Candy meets Cupcake

This mani was super easy but got loads of compliments!!

A base coat the a Coat of Finger Paints Cupcake Heaven. It's a creme robin's egg blue shade and party of the Candy Coated collection.

Then 2 coats of Revlon Moon Candy in Moon Dust. It's a super sparkly clear base with irridescent mylar flakes.

I can't get over how sparkly this is!!

 

China Glaze Texture

While I was at Sally Beauty Supply I spotted the Texture collection by China Glaze. I couldn't resist trying one out. I got China Glaze Texture in shade Itty, Bitty, & Gritty.

 

 

 

 

It is a cream, somewhere in the coral color family. My pictures make it look more orange than it really is- the pains of using an Ipod as a camera.

 

It only needed 2 coats to get complete coverage. It has an interesting texture somewhat like an emery board. It isn't scratchy though and hasn't gotten caught when running my fingers through my hair.

From a distance it kind of looks like flocking!

Black Light Nails

So I was at WalMart and I stubbled across and awesome polish find!!

 

 

Pure Ice Black Light Top Coat. I was skeptical at first but I really works!

 

I painted my nails with a coat of OPI Just Groovy.

 

 

Then a painted on a coat of Wet and Wild Kaleidoscope Top Coat.

 

 

 Then a coat of the Pure Ice Black Light Top Coat. It went on completely clear and has a nice gloss to it.

 

 

When under the black light, my nails glowed like crazy!! How cool is that!?!

 

 

 



Scented Jawbreaker Nails

I love finding new vegan options for my nails and I've created a fun manicure combining some...
Orly French Tip in Pointe Blanche- A nice thick, opaque white- think White Out Correction Fluid.
Hard Candy Matte Top Coat Matte-ly In Love- Makes any nail polish into a matte finish- great for design backgrounds!
Claire's Scented Polish Set of 6: Strawberry, Banana, Orange, Lime, Cherry, and Fruit Punch- They all have individual scents remniscent of Runts candies!

I started with Finger Paints Base Coat and a coat of Orly...

Then a coat of Hard Candy Matte...

Next, I pulled out the scented polishes and got ready to paint.

 I used a Konad plate as a paint palette and the back end of a hair dye bruch handle to design with. I would have prefered a dot tool but mine has gone missing.

I began with adding random dots and dashes with blue, then red, then yellow. These are the classic jawbreaker colors, as is having more white background showing.

I couldn't help but use all the other colors too!! More flavor doesn't hurt does it?!?!

Caviar Manicure Nail Rock

I was in WalMart and ran across a new product called Nail Rock which is a kit with a bottle of nail polish and a jar of microbeads, or nail caviar. I scrutinized the ingredients and found it is vegan! There were a selection of color combinations but the one I chose has gold nail polish and a jar of microbeads that are metallic silver, orange, pink, and teal.
It has instructions that say paint nails with 2 coats; dip into caviar; press beads firmly ontp nails; let dry 15-20 minutes.

I have however, never been able to get microbeads to stick with just polish so I pulled out the big guns!

 I bought a bottle of brush-on nail glue.

This is 1 coat of the polish- it's pretty sheer.

The second coat gets it pretty opaque- I would go with 3 if I was going to wear it plain.

Paint on a coat of glue, just like polish.

Dip into the microbeads, making sure to completely cover the nail.

Press the beads down and clear the loose ones from your finger tips.

Pretty blingy!

*UPDATE*
It didn't even stay on a whole day- I was losing beads left and right everywhere I went.
I'm not sure what to try to get them to stick next. I really thought the nail glue would do the trick. Perhaps I'm not painting thick enough coats to grasp the caviar....

12 hours after applying the beads they were all gone :(

Spring Manicure

I just got this cute t-shirt and cardigan at Old Navy and needed some color on my nails!

  

I used a base coat of Revlon Scented Mad About Mango- an opaque bright coral color.
Then, I covered it with China Glaze Crackle Glaze Tarnished Gold- shimmery, metallic, sandy gold.

It's a great combo as the metallic color is subtle but draws the eye, the crackle adds texture and interest, and the color peeks out to scream "Yay for Spring"!

Types of Vegan Nail Polish that I Use

From the companies promoting vegan products and those I have read ingredients of and contacted these are the brands of Nail Polish that I use on my finger nails:

 

Zoya- This company is all vegan and very bold about it! They do Not do animal testing and are * Big 3 Free and * Camphor Free. They offer many colors in a variety of opacity and finishes!

Revlon- This company makes vegan nail polish that is * Big 3 Free. They make a lot of awesome polish varieties including scented!

Finger Paints- This company makes vegan nail polish that is * Big 3 Free. They do Not do any animal testing. They make several colors and come out with special editions like special effect topcoats and the Candy Coating line which has tubs of caviar beads (microbeads)!

China Glaze- This company makes vegan nail polish that is * Big 3 Free. They make a lot of great colors and have some very cool lines like holographic, magnetic, crackle, and textured. They also have special lines to go with some movie releases!

OPI- This company makes vegan polish and they are * Big 3 Free. They have some outstanding colors and finishes and have limited edition lines that come out for movies and some created by celebs.

Konad- This company has vegan "special" polish that is * Big 3 Free. The special part about this polish is it's viscosity (thicker fluid) that is used for nail stamping!


* Big 3- Formaldehyde, Toluene, and Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP) and * Camphor have been linked with causing and aggrevating Cancer cells.