Pastel Half-Moon Manicure

The half-moon manicure was a super popular nail trend a while back. I had only seen them done with really bold, bright colors (which look really good). However, it was springtime at the time, so I decided to do my own take on the trend with more pastel colors to fit my mood. Let me know what you think.

What I used:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
Zoya Purity (white)
Zoya Bevin (light turquoise)
Zoya Cassi (coral)
Seche Vite top coat
reinforcement labels

These nails were really easy to do. If you know how to paint your nails, and you have a little bit of patience (enough to wait for your base coat to dry completely), you will have no problem doing this cute, easy manicure.

If I did these again, I would want to make the line a lot cleaner and more defined, and show more of the white half moons. Happy painting!

Love,
Kat

Arizona Green Tea Nails

A couple of months ago, my friend Ivan linked me to an album of Arizona Tea-inspired nail art (found here). I loved the idea and finally got around to doing my own version. I used this tutorial by cutepolish on Youtube as a general guide.

What I used:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
Essie Turquoise & Caicos (base light greenish color)
Emnono color 83 (random brand from Taiwan; dark pink)
ORLY sweet blush (light pink)
Zoya Raven (black)
Seche Vite top coat
thin nail brush
dotting tool
Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey can

A couple more pictures for your viewing pleasure:

These nails are fairly easy to do. Hardest part is getting the branches to look nice and natural. I practiced on paper before painting them on my nails. Happy painting!

Love,
Kat

Lace Nails

Easy cute classy French manicure with a twist! These lace nails are probably even easier to do than a French manicure, since you don't have to draw a perfect line (the "lace" part will hide the imperfections).

What I used:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
OPI Privacy Please (sheer pink)
ORLY Pointe Blanche (white)
Seche Vite top coat
dotting tool

Happy painting!

Love,
Kat

Lakers Nails

In honor of the Lakers moving on to Round 2 vs OKC, I decided to show support for my favorite team by giving myself a Laker-themed manicure!

What I used:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
Zoya Pippa (yellow)
Zoya Neeka (purple)
Seche Vite top coat
scotch tape
dotting tool

I created the letters by painting some scotch tape purple, and cutting out letters. (I do not recommend this method... took me FOREVERRR. The letters were too small to cut easily; cutting took way too long. If I figure out a better method, I'll let you know.) The hearts were done freehand with a dotting tool.

Let's go Lakers! Happy painting!

Love,
Kat

Teal Green Water Marble Nails

Need a better title. Suggestions? Haha. These were fun. I just messed around with colors and water marble designs and this is how they turned out. Don't quite remember exactly all the colors I used, but I'll try.

What I (think I) used:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
Essie Turquoise and Caicos (light turquoise)
OPI Jade is the New Black (green)
OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui (blue)
China Glaze Watermelon Rind (dark glittery green)
China Glazy Fairy Dust (rainbow holo glitter)
Seche Vite top coat

Think I'm missing one color, but I can't remember what else I used. Sorry! Happy painting!

Love,
Kat

Snowflake Holiday Nails

I did these snowflake holiday nails this past December. They were a big hit and I think they're super festive! Perfect nails to get into the holiday spirit ;D

What I used:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
Sephora by OPI Stand by Your Man-hattan
Rimmel French White Tip Pro
Seche Vite top coat

Happy painting!

Love,
Kat

'For Audrey' Classy French Tip Nails

French tip nails with a twist using China Glaze's lovely "For Audrey" nail polish. So many compliments on these, and fairly easy to do. I used this YouTube tutorial by TheQueenEileen as a guide if you're interested in how to do these.

What I used:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
China Glaze For Audrey (blue)
Stripe Rite in black
Seche Vite top coat

Happy painting!

Love,
Kat

(Chinese) Newspaper Nails

Newspaper nails! Many many tutorials of how to achieve these nails using rubbing alcohol on YouTube, so I wanted to try it. Of course, I only had Chinese newspapers (世界日報) lying around the house. Looks even cooler than English words imo haha.

What I used:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion base coat
Zoya Purity (white)
世界日報 newspaper
70% Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol
Seche Vite top coat

If I were to do these again, I'd probably use a light gray base instead of white to make it look more like newspaper (didn't have any light gray polishes when I did these). Happy painting!

Love,
Kat

Penguin Nails

My first client ever, Justine, wanted me to do her nails for her birthday. She asked for penguins so I gave her penguins! These were done on 12/27/11. I used this YouTube tutorial by hellokitty12822 as a guide if you're interested in how to do these.

What I used:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
ORLY Liquid Vinyl (black)
ORLY Pointe Blanche (white)
S&M (random cheap brand from Taiwan) yellow
S&M (random cheap brand from Taiwan) orange
OPI Jade is the New Black (green for scarf)
Seche Vite top coat

Happy painting!

Love,
Kat

Sunset Fade Zebra Water Marble Nails

Hello friends!

It's been awhile, but my friends keep urging me to start a nail blog, so I thought I'd just return to this one. I've done so many nail designs in the last couple years, and I've uploaded most of them to fb, but my goal is to upload all of them onto here within the next couple weeks/months. We'll see how that goes lol. I had the same goal when I first started this blog, but clearly that didn't go so well. ;x

Anyway, this is the design I currently have on my nails right now:


My friend Ryan aptly named the base color a sunset fade. I'll call this mani a sunset fade zebra water marble. So sexy, even my boss commented on it! My nails bring all the boys to the yard and they're like... okay I'm done. Here we go~

Polishes used:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
Zoya Purity (white base)
Zoya Ali (pink)
Zoya Jancyn (orange)
Zoya Pippa (yellow)
OPI Privacy Please (water marble)
OPI Midnight in Moscow (water marble)
Seche Vite top coat


Happy painting!

Love,
Kat