La Mer

La mer: (French) noun. the sea

What I used:

OPI Thanks A Windmillion
Revlon Whimsicial (over Thanks A Windmillion on the ring finger)
Gold star stud from Born Pretty Store

I remember, two years ago, I didn't like Thanks A Windmillion when I first swatched it. Now, I really like this color! So funny how much a person can grow and change in such a short amount of time.

Thanks for looking!

Michelle

Studded in Grey

What I used:

Essie Cocktail Bling
Zoya Caitlin (ring finger)
China Glaze Fairy Dust (over Essie Cocktail Bling on middle finger)
Gold square stud from Born Pretty Store

Thanks for looking!

Michelle

Les Nail Smiths: January 2016 - Bling

This month's LNS prompt is "Bling" to welcome the new year! I decided to go for a glitter gradient -super simple, but I haven't done one in ages so I was pretty excited!

I used Sally Hansen Thinking of Blue for the base and Sephora by OPI Rags to Rhinestones for the glitter. I really liked the look of the fading glitter because it looked like delicate stars falling down.

Please be sure to check out Millie's mani for this prompt! Thanks for looking!

Michelle

Les Nail Smiths: October 2015 - Halloween Fun & November 2015 - Plaid

I found my manicures for LNS October 2015 and November 2015! ^_^ I'm so happy!

October 2015 - Halloween Fun:

This manicure reminded me why I don't free-hand often... Sigh. So much potential in my mind, but a fail on my nails. Well, gold star for trying! :D

Nail polishes used:

OPI Don't Violet Me Down
LA Girl Uninhibited
Sinful Colors Citrine
Sinful Colors Snow Me White
Kiss Black Striper

Please be sure to check out Millie's Halloween Fun nails!

November 2015 - Plaid:

Stamping is fun, but quite the hassle to clean up. (Especially cleaning the plates!) I'm going to make it a New Year's blog resolution to stamp more, though, because I need the practice and it's such easy nail art.

Nail polishes used:

Innisfree #116
Essie Little Brown Dress

Supplies used:

Gold striping tape (Born Pretty Store)
Gold microbeads (Born Pretty Store)
Flat-back pearl (Born Pretty Store)
Brown and clear rhinestones (Born Pretty Store)
Moyou London Hipster Plate Collection 06

Please be sure to check out Millie's plaid nails!

Thanks for looking! See you on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Les Nail Smiths: December 2015 - Glass Nails

Yes, finally another LNS installment on here! I couldn't post October and November's in time because of midterms and then studying for finals. And when I did, I misplaced the pictures. -_- I shall post them soon! But anyway, for this month's LNS, Millie and I decided to do glass nails. It was a huge trend in South Korea not too long ago, and then slowly trickled down here. Instead of using a mylar sheet to get this look, I used some tape from Hoop Supplies. I will make a separate review post soon (hopefully)!

Polishes used:

Essie Sugar Daddy
Essie Penny Talk (accent nail)

Decals:

Pearls
Gold microbeads
Pearlized in White 1-in Wide

Pro Tips: I recommend using small scissors (such as those for trimming long eyebrow hairs) to cut the pearlized tape into small shapes. Small pieces also conform to the nail better and wear longer. I learned both the hard way...

I really enjoyed wearing this look! The sheer pink added a great minimalist feel and balanced the look out. Additionally, Penny Talk is a beautiful rose gold polish. Please be sure to check out Millie's glass nails as well!

Thanks for looking! See you on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Les Nail Smiths: August 2015 - Mermaid

Can you believe it's LNS' First Anniversary?! I can hardly believe Millie and I have been doing LNS together for that long, not to mention it's been one year of my life that passed by in a blink of an eye! (Ok, so maybe some days were much, much slower than others, but...) I chose "mermaid" for this month's prompt. When I think of mermaids, I think of blues, greens, and sparkles so that's exactly what I did!

