Born pretty Store Review: Maru Water Decal Skittle

Today is the first day of my summer program; I'm super excited to see what the next 5 weeks will hold!

I've got this fun skittle mani to show you today which features these water decals from Born Pretty Store.  Take a look!

The polishes I used are LVX Fantom (white), LaCC 1999 (black), and Barry M Greenberry (turquoise).  I started with three thin coats of Fantom on all nails, and then taped off and painted each nail besides my pinky, for which I sponged on a gradient.  Once my bases were all top-coated and dry, I went ahead and applied the water decals.  No troubles here, they were perfectly easy to use!  The water decals are topped with a coat of LaCC 2013 top coat.  

I really love the range and quantity of graphic designs on this water decal sheet, especially the rows of x's and o's, so cute!  I'm really tempted to do an entire mani with just the designs on my middle and pinky fingers...  

Don't forget to use my code PPJ61 to get 10% off your order.  Will you be ordering some of these water decals?  What do you think of this mani?  Let me know in the comments!  :) 

Disclaimer: The products in this post were sent to me for review and my honest opinion. 

Sunset Gradient

For the next little while my life is going to be a bit strange.  I'm officially moving out of my apartment today, and flying to a different city where I'll be staying for a summer program for five weeks.  I'm just renting a room in a house for that time and have no idea what my setup will be like, (I had to get rid of my amazing nail-photo lamp in the move,) but hopefully I'll be able to get in some good daylight shots of manis.  It also means that I've unfortunately had to pare down my collection of about 400 bottles here to less than 200, because I've only got two suitcases to pack my entire life into, which is really sad!  After that summer program I'll finally get to go to London to visit my family in their new home, which I'm super excited for!! :)

Anywho, onto the nails!  

This is a simple double-accent mani that I did while playing around with the QUO by Orly Summer 2014 polishes, which you can see individual swatches of here.  My middle and ring fingers are a base of Electrified, and a gradient sponged on with that and Heatwave.  The rest of my nails are three thin coats each of Simmered.  All nails are topped with LaCC 2013 top coat. 

Although I wasn't a huge fan of Electrified and Heatwave alone on my skin tone, I'm really loving them all combined in this super bright look!  What do you think?  Let me know in the comments!  :) 

Shimmer Polish: Erica, Eva, Katherine, Leslie, Fanny & Liana

I've got six more Shimmer Polishes to show you today, with some interesting layering combinations!

Continued after the jump, as per usual. 

Pink Nimbus: Upgraded

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I added some stamping over the pink nimbus nail art.  This just took it way over the top, but it was pretty hilariously fun to wear!  

The polishes used in the base nail art are, from darkest to lightest, LaCC 1950, piCture pOlish Pirouette, piCture pOlish Fairy Floss, and LaCC 1992.  

I stamped the swirls and unicorn from Nailz Craze plate NC02 in white Konad polish.  For the record, that stamping plate will forever be the best plate of all time.  Swirls and unicorns all the way.  

What do you think?  Is this look something you'd wear?  It's really abnormally girly for me personally, but I couldn't help but love it anyways, haha! 

Pink Nimbus

Two days of Nailasaurus-inspired manis in a row?  Yes, but with all the awesomeness going on over there, you really can't blame me.  This nail art technique has been on my to-try list for ages, ever since the tutorial was posted in October last year.  Took me long enough!  

I started with a base of two coats of LaCC 1992, and then dotted on my polishes darkest to lightest with a q-tip dipped in acetone.  The polishes in the order I dotted them are as follows: LaCC 1950, piCture pOlish Pirouette, piCture pOlish Fairy Floss, and LaCC 1992.  It's all topped off with a coat of LaCC 2013 top coat. 

Along with the fact that this is ridiculously easy, it's named Nimbus nail art!  I know it's supposed to be another word for halo, but in my mind it's definitely related to Harry Potter.  No doubt.  

These nails were slightly out of the norm for me with the abundance of pink and girly-ness, and I definitely think I would be better suited to this look in a purple scheme.  However, I did really have fun wearing this and actually spruced it up even more with some stamping which I'll show you tomorrow!  ;)  

What do you think of this look?  Have you tried this nail art technique yet?  

