The Best Nail Paints Galery's

Just flower

2010-02-25T20:55:00.000-08:00

Here is the manicure i did today.
I think it looks pretty, but with short nails i am so limited.
I am so excited, because next week we are going to San Francisco for 4 days with my husband.
That seems like we are going to have a lot of fun where.
By the way if anybody of my readers are from SF, can you please give me some info about the weather and what kind of outwear will be appropriate? Any tips are so welcome, and enjoy the manicure.

Here is right hand

Area Rug Nails

2010-02-23T21:49:00.000-08:00

I think this manicure reminds me of the red area rug :)
Anyway it was a really quick stamping , with a little bit of bling on it.
i hope you like it.
I recently broke to nails and had to cut it gain - i hate short nails, i am so ready for it to grow long back. I even seriousely considering to may be get a gel nails or something.
I think i screwed my real nail by putting acrylics on top ,now then acrylics is gone my nails are in the really bad shape, even that i wore acrylics for only 1,5 weeks.

Big Bang Hearts

2010-02-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

I was in the mood for something "hot" last week - and the tiny bottle of Urban Decay's "Big Bang" jumped right out at me from my polish stash. Feeling lazy and not wanting to cover up much of this delicious color, I decided to go with simple glittery tips and heart decals - easy as it gets.

I started with two coats of "Big Bang" - which applied very smoothly. I love how much this shimmers, but it does make it hard to capture in a photo. The flash bounces back, and it looks dull without. But I used the flash for the demo photos so you could see how bright it is. Yes, it really is that bright in person.

I used China Glaze "Tinsel" for the tips - just one coat, enough to give it a good shimmery effect, but not enough to completely hide the color underneath.

These decals are self-stick, and made by "Fingers" if I recall correctly. I have to say, they're some of the best decals I've ever used - they don't sink down into the polish after application, and they lay perfectly flat on the nail. I definitely need to order more of these if I can find them online (picked these up at a drugstore as a rare find).

Two coats of top coat and some cleanup - voila! These last two photos are without the flash, so you can get the "lower light" scoop. I'm really quite enamored of these - simple, but eye catching. Sometimes I just feel like bright nails.

Until next week...Happy polishing!

In support of Russian Olympic Team

2010-02-23T01:34:00.000-08:00

What a joy is the Olympics, i only wish i had more time right now to watch it.
I am so proud of Russian athletes, and for Americans as well.
Right now Russia is on 4th place of the overall medals count, with the total of 11 medals.
The red thing on my nails represents an Element from Russian Olympics uniform.

Migi Nail Art - Warning

2010-02-22T09:07:00.000-08:00

I hate to do this, but I feel pretty strongly that companies should be held accountable for both their actions and their customer service. I've recently been informed that Migi Nail Art has a grade of "F" with the Better Business Bureau - click here to see the report.

Because I have no first-hand experience with placing an actual *order* with this company, I need to say that I personally have not had any bad experience with them. The products I received from them were free, and work as promised. The person I dealt with was very professional and prompt. But with this kind of report from the Better Business Bureau, I can't continue to support or promote the company until they get these problems resolved.

Missed It!

2010-02-18T19:10:00.000-08:00

Sorry folks - between the holiday on Monday and an unorganized week, I haven't been able to get my nail post up this week. I'll have it up next Tuesday though - a very cute hot pink and hearts affair, if I do say so myself. :-)

Passion or Innocence?

2010-02-17T22:25:00.000-08:00

My manicure have chipped today so i had to take some time off from working on my project and spend it enjoying doing my nails. I also made a matching ring again - i really love it! making matching rings double the fun of doing nails and triple the style of the nail look. At least in my opinion. I left the ring semi-transparent now, and it look really amazing.
So what is your opinion, is this manicure passion? or Tender and innocent?

This is closer capture of the right hand, i actually like the drawing here even better when one on left hand

Soemthing Blue..

2010-02-16T00:21:00.000-08:00

A really quick nail art post. Just wan tot share with you another hand painted nail design, i used to have this one on right before i made a V-day manicure.
Girls from Russian nail art community seemed to really love this one, even thought usually they are way more judgmental and likes to criticize a lot, because most of the Ladies are real professional that creates a state of art nail designs. I ll definitely make another post about Russian Nail-art some time soon, and for now i ll just share my "Something Blue" manicure.

Nailed Valentines Day Manicure

2010-02-13T19:01:00.000-08:00

Happy V-Day for all my readers :) I wish you all to love and to be loved. And I love so much all of you , thanks for sharing with me my Nail-art Journey.
So here is manicure i made for this Valentines day. I used purple glitter as a base, because this is my husbands favorite color, he is really crazy about purple.
For the design i used acrylic paints, but this time was trying to achieve a pin up "poster looking" effect. I also painted the ring to compliment this design.
I think i totally nailed it, i did not even expect the result to turn that cool and i hope my readers like it too.

Guess who is watching you? Oh yeah - this is him - love of my life my sweet Orange monkey Marshall :) he just came by to say hi...

This is Right hand, got a little lazy to paint a full set, and decided to go with only middle and thumb. It is really hard for me to paint thin lines with my left hand

Valentine Couture

2010-02-09T19:48:00.000-08:00

I've had this design in my head for a week now, and it came out pretty close to what I'd envisioned. I thought I'd just keep it simple this week for my Valentine's Day Manicure.

I started with 2 coats of OPI DS "Couture" - a dark pink holographic color that I just adore.

Then I used my white Migi Nail Art pen to put lattice on my thumbs, and white hearts on each finger. FYI, I found it was actually easier to do the hearts on my left hand upside down. Odd, but it worked.

Then I put pearlized 3D hearts in the center of each white heart to finish them off. I was pretty happy that those hearts almost perfectly matched the base polish.

Two coats of top coat, some clean up, and here's what they look like in the daylight (all others above at night w/flash).

Super simple and subtle, but blingy in the sunlight! I do love this Couture color - I'd forgotten it was in my collection.

I'm not sure what's up for next week...any suggestions?

Happy polishing - and Happy Valentine's Day! :-)

Busy Busy time

2010-02-07T23:10:00.000-08:00

Hello dear readers :)
I feel so guilty that my blog is kinda a little on hold right now and i am not posting as much as i used to .The reason for that i guess the same excuse all the bloggers use - real life gets on the way. Specifically - i am trying to finish the project and the paper that needs to be done in order to complete my master degree. The project is huge and it takes all my time and soul at the moment and it became my number one priority.
So here are some manicure i have done in the past but nether had a chance to post.
I ll keep posting every now and then ,so i hope you wont forget about me.
I do not consider any of those manis a success, but i guess i ll let you to be judge

Blue Gradient Nails and poor Cup

2010-02-03T00:26:00.000-08:00

Hello Dear Readers!
I recently purchased a set of brushes for painting on the nails, but it also have some larger brushes. One of those days, i saw my coffee mug - my poor old coffee mug, and i decided to give it a try and paint it with my bigger brushes. I liked the result, but this is my husband who was truly amazed and he kept complimented my work .I swear, i nether been able to draw even straight line , until recently, and now i am getting more and more into the painting stuff.
So please let me think how do you like the mug-work?
I also how some blue nails for you today.
I used Essie shelter island polish to create a base gradient - nice polish and i am really happy with the gradation look. I did not use sponge - just painted the layers of the polish.
May be this is not the best execution, but i really love the color combination in this manicure, and i ll probably remake it on the longer nails.

Grungy White Widow

2010-02-02T19:58:00.000-08:00

I was trying to get in the mood for hearts and flowers this week...but decided I wasn't quite ready for pink or red and white. so I decided to try a couple more Urban Decay polishes - "Grunge", a nearly-black green, and "White Widow", which I really thought was going to be more white instead of sort of champagne colored. I like the color, it just didn't have the same effect with the green that I was envisioning. In any case, I started with two coats of White Widow (which does look white here with a flash):

Then I did the tips in Grunge, with a wicked-looking point in the center.

