27NOV11 Green Hidden Treasure

I love this color combo. The green with the flakies look great together. The flakies are copper and green and yellow depending on the angle...really pretty.

Revlon base coat
OPI Don't Mess With OPI green
Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure flakies
Essie Matte About You top coat

17NOV11 Neutral Chocolate

This is a very subtle, neutral manicure that I really love. The buff color with the sparkly, golden tan color look great together and then the brown stripe really sets it off. I love this color combination.

OPI base coat
China Glaze Heaven (buff)
BK Crystal Sand color #13 (sparkly tan)
Nail Star striper brown
Seche Vite top coat

13NOV11 Purple French Tips

OPI base coat
Sinful Colors Amethyst purple
Finger Paints Purple Palette glitter
LA Colors Lavender striper
Konad image place m37
stamped with Konad Special Polish white
Seche Vite top coat

07NOV11 Fall Half Moon

This is my first try at a half moon manicure. This style has been around for a long time, clear back to the 1940s I believe.  It's had a resurgence in recent years so I gave it a try. I really like the color combination and I especially love the contrast of the glossy orange and the suede-ish brown with gold particles. The difference in textures is my favorite part of this manicure.

Revlon base coat
OPI Chop-Sticking To My Story orange
BK Crystal Sand color # 15 brown
no top coat because I didn't want it all to be glossy

05NOV11 Colorful, Glittery Flowers

This look is inspired by watching this youtube video by LOVE4NAILS. It is very glittery, sparkly, colorful and fun.  This is called a skittle manicure which is when each nail on the hand is a different color. I really like the skittle look of this. I need more practice using fimo and rhinestones.

Revlon base coat
China Glaze White On White on tip
Pink - OPI Shorts Story color with Sally Hansen Strobe Light glitter
Blue - Sinful Colors Savage color with Wet n Wild Cost Is No Issue glitter
Orange - OPI In My Back Pocket color with Wet n Wild 24 Carats glitter
Green - China Glaze Entourage color with Sinful Colors Call You Later glitter
Purple - OPI A Grape Fit color with Wet n Wild It's All In The Cut glitter
Seche Vite top coat
Fimo flower slices
rhinestones

01NOV11 Pac Man

Another free-hand painted manicure. I saw this design on this youtube video by cutepolish. I think this manicure is really fun and silly.

OPI base coat
China Glaze Sky High-Top (blue)
Nail Star black striper
Sinful Colors Unicorn (yellow)
Seche Vite top coat

25OCT11 Frankenstein & Plaid

This is my first free-hand painted manicure. I learned the plaid painting technique from this youtube video by cutepolish.  I learned the frankenstein face from this youtube video by goldiestarling and this youtube video by Ihaveacupcake.

OPI basecoat
China Glaze Entourage (green)
LA Colors Art Deco black striper and white striper
Stripe Rite copper glitter striper
Seche Vite top coat

21OCT11 Spider Web

Here is the manicure I did after watching this youtube video by cutepolish. It's the first time I stamped on my own nails.

OPI basecoat
OPI In My Back Pocket (orange) sponged on part of the nail
Sally Girl glitter polish over top of orange color
Bundle Monster image plate BM13 spider and web images
stamped using Konad Special Polish in white for web and black for spider
Seche Vite top coat

First Post

This is the beginning. I have always had really strong, fast-growing fingernails. People have noticed them and commented on them for years and years...clear back to grade school. I have always loved to polish and paint my fingernails but from my mid 20s until I was about 39 I never made my fingernails a priority. I was busy with children and jobs and various other activities and I didn't do much to maintain or beautify my fingernails. Then an exciting thing happened when I was about 39 years old. My younger sister purchased a nail stamping kit by Konad. She stamped fun designs on her own fingernails and then on mine. It was so fun and so pretty and I started paying attention to my fingernails again. Every time I saw my hands, I smiled at my shiny, decorated fingernails. I loved it and remembered how much I used to enjoy painting my fingernails.

Now with the internet, I have access to photos and videos of fun designs for fingernails beyond just painting them a pretty color. I have learned to stamp on them and sponge paint them and use different colors on the same nail and even do some free-hand painting of shapes and designs. It is super fun! I've decided to take photos of my fingernails when I do a fun manicure and share them on this blog.  I'm not a great artist...I'm not much of an artist at all. But thanks to the internet I have learned lots of fun and simple techniques to paint and decorate my fingernails. It is pretty simple really, when you know the tricks and I am learning those tricks by watching nail art videos on youtube and by reading other nail art blogs.

Anyway, this blog is my place to share my photographs of the designs I put on my fingernails. Most-likely nothing will be my own design. I'm just not creative enough for that. But the photos I share will be my interpretation and/or attempt at designs I've learned from around the web. I will try to link the blog or video that inspired my manicure whenever possible.

There you go. That's the back story and now...on with the photos.