Owl Always Love You

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I was in the mood for playful nails so I dug into my stash of nail decals for something cutesy. A while ago I had a giveaway that went bad because the company that sponsored it (moon sugar decals) never mailed my winner their prize. But since then, the company got a new guy running the show and he made it right by sending the winner her goodies months after the fact. He also sent me a bunch of decals to sample. Some of which are these cute owl designs. I paired them underneath a variety of nail polish colors to get this cool mix n match look….

owl nail decals owl nailsI did the other hand a little different just for fun. I think the yellow nails are my faves.

owl water slide nail decalsAnd on each hand I added a polka dotted heart accent nail using Incoco brand’s ‘Perfect Accents‘ in BE MINE. Perfect Accents are small and inexpensive packs that contain only a few nail appliques so you can achieve a quick and easy accent nail!

I’m glad I did these nails when I did because the very next day I had my surprise bridal shower. I had no idea! I never saw it coming. I’m thankful I wasn’t wearing bare nails for that, especially since I was just coming from the gym and had no makeup on. At least my nails looked good! I’ll be walking down the aisle very soon (11 days to be exact), that’s why I’m calling this design OWL ALWAYS LOVE YOU. Til death do us part, my love! xoxo

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Eiffel Tower Nails for #NAILLINKUP

Week 1 of N.A.I.L. for May is TRAVEL/TOURISM and I immediately knew I wanted to do something French.  My ancestors are from France.  Sure, they left Europe over 400 hundred years ago, but still, I’ve always been interested in my heritage.  The fact that my full name is super french-sounding probably has something to do with it.  I studied french for years and years in school and college too.  But unfortunately, I’ll forget it all if I don’t put it to good use.  What a shame that would be.  Is the fear of losing my foreign language skills a good enough excuse for me to blow a wad of cash on a flight and hotel in Paris?  I say a resounding YES!!!!!!!!!   And guess who I will be visiting when I land in the land of la France?  My Brijit, of course!  I’m putting this shiz on my bucket list.  I seriously need to get off this continent someday.

But you are here to see my nails….. not hear about my hopes and dreams.  So here they are!

paris nails

I tried to stamp the Eiffel Tower using one of my Bundle Monster plates but I think BM didn’t etch the design well enough.  I had the damnedest time and got pretty frustrated.  I used my squishy MoYou stamper, and then my Konad one. The Konad stamper almost worked, if I pushed really hard.  But then I said forget it!  And I free-handed the towers instead.  Much better!!!! Kinda cute and artsy and french looking, non?

eiffel tower nail art

The accent nails are OPI Don’t Bossa Nova Me Around and the towers were done with a cheap black striper polish.  And my other nails…. such a pretty aqua color!  Here’s a closeup…

finger paints

The aqua is Finger Paints Dream I Can Fly (Which I also painted on my mom too and we both love it!)  Then I sponged some Finger Paints matte glitter on the tips.  The glitter’s called Crystal Springs and it kinda looks like floam to me.  There’s also little shards of flakies in there.  I adore it.

You should totally do a TRAVEL mani too!  Where do you dream to go for holiday??

And for those of you with exceptional attention spans, here’s some background info on Nail Art ideas Linkup

Did you know that Brijit and Jemma and I started the Nail Art Ideas Linkup after last summer’s big OMD Challenge? That July challenge we did was so much fun it was kinda depressing to think that it would be over.  So we developed N.A.I.L. to keep the momentum going.  Since we started in August 2013 I have done a manicure for every single prompt but I’m only realizing today how many that is!  If you wanna see all my N.A.I.L. manicures then hop over to my Gallery Page to see them all in one spot!  And speaking of the OMD Challenge, my next post will be a sneak peak at what’s in store for the 2nd annual July OMD Challenge.  So if you are into big huge nail challenges then stay tuned.  Oh mon dieu!

 

 

#TheBeautyBuffs – Zoya Radiant Orchid

You may have heard that I’m part of a beauty blogger group called the Beauty Buffs.  This week we’re all talking about the Pantone color of the year- Radiant Orchid.

zoya perrie

The orchid shade that I’m highlighting is Zoya Perrie.  I’m shocked at how opaque this color is!  The above swatch is one base coat and one coat of Perrie (no topcoat).  I also wanted to do some floral nail art to tie into the orchid theme.  I tried out my first attempt at one-stroke painting.  Nope, you will not be seeing the results!  It was less than stellar.  I need some practice, for sure.  So instead, I grabbed a bunch of Zoya colors and went for an abstract floral orchid design.  I enjoy doing nail art like this.  It’s not too planned out and I just let my creativity do the work.

