Nail Passion

Nail Art is my passion! This blog is all about nails :) I wanted to share my passion with others and be able to connect and follow others who share the same interests! I hope you enjoy my blog :) Feel free to comment, like, share and/or give feedback. (You can also find me on Facebook and Pinterest).

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

JANUARY NAIL ART CHALLENGE: DAY 28

Hey guys! Sorry this post is a day late :S I had work all day yesterday and wasn't able to paint my nails :( so I did it the first chance I had today!

The theme for Day 28 is 'Vintage Nails'. When I first saw this theme I was a little bit worried lol, I had no idea how to do my nails Vintage...but I thought about it for a moment, and then I knew exactly what I was going do :) and it turned out better than I hoped!



What do you guys think?? I love it!! :) About a week ago I painted my cousin's nails and I did these chandeliers on her...I don't think I would have ever thought to use them before she noticed them. But I'm glad she did :)



I'm so excited about how this turned out because this is the first design where as soon as I sat down to do my nails I already had in my head the way they would look when I was done :) I love how the brown and gold look together, they are so rich and beautiful! The colors are from China Glaze, Street Chic and Passion, and the plates are from Bundle Monster, BM08 and BM21.

Friday, January 25, 2013

SUMMER GRADIENT WITH STAMP

As stated in my previous post I have a fun summery nail design to share with you guys :) and I think you are going to love it!


The other day I decided that I am ready for summer. I'm getting sick of the cold! :P I am a summer baby lol. So to make me feel like summer is coming I decided to use fun, bright colors! I originally wanted to re-create a manicure that Sarah from Chalkboard Nails had recently done...I still might eventually, I just need to get more comfortable with sponging first. But instead of doing that design this time I decided to use these three colors and try to make it look like a sunset. I really wanted to stamp or paint a palm tree over top of the gradient but I don't have a palm tree stamp (yet), and I wasn't really in the mood at the time of painting my nails to paint a palm tree on each nail. So I found a fun stamp and went with it :)


I started this design by painting one coat of Sinful Colors, Snow Me White over my entire nail. Then using a sponge and O.P.I., Ya'll Come Back Ya Hear?, plus China Glaze, Happy Go Lucky and Rich & Famous I created this bright sunset gradient. I haven't done a whole lot of sponging, so even though the few sponging designs I have done have turned out pretty well, I still don't feel quite comfortable with the technique yet. Every time I have done sponging it takes me quite awhile because I mess up and have to restart alot. So if anyone has any tips that would help, please leave a comment below. I would really appreciate it :)

Once I finished sponging I used a top coat of Seche Vite to help the polish dry fast, and then finished  the design with Cheeky Plate, CH12 and China Glaze, Liquid Leather


JANUARY NAIL ART CHALLENGE: DAY 25

Hey everyone! :) I know it's kind of late, but today is one of the days of my January Nail Art Challenge. I finished the design a few hours ago, but wasn't near my computer until recently...

So today's theme is 'Silver', which I actually wasn't to excited about to be honest hahah. I really wanted to do something fun and summery :) But that's the design I had on before I did this new one, so check my next post to see what fun summer design I did :)


I have to tell you guys, painting my nails today was so much fun because I had one of my friends come over and we had one of our famous nail parties! :) We bought pizza, chips and drinks, put in a movie and went to town on our nails :P At first I had no idea what I was going to do for todays theme, so I started looking on Instagram for inspiration, but it was one of those times when you just have to pull out your polishes for inspiration :) I decided I wanted to use the silver glitter that my mom bought me for Christmas and pair it with something else. At first I was going to do a plain bright pink...but then my friend showed me this Beautiful color by Orly (I apologize I do not know the name of it :S) and I knew I Had to use it lol. She also let me use some of her rhinestones, which I will definitely have to go buy myself some now :P They totally enhanced the look of the design, and pull everything together :) 


Overall this design is really fun and pretty, but it kind of reminds me of a high school prom manicure :P Which isn't a bad thing...but it's not really the look I was going for. The one thing that really made me mad was when I was done. I finished this manicure and within 10 minutes the edges had pushed back so it looked like I had worn the polish off already! So I had to keep applying the pink to the edge of the nail and the polish ended up getting really thick. But other than that it was a fun design to do and I am really satisfied with this look :)

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

MASH NAILS GIVEAWAY!!

Good Morning!! I wanted to quickly share with you guys a Giveaway that is going on :) For any of you who like the stamping technique and don't have any stamps of your own yet, or for those of you who have stamps and would like more, this is an easy way to win some for free!

MASH Nails has donated a set of stamping plates to Set in Lacquer for this Giveaway. If you would like to read about it and learn how to enter, here is the link: http://www.setinlacquer.com/2013/01/mash-nails-giveaway.html

Good luck to everyone who enters!! :) And I hope you have a fabulous day!


