Bundle Monster Full Sized Image Comparrison!

Wow! Bundle Monster has been updating left and right- it would be so hard to keep up without Cherish keeping me posted! Bundle Monster gave us a little comparrison of the full sized images from their first set and their new set. You can definitley see they are bigger this time around. When I finally get them in my hands, I will do a review asap and compare the sizes from both their sets and the konad plates. They also said that they will be announcing a contest tomorrow so I will update you on that once they let us know more details. =)

More Bundle Monster Image Plate Releases!!!!

Here are the newest pictures Bundle Monster released on their Facebook. The new plates will have a blue covering and they will also have a backing this time too to reduce the sharpness. BM also mentioned that the pricing for this set will be $21.99! This set will have 150 images so you will only be paying $0.14-$0.15 per image, which is pretty much the same pricing as the first set at $0.13-$0.14 per image. If you haven't been following along, this new set will have BIGGER images and should be available in about 2 weeks. More updates to come !!! How exciting is it seeing all 25 images plates? I can't contain myself, I want this new set so bad! I already made swatches that I am just waiting to stamp. lol

Glittery Spring Deco Nail Art Design

Peach Color: Essie - "Van D'Go"

Glitter Color: OPI- "Teenage Dream"

Rhinestones & Butterflies: Ebay.com

Pearls: BornPrettyStore

Oh how I wish I made a tutorial for this look, but I really didn't expect it to turn out this good! I wasn't too sure how I was going to like this color combo but I really like the way it turned out. I tried my Essie polish "Van D'go" that I won in Katrina's giveaway and OMG I loved this polish. I am so suprised how well it looked on my skin tone because I don't find many polishes that do. So I was off to a good start, then I added 2 coats of Teenage Dream which really complimented this color. I was also waiting for spring to use my gold butterflies and I figured it would be the perfect time. (Although were supposed to get a snow storm this weekend, crazy, I know) Then after I added the decorations and applied a coat of my brand new bottle of Seche, I was in love. lol I took these pictures with my Mom's camera which is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. and it even has a super macro mode which worked so well for taking nail pics. I am going to have to figure out a way to take more pics with her camera. lol I figured I might as well enter this into ThatsSOfresh's Spring Nail Contest although I didn't plan on it. But I just heard about it, the theme works, and it ends April 1st so this is my last chance to enter. The winner will get a $50 giftcard to WowSoCool. If you want to enter, do it now before it ends!

UPDATE: I went back and took this design off two nails because I was desperate to make a tutorial for this look. lol I'm going to update the format of my tutorials page and add this to it.

The PERFECT nail art supplies for beginners! & Under $50 !!

This post is for nail beginners who are interested in nail art and are starting their own collection. With thousands of nail products on the market, it can be really hard to decide which products to purchase. And if you are just starting, it can be even harder to know which supplies to buy first. I have been growing my collection for a few years now but if it was all gone tomorrow and I only had $50, this is what I would buy ...

The Basic Colors

 The first colors you want to buy should be black, white, and your favorite color. I suggest Sinful Colors "Black on Black" and "Snow me White" for your black and white polishes. They can be bought online for $2.50 on their website or Cherry Culture- OR you can buy them at your local Walgreens for $2.00. Not only are they affordable, but they work very well for nail stamping. Another brand I would suggest is Pure Ice which is also $2.oo at Walmart. I've used both of these brands and the quality is very good for the price & I only had trouble with a few of their polishes. Along with black, white, and your favorite color- buy 3-5 other basic colors like blue, purple, red, green, maybe a gold or silver, or whatever your little heart desires. I would also snag a glitter polish. =)

Image Plates

The best deal on image plates that I found are from a company called Bundle Monster. They sell a set of 21 image plates for $17.99. (In a couple weeks they will have also have a new set and I will have to update this post. lol) The image plates contain a total of 133 designs, and with this price, you only end up paying between $0.13-$0.14 per image, compared to Konad which averages $0.99 per image. You might also want to invest in a stamper or else you won't get much use out of your image plates. lol =) I found this one for $3.39.