I had some little 3-D hearts, and when I thought WW was going to be "white", I chose blue and yellow to match, I should have gone with red - would have gone better with the WW "champagne" color. I put two hearts on most nails, varying depending on how much room I had available.

I don't think they turned out too badly though...just needs a brighter white for the background.

A little clean-up, and voila! The color of White Widow is very close to true in these last two photos, so you can see what I mean about the champagne color.

Next week, I'll go pink and white and hearts all over for Valentine's Day...

Happy polishing!

From all my heart !

2010-01-29T23:42:00.000-08:00

Yes with this manicure i am giving away a piece of my heart to my beloved reader :)
Wow, i guess this is the most "Hearty" manicure i ever had.
I realized that i missed stamping a lot, recently i was all about hand painting,m that have not done much of the Konad.
I am eying really hard all those new image plates available at OC Nails - they are delightful, i should definitely get it.

Silver Nail Art Polish

2010-01-28T02:24:00.000-08:00

Instead gold nail polish, you can also paint your toe nails with this silver toe nail art design. It is one of simple art nail but great style to you.

Gold nail polish art nail

2010-01-28T02:17:00.000-08:00

Gold art nail is a beautiful design that can be polished to your toes. Art nail now is a part of our lifestyle. It is not a bad one that you beautify your foot nail with gold nail art and this one of toe nail art designs.

New nails and ring

2010-01-27T22:38:00.000-08:00

This is what i came up yesterday . I really love love love the colors and the design, especially how it is on the ring, however it looks for me, like i need longer nails to really pull it off.
I ll keep the ring and do this design again, on longer nails

Flashy Zoya

2010-01-26T20:12:00.000-08:00

I've been dying to try out these sparkly Zoya colors since before Christmas. I have "Luna" (Silver glitter) and "Nova" (bright pink glitter), and got out my Migi black/white pen and Essie "Matte About You" to experiment too. I started with two coats of Luna over Zoya basecoat. As you can see, my middle nail finally grew long enough for the break in the middle to tear off, so I'm stuck with a super-short middle nail for a couple weeks. I can't actually cut my nails that short anymore - the skin underneath has grown out past the tip of my fingers (presumably to support my normally long nails). I had to trim the skin off where my nail broke for that one - a painful proposition. You can actually still see the part I couldn't cut sticking up a little past the nail. Thank goodness my nails grow very fast!

Then two coats of Nova on the diagonal (I don't know why, but I'm really drawn to diagonal designs).

As you can see below, I experimented with the design I had in mind on my pinky finger. I often do that because if I need to redo it, it's a very small area to remove/re-polish. I liked it, so I started with white curving back and forth across the colors.

Then I put black over it, going the opposite way. My lines aren't perfect by any means, but I think the "squiggles" give the design movement and a little dimension.

Then I tried the matte top coat over my pinky nail, just to see how it would look. You can see how the matte is definately a little different below - it accentuates all the little bits of glitter, rather than just being super-shiny. It doesn't really affect Luna much, but I liked it over Nova. Just not with this particular design. I'm still a high-gloss lover at heart.

So I went over them all with two coats of Zoya topcoat, and cleaned them up. Aside from a white mistake on my right hand middle finger, I think they turned out pretty well. They're quite eye-catching and flashy.

What's on your tips this week? Anything fun for these wintery days?

Custom rings to match Nail design

2010-01-25T22:15:00.000-08:00

Hello my Dear Readers.
I want to introduce you thE idea of custom made rings that would match nail design. I saw some pictures online and i think it looks really polished and stunning. The minute i saw this idea, i decided that i am going to have it :) For those sets i made freehand painted design, but i believe that Konad Patterns will work really great as well
As a base, i used transparent resin rings that comes really chip and in variety of sizes - i ordered it from e-bay - for about $8 for 50 pc. Rings can be painted with both - acrylic paints or regular polishes - to match fingernails designs.
When design is gone from the nails i guess ring can be left as a souvenir, or thrown away as disposable.
Please let me know how do you like it? On those pictures rings and nails that i made for my girlfriends this weekend, i was glad to know that they loved it. Would you try it yourself?
Sakura for Natasha

And sexy "Viktoria" for my friend Vika

Star Sky

2010-01-25T00:22:00.000-08:00

Hello Dear Reader.
Having this manicure makes me feel very romantic, looking at those nails is like watching starts in a night sky with someone very special. :)
I think this turned really pretty.
Also i apologize for the lack of posting all the last week, it s just that none of my manicure ideas turned well enouth that i would like to share with you guys. However, i got my inspiration back tonight, so i have plenty of fabulous looks for this week. Stay Tuned

Aquarium Nails Again!

2010-01-21T23:21:00.000-08:00

Hello my sweet dear readers and Nail-Art Lovers.
For a long time i was wondered about aquarium nails - is it for real? Can you really have it on your hands? How those are done?
(By the way if you still wonder what aquarium nails are, please read this post, that i had long long time ago POST )
So today i want to share with you 2 videos that i found on youtube recently. OMG! If i will ever get acrylics, i want it to be like this! I know a lot of people dont really love it very much and think that aquarium nails looks weird, but i probably have a weird nail taste, i think those nails are just amazing. I will definitely go for those, if ever find a local technician who could do those.
So here is the video od the aquarium nails on the actual hand, do you like it? The only thing i woudl change, is that i would not make a bottom transparent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnJ8Fi1cTjo

and here is the video that explains how to make those nails, really worth watching, because it does revel the history, and i am so thankful to the author.

Some old Nail-Art

2010-01-20T00:07:00.000-08:00

Since i have not done anythign arty on my nails recently, except just polishing it with CG "For Audrey", i am posting some previously made nails, when it was long :)
I did not really like those design, but finally decided to share it with you, let me know what do you think.
And also i want to thank all of you for all the nice words you post in the comments, i read everything from my e-mail, but unfortunately almost nether have time to answer, and i hope you ll forgive me for that. I love you all so much and blogging is a great part of my life ,the only thing i regret - i should have started blog few years earlier :)

Porcini Matte

2010-01-19T13:29:00.000-08:00

I had a hard time deciding what colors to use this week. But I had these (and a few other Essie colors) burning a hole in my polish drawer, so decided to just play around a little. I decided that pink and gray suited my mood at the moment. The pink is "Porcini" from Essie, and has gold mica in it that makes it shimmer very prettily. The gray is "Chinchilly", also from Essie, and really does remind me of a chinchilla's fur. I started with 2 coats of Porcini, which turned out fairly opaque, but left my tips a little translucent in the right light.

I couldn't decide whether to do a diagonal with the Chinchilly, or tips, but the translucent issue decided the matter. So I tipped my nails in the gray, which incidentally, was somewhat difficult to work with (odd, since the Porcini was fine). You'll notice my smile lines are a bit "off" - I blame it on the polish.

I wanted to add some sort of simple design, but not too much. So I got out my dotting tool, and just added a few gray dots falling below the smile line, curving up and back down.

Then I added a few pink dots above the smile line, for a little added interest. This is where it gets a little funky. That happens sometimes at 1am. I had my Essie "Matte About You" topcoat sitting there, and decided to see what the design would look like in matte.

Interesting, no? It looks like porcelain to me, almost velvety, and merges the dots and background colors into what looks like a solid pattern. I was rather intrigued, and decided to leave it that way for the time being.

Here's what it looks like today, all cleaned up. You'll notice I've got some tip-pull already...I think that's my base coat. I need to get a fresh bottle. I'm not sure I like how Porcini looks in matte form next to my skin, but I do like how these turned out, over all. I haven't played with this matte topcoat nearly enough, methinks. I may go back over them with glossy topcoat later in the week, just for something different.

Next week, I have some of thoes Zoya ultra-sparkly glitters to try, and I think I'll see what this matte topcoat does to them. Might as well experiment before the matte trend disappears, right? Or do you think it will stick around for awhile? Do you wear matte polishes?

