Another tutorial! My raggedy brushstroke design.

Hi folks! What? Another post by me already? This is sort of a quick and dirty post. I have a tutorial for you based on my recent two manis here and here using the raggedy brushstroke technique.

A couple of tips:
1. Make sure each color is mostly if not all the way dry before going to the next color. Shouldn't take long.
2. Don't have the brush too heavily laden with polish because you want it to run out and fade as you get to the end.
3. Use a light hand when stroking the colors down the nail. You can lean a little heavier on the brush close to the base but lighten up as you get to the end of the stroke.
4. It actually helped me to have a cheap brush that didn't give me perfect straight thin lines. It helped with the raggedy look.

I got my brush as part of a set on Ebay.

I truly don't know if there is much that is completely original regarding simple nail art anymore because so many of us arrive at the same technique and design independently. So, of course, during an internet search, I found a YouTube video of something similar to this done by SimpleNailArtDesigns. I would be remiss if I didn't show you this video because I think it's fantastic for those who want to see it being done.

How did I do with my tutorial? Was it a flub or actually helpful?

Now for something totally different. Neon Brushstroke Mani!

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a good weekend! Mine was...eeeh. That belly of mine that people love to talk about has been giving me a bit of pain issues and it got to the point where I couldn't do much besides sit on a couch and put my feet up all Sunday (so sad, right?). Well, after so much of catching up on work, what else could I do but watch TV and paint my nails! I decided to try my hand at the raggedy brushstroke technique again (I need a good name for this) and decided to go with completely different colors. I haven't done a neon mani this summer yet so that's what I went with!

Um...crazy right? What a difference from the last one! The colors I used for this one are:
Sinful Colors Snow me White (base)
Sinful Colors Neon Melon (highlighter yellow)
Sinful Colors Summer Peach (orange)
Sinful Colors Pink
Sinful Colors Irish Green
Studio M Grape Escape
L'Oreal The Queen's Ambition (glittery black)

So, I surprised myself by actually wearing this to work but it was a light day. I might take it off though. It's a little loud. Too bad. It's growing on me. My hubby, though, not a fan. He gave this a 2/10.

Another dress inspired mani with Salon Perfect Brown Sugar

Hi folks. Survived another week! It's a bittersweet end though because I'm on call this weekend and hauling my 33 week belly around the hospital is going to be a chore.

I have a pretty sweet mani and a new to me technique to make up for it though! This mani is the first time I attempted the whole brush stroke nail art look. The verdict: I love it!!!  I actually thought of it in order to match a certain dress I wore this week, which I'm showing you at the bottom of the post.

The polishes I used for this are Salon Perfect Brown Sugar, seen above, Salon Perfect Faux Glow, which you saw last in this mani, and Sinful Colors Fig. I used two coats of Brown Sugar on the plain nails and for the accent nails, I used two coats of Faux Glow and then painted freehand strokes with Fig with a small nail art brush randomly starting at the cuticle and ending before I got to the tip. Over that, I did the same thing with Brown Sugar, stopping even earlier to allow Fig to show through. I do believe Brown Sugar is a dupe for China Glaze Midtown Magic. I have both, never worn Midtown Magic but in the bottle they look exactly the same!

And here's me, sporting the dress and the mani.

Why did I get all fancy, you might ask? No? I'll tell you anyway. This week, I got to meet some fellow Cleveland bloggers for the first time! I have been following both Michelle from All Lacquered Up and Andrea from Chickettes for a little while now and it was so nice to realize that we actually lived in the same place! I really started this blog as a way to just talk about and expand a little on my hobby and get a little more interaction from other people just as interested in this hobby as me. I have my own little corner of the internet and it's fun when I get you guys dropping in as visitors to check out what I've been doing. (I love your comments too, hint). Having an actual meetup with other nail bloggers, though, seemed to take it to another level. It was just neat to get out of my usual routine and interact with women from a completely different background from me and be able to share in a common interest! Anyway, can you tell I don't get out much, haha? Most times it really feels like work and baby are my life. I'm really looking forward to more meetups in the future!

Sinful Colors Athens Update

Hi everyone! So yesterday I showed you guys a mani with Sinful Colors Athens and a gradient tip with Zoya Ivanka. I said that I must have been channeling spring when I created it and you'll see why now.

I used China Glaze Passion for the stamping and the image came from the Cheeky plate CH33. Now, with the leaves, I really want spring to come already!!!

The first day I wore this mani out, I matched it with a pair of earrings that seemed to fit the color scheme perfectly. I tried to channel Marta's fabulous ability to create such gorgeous photos with jewelry on Chit Chat Nails but I feel like I just look awkward.

I don't know. What do you guys think? Maybe photographing with jewelry is not my thing or am I just being too critical?

Verity Brilliant Violet Stained Glass mani

Hi everyone. Here is another yet another mani I did just before the holidays. I'm sure I'll start posting some current ones soon but I still have a back log. Hmm..I wonder why.

This mani was done with what is now one of my favorite fushcias, Verity Brilliant Violet. I bought this the same time I bought Verity Deep Violet and I love them both!

