Nail of the Week: Green Glitter Swirl

This week I went for a design I did many moons ago that IMO is simple yet elegant. It was inspired by one of my all time favorites Love4nails. For the base color I reached for my go to color combination this month, Orly's "sheer nude", click here to purchase the perfect beige foundation color, and Icings "Glimmer girl" layered over the top to create a nude with a beautiful gold sheen.

Orly "sheer nude"

Icing "Glimmer Girl"

For the next step I used a lovely duochrome polish by the turkish brand Flormar I bought in one of the malls here in Egypt to create a french manicure. This color didnt have a name but it is a beautiful greenish blue duochrome with just the slightest tinge of purple. It applied much more smoothly then alot of duochromes in my experience which tend to be very streaky. It also was one of the few duochromes in my experience who didnt lose the duochrome effect when applied to the nail and flash either one color or another. Flormar polishes are 20 EGP (about $2.75) which I thought was very reasonable priced. I would be willing to try more of this brand. click here to check out their website.

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Next I used a small size dotting tool to create the green swirl down the side of the nail leaving one side of the duochrome french manicure exposed and finishing off the colors in a swirl at the bottom of the nail. For the color combination I used Orly's "lucky duck" a bright cream jade green polish click here to purchase and a densely packed medium green no name glitter polish in a clear base by Sula, a street brand here in egypt.

Orly "Lucky Duck"

The last step is just to apply your topcoat to seal in the design. I hope you try out this design it is fun and easy yet elegant. Thanks for reading! have a great week.

Nail of the Week: Good as Gold

For this week's manicure I began by reaching for....you guessed it "sheer nude" by Orly. I have featured this color in my last three nail of the week posts, can you tell I love it? This design was inspired by cherrynails another of my favorite nail artists. Nude colors are very easily dupable but to me the difference is the formula, this polish is not sheer or streaky like so many nude polishes from other brands. It has been my go to without a doubt lately and I have a feeling you may see it a few more times in future posts :)  I started out with two coats of this color as my base.

Next I added one thin coat of this gold glimmer topcoat from Icing called "glimmer girl". It is not a glitter polish but its more of a "sheen polish". This is definitely not one of those polishes that is meant to be worn on its own, it is far too sheer, but layered over the right color it adds a beautiful golden sheen. I have raved about Icing brand polishes quite a bit on this blog so you should be familiar with them if you are a regular here. I think quality wise they can easily match up to any of the high end brands and at $4.50 a bottle it certainly beats any of them when it comes to price. Icing polishes can be found in most local malls in the Icing stores.

Next I took my all time favorite gold glitter polish, also by Icing, called Gold dust, and created a thick vertical stripe down the middle of each of my nails. This is one of the most opaque glitter polishes ive ever seen and only requires two coats for full coverage. It is comprised of tiny microglitters in gold,silver, and tiny hints of red. I will be so sad when this polish runs out!! As you can see from the bottle its been VERY well loved.

Icing "gold dust"

As I write this post featuring three very well loved polishes in my collection im reminded how often I hear ;people say that they rarely (if ever) use up an entire bottle of nail polish either because it gets too gloopy and unusable or they just have too many in their collection. While I do have a very small and tidy nail polish collection these days I have had as many as 150 I believe and I still managed to use up many a bottle. Of course it helps that I have very long nails but I also am very judicious with my nail polish thinner that I purchase from Sally's the minute I see a nail polish start to get thick or gloopy I apply ten drops and the polish is good as new again. But I think the main thing I do that helps me use up my polish faster is I always do nail art and always do a design that features at least 2,3, sometimes 4 different polishes at once. Thats my tip for using up polish if you have a rather large and unruly collection :)

I finished up the design by using black water based acrylic paint and a small size dotting tool. I drew two thin parallel lines on either side of my vertical glitter stripe and then created swirls of an alternating starting point down the vertical stripe. I finished off by adding a thick coat of topcoat to seal in and protect my design. And thats the finished look, fun easy, and elegant. Why not give it a try? Thanks for reading!! Have a great week

