Valentine's Day Nail Ideas

Hey everybody. You may or may not know that I love Valentine's Day. I love hearts, pink, purple, and candy so it's the perfect time of year for me to get all of that in one day! I tend to look at it more like a day to express fondness for others and not just a significant other so it's kind of like Thanksgiving for people... if that makes any sense. Anyway, the big day is tomorrow so I did some nail art (ha. loosely using the term) and wanted to show you!

First up was a really easy look I did using glequins. I started with a base of Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love (very apropos name, right?). Like its name sake, this polish was a little tough to work with and sheer. (Just kidding, low blow? I don't really have any feelings towards Kim Kardashian but I couldn't resist.) I think this was 3 coats. Then I made the red glequins into a heart shape on my accent nails - voila! Instant easy nail art!

 Next up, I tried to get a little more creative. My base color here is Catherine Arley Hologram (I'm not sure if that's the name or the collection name but it's the only identifier I found on the bottle) which is a red scattered holo. Then I grabbed my white Migi pen and went to work with some different heart designs. I really grew fond of my middle finger's design but wasn't sure if anyone would know what it was. And I realize some of my hearts on my pinky look like Mickey Mouse. Shut up.

Finally I have another simple mani if you have heart glitters. I used OPI DC Cherry Blossom as a base and put a row of heart glitters across in a couple patterns. The alternate nails are just topped with I Lily Love You (another apropos name) which I'm pretty meh about. Super simple and I love the base color!

What do you plan for your nails this Valentine's Day?

xoxo,
Amanda

Lazy 15: Where I'm From

Hey hey hey! Happy Monday, or maybe not. Soon the holidays will be upon us in full-force so I hope you're all ready! I am certainly not... but nobody said the holidays will wait for me ;)

Today's challenge was "Where I'm From" and I wanted to avoid the typical USA flag thing and be specific. I'm from Massachusetts and I was inspired by the state flag (I bet you didn't know all the states have flags too!)

However, this mani was a pain in the ass...htray. My Migi pens were working well but I smudged every nail at least once and then I just gave up. and ended with what we have here. The yellow is much brighter than the goldenrod in the picture but I didn't have that kind of color or feel like frankening one. Soooo... Massachusetts yay! (?)

xoxo,
Amanda

Lazy 15: Guilty Pleasure

Hey everyone... I totally slacked on the Lazy 15 challenge this week; not because I didn't have manis done, but because I was too lazy to upload the pictures onto my computer. So today I have today's challenge a little late and tomorrow I have Monday's challenge I never posted. Sorry!

The challenge for today is guilty pleasure and this was one that I contributed to the challenge, thus I knew this one from the beginning! However, this was kind of a fail because I can't sponge and that nail looked stupid and the first time I tried it, the yellow polish I had on stained my cuticles/fingers. Ugh. Bear with me and don't click to enlarge.

Okay, so JERSEY SHORE! Yes, I know. I'm a teenage girl. I love the drama, the idiocy, the jokes, the personalities, etc. So the mani below is inspired by them:

Pointer: Migi neon green base with Funky Fingers Mermaid Lagoon on top (glittery, gaudy)
Middle: black Migi with red Migi to stamp (supposed to look like the logo, but the sponging wasn't subtle enough)
Ring: Migi orange (to demonstrate their skin tone lol!)
Pinky: Mattese Elite neon pink with Sally Hansen Jade Chrome and m78 from Born Pretty Store (animal print, duh!)

So, I'm sorry for the weird finger staining and my terrible middle finger. I shouldn't try nail art ever.

xoxo,
Amanda

Lazy 15: Underwater Creatures

Hey all, hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving for those of us who celebrated it yesterday!

I feel exceptionally lazy as I write this so you won't hear much from me. I suck at nail art. I hope someone can figure out what I was going for here... for this look my base color is Diamond Cosmetics Whisper Softly and I used my Migi nail art pens for the design.

Um, in case you can't tell what this blobbiness is, it's supposed to be the bottom of the ocean and fishies. Hey, I never said I was an artist.


xoxo,
Amanda

Pink Wednesday & Lazy 15: Dots

Hello everyone. Not feeling so chatty... quite a few things have me a bit upset lately but not getting into that here. Just understand my posts might be a bit quiet for a little while.

I'm back with another day of the Lazy 15 challenge and today's challenge is dots.

I started off with China Glaze Sexy Lady (one of my untrieds, I should get extra credit for mine and Madeline's November Untried Challenge, too) which was two coats of pink perfection (AND it's a pink... on a Wednesday!). Also, yes. My nails are complete nubbins right now and no, I don't want to talk about it.

Then, I got creative and made a "subliminal" message in my dots. I used my neon orange and yellow Migi pens and there's a little message in there in my dots!

I wasn't too impressed with myself because moments after making my dots, I managed to smudge a couple nails on a stray hair that miraculously dove off my head into my manicure. (You might also see my middle finger dots are no where near straight lines but... when you see what the shape on that nail was subliminally, you'll understand why I was struggling. Also, it was late.) I added some matte top coat which did anything but disguise the mistakes...

If you want to see the "subliminal" message (I admit, it's tricky to see...) check below the cut, after the pictures of all my fellow challengers manis!

xoxo,
Amanda

The Evolution of Man...i.

Oh my god. The title of this post is almost too much for me, even. And I'm the one who wrote it! Also, Merry Christmas to my followers who celebrate! Santa Amanda thinks you've all been very good this year, and she's planning a giveaway for you guys to prove it (hint: it's going to include some fauxnad plates).

So, basically, I have a few transformations of the same mani, and I hope you're ready! I'm going to tell you a story.

