Showing posts with label valentine's day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label valentine's day. Show all posts

I Heart Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is right around the corner, so I got a head start on design ideas last night in my premier Instagram live video! It was fun, and with the help of a few lovely viewers, I freestyled all 5 fingers with a heart-theme. (Thank you in particular to @terranceburger and @zeeohee, who helped me come up with the thumb design and the name for it.) To make it a little more fun, I invited viewers to join me for a beer. I enjoyed a Liquid Paradise IPA from a Colorado brewery, New Belgium. I also played music from the Spotify "Creamy" playlist for the first half, but due to Copyright issues, I was asked to turn it off if I wanted to continue live streaming.

The full live feed (broken up into two design videos and one "apologies-to-Instagram-for-playing-music" video) will only be available until around 8:00 MST tonight), but for those of you without Instagram, here's the final look!

heart valentine's day nail art by Nailed It @ www.blognailedit.com

heart cat emoji valentine's day nail art by Nailed It @ www.blognailedit.com

I used only 3 colors for the look, including Baylor (nail & bone), Love is in My Cards, and My Vampire is Buff (both from OPI). 

I'd love to do a live video again sometime. Any ideas or requests you'd like to see? 

LVX Fall 2014 Collection - Swatches and Valentine's Day Nail Art

Still yearning for some grey polishes, even after Tuesday's Fifty Shades tribute? Then check out today's post for the 2014 Fall collection from LVX, featuring a few more greys, pinks, and more, inspired by Fall 2014's runway looks. As you're well aware, LVX polish draws inspiration for all of their colors from runway looks and trends. I wonder what they're finding at this year's NYFW!

For swatches of the whole LVX Fall 2014 collection, keep scrolling. For some Valentine's Day fun, scroll no further! The collection's perfect pink, Peony, was just right for the world's favorite flower-bearing holiday. I paired it with another shade from the collection, Espresso, then accented it with Cerise. How adorable are those little lub-dubs?!


Though you can't see it, my thumbs also had a little red heart hidden among the chocolate hearts.

Let's look at the colors without art now.

LVX - Cerise

Cerise (2 coats) is a bright fuschia. Initially I thought it was more of a bright cherry, but the pink tones are pretty apparent.

LVX - Anthracite

Anthracite (2 coats) is a dark and rich charcoal grey. I like what LVX suggested - using this as an alternative to black. It's really dark!

Next is Peony.

Valentine's Day Caviar

Happy Valentine's Day readers!

Here's a little morning delight, V-Day style.



I did an OPI gradient with Chic from Ears to Tail and My Vampire is Buff, and adorned all my nails with little silver bullion beads formed into lovely tiny hearts.

Enjoy your day! I'm definitely enjoying mine!

Last night, I finished my last class in nail tech school! I'm officially graduated, and ready to take my boards! It's been a journey, and I'll post my last #NailTechNailedIt post soon. In the meantime, celebrating is in store!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Zippy Boyfriend Valentine

Happy belated Valentine's Day! I had this manicure on all day yesterday, but never the chance to edit and upload the pictures. Apologies for that, but maybe you can use this next year as inspiration.


The dripping heart and french tips were done using an awesome color from Zoya, Zippy. The base is My Boyfriend Scales Walls.

If you follow me on Instagram, you saw this yesterday, so again, apologies for the late post. I'm also sorry for the empty week of posts. I've been busy with some wonderful nail art related business I hope to be able to share with you soon. Keep an eye on Pinterest and my other social media sites for some clues! ;)

(Apologies for the sad pinky as well. Sadly, what nails break in Vegas, stay in Vegas.)

Nail Candy Review and Swatches

Can you believe it's almost the end of January already? This year just started! Where is the time going?!

Next month is a lovely month,  and Valentine's Day is just around the corner. I've seen a few Valentine's manicures already, and today I've got another, as well as a review of some new tools you may enjoy.



Nail Candy polishes are new to me. They combine a normal polish brush and a tiny nail art pen into one tool, with two different colors. That's a lot huh? Let me help you understand with some pictures.


Each pen comes with two colors, and the set I'm showing you today is called Love Letter. Pens...love letters...get it?

Each color has the capability of a brush, and the capability of a nail art pen. You can pull apart each pen at its base to get a solid base to stand your pen on.



Though this definitely helps keep the pen balanced, it's tricky to balance because they are such thin bottles.

Here's how the brush looks:


And here's how the nail tip looks:


See how teeny the tip is? That's great! It's smaller than my smallest dotting tool, and I think its size will be ideal for beginners. Whereas a normal striper brush or detail brush requires a steady hand and an unusual grip, these tools are thicker and easier to use, especially for beginners.

The nail tip does have a tendency to clog up, which Nail Candy has thought through very nicely. Attached to each tip (both colors on each pen), they've taped a tiny metal needle that you can use to unclog the tip should it get too stuck up.


