31 Day Challenge: Yellow

Today I decided to try a gradient with some simple hand painted nail art. This creepy claw reminds of the time my husband thought it would be funny to scare me right after we watched a scary movie one night. I went into the bathroom, and then he crept up to the bathroom door and ran his fingernails down the side of the closed door. I freaked OUT! My hubs was *this close* to becoming a divorcee that night, LOL.

I used Revlon Buttercup as the base, then did a gradient with that color and Sinful Colors Let's Meet. Then I used acrylic paints to make the scratches and the claw. 

Here is my yellow challenge from 2011.

Molly and Me Nail Art

I adore my little niece Molly! She is three years old and loves to have her nails painted blue. When she first got her nails painted, she did not want to have anyone wash them for fear that the polish would come off. It took a bit of practice to demonstrate that nail polish can be removed and reapplied, but this girl has the routine DOWN. She's so awesome. I brought along some nail art supplies during my last visit to see family in January. Here is a record of our home nail salon adventure!

I made water transfer decals with her favorite characters from the Pixar Cars movie. She was thrilled with them!

Molly is ready to get her nails done! She had patience for a base coat, decals and topcoat. And she's only three! 

Our nail salon set up complete with nail polish remover, three colors of polish, a shot glass with water for the decals, and the decals I made for Molly. I did accidentally spill a tiny bit of nail polish remover on my brother's dining room table. Shhhh, he'll never know.

After applying the decals and letting them dry, it was time for Playdoh! If I mash enough Playdoh into my brother's table, he'll never notice the little patch of nail polish remover. Plus he'll probably blame it on Molls. Best. Aunt. Evar.

Here's Auntie's nails. I prepped my nails for the Seahawks game during my visit to see my family in Washington state. I've got a 12 for "12th Man" on my middle finger and Sally from Cars on my ring finger. The colors I used are butter LONDON Jaded Jack, OPI Ogre The Top Blue, and Sinful Colors Snow Me White. 

I can't wait for my next visit and nail salon party with my favorite 3-year old.

Run Lola Run aka Lola Rennt

One of my favorite films is 1998's Run Lola Run (originally "Lola Rennt") starring Franke Potente. At the center of this movie, a woman is trying to save her boyfriend and each scenario ends badly, until she finally finds success. Lola, the hero, runs almost non-stop through the film, but instead of being monotonous, the film is filled with tension and energy. The film style is innovative, the acting is intense, and the soundtrack is elementally entwined in the telling of the story. If you haven't seen it, you should. And please, please, PLEASE watch it in German with subtitles. The English overdub is particularly annoying.

I am developing a set of Powerful Women decals, and I tried this one featuring Lola.

I started with a base of OPI Big Apple Red, then painted on patches of my glitter topper Sonoma Nail Art "Red Flag Warning" (check it out in my etsy shop here). Then I added stamping from Pueen 52 (from the new stamping buffet set) with Konad Black polish. On my ring finger I painted Sinful Colors Snow Me White, and then added my Lola water slide decal. After I top coated it, I added thinned down red and blue polishes to color her hair and tank top. I hand painted the black french tip with Wet 'n Wild Ebony Hates Chris.

This is before I added the stamping and black french tip. I kind of like it this way too. The glitter gives it a fun sense of urgency.

I will soon have some fun news related to the Powerful Women decals I am putting together, so keep checking back for an announcement!

Beast Mode Nails

These are the nails I did for the Superbowl on Sunday, and I did them right before we were headed out to watch the game at our favorite watering hole. My husband was chomping at the bit for me to get done already, so we could score good seats to watch the game. And so I am sharing these with a caveat: I didn't have time to moisturize and make sure all of my cleanup/lines looked good. I was kind of horrified to look at close up pictures of this mani. SO DRY! With that in mind...

I deconstructed the Seahawks logo. You can see part of the beak on my index finger, and the eyes on my middle and pinkie fingers. On my ring finger is The Beast from Disney's Beauty and The Beast. For those unfamiliar with the Seahawks, one of the players, Marshawn Lynch, is nicknamed 'Beast Mode' for his amazing skills as a running back. So these are my Beast Mode Nails!

The base colors I used were Zoya Dove, Orly Fresh, OPI Ogre The Top Blue, and Sinful Colors Snow Me White. All of the artwork is done with acrylic paints, then topped with Seche Vite. And obviously no moisturizer. What have we learned from this, kids?! Always moisturize your cuticles!

