Gnarly Gnails: Pattern: Dots

The Beauty Buffs - Trend: Royal Blue

Wednesday, April 09, 2014
By Missy
0 Comments

Hey beauties!!
It's Beauty Buffs Wednesday!
Today we are exploring the wonderful world of Royal Blue!
I have recently become quite infatuated with this shade, especially the bright cobalt version.
So today I'm going to show you some fun blue things I am loving right now, all of my favorite owned royal blue polishes and also a little mani I did for today!

Brand: BB Couture

Easter/Spring Skittle Tutorial

Sunday, March 30, 2014
By Missy
0 Comments

Hi guys!!!
Its supposed to be spring now, which is weird to me given we had flurries the other day! But in getting in that spring spirit, today I have a SPRING/EASTER Skittle TUTORIAL for you! Nory and I are doing our monthly video on Easter manicures, so make sure and check hers out too!

Brand: Incoco

Incoco - Garden Daydreams Collection Applique Review

Tuesday, March 18, 2014
By Missy
0 Comments

Hi sweet babies!!
Am I jinxing things to say I think winter may have finally taken the hint and beat it for the year?
I hope so...
Today I have part of the adorably girlie spring collection from Incoco - Garden Daydreams.

Brand: Daring Digits

White Circle Glitters - Reviewed!

Monday, March 17, 2014
By Missy
0 Comments

Hello hello!
Happy St. Patricks Day!
No green today but I've got a cute little product to share - loose white circle glitters! Circle glitters have been all the rage in polish lately, so this should give lots of you the happies!

Brand: Zoya

Nail-Art-A-Go-Go - Day 27 - Pointillism

Thursday, February 27, 2014
By Missy
0 Comments

Hello!!!
Here we are at the next to last day of the Nail-Art-A-Go-Go Challenge. Awwww. Sad face...my baby is almost done.
It sure has been fun, and challenging!
Today we are going with Pointillism. This movement is the art of creating small dots in different colors to make one larger image. I of course did nothing like that, and because of the challenging factors of this challenge, decided to kind of take it easy with just some simple dots.

Brand: Gina Tricot

Nail-Art-A-Go-Go - Day 14 - Sweets

Friday, February 14, 2014
By Missy
0 Comments

Hi babies!!
So just when I thought this crap winter couldn't get ANY worse, we lost our power last night! Like almost immediately after I posted yesterdays blog post. Luckily, unlike when the tornado hit our city and we were out of power for 4 days, this time it was only about 18 hours. So in the span of 3 weeks we've had two snowfalls and lost water AND power. Sheesh. The snow was beautiful though! Do you have any winter woes? Come on spring!!

Challenge: Nail-Art-A-Go-Go

Nail-Art-A-Go-Go - Day 12 - Camouflage

Wednesday, February 12, 2014
By Missy
0 Comments

Hey guys!
This is a little late, but I'm still on the right day at least! I've been fighting being sick for a few days and of course it never fails when you're late there will be plenty of things to be make you even later! Like SNOW! And maybe I had a nervous breakdown this morning too.
Oh well....here we go with Day 12!

Challenge: Digit-al Dozen Theme Week

GOT/Digit-al Dozen Monochrome - Grayscale Skittlette

Thursday, January 16, 2014
By Missy
0 Comments

Today I have a "double-whammy" for you guys!
Not only is it a piece for the Digit-al Dozen's Monochrome Week, but it also fills in as a prompt for the GOT Challenge (Golden Oldie Thursdays) - so look at me - multi-tasking posts and gettin' it done!

Challenge: Digit-al Dozen Theme Week

The Digit-al Dozen DOES Red, Gold & Green - Day 5

Friday, December 13, 2013
By Missy
0 Comments

Whew! Is it really Friday the 13th!?

Well, we made it through another Digit-al Dozen week together!

Here comes my Day 5 mani for Red, Gold and Green week (everytime I type Red, Gold and Green I want to start singing Karma Chameleon!) - our last Digit-al Dozen theme of 2013!

Challenge: Ab Fab

Ab Fab Challenge - Day 3 - Bubble

Wednesday, November 27, 2013
By Missy
0 Comments

It's time for some fun!
Today is Day 3 of the Ab Fab Challenge - which begins with the more whimsical ladies of the show - today is Bubble!
Bubble is the crackpot assistant to Edina who wears the most crazy outfits that almost never seem to match.
She is a total airhead and yet somehow she is a hilarious and likeable character. Her accent and voice completely crack me up whenever she is on screen.

Pattern: Comics

This is not a goodbye....

Saturday, November 02, 2013
By Missy
0 Comments

So....last month one of my favorite people, Leslie, left our Digit-al Dozen gang. Leslie is the woman behind work/play/polish if you aren't aware. She left a really big hole in the group and in me when she made the choice to leave.
Leslie is someone I admire so much for SO many reasons, and is one of those people I was so lucky to cross paths with via nails/blogging. A bunch of us in the group decided to pay a tribute to her today in honor of her time in the group with us, as well as just in honor of HER. While I will miss her in our group, I know we will remain friends for a long time to come and I look forward to seeing all of the amazing things she is going to accomplish.

