Soapy Dog Mani

In honor of yesterday's  post and review of Come Clean dog soap, I did this summer time themed mani.

 Nothing screams summer more than neons and the ultimate neon yellow is Orly Glowstick. Love this so much. I laid down a white base first, the Glowstick. I stamped the bubble (M85 from Konad) using Sally Hansen's Celeb City (another one I love to stamp with), and used a brown Milani polish for the dog and paws (SH08- shany). In case you missed my review of the awesome Come Clean soap you can see it HERE and find out more about the company and order it from their site HERE.

Guest Post: The Little Canvas! (MONKEYS!!)

Hi everyone!  Alaina from The Little Canvas here taking over The Manicured Monkey for the day!  I couldn't be happier to be posting for Kristin today!   Back in 2012, she featured my work over here on The Manicured Monkey along with a little interview about me.  Since I was a little fish in the blogging pond at the time, it meant so much to me that she wanted to feature my work!

Through my blogging years, I have gotten to know Kristin through Twitter.  Her support of me and my blog has meant the world to me.  Most recently, she inspired me to create my St. Patrick’s Day Nail Art Wheel, which she shared on Pinterest and it got a zillion re-pins.  Okay, maybe not a zillion, but it sure got shared a lot.

For today’s post, I wanted to do something special, fun, and unique.  Since Spring is here, I debated on doing some sort of floral manicure.  Then I thought about doing a kitchen sink manicure with some tape, gradients, and dots.  Both ideas, while awesome, I was a tad bored by.  Then it hit me….The Manicured Monkey…..monkey nail art!

Let’s take a look!

 Colors Used:

¨         Base

o       Sinful Colors – Pistache

¨         Banana Nails

o       Orly Instant Artist – White & Black

o       Ulta – SunSational

¨         Monkey

o       Zoya – Louise

o       Zoya – Taylor

o       Orly Instant Artist – White & Black

Cute, right?!  I am in love with how they turned out!  They are just as I imagined.  I picked Sinful Colors Pistache for my base because it’s a perfect bright green polish.  I thought a little monkey would look beyond adorable on top of that color and I think it’s safe to say I was right.  The monkey perfectly popped off the base.

I decided to do white polka dots on the other nails since I recently figured out how to perfectly fit a dot on my nail.  It only took about two years and a lot of disasticures to figure it out.  Since this discovery, I’ve been kind of obsessed with polka dots.  I decided was a little bored by just the plain dots, so I decided to add the little bananas.  They aren’t perfect, but that’s what makes them cute!

What do you think?  Think Kristin will enjoy the monkey manicure? :)

Thank you so much Kristin for letting me come back and post over here on your amazing blog!  If any of Kristin’s lovely followers would like to check out more of my work, please head on over to The Little Canvas and follow :).

Flakies v. Flakies

My Winter Giveaway is HERE

 I have flakie spam for you today.  I haven't picked up Nfu Oh 51 since 2011, so I thought it needed some attention. I layered it over black. The flakies are pretty great: red, orange green to yellow. Kind of reminds me of fire on the nail. They light up like embers. 
I did one coat of 51 and that's plenty. The other flakie I have for you is Orly Fowl Play. I don't like this one as much. I started with 2 coats of Essie Baubbing for Baubles which is a super dark navy color. I added a matte top coat so they flakies would show better but alas, they didn't come out that much more. Fowl Play has blue and orange flakies in it, and I love the blue in this but that's about it. They are actually smaller than in 51 and I've decided, I like my flakies large and in charge. 

#33DC - Artwork Featuring Your Favorite Polishes

My Nail Art Giveaway is live, enter daily!

Today's challenge was artwork featuring your favorite polishes. I have been sitting at my  nail desk staring at OPI Black Spotted and have been pining to use it with neons, so I seized the opportunity. I don't know if Spotted actually counts as  nail art but if you don't own a bottle, you could use the method that's similar to water marbling and that's art, so..... I used Orly: VaVa Voom (pink), Glowstick (yellow), Skinny Dip (blue). As I do with all neons, I put down a single base of white first, then I took each color and kind of dabbed it on in various sizes and spaces. I then top coated with Black Spotted. I wish I would have taken pictures before I added Spotted but, the concept is pretty easy, I'm sure you understand it. I like the way it looks. It needs super thin coats and mine were a bit thick so I wiped my brush and went back over spotted to thin it out... turns out it cracked. hmm. I'm still a sucker for neons under a black special effects top coat. Below, it's with flash...

