Hi girls!

Just a super quick post tonight as I’ve got some chores to catch up on so that we can run out sometime tomorrow to get my hubby a rash guard. He and I are headed to the beach in Moalboal for a kid-free day-trip on Saturday to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary! Yay! I’m super excited and we are both looking forward to some snorkeling, kayaking and lazing about.

I thought I’d show you a few of the quick and easy nail art ideas I came up with using  the Caronia Shades of Summer Collection (See my swatches and review here).

First up is First Crush with a bit of subtle stamping using Color Club Eternal Beauty.  This is an extremely easy way to add a little something extra to your nails.

Next, I added a water decal I purchased from Hokee to add a funky contrast for my accent nail. Fun, don’t you think?

I saved my least favorite of this bunch for last. I try and try again to love stickers for a quick nail art fix. But stickers really seem to be a hit and miss for me. Honestly the local brand, Wish, is always a miss for me. These didn’t want to cooperate, had bits of glitter on them, and I can clearly see the line from the edge of the sticker. That really bothers my OCD self. They looked pretty cool though.

I told you it would be a quickie! That’s all for today. I hope you are all having a wonderful week. Just two more days until the weekend y’all! You can do it!!!!

Keep smiling!
Rach

The post Quick and Easy Nail Art (featuring Caronia Shades of Summer) appeared first on The Nailinator.

Hello Lovely  People!

I hope you all had a merry Christmas with your nearest and dearest. I’ve been so busy the past two weeks baking goodies to give away, doing nails for some friends and family, and finishing up school with my kiddos. We’ve also been dealing with some sniffles in the house so that slows things down a bit. There is my explanation for why is has been a bit quiet around here. We had a wonderful day with the family yesterday, though. We fixed Mexican food and had everyone over at our house. It was a lovely day for sure! God has blessed us so!

Today I’m showing you one of my favorites, OPI Alcatraz Rocks. This is another polish I saw swatched by Jemma of Eeeek! Nail Polish! and I just HAD to have it. The super sweet Jacqui of Crafty Nail sent me this in our nail swap last year and I have worn it before but I haven’t posted it with any nail art yet. So here it is in all its pretty glittery goodness. Thanks again Jax!

I added some snowflake stickers to make the look more festive. The stickers are super cute but they peeled up a bit along the edges when I added topcoat. I really like having smooth nails so little bits sticking out really annoy me. I usually end up picking at stickers that peel up. So these didn’t last too long.  I do have a tip to share for using nail stickers. Do NOT apply them to wet polish thinking that they will stick better since they will dry with the polish. It doesn’t work. What I figure is that the solvent in the polish messes with the adhesive on the stickers and just makes them gooey and not stick properly. It is much better to wait until the polish is dry.

Alcatraz Rocks takes two coats for full coverage. It is a gorgeous blurple (bluish purple) liquid sand polish which means it dries  to a very textured finish. I added two coats of topcoat for this smooth finish. I prefer Alcatraz Rocks with topcoat as it really brings out the glitter. I’m ALL about the glitter y’all! That being said, since it is a glitter polish, this takes a bit of effort to remove. So worth it though!

Well, that’s all for me today. I’m off to play with the kids and I’ve still got a bit of cleaning up to do. I hope you are all having a great holiday and that you get to spend some quality time with those you love most.

Happy holidays from my family to yours!
Hugs,
Rachael

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Indirect sunlight

JM4-10

These embossed stickers cost 20 (less than 50 cents US) pesos a sheet, there are tons of stickers on each sheet and they are an easy, breezy way to add some flair to your nails. I went a bit overboard with putting them on my nails but I also wanted these stickers to be all over so I could see how they held up as I’ve had more bad experiences with stickers than good. I was truly impressed with these stickers. I did one hand with top coat and the other without and they both held up great with no peeling up at all. They are well worth 20 pesos. The only thing I would have done differently was lay the stickers down from one end to the next instead of just plopping them on the nail which ended up with my getting a few bubbles stuck under the stickers that I didn’t notice until after topcoat. Oh well. It wasn’t very noticeable at all.

I hope y’all like these. Have a great day!

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I also used these stickers this week to do the Bookworm’s nails. We went with 2 coats of Oh My Golly Purple Passion and a Korean gold glitter polish I found this week. They turned out super cute don’t you think? 

 

I wasn’t expecting to be impressed at all with these as my past experience with nail stickers hasn’t been so great but these were thinner than the Wish brand stickers and they stuck well to the nail and didn’t peel up at all around the edge when I added top coat. I was pleasantly surprised. Have a great weekend!

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This is 3 coats of Peridot from the Oh My Golly Crystal Sand collection by Klik. I actually put in on a couple of days ago and couldn’t decide on whether to stamp something or try out some nail stickers I’ve had for a while. After two days of debating, the stickers won. The stickers are by Wish and can be purchased at Watsons for 15 pesos. I think they turned out cute and I didn’t have nearly the trouble with these stickers as I did the others I tried by Wish. I used Oh My Golly Colorless to top coat over the sticker.I want you to take note of the lack of tip wear on Peridot. After 48 hours of cleaning house and playing with kids I always find that pretty impressive. Especially considering there is no topcoat.

I cannot say enough about how much I love these Crystal Sand polishes! They dry so fast and stand well with or without topcoat. I’m hooked! Many of you have entered already but for all my new friends that don’t know yet, I’d like to mention that you could win this polish and the other 6 in the collection by entering my international giveaway which ends in approximately 39 hours! So what are you waiting for?

I’ve included shots of this mani in different light so you can see the details of the stickers and the gorgeous glittery goodness of Peridot with and without the stickers. I would not have thought that I would love this green so much but I do. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

Outdoor in the shade

Indoor indirect light

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight again

Outdoor in the shade

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I started off with two coats of Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet and then I carefull added my stickers to my thumb nails and accent nails. They looked so cute. Then I added topcoat and then they were not so cute! They have shriveled up on the ends and although they stuck well to the still tacky polish they are not laying flat. I’m so disappointed. A second coat of topcoat helped a bit but these don’t live up to my expectations. I need to get my hands on some water decals. Oh well, on to tomorrows mani. It more than makes up for this let down!

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