And just to clear things up to avoid misunderstandings, I will do LNS whenever I can and want to. As I've said before, my school, future, and life are my priority now. (Trying to "adult" is a very lengthy and difficult process!)

I've always wanted to do a syrup gradient mani so I decided to use OPI I Can Teal You Like Me, a sheer blue tint, for the base. I first applied one coat of the OPI and then some light blue iridescent glitter with a fan nail art brush, both of which are from Born Pretty Store. Then, I followed up with multiple coats of the OPI on the middle and tip parts of my nail to create a gradient. Finally, I topped the tips off with China Glaze Fairy Dust for a dusting of its magical properties. I finished the mani off with a top coat. The whole look makes me think of mermaids swimming through a hidden, pristine lagoon with its seaweed caressing them as they pass through.

Make sure to check out Millie's awesome LNS mani too!

Thanks for looking! See you on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Seoul/Hong Kong/Macau Vacation Mani

Here are my and my mom's manis for our vacation a few weeks ago! Mine is inspired by one from @dayofdays_ from Instagram. As for my mom's mani, my mom wanted to use some nail stickers she got from Daiso. These pictures were taken in Ihwa Mural Village in South Korea. I think the humidity made these pictures blurry since it fogged up the camera lens.

My mani:

Sally Hansen Pacific Blue

Deborah Lippmann Boom Boom Pow

My mom's mani:

Essie Topless & Barefoot

Daiso Nail Stickers

Thanks for looking! See you on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Les Nail Smiths: June 2015 - Inspired by a Print or Graphic Design

For this month's LNS, I chose to be inspired by a print or graphic design. I really love graphic design and textile prints so I had a whole slew to choose from on one of my Pinterest boards. Ultimately, I chose to recreate this Japanese book cover. This prompt came at the perfect time because I was itching to try out the acrylic paints from Amazon and brushes from SharingVu on Instagram I got recently!

I decided to try out my light box for these pictures. I need to work on my lighting, but I really like not having to worry about consistency! Anyway... To make the half moon on my ring finger, I used a hole reinforcement sticker. For the flowers on the middle finger, I used black and white acrylic paints. For the polka dots on the ring finger and flowers on the thumb, I used my second largest and second smallest dotting tools. I'm showing my right hand this time because, surprisingly, I did this hand better than my left one! o_o (I'm actually right-handed.)

Polishes used:

Thumb and ring finger: Sally Hansen Thinking of Blue and Sinful Colors Snow Me White

Index finger: Sinful Colors Snow Me White

Middle finger: Barry M Mustard and black and white acrylic paints

Pinky finger: Wet 'n Wild Ebony Hates Chris

I had a lot of fun with this challenge! I look forward to the next one.

Thanks for looking! Make sure to check out Millie's mani for this month's LNS!

Michelle

Les Nail Smiths: May 2015 - Water Decals

Welcome to May's LNS! Wow, it seems like ages ago since Mille and I last did one! We had to push back May's LNS because I had finals and my undergraduate graduation ceremony while Millie had a lot of plans in the beginning and middle of May. This month's prompt is all about water decals. I really didn't know what to do on my nails, but I knew I wanted to use these Chi (from Chi's Sweet Home, a manga and anime) and rose decals. (Unfortunately, the Chi decals are no longer available. :( ) I decided to just wing it! I ended up with somewhat-negative space nails with accent nails featuring a creme polish.

I first applied the water decals after soaking each in water for roughly 30 seconds. Then, I painted Maybelline Gilded in Gold to fill up the negative space on my nails and Julep Mystery Shade (from one of Julep's mystery boxes two or so years ago) on my accent nails. I finished everything off with top coat.

The decals were a bit of a disappointment. I didn't realize the rose decals had white patterns on the gold glitter circles since the decal backing was white. I thought the blotches were just air bubbles. I ended up having to cover up the white patterns whenever I could. The rose decal on my right thumb was supposed to be for my right ring finger, but it was too big. Similarly, while the Chi decals were really cute, they were also quite large for my nails. I wish both the rose and Chi decals were a friendlier size so they could fit any nail size.

