My Nails Are Partying for Mardi Gras

Happy Fat Tuesday all! Are you planning on rocking out today? Or planning on having a rockin' mani?! I have planned both! Nails first:

LEFT HAND-Beads, Mask and Fleur-de-lis:

Thumb: Illamasqua - Elope, China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky, Migi Nail Art Pen - shimmery olive, China Glaze - Harmony, Passion, Cherish

Ring: Illamasqua - Elope, China Glaze - Grape Pop + Konad plate M78, China Glaze - Passion + Konad plate M15

Rest: Zoya - Pinta stamped with plate M77 and China Glaze - Millennium, Passion and Harmony (it's beads!)

EDIT: THE BEADS WERE STAMPED WITH PLATE M77. NOT M78. OOPS! Sorry!

RIGHT HAND - Hat, Glitter and Fun:

Thumb: China Glaze - Passion, BB Couture - Poison Ivy, China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky, Zoya - Pinta

Ring: Color Club - Sultry, Tru Passion and Object of Envy

Rest: BB Couture - Green Goblin, plate M78 + China Glaze - Harmony and Passion

I really went all out. That is what Mardi Gras is all about, right?! I'm going out with a girlfriend tonight and she is going to paint my face up like a mask. She wants to be a make-up artist professionally and mostly in stage make-up, so this is going to be sick!!! I can't wait! I am sooo not going to want to come in to work tomorrow...

PS - If my nails seem different it's because I chopped 'em down. I had a devastating break on my left hand so I cut them all down to match. It was really my only option. I rather like that I switched things up too. I loooove my "talons" but this length is fresh and comfortable. Don't worry! They will grow back! :c)

New Color from Claire's

Hello lovelies! Back to regularly scheduled programming! I am back from New York and back to work! You may have noticed earlier I re-posted my Nubar Prisms because something was screwy with the first post. I felt that I couldn't just leave you with that for today since we already saw it, so I bring you a new color from Claire's that I picked up.

Dream Catcher - Very pretty jade green with a subtle bright green shimmer. Word on the street is that this is very similar to Chanel - Jade, which I don't have to compare because I just can't spring for that pricey stuff. I really love this color but I felt that the formula was a bit tricky. It was streaky leaving me to do 4 coats for this swatch.

And this is what happens when I think of adding polka dots to be cute. I used Migi Nail Art Pen in pink, but I think I may have overdone it a bit!! It reminds me of some sort of armored animal like a turtle or armadillo!

Have a great day!
-Elaine

Dashing Through the Snow... With my pretty painted toes...

The holidays are upon us! I decided to get festive with my tooties!! It's really thanks to the BF. I was going to redo my toes and picked out a nice orange creme: Sally Hansen - Sonic Bloom. I showed him what I was going to use and he did not seem enthused. He said "Why don't you do them for Christmas? With snowmen!" Okay, dear. You got your wish!

LEFT FOOT
Big Toe
China Glaze Emerald Sparkle
Migi Nail Art Pen in white
LA Colors Art Deco in Red Glitter

Little Toes
Unnamed shimmery white from Borghese Allegra set
Unnamed red glitter from Borghese Allegra set

RIGHT FOOT
Big Toe
China Glaze - Caribbean Blue
LA Colors Art Deco in Black
Migi Nail Art Pen in White
LA Colors Art Deco in Red Glitter
Tropez - Black Satin
Konad Special Polish in white
Konad plate M3

Little toes
China Glaze - Emerald Sparkle
Konad Special Polish in white
Konad plate M3

Neon Pastel

Hi and happy hump day! I wish I stayed in bed. I was too tired this morning! I overslept and then had to rush and I hhhaaate that. Anyhoo, this is a mani that I did over the weekend. I was inspired to do a neon mani and this is what I came up with! I used a "frankenpolish" as my base and striped with neon nail art stripers and used neon polish for polka dots.

