A week of birthday manis!

Hey guys! 

My birthday is coming up on the 5th of January, so I'm dubbing the next 7 days, the week of birthday manis! So let's jump right into the mani that I decided to kick off with! 

Here's what I used: 

I started with Zoya Anchor and then I laid down a base color of two coats of Zoya Kitridge on my index, middle, and pinkie. I moved on to putting two coats of Zoya Noir on my ring finger and thumb for GLITTAAAAA! Once all of that had a chance to dry a little, I used a makeup sponge to do the gradient on my index and pinkie. I used Zoya Kitridge and Margo for the gradient. 

I went over each nail 3 separate times, adding more polish to the sponge each time so that it didn't dry out. Immediately after completing the gradient, I added a coat of Seche Vite to seal it all. Moving on to my middle finger, I added some white dots using Orly White Tips and my pink dotting tool and allowed that to dry. 

While the dots dried, I pulled out my Cici&Sisi plates (the pink set) and used plate number 11 for the cupcake. I stamped it with Zoya Willa and then filled it in using Zoya Margo and Orly White Tips. Once it had dried, I applied a coat of Seche Vite over it so I could make it into a decal. It took about 5 minutes to fully dry so I could remove it with a pair of tweezers. This is what it looked like:

I placed a thin layer of Seche Vite on my nail and then gently laid the decal on it. I sealed the decal on with one more coat of Seche Vite and voila! Here's another look at the final result: 

What do you guys think of this tutorial style blog post? What would you add? 

Hope you like this mani and thank you for reading! 

Girl, get that blog back up and going!

Hey y'all! 

Gosh it's been a while since I posted anything here. I wanna make a bunch of excuses but let's just agree that I'll be doing my best to keep it up again. 

I've been participating in so many different monthly challenges so my manis have been sort of all over the place lately. I really feel that participating in many challenges gives the me greatest opportunity to grow my skills as a nail artist. 

The most exciting news I have is that I got a new light box for Christmas - the Standscan Snap and I'm thrilled with the results. Now, finally...on to the mani! 

Tonight's mani was prompted by the #pymdec2014 challenge on Instagram. Day 29's prompt is Aurora Borealis so I chose a simple water marble. This was the first time I did a water marble over a black base and boy, am I ever pleased with how it turned out! Here's what I used: 

I started by laying down a base of Zoya Anchor and followed that with 2 coats of Zoya Willa as my base color on all nails. Then I used some of the Maybelline Bleached Neons from the summer: Pink Punch, Bleached In Peach, Citrus Collide, and Day Glow Teal with Sinful Colors Tempest as the colors for my water marble on the middle two nails. After that dried, I topped the marble nails with 2 coats of Inm Northern Lights and sealed all the nails with one coat of Seche Vite. 

I used my Elf Cosmetics Concealer brush to clean up around my cuticles and voila! Finished product: 

I am giving consideration to taking step by step pictures for future posts, almost as a tutorial. What do y'all think of that idea? Do you like blogs that show tutorials? 

Thank you for reading!