Killing it in Killing Red by Layla.

I think I’ve mentioned before that I used to be completely obsessed with red nail polish. I went a good year and a half almost exclusively painting my nails some shade of red. (This was circa 2004-2005 when all the celebrities of young Hollywood–Mary-Kate Olsen, Nicole Richie, ect–were rocking bright red nails.) Now a days, I don’t wear red quite as often (except as a pedicure), but I do love to throw back to a classic every once in a while.

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For this manicure, the polishes I grabbed were:

  • Mariposa Mini polish in red.
  • Layla Ceramic Effect in shade 53 (which, I saw somewhere was called Killing Red.)

I applied a base color of the Mariposa, because I knew from experience that the Layla takes quite a few coats to cover. This Mariposa polish is a red jelly. I’ve never used it before–I grabbed it on a whim–but I must say it has beautiful application, even if there is still visible nail nail with it on it’s own. Next, I applied two coats of Layla 53–Killing Red, to get a full application of the flakies over my nail. Oh my god I love this polish. It’s such a step above your basic red. I finished it all off with a coat of Essence Gel-Look Top Coat, followed by Essence Nail Art Express Dry Drops. When that was dry, I finished with a coat of Icing’s “It’s a Matte World” Matte top coat.

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Such a gorgeous combination. Makes me remember exactly why I use to love wearing red nail polish so much. But it isn’t until you capture it with no flash that you can really see it’s true beauty.

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Can you see those beautiful golden flakies swimming in this red polish? I didn’t have the best natural light inside for taking pictures, but they still come through.

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I legit cant stop staring at my nails, especially in the sunshine. It’s making me realize I’m going to have to go out and get more Layla polishes. All the ones I have used already have all been winners, and they have such an awesome selection! First on my list is going to be some of their holographic polishes. I’ve seen swatches of them online, and I have to have all of them!

Spiderman… Spiderman… Nail Art!

So I don’t know if you knew this, but The Amazing Spiderman 2 comes out this weekend. I’m a total superhero girl–although I am more of a DC girl than Marvel. That being said, I wanted to mark my excitement over the new movie in the best way I know how–nail art.

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This manicure was inspired by the Nailasaurus, and her amazing Spiderman nails. For my version, however, I started with a gradient. I painted my nails first with Revlon’s Spidey Sense, which is from their limited edition The Amazing Spiderman 2 Electric Chrome collection. Then, using a make up sponge, I created a gradient with Super-Powered, also from the Electric Chrome collection.

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Next, I went through with my Stripe Rite Striping Polish in Black, and created my web on each nail.

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Tada! Amazing Spiderman nails. And probably the only time you will ever see anything related to Spiders on my nails… ever. I am not a big Spider fan, but for Spiderman I will make an exception. =) I topped it with a layer of Essence Gel-look top coat, followed by Essence Nail Art Express Dry drops, to speed up the process. They definitely seem to help with the drying process, thank god. No more sheet marks for this girl.

So what do you think of these Spiderman nails? Did I do justice to The Nailasaurus’ original design?

Who is your favorite Superhero? I think you can tell by my PJ pants who mine is. And one of these days I’m going to have to make an attempt at Batman nails too!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 9: Rainbow nails.

I’ll start by saying this nail art was inspired by my three year old nephew.

I was babysitting the other night, trying to decide what I was going to do for my rainbow nail art challenge. I thought about doing just rainbows, but as you might have noticed, I don’t always going typical with my challenge prompts. My little nephew was looking at my stash the other night–he is adorable when it comes to my nails. He always asks to look at my nails, and is very vocal when he doesn’t like them haha–and asked him what colors I should do on my nails. And he listed them off–blue, yellow, pink, red, green. He might have just been listing off the colors he knew, but never the less I did what he told me!

rainbow nails

The polishes used were:

  • OPI’s My Boyfriend Scales Walls — the white base.
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mellow Yellow— the yellow.
  • ACO by Ardene in Techno Green — the green
  • ACO by Ardene in Lagoon –the blue
  • ACO by Ardene in Sunkissed –the orange.
  • ACO by Ardene in Strawberry Blush — the red
  • ACO by Ardene in Ardene’s Secret — the pink.
  • Stripe Rite striping brush in Black — the black outline.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat.

I love these nails because it looks like a coloring book to me.

This manicure was not as difficult as you’d think. After applying my base coat, I started with a blank canvas of My Boyfriend Scales Walls, then added top coat. After that had dried, I started with my black striping polish, creating a different pattern on each nail (you could also do the same pattern on each nail, but I like to shake things up a bit.

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After my outline was created, I then went with a small nail art brush (from Icing), and colored in some of the shapes with my variety of chosen colors. I did have to go back with my black, and touch up some of the lines were the colors had bled a little bit. When that was all finished, I topped with my trusty top coat and tada! Rainbow coloring book nails!

I think my nephew would be proud.

 

 

 

31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 1: Red Nails.

I’ve been thinking about doing the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge for a while now, and towards the end of last month I decided there was no time like the present to do so. If anything, I figured it would help break my nail art block–those nights when I couldn’t figure out anything to do with my nails! And I was right!

The first prompt for the challenge was red nails. I didn’t want to do just basic red nails (even though there was a period in time with I was 17-18 that I wore nothing but red nails), so I went a little fancy with a leopard print. When I was first starting my nail art adventure, right after I bought my first dotting tool–leopard print was always my go-to design. It was nice to go revisit a classic.

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The polishes I used were:

  • Nicole by OPI Scarlett (from the Selena Gomez collection) — my base.
  • Nicole by OPI Basking in Gloria (from the Modern Family collection) — the inner part of my leopard print.
  • Stripe Rite striping brush in black — the outer part of my leopard print.

I finished everything with my trusty Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat, and Icing’s It’s a Matte World matte top coat.