 The Miracle Top Coat

Seche Vite is a little miracle in a bottle and can be bought at Sally's for $7.99. I am completley obsessed with this top coat and most nail bloggers will agree with me. Seche is different from other top coats in many ways. Firstly, it is very thick, which provides the ultimate protection for your nail color. Secondly, it dries sooo fast, like less than 5 minutes fast, which is quite unheard of for a polish this thick. Lastly, it provides a mirror-like shine over your nails that will last over a week. Not to mention, Seche Vite will not smudge your nail stamping designs. When applied correctly, Seche makes your nails look amazing. In order to acheive these results, you need to apply a thick coat. Also avoid having the brush touch your nails- you want it to glide over the thick layer of polish you are applying.

Some Extra Glitz & Glam

Next I would buy some rhinestones, striper brushes, or any other nail art supply of your choice. Ebay is a good place to find a lot of inexpensive nail art supplies. I also had luck with finding striper polishes in the Dollar Store and some rhinestones at my local craft store. This is the time to buy whatever else you want with the money that is left over. I love anything shiny and blingy so I would go with the rhinestones. Nail stripers would be a good choice too if you wanted to do some freehand work. Abby also mentioned dotting tools, which are great for beginners and are useful in so many ways.

So after all your purchases this is what you will have and how much it would cost. & I love you girls so much I did all the boring math for you lol. =)

8 Nail Polishes .......... x$2 .......... $16
BM Image Plates .................... $17.99
Nail Stamper ............................ $3.39
Seche Vite ................................... $7.99
Rhinestones or Nail Stripers .. $4
GRAND TOTAL: $49.37

Is there anything you would add to this list? Anything you would take out? If you have any other suggestions, please leave them in the comments and I will add them in this post =)

Bundle Monster releases another image of their new plates!!

Here's the newest image plate Bundle Monster will be adding to their new collection. If you haven't heard- Bundle Monster is releasing a new set of 25 image plates that will have BIGGER full sized images. The first set will still be available & the new set will have similar pricing. They should be available in about 2 weeks and BM recently got their sample plates to test. You can visit Bundle Monster's Facebook page for more info.

BM also said that this new set will have lots of full sized images and french tip designs- I like the full sized images, but I'm honestly not that into french tip designs. I am still sooo excited for the set and I do like the bottom two designs, along with the leaf one. What about you? Which designs do you like on this plate? Do you like full sized images or french dip designs more?

Cute Pink & Yellow Spring Nail Design & Tutorial

This nail design was unplanned except for the fact I knew I wanted to do something for Spring. I was searching through my image plates and the flower design on my BM16 plate caught my eye as it always does. I just never used this design because I knew the full image wouldn't fit over my entire nail. (Thank god Bundle Monster will have bigger images on their next set!) But I really wanted to use this design so I figured out a way to make it work. I also made a tutorial if you wanted to know how to do this design. =)

Yellow Color: Sinful Colors "Unicorn"

Pink Color: Sinful Colors "Pink Forever"

Image Plate: BM16 (Bundle Monster)

Mircro Beads: Ebay.com & DollarNailArt.com

Sparkly & Starry Glitter Pedicure Design

Blue Color: Milani - "Blue Flash"

Stars, Rhinestones, & Beads: Ebay.com, DollarNailArt.com, Joanns.com

I recently bought some new polishes and Milani's "Blue Flash" was one of them. This polish reminds me of a color Alice would wear in her Wonderland. Well this color and OPI's "Absolutely Alice"- but sadly that color isn't a part of my collection so this is the closest to wonderland I'll get. lol The first picture I took in the shade and is more color accurate to this polish. But I just had to see what this color looked like in the sun- which was a light show spectacular-although for some reason my camera picked up a darker less sparkly color. This color was pretty enough to wear on its own, but if you know me, I just had to add something on there. I figured a star design would work good with the colors. What do you think?

