Outlined Polka Dots

Having short fingernails is like a complete playground for beautiful loud polish and extreme nail art.

I found this design on a Nails Mag Blog and could not resist trying it out.

Sinful Colors “Feeling Great” was the perfect base for the yellow-trimmed black dots of acrylic paint.

The most difficult part of this nail art design is making sure you don’t paint the base color (Feeling Great) “outside the lines” of your cuticle!

The dots are child’s play.

I’m still having so much fun…..

I bought some new art brushes and some metallic paint today. All I need now is some willing participants to let me play on their nail beds…… and, some free time. Smile

BURBERRY

Nov18 by Cheryl Cheryl

Inspiration.

At the end of the day, that’s what keeps you moving forward. When you find something that motivates you, you can get it done. You find the energy to give it effort…regardless.

As tired as I was after working a 14.5 hour day at work… Burberry moved me. lol. And I wanted it on my nails. This was my first attempt. But trust me, I’ll be practicing this again until I get straight lines, and a better aspect ratio. :-). I will post update pics after I re-do this a few more times….

but I had to share… Flaws and all.

I started with the neutral peachy tan Sally Hansen Insta-Dri color "Quick Sand". Matches pretty closely to the classic Burberry base.

Then I added some white stripes with white nail polish; tried some free-hand black and red stripes with acrylic paint…. top coat….. and "almost" Burberry :-).

I’d have a huge "Thank You" for whomever wanted to present me with that hot Medium Leather Tote!! (<–link)

Will try again as soon as I have some time, and will update photos!

Stay Inspired!

*****UPDATED PHOTOS!!*****
Mon – 11/21/11

My lines are getting straighter, and I think the aspect ratio is improving. I like it better, but I think I will have to take a break from practicing it right now because I’m getting frustrated that it’s not coming out exactly how I envision it.
So, I’ll pick it up again in the future Smile

I used all polish this time. Base color is OPI Malaysian Mist, white and black lines were created with Color Club Nail Art Lacquer stripers, and the red lines created with MAC Frost Asiatique

Polka Dot “Stripes”

Nov15 by Cheryl Cheryl

….. I either needed more soothing….

…or maybe I really am just addicted. Winking smile

Now that my nails are short- I mean, short, short- they are so much FUN! So much fun to change – frequently. Playing around with my new acrylic paint and dotting tool, I came up with:

FUN!

Playful without being overly distracting. Designed but not over-cluttered.
And E-A-S-Y as pie.

My tools:

OPI “Black Onyx” in all its sleek beauty
Dotting art tool
white, pink & orange acrylic paint
Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

I love this little design. Makes me smile every time I look down at my hands. I’m definitely doing more polka dots! soon!

Try it, and send me your results. I would love to see what you come up with!

How To Get Over the Loss of…well,… A Nail

Nov14 by Cheryl Cheryl

So today I lost a dear friend…. my right thumbnail. Happens to the best of them.

It can be so heart-wrenching to lose something you’ve grown so attached to… you grew close for so long…
When the loss comes by a terrible tragedy like a rip from bending backward or slamming against a hard surface…. or is a loss below the “quick” (or hyponychium), you can experience physical pain… You need healing!

Whether physical or psychological… my approach:

MAKE A CLEAN BREAK! Get rid of ALL of them. Stop holding onto those ragged lengths. Start afresh. Your hands will look nicer….

And to soothe yourself…. find a new and wonderful, fun polish. I did —->

Sinful Colors “Irish Green”

pretty bright! almost neon when I first started the application. took 3 coats to get decent coverage. PERFECT for St. Patrick’s Day! Might work with some design for the Christmas season too.

It might take a minute to get used the new “feel” of no nails… but it goes away quickly, I promise… I know I’ll get a lot more done… for a little while Smile .

OPI–“Suzi Takes the Wheel” (Touring America Collection)

Nov13 by Cheryl Cheryl

Beautiful crème gray…. but it’s not “just” gray. Each time I want to call it gray, I just keep seeing a hint of green. Like an undertone of camouflage green keeps peeking its little head out. ( I think the more accurate color would be “sage” though.)

You might say, “well, I already have a gray crème polish.” I reply, “not this one.” Though it’s very neutral and seemingly subtle, something about it is very eye-catching in its smoothness.

Very nice coverage with this polish. Nothing sheer about it. Quality OPI.

OPI–Wocka Wocka (Muppets Collection)

Nov13 by Cheryl Cheryl

Irresistible….. Had. To. Purchase! This is a stunning red. It’s gorgeous. Very creamy “bold statement” red, with a shimmer. OPI at its best. Ridiculously similar to OPI’s “Im Not Really A Waitress”… Still beautiful. Still purchased.

