Racing Stripes

I was in Winners the other day and my best friend spotted some Butter London polishes. I have been eyeing this brand up for some time and was really excited to snap some up. They were cheaper than regular retail price but still $13 a piece so I only got two, Torch (a shimmery coral) and Billy No Mates (a pale grey). They are both a bit sheer so I layered them over a coat of Sally Hansen White On.

I used striping tape to get this effect. I should have let the white dry better as it pulled up slightly when I removed the tape.

At first I wasn't convinced by the polish. I think I had built Butter London to be amazing and was maybe thinking that unicorns would jump out of the bottle when I removed the cap, lol. I think the sheerness of the formula got me down a bit and although it was on sale, it was still expensive.

As I wore it more, I really liked it. I still think it's expensive but wouldn't say no if it was gifted to me, lol!! I would also like to try out some of the other colours. I'm sure I'll have more in the future ;)

Happy painting friends!

OPI Breast Cancer Awareness Polish

My dear husband went on a conference to Arizona and he picked me up a present of nail polish. I was so happy; he's such a good guy. He bought me the OPI Breast Cancer Awareness polish set which comes with two polishes and some nail stickers. I didn't use the stickers but I used both of the polishes.

The pink polish is called Pinking of You. I love that name. The glitter is called More Than a Glimmer. Both polishes are beautiful and have great application.

I decided to do a glitter gradient with these polishes which I have never actually done successfully before. Maybe that's why I really like this glitter, it actually worked fairly well in the gradient!

I sponged on the glitter concentrating on the tips and then working down. I'm happy with how this turned out and hopefully I'll be able to do more glitter gradients in the future.

October was actually breast cancer awareness month but I think it's never too late to show some support.

As a total aside, I'd like to give a shout out to my American friends. You've eclipsed the Canadians in page views over the last couple days. Thanks so much for the support!!

Happy painting friends!

Polka Pals

My friend Kaycie allowed me to take over her nails once again and this time she asked for polka dots. She chose some bright colours and I got to work.

She picked out a pink from LA Color Club Color Craze (no name attached) as the base and chose a green and a blue for the spots. I honestly don't remember which colours she chose, whoops! I've never forgotten colours before; must be getting old, lol.

I used a large dotting tool for the dots. It's a lot harder to do on another person than on yourself!

I think the overall effect is very bright and happy, just like Kaycie is! The greatest thing is that she took inspiration from the design and decided to do it herself for a Halloween mani.

How awesome is that? She said she used the top of a pin for a makeshift dotting tool. I'm so impressed with her and so glad that she showed me! Such a nice surprise.

Please feel free to contact me if you try any design I post.

Happy painting friends!

It's a Mickey Birthday Party!

Today is my dear mother-in-law's 60th birthday! I wanted to celebrate by doing some nail art for her since I can't be physically with her (for those of you who don't know she lives in England). When I think of my mother-in-law I think of bright happy colours and Disney, lol. My husband's family, like me, are Disney fanatics so I really wanted to incorporate the Mouse into the design.

Here's my Mickey Mouse birthday party nail art. On each nail there is a different base colour (listed later in the post), some polka dots, Mickey heads (some with birthday hats), and then random other dots and streamers.

I think this design is really fun and pretty much what I was going for. My mother-in-law is an extremely vibrant person and that is reflected in the design.

I hope she enjoys the design and has a fantastic birthday!

I used one coat of Sally Hansen White On for all my fingers (to make the next colour pop) and then painted on the colours as follows to form the base:

Thumb=Joe Fresh Lime Juice (green)
Index=Orly Mayhem Mentality (orange)
Middle=Orly Harmonious Mess (purple)
Ring=Orly Choreographed Chaos (pink)
Pinkie=Orly Pretty Ugly (blue)

(Mickey heads, birthday hats, dots and streamers were done with nail pens)

Happy painting friends!

Waterfall

There was a really cool nail design on The Nailasaurus which she called a Waterfall. I've done it before but I thought I'd do it for my blog. This is a reasonably simple look but is very pretty.

I started with a base of Orly Gilded Coral which is a beautiful light pink with a subtle shimmer to it. I then went in with a whole load of metallic nail art pens from Color Club. The Nailasaurus uses a nail art brush in her tutorial but the nail pens from Color Club have a very thin brush which is perfect as it provides the same effect.

The great thing about this look is that you can do it in so many colours and it's a relatively easy one to do on both hands.

Happy painting friends!

Cherry Blossoms in the Fall

My sister-in-law came for a visit and I offered to do some nail art for her. She loves blue so she picked a beautiful blue from my stash (Kleancolor Blue Pearl) and requested some cherry blossoms "but not too much" as she put it.

The cherry blossoms and branches were done with acrylics.

I only did the branches on the thumb, index and middle and then a couple flowers on the other two fingers.

She really liked the design but unfortunately it chipped the next day so she had to take it off.

The brighter colours made me happy what with all the darker fall shades I've been using lately. I hope you've enjoyed it too.

Happy painting friends!

Snow Queen

This was one of those designs that I had no concept when I started and just added things til I liked it. I started with a base of Orly Snow Cone. I then added a layer of silver glitter from LA Colors Color Craze. I thought it looked a bit like falling snow at this point so I added in some white with Orly White Out. Lined that with a silver nail pen and added some bling.

As I say, I just kept adding til I liked it! And I like it! I called it Snow Queen because it really reminds me of the cold wintery days and it's all fancy with the bling.

I think it's quite pretty. It might be good for a Christmas party.

 Sometimes it's nice just picking a colour that speaks to you and seeing where you end up.

Happy painting friends!