Sweater Weather nails

Well even though we haven't gotten any snow today (yet),

 a lot of others have.

Here's a cute little snowy weather sweater mani :)

I'm pleased, for once my nail art looks pretty good!

:)))

This is OPI's 'Lost on Lombard' stamped with

Winstonia plate W120 & Sally Hansen 'White On' polish.

What do ya'll think?

Valentine's Day nail art & mani

Ya'll know I'm NOT good at nail art.

I saw a design on Pinterest that I wanted to try and recreate...

-___-

It turned out pretty crappy.

But i'll post anyway!

This is SUPPOSED to be heart shaped balloons.

But... yeah.

Didn't quite work out.

I got my hand to stop shaking long enough to do a somewhat decent job

on the hearts, but the black strings are wayyyy too thick.

Also, I have a super girl and simply mani for you:

This topcoat is one of the first indie polishes I ever bought

a couple years ago.

This is 'Monsta Love' from GlitterDaze.

Very fun :)

Nice little throwback,

as it was originally posted here.

Winstonia Hearts

So I pretty much suck at stamping,

but every now and then I'll try it.

Here's a time that I've tried it and it actually looks somewhat okay!

Here's a cute heart pattern from one of my Winstonia plates:

I used CG's 'Cranberry Splash' as a base,

Sally Hansen's 'White On' to stamp with,

and Winstonia plate W102.

The white wasn't as bold as I would have liked,

but the pattern still transfered okay :)

Yay!

Favorite Polishes of 2013

It's time for yet another culmination of favorites,

this time in relation to what you all care about-

nails!

'Heart Breaker' from All That Glitters

Mushroom Mani :)

- some actually semi- successful stamping for me!

'Candy Cauldron' from Pop Culture Cosmetics

'Sleigh Bells' from Starrily

:)

What are your favorites from 2013?

Let me know!

Spotted: Fall!

Now that Fall (and bits of winter?) is definitely here to stay,

I decided to do fun & simple Fall nail art :)

I love using my dotting tool,

so I just went with that.

That's Zoya's 'Flynn' as a base,

and the dots are Sally Hansen's 'Red Carpet', Zoya's 'Thandie',

& an unnamed metallic gold from Kleancolor :)

I'm no pro at nail art,

thus why I never do it,

but I wanted to at least attempt some this time.

Creepy Jack

I don't often do stamping because i'm just not very good at it,

but I do like stamping.

So, I decided to attempt to use a couple stamps from my new Winstonia plates.

Here's what I came up with:

This is 2 coats of Zoya 'Thandie' with Konad black stamping polish

& Winstonia plate W116

I like that the stamp is smudged a little

and that the topcoat made it run some-

it looks even creepier to me that way :)

Anyway, that's my stamping for the month, probably

haha.

I may have a go at another one; we'll see.

Halloween Glitter Gradient

So I purchased a black & white glitter from Maybelline awhile ago,

but i've been saving it for the Halloween season to swatch :)

I found a look on Pinterest with a similar glitter used as a gradient 

over an orange nail, and I knew I had to recreate it.

Here's my attempt!

I used 2 coats of Sally Hansen 'Sun Kissed' as a base

and 'Clearly Spotted ' from Maybelline for the gradient.

'Clearly Spotted ' is a clear base filled with all sizes of black & white

circle and hex glitters.

It's from Maybelline's Color Show, 'Polka Dots' collection.

I figure all these little black & white polishes

are dupes of Lynderella's 'Connect The Dots'-

but I still like it.

Plus, it's only like $6,

so- there's that ;P

The gradient itself is kinda crappy,

but i rarely do nail art...

so when I do, it's mediocre at best.

I still liked this, though :)

What do you guys think?

*GUESTPOST* by NailsLikeLace

Ok guys,

I've been a little busy lately, so i'm on the hunt for people who want to guestpost for me.

(email me at: taylorhelana@gmail.com if you're interested!!)

I'm super stoked to have NailsLikeLace guest post for me today.

I've followed her blog for quite awhile now,

and her nail art (among other things) is FANTASTIC! :)

Hey everyone! 

This is Amber from NailsLikeLace, posting for Taylor, today!

I was playing with some new polishes, trying to come up with an idea for a good guest post, 

and I ended up deciding on Grease inspired nails (if you haven't seen that movie,

you are really missing out!).

On all of my nails, I started with a gorgeous, vibrant, neon pink, ORLY Passion Fruit,

then topped off most of my nails with Sally Hansen Star Burst,

one of the very few crackle polishes I actually kind of like.

On the middle nail, though, I wrote the word 'Grease', loosely based off the logo image,

with black and white acrylic paint.

A final coat of Seche Vite to smooth everything out, and I was good to go!

I love how these turned out, and I hope you do, too!

Sleek acid raver's look & nails!

Happy Monday!

So one thing i LOVE about summer is all the neons.

I bought Sleek's Acid Palette not that long ago,

and have been itching to use it.