orchid nail art

Perrie – used as my base color and a few dots here and there

Ginessa – sponged onto my tips for some subtle shimmer

Belinda – for the dark purple petals

Pippa – as the yellow accents

zoya orchid nails

I hafta admit- I borrowed Zoya Perrie from my mom! 😉 She has good taste in nail polish.  I’m just realizing that this shade of orchid looks great on me though!  I was never really attracted to these pinky-purpley colors before.  I always preferred purples that leans more towards blue than pink.  But now that my eyes are opened, and considering it’s the color of 2014, I really need to grab some shades like this!

thebeautybuffs

What radiant orchid shades do you have?

Here’s what the other Beauty Buffs are wearing….

MAY #NAILLINKUP THEMES

Ready for another set of nail art themes for our May challenge?
You’ll like our N.A.I.L. linkup since it’s not a big commitment- you can do as little as one manicure if you want.  It’s less of a ‘challenge’ and more of a fun way to share our nail art with each other.  Here’s what’s on the table for May-

#NAILLINKUP for May

TRAVEL (week 1)- May 7th is Tourism Day which got us thinking about how tourism and travel can be great inspiration for nail art.  For this prompt go ahead and paint your nails based on your favorite vacation destination, an upcoming trip, or memories from a past holiday.  Where will your nails take you?

CLOUDS (week 2)- Puffy little clouds, stormy skies, sunsets, let’s see what great cloudy nail art you can come up with.  And if you haven’t tried the “cloud mani” technique then now is the perfect time! Check out Nailside’s tutorial here: CLOUD MANI

EMERALD (week 3)- Emerald is the official birthstone of May so you May babies out there will enjoy this theme.  Emeralds are gorgeous gems so we expect a lot of glamorous green nails for this prompt.

TAPE MANI (week 4)-  Pick your poison- a roll of striping tape, invisible tape, painters tape, or any kind of stickies for that matter.  Let’s see your one-of-kind tape mani!

Rules for Nail Art Ideas Linkup (N.A.I.L.)……

  • Do one of the weekly themes, or do them all.  It’s flexible!
  • The dates for each week are only suggestions- you can post your nails whenever you want in May.
  • The nail art ideas/themes are open to interpretation so you can create whatever kind of design you want. Stamps, stickers, acrylics- anything goes!
  • We encourage everyone to join in no matter what platform you use- blog, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, etc…
  • Feel free to post our May graphic on your site and you can use hashtag #NAILLINKUP on your social media.
  • Lastly but most importantly, don’t forget to share your nail pics via the inlinkz below.  These inlinkz will be open all month.

TRAVEL/TOURISM-

WordPress.org + Inlinkz plugin: [inlinkz_linkup id=400380 mode=1]

WordPress.com:

Blogger.com: An InLinkz Link-up

 CLOUDS-

WordPress.org + Inlinkz plugin: [inlinkz_linkup id=400381 mode=1]

WordPress.com:

Blogger.com: An InLinkz Link-up

 EMERALD-

WordPress.org + Inlinkz plugin: [inlinkz_linkup id=400382 mode=1]

WordPress.com:

Blogger.com: An InLinkz Link-up

 TAPE MANI-

WordPress.org + Inlinkz plugin: [inlinkz_linkup id=400383 mode=1]

WordPress.com:

Blogger.com: An InLinkz Link-up

NAIL ART IDEAS LINKUP is hosted by Brijit, Craftynail and Eeeek.  Feel free to contact us if you have any questions at all!  You can also read more info about our monthly linkup on our blog links below.  We look forward to seeing your nails this May!

happy painting,

Brijit from Brijits Digits

Jacqui from Craftynail

Jemma from Eeeek! Nail Polish! 

Bold Gradient Dotticure for #NAILLINKUP

It’s the last week of our April NAIL Linkup and the theme is DOTTICURE.   Yes, it is officially May now… but I’m not too late!  This week’s theme goes til May 4th so you have some time to sneak in a dotticure too.

For this nail art I wanted to go bold and bright and mix together some weird colors. Here’s what I used-

♥ Zoya Dove as my grey base color
♥ OPI I Just Can’t Cope-Acabana sponged onto my tips for a gradient
♥ AVON Coral Reef that I dotted on with a dotting tool

grey dot nail art  bold dotted nailsbold dotticure

It’s an unexpected color combination but I like it.  It feels summery and reminds me of beaches and Ron Jon surf gear.  I have no idea why, I dont even know what Ron Jon is really, but it popped in my head!

