"Jewel" Tone Manicure

Hello there!

Today I really wanted to share with you an entry I made for a nail art contest. I really loved the result!

First I started with two coats of OPI San Tan-tonio for opacity. Then I added thin lines with my gold Stripe Rite to use as guides.

Then I just filled in the lines using the nail polish's own brush in one straight swipe of lacquer. I did have to retrace my lines a few times, but they ended up pretty straight.

The red is OPI Bullish on OPI, the orange is a mix of Finger Paints Courdur-Orange and Sally Hansen Insta-Dry in Lightening, the blue is Zoya Breezi and the purple is OPI No Spain No Gain. The accent nail is a bunch of 3mm and 2mm rhinestones in coordinating colors that I got from the Born Pretty Store. Jewel tones are by far my favorite color family!

This manicure took some time to do and I've been itching to do an all-rhinestones nail for a long time. I loved it! Please tell me what you think!

Thanks so much for reading,

Janna

Some Sally Hansen HDs!

Hey everyone! This post is scheduled because I'm away for the day....hopefully it posts.


Anyway, here's something quick to show you. These Sally Hansen HD polishes were at Five Below, advertised as 2 for $3. So needless to say, I got six. I'll show you all six even though my pictures aren't the greatest.

This is Lite, a standard yellow shimmer. Rather sheer and very shimmery. This was four coats.

This is Digital, a coolish pink shimmer. This was is also pretty sheer but a nice color if you don't have anything like it. Shown is 3 coats.

Hi-Def, a light, yellow-green shimmer. This one is rather unique for this collection, but sheer. This is also 3 coats.

Up next is Cyber, a really striking deep purple shimmer. This one is a bit more opaque, needing 2-3 coats. I really liked this one as I don't have many purples.

Here's Pixel Pretty, which I only got because I needed a 6th polish. Your run-of-the-mill turquoise shimmer, related to OPI Austin-tatious Turquoise and $OPI Who Let the Dorks Out. It's pretty if you don't have anything like it I guess. 3 coats.

And finally, the most unique and prettiest of the collection if I do say so myself, BLU. And blue it is. It's a rich shimmery cobalt that was very opaque. 2-3 coats needed. Really worth getting if you like blue!

My camera is awful. Anyway, last time I was at Five Below, these were still there, so take a look if you're interested. Do you have any HD polishes? I feel like this line was sort of a bust...

Thanks for reading!

Janna

My Take on: The Ever-Popular Gradient!

Hello!

How's everyone been? So since I was so behind on my blog-reading, I only-recently came across the wave of gradient manicures that swept the blogosphere, so I had to try it.

For this manicure, I started with a coat of Sally Hansen No Hard Feelings, a really pretty lilac that was opaque and actually vibrant enough for me without looking washed out or almost-white. On top of that, I took a regular kitchen sponge and painted one "strip" of OPI No Room for the Blues (blue), then under that a strip of No Hard Feelings (lilac), and finallly a strip of Zoya Whitney (pink) directly onto the sponge, so it differs slightly from the technique of painting the colors onto a piece of plastic and swirling (I originally tried that but my sponge wouldn't pick up the color from the plastic baggie!).

Then I went crazy on my nails, sponging onto each one with No Room for the Blues near the tip and Whitney nearest the cuticle. I made sure to move the sponge up and down to create a more gradual fade, and I ended up doing two coats of sponging. These are also topped with a coat of Cover Girl Night Lights to smooth/distract from the lines. Check it out!

For some reason, I could not get this to turn out normal. Don't judge.

 I really loved this manicure and kept getting a ton of compliments over Memorial Day Weekend. Someone even asked, "How do you ask them to do them like that?!" thinking I had them done at a salon, and my boyfriend grabbed my hands (without being provoked) and told me they looked really cool, which we know are like two of the best compliments ever.

Oh, and don't mind my amateur watermark. I like watermarks on pictures because as I'm reading through Google Reader, I can remember whose post is whose as I read. There's also the added benefit of actually getting credit for your photos, but whatever. Let me know if you have any suggestions for it! I just did it very quickly whilst playing around on Gimp.

