Realistic giraffe stamping

As promised, here is my take on realistic giraffe print nails!!

Here's what I used:

L to R: OPI Bronzed to Perfection, Spoiled by Wet n Wild Designated Driver, Milani Dark Coffee 

I started with one coat of Bronzed to Perfection and then sponged on Designated Driver until I was satisfied with the color of the base. I used Dark Coffee for the stamp with Bundle Monster plate BM-215.

Yay giraffe nails!!!

I can't decide if I like these or the snake skin nails better?! They both turned out perfect!

These nails make me want to go visit the zoo near where I live and feed the giraffes!

Here are some pics from April 2011 when I was at the zoo!

It's so awesome how close they get and you can pet them! I just love giraffes!

Realistic Snake Skin stamping

After doing my nails for yesterday's post I decided I wanted to try and create more realistic looking nails with the snake skin stamp!

Here's what I used:

L to R: Cult Nails In a Trance, Revlon Elegant, and China Glaze Mahogany Magic.

This is a sponge makeup applicator I used to create a sponged look for the base!

I started by painting one coat of In a Trance and then lightly sponging Elegant to lighten it and make the cool effect. I used Mahogany Magic to do the stamp with Bundle Monster plate BM-215.

Final Result: freaking cool!

I am so proud of these!

Next, I'm going to try and create a realistic giraffe print :) !

Neon Stamping!

This post contains two of my favorite things: the new China Glaze summer neons and animal print stamping!

I chose these 5 as my base colors.

L to R: Hang-Ten Toes, Orange You Hot?, Sun-Kissed, I'm With the Lifeguard, and Splish Splash

Here's the stamping plate I used. This plate somes from Bundle Monster's second set of stamping plates. I used the giraffe print on my left hand and the snake skin print on my right!

My neon skittles before I stamped over them! These are my favorite neons that I own because of their beautiful shimmer.

Here is my left hand with the giraffe print! The polish I used to stamp with was Cult Nails Nevermore and that's the polish that I'm holding here.

My right hand and my favorite! I'm in love with the snake skin print.

All of my stamps came out clean and crisp. That's due to Bundle Monster having great plates and because Nevermore is so nice and opaque. You will notice though that for my giraffe nails the print looks a little see-through, that is because when I scraped the polish off before transferring it to the stamper...I scraped a little too hard therefore taking too much polish out of the stamp. Even though I love to do it, stamping can somtimes be a pain....I just need extra practice :)

Stay tuned for my posts the next few days where the snake skin and giraffe print will make another debut!!!!

*This stamping plate was provided for me by Bundle Monster for review.

Chick. Chick. Chick.

Chick Nail Polish that is! This is a brand that I have never used before and was also unknown to me until a few months ago!

Today I'm showing you Wild Rooster:

Wild Rooster is your standard red creme with slightly pink undertones.  This is two coats. I really like this color, but I feel I have so many reds similar to this. Having said that though, every brand deserves to make that perfect red, and I think Chick hit the nail on the head with this one!

The formula was nice and the brush gave me no problems. I also think Chick's logo is really cute!!

Chick Nail Polish is available on their website.  It retails for $9 per polish.

Thank you Chick for supporting the Central Florida Beauty Bloggers!!

*This product was provided for me by Chick Nail Polish for review.

Vacation pics and more!

WOW. I can't believe I haven't blogged in over two weeks. What the heck is wrong with me?! I'm not really sure where all the time went. I got back from vacation and then the end of my summer class was upon me, so I spent a lot of time finishing that up (No more school until August, YAY!). There was one week where I felt no inspiration for doing my nails or anything, so therefore I really had nothing to post. Then, I sat down Sunday night to finally start making posts, and my lovely computer decided to crash on me. Luckily, I went to my Uncle's last night and he fixed it, wooo!!

So, here we are and I have a good line up of posts again and I promise not to go away for a long time!

Here are a few vacation pictures as promised!!

The beautiful beaches of Anna Maria Island, FL!

The water is so gorgeous.

This is the path that we walked to the beach every day. It's basically what paradise looks like.

A photo inspired by Ali from NiftyBa!!

That's my pretty Mommy <3 Before lunch one day.

