EN&M Day 8 Polka Dots

Hey everyone, today is Day 8 of Erica's Nails & More February Nail Art Challenge, and we're doing Polka Dots! Can I just tell you how much I LOVE "dotticures"? To the moon and back! Love them!

So, here is what I came up with:

For this "dotticure", I started with Julep Eileen. Some nails are one coat, some required a second coat. When that was dry, I used a couple of different sized dotting tools to add Sinful Colors Unicorn and Sweet Tooth, and topped it all off with a coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Clear

Be sure to check out what the other girls have come up with for their Polka Dot manis, you can do so below.

Also, the BIG GIVEAWAY ends at midnight EST, so hurry and enter :)

Til next time!
-Kara

EN&M Day 7: Inspired by a Tutorial

Welcome back lovers of lacquer! I apologize for needing to post a short one again today, but my midterm is tomorrow, and I really need to be cramming studying.

We are on Day 7 of Erica's Nails & More February Nail Art Challenge : Inspired by a Tutorial. This one had me at a loss for a long time, then this evening, I accidentally stumbled upon one I wanted to try. Gotta love Pinterest! Anyway, I came across this picture tutorial for an interlocking manicure, which I have been wanting to try for a while, so I thought: "perfect!". You can see the tutorial here - give it a try, it was super easy :)

Anyway, on to the photos!

For this look, I used Julep Laura and Julep Ginger and my trust dotting tool, all topped with Seche Vite

Make sure you enter my GIVEAWAY, it ends Sunday!

Wish me luck on my midterm!
Til next time!
-Kara

EN&M Day 6: Gradient

Hey everyone, today I have Day 6 of Erica's Nails & More February Nail Art Challenge: Gradients! Let me tell you, I LOVE gradients, they make me melt, but do I love doing gradients? Not a chance! They are so hard for me, it just doesn't "click". Last time I had to do a gradient, I believe I re-did them 10 times! You may have noticed that until today, I had not attempted them again. For good reason!

And, so, this is what I came up with

This is two coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightening sponged with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lickety-Split Lime coated with Insta-Dri Clear.

 

And now I look forward to putting the cosmetic sponges away and not even thinking about them until the next challenge!

Did you know our GIVEAWAY ends in a week? If you haven't entered, you can do so here

Til next time!
-Kara

Jaded Nail Co Anti-Valentines

Welcome back, I hope you are all well. I was supposed to have had my midterm today, but the teacher cancelled class at the last minute, so I get to stress about it until Tuesday! Yay! In other news, A is mad at me, because it didn't occur to me to get her a Valentine today, so after this post, I will be off to make a bunch of construction paper hearts to put up all over her door for a nice surprise in the morning.

In the meantime, I have two lovely Indie glitters to show you from Jaded Nail Co's Anti-Valentines Collection. Let's dive in, shall we?

First up is Owner of A Broken Heart, which is black shard glitter, multiple sizes and shapes of red glitter, and gold holographic heart. I've worn Owner of A Broken Heart over Julep Eileen, and topped it with Seche Vite. Unfortunately, the Seche Vite seriously dulled the holographic hearts, so they didn't color shift much. I did have a lot of trouble fishing out the hearts, but I have a mini bottle, and I always seem to have difficulty fishing out of mini bottles. I'm not a huge fan of glitter bombs, but I enjoyed wearing this a lot, the red glitter and black shards make a perfect anti-Valentine mani!

Next up is Love Stinks - multiple sizes and shades of pink glitter, with iridescent glitter and white hearts. I wore Love Stinks over Illamasqua Serenity and topped with Seche Vite. I think the blue makes the pink really pop! Again with this one, I had difficulty fishing out the heart glitter, but, again, mini bottles always give me trouble. Love Stinks is a much more traditional Valentines glitter, and this glitter makes a lovely jelly sandwich when used with a white or pale pink jelly!

Jaded Nail Co are all handmade, and can be found on Facebook.

Which V-Day glitter do you prefer? Traditional, or anti?

Til next time!
-Kara

EN&M Day 5: Valentine's Day Nails

Welcome back to Erica's Nails and More February Nail Art Challenge Day 5: Valentine's Day Nails. I'm super swamped with school work right now, and have to cram for midterms tomorrow, so this is going to be a quick one.

For this, I used a base of  3 coats of Tough As Nails Magdalene's Laundry Service, then I painted the hearts on with Zoya Mia. Unfortunately, the contrast wasn't strong enough, so I used my dotting tool to add the white - Julep Eileen.

 

Til next time!
-Kara

EN&M Day 4: Inspired by a Pattern

Welcome to Erica's Nails and More February Nail Art Challenge Day 4: Inspired by a Pattern! I had a difficult time choosing what to do for this challenge, I felt like everything totally clashed with my henna, until the brilliant Samantha B suggested I use the henna as my pattern! Thanks Samantha!

So here it is, my Inspired by... my henna!

For this I used two coats of Essence Nude Glam in Iced Strawberry Cream and hand painted the designs in OPI Warm & Fozzie - both previously untried polishes, bonus points!

I'm not sure why the henna and the lighting makes my hands look so wrinkly - I swear they're not! I'm in my 20s!

