I'm Back! Hopefully...

Sorry for disappearing for so long. I lost my blogging mojo and then I lost my nail painting mojo. I had China Glaze Liquid Leather nails for like a month because I had no motivation or inspiration to do much else.  I'm loving my halloween nails, which you saw yesterday, and hopeful that this will kick start my nail painting and blogging.  I'm also going to be attempting a nail art challenge for November, #nailartnov on Instagram.

Here are some manis that I've done the past few months.. If you follow me on Instagram (@sparkleandpolish) then you have already seen these.

China Glaze White On White and Liquid Leather

OPI Nein, Nein, Nein, Ok, Fine. Skull and Glossbones, Jade Is The New Black and Gargantuan Green Grape. 

OPI Don't Touch My Tutu, China Glaze Glistening Snow and Techno

Essie Cashmere Bathrobe, OPI Don't Be Such A Budapest and My Boyfriend Scales Walls

China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise and Angel Wings

China Glaze Glistening Snow, OPI Vant To Bite My Neck and a purple franken

China Glaze Tongue and Chic and Revlon Elusive. 

Thanks for sticking around! 

Stay Sparkly,

A

Halloween Nails

I love Halloween, it has always been one of my favorite holidays. My nails always had to match my costume... or costumes. But this year, as I am not dressing up, I did more generic Halloween nails.

These are my actual day of Halloween nails, I am wearing them as I type this.

Pinky, pointer and thumb are a base of OPI Don't Be Such A Budapest with a dot of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and China Glaze Liquid Leather.

Ring finger is a base of Don't Be Such A Budapest with little skulls done in My Boyfriend Scales Walls with Liquid Leather eyes.

Middle finger is a gradient of My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Don't Be Such A Budapest with Maybelline Clearly Spotted.

This next mani I actually wore a week ago when I went to Disneyland! Disneyland is all decked out for halloween, so I knew my nails should fit the theme as well. I've seen a ton of Jack Skellington nails on Instagram lately, but I added a little Disney touch to mine. 

Thumb, pointer and pinky finger- a gradient of OPI Vodka and Caviar, China Glaze Prey Tell, Liquid Leather and Lubu Heels

Middle finger- China Glaze Liquid Leather and White on White

Ring finger- China Glaze Liquid Leather, Haunting and Tinsel Town with OPI Crown Me Already

Happy Halloween! 

A

Evolution of a Manicure

This is the evolution of a manicure. Sometimes I try different manicures and techniques inspired by fellow blogger/IG nail ladies. They don't always work out as planned... but thats the joy of nail polish, its quite easy to fix :)

I did these manis a while ago and just never got around to posting them here... I've been an awful blogger, I'm trying to get back in the swing of things, but it is an uphill battle honestly.  To those who are still following me even though I fail at posting lately, I thank you <3

First I tried the new trend, a hairspray marble, inspired by @amkush15

 As much as I liked the idea of a hairspray marble, but I didn't pick the right colors so I decided to try a different accent nail.

This time I followed @sabrinasnails bow tutorial as an accent. This I loved, but I thought the rest of the mani made it look too busy... so that lead to further evolution.

This is the manicure I settled on to wear. The bow looked much better in person, photography is showcasing all of the imperfections of my handiwork.

Polishes used:

China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise (neon)

China Glaze For Audrey

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls

Hope you enjoyed this post, sorry its so crazy long. If you stuck with my this far, thank you :)

Stay Sparkly,

A

Lush Lacquer Freckles

Here is the other polish I purchased from Lush Lacquer- Freckles. It is a neon matte glitter- similar to Clowning Around but with smaller glitter pieces. There are fuschia, orange, teal, lime and berry toned glitter, but what I love about this polish is that the glitters are relatively sheer so they layer over each other and make new colors. I layered this glitter over China Glaze White On White and paired it with China Glaze Highlight Of My Summer.
Picture 1- with flash to show the brightness of Highlight Of My Summer

Picture 2- in natural light

I love this! And more than that, my mom loved it! She is not on board with most of my manicures, but she absolutely loved Freckles. She kept commenting on it while we were shopping and at lunch the day I wore this.  All afternoon she just kept saying how much she loved it.  I don't know about you guys, but I really like when people notice my nails, especially when they are saying lots of great things about a mani that you put time and effort into :)

Stay Sparkly,

A

July 4th Spam

Woo hoo Saturday Spam on Thursday! Here are a few different red, white, and blue designs that are great for 4th of July.

Polka Dots

 Base- OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. Red- OPI Vodka and Caviar. Blue- Sally Hansen- Pacific Blue

Stars and Stripes    

Pointer, Ring and Pinky- base China Glaze White on White, stripes are OPI Vodka and Caviar. Middle finger- base Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, glitter- Icing Blue Ice. I used a new top coat and it smeared the shit out of my stripe nails... learned that lesson, gotta stick to me Seche Vite. 

Blue Glitter Gradient

 

 

Base- Sally Hansen Pacific Blue. Gradient- China Glaze Fairy Dust and Icing Blue Ice

last picture is blurred to show the holo bits :)

Stay Sparkly And Safe This Holiday,

A

Maybelline Clearly Spotted

Finally this is mine!!! I went to literally 13 stores before I finally found this beauty! I have been lusting after black and white glitter for a while, but I absolutely hate bar glitter, so that eliminated majority of the mainstream brands. I actually debated picking up Hard Candy Black Tie Optional and removing as much bar glitter as I could by hand... but that seemed a little ridiculous haha.
Clearly Spotter is everything I have been hoping for, bold yet delicate. I can't wait to layer this over everything.
I layered this as a gradient over yesterdays holo glitter gradient tips. I love how the bits of holo glitter pop out from under the black and white.