Neon Color Blocking

This is a mani my cousin did over the summer and it has been sitting in my drafts folder for much too long. There was supposed to be a YouTube that went with it but, what can I say, she's a teenager and got busy :) Anyways, she took striping tape and taped off over a white base, then used various bright vibrant colors and went back with a black striper inbetween. It's such a cute mani and was perfect for summer. For fall you could change up the colors or, if you're feeling bold, rock the neons!

Neon BM319!

Hi Monkeys! I had this mani on for less than 24 hours until it started peeling off (boo, hiss!).  I started with a coat of Milani White On The Spot followed by one coat of Glowstick (eye searing yellow that I've used a ton this summer), and for my accent finger I used China Glaze Kiwi Cool-ada (a neon green that I love!). I stamped using Black Swift from Milani and the BM319 plate from Bundle Monster. I wish I did this mani in reverse, the yellow on the accent finger and green on the rest. I wanted a small design so my shorties would look not so .. shorties and I like this "taxi" type mani quite a bit, just not happy it peeled off so fast!

Giveaway: 1500 Followers!- open int'l til 7/20

Hi Monkeys!! Thanks for your continued support, I have thrown together a giveaway with two winners for you! Here's what's up for grabs:
Prize 1- Orly: Glowstick, Skinny Dip, Melt Your Popsicle. China Glaze: Kiwi Cool-Ada, Purple Panic (neon). Bundle Monster 3 plates, Seche Vite Top Coat.
Prize 2- Limited Edition OPI Minnie Mouse Collection, OPI Just Spotted the Lizard, Seche Vite Top Coat, your choice of a set of Jamberry Nail Shields (provided by consultant).
Rules and stuff: All entries are subject to verification, if you cheat, you're disqualified and someone else will be chosen at random.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Neon Skittles: Glowstick and Warhol

I have a totally simple but one of my favorite quick manis I've done recently: Orly Glowstick and Color Club Warhol. Each color was 2 coats but I did white under Glowstick (major eye searing yellow neon) and I should have put white under Warhol (super bright neon pink). Warhol didn't want to show super neon but against Glowstick, hardly anything shows neon :)
 I wanted to change it up so I did skittles on one hand then on the opposite hand, I did the reverse pattern.. make sense? I lined the pictures up so you could see the alternating pattern (hey look, there's the elusive right hand!!). I found that Warhol chipped quicker than Glowstick and I think it's because it had no underwear (like a white polish) down first.... next time, undies for both and a top coat of course because I'm not a fan of semi matte neons- the brighter the better!!

Summer Challenge: Swimming Pool (using CH36)

There's a new challenge that was started and you'll see me participating throughout the summer months. You can check out everyone else's below :) Today's theme was "swimming pool" so I created this mani using the new Cheeky plates (you can see part of the new set HERE and follow them for more previews).  I started with a white base then one coat of Orly Skinny Dip which is a shimmery light baby blue, topped with a coat of Ozotic 506 for texture/sparkle and on my accent finger I did 2 coats of Nubar Hot Fuchsia which is a great neon. I stamped the sunglasses with it and the umbrellas using Milani Yellow Whiz and the suns using Milani White About Now. The flippers were stamped using Milani Black Magic. I really enjoyed creating this design for the challenge. I have another one for you tomorrow so stay tuned, but in the mean time, check out the rest of the swimming pool manis and follow Cheek on Facebook to see more plate previews!

Orly: Glowstick with Neon Stripers

I was recently sent a whole lot of nail art fun stuff, including stripers.. I have little experience with them but wanted to show you that you can have fun with them and don't have to be an artist. I did this mani and I quite liked it, even though it smeared when I top coated it. I used a base coat of white then two coats of Orly Glowstick which is an incredibly bright neon yellow (think fresh highlighter bright). I then took neon purple, pink, green and orange and just played around with striping from each side of the nail. The stripers are easy to use; much easier than my nail art striping brush and they are very opaque, I only went over a few lines twice to darken them. 
This brand of striper is called It's So Easy, here's a bit about them:
About It’s So Easy®

Nothing is impossible when it comes to nail art and It’s So Easy®, a line of tools and accessories to create the ultimate nail creations. It’s So Easy®offers Stripe Rites, rhinestones, loose glitter, cracked ice, sealers and dryers, brushes and more to create fashionable, funky or festive fingers. Visit the website at www.itssoeasynails.com for more information.

 Like It’s So Easy® on Facebook, Instagram: @ItsSoEasyNails, Pinterest and Twitter

I'll have manis using rhinestones, and loose glitter along with more stripes coming up for you as I continue to play/create with these nail art tools. 

