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

Red nail polish from Brijits Digits for #NAILLINKUP

Week one of the February N.A.I.L. Linkup is all about RED.  Well, I have a gorgeous red indie from Brijits Digits Boutique!  This one is called Yowl and it’s a semi-matte.  You may have seen it before when I wore it with topcoat to make it high gloss (here on my facebook page), but this time I’m wearing Yowl in all it’s glorious semi-matteness….

Shown here is three coats of Yowl without topcoat.  It has a semi-matte finish so you can see how silky it is.  I love how the light just skims over the surface of the polish and gives it a softened glow.  It dries fast too!

Yowl would be described as brick or burnt red but it also has a secret shimmer which is so pretty up close….

Now on to the nail art segment of this post 😉 !!  I went for something super simple since I haven’t been groovin’ on complicated nail art lately.  I wanna keep it quick and easy today.  So for this next design I used a black skinny striper polish from L.A. Colors to make little hearts.  I also did some tiny dots on my accent nail which look so 3D & textured against the smooth finish of the polish.

Yowl is such a great polish…. it’s actually part of Brijit’s semi-matte collection.  She has 4 in total listed here-

Yowl

Catcall cool pink with slight blue shimmer

Stone Circle dark blue-ish grey cream

Soft Grey pale grey cream

I’m loving red nails for February!  Are you?

I hope I see more red for the NAIL LINKUP.  Here are the inlinkz…

Red :

My nails for the V-Day Nailart Contest!

Polish Alcoholic  and Beauty Expression by Luchessa are hosting a valentines day nail art contest (more details here)!  I cannot resist this kinda fun, especially when you throw an indie gift cert into the mix. 🙂  Here’s what I came up using my new Formula X by Sephora polishes….

These nails were intended to look more valentinesy because I was trying to do a heart-design water marble.  Shaaaaa, as if.  I kinda suck at water marbling. But I figure I have to keep trying or I’ll never get better!

I used black and clear in my marble.  I really like to use clear in my marble just to be different.  I like how you get a gap between the swirls so the base color shines through.  And these vampy base colors are stunning for v-day so I def want them to shine through!  The rules of this contest are to use at least three polishes so these are the three I’m wearing….

Black Cream- Dark Matter by Formula X for Sephora

Metallic Gold- Bond, Ionic Bond by Formula X for Sephora

Red Glitter- Atom + Eve by Formula X for Sephora

Wish me luck, and for your viewing pleasure…here are the other fantastic entries:

February N.A.I.L. Challenge Announcement #NAILLINKUP

Hey N.A.I.L. Challengers!! It’s officially February so Brijits Digits, Craftynail, and Eeeek! Nail Polish! have some new themes for you as part of the Nail Art Ideas Linkup.  You guessed it- there’s a Valentine’s theme thrown in there.  But we promise we won’t get all ‘saccharine sweet’ on you!  More on that after the jump!  Let’s see the February prompts, shall we?

RED (week 1)- Let’s get back to basics.  Red nails!  They’re classy and sexy.  Show us some nail art using the color red or maybe share your favorite red nail polish with us.  This theme is also inspired by Wear Red Day (February 7th) to help raise awareness for heart disease in women.

VALENTINES DAY (week 2)- A Valentines Day theme is basically ‘a given’ for February, but you can get as romantic or as dark as you want!  If you love flowers or hearts it’s your time to shine.  But if the sight of Cupid makes you want to choke someone… well, then let’s see those gloom and doom designs too!

GRADIENT (week 3)- Gradients are a nice basic nail art technique with so much room for interpretation.  You can use different tools, different colors, the possibilities are endless.  Show us what you’ve got!

GLITTER (week 4)-  The life of a nail polish addict would not be the same without it, yet our glitter polishes sit there unused far too often.  Pick through your stash and find your most gorgeous bottle.  Flip it upside down now so the glitter mixes up and settles on top.  Then you’ll be all prepped for glitter week!

Here are the 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 February.
• 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 all nail enthusiasts to join in no matter what platform you use; blog, FB, IG, Tumblr, etc…
• Feel free to post our widget 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.

Red :

Valentines Day :

Gradient :

Glitter :

Any questions about NAIL ART IDEAS LINKUP?  Contact us or read more about N.A.I.L. on our blog links below.  We look forward to seeing your nails this February!

signed,

Brijit from Brijits Digits

Jacqui from Craftynail

Jemma from Eeeek! Nail Polish!