New Year, New Reverse-French Nails.

Hello my 2012-ers! Hope you all had a good start to the brand-spankin' new year. I love even-numbered years. Especially this one, since it's super easy to say: "twenty-twelve." It starts with a two, it ends with a two. Okay, I'll stop. 

In honor of the new year, I designed this nail look. It's a reverse-French manicure with what I fondly call "tuxedo button" dots. I used a black nail polish and a silver nail polish for this particular look, but feel free to change the colors if you like on yourself. 

"Great, I'm being used as a prop"

"I think they get it, mom."

YOU WILL NEED:

Reinforcement Stickers: these are super cheap and can be found at any office supply store.

Nail Dotting Tool: you can pick one of these babies up at Sally Beauty Supply for under $5. You can also opt to use the end of a bobby pin, although it will give you bigger dots. 

Click below to watch the tutorial

November Plaid

Happy Thanksgiving Week! I found this cute design on Cute Polish's Youtube page and gave it a whirl. I was inspired by the leaves turning colors this month and was looking for a "fall nails" look to do, and this was perfect. It was a little harder to do than some of my other nail art designs but well worth it. My cuticles are a little sloppy here, but the nails looked SO cool in person! I got compliments everywhere I went. I think the secret to them looking so cool was the base color I chose. I went with OPI's 18K Ginza Gold, which is a buttery marigold with tiny silver flecks. It's like an orange pumpkin that's turned yellow from the sun. *Sigh* I love fall....

PRODUCTS USED

Kiss Nail Artist Paint in White, Black and Gold Glitter

OPI's "18K Ginza Gold" as a base

My Love for Teal

I may -or may not- have an obsession with the color teal. The calming blue tones with the cheery green mixed in just lights me up. Makeup-wise, teals (or blue-greens) look beautiful on literally every skin tone. I have a whole palette of eyeshadows dedicated only to my first love, teal, and let's not even talk about my teal nail polish collection. So last night, when I opened the ever-growing nail polish drawer to select a color to paint my nails, I just couldn't decide which darn teal polish to choose. Then I remembered the popular trend we saw on the runways this summer and also for fall-- hello, ombre!

I picked five shades of teal and came up with this look below.

PRODUCTS USED:
Thumb: Get in Lime! by OPI
Pointy Finger: Mermaid's Tears by OPI
Middle Finger: Ocean Love Potion by OPI for Sephora
Ring Finger: Turned Up Turquise by China Glaze
Pinky: Alpine Gree (Without the N) by L.A. Girl Matte Finish
The little green flower gem is from Sally's Beauty Supply. 

OPI Silver Shatter Here I Come!

I had a lot of new experiences over the weekend. First, I got engaged to my superhero/best friend/ fiance, Dylan. Second, I bought a car. And third, I won a contest, for the first time in my life!  

The Gloss Menagerie was having a contest to win a bottle of OPI's Silver Shatter nail polish. I enter dozens of beauty contests a week, and never actually think I'm going to win. Lo and behold, I come home and check my email on Sunday to find out I actually won! I'm SO excited, and feel so blessed to have so many good things happen to me at once. I'm definitely crediting the good Lord for all my good fortune. Check out The Gloss Menagerie's post about me winning here . 

                                                          



Lady C's Nail Polish Must Haves

Essie -- $8.00 each. Essie is known for their pastels and "softer" colors. I basically lived in the brand's greige color, "Chinchilly," all winter long.

OPI -- $8.00 each. In my opinion, OPI is the top dog in the nail world. I've been rocking their Katy Perry "Shatter" polish for the last month.

China Glaze -- $5.00 each. I really love the brights and neons in this line. My personal go-to every summer is "Shocking Pink"

MAC Cosmetics -- $14.00 each. These polishes have UV ray protection and staying power. Im always on the lookout for the limited colors! I'm currently wearing "N Colour" and "Rose Topping" from MAC:

Chanel -- $25.00 each. "Pearl Drop" is a white frost with greenish-gold iridescence from the Spring 2011 line is to die for. These are at the top of the price range for nail polish, but I still think every girl should have at least one Chanel polish!

Deborah Lippmann --  $16.00 each. "I Know What Boys Like (periwinkle) and "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" (coral) I am kind of obsessed with "Some Enchanted Evening," a sparkling pink glitter particle polish, thanks to my friend Kristyn M. She sent me a pic of her nails week and my heart hasn't stopped palpitating since!

OPI Presents Alice In Wonderland Nail Lacquer!

Ok, let me start off by saying my heart started palpitating and my fingers started trembling when I read about this. My favorite nail company is coming out with FOUR nail colors for the release of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. and TWO of the polishes have glitter in them. You might as well lock me up in a Chanel store with Johnny Depp and 18 bars of chocolate! I went particularly bananas over the shade below called "Mad As A Hatter"