Valentines inspired nails

2010-01-17T23:07:00.000-08:00

I guess after some shopping today, i got inspired to make some valentines related nails.
I am so sorry my nails are so short now, where is not really much i can do with it right now, but i hope, you, my friends will be patient enough until it grow back long

Retro red nails

2010-01-14T23:06:00.000-08:00

Hello dear readers.
I am super tired right now, so i ll just make a quick post with some pictures.
Unfortunately i broke few of my nails recently, so i had to cut it all off.
So decided to march my short red nails with my pedicure, and in fact i really love the effect.
A little Vamp but i believe very stylish looking . What do you think?

Zoya Reverie Review - Part II

2010-01-14T00:03:00.000-08:00

Hello Dear Readers!
Today is time for Part II of the new Zoya Reverie Collection
4) Reece - is a shiny berry based light fuchsia - the color is adorable and have lots of shimmer in it.

5) Adina - this is a total hit of the collection and an absolute "must have" for spring. It is a deeply shimmered dual chrome with the satin tender violet base - ADORABLE! I was so excited about this particular polish and it did no disappoint me. I think it will be also perfect for pedicure and as a base for patterned stamping in white or black. I am also dying to see what it will look like under the matte top coat

6) Laney - Last bu not least :) At first this polish look a little ordinary - just another silver polish. But unlike other silver polishes in my collection, this one have no structure in it, and look very smooth and oily.

To sum up - the Reverie Collection from Zoya is a very nice thing to start your spring with.
Each of the colors is very special, and i am deeply in love with all of those polishes.
Stay tuned for some shocking news about my nails - that are coming up tomorrow

Zoya Reverie Review - Part I

2010-01-12T22:20:00.000-08:00

Hello Dear Readers!
Art of Beauty was sp kind to send me new Zoya collection for review. As always i am sharing with you my honest impression of this new collection .
When i just look at the promo pictures of reverie it make me feel like the spring is really already around the corner. New Juicy and vibrant colors ,trendy duo-chromatic effect, and perfect formula - all of this is brilliantly combined by Zoya in this collection . I did fall in love with the colors from my first look, especially when i saw all this beauty in real. it felt like someone just read my mind and came up with exact colors that i was looking for to refresh my nail polish collection and prepare my nail drawer for spring .
By the way, any idea about what i used as a background for this picture ? :)

1) Lana - it looks very orange in the bottle, but once on nails it is much more pinkish and the chimer in it makes it even a little cooper looking.

2) Gwin - this one is a good candidate for the perfect orange. It is very vibrant and really nice shade of orange with the touch of pink. In fact very opaque, will work awesome for gradients and as a base for the fruity nail art

3)Happi - This is probably my favorite color from all this collection. this rose shimmer looks very fresh and vibrant. And it has a 1000 different looks . Love it!!!!

The rest i ll post tomorrow, so stay tuned for more beautiful colors from Zoya Reverie collection

Cosmic Dot Meltdown

2010-01-12T13:29:00.000-08:00

For this week's manicure, I finally decided to dig into my Urban Decay polishes (released last fall). I decided on "Meltdown", with a top coat of CND's new "Effects" polish in Raspberry Sparkles. This was incredibly difficult to photograph with the micro-glitter and foil effect. Hopefully you can get the gist of it.

I made it thorough most of the week without polish, and my nails made it through with only one bad break point. As you can see below, my middle finger ended up with a pretty bad break across it below the smile line. Needless to say, I had to put some clear top coat over it to protect it over the weekend. Not that it helped - the Lippmann "Addicted to Speed" top coat peeled off the next day. Huh. You might notice my thumbnail grew back out to the edge of my finger, which is nice, and the staining is mostly gone.

In any case - I was happy to polish these up again last night, and provide some good protection for that break until it grows out enough to cut off. I started with my normal Zoya base coat, followed by two coats of "Meltdown".

I topped that with just one coat of "Raspberry Sparkles", which added sort of a metallic pink foil look to the top. I know the photos didn't turn out well - if any of you have tips for capturing metallics, I'm all ears.

Then I added flat-backed beads...white iridescent and purple with an interesting pattern in them. Some nails have three, others five. I was going to do dice, but decided to go random instead. These numbers are actually symbolic this week - anyone want to guess why?

Two coats of top coat, some clean up, and voila! I think the color of these is almost "cosmic" looking - I feel like my nails are kind of "space age" this week.

I'm not sure what's up next - I have some serious glittery polishes from Zoya to try, some Essie colors from last fall and more of these Urban Decay colors all unopened just waiting for their turn. Any suggestions?

What's on your tips this week?

New designs and about acrylic

2010-01-10T22:57:00.000-08:00

Hello my dear nail art lovers!
I have 2 deigns to post for you today. Why such a spoil? This is crazy but i make different designs on my right and left hands.
I also decided to try put acrylic over my natural nails, to make it stronger. Because right now my nails are at the point when they always brake - and brake painful.
I have been thinking of it for a long time, but finally decided to give it a try.
Even cheap drug store acrylics turned out to be really easy to apply but ridiculously stinky :)
So far nails feel really well and protected under it. First i tried it on my pincky and have been wearing it for 2 weeks, and today i covered my all nails on the right hand.
Pluses : Nails looks and feels stronger, better shape of my curvy nails, hopefully i ll be able to grow it pass my dead zone.
Minuses: I guess only non acetone polish remover works with acrylics, and this is not really cool, for people like me who paint nails really often. For most population it will be however a plus, because polish stays on nails as long as you want - no chipping and acrylic.
Now i am thinking to order a professional colored acrylic set and try to learn how to sculptur acrylic nails on myself. Most purpose is to make some cool special effect designs.
I know i am a Nail-Art junky, and i can go really far with it.
So here is my acrylic covered right hand with some decent comics style flower

And here is my festive right hand, i know this is crazy to have both hands painted differently, but i really wanted to try out this design, but cleaning black from acrylic will be pain in a Butty, so only left hand got this one

Creative Nail Art

2010-01-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

Nail Art, originally uploaded by Kátia Muto.

creative nail art pic

Nail Art,Nail Art Designs,Nail Art Gallery

Stamping over marbeling

2010-01-08T23:59:00.000-08:00

Hello dear readers. I spent wonderful Thursday walking in the city of Denver with friends, we did some mild shopping, just walked arrounf and ate in teh surprisingly delicious indian restaurant.
By the end of the day i was super tired but also inspired to make something special on my nails.
I started with making some water marbles. In this manicure the base is silver textured polish by Zoya, And for the marbling i used light violet and dark purple .I really like the effect of the light transparent violet layer over the silver - turned out wonderful new shade.
I finished this manicure with some partial stamps and Jewels. I think this mani look kind of different - and OMG! I cant believe i finally figured water marbles.
P.S. Just a friendly reminder - if you struggle with water marbling too - the useful tip from me is to use worm water, rather when cold one.

This is my right hand
This is full right hand too

Metallic Sponged nails

2010-01-06T01:49:00.000-08:00

I hope you, guys did not get tired of my painted nails, it is just so much fun to do this one stroke on the nails, that i just cant resist. My konad is crying is asking me to come back...
Those painted nails are just so cool looking in real life, especially now, that i am getting better at it. Do you guys miss my Konading?
For this manicure i used China Glaze Khrome and sponge - i mean for background. I did not believe that this was gonna work, but in fact turned out that those metalliks are so cool lookign for sponging.

Naked Nails - Letting them breathe.

2010-01-05T12:24:00.000-08:00

Yes, as promised, those are my naked nails. Last night I took off all the glitter and stones, filed and buffed and then just let them be. As you can see, they're not in very good shape after being slathered in polish for an entire year - normally I let them "breathe" at least every six months, but had too much fun with the nail art last year. I have no idea if it's recommended or not, but I do know my nails seem healthier when I give them small breaks from polish once in awhile.

