Elie Saab inspired manicure: March’s NCC #4

Hello sweeties! I hope everyone had a good weekend. I didn’t do anything too exciting – there was some overtime at work, bingewatching The Killing (anyone else watch that?!), and some sleep. But hey, you can’t go wrong with a relaxing weekend! Anyways, today I have the last fashion-inspired manicure for March’s Nail Challenge Collaborative theme!

I browsed pictures from the recent New York Fashion Week, and I came across some beautiful dresses in the Elie Saab Spring 2015 Ready-to-Wear collection. It was full with aqua, teal, pops of bright orange in a cool tie-dyed/ marbled pattern.

Dress from the Spring 2015 Elie Saab collection

How gorgeous is that?! I just knew I wanted that on my nails! I had also recently watched a video from Young, Wild, And Polished on YouTube where she did a manicure that ended up with a very similar effect. Despite using saran wrap before, I had never done a mani like that! The way that I usually use saran wrap is by wadding up a little ball and dabbing on the extra colors.

My Elie Saab inspired manicure

I think it came out pretty darn similar to the actual dress! I really loved this manicure! It’s not really a day-to-day wearable manicure with the middle finger accent, but I definitely love the marbled/ tie-dye effect!

Marbled/ tie-dye manicure inspired by an Elie Saab dress

Polishes used/ how I did this:

• Base color: Essie Mint Candy Apple… a beautiful bright minty baby blue
• I blobbed on a few dots of 3 polishes and then took a small piece of saran wrap. I pressed the saran wrap to the nail and rubbed it in a small circular motion to create the marbled/ tie-dye effect.
  • Color blobs:
    • Essie Mint Candy Apple
    • Barry M Watermelon… my favorite deep teal polish!
    • Formula X Uber… a gorgeous bright red-leaning orange creme.
• Middle finger:
  • I freehanded stripes of Rica Whiteout and Rica Blackout in the same pattern of the dress’ neckline.
  • I took a small brush with acetone and removed the polish between the stripes to emulate the skin peeking from the neckline.

I really want to use this technique again – for a full mani or even as an accent nail or two. Maybe you’ll be seeing that on me again soon 🙂

What do you think? Have you used saran wrap or a plastic bag this way? Did you have a more interesting weekend than I did? And do you watch The Killing?! Talk to me if you do 🙂

And here’s your daily dose of David Tennant/ Doctor Who:

Love that grin!

Check out more fashion-inspired manicures from the NCC ladies:

Tartan manicure: March’s NCC #3

Hello my sweeties!! And a happy Monday to y’all! Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day, so this week I wanted to do manis accordingly. Not truly festive, but festive-ish (so not a word, but shhhh). To combine that and the March Challenge theme of fashion, I decided to try out a tartan pattern on my nails. Yes I know tartan patterns are Scottish, not Irish. But people totally wear kilts in St. Paddy’s Day parades, so it’s kosher (how many cultural groups can I reference?!).

My tartan skittlette manicure

I did this really quickly, but I love how it came out! I’m usually pretty awful with freehand lines, but these were better than my usual. Obviously they’re not perfect, but I’m improving slowly! 🙂 I was considering doing a full mani with every nail plaid, but I think I like it better this way.

Another pic of my tartan mani

These remind me of a cozy flannel or fleece plaid blanket. I just want to grab a cup of coffee or hot chocolate with this mani! This would be a good for fall, winter, or Christmas. Plaid really goes well with everything.

Polishes used:

• Accent nail: piCture pOlish Badass… This is a charcoal grey “bijou” holo. I don’t really know what bijou means (I guess I could consult Dr. Google very easily, but I’m feeling lazy), but this polish is a subtle scattered holo and is gorgeous. This is one of PP’s blogger collabs and is one of my favorites! Simple but beautiful!
• Tartan nails:
  • Base color: Zoya Sookie… Ugh, this is the kind of perfect red nail polish that makes me utter orgasmic noises when I put it on lol! It’s such a stunning cherry red creme with a perfect formula.
  • I painted on a hashmark design with OPI Malaga Wine, a beautiful burgundy creme.
  • I then painted the overlapping squares with Rica Blackout, the perfectly opaque black creme that works amazingly in nail art and stamping.
  • Accent stripes of Essie Good As Gold… the best metallic chrome gold ever! It’s easily opaque, so it’s perfect for nail art and stamping.

And now for your daily David Tennant! He’s Scottish, so it’s appropriate for this mani (and appropriate for anytime you want to look at something pretty).

Yummy yummy

What do you think? Have you done tartan or plaid manis before? Any fun plans for St. Patrick’s Day?

Check out more fashion inspired manicures from the NCC ladies:

Sparkly Penguin Manicure featuring Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Terrific Twos: February NCC #2

Hello my sweeties. Last week was a rough one at work, so this weekend was a much needed break! I had a date night with the husband and I went to a concert, which definitely lifted my mood! I also decided I needed to add some sparkle to this next mani to keep this mood up.

Sparkly penguin manicure

Julie from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer sent me Terrific Twos for review, and I knew it would give this penguin manicure a little extra something. Julie made it for the 2nd anniversary of her blog. It’s teal, sky blue, aqua, and turquoise microglitter packed densely in a clear base. This is SUCH a gorgeous color glitter! And it’s fully opaque on its own in 2-3 coats. I could have gotten away with 2 coats, but I dabbed on a third to cover a few patchy areas near the tips.

Here’s a closeup of Terrific Twos:

Closeup of Terrific Twos

Apparently on the nail I just showed, I didn’t dab enough at the tips. But you can tell the rest of the nail is fully opaque!

