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….

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

And 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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Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day!  Yesterday I said I was done with valentines nails but I guess I lied.  Just one more girly design before the holiday passes us by! 

If you are sad today, make sure to read to the end of this post cuz I will make you feel better…  or, I’ll try at least!

The other day my mom gave me this Sinful Colors light pink called Glass Pink.  She was disappointed with it since she thought it would be more opaque.  I was like Ooooh I’ll take it.  But after doing one coat on my nails I see what she was talking about!!  I didn’t like the idea of VNL today, so I brushed a little white Zoya Purity on my tips and also did some random white splotches to help build up some opacity.   Then I applied two more coats of my sheer pink over top.  Et voila!  I have this kinda marbled thing goin on which made a nice base for my stamping.  Then I stamped with a bright pink Nicole by OPI called Be Ama-zing and my MASH 39 plate.   Then I slathered on my seche vite topcoat.

It looks like something Barbie would wear on her nails!

The perfect little v-day mani !  This is also my post for #VALENTINEPOLISHWEEK hosted by Gelic’ nail art and Traces of Polish

What are you up to this valentines day?? My boyfriend and I will probably have a low-key vday this year. We got absolutely SLAMMED with snow within the last 24hrs. I should post a pic- you won’t believe it! We already had about a foot on the ground and just got around another 18inches… It looks like the polar cap over here! Sounds like a netflix movie night is in order.  Maybe a nice rom-com?  😀

Oh, also… I hate the idea of any ladies out there being sad on v-day.  Cuz believe me, I’ve been there before!  If you are sad or mad, leave me a comment and I will respond with something that makes you feel better!  Or maybe this rotten e-card will cheer you up a tad.  Luv all you girls!!  xoxox

image courtesy of http://www.rottenecards.com

Thermal Valentines nails for #NAILLINKUP

I’ve done a bunch of valentines nails so far this year, but I had to squeeze in another for our February Nail Art Ideas Linkup (more info on N.A.I.L. right here)! To make it sexy for the holiday I wanted to incorporate some red, a thermal heat-activated polish, and some hearts!  The two main polishes I used here are Nicole by OPI Challenge Red-y and Black Sheep Lacquer Enter Sandman.  I also did a white accent nail with a red heart outlined with black dots.  The black dots make it look like a digital 8-bit heart!  I really like it!

The thermal polish that I used over all the red nails, even over the white ones, is a translucent light grey color called Enter Sandman.  It’s a thermal topper by Black Sheep Lacquer which is supposed to transform your base color and give it a black thermal effect.  I didn’t get too much thermal effect in my pics though, sorry.  It’s been so cold here in NY (huge snow storm in effect as I write this)!  However, I did notice more thermal action during my kickboxing class yesterday when I was nice n warm (that’s a nice way of saying ‘dripping with sweat’)!  I love the vampiness of this color combo.  The red Nicole by OPI polish with the indie thermal on top looks really hot!  Even the thermal over the white looks kinda cool!  It has a grey faded newspaper look.

If you wanna see the other valentines manis for the N.A.I.L. Linkup then here are the links.  They’re open for the whole month of feb if you’d like to enter your nails too…

FEBRUARY 2014

Red :

Valentines Day :

Gradient :

Glitter :

It’s the little things…

Brilliant Earth, who makes ethical origin jewelry, is doing a campaign called ‘Create a Little Love’.

Create your own photo representation of “LOVE,” then give a little insight into your creative expression and what it means to you. Whether you tell a story, give a quote, express a memory or even jot down a quick blurb, share it with your readers for all to be inspired by!

It’s ironic that Brilliant Earth asked me to contribute considering I’ve been thinking a lot about ethical engagement rings and basically, how much I want one!  In case he’s reading this, pay attention now!  LOL.  But in all seriousness, in this day and age I think ethically-sourced is the only way to go.  So I’d be happy to share with you and Brilliant Earth exactly how I ‘say love’.  Also, maybe this post will give me some good engagement vibes!  For double measure I might make this engagement chicken recipe for our v-day dinner. Hahaha think that may work?

 To me, love is all about the little things: the little things he says to make you smile and the little things he does because he cares.  Would you believe that my boyfriend remembers to turn the outside light on every evening before I pull in the driveway, just to make sure I make it in the door safely?  Or how when I’m putting my makeup on he’ll walk in the room and say, “hey pretty lady” just to let me know I look nice!  All those little things he does shows me he really cares.  I’m getting all verklempt just thinking about it. ❤  That’s why the theme of my nails today is the ‘little things’.

