NOTW - Audrey Gets Inspired by the Internet

These are a few nail art designs that I found all over the internets (blogs, YouTube, Pinterest) and decided to try for myself. Here are the results:

Effie Trinket Reaping Nails

The Polish: 

     Purple: Zoya - Reagan

     Gold: Color Club - Disco Nap

 

The Process: I started with my few day old Reagan mani and decided to extend it with gold tips. I painted the gold polish onto the end of a cosmetic sponge and began dabbing it on the tip of my nail. I focused on the tip first to get the gold opaque and then moved gradually up the nail. When there was just a little gold left on the sponge I dabbed it all over the nail to get very subtle gold gradient.

The Inspiration: To be fair there are a bunch of YouTube tutorials out there and plenty of versions on Pinterest, but here are the first two that I saw: julieg713, cutepolish

White On Black Half Moon Mani

The Polish: 

      Black: China Glaze - Liquid Leather

      White: Sally Hansen - White On

      Glitter: Kiss Nail Art Paint - Silver Glitter

The Process: This is actually one of the simplest nail art designs to work with and it's so easy to change it up and play with different colors/combos. First, I painted all my nails black (I suggest using an opaque-in-one-coat polish so there is less drying time). After the base polish is dry, I placed one of those hole reinforcement stickers, cut in half, on each nail covering as much of the black that I want to be exposed at the end of the mani. I then painted the tips of each nail white and let that color dry almost completely before removing the stickers. The nice thing about adding the glitter is that if there are any imperfections after pulling up the stickers, the glitter will cover it.

The Inspiration: I got this idea from a pin I found during one of my first browsing sessions through Pinterest, and here is the link to the actual blog post from Let them have Polish!

AMERICA!!!!!!!

The Polish:

     Red: Sinful Colors - Ruby Ruby

     White: Sally Hansen - White On

     Blue: Sally Hansen - Pacific Blue

     Glitter: Essie - Set in Stones 

     Stars: Michaels Confetti Stars (I actually only found white stars in the "It's a Girl" confetti pack so I got 

        those, but I also bought a pack of multi-color stars)

The Process: My version of this began by painting by thumb and index finger blue and then painting the rest white. I waited for my nails to be fairly dry before I started the actual nail art process. I had some blank sticker labels laying around, so I cut those into strips and placed a couple on my pinkie and middle finger. I painted the entire nail red, after it dried I pulled off the strips to uncover the white underneath. Just to add a little sparkle, I topped my ring finger with some glitter (basically one coat, with a couple glitters strategically placed). On to the stars, I put a dab of clear polish where I wanted the stars and placed them around the nail. To be honest I would do this differently if was ever going to put stars on my nails again. I needed to push the stars into the blue polish more and they needed to be shaped a little so they actually fit the curve of my nail and didn't stick out and scratch the bejezzus out of everything.

The Inspiration: This design comes from MissJenFABULOUS, you can find her info on this design on YouTube, her Blog, or Pinterest.

NOTW - Reagan, Don't Touch My Tutu!, Blue-Ming

Zoya - Reagan

Reagan - Zoya you are definitely out of the dog house***. Initially I wasn't super interested in the Beach/Surf collection, but then Zoya had a really good deal and I decided to take advantage. I ended up getting two polishes (Zuza, Kimber) from the Surf group (shimmers) and one polish (Reagan) from the Beach group (creams). Zoya shimmers have given me some trouble in the past, but I didn't seem to have any problems with these, and as expected the cream applied like a dream. I love this color, I mean I know I like purples, but this has a lot of pinkish/red. I couldn't stop looking at this color, it's just so different from anything else I have.

OPI - Don't Touch My Tutu!

OPI - NYC Ballet Mini Collection

Don't Touch My Tutu! - I almost don't know why I bought this mini collection. OPI minis are reeeeeaaaalllly small and after I swatched them I thought I would never use them because they are extremely sheer. Why I think I may like them now: it's like a subtle, easy french mani using only one polish. The above pic is at least 3 coats (it might be 4 I can't remember now), and you can clearly see my nail lines, but that's obviously the pointe (har, har). I hate sheer colors that show my nail lines, but because these aren't bright colors I actually like the effect. The mini collection comes with a grey, white (pictured), purple, and a glitter top coat. I practically used half the mini to get the look I wanted so I may buy a full size or I might try the sheer pink. I feel like the grey might look too dirty and I will probably love the purple, because I'm me. Sadly, the glitter dried out, which I have never experienced with a polish, so I guess I won't be using that again (although it wasn't that special so I'm sure I can make do with any of the other glitters in my collection).

Color Club - Blue-Ming

Blue-Ming - Love love LoVe lOvE LOVE! The pic is with the flash so I think it shows up a touch more blue than real life, without the flash it was a bit on the green side. This is just a really gorgeous minty, Tiffany-esque, blue/green. The reason it's topping the favorites list is that is bright, not neon bright but also not dirty, dusty looking like CG For Audrey or CG Aquadelic. I got a lot of compliments on this color, I think because it's just such a beautiful color, it's flattering, and it's right on the current mint trend.



*** First, Zoya posts a lot of deals and coupons on their Facebook page, basically the reason I decided to get any of the Beach/Surf collection polishes. Second, they have a share the love program that gives you points for sharing links or posting things on Facebook and those posts can be redeemed for additional deals. Third, whenever you order from Zoya you get free stuff, for small purchases it's usually just color spoons of the collection you purchased from, but when you start spending more you get better freebies (mini Remove, Qtica sugar scrubs).