A "spotted" manicure

Hi everyone! Been so busy over here. My youngest started Early Intervention which was very hard to deal with. Being the mommy of one autistic child is a lot and the possibility of a second was a lot to swallow. They are such beautiful boys, and so smart, but it comes with a lot of challenges.

Right after that I got a call and my sister, who is 24 weeks pregnant, possibly had cervical cancer. I'm the oldest sissy. The one who kicks all the big bad monsters rears so this was another hard one to cope with. I packed up and head down to California to be with her through the testing process. Watching her have to deal with the fatigue of pregnancy and top it off with the stress of possible cancer was probably one of the hardest things I've ever faced. BUT great news came of it - no cancer!!!!!!

In other words I haven't been around due to copious amounts of stress. My nails have been neglected, but I have some manicures that I never posted so now is the time!

This is definitely an older manicure from when I tried the more rounded tips out (back in the fall) so the fall colors make sense in that regard.

The base is Zoya Yara, and the splotched look is created using the pearlescent watercolor set I bought at Fred Meyer for 3.95. I just did a line of red, orange, and gold to create the gradient look. You just have to make sure to top off with top coat as it'll wash right back off.

I love this way of creating a spotted manicure. You can create such fun looks and have a lot more control and variety then using the "watercolor" effect polishes by Layla or OPI Spotted.

I apologize for the harried post. Hope you are all having a fabulous day!

Water Spotted with Fantasy Fire

Hello lovelies how goes your afternoon? Mine is coffee-less (I'm working on cutting back right now) but I have a super cool manicure on to make me feel just as awesome as my fully coffeed self! Behold my water spotted:

Now I've tried OPI Spotted and the effect is similar but not the same. I started with Julep Taylor - a gorgeous blurple with one of the most pain in the arse formulas I have ever had the displeasure of working with - topped that with two thin coats of Max Factor Fantasy Fire (one of my most prized possessions) and then created the effect with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac. You can do the top part with any saturated polish really. Also I didn't have spray hand sanitizer so I found an old bottle of cheap body spray (first two ingredients were water and alcohol) when I saw that Nailderella had done that to create her effect. Genius! Now for OVERLOAD time:

In the wonderfully overcast and rainy state of Oregon getting Fantasy Fire to come out and play fully is a tough thing to do and this is actually even prettier in person if you can imagine that ;) What color combos can you see yourself trying this look out with?