First I removed the polish -my favorite nail polish remover is Zoya's Remove plus, with the flipper top. If you haven't used one of these bottles, you're missing out. You just push down on the top with a cotton ball, and remover wicks up, so there's no mess or fuss. Super simple. Aside from that and cotton balls, I use my favorite metal cuticle stick to gently pry off any stones or art bits that don't want to come lose. Normally for a good manicure, I'd dip my hands in the paraffin bath a few times and let that cool right after this, but I didn't plug the paraffin in early enough to get it melted. Next week, for sure! After I remove the polish, I wash my hands/nails good, scrubbing over and under the nails with a brush.

This is the rest of my nail care "kit" - I have an electric file, my crystal file, cuticle nippers, clippers, and my trusty metal cuticle stick again. I normally don't use the electric file on my fingernails - but it works great for my tough toenails. I did use it to buff my fingernails this time. I use the crystal file on the edges, and when I'm polishing, I use it to rough up the nail surface too.

I broke my thumbnail this past weekend - snapped the tip right off. I had to cut the remaining supportive tissue off with my cuticle nippers to align with what's left of my nail...painful, but it just looked too bad to leave it.

After the edges are done (crystal file), I started buffing the tops. First a light touch with the course sander over the whole nail (I could say filing drum, but really, we all know this is sandpaper for nails, right?).

Then a more fine grit - again over the whole top of the nail to smooth out ridges, nicks, etc.

And finally the smooth buffing tool to shine them up a bit.

Voila, bare, slightly stained nails that are smooth and about as good as they're going to get for the moment.

I'll leave these bare for the week, and will probably break a few (the polish really protects the tips from breakage in my case). I'm going to indulge in a few paraffin baths, keep my hands and nails well-hydrated, and hopefully they'll be looking better next Monday night when it's time for polish again. Before and after photos next Tuesday (and a new design).

With any luck, I'll get used to typing again sooner than that - polish makes my nails "heavier", and when I take it off, they feel incredibly weird for a few days. Makes typing odd.

Do you ever feel like you need to just let your nails take a break from all the polish? Are you self-conscious about leaving your nails "naked"?

Garden Rose

2010-01-05T01:08:00.000-08:00

I have been drawing many roses recently, here is another instance.
Unfortunately, the paint is not very contrast on the pictures.
I base is sponged Zoya polish, i realized that sponging works really well as a base for painting, because it creates a nice background and also uneven structure, that allow paints lay better on the nails.
I think this manicure is very tender and nice looking.
Now i only spend about 20 minutes on left hand and about 25 on the right. However drawing on the right hand is still not an easy task for me. I hope you like this manicure

What is on nail right now

2010-01-03T00:50:00.000-08:00

Hello dear, nail-Art lovers!
I did some more nail painting today.
So, this is what i have done today and this manicures is actually on my nails right now (i dont know for how long)
I ope you too think that i am making some progress in painting, and some manis comes out nice.I am finally starting to get some depth in my drawings. I also just realized that i need to use more contrast colors for better results

This is my right hand, and i think i did a really good job on this one. usually painting with the left hand is a disaster for me

Polar Plunge 2010

2010-01-01T22:36:00.000-08:00

Hello all! This is unbelieveble - i did it today! Jumped into the icy water, in the first morning of 2010.
I have been so excited about doing it. My husband said : "Some people prefere Hawaii, but my wife is Russian" :D
As crazy as it seems,jumping i nto icy water is a realy pleasent expirience, and i am definately going to do it next year again. It is not feel cold at all!!! you actually feel really hotm when you get out of the water.
I got a certificate and a realy cool t-shirt , and sure some cool pics to share.

Simple painting nails

2010-01-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

Re painting nails, originally uploaded by Jessica Sweet TV.

nail painting simple design

Nail Art,Nail Art Designs,Nail Art Gallery

Sexy Painted Toes

2010-01-01T08:39:00.000-08:00

Sexy Sherry Toes, originally uploaded by cjacobs53.

Sexy painted toe nails

Stylis pinky nail art

2009-12-31T07:46:00.000-08:00

{ So STYLISH.. So PINKISH ♥, originally uploaded by *S ë 7 я ~ E ł ώ ά я đ♥.

stylish nail art pink design

Nail Art,Nail Art Designs,Nail Art Gallery

Happy New Tiger Year!

2009-12-30T23:03:00.000-08:00

Happy new year to all my wonderful readers and all the Nail-Art Lovers.
I am so excited, to start the year of the Tiger, according to the Chinese Calendar.
Tiger is the same as Cat just not domesticated, and i love cats so much.
I made 2 tigers manicures, first i made orange one, but when i realized that it is the year of the white tiger, and had nit done again tonight.
So, i hope you ll like manicures and have a cool holiday.

China Glaze Metallics

2009-12-29T23:32:00.000-08:00

Hello Dear nail-Art Lovers.
China Glaze marketing representative was kind enough to send me some China Glaze Metallic polishes for review - that was some kind of wonderful Christmas Miracle for me, because this is not often that companies send me polishes.
So here are those adorable colors that i have got - Adore, Millennium and My long time dream Sci-Fi . Where is no much need to say anything about formula - it is perfect as always. Colors are very opaque and look wonderful even with one coat. Perfect for Konad - as a base and as a Stamping polish as well. I also checked out, just for my own curiosity if China Glaze polishes are available in Russia, and i was pleasantly surprised that it it. it would cost about 10$ a bottle, which is a normal price for professional nail polish in Russia.
So here are the pictures and some description

1. Adore - this Metallic polish is from "Romatique" collection, but at first glance looks very similar to the one from the more recent Khrome collection. It is light green metallic with the touch of blue. The color is rich and beautiful - and aplication is really smooth.

Here is Metallic Muse from Kromes for comparability - as you can see it is also very beautiful color, but less bright when Adore. and i would say a little more minty.

2. Millennium - i would call it one of the best pure chrome metallic on the market. It is very competitive even against special Mirror effect polishes, because it shines, sparkle and reflect as a real metal. Metallics are long lasting hits and a part of any nail polish collection

3. Sci-Fi - this one is also from "Kromes". I wanted this polish ever since kromes came out - it is very intricate and provocative. I woudl call it a lacquer with the surprise. It is a silver metallic with the very gentle touch of lilack - very beautiful and very unique color.

I hope you liked this review, and it helped you to know more about China Glaze metallics

The whole true about the goose :)

2009-12-29T20:25:00.000-08:00

Some of my friend noticed that the goose was a little to orange when it supposed to be, and asked me to check out if Marshal-Cat is still arround, so here is the whole true about the goose, all reviled
First - Good Bye Kiss

Second - loading into the oven

Third - the result :)

Sparkly New Year

2009-12-29T15:03:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure why, but I always associate sparkles and blue nail polish with New Years. Last year I wore China Glaze "Blue Island Iced Tea", and this year decided to go with something super-blingy, China Glaze "Luna". I used three coats to get complete coverage - two would have worked for shorter nails, but wouldn't quite hide the tips.

I used clear rhinestones randomly set in my thumbnails to give them an little extra sparkle. Then I added the year to the remaining four fingers on both hands - one in dark blue rhinestones, the other in white pearls (I never seem to have enough of one color to do all ten nails, do I?).

These are all set in one coat of top coat. For some reason, I had a hard time getting the top coat even again - and I added "renew" drops to it. Weird. My apologies for the somewhat blurry photos - my hands were shaky, and the glitter doesn't help. Yes, I know I have one too many rhinestones in the dark blue "1". That's what I get for rushing...

Then some clean-up work, and voila! Sparkly nails to announce the new year.

What are you wearing on your tips for the new year?

Next week, I'm going to let my nails rest without polish. I try to do that at least once or twice a year - seems like it would be good for them. So I'll post my manicure routine here instead of a nail art tutorial next Tuesday.

Here's a toast to you, dear readers - for a wonderful start to the New Year, much happiness and lovely nails in the coming months. See you in 2010!

