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

The post Waterfall Nail Art Featuring Girlstuff Diana appeared first on The Nailinator.

Hi everyone!

Just a quick snippet tonight as I’m trying to get to bed at a somewhat decent hour. I posted a little teaser for these on my Instagram last night and now I’m happy to share this lovely nail art.

I started with two easy coats of Girlstuff Blues. Blues was a dream to apply. It evened itself out nicely and dried quickly to a very shiny finish. I used a striping brush and Jocarste’s silver glitter to add the icicles on the tips of my nails. Pretty cool, huh? (Pun intended!)
These are the only icicles I’ll be seeing this holiday season as it is always warm here near the equator. Oh well, I still enjoy wintry nail art.

I’ve got a little tutorial video I made for my next nail art post, but I’m still trying to figure out the best way to edit it. I’m hoping to share it this weekend. Are y’all having a great week so far?
Keep smiling!
Hugs,
Rach

The post Girlstuff Blues with Icicle Tips appeared first on The Nailinator.

I have had migraines showing up and ruining my plans for posting.  After I started feeling better, I got so involved at home doing school with my two little ones, just having fun, and trying to slow time down to enjoy them longer. I love being a mom. Anyhooo…  I am happy to be able to post something this evening. I’ve been excited to share it for a while.

Sometimes I like to go out of my comfort zone with nail art. Especially when I see a design by someone else and think “I could barely probably pull off that look.” I saw this look by Haus Of Lacquer on their Instagram a couple of weeks ago and I really liked it, so I put my own spin on it.

I filed my nails more pointy than usual and started with two coats of SanSan Tea Rose. I love this polish! It’s a light-pink jelly with a pretty shimmer to it.  Then I used clear coat to add some silver foil and applied a topcoat. When that dried, I used a striping brush and black acrylic paint to add the lines. Cool huh? I imagine this style on a chic business woman. It’s classy but still edgy, and it totally reeks of self-confidence! I really enjoyed wearing these.

Do you follow any Instagram accounts for nail art ideas? Please share your favorites for me to check out. I always love finding fellow addicts new inspiration! I’m on Instagram too if you want to pop over and follow me.

Have a wonderful day/evening!
Hugs,
Rach

The post SanSan Tea Rose with Foil and Stripes appeared first on The Nailinator.

With topcoat

I added a bow I purchased from Blooming Nail Cebu.

Just like the other shades in the Grainy Collection, Siam dries to a semi matte, slightly textured finish. The light box lighting doesn’t do the sparkle justice at all.

It is so sparkly and I love the slightly textured finish. Siam only required 2 coats for opacity and it wears well. Clean up was easy too. There were a few sparkly bits left behind, but they came off easily when I washed my hands. I would like to note that, even after I applied top coat, it still was a bit textured. So if you want that extra smooth, glossy finish, you might need 2 coats of topcoat. I love this polish just as much as I love the others in this collection. These are available in 10ml bottles for PHP 34.75/US$ 0.78.

Check out the other colors in the collection:
Shadow Crystal
Montana
Peridot
Amethyst
Montana & Amethyst Gradient

I hope you have a great week!
Hugs,
Rachael

The post Review of Chic Siam (and Freehanded Zebra Stripes) appeared first on The Nailinator.

Great news girls!
I’m officially out of the nail art funk! (and the crowd goes wild)

My submission for the 31 day challenge today would be considered a stretch for many but not so much for me. The theme is “Inspired by a book”. While Doctor Who is obviously a TV series, I have never seen the show. The Shutterbug, on the other hand, is an avid fan and I happened upon a collectors item book at a used book store and flipped through it to familiarize myself a bit. So you see how this qualifies as “inspired by a book” for me. The Shutterbug has been aching for Doctor Who nail art and she came up with what she wanted and told me the ten nail designs she wanted and we went from there. I have never watched Doctor Who so she had to explain most of them and show pictures.

