Pink Ombre Nails

I did this mani when my sister was in town a couple weeks ago!  She had actually emailed me a video tutorial she found online on how to get an ombre look with your polish and I decided to try it out while she was here!

I tried to do a pink ombre since a friend of mine was running her first marathon that weekend and she loves pink ombre!  I thought maybe it would send invisible pixie dust waves her way. 

Here’s what I did!

I picked out 3 polishes that were different shades of pink and a white polish.  I painted my nails with the white polish first.  After it dried I used a makeup sponge and painted the 3 pink colors on it.  Then I used the sponge to dab the paint onto each nail, reapplying polish onto the sponge for each nail.

Nails right after sponging on the polish

It was really messy but the results were great and most the work is just cleaning up afterwards! Literally!  It took a while to remove the excess polish off my fingers and I spilled some polish while putting the bottles away.  My poor hubby had to help me get the stain out of the carpet!

I really loved the effect of this technique and it was easier than I thought!  Here is a link to the video tutorial I used that my sister had sent me.

MissJenFABULOUS Tutorial- One Step Ombre Nails-  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OAvvtPEsng

The tutorial is by MissJenFabulous of  polishandpearls.com.  She has other tutorials too that I’ll probably check out sometime.

When my nails were dry I added some Mickey shapes to add a dash of Disney to it.  I was happy with my first attempt using this ombre technique and am looking forward to trying it again sometime to see if I can get even better results.  

The next pic has cameras and a park map in the background because my sister and I were getting ready to go to Disneyland!  Thanks to her again for sending me the link to that tutorial! 

Incredibles Nails!

This next design was inspired by a Pixar movie I really enjoy- The Incredibles!

I had the idea to paint the logo onto red polish and one evening finally decided to give it a try.  I wasn’t sure I could pull it off but when I was done I sent my sisters a photo of my nails without telling them the inspiration and they guessed it right away!  So my attempt to paint the logo passed the test!

I freehanded the logos using a thin brush and some of the polish from a nail art kit I got at Target a few months ago called “Kiss Nail Artist."  The red I used was OPI “Off with her Red.”  I referred to the DVD cover while I did the logo.

I really had to take my time when I painted the design but I think it paid off!  What do you think?

Stars Mani

This next mani is a simple one I did last week.  It consisted of some new polishes I had bought at Target a couple days before.  I didn’t have a lot of time so I decided to just try the new polishes out!

This was the result!

The two new polishes I had bought were wet n wild Fergie "Going Platinum" and wet n wild Fergie "Hollywood Walk of Fame" (the star polish).  Honestly I bought them thinking they were on sale without realizing they were sitting in the wrong spot on the shelf but I was happy to have new stuff to try anyway!  (They are around $4 each. Not bad but I had thought it was $2, oops!)

I used the "Going Platinum" color for my ring finger and a black polish I already had for the rest of my nails (Sally Hansen Black Out).  I used the "Hollywood Walk of Fame" polish as a top coat on the nails I had painted black.  I really liked the stars in this polish but it was hard to get them on the brush and to paint them onto the nails.  I think next time I will maybe try pouring a bit out and using the brush and maybe a toothpick to get the stars where I want them.  Despite that though I still liked the result and even got a couple compliments on them throughout the weekend.  I think Mickey liked them too!

The Backside of Water!

My next mani is one I worked on this past weekend. There is a nail art contest on an awesome blog I like called Chalkboard Nails and I thought I would give it a try!  The task is to do a mani using warm colors or cool colors.  It's been pretty hot so I decided using cool colors sounded more refreshing! ;)

I did some brainstorming on what I could do with cool colors.  I have a few different blues and thought I'd try to do something related to water and then it came to me!

I present to you the amazing, astounding, eighth wonder of the world... the backside of water!!!!!!

As some of you may have guessed I used one of my favorite parts of the Jungle Cruise as inspiration.  There is a part on the ride where you go by Schweitzer Falls a second time but you go behind it which usually leads to a pun by the skipper about seeing the back side of the water!  I decided I'd paint the boat on my thumb and use different blues and greens on my nails to try to portray the backside of the waterfall. It took 2 tries but I'm very happy with it!