Nail of the week: Ruby Red French Manicure

Im back this week with another Tartofraises's inspired design. I love the drama and elegance of this manicure with hand painted embellishments. To begin this design I applied two thin coats of "sheer nude" by Orly. This has definitely been one of my current favorites and I have pretty much worn it continuously since I purchased it a few weeks ago. The best thing about this fleshy nude is the formulation. The majority of nudes in my experience tend to apply so streaky on the nail that you have to apply at least 3-4 coats in order to achieve full opacity. But this lovely Orly shade needs just two thin coats to apply totally opaque and streak free. The only downside is it is on the thicker side so use a light hand when applying.Click here to purchase.

I applied the french manicure with my all time favorite red. Essie "lollipop" which is a bright fire engine movie star red. This polish ( as with most Essie polishes) applies like a dream and is totally opaque in two coats. Essie is my favorite brand because of the smooth, thin (but not watery) formula that self levels on the nail and also because of its thin brush that allows you to paint the polish precisely and accurately on the nail. I wish you could get Essie in Egypt!! :( click here to purchase this color.

I applied topcoat and added a 3 mm size ruby red rhinestone. I buy all my nail art supplies on Ebay quite cheaply (usually from china or hong kong) Some of you might hesitate ordering from an overseas seller but ive NEVER had a problem.
click here to purchase nail art rhinestone wheel

I applied one thin coat of another nail polish that has been my go to recently, "night in vegas" by Essence, which is an exact dupe of Essie Shine of the times. Im almost out of this stuff. Sad!!

For the hand painted accents I used white water based acrylic paint and a small size dotting tool. Since some of the details are quite small and precisely painted I used a few drops of water to thin down the paint to a water consistency so I could achieve thinner lines.

I finished up by adding a thick coat of topcoat to seal in and protect my design. I hope you enjoyed this week's nail art design. Thanks for reading!!

Nail of the week: Stone Cold French manicure

Im back this week with a few more nail and pedicure designs that ive been backlogging until I have the time to finally post them. Sigh I keep trying to get back on a regular posting schedule but sometimes life gets in the way you know? Anyway this weeks nail art is a recreation of a very simple french manicure design by my favorite nail artist (and personal nail art idol) Tartofraises aka Ophelia.  click here  to visit her blog.

I decided to do a french manicure design because I acquired a lovely beige nude by Orly recently called "Sheer Nude" that is perfect for the base color of a french manicure on my skintone. It is surprisingly opaque and pigmented and unlike alot of nudes that require 3-4 coats for opacity this color only required 2 coats.

Needless to say I was quite over the moon at finding Orly for sale here in Egypt, at 60 EGP it was about $8 too so roughly the same amount at what you would pay in the states. Click here  to purchase this color. Now if only I can find Essie nail polishes for sale here.....

Here is the picture from Tartofraises website of her design I recreated.

and here is my recreation

For the french manicure tips I used another Orly color called "stone cold", a medium blue shimmer with a slight glittery textured feel.  Click here to purchase

I used a thin liner brush and white water based acrylic paint to create the two parallel scrolls. I finished with a thin coat of "Night in vegas" by Essence which is a gorgeous red/yellow/gold/green flaky topcoat that adds dimension and uniqueness to any color it is applied over. I have mentioned it many times in this blog before and have noted that it is an exact dupe to the Essie color "shine of the times" that was discontinued a while back. They do sell Essence nail polishes in quite a few stores here although I have yet to see this particular color :( In the United States I purchased it at Fred Meyer for $2.99.

Thats all for this weeks super simple nail art design I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading!

