Sephora's Only Gold For Me and Flurry Up

We have absolutely fallen in love with Sephora's Only Gold For Me and Flurry Up, which are top coats. Only Gold for Me has both big gold flecks as well as fine gold glitter, while Flurry Up is the silver version. We think that these are two great top coats that can be used to add something extra to any simple manicure. Here are some of the designs that we created using these top coats:

Here is Flurry Up used as tip colors over a red base color (above) and over a mauve grey color (Rimmel's Steel Grey) below.

This next one is my favorite, it is just Only for Gold over a pink french manicure color.I think that this is a great twist on the classic French.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

In honor of October and Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I decided to do a pink themed nail design. After watching nail water marbling from Simple Little Pleasures I decided to try them on my own. This is my first try. so it is not that well done.

This is the left hand without flash
This is the left hand with flash
This is the right hand with flash (I did not have time to do all the nails so I did not paint the other fingers on my right hand)

The polishes I used for the marbling were Petites's Ice Berry. Wet n Wild's tickled Pink, and Sally Hansen's Can't Bare to Know. The other nails I painted Wet n Wild Ticked Pink

Bloody Flowers

It's been a long time since we've posted anything. This design is simple to do and yet it can work for many occassions. To get this look, start off with a base coat. I used NK Calcium Gel Base Coat. Next, I applied two coats of NK's Red Wine and finished off with NK's Express Top Coat. In this design, only one finger was used for the flower, but you can alter this to have more than one finger to have the flower or put multiple flowers. You can even alter the design and make it anything you want. Personally, I like the this red because it also gives the polish a kind of gel feel to it.

Until next time,

JEL

Fuzzy Pink & Purple Spots

Ok, so the spots aren't actually fuzzy, but I did get the colors right in the title. So, as I mentioned in my previous post, I purchased a bunch of nail polishes from the store Del Sol. This look features another one of their polishes. I did this look towards the end of my cruise so that when I went home, I would have a bit of my vacation still on me, reminding me of a less stressful time. I'm sure everyone would like to capture a bit of their summertime in the fall. I think it's a nice little trend to have so as to attempt to brighten up your mood in the changing weather and time schedule.

This look was achieved with the base coat NK's Calcium Gel, followed by two coats of Del Sol's Foxy, one layer of spots by Milani Neon's Pink Rocks!, and two layers of Sally Hansen's Maximum Growth plus Quick Dry Top Coat. The pink of the Del Sol polish is the standard non-sun color, and the purple is the sun color. I think it's a really nice combination of colors in one polish, don't you all agree?

Happy polishing everyone!

Summer Colors Love

Alright, so it's been a pretty long time since we've last posted, but we've literally been so busy with college applications and our work. However, I thought I might return for a bit to my summer vacation. I went for two weeks to the Caribbean on a cruise (Royal Caribbean, specifically on the Oasis of the Seas). While in Nassau, Bahamas, I stopped by one of my favorite stores of the Caribbean, called Del Sol. This is a store that contains so many different products which change color in the sun. I think that that is such an innovative concept and designers should really endeavor to mimic Del Sol in this manner. I would love a dress that changes color in the sun! It's really fun to just spend some time in the store too, because they don't mind if you just play around with the apparel, as long as you're pretty neat. I adore seeing what colors the shirts change to; it's like a little adventure each time I go to that store. I really return to my childhood in that store.

Thankfully Del Sol makes their own color-changing nail polishes. I actually bought eight of them! They're not too expensive either, only $10 each. The one pictured above (sorry that the color-change can't be viewed too easily) is entitled Heartbreaker. It's a lovely red tinted polish with red glitter that changes to a purplish hue in the backdrop of the red glitter. I'll show you all the rest of the ones that I bought in a later post, I'm sure.

For my toes though, I did a basic little design. I was relaxing too much to really care about any specific detailing to my nails, unfortunately. I used NK's Calcium Gel as a base coat and then applied four coats of NK's Yellow. I'm sure that if I had put a layer of white nail polish before I applied the neon color, I wouldn't have needed so many coats of it, but I didn't mind really. Afterwards, I applied one coat of diagonal stripes of NK's Midnight Blue. I finished with two coats of Sally Hansen's Maximum Growth plus Quick Dry Top Coat.

