OPI It's My Year & Do You Think I'm Tex-Y Swatches

OPI - It's My Year

OPI - It's My Year w/Essie Matte About Topcoat

OPI - Do You Think I'm Tex-Y

My Rascals

3 DAYS LEFT FOR GIVEAWAY ENTRIES!! 

The giveaway prizes were so pretty I picked both colors up for myself as well.  This is my first time taking pictures outside.  I think I will do it from now on.  OPI's - It's My Year is so pretty I can't stop looking down at my nails.  The purple picked up nicely here in the natural light but when I went over it with Essie's Matte About You top coat the gold came through really nicely (a little dull though, as this one was under the bathroom fluorescent lights).  OPI's - Do You Think I'm Tex-Y doesn't do well with my camera, but it really is such a pretty color.  I began this post on Wednesday with hopes to get it up that night.  Sadly Justin, my 9 month old got into my drawer with help from Joshua, my 3 1/2 year old and broke my bottle of It's My Year.  His fat little feet were so shimmery.  I was upset but at least he didn't get cut.  Those 2 are menaces.  I'm constantly trying to find new ways of keeping them out of just about everything.  They have even managed to get by some of the baby proofing items we have.  Anyhow, I hope you like the giveaway swatches.  FYI - The giveaway polishes are all brand new :)  I picked up my own set.  Thanks for visiting!!

Giveaway Open to All - National & International

Finally! So here is the giveaway.  Please again excuse my pictures.  I need to Youtube some basic photography lessons. Again this giveaway is my "New Blog Member Giveaway".  It includes:

 - 1 brand new Glass Nail File
 - 1 brand new bottle of Seche Vite Quick Dry Topcoat
 - 1 brand new bottle of OPI's "Do You Think I'm Tex-y"
 - 1 brand new bottle of OPI's "It's My Year"

The only thing required for this giveaway is that you become a member of my blog.  You can do this by finding and clicking the "Join This Site" link on the left hand side of my page.  That is all! Very simple.  The giveaway will last 1 week and will be chosen at random by Rafflecopter.  You can add entry chances by liking the Myprettypaints Facebook page, or following @myprettypaints on Twitter. It really is that simple.Good Luck!! And thanks for visiting!!



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway Update

 Hello everyone! Sorry for being M.I.A. this last week.  I signed my son up for school and had to prepare for a wedding on Friday.  The main reason I haven't posted pictures of the giveaway is that I had purchased some glass nail files as part of the giveaway, and my son lost them.  They are somewhere in my home but I've looked all week so I can finally take the photos to post up the giveaway and nothing.  He's 3 1/2 so trying to get him to tell me where they are is pointless.  Although it's cute when he tries :)  My husband just let me know the replacement files arrived today in the mail so the giveaway pictures will be up tonight.  It's a really great giveaway!! The 2 OPI nail polishes are gorgeous.  So gorgeous in fact that I bought double of each so that I can have one as well.  Again the giveaway includes, 2 OPI polishes that I will reveal tonight, 1 bottle of Seche Vite Quick Dry Top Coat and a really cute glass nail file.  This giveaway is open to anyone who becomes a member in my blog forum.  To do this and become eligible for the giveaway all you have to is go to my page, on the left hand side click the blue "join this site" link and join.  That is all. So stop by tonight to take a peek at the OPI polishes.  I'm excited!!  Thanks for visiting!!

Summer Manicure

I saw this manicure on The Nailasaurus' blog and thought it was so cute and interesting looking.  It was surprisingly very simple.  I bought Sinful Color's - Aquamarine but had yet to use it so when I saw this manicure, I thought I can incorporate the pretty blue color and had the perfect jelly pink - Sally Hansen's Love Rocks to go with it.  When I began I started using a thin short painting brush from Michael's craft store.  That was a mistake.  The lines were way too thick and messy looking.  So since I don't own an actual nail art brush, I used a striper polish brush that I clean well with acetone.  That made a huge difference.  My lines are no way exactly straight and my right hand is not very neat since I'm right handed, but I was happy with the way it turned out.  It was my first attempt at a manicure of this type and my first time using a nail art brush in this way.  Tonight I will work on getting up the pictures of the giveaway for next week.  Thanks for visiting!!

Gradient Nails

Jordana - Cabaret, ELF's - Berry Pink & NYC's - Lincoln Square

I'm a little mad that I can only put up one picture of my first time doing the gradient manicure.  I just couldn't get a good photo at all.  I think it was okay for my first time but I will definitely try again.  The gradient look is really easy to achieve, it's the prep that is time consuming.  After doing a couple of nails I realized that I really have to tape up the others because cuticle and finger cleanup was a nightmare.  I used 3 colors here and after researching a few other blogs I decided to go with Waky Laki's gradient method which is to paint directly on the sponge.  This I found to be easiest at the time because by moving the sponge up and down I can control the color distribution pretty well BUT I will definitely be trying another method.  It seems that after going over the same spot a couple of times to get the tip a deeper color, the sponge will dry up a bit and either begin to leave small pieces on the nail or take of small chunks of the already applied polish.  Next time I've decided to follow the tutorial that the Nailasaurus posted.  It looks like her method won't allow for the sponge to dry. Thanks for visiting!!

UPDATE:  I will be working on taking the photos of the new member giveaway prize this week.  It's a good one!!