Matte & Shiny

I meant to have this up a few days ago and then after all my car drama I just felt kinda blah. Anyway, here is a design that I thought turned out pretty cool. I do have another "cute" design I plan on still getting in before Halloween, but I wanted something a little more "dark." So I came up with this.

I started with a dark red polish, and applied a matte top coat. After some dry time I cut some triangles in scotch tape and applied it to my nail. I used black polish and then quickly applied a shiny top coat. I really like the contrast between the matte and the shiny. I also think this design could work with a huge variety of colors, and I'd like to try it again with more contrasting colors and maybe switch the matte and glossy part. 

Just a quick post for this one! Hope you guys like it and it gives you some inspiration!

And if you are wondering here are the colors I used (sorry no bottle shots):

SinfulShine Mirror Mirror (red)

OPI Black Onyx

I also used OPI Matte Top Coat and Seche Vite for my Glossy Top Coat.

Thanks for checking out my post! Much love and polish!

Know anyone in the Denver Metro Area that needs handyman, tradesman or A/V services? Have them check out www.tysdesign.com! Competitive pricing and customer service tailored specifically for you!

Disclaimer: All items shown were purchased with my own money. All opinions are my own and honest

Candy Corn, Pumpkins & Glitter, Oh My!

Time for more Halloween nails!! So far these have gotten more recognition than my Frankenstein nails. These are a little more flashy too. These nails were easy to do. The pumpkins were a little tricky though, and doing them on my right hand just wasn't happening....but you could still try! This is pretty picture heavy, just FYI...


 Here are all the polishes/tools I used to create the candy corn and pumpkin nails.

Side note: I got the Rimmel Cocktail Colour polishes (there is an orange one in a pic below) on clearance at Walgreens for $.62!!! They had Sally Hansen and Essie polishes for $2.00 too. I got them just a few days ago so you may want to see if your Walgreens has any!

Start off with a white base on all nails. Give a little dry time for your nails.

For the candy corn nails you start with painting an orange horizontal stripe. A tip to help keep your lines straight is to rotate your finger and keep your brush still. Allow the orange to dry for a few minutes and then do the same process with the yellow. Once your nails are dry if you want to add some sparkle or if your lines aren't as straight as you like you can use a glitter striper. You can use a nail art brush dipped in gold glitter too. 

For the pumpkin nails you start by drawing kind of a lopsided 'x' shape. We are trying to get a heart shape for our end result. After you have your 'x' shape then you fill in the rest. Try to make your lines as smooth as possible because we will not be covering them up. After your orange pumpkins have dried for a bit, then use a green glitter polish to add the stems. Using a white nail striper, add three lines to your pumpkin to add detail. The center line is straight and the outside lines are curved to match the pumpkin. You can stop with this step or if you want you can use a nail art pen dipped in green glitter to go on top of the white stripes. Depending on your green polish (mine was sheer) you want to make sure you do the white stripe first so your colored polish will show up against the orange.

Clean up any polish on your skin, add a shiny top coat, and then your nails are done!

Here is an alternative if you don't want to do pumpkin nails.... 

On my right hand I couldn't do pumpkins so I just did glitter nails instead. On my pointer finger I used a fine orange glitter in an orange base and my ring finger I used a small red and gold glitter in a clear base. I have a white base on those two nails also.

Thanks for checking out my post! Much love and polish!

Know anyone in the Denver Metro Area that needs handyman, tradesman or A/V services? Have them check out www.tysdesign.com! Competitive pricing and customer service tailored specifically for you!

Disclaimer: All items shown were purchased with my own money. All opinions are my own and honest.

Frankenstein!

It's Halloween time! I don't know how many of these I will get up, but I'm hoping to at least do three!

Here's my first one: Frankenstein! I wore these nails subbing today and I had so many people do a double take to look and see what was on my nails! These nails turned out so cute and they are so easy to do.

Here's what you need:

• Green, black, and white nail polish
• Black nail art pen (You could use a striper, but it would be harder to do)
• 2 different size dotting tools (or whatever you use to make dots)
• Obviously a base and top coat.

Essie The More the Merrier, Xtreme Wear in White On and Black Out

Obviously, the first step is to paint all your nails green (after base coat of course).

You could do all your nails with a Frankenstein face or just one. Whatever suits you. For the Frankenstein hair you start with the nail art pen and just draw a zig-zag line. It doesn't need to be neat at all, you really can't mess this up. Then just fill in the hair with your pen. I did have to do this 3-4 times to make it opaque. I did notice the black was cracking a little while it was drying which I just touched up. 

For the eyes you start with your larger doting tool and make two black dots. I didn't mean to make mine crooked, but I ended up giving it a crooked mouth too (on purpose) and I think it ended up giving it a little more detail. After the black dots, use your same dotting tool dipped in white polish and create two smaller dots. Then take your smaller dotting tool and place two small black dots to finish the eyes. 

For the mouth you use your nail art pen again and draw a horizontal line (straight or not) and then smaller vertical lines for the stitches. Then those nails are done!

For the remaining nails you do the same thing you did with the mouth to create a stitched look. I just placed mine randomly.

Allow some dry time so you don't smear any of your hard work, apply top coat, and you are finished!

Thanks for checking out my post! Much love and polish!

Know anyone in the Denver Metro Area that needs handyman, tradesman or A/V services? Have them check out www.tysdesign.com! Competitive pricing and customer service tailored specifically for you!

Disclaimer: All items shown were purchased with my own money. All opinions are my own and honest.

NOTW: Irritating.

I can't believe how frustrating this mani became. It's nothing hard or time consuming....or at least I thought. In my opinion, the Complete Salon Manicure line from Sally Hansen is so hit or miss. Some polishes I love and some not so much. This one in particular took sooooooo long to dry and even after applying my top coat (which normally makes nails hard within 10 min) it was still squishy and annoying. I had to redo my left thumb seriously like 10 times. No exaggeration. Something kept hitting it and I was just getting ready to lose my mind. I had to redo my accent nail twice because even after 20 min of dry time when I applied top coat it still smeared horribly and didn't even look kind of good. The only reason I didn't give up on this mani altogether was because we took pics today so they had to look nice. I got a ton of shrinkage on my tips too which was also irritating.

The house ended up being extended a week and I ended up getting tonsiliths over the weekend which I am still recovering from. First time I've ever had it and I've never hated eating or drinking so much in my life (wait I take that back, the only other time was when I had strep like 10 years ago). So this week, other than subbing, that's really all that's on my agenda (still cleaning at the house). But I WILL start some Halloween type manis this week. I really want to get quite a few in this month! No promises they will be any good, but I'll try!

Anyway....

Love the color. Formula was really thick and took FOREVER to dry. Ugh. Oh, but the white is a great formula and for the price, you can't beat it!

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure ~ Resurrection & Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear ~ White On

Thanks for checking out my post! Much love and polish!

Know anyone in the Denver Metro Area that needs handyman, tradesman or A/V services? Have them check out www.tysdesign.com! Competitive pricing and customer service tailored specifically for you!

Disclaimer: All items shown were purchased with my own money. All opinions are my own and honest.