Frankenstein Nails for Halloween 2014

Good morning lovelies! I've been trying for WEEKS to figure out what kind of Halloween nails I wanted to do this year... and tonight I think I've finally decided on Frankenstein/Bride of Frankenstein nails! :) 

Now, forewarning, I'm not like super awesome at nail art or anything, but I can tell a BIG improvement from last year, and Halloween is my favorite time to do cutesy things with my nails! :) I still kind of want to figure out how to do some witch nails, or zombie nails.. 

SO without further adieu, HERE THEY ARE in all their not so spooky glory!

For this mani I used:

• China Glaze - I'm With the Lifeguard
• L.A. Colors Black Striper Polish
• Julep - Nicolette
• Julep - Rebel
• Sinful Colors - 24/7
• Pretty & Polished - Matte Topcoat

I've had this China Glaze for awhile now... I have absolutely NO idea why I hadn't used it until now.... because it's basically the most amazing lime green EVER. You can't tell in this picture because I used Instagram filters and whatnot, but here's a picture of it in all it's amazing glory pre-cleanup and pre-franken-nails!

Lime green WHAT!? This is with my matte topcoat over it, but it didn't really need it, as it's super neon and kind of matte already. I love it so much, like if I could only pick on polish color for the rest of my life, I'd definitely pick this one! What do you think?!

Okay so ANYWAY, this is a super easy mani to do, if you want a real tutorial, I can make one for you, so just comment if you do and I'll make a pictorial. :) I'd be happy to! I haven't made one in ages, and I kind of love making them!! 

Directions:

1. Paint nails your base green color.
2. After that's dry, on your three non accent nails, using a black polish and striper brush, make stick marks randomly over the nail. Two will probably suffice, as some of mine have three and look messy-ish.
3. Next, on the nails you want to be Frankensteins, paint in the hair using the same striper brush. I made my Franken... Man have squared off hair, and the Bride of Frankenstein have her classic big hair.
4. Next I drew on the mouth of my Frankenstein using the same stitch type design as the non-accent nails.
5. I let that dry for a minute to avoid smearing as much as possible, then used a larger dotting tool and my white polish (Nicolette) to dot on the eyes. I definitely had shaky hands last night when I did these and one of my eyes got a little wonky.. so be careful!
6. Then I used a small dotting tool to dot in the eyes with black.
7. Add the silver (Rebel) zig-zag streak to Bride of Frankenstein's hair.
8. Draw on pink (or whatever color) bow, and you're done with your nail art! Unless you want Bride of Frankenstein to have little eyelashes and a nose like mine, in which case you can paint those on whenever.
9. Topcoat and DONE! I used matte topcoat over these just because I'm out of regular. lol But either would probably look awesome!

SO yeah! Super easy semi-tutorial for your Sunday!

Anyone have any wicked awesome Halloween inspired manis to share?! I'd love to see them! I did some candy corns, ghosts, and pumpkins last year I think! I love Halloween Nail Art!!

Xx Ashley C.

Nail Cones Review!!!

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial. 
Today I have a pretty cool review for all the nail polish junkies out there like me! :) I plan on posting a couple of nail related reviews in the upcoming days as well!
Anyway! I, for one, always seem to make either a giant mess, or at least a little one whenever I do my nails. Especially when I'm painting them with my left hand. Nail cones are a brand new product that provide a SUPER easy, affordable way to remedy this problem and I'm super glad that I got to test them out to review for you! Thanks to Nail Cones and Tomoson for the opportunity.

I have some pictures to better explain what they are and how they work!!!

My favorite part of this product is that they are SUPER easy to use! You simply peel them off and place them around your nail, and then they protect the skin around your nail from any excess polish getting on them! I find these GREAT for doing designs and gradients that involve using a sponge! They're also REALLY sticky and stay on VERY well, which makes them even better! Usually I use plain old tape when I do stuff like water marbling, gradients, and nail art, and it always peels off and isn't quite tacky enough. These DEFINITELY are, but they aren't so sticky that you can't get them off either.

PLUS, did I mention they're ADORABLE?! Here's some pictures of me using these awesome little stickers from the other day!

This is how you peel off the stickers for use! They come in different sizes too, so you can pick the right one depending on what nail you need to use it on!

AND here is the top part of the package that has the super easy instructions!

And here is what they look like when you put them on! I don't have them pushed all the way down here, since it was the first time I used them and I'm not used to wearing acrylics anyway... but you can see that there is basically NO nail polish on any of my skin! Yay for no difficult cleanup! :)

Complete!!!! 

And my completed mani and my monster!! :P Not to brag or anything, but how CUTE are my butterfly nails!

If you'd like to find out more about Nail Cones, please visit their website HERE.

A sheet only costs $5.99 and they have LOTS of info on their website and even a video tutorial!! Definitely worth it! They make painting nails a breeze!

Until next time,

xX Ashley C.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Pretty & Polished Candy Coated Swatch & Review!

Time for another tiny piece of my Pretty & Polished May Beauty box!!!

This time it's "Candy Coated"! I received a mini of this baby in my box this month and I LOVE it. It's one of those things I didn't realize that I needed until I owned it.
I love it SO much. It's like the perfect baby pink with adorable purple glitter in it. I don't know how I lived without it before and it is literally perfect for Spring!! :)

Here's your swatch of the day!

