Nail art post!

I did this design a few weeks ago, about two. It really wasnt that hard, I thought it was going to be a nightmare! I saw this picture on Lauren Conrad and really liked it!

I didn't get it as detailed as I would have liked though! I used the beautiful minty green color from Dolly wink that I posted about a few blogs back, and used various pinks. If you want to know I will update with them!

click for a close up look!

There's that elusive thumb again;)

 I loved how this came out, it took about 25 mins. I know it sounds like a lot, but I really thought it was going to be a lot more. I recommend a dotting tool and even a toothpick. You will be surprised how much detail you can do with a simple toothpick!

I think to go from spring/summer to winter/fall, you can do a burgundy/dark red background and make gold and white flowers. Or even a black background and then make gray/white flowers.

A few nail looks for now~

Sorry I haven't posted, the girls I nanny for gave me a bug, and I literally spent 90% of the weekend in bed. It is Weds now, and I still feel like ass. Boo. I did manage to do a few nail looks last week right up to the point where I started to get sick, here are a few:

Pa Flakie! Renee also got one of these, Ill do a more detailed blog about this look.

Close up shot of the elusive thumb!

Sally Hansen Silver crackle!

A look from one of the Japanese nail books that I bought. Of course the black rhinestones started to fall off about an hour after this look was done, oh well! It looked great that first hour:)

I have a few more looks to show, but I didn't want to show them all now, like they say "Always keep them wanting more"! Ugh.. now if only they could tell me a way to get rid of this crappy feeling...
Ta Ta for now-

Marie Claire Paris Top Stage GD 81 swatch (Renee)

Marie Claire Paris Top Stage GD 81 swatch, a photo by KitaRei on Flickr.

Hi everyone! Long time no post. I've been a little busy, a month ago Erika came to visit me in Japan, then two weeks later we both went to NY together. I just came back recently, and I have been working, going to class..etc. I did go to Kyushu the other day, it was BEAUTIFUL. I will share a picture next post!

Anyways back to the polish. I broke a few nails while I was in NY, so at Julie's house while we were hanging out and polishing our nails I cut them all off, and am starting to grow them all over again. Because of this, for a while I will only be doing swatches.

They sell Marie Claire products (you know, like the magazine) in Japan, (not in NY, too bad..) so when I saw them, I picked one up! This is a nice bronzy-gold color, it looks orangey in the pic, but it is definitely more of a bronze. It's too bad you can't see the design on the bottle so well, as the color is almost the same color as the polish, it's really pretty.

Ugh.. gotta go to work in an hour.. see you later!

Red! Red! I love red!

I really do. It has been my favorite color since I can remember. While other girls were singing the praises of pink, hot pink, and various shades of purples.. I was all about the red. It's the color of passion, the color love and if you're into it.. bloood.

I haven't really used my Zoya Sooki ( and speaking of blood, I wonder if this blood red is inspired by True Blood..I'm gonna say yes) and I bought a whole crap load of Milani's on eBay a while ago( mostly to just get the Chanel dupe of Jade, "dressmaker") and I hadn't used my one coat glitter in Red Sparkle that came in the lot that I scored for about 10$.

Being a big fan of the blog "Chloe's Nails"(come back!) and her scotch tape method that she does. I gave it a try and at first I screwed up and had to redo a nail( Memo: lets nails try completely, Erika) but the end result was very nice and worth the wait!

The Milani one coat glitter was more like a two coater, but you could get away with just one. I do think that two coats really made the glitter more dense and pop though. Seriously this color could give Ruby pumps by China Glaze a run for it's money!

I also wanted to ask, has anyone tried these: Nail shields! They are kind of amazing! Renee and I found them in Japan, and I finally used them the other day, felt weird at first, but def. helped as I am inpatient and can't wait more then five minutes for my nails to dry!

oh good grief, why do cameras pick up everything, my cuticles look scary..

Note to self(again) cool lighting is not your friend.

Also ladies, don't forget 500 follower giveaway is coming up! And then a 750, I brought back lots of goodies from Japan for that one, so please follow us!