Dusty Colour Blocking

In a post over at The Nailasaurus last week, Sammy did a cute colour-blocking mani; she also linked to Adobe Kuler, as a source of colour inspiration.  Let's just say, I was hooked for a solid twenty minutes scrolling through all the amazing colour combinations that I would never have thought up by myself!  

Obviously, today's nail art is inspired by one such colour combination.  Specifically, this one.  I also decided to grab inspiration from Sammy's colour-blocked design, because my head was too busy swimming with colours to be able to think coherently about making a design up, (as well as loving her design, of course!) 

Source

Although my polishes don't match the inspiration exactly, these are the colours that it made me think of when I saw it.  The polishes I used are mainly LaCC (you know how much I love those for nail art!).  I've used LaCC 1981 (salmon-nude), 1997 (periwinkle), and 1969 (green), as well as LVX Fantom (white).  

It's been quite a while wince I've done a tape mani, I tend to avoid them because of the ages waiting between drying and taping.  However in this case, I think it was totally worth the patience, because I love it!  I'll definitely be using Adobe Kuler as a source of inspiration in the future as well, it's so useful.  What do you think?  :)

QUO by Orly: Summer 2014 Collection

You may remember back in April I shared the QUO by Orly Spring 2014 polishes, which was my first experience with the brand and I was very impressed.  Today I've got three of the the Summer 2014 polishes to share with you and, spoilers, these are amazing!  

Read on for the full review. 

Dandelion Nail Art Tutorial

As promised in yesterday's post, I've got a tutorial to show you how to do the dandelion nail art that I did for  my guest post at Polished Elegance!  

I started with two coats of LaCC 1997, and a coat of LaCC 2013 top coat.  All details were done with a nail art brush and white acrylic paint.  

(1) Start by painting your stems, and add a little dot to the tip of each.
(2) Add seven equally spaced spokes poking out of each dot; your stem is the eighth spoke.
(3) With an almost dry brush, fill between the spokes with lots of wispy lines; they don't have to be perfect! (4) Using just the tip of your brush, irregularly dot along the edges of the circle.
(5) Clean up your mani with a brush dipped in acetone, and add top coat to smooth out your work.

It's been ages since I've done a tutorial, but I hope this was clear enough for you.  I'm really in love with how this nail art turned out, and I hope to see some of you give it a try too!  If you do, I'd love to see; feel free to comment with a link (only to relevant blog posts please!!) or tag me on IG @emmaclarem.  :) 

Guest Post at Polished Elegance

Good morning!  After an exhausting weekend of shows directly followed by a week of touring for performing and teaching, I'm finally back.  However, I'm moving to a different city in just under two weeks, so not much time to rest.  

I did a guest post for the wonderful Lisa at Polished Elegance which was posted on Monday; I would have shared sooner but I only got home super late Monday night and didn't remember to schedule a post in advance.  Anywho, you can click here or on the photo below to be taken to the guest post!  

I've also created a tutorial for this nail art, so keep an eye out for that (hopefully) tomorrow!  :)

Shimmer Polish: Taylor, Julia, Alice, Alessandra, & Melissa

I've got a pretty awesome group of Shimmer Polishes to show you today, which includes one of my absolute favourite Shimmer Polishes so far!  

Continue reading after the jump!

Seafoam & Magenta

Taking a quick break from our regularly-scheduled Shimmer Polish posts to show you a gradient I wore a few weeks ago on my boyfriend's birthday.  He's got two sweaters that he wears all the time, one for out-and-about and the other as a warm-up for when we're in the studio, which are jokingly called his "seafoam and magenta" (the colours of the sweaters, respectively) by most of our class.  So as a little poke at that, I did a simple seafoam and magenta gradient on his birthday!  

I started with two coats of Miss Ashleigh Polish A Pastel Experi-mint, and then sponged on a gradient with that and OPI Casino Royale.  It's smoothed out with a good coat of Seche Vite, of course.  

I actually really liked how the colours in this gradient worked together, and a few of us got a good chuckle out of it.  ;)  What do you think? 

Shimmer Polish: Cleo, Cindy, Elsa, Amy, & Sarah

Yes, more Shimmer Polish swatches this morning!  

If you want a little more glitter in your weekend, read on for swatches of Cleo, Cindy. Elsa, Amy, and Sarah.