25th Birthday Mani

So it has been a crazy long time since we have posted, but life has been beyond crazy.  This tax season is completely kicking my ass, therefore causing me to be more lazy then general once I get home.  However, I did have a birthday since the last post.  I'm now officially a quarter of a century out...yay!

So here is my birthday mani. It was completely copied from Deniz.  Click here to see the original.  She is amazing! I used OPI Pink Friday, Sinful Colors Pink Creme, Essie Main Squeeze, OPI Alpine Snow and a pink nail art polish.  Hope you like it!

~Nailed by Brittany~e

More Instagram Nails

So I've been crazy with work, so I haven't had as much time to focus on the blog but I really love Instagram. Here are a few of my nails from this last week :)

Hope you like them. I was so excited about how my first flower nail art attempt came out.

~Nailed By Brittany~

A Crewed Interest

I rarely wear nude/neutral polishes, I own very few and I like even less so I was super psyched to finally find a nude I could get on board with (that sounded dirtier than I meant it to!). Essie's A Crewed Interest is a pale peach cream and is just one amazing color in Essie's Spring 2012 collection, most of which I now own thanks to Brittany and her peer pressure, don't worry I talked her into a few pricey polishes as well.


There is a bit of a pink undertone in this polish which I really think made all the difference. Its unusual to find a nude that's flattering on me, my skin is very pale! I've seen A Crewed Interest swatched in a few different places and one of the best things about it is how different, yet equally flattering, it looks on different people. And as I mentioned above the application is great, these pictures are of just 2 (thick) coats and a top coat.





~Nailed by Jen~

OPI DS Opulence

So last Friday Ericka and I went to Ulta to use my card awards.  It was both exciting and a bit sickening knowing how much money I have spent there.  However, I was excited to get a new curling wand :)  I also picked up OPI DS Opulence.  This color is extremely similar to OPI DS Reserve, but its a little more mauve.  I love the Designer Series polishes and really enjoy the lovely holo that these polishes have. Enjoy!

~Nailed by Brittany~

Happy Leap Day!

For today's mani I used one of the stamping plates I got for Christmas. There are a few left that I haven't tried out yet and I was really excited by how much I liked this particular pattern because I wasn't especially fond of it on the plate, but once it was on my nails I really enjoyed it.


I used 2 coats of Essie Over The Edge, a layer of Essie Good To Go, then stamped with Finger Paints Easel Come, Easel Go. I'm having a hard time finding a good silver to stamp with, I can't help but feeling like they are all too sheer, I've tried Sally Hansen, OPI and now Finger Paints. Easel Come, Easel Go was ok but still feels a bit thin. Anyway overall I enjoyed this mani.
 

Sorry for the somewhat low quality photos, I'm too lazy to use a real camera and download pictures, so all my pics are taken with my iphone.
~Nailed by Jen~

Plumberry

Hooray for the wonderful weather yesterday! After the snow storm that blew in from Chicago this past weekend, I'm grateful for the warmer temperatures (although I'd still love a snow day :)

The color I wore yesterday really helped me get into the mood for spring. As part of the loot from the spectacular Walmart Essie clearance we found a few weekends ago, Essie - Plumberry is a creamy berry red with a little hint of pink. The color was so bright and vibrant. I absolutely love this color!
Inside

A little bit of natural light for once!
Are you counting down the days until Spring?
~ Nailed by Ericka ~

So busy...

Sorry for the lack of posting lately, but we have all been crazy busy.  I'm currently getting sucked into the awfulness that is tax season.  Working a minimum of 54 hours a week can get very tiring.  But I promise we will get back to posting regularly.  Hopeful everyone is having a good week :)

~Nailed by Brittany~

Angora Cardi

This past weekend, Jen, Brittany, and I found an awesome deal on Essie polishes at the local Walmart. We were able to pick up polishes for $4 and topcoat for $5. It was such a great deal that we couldn't pass it up. We each came away with some new colors and were super excited.

The first new polish from my collection that I'm going to share with you is Essie - Angora Cardi. This polish is a creamy, deep dusty rose color. I think with my skin tone the polish definitely gave off more of brown tone in certain light. I liked the color overall, but definitely don't think that it will be one of my go-to colors. As usual for Essie, the application was great and the removal was even easier.



I can't wait to show you the other polishes we picked up (I'm wearing Dive Bar now, which is BEAUTIFUL!!!)

~ Nailed by Ericka ~

Sweet Nothing

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  Today I have one of our many Ulta polishes.  These photos are from about a month ago, but I didn't have time to take any nail photos this weekend.  I've been trying to find a nude color that I completely love and I felt like this polish may fill the void.  However, that was not completely the case.  But I did really like the final look of this polish and I feel like it could have some jelly sandwich potential.

I did 3-4 coats of Ulta Sweet Nothing.  The first coat of this polish basically looked like nothing, but I was able to build up some color with the 2-4th coats.


I really like the color combo with my eos lipbalm and Sweet Nothing.  I may need to do a different design using this two colors.

