"Total Eclipse of a Star" Manicure

I'd had the urge to do justice to the holographic gold stars that saved my Neon Ombre manicure a few weeks ago. And perfectly enough, I'd just bought Nubar Blueberry, a deep blue jelly polish. Blue sky, gold stars... The rest of the plan just wrote itself. Here's my Shooting Star manicure.

And oh, what a happy coincidence that the cafe at my office had a makeshift karaoke stage set up. And so help me GAH, I was going to be a star!

Unfortunately, the little Booklet O' Songs was somewhat limited, so my trademark, go-to song was not there. Nor was my back-up. Nor was my back-up back-up. And when you come up empty like that, there's only one place to turn: Total Eclipse of the Heart.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef-X3yejnr0]

turnaround, Francesca

Manicure Mania, Pt. V: Neon Ombré

Sometimes you save the best for last.

We love ombré. We love neon. So why not put them together? Like two A-list celebrities who pair up to become an A+ couple, neon and ombre's powers combine to become exponentially more awesome!

My idea came from this ubiquitous Pinterest pin; I'm sure you have seen it.

I wanted to roll with the idea but clean it up a bit; make a more definitive neon spectrum. I tested my neons on a discarded piece of snail mail and developed the perfect order.

I knew I wanted my manicure to be as jaw-droppingly neon as possible, so I painted two coats of OPI Alpine Snow as a base. Then, I painted like so:

Then, I got over eager and was anxious to start my clean-up. And in doing so, I hit my right index finger on the edge of the counter and made a huge scrape. I stared at my nail in horror — what to do, what to do! Start that nail all over again? Or... disguise this boo boo?

I remembered I had some small holographic golden stars lying around in my Stash somewhere. If I arranged them in a charming way, it might work.

I think my mini-constellation added some character!

haveablindinglybrightweekend, Francesca

P.S. Special shout out (and sincere thank you) to Weston for designing my Mani Mania headers this whole week. xx

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EdmHSTwmWY]

Manicure Mania, Pt. IV: French Tip, Blown to Bits

The reality of DIY nail art is that sometimes... sometimes... things don't work out. I've attempted works of art that seemed like a genius idea in theory — only to find that, in practice, good ideas don't always equal great nails. For example, I thought this gorgeous Illamasqua nail polish that my friend Alison gave me, Kink, would look awesome with feathers on it.

Feather FAIL.

When I heard that MAC was offering new & improved, on-trend press-on nails (!) I raced to my compy to see what they'd dreamed up. And I saw this:

What beauty! I loved it! So crisp and clean! I thought a pale lavender would suit my wardrobe better, so I grabbed Revlon's Lily and my ol' faithful, Sally Hansen Black Heart, then I set to work.

First, two coats of Revlon Lily. Next, I used french tip tape and gave myself black tips. Easy enough. Then I used ring enforcers to create a black half moon at the cuticle. And here's where I went wrong. Partly an issue of impatience, and partly due to the fact that I was really sick with a sinus infection and in a stage of delirium, the half moons were a mess.

I felt too ill to start again and, so help me GAH, I was not going to let my nails go naked. There was only one product I could turn to; only one polish that could cover oh, so many sins: SHATTER.

My favorite crackle polish is by OPI, who calls it "shatter." If you apply a thin coat, you get tiny little cracks. Apply a thick coat for great, big dramatic fissures.

I thought this mani was dead for sure but, like a phoenix, it rose triumphantly from the ashes of carelessness to emerge as the shiny, eye-catching mani I knew it could be.

shattercracklepop, Francesca

Manicure Mania, Pt. III: Glitter Gradient

And so we continue with the mayhem that is Mani MANIA! Next up is a look that's incredibly easy to do and guaranteed to get the nod of approval (or even the ole eyebrow-raise of astonishment) from all of your pals: The Glitter Gradient.

First, pictures:

And now, here's how to do your own Glitter Gradient.

