Orange and Yellow Floral Fade

Today's post is a fun orange fade with some yellow flowers, perfect for this beautifully warm weather we have been having!!.

This design was done on one of my clients using Gelish in Tiger Blossom and some matching loose glitters. To create this fade look I applied the polish using a make up applicator (the double sided kind with the sponge tips) using one end of the applicator I blended the polish down the nail bed keeping it heavier at the tip and feathering it out towards the middle of the nail. Next using the other side of of the applicator I pressed the loose glitter into the polish. The flowers were painted using Orly Instant Artist Sunshine, Crisp White, Chocolate, Hot Green and Solid Gold.

TVD Las Vegas

Just returned home from a fabulous vacation in Las Vegas for the Vampire Diaries Convention. If you know me, you probably know that I am completely obsessed with Ian Somerhalder, and you can imagine how much I enjoyed meeting this beautiful man. I already have customers asking to see the photos so I'll post them after the nail pics....warning!!! you may experience jealousy, he looks exceptionally good!!

For my Vegas nails I wanted to go full glitz, but I also planned to do a little networking while I was there so I had to find a way to add something TVD. So I decided to go with eight glittery, blinged out nails and two Ian accent nails. For the main design I went with a charcoal gel polish, Gelish Midnight Caller with silver glitter pressed into it. I then painted a black leopard print using my Jet Black Instant Artist paint, to finish them off I glued on an assortment of three different sized crystals all in different color schemes. The ian accent nails were done like all my other DIY decals, I printed the picture on decal paper, cut it to size and applied it to the nails, there is more info under waterslide decals

These nails are very suitable for me, They are a combo of my four favorite things I could put on my nails; glitter, crystals, animal print and those smoldery blue eyes

As promised here is the picture... I love how it turned out and just in case you were wondering he is even more wonderful in real life. Most of the actors were good sports and did the photo ops with all their crazy fans, but you could tell Ian really enjoyed it. He was just so sweet and DAMN this man is hot!!! too sexy for words...I got to be near him on two different occasions, one for the photos and the second time was for the autograph, both times I was a star struck fool. One glimpse into his eyes and I was speechless.

 

 

Blue Bells Ring

Today's post, for my second Swatch'n Saturday is China Glaze's Blue Bells Ring. This polish is hands down my favourite Blue polish and I have quite the collection. Being from Vancouver I am constantly on the hunt for the perfect Canucks blue, so over the years I have accumulated quite a few. I had a mix emotion of pride and guilt the other day when I used my new China Glaze app to colour match my jersey, I actually owned all 18 suggestions.

The reason why I chose this beautiful metallic cobalt blue is because tonight was Earth Hour and I thought the colour would make the perfect base for a earth themed mani. My Earth Hour was pretty uneventful, after a busy day at the salon and a dark apartment I was out for the count, I fell asleep by 8:35.

This design is super simple and the combo of metallic polishes looks great together. I started with my Blue Bells Ring Base, then using my small dotting tool and my darker green polish I added in random earth like shapes over the nails. Then with a softer golden green I added some minor detail to the center of the green I previously painted. The two shades I used are from China Glaze's Bohemian Collection. The darker colour is Unpredictable and the other is Rare and Radient both stunning shades. To finish off the design I used my Black instant Artist paint ant outlined the cuticle area, this created a more rounded earth like shape on the nail.

I love this design, it is a combo of two of things I'm most passionate about, which are preserving our earth and nail art. I hope you like them as much as I do!

Four Leaf Clover

Today I am starting a new feature on my blog called Swatch'n Saturdays. Where every Saturday I will feature one of my favorite polishes and I will show the color on its own and also with some simple nail art. For my first Polish I chose China Glaze's Four Leaf Clover. I thought it would be very suitable with St Patricks Day tomorrow.

I discovered this shade last summer and I fell in love! The polish is a really nice bright cream, however the name is slightly confusing. To me this color is a definite teal not really green, when I think of four leaf clovers I picture something completely different. But either way I'm loving it, I wear tons of teals and turquoise so this polish is a great match for me.

For today's art I painted a rainbow and clovers using Orly Instant Artist paints at the end of the rainbow on my thumb I added some gold studs. There is one major tip if you are using this polish, sometimes it turns the nail art yellow after too coat is applied. To stop this I I do 1 coat of either base or top coat before doing any hand painted nail art.

Vacation French

These nails are a new acrylic set done on my cousin who is headed to Mexico...with all this rain, I'm quite jealous! This design may look familiar to some of you, last year I posted a something very similar, that design was done with a multi colored polish and different cocktails. To make the design a little more wearable we went with a blue french with some cocktails and then I added some tropical flowers as well.

The french was done using a loose blue glitter inlaid into the acrylic and the deign is painted with an assortment of acrylic paints and Orly Instant Artist paints

Glitter Heart French

Happy Valentines Day everyone! I hope you all are enjoying it as much as I do! What can I say, I'm a big sucker for the day. I just love seeing all the balloons, teddy bears and flowers everywhere you go, and who can resist all the heart shaped treats. I know I've definitely passed my calorie intake for the day, starting with the cupcake for breakfast. Tonight I do not have super exciting plans, we are staying in and I've decided to cook a nice dinner, but even though I am not going out, I definitely had to have some fun nails for the occasion.

I am still wearing the pointy nails, so I saw the perfect opportunity to do this design. I wanted to wear a sparkly french in the shape of a heart. I have this loose pink glitter that I am in love with and I knew it would be perfect. I started with a coat OPI Bubble Bath to have a nice base colour, I waited for this to dry before I continued. Next using a pink polish similar in colour to the glitter I painted a heart on the tip of each nail. With my finger I pressed the glitter into the nail, filling each heart entirely. Once this was done I outlined each heart with my Jet Black Instant Artist paint. To finish the design I went along the top of each heart (what would be the smile line) with my platinum striping paint, this made the heart pop a little bit more.

This design is really quite simple but also very bold. I like it!

Mardi Gras

For today's post I just had to do a set of Mardi Gras nails. During my blog project last year I was so caught up in valentines nails and I completely missed the chance to do this design.

Mardi Gras makes me think of bright colors, sequins and of course the Mardi Gras beads. So when I started this design I was so excited to pull out all my glitters and crystals to start creating. I started with a solid black base, China Glaze Liquid Leather. While the polish was still wet I pressed the glitters into the polish. On the thumb I used ultra fine purple glitter and on the index, middle and pinky I used a large hexagon glitter in a purple and turquoise color. I wanted strings of beads over the one accent nail, so on the ring finger I used three colors and sizes of crystals and created this effect. To finish the design I used my instant artist paints to paint in the Mardi Gras mask and add the gold swirls on the three nails. To add a little definition to the swirls, I outlined them with a couple of Stripe Rite glitter
Paints in a blue and purple shade (the label rubbed off so unfortunately I can't give you the names) and then top it off by painting in the words Mardi Gras.

I am pretty happy with the outcome of these nails, it is a little tricky to take a picture with so much glitter and crystals, but for this much sparkle its definitely worth the struggle.