china glaze border mani

Here’s my last mani for the January N.A.I.L. linkup!  The week 4 theme is BORDER MANI.

I’m wearing a couple polishes from the China Glaze Happy Holiglaze 2013 collection.  It’s actually a three-pack from that collection called Dash of Dazzle.  I chose the two metallics of the bunch because OMG I love metallics lately!  But also, because the other one called Bells Will Be Blinging has bar glitter, and well, I’m not a huge fan.  Maybe some other time!

First I applied one coat of So Blue Without You.  It’s so bright and vibrant!  Then I applied the gold polish called Mingle With Kringle.  So much gold foil goodness!  When I applied the gold I made sure never to touch the base or sides of my nail.  But I did pull the gold polish all the way to the tips of my nails (which makes the border look like a horseshoe), which isn’t a biggie… because then I just hand paint little strips of blue onto my tips to make the blue border reach all the way around my nails.  It’s actually done in no time at all- with no special tools required.  Just the bottle brushes. 

This manicure is a little crazy-looking, huh?  It didn’t come out quite as expected.  I think the metallic finish blurs it so my border isn’t very crisp.  But it was super quick and it’s very eye-catching, so I can’t complain!

Since January is almost over that means the February Linkup themes will be coming out soon!  Keep your eyes peeled this weekend for the announcement!

In the meantime, here are the galleries of January nails…

6 – 12 January – Health and Wellness :

13 – 19 January – Inspired by Pinterest :

20 – 26 January – Opposite Day :

27 January – 2nd February – Border Manis :

Bieber Border Manicure

It’s day 20 of the nail art challenge for April and the theme is border manicure!  When I think about border manis I think, “what two colors work well together?”…  and most times I think out loud.  So my man suggested purple and yellow.  Well, I have a two-pack of Nicole by OPI polishes with those exact two colors!  How perfect is that?

I can think of a lot of young girls that would love this manicure.  WHY? Because these Nicole by OPI shades are inspired by Justin Bieber!  I’m a Belieber is a nice basic purple cream (Bieber’s favorite color is purple) and the yellow is called My Favorite Gold.  I’ve swatched My Favorite Gold before- here’s the post.  It’s a beautiful and bright gold color, but it needs a lot of coats (and preferably some undies too)!!  Next time I try a border mani I will use more opaque colors.  I’m a little embarrassed to say how many coats I’m wearing here!  Even still, I love the final result and how the purple really stands out against the gold.  I think Justin Bieber would be proud! 😀

Butterfly Wings

I had a lot of free time last night and sat down with my box of very old polishes that I never use.  I rummaged through them and tried out all my spring-iest colors.  The AVON Retro Rose floored me!  In the bottle it looked matronly, but once applied it morphed into this stunning peachy pink with gold shimmer!  I sponged on some Sinful Colors Lagoon which is a sheer orange shimmer.  This polish must be very old- check out the retro bottle in my bottom pic!  The peach and orange looked great together and then it hit me- MONARCH WINGS!  Yes!  Time for me to try out butterfly nails!

Butterfly wing nails have been one of my favorite looks ever since I got interested in nail art.  They’re breathtaking and have been on my to-do list for a while.  I’m so glad I finally tackled this project last nite.  I guess I just needed the perfect base color to inspire me!

I used some black wet n wild polish and a sephora nail art brush to freehand the black wing outline.  The design was very forgiving… I didn’t even have to wipe it off and start all over again –  you girls know what I’m talking about, right?  Here’s the list of polishes and tools that I used….

I love it.  It will break my heart to have to take it off once it starts chipping!  And in case you are wondering… yes, that IS snow in the background of my pics.  We got another bad storm last night in NY.  Will it ever be spring?  Probably not.

My Favorite Gold

I haven’t tried this Nicole by OPI shade yet- and I figured it would be a great glitzy color for the 3 day weekend!  I just found out yesterday that I have bronchitis, and now I’m surprisingly really happy!  I have been sick for ten days, so I’m glad to finally have a diagnosis and some meds.  This shiny gold polish is perfect for me today since it matches my good mood.

This shade is called My Favorite Gold and it’s part of the Justin Bieber collection.  This gold is super shiny, glam and is really an eye-catcher.  It’s one of those polishes that really glows!  If I dare venture out of the house today I can imagine getting a lot of compliments on it.  The formula was iffy- it did dry fast, but man- did it need a lot of coats?!  Shown in my pics is 5 coats… and I could almost go for a 6th!  If I turn my hand just right I can still see some visible nail line.  Next time I’ll have to use a white or yellow base coat underneath it.  I also decided to spice up this mani a little bit with some fimo flowers.  Has anyone used these before?  The flowers seem small at first glance, but once I apply them to the nail I realize how big they really are.  They take up way more space than I planned.  I wish they were a bit daintier…. but they’re still fun to use as an embellishment once in a while.

My Favorite Gold came in a two pack along with I’m a Belieber and I noticed a funny typo on the box.  There’s a couple words printed on the packaging- fashion, art and DYI.  DYI?  What’s that?  I think they meant to say DIY!  Hehehe… I love finding random typos.

Butler Please

I was recently at Sephora hovering around the nail polish display and I discovered the most beautiful blue I’ve ever seen- Illamasqua Cameo.  I tested it out and I fell in love with it, but I could not justify spending $14.00 on one bottle of polish!  Craftynail is way too thrifty for that!  So I hit up the nearest beauty supply store to find myself a cheaper dupe.  I came across Essie Butler Please and I think I paid less than $4.00 for it with my coupon!  After getting home and applying it I realized it’s not at all a dupe for the pricey Illamasqua!  The Essie is much darker and dried to a blotchy semi-matte finish.  The two coats did dry quick though (which is always a bonus)… so then I taped my tips off with painters tape and added some Sephora by OPI topcoat called Only Gold For Me.  Even though the Essie formula was not my fave, there’s nothing that some sparkles and a healthy topcoat of Seche Vite can’t fix!   I really love the regal look of this gold and royal blue together!   Apparently so does my mom- she came over tonight and asked me to paint her nails this color too… so now we are nail twinny twins!

fergie glitter gradient … and a cat pic!

Tonite I tried out a new polish of mine by Julie G called My Private Palace.  It has tons of gold and chartreuse iridescence!  Then with a blink of the eye… she’ll turn sheer on you!  Have you ever had a polish like that?  One second you are gawking at it’s brilliance…. you move an inch… and then it looks totally different!  I have mixed feelings about polishes like this.  But regardless of the chameleon effect, My Private Palace is still very pretty and looks very ‘holiday’ to me.  To make it even more festive I did a red glitter gradient with Fergie wet n wild -No Place Like Home.  The end result really surprised me…

This mani is glowing!  It’s so intense and fiery – I feel like freakin Katniss over here!  I swear, it’s like my nails are on fire!  I wasn’t able to fully capture it on camera…  But then again, my Julie G base color shifts alot so I’m sure that had a lot to do with it. Check out this next pic in indirect light- you can really see how the shimmer winds down and more of the glitter particles begin to show.  And look at that Fergie polish…it’s packed with some of teeniest glitter that I’ve ever seen!

Speaking of Fergie- I’m a huge fan of hers!  Guess what my cat’s name is?

You guessed it! Meet my girl Fergie 🙂