Patterned Native American Nails in Red

I’m excited that today is day 1 of April Nail Art Challenge!

Julie from Short And Sweet In Texas organized this month-long nail painting extravaganza!

The theme of Day 1 is RED.  So here’s my red manicure:

I used four different red polishes and a dotting tool to make the native american pattern.  To avoid having the glossiness distract from the design I then topped it off with one coat of my MASH matte top coat.  This was pretty easy to do… but because of lighting I couldn’t get a good pic!  It’s one of those manis that looks better in real life … we’ve all had them before! lol  Here’s the red polishes I used-

OPI ♥ Grand Canyon Sunset

Zoya ♥ Carmen

Orly ♥ Naughty

AVON ♥ Ruby Slipper

If you are interested in joining the nail art challenge – it’s not too late!  Just paint your nails and post them online!  It will be fun!   Here’s the info.

VIEW THE OTHER SUBMISSIONS HERE!!!!

Copycat: Adele’s Silver Louboutins

I love when celebrities show off their cool nails!  Like Katy Perry, Rhianna, Fergie and of course Adele!  I just love Adele’s Louboutin Nails from last year’s Grammys.  We’ve seen a lot of the black and red Louboutin nails… so I really like how she mixed it up by pairing the red with a glittery silver polish instead.  I will probably never own a pair of Louboutins- so why not try the nails out for a spin? Sure, I’m a year behind…but that won’t stop me.

I found this Adele pic from a seventeen magazine article. You can click on the photo to read the full article.  Seventeen reports that Adele’s nail stylist used Ciaté Paint Pots in “Jewel” and “Mistress” to create this mani.  My stash is not that expansive and I don’t even own one single solitary bottle of Ciaté polish.  So to copycat her look I had to get creative.  Not including top and base coats, I used 6 different polishes for this mani!  I did the red first, and used a few different mini bottles of polish to get the shade right (I loved using the teeny mini brushes for painting the underneath).   I also put some seche vite on top of the red since I wanted to make sure it dried properly.  Then I painted the top of my nails next.  To simulate Ciaté Jewel I did two thin coats of a light purple called Revlon Charming, then a coat of silver holographic polish to make it glow.  Then I topped it off with two different holographic glitters and some seche vite.  I think I have 7 layers of polish on the top of my nails and 5 layers on the underneath!  No one said being beautiful was easy.

I hope the underside of my nails don’t stain too bad.  I used some creamy white Orly Ridge Filler before I painted on the red to help prevent staining.  There was somewhat of a mess with the red, but that was expected.  I used some ‘manicure swabs’ for cleanup which worked pretty well.  Manicure swabs are handy for intricate cleanup because they’re essentially pointed cotton swabs.  So glad I found them at Harmon – they’re perfect for paint jobs like this one.

I’m really enjoying having this mani on!  I think it’s cool to glance down and see my nails painted from every which way!  What do you think of this look?  If you’d like to see my other Louboutin manicure- here’s the link!

what I’m wearing today- maraschino tips

The red mani that I’m wearing today kind of went in a different direction than I planned.. but it came out cool!  Originally I wanted a french manicure with red tips.  So I free-hand painted some red french tips on my nails using a Sephora by OPI polish called And a Cherry on Top.  Sephora describes it as an opaque vivid maraschino.  I have a mini-sized bottle of this polish and the small brush is perfect for hand-painting french manis.  Well, it came out more dramatic than I expected!  I loved my blood-red tips!  They were shiny red and hot hot hot!  I would’ve taken pics but it was late at night and dark out.

Keeping in mind that I had to attend a family event today – I felt the need to soften the look a bit.  I went ahead and topped it off with a coat of Sally Hansen Maximum Growth Nourishing Nail Color  – the sheer nude that came with my SH French Manicure Kit.  Unfortunately the red didn’t shine through well after applying the nude topcoat. So I put a row of tiny dots using more of my And a Cherry on Top.  Then I slightly mixed both the cherry and the nude polishes together and then dabbed it on my tips with a q-tip to give a blotchy effect.  Mixing the two colors really transformed the maraschino to a hot pink.  It came out kinda cool…a different play on the regular old french manicure!

Sometime soon I’ll have to try out my And a Cherry on Top again- it’s a luscious red!!  I don’t have a favorite red polish yet, so maybe this could be the one?  Do you have a favorite red ?

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 🙂