Girly Gradient Nail Art with EverGlaze by China Glaze

This spring, China Glaze throws their hat into the ring of longwearing polish systems, joining the ranks of lines like CND's Vinylux and Sally Hansen's Miracle Gel. These systems are set apart by claims of gel-like wear and shine, without the need to cure in a lamp or the lengthy removal process. China Glaze's EverGlaze system brings CG's signature bold colors and fun finishes among more traditional color choices, ensuring that there's a shade for every type of gal.

The system includes a nail prep solution, the range of colors, and the EverGlaze Active Top Coat. The prep solution is similar to a nail dehydrator, and it is meant to remove dirt and oils from your nail plate before polishing. This helps the polish stick longer! The Active Top Coat comes in a UV protected bottle.

For this nail art, I used:
EverGlaze Case of the Mondaze
EverGlaze Adrenaline Rush
EverGlaze A Toast to You
EverGlaze Back to Black

Case of the Mondaze is actually a gorgeous cobalt blue, but when I sponged it over Adrenaline Rush in my gradient, it turned purple! A happy accident, I say!

The Active Top Coat is thick and shiny, dries quickly, and doesn't smear nail art. It's a winner, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it (I can be very picky with top coats, you know).

Unfortunately, I'm unable to do a wear test of my own at this time -- nail school is tough on polish, and even my full-fledged lamp cured gels don't hold up sometimes!

EverGlaze is available now in Sally Beauty stores and on SallyBeauty.com.

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Is It Spring Yet? This Linework Nail Art Seems to Think So!

Spring is a lovely time, isn't it? I think it may be my favorite season. Besides the gorgeous temperatures and blooming flora, spring brings us PASTEL NAIL POLISH! Pastels are seriously my jam... I think they suit my pale skin but also bring a certain cheerfulness that nudes just can't compete with.

KBShimmer is on the same page, and is coming in strong for spring. Their newest collection includes crellies, holos, and cremes in a color palette sure to make your nails bloom.

Polishes used:
KBShimmer Ins and Sprouts
KBShimmer Thistle Be the Day
White polish

I began by painting my nails with two coats of Ins and Sprouts. I didn't put down a base coat, which proved to be a costly mistake, as it is definitely a stainer on its own.

Then, I used a triangle makeup wedge to sponge on a gradient of Thistle Be the Day. I did four or five rounds of sponging to achieve the opacity you see here. Something to note is that sponging these shades together actually diminished the holo effect; both polishes are ultra mega super holo in their natural state.

The final step was to add the white markings! I painted them freehand with a small nail art brush and sealed the look in with topcoat.

This nail art really got a lot of complements, and it was fairly quick to accomplish. The formulas on the holographic shades were easy to work with, smooth, and quick drying, though be sure you wear a base coat with Ins and Sprouts to avoid staining.

KBShimmer is available for purchase from KBShimmer.com in the US and Harlow & Co for international orders. You can also keep up with the brand on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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We All Know the Sharks In Katy Perry's Halftime Show Were the Real Super Bowl MVPs

Look, I enjoy football and all, but I think we can all agree that the dancing sharks in Katy Perry's halftime show were the true stars of the game. Their enthusiasm, their gaping jaws, their flailing limbs (including legs)...they just couldn't be beat. Every time the camera cut away from them, our entire family screamed at the TV to put the sharks back on. Who needs beach ball boobs?

Of course, I had to do some nail art honoring their majesty.

View image | gettyimages.com

Polishes used:
LVX Lemondrop
OPI Good Grief!
JINsoon Cool Blue
Salon Perfect Sugar Cube
Formula X Dark Matter

I began by sponging on a subtle gradient base of pale yellow to bright yellow. I wanted something bright and cheerful, like the sharks, that wouldn't distract from their perfection.

Then, I painted the sharks freehand over the base. I was giggling the whole time I was painting these, truly! They are just so full of joy!

Do you agree with me that the dancing sharks were the best part of the game? I need a good shot of them to use as my computer wallpaper!

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Teen Create Space Beginner Nail Art Workshop (Plus Giveaway!)

Recently, a friend of mine reached out and asked if I would be interested in teaching an hour-long nail art workshop for teens ages 12-18 at one of the local libraries here in Arizona. I jumped at the chance; I think the program is SO great. It gives teens in the area something creative to do after school at absolutely no cost to them! I thought a gradient + leopard print design would appeal to the teens, and would be doable in the workshop time frame, too.

Since the attendees were so young, I knew I needed some bright, fun colors! Salon Perfect was a natural choice for the polish and generously sponsored the event. The kids could not have been more excited!

We used Salon Perfect Tickled Pink, Pure Azure, Lavender Fields, and Oil Slick, as well as the Crystal Clear topcoat and nail art tool duos.