So that's it for now. Are you tired of seeing gradient manis? I'm going to do my best to do more nail art for you all while I have time!

Thanks for reading!

Janna

My Go-Between

Hello!

For this Pink Wednesday, I'm going to show you something very subtle. Yesterday, I posed this question on Twitter (follow me! @cleverncolorful) and I don't think I made any sense. This was the question:


do you have a color that you throw on when you need a between mani polish? does that make sense?


Yeah, bunch of gibberish. What I meant was: is there a polish that you can throw on between manicures if you have to leave the house, just so you don't leave with naked nails? I get so nervous with just 140 characters to use =P

When I took my glittertastic fourth of July manicure off, my nails were, obviously, naked, and my mom took that moment to ask me if I wanted to run to the store with her. My nails were so stained, so I threw this on my nails until I had time to do a full manicure. Here it is:

This is supposed to serve as a "my nails but better" look. I literally slapped on a coat of an old Sally Hansen pink glass fleck, and swiped over my tips with Rimmel Insolence, a white/silver fleck. This was only going to be worn for an hour or so, but I'm still wearing it a day and a half later....

Oh well. So now, let me re-ask this, now that I have more characters to work with....

Do you have a go-between mani?

Thanks for reading!

Janna

MAC Hint of Sapphire-Inspired Water Marble

Hi everybody!

I'm bursting with excitement right now to share this manicure! It's been in my head for weeks and I'm really happy with the way it turned out!

If you keep up with cosmetics, you may already know that MAC's summer collection, due out in July, is called Semi-Precious and will feature mineralize blushes, mineralize skin finishes, cream sheen glasses, and other products. What really caught my attention, however, was the mineralize eyeshadows. (Check out beautezine.com's post of the full press release of the Semi-Precious collection from MAC.)

Now, I don't know too much about MAC and the only MAC products I have were a gift, so I'm not going to pretend I know the difference between a creamsheen glass and a lustreglass (if you know, please share!), but these eyeshadows look just plain gorgeous in the pan. I mean, how could you stand to use them?! The colors swirl together beautifully and compliment each other to a T, and there are some really unique color combinations in this collection.

So when I saw the press release for the Semi-Precious collection on several beauty blogs and I saw the eyeshadows, I was reminded of watermarbled designs for nails. The eyeshadow that stuck out the most to me was Hint of Sapphire. Here's a look:

Image Credit:  beautezine.com.

Seriously beautiful. These things are truly a work of art. So I let my creativity flow and set out to create a water marble that utilized the colors in this particular eyeshadow. MAC describes Hint of Sapphire as a "melange of pink, violet, teal, copper, blue." Respectively, I used Zoya Perrie (even though Zoya describes Perrie as purple), China Glaze Spontaneous, Color Club Age of Aquarius (on loan from my sister), Pure Ice Iced Copper, and Sally Hansen Blue It. The combination is awesome! Take a look =]

Left Hand

Right Hand

Left

Right

My favorite nails:

Left Index

Left Pinky.

Right Ring

Before you can say it, I did go overboard on the pictures. I wanted to do this manicure justice and I think I did =] And pardon my shoddy cleanup job.

The contrast of all these colors really pops on my nails, and in my opinion the copper just makes this look. And, if you're wondering how I did this, click HERE for my tutorial on how to water marble!

I'd like to do another watermarble based on one of the other shadows from this collection, but I'm not sure which one. I was leaning toward another multi-colored one, but do you have a preference? Let me know!

Swatches of this collection are starting to circulate, so tell me, are you getting anything from the Semi-Precious collection? Any eyeshadows? If you are, would you actually use them? =P What do you think of this manicure?

Thanks to Jessica of beautezine.com for letting me use her picture of Hint of Sapphire! =]


Thanks so much for reading!

Janna

Sally Hansen Extreme Wear Sun Kissed

Hellooo!

Here's a quick picture of Sally Hansen Extreme Wear Sun Kissed. This was a birthday gift from my boyfriend that I talked about in one of my last haul posts. It's a really pretty orange cream. Not neon at all, but pretty bright. I really liked this one on me =] Sorry for the crappy picture, but this one's definitely awesome in real life. It bubbled a tiny bit but only because I applied three coats in a hurry along with Seche Vite and OPI topcoat, with a fan on. Pretty much a recipe for disaster.

