Let's Hear it for the Bridesmaid

Good Morning and Happy Friday Eve! Today will be the last post of my bridal/prom series and this mani is aimed at both bridesmaids and prom goers alike. I chose a bold red color as my base, in fact, I chose my all time favorite glittery red, China Glaze's "Ruby Pumps". Let's get right to it shall we? I'm always giddy over anything I do including this polish.

I stamped a white floral design over the red, attached rhinestones to the middle of the two main flowers and silver microbeads as accents.

I definitely had this in mind more for prom than for a bridesmaid - but at my last wedding, my bridesmaids were dressed in red. Yah, don't ask. It can happen, I know I'm not the only weirdo who picks that color. lol

I hope you liked today's nail art designs and my little bridal/prom series. I'll be posting more of these here and there but they will be more versatile and I'll label those that would work for those type of events as well as everyday wear. Also, tomorrow will be another "FishEggFriday" and I'll be reporting in on the durability of this week's "FishEgg Mani" and we'll see just how well I did at making this style "ready to wear" using just regular polish and including before and after photos!  Thanks for reading!!

Bridesmaids need polish too!

Good Morning and Happy Hump Day! I know this is a bridal series, but bridesmaids need polish too!! Today's nail art could work for a bride that has more bold tastes but it's really aimed at the bridesmaids. I decided to get a little wild with the watermarbling yesterday and I did this one too.

I used just Essie's "Swing Velvet" and OPI's "Fit for a Queenslander" from the Australian Collection in this watermarble. I then stamped using a silver foil a rose pattern. Because it's a silver foil, the stamped design is subtle and not immediately obvious. It does give it that something extra that I felt the plain watermarble was missing. 

Of course, this design is also good for Prom - which is fast approaching as well! I'm sure all us old folks remember prom, and some of the scary dresses we chose to wear. Now it's the younger girls turn to wear a dress they will be horrified by later in life. At least we can send 'em off wearing some timeless nails!

That's all for today. Tomorrow will be the last day of this week's bridal series and I'll be  finishing it off with another bold bridesmaid or prom look. Thanks for reading!!

MY Bridal Nails

Good Morning and Happy Tuesday! As I previously promised, today I'll be showing off the nails I plan on wearing for my own wedding. This will be my third marriage (his first) and we've decided to keep it VERY low key and casual. I will still be wearing a dress - but it'll be a tie-dyed strapless cotton sundress. Orange and blue. After six kids and two previous marriages, I'm just so far beyond a "white" dress it's not even funny.

I already have matching jewelry that was made for me by a friend and I promise to post pix of the completed look when it's closer to the big day.

The dress is tye-dyed and the perfect matching mani for it is a watermarble!! It just don't get any better than that. Here's another shot of it.

Of course, my favorite orange shade is China Glaze's "Riveting" from the Hunger Games Collections and that's the orange I used here. The Navy/purple is just a cheap polish I picked up on sale at CVS and is from my personal nail polish stash. Yah, I really do keep a separate set of nail polishes just for myself. I mean if a client really really likes it, sure I'll use it. It is just one of the few polishes that I have purchased with myself, rather than clients, in mind.

I hope you enjoyed seeing a preview peek of my wedding attire and thank you for reading!

Delicate Bridal

Good Morning and Happy Monday! I'm off teaching preschool today, I was supposed to have the day off but I volunteered to cover for one of the other mom's who sprained her wrist. Poor girl has this HUGE splint on it and she really can't do anything with it. Besides, I like teaching these kids and there's not that many weeks left in the school year.

On to today's nail art. This is one I did during Valentine's but I find it still very much appropriate for the bridal season.

I decided to do today's pix large because this is such a delicate design, I really want you to see it properly.

The base color is a Gelish color, Taffeta with red and green polish stamped over it.  A little regular nail polish remover and the bride is sporting a low-key but pretty look for the honeymoon! 

That's it for today, tomorrow I will show the mani I have planned for my own wedding this summer. To say it's a bit non-traditional would be an understatement. Thank you for reading and have a Groovy day!