The workshop ended up having 15 attendees. I began by showing them how to use a makeup wedge to create a gradient, and then showed them a simple leopard print using a dotting tool.

At the end, the teens told me they were surprised to see how easy it was to create the gradient leopard look. A few of them opted to focus on doing one hand so they could really perfect the technique, and one girl decided she wanted to stop after doing a beautiful gradient!

I loved the experience and hope to have the opportunity to do it again soon! It was a blast.

And there's good news for you, too! You can enter to win the exact polishes we used in this workshop! Five winners will be selected. US residents only, ends November 26th, 2014.

Salon Perfect Giveaway

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TUTORIAL: Give In to the Darkness, Inspired by Nail'd It!

Have you been keeping up with Oxygen's Nail'd It!, the nail art competition show? I've been watching it every week! I love how it starts off with a client-based challenge, and then moves into the high concept sculptural work. In this week's episode, three previous competitors are back for their second shot at the finale. Their challenge is to create nail art inspired by their nightmares.

Here's an insider tip: if you tune in to tonight's episode, you'll get to see yours truly! I'm sharing a quick tutorial for stenciled star nails during one of the commercial breaks. Eee!


Nail polishes used:
Cirque Colors Memento Mori
Sally Hansen Big Shiny top coat

My nightmare-inspired look represents my childhood fear of the dark. I've toughened up a bit since then, but can definitely still psych myself out at times when I'm all alone in a dark room. This design represents the darkness as an entity, creeping up on me. Be sure to watch the tutorial above to see how you can achieve this look for yourself!

Tune in tonight to Nail'd It at 9/8c, only on Oxygen. Keep up with the show on their Facebook page, and join the conversation by following Oxygen on Instagram and using the hashtags #NailedIt and #ShowMetheMani. Don't forget, I'm briefly on tonight's episode!

Disclosure: This post has is sponsored by reps from Oxygen and Nail'd It!. Press sample provided by Cirque Colors. All opinions are my own.

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Bright-to-Vampy Sexy Pink Gradient

If you follow me on Instagram, you saw a shot of this manicure quite a while ago. It took me a bit to get it up on the blog because of the Challenge, but here we are! This girly-yet-vampy gradient was a huge hit when I previewed it, probably because it's hard to resist the moody gradient with a pop of color.

Nail polishes used:
Essie Too Taboo
American Apparel Berry
American Apparel Hassid

There's not too much to this to explain; I used a triangle makeup wedge to sponge on the gradient. I grabbed a burgundy color to bridge the gap between the bright pink and the black shades.

Don't get discouraged if your gradients are coming out less-than-snazzy! You probably need to keep adding layers of sponging until you reach the desired look. I probably did four or five rounds of sponging to achieve the opacity here. Just be sure to give each round a moment or two to set before you begin on your next layer.

I loved this look and wore it for three or four days. What are some of your favorite gradient combinations?

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Tattered Monochromatic Spray Marble

I never look forward to the water marble day of the 31 Day Challenge. This year, instead of putting myself through all of the pain, I went straight to a technique that I do have fun with: the spray marble! This technique is a sister to the water marble, and I actually prefer the edgy, tattered outcome.

Nail polishes used:
Polish My Life Birthday Suit
Polish My Life Storm Clouds
Jessica Cosmetics NY State of Mind
China Glaze Ghoulish Glow
Formula X Dark Matter

I started out by using a triangle makeup sponge to do a gradient of cream, grey, and dark grey. Then, I painted on a coat of glow in the dark topcoat, because why not?

The spray marble began with filling a plastic cup with room temperature filtered water and taping off the area surrounding my fingers to minimize mess. I gently dropped one drop of black polish on the surface of the water, and then used a spray bottle to mist a 50/50 mixture of water and apple cider vinegar on the polish. I've seen other people use hairspray, perfume, all sorts of other mixtures to break up the polish on the water, but @madamluck was the first one I saw that used the vinegar mix. It worked great!

I dipped one finger in at a time, removed excess polish from the surface of the water, and pulled my finger out. Remove the tape, clean up, and topcoat; you're done!

The glow was stronger where it was layered over light polish. Looks kinda like alien eggs, doesn't it?

Previous water marble work:

• Turquoise water marble
• Starburst candy water marble
• Soft flower marble

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Purple Galaxy Nails, Inspired by the Pelican Nebula

Galaxy nails day for the 31 Day Challenge! I don't do galaxy nails nearly enough. They create such a stunning effect for so little effort. For this year's nail art, I was inspired by a photo of the Pelican Nebula that I found on NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD). I didn't end up using enough pink in for the look to match exactly, but that's okay. I love the depth in these.