Japanese polish looks

In my last blog entry I mentioned that I went to Japan a few weeks ago to visit Renee. And of course brought back a slew of nail polishes with me. A few were birthday gifts from Renee, and some were "oh my lanta.. I need these in my life!"

From Renee! Nice smooth application and dries in about five minutes.

No, I don't have a monster sized hand, the bottles are tiny!

 A nail polish that Renee bought me, is a creamy gorgeous Tiffany blue. This is a great replica of China Glaze "For Tiffany". I can not remember the name though! But I will find the box it came in and report back!

On top, I added pa Pink Crackle, I have to say this crackle you need to be swifty with it, because it dries fast and putting on two coats makes it gross looking.  

I bet you are wondering what pa stands for, and to tell you.. I have no idea. Sorry!

 

I did manage to find this blogger who says there is a store in Chinatown in NYC that sells Pa, I may have to check it out! 

http://www.christinaofchinatown.com/shopping/nail-polish-selection-in-ec/

 As you can see, the Japanese love everything tiny,lol. From their clothes to red bulls! Tinnnny!
 Almost all of the nail polishes that I encountered were in small bottles. But the prices were good, so I didn't care. The Pa polish was about 2$ and the colors are amazing! I have a few more that I want to blog about, and Renee and Julie do too:) But for now, back to work!

Tata,

Tutorial as promised;) Marbled Butterfly tip design!

Hey everyone!
Please be kind and bear with me as this is the first tutorial I have ever done! (sad, yes..)

What you need:
Black nail polish
Nail art brush (I used winning nails by worldwide #306)
white nail polish
four different nail polishes( three for butterfly body, 1 for base)
Nail polish remover

Step one: Paint a base color on your nail, it can be any color. But try not to make it too dark as you will not be able to see the butterfly body. I painted this a medium flat pink.

 

 Step two: Take a white creme nail polish and do a french nail tip. Try not to make the ends meet at the top, leave a little bit of space. This will be the area for the butterfly body.

  Step 3: Adding colors. Pick three colors that go well together, try to keep at least one a light color so you can see the marbling. Now warning, be fast! Take your skinny paint brush, dip into nail polish remover ( just enough to dampen it) and starting from the outside, drag the brush to the middle of the nail just where the butterfly body will be. Be paticient, this takes a few times to get right! I took me at least 10 times before I got the hang of it.

Step four: Add the butterfly body with black nail polish, just draw a think line for the base, dont be shy! Plump it up! and them here is the tricky part, for the antenii you have to be quick! Seriously the faster the better you will get a nice clean stroke. And to finish the design, dot some black dots on the wings.

The finished product!

 

Close up!

Glittery version:)

I know it doesnt seem simple, but really it is! It is all about how you can handle a nail art brush.  You have to teach yourself how to be quick, the quicker the better!
I hope this helped, I apologize for the blurry pics. My camera is charging so I am using my other one which is kind of funky in the macro dept. It's on its last legs, so I am not surprised.
Please let me know if you have any questions!

But tata for now!

So in the name of Vanity...

I got acrylics done to my nails for my trip to Japan a few weeks ago. If you have ever been to Japan or even seen pics of the girls in Japan You know that everyone and their mother have these beautiful nails with the most insane and gorgeous designs. And well I have nubs.

NUBS!

Long nails in Japan at Renee's apt. in Osaka!

Very cute butterfly design that I will do a post about!

I have to say it did feel great having them on, knowing that I could do anything design wise. And it did feel good, but.. yes their is a but.. I couldnt do anything! Opening cans was an utter nightmare and before I knew it.. they had to go.


But before I even could grab the bottle of acetone and 1000 cotton balls, something bad happened :que dark and creepy tone: as I was going down the stairs I hit my right hand on the banister and pop! pop! pop! three nails came off. I took it as a sign and now I am the proud owner of stubs. Beautiful short stubs.

But I also wanted to say sorry for the absense of us, we are all vacationing, but now we are back in blog mode! Also the 28th is Julie's birthday, so stop by and wish her a Happy Birthday!

Tata for now!