HOT HOT HOT

When I was about 8 years old, and my sister was 5 we went on a family road trip from the Pacific Northwest down to Sunny California. My little sister and I spent much of that ride rolling around in the back of the Datsun with the seats folded down (of course, not wearing seatbelts) munching on McDonald's burgers and whining, "Are We There Yet?" One evening we stopped at a motel and my dad opened up the back of the hatchback to let us tumble out into the parking lot. Dang, that parking lot was HOT! We jumped right back up into the Datsun and tried to convince dad to drive the car around to the door of our hotel room and we would just leap out over the hot pavement into the room. No such luck. I asked my mom if she could get some eggs so that we could really try to fry eggs on the cement, again no such luck.

This manicure is my version of eggs frying on the pavement! It is part of Neverland Nail Blog's Summer Fun Nail Art challenge. :)

Sunny side up!

I started with my favorite black polish: Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris. I topped that with a coat of Love & Beauty Charcoal polish (I hate the names of Love & Beauty polishes!)

I topped my nails with Hard Candy Matte-ly In Love matte topcoat to give my nails the appearance of blacktop.

Here you can see the progression of the artwork, I used white, yellow, and black acrylic paints with a small nail art brush to make the eggs. 

These are the polishes I used to create this look, and a matte topcoat.

Finally I used my small nail art brush and coated only the eggs with Seche Vite topcoat to give them a shiny finish. Again, sorry for my thumbnail, I broke the corner of it. :(

Pool Party Nails

Here is another design for Neverland Nail Blog's Summer Nail Art Challenge. The theme is pool party. I happen to live above the pool at my apartment complex, so the feeling of a pool party is a bit different for me than for other people who don't live above/right next to a pool. For about 5 months out of the year, almost every night is a pool party. I get the pleasure of hearing my neighbors yack it up in and around the pool. So for me, a pool party means NOISE! LOL

MARCO! POLO! And lots of screaming and swearing. Gotta love kids in their first apartments who think it is awesome to swear around a pool full of children. o.O

I started with a base of OPI Fly from the Nicki Minaj collection. This is a great blue, although it is a jelly and could use three coats (I used two).

This is what I WISH it was like to live above the pool: calm, reflective water and just the sounds of ripples on the surface. No. Such. Luck. These ripples are painted on with acrylic paint.

Then I added black words on my nails and filled them in with other colors to make them pop. Whoever invented the Marco Polo water game should be drowned.

The gradient on the Marco Polo nails was fun to do and emphasizes the VOLUME at which children scream the words out during their games.

This last shot includes my thumb (but I am sad that the corner of it broke) and the voice of at least one kid who always is trying to get his/her mom's attention. Mom, mom, mommy, momma, hey mom! Mommy! Look at me! Look what I can do! Ma! Mommy, mom, mom, ma! Are you looking? Mom!

Check out the other (possibly less manic) interpretations of Pool Party nails!

Summer Lovin': Let's Do It

Today's post is part of a challenge that my friend Lindsey of Neverland Nail Blog has put together. I have been swamped with work, nail polish sales, and now a very inconvenient summer cold, so this is my first entry and it is already late. :( I chose this design for the "Summer Lovin'" theme: Let's Do It!

This design is inspired by the Cole Porter song, "Let's Do It" which mentions lots of different types of creatures falling in love. The images here are from the song lyrics: "Goldfish in the privacy of bowls do it" and  the line "Sentimental Centipedes do it, Let's do it, let's fall in love."

I used OPI La Paz-itively Hot Matte as my base. Then I used acrylic paints to do the artwork. 

These kissing fish cracked me up!

I thought about adding a matte topcoat to keep the whole manicure matte, but I just topped everything with Seche Vite and called it good. :)

Here is the mani in the shade outside. The base color is really flattering and fun to wear. 

And be sure to check out the other fun manis with a Summer Lovin' theme!

Holla! It's Holo Hump Day

A few of my polish friends and I are wearing holographic manicures today. I fancified mine up a bit with yellow french nail accents.

This is China Glaze GR8 with a thin french tip I freehanded using China Glaze Happy Go Lucky. 

This is my mani in the shade, and you can see it is still pretty, though not spectacularly holographic-y. One needs sunlight to show off the awesomeness of holographic nail polish. 

My poor little pinky nail is so short. Check out the different manicures below for more holo-y goodness! And my next Sonoma Nail Art sale is coming up this Friday at 5pm! Here is the link to my shop on etsy. 

Wine Country Wedding

Today I am featuring one of my Sonoma Nail Art polishes in a fun combination over OPI Tangerine Scene. This is one coat of Wine Country Wedding on three nails, with some fun abstract nail art on the thumb and ring finger.

I used white acrylic paint for the designs on my thumb and ring finger. You are getting very sleeepy... (ha ha).

Here is Tangerine Scene on its own, so pretty and bright!

Wine Country Wedding has lots of white and clear glitters in it, plus a bit of white shimmer and a tiny smattering of iridescent sparkle. 

Here is Wine Country Wedding (photo by Sarah of Chalkboard Nails) and it is for sale now in my etsy shop. I have a few bottles left from my sale on Friday.