I hope you all enjoy the simple vacation look. As a note, it's pretty rare that I match my toes to my fingers. I don't know why, but it bothers me to match, just like how my socks rarely ever match too. I hope you all don't miss summer as much as me! I'm dying over here in this chilliness; I miss the Caribbean warmth way too much right now.

Del Sol's Website: www.delsol.com

Oh Shoe!

Lets all admit it, we all love shoes, so why not do some shoe inspired nails. These nails were inspired by Manolo Blahnik's Patent-Toe Quilted Pump:

(Source)

Aren't they so pretty? Here are the nails that were inspired by these shoes:



To get this look i used three coats of Essie's Licorice on my ring finger. Then for the other four fingers I used two coats of Wet n Wild's Private Viewing (which is starting to become one of my favorite colors, it is a nice nude with just the slightest hint of shimmer). I then added a white flower sticker from nailene just to add nice touch. Hope you enjoy! Until next time...

All about Plaid

PLAID!!! Here is another simple nail design:



I just did two out of the five nails here but you can paint all five of your nails. I used a red polish as a base color (Love red polish...like LOVE). Then using a pale purple i made a stripe toward the side of the nail not straight down the middle. Then using black nail polish I made two thin stripes on the side of the purple and then across the nail. You can use any color combination you like with this design.




Hope you guys enjoy!

The Painters Dream

I am an avid acrylic painter, and I often use my body (mainly my hands and feet) to help in the painting process instead of just using a brush and/or a palette knife. Because of this, I am constantly getting paint stuck in my cuticles and staining my nails to the point where not even nail polish or paint thinner can remove the stains or the paint in my cuticles (and I cannot cut them since I keep them so well maintained for the most part). As such, I find that covering up the issue with white nail polish and a little design always helps, even when the paint shows through (acrylic paint can be very nasty to deal with!). This past weekend I was doing a rather dark and dismal painting, so I needed to use a great deal of black and charcoal grey, resulting in particularly gruesome stains on my nails. Eek!

This look was obtained by applying one coat of Revlon's White on White (since my nails are stained, no base coat is needed), followed by a vertical stripe of Essie's Aruba Blue, four splotches of Nail Hardener's Jessica's Wedding Bells, and a rightward diagonal stripe of Nail Hardener's Chris's Green Belt. This was all topped off with two coats of Sally Hansen Maximum Growth plus Quick Dry Top Coat.

Happy painting to those who also paint, and I hope that my little trick helps you too!

Afterlife Architecture

A little while ago, I went with my family to the Museum of Native Americans (I'm not quite sure if that's actually what it's called, but that's the sort of information and art that they have on exhibit at all times), and decided to take some photos of the interior architecture. One of those photos really inspired me last week to try something funky yet dark on my nails.

Here is the photo:

I wanted to capture a bit of the architecture of this building on my nails in more of an abstract way, so I came up with the idea that you see above. This look was obtained by first applying one coat of NK's Calcium Gel, followed by a single coat of NK's Metallic Noir. The right upper corner of the nails were swiped with one coat of Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtremewear's Wet Cement, while the bottoms of the nails were swiped with one coat of Nail Hardener's Jessica's Wedding Bells. The finishing touches were put on by horizontal quick strokes made with Revlon's White on White along the upper left region of the nail and a vertical stripe of NK's Metallic Noir between the white strokes and the grey triangle on each nail. This was all followed with two coats of Sally Hansen Maximum Growth plus Quick Dry Top Coat.

I hope that you all like the photograph, and the look it inspired! Have a good week everyone!

Sparkle Baby Shine

Here is another fun yet classic spin on the French manicure, which I really like for every-day since it has a bit of spunk and sparkle added to it. The plain French manicure seems like more of a business look, but that may just be my opinion. This sort of a fun look is so simple yet unique, because you really can do anything with it. You can use any sort of rhinestones and any number of them in any placement to get your own look. Those are my favorite designs really, ones that you can play around with a bunch of times without doing too much different.