From left to right we have The Doctor’s (Matt Smith) fez, The Doctor’s (David Tennant) blue suit, a gold Dalek, The Doctor (Tennant) and his 3D glasses, two hearts representing The Doctor’s two hearts, the TARDIS, a Cyberman and a little andipose guy. On the thumbs below we have tally marks from the episode with The Silence and a galaxy nail.

Do you like them? My favorite is the gold Dalek. I think they all look cool and The Shutterbug keeps saying they are the most awesome nails ever so I think I executed her dream look well. Hopefully those of you who are Whovians (????) like them too.

This is my first time photographing someone else’s nails in the lightbox so the pictures are a bit different. I think you get the picture.

I used a ton of supplies to do these and I’m not going to list them all but here’s a picture…

I hope you are all having a great day. Today was our day off and we got to go out and run some errands and play with the kids. Good times!

Hugs!

The post Doctor Who Nail Art appeared first on The Nailinator.

The nails are inspired by the hit “Jailhouse Rock”. I even featured the King’s signature for an accent nail. You can see the inspiration in my little collage. What do you think?

I used Caronia Black Velvet and White Satin and mixed those two together for the grey color as well.  I hope you all have a great day. 

The post Jailhouse Rock! appeared first on The Nailinator.

Anyway, on to the good stuff. The Rather Awesome 31 Day Nail Challenge is halfway done! I can’t believe it! It’s not too late to join if you want to. The ladies participating are very talented and super sweet! I love the support the nail art community has for one another. Keep it up gals! I’ve been having fun coming up with designs and I’ve got some great ones for the next couple of weeks so stick around. Day 17’s theme is “gradient” I decided to go with a look I’m personally on the fence about. I saw this mani by Finger Painted a month or so ago and was simply amazed at the awesomeness of it. I knew I wanted to try something like it and so I tried my hand at something similar. While I didn’t copy it exactly it is similar in patterns and bold colors. What do you think?

Please excuse the pitiful pictures. :/
I’ve had a great reaction to these nails but I’m just not 100% sure it’s for me. Know what I mean? I think I could rock this if I stick to just one color combo and tribal prints. This is more the style for The Shutterbug who absolutely loves these. I think she would prefer them in trueneons which I just couldn’t bring myself to use. Would you wear these? Have you done any nail art that you feel isn’t really you but you would love it on someone else?

Things needed for this mani:
A daring I’m-going-to-try-something-crazy attitude.
Lots of polishes. I used the following.

Thumb – Oh My Golly Mojito and Klik Mango Shake
Index finger – Klik Ube Shake and Jewel
Middle Finger – Oh My Golly Jive and Klik Lazy Pink
Ring Finger – Klik Navy Blue and Baby Blue
Pinky – Oh My Golly Mojito and Klik Neon Purple
Makeup sponge
Black acrylic paint
Striping brush and detail brush

Toodles!

The post Crazy Tribal Nails appeared first on The Nailinator.

Outdoor light

The post Free Handed Chevrons appeared first on The Nailinator.

This cool design is by Robin Moses. I saw this picture last week and tried my best to make it happen. I guess I could have hunted down her tutorial but I was too busy cleaning and playing with kids today.

It is definitely not a usual look for me but I do love the bright colors. I started out with two coats of Jocarste 28 to make the neons have a metallic flair then, after raiding The Shutterbug’s stash to borrow some neons, I got to sponging. I used Chic – Neon Green, Neon Fushia, Neon Pink and Neon Yellow. Then I added the brush strokes with black, lemon yellow mixed with pastel yellow and blue lake acrylic paints. I hope you like them.

Have you even done any Robin Moses nail art? I did another one on The Shutterbug last year which I really loved how it turned out, but this is the only picture I have of it because I wasn’t really taking pictures of nails I did back then.

The post Neon abstract appeared first on The Nailinator.

On another note, today is our 8 year anniversary and the hubs and I are going out! Woohoo! We have good friends coming to watch the kids this afternoon and we are going to the used bookstore! My kind of date! Have a great day!

The post Tribal print appeared first on The Nailinator.