New Polish Additions =) & Quick Reviews

I was checking out Ivana's Blog recently when I chose her nail design for my NOTW and was looking at some of her recent polish purchases and swaps. She is a slightly bad influence on me since we have the same taste in polishes (especially when it comes to pinks and purples) and I just had to get some of the polishes I saw on her blog. =) lol

Above we have Milani polishes which I was surprised to find at my local Walgreens. The last few times I went there, I don't even remember seeing their Milani displays- but this time I got lucky. Here's what I got...

Milani - "Purple Gleam"

Milani - "Gold"

Milani - "Blue Flash"

*Close Up*

 Purple Gleam & Blue Flash are part of Milani's "One Coat Glitter" series. I wouldn't say they are exactly one coaters, however, it only takes 2 coats to achieve opaque glittery goodness. Even though 1 coat isn't completely opaque, it would still be too over powering to use as a glitter top coat. These polishes consist of a very fine glitter with a slightly colored base coat from what I could tell. Blue Flash seems to have a clear to light base color, but Purple Gleam seems to have a darker, maybe purple base color. I love both these colors equally- but I have to admit that the purple color is very unique and is absolutely stunning with some top coat. Overall, these are by far my favorite glitter polishes along with Sally Hansen "Rockstar Pink." I never had any glitter polishes that were this jam packed with glitter, and if that is the look you are going for- these polishes would be perfect for you.

As for Milani's Jewel FX polish in "Gold" - this is a clear polish that is loaded with small hexagonal glitter. It looks very cute over any polish and can add extra sparkle to any nail design. I tried this color out on a swatch wheel over a few colors and it is so pretty. I already have an idea for how I am going to use this polish for a Christmas design. I am not sure how many coats it will take to be opaque- my guess is around 3-4- but I will do some research and update this post when I find out. =)

Next up are some OPI polishes from the Katy Perry collection that my bf was sweet enough to buy me. =) I found these at Trade Secret (the only place I know where to buy OPI in my state) and these were the two prettiest colors left on the display. I couldn't choose between the two because they were both unique in their own way, so I snagged both. Pictured above is..

OPI - "The One That Got Away"

OPI - "Teenage Dream"

Close Up

"The One That Got Away" is almost as hard to describe as it was to get a color accurate picture. It's a redish - pinkish - berryish color with flecks of gold and purple shimmer. It's one of those colors that put you in a trance when you move it around in the light. As for "Teenage Dream"- this is a glitter polish with a clear base that has very small fine glitter in a pinkish, purple, mauve color, along with bigger glitter shapes that are silver with rainbow reflects. With the perfect combination of glitter sizes and color- Teenage Dream is a step above your regular glitter polishes. It is more on the sheer side, so it will take a few extra coats to achieve the bottle color. But as you can see from the close up pic, it is well worth it.

Do you have any polishes from these collections? How are you liking them so far? I really want more colors of the Milani glitter polishes, or better yet, get my hands on their 3D polishes. =)

Giveaway Goodies!! & a quick update

If you didn't already know, last week I won Katrina's 1st blog birthday giveaway! I was so excited because I never won anything. Well actually, in 2nd grade I won a one size fits all green sweater with the name of my school on it and a drawing of a tiger. So let me re-phrase that.. never have I ever won anything good lol. I was even more excited when I got home and saw the package sitting on the counter. I ran into my room and opened it right away. Katrina packaged everything soooo cutely. It definately made it 10x more fun to open. & I got a sweet lil thank you note written in perfect handwriting.

Here is what I got =)

Rimmel - Sunset Orange

Essie - Van D'Go

Orly - Candy Cane Lane

Barielle - Elle's Spell

Sally Hansen - Sea and be seen

Nicole by OPI - Nicole .. Spotted

Revlon - Emerald City

Zoya - Edyta

And I wanted to show you a close up of Elle's Spell since it was very unique... 

I never seen a color like this before. It's a deep red color with a jelly base, glitter and iridescent flakes. In my opinion,  if China Glaze- Ruby Pumps and Sally Hansen- Hidden Treasure had a love child- it would be this color. lol

I am sooo excited to use all of these polishes. Funny thing is, these are my first Zoya, Rimmel, Essie, Nicole by OPI, and Barielle polishes. I want to do a mani with the Essie color really soon & I think the Rimmel color is *perfect* for summer. Ahh! I just want to wear them all! 

