Halloween nails

Here's my first Halloween manicure of October!!! I love it so much! It turned out so cute!!! 

In case you're not sure what's going on: 

Thumb is a mummy.

Index finger is a spider on a web.

Middle finger is a pumpkin.

Ring finger is a skull.

Pinky is Frankenstein.

I hope that that was all obvious or my feelings are hurt!!!

Anyway...

The background shade to the mummy and the spider is OPI My Vampire Is Buff. The background to the middle finger is Essie Bikini So Teeny. The background to the ring finger is OPI Alpine Snow. The background to the pinky is Milani Hi-Tech. 

The first nail that I did was the skeleton. After painting the whole nail white, I used Stripe Rite in Black to outline the sides of the skull's face...like this:

Then I colored in the sides and added its mouth! I drew the horizontal line before adding the little vertical lines.

I was watching tv while doing these nails and accidentally smudged the black all over my skin! Oops! 

Next I added the skeleton's nose. It's pretty basic; it's 2 small lines that form a 90 degree angle...or a triangle missing a side (in case you can't see that for yourself): 

Its eyes are next! I used a basic black polish and a nail dotter and put 2 dots where the eye sockets would be, but I slightly dragged the "eyes" downwards to create more of a teardrop shape and less of a circle. 

He's all done!!!!

The ring finger's web was created with Stripe Rite in white. It was really hard to capture a picture of the web because its color isn't that far off from My Vampire Is Buff. But here's my effort:

I drew the 4 long vertical lines first then added the U shapes horizontally one at a time per section of web (hope that makes sense). 

I wanted to make the Frankenstein nail pop! Pinkies are always the "reject" nails, so I had to make the pinky extra special!!!

I added the hair first with my Stripe Rite. I used a medium nail dotter to add the white background of the eyes. Then I took a small-medium nail dotter and added the black to the eyes. I created the mouth the same way I made the skeleton's mouth. 

The pumpkin nail was the easiest. I took an orange striper brush and outlined the pumpkin in 2 "rainbow shapes." Then I filled it in with Maybelline Sweet Clementine. The green color for the pumpkin is a Stripe Rite. 

The mummy was the last nail that I did. I arbitrarily placed the lines to create the mummy's wrappings, but I made sure to draw the lines where I could have a good spot to draw the mummy's eyes. I filled in the space with Stripe Rite in black. I took a big nail dotter and put the 2 eyes. I then took my Stripe Rite in red and gently added the veins in the eyes. After I added the red lines, I took a medium nail dotter and added the black dots to finish the eyes!!! 

I sealed these nails with Seche Vite and now I'm going to bed!!! I might do a video tutorial on these nails...which would be my first ever! Eek!

Without flash: 

Piano-inspired nails!

These were requested by my friend Jenny! The directions are quite simples. Here they are:

I painted all of my nails with O.P.I. Alpine Snow. 

Then I added some stripes. 

Then I slowly created rectangles around the top of the stripes to create piano keys!!!! 

Tada! All done!

Thanks for reading! 

-Marissa

Galaxy nails

These are some quick galaxy-inspired nails that I did! I love them! Galaxy nails are great because they don't have to be perfect...and I don't do perfection anyway...so this is "perfect" for me! :)

Nail pictorial of my galaxy nails! 

Polishes used to create this look! Colors are:

The glitter polish is a random Charlotte Russe polish; the blue is Essie Butler Please; the magenta-ish is Essie The Lace Is On; the darker blue is Oh My Gosh Cobalt Blue; and the light blue is Sally Hansen Blue-Away. 

The base is Cobalt Blue. 

I then added a layer of the CR glitter. It has different shades of blue, purple, and silver glitter flecks. 

I lightly sponged on some of the Blue-Away. In case you have never done this method before, just know that you need hardly any polish on the edge of the sponge. 

Like I said before, it doesn't need to be perfect! Yay for imperfections! 

I also sponged a little Butler please on the edges of the light blue "blobs." 

So hard to get a decent image of this look on my phone...at night...haha...

Anyway, I added a light bit of The Lace Is On randomly in the galaxy patches on each nail. 

This is what my sponge looked like after I was finished:

I added another thin layer of the glitter polish and a top coat! 

Different angles of this mani:

Essie Luxe Effects review

This polish was so hard to photograph! I know that everybody already has this polish...but I haven't really played with it until tonight! I'm in love! It's gorgeous! It gives you sure a beautiful effect! It literally looks like little gold flakes on your nails! The color I used is "As Gold As It Gets." What a cute name!

With the flash on, you can barely see the sparkle at all! When you move your nails you can really see all of the different flakes! They're like mini gold flake prisms...if that makes any sense at all! Regardless, you need to pick up a bottle! 

You can kind of see the bigger flakes in this out of focus picture. 

By the way, this is what the navy blue polish looked like before the luxe effects was added! 

By looking at these flash/ non-flash treasures, I hope you can tell what this polish looks like! 

Thanks for reading, 

-Marissa

Panda nails

These panda nails were made for my friend Chelsea! She's been asking me for 2 years. Not lying...she really has been asking for 2 years. Haha. Anyway...

I'm on a trip for work and I don't have my laptop, so I can't upload any pictures from my camera yet! Anyway, I used a generic black and a generic white polish with nail dotters to create the majority of this little panda! The background color is Top Shop's "Green Room." It's a beautiful teal. As you can tell...after I made the Panda's eyes I added a little more black to make the eyes more realistic and oval-shaped and less round. I added a little bow just to make the panda a little girl! 

I should have made pictorials/ step-by-step pictures of the bamboo and the full-body panda...but I didn't! Sorry! 

This nail design didn't turn out perfect...but I like it anyway! 

Thanks for reading! 

-Marissa

Ikat nails

Ever since I saw this trend getting big, I had to try it out! So here we go: 

The colors I used were a turquoise from Rue 21, Lime Crime's Peach ❤ Cream, Finger Prints in white, and Stripe Rite in Black. I also used Essie's Matte About You too! Anyway... Here we go:

But let me give you a detailed break down of these pictures.

Two coats of the Rue 21 Turquoise. 

Lime Crime Peaches ❤ Cream comes next in little cloud shapes. I used a nail dotter tool to make them. I'm obsessed with nail dotters...if you don't own any, but some right now! They cost practically nothing on Amazon...but they're priceless to nailart! 

I then used Finger Paints white to add a little spot/blob to each orange cream "cloud." One of the things that I love about the ikat design is that it doesn't have to be perfect! 

I love the Stripe Rite nailpolishes because their brushes are super, super thin...so it makes it easy to create itty bitty, skinny lines like these! 

No flash!

Before adding Essie's Matte About You on my non-designed nails

Thanks for reading!

-Marissa