Nail polishes and supplies used:
OPI Who Are You Calling Bossy?!? (black)
Zoya Sailor (navy)
LVX Orchid (orchid)
Misa Loveliest of Lilacs (medium purple)
Nicole by OPI American As Apple Pie (red)
Nicole by OPI Yoga Then Yogurt (white)
China Glaze Lotus Begin (light purple)
Formula X Freaky Like Freud (holographic glitter)
Triangle makeup wedges
Edinburgh Realism #4 nail art brush

I started by painting my nails black. Then, I used a torn piece of the makeup sponge to apply a bit of navy on my nails -- admittedly, that part doesn't really show as well as I was hoping it did. Using new bits of sponge for each color, I sponged on streaks of red, then medium purple, medium orchid, and light purple.

I mixed a bit of white polish with acetone for a thinned out, watercolor effect, and used it to do a bit of freehanding inside of the light purple sponging (you can see it in the middle of the large purple nebula sections). A holographic glitter, used sparingly, gave the effect of distant stars, while white polish and a pinpoint dotting tool created some closer objects. The final step was to freehand a handful of stars with cross lensflare.

Go where one girl has gone before:

• Maroon and yellow galaxy nails
• Hyperspace jump nail art
• The Pleiades Star Cluster galaxy nails

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Fireflies in the Field at Sunset

We don't have fireflies where I live, and I've always been fascinated by them. I've spotted them off the side of the road on a couple of family vacations, but nothing more! There's something so romantic about them, isn't there? I attempted to recreate a bit of their firefly magic in today's gradient nail art for the 31 Day Challenge.

Nail polishes used:
Misa Loveliest of Lilacs (purple)
Misa Lovely Lychee (pink)
Seche Wild One (coral)
China Glaze Happy Go Lucky (yellow)
American Apparel Hassid (black)
OPI Matte Topcoat
Yellow acrylic paint (firefly halos)

This nail art started with the sponged gradient. I painted on my purple base, and then used a triangle makeup wedge to sponge on a gradient of purple, pink, and coral, with the coral at the tips to mimic a setting sun. After that was finished, I used a small nail art brush to paint on the grass/rushes with black polish.

I used the bubble technique and yellow acrylic paint to make the firefly halos. Be sure to check out my quick tutorial for this technique if you've never tried it before! I added a dot of yellow polish in the center of the halos for the little fireflies themselves, and finished the manicure with a layer of glossy and then matte topcoat.

This manicure has quite a few steps, but none of them were particularly hard! It's all about layering techniques and styles for good effect. I'm so pleased how these turned out and I think they really read as fireflies in a field.

Check out my gradient manicures from past challenge years:

• Pink ombre manicure
• French manicure gradient
• Textured leather gradient

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Moody Purple Gradient with Splatter Studs

How about something a little moody today? For this look, I grabbed two of the new purple shades from the OPI Nordic collection and used them in a gradient, along with a bit of black for the tips. Then I added some black and white splatter studs to give the look some extra pizzaz.

I started with a base of OPI Do You Have This Color In Stock-holm?, the brightest of the purples from the collection. The middle shade in the gradient is OPI Viking In a Vinter Vonderland, and the tips are a black creme.

The splatter studs are from Serum No. 5. I stuck them into wet topcoat, and then sealed them in with another coat of topcoat.

I'm a big fan of these studs, and they provide a nice contrast to the deep richness of the gradient.

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Sunset On Tatooine - Star Wars Nail Art

Today I have a bit of geeky nail art to share with you! If you are a fan of Star Wars, I'm sure you know about Tatooine. The planet was both Anakin's and Luke's home and is where Luke first meets C-3PO and R2-D2 in A New Hope. This nail art shows Luke with the two droids as the planet's twin suns set on the horizon.

The background of this nail art is an incredibly subtle gradient of OPI Going My Way or Norway? and OPI Ice-bergers and Fries. The silhouettes of Luke, C-3PO, R2-D2, and the Lars homestead were painted with OPI How Great Is Your Dane?. All three of those shades are from the new OPI Nordic Collection. I am loving the two caramel shades, in particular.

The ground is painted with OPI I Sing In Color, while the suns are done with Lime Crime Milky Ways and Lime Crime Peaches <3 Cream.

The manicure is finished off with OPI Matte Topcoat.

This nail art ended up being pretty timely. A few days after I finished it, a group of us watched A New Hope! If only I'd still been wearing it that day.

Are you a fan of Star Wars? Which one is your favorite?

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Lazy Maze and a Summer Gradient with Floss Gloss

Continuing my "black pattern over a neon gradient" obsession is today's manicure, featuring Floss Gloss polishes! I was stuck on a name for this post until Leslie from Work/Play/Polish suggested "lazy maze." I loved that name because it references the similarly patterned maze manicures that I've done before, and also describes what my lines look like: the easiest mazes ever.

I began with a white base to help the colors pop, and then used a triangle makeup wedge to sponge a gradient of Floss Gloss Con Limon and Floss Gloss Wet. Con Limon is really extraordinarily gorgeous. Super neon, perfect lime green.