Day 5 is going to be a Valentines Day mani! So stay tuned.

Don't forget to enter the GIVEAWAY, we have added another prize and some more entries, so check that out!
Til next time!
-Kara

Ruby White Tips Peekaboo

Hey everyone, I just wanted to take a short break from the nail art challenges to show you a beautiful polish for a good cause. I actually wore this a couple of weeks ago, but I never got around to posting.

This is Peekaboo by Ruby White Tips, a sheer pinky purpley color packed with holographic micro glitter. I had a difficult time photographing the sparkle, but it's there in real life.

 

This polish has a fantastic formula. Somehow, even as packed with glitter as it is, it is not gloopy at all! It is a bit sheer, I used 3 coats, but that makes it great for layering over other colors, too!

Closeups to show the sparkle a little better.

Peekaboo is a beautiful polish for a cause that I love. HALF of all profits made from this polish are donated to help save the bats, specifically going to Batworld Sanctuary. You probably don't know this about me, but I LOVE bats, they one of my favorite animals (a close second to my favorite animal - the giraffe), they are just go cute and sweet, and snuggle each other when they sleep *awww*.

Ruby White Tips are all 3-free, and completely cruelty free. Be sure to check out Ruby White Tips for Peekaboo and all of her other gorgeous polishes (more swatches and reviews coming soon!) on Etsy and Facebook

Til next time!
-Kara

Beauty Blogazons Weekly Roundup

• Confessions of a Sarcastic Mom: Check out the new Milani COLORStatement Lipsticks orange and reds... and find out which are Destany's favorites!
• Makeup Demon: Foods & drinks for glowing skin.
• Midnight Manicures: Spring is in the air with Jessica's Custom Nail Colours It's A Girl Thing Collection.
• Ishah x Beauty: You change up your makeup, your hair colour, why not your eye colour too? Check out one of the newest trends from Korea with the beautiful, natural looking Royal Vision Macaron Brown Circle Lens.
• Très Beau Glamour: With only a few days left, Valentine's Day is slowly approaching. If you're in need of a nice, simple look that has a pop of color and still looks neutral check out Nay Denise's tutorial for her second Valentine's Day look! You won't regret it.
• Lola's Secret Beauty Blog: With a mad love of quality skincare products, and ever on the lookout for new treats, Helen from Lola's Secret Beauty Blog has compiled a list of products that she currently craves!
• Beauty Fiends: Julia at Beauty Fiends has been testing out Mario Badescu's Drying Lotion. Find out if it works!
• TheFabZilla: See what TheFabZilla says about Wet n Wild Fergie Lipsticks!
• Love At First Site!: A few words for the wonders of Caudalie's Divine Oil.
• Beyond Beauty Lounge: Inexpensive DIY nail polish desk and storage.
• Never Gonna Give You Up: Kara does a Half Moon mani for a Nail Art Challenge.
• Polishy of Truth: Tara at Polishy of Truth premieres a brand new Elevation Polish (to be released February 7th) in addition to the current top-selling Elevation Polish!
• Cult of Taupe: Is Tarte's Clean Slate 360º Creaseless eye primer the answer to Crystal's prayers?
• Mama Fashionista: Attention all Curly Girls and members of Team Natural! Quinn shows you what Oyin Handmade's Hair Dew can do for you!
• Lisa's Nail Obsession: What color of polish are you seen in most?
• The Passenger Element: WetnWild's Mega Last lipstick swatches.
• My Newest Addiction Beauty Blog: Laura from My Newest Addiction Beauty Blog incorporates blue into her everyday makeup routine!
• Lipgloss Break: Lipgloss Break picks out her favorite Valentine's Day beauty gift sets.
• Rachel's Makeup and Skincare: Rachel shares her thoughts on Le Metier de Beaute's Peau Vierge Tinted Luminizer.

Glitter Loaded Nails

Welcome back to the February Nail Art Challenge. I'm caught. I did a few manis ahead of schedule to have a stockpile for these challenges because I have midterms next week and knew I'd have less time for nail art. So, yeah, the lack of henna kinda gave that away, huh? Oops!

Anyway, today's challenge is Glitter Loaded Nails, and I knew immediately what I wanted to use.

Jindie Nails

This is Jindie Nails Pretty Penny. This polish is ridiculous in the very best way. There is so much going on here! This is 3 coats on it's own, and I am crazy for this rose gold sparkle!

Pretty Penny

Jindie Nails Pretty Penny

 

Don't forget to enter my GIVEAWAY! An 11th prize has been added, as well as the opportunity to earn more entries! Check it out, and good luck :)

Til next time!

-Kara 

...and now for something completely different

Hey everyone, today's post is not about nails, but about instead to inform you of some changes you will notice over the next month in my nail art photos. Can you guess? If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you probably know, but for the rest of you, here it is!

My good friend Ana is a fabulous henna artist (check her work out at Blooming Lotus Henna), and she asked me to model some bridal henna for her, and of course I said yes! She does amazing work and I've received tons of complements on it already.

Here are some pictures of the completed project. These pics are taken from my phone, so the color and quality are off, but you can see the design.