Anyway, I had fun doing these nails! It was very therapeutic. (I've been suffering from stress and anxiety since spring semester. Oy.)

Thanks for looking! Make sure to check out Millie's mani for this month's LNS!

Michelle

Les Nail Smiths: April 2015 - Korean Nail Art Inspired or Recreation

For this month's LNS, I wanted us to create a mani that was inspired by or a recreation of some Korean nail art. I was inspired by this mani from 0219_s2 on instagram. Instead of doing polka dots on my accent nails, I decided to keep them simple with a creme polish because I thought the sunny side-up eggs were elaborate enough. I really enjoyed wearing this mani, although it did make me really hungry when I finished painting it!

This was a really simple mani to do! All I did was drag my largest dotting tool to create the undulating membrane of the egg whites and then dot on the yolk.

Egg white: Julep Eileen
Yolk: Julep Catrina
Accent nails: Revlon Buttercup

Make sure to check out Millie's LNS mani as well!

Thanks for looking! See you on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Les Nail Smiths: March 2015 - Pinterest Inspired

Bonjour tout le monde! Hello, everyone! (Pouvez-vous voir que je pratique mon français? Can you see that I practice my French?) For this month's LNS, Millie wanted to look at each other's "Nail Art Ideas" pinterest boards and pick an idea for the other to do. Millie picked this mani from badgirlnails for me because the free-handing would be easy for me. As you all know, freehand nail art isn't my forte. I decided to only paint the macarons instead of recreating the entire mani. I really enjoyed doing this challenge! It also reminded me of all the nail art brushes I have, but don't use often... I shall need to remedy that now.

My right and left hand sported different manis. (Mostly because I forgot I had tp paint my right ring finger white...) I'll start off by showing you guys my left hand, which had the correct mani. I used Etude House Green Apple as my base for all my nails except for my ring finger, on which I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White. I topped my middle finger off with Nicole by OPI Lips are Dripping Honey for some pretty sparkles. 8) I used many different polishes for the macarons on my ring finger so I'll just list them below. The macarons came out much better than I anticipated so I'm pretty proud of myself! :D Oh, and I used the light blue brush (#00) from this set to paint the macarons.

Blueberry macaron: Avon Vintage Blue for shell, Butter London Sprog for filling

Passionfruit macaron: Revlon Buttercup for shell, Julep Catrina for filling

Strawberry macaron: Love & Beauty Pink for shell, KLEANCOLOR Vanilla Cupcake for filling

Green Tea macaron: Cover Girl Salt Water Taffy for shell, Essie Navigate Her for filling

Polka dots: KBShimmer Shore Thing

On my right hand, I simply have Etude House Green Apple as the base. I topped off my middle and ring fingers with Nicole by OPI Lips are Dripping Honey.

Be sure to check out Millie's awesome LNS mani as well!

Thanks for looking! See you on the other side of the day!

Michelle

P.S. You must try passionfruit and green tea-flavored macarons! They're delicious! <3

Inspired by aoinail: Vintage Charm

I've been feeling pretty crummy lately so I decided to do some nail art! :) I actually really miss doing nail art. Too bad it takes a while to do it. :( The base of this design is inspired by a set of nails @aoinail on Instagram did. I used the Julep Maven January 2015 It Girl and add-on polishes I recently received because they matched the set of nails almost perfectly! (I got all four polishes for free using my Jules! :D)

I used Julep Margit for the thumb and ring fingers, Shelly for the index fingers, Phyllis for the middle and pinky fingers, and Janae for the polka dots, which were made using my second smallest dotting tool. I added some cat decals from Born Pretty Store and rose decals from KKCenterHK as accents.