Once again, this is going to be a little pic heavy. Obsessed with this mani!!

Hope you liked this as much as I do! Do you have a favorite black and white glitter? Any suggestions about what I should layer it over next?  Leave your suggestions in the comments :)

Stay Sparkly,

A

Saturday Spam- June 29

Welcome to Saturday Swatches, or Saturday Spam, as I'm calling it this week.  Well it's week 2 and I'm already kind of changing it up... I have been participating in two nail art challenges for the month of June, I have already featured these mani's on my Instagram, @sparkleandpolish, you should follow me if you haven't already :)
Instead of writing up a whole post for each one, since I have shared them already, I have compiled my favorite challenge entries to share with you here.  For the July challenges, I will try and be a better blogger and keep up with Instagramming my mani's and blogging about them here.

Nail Art June Challenge (nailartjune)

Sparkle Nails

Polishes used: Sinful Colors Sunburnt, China Glaze Angel Wings, Julie G Cleopatra's Cobra

Sea Critter Nails

Polishes used: OPI Can't Find My Czechbook and Gargantuan Green Grape. China Glaze Flirty Tankini

Ocean Nails

Polishes used: Pointer and Pinky- Deborah Lippmann Across The Universe. Ring and Middle- Sinful Colors Ciao Bella, Hex Glitter from Milani Teal, fish are Sinful Colors Jolt and China Glaze Highlight Of My Summer, octopus is China Glaze Sweet Hook

The Nail Art Story June Challenge (#tnasjunechallenge)

Kawaii Nail

Colors used: OPI Mod About You, China Glaze Sweet Hook and Sinful Colors Tidal Wave gradient topped with China Glaze Fairy Dust.  Ring finger looks bad, rhinestones from Michaels.. In retrospect I should have done a base color, like China Glaze Glistening Snow.

Neon All The Way

Polishes used- base color is China Glaze White on White. Pinky and Pointer finger- gradient with China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise and Highlight of my Summer, same colors used for leopard on ring finger. Middle finger is Salon Perfect Kaboom!

Vintage Floral

Polishes Used: OPI My Vampire Is Buff and Mod About You, China Glaze Pink Plumeria and Zoya Wednesday. 

Birthday Nails

Polishes Used: OPI Mod About You, My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Don't Be Such a Budapest. China Glaze Electric Beat.

Stay Sparkly,

A

Glitter Gradient Tips

This is a base of OPI So Many Clowns So Little Time, with a gradient of China Glaze Glistening Snow and China Glaze Fairy Dust. This post is picture heavy, my apologies, but I just loved the look of this mani, so I took a lot of different pictures. It is so light and feminine, a great palate cleanser after all the crazy looks I've been doing for my June challenges.
Starting off with the shade pictures.
In the shade it is a lovely, soft silver gradient. Very subtle.

Indoor, up close to a light, not color accurate, but I loved the shot.

Outside in natural sunlight. Showing the lovely holo sparkles.

Blurred to show the holo. 

Hope you enjoyed the holo picture spam. This mani is so gorgeous, it is still on my nails as I type this. 

Stay Sparkly,

A

Lush Lacquer Chicks Rule

This polish is amazing!! The colors are so bold and bright, but they work very well together.  This is a clear, or maybe slightly pink toned base with raspberry, orange and coral matte glitters.  The glitters are very thin and sheer, creating other colors when they layer over each other.

First Look:

This is a skittles mani, starting with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls on all nails. Pointer and pinky are a gradient with Essie Sunday Funday and Essie The Girls Are Out. Middle Finger has 2 coats of Chicks Rule. Ring finger has dotted flowers in Sunday Funday and The Girls Are Out

Second Look:

This mani features a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls on the pointer, middle and pinky fingers. Essie The Girls Are Out on the ring finger. Two coats of Chicks Rule on all white parts, including my wonky freehanded heart on the ring finger

In terms of formula, this was flawless. Flowed smoothly on to the nail, glitter came out easily, no fishing required.  The glitter is a little sparse even at 2 coats, but that is the look I prefer.  I like that the base polish clearly shows through.

I have been bitten hard by the indie bug, any brands/polishes you think I should look into?

Stay Sparkly,

A

Bubble Nail Art

This is done using acrylic paint to make water spot bubbles on top of polish. I loved this look, changed up the accompanying nails to extend this mani.  To do this, you water down acrylic paint, apply small dots on your nail, allow a minute or so to set on your nail, and then absorb the excess water.  I followed a tutorial from @tabitha_nicole on Instagram to do this, and it was surprisingly easy to do.

First Look:

 base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls on all nails

Pinky and pointer I did a jelly sandwich with OPI Polka.com and OPI Don't Touch My Tutu.

Ring and middle water spot bubbles using acrylic paint.

Second Look:

Ring and Middle- same as before

Pinky and Pointer- Essie Naughty Nautical, with a dot of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and China Glaze Fuchsia Fanatic

Here are a few more looks at the water spot nails. 

Too fun. Definitely going to try these again. Full swatches of Essie Naughty Nautical will be coming up soon, I'm still tracking down a few more colors from the collection, then I will post them all for you.

Stay Sparkly,

A