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!

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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?

Swatch: Lucky 13 Pride

Last month, I entered a nail art contest hosted by Kyoti's Nails to show LGBT pride/support. I entered my Alan Turing manicure. I won in the amateur division, which I was very excited about since I painted that manicure exactly one week after I started painting my nails. My prize was a mini bottle of Pride.

I got my prize in the mail today! While I was happy, my 4 year old son was sad that he didn't get anything in the mail. To cheer him up, I let him be the first one to try it out by painting his thumbnail.

He liked it so much, he wanted to paint my nails. Oh noes!!! I reluctantly agreed, which cheered him up. I painted 2 coats of Wet & Wild 449C (white) and let them dry. Then I let him go to town!

This actually seems to be a good test of the polish. It has a very even glitter distribution, even when applied by a 4 year old! The colors are also very even, with no color showing up more than the others.

I really love this polish! It's very festive and fun. I can see it being used as sprinkles, confetti, polkadots (though my son did point out to me that they weren't circles), or just a simple way to show LGBT pride/support!

Gloss/Matte Gradient?

After I got NYC Matte Me Crazy, a family member put in a request for a manicure. She had seen the gloss tips and the gradients, and she wanted to see both at once. I thought that was a great idea! Unfortunately, I am not a skilled polisher. I've only been polishing my nails for less than a month now. While I believe I have done well with some (Forest Gradient, Holly Golightly Nails: Revisited, and Strawberry Nails), I have failed with others (ha! you go find 'em!). This will probably go under my list of failures.

Yeah, it's not the best. And you should see my six other nails! I tried a few different techniques. The traditional two color technique with two uncolored polishes did not work one bit! I couldn't tell where one ended and one began. I tried a different technique, but I had used a fast dry topcoat for the gloss, and it thickened way too fast. I finally cut the matte coat out of the final sponge technique since it dried up almost as fast as the topcoat.

The final technique I used goes like this. Base coat and two color coats go on first and dry. I used China Glaze Foie Gras because dark colors show the matte/gloss contrast better. Also because it makes my nails look like delicious gourmet chocolates! Then it's matte coat time. I've heard that other matte coats take forever to dry. This one dries in under a minute. Finally, it's sponge time! I used a non-fast LA Colors Base Coat/Top Coat. I sponged on a light layer to the middle of my nail. The second round, I made sure the sponge was moist and wiped it down the last third of my nail. The last round, I made sure the sponge was super moist and dabbed it onto the tip. My middle finger turned out best.

What do you think of the concept? If you can improve on the technique, I'd really like to see. So post your links in the comments!!!

Holly Golightly Nails: Revisited

When I read that The Polish Well was having a giveaway and nail art contest, I knew I had to participate! The nail art theme is Fashion. And who is more fashionable than Ms. Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) from one of my favorite movies, Breakfast at Tiffany's? No one! So I went on to rework my favorite manicure so far and add a new, fashionable element - delicate tips! This one hand took me all day to create. All of the art is original for this manicure, done with only polish and Sharpie. Here is the inspiraion:

On a background of China Glaze For Audrey (of course!), I incorporated the three main fashionable elements of this photo: the tiara, the necklace, and the cigarette holder. I drew the tiara and cigarette holder by hand, but after a bit of practicing, I knew I needed a different technique for the necklace. I premade the dots individually on a sheet of sticker paper and let them dry before placing each one individually on my nail tips, then I used extra to enhance the tiara. Here are the dots:

And here is the finished manicure!

What do you think? Is it better than the first go round?

Independence Nails

I did this manicure yesterday. While I really liked how it turned out, I accidentally put a topcoat as my base. It peeled off almost completely today. But hey, easy cleanup for what could have been a messy removal!

I used Wet & Wild 449C as the white base, 2 coats for full opacity. After it fully dried, I used scotch tape to mask the white stripes. The pink is next with 1 coat of China Glaze Flirty Tankini. I took off the tape right after I finished the following nail. Once this layer dried, I used hole reinforcement stickers to mask off the bases. I painted the tips with 2 coats of China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le. I dotted the tips with the white and let it set a few before topcoating.

How did you decorate your nails for the holiday?

Strawberry Nails

I wore my Holly Golightly nails for as long as I possibly could. Yesterday, they chipped. I was so sad, as I loved them soooo much! So last night I had to remove the polish and begin again with a fresh design. And what could be fresher than strawberries!!! I've seen quite a few different takes on the idea, so as usual I took the best ideas from each one here is the result:

I started with a base coat and 2 coats of China Glaze Flirty Tankini. It's still a little sheer, so do a third if you like. You may notice this is a bright pink, and not a red. The manicures I saw that used red ended up looking kind of dull, and I wanted something a little more vibrant. The contrast with the green and yellow toned down the "pinkness" a little bit, so it still looks very berry-like.

Once the pink dried, I used a striping brush to paint white leaves in a soft triangle pattern. The white you use doesn't matter. It just needs to cover the pink so the green doesn't look brown when you paint it on top. I didn't have a bright green, so I mixed a little China Glaze For Audrey and Finger Paints Art Nouv-Yellow. I made sure it was slightly more bluey than yellowy for a softer contrast with the pink. Then, I painted it over the white. It may start to look a little chunky, but the topcoat will take care of that.

Finally, I used a dotting tool with the yellow for the seeds. I started with 4 dots on the top row (3 on pinky). Then, I placed dots between them on the second row for at least 3, but if the space allowed it 4 or 5 is fine. I followed the same for the last row. I did see some manicures that used a toothpick to make the seeds with tiny lines. It was a very cute effect, but I had no toothpicks. After it dries, finish it off with a topcoat or 2 and there you have it!

Now, who else has a sudden craving for a fruit plate?