I'm Going to Nail School!

Over the last couple of years, I've really started to love nails and polish, and especially nail art. I figured I would have to wait for my youngest daughter to start school (in 3 years) before I would be able to go to nail school. Then I heard about a school in town that was going to have a night class! Now with some amazing friends and neighbors, and my wonderful, supportive husband, I'm making my dream come true! 

The first thing I did was go and take a tour of the school, I decided I needed to have awesome nails for the occasion, so I went with a neon gradient with chevrons! Because who doesn't love chevrons right now??

I used SquareHue- Kalver Straat and P.C. Hooft Straat for my gradient, then stamped the chevrons with Milani- White on the Spot and Messy Mansion plate MM12.

 After taking the tour, I was really excited. It took awhile working with the bank to get the finance side all figured out, and then the day came to go in and fill out paperwork and sign a contract! It was finally really going to happen!

For these, I randomly sponged on Sally Hansen Insta-dri- Pink Blink, Essie- Mint Candy Apple, Loreal- Meant to Be, and NYC- Water Street Blue. Then I stamped with Milani- White on the Spot and Pueen 26.

Then came my first day of school!

I used SquareHue- Placa Catalunya and Rambla de Raval for my gradient, and I absolutely loved how that turned out! Then I stamped with Konad Black and BM-223. 

I'm so excited to start this new phase of my life. And to turn this hobby into a career!

Arabesque Stamping Plate Review from Born Pretty Store

Today I have something new and exciting to share with you all! 

I'm happy to have been given the opportunity to review some items from the Born Pretty Store. The first thing I have to share is a new stamping plate! I love stamping, there are so many fun possibilities! This is the Quirky Arabesque Plate. It's only $2.99 on their site! Isn't is awesome!?

 I used Konad Special Black stamping polish, and the whole plate stamps amazing! Look how crisp and beautiful that looks!

 I decided while stamping that this would be the perfect time to try the leadlighting technique I've been wanting to try! So I grabbed some jellies and dotting tools and got started! I used OPI- I Theodora You, Loreal- Berry Nice, and LA Colors- Aquatic. I definitely need some more jellies to try this again, but it was a lot of fun, and I love how it turned out! I can't wait to play with this plate more!

Bonus!! You can use this code: JPQX31

 and get 10% off your order!!

Don't forget to check out all the awesome things the Born Pretty Store has to offer!!

Girly Zebra with a holo topcoat!

I saw a post recently in the Polishaholics Annoymous Facebook group about a holographic top coat. The ability to make every polish holo? Tell me more! Jenn, the maker of Daily Hues Lacquer posted some swatches of before and after applying Ricca, her holo topcoat, and I was sold!

Here's my first look using my amazing new discovery. This is 3 coats of SquareHue- Happy creme, topped with 2 coats of Daily Hues-Ricca. So much gorgeous.

 I added some zebra print with BM-223 and Essie- Watermelon.

 

I just LOVE how this one turned out. I didn't get a very good picture of it in the sunlight, it was overcast the entire next day that I was wearing it. The lightbox just doesn't do it justice. It's incredible. 

To get your own bottle of Ricca, GO HERE!! She also just listed her new summer line, and they are gorgeous as well!

May SquareHue Box

The Passport Collection: Rio

These colors just scream carnival to me! Granted, all I really know is what I saw from the movie Rio, but that's what these instantly reminded me of.

First up we have Ipanema. A bright golden yellow microglitter. This is 3 coats, no top coat.

 

 

 Next is Leblon, a kelly green shimmer. This is 3 coats, no top coat.

 

Last is Copacabana, a bright, gorgeous blue glitter. This one is packed full of turquoise and holographic glitter. The picture absolutely doesn't do it justice. It's an amazing glitter bomb. I used 4 coats with no top coat for this swatch. It could use some undies though for more opacity.

 I think SquareHue nailed this month! Stay tuned next month for The Passport Collection: Maui.

Check out SquareHue.com to order your own box!

Quilted Reciprocal Gradient

Since the last time I did a reciprocal gradient, I've been really wanting to try it again. I just needed to carve out the time! For this one I did something a little different, instead of just stripes, I decided to put the tape in a quilt pattern. I absolutely love the way it turned out!

The colors I used were NYC- Boundless Berry, Color Club- Sweet Pea, and Color Club- Blushing Rose.

 

This is probably one of my favorite manis to date!

A Springy Braid + Tutorial!

I decided to do another braided look because it's so easy and I love the way it looks! I wanted to do something a little softer and springy, so I grabbed a white and some blue and got to work! I was texting my friend, Sarah, and when I told her I was doing a braid, she said I still needed to show her how to do one. So I decided to make my very first picture tutorial. It was a bit time consuming, but I had a lot of fun with it! I hope it's helpful for anyone wanting to try out braided nails!