~Nailed by Brittany~

Essie Obsessed

Up until a few weeks ago I didn't own but one or two Essie polishes and I never even used those but after finding one color that I loved (Essie Sexy Divide) I have been using and buying a ton of Essie polishes, I guess you can say I'm a little obsessed now. Today's mani started out with 2 coats of Essie E-nuff is E-nuff on every finger except my ring finger. I've had this color around for a while but never really used it, it turned out to be a really pretty red with an orange/peach tint and like all of the Essie's I own it was beautiful and had great application.


For the accent finger I used to coats of OPI Alpine Snow and then stamped with the same Essie E-nuff is E-nuff. I can't remember which stamp I used, it was one of the new Mash stamps I got for Christmas, but honestly I'm too lazy to get up and see which one. I liked the circle pattern a lot though.

~Nailed by Jen~

Velvet Rope and Glitter

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day :)
 Today's mani is from quite some time ago, since I haven't really been the best about taking photos lately. I had just gotten these polishes in December and this was the first time I had tested them out.

I started off with two coats of Orly - Velvet Rope. I really love this color because of the subtle silver glitter that is in the polish. The application was great and it was opaque in one coat. I decided to add Nicole by OPI - One Less Lonely Glitter to the ring fingers for an accent. This color is from the Justin Bieber collection (and was a birthday gift :). I was too lazy to clean up the application of the accent nail, so forgive me for the sloppiness.



~ Nailed by Ericka ~

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today we wanted to show you our Valentine's Day manis :)

Ericka's:  She started with 2 coats Zoya Kennedy and then topped it with a coat of Essie Good To Go.  Next, she stamped cheetah print with Orly Liquid Vinyl on all the fingers except the ring fingers and thumbs.  After the stamping dried, she used Ulta Non-Stop Red to add little dots of color to the cheetah print.  On her ring fingers and thumbs, she folded a piece of tape in half and cut out half a heart.  After unfolding it, she stuck it on her nail and used OPI Black Shatter to paint it in.
Brittany's:  I started with 2 coats of Ulta Non-Stop Red on all of my nails.  After adding a coat of Essie Good To Go, I used the same cheetah print stamp with OPI Pink Friday on all my fingers except my ring fingers.  I also added Ulta Glitter Top Coat dots to the dots on my cheetah print.  On my ring finger, I stamped with one of my new Red Angel plates with OPI Alpine Snow.  I also added Ulta Glitter Top Coat to my ring fingers.


Jen's:  She started with 2 coats of Essie Watermelon on all her fingers except the ring fingers.  Next, she used her dotting tool to add 2 dots of Essie Raise Awareness to all her fingers, but on the ring finger she did the opposite, with Essie Raise Awareness on the nail and 2 dots of Essie Watermelon.  She topped everything off with a coat of SV.
 Hope you like our manis!  Have a wonderful day!

~Nailed by Brittany, Ericka & Jen~

DS Classic

Keeping it quick today with the post :) I'm showing you the mani I did with OPI - DS Classic. Jen showed you this color as a base in her giraffe print mani (check it out) last week. I loved the color and had been wanting to try it out for quite some time.

This polish had great application and was a 2-coater. I loved the way the color looked in the sun (although I apologize for not getting any photos in the sun for you.) I definitely will return to this color in the future :) I was a great neutral color and actually didn't look too bad with my skin tone.


~ Nailed by Ericka~

Silver Kennedy

So as everyone knows, Zoya had a promotion last month where you could get 2 polishes by just paying shipping.  I decided that I needed to have Kennedy and I don't regret it for one minute :)  I love this color!  I'm not really sure how to describe it, but its lovely.  I wore this out to celebrate my mother's birthday a couple of weeks ago.  We went out to one of her all time favorite restaurants, but before we had a little nail paint party.  It was a wonderful day.

I started with 2 coats of Kennedy and then stamped it with Ulta Scene Steel-er and one of my new Red Angel plates #104.  I LOVE  the way this turned out.  I feel like its the perfect combo. 


Do you love it too?

~Nailed by Brittany

Lav-ish High Roller

Today's mani is a quick look that I did a few weeks ago. I didn't even get a chance to clean up my nails before I took photos, so forgive me for the sloppiness!

I started off with 2 coats of Ulta - Lav-ish. This is a dusty lavender with gold shimmer in it. It is subtle and shines nicely in the sunlight. I used Ulta - High Roller to stamp with using Red Angle plate 113. High Roller is a great color to stamp with, although I don't love to wear it alone. It applies nicely in one coat and has a pretty good opacity for stamping.



As far as the Red Angle plates, I love the designs, but don't really love the application. Some of them seem really skinny and don't fit my nails well. Others are engraved too deeply and pocket too much polish, which squishes onto my nail when I try to stamp :(

Any suggestions for working with these plates?

