Giveaway Time!!

This giveaway is Summer inspired.  Submit a Summer inspired nail art design to enter the giveaway.  This giveaway is open internationally :)  I will post new designs as they come in, in a new post.  I will be using Rafflecopter to randomly choose a winner.  So this giveaway has 3 nail art brushes, 1 Out the Door Quick Dry Top Coat, 1 glass acetone container and 3 nail art striping polishes.  Everything necessary for a cute artsy manicure.  I'm excited to see what everyone will come up with.  It can be anything, even just a swatch of your favorite Summer polish.  Submit your manicure picture to myprettypaints@hotmail.com.  Once entered I will post the pictures in a new post for everyone to view.  Good luck everyone! Thanks for visiting!!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Huggies Wipes Inspiraiton

Santee "White"

Color Club "Almost Famous"

OPI "Uh Oh Roll Down the Window"

Sinful Colors "Nirvana" 

Revlon "Safari Chic"

I had been eying the pattern on my son's Huggies Wipes box for some time now and I'm glad I finally did it.  I love how it came out.  I'm trying to preserve this manicure for as long as I can.  It was so simple.  Just a small dotting tool and my polishes.  I listed only a few of the colors I used, you can really go with whatever you have that looks similar which is what I did or go with a completely different color scheme.  I might do
that next.  It's just really eye catching and cute.  Thanks for visiting!!

Braid Manicure

Nubar "Hieroglyphics"

NYC "Lincoln Square"

Sally Hansen "Golden"

I saw I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous' fishtail braid manicure and thought it was the CUTEST thing.  She linked the Lucy's Stash blog with a really neat tutorial.  Once I saw how easy the tutorial looked, I had to try it for myself.  I stuck with 3 colors since it was my first time.  It took a while to complete both hands & I had to use Seche Vite (which I despise) because it was pretty well layered once I finished.  But overall I was pleased with the outcome.  And please excuse my scraggly cuticles.  The summer weather is killing them and it seems like no amount of cream is helping.  As I type this, I have slathered on the lanolin to help them heal up.  Working in an office where I shuffle paper all day doesn't help either.  I'd like to ask a favor of anyone who may be reading, if you can please fill out my survey on the front page regarding the quick dry top coat that works best for you.  I want to know what people like most so when I do my giveaways, I know what people prefer.  Thanks for visiting!!

Summer Color Blocking Manicure

 

Sinful Colors "Hazard"

Sally Hansen's "Limestone"

Color Club's "Almost Famous"

Santee's "White"

Sinful Color's "Dream On"

Sinful Color's "Aquamarine"

Forever 21's "Neon Pink"

I have been MIA again.  For those of you who are mom's out there maybe you can sympathize with me.  My son will be a year next month and I breastfeed him.  He's a big boy! And literally taking ALL of my vitamins along with any energy I may have left.  And being my second baby along with work, I am just drained.  I haven't painted my nails all week.  As much as I want to, I choose sleep and rest over my nails.  Anyway I really couldn't stop thinking about this new trend and really wanted to try it.  I started with my new base coat of OPI Nail Envy for Thin and Peeling nails, then 1 coat of white.  Next with a black acrylic paint and a thin nail art brush, I lightly painted random horizontal and vertical lines.  I find that when I use acrylic paint I have more control over it and it dries much quicker.  Next I took a small dotting tool and filled in each square, I have more control with that too.  I tried it with a brush and it was streaky and I had to go over it multiple times, so using the dotting tool took just 1 application.  Once all the blocks are filled in I went back over each black line.  That covers up any mistakes I made while filling in each block.  Lastly a coat of Orly Sec'n'Dry top coat.  I still fully intend to post the giveaway I've had ready for the last 3 weeks on Tuesday, my day off.  Thanks for visiting!!