*stripers sent for review*

Stamping Sunday!: Pets (Orly Glowstick, Skinnydip and Floam)

This week's theme for stamping was Pets (or something of the like). I ended up doing a leopard funky french. I was going to do the basic kitty paws etc but then decided that was boring and my kitty has spots on his belly so.... you get feline spots today. I started off with Orly Glowstick (two coats) which is an eye searing yellow creme and Orly Skinnydip; a shimmery bright neon blue creme. I've had Floam sitting in my untrieds for over a month now so finally I used that to add some tips... Floam is pretty darn cool... it's blue and yellow glitter in a clear base... then I decided it was time to stamp so I pulled out my Konad M57 plate for the leopard/cheetah print.  If you want, you can check out the Pinterest board I have for the Stamping Sunday Challenges HERE.

Nail Art: Cupcake Mani on Friend

I did this mani for my friend's birthday today! Happy Birthday M! I've been meaning to try a cupcake mani and decided she was the perfect one to sport it.  I used Essie Mint Candy Apple for the back ground color, sinfulcolors white for the frosting, Orly Fancy Fuschia for the cup part with OPI Do You Lilac It? for the stripes, Sparktacular for the sprinkles and Kleancolors Metallic Red for the cherry. The whole cherry on top of the cupcake confuses me, when I bake them I don't put cherries/candies on top of the frosting but when you do it as a mani, it looks funny without one... *shrug* Anyways, this was my first attempt, I'll probably try it on myself but as accent nails as to save time :-)

Giveaway Preview: Cutey bracelet inspired mani

Today I have another preview of an item that will be included in my 1000 follower giveaway! Cutey.co.uk was kind enough to provide their Typhon bracelet. If you remember recently I reviewed their Momus bracelet and did my mani that matched. That post got lots of love, thank you for that! I tried to match the flowers on my little finger, but I put a silver background instead to cut down on streaking. I used a lot of different polishes in this mani: Orly, China Glaze, Sally Hansen Prism, Catrice, Wet N Wild, but how do you think it came out?
Big thanks to Cutey for providing the bracelet for my giveaway! Can't wait to show you what else is trickling in for it :)

Cutey: Bracelet Mani

I have a new type of post for you today. Recently I was contacted by a UK company called Cutey; they make charm bracelets and asked if I was interested in reviewing one. Since I am into jewelry making, I was happy to take them up on their offer. I was sent the Momus bracelet. The bracelet is a pandora chain and large holed pandora beads. The Momus has the most adorable little heart charm of a girl and boy kissing. The pink and green beads are glass while the main large cube with pink flames is either clay or a resin. I did a corresponding mani that uses a base of Orly Fancy Fuschia and Essie Mint Apple for my accent finger. I layered flame stamps from the bundle monster plates using Orly Porcelain and a pink Skin Food. I went back over it with a pink glitter to highlight the flames. I mixed a purple and the pink Skin Food over the rose to try to mimic the swirly rose on the bead and the flames on the cube.  On my index finger I did a heart to mirror the pink hearts on the silver beads. I love that the bracelet is sturdy, good quality and colorfully eclectic. This bracelet retails for about $20 and Cutey has free shipping for the UK and are currently running a 10% off code: DISC10 . Great customer service too by the way. I am considering more manis that are themed with my polish jewelry, in posts... does that sound interesting at all?

Giveaway: Ends 10/16, Opened Internationally

Hey everyone! Today's post is as promised the next giveaway for TMM. I'm changing it up a bit, this giveaway includes some hot polishes right now and some of my favorites:

CONGRATULATIONS AMANDA H. I HAVE EMAILED YOU!! THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED :) 


 Nubar- 2010 and Brilliant (pink holo)
Wet N Wild- Tangled in your web, correction tape, behind closed doors, cougar attack, Fantasy Makers glow in the dark
Orly- Fowl Play
Headband- from my Etsy shop, you will get to choose what color/shape/finish you would like.