Thanks for looking! See you guys on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Les Nail Smiths: December 2014 - Kaleidoscope/Leadlighting

Apologies for the late Les Nail Smiths post! While Millie has already graduated (with a B.S. in Chemistry no less!), I am still in college (currently a senior - the final stretch!) so I had to focus on finals before my winter break. Now, I am back and blogging! I realized how much I missed painting my nails as it's extremely therapeutic to me.

I have always wanted to do leadlighting ever since I found out about this interesting technique. Leadlighting is when you stamp an image using black (usually) onto a white base, filling in the image with jelly polishes. You can also make your own tinted polishes using clear polish and a few drops of colored polishes! :D

First, I applied a white base and then used black to stamp an image from Moyou Kaleidoscope Plate 05 (which is actually better for those with long/big nails). I'm still a stamping novice so please be kind to me about the terrible image placement. :P I'm doing my best and slowly improving! :) Coincidentally, Millie also used a plate from the same Moyou Kaleidoscope collection! I guess great minds think alike, huh? ;) Anyway, after the stamping was dry, I randomly splotched on the OPI Sheer Tints, making sure that the colors overlapped each other so I could create gradients. The sheer tints were thick and stringy and the brushes were TINY. I had a difficult time using them, but I got the effect I wanted so I guess it's fine. Feeling unsure of the mani because it didn't turn out as I imagined it, I topped it off with China Glaze Fairy Dust. It seriously makes everything magical!

Thanks for looking! See you on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Polka Dots & Pearls

Today, I have a mani I wore back in the summer! I had forgotten about this cute mani until now. :( It was my first time using the pearls I bought from Born Pretty Store. As you can see, the base color peeked through the pearls so I recommend only wearing light colors when using them. Even though they're bumpy, they didn't catch on anything! :) They lasted the whole length of my mani and only came off when I removed my mani. (I think I used Seche Vite or Essie Good to Go Top Coat. I'm not sure though.)

For my base, I used Claire's Happy Go Lucky. I used my second smallest dotting tool (my preferred size for polka dots) and Zoya Purity for the polka dots. Using an orange stick with wax on one of its ends, I mounted on the pearls and shaped them into a bow. I adhered the pearls with top coat.

Thanks for looking! See you on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Les Nail Smiths: November 2014 - Cute Animals

It's finally November! Now we're nearing to big, scrumptious dinners and holiday breaks! (And hopefully actual fall weather...) This time for LNS, Millie from the Nail Smith had the honor of choosing the prompt. She wanted to use some nail art decals she recently got so she chose "Cute Animals". I was finally able to do the mani pictured below thanks to this prompt! :D I couldn't before because I was too busy burning out from midterms.

This mani is actually an ode to my pet baby, Alice. <3 She's a British Shorthair and has a right eye that's blue and a left one that's gold. She's so adorable and friendly and loving. <3 :3 (That's enough gushing for now~)

I used Zoya Purity as my base. I freehanded the cat heads and ears with Purity's brush. Using my second smallest dotting tool, I dotted on the eyes with Sally Hansen Barracuda and Julep Catrina. I painted the inside of the ears and whiskers with a brush from Born Pretty Store (whoops, forgot to write down which one!) using Love & Beauty Pink and NYC Sidewalkers, respectively.

Check out Millie's mani for this prompt here! :)

Thanks for looking! See you on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Inspired By zuckerdonut: Pastel Skittles

Today, I have a very simple mani that was inspired by zuckerdonut's picture of some of her pastel Essie polishes. It's a very atypical mani for me, but I really love it. This mani reignited my love for pastels so I'm definitely going to wear them more often! I didn't have all the colors in zuckerdonut's picture so I chose very similar ones.

From thumb to pinky, I used 3 coats each of Sinful Colors Easy Going, Essie Go Ginza, Essie Lilacism, Avon Vintage Blue, and Essie Mint Candy Apple. I was very surprised to find that I didn't have a petal pink. I'll definitely have to search for one!

Thanks for looking! See you on the other side of the day!

Michelle