Nail for Friend

2009-12-28T00:13:00.000-08:00

Hello my dear sweet Nail-art Lovers.
I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday.
y hubby cooked a goose and a lot of other stuff, but the goose with apples was a real winner- it turned out be really super delicious.
I also ha d a friend stopped by for some nails, and i am posting today the pictures of this manicure.

Marry Christmas!!!

2009-12-24T19:49:00.000-08:00

Marry Christmas to each of you my sweet Nail-Art Lovers!
Thank you very much for reading my blog and i wish you all the best and to have luck in everything you do.
Here is my little present, i finally came up with the Christmas Mani . So here is my last minute Christmas manicure for this season.
I used sponge to create effect of spray on the edge with gold polish, i am not sure i captured it on camera, but it looks really cool in real life - like a real ball on the Christmas Tree.

This is my right hand

Sparkly Trees

2009-12-23T10:13:00.000-08:00

I had this great idea for stylized white trees on a red backdrop this week. At first, I was thinking of them on glittery red "Ruby Pumps" from China Glaze. But I'm tired of taking glitter polish off, and wanted a break (since I'll inevitably have glitter on again for New Years). So I decided on Zoya's "Alix" instead, a dark blue red that does crazy things when presented with a flash. Photos with a flash below just look garish - the ones with a yellowish cast signaling natural light show the color very close to it's true state.

I started with two coats of Alix on my nails.
Then I did the white "swish" trees with a nail art pen. Yeah - that did not turn out so well. Plan B = rhinestone trees. I started with one stone at the "top" of each tree.
Then it was just a matter of adding rows - I used three rows of stones for the triangle tree shape:
And then two stones below that for the "trunk".
Repeat on all fingers, setting the stones into a coat of top coat. I didn't get them all straight, but that's what happens when you're doing nail art at 1:30am. I'm wishing I'd snowed the tips with white glitter, but I think they turned out well, regardless. I ran out of green stones, so had to do some white (aluminum?) trees and red for my little finger.
Two more coats of top coat (which I didn't get even, unfortunately), and then clean up. Voila! Sparkly tree nails!
As I mentioned above, this is the "true color" of Alix - the bright, orange red above is the result of the flash.

What's on your tips for Christmas? Next week, a New Year's mani (my normal new years colors are blue and silver).

Happy Polishing!

Hand Painted Nails

2009-12-23T01:17:00.000-08:00

I finally got some good paint, and i ll tell you - it really make s a difference.
For this design i used Mimery Polycolor paint - and it s a blast!
I still have plenty of room to improve my painting skills, but i think this one turned out quite well, i even made right hand too.

This is my right hand

Pink dots awesome nails

2009-12-22T12:13:00.000-08:00

1o. Concurso Mão Feita Nail Art, originally uploaded by [Esmaltes] Julia CS.

Pink dots nail art

Nail Art,Nail Art Designs,Nail Art Gallery

Christmas Angels

2009-12-21T23:38:00.000-08:00

Hello Dear Nail-Art Lovers .
As i promised trying to catch up on the Christmas manicures. This cute angel manicure is inspired by the "Day 5: Angelic with blue and Silver" posted by Doo-Polishing. I could not resist to have those angels on my own Nails. Thank you Doo for great idea, and i hope all of you are not disappointing with my execution of this manicure.

Toes with 3d Stars Nail art

2009-12-21T05:38:00.000-08:00

TOES with NAIL ART, originally uploaded by Troy Richard Salon.

3D stars nail design for toe nails

Hello kitty toes

2009-12-21T05:04:00.000-08:00

hello kitty toes 2, originally uploaded by the π people.

Hello kitty toe nails

It s the most wonderful nails of the year...

2009-12-20T22:26:00.000-08:00

I mean not really, i am just trying to get my holiday mode.
I know i should have already made so Christmas manicures by now, and i promise to catch up on it this week, but for today i am sharing with you some beautiful manicure too.
I think this mani look quite festive and appropriate for holidays too - may be like a new year manicure.
Yesterday we had our annual meeting with Russian girls who lives around here - where was 7 of us this year , and this was our 3rd meeting. We had a lot of fun and everybody loved my nails as usually.

Sexy toenails

2009-12-18T02:47:00.000-08:00

DSCN5726, originally uploaded by Sylvia Feet.

sexy toe nails pedicure

Finger painting colorful nails

2009-12-18T02:28:00.000-08:00

Finger painting, originally uploaded by Zicon.

colorful nail polish design

Nail Art,Nail Art Designs,Nail Art Gallery

Fall Season Nail Art

2009-12-17T23:12:00.000-08:00

Nail Art 107, originally uploaded by Abby Walton.

fall season nail art

Nail Art,Nail Art Designs,Nail Art Gallery

ICY Manicure

2009-12-15T23:22:00.000-08:00

I seriousely love this manicure, actually wore it for few last days, turned out really great.
I used some chipped blue film that i got from Sally Beauty, for the icy effect. The chips are more for acrylic or gel nail, and it was pretty big chips, so i had to cut it smaller.
I try to come up with more Christmas manicures, but my head is really to busy right now with school stuff as it is end of the semester ,so still can not get any holidays spirit.

Here is left hand, forgot tu put the glitter coat

All Wrapped Up

2009-12-15T15:39:00.000-08:00

This week, I needed something quick due to switching my manicure days around. So I decided to "wrap up" my nails in festive China Glaze "Emerald Sparkle", with some little red bows I found in my nail art stuff. This is a super-quick manicure, if you're looking for something speedy.

First step - two coats of Emerald Sparkle over one coat of base:
Then I used a silver Stripe-rite nail art brush to slip a "ribbon" down the center of each nail. Normally I would offset this to the side a little, but the bows are largish, and my nails are very curved, so they work best in the center to make sure the edges seal down. It's annoying getting stones of any shape caught in clothing, hair, etc.
Then another silver "ribbon" across the first:
So there are little ribbon crosses on each nail, like a ribbon on a package.
Any embellishment will work for the next step - one year I did red nails, white stripes and little clay peppermints at the intersection. I used these cute red bow-shaped stones, one in the center of each intersection, set in top coat.
Two coats of top coat over the whole thing to seal, and clean 'em up!
Voila! A neatly wrapped tip for each finger.

What's on your tips this week? Anything festive?

Some Nails

2009-12-14T23:51:00.000-08:00

I am really tired and falling asleep, so today just a quick post with some nails :)
Let me know what do you think about this manicure

Blue Toes for Xmas

2009-12-13T23:53:00.000-08:00

blue toes. xmas 2006, originally uploaded by butterflies and bees.

Blue Toe nails art design for Xmas dan new year

Manicure ideas for Christmas

2009-12-13T23:07:00.000-08:00

Hello Beautiful Nail-Art Lovers!
I hope you all had wonderful weekend.
Today i have 2 versions of the same manicure, both made by me, but one is made on my own nails, and other was made on my friends Nails.
I actually did this for one of the contests, but realized that my tiny nails can't really compete well, i needed bigger nails, so i called my beloved forever nail-art model - Olga.
I did not win anything anyway, but at least i can share with you those Christmas manicure ideas,and i hope you ll like it.
By the way, for the extra sparkle on the free edge, i used gold foil flakes.

Those are Olgas natural nails

Nigth Club Martini

2009-12-11T22:45:00.000-08:00

Hello Dear Nail-Art Lovers!
Today i am sharing with you my attempt of Martini glass manicure. Where are many different variation of this manicure, and almost everyone who does some nail-art have tried this one, or at least was thinking of it.
I think my turned out not bad at all, i did all the design with nail polish strippers. Special thing about it, and something think is really cool, is little "olive" dot in each glass - i made it using China glaze khrome polish.
So i hope this mani will spice up your weekend a little. And another excited news is that i died my hairs today - it is now dark auburn. I have not died my hairs for a really long time, like since i was 16-17 y o. I like my naturaly rich and dark color, but i guess just want to try something new. I cant say that i hate the result, but i definately have to get used to the new look, so far it feels weired. :)

Christmas Toe Nails Art

2009-12-11T13:40:00.000-08:00

Futab !, originally uploaded by abra zillion.