I hope you love it!! 

Xx Ashley C.

Cherry Blossom Nails for Spring!!!

No serious tutorial or anything for these really, but they were WAY easier than I thought they'd be!

All you need is:
Brown Polish
Base color polish(es)
Dark Pink
Light pink
Striping brush
Dotting tool and/or pen

I used:
Julep - Fiore
Julep - Bess
Julep - Denver
Julep - Carrie
Julep - Nellie
HK Girl Topcoat
Striping Brush
Crappy old pen

Basically you just paint your nails the base colors. I used Julep Bess with Julep Denver as an accent nail although you can't really tell in the photo. Let that dry. I applied Topcoat here to make it dry faster. HK Girl is my go to for nail art because it dries crazy fast, doesn't shrink, and doesn't smear.
Then you take your brown color and paint on branches. The best part is they don't have to be perfect or anything because the flowers are going to be going on top of them. I used Julep Fiore because it's the only brownish polish I have but it's a little dark.
Then randomly on the branches make dots in the shape of flowers with your light pink color. I tired to make them not all the same size, and used Julep Carrie.
Then in the middle of those "flowers"  use your dark pink to make a dot in the middle and Voila!  Cherry Blossom Nails!!!  I used Julep Nellie for the dark pink.  It's my favorite.
Top coat again and done!!!

So there's your super easy and fast tutorial for my nails of the day and HERE THEY ARE in all their novice glory!

Xx Ashley C.

**Note this post contains affiliate links**

Happy Birthday to ME Cupcake Nails!!

So like I said last night, today was my 25th birthday. It wasn't the most spectacularly eventful birthday, but it was definitely special. :) For my birthday I decided to do cupcake nails, like I did last year, so I could compare them and see how much progress I've made in doing my nails over the last 12 months. I'm super pleased with myself and I am DOUBLE super pleased with my nails for the day!!! :D
Let's see what you think...

Last years:

I mean they're not HORRIBLE or anything, but they are pretty messy and this picture is awful. :)

THIS YEARS!!!

Left Hand

Right Hand

They're freaking awesome.

Inspired by the best cupcake/cake EVER! :)

Xx Ashley C.

More Valentine's Day Nails! Heartbeats :)

So for my second entry in the Pretty & Polished contest on Facebook, I had to use at LEAST one Pretty & Polished color for my Valentine's Day Nails.
This was kind of hard because I only have 5 of them... and none are really Valentine's appropriate colors. I need ALL THE PRETTIES! It's my favorite indie brand. Anyways! Here's what I came up with!

I still think the Corset nails were the best of my week's mani's... But these are pretty cute too. I used Julep's Carrie as the base color. I've been trying to get this color for months now and FINALLY it is MINE! :( It's like a pretty barbie pink color. Pretty & Polished's Day Trippin' on my ring finger (supposed to be a thermal, but I bought mine in a swap group and it doesn't work, just stays purple) and Pretty & Polished's Popples for the heart. Popples is my favorite P&P so far. 

Looking ahead for the next few weeks, I'm definitely going to be doing more Valentine's Day nail art. & Birthday nail art at the end of the month. 

ALSO! I have a Julep Box that SHOULD come tomorrow hopefully!

Happy February!

Xx Ashley C.

Valentine's Day Nails!

Okay so I know I haven't really been posting much this month and I feel totally guilty and neglectful but I've been super busy and stressed over work and this being the last month of the semester.
I did however spend a pretty significant amount of time on my nails last night for a Pretty & Polished contest so I figure I may as well share!! Hope you enjoy.
Inspiration is Naughty & Nice nails.
Right side is the naughty side, with black, glitter, and corsets.
Left is the nice side, with pink, glitter, and love letters with hearts. :)

I think I'm going to do all corsets this weekend. I think they're pretty cute!

Anyone have any awesome Valentine's Day nails ideas???

Let me see or describe it to me!

Xx Ashley C.

Christmas Tree Nails Pictorial!

As promised, here is a tutorial for super easy Christmas Tree nails! You can use any colors you want, but I used:
Julep - Rebel
Zoya - Chita (This links to amazon where you can buy the fall '13 pixies for 7.34 with FREE SHIPPING!!!)
Butter London - Marbs
Pretty & Polished - The Amazing Technicolor Topcoat
Seche Vite Topcoat

Start by painting your nails whatever base color you picked. :)  I used Julep Rebel for my base. It's my favorite matte silver holo.

After your base color dries. Apply tape in a triangle shape to whatever fingers you want to add the tree to. You can use striping tape for this as well, but I found that if you get some of the sticky off the regular tape first and stick it on, it's easier since you don't have to worry about painting beyond the stripe tape.

Then paint on your tree. With the tape you don't have to worry about making a big mess.

Let that dry for about a minute then remove the tape while it's still a little wet. Be careful so you don't peel off any of the nailpolish.

Next decorate your tree! I used Butter London Marbs to add on zig zags and added a little gem to the top for a star. :)

Then, If you want you can add some glitter so it looks like there are ornaments, and add your topcoat to finish them off! :)

That's all there is too it! Easy right?! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and as always make sure and like us on Facebook and follow us on here so you don't miss any posts! :)

Happy Holidays!

Xx Ashley C.