Valentine’s Heart French

With Valentine’s Day coming up next week, I’ve been thinking about designs with hearts.While I don’t do french manicures very often, I really love the look of them. They feel very classy and sophisticated to me. This is definitely a bit more playful then the traditional white tip.

I used Color Club Edie for my tip and acrylics for the hearts and dots.

Leopard French-ish

I’ve been seeing these type of French manicures around a lot lately and I love them! So I decided to do one for myself.Fortunately my nails are stained at the moment so I was safe to show off a little naked nail. 🙂 As I often do, I chose my colors from the polishes I already had out. I used OPI Pink Friday for my tips, Color Club Edie for the aqua spots and CND Asphalt is the grey. I topped this off with Chill Zone top coat. I should have used two coats to hide all the ridges in my nail. I don’t do much buffing of my nails and I didn’t use a base coat for this design, so one little coat of top coat over my naked nail didn’t hide imperfections as well as I’d have liked. Oh well. That’s what I get for not using a top coat I guess.

Bloody Cuticles

Oops… I got a little carried away with the cuticle trimmers. Just kidding!  Joshing… Do you remember back in the day when you would say, “I’m just joshing with ya!”  No?  You don’t remember that?  I may have just aged myself.  Sorry.  Not sure where that came from.  Tangent over.

Happy Fright-Day.  That’s what I’m deeming Fridays in October; Fright-Day.  I had the idea for this design the other day and just had to jump on it.  I’m in love with this mani!  I love the elegance of the classic white french manicure coupled with the dripping blood of a cuticle trim gone awry. 😉  Just so you know, I don’t trim my cuticles with scissors or chemicals.  I just push ’em back and moisturize.

I think it’s a fun way to do a Halloween mani.  I used Julep Brigitte for my french tips.  My blood is China Glaze Velvet Bow with a little OPI DS Indulgence thrown in here and there to spice things up.

What do you think of my gory cuticles?  What Halloween manis do you plan to try?

Matte and Glossy Fun in Black

I don’t often paint my nails full black because it can be so hard to get off.  It sure is pretty though.  A black nail is so dramatic; it commands your attention.

I realized it had been a long time since I’d used a matte top coat, so I decided to play with one today.  I started with Cult Nails Get It On base coat.  I NEVER polish with black without a base coat.  It doesn’t always guarantee that there won’t be any staining, but it definitely increases the odds.

My black is China Glaze Liquid Leather.  I was very, very careful with my application so I wouldn’t have to do any clean up.  I hate trying to clean up a black polish.  It stains my cuticles sooo bad, which in turn makes my pictures look awful.  To clean up necessary today.  I applied this in slow motion.  The top coat I chose was NYC Matte Me Crazy.  This was the first time I’ve used it.  I’m not blown away by it, but it got the job done.  I felt like I needed two coats to hide the brush strokes though.

When the Matte Me Crazy was dry enough, I applied my tape.  My thumb, index and pinkie fingers all have a chevron french tip, while my middle and ring fingers have what I call a dart.  Has anyone else heard a better name for this design?  I really can’t think of anything else to call it.  I like my darts the best.  Playing with matte and glossy finishes is a fun way to have a bit of a peek-a-boo effect with your nail art.  It’s there, it’s subtle and may go unnoticed, but that doesn’t lessen the dramatic impact.

Orly Halley’s Comet Fishtail

Halley’s Comet was just begging to be teamed up with black.  Being that this color reminds me so much of a mermaid’s tail, I decided a fishtail mani would be appropriate.

I personally see the top of a heart when I look at this design, but what do I know. 😉

I added China Glaze Liquid Leather to the tip of each nail, then to accent my index and middle fingers, added another fishtail of Halley’s Comet.

I love how different Halley’s Comet looks over black.  The green is much stronger when it’s layered over black.  So pretty!  I actually wore this for several day, I loved it so much.