Sunday, May 31, 2009

Nail Color Gradiation






I
first saw this technique done

on my Korean Friends nails.
Its becoming really popular everywhere.
It looks great on short or long nails.
This is my first try at it. 


What you need:



3 or 4 shades of the same color.
1 light/sheer. 1 medium. 1 dark. 1 sparkly one (optional) 
Im using pink 
But you can use yellow,green blue , even black
Whatever you want ! 

How to do it : 


1. Cover the nail in the light shade. Do a second coat.





2. Mix the light shade with your medium shade. 
Do this in a plastic plate or whatever you have. Use the medium shade
brush to mix and apply. Start in the middle of your nail and brush up.
You want to be able to see the light shade at the bottom 


3. Grab your medium shade and put some on the top part 
of your nail so that you can still see some of the light/medium mix.
Basically you are just painting lines of different shades on your nail 
to make that fading effect. 


4. Next Grab your dark shade. Paint the very top of your nail tip.
This is the smallest layer. 


5. You can now add a sparkly color on your nail or leave it plain.


6. Add 2 coats of top coat to make it nice and gloss


Done ! 


[ note: this look requires patience. you might wanna purchase 
some fast drying top coat or some other type of
solution that makes nail polish dry faster if you dont
have a nail dryer ] 

Saturday, May 30, 2009

How to get Healthy Nails that grow





So you want to have stronger or longer nails ?





Well first - If you bite your nails...stop ! 
You will never see any growth if you dont.
Saliva makes the skin near your nail all raised and nasty looking.
I know its hard if its a habit. But get over it !  

Second - Eat well  Lots of veggies and fruit will help. 
Try a Hair Nails Skin vitamin as well.  
I drink 5 drops of Vitamin E Oil Daily
 Check any pharmacy. 


Third - Use a Nail Strengthener. 

Some examples below:








Alrighty. Now that we have that sorted.

How to maintain Nails.

You will need :
---------------------


4 Sided Nail Buffer
I got mine from Body Shop.
Each side serves a different purpose
Go in the same direction
10 times
on each side of the buffer.

--------------------
Cuticle Cream
If you cant find the Burts Bees try the one Below.
I love the Burts bees one so much. The smell
is addictive. 
This one is Sally Hansen maximum growth cuticle pen

---------


Base & Top Coat


 To protect your nail
and your nail polish


----------



Alright. Now you have your tips and tools.
Dont despair. You will see results in 1 month
I broke a nail in Japan and then put a fake nail on my pointer.
 I can tell you that in a week I already could
 notice growth.
 I didnt even have any of my nail care products with me!
So try these tips & enjoy buying
lots of nail polish for your new lovely nails : ] 



Neon Love






I like this look  ! 

Her 5 fingers are all different neon colors.

All you need for this is a coulple coats of base coat to make it nice and shiny

since only part of your nail will have color.

Then just put a piece of tape covering 2/3 of your nail

so that a bare tip is showing.

Paint each tip a different neon color

or if you only have say 2 neon polishes - alternate them ! 

Summery and Cool ! 

I will try this soon.

Black & Yellow







What you need :

Black Nail Polish
Yellow Nail polish or some type of bright color.
Top & Base Coat

I alternated the black and the yellow.
My thumbs are different colors. 
So one hand has  3 yellow nails and the
other has 3 black nails

Fun ! Simple and Cute.

Use any bright color you want
& Add black dots on top.
Finished ! 

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

TAKING A SMALL BREAK

Good morning dear readers :)


I am taking a wee, small break this week from blogging. I might have a few posts this week or maybe none at all. I am just taking a little break, getting caught up on a few things. I will still be checking in with everyone and their blogs. I should be back to posting as usual next week :)


HAVE A GREAT WEEK ALL!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

KONAD GIVEAWAY WINNER!!

The winner of the Konad kit picked by random.org, was lucky comment number 57:


Jesserka said...
I haven't bought a Konad kit yet because I'm worried that I'll go over board buy this huge fancy kit and then not be able to get the hang of it and end up not liking it.



Congrats!! Please check your email, as I have sent a request to you for your address.


Thanks again to all who entered! I really hope to be able to do another one of these really soon!


Also a special THANK YOU goes to Kathleen of OC NAIL ART who was kind enough to donate a portion of the prizes!!!

