Point Taken!

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It's spring. Seriously, in Michigan today I am able to go outside WITHOUT A COAT! How exciting, right?! I have to say, I'm super stoked about slightly warmer days and well, the lack of snow. I can't wait to be able to play outside with Homer and take his energetic little white butt for walks.

Today, to celebrate a day above freezing, I decided to do some quick nail art using some nail polishes from the Morgan Taylor nail polish line. It's very simple, but it makes me think of pools and bright sunshiny days!

To achieve this look, I simply painted my nail with Morgan Taylor Water Baby and then used tape to mask off where I didn't want the turquoise to go, then painted with Morgan Taylor West Coast Cool. Remove the tape, add topcoat and done! :-D

I used:

Light Blue: Morgan Taylor Water Baby
Turquoise: Morgan Taylor West Coast Cool

Basecoat: Morgan Taylor Stick With It basecoat
Topcoat: Morgan Taylor Need for Speed topcoat

What do you think? Does this nail art feel like Spring? What are you painting for spring? Tell me in the comments below!

Morgan Taylor nail polishes, as always, are free of formaldehyde, toluene, and dibutyl phthalate and can be purchased at loxabeauty.com for $8.50. 

Disclosure: Products in this post were provided for review by the manufacturer. See the legal page disclosure for more information.

Have I Crossed the Line? Tutorial!

You asked for it!

I'm overwhelmed by the amount of you that wanted a tutorial for this design (in the best way!), and knew I had to let it jump queue to the top of the list!

With no further ado...

So how do you plan to cross the line?

Have I Crossed the Line?

So this design MAAAAAAAY look a little familiar. Just a little. It may have been one-fifth of yesterday's design. Ok, it was. It totally was. I seriously loved how the thumb turned out, and thought it'd look totally rad as a full manicure in that style. The main difference this time around it that I didn't stick to red, I decided to totally taste the rainbow- but only when I eat with my hands.

Someone mentioned they'd like a tutorial for the thumb (or in this case, the full manicure). Anyone else interested? Let me know, and I'll try to work it in to the tutorial schedule. :) I have some fun ones that I'm planning to film soon (if the ideas work out other than in my brain). Anyway, I won't babble on too much more, here's the nail arty-ness.

I used:

White: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On

Black: American Apparel Hassid

Red: Cult Nails Evil Queen
Orange: CND Electric Orange
Yellow: CND Bicycle Yellow
Green: CND Green Scene
Blue: CND Anchor Blue

Topcoat: Seche Vite topcoat

Basecoat: Seche Vite basecoat

Eyes hurt yet?

Falling For Fall

Well, August is swiftly approaching its end, and the warm days of summer will be long behind us (well, you) soon. The cool, crisp mornings of fall are on their way, and I have to say that I'm completely jealous of those of you lucky enough to enjoy it. Fall is my absolute favorite season, and since I moved to Vegas, and then India, I haven't really gotten to enjoy it. I miss the warm scent of burning leaves in the air, the tartness of warm apple cider on my tongue, and the crisp blue skies of autumn. I know it's a month or so away, but it's already on my mind, especially seeing all the fall nail collections coming out. Growing up in the woods in Michigan, there was no shortage of Autumn experience, from the greenery-lined gravel roads of summer becoming ablaze with the flame of fall leaves, all red and orange and yellow, to the chill that forced a sweater over your shivering shoulders at night. I loved it all, still do.

Today's nail art is to bring a little autumn to my humidity-filled existence. :)

I used:

White: American Apparel Cotton
Dark Brown: Barielle Unraveled Rust
Medium Brown: China Glaze Mahogany Magic
Burgundy: CND Bloodline
Mustard: Barielle Aura Angora
Camel: American Apparel Trenchcoat
Yellow: American Apparel Manila
Bright Orange: CND Electric Orange
Medium Orange: Jesse's Girl Beauty Guru
Red-Orange: American Apparel Lopez Canyon
Copper: China Glaze Harvest Moon
Metallic Gold: ORLY Solid Gold
Topcoat: Seche Vite

What's your favorite season?