The colors I used were OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Essie- Mint Candy Apple, and Essie- In the Cab-ana.

Step 1. Paint your base color
Step 2. Start at one "corner" of your cuticle and paint a stripe (doesn't have to go clear to the other side, just needs to cover the middle)
Step 3. Paint another stripe from the opposite "corner"
Step 4. Overlapping your first stripe, paint another with your base color
Step 5. Continue adding stripes, alternating colors
Step 6. When you get to the end, be sure to cap the tips to make your polish last longer!
Step 7. Paint your last stripe!
Step 8. Clean up around your nails and add a top coat to smooth everything out!

I hope you enjoyed this one! Let me know if there is any other design you would like a tutorial for! I'll see what I can do :)

April SquareHue Box

The Passport Collection: Amsterdam

The preview for this month looked very colorful, and as you can see, it is!

The first color is Beethovenstraat, a neon green high gloss creme. This color is so bright and fun! It's not my favorite, I don't usually like greens on myself, but it's perfect for summer nail art! The formula was a bit thin, I used 4 coats for full opacity, no top coat.

Next up is Kalverstraat. A beautiful, hot pink, almost a touch the salmon side. This one is also very bright, perfect summer color. I used 3 coats, no top coat.

Last color is P.C. Hooftstraat, they call this one a duochrome, but it almost looks like more of a shimmer to me. It's a gorgeous purple with bright blue shimmer in it. This one was also a little sheer, I used 4 coats, no top coat.

And here's a fun little dotticure with all 3 colors! I also used Sinful Colors- Snow me White.

Stay tuned next month for The Passport Collection: RIO!

butter LONDON- Scallywag

Awhile back on my Facebook page, I mentioned that butter LONDON was having a sale. I picked up two polishes for 50% off! This is one of those.

This is two coats of Scallywag. Isn't is incredible?!? It's the most gorgeous teal glitter. It's really dense, so you don't really need undies with it. It does dry a bit gritty though, so I used a thick coat of HK Girl on top. It really enhanced the sparkle too!

 

 A blurry shot to show that sparkle!

I added a simple stamp so I didn't cover up all that gorgeous glitter. I used Sinful Colors- Snow Me White and BM-313.

I love this color so much, but it chips like crazy! I can usually get a pretty solid 4 days out of a polish without a chip, this polish was chipping the next morning. Such a disappointment :(

Royal Lacquer-Love Me Tender and Such a Lady

Today we have two more gorgeous shades from Royal Lacquer. Love Me Tender from their Valentine's collection, and Such a Lady. I love these! They are so girly and beautiful!

 

I actually did these nails right before Valentine's Day with the intention of posting them before then, but time got away from me and it just didn't happen.

Both of these colors were opaque in two easy coats. They had a special  with their Valentine's polishes, you got a sheet of heart decals with each purchase. I chose these with Love Me Tender, and they threw in Such a Lady and some cute pink hearts too! I love how easy these decals are, and these two colors looked perfect together!

There are all these pretty iridescent  glitters that didn't really show up in my pictures :( It was much more sparkly in real life.

Check out their Etsy shop here for other colors and decals!

Zoya-Tinsley with Pueen Stamping

Awhile back when Zoya had their big sale, this is one of the colors I got. I'm so glad I did because it is gorgeous! I love the golden shimmer it has.

Seriously, I can't get over how pretty this is.

I have been craving some new stamping plates, so I got the Pueen Love Elements set. I love all the girly images! Lots of hearts and swirls. This ruffled image I've seen others use before and loved it, so it was the first one I tried out. I used Sinful Colors- Snow me White and Pueen 32.

February SquareHue Box

The Passport Collection: Tokyo

Nails Ablaze, Harajuku Style

I don't know much about Tokyo, or about Harajuku, but from a little googling, I could tell it was a little wild and very colorful. And SquareHue didn't disappoint!

The first color is Roppongi, a bright green glitter with a hint of golden shimmer. It's full of iridescent glitters. I'm not a big fan of this shade of green. It may look better layered over something rather than on it's own though. The formula was a bit sheer, I used 3 coats for the photo below and there is still slight VNL.

Next up is Shibuya, a bright pink/magenta with blue microglitter. I really love this one! This one started out a little sheer, but built up easily. I used 3 coats for full opacity.

Last is Ginza. A kind of sky blue shimmer. I think this one is gorgeous. Its almost got more of a frost finish than a shimmer, as you can tell by the slight brush strokes. I used 3 coats for full opacity.

Overall, I think this box is very fun! It's bright and glittery, a nice change of pace for the yucky winter weather we're having!

Next month is The Passport Collection: Paris. Sign up now so you don't miss it!

Zoya- Aurora with a heart

I finally got my Zoya order in the mail and was so excited to play with my new gorgeous colors! 