 

Here is a list of the colors I used:

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "White On" (for the base and top of boat)

Sinful Colors "Nirvana" (for the bottom of the boat)

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails "Sturdy Sapphire" (Waterfall)

L.A. Colors Color Craze "Wired" (Waterfall)

L.A. Colors Color Craze "Sea Siren" (Waterfall)

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Black Out" (boat and people on boat)

I thought I'd take a fun picture of my mani in water! I tried to take a picture of the backside of the water but I hit my head on the faucet.  Haha!  Sorry but I had to sneak in another corny pun!  ;-)  

I hope you enjoyed today's mani!  Special thanks to my sisters who put up with my many texts last weekend and gave me helpful feedback!

Flower Nails

Recently one of my sisters was in town!  My husband arranged it and it was so wonderful to see her!  I hadn't seen her since Christmas which is much too long.  While she was here we had an evening where I painted her nails.  Here is what I did!

I let her pick the colors and I used them to paint a design that had flowers and a couple hidden Mickeys (since we were going to Disneyland the next day!).  She liked Sephora by OPI "Traffic-Stopper Copper" so I used that on one of her nails as well.  Here's a picture of the mani I took while waiting for our lunch in California Adventure.

While at the parks I got her a 2012 Duffy during her visit since my other sisters all have one and she should have a travel buddy too! We bought him a Pluto shirt since it was too hot for his sweatshirt!  ;-)  He liked her mani!

I think my sister seemed really happy with her nails and I was delighted to have her here. I miss her lots!

IT Crowd Nails

This mani is inspired by a BBC TV show I love called The IT Crowd!  The cast is great and it always makes me laugh!  My favorite character is Moss played by Richard Ayoade.  When I heard he was in the movie The Watch I had to go see it.  After the movie I went home and started re-watching the series while painting my nails and voila!- I ended up painting IT Crowd nails!

The design might not make a lot of sense if you haven't seen the show but I'll do my best to explain!

The IT Crowd- Source- Channel4.com

I painted my nails green to try to match the opening titles of the show.  On my pinkie I painted a sea lion surrounded by fire- yes, seriously!   Without giving too much away- there is an episode where one of the characters tries to figure out how there could be a fire at a "Sea Parks." You see a sea lion on one of the DVD menus!

"A fire? At a Sea Parks?"

On my thumb I painted Moss' (Richard Ayoade) signature hair and his glasses.  Here's a close up of my thumb along with a picture I took of The Watch poster when I saw the movie.

If you haven't seen The IT Crowd you should check it out sometime! It's pretty funny!  Happy Friday everyone!

Star Wars- Darth Maul Nails

This is my attempt at nail art inspired by Darth Maul from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace!

 

I did this mani about 2 weeks ago.  I wanted to try to do a design on my nails that resembled the one Darth Maul has on his face.  I printed out some pictures to use as reference and freehanded the black with a thin brush. The results were a bit messy and my triangles didn't come out quite right.  I wasn't very happy with them at the time but looking back at the photos, I think they were okay for a first attempt!

Fun little tidbit- this past May, my husband and I went to Disney World for our honeymoon and were able to check out Star Wars weekends at  Disney's Hollywood Studios.  We were pretty excited when we saw Ray Park there.  He plays Darth Maul in the Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace!

Ray Park!  (I love that he's wearing a Darth Maul button!)  personal photo

I'm a little behind on posting my nail art so I'm hoping to catch up!  I've got a different kind of post coming up next week as well!  :)

Sleeping Beauty- Pink and Blue Nails

In my last post I shared my Maleficent nails.  When I did those nails I did Maleficent on one hand and then decided to do something simpler on my other hand (mostly since it was getting late that night!).  I wanted to try to stick to the Sleeping Beauty theme and ended up painting the nails on my other hand pink and blue.

I chose pink and blue because they remind me of the scene where two of the fairies in Sleeping Beauty are arguing over the color of the dress they're making for her ("Make it pink!"  "Make it blue!"). I did two of my nails with both colors.  I didn't use tape and just freehanded the two colors because the dress gets a bit messy so I didn't need a straight line.

This was really quick one to do!  I may do it again sometime!