Football Season Officially Hit OHIO!!!

There comes a time in every football fanatic wife's life that she just has to jump on the wagon and cheer for her husbands team!  I am not a sports fan by any stretch of the word, but my hubby loves anything and everything sports related; therefore when it came to college football he is nuts for Ohio State University!  When I say nuts I mean that Byron is a total BUCKEYE!

It has been said that The Ohio State University has the largest fan base of any college football team.  Sure, we have had our share of mishaps but this season is proving to be a fresh start of sorts.  With the addition of Urban Meyer as our new head coach, my husband is more excited than ever about the prospect of a great season.  So far it is shaping up to be a good season! Let's hope the Bucks keep it up!

When I asked my husband what I should do to my nails this weekend he smiled and asked if I could do an OSU inspired mani.  Was I up for the challenge?  You be the judge!  I must admit that my model for this mani was Cheryl Cheryl at Polish2Times.com.  Cheryl did this mani (minus some embellishment) in December and I loved it so much I decided to try it myself!  You can see Cheryl's post here.

For this mani I used OPI An Affair in Red Square, China Glaze Recycle and Finger Paints striping polish in Hip Hip Hue-Ray and Ch-Art-Coal Black.  Using my dotting tool from M.A.S.H Nails and some cute little rhinestone accents my mani was complete!  I hope you like it as much as my hubby does!

CG Recycle, OPI An Affair in Red Square, FP Striping Polish

And now the mani that all of you OSU fan's have been waiting for!

Left Hand

 Left Hand

And just to prove that I can paint on my right hand... LOL!

Right Hand

Right Hand

So there you have it, my OSU mani!  Off to watch the game with my freshly manicured fingers crossed for a win!!!  GO BUCKS! 

Tell me what you think!  Who will you be cheering for this season?  

Spotted Lizard

Today I am going to really try and not ramble too much!  It is so hard for me!  Here goes nothing!  

Sometimes I like to pull out polish and just play around.  I come up with some crazy stuff and on occasion I come up with something I really like.  The mani that I am sharing with you today is super crazy and fun.  I have coined it the Spotted Lizard Mani.  For this mani I used Finger Paints Guggen I'm Lime, Rimmel London Marine Blue and NYC Matte me Crazy.

Finger Paints Guggen I'm Lime, Rimmel London Marine Blue and NYC Matte me Crazy

With one coat of Finger Paints Base Coat and two coats of Guggen I'm Lime, I used my dotting tool to create the dots on all my but my middle finger.  On my middle finger I used the same base coat with one coat of Marine Blue.  After letting my middle finger dry completely, I used a few thin strips of tape and just placed them in a semi-star pattern. Painting a layer of Guggen and removing the tape, I was left with something really quite cool.  It ended up looking a bit like coral to me.  I followed up by adding some Guggen dots to my middle finger and completed the mani with a coat of NYC Matte me Crazy.  I really hope you like what I came up with!

Lizard Mani 

Lizard Mani

I really had fun with this mani!  The matte finish it made really cool and in person it really looked like spotted lizard.  Let me know what you think.  Do you ever just play with polish or try and come up with something wild and crazy?

Tape Mani... Finally!!!

It has been a while since E first told me about the "tape mani".   This fun nail art technique using tape to create really nice sharp edges or shapes on your nails was something that has alluded me for a while now!!! I mean, it sounds so complicated, but she said it wasn't! How can this be? It's tape! I mean, she has pulled off some really cute mani's using this method and always told me that I should try it.  My patience level is not quite where E's is and she seems to get some really cool things done that I just cannot get my head around!  LOL!  "Just try and try again" she always tells me.  So I figured the other day while we were skype-ing I would try and see what I could come up with.

I already had a nice base of Wet n Wild - Through the Grapevine on my nails, so next I got out my little scissors and just started cutting some little strips of tape. Trying to place them on my nails evenly was a different story.  I will say that this was actually a fun mani to do.  It really didn't take that long and I really like the fact that it wasn't too messy.  So here is what I came up with... I hope you like it and please keep in mind this was my first time!  LOL!  I will continue to "try and try again" and hopefully, if I'm very patient and lucky, I will be able to use this trick to do many more interesting mani's in the future.  