Christmas ToeNail art for toes

Mega Nails

2009-12-09T22:48:00.000-08:00

Hello Dear Nail-Art Lovers!
I am glad to report that Giveaway Winner have contacted me, so the prize is going to France now :) But don't get sad, just stay tuned, more contests and giveaways are coming soon.
But today i ll spoil you with really cool looking black, white and gold manicure.
I love how this one turned out, it was inspired by some picture i found, probably posted by one of my readers. I really liked the concept, but i had to adapt it for my tiny nails.
If you are an original author, please leave a comment and i ll give you a credit here, by providing link on you blog in this post.
So i hope you like both - mine and original, and have a wonderful day!

Here is the original - see i only used the concept :) Please let me know if you are an author, so i can give you credit here

Stone Marble

2009-12-09T00:04:00.000-08:00

Ya-hoo! I am super happy with this manicure - in fact i love it!!! I think i am finally catch in up on the water marble technique. The trick is that you need to marble polishes in the water really randomly, and even if it looks like a mess, it will be more detailed on the nails . At first i was trying to make some patterns like they show in videos and it nether worked.
Another important thing is that even if polish does not look opaque in the water, it will still work just fine on teh nails polished witht eh base color.
I finish this manicure with ,matte top coat, to make it look like stone, and i love this mani!!!!
I feel much more confident aout water marbles now, and i play with it more.

This is right hand

Holly Jolly Manicure

2009-12-08T19:38:00.000-08:00

This week I decided to try for Holly leaves. I've done them once before, but used a nail art striper brush rather than the Migi Nail Art pens that I used this time. Think I could use a little more practice, but overall, they ended up pretty festive.

I started with two coats of China Glaze "White Out" for the base color. I have a hard time getting this one even, but didn't worry too much about it since the next step was glitter.

Then I layered a coat of China Glaze "Glacier" over the top, for a nice glitter effect. Unfortunately, it didn't quite fill that uneven spot on my middle finger, but I like the overall frosty effect.
I decided to use black to outline the leaves after trying one in just green on my thumb. I did the outlines on each nail - it's a good idea to practice drawing holly leaves on a piece of paper first (just six "smiles" joined together at angles, three on each side).
Then I used the green migi pen to fill in the holly leaves.
For a little interest, I used a Nubar nail art pen to put a gold "ribbon" across the smile line.
And then three red rhinestones for berries in the center of each pair of leaves.
A few coats of top coat, some clean up, and voila! A Holly Jolly Manicure.
Admittedly I need more practice with the holly, but I like these quite a bit. Anyone else wearing holiday nails yet?

Happy Polishing!

Cristal Rose

2009-12-06T23:34:00.000-08:00

Hello Dear Nail-art Lovers.
Today i am presenting you another attempt of the hand painted nail-art - "Cristal Rose"
I really like how this one turned out, i did it on both hands and even wore few days last week.
I recently realized that most problems i have are because of the cheap paint. So now i dream to get some expensive professional paints. I read a lot good about "Polycolor" paints, but it is too pricy - 70 bucks for 12 small paints.
So i wonder may be anybody know any other good brand of professional paint in US, that is not that expensive?
So far i used paints i got from Hobby Lobby - mostly cheramcoat and folk-art, but the problem is that those paints are not opaque, at list when i paint on nails, however on paper or wood it is just fine), so i guess i need more opaque paints.
Please comment if you have any suggestion of recommendation regarding paint , and of cause i hope you ll like the manicure.

Right hand

Christmas Toes Nail Art

2009-12-06T01:11:00.000-08:00

Christmas Toes - Dec. 2009, originally uploaded by martha.harmon.

Christmas Toes toe nails design. Christmas nail art

More fun with Migi Nail-art Pens

2009-12-03T23:36:00.000-08:00

I already make one REVIEW of Migi nail-art pens, but i decided to go another round, because i really enjoy this product. Migi is an ultimate dotting tool and together with broad selection of bright opaque colors it makes it "must have" item if you like to do nail design.
Seriously Migi is super easy to use, even for experiences person, and you can create complicated and professional looking designs very quick and easy.
However, you need to play with it, to improve your skills, the more i practice with Migi, the more i love it, and the better my designs look. I am thinking to order more Migis, because they are really great.

Leopard Nail Art Design

2009-12-03T20:09:00.000-08:00

Nail Art 110, originally uploaded by Abby Walton.

Leopard Nail Art Design

Nail Art,Nail Art Designs,Nail Art Gallery

Crashed Shells manicure

2009-12-02T23:16:00.000-08:00

Hello Dear Nail-art lovers.
This was my first time that i used a crushed shells for nail design. I was always thinking that this will work for acrylic nails only, so it can be sealed under clear acrylic.
But in fact i was surprised how good crushed shells work on natural nails - chips are very light weight and thin, so it stick to the nails very well, and not even very uneven on top. I think now about getting more colors. It looks really amazing on the nails, but you d better see for yourself, here are the pics, and i hope you like it

Candy Cane Stripes

2009-12-02T09:08:00.000-08:00

First, my apologies for the lack of post last week. Crazy happenings all over the place, and I never got a chance to post. This week starts the Christmas season though, and four weeks of holiday manicures, which I'm actually looking forward to this year (as opposed to being "not ready" just yet). I decided to kick the month off with some reverse candy cane stripes. I couldn't quite make up my mind on the tips, so you'll see where I changed my mind mid-polish further down.

I used the China Glaze "Ruby Pumps" and "Tinsel" to start, along with my white Migi Nail Art Pen, and some silver bouillon beads.

I started with a base of 2 coats Ruby Pumps (over Zoya basecoat).
Then I attempted to "sugar" the tips with Tinsel. I didn't get the polish thin enough, unfortunately, so ended up with more silver color than I'd hoped.
Then I drew on some diagonal white stripes on the main part of my nails with the nail art pen - obviously, I'm not a perfectionist, but I think they turned out okay.
I couldn't decide whether to define the tips with a line or not, so I tried black on my thumb. Too harsh, I decided.
Silver beads didn't tone it down enough, so I decided to skip the line altogether on my other nails.
I laid them in top coat on my other nails. Tip - do one half of the nail at a time, that way the top coat won't dry before you get all the way across the nail. I defined the tips with silver beads, then took stock. Decided I didn't really like the silver tips with all the other stuff going on - just too much.
So back to red for the tips. Much better, I think. Right about here I was wishing I had some white faux fur to use in place of the silver beads - don't you think that would be cute as a sort of "cuff" for the tips?
A few coats of top coat, some clean up, and voila - shiny, glittery candy nails.
My right hand, blurry, but looking pretty good.
Next week, another holiday themed mani - what are you wearing on your nails this week?

Nail-Art World First Giveaway

2009-12-01T22:32:00.000-08:00

UPDATE!
BE AWARE!

To Enter the Giveaway, you have to submit giveaway form on top of the page!!!!

Sorry guys, i wont have time to review entries left in comments, only entries submitted to the contest machine will be admitted, so if you left your entry in comments, please submit it to the form on top of the page.
Hello my Dear Readers!

Wonderful news for all of you, please enter my first ever giveaway, for a chance to win an amazing Black and White Boudoir collection Nail-art kit. This giveaway is kindly sponsored by Color Club. USA and INTERNATIONAL followers are welcome.
Rules - anybody who is a follower can enter. Due date is Wed Dec 09 12:05:00 -0500 2009.
Winner will be contacted by e-mail and have to respond withing 4 days after being notified.
Here you can see my review of this collection - Review, believe me it is really cool kit :)
Please spread the news about this giveaway by posting about it at your blog or twitter.
The more entries we get, the more giveaways will be sponsored in the futere .