I used two coats of Zoya- Aurora for all but the accent. That is two coats of OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls with a heart in Aurora. I just used a dotting tool for the heart. I absolutely LOVE this color!! It's amazing! I'm glad it's one of the three I ended up going with.

I'm happy that Valentine's Day is around the corner, lots of hearts and girly colors on their way!

Simple Swirls

I did these nails a few weeks ago, on pretty short nails. The base color is a mini that came in a 7 pack from Ross. They don't really have a brand, but the color is called Cranberry. I stamped with BM-314 and Sinful Colors- Snow Me White.

In other news...after the big share the love event last weekend, my Facebook page just hit 500 likes! I'm in shock! Before the weekend, I think I had 73! I'm so excited and hope everyone likes my work! I also started posting a little on Instagram. You can find me there @kickacetone.

Go Niners!

To be perfectly honest, I don't care much about football. But my husband is from Sacramento and is a huge 49ers fan, so these are for him :) They're playing the Seahawks tomorrow and he says he thinks this game is going to be bigger than the superbowl, so I decided I probably should do some nails for the occasion.

I'm really loving the braid look lately. It's easy and just looks so cool! For this one I used OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Color Club- Berry and Bright, and SquareHue- Honor. My accent nail was done with Berry and Bright and black and white Nail Ritz pens. My husband loved them, so mission accomplished!

 My girls also wanted 49ers nails! This picture is of my almost 2-year-old's nails. I had to be quick for obvious reasons, so don't mind the messy job with lack of cleanup :) I've been painting her toenails since she was 3 months old, but this is only the second time I've done her fingernails. It's cute how she wants to show everyone :)

This one is my other two girls. The top hand is my 4-year-old, the bottom is my 8-year-old. They thought it was so fun that they all had matching nails. I tried to get a picture of all 3 of them, but my baby wasn't having it.

Anyone else rooting for the Niners??

Glitter Chevrons!

I started out with the intent of doing a pond manicure for today. It reeeeally didn't work out. My layering polish was a little too sheer. I'll give that look a try another time. So after one failed mani, I completely switched directions and started over about 10:30 last night. I absolutely love how this turned out!

I started with 2 coats of OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls, then used the large chevron Vynails nail decals. I used them as guides for this look. They were super easy to use, and it went really quickly. I painted one coat of Nina- Twinkle, Twinkle over the guides, then peeled them off with tweezers while the polish was still wet.

This is something I would definitely do again! But I'll need more of those chevron stickers! And that blue glitter! Isn't is amazing?? I was surprised how opaque it was in just one coat as well! I picked this gem up on clearance at Sally's a few weeks ago.

Double Holo Houndstooth

Sometimes I just don't want to do "seasonally appropriate" nails. Sometimes I just want something that will make me happy. And what's more happy than sparkle, holographic, and pink!

I started with 2 coats of Orly- Miss Conduct, by far one of my very favorite polishes. I stamped with BM-322 and Color Club- Cloud Nine.

I love how this looks in direct light, as well as indirect.

Miss Conduct is a scattered holo, and Cloud Nine is a linear holo, I wasn't sure how they would look together, but I think it turned out pretty awesome!

Now those are happy nails :)

Holo Snowflakes

I've been wanting to do a winter nail art look, but wasn't really feeling like the usual blues and grays that go with winter. I needed something happy and fun. So I went with China Glaze- When Stars Collide, a beautiful, rich, holographic purple. I used Sinful Colors- Snow Me White and BM-323 for the snowflakes.

 I really love how these turned out. They're very "happy winter". I like that.

January SquareHue Box

 I realized when I got the shipping notification for this box that I never did post the swatches from last month's box! So if anyone is interested in seeing those, just let me know and I'll post them :)

The Passport Collection- London

I was pretty excited to see what was in store for this box. I went to London with my brother when I was 17 and it was incredible! So it was fun to see the names of the polishes were places that I've been to :) To be completely honest, I was slightly underwhelmed when I saw the colors, and then I swatched them...and it totally changed my mind!

First up is Buckingham, a gorgeous deep burgundy. I absolutely love this! Upon first glance, I wasn't too impressed, but on the nail it was incredible. It's so rich and dreamy, and once again, crazy awesome shine. This is 2 coats, no topcoat.

 

 Next up is Westminster, sort of an off white, cream color. The formula on this one was a little streaky and probably could have used one more coat to even it out more. I used 3 thin coats for this photo. I don't love this color on it's own, but I think it will be great to use for nail art!

 Last, we have West End, a dark blue shimmer. I thought this one looked the most interesting at first glance, and it's an absolute stunner on the nail! You can see a hint of the bright blue shimmer in this picture, so pretty!! I used 3 coats, no topcoat. Even thought this one isn't one of the hi-gloss cremes, it still has great shine.

Have you signed up for SquareHue yet?!?

Do it!!