Breast Cancer Awareness Manicure

October is breast cancer awareness month. To show support and raise awareness, a lot of bloggers and polish enthusiasts are creating pink manis, mainly on Wednesdays. I did mine, but I haven't been able to post it until now. Here it is:

The base is Sinful Colors Super Nova, the boobies are a custom mix, and the nipples are Kleancolor Sheer Peach. I topped it with NYC Matte Me Crazy to diffuse the metallic reflection in the photo. I hope you like it!

Fine China Nails

While I had fun with the 31 Day Challenge, I'm glad to be done with it. I like admiring my manicures for more than one day. But the last day of the challenge turned into something special! It was to recreate someone's challenge entry you really liked, and there was one from the day before I absolutely loved. You can see it here. The colors and delicate lines reminded me of fine china, so I recreated it. It's on my last post here.

I was very happy with my manicure as it was, and then NAIL MAIL!!! I got the dotting tools I ordered and I didn't know what to do. I loved the colors and the look, but I wanted to use my new toys! I figured my ring finger has an accent, maybe I'll just dot my thumb as an accent too! So I did, and I loved it more!!! Of course, I had to do the rest:

I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White (I don't really like this white, but it's thin enough to marble) and Ruby Kisses Blue Pearl. They look even more like fine china, don't you think?

31 Day Challenge 2012 - Days 26 through 31

Day 26 - Inspired by a pattern

Day 27 - Inspired by artwork

Ecce Homo Restoration Fail

Day 28 - Inspired by a flag

United Houma Nation

Day 29 - Inspired by the supernatural

Day 30 - Inspired by a tutorial

Scalloped Nails

Day 31 - Recreate your favorite challenge

My Inspiration

31 Day Challenge 2012 - Days 21 through 25

Day 21 - Inspired by a color

Day 22 - Inspired by a song

Gangnam Style

Day 23 - Inspired by a movie

Tangled

Day 24 - Inspired by a book

White Oleander

Day 25 - Inspired by fashion

Alexander McQueen

31 Day Challenge 2012 - Days 16 through 20

Day 16 - Tribal Print

Day 17 - Glitter

Day 18 - Half Moons

Day 19 - Galaxies

Day 20 - Water Marble

31 Day Challenge 2012 - Days 11 through 15

Day 11 - Polka Dots

Day 12 - Stripes

Day 13 - Animal Print

Day 14 - Flowers

Day 15 - Delicate Print

31 Day Challenge 2012 - Days 6 through 10

Day 6 - Violet

Day 7 - Black & White

Day 8 - Metallic

Day 9 - Rainbow

Day 10 - Gradient

31 Day Challenge 2012 - Days 1 through 5

Day 1 - Red

Day 2 - Orange

Day 3 - Yellow

Day 4 - Green

Day 5 - Blue

My Wedding Manicure

So you might have noticed I haven't posted anything in a while. I've been a bit busy. I got married yesterday. I thought I'd share my manicure with you!

I used Kleancolor Sheer Pastel White topped with Mr. Right from the Kleancolor "Oh yes, I do!" mini collection. I topped that with China Glaze Luxe and Lush. For the accent, I used China Glaze Hook and Line and a little more Mr. Right with a rhinestone set in the middle.

How do you like it?

Saints Nails - WHO DAT!!!

My aunt has been bugging me to do a Saints themed manicure since I started this blog two months ago. Well, I finally did one last night! I love it so much, and it looks so fancy!!!

I love these so much, and I know a lot of sports fans in Louisiana do as well. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be planning out press-on sets for purchase available in Saints, Ragin' Cajuns, and Tigers colors. If you would be interested in any of these sets, please leave a comment below! (This is not an order, just a general survey.)

Don't forget to like me on Facebook here to get updates about this venture and photos of the manicures I don't get around to blogging about. Otherwise, If you like what I've been doing, please follow my blog through the "Join this site" button in the right column.

Hero Up!

The other day, I saw that White Jasmine Nail Art had posted a picture of nails she painted with various comic book super hero logos (Facebook photo of the nails). Most of the heroes represented were DC, so I had to counter with Marvel. I used lots of layering and even created a new color (the Spider-Man red I'm calling Spidey Sense) in order to get the looks I wanted. I'm posting a few photos because the glare on the nails kept getting in the way.

Which one is your favorite? I think they're all MARVELous!

My First (Semi) Successful Water Marble

I finally got a water marble to work! I had trouble because the polishes seemed to dry too quickly. I don't know if it's the altitude, but it might be. Recently, I got a good tip for stopping the quick drying - a few drops of polish remover in the water. It helped a lot!

I used China Glaze Foie Gras, Dress Me Up, and Hook and Line (also the base coat). There are a few bubbles and wrinkles, but I actually got it to marble! My thumb turned our the best.

One more point about Hook and Line. I know it's very streaky when you paint it on, but it's such a great silvery grey. So, I was very happy that there are no streaks in the water marble. I decided to put just Hook and Line into the water for my other hand. It was great to not have streaks! You can see how smooth it is on my other hand.

What do you think?