I found that as new bottles, the polish was trying to get out before I could squeeze the little plastic bottle to get the polish out. I imagine this is because the bottles were still new, so I just made sure to squeeze a little drop off onto a paper towel first. You don't want to get globs of polish on the tip, as that'll mess up your designs.

The consistency of the polishes were all surprisingly nice! I've heard bad things about nail art pens such as these, where the polishes are just cheap and runny. These were great consistencies and that was pleasantly surprising.

The colors I'm showing didn't have names, but they all came in the set called Love Letter.



This creamy pink was a lovely shade! I used two and a half coats. (I say half because the last was very intentionally thin just to cover up a bald spot or two I'd left behind.)

 

This neon pink has a little bit of blue shimmer in it, and I liked it a lot. This was three coats.



The red is so rich and lovely. I almost want to call it a jelly, and it's so perfect for Valentine's Day. That's three coats.



Finally this is the white color. This was probably the best color for me. Though it had a tendency to get a little streaky due to its shimmer, it was still beautiful. I only needed two coats for this.

I really like these pens, and I highly recommend them if you're trying to get into nail art, but aren't quite comfortable with striping brushes.

Nail Candy sets are all available through their website here. They've got lots of colors, as well as a bling set using some 3D rhinestones! This would be a great gift to bring up for a clueless boyfriend...so start a Valentine's Day list! I hope to try some other colors at some point, and I hope you try some too.

These products were sent to me by Nail Candy. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.

Darker Valentine

Valentine's Day is tomorrow, and today will probably be the last of my mini series of Valentine's Day manicures. Andy and I have plans to make some homemade ravioli (with spinach, ricotta, and Italian sausage inside) which probably won't leave much time for my hands to be painted. Toxic nail polish in delicious homemade food doesn't sound too appetizing.


Today I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Cinna-Snap as the base. Holy cow is that color sexy. It's such a deep, dark, almost bronzed red. Definitely a one-coater, and a hell of a job to clean up in the cuticle area. I then layered on some Chunky Holo Scarlet. Topping it all off is Synergy from L.A. Girl's Glitter Addict collection. I had plans to do some stamping, but I'm really pleased with all these glittering combinations lately.

Valentine's Day Manicure: Day 3

Yesterday was awesome. The mountains we ski at got a few inches (5 the night before we came) of snow, so we went up to Breck to get some runs in. It was a great day, and powder is so much better than slippery, icy slopes. I even hit some jumps.


Then we went out to Denver for the bars.

Needless to say, I'm exhausted today. After thinking about what I wanted to do for my nails literally all day, I finally mustered up the energy to create my third Valentine's Day manicure.


I used the awesome franken polish Leslie gave me here over Something Sweet (China Glaze). I really love the way the glitter is sandwiched between the two colors, making it feel more smooth. It was really stunning on its own, but I couldn't help myself. I added black pinstripes to half of my nail using Time Off (Sinful Colors) and still wasn't totally happy, so I striped in the pink lines using Am-Ore (Color Madric). I added a heart on my index finger as well using the same colors, and finally tipped each nail with a very thin black french manicure. I think it all came together quite nicely.

Now if you'll excuse me I've got a date with the couch and a fluffy pillow.

Stitched Together

I'm sure there exists somewhere a Hallmark card about stitching two things together that somehow relates to hearts and Valentine's Day, so use your imagination to connect that to my second Valentine's Day manicure while I dose off to get ready for skiing in the a.m.

This manicure took painfully long to complete, and I blame it on my impatience to let things dry before taping them off. I had to take off and redo my left index finger 4 times before I finally got it right. Darn Pointer!



The lighter pink is Soul Mate (appropriate for this holiday) and the darker is Feeling Great, both from Sinful Colors. The white stitches are French White Creme (Wet n' Wild). The pinks were done with the tape, and the stitches were a tiny striping brush. I'm growing more fond of the brushes I have, but I'm not sure I'll ever use the longest brush. It seems so unwieldy, but maybe I just haven't found its use yet.

Goodnight!

A Bit of Glit

February 14th is just around the corner ladies, so it's time to start gearing up with some festive manicures.

Valentine's Day is probably the easiest holiday to prepare manicures for for several reasons. A) I can't think of a single girl who owns nail polish that doesn't have a pink, red, or purple in her collection. B) Hearts are the easiest thing to create, besides dots. They're basically just three dots, strategically placed. C) Cute is easy to do.

My first act in this series of pinks and cutes is a simple stamp over some girly glitter.



I started this off with Heavenly (Savina), and then added one thinnish layer of Candy Cane (Color Club). After sorting out the stamping plates that would go well with the colors and theme, I finally landed on one I was almost sure I'd never use, but actually quite like. Bundle Monster's BM09 plate has this sort of tattered "LOVE" stamp, so if any imperfections arose as a result of the transfer, no one's the wiser. It also grits up this glittering manicure a bit. Black on Black (Sinful Colors) stamps lovely though, so I imagine there aren't too many issues.I should have stamped it facing the other way for photographic purposes, but the unusual post-production rotation will have to suffice.