Rubber Duckie Nails and Giveaway!

Here are some Rubber Duckie nails I have entered into Chalkboard Nails nail art contest. Sarah said we couldn't use acrylic paints, so I didn't, but DANG it is a lot harder to do nail art with nail polish. Sarah's contest is for either warm colors or cool colors, so I went with warm. :)

My technique for this art was similar to working with acrylic paints (but more of a pain in the butt), and I used the same small nail art brush I normally use. I painted white silhouettes of duckies on my nails first to make sure the colors would pop.

Here are the polishes I used in this manicure. The base color is Essie "Orange, It's Obvious!" Love that color! And I don't remember the names of all the others, but there you go.

I just hit my ONE YEAR BLOGIVERSARY for Sonoma Nail Art. Yay! So to celebrate, I am giving away one set of my Halloween Nail Art polishes. :) I will do a simple Rafflecopter giveaway. This is open INTERNATIONALLY, so everyone can enter. I do ask you to be a follower of my blog, and you can get an additional entry for following my facebook fan page. Deadline for entry is 9/19/12 and winner will be announced on 9/20/12. Please make sure you leave an email address so I can contact you if you are the winner.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And finally! This is also the 120th post on my blog. Every 20 posts, I make a donation to Women's Recovery Services in Sonoma County. They help women transitioning out of addiction, and I think this is a great way to have my blog do a little bit of good. We all know that a pretty manicure can really boost your self esteem, and I want to help empower woman in my community to feel good about themselves and improve their lives. If you would like to make a donation, click here to find out more about Women's Recovery Services. 

1000 Facebook Likes Giveaway!

I am excited to announce that I hit 1000 facebook likes on my Sonoma Nail Art facebook fan page this week! So I am having a giveaway to celebrate! This is a limited edition polish. I will only make 55 bottles of this polish, five are for this giveaway and 50 will be for sale in my etsy shop. I will split the sale of these bottles into two parts. The first lot of 25 bottles will be in my etsy sale tomorrow and the remaining 25 bottles will be for sale in about 2 weeks from now. And now, here is the special commemorative polish, cleverly called "1000 FB Likes!" LOL

TAADAAAAA!

"1000 FB Likes" is a glitter top coat with a mix of periwinkle, blue, white, and purple glitters in a shimmery blue base.

This is one coat of "1000 FB Likes" over Color Club Hydrangea Kiss. You can see the silvery blue shimmer as well as the fun mix of glitters.

Here are the polishes that will be for sale on Friday (tomorrow) July 20th, 2012 at 5pm Pacific Time (that is 8pm Eastern). Here is the link to my etsy shop.

One of these could be yours! All you have to do is enter my drawing below. Each of the bottles (the ones for giveaway and the ones for sale) will be numbered, so this will truly be a fun limited edition polish and a collector's keepsake. :) This giveaway is open to everyone, including international fans. The winner will be announced next Wednesday, July 25th, 2012. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mom's Pumpkin Nails and Giveaway Winner

Today's post is actually a manicure I did for my mom when she was here for a visit at the beginning of October. I followed a design by Robin Moses for this simple fall themed manicure. My mom really liked it and she said it lasted for almost two weeks! Wow!

I started with a base of butter LONDON All Hail The Queen. Mom picked out this color, and it is soooo pretty! It has a holographic sheen to it, really nice!

I painted the pumpkin and pumpkin vines using acrylic paint. Robin Moses's video on this technique is really helpful, I encourage you to click on the link above to see how she does it. 

Here are mom's finished nails in the sunlight. Dang, I should send mom some Lemony Flutter cuticle cream! Moisturize those cuticles, mom!

Here's her left hand. I didn't get too crazy with the design because we were headed to a gourd festival and needed to get her manicure done quickly. 

HI MOM!!

Polishes I used in this manicure: Essie All In One Basecoat, butter LONDON All Hail The Queen, and Revlon Quick Dry Topcoat. 

Ok, on to the part you quickly scrolled down to, skipping the manicure to find out if you had won my giveaway, LOL! I had a great response to the giveaway, thank you all for entering and showing such interest in my nail art. It is fun to do, and even more fun to share. I had 326 entries! And the winner is....

Congrats to rachlovespenguins! I have sent you an email Rachel. 

Maleficent and Facets of Fuchsia *Giveaway Closed

When I first laid eyes on this gorgeous nail polish I thought of Maleficent, the deliciously wicked baddie from Sleeping Beauty. This polish was meant for her! So here is my Maleficent mani!

Gaaah! I just love how this mani turned out. And I am psyched that I get to wear it longer than 24 hours, LOL! The 31 Day Nail Art Challenge was fun, but it was heartbreaking to remove some of those designs so quickly. 

I started with two coats (two MESSY coats) of Wet n Wild Ready to Pounce, from the On the Prowl collection. This is a really gorgeous shimmery dark plum color. I could easily have just used this for the Maleficent manicure.

But it does look amazing with Revlon's Facets of Fuchsia layered on top! This is one coat of Facets of Fuchsia, yum. At this point in the process, I did two coats of Seche Vite to give me a smooth surface to draw the evil Maleficent. 

I painted Maleficent with acrylic paints. I started with a black outline of her head, which was actually really hard to see on the polish, then filled in a light green for her face. 

I added her purple collar, the light grey lines of her headdress, her eye makeup and nose next. If you look closely between this and the next shot, you will see how I adjusted the shape of her eyebrows. This is the magic of using acrylic paints. You can really rework areas with the paints. 

Here is Maleficent before topcoat. I thought about adding her pet crow, but I got tired. Plus he is almost all black and would barely show up. 

Both hands together! Sorry this pic is a little blurry. I have to use my self timer for these shots. It is no use asking my husband to help me take pictures of both of my hands together, he invariably aims the camera at my boobs. Sigh.... 

Polishes used in this manicure: Wet 'n Wild Fastdry Ready to Pounce, Revlon Facets of Fuchsia, Cult Nails Get It On Basecoat, and Seche Vite Topcoat. 

Soooooo.... who wants to win some free polishes from me?!?! I just passed the 100 follower mark on Sonoma Nail Art, and I want to celebrate by giving you some free nail polish! THANK YOU FOR FOLLOWING ME! Here are the lovely prizes you could win:

All of the polishes are brand new, never used: Revlon Facets of Fuchsia (yes, I am the person in Sonoma County who keeps buying all of the bottles up), OPI DS Sapphire (sheer linear holographic polish!), and Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl (this is a dark purple jelly polish with teeny glass flakies. I lurve it!). You will also win:

...this set of Wet 'n Wild mini color icon nail polishes! There are nine mini bottles in the set. They are really cute! I bought another set for me, so I will try to play with them in the next few days to show you what they look like. 

Here are the rules: You MUST be a follower of Sonoma Nail Art to enter the giveaway. That's pretty much it. You can get additional entries for following my tumblr account, or following my facebook account, but really you can just enter as a follower of my blog. Deadline for entries is Monday, November 14th, 2011 at noon PST. One person will be selected randomly from all entries and notified via email on November 15th. You will have 48 hours to respond, otherwise another winner will be selected. The giveaway is open to all, international entries are WELCOME!

Thanks so much for your interest in my blog. Good luck! NO MORE ENTRIES PLEASE! I will announce the winner on Tuesday, November 15th, 2011. Thanks so much!