Rules:Must be 18 to enter or have your parents permission, Required fields in form must be filled in, you must be a public follower, One form submission per person.
Giveaway ends on October 16, 2011 at 6 pm, pacific time and is open internationally.
I will be verifying entries and verifying the winner before I announce them, so be honest. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Orly: Rock Solid

So finally here is Orly Rock Solid, I have had this in draft for a while. It's quite the pretty polish. It's a gunmetal gray with holo glitter in it. I blurred some of the pictures so you could see the glitter. It's eye catching but not really noticeable unless you're paying attention to polish.  I think this would be a great polish to stamp over with something fun. (note to self). Application was a breeze with 2 coats to opacity and as always, LOVE Orly's handle grip. This is from the new mierals fx collection and they're going fast! :-)

Orly: Stone Cold and Stamping

I have a mani for you today using Orly's Stone Cold from their new Mineral FX collection.  Stone Cold is a gnarly true blue glitter foil that is amazing.  It's opaque in two coats and the reflection that comes off your nails is bananas.


I did however use the foil method to get it off LOL Let me tell you though, it was so well worth the 3 day mani I got out of it.  I also stamped using my bundle monster 2 plates. this design is crazy, it's like a funky hourglass shape.  I messed up a bit on my ring finger but seriously, unless you know about stamping you couldn't tell.

Which was perfect because the BBQ I wore this mani to was full of people who knew nothing about polish :-)

On a side note, what do you think of the little collage I did with some of the close ups? I'm experimenting with a new photo program for editing and such and it's easy to do collages.

For those of you who haven't entered my Apothica Gveaway, check it out because it has a relatively low number of entries, so your chances are very good :)

Nubar: Iris Dust

I recently did a trade with someone and got Nubar Iris Dust in exchange.  This polish is nuts in the bottle! It's purple and gold with a hint of green all duo-chromed out.  I started with Orly's Frolic and then did two coats of Iris Dust.


Irish Dust is much too sheer to be a base color and even as a top coat, I wanted to do 2 coats.  It's so pretty. It turned purple into gold, green, bronze and changed in the light and angle which you viewed it.







I took it to my light box to manipulate the lighting and try to show you how it changes with angles.  Look at my index finger, it's a nice shimmery plum, then it changes to a gold shimmer.. It's a great top coat and really transforms a polish color.

Another great thing about putting a top coat color on a polish is that it can change your manicure with minimal effort and it can cover up any imperfections you may have had when polishing.  Overall win in my book.

Orly: Frisky and Frolic

I received 2 polishes from the Happy Go Lucky collection from Orly. If you remember, I posted a press release on the collection a while back.  Nice a creamy colors with one shimmer in the collection.  I really love Orly's cremes because they are very pigmented and you could get away with one coat.

First up is Frisky, a teal creme that is beautiful.  It is soft and soothing but still very fun and a color that gets attention on your nail.  I did two coats of this one to smooth out my shaky application.  I like that this color is teal but somewhat looks minty to me without being too green or blue.  Seriously a pretty color.

Next up is Frolic, a purple creme. I think this purple is understated.  it has the same soft feeling as Frisky but is not a pastel.  I did two coats and it was easily opaque.  I did not use a top coat and you can see the creamy finish to both colors.

These two are right on par with Orly's great formulas and as I've said before, I am a huge fan on the handle and brush! The Happy Go Lucky collection releases this month and some people are starting to find them. You can check  at Sally's Beauty or online at Orly.



*Product sent by Company's PR firm for review*

Orly: Happy Go Lucky 2011

Mov

Happy Go Lucky

ORLY Back to School 2011 Collection

Inspiring Hues to Give You a Thrill

Move over sheer nudes, brights are back with a vengeance. Just in time for a head turning 

season of back to school fashion, or for those having a hard time saying good bye 

to summer, ORLY is proud to present the new Happy Go Lucky Collection of fun, 

edgy lacquers. Inspired by the carefree attitude and thrill-seeking sensibility of youth, the 

collection exudes uninhibited creativity that adds instant liveliness to any wardrobe. 

These bold hues make it easy to test-drive the bright trend overtaking fashion 

without committing to pricey accessories or unflattering apparel. Each bottle 

delivers a vivid, chip resistant formula, while the brush glides 

smoothly on nails, never clumping or streaking, for maximum impact.

The lacquers in Happy Go Lucky include:

Flirty: Pink Shimmer

Frisky: Teal Crème

Fresh: Green Crème

Frolic: Purple Crème

All ORLY Nail Lacquers including the Happy Go Lucky Collection are free of 

DBP, Toluene and all traces of Formaldehyde and Formaldehyde Resin.

The Happy Go Lucky Collection Lacquers will be available starting July 2011 

for $7.50 each.   ORLY Nail Lacquers and Treatment products are available 

at orlybeauty.com, Sally Beauty, Ulta and other purveyors of beauty throughout

the U.S. and in over 100 countries worldwide.