Mix & Match Mani

 This was a mani I had been looking at for a while now on Pinterest.  There are actually 3 version that I pinned; a blue one, purple one, & a red one.  When I looked into the blue one I found that the girl had actually done this design in a few other schemes as well.

Happy Birthday To Me

Happy Birthday to ME! My birthday is tomorrow so today I am sharing the nails I did for this weekend.  This post was inspired by this post by BadGirlNails. 

Blurple Green Ombre

Yet another ombre ;) Is it obvious how ombre obsessed I am?  They are just such a simple way to do bright colors and nail art with very little time.

Candy Canes & Peppermint Pinwheels

Hi y'all, I have an early Christmas mani today!  I don't normally start these until december 1st but we are taking our family Christmas pictures this weekend so I needed something to match :)

Picture Spam After the Jump!

Halloween Skittle Mani

 Happy (almost) Halloween Y'all! Today I have my Halloween themed mani.  I consider this a skittle mani because each nail is different.  There's patchwork/stitches, spiderwebs, ruffles, and skeletons OHMY!

  Outdoor Flash

Sweetheart Ombre

Another ombre post! Yes, I'm officially obsessed since I figured it out :)  I think this color combination would be great for Valentine's Day.

This is China Glaze White on White, CG Flip Flop Fantasy & CG Pool Party, topped with the usual CG Fairy Dust.

Peacock Ombre

Another ombre this week (I really love that I've gotten the hang of this technique).  This time I used a base of China Glaze White on White, then sponged on CG Def Defying (green), CG Flying Dragon (purple), and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away (blue).  This is topped with a coat of CG Fairy Dust and SH Instadri Topcoat. 

5k Walk Multiple Sclerosis Mani

Today I'm sharing a mani I did for another charity/fundraising walk this weekend.  This 5k walk is benefiting the Multiple Sclerosis Society, to help raise money for researching a cure.  If you would like to donate towards our team, you can do that here.

The orange nails are two coats of Zoya Sharon, topped with one coat Zoya Sienna.  The white fingers are two coats China Glaze White on White, the orange is Ulta Sun of a Gun, black is CG Liquid Leather, & green is Sally Hansen Grass Slipper topped with Milani Hi-Tech.  All nails have one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri.

Easter Mani

Hi y'all & Happy (Late) Easter!

I'm going to keep this one short and sweet so let's get straight to the mani :)

(Please forgive the crappy cuticles, I was in a hurry and didn't moisturize)

Colors used in the designs:

Yellow- Sally Hansen Instadry Lightening
Orange- Zoya Sharon
Hot Pink- Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Ruby Sequin
Purple- China Glaze Sweet Hook
Blue- China Glaze For Audrey
Green- Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Grass Slipper
White- China Glaze White on White
Black- China Glaze Liquid Leather
Coral (bunny ears)- Sinful Colors Island Coral

 Outside Sunlight

 Outside Sunlight

Thumb: Skittle Dots, Index: Daffodil

Middle: Chick, Ring: Bunny 

 Pinky: Egg Design

*** Y'all please take a minute to also check out my jewelry page, the tab is at the top of the page, Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and thanks for looking***

Valentine Ruffle Mani

Happy Valentine's Day Y'all!

The manicure I did today is a ruffle manicure based on Chalkboard Nails tutorial. This started with a China Glaze White on White base, then i did the ruffles with Orly Rock It!, Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Ruby Sequin, Pure Ice Strip Tease, & Zoya Kimber, and topped it off with one coat China Glaze Fairy Dust, a holographic fine particle glitter. I used the largest dotting tool I have, a straight pin, and just placed dots right next to each other in a row, overlapping slightly with each row. I finished this up with a coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat.  It's not perfect but I love it, I only wish I had used one coat polishes because strip tease was a little sheer.  For some reason my camera would not show the colors right so I took pictures on my phone also so y'all can get the right idea :)  Also this mani is on my new gel nails, which I will have a review of by Monday.

Natural Light 

Left: Blurry shows holo, Right: Macro

 Sunlight

Shade

Sunlight, See the holo?

*** Y'all please take a minute to also check out my jewelry page, the tab is at the top of the page, Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and thanks for looking***

Valentine's Nails- Dotticure

Happy Early Valentine's Day Y'all!

