November Nail Art Challenge - Under the Sea

*Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Lady Queen.  All thoughts and opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

Hello lovelies! After seeing a November nail art challenge pop up on my Instagram I decided to give it a try but keep the art fairly simple. The first week is "Under the Sea", and I created my very first pond mani.

I started with two coats of LA Colors "In A Flash". It's a really pretty ocean-y blue jelly. Then I used white and the starfish looking stamp on Born Pretty Store stamping plate BP-43. And then another layer of LA Colors "In A Flash" finished the pond. I wasn't perfectly happy and thought of doing a ton of different things (mermaids, seaweed, another stamp ...) but finally decided a simple fluorescent green nail stud from Lady Queen would really finish the look and draw the eye. Overall, I was really happy.

In case you were curious, here's the design pre-nail studs. ;) I think I'm finally getting the hang of this whole stamping thing. The sticky stamper I picked up a bit ago from Amazon certainly helps! This one, or search VAGA stamper on Amazon and look for the square black and white one, if you're in the market for a good sticky stamper. I get no commission from you clicking on this link though so don't be afraid to simply click!

Until next time,
Ashley

*Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Lady Queen.  All thoughts and opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

Happy Birthday To Me!!

It's my birthday, and I want to share it with all my nail polish lovers!! So I'm having a sale - the biggest sale Spellbound Nails has ever had ... and I'm releasing a crazy awesome duo!

Use the code BDAY30 on www.spellboundnails.com or www.spellboundnails.etsy.com for 30% off all orders for one day only - sale starts midnight EST! ALL ORDERS? Yes, it's crazy!! Ready for the other bit of crazy?

The duo that's releasing is The Joke's On You and it is a Joker and Harley Quinn inspired duo. Those of you who follow me on instagram will have seen my Harley Quinn cosplay for next year's Sci-Fi Valley Con come together and will know that I'm a litte lot obsessed with the Joker and Harley so what better way to celebrate my birthday than with this crazy couple??

This is Why Aren't You Laughing and is of course inspired by the Joker. It's a plum tinted jelly with a sprinkling of green squares, small red hexes and orange flakies to match the Joker's famous suit, grin, and hair.

This is Rev Up Your Harley and is a glitter topper packed full of red and black diamond glitters with small red, black, and white hexes to capture Harley Quinn in all her harlequin beauty.

Can I just say that I had some amazing bloggers swatch for this duo? Many thanks going out to paintednubbs, spilledmilknails, teasp00n.

And the scented polish lovers out there should be excited to know that I've added 12 new scents to the list of scents that can be added to any order, any polish but only through my main website www.spellboundnails.com.

Enjoy the sale while it lasts and happy shopping,
Ashley

Happy Halloween

*Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from OPI, Preen.me, and Barielle.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Hello lovelies!! I know I'm not around much anymore, and I definitely recommend following me on Instagram (@spellbound_nails) to keep more up to date than following my blog. Buuuttt Halloween is my favorite holiday so I did two nail art designs to celebrate, and I thought I'd post them here too.

The first I want to show you is actually the second design I did and what is on my nails right now. I started with a base of white and used the fingerprint stamp on Vivid Lacquer's VL009. I added lots of blood drops to my accent nail and a few to my index and thumb. A few highlights and shadows on the blood drops and this design was done. Easy peasy.

The second design I want to share is so fun! I started with a base of OPI Cosmo with a Twist and added blobs of Barielle Hawaiian Sunset. I painted my accent nail with Barielle Hawaiian Sunset and painted the jack-o-lantern in white and then went over that with a yellow tinted glow pigment mixed with clear polish. I loved how it had the lit pumpkin look in the day and really lit up at night! Like I said, so fun!!! 

This wasn't done for Halloween but it reminded me of something very Halloween before cleanup ... like frost bite gone bad or the fingertips of some evil witch so enjoy. ;) Colors used are OPI Colors of the You-niverse and OPI By the Light of the Moon.

Happy Halloween,
Ashley

*Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from OPI, Preen.me, and Barielle.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Fairy Tale Collection - Available Now

Those of you who have followed me for a while will know that I'm a HUGE fan of Disney. So I thought it was finally time to take some inspiration and create a fairy tale collection.

Full Size Collection ($52.00)

Mini Collection ($26.50)

Individual polishes, in mini and full size bottles, can also be purchased for our website for $4.50 per mini and $8 (Falling in Love) and $9 (for the rest of the collection).