The base color I named "Louisa" and it consists of mostly white creme and Sinful Colors - Dream On, a neon purple creme. I then added bits of blue shimmers like China Glaze - Adore, and OPI - Teal The Cows Come Home.

The stripes are LA Colors Art Deco in Bright Orange and Bright Green.

I painted 3 white dots at the tips using Migi Nail Art Pen in white, and then layered over the dots with Essie - Funky Limelight, Essie - Flirty Fuschia and Misa - Blue Over A Boy.



Have a great day!
-Elaine

Margaritas! Ole!

There was a post I did a little while ago that was a little weird. It was the "glitter-trimmed" (I made this up) nails. Remember? No? Here is the original post. Well you guys and your comments got me thinking! And you know what happens when I think! Stuff like this:

I made margaritas!!! I painted the tips of my nails with a nice yellow-green, Santee - Melon Green, then I drew the glasses with Migi Nail Art pen in white, and I used Color Club - Sexy Siren to make salt on the rims!! I tried to add limes, but they just looked like green blobs of polish. Next I may make strawberry daquiris....hmmm

Migi Nail Art Pens Swatches and Review

Freehanding nail art is something that I have always enjoyed doing, but have usually had a hard time with without proper tools (special pens, Konad stamping set, stencils, etc.) I always just did hearts and flowers and dots by dotting with the polish brush of the color I was using! And mayber sometimes with a toothpick. I now know it can be much simpler. One way to accomplish this is with Migi Nail Art Pens.

Here are the 4 colors I have for review. An olivey green with gold shimmer, a gold glitter, a pink creme and a white creme.

These pens have a two way cap. So one end opens just like a polish bottle and has a brush to paint with:

But if you pull the upper part of the cap you find a fine point to draw nail art with while you squeeze the pen:

Very fine point. It's like a needle

Here are all the colors painted with the brush end. Very smooth and even and have good coverage.

Here are some simple designs I did with them: A daisy which I did by painting dots far from the center and then pulling them in, flowers made up of dots, a snowflake, and little hearts made by making the top with two dots and then pulling them down to a point. These pens are wonderful for doing all these and more but I really love them for doing polka dots.

They also work well to do a french manicure since you can freehand the line with the fine end and then paint the rest of the tip with the brush. I also like it because you can draw the ends of the tip real close to the edges very finely. Also, although I don't have a pic ,they work well for halfmoon manicures as well.

Pros: Versatile. Fine point allows for intricate designs, small dots and lines, french manicures, letters and numbers. (I used these for my 30ROCK manicure) Migi gives free refills (2 per order) when you pay for shipping.

Cons: Glitter gets stuck in the fine tip. (Only the glitter pen) I played with the gold glitter and got it to work before I did my swatches for the review, but by the time it came time to do swatches and pics I couldn't get it to come out anymore. Also they can become pressurized and polish will continuously flow out of the tip on its own without squeezing the pen. This however, is easily fixable by unscrewing the brush and screwing it back on while slightly squeezing the pen.

Here is a little sunburst I did on a paper plate with the gold glitter before it stopped working for me:

The colors for these pens are sold in sets. There are 5 different collections of colors. Each retails for $24.99. That means you end up paying about $3.12 per color. Each color has 0.16 fluid ounce of product, so that breaks down to $19.50/ounce. It sounds pricey that way, but really it would be like paying $9.75 for a regular 0.5 oz. bottle of polish which isn't that far off from what a lot of us spend! Plus the flexibility for doing designs more than makes up for it.

Here are the sets:

Gold Collection - 8 shimmers - This has the green I have swatched

Silver Collection - 8 bold cremes - I believe this is the set with the white I have swatched

Bronze Collection - Described as the "french" set - This set has mostly shimmers, but also the gold glitter I have swatched

Black Collection - Pastel cremes and shimmers

White Collection - Neon cremes and shimmers

Thanks for checking out my review! You can purchase these nail art pens at MigiNailArt.com
Each set retails for $24.99, or you can get all 5 for $99.99.

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.