Hey gals!

Yes, it is Monday! But my Monday is almost over, and it honestly hasn’t been too bad. I decided to turn the air conditioner on today and enjoyed a blissfully cool day at home with the kids making up goofy stories, working on cleaning their room, and doing school. We also enjoyed learning about iguanas and sea turtles!

Today I’m sharing a quick and easy nail art look that can take an already fine-looking manicure to the next level. If you follow me on Instagram, you have probably already seen the first picture below. (Keep scrolling for something new though!) I started with Girlstuff Diana which is a lovely dusty blue creme with a hint of purple to it. (Blurple! Yay!) For my accent nail, I chose L.A. Girl 3D Silver for some sparkle.

To add more pizzazz, I  used a thin striper brush and added some stripes at the base of my nails tapering off toward the tips. As you can see, I used gray, white, black, and silver polish for the stripes. Easy peasy! They call this “Waterfall” nail art.

I always love trying new, super-quick nail art looks. Don’t you? Please comment and share your favorite go-to nail art look for when you need something quick and easy.

I hope you are having a great day. Keep smiling!

Hugs,
Rach

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Happy New Year! I’ve got a scheduled post for you today as our plans to go out of town pushed through. Hopefully the weather will have cleared up and we have had the chance to soak up some sun while we are by the beach. If not, I’m sure we are having a grand time anyway.

I thought I would do a quick post sharing some of the nail art I have done for friends and family last month. I did a few designs that are seasonal and a few that would be great for any time of the year.

First up we have some fun zebra stripes in Christmas colors that I convinced The Shutterbug (my youngest sister) to let me try on her. If anyone can pull of this look, it’s her! I did the stripes with acrylic paint and a striper brush.

Next we have some super cute and easy winter wonderland nails I did for The Bookworm (my other younger sister). We started with a light blue base (Sansan Warm Blue), and I stamped snow flakes and an adorable snowman from my OB19 plate that I purchased last year from MyOnline Shop. I added a few tiny dots for a finishing touch.

Next up is a look The Queen Mother requested after seeing my Holly Jolly nails. She wanted my holly stamped accent nail with all the other nails in red. I wish I could remember the name of the red she brought along. It is a stunner. I will check with her and update this (then I’ll probably go out and buy it!).

Next, I’m showing you a look that I was surprised to find I ended up really liking. A friend showed me a picture and I did my best to replicate what she was asking for. First I painted the whole nail in a very light jelly pink. Then I added color to just half of each nail (alternating brown and white). On each brown nail I painted a tiny gold bow. On each white nail I taped off the non-white part of the nail and stamped an image in black over the white. The tape kept the stamping on the white part I had painted before. I added a gold stripe across the nail and was finished. I had never tried a half nail design like this and had also never tried a stamping technique like this. It is always fun to try new things.

The next look is a floral design, something I’ve done several times before with different color combinations. This lovely lady picked mint green and off white as her base colors and wanted small roses and leaves. This was my first time painting such tiny roses which proved to be a challenge. I did my best, though, and she liked them so that is what counts after all.

The last look I have to share with you is so fun and colorful! My friend wanted rainbow stripes with black strokes. I used a striping brush to paint each color in rows starting from the cuticle out toward the tip (purple, blue, green, yellow, pink and orange). I used black acrylic paint and added the black marks. We did this on her accent nails and thumbs. Since we used 6 colors I suggested we paint the other nails with those colors. They look suuuper cute!

I love doing nails for other people. It is fun to take on the challenge of suggesting things that will suit them and colors that will go with what they have in mind. Do you do nails for family and friends? If you follow me on Instagram you have probably already seen these as I share them there most of the time.

I hope you have had a wonderful holiday vacation so far. Mine has involved lots of food and laughs with my family which is just the way I like it. I’ve been under the weather with a crazy cold that won’t go away. But on the bright side, my hubby has been a darling taking care of me and the kids most of the time. I’m a lucky lady for sure!  Whatever you ended up doing for the New Year, I hope you have had a great time and blessed year ahead!

Hugs!
Rach

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I imagine if you haven’t read the books then this won’t be much of a manicure to you. But, even if you aren’t familiar with the MASSIVE back story behind the inspiration of these nails, consider how hard it was to free hand these stripes. Ha! It did take a while and I know they are not perfect. I planned to do both hands but it was so late after I finished these that my Cinderella hand just got skittles so I could get to bed at a decent hour. Then my topcoat bubbled in the middle of the nail. Oh well, sometimes topcoat kills the mani. I struggle at times to float the brush to avoid smudging and to avoid bubbling at the same time.

That’s all for now. I meant to get this up on Saturday but time got away from me. It tends to do that with two kids to run after. I hope you all have a great week.

The post Wheel Of Time Nail Art – The Stole of the Amyrlin Seat and The Flame of Tar Valon appeared first on The Nailinator.

Day 26 of the 31 Day Challenge is “Inspired by a pattern”. I’ve chosen to go with an Argyle pattern. I saw a tutorial by Cute Polish for this nail art way back when I was just getting into nail art and I tried it out on a nail wheel right away and it looked very nice. So when I saw it on a nail wheel the other day I thought it was time to try it out on my nails. I learned that doing my nails while watching episodes of the Doris Day Show makes for some wobbly stripes. Definitely not my neatest work. :/ Whatever! I still think they turned out cute. Don’t you?

The colors I used are San San Cloudy Gray, Caronia First Crush (purple), China Glaze For Audrey (green) and Jocarste White.

If you are just starting out with nail art I strongly suggest you check out Cute Polish on You Tube. She has some pretty cute designs that are really easy to achieve. Have a great day!

Hugs!