Brand: Nicole by OPI

BCA Pink Week - Day 5 - Floral

Thursday, October 17, 2013
By Missy
0 Comments

I hope you've been enjoying the Breast Cancer Awareness Week, hosted by Amanda of Amandalandish.

It's been great seeing all of the pink support manicures and learning all of these very important and necessary bits of information.

Brand: OPI

33DC - Flowers

Monday, October 14, 2013
By Missy
0 Comments

Hey there. So let me get this out of the way now...there is going to be a TON of nail art on the blog this week.

I have 33DC, the Digit-al Dozen and BCA Pink Week all this week. So a few days there will be three posts a day!

3 nail arts per day!? Holy molies. I don't even know how I found the time.

Brand: American Apparel

33DC - Dots

Monday, September 23, 2013
By Missy
0 Comments

Hellooooo!

It's time for a new challenge!
Today kicks off the 33DC created by my dear Debbie and hosted over at Crumpets Nail Tarts.
It's a 33 Day Challenge but it only runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so it's sweet for those of us not trying to have a heart attack posting massive nail art every single day.
The prompts are pretty cool, too.

Here is the prompt list, and like I said, this runs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays:

So for todays manicure, Dots, I used American Apparel polishes in Cotton and Lopez Canyon and the Aqua by Bettina, which I won in a rad giveaway by Nory of Fierce Makeup and Nails.

I took this idea from Sarah of Chalkboard Nails, I loved the color palette she used and since I have always wanted to do this random sized dotticure, why not now!? I did change it up and not do all the colors on all the nails like she did, but rather more of a skittle style with an accent. And matte, always matte!

The base here is American Apparel Cotton, which I'd always thought was just straight up white, but it's not! It's actually an off white, kind of like OPI My Vampire is Buff, but less buff. Loved it!

Then I dotted Lopez Canyon on pinky, black polish on middle and Aqua on index finger. I used the backside of a paintbrush that had a thickish handle for the large dots, and then I used standard dotting tools for the other dots.

Then on the ring finger I did a combination of all the colors, just dotting a couple of dots of each color as I was using that shade and then at the end going back in and filling in where needed.

Then seal with a quick dry top coat, give it a couple minutes and go over with a matte top coat (also American Apparel) - so what do you think?

While dots are not my go to, I always love this style on others, so I'm very glad I did it now, I liked it alot, especially this color scheme, so thanks to Sarah for such a great source of inspiration!!

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An InLinkz Link-up

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Brand: OPI

OPI San Francisco Nail Art Reds on the Rocks

Monday, August 12, 2013
By Missy
0 Comments

Yay! Monday!
Not really though, right?
Does anyone like this day of the week?
Well...you can like this post at least, I hope.
So this weekend I finally got caught up on all my backend bs and am ready to get to painting these nails again! I've been doing Rejuvacote for 2 weeks (plus 1 week previous of Nailtiques) and it's done a ton of good. No more gels, no more wraps and patches. So far...so good. We still have a bunch of guest posts this month, as well as the rest of the mani's I did prior to my treatment, but come September we will be rockin' and rollin'!!

OPI - Alcatraz...Rocks

OPI - Embarca-Dare Ya

OPI - First Date at The Golden Gate

OPI - Lost on Lombard

Here is a gradient using Alcatraz...Rocks (the best liquid sand of this collection, hands down) over Embarca-Dare Ya. I really enjoyed the way these two polishes finishes and colors played with one another. Below are both of their solo swatches.

Alcatraz...Rocks swatch

Embarca-Dare Ya swatch.

The gold shimmer....it gets me.

Next up is a combo of the two brick reds in the collection that almost look identical. I thought this would be a good way to show you that, well, they're not. The base is First Date at The Golden Gate and the dots are Lost on Lombard.

First Date at The Golden Gate swatch.

Lost on Lombard swatch.

Then I finished this one off with a matte top coat. For someone who isn't big on reds, I really like these because they have that warm brown lean to them that I can handle way better than in your face blue-reds.

To see my swatches of the full collection - CLICK HERE.

**items in this post were sent to me for free by the company or their PR firm in exchange for my honest review**

Brand: China Glaze

Back in Time Part 2 - July Edition

Monday, July 15, 2013
By Missy
0 Comments

Welcome BACK to the BACK IN TIME segment of the blog!

This is where we go back and re-do old manicures. The first of the month we do our own, the 15th of the month we do the other persons.

This challenge consists of myself, Smashley and Debbie - however, Debbie has moved on from this challenge so now it's just me and the Smasher!
Let's see what mani of hers I recreated...shall we?

