Monday Nail Art Challenge–Taped Mani

It’s been a while since I’ve taken part in PAA's Monday Nail Art Challenge as I was away on Holiday and then bummed about how my nails were ravaged by camping. Now I’m back though and just in time for one of my favorite themes – taping!!
This theme was largely inspired by Jane over at Nailside, who is the queen of taping.   She’s done more than one mani that I really love and have wanted to try.  I’m still working up the courage to try her Double Lightning Bolt!
I wasn’t ready to remove my mani from yesterday so I just taped and did some black over it, but I think the result was so cute!!
Products used:
Essence Nail Art Protecting Base Coat
Sparrow Me The Drama (2 coats) from the Pirates collection by OPI
Fairy Dust by China Glaze
Seche Vite Topcoat
Unnamed Black by Hot Topic

READ MORE...

My First Matte

If I’ve ever posted on one of your entries about Matte polish you probably know that I’ve not been a big fan.  Recently I’ve been starting to like it more as I see other people doing interesting things with it.  I think I always thought that the more glossy a polish is the nicer it is.
Oh hell, I still believe that… but I do have a bit more of an appreciation for matte.  I even bought my own first bottle at Claire’s last week.

The only had the one color so it made choosing easy.  Good thing I really like blue!

This is a single coat, photo taken with flash.  I really like the color and it covers really well.  I didn’t see a need for a 2nd coat.  It almost ends up looking a bit like a rubber coating on your nail.

One thing I did notice was that the damage from the first set of acrylics was more visible with this polish.

It’s like a ring across my nails where you can visibly see where they drilled my nail bed down.  From those marks to the tips my nails are noticeably thinner than the newer nail growth.  I can’t wait for this to grow out as it makes my nails so bendy and fragile.
I kept them like that for a short while but the lines drive me bananas.  I decided to get the tape out and do a subtle design with a glossy top coat (Sally Hansen Double Duty).

You can still see it a bit but not as much as before.  I will keep it for a day or two before moving on to something else.
I’m warming up to this matte thing.  I would be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted to buy a matte topcoat to see what some of my current colors would look like if they were made matte too!  We’ll see…

READ MORE...

Second Taping Experience

It’s so fun, what you can create with something as simple as a few pieces of scotch tape! It didn’t come out quite as neatly as I would like but it will do for a few days.  The blue polish is Miss Sporty from Etos, and I’m not a fan at all. The brush is an odd wide but crooked shape and the paint globs easily.  It’s cheap, so I guess you get what you pay for.
The black is Claire’s super speed polish which also has a wide brush but the polish is lovely and easy to work with.  The only thing I can complain about is that the brush is so wide it gets hard to put it back into the bottle neatly when in the process of working with it.
I would also do things a little differently next time, put the tape on all of the fingers on one hand, paint a finger and pull the tape off, move on to the next finger etc.  I did one finger at a time and it got to be a lengthy process waiting for one finger to be dry enough to start working on the next.
It’s a learning process!

READ MORE...

Red Laser Look

After seeing this on Nailside I tried the taping technique to get this laser look on my nails. I loved it! Such an easy way to get something so different! The only thing I would have changed was using flat black rather than a black with some sparkle to it. It would have made the red stand out more, I think.
Products Used:
OPI The One That Got Away (Katy Perry Collection)
Rimmel Pro 398 Black Pearl

READ MORE...