*Nothing to Disclose*

     I recently joined the facebook group Nail Art Collaborative. The Nail Challenge Collaborative is a monthly nail art challenge group free for anyone to join! Each month there is a new theme and the members create 2-4 manis and share with the rest of the group. Even though I've only been a member for two weeks I've been anxious to join in on the fun. The theme for the month of August is Pink & Blue and while I only had time to do one mani, It's one that I really like.


    I started with a base of White from the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Crayola collab. This is a seriously great white. It covers evenly and had minimal streaking. I know a lot of whites start out awesome and then get goopy as you use them, I'm hoping that's not the case with this one.

     After letting the polish dry completely I added a glossy top coat for strength, and then a matte top coat so the sharpies had something to stick to.


    To create the marbled effect I randomly drew patches on my nails with sharpie markers. I went one nail at a time since I didn't know how quickly the marker would dry. Once I was happy with the patches I dipped a nail art brush into acetone and dabbed it onto the nails which caused the marker to spread and bleed. At first, I tried rubbing alcohol but it didn't seem to have any effect on the marker. That could be because my bottle of rubbing alcohol is only 50%.

     You can repeat this step until you get the look that you like, just remember to let the acetone evaporate off your nails completely before going back in with the sharpie. I was a little impatient and found out the hard way that even a small amount of acetone will dry out your sharpie.

   

   I really like the way this turned out but as I looked at it I had the strong urge to add some nail art. Nothing too extravagant, I didn't want to take away from the marble base.


     I decided to add some subtle stamping using image plate Creative shop 96 and China Glaze Intelligence, Integrity and Courage and Cosmic Dust as an accent.


     I really expected Cosmic Dust to be a bit darker and was hoping it would stand out more to be a truer accent. I guess when applied thinly like in stamping form it lightens up a bit. The hint of sparkle does add a little something and it isn't over the top like I was wanting.


    What do you think of this sharpie marbled look? Do you like it better with or without the stamping? I had a ton of fun creating this for the August prompt and can't wait to see what the September prompt is. Make sure to check out the other looks from the talented ladies in the group and be sure to stop back next Tuesday for letter R week in the Untried A-Z Challenge. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

*Affiliate Link*

     I can't believe it's already July, I feel like summer just began and that it's flown by me at the same time. But with the new month brings us 4th of July and a ton of nail art celebrating the holiday. I wanted to do something unique this year but was stumped when it came to ideas. Then one night while I was trying and failing to fall asleep an idea came to me. Fluid nail art is very popular these days and while I love the look I had a feeling a few people would be taking that route, so I went for an old-school technique using rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle. The first time I tried this technique was over 3 years ago and I figured it was time to revisit it again. 

     This is a very messy technique much like watermarbling so it's important to protect your skin to limit clean up. Usually, I'd use liquid latex for this but I wanted to give the latex free nail protectors from Beauty Big Bang a try. 

     Now my original idea had the cells being much larger and the final result is a bit more muddled than I wanted but I love the finished results. It's a greater marble effect than intended but it works.

      I thought it might be fun to take a look back at some previous 4th of July looks I've created over the years. It's a fun way to see how I've progressed with my nail art and who knows it might inspire someone. So here they are from oldest to newest.

2013

2014

2015 mani #1

2015 mani #2

2015 mani #3

2017

    I hope you enjoyed that stroll down memory lane as much as I did. I'll admit there were a few cringe-worthy manicures in there, but we all start somewhere right. Now just in case, I haven't given you enough manicures to look at it's time for the link up. Check out the fine work of some fellow bloggers below. And feel free to add your own link if you'd like. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

*Nothing to Disclose*

     It's that time of year when people start seeing green. No, I'm not talking about money, I'm referring to St. Patrick's Day. The time of year when everyone is a little bit Irish, city's colors their rivers green, our beverages turn green and for me, it's my nails. But this year I was stumped on how to paint them until I remembered the beautiful drip marbles that Kerry from Painted Fingertips creates. So thank you, Kerry, for inspiring my St. Patrick's Day nail art this year.