Tuesday, January 22, 2013

JANUARY NAIL ART CHALLENGE: DAY 22

Ok, I know it's a little later in the day, but I wanted to make sure this post was posted on time :P The theme for today's nail design is 'Burgundy Nails', and I have to warn you, I didn't do anything fun or flashy for this design because the color itself was just beautiful...sadly the pictures don't show the true color of the burgundy and it looks more brown :( But I still wanted to post it because it is still very pretty.




I'm really am very sad that these pictures don't show the true color of this polish because it really is a stunning color! It's by Sally Hansen and I have had it for a long time, I just haven't used it in awhile...it's called Brilliant Bordeaux. If you have a chance, Google it :)

STRIPING TAPE

Do you guys remember back in September when I did my first nail design using striping tape? (If you didn't see it you can view it here), I wasn't to happy about the results, even though it looked good. The reason I didn't like the tape the first time I tried it was because I didn't quite cut the tape short enough, so it peeled off very quickly. I realized after I finished that design that you need to make sure to cut the tape slightly before the end of your nail and then cover the end really well with a top coat.

This past week I tried using striping tape again and I am very happy to announce that this time was a success! I really like the way it turned out!




This first one, I actually did not leave the tape on, I just used it to create the lines. I started off with a base coat and then painted my nails with Ulta, Set the Nude. Then using my striping tape, I created the different lines and then painted over top using Ulta, Grin & Berry It. Once I had painted all of my nails I removed the tape to reveal this beautiful nail design :)




This is the second of my striping tape designs :) This one was inspired by different photos I have seen recently on Instagram, so I decided to try it for myself. The colors I chose were Essie, Borrowed & Blue, China Glaze, Frostbite and Sinful Colors, Savage. I apologize that these pictures aren't the best, once again I didn't have my camera so I did the best I could with my Iphone and the lighting. But all in all I do love this! :) The gold with the blue is very pretty! The pictures don't do this design justice.

Do you guys like the striping tape?


JANUARY NAIL ART CHALLENGE: DAY 19

Hello everyone! So I know I'm a couple of days late posting this photo on my blog :S But I did post it on Facebook and Instagram. I was only able to get one picture on my Iphone, which is why it was posted late...when I don't get a chance to take pictures with my actual camera I have a hard time remembering to post the photos on my blog. Oops!

Anywho, for this design I used China Glaze, Rich & Famous and Passion, with Cheeky Plate, CH6. Although it is very simple, everyone really liked it! :) I received many compliments on it!


I hope you guys like this design, I apologize that it is late. Please check back because I will be posting more photos today! :)

Thursday, January 17, 2013

NEW YEARS EVE NAILS (LATE)

I'm so sorry it took my so long to post these!! :S I realized the reason I didn't post them before is because I only took one photo on my phone, I didn't use my regular camera like I usually do. My bad!!


A few days before New Years I was shopping at Ulta with my mom and found China Glaze, It's a Trap-eze! This beautiful, creamy white polish with different color sparkles. So when I was able to swatch it I figured it was perfect for New Years! I painted two coats over top of Sinful Colors, Snow Me White and then added the numbers with a striper polish :)

CHEEKY FLOWERS

I feel like I'm overloading you guys with photos lol. I know I'm not, you can never have to many photos! :P 

This design is one I did a few days ago that I forgot to upload because I have done so many different things this past week that it's been kind of hard trying to keep all of them in order...So as you can see, I did forget one lol (I also realized I still haven't posted my New Years Eve Nails :S oops!). This design was done with one of my new Jumbo Cheeky Plates :) I used the Sinful Colors, Savages and Snow Me White and then finished it with a top coat of Seche Vite.




JANUARY NAIL ART CHALLENGE: DAY 16

Ok, my photos for the January Nail Art Challenge are finally edited! :) So for those of you who have not seen them yet, I hope you like them!



 Lol I feel like after looking at these photos, this design looks more like a 'Starry Night' :P But it is 'Subtle Snow'. I chose my China Glaze, Frostbite because I haven't used it in awhile and I love the way it looks with white :)


I started out with a base coat, by Revlon, and then painted my nails with Frostbite. Then, using a make-up sponge I sponged the glitter on to the top of my nail near the cuticle. I tried to make the sparkles really heavy near the cuticle and then put a few towards the bottom so that it would look like falling snow :) I have seen this technique quite alot lately (glitter gradient) and it is really pretty. I added the white dots and the larger snowflakes with a striping brush, and then finished with a coat of Seche Vite. 


ROSES

Hey Guys! I just wanted to let you know that I have done Day 16 of the January Nail Art Challenge, I just haven't had time to upload the photos yet, so check back tonight! Or! Check my Facebook & Instagram pages to see the design! :)

Today's design is a stamp, and it's by far one of my favorite stamping designs I've done to date!!