Once upon a time, there was a polish named Zoya Kristen. Kristen was a lovely blue-gray pastel creme that covered very well in one coat. Her mommy, Amanda, has been having trouble moisturizing her cuticles and asks that you be kind for these photos. Here's Kristen without flash:

And here she is with flash:

So, although Kristen was very nice all alone, Mommy wanted to add something wintry to her, so she decided to do some snowflakes with her Migi pens.

Unfortunately for the evil witch UNA (untalented at nail art), Mommy's right hand didn't turn out as well as the left, and the snowflakes were removed and Kristen was once again alone until a lovely polish sent by Mommy's friend Jacqui came to the rescue, and her name was Revlon Whimsical:

Whimsical and Kristen spent a lovely day alone together, but Mommy was again seeking a friend for them, so she added some fauxnad snowflakes to make them happy and joyful on this Christmas Day (by the way, no, this isn't my Christmas mani... but it made for good reading...) and to complement the sparse glitter from Whimsical.

So, hopefully you enjoyed my little story. If you skipped over it, that's fine too. I'm apparently feeling very punny and rambly tonight, but I hope you enjoy this mani nonetheless!

xoxo,
Amanda

Christmas Party Nails

Hi everyone! I'm back...ish. I was really behind on Christmas manis and it's just not the same posting them after the holidays, so I guess the deadline inspired me! These are the nails I wore to my work Christmas party, which was kind of a good idea in my head but didn't work out exactly as planned.

I started off with one coat of Ulta's The Jungle Look - ONE freakin' coat. Below is no top coat, too, and look how shiny! This color reminds me of Mandy because she's always encouraging me to use it ;)

Then I wanted to add some dots. I decided on silver, but my boyfriend also wanted red... but the red didn't really show up and they just looked black in most lights. You can see it below with the flash that it is red, but the first picture they hardly show up. I made the dots using my Migi nail art pens.

And there you have it, really simple holiday mani. I was going to do this with blue and silver for Hanukkah as well, but I've lost track of all time and haven't... but you can visualize, I'm sure.

xoxo,

Amanda

I'm Not a Nail Artist... Part One

Hi gals! Today starts a series of nail art I'm, um, attempting. I decided practice makes perfect and blah blah blah but anyway, I wanted to do some Christmas nail art that perhaps you guys could be inspired by and do better than me. So here we go- part one! I had this idea like enlightenment: it came to me, I thought I was genius... and then found out it's been done a million times before. Oh well, here's my take on Christmas lights.

I started off with a basic white creme and added Orly Winter Wonderland to make some sparkle. Then I used my Migi Nail art pens to make green squiggles, and then the nail art pens in corresponding light colors for the bulbs. These pictures are pre-top coat which is good, since I smudged the heck out of it.

(Remember, I'M NOT A PROFESSIONAL. I don't do nail art very often. Please don't judge me for how poorly this turned out; the concept was so much prettier in my mind.)

Here's a close up of my favorite nail, which is what I wanted the entire concept to turn out like (sorry the picture is fuzzy, my macro wasn't cooperating):

Anyway, it was really simple, and with some practice I'm sure I could do this concept justice. There's lots of other people out there who have done this, so check theirs out too if you need further inspiration!

xoxo,
Amanda

Blue Week Continued: Models Own True Blue

Helloooooo! I have another pretty blue for you today, a color that actually kind of surprised me. You see, when I saw True Blue on the Models Own website, I assumed it would be a squishy creme/jelly, and really (as you'll see soon) it's like a neon finish. A little matte, I guess I'd call it satiny? Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself here...

Ahhh pre-cleanup picture! Don't judge! Don't judge!

And I actually planned this color specifically to support a local team, so I added some random polka dots with my Migi pens (what I affectionately call "nail art" because it's about all I'm capable of so far) once that was dry and attempted some cleanup:

With topcoat and nail art :)

Warning: this polish stains ya! (For evidence, please see my middle finger in the picture above.) You gotta be careful, but it's a pretty polish! I'm not sure it's one of my favorites, but it was worth trying out and I didn't hate it (although the team lost so that was a bummer). What do you think of True Blue?

xoxo,
Amanda

Models Own Purple Poppy Updated

Hey, speedy post today. I didn't have any time to change manis this week because of work, so I wore Purple Poppy foreverrrr. I decided to add little dots with my Migi pens to spruce it up, but I wasn't overly impressed. I like the idea but the colors are very blah to me, but anyways... here's proof, I'm practicing my nail art!

xoxo,
Amanda

Migi Nail Art Pens

Hey guys and gals! I'm going back to work today and not so happy :( i wish i could be on vacation always! Oh well. Today I have for you a recent purchase from the Big E last week, Migi Nail Art pens. I stopped because they were doing free nail art and my friend, Nikki, wanted some and I ended up buying the kit. It came with 4 double sided nail art pens:

I got the silver package which includes red, pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, black and white. There are four or five other sets that include various other colors (neons, pastels, etc.) but I decided to get the basic one for now.

Here's a look at the pens:

All put together

Separated in half for the two separate colors

The tip of the pen side

You can also open it and it comes with a brush so you can paint as well!

One of my designs: be gentle! I'm still learning and just wanted to show what the pens can do!

Pretty basic nail art pens, but it was such a good deal (to me)! For $25, I got the pen set I just showed you, this cool zipper bag thing, and the best part: free polish replacements for life. That's right. If I use up my black, I can order a black. If I use up any or all of them, I can replace them all. If I decide I want a color from another kit, I can order it free of charge! All I pay is $2.99 for shipping and I can order up to two colors per day. I've already ordered four new colors, and I'm just waiting for them to come in now!

Overall, I think this is a pretty great set! Even if it had been $25 for the pens and the bag, not bad; but the free refills?! Sold! What do you ladies think? If you want to buy these, you can buy online at miginailart.com and shipping is free right now!

xoxo,
Amanda