This weekend we’ll reveal our May N.A.I.L. themes so keep your eyes peeled for that.  See ya!

28th April – 4th May : Dotticure

Nail_Art_Ideas_Linkup_April_2014_480

my tips on how to win giveaways!

Do you know someone who happens to win EVERYTHING? ALL THE TIME?  What is up with that?

Well, that person was never me.  I’ve never considered myself to be one of the lucky ones.  I honestly have tried so hard to win things before, with no luck.  I’d enter contests or 50/50 raffles and go as far as putting the ticket stub on my vision board so I could wish upon it everyday to harness the power of the universe.  Bring it to meeee!  I soooo wanted to win that $10,000 shopping spree to Sam’s Club!  Well, I never won that one.  Or anything else in my life until…….. nail giveaways!

giveaway tips

See this pic?  This is the awesome stash of polishes that I just got in the mail today from my friend over at Nailmattic!  I was so excited to win this one- just look at this smorgasborg of glittery goodness including a newly released Magical Pixie Dust, a couple Roughles and my very first Finger Paints!  Woot!  I’m sorry, do you feel like smacking me right now?  Well I’m not here to rub my good fortune in your face.  I wanna share some tips with you so you can win too! I have been on a real roll lately so there must be something that I’m doing right!  So here’s how I approach giveaways and I hope you find my tips helpful!

TAKE THE TIME.  If you see there’s a giveaway and you have to click a lot of things to follow the person in all their different accounts, and then you have to copy/paste links to verify that you tweeted or whatever…. it may seem like a lot of work, but you should take the time to follow through and do all the stuff!  I know in this day and age people are in a hurry and want to finish things as quick as possible, especially with the busy lives that we lead… but honestly, if you really want the prize then go ahead and sacrifice a minute or two of your day.  When you get the email that you won the giveaway it will be so worth it!!! Besides, you love that blog, so don’t they deserve a moment of your time?

BE HONEST.  If the giveaway says ‘FOLLOW ME ON PINTEREST’, then make sure to follow the blogger on pinterest if you entered their raffle!  I always verify my entries when I hold a giveaway, and I always remove cheater entries.  Cheating won’t do you any good since there’s a good chance you’ll get deleted anyway! Karma has it’s way of making things right.  If you have good honest intentions then you will be rewarded.  Or so we hope.  That’s the plan anyway!

RE-POST.  A lot of times bloggers will give you bonus raffle entries if you publish the giveaway on your facebook page, or if you re-blog it on your blog.  Those RE-POST raffle entries are worth a lot!  For example, following the blogger on facebook may only get you one raffle entry, but re-posting on your fb page may give you a whopping 5 entries.  Those add up fast!  Not many people go the extra step to re-post.  So if you do, then you’ll get a leg up on the competition.  How do you think I won these beauties from Brijits Digits??

CHECK BACK.  Let’s say you enter a giveaway on monday and then you find yourself back on that same blog on wednesday.  Try to remember to click on their giveaway post again.  A lot of times they’ll have some options that can be done everyday, like tweet about their giveaway for example.  When I hold a giveaway I notice that most people will enter just that one time.  But the ladies who check back every few days and re-enter…. woohoo they really rack up the points!

GIANT GIVEAWAYS.  I don’t really waste my time on giveaways that are hosted by a zillion bloggers at once.  Your chances of winning are close to nil.  And do you even like all those blogs?  You may have never heard of most of them so why go through all the motions when it’s likely you won’t win and you don’t care about them.  I really prefer winning giveaways from blogs I read.  When they email you that you won, you are like- heyyyyy friend, let’s be pen pals and you can mail me pressies, thanksss!!! It’s so much more fun.  And you’ll make great friends in the process.

JOIN BLOGLOVIN.  If you’re on Blogger you may follow blogs only via google, meanwhile a lot of wordpressers only login to their wordpress dashboard.  But it really is worthwhile to join Bloglovin as another platform.  It’s a great way to follow the blogs you love so you don’t miss any of their giveaway posts, and you’ll probably find some great new blogs to follow in the process.  Bloglovin is free and the site works great for me, even on my crappy old Nook tablet (which fails to work on most other social media sites most of the time).  Besides, most giveaways have an extra raffle entry if you follow them on bloglovin so you should def go for it!  Also, bloglovin has a search bar so you can always search for the term ‘giveaways’ to see whatsa happenin!!

I hope these little tips help you.  If you haven’t won any giveaways yet then keep trying!!!!! Your time will come, I swear!

May the odds be ever in your favor.