These 2 photos are the only photos I was able to get of this design :( But I love it!! This picture is from my Instagram, so if you have Instagram and you are not following me please find me! (search for Playful Polishes).

To create this design I started off with my usual base coat and then Sinful Colors, Snow Me White and China Glaze, Liquid Leather. Sadly, I don't have a light grey polish (I know what I'm getting next lol), so I had to make one. I mixed Snow Me White with China Glaze, Concrete Catwalk. Then, using two different stamps I first stamped the grey roses and then the black roses over top. The plates I used were from Bundle Monster, plate BM14, and Cheeky, plate CH14. I absolutely love the 2-tone stamping!! :) It's so eye catching and gives the design dimension! I will definitely be doing more designs like this in the future! If you guys have any recommendations feel free to leave a comment :) Thanks for checking out this post! I hope you have a wonderful day!! :)

Monday, January 14, 2013

SINFUL COLORS (SWATCHES)

Sinful Colors are by far one of my favorite brands of nail polish! The are a good price and very good quality polish. I would highly recommend them to anyone who hasn't tried them :)

The colors I'm showing you today are some of my favorite by Sinful Colors so far! Innocent, Savage,  Figi and Gone Platinum.




This first one is Figi, it is a very pretty, sheer purple color. This is a very unique polish, I don't have anything else like this one. I have similar shades of purple, but the consistency of this polish is quite different than anything I have tried before. It only takes 2 coats to become opaque, and at first, because it's such a different consistency I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. But once I finished it with a top coat, I couldn't stop staring at it :)




If you want a lime green polish I highly recommend Innocent :) This color is so much fun and when you have it on your fingernails you can't help but always stare at your hands lol. This color only needed 2 coats, and I can already see in my mind some designs I would love to try with this color!




Savage is the color I am most excited about! :P This is the other polish I did not put a top coat over. When I put the first coat on I was shocked that it had a matte finish. It doesn't say anywhere on the bottle that this is a matte polish. But, I am IN LOVE with it!! :)




If you can't tell I really like purple polishes :) This one is Gone Platinum and it only needed one coat. The thing I love about this purple is it has a little bit of a silver tint. I think it would look stunning with silver stamped over top. That's probably the best thing about doing swatches, you get your wheels turning and you have so many ideas once you see a color on your nails! :) I see more designs in the near future! ;) hahaha.




This last swatch is kind of a surprise! :) Obviously I did this over top of Innocent, and it is not a polish by Sinful Colors. This star sparkle polish is by Fergie. I found it at Walgreens for $2 or $3. I bought it because I love stars! They are my favorite shape! 

If I didn't love stars so much I would not really like this polish though. It was kind of a lot of work to get the stars out. I really had to dig into the bottle to get stars onto the brush, and then I had a ton of clear polish on the brush...but because of how fun and cute they look on my nails I can't say I don't like it :P

REVLON (SWATCHES)

As promised I have some swatches to show you guys :) If you read my post about my Christmas presents you most likely saw all of the colors I got for Christmas (if you didn't read it you can see it  here). So my swatches today (for this post) are by Revlon :P I didn't realize how long it takes to do swatches when you have so many new colors lol. I was able to do these ones, and the 4 Sinful Colors, which will be my next post.





This pink is called Temptress, it's a beautiful opaque pink! I only needed 2 coats to get the coverage I wanted :) Before Christmas/December I didn't have any light/pastel pinks and now I have 3 lol. This color is very similar to my O.P.I. Pink Friday, and the third one is by Ulta, which I have not had a chance to swatch yet. 




This beautiful orange is called Siren, which only needed 2 coats, and in my opinion it's the perfect color orange. Normally if I heard the word 'Siren' I would think of red, but I guess it works for orange too :P 




All but two of the colors I tested, I put a top coat of Seche Vite on...this one is one of the ones I did not put any top coat on (the second is part of the Sinful Colors post). Once I had painted the first coat I realized it was a matte polish, THEN I  noticed the bottle said "Matte Suede" lol. It is absolutely gorgeous! Emerald City is the name of this one, which kind of fits. When I hear Emerald City and think of the Wizard, this is the color green he wears :)

The only thing I didn't like about this color is it took 3 coats to get the entire nail completely covered, and it was very difficult to clean off of my cuticles. But other than that I really do love this color :) and I love that it has a matte finish!





This is the last of the polishes by Revlon. It's called Silver Dollar. I have to admit that I was not impressed with this one. The finished look is very eye catching, but the formula for this polish was very, very runny. I had to shake the bottle every single time I put the brush back into it, otherwise I just pulled out a brush with clear polish instead of silver sparkles. Also, because of how runny it was if you put to much on your nail at one time the sparkles went everywhere! lol. This was a hard one to clean. I had sparkles on my hands for a few hours after I took it off. So after all of that, good color, but not very good polish.