Day 2...Stars and Stripes

It is day 2 of our 4th of July Nail Week, Birthday Celebration, Nail Extravaganza! 
As I posted yesterday, my birthday is on July 4th and I am doing a week of 4th inspired and themed manicures.  Yesterday was a subtle pattern, while today is......

Stars and Stripes Forever.

For this flag interpretation, we went literal.  I started with bases of red and blue.  I took a a striper and added white lines to the red.  On the blue based nails, I stamped on the stars in white.  Cute, simple, and patriotic!

7 Days of 4th of July Nails

B Day is coming.....B Day is COMING!  I am officially hitting the middle of my dirty 30's on July 4th. Seeing that our nation is going to be celebrating 237 years of independence and I will be celebrating my 35th, it seemed like a great idea to do a week of manis to celebrate!  Each day I will be posting a new manicure that has a 4th of July theme to it.  

Day 1....Hint of patriotic pride....

Our first day is a dottie manicure.  

Colors used for this mani are Julep's Delaunay, Essie's Blanc, and Butter London's Blagger....Not pictured China Glaze's Fairy Dust.

It felt a tad bit early for me to start with a collage of stars and stripes.  So I started with 3 coats of the white with dots and finished it off with a bit of sparkle.  This little guy is a fun summer manicure that is perfect for the season without hitting you over the head with pride.  

Stay tuned for more!

Work It! Wednesday with Blue Ombré Reversi.

It is mani cam time on the red carpet!  This week's carpet worthy manicure is my blue ombré manicure with reverse blue ombré dots. 

Polishes used: Zoya's Blu, Julep's Claire, Zoya Pixie Dust in Liberty, Essie's Mesmerized, Deborah Lippmann's My Prerogative.

I can't help it...I LOVE how this manicure came out.  I think this combines my three favorite nail items all on one hand: texture nail polish, blue polishes, and dots.  This is topped off with Seche Vite top coat with the exception of my middle finger, which I did not polish.

WORK IT!

Miami Vice....with tape!

I received this Color Club polish in my June Birchbox last week.  I LOVE this color.  If I had to pick my trends for 2013 it seems to be going towards bright neon colors and texture.  This Color Club polish in Reign in Spain does not disappoint.  It is such a vibrant neon peachy color.  I just knew I needed to do it up.  When I saw MissJenFabulous at Polish and Pearls recent nail tape design in similar colors [found here ], I knew exactly what I was going to do.  Miami Vice color scheme tiger stripes of course! She does such great work on her blog and vlog...
Now the fun in this for me is that I am not 100% satisfied with my nail tape mani skills.  Sometimes it is not as neat as I would like it to be.  So this is a bit of an adventure for me while I get the "reign" on my skills.

Julep Denver and Color Club Reign in Spain

I started by paining full nails with Color Club and, when dry, placed cut pieces of scotch tape on my nail.  Cutting the tape in triangle pieces, I placed them from side to side on my nail.  And then painted over it.  

The tricky part for me is pulling the tape off.  It needs to be done while wet, but sometimes I pull it off too soon and it runs.  But if I wait too long, it gets kinda stringy and bleeds and/or gets chunky.  And then there is just my eagerness to get the Seche Vite rapid dry top coat on and I drag the color...all these things happened in this mani.  But at a much as I may create my own chaos, I still really like this mani.

Work It! Wednesday featuring Julep's Billie Jean

Work It!

Afternoon lovelies!  It is time for another star on our red carpet mani cam!  This week features Julep's Billie Jean, which they describe as a fuchsia purple crème.

Billie Jean

This polish is really pretty, but dries almost semi- matte.  So I enhanced it more with a matte top coat.

I couldn't stop there.  For some reason I get into moods where I feel odd if I just have great color on my nails.  Which is where I am right now.  So after work today, I stamped these babies with a bubble pattern from Mash plate 43.  I haven't stamped my nails in so long, that I think may need to start playing with that again.  And then I say that about nail tape...and gradients...and glitter...and dotting tools... and plastic wrap....I need to put myself on a schedule!!  :)  I did finish this manicure with another layer of matte top coat so that my stamping doesn't flake off.  

Playing around with OPI Bond Girls Liquid Sand Collection

In the middle of gluttonous nail polish shopping one day, I found the box of sample bottles of OPI's new Bond Girls Liquid Sand Texture polishes.  Sadly, this was awhile ago and I never played with them. Until now...Well, sort of.  I have two from the set to explore right now.  I let my mom borrow Solitaire and Vesper.  So I will have a part two coming soon.

This glittery, orange pink texture polish is Jinx.  This one may just be my favorite of all of them.  It has a gold glitter sparkle mixed with the vibrant color.  I think that the contrasting glitter in a texture polish tends to give it more depth, but that may just be me.  

Pretty in pink is Pussy Galore.  If you like pink, this is your color!

I know I have said it before, and I will most likely say it again but I do love texture nail polish!  I am looking forward to seeing what fun things I can do with these Bond beauties.  The texture is rich with these nail polishes, with a fine grit and lots of sparkle.  

Nail Mail!! Time to sail into summer with Julep

Come sail away...come sail away....come sail awaaaaaay with me!

Sorry if you now have that song stuck in your head.  I figure if Julep can put it in mine, I can then put it in yours.  I received some nail mail in my monthly Julep subscription on Saturday.  June is a nautical themed box and I couldn't wait to dig into it!

This month I went with the Bombshell profile.  I am normally an It Girl, but the past few boxes have seen me gravitating towards the Bombshell boxes to the point where I really should switch it.  The product for this month is Julep's new DD Cream.  This is the next in the alphabet soup of face products.  According to Julep, this "dynamic do-all makeup goes beyond BB creme to moisturize, prime, perfect and protect- both instantly and over time."  I have been wearing it for the past 2 days and it it very lightweight on my skin.   Which, living in Florida, can be very important in this humidity.  So far, I am a fan.

The colors in the Bombshell were Raegan, which is a deep watermelon pink creme, and Payton as a grass green creme.  Payton is a bit thinner in composition than the thicker Raegan.  I also added on Lexie, the sunshine yellow creme from the  Boho Glam collection this month.  All are very preppy summer colors.  They remind me of the fashion rugby shirts that we wore in junior high school.   

I am excited to play with these colors from my June Julep Maven box.  If you subscribe to Julep, I would love to hear which profile you chose and what you look forward to doing with it.  If you don't subscribe, click here to subscribe to their monthly subscription.  

Swatches to come soon!!!

Added 6/4:

Okay, I had to play with these colors because they are so lovely.  So during the Heat game last night, I whipped these up pretty quick.  Stamped the argyle on the Payton with Raegan using my Konad plate.  Which I have not used in forever.  I think I  may need to start playing around with my stamping plates again.  I really do love these colors.  I will swatch these for real coming soon.

NOTD: Mod Spring Flowers

Good morning polish fairies!  It is a beautiful summer like day here in Florida.  Seems like a good day to go do some wedding scouting.  As I have been reminded, it is 9 months away...oy!!  Guess I need to get a-moving with the details over here! :)  But before I leave the house, I need to share my current nails with you!

The weather is so gorgeous, that a dotting tool and some pastel colors seemed to be just what the weather man ordered!

Colors used:  Sally Hansen's Peach of Cake, Julep's Blake, Zoya's Blu, and Essie's Blanc.

I love dotting tools.  SO much possibility as to what you can create.  What is your favorite go-to design tool?  The make-up sponge?  Dotting tools?  Paint brushes?  Tin foil?  Let me know. :)