Also, i love going to shows (be they raves, dnb, edm, what have you- i'm actually seeing FLux Pavilion, Skism, & Ana Sia this weekend :DDD)

and often times neon is everywhere there.

Keeping both these things in mind,

here's the look I created using Sleek's Acid Palette.

I used:

Too Faced's Shadow Insurance

 unnamed neon yellow, orange, pink, & green from Sleek Acid Palette

Covergirl Line Exact liquid eyeliner

L'Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes

You can see I had some issues with fallout that I just couldn't get cleaned up properly,

but i'll get it next time.

I was VERY impressed with these shadows.

When I initially swatched them,

I wasn't sure how pigmented they would actually be...

but they blew me away.

Super pigmented & were easy to work with, even for mattes.

Also, (despite the primer) their staying power was amazing.

Next up,

some neon nails with crappy stamping!

Yes, those are aviators.

I attempted to stamp them in a slanty pattern but that went bust.

Though the stamping sucks,

I liked being fun in painting each nail a different neon.

ORLY 'Melt Your Popsicle'- pointer

CG's 'Yellow Polka Dot Bikini'- middle

CG's 'Pink Voltage'- ring

CG's 'In the Limelight'- pinky

Winstonia plate W109  w/ black Konad stamping polish

What are your thoughts on this look & the crappy stamping mani?! 

:)

Sleek Acid palette & some stormy stamping

Hey everyone.

I'm pretty much done with moving for right now,

so I can get back to blogging regularly :)

I have a super bright & awesome palette & swatches for you today,

as well as some mediocre stamping.

First up, in honor of the rainy  stormy weather in TN lately-

This is Revlon's 'Dreamer' stamped with one of my new Winstonia plates :)

No, the clouds were not originally intended to be upside down,

but I figured i'd make it look intentional :P

Next up, the Acid palette!

AHHHHH love me some neons!

Perfect for summer & festival season.

Swatches:

As you can see, 

some are satin shimmers & some are mattes.

The neon mattes did not seem to be as pigmented as I had expected,

but we'll see what a primer can do with them.

Still can't wait to try these babies out.

Shrooms!

Unknowingly, I have been on a hippy streak.

T'as not planned, despite was yesterday was!

Anyway, I have some fun stamping for you today.

I'm slowly but surely getting better at stamping,

but still have a lot of work to do.

I wanted to use my new Winstonia plates some more,

so here's ya go!

This is Winstonia plate W110 in Konad black stamping polish 

over China Glaze's 'Flip Flop Fantasy',

which is one of my top 10 favorite polishes :)

I LOVED these little toadstools.

It's so cute, fun, and different that I didn't want to take it off.

What do you guys think about this stamp?

Spring Polka Dots

I have some simple nail art for you today.

I love polka dots in general, but especially on my nails :)

Being that it's Spring, I thought i'd do a fun mani with pastels & the polka dots.

I used:

OPI's 'Pink Friday'- thumb

Zoya's 'Pippa'- index finger

NOPI's 'One Big Happy Fame-ily'- middle finger

CG's 'Re-Fresh Mint'- ring finger

Revlon's 'Dreamer'- pinky

Stil not great with my dotting tool,

but i'm decent!

What do you guys think? :)

Easter egg stamping

Hey again everyone.

Hope your weekend has been awesome!

I have some silly stamping for you all today.

I'm not great at stamping,

but i've been really anxious to use some of the designs from my new Winstonia plates.

I used the same mani from yesterday because I really liked it as a background.

Here are some uneven little Easter eggs using plate W105 :)

So no matter how many times I tried,

I just could NOT get all of the egg stamp to transfer well.

Humph.

The plates are amazing, though :)

That's it for today.
I have an Easter look for you guys tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Watercolor Easter nail art

Hellooooooo.

I don't often do nail art because, quite frankly, i'm not that great at it.

I love pastels, though, and have been looking for a way to use them together.

I've considered doing a splatter mani,

but with Easter coming up, i thought about dying Easter eggs...

and that brought me to the idea of sponging different colors on.

The effect reminded me of how we used to dye our Easter eggs,

but it also reminds me of watercolor paint, too.

Here I just tore a makeup sponge apart, and used one piece per polish.

It didn't come out EXACTLY as I had intended,

but I still like it.

I used (all from Sugar Rush collection):

'Unicorn'

'Sugar Rush'

'Candy Coated'

'Cotton Candy'

What do you guys think of it?

Does it look more like dyed Easter eggs or watercolor?

Thanks for reading!

Pinterest Christmas-y nail art

Hey everyone :)

Happy almost Christmas! :D :e

I have some nail art for you today that I saw on Pinterest awhile ago and LVOED,

and tried my hand at it.

Here's my re-creation of the Nail Network's original mani.

