Dirty Red Bandana

Now that St. Patty's day has come and gone, I am a bit relieved that I don't feel obligated to wear green. I like being able to choose whatever color moves me at the moment, and that color would be red.

For today, I thought I'd use one of my Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine unnamed mini bottles for my red (actually, it was sitting on my desk as opposed to having to get up, go in another room, and search through the reds to pick out one, so I guess laziness won out and this mini bottle it is...) I got it in a cute little five pack for $2.00 at Big Lots, and I find them perfect for travelling (or in this case, perfect when I'm just too darned lazy to get up and get anything else).

Anytime I combine black and white nail art on top of red polish, I call it my dirty red bandana. The design, as you can see below, doesn't look anything like the design on a bandana.

My nails are peeling badly, and this Barielle Growth Activator stuff seems to make alot of my polishes misbehave. I'd like to start the mani over again, but alas, I have no time, so I'm stuck with it at least for all day today.



This was 3 coats of the mini red, Fantasy Makers black polish used with a dotting tool, and a little fauxnad with Konad special polish in white.

Thanks, as always, for taking a look.

St. Patty's Day Fauxnad, Part II

Even though I haven't done a lot of green manicures lately, I've got to admit that I'm a little tired of the color already. I've seen so many swatches of greens, so many reviews of different greens that I feel as though I've been wearing them.

St. Patty's Day is the day before my birthday, and for as long as I can remember I've associated all things St. Patrick's Day as sort of my pre-birthday celebration, so I can't let this holiday pass without a little painting O' the green. Today's mani is two coats of Pure Ice Wild Thing (I'd call it chartreuse creme), with a coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Ivy League on the diagonal of the nail. I used a fauxnad plate with Konad special polish in dark green for the design.





I have to admit that I really like Ivy League over Wild Thing. Ivy League is pretty sheer, and it would take several coats to build it to any sort of opacity, but it has such a pretty gold shimmer that's hard to resist.

Just in case I don't get in another mani before the holiday, Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!

Some St. Patty's Day Fauxnading....

Piff over at the Polish or Perish recently blogged about RBL comparisons, and in the course of that blog post, reminded me of my love for Orly nail polish. I'm a big fan of their polish -- the brushes, the brush handles, the formula, and the overall quality of their polish is extremely good.

So, with that being said, I decided to break out Orly's Enchanted Forest and use that as a base for today's fauxnad. The rich, deep green creme is great to work with, but it did seem to have a bit of a smoothing out issue over my Barielle Growth Activator base coat. That stuff has made several manicures difficult...maybe it creates too much drag on the brush? I don't know, but I don't like it and this bottle of Growth Activator will definitely be my LAST bottle of the stuff.

So here's two coats of Enchanted Forest, with a four-leaf clover fauxnad done with China Glaze Cherish. I topped off the ring finger with a small rhinestone.





I heart you, Orly...and so does Piff!