Ever since those Sally Hansen Nail Art Pens came out years ago, I was driven to distraction by one of the designs in the advertising for them. I always figured that checkerboard designs were for only the steadiest of hands, but recently I found that this isn't really the case. I did that black and white checked design for the Indy 500 this weekend and I was surprised by how easy it was. I had never actually thought about how to go about it in a way that would make it easier than I was imagining, but when I decided I would at least give it a try, I found that by just making a grid of lines and filling in every other box was so freaking easy it made me feel sort of dumb. So since this magical door opened in my brain, I decided to pull up the Sally Hansen ad, which I keep in a folder on my PC desktop labeled "Nail Inspiration" and decided to give something similar a go. I used China Glaze Something Sweet, OPI DC Cherry Blossom and Sally Hansen's own Pacific Blue. Here is the original:

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The Indianapolis 500 - aka The Greatest Spectacle in Racing. I may or may not have mentioned it to you guys before, but another obsession I am afflicted with in addition to my addiction to nail art is cars. Fast cars. I'm not into racing in general; I don't really care about NASCAR, but I LOVE Indy cars and, to a certain point F1. Anyway, tomorrow is the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500, and while I will not be there this year, I will be watching and sporting checkered flag nails. Instead of waving two checkered flags, I'll be waving two checkered hands. The technique is really easy to do and if I'm lucky, I'll get some time soon to do a quick tutorial video for you on it. The only products I used were Wet n Wild polish in white and an Art Deco Striping polish in black. Plus Seche Clear and Vite for base and top coats. The props used in these photos are a seat cushion and a keychain I bought at the 500 two years ago. I am already making plans to be there next year, and am so sad I won't be there in person this time to experience the awesome sounds and smells. Fortunately I have a friend in Indy, the guy with my husband and I went with last time, and he will be there tomorrow, undoubtedly sharing the untelevised portion of the awesomeness via Facebook. Score!

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Today's post is the product of my attempt to recreate the awesomeness of this manicure by IndigoNova1 on YouTube; meticulously copied and conveyed to you here as a subpar iPhone photo, as I forgot to take a proper photo before removing this design in favor of the retina-searing Essie Punchy Pink which I'm now sporting on my tips. Wow, run-on sentence, much? At any rate, I strongly suggest you check the video tutorial out, as it's ingenious and simple as can be. For this manicure, I personally used Misa Dirty Sexy Money as the base and then I used ArtDeco striping polishes in black and white to make the stripes, then black and white polish on two different sizes of dotting tools for the polka dots. After watching this video, I found myself really surprised at the simplicity of such an interesting and involved looking design. Props to IndigoNova1, wonderful design.

Here's another link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGRjlMjeTdw

This is what happens when you're bored and you've spent the day planting a bunch of Spring flowers. It's my first real completely freehand floral pattern. With a little leopard thrown in because it's me. A friend of mine said it reminded her of the fabric you'd find on furniture in a Florida room, which makes me happy since it's what I was going for. I wasn't super happy with the actual flowers or the placement. They weren't supposed to be identical but somehow they're not random enough for me and also they're not crisp enough to be perfect, nor blurry enough to call abstract. It just felt sloppy, but I did love the colors together. I used a bunch of Migi nail art pens over China Glaze Agent Lavender.

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This was a design I did a few months ago that I really loved. It's basically ripped off completely from Warhol's Flowers. The colors on my nails don't show well since I used some neons, but they basically looked exactly like the ones in the left part of this picture. I used China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy, Essie Bright Tights and Shorty Pants and Nubar Pink Cream for the flowers with a large dotting tool. The base is black with OPI Who the Shrek Are You flicked on with a brush to look like the grass. I also took a very small dotting tool without any polish to dot around the inside of some of the flowers to reproduce the little specks in the original. What do you guys think? have you ever tried to recreate a favorite work of art before? What piece would you love to see reproduced for nails?

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Today is my birthday and I wanted to do something really obnoxious and bright and I think I have succeeded. HA! Four of the nails are inspired by the new Sephora Electric Safari Collection. I bought one of the cosmetics cases and the bobby pins and I loved the mix of camo and leopard on a clear bag. So i used China Glaze Millenium as a base for all fingers but the ring finger and then put different colors on each nail. For the thumb, I used MAC Dry Martini and OPI Who The Shrek Are You?, for the pointer I used China Glaze Shower Together and For Audrey, for the middle I used NARS Schiap and Nubar Pink Cream, and for the pinkie, i used China Glaze Agent Lavender and Color Club Puccilicious. I did a loose camo design with a dotting tool and those shades and then I used a black Migi nail art pen to do the leopard. On the ring finger I used Nubar Pink Cream, OPI WTSAY?, China Glaze Shower Together and Color Club Puccilicious to do a stripe of each vertically and then did leopard the same way. What do you guys think of the Sephora Electric Safari Collection? How about camo and leopard together?! I think it's awesome!

