Mustard yellow is my favorite color.

This is China Glaze 'Trendsetter' with one coat of top coat. This is, obviously, a pretty simple one. After St. Patrick's Day and three weeks of green, all I wanted was something simple. (The mani before this was actually China Glaze 'Mahogany Magic', which is about as plain as you could get.)

St. Patrick's Day mani #5

This is two coats of my own franken, with two coats of Sally Hansen No Chip top coat.

I would be lying if I said this was anything other than the pinnacle of my St. Patrick's Day manicures. On the nail, this stuff reminded me of astroturf! I ended up passing this on to my buddy Jessie (who makes gorgeous jewelry which can be found here) and  I hope she loves it just as much as I did.

What I used to make this:
- Wet N Wild "Kaleidoscope", one bottle dumped into bigger, empty franken bottle
- Martha Stewart "Emerald" glitter. A TON! I just eyeballed and did a lot of shaking.
- Martha Stewart "Peridot" glitter. Just a bit, to give it a little multi-color effect

"Kaleidoscope" is (as you can see) a silver glitter in a clear base. It's fairly sparse, so I thought it would be a good candidate to add more glitter to. I used a rolled-up post-it note as a funnel, and shook like hell. I added a bit at a time, which made it a lot easier. This, I think, walks to line of almost having too much glitter. It will pull itself off the nail if you don't have enough on the brush. Easy enough to fix, though.

This is my first franken in a couple of years, and I think I'm going to do some more!

Cleopatra mani

This is:
one coat Nailtiques 2
two coats Milani holo '3-D'
stamped with Sinful Colors 'Black on Black' and BM201
one coat Poshe top coat

This is one of my favorite plates because this design is so simple but still interesting. I really love the Milani holos. I prefer scatter holos over linear holos because they tend to look better in non-direct light. (CG Kaleidoscopes vs CG OMGs)  I spend a lot of my time indoors, so I don't want a boring, drab mani 75% of the time! These Milani holos look great 100% of the time, regardless of the light.

simple dotty mani

This is:
one coat Nailtiques 2
two coats LA Girl Flare 'Magnetism'
dots are (obviously) freehanded with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 'Wet Cement'

This is probably my favorite way to dress up a simple mani. It's also a lot easier if you own a dotting tool!

aqua leopard

This is:
one coat Nailtiques 2
two coats LA Girl Flare 'Twinkling'
stamped with Sally Hansen Insta Dry 'Silver Sweep' and BM221.

If this color combo was available in a bathing suit, I would buy it like *that*! This color combo is too perfect for summer.

white with purple stripes or purple with white stripes?

This is:
one coat Nailtiques 2
two coats LA Colors fuchsia (from the dollar store with no name)
stamped with LA Colors white and BM223
one coat Poshe top coat

One word:
LOVE.

This is a great example of a plate that is forgiving and very good for beginners. You can see very easily that this isn't perfectly stamped but it doesn't ruin the overall effect or detract from itself. I also really like stamping with this white because it isn't totally opaque. It adds a slightly different effect than what a thicker, opaque white would.

the China Glaze Capitol Colors as jewelry!

This jewelry was done with the China Glaze "Capitol Colors" collection and they are all inspired by the Hunger Games. Check 'em out in my etsy shop! http://www.etsy.com/shop/TartanHearts

Disneylandy mani featuring Minnie Mouse

When you're going to Disneyland, you need to be appropriately attired. The finishing touch on that for me is themed polish!

This is:
one coat Nailtiques 2+
two coats Milani 'Ready to Wear Red'
stamped with LA Colors white and BM19
Minnies are freehanded with Sinful Colors 'Black on Black'
Minnie's bows are also freehanded with Milani 'Ruby Jewels'

(And no, my right hand did not look anywhere near as good as this. I also smeared the best Minnie by putting topcoat on too quickly.)

Here it is in context with the whole outfit and WITH MINNIE!



Next time, Diasy Duck manicure for sure. Daisy is my homegirl.

simple brown and sparkles

This is:
one coat Nailtiques 2+
two coats Revlon Top Speed 'Espresso'
one coat CoverGirl 'City Lights'
one coat Poshe top coat

Did I mention that I'm really into brown?

swirly, sparkly mani

This is:
one coat Nailtiques 2+
two coats Essence 'Walk of Fame'
one coat CoverGirl 'City Lights'
stamped with Sinful Colors 'Black on Black' and Konad plate m51.

I love the way this came out. Adding simple holo glitters like CoverGirl 'City Lights' or China Glaze 'Fairy Dust' makes any great color even better! This plate (m51) is fantastic and I think I love every mani I have ever seen done with it. This one: http://pinterest.com/pin/144678206748953995/  is fantastic!