Nail of the week: Tartofraises tribute, seafoam and jade green

As I mentioned before we are going to a family wedding this week and im planning to wear a green dress so I wanted to do a green mani/ pedi. click here to see my green pedicure. I chose two of my favorite greens in my collection, beginning with Essie "absolutely shore", a beautiful light seafoam green from the summer 2011 collection click here to purchase as a base color (essie nail polish usually retails for $8 but I purchased mine for $3 at Marshalls.)

essie "absolutely shore"

and sponged on Orly "lucky duck" from their "birds of a feather" collection, which is a kind of Chinese jade diagonally across my nail tips. click here to purchase.  Orly nail polishes usually retail for $8 but I purchased mine at Marshall's for $3.99/

Orly "Lucky Duck"

Then I used white water based acrylic paint for the design and drew it all with a small size dotting tool. I finished by adding a 2mm size rhinestone to the bottom.
The design was from Tartofraises, one of my favorite nail art bloggers, she is so incredibly talented and such and inspiration to me that I have recreated a few of her designs over the years. click here to view tartofraises's website and nail art gallery she also does tutorials on youtube and I would highly recommend checking out her channel if youre into nail art, her channel is like nail porn seriously! click here to see tartofraises nail art youtube channel

Where to buy supplies:
1) acrylic paint:click here to purchase
2) dotting tools click here to purchase
3) 2mm size rhinestoneclick here to purchase
Dont be afraid to purchase from sellers overseas, I have done it many times ordering supplies and found them to be very safe and reliable. The shipping does take longer of course since it has to clear customs so keep that in mind!

Nail of the week: Tartofraises tribute "the silver butterfly"

click here to purchase Revlon "Carbonite"
click here to purchase Revlon "silver screen"
This will be a rather short blogpost since it is not one of my original designs. It was one of the last designs I did before moving when I was on a mission to use up some of the nail polish I was not planning to take with me. If you follow my blog regularly you know how much I love the work of Ophelia or "tartofraises" who is an amazing nail art blogger and vlogger. If you have never heard of her I highly suggest checking out her youtube channel here and her blog here. She is amazingly talented and someone who's talent I aspire to. I have done a few posts recreating her work or doing my own spin on her designs but this flame design is all hers. I tried it once before and it looked AWFUL so it is much harder then it looks to create. Although in her blog post to this design here she says both hands took her 2 and a half hours to create so I don't feel too bad! I think it looks more like a butterfly wing then flames but it is a beautiful design none the less. Please check out her blog and her videos she is amazing! I hope you enjoy this weeks nail art. Thank you for reading and have a wonderful week!

Nail of the Week: The "Jelly Sandwich" manicure

This week I decided to do something a little different. Since I am still trying to use up some of my polishes before I move I decided to do another design that utilized several colors.

Last year the "jelly sandwich" manicure was one of the year's hottest nail trends, so I decided to jump on the bandwagon. The "jelly sandwich" manicure is a look that involves layering or "sandwiching" a glitter polish (jelly) in between coats of a sheer nude or pink color (bread). The top layer of the sheer nude or pink dulls down the sparkle of the glitter leaving a more subtle, feminine shimmer.

For the "bread" color of my jelly sandwich manicure I chose Revlon's "Sheer Rose" a faint shimmery nude almost the exact color of my skin. Revlon polishes, in general, are usually a very good quality mid priced brand and this one was no exception. Revlon polishes typically retail for between $3.99-$5.99 depending on where you buy them. For the "jelly" color of my jelly sandwich manicure I chose a multicolored chunky glitter from Forever 21's nail polish line "Love and Beauty". This polish did not have a name but the multicolored glitter is somewhat reminiscent of "Happy Birthday" by Deborah Lippman.This was my first time trying their brand, and glitter polishes are a little hard to tell the quality but they retail very inexpensively at just $2.80

On the tips I added a diagonal swipe of this dark burgundy color by China Glaze. I bought this two years ago at a swap meet and have long since lost the name but I find this to be one of those great colors that for some reason or another never really gets used all that much in my collection. China Glaze polishes retail for about $8 but I bought mine at a swap meet in California for $3.

The design at the tip is not mine it is actually from Tartofraises. click here to see her original design but I decided to recreate it in my own way. I have mentioned her several times in the past but if you don't know her youtube videos or her blog I strongly suggest you check it out. She is AMAZING. She is a true artist and definitely an inspiration to me! click here to check out Tartofraises Blog. She is french so her blog is in french but she also does videos/posts in English as well.