And in case you were wondering- these polishes are kitty approved. =D

And I wanted to give another *BIG* thanks to Katrina for having this fun giveaway and for being the awesome blogger she is!!

Updates: I will have a new pedi design posted tomorrow hopefully.. if everything goes according to plan it should have lots of glitter. & I have another nail design and tutorial for you on Monday that is Spring and Flower themed =D ...  Also, I am in the process of making a page for my blog that will have all the links of the nail art supply stores I found. I figured this would be helpful since some things are hard to find and you might be able to find everything you need from just one website. So keep a look out for that .. have a good weekend. =)

You guessed it! Another teaser for the new Bundle Monster image plates

Cherish Cup of Tea let me know that Bundle Moster released yet another sneak peak of their new image plates. && As promised - I would keep you updated. Yesterday they released 2 sneak peaks in one day- so hopefully the trend will continue and I can keep you posted. How cute would that heart design be for Valentine's Day, Anniversarys, or a date night? && That fishnet design would be perfect for layering. I seriously cannot wait to try out these plates!!

Another sneak peak of the new Bundle Monster image plates...

Photo Credit

Super quick post. I just wanted to give you girls an update and show you the newest picture Bundle Monster released of their new image plates. If you didn't already know- Bundle Monster is expected to come out with a new set of 25 image plates in about 3 weeks which will be available on Amazon. I hope they keep posting pictures of their new image plates while we wait the painfully long 3 weeks. lol

How cute is that pumpkin with the scary tree & the haunted house!? I'm already so excited to do halloween designs for this year! I also like the full image design of what seems to be an alligator skin print maybe? Anyways, I will post more pics of these plates if Bundle Monster releases anymore. =)

Cute Deco Chanel Nail Art Design & Tutorial

I bought Orly's "Halley's Comet" back when the FX collection came out- but this is the first time I wore it and I have NO idea why I waited so long! I always thought the color was pretty in the bottle, hence the reason I bought it, but I did not know it would look this cute on. The polish has almost a foil like appearance with flecks of shimmer that reflect blue and green light. I was about to wear this polish all by itself (which I never do) it was that pretty. But after staring at the color for an hour- I decided I would add some extra pizzazz to it & this is what I came up with. I also made a tutorial for this design which is posted below if you want to check it out.

Blue Color: Orly "Halley's Comet" (2 Coats)

Rhinestones, Beads, Etc: Ebay.com Joanns.com  DollarNailArt.com

Top Coat: Seche Vite

Also- just a note for those of you that may be wondering. If you apply at least 2 layers of top coat to your nails, the decorations should stay on for about a week.  



100+ followes & some BIG thank yous!!

If you look a little over to your right, maybe scroll down a little bit, you can see that I finally have over 100 followers!! xx YAYYYY!!

I originally made a blog to share my nail designs- and also some clothes & makeup along the way. I started blogging pretty much a year ago, but wasn't too into it at first. I was lazy about posting and would update maybe twice a month, take alright pictures, and post so-so nail designs from some of my first Konadicures. lol I would even skip posting some really cute manicures =( - don't worry, nowadays, I would never let a fab. mani go un-photographed. But since Jan 2011- I think it would be safe to say thats when I REALLY got into the whole blogging thing and already posted more in the past 3 months than I have in the past year! Since Jan 2011 is when I would say my blog took off because I was definately more involved. I posted more frequently, talked to more lovely bloggers, took better pics, and not to mention- my nail skills were A LOT better since I started. =D

