NOTD: The Hunger Games -Effie Trinket Inspired Collaboration + Tutorial

This fun nail art was part of a collab I did over on YouTube with Klaire De Lys.  You can check out the picture that we were both inspired by HERE.  We did it a bit before the movie came out & I had every intention of getting the rest of my pictures posted in short order buuuut ... well.

I started out with a base color of Nubar Precarious Lavender, which in fact is not lavender but pink.  Stamping is done with Wet n Wild Black Creme & Konad image plate m51.  I tried to keep the placement random but once I finished I kind of wished I'd just picked a pattern LOL.  The design is kind of a stem with leaves & I added flowers with both loose bronze flower-shaped sequins that I had, as well as Nyx Girls CN247 which is a silver flower glitter polish:

I did have a couple of favorite nails where the placement of the stamps & the placement of the flowers came together in very pleasing fashion:

& of course here is the tutorial:

Klaire is more of a makeup guru, although she does nails on occasion - & here is her beautiful tutorial as well:

Collabs can be kind of stressful, I feel this need to live up to the expectations of the person who approached me, especially when it's someone who I'm a huge fan of already like Klaire.  But in the end so fun & so worth it =)

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Friday I'm in Love Water Marble + Tutorial

This was a fun YouTube collab that I think I posted about at the time & encouraged bloggers to join in as well =)

I started out by prepping my nails with Orly Au Champagne which is a surprisingly opaque shimmery white.  Marbling is done with Zoya Ali & Wet n Wild Disturbia:

Here's a closer look at a few of my favorite nails - top row is from my left hand & bottom row from my right:

Here's the tutorial:

And if you'd like to see some more of the other entries, please check out my Friday I'm in Love Playlist HERE - there were a ton of really great contributions =)

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Friday I'm in Love

Well, I decided that I see no reason not to spread this YouTube-wide collab throughout the blogosphere as well.  Robinmoses & ProfessionalDQ organized one for winter/Christmas that turned out wonderful & as you may have guessed by the title, this one is for Valentine's Day.  Check out Robin's video:

So if you're a blogger join in!  Even if you're not, join in & feel free to share pictures on my Facebook fan page =)  Spread the nail art love this Valentine's!

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Mosaic Snowflales

This is the manicure I did as part of the Let it Snow collaboration on YouTube back on the 5th.  If you'd like to see some of the other amazing entries, check out my Let it Snow Playlist HERE.

I kind of knew everyone would expect a marble from me, so I wanted to do something completely different.  I stumped myself until I decided to play around with some small sequins.  I couldn't remember exactly where I got them but I went back to look & finally figured out I'm pretty sure they're part of the 10 wheel Bundle Monster rhinestones from Amazon.  The black base color is L'Oreal Raven's Strength.  I was really, really happy with this manicure, the sequins give such a different look in different lights:

The only thing I would change, in retrospect, is that I would have put 4 points on my index finger, and I think it would have been a bit more balanced than it was with only 3.  Relatively minor in the grand scheme of things LOL.

Here's the tutorial:

And here are a few shots of my experimenting, trying to figure out what exactly I was going to do with the sequins & if I wanted to include any rhinestones or glitter polish over the black base:

Thanks for reading =)

~Colette

NOTD: Double Rainbow Water Marble + Tutorial & My First Collaboration!

Excited & flattered to be doing a collab with Karina from BeautifulYouTV =)  Everything just fell into place, we agreed on a theme right away & it was actually a look I'd already half-planned to do.  Rainbow!  And these did indeed turn out to be my birthday nails.

After the Rainbow Double Spiral marble, I really wanted to do a design that showed off all of the colors in the China Glaze Island Escape collection (Senorita Bonita, Blue Iguana, Cha Cha Cha, Electric Pineapple, Papaya Punch & 108 Degrees).  I just kept the design really simple & I'm very pleased with the results:

Favorite nails are left index, middle, ring & right thumb:

& here is the tutorial:

Be sure to check out Karina's look too!  Thanks for reading.

~Colette