OPI “Wocka Wocka” with Sally Hansen Hard As Wraps as basecoat and Sehce Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

Newspaper Nails

Nov10 by Cheryl Cheryl

My friend Natural Hair Styling by DiAnneB. (<—link to her page) sent me a wonderful link…

“Newspaper Nails”

I had to try it IMMEDIATELY….. I was so excited to see if I could make it work. This was my first attempt:

OPI – Rumple’s Wiggin’ with the Trader Joe’s marketing circular

I wasn’t 100% pleased with the results, so I had a do-over! That’s one of the wonderful things about nails…. you get to try again. I liked my second try much better:

OPI – Moon Over Mumbai with The Chicago Reader

Next time I’m going to try Comic Strip Nails as explained by cutepolish! http://youtu.be/B4FaidUlSbA

BFF – Bland for Fran, my bff

Nov10 by Cheryl Cheryl

More than anything, I know with certainty that my best friend Fran, HATES a neutral color palette for her nails!
So I was searching for a wonderfully bland, neutral, non-stimulating color just for her! LMAO.

I actually found an absolutely beautifully finished and gracefully delicate and classy color in my Sinful Colors stash. Out of This World
(My SDA-friendly polish lovers –>this is definitely one for you)

. . . . But then I got distracted, in my normal “polish ADHD” fashion, and had to swagggg that polish out. I layered a couple of coats of Sinful Colors Queen of Beauty on top. Luv it! The glitter in this polish has great coverage but the finish is smooth like no glitter exists. This is good polish right here!

Sinful Colors – Out of This World

(left – Out of This World) (right – w/Queen of Beauty)

the results:

I like the look of my nails better in everyday life than photos with the bottle of polish. You can see the detail of the glitter in this pic from my cab ride on the way to work. Almost looks like aluminum foil 🙂

Sinful Colors Haul–Walgreens .99 cent sale

Nov9 by Cheryl Cheryl

Randomly, I found out from a twitterfriend (@TXgirl512) who found out from a twitterfriend (@candicebeauty) who found out ( Smile ) that Walgreens was having a nationwide sale on Sinful Colors nail colors the week of October 24. I checked the online circular, saw the sale….. raced right on over to Walgreens, made a beeline to the cosmetics department… and…… voila!

19 new Sinful Colors nail colors to add to the 9 bottles I already owned! #winning

I passed the info on to my facebook friends….. Wasn’t sure if anyone would indulge…..

but….

Dee Dee my “partner in nail polish crime” made out great! She even slipped a beautiful Essie “Chinchilly” in there. ha! Can’t be mad at an Essie polish. especially a smooth gray like that one.

And this GORGEOUS display, with some absolutely beautiful color choices, was sent from one of the sweetest friends I know, Charlyce :-). I didn’t even know she had heard about. or was taking advantage of this .99 cent sale! Such a pleasant surprise to know of our “polish persuasion”. lol

I definitely should have gone back for more colors, as I barely scratched the surface of Sinful Colors’ collection. However, I got too excited and anxious to use the colors I had already purchased and never went back to check for more.

Needless to say, there will be a ton of Sinful Colors posts in the near future.

**Infotip: Sinful Colors is a nail color line created by Mirage Cosmetics which was acquired by Revlon in March 2011…. and apparently NOT an OPI manufactured brand, as rumored.

My Nail Care

Nov9 by Cheryl Cheryl

I’ve been often asked what I do to keep my nails nice/healthy. How do I care for/maintain my nails?

The short answer is: I polish them. A lot.

A healthy nailbed is important… and probably good genes. Prissyness is probably a key quality too. You have to actually care about your nails. You pay attention to what you care about.

I do NOT cut or trim my cuticles. They are there for protection. It’s important to keep them moisturized and pushed back. A good time to push them back is right after washing your hands while you’re drying them with a towel. I use cuticle oil freely. I DO nip hangnails though! As immediately as possible.

Filing has been VERY low on my list of nail upkeep activities. Rare buffing to smooth the nail surface before re-polishing. If my nails are snagging on material or have the slightest jagged edge, I use a fine/medium buffer to smooth it out, but my nails grow better when they are left alone. So, why should I argue with them. *shrugs*

I like the moisturizing in shea butter and oftentimes regular ol’ petroleum jelly for general hand softening. And DRINK WATER. Hydration from the inside out!

My natural nails…. free and unencumbered 🙂

What I use abundantly:
Cuticle Oil, Base coat, Top Coat

Right now my favorite cuticle oil is from Sally Beauty Supply – Beauty Secrets Cuticle Oil. It smells incredible. And it works. Cuticle oil at the end of every manicure…. and any other time I think about using it.

Sally Hansen has some really time-tested products…. they’ve been around forever. I like "Hard as Wraps" Nail Gel Hardener as a basecoat when my nails have grown out. It strengthens my nails and gives them extra protection for the "clumsiness" of my person. I don’t do manual labor or anything…but my everyday wear on my nails can be grueling for a "little ol’ nail". The added acrylic gel fibers in the product are extremely supportive.

So far, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat is my favorite fast drying topcoat. It works as promised, and dries any polish color within a minute after application. Of course, it tells you to wait two minutes before applying it, but still… three minutes for dry polish is a win! Since I started using this topcoat I haven’t had sheet imprints on nary a nailbed. This is telling because I’m notorious for the "right before bedtime" manicure.

When my nails are very short, I opt out on basecoat. Once they have any amount of length that I want to retain, I use a strengthening basecoat.

That’s pretty much my entire nail care routine.

…and do everything as daintily as you can…. your nails will love it. 😉