But I don't think all my hard efforts alone would have gotten me to 100+ followers in 3 months, so there is definately some people I would like to thank. Firstly is Charming Nails, who is a wonderful nail blogger from Finland. I featured one of her awesome designs on my blog as my Nail Of the Week and she gave me a little thank you shout out on her blog the next day. This was my first mention on another blog & my daily view count has never been that high before! Just from that one lil mention, I got TONS of traffic & some great new followers. So thank you very very much Charming Nails!!! Then on March 10th, I went to check my blogger really quick- and when I did I had around 10 new followers, at first I was just thinking "Wow, people must have really liked those leopard nails I just did..." lol Then after clicking the stats tab- I almost spit my coffee out looking at my view count. Turns out my post about making your own nail polish rack was featured on OPI's Facebook!!!!!! Needless to say- my view count had the highest 90 degree spike I ever seen lol. So a VERY BIG THANK YOU to OPI! I still get traffic everyday from their facebook. =) And last but not least, last night, blogger and follower Rainbows&Sparkles noticed that I was very close to 100 followers and was sweet enough to send some my way!! So now I have 104 followers, which is exactly how many nail polishes I have at the moment, so I am very happy with this number! lol So of course, I owe another big thank you to Rainbows&Sparkles!! THANNKKKS!!! I def. have to admit, that blogging has become my newest addiction other than polish! & how can you not? Seriously, everyone on blogger is soooooo nice & friendly, and it is really true that this is a "community" and one blogger is always willing to help out another one- I love it.

Actually, there is 104 people to thank, and those are all my wonderful followers!! Thank you so much for following and reading!! All 104 of you are the reason I keep polishing and posting. So THANK YOU for being such an inspiration!! And because I love you guys so much- I am thinking of doing a GIVEAWAY soon!!! Maybe in a month- or when I get 150-200 followers, but we will see how that goes. But I will DEF. have one soon and I am already brainstorming of what I should get for the giveaway! Ooorrr I might just do a smaller giveaway now for my 100 followers & doing a bigger one at 200? Not too sure yet. But I will figure it out and let you know. =)

Bundle Monster is coming out with NEW image plates!!!

After reading Rainbows&Sparkle's most recent post, I learned that Bundle Monster is going to be releasing NEW image plates!! & I just had to learn more!! I did a little research which brought me over to their facebook fan page where I found some more details.

The next set they will be releasing includes not just 21 but *25* image plates!! According to Bundle Monster, the plates will include "lots of full nail and french tip designs." They also listened to all our feedback and are making the full images on the new plates BIGGER!! Bundle Monster also said the "Launch date will be within 3 weeks or so. We are finalizing the designs; production will take about 2 weeks. Price will be similar to the 21 piece set we have currently. We won't charge an arm or a leg for it~ ;)." If you become a fan on their facebook page- you will be the first to know the release date.

So who is excited?! I really want to try that flower french tip design on the first plate, it would be too cute for summer & I already have some ideas on how I can use it. =P  I can't wait to get my hands on these!! I am going to be watching their updates like a hawk- so I can get them ASAP & do a review- plus some nail designs of course! Counting down the days now ...

KONAD PEDICURE| Cute Spring Bright Pink & Blue Pedicure Nail Art Design

This is my latest Konad pedicure. I did a design very similar to this a while back, but never took pics. =( So since the colors worked well for Spring, and since Spring officially starts tomorrow- I figured this would be the perfect time to try this pedicure out again. I LOVE this color combo and have some manis planned out for summer with the same color scheme. 

Pink Color: Sinful Colors "Pink Forever" 2 coats

2nd Pink Color: Sally Hansen "LCD" 2 coats

Blue Color: Pure Ice "Pussycat"

Black Color: Sinful Colors "Black on Black"

Image Plate: Konad M57

KONAD NAIL ART | Cute Deco Flower Nail Art Design && TUTORIAL !! ...

Here is a easy-to-do nail art design. I had trouble getting decent pics since it was gloomy and cloudy the day I took these- but I was able to get a few. I really wanted to use this Konad design again, but since I already used it for another mani, I needed to change it up a bit. So I changed the color scheme and added some rhinestones & beads.