*Nothing to Disclose*

     I'm back with another nail art look for Valentines Day and once again I used a few nail polishes from Sally Hansen that I picked up on clearance. As some of you may have noticed Sally Hansen has had redone their displays and colors in stores clearing out a ton of colors. I have taken full advantage of this and added more to my collection than I'd like to admit. Because of my recent purchases and procrastination at putting them away, I've found myself reaching for them when it's time to paint my nails. Hence all the Sally Hansen posts lately. I will get back to posting other brands soon I promise. Now for today's nail art. 

*Nothing to Disclose*

     It's the beginning of February and that means it's time for Valentine's nail art looks. I missed out on doing any last year and I want to make up for it this year. Don't worry I won't be dedicating the entire month to Valentines I only have 2 looks to share with you. The first one is a needle drag look that has subtle valentines feel to it that I'm kind of proud of. 

     For years I have attempted the needle drag technique without success. I must have a heavy hand because no matter how lightly I tried to be with my dotting tool I ended up putting gauges in my polish instead of beautiful swirling designs. That was until I tried using a nail art brush instead of my dotting tool. A little tip, you want to use a striping brush with long bristles and the lightest amount of pressure possible. 

      The polishes I used I recently picked up on clearance from Target. Who doesn't love a bargain right! My main color is Ruby Do from the 2017 Berry Chic Collection. I accented it with Clean Slate which is part of the 2016 fall collection. Both polishes are extremely opaque and have great formulas. To create my hearts I used a medium sized dotting tool and a few drops of Ruby Do. The brush in the complete salon manicure line is great for painting my nails but it too big when it comes to wanting small drops of polish. You'll want to move quickly when doing the needle drag technique so that your polish doesn't have time to dry. I had my dotting tool ready to go before adding my second coat of clean slate which I think was also part of why I was able to do this successfully. A quick swipe with my striping brush through the polish and I had my heart pattern.

     I'm super excited to finally get this technique to work and can't wait to try it out with other colors and designs. Have you had success with this technique? Do you have any other tips or tricks? I hope you enjoyed this simple Valentines nail art look. I'll be back with another look soon until then, Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing! 

*Nothing to Disclose*

     Hello Everyone, how has December treated you so far? Are you done with your Christmas shopping or still on the hunt for that perfect gift? Perhaps you need a little push to get you into that Christmas spirit? If that's the case have I got the perfect manicure to share with you today! This Christmas Ivy manicure recently popped up in my news feed from Robin Moses and I knew right away that I wanted to try it.  

     I've been wanting to work on my free hand nail art skills for some time and this manicure looked simple enough that I felt it was a good way to practice. Of course, all the great nail artists out there make these manicures look so easy and effortless but to be honest this one was actually pretty easy to do. Now by no means is mine anywhere in the ballpark of being as good as the original but I'm very happy with how it turned out.I even have a new found enthusiasm to keep working on my free hand skills.

      I started out with Sally Hansen Satin from the Smooth and Perfect line. Typically I would use China Glaze Heaven as my naked nail color but I wanted to see if I had other option in my collection already. Turnes out Satin is the better option of the two and has become my go-to polish when I want this effect. 

     I hand painted my french tips with Sally Hansen Wild Strawberry from the Crayola collab earlier this year. I don't know why but I have always been able to do a decent freehand french tip. I wish I could take that skill and transfer it to other aspects of my nail art. Especially when it comes to brush control when hand painting designs. 

     For my Ivy, I used acrylic paint in various shades of copper and gold. I picked a true gold for the vine and a darker bronze for the leaves. Then I went in with a light gold to add some highlighting and try to add depth. Painting curving lines is a huge hurdle for me that I can't quite seem to get over but my hand painted leaves have improved. 

     The glitter on my tips is Fantasy Makers Once Upon a Time. I started off by just brushing it on but noticed that I was getting more of the blackened base than I wanted. To fix that I applied the polish to a sponge and that dabbed it on my nail. I like the sponged option much better, don't you?  I topped everything off with Darling Diva's Preformance Enhancing top coat to give it a super glossy finish.

     Anyone remember the very first mani I tried to recreate from Robin Moses? I had an awful time getting the angles right and things just looked off. I haven't mastered the angles yet but see improvement in those tiny little leaves. It's those little victories that I want to share with others, especially those just starting out with nail art, in hopes that it inspires them to not give up, or try something new.  It's the very reason I started this blog in the first place and I'm glad I'm getting back to that after losing my focus for awhile.

