Memorial Day Round-up

Memorial Day is tomorrow. It seems like time just flies by anymore. I blink and a week has passed. I planned to do this post early but life got busy. Half the time I figure if I get a chance to do it at all I'm ahead! Do you have your nail art ready for the holiday? If not take a look at some of these past designs (and the one I did especially for this post) that could be perfect for your nails. :)

The first is my Patriotic Drip nails. These are still, to this day, one of my favorite nail art designs. And honestly, they are so easy to do! I even have a tutorial to walk you through it!! (The original post for the Patriotic Drips)

Easy, right? It's okay if you're not up to using a nail art brush though because I have one even simpler for you! All it takes is red, white, and blue polish and some saran wrap!

This mani is not only easy, but it's fast too! I started with just one coat of China Glaze First Mate. Let this dry completely before moving on, and it is really the only part you have to wait for. Next put a drop or two of white polish on a piece of paper and dip a bit of crumpled saran wrap into it. Dab the saran wrap around the paper until you start to see a design that is more than just blobs of nail polish and then dab the saran wrap around your nails. Repeat with the red polish. I went back and forth between red, white, and blue until I got a design I liked. There is really no way to do this wrong so have fun! I topped the design with Seche Vite and then did a quick clean up with a q-tip dipped in nail polish remover.

My helpful tip of the day: Using top coat before you clean is perfect for those of you who have a tendency to over clean and ruin your hard work as it will protect the design - you'll need to clean through a layer of top coat before you erase any of the design. :)

Still not what you're looking for? Try one of my older designs. I think I am nearing the end of new and different when it comes to patriotic nail art because I've done so much of it already!

The original post for the Stars and Stripes nails.

The original post for the Patriotic Splatter nails.

The original post for the Memorial Day 2012 nails.

And while this may be a design I did for the Olympics of 2012 this red, white, and blue gradient would be perfect alone or used as an accent. (The original post for the Olympic nails.)

Whether you choose one of these designs or already have an idea in mind ... what will be on your nails for Memorial Day?

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Sally Splatter and Real Life Love

Hello everyone!! I have a bit of nail art for you and some real life love. :)

I'll start with the nail art since I figure that's what you're here for.

I've been calling this one Sally Splatter in my head and it's been sitting in my nail art folder for a few weeks at least. I started with my own white base and used Sally Hansen Fuchsia Power, Lacey Lilac, and Blue Me Away! It uses only Sally Hansen nail polish and is a splatter mani hence the name. Very original, right? ;)

Ready for some real life love?

There's been a lot of rain and nasty storms this summer. Dark storm clouds like this just roll in suddenly and let loose floods of rain water. Not fun when vacation is barely weeks away and I'm still working on my tan!

Still, all that rain (if it stops before nightfall) does create the most stunningly gorgeous sunsets. And if you're wondering, yes, the rain and the sunset pics were taken on the same day. :)

And leaves the moon so bright and clear! Like, with the rest of the world around me, it was washed clean in the rain water.

While I want more than anything for some hot summer days I wouldn't give up these beautiful nights for anything!

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Resident Evil: Retribution

Hello girlies! I'm sorry for the long wait between posts. There's been some super huge 'end of spring' cleaning happening in my house and I managed to cut my finger. I wanted to let it heal a bit before risking nail polish remover. That said, I should have enough room for another nail polish drawer before I know it!! ?

However, I could't let the theater debut of the new Resident Evil movie (Resident Evil: Retribution) pass without some nail art!! I apologize for the extreme brightness of this picture. I had to take it with flash since the sunlight made the red disappear completely into the black.

I knew immediately what I wanted to do for this design. It was getting it onto my nails that was nearly impossible. I decided to create my own nail stickers in hopes of making the completion of this design easier. The Umbrella symbol was made so much easier with this method. It gave me a flat surface to work on, one that I could twist and turn to get the best angle. A dot in the middle, triangles in alternating red and white around this dot, and curved tops. I did blood splatter as I always do, but I loved the way nail stickers gave me the option of choosing the splatter pattern I wanted instead of having to go with what came out of the straw.

The hardest part by far was the bloody fingerprint. It had me almost giving up a few times before I came up with a design I liked. While this idea came from a tutorial I found on deviantART, I had to adapt it so that it would work for me and this design. I painted the pad of my index finger with black and stamped a fingerprint onto my homemade sticker. I left my finger on the sticker until it was almost permanently stuck so that it would leave an imprint on the sticker just in case the black polish didn't get left behind right. With a small brush I traced an approximation of my fingerprint over the black. It wasn't exact but it came through well enough to get the idea across.

So, what's your favorite horror movie? While I used to be a huge horror movie buff The Resident Evil series and the Bride of Chucky are just about the only horror movies I'll watch anymore unless I'm feeling nostalgic.