Keeping it short for tonight, but more goodness to come tomorrow! Also, PLEASE don't forget to enter my Long Overdue Giveaway that ends the 23rd!


Janna

Haulage Part I - Happy Birthday to Me!

Hello again!

My 20th birthday was April 23rd and I just wanted to show you what I bought or received on that day. Onto the pictures!!



These lovelies were a thoughtful gift from my boyfriend.



From left to right these polishes are Orly Rose-Colored Glasses, Orly It's Up To Blue, Orly Rose Radiance, Sally Hansen Extreme Wear in Sunkissed (wearing now), SH Extreme Wear in Blue It, and Ulta Under the Sea Mini Set, which I'd been DYING to get, and I didn't even tell him. The polishes in the set are Tip the Scales, A Tail of Two Cities, Mermaid in Heaven, and Don't Be Shellfish.

Next I hit up Sephora and I got my free Beauty Insider birthday gift and bought a discounted polish. After that, I was headed to Ulta, where the polishes were buy 2, get one free.



To the left is philosophy's Happy Birthday, Beautiful! shampoo, shower gel & bubble bath, which is vanilla birthday cake scented. This was my free birthday gift, and it's a 6 oz. bottle, which I thought was really nice for a free gift! The polish is Sephora by OPI Rumba Romance. The two OPIs I got at Ulta are San Tan-tonio and Señorita Rose-alita. The 3rd polish I got was Big Hair. . .Big Nails, but I gave this to one of my close friends who has big curly hair. Lol.

Finally, I bought myself a very special birthday present at Nordstrom. . .I've never even been inside a Nordstrom before I don't think. I'm sure you can guess what I bought!







The saleswoman said they just got this in! MINI Deborah Lippmanns. From left to right: Bad Romance, Happy Birthday, Across the Universe. In love! I paid $30 for this if anyone is interested.

All in all, my birthday was amazing and I want to thank everyone who was a part of it! And thank YOU so much for reading!

Janna

ChG Innocence American/French Mani

LOL. Saw this as an ad on facebook. Thought you guys would appreciate it! What's with this spelling?!

Help spread savvy, colorful nails to your beautiful customers. Start giving mannies and peddies now!

In other news this was one of the best school days I've had in a long time. It was a high of 82 today...which is drastically hot compared to the winterish weather we've been having, and everywhere else has been having as well. I finally could wear flip flops!! I had two canceled classes and got out of my lab almost two hours early! I also got to take two naps! Very painless day, to say the least.

FOUR MORE WEEKS TIL SUMMER!

Just thought I'd share!

I'll leave you with some blurryish pictures of a mani I did a while back. Base is China Glaze Innocence, a sheer pink. Then I created a kind of American or French manicure with freehanded tips in Sally Hansen Polar Bare, a sheer white. I really like how fresh this looked. Hm...maybe I'll recreate this and stamp over it....






Until next time,

Janna<3

Random October Manis

Helloooo. Finals are overrrr and I'm home!

How's everyone?! What have I missed?!

Well, I do know a lot of things I've missed, and I definitely missed showing you my October manis! Let the madness begin!





Milani Hi-Tech. I painted my nails this color for Depression Awareness. Amazing green holo! 3 coats I believe.

Next, one of my favorite manis of all time. This is Polar Bare from the Sally Hansen Salon Manicure line. I bought this thinking it was a stark white, but it's actually a jelly, sheer white. I hated it at first and was going to return it, until I realized that just one coat made my nails look really clean and fresh. Here it is with 4 coats:





After a couple of days, I stamped it with BM plate 21 and Design-a-Nail polish in Voodoo. How amazing is this?! I got so many compliments each day I wore it, even from one of my professors!







Finally, my Halloween mani! I kept it simple for this one: 3 (I believe) coats of an unnamed Color Club obnoxiously-neon orange. If anyone has any idea what this is, let me know! I posted this in one of my haul posts, and it might be Wham! Pow! from their Spring '10 collection (EDIT: actually it's more likely to be Orange Revenge!).





That's all for now! Thanks for reading!


Janna