I created the design at the tip with white water based acrylic paint and a small size dotting tool. I hope you enjoyed this week's nail art design. Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Nail of the Week: Inexpensive Essie Dupe

Essence "night in vegas" on my nails (the picture does not do it justice)  (click on photo to enlarge)

Essence "Night in Vegas"

Essie "Shine of the times"

Today I wanted to do a quick blogpost and let you guys know about a great inexpensive Essie nail polish dupe. I have been lusting over Essie "Shine of the Times" for forever now, as you guys know under ordinary circumstances I simply cannot bring myself to spend $8 on a bottle of polish, but Shine of the times is no ordinary polish. This is a multicolored flake (not glitter) topcoat with flashes of green red and a slight blue sheen. Layered over another (particularly darker) color, it will give your boring manicure a beautiful otherworldly sheen. I did my best to capture this in my picture but it did not do it justice, it is so hard to capture all the colors on camera but in person it is BEAUTIFUL!! I was so enamored with this color that I decided I was willing to loosen the purse strings a little bit and splurge on this color, problem is this color was suddenly nowhere to be found. I have heard rumors on other nail blogs that this color is going to be discontinued (sad) BUT...while wandering through Fred Meyer (a popular one stop shopping place on the west coast I noticed to my surprise that they actually had "Shine of the Times"!! But wait....further into the nail polish aisle I discovered "Night in Vegas" by the brand Essence, and guess what it is literally the exact same thing. I compared the two in the store and they are identical, except of course that at $2.49 it is just over 1/4 of the price of its Essie counterpart. Yay!! Happy day! :) So if you have been lusting over this color like me check out this inexpensive dupe. 

Nail of the Week: Pacific Blue Rain Drops

click on images to make them bigger

This week I did a design inspired by the above design from Tartofraises, one of my favorite youtube nail bloggers. It was a relatively easy (for her) design but I thought it was so beautiful, her designs are always so amazing and I always try to learn from her. For my background I chose the absolute IT color of this season "Pacific Blue" by Sally Hansen. I have never seen another color quite like it it is absolutely beautiful, it is the most brilliant bright (but not neon) creme blue that is going to flatter a wide variety of skin colors. It is totally opaque in two coats and has pretty good (4-5 days on me) wearability. This color has really taken the nail polish community by storm and I would definitely recommend it! It should be available at most drugstores (Rite Aid, CVS, Walgreens, etc) for only $2.99. It is one of Sally Hansen's Extreme Wear nail polishes best sellers so you may have to search for it a little. I added one coat of "oh baby" by Pure Ice nail polish to give it a metallic duo chrome sheen. I achieved the rain drops with a simple liner brush and white acrylic paint. It's important to note that anytime you use acrylic paint you must remember to use topcoat otherwise the paint will simply wash off. I hope you enjoy this week's nail art design. Thank you for reading! :)

Supplies
1) Blue Nail polish: Sally Hansen Extreme wear "pacific blue": Available in most drugstores for $2.99
click here to purchase this polish
2) Duo Chrome Topcoat: Pure Ice "oh baby": available in walmart for $2.99
click here to purchase this polish
3) Topcoat: NYC in a New York Minute "Grand central Station": available in most drugstores for $1.99
click here to purchase this topcoat
4) Liner Nail art brush: I purchased a set of 15 brushes on Ebay for only $2.85
click here to purchase nail art brushes
5) White acrylic paint: I purchased this at Joann's Craft Store for $0.59

Pedicure of the week: Mint green with cherry blossoms

Click on images to make them bigger

close up view of mint green with cherry blossoms

matching manicure look

Since we are already halfway through summer I wanted to use my brighter colors as much as possible. My pedicure look this week was sort of a revisit of a nail look I did early in the year with the mint green and cherry blossoms. It is a very very easy look to achieve all you need is a thin liner brush and a tiny dotting tool to make three tiny white and pink dots for the cherry blossoms. It is so easy in fact I'm thinking of doing a tutorial since I'm sure anyone can achieve it. So look for that and try it out while youre sipping an Arizona ;) I hope you enjoyed this weeks toenail design. Thanks for reading!

