Summer Hotness

Rawr! This was done with Essie (have to come back with the name of the color) and Chanel Mimosa on the middle finger.  Hand painted cheetah spots on the middle finger. Booya!

Neo Hippie Dippie Nails

Marbling with gel is hands down my new favorite nail art technique.  It looks way complicated and wild, but it's really quite simple.  It wasn't my intention to create anything remotely hippie-ish, but it just so happened that the fnished product looks a bit like those shirts the kids on Haight street used to wear back in the 70s.  I think some of them still do, except now they are designer and clean.  Posers!  Alright, enough of my rant.  On with the nails!

Gelish "Copacabana Banana, Shake it Til You Samba and Ooba Ooba Blue" gel with marbling

Stiletto or Almond?

Sculpting nail extensions is tricky business. But I'm getting better! A young client of mine came in and wanted "stiletto" nails.  After chatting, I figured out she really wanted "almond" nails, which are much less severe than "stilettos" (think pointy, sharp and ultra long) and a bit more functional for actually accomplishing simple tasks in (like texting, typing or anything that involves the dexterity of your hands for that matter).

These were done with Young Nails synergy gel on nail forms. Polished with Gelish "It's a Lily" and sprinkled with glitter.  Two hours later and here lies the finished product. Does it get girlier than this??

Gaga for Gel

I haven't posted in so long.  But that doesn't mean I haven't been putting in work! To make up for missed time, here are a few of my favorite gel manicures I've done over the last couple of weeks.




Gelish "Ooba Ooba Blue with hand painted cheetah spots



Young Nails "White 101" with houndstooth and pink gradient glitter

Shellac "Tropix" with a silver glitter accent nail and hand painted cheetah spots 

Young Nails "Green 102" with gold glitter gradient

Disco Fever

I wanted to do a white gel nail with pastel paints sponged over it.  The effect did not turn out how I imagined so I when all else fails - add glitter!  After my white gel cured (Young Nails Mani Q White 101) I took my white gold glitter and pressed it in to the nail with an eyeshadow brush. Now, I could have stopped here and been super blinged out with the glitter alone...but I couldn't help myself and starting painting on cheetah spots with my acrylic paints. Topped it all off with Young Nails Mani Q top coat and I was pretty pleased with the results. In person, it looks like a disco ball.  Loves!

Do cheetah's like disco?

Major Want Alert!

NARS x Thakoon nail polishes?? Yes please!

I am all over these come the launch date of May 1.  In fact, I think I NEED all six colors.

Channeling Lisa Frank

Annie knew what she wanted when she walked in my door last night.  With tropical Kauai as her destination the next morning, she wanted nothing other than a set of rainbow cheetah nails.

As any nail obssessed girl knows, gel is the ONLY way to go for trips out of town when chips are unacceptable and your manicurist is out of reach. We picked out a flow of bright colors and did one hue on each nail to represent the spectrum of the rainbow. The brands used were both Shellac and Gelish. 

To take it to the next level (because I always do!), I busted out my acrylic paints and did some freestyle cheetah-ish spots in black and white. 

Annie's Kauai Mani

Old School Lisa Frank!



Warning: Flammable Nails in Sight!

This is one of my favorite fancy nail looks as of late. I'm calling it "gasoline dreams" because the effect is reminiscent of the multi-colored rainbow swirls you often see forming on the top of a gasoline or oil puddle.

Achieved this extra-blingy manicure with Young Nails Mani Q black 101 layered with fuschia, yellow, pink and blue glitter. 

I'm so in love with it, I think I need to repeat this on my own hands.

G3: Gilded Green Gel

Vanessa stopped by to get her "Sparkle" on and let me get creative with her manicure.  We picked out Young Nails Mani Q gel in Green 103 and for extra bling we added a few geometric gold designs on six of her fingers.

In the end, the manicure color combination reminded me of a beautiful piece of jade and gold jewelry.

Hawt Pink

Lisette has been one of my most loyal clients since I cracked open the door to my tiny nail salon and started seeing people.  She's always game for adventurous nails, which is my favorite type of work to do.

Yesterday, she chose Shellac Tutti Frutti and one white accent nail with rainbow cheetah print (the white was done with Young Nails ManiQ White 101).  I invented the white nail with rainbow cheetah for my trip to the International Beauty Show in Vegas last year...and it lives on here.

Is a Collection Ever Complete?

I get so much joy just staring at my growing nail polish collection. But even with over 200 colors, unlimited combinations of hue-changing topcoats plus infinite possibilities with glitter and embellishments....I still don't feel like my collection is near complete.

The bulk of my nail polish family is from the brand Nubar (which I heart).  I also carry Chanel (my favorite bank breaker), OPI, Essie and China Glaze. But I want more.  I've seen some amazing Butter London and RGB colors that I'm lemming for (do they even sell wholesale to pros?)  Let's not forget about Cult Nails, Deborah Lippmann, Zoya....I could go on and on.

And then there's color gel (my other favorite bank breaker).  Shellac is where it all started for me.  Then I discovered Gelish, Gelicure, and ManiQ.  I have close to 50 gel colors to choose from now!  The problem is that every time I open up Nail Pro or Nails Inc., 10 brands have suddenly introduced their "new"gel polish formula.  OPI, Orly, Jessica....I want to try all of them.

With nail polish surpassing the sales of lipstick in the cosmetic industry, I believe the tremendous growth of nail polish and treatments has only begun. So is a collection ever complete? In this case, I don't think it's possible.

Thirsty? Drink Some Glitter.

I am obsessed, I mean really obsessed with glitter. I can't get enough of the sparkle in my life. So in the next few posts you are going to be bombarded with nails I've recently done featuring glitter. Lots of it. My secret weapon to make glitter really pop is using super fine glitter and gel polish - any of popular brands on the market like Shellac, Gelish, Mani Q will do the trick.  Get creative with your layering...and the results will be amazeballs. 

Nubar Gelicure - Blue Hydrangea

I've been doing more and more gel manicures with Nubar's Gelicure products. I love how shiny they stay. Not sure if they'll beat out Shellac or Gelish, but they are definitely in the race.

Here we have Aisha's nails polished in Blue Hydrangea gel and Crystal glitter fade from the tips to about mid-nail. I love how this pastel color pops on her tan skin.

It made me happy to see how happy she was with her nails.  And that, right there, is my goal.

Nubar Blue Hydrangea Gelicure

The Inspiration

Getting Catty

Over the last two weeks, I've done a couple of sets of "special occasion" nails. Let's start with Halloween. Vanessa was in town from LA for the KISS FM boat party.  Her costume? Cat Woman. That's pretty much all I needed to know to get inspired and work a little nail magic.

We layered Chanel Graphite polish with black tiger, or should I say "cat woman" stripes.  The look was glitzy enough for Halloween, but cool and on-trend enough color-wise to ensure she wouldn't feel like a freak the next day and want to take the design off. 

Chanel Graphite on Vanessa

The Inspiration: Cat Woman

And then there's my BFF, Annie.  She swung by on her birthday to get the royal treatement (nails & a spray tan). She wanted bold...and pink. The choice?  Nubar Hot Pink polish.  The design?  Another set of "cat woman" stripes.

Nubar Hot Pink on Annie

Les Jeans de Chanel

Just when I was getting concerned that I didn't have enough blues in my polish collection, Chanel goes ahead and says they are debuting a line on Fashion's Night Out (September 8) inspired by my favorite wardrobe staple: denim.  The three colors are Blue Rebel, Coco Blue and Blue Boy.  I want them all.  Here's a a sneak peek at the colors.