V-day Water Marble

Hello everyone, who's excited that it's February? That means the coldest month of the year is over and we can (almost) fast forward to spring! Before posting my Nicki Minaj swatches my top post was my first successful water marble and you can find that post here. I tried doing a Valentine's water marble for you last week but I had troubles with OPI Pink Friday, a colour that shouldn't be left out on Valentine's Day. I got up the courage to try it again this weekend and had lovely results!

I used one layer of OPI Alpine Snow for the base, and in the marble I used Quo by ORLY Red Hot, OPI Alpine Snow, OPI Strawberry Margarita, and Zoya Ashley. I had no problems getting these polishes to spread in the water, unlike when I tried multiple times with Pink Friday. I wonder what it is about the formula that makes it good for water marbling. Keep reading for some more pictures of my V-Day creation!

Pins and Needles

Good morning everyone! Today I have another Valentine's Day mani that didn't turn out as perfectly as I had expected. This was the first time I've ever tried Needle Marbling, I was inspired after seeing Jacki from Adventures in Acetone's submission to the Cult Nails Facebook nail art contest. Jacki is incredibly talented and the wispy, smoke-like look of this manicure inspired me to try my own.

I mean, it's not terrible for my first time trying, but I wasn't exactly proud of this mani. I used a base of OPI Alpine Snow for every finger. My ring finger was the first one I did, using OPI Pink Friday, look at that big shiny bald spot just glaring at me! The next finger I tried was my pinky, and I thought I could make multicolour whisps and so I used OPI Strawberry Margarita and a drop of OPI Alpine Snow...it just turned out looking the same as the Pink Friday nail. Finally I got the hang of it around my middle finger, using OPI Strawberry Margarita and Quo by ORLY Red Hot. The last one I did was my index finger using OPI Strawberry Margarita. Keep reading after the jump for more photos!

Valentines for Unicorns

Hello everyone! I hope you've had a great weekend, I know I'm not ready for it to end yet. Today I have what was supposed to be the third post in my Valentine's Day series..but it kind of got lost along the way. I underestimated the opacity of Cult Nails Clairvoyant (formerly known as Unicorn Puke) and thought I could make a pretty purple-tinted pink flakie mani..not quite what happened.

This is two coats of Cult Nails Clairvoyant over two coats of OPI Pink Friday from the Nicki Minaj collection. I really didn't think the purple in Clairvoyant was so obvious, but it ended up taking over my entire mani. It's not that I don't think this is beautiful, it's just not at all what I was expecting. Clairvoyant sure looks pretty here though, I guess it's not just for wearing over black. Keep reading for some more photos of this purple spin on Valentine's Day.

Flirty Polka Dots

I am so excited to show you guys today's mani because it is using a new polish that my ex-roommate brought me from New Jersey. I knew I had to buy this colour because of the name, and because Kayla Shevonne recommended it and said it was one of her favourite polishes of all time! Do you know which one it is yet?

If you guessed Illamasqua Load, you're right! For this mani I used Load as a base, then my dotting tools and OPI Pink Friday, OPI Strawberry Margarita, and Quo by ORLY Red Hot for the polka dots. Another tip I learned from Kayla's blog was filling in some of the polka dots with the base colour to make them look hollow. (Can I just admit that I originally wrote "holo" and not "hollow" .. nail blogger problems!) 

I think my bottle of Seche Vite is getting too gloopy to use, look at what it did to this mani :( Keep reading for more pics!

Pink Zebra Gradient

Hello there lovely followers and welcome to the first installment of my Valentine's Day 2012 series! I love Valentine's Day, I think it's a lovely holiday and I don't really care if it's "too commercial," I think it's sweet. Over the next two and a half weeks I'm going to be showing you guys some designs that I might wear for V-Day. Without further adieu, my Pink Zebra Gradient mani..

So let me try to offer an explanation for my giant gap first of all. When I sat down to do this mani I was going to water marble, but maybe it was too cold or something but none of my polishes were spreading. I had put down a base of OPI Steady as She Rose but assuming I would be marbling, I'd clean up the mani after. Buuuuut..that never happened so now I have a messy and large gap, sorry!

To get this look I layered two coats of OPI Steady as She Rose, then I sponged on OPI Pink Friday, and finally used a sponge and OPI Strawberry Margarita for the tips. I stamped with China Glaze Liquid Leather and Konad plate m57. I really liked the way these looked and I got a tonne of compliments. Even my roommate who is apathetic towards nails was intrigued. Keep reading for more photos!