Hello Kitty's Gone Cheetah

So I know that I haven't done much nail art lately. I just haven't really been inspired by anything lately. Usually I see something and I think how could I possibly transfer into that onto my nails. Lately, not so much :(

My friends usually poke fun at my nail accents, and I guess they must miss them. One of my friends said she wanted to see a Hello Kitty nail. I figured this weekend would be good to try since we had no plans....ahhh gotta love relaxing weekends! I've been wanting to do a cheetah mani for a while so I combined the two:

I used OPI Glitzerland for the base and stamped with Konad Black. The spots are filled in with Orly Glitz & Glamour. I used 2 coats of Sally Hansen Whirlwind White, OPI Black Onyx, and The "It" Color. Ok, so here is where it got tricky for me because I knew I would never be able to pull off a decent bow. I got these stickers a while back at Sephora so I did a little experiment. I used MAC Obey Me and painted over one of the white bows. I let it dry for about 15 minutes, then I peeled it off. Some of the red came off past the edges of the bow, so I trimmed as best I could. I was pretty pleased with the outcome. It beats trying to paint a bow, then completely messing up my nails.

I was feeling a little artsy, so I did this on my phone :)

Hello Kitty Chic :)

If you have any ideas/inspiration that you would like for me to do a tutorial on, shoot me an email (bellas.box1@gmail.com) and I'd be more than happy to try and recreate it :)

Leopard Blues

Remember the story about the remote's untimely death at the hands of the one they call Bella and her weapon the dotting tool of torture? This was all that was left of him...

I had a little too much fun on Photoshop last night, huh?

Ok, so I love blues. I think it's one of my favorite colors, so I constantly find myself reaching for blues when picking my manis out. I steer more towards brighter hues (a la Blue Me Away and Pacific Blue). I decided on a darker color, but still one of my more frequently used ones. OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui is described as a medium dusty blue creme. Dusty in my mind meaning "muddy". I used this color alot in the fall, but I think I can manage to get away with using it for a few more months. The weather really influences my color choices. I know it's crazy...but I can't help it :) I've been wanting to do a full on leopard mani because I've seen it a bunch of times on MUA. (Jiloverz does some pretty awesome mani's. Click here to see the inspiration). I think I will wait until my nails grow out a bit to do this on all of my nails. For now I just did two leopard nails:



I used Orly Glitz & Glamour for the base (I LOVE this gold). G&G goes on so smoothly, which is not the case for most foil finishes that I've used before. I got this on clearance at Sally's for 1.99 a while back...I'm bummed I didn't get more, lol.

I SUCK at freehanding, so used is Konad M59 and the spots were filled in using Zoya Cheryl and OPI Ya'll Come Back Ya Hear? And because I was feeling artsy here is what it looked like in my mind, lol

I wish the whole world was cross-processed :)

I love animal prints, what's your favorite??

Nail Art Challenge (Day 13)

How crazy is this time change? It always takes me a few days to get used to it. Here is my "lucky" 13th mani...


13 of 31

I have to give it up for the ladies who do full scotch tape manis! It takes some serious skill (which I clearly don't have yet because I only did one nail). I went with Essie Incognito for the pink, middle and thumb. Incognito is one of my favorite Essies. This green can be used year-round in my opinion. It's light enough to be worn in spring, yet dark enough to where you can also use it in the fall. I'm not too crazy about Essie's brushes though; they're a bit on the thin side, so it takes more strokes to cover the bigger nails. The application is so easy though, that it really doesn't take away from the end result. Here are the colors I used on my accent fingers:

Index: (Pot o' Gold)
Milani Jewel FX in Gold. Shown are 3 coats. The Milani glitters are actually some of my favorite chunky glittes. I really like how much glitter comes off in each coat; by the 3rd coat the nail is almost completely covered in glitter.

Ring: (Rainbow)
Here are the colors used in order- SH Lickety-Split Lime, Pure Ice Hot Tamale, ChG Make an Entrance, SH Blue Me Away, and SH Lively Lilac. I taped off one color at a time (starting closest to the cuticle) with a coat of SV in between. This was the nail that took the longest because I had to wait a little while for each coat to dry a bit so that when I taped off, the polish wouldn't lift off with the tape. I learned this after my first try, so this pictured is my second attempt at this rainbow nail.

I did little accents on the bottom right corner of my green nails with Zoya Edyta on BM03. You can't really see them too well, but I like their subtleness. It doesn't class with all the gold and rainbows. I can't wait for St. Patty's Day! Who doesn't enjoy green beer?

What do you ladies have planned??

Nail Art Challenge (Day 5)

So tonight I'm going to the Rodeo and I'm pretty excited. I'm about to give myself a full mani in a little bit, but before I do that I wanted to try this. I've seen this done a bunch of times on MUA, now it's my turn. I used China Glaze Crushed Candy over Orly Glitz & Glamour.

5 of 31

The first time I tried Crackle I was a little underwhelmed with the application. Now trying it for the second time, I see that it's all about the application. At first I was applying this like I was Black Shatter, and that was my problem. Crackle needs to be applied in thinner coats and a bit more carefully IMO. The brush is thinner than OPI's, so the application method is important with Crackle. You can't overlap coats like you can with BS because it won't separate. Have I said how much I LOVE Glitz & Glamous?!?! I got this at Sally's for $1.99 after Christmas, what a find! This applies really smooth and the end product is a super foily orangy-gold. It's perfect! Like the Gold version of SH Celeb City, which I think I will try under Crushed Candy next.