*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.
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.
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
*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.
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.
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!
*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. :)
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. :)
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.
Hello lovelies! I wanted to have this posted at least a week ago but I've been down with a horrible cold. It seriously had me down and business halted for a few days. And while business is back up and running I'm still fighting the cough and sniffles over a week later. But better late than never, right? So without further ado here is this year's Mother's Day Sale!! Enjoy.
Use the code MOM2015 for 20% off all orders. Orders over $100 use the code MOM100 for 30% off!! The sale ends 11:59pm EST May 10th and can be used on our main site of spellboundnails.com and on our Etsy shop spellboundnails.etsy.com. May the 4th Be With You, Ashley
*Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Born Pretty Store. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Another post already? Yes! I was contacted by the Born Pretty Store and given the chance to review some of their products. I knew immediately what I wanted to do. I sketched out two designs, a dark and a light, and picked out products I could use for them. Here is my dark design. Welcome to my web. :)
It has been forever since I've done a border/frame nail and I struggled like crazy to figure it out again, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I started with a black base and leaving a border around cuticle and sides painted white down my nails. I went over that with China Glaze Adventure Red-y. And then finished by tipping my nails with black.
I used the web looking stamp on Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate BP12 and some white polish. It wasn't a stamping polish (and I'm no stamping genius lol) so I did have some trouble picking up the small details in the middle of the web, but I really love how it turned out anyway. After stamping I went over the border again with some black acrylic paint. The borders are a little wobbly looking in maco but looked amazing to the named eye.
I finished the design with a spider. I created this using a previously purchased Born Pretty Store 3 Size Pearls Wheel (in the largest size) and a diamond gem from the Mixed Multisize Rhinestones I got as part of my sample packet. Then I used black and white acrylic to draw on some legs.
Can I just say how much I adore these mixed rhinestones?? You get a little of everything. There's a variety of colors in small, medium, and large. I will definitely be using these in more manis!! So, did you get caught in my web? Let me know what you think in the comments. And don't forget to use SBN10K31 for 10% off your Born Pretty Store order if you decide you can't live without these products! :) Until next time, Ashley *Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Born Pretty Store. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
*Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from OPI and Preen.Me. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Hello lovelies!! I'm really excited to share today's post with you. I received a really nice sampler box of OPI Infinite Shine polishes as part a collaboration between OPI and Preen.Me. Those of you who follow me on Instagram will have seen a sneak peek of these polishes in my 15 second unboxing video. I immediately had my eye on the two pinks in my sampler and since it's now Spring (Is it? Is it really??? -_- The snow here says different) I went with what I think is a very Spring themed mani.
Along with the polishes I also received the OPI Infinite Shine base coat and top coat as part of the sampler. These polishes are said to have a hi-def gel like shine that wears up to 10 days without the light or the soak needed for removal!
I used the base coat on all nails but wanted to test the durability of the top coat so I used the OPI Infinite Shine top coat on my pinky and middle nail but my usual Seche Vite top coat on my other fingers.
First thoughts: I love the base coat. It went on smoothly, dried quickly, and didn't bubble or anything like that and my mani held up really well which is surprising because I've only found one (now discontinued) base coat that works well with my body chemistry. It was a light colored mani so I didn't really expect it to stain and it didn't.
However, I'm iffy about the top coat simply because it smeared my stamping long after I allowed it to 'set' for a few minutes. It also took a long time to dry - feeling tacky and not set long after applying. I know Seche Vite spoils me with how quickly it dries but the nails I used the OPI Infinite Shine top coat on still had me worried about bumping them about half an hour later. However, once it dried it had a really nice shine - on par with my Seche Vite so that's saying something! And it held up really well. I'm not easy on my nails but there wasn't much, if any, wear showing on any of my nails after the 2-3 days I wore it. Would I use this again? For a simple one color or gradient mani: yes. For nail art I've spent hours on: NO!
Woohoo!! I had a credit card offer come in the mail today so I have myself a much better scraper than that bit of cardboard from the video. This means I get a better and more complete image lol. I still don't have the set up for a video, but I rigged up much better lighting for this one at least. :) I also realized I paint over (and over and over) my nails way too much while editing this video given how much painting I had to cut out lol.
I have so many more polishes to try out and a few more manis already done and waiting to be posted to stick around or scroll back to the top, look to the right, and follow me so you don't miss a post! Until next time, Ashley *Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from OPI and Preen.Me. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
*Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Born Pretty Store. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Hello, hello lovelies!!! Another Thursday A-Z Challenge post. Today's post is Q for Quirky. Quirky being something odd, peculiar, and strange. I know some of the ladies had trouble finding quirky inspiration but even from the start my mind went immediately to the Mad Hatter and then expanded to all of Alice in Wonderland. What's quirkier than that??
It's such a bizarre mismatched mani, and I used a little of everything to create these nails. It's a lot of handpainting with acrylic paints with a little help from stamping and a vinyl.
