Valentine's Day Nail Art Challenge: Cupid's Curse

Today's theme threw me a bit, I didn't quite know how to illustrate it. I mean it seems so lovely, sinister and quite conceptual, but my nails only afford me so much real estate. Thanks to Amanda at the Nail Polish Enthusiast for giving me some inspiration on this one!

So I went with my favorite, the trigger mani. (Cupid just found himself a gun.) I painted my pinky, ring, and middle fingers with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Midnight In NY. My index and thumb were painted with a coat of Finger Paints in Paper Mache. I added two halves of a broken heart with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Fuchsia Power. The detailing and arrows were done with Stripe Rite in White and Black. I topped the whole look off with JENsations' Diamonds Are Forever.

Onto my Valentine's dedication, this one is for all those who have fallen in love and then out of love. Cupid is pretty sneaky, so you never know what may be around that corner. Pesky arrows.

 

Now go on and check out the amazing Erin at LovelyLacqueredLife and the lovely Lynette at Pink & Purple Dots. These girls are beyond fantastic with their nail art... Remember, share the comments, share the love!

Day Eleven TDoHNC: Once in a (Full) Blue Moon

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Welcome to the final week of the Thirteen Days of Halloween Nail Art Challenge- this month has flown by! Day eleven brings us to the Full Moon. I love Fall nights, the air is so crisp and you can always seem to catch a whiff of someone’s fireplace. I truly think that this is the best part of the year in New England.

I think this mani captured some of the mystery of the Fall night. I started with a base of Revlon Fashionista (btw… this color is amazing with a matte top coat).

I dabbed on Finger Paints Paper Mache and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Wet Cement to create the clouds and give them some depth. The moon was done using the same two colors. I then added some straight-up-no-name-Halloween-pumpkin-shaped-glow-in-the-dark polish on the moon (it’s as crapperific as it sounds). I thought I could take a pick with the moon glowing- it was a bit of an epic fail. 

I think this is one of the more painterly manis that I have done thus far- call it a tribute to all of Kelly’s sweet atmospheric nail effects so far. Speaking of, go on and check out the other ladies- they never fail to amaze!

Kelly from Tuxarina

Heather from Peace,Love, & Polish

Jennifer from LittleJ’s Nail Corner

Stay tuned, day twelve… skeletons!

Day One TDoHNC: Disco Pumpkins out on a Monday Night

Queue the eerie fog, the cackling witch, and the howling wolves…

Thus begins the Thirteen Days of Halloween Nail Challenge!

So, its day one and pumpkins are on the menu. For a while I wanted to go crazy and do pumpkin pie nails. I think I was hungry. Then, I wanted to do a pumpkin patch. My thought there was, “ It’s just going to look like orange polka dots on a green background.”

I just stopped thinking and started painting. It’s a bit simple and straight forward, but fun all the same.

I call it “Disco Pumpkin” or " I had to do some Pumpkins Quick".

I started with a base of Finger Paints Paper Mache. I did the pumpkins in Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 150 Sun Kissed and Finger Paints Striper in Ch-Art-Coal Black. I accented the design in JENsation’s Happy Birthday and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 60 Disco Ball.

 

Please check out the other participants’ blogs. The ladies have done a spectacular job of representing the theme. 

Kelly at Tuxarina

Heather at Peace, Love, & Polish

Jennifer at Little J's Nail Corner

 

Stay tuned for day two...ghosts!

Kickin' it with Mary, Susan & JENsations...

Glittering end to a perfect day! ( Me in pink, Susan in orange and Mary in silver)

"I can't remember the last time I had my nails painted!" ( And she's a natural hand model to boot!)

"Orange is my favorite color!" ( And she rocks it with style...)

JENsation's Happy Birthday- a cacophony of multi hex and bar glitter in orange, blue, silver, pink, red and green

JENsation's Diamonds are Forever- elegant silver and holographic hex and diamond shaped glitters

As I said in my last post, I was waiting for a shipment of polish from Etsy. JENsation's fabulous creations did not disappoint! They are chock full of color and texture and easy to use. 

I had my dear friends, Mary and Susan, come over yesterday and told them they were going to be victims... err.... models for my blog. 

I have to say, for two manis knocked out in 15 minutes total, they didn't look bad at all.

First up, Mary... I had a bit of fun with texture juxtaposition on this one. Using the following:

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 460 Wet Cement (cool grey creme)
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 013 Celeb City (silver metallic)
JENsations Diamonds Are Forever
Sephora by OPI Matte Top Coat

I painted the entire surface of all her nails with Celeb City, two coats. ( Note: This is a great one coat color if you need to throw something on and get out the door fast. ) On the pinky and ring fingers, I did a french with Wet Cement, while on the other three I did a coat of Diamonds are Forever. To push it to the next level I added a coat of matte top coat to the French manicured nails.

On Susan, I went a bit more basic, but super fun and vibrant non-the-less. Using the following:

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 150 Sun Kissed ( mango orange creme)
JENsations Happy Birthday
Sephora by OPI Matte Top Coat

I have to say I was kind of surprised with the effect of matte on Sun Kissed. It looks like a rubber finish very similar to Illamasqua's new releases. It is very different than when I used the top coat on Revlon's Fashionista ( so cool) or Essie's Turquoise & Caicos ( an awesome summer night go-to). Those colors truly matted. 

So, back to Jen's amazing nail polishes. I am so loving Happy Birthday. It's kind of like the love child of OPI's Rainbow Connection and Lynnderella's Kabbalah Bracelet ( minus any "intentionally bleeding glitter"). You can layer this as thick or thin as you want and there is a ton of depth in the color and variation.

Diamonds Are Forever is f'awesome! I am excitingly anticipating all things Bond ( especially the OPI Skyfall collection) this fall and this definitely is holding me over. The holographic glitter is amazing and applies on the nail with out needed to coax the larger pieces out of the bottle- super important.

Other items of note, Jen's prices are fair and her shipping was super fast. Keep up the awesome work!

Much love to my girls for supporting me in this. They will be making more guest appearances, since I am still rocking the never ending gel manicure...

UPDATE: In my rush to get this post up I totally forgot to add Jen's Etsy shop link. http://www.etsy.com/shop/JENsations Stop what you are doing, go now, get out your credit card and buy- you know it's good for you!