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Neon Splatter

If there's one thing I love it's neon nail polish. I really don't think there's much better ... except maybe neon splatter nails!!!

Splatter nails create such a unique look for your nails. You'll never get the same design twice even if you use the same polishes. And, all told, they're really not that hard to do. All you need is polish, a piece of paper, some tape (for easier cleanup), and a straw. Tape around your nails, drop some polish onto a piece of paper, dip your straw into the polish and blow in one hard puff over your nail. Be sure to keep the piece of paper under your hand so you don't ruin your workstation. This may not always get a splatter but just keep trying until your straw picks up enough polish.

My problem with splatter nails? I don't know when to quit! I just keep adding more and more splatters until my base polish is practically covered and the splatters are everywhere. I think I managed to reign myself in more than usual with this splatter, but there's still a lot of them.

My right hand is less covered with splatter, but I did have a major drip on my middle finger and couldn't manage to get very many on my ring finger. Also, I somehow managed to smudge the polish on my index nail. I have no idea how. One moment it was fine and then next it was bunched. There was simply no fixing it.

And here you can see the thumb of my right hand. It has a good splatter pattern and managed to get a good splatter of each color.

Overall, I think this turned out really great. I definitely want to do more neon splatter nails. I'm thinking Sun Worshiper would make an amazing base color.

Polishes Used

Color Club - Yell-Oh!

Color Club - Mrs. Robinson

Funky Fingers - Kingston

China Glaze - Sun Worshiper

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Patriotic Splatter

Happy 4th of July to my United States readers. This is the last 4th of July mani I have for you. I wanted something simple, something just about anyone can do ... something that doesn't use all the usual tools my nail art does. What's one of the simplest manicures I could think of? A splatter, of course!

I call this a patriotic splatter. I used two coats of white. I did a light splatter of red, then blue, before doing one more splatter of red. My blue left larger splatters, more drips than anything, and took over the mani until I added more red.

Be very careful if you use two primary colors, colors that can create other colors if mixed, in your splatter. To keep my red and blue from mixing and making purple I used a straw for the red and a straw for the blue. There is always the chance that they will still mix on your nails though. I have a few purple spots on my nails but not as noticeable as they might be if I had used the same straw for both colors.

The nice thing about this design is that it can be done by any patriotic person, not just those living in the US. Simply use your country's colors for a unique splatter. This can also be done with school colors or your favorite sports teams colors.

Here is a splatter tutorial by The PolishAholic if you'd like to try your own Patriotic Splatter mani.

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Paint Splatter - Image Heavy

Hey guys! I hope everyone is doing great today. It's looking pretty nice here. The sun is shining, there's an Easter egg hunt later, and the kids are off school. Not my kids though since I don't have any�they're my sister's kids and it will be great to watch them hunt for Easter eggs. :)

The mani I have for you today is one I've been dying to try since I did The Hunger Games nails. Paint splatter!! I thought of doing pastels for Easter but I've fallen in love with the Funky Fingers neon orange color, Kingston, and decided to work around that instead. Wanting to give it a chance to really shine I used blue, purple, and yellow with the orange.


This post is very image heavy since I took pictures of nearly every stage of doing these nails. So, prepare yourselves. :p

The first part of doing these nails (after painting your base color) is taping your fingers. This will make cleanup much easier. This is 3 coats of LA Colors white. I've tried many whites (both cheap and expensive) and none have held up as well as this white. The whites I use chip within the day but LA Colors held up for multiple days and are only showing slight wear and tear to the tips. I definitely recommend hunting this polish out if you have trouble finding a good white because not only does it hold up well, I found it at my local Dollar Store.

The next step is gathering your supplies (polish and a regular old straw. I used a bendy one and it worked perfectly) and getting your station set up. You'll need something to put under your fingers while you 'splatter' or you'll end up with this mess all over your work station instead of on a piece of paper. This is just the mess from one hand. I switched papers for my right hand.

Even with the tape your nails will need some cleanup.

Direct Sunlight

Shade

Right Hand

I had trouble getting splatter on my right hand. It came out of the straw in blobs or small sprays, but in all I think it actually turned out better. I'll have to remember that less splatter looks more realistic when I do this again.


So, what do you guys think? Ready to try splatter nails? If you are, I recommend using your cheaper polishes. Splatter nails waste a good bit of polish, both with the actual splatter and with the large drops of polish you dip your straw into.


Polish Used

• Borghese - Brillante
• LA Colors - BCC 561 (White)
• Funky Fingers - Kingston
• Sally Hansen - Blue Me Away!
• Sally Hansen - Mellow Yellow
• NYC - Prince Street
• Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri

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