This week's manicure is military inspired. It seemed a little obvious if I was to create this with an olive green so I subbed in a neutral grey.

When I visited the new OCC boutique a couple of weeks ago I got a free polish when I checked in on Yelp. I chose the very first nail color they created Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics, Dangerous. Two coats will do. I then used Color Club, What a Drag and a dotting tool to create the buttons. Dotting tools make it easy to create cool nail art designs quickly.

Ombre nails were in full effect for Jen Kao Spring 2012. Wanda Ruiz for CND created the most AMAZING nails which she dubbed "Lethal Love" inspired by poisonous frogs. All four varieties were created using an airbrush machine. CND is encouraging everyone to try them at home using Midnight Sapphire, Anchor Blue, Rouge Red and Green Scene on the tips of a base coat of Inkwell, a deep blackened blue/green. Top with Air Dry Top Coat while wet for the ombre finish.

Photo courtesy of CND

Photo courtesy of CND

I am definitely trying these color combos soon. Will you?

Unless you've been hiding under a rock (or not surfing the blogosphere) you are aware of the Mui Mui glitter booties that have the fashion world going completely bonkers. These booties are so GORGE but so out of my price rance. Since my lottery numbers have yet to hit, there will be no glitter botties for me. I rufuse to sit out this fashion game so I opted for the next best thing (for me): NAIL ART! I created nails based on the designs of the green/gold and the peach/silver versions of these amazing shoes.

Inspiration:

Silver and peach $890 Gold and Pistachio $890 Images via Net a Porter

Gold/Green

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure, Gilty Pleasure (gold)
Sephora by OPI, Charge it!  (warm-toned gold with pearl finish)
China Glaze, Re-fresh Mint (light mint green)
Color Club, Black
Milani Jewel FX, 531 Gold

Peach/Silver:

Color Club, What a Drag (chome-silver)
Wet & Wild Wild Shine, 437F Blazed (coral peach)
Color Club, Black
Nyx Silver Glitter mixed with generic clear polish

Do you ever rock designer inspired nails?

This week's Mani Monday is super easy to do with the help of a dotting tool. I started out with my base color of Essence, 22 What Do You Think? I then used Rimmel, French Tip White to make the diagonal dot pattern. I alternated the direction of the lines to give a little touch of whimsy.

Something I need to get off my chest is the fact that I was a bit disappointed with the Essence color. In the bottle its a beautiful orange-coral with gold sparkles. However, when applied the gold shimmer is NOWHERE to be found. Such a bummer! I guess I could have topped it with a gold sparkle top coat, but that just adds another coat and additional drying time. Either way, the color is quite pretty despite the lack of shimmer. See bottom picture for how it looks in the bottle.

See? shimmer in the bottle! WTF?

Have you ever been disapointed with a nail color out of the bottle?

Happy monday (what an oxymoron) kittens! Hope you all had a fantastic weekend. I finally got out of my rut of single color nails and back into a little fun! Hooray! This weeks manicure was inspired by plaid and baskets. My back color is a pastel yellow with no fun name, The Face Shop, YL701. I then painted on criss crossing stripes with a stripe brush using Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure, 310 Guilty Pleasure. I think it turned out well and people even asked me if it was one of those nail stickers.

Shatter, crackle, whatever you call it, and whether you like it or not, there is no escaping this nail trend. I wasn’t a huge fan of it when it was big in the 90’s and I’m still not today. This is mostly because of the color options. Back in the day there were two choices, white and black. Now, it seems like every polish brand is coming out with their own line of crackle effects thus increasing the color options tremendously. Well kittens, I’m still not sold. I like to be in control of my own colors so I of course DIY’d a work around.

How’d I do it?

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The last few years of nails trends have included pastels and this year isn't any different. Pastels are feminie and soft. I'm more of a bring-the-drama-nail kind of girl myself, but I can apprecialte a soothing pastel set of nails. These started out as a simple pink maicure but I got bored after 2 mintues and decided to embellish them a little. I used Color Club, Get a Clue as my background color. I then used a striping brush to add decorations with: LASplash, Great White; China Glaze, Re-fresh Mint; Zoya, Robyn; and China Glaze, Peachy Keen.

I usally don't include both hands in my pictures, but I figured I would show the different patterns on all the nails. (Which I totally made up as I went along) I know its well, about a month early, but let's get a jump on springy nails. Enjoy!

What happens when I spend hours browsing nail designs on the internet? I'm overloaded with ideas and inspiration. I cannot remember where I first saw animal nails but I fell in love with them instantly. I loved the bunnies the most. For this design I applied two coats of Zoya, Robyn to all but my ring fingers. For the bunny nails I used two coats of Zoya, Harley as my background color. For the bunny ears and head I used a small filbert art brush to apply L.A. Splash, Great White. I use Rimmel, Black Satin for the eyes, which could have obviously been any one of the black colors I own, this just happened to be the one I grabbed first.

After I painted on the bunny faces I decided to add other designs to my other nails. I used Zoya, Harley and a small striping brush to make the other designs.

Love is in the air. Or maybe that's just l the smell of the nuts for nuts truck wafting down broadway. Either way, I  can always dig a cute, pink, valentine's day themed manicure. Corals and ladylike pinks are HOT colors for spring so why not try incorporating them in to your beauty routine now?

To create the ombre effect I started with a 2 coats of Shades by Shades by Bareille, Blossom as a background base. I then used a makeup sponge to dab on thin layers of Deborah Lippmann, It's Delovely, being sure to sit a few minutes between coats. Then I applied OPI by Sephora, Lost Without My GPS followed by a bit of CND, Firefly just on the very tip to darken out the ombre effect. I sealed it all with Seche Vite, Fast Dry Top Coat as usual. Just for fun, I added some reflective heart nail art pieces from my Cina, Flirtini nail art kit. To do this I applied a bit of clear, placed the heart with the tip of an orange stick and then sealed with more clear.