Tada!  

Dotting Tool, Sally Hansen White On, Wet'n'Wild Through the Grapevine, I Need a Refresh-Mint & Club Havana

Not bad for my first attempt... I hope!

Polka Dot or Not?

I have been noticing several polka dot mani's all over the web in the past few weeks and thought that I might try my hand at a little dotting fun!  I tend to be an out of the box kinda girl,.  Ya know, color outside lines and try to live on the wild side.  Polka dots always seemed so "prim and proper" to me. I felt like if I had polka dots then I would also need a cup of tea to go with my mani.  LOL

I started playing around with the idea of coming up with some sort of polka dot mani and when I got my dotting tools from Amazon I figured, why not just try something?  After some time playing around with my new toys I began to love dotting.  Still not quite sold on the straight polka dot on all five fingers but there is definitely some fun to be had with dotting! 

I did a mani a while ago with just my ring fingers dotted and I liked that just fine but, I needed to take it a step further.  I hope you like what I came up with.  The first couple of pics are of some cute flowers that I did using the dotting tools.  The alternate colors on my left and right had made it interesting, I think.  The second set of images is more of an art deco dotting mani.  Let me know what you think!

Warm Weather Cool Colors

China Glaze Reggae to Riches

The weather is breaking here in the mid-west and although I love my deep dark moody polish, I have been really trying to step out of my box and get ready for spring and summer in style!  I would be lying if I said it was easy to step outside of my comfort zone!  IT IS NOT!  I am a true creature of habit even when it comes to my nail polish.  I was starting to find that even though I was buying polishes with different names, they began to all look very similar! What I had was blacks, blues, grays and silvers all just a shade different than the next.  Don't get me wrong, I will always be a lover of a good dark nail, but I have begun to see the error of my ways and hope to join the mainstream form of thought. When the sun comes out its time to brighten things up a bit!  So here goes nothing…

Why not start with a pink color?  LOL!  It may not seem like a big step to some, but I am so far from a pink girl its not funny!  I looked around the store for a while before I came across my first out of character purchase… Reggae to Riches by China Glaze!  I will say that I thought the color was ok in the bottle but the name really did something to me; I love reggae music and that was enough to make me want to buy it!  Good thing I did because I LOVE it… just in case you didn't get that the first time… I LOVE A PINK POLISH!!!!  (well that’s what I thought anyway)  I say that because this polish really is an awesome flip-flop of sorts! In some light it looks really pink and then in some light it looks really fuchsia and as a bonus you also get a bit of blue and purple in this duo-chrome! 

I started my polish with a nice coat of Beauty Secrets Hardener as a base coat.  I love this stuff!  It is fairly inexpensive and can be purchased at any Sally Beauty Supply.  It is thick enough to act as a nice ridge filler and it leaves a really nice smooth finish and holds polish really well.  I can keep a manicure for over a week when I use this polish.  Let me clarify that I take care of kids and a pet and cook and do dishes throughout the week so to keep a mani for week is a nice plus!

Reggae to Riches can be purchased for $5.99 ($4.99 if you have a Sally's Club Card) at Sally Beauty Supply.  I applied two coats of the polish... the first coat was pretty thin and then the second coat was a bit thicker.  I really didn't have too much trouble with streaking or thin spots.  The polish goes on pretty evenly and with my base coat it was really smooth and velvety.  I love easy polish and this really was an easy polish!  

The final step on my mani was to add a little pop with the white polka dots.  For this step I used L.A Colors white nail art liner.   Honestly, I found this polish for about $1.50 at a random Dollar General.  I know it doesn't sound too glamorous but some of the best deals on polish can be found at these types of stores.  When it comes to nail art, I would rather spend my money on a nice bottle of polish and be a little more frugal when it comes to nail art supplies.  Using a super small dotting tool I dotted my ring finger.  With a final coat of Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat, I had achieved my look!