Learning to Write Inspiration

Base Color: H&M "Lavender Luster Duo"

Lines: Loreal "Dreamer"

                  L.A. Girl "Soft Red"

Writing: Santee "Black"

Pencil: Color Club "Almost Famous"

Eraser: Sally Hansen "Espresso"

 Metal Band: Revlon "Metallic"

I was teaching my son how to write his name today when I had the idea to re-create it on my nails.  Every mom should do this, Joshua has been getting a kick out of this all day.  It also made me wonder why pre-school writing paper was brownish and not just white.  Anyway this was a really easy cute manicure.  Mostly just some lines and a steady hand.  The thumb was pretty easy as well.  I used 1 piece of tape to make the yellow bottom half of the pencil as straight as I can.  It didn't really matter if I messed up on the pencil or eraser because I was going to go over both with the Metallic color.  Try it!  I have the Summer Giveaway gift all ready to go, I just have to take pictures of it.  It's been busy at work for me with the July 4th holiday but I'll get the pictures up tomorrow.  Thanks for visiting!!

Fourth of July Nails!

OPI "Swimsuit...Nailed It"

    Santee "White"   

Santee "Blood"

Sally Hansen "Golden"

Milani "Gold"

This manicure was fun but took forever.  It's so basic, no real technique besides the striping on my middle finger which is a bit smeared.  I used a different top coat this time and I think I like it.  I want to use it a couple more times before I can really say.  It's Orly's "Sec 'n' Dry".  It doesn't dry as fast as Seche Vite and you can't apply it too quickly after you paint your nails as you can see above, but it doesn't shrink.  I can't take SecheVite's shrinkage anymore.  My manicures look awful after a day because the shrinking gets so bad.  Anyhow this manicure was really fun, I think my best one yet.  Anyway peek back tomorrow - I'm posting the Summer Giveaway.  Thanks for visiting!!

Summer Neon Sparkle

Sinful Colors "Dream On"

Orly Topcoat "Sec 'n' Dry"

My Giraffe manicure didn't last through dish washing last night.  So I had a moment and quickly did this manicure.  I had purchased Sinful Colors "Dream On" a while ago now and finally had time to try it.  First off, this color isn't the actual color.  It photographed as a pink however on my nails it is neon purple.  A dark neon purple actually.  The first photos were taken outside in the sunlight and the last picture is under the fluorescent lights at my desk. Can you believe the difference?! It looks totally different in the sunlight, very pink.  Again I apologize, my cuticles are a mess and my polish is streaky.  I have extremely dry skin and summer isn't even in full bloom yet as well as I didn't anticipate getting time to change my manicure so I tried to do it quickly in case my little one woke up.  Anyway it's a beautiful bright summery color and Sinful Colors is so inexpensive I couldn't go wrong.  Thanks for visiting!!

P.S. Thursday is the Summer Giveaway Reveal so peak back!!

Giraffe Watch Inspiration

    Spot Sinful Colors Nirvana          
 Base Yellow: Color Club's "Almost Famous"
   Top Coat Yellow: Orly's "Live Wire" 

 

 

My sister is a watch fanatic so when I saw this cute watch I ordered it for her.  Then the more I looked at it, the more I thought how cute the pattern would look on my nails.  I didn't go with the same color scheme as the watch.  I wanted to go brighter for summer and because it stood out more.  I applied 2 coats of Almost Famous and added 1 coat of Live Wire on top to add the pretty shimmer which these pictures don't catch at all.  I tried to get different lighting for each picture but neither do it justice.  I did this manicure late so no sun and the next morning was muggy so no sun then either.  It's really pretty in person. All I used was a dotting tool which can easily be substituted with a bobby pin or even pen or pencil.  I tried to keep the pattern semi-squarish.  The Seche Vite really pulled this up so I had to do major touch ups once it was completely dry.  If anyone has a good fast drying top coat out there they can recommend please do. I don't know how much longer I can work with Seche Vite.  It shrinks just way too much for me.  I'm posting my SUMMER GIVEAWAY  this week so peek back for that.  Thanks for visiting!!