I was so excited making this collection. I thought back to everything I read and watched as a kid and tried to put it into colors lol. The Fairy Tale Collection is meant to be the ultimate fairy tale experience for your nails. It'll take you through the highs and lows of finding love for the first time, losing love, fighting against everything and anything that stands in your way, and ultimately finding (and keeping) it again in the end.

There's shimmer and sparkle and even a glow in the dark villain.

I had the idea of holding the brush in the sun for a fun glowing brush shot and it turned out better than I hoped!

Looking for swatches? Look no further!

@teasp00n on Instagram

and

Painted Nubbs has a swatch and review blog post.

Until next time,

Ashley

Wood Watches by JORD Review (PIC HEAVY)

*Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Wood Watches by JORD. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Hello lovelies! I was given the amazing opportunity to try and review one of the gorgeous wooden watches from JORD. If you've never heard of JORD before or have never seen their watches take a look below!

Jord has so many designs, shapes, and colors to choose from, but I picked Zebrawood and Maple from the Fieldcrest Series. This wood has such an interesting 'zebra' striped pattern on it, and I wanted nothing more than to recreate this with nail art! Keep reading for that. ;)

Upon opening the box I was stunned to see this box inside. It's a beautiful light wood keepsake box that contained the info on JORD, the JORD wood watch I chose wrapped around a cute little pillow, and a few extra links just in case I measured my wrist wrong when having it sized (fyi: I did) but it was super easy to add one of the extra links!

I even made sure to pack the watch in my beach bag and take it on vacation with me. I really wanted to get dressed up and have a photo shoot on the beach but the boyfriend really can't be trusted with a camera (though he was nice enough to hold the box carefully off the balcony so I could get the first picture of this post) so I waited until I returned home and had a photo shoot of my own.

A little background on JORD to go with the photos. JORD (Swedish for earth, soil, land) uses a variety of natural and sustainably sourced woods from across the globe. Woods such as those used in their current series of watches - bamboo, maple, sandalwood, blackwood, cherry, zebrawood, koa, purple heart, ebony, and rosewood. That's 100% natural wood without the use of harsh chemicals to treat or protect the wood with stainless steel clasps to help keep them hypoallergenic! Of course, that doesn't guarantee you won't have an allergic reaction so watch out (no pun intended) for any signs or symptoms but I speak for myself when I say I have allergies to nearly everything and my watch didn't bother me a bit.

JORD also ships worldwide so don't be afraid to go take a browse if you're one of my lovely international followers! They even ship to P.O. boxes with a valid credit card and billing address. ;)

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for ... NAILS!!!!!

I chose this specific watch for this pattern! If I was getting a wood watch I wanted an awesome wood grain pattern that I could recreate on my nails, and it doesn't get better than this!! This mani is actually completely customized. I custom mixed three bottles of polish to get the color as close as humanly possible to the wood.

It was a huge success in my humble opinion! I started out with a light brown base, sponged on a medium brown, and finished with a hand drawn wood grain pattern in a dark brown.

Many thanks to JORD for letting me try this beauty! I couldn't be happier. However, if my choice in watch isn't to your personal preference take a look at the scroll bar below and visit www.woodwatches.com to find the perfect wood watch for you. :)


Wood Watches For Women

Until next time,
Ashley

*Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Wood Watches by JORD. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Memorial Day Sale

Hello hello!!! There are a lot of Memorial Day sales out there but there can be only ONE Spellbound Nails sale. ;) (Highlander anyone?)

Use code MEMDAY20 (remember caps are important with codes) for 20% off anything and everything, no minimum required, 5/22 - 5/25. Code is good on both spellboundnails.com and spellboundnails.etsy.com. Also, I am lifting the restrictions on my ongoing promotion for this sale only so buy 5 full size bottles and get 1 full size or 2 minis of your choice (from current available stock) free with your order. Just let me know in the notes section during checkout what you'd like. :)

Sci-Fi Valley Con (Picture Heavy)

Hello, hello, hello!!! Those of you who have been with me from the start know how much of a huge dork I am! So it shouldn't surprise you at all that I went to our local sci-fi con this past weekend ... or that I dressed up. :)

This is a little picture heavy (edit: a lot picture heavy), but I wanted to share my excitement and pictures with any who might be interested. For those who aren't here's a pic of my nails done for the con using my Spellbound Nails Leave the Brakes On, Holo Back Girl!, Carbon Copy, and lots of acrylic paint. I apologize for the bad picture quality but I stayed up late painting them. There's a slightly better pic in one of the collages below.

Click through break to see it all.