Here is my first of two Valentine's themed manicures this week, along with a fail nail.

First the fail, this is two coats Zoya Kimber with two coats Jindie Nails Be Someone Cute on the accent, no top coat.  I got this finished and just didn't like it :( BSC  is small pink, black, and white glitters, and it throws a purple iridescent flash.  Kimber is a hot pink glass fleck with gold shimmer. I love both colors, I just didn't like the warm toned Kimber with the cool toned BSC, so I changed it up...

With Flash, missed some glitter in clean up :/

Here is the second mani I did, a dotticure accent mani.  This is two coats of Zoya Kimber, and two coats China Glaze White on White on accent nail.  The polishes used on the accents, in order of dark to light, are: Orly Rock It!, Zoya Kimber, Pure Ice Strip Tease & LA Colors Bashful. One coat is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat. 

Natural Light

 Natural Light, Accent Close Up

Natural Light

Later this week I will have my Valentine's Day Mani and my Sally's haul from their 50% off Red Tag sale this weekend. Hopefully I can also get a Glitzology post up soon, as soon as I receive my polishes! 

*** Y'all please take a minute to also check out my jewelry page, the tab is at the top of the page, Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)***

Christmas Polka Dots

Merry Christmas (Again) Y'all :)

This is what I had on my nails Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  I was really rough with my chevron mani and had a little tip wear (very little actually) and a few places were lifting up.  when I took it off, that mess was like cement! it took quite a few layers off my ring and pinky fingers :( 

This mani is made with Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips, in Haute and Naughty with polka dots in China Glaze Ruby Pumps, Sally Hansen Instadry Spring Green, and China Glaze White on White, with a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust on top.  

I was not a fan of the strips, although this is my 3rd day of wear and i have no chips, lift or tip wear.  however when I applied them they looked as if i had immediate tip wear because i couldn't get the strips to wrap on my tips.  I also couldn't find a perfect size match on some of my nails so there is a naked strip on the side of those nails, and they didn't fit up to my cuticles so it looks as though my polish has grown out.  I did however like the ease of applying these and no dry time since this was a 2am rush mani.  I also really loved the color and the lack of wear after 3 days of opening presents and building baby toys.  I would be willing to try these again as i think maybe it's something i would like better after some practice.  These were part of a giveaway package I won from Radiant Brown Beauty. 

**update- i am now on my 5th day of wearing these and im bored so im taking it off. i have 0 wear. no more tip wear than when i applied them  and no chips!  on the other hand, I had a horrible time removing them! i used my usual method that works great even for glitter bombs, and it just made them gummy. when i finally got the color off there was a glue type residue left.  I didn't get it all off until i removed polish 3-4 times and filed my nails**

** Y'all please take a minute to also check out my jewelry page, the tab is at the top :)
Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)

Christmas Chevron

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays Y'all!
Here is my final Christmas manicure, a Christmas chevron design :)  I hope all y'all have a great holiday weekend, we will be having lots of family time.

Red is Pure Ice Creme Siren with China Glaze Ruby Pumps.
White is China Glaze White on White with Orly Winter Wonderland.
Green is Sally Hansen Instadry Spring Green, China Glaze Paper Chase and Sinful Colors Call You Later.  Two coats Sally Hansen Insta-dri Topcoat. 

   *** Y'all please take a minute to also check out my jewelry page :)
Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)
http://steelandsashes.blogspot.com/

Rudolph & Santa Mani

Good morning y'all :)
Here is this week's christmas mani,  Rudolph & Santa nails. I love how they came out, my dominant hand Rudolph is a little wonky but all in all not that bad! 

One coat Pure Ice Creme Siren, one coat China Glaze Ruby Pumps, one coat Sally Hansen Insta-dri Topcoat.

Santa's Belt (middle finger)

Black belt is Zoya Storm, buckle is Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and L.A. Colors Art Deco Silver Glitter.

Rudolph (index finger)
Two coats China Glaze White on White, Rudolph's head is a no name Color Workshop brown, antlers are Ulta Chocolate Kiss, eyes are China Glaze White on White and Wet N Wild Ebony Hates Chris.

  *** Y'all please take a minute to also check out my jewelry page :)

Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)
http://steelandsashes.blogspot.com/

World Diabetes Day Mani

Today mani is for diabetes awareness because November is Diabetes Awareness Month and today, November 14th is World Diabetes Day.

