Hmm, How about some Rock Star Nail Art?

Hello friends!  How are you today?  I want to thank you for visiting my blog and continuing your support through my blogging-hiatus.  "Thanks!" and here's a big hug...

Winter has definitely arrived where I live {Atlantic Canada}.  We had tons of snow fall over the weekend and the snow is falling beautifully again as we speak (I mean as I type these words, lol ;-)  It's definitely cold outside... but short walks are very refreshing and fun; well, during such walks that different textures and views in nature can be admired.  I tried my best to capture some in the photos below with my rock star nail art.

Blue Bow Nail Art | Favorite Polish

What is your favorite color and favorite nail art design?
Corals, yellows, pinks..... Those are mostly my favorite colors... very girly, very bright and cheerful.  Love happy colors!!! Although it appears that something else is a real favorite, maybe at the moment, maybe have been all along... Blue!  A friend recently help a nail art contest and she asked: "If you could be a nail polish bottle, what would you be and what color."  I answered: Maya by Zoya.  My vanity dictates that I pick a name sake and my current fave color: Coral... So why Blue?

Pretty In Pink Jelly Mani | OMD2 Theme: Jelly

Splash of colors in between layers of "jelly" (tinted polish) gives this effect of faded designs like that of lilies in a pond.  This technique is also called "Pond-Mani"

When In Doubt, Just Add GLITTER | Buy Glitter Polish or Loose Glitter???

Confession time: I have a lot of Glitter :) No kidding!
Righly so, today's mani theme is none other than.... tadaah!!!

Party's Over | Julep Glitter Remover

Glitter mani is on the rise.  It has gained much popularity nowadays.  

No surprise there, I think. All girls have sparkle in them.  

Don't we just love things that shine?
There is an abundance of glitter designs that can inspire us.  

But many, myself included, shy away from it because of the removal annoyance.  

Yes, it's not that easy to remove a glitter mani.  

I wanted to try this product for a long time now.  But I waited for good sales to grab one.  

Yay me!!! When the price was right, I ordered it and now it's finally here.  

Let's see how it works, shall we?

Pink Glamour and Glitter (Featuring Julep's Ava, Yumi and Paris)

Pink Glamour and Glitter 

Featuring Julep's Ava, Yumi and Paris

Glitter Mix-Up {My DIY Glitter Polish Story}

"Fairy Dust" ~ Purple glitter combination

Indie polishes are proliferating in the market today.  There is a big parade of brands and quite a number of creative and sparkly designs to choose from.  One particular kind of indie polish that catches my attention is the bright, colorful and innovative glitter concoction.  Numerous glitter combinations are available today - all sorts of shapes, colors and designs... some heavy with glitter, some light and fine.  All of them really beautiful!  ~~~ And oh, quite pricey too :(

You've probably wished to make your own brand as well, at one time or another.  I sure do.  Polish-chemistry, not being at arms reach, doesn't have to hinder creativity.  I'm speaking about combining your favorite glitter mixes and then using an already available light glitter polish as base.  I know, it cheats the process a little, but it's a start, right?  At least to give a good kick-start until you are ready to experiment mixing your own chemicals from scratch. 

Using an ordinary topcoat is not recommended as the polish is not able to support the weight of the glitter, thus unable to suspend it.  In other words, the glitters will settle into the bottom of the bottle and in a few days time, might render your concoction useless.  Too bad... So starting with a bottle that already suspends glitter is a good idea. 

Here I mixed purple glitters and poured it into a half-way done glitter polish using a cone shaped paper.  Then, using a thin barbeque stick, stirred them all gently.

A big con I find with heavy glitter polish {I mean, not just indie or DIY polish, all heavy glitter polishes} is: the glitters doesn't quite cling to the brush.  Often, I had to use a stick to fish out the larger glitter pieces to place them properly on the nail.  I'm thinking, leaving the glitter mix dry, on it's own, is better than mixing it with the polish afterall.  Therefore, it can be spread to the nails as you wish and easily picked up with stick and placed on the nail.  This is of no concern, of course, if the glitter size is small and uniform.

I have to admit, I do not own any Indie Polish brand yet (except Julep :) So, I welcome your reaction and experience in using heavy glitter polishes :)  Please leave a comment below...

Thank you pretty ladies!  Enjoy and have a great day!
~*Maya*~

Welcome to Winter Wonderland (Practicing Left Hand Painting)

Hello Bellas!  Happy Monday... 

I hope that you had a refreshing weekend and that you are ready to set-sail for yet another week..