Soft Pink Nails

First, I want to say that I have started a Facebook page to go with the blog. You can "like" my new page by following the link to the right and clicking "like"! Ok... on to the manicure.

After my Olympic Rings peeled off, I thought it was time for something simple. I decided to go with a soft pink. I used some minis from the Kleancolor French Bijou collection: Sheer Pastel Nude, Sheer Peach, and Sheer Red. I layered one coat of each. While it looked nice, I just couldn't help it. I had to do something special just for me.

Can you see it? I think you might catch a tiny glimpse on the first two nails. There's some shimmer! A while back, I had sprayed some shimmer fragrance mist and some got on my hand. It made my polish sticky and the shimmer wouldn't come off. This time I did it on purpose. I spritzed my fresh manicure with the shimmer fragrance mist and followed with a topcoat. There are only a few sparkles per nail and most people won't notice a bit, but I know it's there just for me.

Olympic Rings

I can't not have an Olympic themed manicure when even the Olympians themselves are rocking polish! So here is mine. It's a simple design, but it's still bold.

It's all Kleancolor (number of coats): Metallic White (1), Vegas Night (2), Gold Caviar (3), Black Out (3), Leaves Jingle (2), and Metallic Red (1). I used a straw to get the circles and traced it with a striping brush. For the tips, I just painted sideways - if you're slow and careful, you don't need to clean up the edge. I avoided all medium and big glitters.

What do you think - do they get gold, silver, or bronze?

Fox In Socks Nails

Be Someone Cute is having a Dr. Seuss themed nail art contest. I couldn't pass it up! Fox in Socks is my absolute favorite Dr. Seuss book, so that's what I used as my inspiration. The tweetle beetles are my favorite because Mr. Knox turns it around on Mr. Fox!

This took me about 5 hours with all the detail and drying time. While I had all the colors I needed, some are layered to get the perfect hue. The right hand took about 3 hours. It has less detail, but it was done with my off hand. I also made 3 custom colors to match the book cover: the creamy yellow, the greyish brown, and the subdued orange.

Fox in socks, our game is done, sir. Thank you for a lot of fun, sir.

Orange Zest

I got my Jingle Splash Kleancolor mini collection from Copious, and I really wanted to try out the orange one first. It's called Chunky Copper, but it's not very coppery at all. The base is clear with a slight orange tint. There are three different sized glitters that are pretty well distributed. I can't tell if they are slightly orange or if they're gold and just reflecting the orange in the base, but they do look nice. The big pieces curl slightly, but I really like the texture it gives! I had to fish a little bit and place the bigger glitters, but the base didn't get goopy on me and it wasn't that difficult to do.

Since I wanted the big glitter to be the focus, I used it for my accent nails. On my other nails, I used two coats of China Glaze Riveting. It is a bright, vivid orange glitter. It is sheer, but in a subtle way. I also used one coat for the moons of my accent nails. This kind of reminds me of when you bend orange peel and the oil sprays. It's a very fun and fresh look.

I took quite a few shots in different lighting, and the sidewalk background balanced the lighting on the glitter best. The Riveting is only slightly less orange than the picture shows. I think I'm going to do the Vegas Night Kleancolor mini from the collection next. It's got blue and purple tiny glitters in a sheer blue base. You'll love it!

[kossori hana.] cosmetics - Indiegogo Campaign

Hello everyone! I am looking to develop my first cosmetics line. I have quite a few rewards to choose from, so check them out and remember to share!

[kossori hana.] cosmetics - Indiegogo Campaign

Plaid Nails

I got a whole lot of minis in from Copious this week (click here to get a $10 credit for signing up). Looking at them all, I didn't know what kind of manicure I wanted to do or even where to start. My 4 year old son has taken an interest in my manicures, as you can tell from my Lucky 13 Pride review, so I looked to him for inspiration.

He wanted me to paint green apples with yellow frosting on them. While that may be adorable, I decided to keep the colors but throw out the design. I went to Google for more ideas. I just searched nail tutorials and played "follow the link" until I found one I liked. I found this St. Patrick's Day Plaid tutorial from Steph's Closet and thought it would be perfect!

And here is my right hand too because I'm super proud of how straight I got the lines with my left hand!

I used two coats of Wet & Wild 449C (white) as a base. Then I painted two very thin layers of Finger Paints Art Nouv-Yellow in a wide off-center stripe. While that dried, I painted the vertical lines with a striping brush using an unnamed light green LA Colors Color Craze mini from a collection of 10 that had recently arrived. (I searched and couldn't find what the colors in the collection are called. If you know, please tell me in the comments!) I followed that with the horizontal stripes in the same color and added a layer of topcoat. 


It goes really well with my new flat-tip/square-tip nails. I have to mention I've never willingly gotten this shape of nail before. When someone at the nail parlor would shape them this way in the past when I got my nails done for special occasions, I'd remove the polish whenever I got home and refile them to an oval. But I thought I'd try something new. They took forever for me to cut and file, but I think they're growing on me.


This has got to be the most adorable manicure I've done so far. What do you think?