Supplies
1) nail polish: "Sally Hansen Extreme Wear "Mint Sorbet" #340: $2.64 most Target stores
click here to purchase this color
2) topcoat: NYC in a New York Minute "Grand Central Station" #202: $1.99 most drugstores
click here to purchase this topcoat
3) nail art liner brush and small dotting tool: I purchased my brushes on Ebay for $2.85 for a set of 15 brushes
click here to purchase this brush set
*all acrylic paint is Joann's Craft Essentials Paint purchased at Joann's Craft Store for $0.59
1) dark brown: #72028
2) white
3)twinkle pink: #72189

nail of the week: polka dot french with butterfly

I don't do french manicures very often mostly because to be honest I feel like the lighter colors show every single flaw (bubble or nick or streak) unlike the darker colors that hide them a little more. But this week I decided to do a little twist on the traditional french manicure. I saw this design on Tartofraise's web site and thought it was so cute. It was my first time using the Konad nail art stamper that I have had for awhile. I haven't used it until now because I actually have alot of fun doing the handpainted work that I usually do but I think the butterfly turned out really cute. I created the dots with a medium sized dotting tool that is easily found on ebay and used it to outline the "smile line" at the bottom of the french. I finished the look with a diamond on each nail.  I hope you enjoy this week's design and thanks for reading! Have a good week.

Supplies:

Light Pink Polish: Sally Hansen Diamond Strength "Pink Promise" #06: I purchased this on clearance at Target for $2.08

White Polish: Wet n Wild "French White Creme" I purchased this at Rite Aid for $0.99 but they often have 40% off sales on Wet n Wild brand

Rhinestones: I purchased a multicolored rhinestone wheel on Ebay for $0.99
click here to purchase
Topcoat: NYC in a New York Minute "Grand Central Station" #202: $1.99 most drugstores
click here to purchase
Dotting Tool: I purchased a set of five dotting tools on Ebay for $0.99
click here to purchase
Black Water Based Acrylic Paint: Joann's Craft Essentials $0.59 purchased at Joann's Craft Store

Glitter french tip with abstract design and jewels

I finally got a new camera YAY :) that means no more crappy blurry webcam pictures :) This week I knew I wanted to do an abstract design and I knew I wanted to do a design on every finger instead of just the accent fingers I have been doing just to mix it up a little bit. I was  sort of inspired by a recent design from one of my favorite youtube nail artists Tartofraises but as you can see i added my own spin on it by creating a glitter french tip instead of the magnetic french tip and I made the white pattern bigger, covering more of the length of the nail. But I absolutely love her videos and suggest them to anyone interested in nail art. She is amazing! I decided to use this lovely bronzy gold color because I discovered it sitting in my nail polish collection sad and unused and I thought the purple glitter made a nice contrast.  I had a coupon this week so I decided to try out a new topcoat Sally Hansen Insta Dry Anti Chip Topcoat (the kind in the red bottle) that is almost always sold out everywhere and I have to say I really love it. I have to use it a few more times though to see how it wears and compares to my beloved NYC topcoat in Grand Central Station. So look for the review soon! Thanks for reading have a great week!

Supplies 

1) Bronze gold nail polish:  NYC in a New York Minute Quick Dry "Backstage Brown" #286: $1.82-$1.99 most drugstores

click here to purchase this polish 

2) Purple Glitter Polish: Sinful Colors "Frenzy" #922: $1.99 most drugstores

click here to purchase sinful colors polishes

3) Topcoat: Sally Hansen Insta Dri Anti Chip Topcoat: It sells for $3.99 at Target but I had a dollar off coupon

click here to purchase this topcoat

4) White Acrylic Paint: Joann's Craft Essentials "white" #72001 $0.59 at Joann's Craft Stores

5) Nail art Brush: I purchased my nail art brushes in a set of three on ebay for $0.99 click here to purchase brushes

6) Rhinestones: I purchases this 3mm size rhinestone wheel on Ebay for $0.99

click here to purchase rhinestones