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’ve got a cool look for you today that was so easy to do. I started with 3 thin coats of L. A. Girl Teal Dimension. I’ve added some water decals I purchased from Blooming Nail Cebu. This whole sheet (Hot-010) cost me 15 pesos (about 35 cents USD) and has a variety of decals on it to choose from! They have some great stuff available for very affordable prices and they ship internationally for the best price available.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… I LOVE these L.A. Girl polishes. The base for their 3D Effects line is a tinted jelly but when you remove the polish there is absolutely no glitter nightmare left behind like a typical glitter polish. So I’m not sure exactly what makes up the holo glittery magic they have got going on. But I appreciate not having a difficult time cleaning up after wearing it. In addition to that, it is so easy to apply and is extremely forgiving. It dries quick too! Win win win! If live outside of the US, you can order these from Cherry Culture as they ship internationally (Philippines included! Whoop!).

I hope you have a great week!

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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!

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RAWR!

So I have been feeling pretty low the past few days and decided I needed a really fun mani to cheer me up. So I incorporated my one of my favorites (leopard print) with the Shutterbug’s favorite thing (neons) and came up with this. What do you think? These are so fun and flashy! If you have been around, you already know I have a tough time going full blown neon on my nails. But I think this works for me for a fun day off.

 

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

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These are so cool looking! I would never wear them myself I don’t think, but on my younger sister they work very well. I used Caronia products for this mani. I started with two coats of Sweet Surprise (yellow) and then sponged with Sweet Surprise and Sun Kissed (orange). Then I used Baby Pink and Black Velvet for the spots. Aren’t they neat? We think so!

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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.

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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.

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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!

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Sorry for the poor quality pic.

And once again I am behind in my submission for the nail art challenge over at Short and Sweet in Texas. I blame it on my hubby getting sick then my kids and now I am sick too. I hope to get over it soon so I can do my nails again!

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Starting from left pinky we have chocolate marble, cherry on whipped cream, mint chocolate chip, chocolate with sprinkles, cookies and cream, strawberry with chocolate fudge, Neapolitan and vanilla with sprinkles.

I used the following to achieve this look:
Bobbie – Touch of Beige
Sally Hansen hard as nails – Fireball Red
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear – Mint Sorbet
Oh My Golly – Demure
Oh my Golly – First Date
Caronia – On the Go
Caronia – First Crush
Jocarste – White 56
Sinful Colors – Nirvana
Klik – Mango Shake
Dark brown acrylic paint
Striper, large and small dotting tool, small paint brush

What do you think?

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