NOTD: Basic French Manicure + Tutorial

Simple, traditional, and completely out of the ordinary for me LOL.  I might even have been known to call a basic French manicure boring.  I also don't care for how a traditional French looks when my nails are longer, but at this length, I think it was just about perfect =)  The polishes used are Formula X for Sephora White Matter & Wondrous.  Please forgive the tiny chips on my index in the outdoor shots:

Here's the tutorial:

How often do you wear a basic french?

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Formula X for Sephora Love Chemistry

Last week was a bit hectic, with the holiday & then a condensed work week, but while I took a few days off I'm not disappearing again!

This is another from my Formula X for Sephora train case that they sent me, and I think it is one of the shiniest things I have ever had on my nails!  The coppery pink & gold combination is one that I wasn't sure about until I had it on my nails, then I was in love:

And if Formula X is a little bit out of your price range, worry not - Maybelline Color Show has a really good dupe called Gilded Rose =)  I just gave that to a friend as a birthday gift, because it's such a great color regardless of which brand you go with.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Gemmed Funky French + Tutorial

I do wish I'd used slightly smaller rhinestones for this look, but other than that it turned out mostly as planned.  And while the tips & ring finger may look like a dark blurple, they're really Wet n Wild Black Creme topped with Savvy French Rose Opal Frost:  

Here's the tutorial:

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Purple w/ Pink Flowers Matte

Missed these couple of matte pics when I was doing the last post:

I think that when I matte-ified it, I went around the rhinestones, so that they could still be shiny.  Might have looked cool if I'd matted them too though.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Purple with Pink Flowers Drag Marble + Tutorial

Hope everyone had a good thanksgiving =) I had 2, one Thursday at Grandma's house & another yesterday at my brother's.  And still a whole 2 days until I have to go back to work!

Drag marbling is to me a great example of low investment high payout, because it's so easy & can be so impressive.  This one I used OPI Vampsterdam as the base color, and the flowers are done with China Glaze Mistletoe Me!  With the rhinestone in the middle I didn't have to worry as much about bald patches caused by dragging from the center:

Here's the tutorial:



Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Pink & Blue Easter Dots + Tutorial

This was kind of a last minute design, at the time I didn't want the purple swirls on my nails for Easter LOL.  For the base white I used Orly Au Champagne, then the dotting is done with Revlon Coastal Surf & Revlon Passionate Pink:

Here's the tutorial:



Thanks for reading =)

~Colette

NOTD: Spring Pastel Rainbow Water Marble + Tutorial

So, Nail Art April started off with a marble that didn't quite fit into March =)  I used Orly Au Champagne for my base, then Marbling was done with 6 Revlon pastels - Sunshine Sparkle, Peach Smoothie, Pink Again, Gum Drop, Blue Lagoon & Minted.

I actually started out this design with a big fail that turned out kind of cool in hindsight; I wish I'd taken more pictures.  I wanted each nail to have just an arc of color, but it turned out too pale - I tried an overlay-marble of black that turned out looking grey ... and so after I did one hand I took it off & stared over again.  Here's a look at the fail that maybe wasn't quite such a fail:

Either way, this is what replaced it - due to the way I dipped my nails, they almost all turned out just a little different.  Very pale, especially in certain lights, but it was well suited for the Easter season it happened to be at the time:

I didn't have any nails that I didn't like, which as you know is pretty rare - so I took close-ups for all of them:

And of course here is the tutorial:



Thanks for reading.

~Colette