Nanis Nails Contest Entry

2009-12-01T00:14:00.000-08:00

Here is my entry to this contest.
All the entries are super coll, check it out yourself HERE
I really like some of the entries. Everybody are so talented, and what is really great about contests is the opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences with other Nail-Art lovers.

Color Club Decals

2009-11-29T22:23:00.000-08:00

Today just an easy and fast manicure using Color Club decals from Black and White collection.
How cute are those?
As you know, i am not a decal person, but those just touched my heart :)
I wore this manicure for 3 days, and nothing happened to the decals!!! It also was very easy to apply it using the orange stick, and i loved that you don't even have to press hard for them to stick completely.

More one stroke nails

2009-11-28T20:54:00.000-08:00

Here are some more of my recent manicures made with acrylic paints.
Please let me know how do you think i could improve those designs in terms of colors and composition. Please tell what do you like and don't like, i really want to hear some critics
Garden Rose

Aqua Flower - for some reason those paints are not showing up well on pictures, so i played with brightens to intensify the colors

Goldy Stamp over black

2009-11-27T21:54:00.000-08:00

Hello dear readers!
hope each of you had a wonderful thanksgiving , and great "Black Friday" (i personally past on that this year).
Quick and easy stamp manicure today - i used 24K from China Glaze Khrom collection for stamping. It is not working as good as other CG khromes, but turned out quite well on black polish. Not really visible over dark blue or all lighter ones.
I am still in search for perfect gold polish that will work with stamping.

3D Fruit Nail Art Designs

2009-11-26T00:37:00.000-08:00

3D Nail Art Designs by NailAsILove.com, originally uploaded by nailasilove.

3D Fruit Nail Art Designs

Nail Art,Nail Art Designs,Nail Art Gallery

You have to check it out! FREE ZOYA POLISHES!

2009-11-25T11:12:00.000-08:00

Awesome "Black Friday" even from Zoya - ZOYA GREEN FRIDAY

"It's just our way of sending some green back to you!"

While other retailers taking all your green, let Zoya give you some FREE green!

Spend $20 or more and recieve 6 of our favorite greens for FREE*.

That's right, Zoya Tangy - Zoya Envy - Zoya Midori - Zoya Irene- Zoya Suvi - Zoya Veruschka all 6 for FREE on Zoya Green Friday Only with any purchase of $20 or more at http://www.zoya.com/
Code will activate on Thanksgiving (11/26/09) at 5 PM (EST). So you will have plenty of time to gobble your turkey and then gobble up our great greens too (who needs football anyway). Code will expire on Friday (11/27/09) at 5 PM (EST).
CODE: GREENFRIDAY

Evening Snowfall

2009-11-25T00:07:00.000-08:00

Hello Dear Readers!
Today i am publishing manicure that i actually have on my nails right now, i really like how ti turned out - especially the cute little star gem from Pretty Shiny art kit that i reviewed yesterday.
The base color is Zoya "Demi" and the glitter is by China Glaze - such a brand Alliance :)
I wonder if you, guys going to be checking out blog on holidays or not? Would you like me to keep posting?

Color Club - Pretty Shiny Hollidays

2009-11-23T23:45:00.000-08:00

Hello Dear Nail-Art Lovers.
Today i have a product review post. Color Club sent me new collection "Pretty Shiny Things" by Art Club - which is a total sparkle of the upcoming holidays. I was so excited about this collection, and i have been waiting for this release since August ,and finally i got a chance to put my hands on it. What to say - I am in love!!! Again as many times before Color Club made exceptional job with this shiny and glamorous art kit.
The kit includes 3 strippers - gold, silver and cooper, Gold and silvers swirled beads and a gems carousel. I would especially say a word about sparkly gold stripper - because this is the best gold stripper i have ever owned - it is structures and very sparkly, very opaque - and does not look yellow on nails as most of the gold strippers do.

The gems and beads are super cool - very very sparkly and look truly gold and silver. Swireled beads are very original, and carousel gems are a "must have" - i dreamed of metalick rhinestones like this for year.

The quality of gems is truly exceptional, i am again super impressed. The beading are very light weight which allow really easy application in terms of locating and picking it up, it looks for me like made of some elastic not very hard plastic. This material is a huge advantage compare to cheap, not professional products, because it makes the gem stick perfectly to the nail, following its curve. The gems are also very thin, does not "grow" up from the nail. I tried to show it on this picture - see, swirles are not tall at all, wich is also a very cool thing

Lacy french is made using stamps and Gold Stripper from "Pretty Shiny Things" nail-art Kit

Here more pictures of the gems. I think that cooper color is very fresh , original and cool looking .

Also some words of the decal included in the kit - you ll get 2 sheets - gold and silver decals .
I am not a big fan of the decals, in fact use it very rare, almost enther. But those really touched my heart, especially silvers, it is so cool looking that i lol probably wear it for the thanksgiving. I also think that decals can be a good idea for pedicure, not much work at all, look nice and stay on place for really long time.
I paired deacal with Color Club Cristmas collection polishes - marriage made on heaven :) Pics are a little too light - but teh result is really very nice and professionaly looking.
I am so in love with this Gold and Silver kit - its like all my gem dreams finally came true.
I ll post more designs with those fabulpouse gems in my next posts, so stay tuned .

Painted Tips

2009-11-23T00:23:00.000-08:00

Hello Dear Readers!
I realized today that i have like a ton of nail material that i did not posted yet :) I guess i was too busy making nail-art that did not have time to post it all, but i hope to catch up on it this week.
I ll start Monday with some hand painted tips that i made last week. I am practicing my drawing skills really a lot, and try to move from paper to the tips, To have a better sens of the composition on the nail. Some of you also asked me about how am i making duo colored paintings - it is called one stroke technique and you can just Google or , even better youtube it.
The secret is to use a double loaded flat brush. Double loaded means that 2 or even 3 colors are loaded on the different sides of the brush. Where are a lot of tutorials on youtube, that i am learning from.
And as a desert a recent picture of my Marshal Cat :) He is getting big but i still believe that he is more on a kitty side when on the adult. He is such a great cat - very very nice and learning things really quick and nicely.

Fall Foils

2009-11-17T09:49:00.000-08:00

This week I decided I'd experiment with the copper and gold "nuggeting" I'd gotten awhile back. You may recall that these were included in my contest prizes as well. They're very thin sheets of foil that you pull apart into as large or small bits as you'd like with orange sticks, and then set in a layer of top coat. I would imagine you could do whole tips or maybe even the entire nail with it - I'll have to experiment with that later.

I forgot to get a photo of the polish bottle this time - but this color just looks black in the bottle anyway. I started with 2 coats of OPI's "Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow" for the base color. It's a super-dark green, more like black with a green tint, really. To see the green, you really need a flash or bright sunlight.
Applying the foil is super-easy, especially if you're just going for random abstract art like I was. I laid down a coat of top coat, then picked up pieces of foil with the moistened tip of an orange stick, and spread it out on the nail. I didn't worry about wrinkles in the foil - personally, I think they add texture and interest, but I suppose if you had a really light touch you could smooth it out pretty well.
After I put random bits of copper and gold foil on each nail, I sealed it over with two more coats of top coat, and voila! That was it. Very easy and quick.
Finished and clean with a flash (above).
Complete without a flash.

I like the foils quite a bit, and can see using them a lot, maybe even for defined shapes if I can figure out how to cut them out without tearing the design.

Yes, I know my cuticles are in bad, bad shape right now. They got that way over Halloween with all the decor and outdoor labor, and the air is so dry right now my skin is rather more like alligator hide. I'm planning to get my paraffin bath out of the closet again next weekend (got put away to leave room for decor), and try to get my hands/feet back into better shape again.

Next week, a Thanksgiving manicure, of course!

Happy polishing...

Sereia Pastel color nail design

2009-11-14T05:58:00.000-08:00

Sereia, originally uploaded by * Sue B. *.