Anyway, enjoy :)

 Sorry this next one is sideways...I can't get it to flip!

And here is the finished stain today!

So as you can see, a bit of this henna will be creeping into my nail art photos over the next few weeks, and now you know the story!

In case you are wondering ^^^ this is Manglaze ILF

Til next time!
-Kara

Laid-Back 31DC - Gold

Hey everyone1 I know that Day 3 of Crumpet's Nail Tarts Laid-Back 31 Day Challenge isn't due for a few more days, but I am swamped with schoolwork right now and may not have the opportunity to post this later, so I'm going to go ahead and submit this now - hope you don't mind! Day 3 of the Laid-Back 31DC is Gold. Now, gold is not really my color. It just looks strange with my skin-tone, so I wanted to add another color to break it up a little bit. This is what I came up with. Enjoy!

For this look I started with a base of two coats of Essie Good As Gold. When that was completely dry, I taped off half of the nails and added a coat of Butter London Artful Dodger.

I hope you enjoyed this look! Til next time!
-Kara

Laid-Back Challenge Day 2: Silver

Welcome back to Crumpet's Nail Tarts Laid-Back Challenge Day 2: Silver!

As soon as I saw the theme for today was silver, I knew immediately that I wanted to use a silver holographic polish! For this one I used two coats of  Color Club Harp On It, and used Bundle Monster plate BM-312 and Konad special black stamping polish for the cloud images.

I rarely wear linear holo polishes, but this one absolutely blew me away! Check out that double rainbow!

 

Next up for this challenge is gold!

Til next time!
-Kara

 

Half Moons

Welcome to Day 2 of Erica's Nails and More February Nail Art Challenge! Today's mani is my favorite style to do, I am just in love with the way these look: Half Moons!

For this look I used Julep Eileen, my new go-to white polish, and topped with one coat of A-England Saint George - a previously untried polish. I am so in love with Saint George! This is a dark teal/green packed with scattered holo. I could not stop staring at my nails! Absolutely lovely.

Til next time!

-Kara

Beauty Blogazons Weekly Roundup

• Ishah x Beauty: Ishah tests out the new Flower Cosmetics Kiss Stick High Shine Lip Color in Nude Narcissus. Is it the beautiful creamy nude she hoped for?
• datyorkLOVES: HTF Max MakeUp Cherimoya Devil's Kiss NVC001 Nail Polish Swatch and Review!
• TheFabZilla: Are these Wet n Wild Fergie eyeshadows worth all the hype? TheFabZilla spills the deets!
• Polarbelle: Does the idea of washing your beaded nail art down the sink make you sad? Polarbelle shows you how to make a resuable beaded nail sticker!
• Lacquer Buzz: Mihaela tries nail studs for the first time and loves them!
• Lola's Secret Beauty Blog: If you are hopelessly tempted by taupe eyeshadows- then check out these Taupelicious Treats!
• Mama Fashionista: See how Julep is helping Quinn achieve one of her beauty resolutions!
• Pinked Polish: Tiger Stripes featuring an AWESOME polish, ORANGE you glad you aren’t a TIGER!!!!
• Never Gonna Give You Up: Kara hosts a nail polish Giveaway. 10 prizes up for grabs!
• Harajuku Girl FL Beauty: Curious about high end Asian Skincare products? A new site, Peach and Lily will help you sort it out.
• Emily Hudspeth, hair design and makeup artist: Get out the door fast with this 1 minute makeup look!
• Rachel’s Makeup and Skincare: Rachel shares her top five favorite lipsticks of the moment!
• The Convenient Beauty: Starter kit ideas for makeup beginner.
• Skin, Bones, and Nails: Awesome spring colored skittle nails with freehand art.
• Cult of Taupe: Get ready to dazzle with four gorgeous gold shadows from BFTE.
• Love At First Site!: Best 12 of 2012… No1. Clarisonic Mia. A review.
• Beauty by Miss L: This week Miss L did another sweet & cute manicure.
• Midnight Manicures: GlossyBox made a touchdown this month with “The Man Repeller” box. See the products that Jeanie is cheering about!
• Très Beau Glamour: Looking for a bold and highly pigmented blush palette? Coastal Scents has come out with a NEW blush palette that is perfect for Valentine’s Day and much more!
• Lisa’s Nail Obsession: What is a girls’ best friend? In this case bling!

Galaxy Nails!

Welcome to Erica's Nails And More February Nail Art Challenge Day 1! Today we are doing Galaxy Nails! I was super excited for this one because I have never tried one, and they look so cool and easy! Here's what I came up with!

For this mani I used a base of Zoya Storm, sponged on some Pure Ice First Time and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Posh Plum, then a coat of Revlon Scandalous, all topped with Seche Vite.

I really like this, up until I added the Posh Plum.  It was just too bright for this, but oh well, live and learn, right?

 

So, that's my Galaxy Nails! I hope you enjoyed them, and maybe are inspired to try your own galaxy mani! Next up is Half Moons - one of my favorite manis!

  

Be sure to check out the what the other ladies have come up with, and don't forget to enter my GIVEAWAY!

Til next time!

-Kara