The Beauty Buffs- Pastels

New things are happening over here at Craftynail headquarters!  And when I say headquarters I mean-  me, my nails and my computer.  LOL

I’m thrilled to finally tell you this!  I’m now part of a group called The Beauty Buffs!  We’re a wonderfully diverse collection of beauty bloggers brought together by Norelis of Fierce Makeup & Nails.  We will collaborate every other Wednesday to post about our top picks in color trends, nail polishes, makeup, beauty and more.  Our series has a new theme every two weeks and today is our first one… we’re talking about PASTELS!  So who are The Beauty Buffs?   Drop by our blogs and you’ll see all kinds of wicked nail art, swatches, makeup, fashion for all sizes, health, and product reviews.  Make sure to click #TheBeautyBuffs – PASTELS (also at the end of my post) so you can meet the other Buffs.  I know you are going to love our new biweekly series!   Especially you nail art fans out there. So let’s get to it…

Today we’re talking about pastels!  The pastel trend of soft muted colors is ‘a given’ when springtime arrives.  But what about when all the pastels are too sugary sweet for your liking?  Sometimes you feel like Sasha instead of Beyoncé, amiright?  That’s when I like to pair my pastels with a dark color to give them a fiercer look.  Fierce, haha that’s me!  Yup, just ask my boyfriend- he can give you a whole list of words that describe me. 😉

This dotticure is cute and springy, but it also has a little extra kick, don’t ya think?  I love how the muted colors really jump to life against the black.  Here are the polishes I used…

BLACK ♥ Black Onyx by OPI

PURPLE ♥ Charming by Revlon

MINT ♥ Honeydew by Fresh Paint

YELLOW ♥ Mellow Yellow by Sally Hansen

PINK ♥ Bubblegum Pink by Sally Hansen

BLUE ♥ Breezy Blue by Sally Hansen

My dots came out very uniform!  I want to share with you how I did that.  Take a look at my Perfect Pastel Dots Tutorial below.  You can use an unbent bobby pin or like me, I used an inexpensive dotting tool from Amazon….

The key is to start at the base of your nail and make one straight line of dots.  If your middle line of dots is evenly-spaced and straight (like in picture 3) then there’s a good chance that your whole nail will look good!  Then move on to your second line of dots.  You see how my second line started a little lower on the nail in picture 4?  It’s important to make the lines staggered like that … that way your first line of dots is offset from your second.  That’s what makes the polka dots look evenly distributed, kinda like checkers laid out on a checker board.  It’s hard to explain in words so I hope the pictorial demonstrates my technique. 🙂

Thanks for checking in with me today!  I hope you like my dots and that you find my little tutorial useful.  Dotticures were intimidating for me until I got my technique down.  Try this one out!  Then we can all be dot-dot-dotting like mad-women. 😀

Don’t forget to see what the other Beauty Buffs have got goin’ on….

Day 12 of OMD Challenge- Warm Brown Dotticure

Hey nail fans!  Day 12 of the OMD  Rather Awesome Challenge is DOTS!  For me, dotting is one of the easiest designs to do.  And normally I don’t do a lot of dotticures because I feel like it’s cheating somehow.  I know that doesn’t make any sense at all…. but I guess I feel like they’re so simple I wonder if people will be like, “Come on Crafty, gimme something more original than that!”  That’s dumb, I know.

For today’s dotticure I wanted to go with a brown and pink combo.  I love those colors together- but after rifling through my stash I realized I have like NO browns!!  I have a few shimmery/metallic shades, some nudes and some that are kinda orangey…. but as far as regular old browns- I got nothing.   I feel an online shopping spree in my future!!!!!!!  So instead of brown and pink I dug into the dark recesses of my stash to find a few nice warm brownish colors.  Here’s what I’m wearing:

creamy yellow base color ♥ 2 coats of Zoya Jacqueline 🙂

putty colored dots ♥ OPI Don’t Pretzel My Buttons

brown shimmery dots ♥ Maybelline Ultimate Wear in Tarnished Taupe (this polish is as old as the hills!)

mauve dots ♥ Sally Hansen Teflon Tuff in Wood Violet Cream (another verrry old bottle)

All dots were applied with a large dotting tool from amazon.  What do you think?  And do you have a favorite brown?  I think I need some nice creamy brown shades so lemme know if you have any recommendations!  Thanks!

12. Dots :

Polka Dots and Glow in the Dark Nail Polish Review

It’s day 9 of the 30 Day Nail Challenge for April and the theme is polka dots!

Today I’ve got Glow In The Dark Nail Polish from Claire’s Cosmetics to share with you.  I purchased this un-named pink polish last month at Claire’s Boutique in the mall.  Since the theme is polka dots I used my Konad M79 stamping plate and some black Konad polish to accent my ring finger.  It looks cute and summery but let’s get to my review…

First off, the polish comes in this awesome bottle that has a light in the top!  The whole bottle lights up when you press the button on top of the applicator brush!!  Good packaging ploy, Claire’s Boutique!  They enticed me to spend the $7.

After applying my first coat I was surprised at how sheer it was- it barely tinted my nails pink at all.  So I started investigating the bottle to see if there were special instructions.  Maybe I was supposed to put the polish over top of an opaque color?  I peeled off my price tag- to reveal no instructions at all.  I guess you are supposed to wear it by itself.  But hold on!  Wait… under the price tag sticker I found an expiration date!  The bottle says it was manufactured in Feb 2011 and it expires in August 2013…that’s only a couple months away!  Well, that would’ve been nice to know!  I wish I still had my receipt- I’m tempted to write a letter to Claire’s to suggest that they not intentionally cover the expiry info!

I applied three coats and I still have a lot of visible nail line.  But I figured I’d stop at 3.  It dries fast though, which is nice.  It has a very strange formula due to the particles of glow in the dark stuff that’s in it.  It was thin but gritty and I had to paint with as few strokes as possible.  If I painted over a section that was just painted- then the polish would lift off and it looked streaky and thin.  Application was weird but it dried quickly so the three coats weren’t a hassle.  The final result?  A sheer neon with a gritty matte texture.  Here’s a closeup.↓

I put a nice thick coat of seche vite over top to try and smooth it out.  It still feels a little bumpy though, but no biggie.  So the next question is….  HOW WELL DOES IT GLOW IN THE DARK?

It glows just fine.  Nothing that I would write home about, but I’m not disappointed either.  It works as expected.  I wonder if it would glow more with a bright base coat underneath?  Also, my bottle’s getting close to expiration so perhaps a newer bottle would glow more?  I’m surprised that it didn’t glow in pink… instead, it was more of your standard yellow glow, typical of most glow-in-the-dark stuff.  Wonder what it looks like under a blacklight?  I had a hard time photographing this… but here’s an untouched shot of it in the dark. ↓ On the computer this pic looked okay, but on my Nook Tablet it looked so dark.  Sorry, but I tried!

Overall, I do like this polish.  I really love the tone of this pink.  It almost has a peach tint to it and it makes me look tan!  It’s so summery and tropical and the sheerness of it makes it look like a sheet of neon glass over my nails. Normally I don’t like sheer polishes- but this one reminds me of summertime so I will definitely wear it again.  The glow-in-the-dark thing is fun… so why not?  I’m glad I added this polish to my stash.  The more I wear it the more I adore the color.  I feel like I need a vacation, sunglasses and a drink with an umbrella in it!

Have you ever tried glow in the dark polish?