• I first had to comb through my Stash for some good glitter / base color combos. You'll need to do the same. What we're trying to achieve is a pairing that is pleasing to the eye — but it can't be too matchy-matchy or else the glitter fade will be difficult to detect. Nor can it be too contrasty; too distracting. Eventually, I settled on two polishes that looked great together: ORLY Pixie Dust, a lavender-gray hybrid with teensy specks of silver microglitter, and Nubar Pink Glitter, a pretty shade of pink that's more sparkling rosé than bubblegum.

• Next, I did my usual Essie base coat, followed by two coats of ORLY Pixie Dust. I let the polish dry down a little and watched a scintillating half hour of Pawn Stars. (That show gets me every time!!)

• And now, the fun part. GLITTAH. Do not shake the bottle. With a lot of glitters, you'll notice that the glitter sinks ever-so-slightly, leaving the bottom of the bottle very dense with glitter and the upper part of the bottle with fewer glitter particles. Carefully remove the brush from the bottle. We want to dip into the very top of the polish, the part that is mostly clear polish with only some bits of glitter here and there.

• Then, paint about 75% of your nail with this diluted glitter formula. Don't go straight across; kind of move your brush like a zizag at the top, to avoid a clear line of demarcation between glitter and no-glitter on your nail.

• Okay, now give that bottle a decent shake (like how you'd shake a bottle of milk). This will stir up the glitter and give you a more concentrated glitter mixture to paint with. Now paint 50% of your nails with this shaken-not-stirred polish. Use the same zigzag strategy.

• One more step! Shake, shake, SHAKE. I mean really shake it (like when you were in second grade, and you brought in small glass baby food jars and added cream and then shook it the entire day to make butter). Get the glitter as mixed up as you can! This will give you GLITTERO MAXIMO. Paint just the tips of your nails, say the bottom 25%.

• Top it off with your favorite top coat and BAM! Sparkle fingers FTW!

sparkleandshine, Francesca

butter LONDON — Teddy Girl & More

'Ello there! May I introduce one of my new favorites: butter LONDON's Teddy Girl*. I've been hoarding this color since spring; I was waiting until I had a whisper of a tan so that I could really show her off. And oh, some things are truly worth waiting for. I LOVE this color.

At first glance, Teddy Girl looks very similar to Essie Fiji. I know, I know — I was thinking that, too. My issue with Essie Fiji is that it is very streaky. You must have a light hand, and even then, the consistency tends to be a bit thick, so the only manicures with Essie Fiji that I've been satisfied with are when I glopped on three coats. And I really hate to do that.

I brought my brand new butter LONDON Teddy Girl to my nail appointment at Bellacures recently. I warned the nail technician — with colors like this, they tend not to go on evenly, so three coats might be a necessity. He admitted that this sometimes happens.

Together, we watched with anticipation as he worked on my right hand. The first coat was done... time to inspect. I raised my eyebrows in disbelief as I turned my hand this way and that.

It looked like I had two coats on already! Incredible! I hmmmmed with pleasant surprise. He nodded in agreement. This was fine polish. Nail polish of The Quality. Smooth, highly pigmented and such a great color for anyone's stash. [Side note, it's not a dupe for Fiji, don't let your eyes deceive you. Teddy Girl is a cooler, brighter, whiter pink. Fiji is softer and warmer; somewhat more subtle.]

I love this shade so much that I even got a pedicure with it, too! For the first time in eons, all 20 of my nails matched. I felt like such a lady.

Two days passed. I was staring at the pale pink canvases that were my ladylike nails and I thought, well I suppose I could spice it up, just a little bit... and BAM! Leopard nailz.

Leopard spots are a piece of cake. I used a dotting tool to make small, irregular gray dots using ORLY Mirror Mirror. Then I used my bottle of ORLY Instant Artist in black to outline the dots I'd made. The outline doesn't need to be perfect (in fact, if it's a little sloppy...or we can be kind and say "organic," all the better). I was inspired by some of my pins on Polishment: THE BOARD!

Have you guys tried any DIY leopard spots? I was thinking it might look cool if I added some smaller dots next time, like this:

dotdotdot, Francesca

*product provided for honest review