Hey everyone! I know it's been such a long time and you're probably tired of hearing these things from bloggers coming back from an unexpected hiatus that lasts months, but there it is. I know that while I've been gone, people have still been visiting and I really hope that the content amassed over the last couple years has been helpful. Even though my immediate plans for the blog are to resume posting, it probably won't be daily like before. Not yet, anyway. I really miss sharing my thoughts and pictures with you guys and the contact we used to have. I love hearing from everyone, and I miss it. I've still been reading tons of nail blogs on a regular basis, so I've been able to maintain a small link to the nail blogosphere, but I'm ready to take an active part again. I hope that you guys will join me, and stop in and see me from time to time:)

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Hey guys, before I talk about this manicure I wanted to put up a little note about the blog sale: with the exception of three packages that I have to send tomorrow, all packages should be out. If you haven't received your package yet and want to contact me for the status of your package, please do so. Between the zillion emails back and forth I've got for this sale and the crazy busy post office and my mind-numbing list of things to do before Christmas, I want to make sure I'm not forgetting anything.

On to the manicure... I hear you through the computer. You are probably bored of bright multi-colored manicures, let alone leopard here on this site, but I did this manicure earlier in the week and it's all I've got to share right now since I've been so busy lately. I used several of my favorite bright colors that I use often to do this multi mani.

Thumb: China Glaze Four Leaf Clover with China Glaze Something Sweet dots, Migi Nail Art Pen
Index: OPI Who THe Shrek Are You? with China GLaze Flyin' High dots, Migi Nail Art Pen
Middle: Sally Hansen Pacific Blue with Nubar Baby Pink dots, Migi Nail Art Pen
Index: China Glaze Four Leaf Clover and Nubar Baby Pink with OPI Shrek and SH Pacific Blue dots, Migi Nail Art Pen
Pinky: Color Club Puccilicious with Essie Shorty Pants dots, Migi Nail Art Pen

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Hey guys, I'm back from the ether. I've been MIA a lot lately because it seems like a lot of stuff is going on. I'm trying to get Christmas shopping under control and decorating, and to top it off I've had a string of seasonal colds that just pile one on the other and I've been dead tired and lazy. Hopefully it's almost over and I can share lots of fun manicures and products with you through the holidays. Today I'm showing you a manicure I did last week, (and that I'm still wearing... I'm so lazy lately) that I really liked. It's inspired by Wah Nails, which is one of my favorite sources for inspiration. It's a play on this pointy-nailed tribal-type manicure, but my nails are obviously squared and I added my favorite leopard. It looks badass on the pointy nails, and on me it's sort of manifested itself as a chevron French manicure.

I used Sally Hansen Lavender Cloud, Wet n Wild Black Magic and Migi Nail Art Pen in Black on all nails, then for the colored stripe I used Color Club Puccilicious for the thumb, Essie Shorty Pants for the index fingers, Sally Hansen Pacific Blue for the middles, China Glaze Pool Party for the ring fingers, and for the pinkies I used Essie Pretty Edgy.

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I took another page out of Wah-Nails' book and did a tuxedo this week. I have been trying to branch out into freehand nail art since I'm not exactly great at painting miniatures like the likes of The Daily Nail or The Lacquer Files... I've been attempting to practice and hone my skills so that one day I might be, so I've been trying to re-create other designs I've seen done so I at least have a baseline to work off of. Today you're seeing China Glaze Cheers To You from the Holiday 2010 collection on all fingers except ring fingers. The more I wear this silver the more I love it. It's the most metallic silver foil I own, and I own a few. The pieces are so finely milled and the coverage is so perfect. It's almost like a chrome.

On the ring fingers I tried to recreate the tuxedo design from Wah-Nails. I think I did alright for my first try. I used Wet n Wild Black Magic for the base then with Migi Nail Art Pens in black and white I applied the design. It was pretty easy, but it was late and I was tired so it's not the most smooth or steady looking thing ever. I'll have to try again another time. I think this would be absolutely perfect for New Years but on the thumb I would add something champagne related or confetti or perhaps "2011." We'll see what I do, I need to get through Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas first, lol.

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