Design FX Nail Stickers- Gilded Groove

Again.. haven't posted in forever.. it's just been crazy.. whatevs. Anyways, I recently got my hands on Dashing Diva Pro's Design FX nail stickers and they are amazing!! This pattern is called Gilded Groove and I'm absolutely obsessed with it! They go on very easily and lasted me several days before the ends started lifting a little (and all of those days included work, so they probably could've lasted longer if I wasn't using my hands as much). These are my favorite (and best working) nail stickers I've tried so far and I will most definitely be using them again!

Fairy Dust Glitter Ombre Mani

My favorite way to cover up wear and chips on my nails is to do a glitter ombre on them! They're super easy to do and look so pretty! What I like to do is first paint a thin coat of glitter just on the tips. Then, one nail at a time, I put a glob of glitter on the tips and brush it back. Finish with a top coat and done! It looks like a fairy sprinkled some magic dust on them, right?! The pale pink is Sinful Colors in Easy Going and the glitter is Nicole by OPI in Twist of Fate. Be sure to use a fine glitter polish for this and not a large glitter, as you wouldn't get the same effect.

Olympic Mani!

So I'm super excited about the Olympics and have been glued to the TV watching as much as possible, so obviously I had to do my nails to show my Olympic spirit! For this mani I used OPI (I think) in Big Apple Red, but I'll double check on that later.. actually I'll check on all the colors later because I have none of the names with me now. Anywho, for the Union Jack, I did two coats of the blue, then did white stripes, and then did the red. For my Olympic ring nails I used, get this: straws. Such a smart idea, right?! A tip though, (that I got from Seventeen's post) is to coat the ends of the straws with the nail polish to get a thicker circle.. worked perf. For my gold nail I used gold foil that I got at Michael's and oh my gosh it's such a pain, but I think totally worth it. It's extremely fragile and wrinkle and rip prone, so I used a tip from the Beauty Department to pick it up with a wet q-tip and wound up smoothing the foil with it also, but as you can kinda see, it doesn't smooth that well. Before I cut the piece of foil, I did one coat of my base coat (I got this new one that I'm obsessed with.. it really helps prevent chipping!) and waited a little for it to get tacky. To finish off I did a topcoat, of course, but beware! Some of the colors run, as you can kinda see on the Olympic rings with the red and black. Hope everybody is getting into the Olympic spirit and rooting for their country! Go USA!

My Birthday Mani!!

Again. I've neglected this blog. I'm trying people, I am. Anyways tomorrow is my birthday (my first one I'm depressed about) and I have these fabulous gold sparkle shoes I'm wearing, so duh, I had to make my mani match! I used two coats of Essie's Tart Deco (obsessed with this color!) and multiple coats (I lost count) of Milani's Jewel FX #531 Gold (just until it was solid)!!! That's it! The sparkles shine really nicely in the sunlight also!!

Caviar Mani

If you've been on Pinterest lately, I'm sure you've seen the "Caviar" mani making the rounds... It's that tiny little microbead mani. I did this mani back in October, and everybody loved it, so I decided to do it again! In October I did a gunmetal polish with silver beads to go with my outfit then, and this weekend I did black polish with gold beads, to match my outfit now. Everybody loved it again. :) Since I was only using the microbeads as my accent nails, I did them first so that I wouldn't mess up my other nails if they were wet. I used Sally Hansen's #310 Gilty Pleasure as the base for the gold microbeads. I did two coats of this. Immediately after I did my second coat, I dipped my finger into my container of microbeads. (You can dip them or sprinkle them. I prefer to sprinkle because I feel like it just makes it non-clumpy. Like, when I dipped my nail, there was a ton of extra beads stuck on it, which are easy to remove and flatten, but it's just extra work. If you are going to sprinkle though, be sure to do it over a plate or something to catch those little buggers! They seriously go all over.) After I got rid of all of the excess beads, I did an generous coat of my Out the Door top coat. In the future I think I would try using a different top coat, maybe one that doesn't fill in a bunch, but you don't even have to use a topcoat if you don't want. I just feel it seals it in better so they don't fall off as easily. For the rest of my fingers I used Wet N Wild's Fastdry in #229C Ebony Hates Chris. (It truly is fast drying. Like, it's amazing.) I only used one coat of this and it gave me a fantastic opaqueness. You really don't need a top coat for it because it shines really nice, but I did anyways. Hope you guys try this mani out!! It's truly eye catching and everybody will want to touch them!

These are the microbeads. I got mine from Michael's and I think they were about $4.00. Mine were in the aisle near stamping supplies. They come in loads of different colors and also in little mini packs with the different colors.

You can see where some of my beads fell off after a long day of work.... Super easy to fix though. Just take a toothpick, dab it with some top coat, dab it on the nail, put the toothpick in the microbeads, and place them where they're needed.