All Things Being Equal

A while back after seeing some super awesome nail striping tape manicures, I decided to order some striping tape from eBay (the easiest place to order nail art things here in India). This design kinda hit me today, and I have absolutely NO IDEA where it came from, but it DOES use striping tape! The only other tool required is a cosmetic sponge! The thumb nail turned out to be my favorite, since it was the easiest to apply the tape to. I sponged the gradient first (over my yellow base color), then after that dried I applied a zillion strips of striping tape and painted the exposed nail black. Fairly easy, right?!  The hardest part is making sure the stripes are evenly spaced...or dare I say 'equal'? Get it—because its an equalizer?! *groan*

I used:

Green: CND Green Scene

Light Green: Sally Hansen Grass Slipper

Yellow: CND Bicycle Yellow

Orange: Zoya Arizona

Red: China Glaze Hey Sailor

Black: American Apparel Hassid

Clear topcoat: Seche Vite

striping tape

Indian Flag Nail Art Tutorial!

You may know that I've been living in India for the past 9 months, and today is India's Independence Day! I could hardly do this Flags of the World tour and not include my current home, right? I figured that today of all days would be the perfect day to post it, too.

There's more to India than curry, saris, and Hinduism. I'll be the first to admit that this country is sometimes maddening, but to balance out the madness are some of the most kind, generous, and generally selfless people I've ever met.

In addition to my Indian flag, nail art tutorial, I wore a saree/sari to work yesterday! (We didn't have work today) I felt awkward and exposed all day, and have a whole new respect for the Indian women that choose to wear saris on a regular basis. I rewarded myself with wearing jeans today. :D My friend Sheba was an absolute godsend, since there was no way I could wrap this thing alone- every time I tried, it looked like a giant slate blue diaper.

At the beginning of the day- Jasmine flowers in my hair, bindi on, all put together. :D

My friend Diana fussing over my pleats to make sure they looked right :D

My friend Sheba fussing over my pleats at the end of the day before having pic taken again. Stupid things kept coming untucked.

The back view. I love the pallu (the hanging piece) of this sari- all gold and copper metallic threads. so pretty!

Jamaican Flag Nail Art Tutorial, mon.

Feel the Rhythm!
Feel the Rhyme!
Get on up,
it's NAIL ART TIME!

Ha ha, how could I do a post about Jamaica and not include a Cool Runnings reference?! I freakin' love that movie. lol

Of course, lots of good things are related to Jamaica... Marley, reggae, ska, amazing athletes, the movie Cocktail (Champagne- perfume going in, sewage coming out), Ian Fleming (he lived there), jerk chicken, Red Stripe... need I go on? No? Ok. Well in that case, here's my Jamaican Flag Nail Art Tutorial for your viewing enjoyment. (I hope?)

You want to kiss my egg?
I'm not kissing no egg.
Suit yourself.

Mexican Flag Nail Art Tutorial!

I would kill for a cemita right now. I curse the day that my friend Patrick introduced this amazing treat to my mouth. If you're in Vegas, or in the vicinity of Vegas and willing to travel, please hit up Takeria Puebla just off the Ann St. exit, and have a carnitas cemita for me. You won't regret it...promise.

That semi off-topic comment was because of today's flag nail art tutorial! I had a few requests to A. FILM the Mexican flag tutorial, and B. Show it before the other 12 I have filmed!

Great, now I'm starving.

In any event, I hope you enjoy my Spanish 'lesson'.

El queso está viejo y pútrido. ¿Dónde está el sanitario? (I hope someone is as nerdy as me, and gets this?)

Finnish Flag Nail Art Tutorial!

I'll be honest, I can count the number of things I know about Finland on one of my hands. I know that metal band Lordi is from there (and I saw them in concert in Vegas, and they're cah-razy. Impressive show though), there are 35 species of mosquitos (and I thought India was bad), the capital is Helsinki, and the flag is blue and white. There, that's it, and I still have my thumb remaining. Oh! One more- Finland looks beautiful; the pictures I've seen are simply stunning.

I actually got TWO requests for the flag of Finland- so here you go! :-D

Get it, Finnish(ed)?!

German Flag Nail Art Tutorial!

Sauerkraut! Wiener Schnitzel! Beer!

In my trip around the world via nail art tutorials, I'm visiting Germany today! With my heritage being part German, I of course had to do the German flag, even though it's an easy one! Yay for tape manicures! (and finally figuring them out!)

Man, sauerkraut sounds soooooooo good. It's one of my favorite foods, I could eat it every day... cold, warm, hot, with sausage, plain, on chili cheese dogs, bratwurst, however you wanna serve it up. :-D

Fun fact: During WWI, it was called Liberty Cabbage in the US due to fear that Americans would reject a product with a German name. Freedom fries, anyone?

Easy as eins, zwei, drei.