how to: splatter mani

Hey there...here's a fun and easy mani that you've got to try sometime right now...splatter nails!!! I don't do much nail art but doing them once in awhile is kind of fun.

Warning: this mani is a little bit messy. I highly recommend you put wax paper down on the surface you are working on, also makes for easy clean up after. You'll also need a couple of regular drinking straws and tape.

First, choose a base color for your nails. Paint as usual and let dry. I used OPI's Can't Find My Czechbook for my base. Then choose a couple of other colors you'll want to use for the splatter effect. I chose Orly's Sapphire Silk and Barry M's Peach Melba.

After your base color is dry, put tape around your nails. This is optional but helps a lot during clean up.

Take one of your splatter colors and drip a few drops onto your wax paper. Dip one end of your straw in the little puddle of polish. Make sure you get a good glob of polish then hover over your nail and blow hard at the other end of the straw. Repeat over the nail until desired splatter effect is achieved, then proceed to the other nails. Repeat for any additional colors.

Carefully remove the tape and begin clean up. Let the splatter set on the nail for a minute or two before sealing with a top coat. I did two thick coats of Seche Vite to smooth out the splatter.

Now sit back an enjoy your beautiful work!

in the shade

Here's my first splatter mani that I did for Independence Day, last year.

If I ever use that color combo again, I may use red as my base color otherwise the red splatter almost looks like a crime scene! haha!

Tips:

• You might want to play around with the lengths of the straws you use and distance from straw to nail. I preferred using shorter straws to blow through on the nail at about 3 inches away. You also get different splatter effects depending on how strong you blow through the straw
• It's easier for me to do one hand at a time.
• For clean up, I use a small make-up brush for better control.

thanks goodness for tape!

Are you going to try doing a splatter mani?! What color combo will you use?

Thanks for stopping by!

Update - 3/14/13

I mattified my splatter mani with Essie's Matte About You...

Love!

Linked up with Polly Polish's Polish Days 'Vintage' theme link party.

This mani has a vintage type feel to me...looking like a Jackson Polluck piece of art!

Also linked up with:
F-it Friday Round 14 at Parlo & Logi
What's Shakin' Link Pary #51 at Shaken Together

opi - can’t find my czechbook

I've made it my goal to swatch all of my untried nail polishes before I buy any more nail polish but I've been so good at not buying any new, new nail polishes for the past few months, I decided to treat myself this weekend. With an ULTA rewards to redeem at hand and after rummaging through a blah clearance section, I caved and bought OPI's Can't Find My Czechbook from their Euro Central Spring/Summer 2013 Collection. It was the last bottle too, so it's meant to be, right?!

I can't remember the last time I've bought a new nail color that was a new release. I usually wait to buy them whenever I can catch them on clearance or will get them if I have a really good coupon.

So glad I got this color! I actually don't have anything like it! It's such a pretty creamy dusty aqua that goes on the nail perfectly. Below is 3 coats, topped with Seche Vite.

 

in the shade -  btw, sorry my skin looks so dry :(

opi gift cards for everyone

Last Christmas, ULTA was having a promotion with OPI nail polishes: Buy 2, get 1 ULTA exclusive OPI color for free. As my free bottle, I chose Gift Cards for Everyone!. Such an odd name.

Gift Cards for Everyone is a dark metallicky purple with hints of blue shimmer from the microglitter.

I'm sad to say that this is a purple that I don't like. And I looove purple...

The color looks so nice in the bottle but not on me. Maybe it may look better if my nails were shorter!?

my own attempt at generating a meme :)

with flash to show the microglitter

To me, this color is borderline Grandma-ish and I don't think I will be wearing this much, if ever again.

At least I got it for free.

china glaze 2011 ULTA holiday exclusive

Ok, 2011 sounds so long ago! I got 3 of China Glaze's 2011 ULTA holiday exclusive nail polishes two Christmas' ago when they went on clearance. I think there was about 8 of them.

Today I finally tried on these 2: Mistletoe Me and Fireside Glow as an accent.