Here are some lovely blue-glitter mani for you.  These were done in the last week of March.  Then I hoped it'll be the last snow of the season... but then, you know?...

Here is Revlon's "Whimsical".  I thought that it really fitted the stormy weather we had that day.  The blue color is quite serene, just like the fluffy snow falling so slowly.  And the glitters are so bright and calming just like the glistening snow being carried hither-thither by the wind.  For a busy lady who loves to shine, here is a great way to have instant-nailart. Two coats and then your glam-ready :)

Revlon's Whimsical - 2 coats

I attempted painting some cherry blossoms on my left hand.  I thought the flowers are a call for spring, lol... kind of a "sprinter" effect - Spring and Winter combined.  In my part of Canada, we are surely having a lot of this sprinter right now.  For a confused weather, I bring you a confused nail art, hehehe...

Happy Winter Day!

Painting is very intimidating.  I have some challenges doing it with my dominant hand. Much more so doing it with my non-dominant hand.  But we won't know what would come out of it unless we try, right?

Here you go then, using a fine brush and globs of nail-polish, I was able to do this on my right-hand (using my left, non-dominant hand).  :D  What do you think?  Yay or nay?

Snow and Tulips

How about you, what intimidates you most?  What are you willing to do in order to overcome your fears?  Please comment below :)

Have a lovely week ahead of you my dear pretty ladies and friends!

Ciao Bellas!
~*Maya*~

For more Nail Art designs, please visit my Nail Art Gallery

Thank you and have a fancy nails day! 

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Girly Glitter from Revlon (Instant Manicure)

     Well, I had written a few letters to mail... (Yup, hand-written, those are rare these days, huh?)  Anyway, I ran out of stamps so instead of going to the post-office, I opted instead to go to the drugstore.  I can mail my letters and check out on some nail polishes along the way.  Wiii! Can you believe it?  The aisle that goes directly to the post-office desk is actually the nail-polish aisle... (I knew that all along... works for me!)

     I spotted this pink glitter polish from Revlon called girly.  It is different from all the other polishes in the rack so it caught my attention.  It was on sale!  Yahoo, I could try it.  And here is the result.  It looked weird in the bottle but it's actually really girly once applied.   Instant nail art for busy girls, I'd say :)  Well, I was so pleased.

     The bottle was full of glitters that there wasn't any problem grabbing to a good amount for the nails.  I used two coats on this one.  I wore it without basecoat and topcoat cause I was in a rush... That wasn't a good idea.  The glitters were coming off one by one.  Although the design is quite feminine and pretty, I was getting many compliments for it.  But much better to protect it with a top-coat, next time...

     How about you?  Do you care or not for this design?

     Have a great day pretty ladies!

~* Maya *~

The Snow Queen "Elsa" - More Glitter Fun

Elsa - The Snow Queen :)

Inspired by the iridescent and pretty blue dress that Queen Elsa from the movie "Frozen" wore, I have been thinking of glistening blue glitters.  Isn't that color just refreshingly beautiful?  I concocted a mix of various shaped loose-glitters in the same color and I was quite excited to give it a try.

Then again, removing glitter polish is a royal pain.  So...

Winter Blues of Prettiness :)

I saw a tutorial on the ever wonderful resource site - YouTube - and found a great tutorial about using glue as a basecoat.  It made removing glitter polish so easy.  It just peels off!  And yet,  the manicure still seems to remain quite hardy.  Try? Of course!  Off I go and purchased a bottle of Elmer's glue.  (While I'm at it, I also purchased more glitters, bunch of scissors, glue gun and more glitter polish, ha ha... Nailart turns into arts and crafts girls!  Not that I'm ever gonna need the hot glue gun for nail designing... Or will I?!?)

It became a Glue-as-a-basecoat and Loose-Glitter-Mixing experiment for me.  If this glue thing works, that means I'd be able to experiment more on glitters... yay!  Painlessly, you know what I mean?

Anyway... I'm planning to wear the polish design on my fingers for how ever long it will take for it to wear.  Oh wait, did I just say that?  Ouch! I always like changing my manicure... very often actually... So, we'll see... I'm just quite curious at how long it will last.


While I contemplate on that idea, please let me know if you like this design or not?  I thought I was able to capture a little bit of  the blue from Queen Elsa's gown...  It's a really nice pop of color against my big black down-feather coat.  Although in the end, it might have been great to have some different hues to add depth. Oh well, as dear Miss PiNK says, "we try and try again".  Practice makes perfect they say, right? I'm gonna try making different combinations.  I placed the flowers to make the design more feminine.  But it's more on trying out the loose glitters actually.