I think it was totally worth it to keep my husband waiting while I finished these. Can you imagine what would have happened if I hadn't?! LOL

Reinventing the Half Moon Manicure

Ok, so I am not really reinventing the Half Moon mani, but I did try something I have never done before and I did it using only nail polish, no acrylic paints, which is usually what I would reach for with something like this.

I present the Apple Half Moon Manicure! Yes, it is very simple but I like the way it turned out. I used Essie Adore-A-Ball as my base color, then added a tiny half moon of Sinful Colors Innocent, a beautiful apple green colored polish. I modeled this after the Sebastopol Gravenstein Apple, which has lovely red, green, yellow, and white stripes along its skin. Using my nail art brush and tiny amounts of various other nail polishes, I added the stripes. I think I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White, OPI Big Hair Big Nails, and Orly Fresh for the stripes. 

Next I mixed a tiny bit of Wet N Wild Ebony Hates Chris with the Sinful Color Innocent green shade. Again using my tiny nail art brush, I carefully applied it to the top of the apple to give the impression of shading where the stem sits. Then I mixed Wet N Wild Ebony Hates Chris together with OPI San Tan-tonio to make the stem. I added highlights to the top of the apple using Sinful Colors Snow Me White mixed with Innocent, and also a tiny bit of pure Snow Me White. I topped it with Seche Vite quick drying top coat. 

I think this is a fun, unexpected way to wear a half moon manicure. I was inspired to try this reinvention manicure by The Lacquer Legion. Each month there will be a new theme for a nail challenge. This one was really fun! Be sure to check out The Lacquer Legion on facebook.

Have a great day!

Eeeeek! A Water Marble

Today's Halloween Challenge is water marble. yay. i just looooove water marbles. not.

But I did them anyway, and my first nail tricked me into thinking that it just might not be so bad this time, but no, it turned out bad. Sighhhh. So I only did three nails, and I turned them into monsters and put a little scream on my pinkie to show my frustration with water marble nails. Oh and to be afraid of the monsters.

Yeah, not so great. I like the index finger, but of course, as soon as I finished it, and went to do the middle finger, I totally bumped it and took a little gouge out of it. Arrrrg!

I started with a base of China Glaze Electric Pineapple. Great color! And this was light enough to act as a good base for the other colors. At least I got THAT right.

Then THIS happened.

Without the monsters and the scream. But it needed the scream, trust me. LOL The other polishes I used in this manicure are OPI Funky Dunkey and Tangerine Scene, Wet n Wild Black Creme, and Sinful Colors Snow Me White. Be sure to check out the other challengers who are WAAAYYYY better at water marble nails than me. :)

Also: my next etsy sale is today. The Halloween collection and Scooters 4 Hooters will be for sale at 1pm Pacific Time, 4pm Eastern. These usually go fast, so good luck!

Revolution Moto Scooter Nails

I am an avid scooter rider (in fact, I don't even own a car!) and my favorite scooter shop is Revolution Moto in Santa Rosa. I worked together with Johnna Gattinella (co-owner of RevMoto) to develop this special glitter topcoat and named it Revolution Moto. It is only for sale at their shop and is available now! Check out the fun manicure I did to launch the new polish:

I painted my nails with Sinful Colors Snow Me White first, then topped most of them with Revolution Moto. On my thumbnail I painted this cute scooter profile with black acrylic paint.

You can see a bit of the shiny bling coming off of my nails in this picture. I think this glitter topcoat looks amazing over hot pink and bright teal. 

Here's another look in the shade. You can see the little rainbows in the glitter, they have a great holographic flash. I was inspired by the awesome disco ball that Johnna has hanging out in front of her shop. Yes, my scooter store has a disco ball. And that is why it rules.

Here are a few bottles of Revolution Moto lined up all pretty like. Revolution Moto polish is $11 per bottle, and available exclusively at Revolution Moto. While you are there getting your polish, be sure to check out their rad scooters. My buddy Coco just bought one so now we are starting our own scooter gang!

Revolution Moto

518 College Avenue

Santa Rosa, CA 95404

Hello Kitty Valentine Nails

My polish friend Rebecca of Rebecca Likes Nails is a HUGE Hello Kitty fan. She was rather peeved at me when I made my Hello Kitty Zombie Nails. So to make up for it, and to celebrate the season of LOVE, here are my Hello Kitty Valentine Nails.