We're All Mad Here on my thumb was created with the help of a vinyl. I removed the letters from the vinyl, leaving a stencil behind, that I painted over with white. I think the small amount of smudging adds to the overall effect. :) The index and pinky nail both use a base of Spellbound Nails Upelkuchen (from my Eat, Drink, and Be Alice Duo - can be purchased separately as well). Both the tipping, spilling tea cups and the 'Eat Me' tag were handpainted. I used the jumbled clock stamp (BP-39) that I received for review from the Born Pretty Store on my middle finger. If you read last week's post you'll remember that I said it would work perfectly for an Alice in Wonderland mani! ;) And last but not least I used let's paint Moscow and her much better 'painting the roses red' mani as inspiration for my ring nail. I started with a base of Spellbound Nails Buckingham Gardens (this looks a good deal darker in my pictures than in person) and painted the roses with white, red, and black acryic, adding the leaves with various shades of green.
I think this is my most favorite mani in a long, long, LONG time! I could not be happier!! What do you think? Is this mani quirky enough to fit the challenge? Let me know in the comments and don't forget to check out the manis from the other lovely artists in this challenge below. :) Until next time, Ashley *Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Born Pretty Store. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
*Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Born Pretty Store. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Hello lovelies! This week's A-Z challenge was P for Pale. I took a little leeway ... okay a lot of leeway with this week's challenge. Instead of going with pale or pastel polishes I went deep and dark and used 'pale as death' as my inspiration.
I've been calling this mani Your Number's Up in my head since I couldn't resist using the jumbled number stamp that was on the stamping plate too.
Being honest I almost didn't want to stamp over this. I started with a two coat base of Vintage Gray [Petites Color Fever] and then used some saran wrap to smudge on acrylic paint in White, Black, Pewter Gray, and Khaki. I topped it with a coat of my very own Fairy Dust like holographic topper, Spellbound Nails Holo Back Girl.
I received this stamping plate (BP-39) from the Born Pretty Store as a nice addition to a review package (review coming soon) and it couldn't have come at a better time! This skull stamp was seriously the hardest thing to stamp EVER! And it had nothing to do with the stamp itself and everything to do with having such a dark base. The stamp was really great with such clean lines that are deep enough to give you a perfect stamp! My problem came with not having anything opaque enough to stamp over the dark base. I wanted neon green but surprise surprise that didn't work. I went through nearly my entire polish collection trying to find a polish that would show up - one that wasn't white because I always use white!! I finally used an undiluted metallic that I sometimes use to mix polish, but it worked perfectly!
This mani was so sparkly and shiny in person! And I'm already dreaming of an Alice in Wonderland mani with that jumbled number stamp. If you'd like to try the stamp for yourself you can find it on the Born Pretty Store website here. As of today (2/27) it is on sale for $0.99! If you do decide to place an order you can use my promo code SBN10K31 for 10% off. This code is good on full price items only though so if you're just picking up this stamping plate while it's on sale it will tell you the code is invalid ... but can you really shop at BPS and not fill your cart with goodies? Seriously, don't even try to tell me I'm the only one who does this because I won't believe it!! Be sure to check out the other Pale manis below, and have a good weekend! Until next time, Ashley *Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Born Pretty Store. All thoughts and opinions are my own. An InLinkz Link-up
Hello again lovelies! You saw New yesterday and what's New without Old? You may recognize this from a long ago post. Seriously, the design I'm redoing today is such an old, old design. I did it the year I started my blog so my nails and my style of art have really changed since then.
Not only is it an old design redone ... it's a vintage design!!! Double the old!
I think the matte mani has a more victorian feel to it but it's really pretty shiny!
Between 2012 and now I seem to have forgotten how to draw roses. I struggled like crazy to get them to look even this nice. And I've discovered a terrible horror with my polish collection - I don't have a minty mint!!! I actually had to custom mix the color I used and it's far too blue for my minty tastes. But overall I'm actually very happy with this design.
Oh how very far I've come in 3 years. Here is the original design and my new ... and improved design? I don't know. Which is your favorite? Until next time, Ashley
Hello lovelies and welcome to another A-Z Weekly Challenge post ... yep it's really, really late. New was supposed to be posted last Thursday. I did the design, got pictures but never actually found time to go through them and get them ready for posting so you'll have two A-Z posts this week - today's and tomorrow's. :)
Today's post is for N which is for New. This isn't technically a new technique for me as I've done a watermarble before and attempted it another time or two but what is new about it is that it actually worked this time!
I started with two coats of a basic white on my nails, taped around my fingers, and then started making my designs with Wet n Wild [Candy-licious], Wet n Wild [On a Trip], and the basic white again. I had originally intented to use pink, purple, and blue but the blue refused to spread out once it touched the water so I defaulted to white and I think it's perfect! So glad the blue didn't work!!
My first few fingers took the brunt of my learning curve. I didn't do enough designs, I couldn't gauge correctly where to stick my fingers to pick up the best design and ended up getting the tail-end of them. It was a comedy act ... right up until I spilled the whole bowl of water plus already made marble right into my lap, all over the chair, and the floor while trying to do my right hand. Thankfully I'd already gotten these pictures because the designs were slightly ruined by polish splatters during cleanup. So yeah, that was a new experience too. :( But long after the memories and panic fade I shall forever have the pictures of my first successful watermarble and that's something to treasure. Until next time have a peek at what everyone else came up with for this challenge, Ashley