     I hope you enjoyed today's post and maybe were inspired to tackle a nail art technique or look you haven't quite mastered yet. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

    

      

*Nothing to Disclose*

    I've got a very quick post to share with you today as I've got holiday plans to get back to. But I really wanted to share a few nail art looks I did for the 4th. I realized recently that it's been 2 years since I've shared a 4th of July manicure and that just wouldn't do.

     The first look I did is super easy and can be done by pretty much anyone who has access to nail polish and some sort of dotting tool, whether it's an actual dotting tool or a toothpick.

     For this look, I used the American Bundle from Different Dimensions. The bundle contains a cuticle oil that smells amazing and 3 polishes in Red, White, and Blue.  

     The white is called One Heart, One Hand which I used for my base color. Once that dried I went in with my dotting tool and placed random dots along the tips with One Flag, One Land (Red) and One Nation Evermore (blue) and One Heart, One Hand.  All 3 colors are holographic and really sparkle in the sun! 

     I need to work on my random dot placement a bit but overall I liked the way this turned out. It a patriotic take on the French manicure, and as I mentioned above super simple to do. 

     Now for the look that I'm actually wearing for the 4th. This one was a bit more complicated and took quite a bit of time but I absolutely love it. I wanted to do something a little outside of the box instead of the typical fireworks or flags but still, have that 4th of July feeling. And I'm pretty excited about how it turned out. 

    Once again I used Different Dimensions One Heart, One Hand as my base color and let it dry. 

      I just received the mandala plate (Cjslc-18) from Clear Jelly Stamper and thought the designs looked a little like exploding fireworks but with a twist and was anxious to use it. Honestly, I'm a little obsessed with this plate right now so you'll probably see it quite a few times on the blog. There are just so many looks you can create its mind blowing.

*Nothing to Disclose*

     Well, the temperature has dropped to below zero here on quite a few occasions lately. It was -14 when I woke up yesterday morning. Which means winter is in full effect, my nails and skin are suffering from the extreme cold and Christmas is just around the corner. That means it's time to break out some seasonally inspired manicures! I thought with the severe cold and snow predicted to hit my area over the weekend it was only fitting to share with you the frozen snowflakes manicure I wore this week.

*Nothing to Disclose*

     Ok, so I've got a super quick blog post for you today because it's playoff season for me and I'm working on borrowed time as it is. For those of you who don't know I play on a softball team and we were on the field until after 11 pm Monday night for playoffs. Yay, we are winning but boy am I tired. Being the glutton for punishment that I am I agreed to help out 2 different friends on their Volleyball teams for playoffs which are Tuesday and Wednesday night. I'm either going to be in great shape after this on unable to move. I guess time will tell on that one.

    Anyway back to the reason you're here, the nail art! I have fallen so hopelessly behind on the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas challenge that I know I will never catch up, but I'm determined to finish it! I'll have all my posts done, albeit months behind but the inlinks are no longer open so I won't be able to share the other looks with you. However, if you're reading this post and participating in the challenge please feel free to leave a link to your post in the comments.  So just what is the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas Challenge? Well, it's simple really, This challenge is set up a bit differently than most. For starters, there is the option to do weekly manicures with one week dedicated to themes, and one to colors. Or you can do every other week and stick with themes only or colors only. For the color portion of the challenge, each person is also assigned a pattern. The end result is 40 different looks all done in the same colors. As most of you know I opted to do the color challenge and you can see my previous looks using Teal, Orange, Purple and Green, Black and White, Grey, Glitter toppers, Pale Blue , 3 shades of Purple, Turquoise and 3 shades of Green. 

    For this prompt the color is Violet and I was given the pattern Aztec. Well, I sort of screwed up and thought it was tribal so feel free to use your imagination on this one. Or since my "tribal" manicure from a few months ago ended up looking more "Aztec" let's just say that I did this on purpose to give each pattern their 15 seconds of fame on my blog. Yeah, that sounds better than me just being scatterbrained and mixing them up!

    So this look was very easy to put together and I want to toot my own horn a bit about that image placement. Look at how centered they are on my nail!! That will probably never happen again so bask in its beauty while you can. 

