NOTD: Green Color Block for Depression Awareness + Tutorial

Well, this is just a tad late onto the blog, but I did manage to get it posted on YouTube before the end of October which was my goal.  (October is Depression Awareness Month)

This manicure was inspired by a design I saw on Pinterest and added to my "I Wanna Try That" board (here:  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/460422761875760772/), and after digging through just my unworns I picked a light green for my base color & seven additional greens for my blocks; Piggy Polish Daylilly's & Music, Color Club Kiss Me Mistletoe, Finger Paints Evergreen Dream, Icing All That Glitters is Green, Love & Beauty ? (no label & not sure if it ever had one), Sinful Colors Exotic Green, Ulta Army of 1 & Zoya Shawn:

I made each nail a little different, but if you have one that you particularly like, obviously you could stick with just one style.  Here's the tutorial:

I think I already have more ideas pinned than I may ever get to, but now that I'm finally on there I just can't help myself, there are so many cool ideas!  So you can count on seeing more Pinterest-inspired manis going forward =)

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Happy Easter! NOTD: Blue Zig-Zag Funky French

I hope everyone had a great Easter!  I did this before I left but did not have time right then for the editing =)  So I'm putting it up now.  Last year when I did this design in purple & pink, I got a lot of requests for a tutorial, so I did one this year in blue - base color is Milani Cloud 9 (my blue one, since I also have a lavender Cloud 9 from Milani...), and the tips are done with Milani Cyberspace:

Here's the tutorial:

Bonus pic!  Here's just one of the delicious things we ate today, my contribution:

Pink are lemon cake with lemon coating, blue are lemon cake with lime coating - yummy both!  Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: PHD Vampire Challenge (Zoya Pinta + Rihana)

So, this week's Polish Hoarder Disorder Challenge was vampire nails.  Not like, vampires on your nails, but what kind of manicure would a vampire have?  You can check out the Challenge Gallery HERE:

Something dark & chic I thought, but with a hit of something sharp ... I was going to do a tutorial, but the colors were just too dark to show up on video.  I started with a base of 2 coats of Zoya Pinta, gorgeous vampy purple creme, and I let that dry completely.  I cut painter's tape into a chevron shape, covered the tip of my finger, and then sponged the base with Zoya Rihana.  I am in LOVE:

Even being in love, I'm still only 90% happy LOL.  I had some bubbling, I'm not sure if from the uneven texture of the sponged area, I'm actually thinking my Seche is the more likely culprit.  I also wish I'd made Rihana just a little intense, sponged it a bit further down.  But that's OK, because I'm going to do this in another color combination so I can do a tutorial, so I can hopefully make the adjustment then =)

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Sally Hansen Sea And Be Seen w/ OPI Ink Stripes

This was kind of disappointing for me. I was tired, the lines didn't come out very straight or even, and I felt like the inverted triangle made my nails look shorter.  But the idea is worth revisiting, sometime when I've forgotten how much it frustrated me LOL.

I started out with a base of Sally Hansen Sea And Be Seen.  Gorgeous, lovely color but this was I think 3 coats & the only reason I didn't add a 4th was the fact that I knew I'd be doing the stripes on the tip to disguise the VNL.  I would suggest Sephora by OPI Underwater Fantasy as an alternative, because I recall it being more opaque & they're dupes ... you can see how many of Sally's spring colors are $OPI dupes HERE at Steph's Closet, it's kind of ridiculous.

After that dried, I used some blue painter's tape to mark off a triangle, and then a striper brush & OPI Ink to add stripes.  I don't hate this, but I don't love it either.  I think that meh feeling may be why I didn't get more pics ... oh, no wait - it was the rain.  Rained ALL freaking day on Tuesday.  Here are my inside shots:

This mani was inspired by this dress I saw in a magazine:

What do you think of this design?  Thanks for reading.

~Colette