The post Argyle Nail Art appeared first on The Nailinator.

I started with two coats of Color Club Eternal Beauty and then used L.A. Girl 3D in Black Illusion and a striper brush to add the stripes. I’ve included a picture in warm light so you can see a bit of the holo shimmer. The sun didn’t come out all day today so there are no sunshine shots. Oh well! I think they look pretty darn cool. Don’t you?

I hope everyone is having a great day.

The post Purple and Black Woven Stripes appeared first on The Nailinator.

By the time you read this I’ll be at the beach relaxing with the family for a few days! I live in a country with over 7,000 islands but only make it to the beach once or twice a year if we are lucky. Even then, we usually end up going only when we have guests from the US. In this case, my wonderful nother-in-law is visiting from Texas and we are taking some time off to chill at the beach with some great friends. Next week we will be back home and will play the tourists again and go sight seeing around town. Fun!

I did these the day after I saw this manicure by Chit Chat Nails. She mentions on her blog that she got this design from @madicures. I love how feminine this is and it’s a skittle mani which I also love!

The light purple is Oh My Golly Prom Queen, the darker purple is Klik Ube shake and for the stripes and the middle finger I’ve used Miss Beauty Diamondmax #8.

I went with a purple and silver theme since I don’t have a gold yet but that will be changing very soon! My MIL is bringing me some goodies and my sisters will be coming back from Texas as well next week and The Shutterbug is playing the polish mule so I’ll be posting some nail haul pictures soon. I’m most excited about my Color Club Halo Hues and LA Girl 3D polishes! Any nail polish/art goodies you have coming your way soon that you are excited about?

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All opinions are my own.

Today is the last day of the Rather Awesome 31 Day Challenge Giveaway, and we are tasked to recreate a manicure done by someone else. I want to take a moment to thank Brijit of Brijit’s Digits, Jacqui of Crafty Nail and Jemma of Eeeek! Nail Polish! for hosting this challenge. It has been loads of fun!

Now, before I show you what I’ve come up with, I’ve got to tell you about the very first blogger event that I was able to join. Last week, ORLY Philippines had a small get together, and I got to go and meet some of the ladies working with ORLY Philippines along with several other beautiful ladies from Cebu who have beauty and fashion blogs. I was so excited to finally connect with other bloggers in my city, and I hope to get together with them again soon.

At the event, we were given loot bags with samples, and when I saw ORLY Nite Owl, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.

 
With all the great designs I’ve seen during the challenge, I was hard-pressed to pick an absolute favorite. So I decided to recreate the first manicure that I saw that made me think, “I haven’t done a look like that and I’d really like to try that.” And that brings us to this lovely look done by Jacqui of Crafty Nail for the “stripes” theme on day 11. (Please do check out her blog. She has some skills and she is super sweet to boot!) I’ve never done this look before so I had to give it a go, and ORLY Nite Owl was the perfect base for this look. I added somewhat random stripes using a striping brush and Jocarste Silver (26), Oh My Golly First Date, and Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet. My finished product makes me think of ice cream. What do you think?

Here’s a swatch of ORLY Nite Owl. I’ve got 2 1/2 coats on and it’s just gorgeous. I adore the shimmer, and I love how it’s work safe without being boring. Have a great day girls!

Here’s a swatch of ORLY Nite Owl. I’ve got 2 1/2 coats on and it’s just gorgeous. I love the shimmer, and I love how it’s work safe without being boring. Have a great day girls!

The post Copycat Stripes appeared first on The Nailinator.

Hey ladies!
I’ve got an ultra feminine look to share with you today. I wasn’t sure what to call it and my hubby said it reminds him of a hat box so we’re gonna go with that.

Light box

 For the striped nails I applied 3 coats of Oh My Golly Quartz (pink) and then used a striper brush and Oh My Golly Hematite and carefully added the stripes. For the accent nails I started out with Hematite and used a dotting tool, Oh My Golly Quartz and White Out. The leaves were done with a small brush and Oh My Golly Gossip and Peridot.

Outdoor Natural light

Quartz swatch in natural light

Everytime I use my Oh My Golly polishes I love them more and more. They dry so fast and have great coverage. You can visit the FB page of Klik, the makers of Oh My Golly, and keep up with their promos and upcoming events here. I have it on good authority that a new collection is coming out in July!

What do you think of this look? Would you wear it? It’s a rather bold but feminine look I think. I like it!

Also, I’ve been playing around with my lighting a bit and the first pic is in a makeshift light box. I still used my phone but it might be nicer than the usual ones I take. What do you think?

The post Hat Box Nail Art appeared first on The Nailinator.

Now on to the nails!

Day 19 of Short and Sweet in Texas‘ Nail Challenge is Glitter and I enlisted The Shutterbug for this one since she is quite the glitter addict. I used two polishes from Oh My Golly’s liquid crystal collection. The green is Peridot and the purple is Opal. I started with two coats of Peridot then did my sponging. Then I took my black striper and added the lines. I think it turned out really cool. What do you all think? The Shutterbug said these would be perfect for a Masquerade.

Closeup

Here are the nails before I added the stripes.

The post Glitter!!! appeared first on The Nailinator.

This is 2 coats of BK Holo 18 (gold)with Bichun A21 (purple)sponged on the tips. As you can see, I had much better success than my previous attempt at sponging. This actually looks really pretty and the cheapo kitchen sponge I used worked much better than the makeup sponges I’ve used in the past. After I finished my sponging I took my striper brush and used the purple to add stripes to the accent nail. I think it looks great. Someone told me they look like they were inspired by Cadbury Chocolates. What do you think?

Indoor warm white light

Direct sunlight

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