my fave.  These photos were two coats, no topcoat:

Maybe it was the lighting, but the glitter in this didn't pop out at me as much as I would have liked it to.  I love dark polishes, so I like this one regardless.  I just wish that it was a bit more blingy.

What do you guys think?
Also, enter my giveaway!!

Love you all <3

Sinful Colors-Secret Admirer

Secret Admirer is a rich black with TONS of silver shimmer/microglitter.  I have always had a soft spot for this color because of how much microglitter is in it.  It's some serious bling on the nail! The color is rich and only requires two easy coats to achieve rich, glittery perfection.  These photos are two coats, no topcoat.

What I like the most about this color is that even though there is a ton of silver reflect to it, it still maintains that rich black base.  Sorry about the smudge on my ring finger :/

What do you guys think of shimmery/glittery blacks??

P.S. I have reached 35 followers!  Thanks to everyone who reads my blog, I write for you!  And a reminder that I'll be having a giveaway when I reach 50 followers to celebrate :)

China Glaze-Lubu Heels

Today's notd is Lubu Heels by China Glaze.  it is a black jellyish cream with red sparkles in it.  Sounds pretty, yes?  I had high hopes for this polish, but it fell a bit drab on the nail.  Even after a coat of Seche Vite, I found it a bit dull.  Also, the red sparkles in it don't show up nearly enough for my liking.

As you an see from the first two pictures, the red glitter is pretty subtle.  The third picture is with flash to try to pull out the glitter, but it's still not as prominent as I would like.  Maybe I should have done a third coat...I feel like it would have been a bit more rich in that case.
If you are a fan of subtle glitter, this may be an amazing polish for you, but it's not too hot with me.
Also, clean up on this is...interesting.  Glitter+black=not easy on my cuticles!

Have any of you tried this polish?  I'd love to hear what you thought of it!

nail art of the day

Today's nail of the day is a fun one!  Essie's Smooth Sailing with OPI Black Shatter on top.  I think the result is pretty and daring :)

sun.

 The sun really brings Smooth Sailing to life.  In person, this color looks just a tad more purple than in photos, but it's close enough.  It also has the most gorgeous silver reflect to it.  Definitely a summer must-have!

shade.

Overall, I really like these two polishes paired together.  I feel that they compliment each other in some strange way.  Plus, who can resist trying out the black shatter over every color?!  I had to do it :)

Konad Love

I've just recently gotten into a lot of nail art and let me tell you, Konad is the way to go.  I just received my little starter kit today, and I am very, very impressed.  My kit came with plate m2, a stamper, a scraper, and a little bottle of the "special" nail polish in white.  Of course, I couldn't wait to try it out, and this is the result:

I used OPI's In The Spot-Light Pink from the new Femme de Cirque collection as my base color.  I added a black french tip and then used Konad plate m2 to stamp the white floral design over the edge of the french tip.  It's not perfect, but I like the way it came out.  It's simple, but also elegant enough to catch the eye.

I have a feeling I'll be getting a lot of use out of my Konad set! :)