Another pic of my sparkly penguin mani

And I think Terrific Two goes perfectly with the penguins! So let’s talk about these penguins 🙂 This is my first time doing freehand animals of any type, and I love how they came out! I wanted chubby penguins with cute little wings, and I think they more or less came out that way. I think I should have angled the wings down a bit since they could almost make the whole animal look like a duck with a narrow neck. But I see it as a penguin, and I hope you do as well!

How I did this/ products used:

• Index & pinky: BEGL Terrific Twos… SO gorgeous! I used 2 coats of top coat since it is a bit hungry for that.
• Middle & ring fingers:
  • Base color: BEGL It’s Almost After Midnight… this is a charcoal grey crelly with a strong blue shimmer. It’s difficult to see its beauty in these pics since it’s covered in nail art, but I swear it’s there! I’ll have to swatch it by itself for you sometime – love!
  • Then I used Rica Whiteout to outline the penguin shape.
  • I made the eyes with Rica Blackout and Whiteout using a dotting tool.
  • I drew the beak and feet with Marc Jacobs Snap! using a small nail art brush.
  • Then I drew on the wings with BEGL It’s Almost After Midnight using that same nail art brush.

So what do you think? Have you done animal nail art? If I didn’t say it was a penguin, would you have recognized it? Also, what’s your way to lift your spirits after a bad week/ day/ month? Here’s hoping for a better week this week! 🙂

Check out the other animal manis from the NCC ladies:

Nighttime Snowman Manicure: December’s NCC #3

Hello sweeties! I’m so pleased with today’s mani – I hope you like it as much as I do! I’ve been slow in getting into the holiday spirit this year, but since company is arriving today I figured it was high time to decorate the house. And I’ve decorated my nails festively as well!

My little snowman against a night sky!

And I thought this was perfect as my third look for the dotticure NCC theme! I wanted to do a sparkly snowy scene, and a snowman was a perfect addition to the scene! Isn’t that blue a perfect polish for a nighttime sky look?! I just love it 🙂

Polishes used:

• Base color: Zoya Dream… this is one of my all-time favorite Zoyas! It’s a perfect scattered holo blue that just has so much depth! Love!
• Snow: Rica Whiteout… my favorite opaque white polish!
• Snowman buttons: Rica Blackout… my favorite opaque black polish 🙂
• Snowman nose: Orly Tropical Pop… a neon tangerine orange polish
• Snow topping: China Glaze Fairy Dust… how can you not love a sparkly topper to snow?!

I’m loving this festive mani! What do you think? How are you preparing for the holidays? Have you procrastinated as much as I have? I hope I’m not the only lazy butt out here!

Check out more dotticures from the NCC ladies:

Jack Skellington Manicure: October’s NCC #4

Happy Halloween week! Today, just for you, I have my first Halloween-themed nail art manicure! I have seen a TON of Jack Skellington manis and I just adore The Nightmare Before Christmas, so I wanted to recreate that look. I think I first saw it somewhere on Pinterest, but I honestly don’t remember the original source.  But I loved the mani from the first time I saw it, aaaand it fits in perfectly with October’s NCC theme of stripes!

This is Halloween, this is Halloween!

I just realized that I forgot to paint in Jack’s little skeleton nose! Oops! But I think it still looks like him, don’t you? Even if it doesn’t 100% look like him, it still looks like a skeleton face.

I also realized while I was cropping these pics, my cuticles and fingers are RAGGED. Gross! I’m sorry for subjecting you to that! I went to my college homecoming weekend (my 9 year reunion and my husband’s 10th!), and we had a few bonfires and other shenanigans that weren’t terribly kind on my fingers. Plus I forgot all my nourishing cuticle/ hand products! So anyways, forgive me! I’m going to put my hands in beauty boot camp and they’ll be pretty again soon.

Jack Skellington manicure. PS – doesn’t my watermark fit in well with a Halloween theme?!

For this mani, I used my amazing Rica Blackout & Whiteout with some nail vinyls and nail art brushes. I know I say it all the time, but I love love love Rica’s Whiteout & Blackout!! They are the best quality white and black polishes I’ve found – super duper opaque and creamy and perfect for stamping.

So what do you think? What’s your mani plan for Halloween? I have a few more looks this week for your Halloween-loving eyes!

Check out the other striped manis from my NCC ladies:

Squish the Rainbow Leadlighting

It’s been a really long time since I’ve tried a leadlighting manicure and I recently picked up the entire Rica jelly polish collection (Squish the Rainbow), so I figured it was high time to venture back into leadlighting! If you haven’t heard of this style, it’s basically like a color-by-numbers technique using jelly polishes over a stamp.

I really just wanted to play around practicing leadlighting with different stamps. The intention was not to create a wearable manicure, but I think it actually looks pretty good!

Rica leadlighting manicure

Not bad right? It’s flowery but geometric, and the colors kind of bring it all together.

Another pic with my thumb in there

What I used for this mani:

• Base color: OPI Alpine Snow
• Stamps: MoYou London Explorer 03… such a perfect plate for this technique! All the images are detailed and have lots of areas to color in.
• Stamping polish: Rica Blackout
• Leadlighting colors: Rica Squishy Blueberry, Squishy Lime, Squishy Lemon, and Squishy Grape… These are all great jelly polishes! They worked so perfectly for leadlighting, and they look so pretty over white. LOVE!
• I applied the leadlighting colors with a tiny dotting tool to help fill in smaller areas.

This kind of manicure makes me feel like I’m a kid with a coloring book! It’s so fun and relaxing, but it does take quite awhile if the stamping images are detailed. The end game makes it totally worth it though – the manicures come out so great!

What do you think? Have you done leadlighting before? What other images do you like to use?