    For my base colors, I used Sally Hansen Lively Lilac and Sinful Colors Snow Me White. For the image, I used NNail plate B97 and Hit the Bottle As Black as Night. The accent nail I stamped with Lively Lilac to tie it all together. After a layer of top coat, this manicure was complete. Just like this post is about to be. I hope you enjoyed this look. I will be back Friday to share more of my hectic life with you. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

*Affiliate Link*

     It's time once again for the monthly link up brought to you by the Facebook group Hobby Polish Bloggers. This month's theme is spring! Now I know there are a lot of options to choose from and I could have done any number of things for this prompt but I just cant pass up an opportunity to do a floral manicure.  Now there isn't a whole lot to say about this manicure so this post is going to be short and sweet. Just what we need on a Friday right? 

*Affiliate Link*

      Happy Friday to everyone! I'm finally back with another look for the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas Challenge. This week is 3 shades of green! How appropriate with yesterday being St. Patricks Day. Hmmm that was some clever planning by The Crumpet huh. Or do you think it was just the luck of the Irish?

     Now if you're new here you might be wondering what the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas Challenge is all about. So first of all welcome, I'm so glad you're here! And secondly, here's a little bit about what this challenge actually is. This challenge is set up a bit differently than most. For starters there is the option to do weekly manicures with one week dedicated to themes, and one to colors. Or you can do every other week and stick with themes only or colors only. For the color portion of the challenge each person is also assigned a pattern. The end result is 40 different looks all done in the same colors. As most of you know I opted to do the color challenge and you can see my previous looks using Teal, Orange, Purple and Green, Black and White, Grey, Glitter toppers, Pale Blue , 3 shades of Purple and Turquoise.  Whew we've done a lot of looks so far! Now for today's manicure.

    My "pattern" for today was an accent nail. I know not really a pattern but it is a nail art look so it still fits the theme. And is a really easy look to pull off! After thinking way too hard about what I wanted to do for my manicure I decided on the seran wrap technique.

      If you have ever done this technique you know it makes a mess. And there's nothing worse than cleaning up green nail polish from your skin right? Well blue and red polish are right up there too I guess.  I used my new bottle of Simply Peel latex barrier from My Bliss Kiss to keep the mess at bay and was very happy with the results. Plus it makes your skin sparkly when it dries and who doesnt like to sparkle?

*Nothing to Disclose*

     It's time for another look from the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas Challenge! I don't know if you know this but I am actually really enjoying this challenge. Normally I get stressed during a challenge and struggle to get my looks done. But not this time! And you want to know why? This challenge is set up a bit differently than most. For starters there is the option to do weekly manicures with one week dedicated to themes, and one to colors. Or you can do every other week and stick with themes only or colors only. For the color portion of the challenge each person is also assigned a pattern. The end result is 40 different looks all done in the same colors. As most of you know I opted to do the color challenge and you can see my previous looks using Teal, Orange, Purple and Green, Black and White, Grey, Glitter toppers, Pale Blue and 3 shades of Purple.  This posting every other week is just my speed and helps keep me relaxed and stress free for the challenge. 

     This week the color theme is Aqua or Turquoise  and my pattern prompt is water color. The water color technique is one that I love but have been afraid to attempt until now. And to be completely honest this is one look that I didn't nail, but now I have a little more confidence and look forward to trying again. After I watch a few more YouTube videos on how's it's done of course. 

*Nothing to Disclose*

     It's Friday, which means it's time for another look from the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas Challenge. For those of you not familiar with this challenge here's a quick recap...This challenge is set up a bit differently than most. For starters there is the option to do weekly manicures with one week dedicated to themes, and one to colors. Or you can do every other week and stick with themes only or colors only. For the color portion of the challenge each person is also assigned a pattern. The end result is 40 different looks all done in the same colors. I opted to do the color challenge and you can see my previous looks using Teal, Orange, Purple and Green, Black and White, Grey, Glitter toppers, and Pale Blue.  This week we are using 3 shades of purple and the technique I have is water marble. 

    Water marbling is one of the reasons I got into nail art, and was the first look I tried. So this was a fun week for me with remembering the excitement I felt back then and how proud I was when it turned out to be a success. I still haven't mastered how to get all my nails to look the same and probably never will to be honest. But I sorta like having each nail similar but not exact. And that's just how this manicure turned out.