And that's my pretty boyfriend <3 Before we went to Sarasota for the day.

It was such a good vacation and I wish I was still there!!

Now for you die hard nail fans that don't care about my vacation, I've got a treat for you all as well:

Layla Flash Black!

Flash Black is a black linear holographic polish.

I layered it over a regular black creme to see if it helped conserve the polish, and it didn't. I still needed three coats due to patchy-ness. It's my fault though for being stubborn because the directions specified to lightly buff the nail before applying to make it go on nice and I disregarded them and just applied it normally. Next time I will follow directions lol.

Slightly blurred to show the amazing-ness.

Whew, feels good to be back!

Beachy Stripes

Well, today is the last day of my vacation :( When I get home I'll post some pics and tell you guys about it more! For today I have another mani using my striping tape:

The two polishes I used were Nicole by OPI Nothing Kim-pares to Blue and Others Pale by Kim-parison.

For the base I did three coats of each color!

These two polishes are just beautiful. Nothing Kim-pares to Blue is a light, slightly dusty blue, with silver shimmer. Others Pale by Kim-parison is a soft egg-shell white, its not a harsh in your face white.

Then I taped off the stripes that I wanted to show up white...

and painted a thick coat of blue over it and removed the tape!

Here's the little strips after I peeled them off

 The final product!! This is my right hand

and here's my left hand!

A pile of shells on the beach that I decided would be pretty to use as a background :)

I am so obsessed with using this striping tape right now. It's so easy to use and I love how crisp it makes my lines!! Can't wait to do even more designs with them.

Sation (Miss Professional Nail)

Sation is a brand that up until recently, I'd never heard of. Then I saw the polishes start popping up on the blogs. Sation, owned by Miss Professional Nail, is going through a re-branding period so it seems they are doing their best to market better and get their name out there! Sation provided the Central FL Beauty Bloggers two polishes each, as well as a reusable tote for our meetup bags!

The two I received were Off the Record Pink and You Butter Tell Me

Off the Record Pink is a sheer light baby pink. I liked that this polish was versatile. I could use one coat (shown here) as a base for a french manicure or it becomes nice and opaque in three coats pictured below.

See how after three coats it almost looks like a creme? I was very pleased with this polish!

 

Here is You Butter Tell Me. This polish is a neon yellow. This was five coats. Yes, five. BUT each coat dried super fast and it really wasn't a hassle at all. Having said that though, next time I'll probably layer it over white, just so I'm not having to go around with five coats of polish on my nails! This is a fun summer yellow, I want to wear it on the beach!

These nail polishes had nice formulas and good brushes. On their website they have a wide selection of colors and they are all priced at $5, which I think is very fair! I will probably be purchasing from them in the future to try more colors!

Big Thanks to Sation for supporting the Central FL Beauty Bloggers!

*These products were provided for me by Sation (Miss Professional Nail) for review.

Neon/Striping Tape fun!

A few nights ago I decided to paint my nails a fun neon color. This was still when the weather was perfect and I was soaking up the sun. On Tuesday, the weather decided to turn to shit here in FL and I haven't had any good beach days since :( Maybe posting my fun neon nails will make the sun come back tomorrow!!

I started with two coats of Spoiled I'm so Jaded, as my base. This beautiful polish is neon lime green with gold/yellow shimmer.

I decided to buy this polish back when Steph, from Imperfectly Painted, featured it on her blog in this post. I don't normally wear greens, but this I am in love with.

A gorgeous beach day to show off my neon nails <3 (I want this weather back now!!)

Then I spruced up this mani by doing some cool stripes on my thumb and ring finger using my new striping tape (which I'll talk about below) and China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy!

I just placed the tape in the design that I wanted and painted one thick coat of Flip Flop Fantasy over it and peeled the tape off while the polish was still wet! I loved the effect.

Here is the striping tape that I am talking about...it's very thin tape that comes in pretty colors. I've seen some awesome manis where girls leave the tape on for stripes, as well as using it to create crisp lines, like I did.

I bought a pack of 10 of these on ebay for $0.99 with no shipping charges!! The pack came with silver, gold, white, blue, red, purple, etc!

I'm really excited to create tons of cool nail designs with this stuff! Stay tuned :)