Here is Ashleys on the left, and my re-imagining on the right. She actually based hers off of the following scrapbooking cover, so I took a little from that as well as her previous design:

So I had the idea to do some houndstooth in this, but omg...three fails and I gave up.

HERE is her full blog post.

I made a few changes, for one I switched up 2 florals for a combination of the 2 into one. Then I also did this in neon instead. And matte.

I used a neon pink from POP Beauty (the name isnt on the bottle since I bought it in a duo of lip balm and polish, but I think it may be called Pinkest), the neon green is I'm With the Lifeguard by China Glaze. Then black and white.

I am proud to say that even though the many fails of houndstooth are gone, I freehanded this whole thing. First florals I've done that I actually like, too.

Make sure and visit Smasher to see what mani she did of MINE!

Brand: Bettina

Reverse Stripes Tutorial with a side of Stars!

Friday, June 28, 2013
By Missy
0 Comments

Hey you guys!!!
I need to get out of the habit of wanting to start my posts off by apologizing and just jump right into the business. I do feel bad though when I miss a day of posting, but sometimes the days just get away from you!

So today is a TUTORIAL! Woot!
This is one many people asked about me doing when I posted it, its pretty basic so it's not too picture heavy and I think it is definitely in the "easy nail art" category!

Brand: Barielle

Candysplosion!

Saturday, June 22, 2013
By Missy
0 Comments

Today I've got a fun treat for you!

Something sweet!

Candy?

Maybe...I don't really know.

I've got a review on some cool Indie Water Decals!

Challenge: 30/31 Day Challenge

30/31 Day Challenge: Day 15 - Delicate Print

Saturday, September 15, 2012
By Missy
10 Comments

I've been really itching to do a feminine type post lately.
I had a few different ideas floating around, but as with most of my manicures, I usually end up doing something different at the last minute. I am the epitome of a woman who constantly changes her mind!

I decided to go with a pretty and feminine wallpaper style mani. The base for the manicure is Sinful Colors Be Happy. A dupe for so many like it, including China Glaze For Audrey. This one has a MINUTE shimmer in the bottle which, if it translates to the nail at all, is almost impossible to detect.

For my flowers, I used American Apparel Pink Ladies and Color Club Warhol. The leaves were done using Models Own Green Tea. The stripes were done with a basic white striper polish.

There's a lot of hype around Butter London right now and their awesome deal on Coterie - one of those deals includes their Matte Top Coat, and if you want to know how good it is, this should help you, since it's what I used on this mani. The best matte top coat I have tried so far.

Here are the other ladies participating in this epic challenge:

Challenge: 30/31 Day Challenge

30/31 Day Challenge: Day 11 - Polka Dots

Tuesday, September 11, 2012
By Missy
13 Comments

Day 11 now on the 30/31 Day Challenge.
I'm glad I've stuck with it so far, trying to push myself to get ahead has been a huge help in getting through, that's for sure.
Today is Polka Dots and I'm so stoked on how this came out.
Let's get to the business and I'll walk you through it:

This is my pre-mani. The one I did before I finished and took pics of in case I hated the final version. It turned out after some hemming and hawing, that I loved the final version more, but here is a "before" shot. Yellow is Nails Inc Hampstead Gardens, the most amazing ochre color you've ever seen. The blue is Indigo by Love & Beauty.

Now this is the finished mani with a top coat added! I love this soooo much!

Hampstead Gardens was opaque in one coat, though I did use two just in case the camera wanted to be finnicky. Indigo took 3 coats.

For something as random as polka dots, I loved the color combination of this sooo much that I actually wore it for 3 days. That's kind of a big deal around these parts!

Hope you enjoyed! Check out the other dotsters today:

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Stories

Pages

The Beauty Buffs - Trend: Royal Blue

Easter/Spring Skittle Tutorial

Incoco - Garden Daydreams Collection Applique Review

White Circle Glitters - Reviewed!

Nail-Art-A-Go-Go - Day 27 - Pointillism

Nail-Art-A-Go-Go - Day 14 - Sweets

Nail-Art-A-Go-Go - Day 12 - Camouflage

GOT/Digit-al Dozen Monochrome - Grayscale Skittlette

The Digit-al Dozen DOES Red, Gold & Green - Day 5

Ab Fab Challenge - Day 3 - Bubble

This is not a goodbye....

BCA Pink Week - Day 5 - Floral

33DC - Flowers

33DC - Dots

OPI San Francisco Nail Art Reds on the Rocks

Back in Time Part 2 - July Edition

Reverse Stripes Tutorial with a side of Stars!

Candysplosion!

30/31 Day Challenge: Day 15 - Delicate Print

30/31 Day Challenge: Day 11 - Polka Dots

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About the Author

Missy has been a nail and beauty blogger since January 2012, residing in South Carolina with her boyfriend and furbaby.

Coloring is MAC NC20.

For more info, please click the about link at the top of the page. Thanks for stopping by!

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