Mistletoe Me is a dark pink foil that can be a bit streaky. It looks like a grandma color to me! I'm not too big on foils because they tend to be streaky and look grandma-ish. It looked really nice in the bottle though.

I used Fireside Glow as an accent. I may want to try that on all my nails next time. I like the color and hello, it's slightly holographic! That's so fun!

I may end up purging Mistletoe Me. I don't think I'll miss it much. Sorry MM.

Is there a certain nail color or finish that makes you feel grandma-ish?

opi planks a lot

Felt like wearing purple on my nails. Here is OPI's Planks A Lot from their Pirates of the Caribbean collection. It's a really nice dusty lavender color.

I only did 2 coats when I should have done 3. Don't be lazy like me, otherwise you'll get these bald spots...whomp whomp whomp...

It's still pretty though....as long as you don't look at it up close and see the bald spots!

china glaze sea spray

I always go to Sally's whenever I need to get a new bottle of Seche Vite. I was hoping it would be on sale but they had an even better deal...you can get a FREE bottle of China Glaze with the purchase of SV right now!

I had the hardest time trying to figure out which CG I wanted to get as my free bottle. I had been wanting Sea Spray, Refresh Mint and Recycle for the longest time. I ultimately decided to get Sea Spray.

Here is China Glaze Sea Spray with Orly Rock Solid as an accent.

I love Sea Spray! It's a lovely dusty pale gray blue with the slightest hint of shimmer. It only took me 2 coats for full opacity. I'm loving Rock Solid too, it too was opaque in 2 coats. I had never tried it on until now. I'm not a too much into the glitter but I can dig it as an accent nail especially when it has little bits of holographic glitters. Fun!

You can't really see the shimmer in Sea Spray here but I guarantee you it's there! 

I think I'm ready for brighter nail colors now. Is it spring yet?!

caviar accent nail

This is Piggy Polish Embrace Adventure with a multi-colored micro beaded accent nail.

I finally tried doing caviar nails, well just one nail...

I caviared my accent nail with micro beads that I got from the scrapbook section of Michael's. I actually got these beads a long time ago to use for other crafts and it just clicked to me that I could use them on my nails.

For my accent nail, I painted on a thicker second coating of polish for the beads to adhere and gave a gentle push to set.

It was pretty easy and kind of fun. I didn't keep the beads on for that long. I just wanted to try it out. Maybe I'll try it on all my nails for a party or get together just to see how long the beads would actually stay on.

Have you tried doing the caviar nails yet?

Linked with:
Somewhat Simple

christmas recap

Happy New Year! Yup, I'm kind of late on my Christmas post, too much quality family time going on!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and got to celebrate it with the ones you love. I sure did...here's a quick recap of my Christmas:

I celebrated Christmas at my parents with my cousins. This was our tree with all of the lovely wrapped gifts!

This cute little ball of fur is my sister, Pinky! [Pinky is my parent's dog, therefore, Pink is my sister] She was decked out in the cutest Christmas outfit.

You can see her outfit better here as she greets the rest of my family by the door.

We had our hearts set on opening presents Christmas morning in our pajamas but our parents made us dress up for photos. I quickly changed into some comfy sweats right after this photo!

the cousins...and me on the far right

Oh yeah and it snowed!!!!! I don't think I've ever truly had a White Christmas, that I can remember at least.

Hi Mom! She thinks she's taking a picture of me with her iPad...she's not, she's taking a mini video. Poor thing took accidental mini videos of us opening presents all morning!

sorry so blurry but you can actually see the snow flurries

I introduced my family to Tim Tams and most of us mastered the Tim Tam Slam. You need to try these cookies! They originate from Australia but you can find the Pepperidge Farm version at Target for a limited time during the winter months. I didn't see any more of them at the Target closest to me so I had to check other ones near by. I cleared out a couple of the Target's of their Tim Tams supply. It wasn't all for me! I shared with my family. Honest!

And of course I had to do a Christmasy mani. This is Sephora by OPI's Pushing Your Luck. I got it on clearance at Sephora for $5! I really like this red. Some reds look orange on me, but this red actually look red. Sorry for the cropped image. My cuticles were so dry. I forgot to moisturize before taking this shot.