For the "stained glass" look on the accent nail, I used a thin nail art brush, painted the black lines on a white base, then painted each individual color with a nail art brush and went over the black lines one last time. For my first effort, I really loved how it came out. The camera shows a lot of imperfections but it looked pretty cool in real life. It was really time consuming but I want to try it again.

Color Club Rev'd Up with Dots

Hello everyone! Some sad news, one of my darling grandmothers passed away yesterday in her sleep. I feel terrible for my parents, my dad especially. Can't be easy, no matter how much you expect it. I debated whether to post about this here but think this blog is not only all about my nails but a little window into my life as well.

Well, on to the nails!! Here is my follow up post to the Color Club Rev'd Up post. To create this look, I went with my trusty dotting tools and a few bright colors...

The colors I used for the dots are Sinful Colors Soul Mate, Sinful Colors Innocent and Kleancolor Beach Blue.

Full disclosure? I originally did this design on my big toe as a pedi. I loved it and I had to see it translated to the fingernails.

I am going to spend some time today working on my first contest entry ever! Wish me luck. I'm super excited about this one. 

Savina Sparkling Water Vines

This is going to be a brief one. I decided I liked the Savina polish I used yesterday enough to keep it on and try something else with it. I took the 'staches off and added some vines from the Bundle Monster plate 225 and Wet n Wild black. I do like this look. The color of the blue is really nice and the holographic sparkle is pretty. Maybe I'm just in a better mood...?

Movember Monday Moustache Mani: Savina Sparkling Water

Hi folks. So, it's been sort of a less than stellar weekend and maybe that's coloring my perception but this post I'm going to show you feels like a less than stellar mani. I think the polish itself is probably not that bad, I'm just annoyed by it right now. I went with the same color theme of light blue and purple for this one but I was struck by a superb lack of creativity. The colors I used are Savina Sparkling Water and Color Club Rev'd Up.

Savina is a brand that can be found at Nordstrom Rack.  In the bottle it's a lovely light blue metallic with large holograhic glitter particles. It looks lovely. What fails to make this a truly wonderful polish is that on the nail, the glitter pieces end up forming this gritty, grainy texture that took three coats of top coat to feel somewhat smooth and no amount of top coat could take away the look of grittiness that you can see in the first picture. I'm not really a fan of that look. Thankfully, in certain lights, you can see the holographic shimmer quite well so there is a saving grace.

And now, this is a picture of the bottle of Jade jelly that I used in my last mani seen here. It's pretty sheer and a little milky. I had originally used Sally's clear, added some Love & Beauty Jade and a bit of glitter. The glitter proved to be ridiculously hard to pick up out of the bottle so now I just use it for the jelly-ness.

Movember Monday Moustache Mani: Moustache and Marble

I love me a good alliteration. I had this post up yesterday but then I was struck by the idea of having it be a Monday mani series so of course I had to take it down. Welcome to the first installation. I still don't know what I'll do for the others but you can find out with me :-)

Last Friday, for the first time in my oh so young practice, I had the humbling experience of telling one of my first patients that he has prostate cancer. He took the news incredibly well and even thanked me for calling him early and letting him know before our next appointment. He had always been such a sweet man that I wished I could have reached through the phone and given him a quick hug. I mention this story not only to share a bit but also to highlight the fact that on the tails of October and Breast Cancer Awareness Month comes Novemeber (or Movemeber), Men's Health Awareness Month, including awareness of prostate and testicular cancer. Here is a funny blurb from the us.movember.com website describing the activities of the month.

        Once registered at www.movember.com, men start Movember 1st clean shaven. For the rest of the month, these selfless and generous men, known as Mo Bros, groom, trim and wax their way into the annals of fine moustachery. Supported by the women in their lives, Mo Sistas, Movember Mo Bros raise funds by seeking out sponsorship for their Mo-growing efforts.Mo Bros effectively become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November. Through their actions and words they raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health.

In residency, I was the only girl in my program and every November, most of the guys in the program would grow (or attempt to grow) some spectacular 'staches. I'm sure their wives were always glad once December rolled around :-)

Sangria Stamped

So yesterday I posted a swatch of Savina Sangria. Today I'm going to show you the stamping did over it. This was done with a Sally Hansen Color Quick Fast Dry Pen in Fuschia Chrome. The image used is from the Mash m60 plate.

Revlon Dreamer Swatch with Patchwork Accent

Edit: This is an old post. I was trying to modify some things on the blog and it just republished itself. Sorry!!

Revlon Dreamer is a polish that I passed up over and over again. I would keep picking it up at the drug store and think what a pretty color and then put it down again. I'm glad I eventually picked it up. I think my Love and Beauty Aqua is probably a close match but I have not done a side by side comparison.

Ingrid Accent Update

I just can't leave a plain manicure well enough alone. It's ok. I love accent nails! They're a quick and subtle way to add nail art and an element of uniqueness to a manicure. I showed you the base of the manicure in my swatch of China Glaze Ingrid. For this design, I totally copied the idea from Jane from Nailside from this post. I wanted something that seemed appropriate for fall. I stuck to China Glaze colors for this. I used China Glaze I'm Not Lion from the Safari collection and Riveting from the Hunger Games collection.

Dotty Blue Flowers

Whoo!! This post actually features a current NOTD! I figured I could use my old ones as fill in's if I didn't have a current one to post.