Halloween Wrap Up!

 Here are my ombre vampire nails that I've been looking forward to FOREVER!!!

I had to grow my nails out way longer than normal, but it was worth it. 

 And I even painted the insides red. Fancy huh?

I use Gelish Lady in Red and Gelish Black Shadow.

And here are some fall dark plum solids. Love them! 

I used Gelish Bella's Vampire. That is all!

Solid black nails. 

Always classy. Always cool. Especially for Halloween!

I used Gelish Black Shadow

 Seriously, how cool are these?!?

And look at these adorable things!!!

 I used: Gelish Anime-zing Color, Finger Paints Rococo Orange, Gelish Black Shadow and Gelish Vegas Nights.

Hello Kitty!!! 

 I used: Black Shadow, TruGel Marshmallow, ASP Ravishing in Raspberry, ASP Sparkler, Gelish Waterfeild. 

Thanks for reading, 

See you Monday!

Fall catch up post!

I finally interrupted my autumn crochet frenzy to post all the nails I've been doing lately!

Cool geometrics with ombre

I used TruGel Marshmallow, Gelish Tiger Blossom and Gelish Black Shadow. 

 I've been looking forward to doing these for a long time now. ComicCon Nails! 

I used Gelish Hot Rod Red on most of the nails for a perfect 1940's look. Then for the accent nails, one had to have Captain America's shield of course, and the other is Peggy Carter's signature red hat. 

For those nails I used Gelish Midnight Caller and Gelish Night Shimmer with touches of various colors for the artwork. 

 Peggy's hat!

 And there he is. I hope he was just as hunky in real life! I can't wait to hear about it!

Its that time of year people! My favorite nail holiday...

HALLOWEEN!!!

I used: TruGel Marshmallow, Finger Paints Rococo Orange, Gelish Black Shadow, ASP Sparkler and Gelish Waterfield. And a bunch of dotting tools! 

And here are some lovely fall frenchies. I love how they turned out. So pretty! 

I used Gelish Bashful, Gelish Arctic Freeze and some Konad stamping polish. 

Thanks for reading, 

See you Monday!

Ombre Glitter Butterflies and what not

I was pretty light on nails this week but I still managed to do some fun stuff. 

This first one is one of the most complex manicures I think I've ever done. 

After prepping the nails, I started with a base color of two coats of white. (TruGel Marshmallow) Then I used a nice bright yellow, orange and hot pink on a makeup sponge to create the pretty ombre effect which I did twice to get good color saturation. After that I covered it with a glittery coat of Gelish Vegas Nights for some sparkle. Most of the nails were done and ready for a top coat at that point but a few of them were hand painted as butterfly wings. The wings look a little intimidating but really, they weren't as hard as I thought. 

Pretty, right? 

Here are my nails for the week. I have a hard time deciding what to do sometimes so for this manicure, I didn't decide. I just piked out the very brightest colors I have and went for it. Life is too short to be boring. 

 I know, its a lot of color. The brighter, the better!

I used, Gelish I'm brighter than you, Gelish Make you Blink Pink, TruGel Electric Purple, Finger Paints Appetite for the Archetype, Gelish Radiance is my middle name, Gelish Amazon Flirt and Orly Glowstick. 

And I painted my toes with TruGel Electric Purple. Which I am LOVING! Is it pink? Is it purple? I don't know! But it has a very subtle shimmer to it and looks amazing in the sunshine. I love it. 

p.s. I had to take these pics with my Saltwater Sandals on because of the terrible tan lines I have from wearing them all summer. Ooops. 

 Here are my Maggie Lou's nails. She wanted hearts and strawberries, Of course! 

I use regular polish on kiddos as the gel just doesn't adhere very well. These mini manis are super quick and I love seeing all the crazy things they pick out. 

The last one today are neon half moons modeled by my mother. 

These are cool because the technique is exactly the same as for a French Mani, just way higher on the nail. pretty simple and very versatile. I love playing with the classics!

 I used, TruGel Marshmallow, Gelish I'm Brighter than You and ASP Blue Crush. 

Thanks for reading, 

See you Monday!

Jurassic Nails!

Some of you may already know this, but I'm a bit of a science nerd. I studied geology in college and my very favorite job ever was in the paleontology lab. Sure, the fossils I was working with were all very small invertebrates that no one has ever heard of, but they lived at the same time as the big guys so...close enough!

I LOVE Jurassic park. The movie, the book, the scientific inaccuracies (Cretaceous Park anyone?) all of it. Love it. 

Kinda like this. 

So, naturally, I had to dedicate a mani to Jurassic World. I mean...

AmIright???

So without further ado (or nonsense) I give you, JURASSIC NAILS!!!

I started with a nice white base mani. 

I really like EZflow's TruGel Marshmallow for painting the nails white. I find its a lot thinner than Gelish's Arctic Freeze and is easier to get perfect. Now, for artwork or french tips, I use Gelish for sure. 

The next step is to get the color fade effect. I couldn't decide between the red/orange/yellow fade or the purple/blue/green so naturally, I did both. This tehnique is cool by itself, in any color and with any type of artwork on top. You can use gel polish on gels or regular polish on regular polish. Whatever you have is fine. Try it! 

 Just paint thin strips of overlapping colors on a makeup sponge and daub on your nails until you like it. 

And again!

If you're using gels, make sure to clean the excess around your nail off before you cure it! 

I used two coats of both to get good color saturation. 

I love when they glow in the LED light!

After i get the color where I like it, I do a top coat layer and then even more fun begins! Here is the stamping plates I used. There are actually quite a few dino plates out there right now. Why? I have no idea. 

How fun is that? My 10 year old son was very impressed :)

As a bonus, the Hogle Zoo is having a speial ZOORASSIC PARK event right now with a bunch of animatronic dinosaurs all over the zoo. Its pretty cool. 

And here is our fun Mother/Son Jurassic World date. We even sat in the D-Box seats that move with the movie.  

So much fun!

Thanks for reading, 

See you Monday!