Blah. You can see that after I applied the SV too soon,

a few of the red dots bled :/

Aside from that, I was pretty pleased with this. I thought the original mani was gorgeous, though. Very festive :) Here are the polishes I used:

Zoya 'Kimmy' - dots

So Easy Stripe Rite for silver line

Essie 'Buy Me a Cameo'- base (2 coats)

Color Club 'Ho Ho Holly'- tips

That's it for today!

Thanks for reading :)

Some Santa Stamping

Hey everyone!

It's been a long time since i'd done any stamping

(mainly because i'm no good at it),

but I thought i'd try my hand at some festive Christmas stamping the other day.

I used a stamp from the Konad stamping plate I had in my most recent giveaway.

Here's Santa over 2 coats of Color Club's 'Berry and Bright'.

** Let me go ahead and ask you to forgive my middle finger. The darn thing chipped right before I took these pictures & I didn't have time to fix it ://

'Berry and Bright' is a vivacious red shimmer with blue/purple flecks that can be seen in sunlight. You can kind of see it here, but not as clearly as it looks in real life. 'Berry and Bright' is part of CC's Winter Affair collection. So far I have tried 3 different polishes from this collection, and loved them ALL.

The Santa & Merry Christmas stamp are from Konad stamping plate m12 using white Konad polish.

I attempted the 'merry christmas' stamp a dozen times- and this was the best out of them all. Sad. But my stamping skills are going to be lackluster until I practice with them more, which I never seem to have time to do :/

I liked this mani okay. It was fun and gave me a chance to use my new stamping plate,

but I'm not crazy about it. The plate and the polish are great, I just don't like how I've used them together here.

What do you guys think?

Reindeer nail art fail

Hey ya'll.

I have an attempt at nail art for you today.

Awhile ago on Pinterest I saw these adorable reindeer nails from TopCoat It,

and figured they were something I MIGHT be able to pull off with my limited skill in that area.

My hands are just too shaky,

(thanks a lot, genetics),

and I'm not crazy about how it turned out at all...

but figured i'd post anyway.

Maybe one of you pros can do it and actually do it well! :P

Needless to say, TopCoat It's were MUCH better!

:/

I used:

NOPI's 'Hard-Kourt Fashionista - base

Butter London's 'Yummy Mummy' - antlers

NOPI's 'Kourt is Red-y for a Pedi'- nose

Sally Hansen's 'White On' & Maybelline's 'Onyx Rush'- eyes

dotting tool

nail art brush

With someone who's actually good at nail art,

this can look great.

If any of you re-create this,

let me know! :)

Thanks for reading!

Candy Canes!

Hey!

I've finally got some nail art for you.

It's been forever since i've done any (and i'm not that great at it to begin with),

but I had a go at some candy cane inspired nails the other night.

I actually really liked how it turned out!

Tada!

For my unsteady, shaky hands- i'm rather pleased with this.

Festive and bright! :)

Clean-up is rather messy,

but this mani took me forever so i said screw ittttt :P

I used:

China Glaze 'Ruby Pumps'

Sally Hansen 'White On'

striping tape

Stripe Rite striper in silver

I felt more festive just wearing it :D

What do you think?

What's your favorite Christmas nail art?

Polka Dots & Spiders !

Hey guys :)

So i've had a lot of eye shadow posts lately... let's get back to nail polish for a little while!

It's been awhile since I did any nail art,

So i've tried some today.

I saw this mani on Pinterest awhile ago and was determined to do it myself for Halloween.

I needed to use my dotting tool to make the spiders.

I wasn't sure if I was about to ruin the mani by trying to create some spiders or not,

so I quickly snapped a photo of the dots to have as a backup pic if I needed it.

I'd be perfectly happy with the mani ending like this, to be honest.

But I pressed on...

Tada! I really needed a toothpick to do the eyes,

because my dotting tool was just too big and it all blobbed together.

But whatever. Next time!

I used:

2 coats of Sally Hansen 'Sun Kissed' as base

Maybelline 'Onyx Rush' for spiders

Sally Hansen's 'White On' for eyes

dotting tool

Still have miles to go on my nail art,

but I have a blast doing it :)

What do you think?

Thanks for reading! :)

Neon leopard print nails!

Goooood afternoon, everyone!

Please look what I just saw outside my window:

SO. CUTE.

My neighbor leaves birdseed or something all over their patio (ugh), but it WAS cute to get to look out and see these tiny guys. adorable.

ANYWAY,

I finally played around with some stamping again,

and using my daughter's leopard print leggings-

here's what I came up with!

Tada!

 I totally love this mani. It's by far my favorite that I've done in awhile :)

I'm still not that great at stamping, but i'm slowly getting better.

I used:

China Glaze's 'Pelican Gray' as base

Konad stamping polish in black for spots

Konad stamping plate m57

CG's 'Purple Panic' & 'Yellow Polka Dot Bikini' for accent spots w/ dotting tool

SV

What do you guys think?!

Also,

STAY TUNED because I justtttttt might be announcing a giveaway tomorrow! ;)