 This hits home for me because my little brother has Type 1 diabetes. He was diagnosed around 15 years old and it has been a major struggle for him and our family. He had to learn a whole new life and i remember many late night scares with low blood sugars when he was still getting in the hang of thing. I really hope over the course of my lifetime that diabetes research gets enough awareness and funding that some advances can be made in preventing diabetes all together.

I chose the blue circles because that is the universal logo for diabetes. I chose the fishtail braid accent nail because my brother is an avid fisherman. I chose to add the sparkly glitter because when he was little he would look at something glittery and say its so spaaaarkly with these big blue eyes.


This mani is two coats China Glaze White on White, one coat Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Diamonds glitter, light blue is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away, dark blue is Revlon First Class. Top coat is Sally Hansen Insta-dri.

I hope y'all enjoy this mani and take a moment to check out the International Diabetes Federation's page for World Diabetes Day!
http://www.idf.org/worlddiabetesday






 *** Y'all please take a minute to check out my jewelry page :)
Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)
http://steelandsashes.blogspot.com/

We're off to see the Wizard...

This week's mani is inspired by The Wizard of Oz, one of my favorite movies!

Pinky- Dorothy's Dress
2 coats CG White on White
Lines are Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away frankened with CG White on White

Ring Finger- The iconic red shoes.
3 coats CG Ruby Pumps. Two coats was opaque, i just did three to block out the magenta jelly base this polish shows on my nails when held to the light.

Middle Finger- The Tin Man
2 coats Pure Ice Silver Mercedes. Heart is Pure Ice Creme Siren and buttons are Sally Hansen Fastdry Ebony Hates Chris.

Pointer Finger- The Wicked Witch's Stockings
2 coats Sally Hansen Fastdry Ebony Hates Chris. White is L.A. Colors Art Deco White.

Thumb- Yellow Brick Road
2 coats Ulta Sun-sational frankened with Ulta Sun of a Gun. Lines made with Ulta Sun-sational frankened with a no name brown from The Color Workshop.

All have one coat base, and 2 coats Sally Hansen Insta-dri Topcoat




I also got my free Zoya Storm in today along with an acrylic nail sample of their Designer and Diva Collection NYFW 2012.  I really like FeiFei, Daul, Toni, Natty, Moot, and Song.

Rekha, Toni, Monica, Natty, Evvie, Noot

 Elisa, Suri, Song, Ray, FeiFei, Daul

 *** Y'all please take a minute to check out my jewelry page :)
Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)
http://steelandsashes.blogspot.com/

Week 3 of October manis- candy corn mani

Ive been looking forward to this mani all month :) no base coat, two coats of yellow Ulta sun-sational, orange stripe is Ulta Sun of a gun, and white stripe is China glaze white on white, top coat is sally hansen instadry clearly quick.

unfortunately i forgot my base coat until i had one coat of color on already. Im lazy and had a 8.5 month old who is teething so no base coat for this one and ill just deal with the staining later. (the yellow stained in the three minutes of me testing the color)

sun-sational yellow was horribly streak and full of brush strokes even with 2 coats. Its also brighter than what i wanted but the polish is not to fault for that. Sun of a gun orange was fine, nothing bad to say but nothing amazing either. The China glaze white on white is amazing. It covered yellow, orange and black when i was testing colors. And that was with a quick one coat.

All in all this worked out well, except that my freehand stripes aren't nearly as pretty on my left hand and When i added my clear coat the Sun of a gun bled on a few nails. Im not sure why, nails were completely dry as i did my clear coat nearly 24 hours later..

 Next week will be frankenstein :)

Oh and to update on that peel off layer? It did not work with mod podge. I plan to try again but i don't have high hopes this time.

 *** Y'all please take a minute to check out my jewelry page :)
Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)
http://steelandsashes.blogspot.com/

Week 1 of October manis- Halloween polka dots

Two coats Ulta smoke screen with L.A. Colors basecoat. Polka dots are Ulta Sun of a Gun orange, Ulta little black dress, and China Glaze white on white.  Top coat is two coats sally hansen instadry clearly quick.

 *** Y'all please take a minute to check out my jewelry page :)
Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)
http://steelandsashes.blogspot.com/