~ Nailed by Ericka ~

Copy Cat Nails

So I stole my nails from Sarah over at Chalkboard Nails :)  I saw this one day before going to paint my nails and I loved it so much, I just had to copy.  I was also so excited because I had just picked up Sally Hansen Glass Slipper and I wanted to test it out.  I used Orly Liquid Vinyl as my base, adding a layer of Glass Slipper and then topped it off with a thin layer of Revlon Royal.  The results were just gorgeous!   Sarah added a holographic topcoat, but I just left mine be.  Click here to see her post.  Her blog is amazing.  She does so many beautiful designs.    

Taken in sunshine :)
I loved this mani, and I can't wait to use Glass Slipper again.

~Nailed by Brittany~

Animal Prints

Today's post is not so much about one manicure but about the mood I've been in lately, and that is the mood for animal prints. Over the last few days I've had zebras and leopards and giraffes on my nails so for today I'm showing you one of each. Also I should disclaimer this post by saying sorry if the photos aren't great they were all taken on my phone.
The first mani is zebra print. This is done with Konad plate m57. I used 2 coats of China Glaze Pink Voltage (my favorite neon!), stamped with Finger Paints Black Expressionism and then for a bit of glitter used Sally Hansen HD LCD.


For the leopard print I used the same plate (Konad m57). I put 3 layers of Sally Hansen HD Spectrum then stamped with Essie Sexy Divide. Sexy Divide is actually a purple color but in the photos (and to a lesser degree in person) the spots look blue. It was still pretty but I wish the spots would have turned out more purple, perhaps if I hadn't used such a strong glittery base.


The final print I have is a giraffe print, I was really excited about this one because I got some new image plates for Christmas and this was on one of them. Since giraffe is a more abstract print I went for neutral colors that way it was obvious what I was going for. I used Mash plate Mash-20. I put 2 coats of OPI DS Classic as the base, I'm not a big fan of neutrals but this is a lovely gold with a holographic shimmer so its not too boring for me. Then I stamped with Sinful Colors Rich in Heart.

~Nailed by Jen~

Dots Galore

So I had originally attempted to post this mani on Tuesday, but Blogger freaked out or something and deleted all the content in my post.  Since that happened, I am going to show you 2 of my recent manis.  As of you have seen, I have been on a dotting tool kick lately.  And these mani are perfect examples of why I love it so much.

For the 1st one I started with 2 coats of Savvy French Cafe.  I love the look of this nude, but I always question if its the best nude for me.  Anyways, next I added two rows of dots to my ring fingers and thumbs.  I used Ultra Mint Condition and China Glaze First Mate.  I truly loved the color combination and the overall look. 

Next, I did another mani inspired by Instagram.  The original was posted by @beejustice and I believe that it was inspired by a necklace that she owns.
Here is a screencap.  I'm not sure how to tag her on this. Sorry!
She used gold and a mint green, but I just recently picked up OPI Skull & Glossbones and I really wanted to test it out.  So I started with 2 coats of it, and I'm really loving the color.  Its a great neutral.  Next, I added dots on all of my fingers except for the ring fingers, on which I used my new Red Angel stamping plate.  I chose to use Ulta Chic Peek.  I also really loved the way that this turned out.  The only issue that I had was that the stamped image is significantly lighter than the dots.

So what do you think?  Do you love the dots as much as me?


~Nailed by Brittany~

Shrimply Devine Zebras

Ever since our very late "Christmas" exchange, I've been eye-ing up Brittany's new Red Angel plates. Although these plates are super sharp and have already sliced a place mat on our table, I'm still eager to test them out. I've used a few of the designs so far and have really liked the outcome.

After swatching our Sally Hansen collection this weekend, I rediscovered my love for Shrimply Devine (part of the Complete Salon Manicure line). This color is a great cream pink that is bright, but not too crazy for work. I used OPI - Skull & Glossbones to stamp with Red Angel plate 113. (Brittany just did an awesome mani using this color which I'm sure she'll be sharing with you soon!) I finished up the look with Ulta - Glitter Top Coat. I picked up this top coat on clearance over Christmas break and I absolutely love it :)


~ Nailed by Ericka ~

Pink Tips

After a relapse in nail biting a few months ago my nails have finally grown long enough to french tip again. I was in a pink mood (to be honest I'm always in a pink mood) so I went for a fuchsia pink tip. Unfortunately this bottle was part of a multi-pack of Sally Hansen HD mini polishes and it wasn't labeled, so the best description I can give is a shimmery fuchsia. I really like all of the HD polishes I've seen so this bold mani can be done with any color I'm sure.


After a base coat I used 1 coat of OPI 'In The Spot Light Pink" Its a really nice pale almost sheer pink. Whenever I french tip I like to use a light pink base just to even out the color of my natural nails. Then I put a coat of OPI 'I Juggle Men'  This is my favorite shimmer, its very subtle and beautiful in person, but sadly hard to see in these photos. I finished everything off with a coat of SV.


I liked this mani a lot, unfortunately it shrank really bad and sort of wrinkled. I don't know if I put the polish on too thick or if its because I was in a hurry to finish it but I was sad that I had to take this off after a few hours (during which I spent most of my time sleeping). Oh well I suppose I'll try again another time.
~Nailed by Jen~