Hearts and Brides

Good Morning! I hope your Sunday is going well, I apologize for the lateness of my post but I'm a bit sick. With that in mind, I'm going to really short today. Enjoy!

Here I stamped the hearts in red, then stamped over them again in white to give the design the illusion of depth.

That's all I have for today, I hope you enjoyed. Have a great day and thank you for reading!

Flowering Bride

Good Morning and Happy Saturday!! I hope your weekend is off to a good start!  I'm continuing my bridal theme today and today's mani I'm going to show you a design in different mediums. Straight nail polish, using Gelish UV Soak off Gel Polish, and finally in acrylic. Let's get right to the nail art, shall we?

These are dried flowers that I purchased from Born Pretty, one of my favorite online sources for nail art materials. Although, I understand that I may soon have a more local to me source and I'm all for supporting budding businesses in my state.  I normally like to do this with a rhinestone center but I'm currently out of the correct size and I thought I'd see how it looked using micro-beads as a center. I'm pleased with the outcome. We can't have the fingernail bling outshining the bling on the finger at a wedding now, can we?

Here is the exact same design using Gelish. Because the tips I had prepped were clear, I went ahead and added a base layer of pink to make the nails opaque. I used structure gel to "embed" the microbead centers and keep them firmly secure to the nail.

Here, we again have the flowers with micro-bead centers but now they are completely embedded in acrylic. I layered a glitter gelish polish and the gelish topcoat over the acrylic to give the design the same glittery look as the other mediums. Although, I could have also done this by mixing super fine glitter in with my acrylic powder. Finding loose, super fine, holo glitter is a bit of a challenge.

I hope you enjoyed today's Bridal Looks and it gave you something to consider, not just for your wedding but for those other special occasions. Some art can be done in other mediums, especially with fun things like nail foils, etc. Thank for reading and I'll see you tomorrow!!

Bridal Roe!

Good Morning and Happy Friday!! Well after all the fun I had last week doing "Fish Egg Friday" I decided to do it again today. Also, I am starting a new theme for all my nail art - Bridal! So today, you're getting a little bit of a two-fer!

On to the mani!! I named this one "Bridal Roe" because firstly, it's a bridal mani and secondly because salmon is pink and today's fish eggs are definitely pink!

The base color here is OPI's "Kiss Me On My Tulips" and the beads are actually clear which lets the underlying mani colors show through. I've seen how awesome clear beads are over white (for winter/christmas) but they are even more stunning over color!

Here's a few macro shots of the "fish egg" part.

There is a little trick to getting the beads to lay flat and neat on the nail. The pictures below are the "tool" you need to do it and how to use it. 

I have no idea what the tool is called but I have several that came with nail art kits, like dried flowers, rhinestones and even a few puffy nail stickers. It looks similar to a cuticle pusher but rubber end makes that impractical. They are sooo handy for applying anything other than polish to your nail!

Do this step after you've sprinkled or dipped your nail in beads and tapped off the excess.

I got the inspiration for this one from last week's Fish Egg Friday Rant. French Manicure or Pink and Whites - it just seemed the perfect thing to make my statement! All this week has been a variety of Bridal Runway shows reminding me that Bridal season is here!! Yay! "This coming week, I'll be showing you the "Bridal Manicure" I"ll be sporting at my own wedding this summer! Have a Groovy Fishy Weekend! Thanks for reading!! If you did a fish egg Mani - let me know in the comments where to find it and I'll link to it here!

Other ladies posting for Fish Egg Friday:
NailArtAddict
Salla at Polish 'em
The Lacquerologist
Color is Magic
Thoughts of a Midwestern Girlie Girl
Nail Loopy
The Rock Chick Rambles
I Like To Talk Alot A few days old - but she did more than one rockin fish egg mani!

I'll be updating throughout the day since today's Fish Egg Friday is not an organized event like last week's. You can also share/follow FishEggFriday Mani's on twitter with the hashtag #FishEggFriday