Gray Color: Pure Ice "Kiss Me Here"

White Color: Konad Special Polish in "White"

Image Plate: Konad M60

Top Coat: Seche Vite

And guess what else?! I am officially on YouTube and making video tutorials for my nail art designs!!!! I finally figured out a technique for making the vids- so hopefully I can make this a regular thing.  I made the videos short & straight to the point- I figured this would make it a lot easier to edit and take less time to make them so I could keep posting. So I apologize in advance for not explaining anything in depth- but on the other hand theres plenty of other videos on YouTube that will explain the basics in detail. Anyways, I need a drum roll please ... Here is my first official video tutorial ...

If there is anything that I can do to make the vids better or more helpful- just let me know in the comments! I hope everyone likes the design!! I already have my next tutorial lined up so in a few days I will have the posted too!!

St. Patrick's Day Nail Art Design ...

So here is my St. Patrick's Day mani. I was having trouble with my polishes while I was doing the water marbeling, so it didn't turn out quite the way I thought it would- but I still like it. =) I had to hurry up and finish this design before I ran out of sunlight to take the pics, so I apologize for not cleaning up the cuticles. lol

Yellow Color: Sinful Colors "Let's Meet"

Light Green Color: Sinful Colors "Irish Green"

Dark Green Color: Sinful Colors "San Francisco"

Green Glitter: Sinful Colors "Call You Later"

Gold Micro Beads: DollarNailArt.com

Tagged: Handwriting Survey ...

I was unofficially tagged by Kellie Gonzo for this handwriting tag. If you want to do this tag, grab a notebook & pretty pen and answer the following questions in your own handwriting ...

1. What is your name? and your blog?
2. What is your blog URL?
3. Write "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog."
4. Favorite Quote
5. Favorite Song
6. Favorite Bands/Singers
7. Say anything you want.
8. Pass it along ...

I tag My Colorful Nailart, Katrina's Nail Blog, My Pretty Nailz, Charming Nails and anyone else who wants to do this tag!

Saint Patrick's Day Pedicure Nail Art Design

Here is my St. Patrick's Day pedicure. I figured I would do a pedicure to give you some inspiration before I posted my mani. For the big toe, I used a sponging technique to make the colors fade and just added some rhinestones & other embelishments, the second toe is just medium green and glitter, middle toe is dark green with beads, 4th toe is light green with small green hexagons, and the baby toe is just dark green and glitter. Here are the products I used ...

Light Green Color: Sinful Colors "Innocent"

Medium Green Color: Sinful Colors "Irish Green"

Dark Green Color: Sinful Colors "San Fransico"

Green Glitter: Sinful Colors "Call You Later"

Rhinestones, Beads, Hexagons: Joanns.com Ebay.com DollarNailArt.com

Have you done your St. Patrick's Day pedicure yet? If so, leave a link to your post in the comments, I would love to see it!

Crackle & Scotch Tape Mani | Cute & Easy Nail Art Design

Here is my current mani. I was looking at Chloe's Nail Blog and found her tutorial on how she does her scotch tape manis. The designs she is able to make with just some scotch tape are amazing, so you should check out her blog and see more of her work. This was my first attempt at the scotch tape mani, and I think it came out really well-even though I would posistion the tape better next time. Not as well as Chloe's though- but she also has many years of scotch tape & nail painting experience. lol This mani is really easy, the hardest part is cutting out the tiny strips of tape- but the results are well worth it. Since I was a first timer, I just decided to do two fingers with the rays and just used a crackle polish for my other 3 nails.

Light Pink Color: Sinful Colors "Glass Pink"

Medium Pink Color: Sinful Colors "Cream Pink"

Dark Pink Color: China Glaze "Hyper Haute"

Black Color: Sinful Colors "Black on Black"

Black Crackle Color: China Glaze "Black Mesh"

On another note, the reason I never posted a Mardi Gras mani is because it ended up being a complete nail fail. lol I used those tiny lil beads to create "mardi gras beads" but when I applied the top coat the color from the beads came off and smeared all over the place. Also beads were falling off left and right, and I dinged my nails up like crazy. But here is the pic of my most grand nail fail lol..

Anyways, once I take my new mani off, my St. Patrick's day one will be going on. I'll try to post it early next week.