To honor the little things, I painted a whole bunch of little tiny hearts on my nails!  Since I painted them on just my french tips they had to be very little because there’s not much room there.  But I made it work!  How did I do these nails?  I started with some french manicure Incoco real nail polish appliques in Champagne (I will post a full review on these next week).  Then I taped off the tips and dotted little hearts using Butter London Snog and a small dotting tool.  Sweet and sexy right?

Tell me…what’s your stance on valentines day this year?  Are you so over it!?!  Or do you enjoy all the v-day hoopla??

Love Shields

Hey did you see that nailpolishcanada.com is doing another nail contest?  😀 The last one I entered was for the holiday season… this one is for v-day, of course!  Nail Polish Canada offers up some wicked prizes so if you are in the U.S. or Canada you should hurry up and check it out (ends on feb 10th 2014)!  A big reason I love entering these contests is cuz it’s so fun to link up with others in the nail art community.  Everyone comes up with such cool designs! Wanna see mine??

The idea for this mani was sparked by my fellow blogger Blimbo247.  She thought my China Glaze border mani from last week made my pointy nails look like little shields.  She was right!   I really liked that concept and it inspired me to come up with this valentines version of a border manicure.  Behold my little love shields!  It’s a very simple design… no crazy nail art this time.  But sometimes a simple mani can have just as much wow factor as a complicated one!  All I used was Nicole by OPI Be Ama-zing (rich pink) and a black striper by L.A. Colors.

You should go check out all the other ladies’ awesome valentines nails and vote for your favorite.  If you’d like to cast a vote for my little shields that would be mighty kind of you. 😉  Here’s the contest gallery link: VDAY NAIL CONTEST.  The voting ballot is at the bottom of the page… just enter your first name, your email (they won’t spam you), and then select your fave nails from the list.  Thanks y’all and happy valentines day!  xoxo Craftynail xoxo

the first of my valentines nails!

This will be my first valentines manicure for 2014! After I got my manicure station setup in my house last weekend, i sat down to do my very first mani there. I wanted to do something bright and busy! I didn’t have a plan…I just picked some vday colors and went to it…

Here are the colors I used:
white- OPI Alpine Snow
black- China Glaze Liquid Leather
light pink- Zoya Sweet
bright pink- Zoya Ali
red- Zoya Carmen

In my last pic you can see I did the left and right hands a little differently.  I ended up really liking the solid nails with one little heart on top.  I will be doing that again soon I think.

I did all this with just a dotting tool. Oh, and the five different nail polishes too. Lotsa dots and hearts, huh?!! The ladies at my eye doctors office flipped over them. I was secretly très proud of myself! hehe. People are always shocked that you can do designs like this by yourself, without having to visit a salon. But honestly, you can do all this with just a bobby pin.  A little practice doesn’t hurt either. You can even practice on paper!  If you never have, go ahead and try some fun stuff with dots! You may surprise yourself. 😉

Are you looking forward to all the vday nail art too?

Copycat: Kelly Osbourne’s pointy black heart nails!

I’m so happy to show you my latest CELEBRITY COPYCAT manicure!  From the instant I transitioned my nails from squoval to pointy I just knew that I had to try out this design!  Ready to see my rendition of Kelly Osbourne’s black heart nails from the 2013 SAG Awards??

The photo I used of Kelly is not my property – it can be found in this article on reveal.co.uk

My mani isn’t a complete match, since her nails are way pointier.  But I am loving this fierce look!  I don’t dare file mine as pointy as hers- I really think they’d break! 

I timed how long this manicure took me from start to finish and it was 27 minutes.  And it didn’t cost me anything since I did it myself.  I wonder how much time and money Kelly spent on these nails?!  teeheehee 😉

Here’s the steps to create this look:

1) Base coat-  I used one coat of Sally Hansen Maximum Growth.

2) Sheer neutral base color-  I applied one coat of Seche Vite Chic which is a very sheer pinky peach color meant to be used as a base for french manicures.

3) Black tips-  I used China Glaze Liquid Leather and skinny nail art brush to make the heart shape outline.  Then I used the China Glaze bottle brush to fill in the rest of the heart with more black polish.  However, when I went to do my second hand I skipped the nail art brush part and simply free-handed the hearts using the bottle brush.  This was just as effective, but way quicker!!!

4) Silver accents- I can’t tell if Kelly was wearing silver glitter on her tips, or what…since they looked black but also kinda silver too.  So I decided to add some pewter-toned polish on top of the black to imitate her look.  I used a nail art brush dipped in Sally Hansen Gunmetal to go over top of the black.  I brushed it on in a very ‘quick and dirty’ kind of way since I just wanted to add a bit of silver on top of the black.

5) Top coat- I applied one coat of Seche Vite topcoat to finish off my manicure.

And that’s it!  What do you think?  Any recommendations for other celebrity copycats that I should attempt??? I want to try more!