The black lines are painted freehand with Floss Gloss Black Holy. I did each of the line patterns in pairs of two, which created an interesting "channel" effect down the nail. They feel tribal-inspired but I think they still stand on their own as something different.

This is my first experience with Floss Gloss and I was happy with it! The polishes are on the pricier side ($8 for what is essentially a mini), but the bottles are gorgeously antique-chic and the formula is nice. They would be really beautiful displayed on a vanity. Note to self: build a vanity just to display these polishes.

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Dusky Gradient with Gold Leaf

Remember when real gold leaf nail polish was all the rage, and every brand plus their moms came out with a variation? Then the craze seemed to rapidly die off, perhaps because the materials are difficult to get a hold of? This nail art was created during that time. That's right, it's time for another edition of: Spring Cleaning Out My Drafts!

I am 80% sure that this manicure used:
China Glaze Surreal Appeal
China Glaze Creative Fantasy

The gold leaf topcoat is Cirque Au.

I like the dusky combination of colors in this manicure with the gold flecks -- almost like fire embers flicking up from a beachy bonfire or something. I think, given the chance to do it again, I would replace the coral color with something a little pinker.

Did you get into the gold leaf trend?

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Double the Bubble: Pink and Blue Gradient and Glitter Combo

I'm currently in the midst of doing a bit of spring cleaning and one of the things I'm doing is clearing out my post drafts! This manicure was inspired by Jacki from Adventures In Acetone, who does a lot of beautifully paired gradient and glitter combinations. This Elevation Polish combination is one of my favorites of hers.

For my manicure, I started with the glitter polish and then worked backwards, choosing the gradient shades based on the glitter's colors.

There are three components at play here:
OPI If You Moust, You Moust - bubblegum pink
Essie Butler Please - deep cobalt blue
Polish Me Silly (formerly Lush Lacquer) Mr. Bubble - glitter shade

Unfortunately, since this is an older manicure, Mr. Bubble is no longer available for purchase. Anyone have any suggestions for similar glitter polishes? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Even though this specific glitter polish isn't sold any more, the idea behind this manicure still stands. Grab one of your favorite glitters, and build a gradient around its colors. The glitter will add extra depth and dimension while helping to make your gradient blend appear smoother.

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Peachy Textured Gradient - Nicole by OPI Roughles Nail Art

Nicole by OPI recently released a line of four speckled & textured lacquers called "Roughles" (pronounced "ruffles"), and I have to say, I am a big fan! The four lacquers come in pastel hues with matte flecks of color, and of course dry down to the rough, textured finish that I am obsessed with.

In this look, I created a textured gradient look by sponging two Roughles lacquers together. The sponging technique did alter the look of the polishes; if you were to paint one of them directly on to the nail it wouldn't look quite the same. Read on for details.

First things first. The two Roughles shades I used in this manicure are:
Nicole by OPI Rock the Look (pink)
Nicole by OPI Sand In My Shoe (yellow)

You can create the gradient by painting a stripe of each color on to a triangle makeup wedge, and then tapping it over your nail. I did two rounds of tapping for the look shown here.

TIP: This technique can be messy! Make cleanup easier by painting Elmer's glue onto the skin around your nail. Wait for it to dry and then do your gradient. Afterwards, gently scrape off the glue to reveal clean fingers! 

Because the sponge can't absorb the texture (but it does absorb the polish base), this method compounds the textured particles. The result is an extra textured manicure that, unfortunately, doesn't last as long. The texture has less to hold on to and can start to crumble after a few days. Still though, I got about two good days of wear out of this, and I like the super textured, almost fuzzy appearance!

Nicole by OPI Roughles nail polishes are available now in drugstores and other retailers for $7.99 a piece. Will you be picking any up? These are some of my favorite textures in a while!

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Tropical Rainbow Leopard Print - China Glaze City Flourish Nail Art

It's been a hot minute since I've done a leopard print manicure, so obviously I had to remedy that. I went full Lisa Frank with a rainbow gradient background using China Glaze City Flourish shades, and then painted the leopard print over the top in black. This style of leopard is a little different than the style I've done in the past. I think I prefer this smaller pattern, despite it being harder to do and taking longer!

I started with a base of white, and then sponged on three China Glaze City Flourish shades in a nonlinear gradient. The technique is the same as a "normal" gradient, except you paint the colors in a circle on the sponge. Danielle has a great tutorial that shows you how to achieve the effect. Make sure you continually rotate the sponge between nails so the colors end up in different spots!

China Glaze Peonies & Park Ave
China Glaze What a Pansy
China Glaze Grass is Lime Greener

The leopard print was freehanded on with a nail art brush and black polish.

The colors blended together beautifully. I love where the green and pink mixed together to create a pretty peach shade.

The China Glaze City Flourish collection is available now at salons and professional beauty supply stores.

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