Druzy Ring Inspired Nails

Hello friends! I am so sorry that I have not been posting as much lately.  I just started grad school last night and the last few weeks of summer have been very busy!  But today I have a very exciting post for you all!

A couple of weekends ago I went on a weekend trip to Newport, Rhode Island.  It is a very beautiful summer town that has a lot of awesome shops in it.  While looking in one of the shops I found a beautiful cocktail ring that just caught my eye.  It had a beautiful deep blue stone that seemed to have a lot of glitter in it.  I am a sucker for rings and I bought it for myself.  After talking to the woman who owned the store I found out the stone was called Druzy and I have used it to inspire my post today.

For this manicure I used Zoya Frida (from the Fall 2012 Glossy Collection) and Color Club Sugarplum Fairy.  I created the look by using the steps of a typical jelly glitter sandwich.  I started with two coats of Zoya Frida, then I added one coat of Sugarplum Fairy, then I added two more coats of Frida on top.

The bottom two pictures show the ring I bought in comparison to the nails.  The stone is a little darker of a color than the polish that I used, but I still think that it looks really pretty and it has the essence of the stone.  It is a really fun play on a jelly sandwich and I love how it matched my nails.  Usually I am not a matching kind of person, but to me this was really cute.

What do you think of this manicure?  Leave a comment here, on Facebook, or tweet me @Polish_Paradise!

Tutorial: Roses

I have been in a real nail art mood lately, so I decided it would be fun to try out a design that I have had brewing in my head for a while... a play on a floral denim pattern.  I really love using flowers for nail art.  They are so feminine and dainty

For this design I used OPI I Don't Give a Rotterdamn!, Color Club Poker Face, Ulta Noel, China Glaze Holly-Day, and Kiss Nail Art Paint in White.  I also used a large pointed and small pointed dotting tool to create the roses.

I did the tutorial on a nail wheel so that it would be easier for me to photograph step by step.  

Step 1:

I started out with two coats of OPI I Don't Give a Rotterdamn!

Step 2:

Using the small dotting tool and Kiss Nail Art Paint in White I created a polka dot background.

Step 3:

Using the large dotting tool and Color Club Poker Face I painted 3 large red dots on the nail.

Step 4:

After wiping the large dotting tool clean; I then used it and Ulta Noel to add 3 large light pink dots to the nail.

Step 5:

Using the small dotting tool swirl all the pink and red dots together.  Try and swirl the colors inwards so that it looks like a rose bud when you are finished.  Make sure that you do this quickly after you make the dots.  You will not be able to swirl the dots if they have already dried.

Step 6:

Using the small dotting tools and China Glaze Holly-Day I added two smalls leaves, one on each side of the rose.

Step 7:

Finally I added one coat of Hong Kong Girl top coat which smoothed things and made the flower blend together nicely.

I really love how this came out!  It is just how I imagined it!  Also I can't believe how simple it was to create.  I think this is one of my all time favorite manicures that I have ever done on myself!  I also really love how the color I chose for the background looks very similar to the color of denim to give it that similar look.

Have you ever done a flower manicure?  Leave a comment here, on Facebook, or tweet me @Polish_Paradise!

Graduation Glitters!

In case you hadn't already heard I graduated college this past Sunday!  I officially have my BA in English Literature and Rhetoric from Binghamton University!  While I am very sad to be leaving Binghamton, I am very excited to be starting the next chapter of my life!  All this excitement means that I had to have a just as exciting manicure to go with all the festivities of the weekend.  I wanted something elegant, yet fun, and I believe that I came up with the perfect combination of that for myself!

I started out with three coats of OPI You Callin' Me a Lyre? from the 2012 NYC Ballet collection.  It is a beautiful soft pink gel color that looks extremely shiny on your nails.

I then topped it off with a glitter gradient with Color Club Sugarplum Fairy, which is a silver scattered holographic polish.   I loved how this design went from soft and pretty to loud and fun... much like my college years were. I could not stop staring at my nails and I received so many compliments on them throughout the weekend.  I have to say that this is one of my favorite manicures that I have done yet!

Congratulations to the Class of 2012! I am so excited to see where our futures go!

Holographic Stamping

Today I was in the mood to do some stamping.  I had always heard that holographic polishes are great for stamping because they are highly pigmented so I decided to try it out by using Color Club Revvvolution a dark gray holographic polish to stamp over Ulta Concrete Evidence.  I used Bundle Monster plate BM-224.  If you would like more information about stamping be sure to check out my tutorial post here!

The stamping design that I used kind of looked like reptile skin.  I really liked how Revvvolution worked for stamping.  It showed up great on all the nails and it was great to look down and see the holographics catch the light.

Have you tried stamping yet?  Let me know about your experience by leaving a comment here, on Facebook, or tweet me @Polish_Paradise!

Flower Power!

I figured for my first nail art related post I would show you  one of my all time favorite nail art designs. For this design I used Color Club Poker Face for the red fingers and the flowers, Ulta Noel for the background on the designed nails, China Glaze Holly-Day for the flower leaves, and Kiss Nail Art Paint in White for the accents in the flower's.  The great thing about this design is that can be recreated with any colors that you choose.  I choose a red/ pink theme in honor of Valentines day.

To Recreate this design:
1. Paint nail a light background color.
2. After it is dry take your darker flower color and with the tip of the polish brush place 2 - 3 dots on the nail depending on size of your nail.
3. Using a small brush or the tip of a nail file place 2-3 small green leaves around your flower dots.
4. Draw some accent lines with a thin brush within the flowers to give them a rose like look.

I hope you enjoy this cute design!  It is even simple enough for all of those who are just starting out with nail art!