Friday, May 22, 2009

YOU PICK MY MOMS NEXT MANI

That's right ladies, I am putting my mom's nails in your hands :)


As I said earlier, I think we need to break her out of her brown/pink/gold slump she has been in. Above I have set up a poll, and this is how I want you to vote:


You must pick a total of (3) answers


1) Pick which plate you think I should use, see plates below. (I will pick the design)

M71




M57



M48



M28



M16





2) Pick what base color I should use. (I will pick a coordinating stamp color)



3) What polish type, ie: glitter, neon, etc.



I am going to leave this poll up through the long holiday weekend, so get those votes in!! I will feature the winning mani combo next week.




ooooooh, and MOM if you are reading this, I'm letting the blog readers pick your next mani........surprise!!! :)
* * * * * * * * * *
Just wanted to wish you all a great weekend and Memorial day. Since I have a three day weekend, I have a lot of nail stuff planned.
- I got lots of new polish that I am looking forward to trying out, so I will have tons of swatches coming up.
- I will also be playing around with my Konad and using my "B" kit in hopes of inspiring any of you scragglers out there who haven't entered the OC Nail Art Contest (check for the link at the top of the page).
- Don't forget that Monday is the last day to enter to win your very own konad set, so if you haven't done it, what are waiting for? (The link for this is at the top of the page too.) The winner will be announced on Tuesday!!
I hope to get my creative juices flowing and have lots of good pics for you all.I will be back to my regular posting on Tuesday. See you all then.

BLUE HAWAII

This is my nail of the day. For the base I used two coats of China Glaze - Sky High-Top. Then I stamped the fishnet pattern using Konad plate #M57 and used Sally Hansen - Brisk Blue for the stamp polish. Last I used China Glaze - Passion and Konad plate #M29 to stamp the images. I really like the look of the two blues together, they make such a nice pattern that stands out yet isn't so bold you can't stamp another image over the top.











HOT PINK & GOLD NAILS

This is my mom's mani I did for her last night. She decided on hot pink, pink glitter and gold stamped images. Way to go mom - finally getting a little neon and glittah in your life! For the base I painted three coats of China Glaze - Pink Voltage. Even after three coats this color left definite VNL, but mom said it didn't bother her. Then I painted one coat of NYX - Sheer Nude, which I vote to be the dumbest name given to a nail polish - there is absolutely NOTHING sheer or nude about a hot pink glitter nail polish. C'mon NYX, don't let color blind people name your polishes! After this dried, we stamped a flower design from one of my fauxnad plates, which I didn't get the number of. She originally wanted the pineapples, but after we stamped the pinkie nail, they weren't showing up enough. We left the pineapples on the two pinkie nails. To stamp I used China Glaze - Passion. Last, I applied three silver bouillon beads to the center of each flower. Turned out pretty cute I think.












Dinky was patiently waiting for granny to stop using her new toy from Tuli as a prop so she could play with it again.
Are you done yet granny????

Maybe you all have noticed a trend in my moms nails - Pink or Brown base with a gold stamp (usually a grass pattern)...........boring! Really there is nothing wrong with what she picks, but it's fun to do something different every once in a while too.
So I thought it would be fun to let YOU ALL pick out what her next mani should look like! I am going to be doing a post later today with some design & color choices and I am going to let you all vote on her next mani.

HAPPY FRIDAY & LIVE, HOT DINKY ACTION

Happy Friday ladies!!! Just wanted to share a couple of pics of what I wake up to in the mornings. The light pink is my pillow and the dark purple is another pillow, she mashes her self in that tight spot and then flips over on her back and konks out!!



Who wants to keeessssss that belllllleh???

And now for that Live, HOT Dinky action! Since I figured out how to use the video mode on my digital camera, I have been trying to capture Dinky's Rodeo Dog action for you guys. She only makes it around the table about four or five times before she quits and I have to rough her up a bit and then put her down before she will run around the table again. She is good for about 3 or 4 of these before she is pooped out. The little clip I have for you is the tail (hehehe) end of her last rodeo the other night, so right at the beginning (the first like 2 seconds of the clip) you see her running fast as her little legs will take her before she quits. And if you turn up the sound all you can hear is her loud panting she does while she is in mid-rodeo action. I am going to do my best this weekend to get a good video of her doing this, so until then I leave you with the RODEO DOG TEASER!!