Memorial Day Round-up

Memorial Day is tomorrow. It seems like time just flies by anymore. I blink and a week has passed. I planned to do this post early but life got busy. Half the time I figure if I get a chance to do it at all I'm ahead! Do you have your nail art ready for the holiday? If not take a look at some of these past designs (and the one I did especially for this post) that could be perfect for your nails. :)

The first is my Patriotic Drip nails. These are still, to this day, one of my favorite nail art designs. And honestly, they are so easy to do! I even have a tutorial to walk you through it!! (The original post for the Patriotic Drips)

Easy, right? It's okay if you're not up to using a nail art brush though because I have one even simpler for you! All it takes is red, white, and blue polish and some saran wrap!

This mani is not only easy, but it's fast too! I started with just one coat of China Glaze First Mate. Let this dry completely before moving on, and it is really the only part you have to wait for. Next put a drop or two of white polish on a piece of paper and dip a bit of crumpled saran wrap into it. Dab the saran wrap around the paper until you start to see a design that is more than just blobs of nail polish and then dab the saran wrap around your nails. Repeat with the red polish. I went back and forth between red, white, and blue until I got a design I liked. There is really no way to do this wrong so have fun! I topped the design with Seche Vite and then did a quick clean up with a q-tip dipped in nail polish remover.

My helpful tip of the day: Using top coat before you clean is perfect for those of you who have a tendency to over clean and ruin your hard work as it will protect the design - you'll need to clean through a layer of top coat before you erase any of the design. :)

Still not what you're looking for? Try one of my older designs. I think I am nearing the end of new and different when it comes to patriotic nail art because I've done so much of it already!

The original post for the Stars and Stripes nails.

The original post for the Patriotic Splatter nails.

The original post for the Memorial Day 2012 nails.

And while this may be a design I did for the Olympics of 2012 this red, white, and blue gradient would be perfect alone or used as an accent. (The original post for the Olympic nails.)

Whether you choose one of these designs or already have an idea in mind ... what will be on your nails for Memorial Day?

Patriotic Drips Nail Art Tutorial

Hello everyone!! It's been forever since I posted anything. I knew running a nail polish business was going to take time, but I guess I never realized just how much of my blogging time it would eat into. I'm working really hard to keep up with orders, restocks, and developing new releases. Any free time I manage to grasp is spent storing up nail art and swatches so I can start posting again - hopefully within the next few months.

My patriotic nail art has been getting a ton of stardom lately. My nails can even be found in the July issue of People StyleWatch magazine! If you don't have a subscription to this magazine I recommend getting one. It's one of the best magazines I've read in a long time! I didn't have to search and skim, skipping large portions of the magazine, because every page had something interesting to me.

Now, onto the nails!!! With all that interest for my patriotic nails I decided to try something different. I won't claim that I created this - someone, somewhere has probably done this before - but I will say it is something I have never seen before! I would love to see your nails if you decide to try the tutorial, so don't be scared to send them to me. I don't bite. Promise!! :)

Right click and open in a new tab if you're having trouble reading the tutorial.

That's it for now. For those who don't follow me on Facebook but enjoy my polish I will be having a big restock, complete with a ton of NEW polishes and the return of those sold out polishes some of you may be waiting for! Head over to my Etsy shop tomorrow to see what I've come up with. Hope to see ya there. :)

Nail-Aween Bloody Nails

I've done a lot of bloody nails in my time as a nail artist. Splatters and drips and everything in between. I dislike redoing one of my nail art ideas unless I know I can make it better or unless I have a slightly different take on it. So when I saw that the next challenge in the Nail-Aween Nail Art Challenge was bloody nails I was a bit stumped ... until I came up with this.

I call these Just Bitten. I used a three coat base color of Revlon's Bare Bones. I wanted a paler 'skin tone' like my nails had been drained of blood and were left slightly ashen. As for the rest, I followed the Kayla Shevonne Vampire Bites Tutorial again. I added some blood dripping vampire fangs to her original idea though. I think these are some of the best blood drips I've done yet since I tried to keep these drips very thin and realistic.

Out of the Halloween nails I've done so far, this is definitely my favorite. I didn't want to take these nails off!! What do you guys think?

C is for ...

Here is my mani for C in the ABC Challenge. I had so many ideas for C. The classic caged bird flying away design, cats, checkered, color blocking. However, I finally decided C is for ...

Chucky complete with blood drips. The Bride of Chucky movie is definitely one of my favorite 'horror' movies, right up there with Seed of Chucky. The only horror movies I like more are the Resident Evil movies.

I love the blood drips over white in this mani. These come from a tutorial over at Nails by Kayla Shevonne. I was left slightly disappointed at my Chucky. He came together so well but the overall effect just doesn't scream Chucky at me. I don't think I managed to capture that essential craziness he does so well.

However, this mani is chilling no matter if it looks completely like Chucky. So, if I must, C can also be for chilling.