See, Rebecca? No fractured skull, no oozing blood. Just a pretty Hello Kitty with wings, floating around in heaven while picking the Valentine hearts that are growing out of clouds. 

My inspiration for this mani came from this adorable wallpaper I found at this site. 

I started with a base of Sinful Colors Cinderella. It's a beautiful shimmery blue with a bit of pink flash to the glass flecks in the polish. It's exactly what a Cinderella polish should look like. Sadly the Walt Disney Company tried to come out with a line of polishes inspired by Disney Princesses last year and they were a big disappointment. 

I painted Hello Kitty by using acrylic paints thinned with water. I made some minor adjustments to her after I took this pic, but this is how she pretty much ended up before top coat.

Then I added clouds and the basis for the Valentine flowers using more acrylic paint. Acrylic paint is easier to work with and gives you much more control than polish. Always start with a base of nail polish on your nails, then apply acrylic paint on top of that for the art work. Seal it with clear top coat. 

I finished by adding color to the Valentine hearts and a few random hearts on my other nails. I also painted a few random heart on my right hand, just to give the design a bit of continuity through the two hands. I am not as skilled at painting with my non-dominant hand. 

Here are the finished nails before topcoat. 

By the way, Rebecca is having a cool giveaway now (there may even be Hello Kitty items in it) so be sure to check it out before Valentine's Day.

I am really close to 500 followers, which is super exciting. I have a fun giveaway planned when I reach that milestone. Thanks to everyone for your kind support and great comments. I am having a blast doing this blog. 

Sumbody Nail Polish

About a month or so ago, I found out there is a Sonoma County Nail Polish!!! I live here in Sonoma County (thus the name of my blog), and I was super excited to try out a Sonoma County Nail Polish! The company that distributes this polish is called Sumbody. They are based in Sebastopol, California. Sebastopol is a great little town in Sonoma County. It has lots of funky little shops, great places to eat, a wonderful seasonal farmers market, it's on the way to the ocean, surrounded by vineyards, and hosts some of my favorite festivals every year (Gravenstein Apple Fair, and Apple Blossom Festival)! I decided to check out Sumbody and try out a few of their polishes. The owner of the company is Deborah Burnes and she has written a book called "Look Great, Live Green" and she is super passionate about beauty products that are good for our bodies and for the planet. This manicure is inspired by the cover of her book.

On the thumb I have the portrait from the cover of her book, and on my other nails I free-handed abstract swoopy designs with a stamped Konad butterfly on my ring finger. 

I started with Sinful Colors Snow Me White on my thumb and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lickety Split Lime. I hadn't yet been to her shop, so these are the colors I used instead of Sumbody nail polishes.

Next I painted swoops of gold acrylic paint and accented it with white dots of acrylic paint. I also stamped the butterfly from my new Konad stamping kit that my sister gave me for xmas. I used the green Konad special polish for the butterfly. (Thanks Sista!) You can see how I started painting the portrait on my thumb.

Here is the portrait nearly finished before topcoat. I made some minor adjustments to it before I did topcoat. 

Here's my right hand with a similar design, but no portrait. It's pretty difficult to do intricate artwork with my non dominant hand. :)

I was not allowed to take pictures inside of the store, but boy is it cool inside! It smells divine. Think of a more hippie-ish version of a LUSH Cosmetics store. Now they do sell nail polish, however, it is not made here. It is distributed by Sumbody in Sebastopol, CA, so I can call it Sonoma County nail polish, but it is not made here. Deborah chooses the colors and the names for the polishes. Sumbody says that these are 3- and camphor-free polishes. They say these are "as natural as nail polish can be." :)

Here's the three polishes I purchased: Mack the Knife, It's My Party, and Specktacular. Mack the Knife is a gorgeous bronze color, It's My Party is bright pinkish-red with holographic sparkles, and Specktacular looks like a dead on dupe of OPI My Private Jet (the non-holo version). These retail for $9.95 each, and if you buy three you get a bottle of their cuticle oil. 

This cuticle oil is AWESOME! It has apricot, safflower, and avocado oils, as well as coconut and shea butters. It has a very slight coconut smell, but that dissipates after about 5 minutes. It applies like an oil, but soaks into the skin very quickly, without leaving hands greasy. The cuticle oil retails for $16.95.

Sumbody is having a warehouse sale at the end of March, which I can't wait to attend! Here is a link for those who will be in the area and want to shop like crazy for some amazing body products.