To get this look, first apply one coat of NK's Nail Moisturizer (base coat). If you need to, use French tip guards with a rounded style so that you get a more natural-looking French manicure. Use Sinful Colors Professional's Snow Me White for the tips (I used two coats), and NK's French Rose for the full nail (I used two coats, but you can use only one coat, depending on how pale you want your nail to look). After all of this has dried, I applied two silver rhinestones and one pink rhinestones (all circular) to my ring finger nails in the shape of a small triangle. I do not remember the exact brand of the rhinestones or the glue I used, but I will tell you all of that in a later post. As many of our other looks (and as I mentioned earlier), this is a very flexible look. We go for a more simplistic look just to show you all, but sometimes we do go a little crazy with patterns of rhinestones and such, especially when our nails are super long and we're going to a party or something of the sort. To finish off the look, though, apply two coats of NK's Blue Diamond Top Coat for a super shiny finish.

Happy nail-polishing everyone!

Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky

This look is a really nice option for you if you have a wedding or a formal occasion to go to and you don't want to do the usual solid color nails or the typical French manicure. I especially like it because it's really simple to expand this look to a pedicure too. The pale pink makes this a very chic look, and the silhouette-type flower gives it a bit of a French ballerina feel to it. I don't know if anyone else gets that sort of feeling to this look, or if it's just me, but I think it's a cute sentiment.

To get this look, first apply one coat of NK's Calcium Gel, followed by two coats of Essie's Neo-Whimsical. In this design, only one finger was used for the flower, but you can alter this to have more than one finger to have the flower or put multiple flowers. It's a really versatile design actually. For the flower, I used Sinful Colors Professional's Black On Black and a very thin brush to do a multi-stroke flower, which means that the flower is not made out of linked strokes; most of the strokes are separated by a hairline space just to get a sort of flower silhouette rather than an actual super detailed flower. After the flower dries, apply two layers of NK's Blue Diamond Top Coat.

Have a good night everyone!

Colors of the Sun

I don't know about all of you, but we seem to have a bit of trouble finding a nail polish brand that makes super durable polishes that can really withstand the elements and working with our hands. No matter how expensive the polish or how many coats we apply, we seem to really struggle with keeping the polishes and the designs on our fingernails for longer than three days without chipping or cracking occurring. One of us spends a great deal of time in the Caribbean though, and decided to show the other two of us her stock of Del Sol nail polishes. She told us that they're really good for summertime because they can withstand the coarseness of the sand and all of the roughness of the beach. This has become one of our most favorite nail polish brands now, for two reasons: the colors are super durable, and you actually get two colors in one tube!

This was a very easy look to get since the focus is not on any sort of design; the focus is on the amazing color-changing properties of the polish (in the sun only). To start, a layer of Nail Tek was applied, followed by two coats of Del Sol's Reckless (originally metallic white, and then turns metallic pink in the sunlight). This is finished with two coats of NK's Blue Diamond Top Coat. And that's it! It's just that simple to get this awesome look that's so perfect for the summer!

I hope you all are having a spectacular summer! And I hope that you will go to the Caribbean and head over to Del Sol to check out their ridiculously cool products!

Tip the Black Spot

This past weekend I went to Long Island for my cousin's wedding. It is the last of that series (three in total) of cousins, meaning that is the last wedding (hopefully) of my three cousins from one of my aunts. I was really nervous about my nails, because I didn't want to do the usual French manicure, since I knew that basically everyone would have that (or red nails), and I needed something that would still match my dress and everything else I was wearing for the weekend. I tend to veer towards black for a lot of family occasions, since it's so classic and chic. I decided to put a fun spin on the typical French manicure and spice things up further by adding some gold glitter to match my white and gold jewelry. My dress was black with white details so that was perfect in total.

To get this look, I applied a layer of NK's Calcium Gel, followed by using French tip guards to get perfect tips, which were two layers of NK's Metallic Noir. I removed the tip guards and applied two horizontal layers of N.Y.C. Glossies' 215. After letting all of that dry really well, I applied one layer of Wet 'n' Wild's 435E and two layers of Sally Hansen Maximum Growth plus Quick Dry Top Coat. The drying time for this look was a bit extensive since there were so many layers involved. It's surely not something I would do if I was strapped for time!