I'll be posting more pics on this design as well as the glue results next :)  I was just really excited to share my design with you...
What do you think? Did it work?

~*Maya, the Queen of.... er... the Lacquer-Head :) *~

For more Nail Art designs, please visit my Nail Art Gallery

Thank you and have a fancy nails day! 

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Having Fun With Glitters | Featuring Super Nova Cosmic Polish from Avon {HoloPolish}

Recently, I tried making a DIY glitter polish and filled with glitter it was.  It turned out to be quite pretty, Don't you think?  That Polish is now hard to use as the glitters all settled at the bottom and somehow is unshakeable... Too bad... Oh well, here, instead of pouring the glitters and mixing it in the bottle of top coat, I just used it loose.  I chickened-out on using it in all my fingers so I stuck to the usual accent ring-finger.  I did, however, try one of these big-bow jewelry accents. I thought for a moment that's it's too busy so I didn't do my right hand... It felt weird having only one hand polished :D

DIY Glitter Polish (For some winter pick-me-up.)

I've fallen in a little bit of a rut this winter, unfortunately, and I didn't care about polish and fancy manicures very much.  That's bad because I totally am in love with pretty, well polished nails.  

I loooove my wood-fireplace more this winter I guess, specially cause it also had an upgrade :) Reading and writing some letters beside it's warmth is quite comforting.  Then I look at my dry cuticles and charcoaled finger nails... oh, doesn't that make me feel sad :(  Something needs to be done, fast!



I forced myself to some creativity mode and made a DIY glitter polish.  Using some glitters from the dollar store, an old eye-shadow and a top coat, i concocted a perfect hue of pretty-in-pink glitter polish.  Here goes...

Pink glitter, who could be sad now, huh? :D

 

What do you think?

It did the trick... I felt a sense of pretty-fulfillment later on and a lot of cheer... hee hee... It's also quite noteworthy that since this manicure is loaded with glitter, it also cleaved to my nails quite well, lasting for a week without chips! Talking about durability :)

A generous amount of top-coat is needed to soften the roughness of the glitter.  But not necessary if you like that texture.  I prefer the smooth side, that's why...

The only thing about not having the right kind of polish base is, all the glitter settles into one part of the polish.  I fear that all the glitter there will end up drying and become unusable.  I read that a 'suspension lacquer base" is the way to go if taking the DIY glitter polish seriously.  But for a seldom kick of creativity, it's a very good deal.  It made me feel like a scientist trying to do a science experiment, it was a nice way to lighten up the day.

~*~

I am thinking: Another alternative could be - mixing the suitable glitters into a tiny bowl and dipping your fingers into the dry mixture after applying a generous top-coat.  That, instead of mixing the glitters directly into the top-coat. 

This will create a few bowls of dry glitter mixtures  rather than sedimented bottles of nail polish :(
I'm gonna try this next time ;)

Suede+Glitter+Golden Studs = Perfect Manicure :)

Winter this year in Moncton, NB, has been harsher than the last two.  Yes, it's been my third winter here.  Of course, we arrived here, the first time, in the last week of March. Spring was on the way, so there wasn't that much snow anymore and the weather was much lighter.  I think I say it's harsher this time because of the frequent freezing rain that results to slippery roads and walkways.  Otherwise, the snow and ice are quite beautiful to look at from the house window.  There may be other factors surrounding this, but I find this season specially difficult for me.  I blame it on growing up in a tropical country, I could never get used to the cold, hee hee...

I wrote an article about not only on how to Survive the Winter Season but also to Enjoy it.  Really, more than tips and tricks that are dedicated to others, I initially compiled this ones to help me through.  In the end, I thought that as it helped me it can help others too.  Please click here to read the article ;)

One thing I did not mention in that article is sparkly glitter polish.  Don't you find this shiny, glittery prettiness as a weapon against sadness? Something to pull us, precious ladies, through this difficult season, eh?  But of course, if you live in endlessly great weather, glitter and well polished digits can make a great day even more perfect.... giggles....

  
What do you think of this design?  It's actually my first time using those studs. 

This mani held up pretty well.  I did my nails for some girly fun time the night before I had to do a housecleaning job.  Cleaned away without hand-gloves because I forgot to bring 'em and I only had a little chip at the tip of my pointer finger in the end.  A little touch up made it look fresh and perfect.

Did you like this easy breezy design?  Would you wear it?

~*~

Materials Used:
"Inner Sparkle" from Nicole by OPI
"Touch of Taupe" Suede Effect from Avon
Matter top-coat from GOSH
Base Coat from Avon
and some golden studs.