Sumbody

118 North Main Street

Sebastopol, CA 95472

(707) 823-2053

Hello Kitty Sans Kitty

I needed to change my manicure last night and I was a little short on inspiration. It is hard to come up with fun, original designs, and especially ones that are not going to take me a few hours to do. I started this mani way too late to do something more elaborate, but I really like how this turned out. This design is similar to the one here made by The Nail Bank, but I just took the kitty out of the picture.

Hello Kitty's bow shape is so iconic, that you can pretty much recognize it even without the Kitty herself. I used a (relatively) easy polka dot pattern (made with a dotting tool) for an accent on the ring finger.

I started with a base of Monsooner or Later from OPI. As you can see, I ended up taking this base color off of my ring finger to do an accent nail. When I painted this color and took this picture, I still didn't actually know what I was going to do for nail art yet. :)

My right hand has white polka dots on a red background for a contrasting accent finger. It was also done with a dotting tool. 

The polishes I used in this manicure: OPI Monsooner Or Later, Sinful Colors Snow Me White, OPI Nail Envy basecoat, and Seche Vite topcoat.

My birthday is coming up this weekend and I am super stuck for ideas! What should I paint on my nails?!?!

Snowmen of Calvin and Hobbes

Today's manicure features a few of the beleaguered snowmen from the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. Bill Watterson's amazing cartoon strip had some really twisted snowmen created by Calvin. Often the snowmen made his dad's life more difficult, by blocking the driveway, or embarrassing the family. Click here to see a few of the great snowmen comic strips, as well as some real life recreations.

This nail art is a combination of two different comic strips. On my thumb, I have Calvin walking along in his snow gear, quite satisfied with himself. On my middle and ring fingers you see two melting snowmen holding signs and warning of the coming Spring.

One of the strips I based my manicure on. 

I started with a white polish base using Sinful Colors Snow Me White. And lookee at my hand pose, inspired by my polish buddy Sarah from Chalkboard Nails. :-)

Here are the snowmen up close before I top coated. I was hard to write those small letters on their signs, so I had to truncate the messages. Artistic license. 

Here's the manicure before topcoat. I think it turned out well!

On my right hand I painted a little bit of Lynnderella glitter polish on the tips to give it a cold frosty appearance. This could be a very pretty winter themed manicure on its own. 

Polishes used in this manicure: Lynnderella Thank Blue! and Sinful Colors Snow Me White. I also used Essie All In One Basecoat and Seche Vite topcoat. 

I made a quick video of these nails to include it in Robin Moses' Let It Snow collaboration. Any snow inspired art work is welcome. I think this is pretty fun. :-) 

Snowflakes

I am starting a new nail art challenge today with a few of my polish buddies. Feel free to join us if you would like! The thought of creating 24 different xmas manis on top of everything else I am trying to get done this holiday season was a bit too daunting, so we are doing the 12 Days of Christmas Manis! And I may not do them in order or even get them done in 12 days, but that is totally allowed with this challenge. :-)

I do not use stamps a lot, because I really enjoy doing freehand art. But this is on my right hand (meaning I did it with my non-dominant left hand) so I thought it might be prettier to use stamps. 

This is a combination of two different in expensive polishes, and it kind of reminds me of OPI's Swimsuit... Nailed It! This combo has large and small blue glitter, which is really fun. :)

I started by stamping with a light blue polish. This is a snowflake image from the Bundle Monster BM14 plate. I tried to place it in different spots on each nail. 

Next I used a silver polish with the same stamp. Finally I topped it with white snowflakes. I went through a LOT of Q-Tips with this mani, LOL. 

Here are the two polishes I used for the base color: Love and Beauty Blue Glitter and Sinful Colors Ciao Bella. I really like the combination of these two polishes!

I topped the blue glittery base with snowflakes stamped using OPI No Room For The Blues, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri White Out, and a tiny silver polish from Bon Bons. 

Here are the different themes we will be trying during the 12 Days of Christmas Manis! Check out the other awesome nail bloggers who are joining in the fun:

Amber - http://amberdunson.blogspot.com/

Chilli - http://polishandpoise.blogspot.com/

Jamie - http://www.nailsadored.com

Jen - http://sweettipsnails.blogspot.com/

If you want to join in this challenge, please link your manicure in the comments and I will add your blog to the list of participating bloggers! Merry Christmas!