All in all though, it was a beautiful weekend, with a fabulous wedding and gorgeous attire and nails worn by all! I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and am ecstatic for the newlywed couple. I wish them all the best and a happy congratulations!

Puma Punku - The Door of the Puma

Last weekend I had to go to Ohio State University for a couple of tours of the school. I really enjoyed myself, despite the fact that I'm either a city girl or an island girl, depending on a bunch of factors. Ohio is so different from NYC; I know that that's truly an understatement, even though I was in Columbus, Ohio, the capital and a major city in the state. It was a decent place; I can't really imagine myself living there in the city or anything, but I could see myself going to that school. It was a really new experience for me to even visit a school. I was only there for like two days, so I guess that's the closest I'll get to a real business trip for a while. It was so exhausting! I wanted to do a nail design that showed some skill and spunk, without being too pompous, so I decided to match my nails to the shoes that I was going to wear the day of my tours. These pumas are from last year's spring/summer collection, if I remember properly. I got them for like $8 though haha! I love doing that!

This look was really simple since I only really had to focus on the puma and the type on the two nails on each hand. After applying one coat of NK's Calcium Gel, I used two coats of Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtremewear's Twisted Pink. On my pinky, ring, and pointer fingers I used a thin layer of Nail Hardener's Jessica's Wedding Bells to do the rotated diagonal swipes along the centers of the nails. I used Revlon's White on White to do the puma and the type with a very fine brush that I got at an art store. This was all followed with two coats of Sally Hansen Maximum Growth plus Nourishing Nail Color Quick Dry Top Coat.

I hope you all like this design and are inspired to do interesting things with other logos too! Happy college shopping to those students who are spending much of their summer doing just so!

Cerulean Transience of All My Imagined Shores

After a roller-coaster week of working and preparing for various college applications that are about to become available, the greatest thing that I could have done to relax is go on a bit of a shopping trip to Lord & Taylor with my mum, one of my best friends, and her mum. We had so much fun, and really tore apart that store, since they were having such a fabulous sale all over the store! It was such a release, and I bought so many new things. There is nothing like some retail therapy to really help you de-stress...actually the only thing comparable is nail art!

For my shopping trip, I decided to do a more abstract design, choosing one of my old paintings as inspiration (which I, unfortunately, do not have a picture of, as it isn't one of my best). The look displayed above is the result of my efforts. This was achieved through one coat of NK's Calcium Gel Base Coat, one coat of Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtremewear's Pacific Blue (which you do not allow to dry completely; after a bit of time, quickly swipe off the center bit of color, leaving that part of your nail exposed and creating an interesting and variable effect throughout your nails), one coat of Sinful Colors Professional's Aqua (only on the exposed nail), one coat of NK's Heart Blue (over the whole nail once again), and detailing with a small paintbrush of Nail Hardener's Jessica's Wedding Bells, followed by two finishing coats of Sally Hansen Maximum Growth plus Quick Dry Top Coat. I hope you all like the design, and perhaps I will redo the painting and post about the finished product...perhaps! Happy weekend everyone!

¡Y Viva España!

We're sorry once again that we haven't really been posting that much lately. We got all caught up in the wonder and joy of the world cup finals. I hope everyone was just as happy as we were when Spain (Iniesta) finally scored that goal in the last match. Bravo Spain for finally winning the world cup and making history!

In celebration, I decided to pay a (belated) tribute to Spain, and what better way to do this, than to wear the flag on one's nails? Because I have rather short nails at the moment, I had to come up with a bit of a creative solution to fitting the flag on my hands. I decided to do half of the flag on one hand, and half of the flag on the other hand. Regrettably, I could not put very much detail into the emblem on the Spanish flag as I did not have too much time or space to do so.

This look was achieved by first putting on a layer of NK: Calcium Gel Base Coat, followed by two coats of Sally Hansen: HD: Lite, and freehanded tips and emblem of Revlon: Colorstay Bonding Color: Always Starlet. To complete the look, two coats of Sally Hansen: Maximum Growth plus Nourishing Nail Color Base and Top Coat was used.

Great job Spain! And I hope you all liked our tribute to the team and the country!