Pure Ice My City Contest

So, I entered a nail art contest on Instagram sponsored by Pure Ice, a nail polish available at Walmart.  The prize was…get ready…the entire Pure Ice collection of 100 polishes!  10 ladies won, and I was one of the winners with my Napa inspired nail art!

I was driving home admiring the sunset and realized exactly what I love about home – it is so beautiful here in the valley!

I’m seriously not much of an artist – these nails took about 2 hours to complete.

I used a striping brush and Milani glitter for this.  The background color is Essie Lilacism.

I sponged Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream onto white to create sky and clouds, then added Sally Hansen Lightening, Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream, and Orly Melt Your Popsicle.  I used acrylic paint for the mountains and a Milani glitter for the grape bunches.

I used China Glaze Creative Fantasy for the grapes and acrylic paint for the stems an accents.

Ahem. This was originally going to be a different image over a sponged gradient, but I suddenly realized one of my favorite things is that no matter where you are, on a clear morning you can see hot air balloons drifting over the hills, houses, and even my office.  The balloon (and everything really) looks better from a bit farther away

I hope you enjoyed!  I will be sure to share a picture of the 100 bottles of polish when they arrive!

<3 Rylee

Simple Nail Designs’ Dip Dye Nails!

I got this idea from Instagram, and found a YouTube tutorial for it as well.  Simple Nail Designs has a channel with short, quick, simple nail tricks that give you a great look, so I decided to try this Dip Dye Nail today.

I started with Orly Luxe, and layered stripes (kind of…check out the vid) in Zoya Purity, then Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet, then Sally Hansen Pacific Blue lightened with a little white, then Nabi Blue Away, and finally Sally Hanson Navy Baby.  I love this look soooo much! I can’t wait to try it in other colors, but had to start with blue for Mr. Wickednails.  I swear, everything he owns is blue.  Except his car, which he constantly talks about having painted blue.

These look so cute! Let me say what I always say too…if you try it and don’t love what it looks like, put a topcoat on it.  I wasn’t sure I did these right…but once the topcoat went on, they looked amazing.

One more pic for the road…these really were very easy to do, give them a shot!

Dip Dye Nails…now if only I could do my hair like this…

~rylee

I Love Glitter Gradients

Today I have a couple of glitter gradients to show you quickly…I really love this look.  And of course, they look better in person in the sunlight, in all of their holo goodness, so pretend they are twenty times as sparkly as they are on your screen

China Glaze I’m Not Lion, from the Safari collection, over white.  This is a gold holo polish with very fine glitter, and it sparkles like nobody’s business.  This was one of the two polishes I got from this collection (I’m trying to cut down on buying!) and it is a must have.

This is OPI Bubble Bath, a gorgeous sheer pink that looks really natural, with Sally Hansen Strobe Light and Icing Frost Yourself layered over it.  Frost Yourself is an amazing glitter with small and medium holo glitter, and is the best larger holo glitter I have seen.  It is what Revlon Stunning should have been.

I just love it.  Anyway, I can’t get enough sparkles on my tips.  Anyone else crazy about glitter gradients?

~rylee

Layla Hologram Effect Mercury Twilight and Zoya Glitter Gradient

Two quick manis! Both sparkly

Layla Hologram Effect in Mercury Twilight.  They try to sell you their nail buffer, but I used the $.99 one I have from Ulta.  I hear you can use the Nfu Oh aqua base too…I don’t know.  This is two coats with lots of time to dry in between, and no topcoat.  The polish was chipping by the end of the day, but it was so worth the pretty sparkles during our BBQ!

This is the plain silver and it’s pretty sheer, so I think it could be worn over another color; it would just be a matter of it drying with the linear holo finish.  These are at Ulta and other places, they’re pricey but totally worth it if you like the sparklies!!!

More sparkles…This is a gradient I did with Zoya Loretta as a base, and Sally Hansen Gem Crush in Big Money.  I used the brush for this gradient…it seems easier to place the glitter than with a sponge.

Got my nail tape in the mail finally! I’m about to work on a mani for tomorrow with it Can’t wait!

~rylee

White Texture and Ruffian

So I added Nicole by OPI White Texture over my spring skittle mani from last time…

I really wanted larger cracks with more space between them, so I probably needed a slightly thicker coat, but I’m always afraid that I will put too much on.  I’m not really a crackle fan, but around Easter I saw a mani done like this with white, and I loved it.  I named these pics “White Skittle” which makes me wish they made white Skittles.  Like white Airheads, you know, the “Mystery” flavor…yum.

Plasma Plays in 21 Ways!

I’ve been avoiding this.  The Ruffian.  Cute on others, annoying to do.  I really need some of the French mani tape strips or something to pull this off with pretty lines, but alas.  And I used colors that I thought would be cute, but the gold polish was still damp and I should have let it dry, and the blue seeped into my cuticles and refused to leave.  So you only get one pic.

I used ChromiColor Golden Nugget (this is a REALLY old polish, possibly from Target?) and Sally Hansen Navy Baby.  I thought about making it matte but tbh I was already removing this mani as the camera was turning off!

Check out Instagram if you haven’t already.  I’ve been taking random pics of my less blogworthy nails and posting them there (wickednails).  It keeps me entertained and I have some awesome followers, thanks guys

~rylee