Friday, August 31, 2012

31-Day Challenge 2012

I didn't know these existed for nail art, so I was so excited to stumble across this 31-day challenge from Chalkboard Nails. The challenge includes a variety of colors, patterns and inspirations—and I can't wait to get started!

Wendy and I had our last nail polish night for a while since she'll be heading away for dental school this fall, but hopefully we can continue our blogging adventures from afar. Keep an eye out for more posts from her (perhaps we'll see something dental-themed soon?).

Until then ... challenge accepted!
Image courtesy of Chalkboard Nails.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

It's So Easy Leopard Print

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(Please excuse my brief hiatus ... I was busy getting married!)

I've never been an expert nail artist—I can give myself a mean manicure, but when it comes to painting custom designs, I thought I was a hopeless cause.

I had a few Stripe Rite brushes from It's So Easy Nails that I wanted to try out, so I clicked over to their website to get inspired. I came across this super easy Leopard nail art tutorial and I was hooked. Leopard nail art has to be one of the easiest (and quickest) manicures I've ever attempted -- plus it looks amazing! The best part about leopard print nail art is that you can totally customize it for any season or mood you're feeling -- I went for the basic tutorial colors, but I've seen it done with a gradient background, metallics and even crackle/shatter.

For my base color, I used OPI Gargantuan Green Grape, an awesome mint color I picked up as my one concession to the summer trend. The real stars of this mani were the awesome Stripe Rite brushes -- they made an easy manicure even easier. The colors used in the demo were midnight blue, light green, grape and cranberry pink, but I swapped out the light green with a yellow. What I really liked about the Stripe Rite polishes were the brushes -- a lot of brands I've tried out have long, unwieldy brushes, but these held their shape well enough for me to easily make my spots and add texture.

Topped off with a quick swipe of my favorite Seche Vite, this mani lasted for nearly two weeks and I've never received so many compliments!


Disclosure: The products reviewed in this post were provided by the PR company for It's So Easy Nails, but all opinions are my own. View our disclosure policy for more information.  

OPI Germany Collection Fall 2012

OPI launches its new Germany Collection for Fall 2012 today, offering us polish-aholics 12 new colorful shades. Ranging from the light honey beige Don’t Pretzel My Buttons to the dark-hued Nein! Nein! Nein OK Fine! and Unfor-greta-bly Blue, the Germany Collection is a perfect fit for fall and winter trends.

As usual, one of the best things about a new OPI collection coming out is getting to enjoy the witty names developed by executive VP and artistic director Suzi Weiss-Fischmann. Schnapps Out of It!, Danke-Shiny Red, Don’t Talk Bach to Me and Berlin There Done That are some of the clever gems from the Germany Collection.

Here’s a preview of the entire collection:

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