On my ring finger is a fun little Christmas tree as an accent. I taped off the tree part and used Nicole by OPI's Green Up Your Act for the tree and Finger Paints Twisted as ornaments and mattified it. I used Orly's Luxe for the gold topper.

How was your Christmas? Did Santa bring ya anything good? I should have asked Santa for a nice camera or classes on how to take better pictures with my old school camera haha

2 weddings in one night

Last weekend, Calat and I attended 2 beautiful weddings in one night! Good thing they were both at different times. It worked out perfectly for us to go to both. Congrats to both wonderful couples!

I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to but I at least got one with my love.

Doesn't Calat look handsome? I really think he should dress up more! :)

I was really excited for my outfit and accessories. Apparently blue is a really hot color right now.

How fun is this necklace!?! I found all of these accessories at Charming Charlie. I even got the bracelet and earrings on clearance. I just love shopping there because everything is color-coded and pretty reasonably priced.

I painted my nails blue too.

How cute is this Hello Kitty bottle!? I got it through my mom's nail polish stash. Well, I actually got her this as one as her birthday presents earlier this year. My Mom is obsessed with Hello Kitty.

The nail polish is called Blueberry and is the perfect periwinkle blue. You can find it at Sephora and is $10.

Great formula. Just 2 coats for full opacity.

I'm really loving blue right now. What about you?

opi - houston we have a purple

I've been really good and haven't bought any nail polish in a while. I want to at least wear all of my untried nail polishes first. I have a lot of them.

I was at ULTA the other day redeeming my Beauty Club Reward and decided to check out the nail polish clearance section and there were actually some colors that I had wanted to get.

I settled on purchasing OPI's Houston We Have a Purple from their 2011 Texas Collection. This was not one of the ones I wanted to get. It was an impulse buy. I really like purple! And I didn't have this kind of purple!

I usually look up swatches on my phone before I buy a new nail polish but for some reason I didn't for this one. I had no idea it was a jelly! I don't even like jellies!

When I put it on, my first thought was, Oh man! It's a jelly! Then layer after layer, I started to kind of like it.  It reminds me of raspberry jelly!

It took me 3 coats for opacity but you can kind of still see my nail line. The finish was very glossy but I topped with a coat of Seche Vite anyways.

Now I can't wait to try this as a jelly sandwich!

cakes, a baby shower, and nails

My friend, Aissa, is going to have a baby boy in less than a month! I can't wait to meet him...I'm sure he's going to be one super cute baby!

Last weekend was her baby shower and I made her this cake.

It was a blue velvet cake with cream cheese icing and marshmallow fondant. Since the shower theme was kind of swampy, Aissa's sister, Karina, found these perfect cute little toys for the cake, which was awesome since I'm not very good at sculpting figures out of gumpaste or fondant.

I had come to the realization that I have made cakes for all of Aissa's big life events.

Surprise 25th Birthday

Wedding cake & Groom's cake

Surprise going away cake for her sister

I'm so happy to have been included in those moments and so lucky to have such a great friendship with her.

Back to the baby shower, which was very cute and put together nicely by my friend Karina (Aissa's sister), Good job, KFlo! I had to have blue mani for this event.

This is Orly Sapphire Silk with American Apparel Meteor Shower as an accent.

I just found this alligator at my work. He would have fit in perfectly at the baby shower!

happy thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are surrounded by loved ones and lots of food!

I really wasn't planning on doing a mani for Thanksgiving but my Mom had the perfect colors for an autumn dotticure and I could no longer resist.

I used these:

I used Spoiled Pumping Gas as my base and OPI Chopsticking to My Story, Zoya Pippa, and Spoiled I Don't Drink Cheap Wine for the dots.

I also made some pumpkin muffins with chopped walnuts and white chocolate chunks. Super yummy! I must have ate 3 back-to-back...oops! haha

in the shade

As per usual, my Mom wanted me to do her nails too, exactly like mine...Twinsies!