for audrey

I really love this color from OPI. Its called For Audrey and it is such a perfect Tiffany blue. I really wanted to do bows again, but I'm going to try and limit it to only once a week :)

• base coat - For Audrey - OPI
• image plate - M71 with Konad white stamping polish

a little bit of everything!

I found a picture of this design on a blog called We <3 it and I'm not gonna lie, I pretty much copied it exactly. I'm not sure who the original artist is but her nails are gorgeous! So this is my attempt :)

giraffes!

I saw a picture of a boy and girl giraffe greeting card and I thought I would take a whack at it :)
here is the card:

and here are the nails:

in honor of the past two nights

Last night and tonight we have had the craziest thunderstorms! Its a nice break from the 100 degree heat but seriously - the novelty has worn off.

last weeks nails

So last week was the Ann Arbor Art Fair and I worked ridiculously long hours in unbelievable heat. I didn't have time to blog all of my nails, but I did manage to keep them cute throughout the whole ordeal! I can't remember all of the different polishes I used but I don't really own anything you can't but at the drug store. There were one or two franken-colors when I couldn't find the right shade but most are pretty standard.
day 1.

day 2.

day 3.

day 4.

day 5.

and today's nails.

Hopefully I'll get back on track tonight (if this storm doesn't knock out the power!)

Buzzy Bee :)

I love this and I think it might stay around for a couple of days! The yellow I used needed 3 coats which was a bummer but the color is great.

• base coat - Sally Hansen Insta-Dri -Lightning
• design - Kiss Nail Art Paint in Black and White

Arrrrrrr!

After the Monokuro Boo nails I wanted to do something a little less time consuming :) The Konad stamping is getting much easier and I seem to be making much less of a mess now.

Its just a simple little argyle design :)

• base coat - NYC In a Minute - Prospect Park Pink
• image plate - M60 with Konad Stamping Polish in Black

monokuro boo!

I found an adorable print the other day with pigs and pears and I was showing my friend at work, Amber. Pretty much, if its cool, Amber already knows about it. So she tells me these little pigs are characters from San-X called Monokuro Boo. I started looking through pictures and I fell in love with this one:

so here are the nails!

• base coat - Konad stamping polish in white
• design - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Wet Cement, Kiss nail art Paint - Black, Mabelline Express Finish - Racy Red

bows - cause I really like 'em

Looks like its gonna be a weekly occurrence...

• base coat - Sally Hansen - Blue-Away
• image plate - M79 & M59 with black Konad Stamping Polish

i heart summer dresses

I love this dress so much I bought it twice! (There is a pale pink version too)

I tried a few different color combinations but ended up with hot pink for the base - China Glaze nail polish is really pretty incredible. All of the shades I've tried so far have been gorgeous.

• base coat - China Glaze - 108 degrees
• image plate - M79 with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Blue-away
• tips - OPI Suede - Russian Navy
• top coat - Seche Vite

chartreuse and puce

 Probably two of my favorite colors plus they just sound awesome. I felt like this was a little less flashy than the past couple of days but a bit more appropriate for work ;)

• base coat - China Glaze - Electric Pineapple
• image plate - BM20
• design - China Glaze - Senorita Bonita & Sinful Colors - Nirvana

gold rules.

I picked up the most beautiful gold polish today from Orly. Its called Luxe and it looks incredible on. I also got a bottle of Seche Vite top coat and it absolutly lives up to the hype.

• base coat - Orly - Luxe
• image plate - M57 with Konad black stamping polish
• top coat - Seche Vite

sunday is the new friday

I have been trying to get more of OPI's suede line but I've only found one color so far. I love the matte finish, so I picked up a bottle of Matte About You by Essie which gives a similar effect. This mani is very subtle but I'm happy with the end result.

• base coat - Konad stamping polish in Black
• top coat - Essie - Matte About You
• image plate - M57 with Konad stamping polish

rose garden

I got the Island Escape collection from China Glaze yesterday and I just don't know what to use first! I've seen this style of rose mani a few times and I love how girly it is. It was really easy to do and it went pretty fast.

• base coat - Mint Sorbet - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear
• roses - Hazard- Sinful Colors, Speedy Sunburst - Sally Hansen Insta-Dri
• leaves - Cha Cha Cha - China Glaze

cherry blossoms!

I had completely forgotten that I had ordered image plate M66 from Konad last week and it arrived today along with some other pretty great stuff. I love the designs on this plate, and they transfer so well! I decided to use just the cherry blossom stamp...

• base coat - China Glaze - For Audrey
• branches - Sinful Colors - Nirvana
• cherry blossoms - Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Speedy Sunburst

I'm really happy with how this turned out and am tempted to leave it on for more than one day ;)

laser mani

Saw a tutorial for a laser mani done with tape on the blog Nailside and was super excited to try it. I have to say, this was probably the most time consuming mani I've done so far, much more difficult than it looked! Mine were nowhere near as neat as hers but I think it was a good first attempt. I used Blue Away and Brisk Blue by Sally Hansen Insta-Dri

bows 2.0

I recieved some new image plates from Konad today and I love how much bigger the designs are! Bundle Monster doesn't quite cover my nail and lining them up has not worked out too well so far.
I used image plates M79 and M59 with OPI Russian Navy Suede, Konad white stamping polish, and Cover Girl Continuous Color in Preppy Pink.

leopard love

I did these to match a dress I bought yesterday. I realized I've been using mostly image plates and I was a little nervous about doing these free-hand but  I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Wet Cement, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Sonic Boom, and Konad stamping polish in black.

They ended up being a perfect match :)

saturday night stripes

Since I can't seem to get the Bundle Monster designs to cover my whole nail, and double stamping the designs hasn't gone so well, I decided to just break it up. I used Maybelline Express Finish in Racy Red with image plates BM20 and BM11.

I like how they turned out, but I had a few chips by the end of the night. I might need to try a different top coat, right now I'm using Sally Hansen Hard as Nails top coat.

friday i'm in love......with orange!

I saw a tutorial on The Daily Nail for a design called Whats the Mod-er? and thought I would give it a try. I have an adorable orange/black/gray summer dress and I wanted to use these colors without it looking too halloween-ie.
Here is the dress......

and here are the nails :)

I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Sun Kissed, and Wet Cement, and Konad special black stamping polish. This was super black, but it got goopy very quickly.