Sereia Pastel color nail design

Nail Art,Nail Art Designs,Nail Art Gallery

Shoe Toe Nail Art

2009-11-14T05:54:00.000-08:00

651- Shoe Toe Nail Art, originally uploaded by HaYnCaNdi808.

Shoe Toe Nail Art design

Candy Big Toe Nail Art

2009-11-14T05:51:00.000-08:00

650- Candi Big Toe Nail Art, originally uploaded by HaYnCaNdi808.

Candy Big Toe Nail Art from nail art gallery

Pink Petals

2009-11-10T10:40:00.000-08:00

I was trying to choose (quite literally) between light and dark nails this week. So I let hubby choose, and this pretty "Golden Rose" color from Avon was the winner. Another polish from their fall collection, you can sort of see from the photos that it has gold mica in it to give it that "golden" shimmer. Very pretty polish. I've been wanting to play with these little gold metal petals too, so even though it's not very fall-like, I've got a flowery manicure going on this week.

It's occurred to me that I don't actually show my nails "in the buff" much (because really, if you've seen them once, you've seen them). So I thought I'd post a photo of my naked nails today, so you can see what they look like just before I start polishing them up again. To get to this point, I removed last week's polish, washed & scrubbed, trimmed my pinky nails (they were hitting wrong keys when I typed), filed the edges and buffed the tops (file and buffing done with a crystal nail file). And voila, boring nails roughed up and ready for base coat.
I used Avon's base/top coat, but really need to order some better quality of each. I've been a bit lazy with the ordering lately. One coat of base, then two coats of "Golden Rose".
Avon has a thing for quick drying polish. They have a whole line, actually, but this pro stuff dries nearly as fast. Good for doing a rush polish job, not so good for nail art, especially with these little petal things. I really had a hard time getting these set quickly enough to stick into the top coat.

I started by laying out some petals in a basic flower shape.
Then I added a few extras on the side of the flower for little embellished stems. Would have been much easier with a different brand of top coat - I'd recommend China Glaze, Zoya or OPI. Something that doesn't dry too quickly.
I repeated it on all my nails, then sealed with two coats of top coat over the tops.
Clean 'em up, and voila! Pink and petally. You'll notice my index finger and thumb on my left had are a little goopy in the polish...I had to fix mistakes with layers because the tool I use to pick up stones, etc kept slipping off the petals. Frustrating.
And a shot outside in natural light.
I think I'll be going back to fall browns next week. Until then, happy polishing!

Simple Gold Squares

2009-11-03T19:25:00.000-08:00

This week I wanted something with fall colors, and the combination of gold and burgandy always seems "fallish" to me. I recently bought the new "golden" colors that Avon put out for fall/winter (yes, they finally put out some new polish colors!), all of which have golden mica in them to make them shine. This one is Golden Wine, a lovely dark red wine color that has all that nice shiny gold mica and some tiny red glitter that really makes it pop.

I got these great metal gold squares from Dollar Nail Art awhile back, and immediately thought "argyle!". I wanted something simple and classy this time though, so decided to just hint at the pattern, rather than cover a couple nails with it (that's probably coming eventually).

I started with a base of Golden Wine - two coats were opaque, but I used three just to even it out a bit. Love this color, it's dark, but not so dark it could be mistaken for black.

Then I slathered on a coat of top coat, and stuck the squares down along the smile line. I used three squares on my thumbs, two on my index, middle & ring fingers, and one on my pinky. I think I could have bent them to follow the natural curve of my nail, but should have done it before I got started. So this time, they're just straight.
A couple more coats of top coat to secure them - the squares are very flat, so the profile is very low. Clean up the edges, and I had a simple, classy (I think) manicure for the week.
I took most of these photos with flash, to show the glitter. The small photo up in the corner of the blog is what it looks like with no flash.

I'm looking forward to using more of these glittery Avon colors...next week, I need to get the glitter off my toes and do a pedicure too.

Clean Cold turkey Nail Design

2009-10-30T23:32:00.000-07:00

cold turkey, originally uploaded by spamberly.

Clean Cold turkey Nail Art Design

Nail Art,Nail Art Designs,Nail Art Gallery

Elegant Toe Nail Art for Bridal

2009-10-30T05:14:00.000-07:00

Toe Art, originally uploaded by probationboy.

Elegant Toe Nail Art for Bridal and wedding

Gold Toenails

2009-10-30T05:02:00.000-07:00

Gold Toenails, originally uploaded by gold_toenails.

pedicure gold toenails feet toes nails male guys painted polished

Tip of the Toe Nail Art

2009-10-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

Tip of the Toe, originally uploaded by rutchee.

Floris red nail art tip design

Sexy Sherry Toe Nail Design

2009-10-30T04:58:00.000-07:00

Sexy Sherry Toes, originally uploaded by cjacobs53.

Sexy Sherry Nail Design for toes

Nail art watermelon fruit

2009-10-30T04:51:00.000-07:00

nail art design, watermelon, originally uploaded by baby_kat_kat12.

Fruit watermelon nail design

Nail Art,Nail Art Designs,Nail Art Gallery

Nail art design abstract

2009-10-30T04:49:00.000-07:00

nail art design, abstract, originally uploaded by baby_kat_kat12.

Abstract nail art designs

Nail Art,Nail Art Designs,Nail Art Gallery

The Eyes Have It

2009-10-27T13:22:00.000-07:00

'Twas a very busy week last week, and while I have a photo of my party manicure, I'll post that later this week. For now, here's the manicure I'm sporting this week - the last Halloween nail art of the season for me.

The colors I chose this week were traditional Halloween colors with a little bling - China Glaze "Liquid Leather" and "Spellbound", and Pure Ice in "Hot Tamale" (I have no idea why orange polish would be named something that sounds red, but it's Walmart polish, so that probably explains it). I was going to use some clay canes as you can see in the photo, but they just didn't look quite right over the dark polish (I got them cut nice and thin, but the polish dulled the colors then). So I decided on a simpler approach, and got out my tiny little googly eyes instead.
First, base coats of Liquid Leather and Hot Tamale, alternating for the most part. I love these colors - so bold and warm.
Then a coat of Spellbound - over the black polish on one hand, and over the orange on the other hand.
I was originally just going to have two fingers, one on each hand with the glitter coat, but decided to do three each instead.
Then my googly eyes on the non-spellbound fingers! I love these eyes...they may be cheesy, but they make me smile when I look down and see the little "eyes" wiggling.
A few thick coats of top coat (too thick, as it turns out...I used the Sephora top coat, and it bubbled on me, dang it anyway), and voila!
My nails are watching you...

Next week, something tamer, and fall-themed. Some leaves, maybe?

Haitus

2009-10-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry all - this week has gotten away from me. Our big Halloween party is tomorrow night, and I've been scrambling all week to get everything just right. I'll be back next week with more Halloween nail art though...Happy Polishing!

Halloween Meltdown

2009-10-13T15:26:00.000-07:00

I decided to go purple, orange and silver for this week's Halloween nail colors. I was a little apprehensive about whether the China Glaze "Spellbound" glitter would go with the Urban Decay "Meltdown" royal purple. After some reassurance from hubby that it would work just fine, I started with two coats of Meltdown over base coat.
I can't say this polish was my fave to work with. It's thicker than I'm used to, and harder to control. I just adore this color though - isn't it gorgeous?
Then I added one coat of Spellbound from the cuticle just half way up the nail for some glitter. I have horrible light at night, but wait for the "finished" photos. Spellbound is...spellbinding!
I was going to use silver bouillon beads for the letters, but decided that they'd "get lost" in the silver glitter. So I used the white Migi pen instead to write "Eek!" on one hand, and "Boo!" on the other.
A little top coat, some clean-up and a little outdoor lighting - voila! Another festive (and very easy) Halloween manicure!

I've already gotten a compliment at work for these...Halloween nails seem popular this year! More Halloween next week...