British Flag Nail Art Tutorial!

So, because I get requests for flags quite a bit, I decided what better time to do flag tutorials than for the OLYMPICS?! First flag tutorial—the British flag! I mean, the Olympics are in London this year...

 

In the comments below, post what flags you'd like to have tutorials for, and I'll do my best to make them! :)

Olympic Rings Tutorial!

So I'm going to be doing a series of tutorials for the Olympics, and this is the first one! :) I decided to get into the tutorial spirit, and get my ass in gear. Unfortunately my internet disagrees. It takes a full hour to upload a 4.5 minute video! Awesome right?

Anyway, I hope you like the first in my Olympics-themed Nail Art Tutorial Series!

Zoya Beach Swatches & Review

 This post is REALLY late. I know. I'm trying to get back up-to-date with blog posts after my unscheduled hiatus. This collection took a little longer to get to me, since it had to sit and wait for Chris to go to Vegas an come back. It flew over 12,000 miles (and man, are its arms tired!) to get to me, and then it sat. However, because Zoya was gracious enough to provide it to me for review, and because it, like most of Zoya stuff, is great, I'm reviewing it now. Better late than never, right? I actually swatched and photographed both Beach & Surf 3 times (on different days/weeks!) before I was satisfied with these pictures!

In all photos, the index finger is painted with only 1 coat to show the true opacity of the polish!

More after the jump!

Passing the Torch

I'm not sure if you guys know this, but there is a sports competition of OLYMPIC proportions that starts...tonight. Will you be watching the millions of hours of television coverage that they're sure to show? Are you super excited about the opening ceremonies? From rumors I've heard, I'm SO excited. I realllly hope that they're true! I'm one of those people that pretty much only watches the opening and closing ceremonies... I know what you're thinking—She's a communist! Right?! Nah, every once in a while I'll watch the events, it really boils down to what else is on TV, and how lazy I am at that time. Horrible, I know.

Anyway, with all the Olympic fever going around, I felt the pressure to do an Olympic-themed nail design, but I knew it had to be...different. I thought about it, and came up with this:

And the non-animated version:

I love how Big Ben/Clock Tower/Elizabeth Tower turned out!

And to show you my 'registration mark' to help with lining up the animation pictures.

I used:

White: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On
Black: American Apparel Hassid
Red: Acrylic paint
Blue: Acrylic paint
Blue (ring): Ultra Pro Blue Blaze
Green: CND Green Scene
Orange: CND Electric Orange
Yellow: American Apparel Manila
Light Blue: American Apparel American Denim
Tan: Finger Paints Catwalk Queen mixed with OPI Suzi Likes Cowboys
Grey: Nubar Stronghold
Topcoat: Seche Vite

Animating on nails is a pain in the ass. I must've repainted them a million times!

Beauty Blog Coalition $400 Giveaway!

The Beauty Blog Coalition is at it again! We want to give one lucky reader a $400 USD gift card just for being cool! Well, just for being cool and filling out our survey. It's totally anonymous and should be quick and easy to fill out. Think of all the beauty products you can buy with $400 if you win! Woo hoo!

Important: Please only fill out the survey ONE time - even if you see it on another blogger's website. Entering multiple times will invalidate all your entries.

By entering, you agree to the official rules here. This giveaway is open to all countries. Ends August 1, 2012 at 12:01 am PST. Enter the survey below - everyone that enters gets an equal chance to win!

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Poppy Extravaganza!

Today I have a design that I did a few months ago for the Rite Aid Nail Extravaganza nail art competition. The judges were Suzi Weiss-Fischmann of OPI, Essie Weingarten of Essie, and Julie G of Julie G Beauty. Needless to say, I wanted to IMPRESS. With this design I made it to the finalist round, where I was sent a box of products that I had to use to create a new nail design. Here's the catch, I could ONLY use the tools/polishes in the box. Unfortunately this did not include A. topcoat B. a nail art brush. I did contact the PR people handling the contest to make sure I was not allowed to use topcoat or brushes, and they said if it's not in the box...no.

The kit included: a set of 5 polishes from the Jesse's Girl Julie G line, 2 Essies, a NOPI red, and 5 Sally Hansen Nail Art Pens. I spent 4 hours. FOUR. HOURS. trying to make these products work. Sure, the polishes were all AWESOME. Unfortunately not many of them coordinated, and on top of that, the lack of topcoat meant that anything I drew with the nail art pens wiped off. After several failed attempts (every time I drew something I was mildly OK with, the pen would shit on my nail and make a big splotch...there was a lot of unparliamentary language goin' on that night), I came up with something that I wasn't horribly embarrassed to submit. This round was voted on by the public... needless to say, my design didn't win.  You can view the other submissions on the Rite Aid Nail Extravaganza site.

In any event, I was REALLY happy with my initial submission. I tried a new watercolor technique where I painted the shape of where the color was the boldest/most opaque, then dipped my brush in acetone and 'pulled' the color to create the other shapes.

I used:

White: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On
Red: Nicole by OPI Red-y to Runaway Love, sometimes mixed with Zoya Arizona
Darker Red: Essie Blood Curdling
Yellow: CND Bicycle Yellow
Green: Essie Pretty Edgy, sometimes mixed with CND Bicycle Yellow

Black: American Apparel Hassid

Topcoat: Seche Vite

The OTHER design. 

I used:

Essie Merino Cool

Silver, Black, and White Sally Hansen Nail Art pens

With Her Head in the Clouds

Did you know that today is Amelia Earhart's 115th birthday? If you've been to Google today you did! :-D  In honor of this inspiration of a lady, I did flying nails!

I apologize this post is super short in the ways of words, but my head hurts so bad right now I feel nauseous, and I really want to go get some sleep. However, I really wanted to get this post up on her birthday! :)

I used:

Blue: American Apparel American Denim
Red: China Glaze Hey Sailor
Red Highlight: CND Electric Orange
White: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On
Black: American Apparel Hassid
Topcoat: Seche Vite